The Temptation of a Gentleman (30 page)

“A good plan.” He took a side-glance at Griffin in the hopes that his best friend would distract his wife from her singular purpose, but Griffin looked amused rather than poised to play savior.

“Yes, we thought so.” Griffin grinned. “But it seems you came here for nothing.”

Noah shook his head, determined to pretend his fiancée’s absence didn’t affect him in the least. “No, no. I’m happy to share my breakfast with my family.”

Audrey let out a burst of unladylike laughter. “Noah Jordan, London has been your primary residence since we were released from our duties at the War Department last year. In that time, I believe you’ve shared your breakfast with us a total of three times. One of them was Christmas Day last year, and that was only because you hadn’t gone to bed after carousing the night before.”

Noah pursed his lips. “I wasn’t carousing.”

Now it was Griffin’s turn to laugh. “Would you rather we call it reveling?”

Audrey winked at her husband. “And now you wish me to believe that you came all the way across town out of some desire to break your fast with Griffin and me?”

Noah shook his head as he stirred his tea with vicious speed. His sister and brother-in-law were teasing him as they loved to do, but they were dancing very close to the edge of a truth he wasn’t ready to face himself, let alone share with anyone else.

“I will admit I wished to see Marion,” he ground out.

“Didn’t you see enough of her last night?” Griffin asked with a half smile.

“I’d hardly say a staid supper with my entire family was spending quality time with my future wife,” Noah countered with a superior glare.

“And you didn’t see enough of her after you snuck back into our home and into her room?” Though Audrey’s voice still held the teasing in it, her eyes had become serious as she searched her brother’s face.

Noah held his breath as he waited for an answer. Marion would be humiliated if she knew his sister had discovered their tryst. It would shake her already lowered confidence about coming out in Society and taking her place as his wife.

“Of course not.” Audrey frowned. “I would never embarrass her in such a way. And as far as I know, Mother knows nothing about it either.”

“Good.” Noah leaned back with relief. The last thing he needed was yet another lecture from his mother.

Audrey moved a chair closer to her brother and looked at him with sincere, caring eyes. “I have very little room to judge the behavior of two people about to be married.” She tossed a quick look at Griffin, who smiled at her. “But I’d like to offer you a small bit of advice.”

Noah cocked his head with a shrug. Audrey had offered very little unasked-for counsel even during the years they’d worked together. The words of wisdom she had imparted to him had always been good, even if he hadn’t heeded them. And Audrey had gone through her own trials in love. She and Griffin hadn’t always been able to be happy together as they were now.

“What is it?”

She smiled to soften her words. “Be wary. Marion is still uncertain about the future and could easily be hurt, even if that isn’t your intention.”

Noah nodded slowly. He was painfully aware of that fact. “I’ve already taken so much from her.”

Griffin cocked his head. “Then give her something back.”

Audrey’s attention moved from Noah to Griffin and her smile widened as a look of complete love sparkled into her eyes. For a brief moment, Noah was shut out of their world and was desperately jealous of what they shared.

Griffin shook his head with a short laugh. “Even after all your years of playing the rake, you don’t know a damn thing about women. Think Noah. What does she
want
?”

Noah searched his mind, grasping for the things Marion had told him with words and with actions in the time he’d known her. Marion wanted independence. He could give her that, but not in the way she had wanted for so many years under her father’s thumb. And independence wasn’t a grand enough gesture.

Marion wanted family and love. The love her father had withheld from her since her mother’s death. The love she had once hoped to find with…

His eyes widened as he rose to his feet. “Thank you both.” He set his teacup back on its saucer and hurried toward the door. “When Mother and Marion come back let them know I’ll return in a few days. I have an errand I must perform. Take care of her while I’m away.”

He was halfway out the door when Audrey called out, “Wait!”

He turned back with impatience. If he wanted to reach Dover before midday the following day he’d have to leave now and ride hard all afternoon and most of the night.

Griffin narrowed his eyes as the man he’d called friend for as long as he’d been alive rode past the morning room window and down the street as if he were being pursued by the devil himself.

“Yes, Audrey. I think you’re right. And now we’ll just have to see if Noah can conquer love as easily as he’s conquered everything else in his life.”

***

Marion fidgeted in her chair, twisting the fingertip of her glove in her hand under the table. This was the third luncheon she’d attended in as many days, and she still fretted about using the wrong fork or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. The fact that Noah had vanished a few days before left her feeling even more alone. Her greatest ally had disappeared into the night without explanation or even a goodbye.

She was left with little but memories. Memories that made her hot in the middle of the night and long for him the rest of the day. Certainly not the kind of reminiscences one should have been having in the middle of an important engagement with some of the most influential women of the
ton
.

“Well, Miss Marion.” A voice shook her from her daydreams. She turned to find one of the women at their table staring at her with hawkish gray eyes. “You seem to have left us entirely. I wonder where you could have gone that was more important than here?”

Marion bit her tongue to withhold the retort balancing on it. She could think of a hundred places more important than the room she was in now, but she wouldn’t give in to the nasty woman’s picking.

“I’m so sorry Lady Latimer.” She sighed with relief as she remembered the woman’s name with only mild difficulty. “I became distracted by the beautiful painting on the wall above your head. I wonder who the artist was?”

This sent the table into ohhs and ahhs over the artwork and made Lady Oswood, their hostess, beam with pleasure at the attention she’d garnered from Marion’s remark. When Marion looked at Tabitha, the older woman gave her a nod of support and pride.

“I’m surprised a lady such as yourself would even notice the artwork,” Lady Latimer said, refusing to be put off. “After all, you were raised in the country by a
tradesman
, weren’t you?”

She sniffed and sent a rush of protective anger through Marion. Though she spared no love for her father, she knew full well that a man who earned his living was no better or worse than one born into it.

Before she could say any of the sharp words that came to her mind, Tabitha arched a well-defined eyebrow and glared at Lady Latimer. “Why Giselle, a tradesman is only a few steps below a Knight, isn’t he? Your own father would probably agree.”

The other woman choked on her sip of tea as the ladies at the table all swiveled their eyes to her for her response. When she’d regained her composure, she nodded her head once.

“Yes, my father might very well agree, Lady Woodbury. I’m lucky to have married an Earl.”

Tabitha had won and her smile was one of quiet triumph as Lady Latimer dropped her eyes back to her plate. The tension in Marion’s chest began to loosen and her shoulders relaxed as it became apparent no one else at the table intended to challenge her presence there.

Just as they had at some of the other events they’d taken her to, the Jordan women had scooped her up under their wing and given her the protection of their name and their reputation. It was becoming increasingly clear that those protections would continue until the
ton
forgot or chose to ignore any remaining scandal associated with her.

She couldn’t help but smile softly as the remainder of their luncheon came to an end and the ladies around them began to leave. Tabitha chatted with their hostess for a moment before she returned to Audrey and Marion’s side and ushered them toward the door.

“You’re family now,” Tabitha reassured her with a gentle tap of her fan across Marion’s gloved knuckles. “We’ll never allow someone to hurt our family.”

Audrey nodded her silent agreement. Marion felt a rush of love that she hadn’t felt in years. Here she’d spent a lifetime without allies or sisters to call her own. But with a few twists of fate, she was now in the midst of a family who would bring down the entire city if it caused a threat to her. The feeling was indescribable.

“If this is how the Jordan family operates, I cannot wait to meet the rest of the clan,” she said with a laugh before she gazed out the window.

Audrey’s smile fell as she exchanged a quick glance with her mother. “I’m afraid that may never happen. Virginia doesn’t speak to our family often. She may not even make it to your wedding.”

Marion frowned. “Why?”

The color drained from Tabitha’s cheeks. “I arranged her marriage and it is a very unhappy one. She still blames me and the family.”

She said the words in such a way that it was clear the subject was closed. But Marion didn’t wish to speak about it any longer as it was. Just the idea of an unhappy arranged marriage made her ill. Were she and Noah much better? After all, they’d shared a few beautiful hours together a handful of nights before, but he had disappeared just as soon as he could after.

Audrey assured her that Noah wasn’t angry with her or unhappy about their situation, but Marion had to wonder. Had he run for some purpose other than the secret he’d claimed to his sister?

Marion could only judge her own emotions, not Noah’s. The night they’d spent in each other’s arms had only solidified the love she felt for him. His mouth on hers, his body pressed against and in her, that explosion of pleasure so intense it was almost painful. All those things only made her love for him grow.

Perhaps it was different for him. Making love to her could have bored him. She’d heard of the joy of the chase before, how a man would pursue until he had what he wanted and then grow tired of it and move on to the next challenge. Perhaps that’s what had happened with Noah. She prayed not.

“Here we are.” Audrey smiled at her as they pulled through the gates of Bentley Square, and Marion shook away her troubling thoughts to smile back.

She was the first to escape the confines of the carriage and welcomed the cooler air outside. But as she gazed around her, she noticed a second carriage was parked on the drive. The carriage with a special seal on the door that identified it as…

“Noah,” she breathed as she took an involuntary step toward the door. He was inside. He was waiting for her. And something told her that what he said to her that day would let her know if he still wanted her.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Noah paced the sitting room and hated how tense he felt… and probably looked. Concealing his emotions had always been easy for him, but he couldn’t do it now. Not when he knew that at any time Marion would walk in that door and he’d be forced to change her life forever.

Going to Dover to find her aunts seemed like such a simple gift. But what he found there changed everything. Now he feared he’d be giving his future bride a curse rather than a blessing.

He heard the front door open and the three women come giggling and talking into the foyer. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the hallway with a false smile.

Marion noticed his presence first. Her eyes lit up and her face filled with pleasure. For a brief moment, Noah forgot his twisted emotions and fought against the need to cross the room and take her into his arms in front of his mother, his sister, and the butler.

“Noah!” she said with a grin and took three quick steps toward him before she skidded to a halt with a guilty glance back over her shoulder. Her face filled with hot color.

“Noah?” Audrey tilted her head as she removed her hat. “What’s wrong?”

Trust Audrey to notice his inner turmoil. Years of working together had sharpened her ability to see his emotions even when he was trying to hide them. Marion had seemed to have gained that same ability in only a few weeks.