Wolfishly Yours (10 page)

“True. Though Robert and I have never been accused of being remotely similar.”

With the exception that both men had apparently proposed to Lady Sophia before her father lost his fortune, and both gentlemen had offered her a different kind of position all together once they learned of her penniless state.

After the barmaid deposited two tankards on the table, Lavendon eyed Gray as though he was sizing him up. “So,” the marquess began, “this gambling establishment you’re pursuing. Are you looking for investors?”

Gray shrugged. “We haven’t been. Archer seems to have more than enough funds at his disposal.”

“Easily obtained, easily lost,” Lavendon replied. “Especially as recklessly as he plays.”

Except that Archer seemed to have acquired some sort of Midas touch as though it was impossible for him to lose any game, match, or wager, no matter how ridiculous the odds.

“My sister is wrapped up in all of this now. I’d feel more comfortable if you’d let me in on this deal. To ensure her future, mind you.”

Gray heaved a sigh. “Then you should probably be having this conversation with Weston.”

“Ah, but Weston listens to you.”

That explained the marquess’ sudden chumminess. “Turned you down flat, did he?” Gray asked.

Lavendon’s smirk reappeared. “Said it was an endeavor for the brothers Hadley.”

“Well, there you have it then.”

The marquess shook his head stubbornly. “You don’t have a sister, Gray. You can’t possibly understand my worry for Madeline.”

What could he say to that? Gray didn’t have a sister, well, other than by marriage. It couldn’t possibly be the same thing. He had no idea the worries one might have if one did possess a sister by blood. Still… “She does have a husband to worry about her now.”

“You can’t blame me for questioning his judgment. He did abscond with Maddie, after all.”

“Something she is quite happy about, as I’m sure you know.”

“Love is blind.”

“But lust is not,” Gray muttered to himself as an image of Liviana Mayeux flashed once again in his mind. Had he ever lusted after a woman the way he did her? Not that he could remember. Damn it all.

“I beg your pardon?” Lavendon looked more than mildly affronted.

Gray shook his head and forced a smile to his face. “Sorry, something Archer used to say. I wasn’t impugning Maddie, just finishing the line. ‘Love is blind, but lust is not.’”

The marquess relaxed back in his seat and lifted the tankard to his lips. “Something I imagine you know a thing or two about.”

“Lust?” Gray couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “I’m sure I have just as much experience with lust as you do.” Despite Lavendon’s good name, he was a notorious rake, after all.

“I imagine so, living in the same home with Sophie Cole. I’d have to take icy baths on a daily basis, were I you.”

At that Gray snorted. What an absurd thing to say. “I can assure you, Lavendon. Never once have I had a lascivious thought about Lady Sophia.” She wasn’t the sort that appealed to Gray. Not in the least. She was pretty, of course, but she was too delicate. She was too prim. She was too… tame. There was the word again. Tame. Liviana Mayeux wasn’t tame in the least. He had a feeling Liviana Mayeux would be more spirited as a bed partner than any woman he’d ever known.

Gray downed his ale in one gulp.

“Getting foxed so early in the evening, are you?” Lavendon chortled. “And here I thought you had a musicale to attend or some other such nonsense.”

The musicale. What a torturous affair. Listening to pedigreed ladies warbling out tunes or pounding on piano keys. Gray groaned and signaled the barmaid for another round. “I’m certainly not foxed enough to attend a bloody musicale.”

“Well, in that case,” Lavendon lifted his own tankard in a mock toast, “do drink up, Hadley. I’m not certain I’ve ever been foxed enough to attend a musicale.”

Livi accepted Lord Radbourne’s hand as he helped her alight from the carriage. “I am sorry,” the viscount winced a bit, “about this afternoon.”

But she hadn’t given the dancing incident with Lord Radbourne any further thought. Not since Gray had rushed from the room earlier, anyway. Livi shook her head. “Are you sure you don’t know where Mr. Hadley is?”

Lord Radbourne looked at once apologetic. “I wish I did.”

“Archer!” Lady Radbourne called from inside the conveyance. “You mustn’t forget Lady Sophia or myself.”

The viscount rolled his eyes. “As though either of them would ever allow that,” he whispered. Then he released Livi’s hand and reached back in the coach.

A moment later, the four of them climbed the front steps to the Longboroughs’ fashionable Georgian home. From outside, Livi could already hear someone playing Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and her heart started pounding in her chest.
Bon
Dieu
! What if someone asked her to play something or sing? She couldn’t do so, certainly not with an audience.

A cold chill raced up her spine, and she glanced at Sophie just as the Longboroughs’ door opened before them. She caught her tutor’s eyes and shook her head slightly. “I can’t sing,” she whispered.

Sophie grasped Livi’s hand and smiled. “I won’t throw you to the wolves, Livi. Just stay beside me and you’ll be fine.”

But Livi couldn’t help wishing that Gray was there as well. Where had he gone after he’d fled her that afternoon? And why hadn’t he come back? Was it because she’d called him a coward? She probably shouldn’t have done that, but it’s what she would have said to either Armand or Etienne. Then she would have shoved them and they’d have shoved her back, and they’d have ended up sparring with each other and rolling around on the floor…

Good heavens. Now all she could think about was rolling around on the floor with Grayson Hadley, but not in the same way she used to play with her brothers. Not in the same way at all.

“Are you overly warm, dear?” Lady Radbourne asked, her brows drawing together ever so slightly. “You look a bit flushed.”

As cold as it was in England? The likelihood of that was somewhere between slim and none. But she couldn’t admit that her pallor was due to the fact she was thinking about Lady Radbourne’s son, could she? Certainly not. “Perhaps a bit,” she said instead.

The viscount arched a brow at her, as though he knew she was lying. He couldn’t, could he? Certainly not.

He muttered quietly to her, “I’ll see if I can introduce you to a few upstanding fellows tonight so you can get him off your mind.”

Livi tripped over her own toe. He did know she was lying. How was that possible?

The viscount reached out to catch her, but another pair of hands secured her, grabbing her tightly by the shoulders. Livi sucked in a breath as she glanced behind her to find Grayson Hadley’s dark eyes boring into hers.

“Speak of the devil,” Lord Radbourne said quietly. He regarded his brother with a scathing glance. “You’re late.”

Gray shrugged his shoulders and adjusted his waistcoat. “Couldn’t be helped.” He tilted his head at Livi and let his gaze rake down her dress. She thought she heard him murmur “lovely,” but she couldn’t be completely sure.

The viscount leaned closer to his brother and sniffed quietly. “You smell like you’ve had a busy afternoon. Perhaps you should go back to Holmesfield’s and sleep it off.”

Gray avoided his brother’s comment and held out an arm to Livi. “May I escort you inside?” he asked pleasantly. But Livi had a brief flash of remembrance. Of his caustic comments that afternoon. Of his abrupt abandonment. So she reached for Lord Radbourne’s arm instead.

“You get the harpy,” the viscount said with a grin as he tucked Livi’s hand into the crook of his arm and smiled down at her. “And I get the lovely Miss Mayeux.”

He really didn’t have to compliment her to get back into her good graces. He could do so simply by thwarting his brother. Besides, he obviously enjoyed doing so, and it was mildly entertaining to see the look on Gray’s face when she chose Lord Radbourne’s arm over his.

Sophie stepped closer to them and whispered harshly, “When the three of you are done with whatever it is you’re doing, we should probably move forward. A line is forming behind us.”

Radbourne took a step toward the door. Livi drifted along beside him. “Nervous?” he asked with a conspirator’s grin.

A little. But not as much as she’d expected. That was, until she stepped into the Longboroughs’ home. She was so startled by the crush of people that the floor could have tilted a little beneath her.

“Something wrong?” Lord Radbourne murmured, leaning closer to her ear.

“I had no idea this musicale would be so well attended,” she admitted.

“Consider it practice for tomorrow night.”

Goodness, would there be dancing tonight? “They simply play music, correct?” she hissed at him. “No dancing?” Heavens, she wasn’t nearly ready to dance in public.

He sighed heavily. “Alas, tonight will be all about a room full of screeching cats, and we’re expected to at least make a good show of enjoying it.”

“Screeching cats?”

“If we’re lucky.”

It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Radbourne introduced her to their hosts, the Longboroughs. Lord Longborough looked down his beak-like nose at her and scowled. “You’re Holmesfield’s granddaughter.”

Livi curtsied politely. “Thank you for inviting me, sir,” she said quietly. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to say?

“Radbourne,” he grunted. Evidently, their host was a man of few words.

“Longborough,” the viscount grunted back.

The Longboroughs’ footmen ushered them through the receiving line and into their home.

“Care for something to drink?” the viscount asked.

“I would,” Gray declared as he stepped up beside them.

“It appears as though you’ve had enough,” Lord Radbourne said caustically. He leaned toward his brother. “If you cause any grief for me with Lady Sophia or Mother, I’ll make your life hell.”

“How would that be different from any other day?” Gray shot back.

“Perhaps you should make a polite exit, return to Holmesfield’s, and sleep it off,” the viscount recommended softly.

Sleep what off? Livi glanced between the two of them. Gray did have a sheen to his eyes that wasn’t typically there. And a slight flush to his cheeks. Had he been drinking? She’d never seen either of her brothers quite so foxed and they imbibed quite regularly.

“Nothing to sleep off,” Gray growled at his brother. “I’ll get some punch for you, Livi,” he said quietly and then turned on his heel and left. He wavered a bit as he spun. But he righted himself well enough. Anyone who didn’t know him would think he was just a bit clumsy.

Lord Radbourne sighed heavily. “I had no idea you’d affect him the way you do. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have agreed to come on this trip. Nor would I have allowed him to do so.”

Affected him? Livi laid a hand on her chest in surprise. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“I should have noticed it this afternoon when he nearly took my head off. You falling to the ground affected him much more than it should have.” He scanned the room the whole time he talked. He was obviously able to perform more than one task at a time. Now she just wished she could rein him in so she could find out what on earth he was talking about. He chuckled. “Don’t look at me like you don’t know.” He grinned broadly, a smile that was nearly contagious.

But she didn’t know. “Enlighten me?” she prompted.

“My brother likes you.”

Livi bit back a smile. “That’s better than loathing me,” she retorted.

“On the contrary, it would be much better if he did loathe you, I’m afraid,” Radbourne said stoically.

Just then, the sound of instruments being tuned reached her ears. The piercing shriek of a violin and the rhythm of a poorly played cello filled the air. She winced. How could the viscount keep from howling at the sound? “That’s dreadful,” she mouthed at him.

“Just wait until they actually start to play,” he warned.

Livi wanted nothing more than to prompt Lord Radbourne to continue his discussion about Gray liking her. But Sophie stepped forward and said, “We should find our seats. Somewhere near the middle.”

“Why the middle?” Livi asked.

“The sycophants and family members sit in the front.”

“And we are neither,” Archer intoned.

Sophie glared at him. Then she continued as though he’d never spoken, “And the people who sit in the back dearly want to escape early.”

“That would be me,” Radbourne whispered, his lips exaggerating his words.

Livi absently thought that she could like him if he gave her half an opportunity, but that was not to be. At least at the moment, because Sophie took Livi’s hand and pulled her toward a row of seats in the middle of the room.

“Should we save a space for Gray?” Livi glanced over her shoulder at the viscount.

Radbourne looked at her askance. “Gray now, is it?”

Heat crept up Livi’s cheeks. She hadn’t meant to say that. Drat it all. She was one walking blunder after another. “Mr. Hadley, I meant to say,” she amended as she took her seat.

“Too late to take it back now, my dear,” he said with a clicking sound of his tongue and sat beside her. “Just be certain you don’t do it in front of anyone important.” He glanced in his mother’s direction. “They might have you leg-shackled to him before you can blink twice.”

Married to Grayson Hadley? Livi couldn’t even fathom the idea, and neither could Grayson Hadley. The image of him bolting from her grandfather’s music room that afternoon flashed once again in her mind.

Livi’s reverie broke when the crowd quieted and what she assumed was supposed to be music began at the front of the room. Livi crossed her hands in her lap and sat up straight. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gray approaching with a glass of punch. That must be her glass. It was sweet of him to retrieve it for her. He seemed as though he was trying to apologize for his boorish comment from that afternoon. Livi smiled at him, a genuine smile of thanks.

But something went dreadfully wrong when she smiled at him. He blinked twice at her, looked down at her lips, licked his own in a most lascivious manner, and tripped.

The expression on his face was that of sheer desperation as he fell forward. Livi looked down to see his foot hooked behind some ancient lady’s cane, which seemed most odd. Had the matron tripped Gray on purpose? Livi spent a mere second looking down and didn’t even see the glass of punch hurtling in her direction until it was too late. It wasn’t until a sticky orange liquid splashed across her face and down the front of her dress that pure mortification washed over her as well.

“
Nique
ta
mère
!” she muttered.

All at once the music stopped, a large gasp echoed, and every eye in the room focused on her.

***

The vilest French curse Gray had ever heard escaped Livi’s mouth, and censure hung heavy in the air. Dear God, this was entirely his fault. If he hadn’t doused her with that damned punch, she would have never muttered such a foul thing. At least he didn’t think she would have.

“Oh, God, Livi,” he said, trying to scramble to his feet. “I’m so sorry.” For what he’d done and for what she’d just done to herself. He wasn’t the only French speaker in the room, and the words she’d used couldn’t quite be mistaken for anything else.

Another gasp rang out in the air.

What had happened now? Archer kicked Gray in the shin just as he rose to his full height. “Cork-brained fool!” Archer hissed.

“I said I was sorry,” Gray muttered, though no one seemed to pay him any attention. He bent and rubbed his bruised shin absently. That is, until Lady Sophia glowered at him.

“Lord Radbourne,” Lady Sophia began, a martinet if Gray had ever heard one. “Please have your coach brought around. I believe Miss Mayeux would like to return home early this evening.”

Archer was gone in a flash, or at least it seemed like a flash. In truth, if Gray had been completely sober, Archer’s speed would not have surprised him in the least. But apparently he was more foxed than he’d realized.

Gray reached for Livi as Lady Sophia ushered her toward the corridor, but all he got was a fistful of air. “Livi,” he called.

Someone elbowed him in his side. “You have done quite enough, Grayson.” He winced at the shrillness of his mother’s voice. “Pray close your mouth.”

Mother was never shrill. Never. Not once that Gray could remember. He blinked as he gazed down at his mother, feeling the room spin just a bit with his movement. “I think I should sit down.”

She glowered at him, which was very unlike her. “And ruin everyone else’s evening? Stumble home. When you are sober, I want a word with you.” Then she brushed past him, following in Livi’s and Lady Sophia’s wake.

Gray felt a roomful of eyes on him and he slowly glanced around the drawing room. What the devil was he doing here? And with these stuffy people? He dropped into the chair Livi had vacated and held his head in his hands.

After a moment, someone clapped a hand to Gray’s back. “Mr. Hadley,” Lord Longborough’s voice invaded his thoughts, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Gray snorted. He was being asked to leave? He never wanted to attend this bloody affair in the first place. He staggered to his feet and glared at the stuffy lord. “It will be my greatest honor to leave your home.”

Another gasp sounded in the room. For God’s sake! Were these people only capable of gasping? They must lead rather mundane lives and be rather light-headed most of the time. He turned on his heel and stalked from the room and down the corridor, weaving only the tiniest bit. He brushed past the Longboroughs’ butler and out into the cool night air, just in time to see Lord Holmesfield’s coach round the corner. Devil take it all!

“If,” Archer stepped out of the shadows, “there’s a bigger fool in all of England, I’ve never met him.”

Gray closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Perhaps if he couldn’t see his brother, Archer might disappear entirely, just like the coach had done.