The Irresistible Buck

by Barbara Cartland

  “If it is kisses you want,” he asserted harshly, “take them from the man who is entitled to give them to you.”

  His lips were on hers before she could cry out a word and because of his anger he kissed her roughly and almost cruelly. Suddenly he was aware of the softness and sweetness of her lips beneath his and his mouth became gentler but more possessive.

  His anger faded and he felt an irrepressible desire to awaken her and make her respond to him as every woman he had ever kissed in the past had responded.

  His kisses were very experienced, very demanding and very persuasive.

  Then incredulously Lord Melburne realised that after only one violent effort to struggle against him that had been ineffective, Clarinda was still and passive in his arms.

  She was so still that he raised his head in surprise. At once with a quick twist of her body she was free of him. Just for a moment she looked at him, her eyes dark with anger, before she said slowly and coldly,

  “I am afraid, my Lord, that your licentious attempts at love-making are not appreciated in the country, however successful they may be in London. If indeed you are hard-pressed to find a woman, there may be a nit witted village maiden who will not refuse your advances.”

  She spoke without hesitation and it was quite obvious that her speech had been prepared. Then the blood flooded into her cheeks, her eyes flashed fire and she stamped her foot.

  “If only I was a man,” she cried and spat the words at him, “I would kill you for this!”

  She ran away before he could reply, twisting in and out of the shrubs until within a few seconds he could no longer see her.

  Lord Melburne stood for some time looking at the place she had vanished from, with a strange expression on his face.

  His anger had gone and now he could only think of Clarinda’s stillness in his arms, the softness of her lips and then realised incredulously that he had evoked no response in her but hatred.

  Never in his whole life had a woman, after he had kissed her, turned from him in dislike and never had the passionate demands of his lips been rejected.

  Now he was uncomfortably aware of the ignominious position that his impetuous action had placed him.

  He had not meant to insult Clarinda and he had never in his wildest moments intended to force his attentions upon her. But she made him so damned angry, behaving in such a manner in front of Romayne who, with her sharp tongue and her perceptive little brain, would make the very most of such a situation.

  Then he knew that, if he was to be honest with himself, it was not only his anger that had made him kiss Clarinda. There had been something irresistibly inviting in her parted lips and the loveliness of her face turned up to his, in the sun shining on her shaken curls and in the incredible whiteness of her skin and her cheeks flushed by his violence.

  There was no doubt that by his behaviour he had put himself in the wrong.

  She would hate him more than ever now and God knows he deserved it.

  “Your licentious lovemaking”.

  What a phrase! He could imagine her thinking it out before she had met him and after she had begun to hate him because of something she had learnt regarding his past. Now she had even more good reason for her dislike.

  He was aware that she had meant to remain cool and icy beneath his lips and to freeze him by her very inaction. Yet her anger had swept away her effort at play-acting and he knew that she had looked almost lovelier when she had raged at him than when he had taken her into his arms.

  The whole situation was, however, a complicated coil from which he could see no easy escape. Besides Romayne was waiting for him and God knows what he could tell her that would not make the situation worse.

  Lord Melburne was frowning as he began to retrace his steps towards the Rose Garden. There was no one to be seen now on the terrace and, as he entered the salon, it was to find Julien Wilsdon waiting for him.

  When Lord Melburne appeared, he squared up his shoulders and faced him courageously but he was obviously nervous.

  “I have to apologise, my Lord,” he said in a low voice.

  Lord Melburne merely raised his eyebrows.

  “I would not wish you to think that Miss Vernon behaved anything but correctly,” Julien went on, “and indeed I was not, as your guest implied to me so mockingly, kissing her.”

  “Then perhaps you would care to explain what you were doing.”

  “I was saying ‘goodbye’,” Julien Wilsdon replied miserably. “My father has forced me, much against my wish, to join the Army. I am leaving today. And because I love Clarinda, I came to bid her ‘farewell’.”

  Lord Melburne said nothing and after a moment Julien continued,

  “It was unmanly of me, my Lord, but I was almost in tears. And when I put my cheek against Clarinda’s, as a brother might do to his sister, she did not repulse me. That is all – I am telling you the truth because I would not have you think that she is anything but perfect.

  He turned towards the door as he finished speaking and Lord Melburne had the idea that he was fighting to control himself.

  “Thank you, Wilsdon, I am much obliged for your explanation,” he said quietly.

  Then realising how humiliating it must have been for the boy, for he was little more, to apologise, he added kindly,

  “Good luck in the Army. You will enjoy it, even though you don’t think so now. I swear to you the happiest days of my life were when I was with my Regiment.”

  “I do hope you are right, my Lord,” Julien Wilsdon said despondently and went from the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

  Lord Melburne waited just a few moments until he thought that Julien would have left the house before he went from the salon into the hall.

  Bates was standing by the door.

  “Lady Romayne Ramsey left you her compliments, my Lord, and asked me to tell your Lordship that she would wait for you at Melburne.”

  “Then I will follow her Ladyship right away. Will you give Sir Roderick my respects and say an unexpected guest precludes my being able to visit him at the time I intended. But I will return later this evening at about an hour before dinner.”

  “Very good, my Lord.”

  Lord Melburne hesitated a moment and then he added,

  “And tell Miss Vernon I would be deeply obliged if I might dine with her this evening. It will be too late after I have finished with Sir Roderick for me to return home for dinner.”

  “I will tell Miss Clarinda, my Lord,” the butler said. “I hope we shall be able to offer your Lordship a meal to your satisfaction.”

  Lord Melburne went towards his phaeton with a twinkle in his eyes. He was certain it would infuriate Clarinda to be forced to entertain him.

  But he knew that the fact he was dining out would provide him with a plausible excuse to send Lady Romayne back to London.

  Also he could not deny it that he wanted to see Clarinda again.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Clarinda reached the sanctuary of her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

  She stood for a moment with her hands to her flushed face, conscious that her heart was beating violently in her breast and she was angry with a fury that she had never experienced before.

  “How dare he! How dare he!” she cried aloud and, stamping her foot as she had stamped it at Lord Melburne, she ran across the room to fling herself down onto her bed and bury her face in the pillow.

  She had known, she now told herself, when Sir Roderick had first made her write and ask Lord Melburne to come to The Priory, that this was bound to happen.

  It was exactly how she had anticipated that he would behave and yet the realisation was so different from her imaginings.

  She had no idea that a man’s lips could be so hard and fierce as Lord Melburne’s had been when he had first kissed her and she had never dreamt that the same lips could become persuasive yet gentle and possessive yet tender.

  So that was being kissed!

  His Lordship
behaved in the same licentious manner that she had expected and she had been ready for him. Ready with the speech that she had rehearsed to herself a hundred times because there was every chance that with such a near neighbour she would meet him sooner or later.

  “He is despicable,” she shouted out aloud. “I hate him! I hate him!”

  As she spoke, she knew that the hatred that she had felt for him for the last four years was now far more violent and real because he had the power to disturb her personally.

  It was not only what he said, it was those strange grey eyes of his which seemed to look deep into her heart and which made her feel small and unsure of herself.

  She felt, when he came into a room being so incredibly handsome, so immaculate and fashionably dressed, that she paled into insignificance in her shabby gowns and with her hair arranged untidily and her total ignorance, of which she was very conscious, of the fashionable world.

  Why should he perturb her so greatly?

  She hoped that Sir Roderick would not live long and then Lord Melburne would depart back to London and she need never see him again.

  “I hate him! I hate him!” she flashed again, thinking of his mouth on hers.

  She rubbed her lips, but she knew that she could never entirely rub away the memory of her first kiss, a kiss that had ended almost sweetly.

  It had given her the strangest feeling that, if she now surrendered herself to what Lord Melburne was asking of her with his lips, she would have lost her very identity.

  She did not know quite what she meant, she had felt imprisoned by the strength of his arms and so small and so weak that it was almost impossible to fight him.

  There was something he was demanding of her, something he was attempting to make her give him and something that he must take and hold captive!

  She had the uneasy feeling that it was her heart.

  ‘He had no right to touch me,’ she told herself fiercely and yet she knew in all fairness that she had provoked him into excusable anger.

  It must have been galling for him, she admitted, to find her with Julien and he was not to know that she was merely comforting a miserable young man who was near to tears because he must say ‘goodbye’.

  It was provoking enough for his Lordship to see them, but Clarinda did realise that the presence of a friend with him made it positively humiliating. She had heard a woman’s voice and heard her laugh, an affected Society laugh, she thought scornfully and then she recalled the quick glimpse of a peaked bonnet, of floating plumes and a pelisse of vivid scarlet silk before she had turned and run for the shelter of the shrubbery.

  Her face burnt at the thought. How could she have been so foolish?

  She could have retained her composure and walked forward to greet the new guest to The Priory and explained that Julien was an old friend saying ‘goodbye’ before he joined the Army.

  ‘Why,’ she asked miserably, ‘could I not have behaved like a lady instead of a child?’

  She buried her face again in the pillow, ashamed at the mistake she had made. She told herself she could forgive Lord Melburne his anger, but he had kissed her and that she could never forgive.

  ‘He is entirely unscrupulous where women are concerned,’ she told herself harshly.

  She remembered Jessica’s soft voice telling her how she had fought against him until physically she was too exhausted to withstand his supreme strength. Later she had fought against her heart until it betrayed her into loving him.

  Clarinda could recall all too clearly the horror that she had felt as Jessica Tansfield had unfolded her tale. Clarinda had been fifteen at the time, full of admiration of her grown-up friend, who past seventeen, was a debutante and had been presented to Their Majesties.

  Jessica was pretty with her dark hair, her winged eyebrows and her slanting dark eyes. But, as she was bored in the country, she had made a confidante of little Clarinda, boasting of her many conquests, keeping her wide-eyed with stories of the fashionable world, of the routs and masques, the assemblies and balls, a world where apparently gentlemen stalked a pretty woman as if she was a wild animal they must capture and tame.

  Then Jessica related how she had met Lord Melburne and he had ravished her against her will.

  “Afterwards I loved him,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I could not help it! I flung myself down at his feet and begged him to marry me, but he only laughed. Yes, he laughed, Clarinda, and I could only lie there, broken and desolate, my long hair then hanging over my shoulders to hide my nakedness.”

  Clarinda had felt even in that poignant moment of confession that Jessica was taking poetical licence for her hair had never grown longer than shoulder length.

  But the story of Lord Melburne’s brutality had made Clarinda swear undying enmity towards the man who had treated a young and innocent girl so callously.

  “I gave him my body, my heart and my soul,” Jessica sobbed brokenly. “I could not help it.”

  “Has anyone ever resisted him?” she asked Jessica.

  “No one,” Jessica replied, “because he is irresistible. That is what he is called in London and it is exactly what he is, Clarinda, irresistible. Poor weak women cannot escape from his magnetism and the power he exerts over every female he encounters.”

  Jessica had left The Priory to partake of the further gaiety and amusements of London, but Clarinda had stayed in the country and planned how she would behave if ever she might be unfortunate enough to meet Lord Melburne.

  She would be completely unresponsive towards him, she told herself. It would be hard for a man to kiss a woman who was as cold as an iceberg in his arms.

  The speech she had prepared would show him her utter contempt and she had rehearsed it over and over until she was word perfect.

  She told herself now that she had recited it to perfection, except at the end when she had lost her temper and raged at him. This was perhaps because the tenderness of his kisses had been such a surprise.

  In her anticipation of what would occur she had not expected him to be angry. He had held her close in his arms, but he had not made love to her as Jessica had described. Jessica had fought against his passionate desire and not his anger.

  Clarinda recalled how roughly he had shaken her and she was certain that tomorrow she would have bruises on her shoulder.

  Now she wondered who Lord Melburne’s guest had been and what she and Julien might have said to each other when they were alone.

  Clarinda felt herself blush again. How could she have been so gauche as to run away? She wondered what explanation Lord Melburne could have given the lady and whether they were still downstairs or if they had left The Priory.

  Even as she wondered what had happened, there came a knock on her bedroom door. She sat up on the bed, tense and apprehensive. Then she realised that Lord Melburne would not knock so subserviently if he wished to enter her room.

  “Come in,” Clarinda called out.

  Bates opened the door.

  “His Lordship’s compliments, Miss Clarinda,” he announced, “and he has returned to Melburne. His Lordship asked me to tell you that he will visit Sir Roderick this evening and would be obliged if you would entertain him to dinner. It will be too late for him to return for dinner at Melburne after he has left Sir Roderick.”

  For a moment Clarinda could only stare at Bates.

  How dare Lord Melburne invite himself to The Priory after the way he had behaved! But with a little lift of her chin she told herself that she was not afraid of him.

  “Very well, Bates, tell cook to prepare a proper dinner for his Lordship’s delectation.”

  “Very good, Miss Clarinda,” Bates answered.

  Then hesitatingly he said,

  “I think I ought to tell you, miss, that the coachman to Lady Romayne Ramsey told me that the reason her Ladyship posted to Melburne is that Mr. Nicholas has heard about your betrothal to his Lordship. Mad as fire he is, according to her Ladyship’s maid.”

  Clarinda gave a l
ittle cry.

  “Oh, Bates, I hope Mr. Nicholas does not come here to upset Sir Roderick.”

  “I hope not indeed, miss,” Bates replied before he closed the door.

  When he had gone, Clarinda thought of Nicholas and her eyes were frightened. Nicholas at this very moment was as mad as fire as well because he knew he had been disinherited and that she, Clarinda, was to be the heir to the Priory Estates!

  As she thought of him, Clarinda became aware that she was trembling. She felt hatred towards Lord Melburne, but her feelings about Nicholas were very different. Distrust of him had overshadowed her life ever since she had first seen him.

  It had started when she first came to The Priory after her father and mother’s death in a carriage accident. The curricle that Lawrence Vernon was driving collided with a mail coach and the lighter vehicle rolled down a steep incline and into a rocky stream. When the rescuers found them, both Lawrence Vernon and his wife were dead.

  Sir Roderick Vernon had come to their home to take Clarinda away so that she could live at The Priory with him. He was a kind man and she soon developed a deep affection for him.

  But she could see Nicholas, who had been abroad, striding into the salon unexpectedly and, although at first she was pleased to welcome a grown-up and elegant young man as a companion, she soon felt embarrassed by the expression in his eyes when he looked at her and by the way his hands sought excuses to touch her immature body.

  She then found herself shrinking from his very proximity. She had tried to avoid him and made excuses not to be alone with him.

  One night after she had gone to bed, she had heard someone open the door and thought it was the housekeeper or one of the housemaids. Then by the light of the candle burning by her bed she had seen Nicholas come creeping into the room, had observed the expression on his face and, innocent though she was, she knew that she was in deadly danger.

  He had come nearer and nearer to her bed with a look in his eyes that made her scream in a terror that was based on instinct, an instinct that told her he was evil.

  Her screams had brought Sir Roderick into the room. She had jumped from her bed into his arms sobbing bitterly and Nicholas’s blustering lies had made no impression on his father.