The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone (Lords of Disgrace) (12 page)

‘I’ll come now, if you will excuse me?’ She stood up, smiling at the others, and he wondered just how well that smile would stay fixed if she knew the lascivious thoughts that would not get themselves out of his head, the urge to seize her and snarl
Mine!
at every man who looked at her.

He picked up his portfolio from the luggage in the hall and led the way to the little breakfast room. Caroline sat on the sofa, folded her hands neatly in her lap and appeared ready to give him her full attention, much as if he was addressing a public meeting.

Nettled, Gabriel sat at his ease in the chair opposite her, fished out the correspondence from his agent and ran a finger down it. ‘I’ll get him to pension off the old housekeeper and tell the staff I will send them a new one.

‘Now, money. Wilkins is already managing the staff salaries. I’ll have him add you to the list, but pay you a year in advance, and I’ll authorise you to draw on an account for everything you need for the household and for yourself.’

‘Will he not be surprised at the payment in advance?’ She yawned, hastily hiding it behind her hand.

‘He’ll assume you are one of my light-skirts that I am paying off,’ Gabriel said with deliberate crudity as he studied the papers again. He had no idea what was motivating him, which was worrying in itself. Perhaps he wanted to prove to himself that he was the same old rakehell he had always, so comfortably, been. Or perhaps he simply wanted to provoke some reaction, even if it was only a delightful blush.

There was no response. He looked up, anticipating one of Caroline’s frosty stares, which were stimulating in their own way, and found that she was asleep, slumped sideways on to the sofa cushions. The piled curls were already surrendering to the forces of gravity, the pins sliding free from the glossy, newly washed hair, and her mouth was very slightly open, the parted pink lips wreaking havoc with his pulse rate. When he got silently to his feet and bent over her he saw the dark curl of lashes on her cheek, the soft vulnerability of her skin, the shadows of worry and exhaustion beneath her eyes.

Gabriel thought about lifting her feet on to the sofa, of loosening her bodice, her stays, so she could be more comfortable...
No.
But he leaned down, touched her cheek with the back of his fingers, watched as she smiled in her sleep at his touch and felt something turn over in his chest. Innocence and trust were enough to touch even the most cynical of hearts, it seemed.

He went out into the hall, closing the door softly behind him and met Tess. ‘Caroline is asleep.’

‘I am not surprised, she must be exhausted. I don’t suppose it occurred to you to allow for a little feminine weakness in planning your adventure?’

‘If I had, she’d be back in her father’s hands by now. Or I’d have shot him. She’s tougher than she looks, is Caroline Holm.’

Tess shook her head at him. ‘Idiot man. She is brave and stoical and she will obviously do anything for her little brother.’ Her penetrating stare had him wanting to shift uncomfortably. He resisted the weakness and smiled back, his lazy wolf smile. Tess’s glare hardened. ‘She is not strong, Gabriel, simply courageous. Do not try her too hard. I was brought up in a nunnery, in cold rooms, on plain food and hard work. Tamsyn has been acting as an estate manager for years, out in all weathers on that harsh Devon coast. But Caroline is like Kate, a lady—and raised as one.’ She moved as though to leave him, then added, ‘And don’t you dare ruin her.’

‘You believe I haven’t already?’ The way she was sniping at him, he would not be surprised if she had not guessed at the temptation that racked him.

‘Do you honestly think I would have you in this house if I suspected you would do that? Friend of Alex’s or not, your sorry carcase wouldn’t cross the threshold, believe me.’

The dangerous silence that followed that remark hung between them for a full half-minute, then Tess laughed. ‘It is such fun to tease you.’

He laughed, too, as he followed her back to the drawing room, telling himself that he had absolutely nothing to worry about. Caroline would be safely, respectably, hidden and his life could return to normal, mercifully free of female interference. Perfect. He wondered why he did not feel happier about it.

Cris strolled in. ‘If you’ve nothing better to do, my valet will cut your hair now.’

Gabriel hauled himself to his feet and went upstairs to his fate.

Chapter Twelve

‘I
t is a very extravagant carriage for a housekeeper.’ Caroline stood on the front steps of Tess’s house and studied the chaise and four that stood at the kerb while the footmen loaded on her new trunk. ‘Will it not cause gossip if I do not travel on the stage?’

‘You are a very superior housekeeper and I am a top-lofty employer who would not dream of his upper servants being seen on the common coach.’ Gabriel said. He seemed distant somehow, with his fashionable cropped hair, and he was more smartly dressed than she had ever seen him. He had a cool detachment that she guessed was the manner he adopted when he was playing cards. It certainly succeeded in hiding his feelings from her.

Not that they had been very apparent for the past four days in any case. While she had remained secluded in Half Moon Street he had communicated by politely formal notes, recounting his agent’s progress in despatching the elderly Mrs Buckley to her retirement and setting up funds for Caroline to draw on. Yesterday evening the man himself had arrived, fresh from the country, bringing the account books for Caroline to go through with him.

Tess’s housekeeper had chosen her new wardrobe of respectable plain gowns and caps and Dollands in Bond Street had sent two pairs of spectacles with plain lenses. She had gone, heavily veiled, to the domestic agency to interview for her own maid who would be picked up from there on the way so there was nothing to connect her with the Weybourns’ house. The address of Reddish’s Hotel in Jermyn Street had completely satisfied the agency.

‘You look the part and we have left no kind of trail anywhere.’ Gabriel seemed relaxed, standing on the step beside her, but she could tell he was watching the street.

‘And you look different,’ she said without thinking.

‘It is the hair.’ He glanced down at her, a formal stranger.

‘No, it is more than that. You look positively respect...’
Oh, goodness, that was not tactful.
‘I mean...’

‘Respectable,’ he agreed with a shrug. ‘Wrestling with your brother’s estate has prompted an unusual desire to be about the business of my own properties. I have the haircut so I thought I would further unnerve my various solicitors, bankers and agents by looking like the sort of earl they normally have to deal with. My brother Louis is in town, so I’ll drag him round, too. Hopefully he won’t decide that estate management is the last thing he wants to do and bolt on me.’

‘That will be pleasant, being with your brother.’ The footmen were still struggling to secure the trunk to the chaise. ‘Is he very like you?’

Gabriel gave a snort of amusement. ‘Hardly. Louis is a serious soul with my head for figures, which you need to be a good card player, but I doubt he’s ever played more than whist for sixpenny stakes. He’s a cautious lawyer to the bone, although where he inherited that from, I have no idea. When he’s finished his final year at university I hope he will take control of the estates for me. He could go to the Inns of Court and eat his dinners, qualify fully, but I think he wants to get down to work.’

‘He is not your only brother, is he?’

‘He is the youngest. Ben’s in the army and George is a vicar. I haven’t seen them for over a year, I suppose. We’re not a close family and they don’t seem to have wanted money recently. Not so much they needed to turn up to ask for it in person, anyway. Oh, for goodness sake! Haven’t you two the slightest idea of how to tie a rope?’ He strode across to the chaise and snatched the rope from the flustered footmen, flicking it into place and tying off the ends with a complex, rapid knot.

How sad that he was not close to his brothers, Caroline thought. She adored Anthony and even Lucas was good company when he wasn’t pandering to their father’s latest whims. A soldier, a vicar, a lawyer and a gambler. In most families the gambler would be the youngest son, not the oldest. Gabriel was intelligent, decisive, gallant and...
isolated,
she thought. Despite his friends, despite his title and rank, he seemed to be a wolf walking in the wild, fierce and independent and alone.

‘Ready,’ Gabriel said, and opened the chaise door for her. ‘You have everything you need?’

‘I will miss you.’ The words were unconsidered, true. Unwise.

Gabriel’s expression had been neutral, now it became even more shuttered. ‘You should be glad to see the back of me.’

‘You gave up a valuable estate for me. You understood that I was in trouble, so you rescued me. You have made a future possible for both Anthony and for me. It all took time and money and effort and risk. I am very grateful.’

‘I am easily bored, it was a diversion,’ Gabriel said with a shrug. ‘Do not have any delusions, Caroline. I take what I want for as long as it is amusing and no longer. You have my lawyer’s address for any correspondence.’ He closed the door and walked away as the others appeared on the steps.

‘Gabriel?’ Tess called, then shrugged and came to where Caroline still stood on the step of the chaise. ‘Men! Now, take care and don’t forget to write. Let us know if there is anything that you need.’

‘You have been so very kind, thank you.’
Of course
her lip was trembling and her vision was blurred. Tess and Tamsyn had become friends in these past few days and it was a wrench to leave them. Nothing to do with insensitive, amoral, hard-hearted men. Nothing. She had been a distraction for a while, now he no longer wanted her. She was no longer
amusing.
Fair enough. She did not want him. Not at all.

Caroline blew her nose briskly as the chaise rattled away over the cobbles and into Piccadilly. By the time it drew up in front of Wellings and Arbuthott, Suppliers of Domestic Staff to the Nobility, her new spectacles were firmly in place, her face composed and her spine straight. She had been snubbed, but that was her own fault for attempting to get close to a rake. The lesson was learned and she wouldn’t make that mistake again if she ever saw Gabriel Stone in the future, which was reassuringly unlikely.

* * *

‘There is a young gentleman to see you, my lord.’

Gabriel turned with relief from Louis’s lecture on the desirable length for agricultural leases. He was never certain whether his youngest brother was naturally earnest or whether it was a shield he erected when they were together. For the thousandth time he wondered if Louis was actually afraid of him, then dismissed the thought. He was unconscious that night when their father...died. He could remember nothing of it, surely?

He realised that Hampshire was waiting for him to collect his thoughts. ‘No card?’

‘He is too young a gentleman to have one, I believe, my lord.’ Hampshire cleared his throat. ‘He is very much on his dignity and, if I may be so bold, I would advise caution. I sense repressed emotion about him. Some instability.’

‘I’ll stay. It sounds as though you might need a lawyer,’ Louis said with rather too much enthusiasm.

‘Show him in, Hampshire. And you,’ he added as the butler closed the door, ‘you remember that you aren’t a lawyer yet and keep quiet.’

‘Breach of promise, do you think?’ Louis speculated, for once acting his age. ‘You wouldn’t gamble with a stripling, so that’s all I can think of. So, outraged younger brother come to defend his spurned sister. George says it is about time you—’

‘Louis. Shut up if you value your allowance.’

‘Mr Holm, my lord.’

Oh, Satan’s toenails. Her baby brother.
‘Mr Holm. I am Edenbridge. This is my brother, Mr Louis Stone. How may I assist you?’

The young man standing in front of him was obviously Caroline’s brother, with his blue eyes and blond hair and handsome, open countenance. Anthony swallowed once, hard, but made a very proper bow. ‘My lord. Mr Stone. I have come about a property.’

‘I see.’ No mention of Caroline yet. ‘Will you sit down, Mr Holm? A glass of brandy, perhaps?’

He could see in the boy’s expression the desire to appear a man of the world warring with the knowledge that he was not going to be able to drink strong spirits at five in the afternoon and carry on a discussion at the same time.

‘Thank you, no, my lord,’ he said, winning points with Gabriel. He sat down, crossed his gangling legs with a fair assumption of ease, and then looked anxious when Gabriel sat, too, but remained silent. ‘Er... Springbourne, my lord.’

‘Call me Edenbridge. I won a Hertfordshire estate called Springbourne from your father some time ago.’

‘I need to buy it back. I can’t pay you now, of course, but if you tell me how much, then I will start to make repayments just as soon as I am able. You will expect interest and I realise it will take some time...’

‘What is your allowance?’ Gabriel enquired.

‘Twenty-five pounds a quarter.’

‘And you are how old?’

‘Sixteen, sir. My lor... Edenbridge.’

‘Louis, how much is Springbourne worth?’ His brother whipped open a file and produced a neat summary paper. Gabriel handed it to Anthony. ‘At compound interest of even a modest four percent, can you work out how long it would take you to pay it back?’

‘Yes.’ For a moment his chin wobbled, then he got it under control. Gabriel had a vivid recollection of Caroline firming her own jaw before launching into an explanation of why she had come to him that first morning. ‘I can see it is impossible. But that was my future, you see. I had to try. However, I quite understand. I will not trouble you further, my lord. Good day.’

He was on his feet, but Gabriel did not move. ‘Sit down. You give up very easily, Mr Holm. How did you find out that your father had lost the estate to me?’

The boy sat. ‘He told me two days ago when I said I wanted to spend some of the summer there.’

‘I imagine he was not conciliatory.’

‘No.’ Anthony tightened his lips and, for a moment, his shoulders hunched.

The bastard hit him,
Gabriel realised with a surge of anger. Boys expected to be beaten for misdemeanours, but not for enquiring about property they thought would be theirs. And not thrashed. Involuntarily his hand reached for Louis, then he jerked it back.

‘He’s not in a good temper at the moment because of my sis...I mean... Oh, drat, I shouldn’t have said that. You’ll forget it?’

‘Forget what? Mr Holm, I am not in the habit of gaming for property that has been promised to someone other than the person staking it. I discovered the facts about that estate and it is now being held in trust for you without your father’s knowledge. The income will be invested and the whole, less running costs, will revert to you on your twenty-first birthday.’

Suddenly, appallingly, the boy burst into tears. After a moment he dragged a bedraggled handkerchief out of his pocket, blew his nose and peered wetly over the top at Gabriel. ‘I’m sorry, sir. But are you serious? You aren’t jesting with me?’

‘Look at my brother. I’m a frivolous sort, but Louis never jests, certainly not about money, do you, Louis?’ He had told his brother the bare outlines of the story, without telling him how he had discovered that the estate was destined for Anthony Holm and certainly without mentioning Caroline.

‘Of course not.’ Louis, all of three years older than Anthony, sent Gabriel his best lawyerly reproving look, the one Gabriel suspected he practised in front of the mirror. ‘You may scrutinise the books at any time, Mr Holm. We realise that you are not able to employ anyone to audit them, but if you nominate someone we can set that against the estate income.’

‘I should not advise any son to deceive his father, but in this case might I suggest that you do not reveal this conversation to Lord Knighton? You had best pretend that Springbourne is lost to you for five years,’ Gabriel said.

‘Yes. Yes of course. Thank you, my... Edenbridge.’ He set his jaw. ‘I was going to join the navy. Or I would have done if only I’d known where Ca... Anyway, I won’t need to now.’

‘Have that brandy.’ Gabriel stood up and poured three glasses. Had Caroline written to her brother yet? He waited until Anthony had taken a huge swallow of the spirit, choked, been thumped on the back by Louis and then settled down, rather red-eyed, but happier. ‘It is some time since I had the pleasure of speaking to your sister. I trust she is well.’

‘Er... Yes. Yes, she is quite safe.’ It seemed to occur to him that this was odd phrasing. ‘I mean, she is quite
well
. Resting, you know, somewhere...I mean elsewhere. Rather a trying Season, I believe, but she writes to me. I’ll tell her you were asking.’

‘You do that,’ Gabriel said with a smile.
Just never apply for the diplomatic service or any occupation where you have to deviate from the truth, young man. You are the worst liar I have ever come across.

‘Where does your father think you are now?’

‘Staying with a school friend in Chelsea. Which I am, actually. I went home a few days ago, Papa told me about Springbourne and then I remembered Percy had invited me to stay with him, so I came down here.’

‘You’ll need some ready money if you are to enjoy London.’ Gabriel opened a drawer and peeled fifty pounds off a roll of banknotes. ‘Louis, enter that in the ledger as an advance to Mr Holm. Don’t go near women, cards, drinking dens or friendly older men who offer to show you a good time.’

‘No, sir! Thank you very much, my... Edenbridge.’ Anthony’s grin threatened to reach his ears. He got to his feet, only slightly unsteady, and bowed. ‘I’ll never forget this. Never.’

‘Was that wise?’ Louis enquired as the door shut behind young Mr Holm. ‘He’s off the leash in London, goodness knows what he will get up to.’

‘Speaking from experience, Louis?’

‘Certainly not.’

Gabriel grinned at the offended expression, but it was Anthony who gave him pause. His father had been reminded about Springbourne and that could be dangerous. Might it occur to him that Caroline had gone there? Gabriel doubted Lord Knighton had actually told Caroline about the loss of the estate—in fact, he seemed to recall her saying she had discovered its loss by overhearing him talking about it, so he might think she’d see it as a refuge.

He should write and warn her. Or go and see her? He really ought to inspect the estate after all. It wasn’t right to leave it entirely to agents, however reliable.