Misery spread through Caro like a paralyzing illness. She would have loved to tour the world, but to do so as the prisoner of a man who she knew had diabolical sexual tastes would be torture. Perhaps literally. She would be separated from her friends, her publisher, from Rufus.
She snapped straight as the realization hit her. That was likely precisely why her mother had agreed to the horrid match.
Her irritation was so great that she almost didn’t notice Rufus walking to the small table beside one of the sofas where tea was laid out. As the conversation turned to travel and a trip Lady Andover had taken to the island of Barbados, leaving Caro well on the outside of the group’s focus, Rufus poured a cup of tea, then walked subtly to her side. She longed to speak to him, to share her fury at the way their parents were pushing their lives into disaster, but the rules of society dictated that she stop faking coughing fits and join the ladies in the inner circle.
She started to move when a deluge of warm liquid splashed over her arm and skirt.
“Oh dear, I am so terribly, terribly sorry, my lady,” Rufus said as he righted the cup he’d just poured his tea out of. He rushed to place the cup on the tray containing the rest of the service, then dashed back to Caro’s side. “Please forgive my clumsiness, though it is thoroughly unforgivable. Let me escort you downstairs so that our housekeeper, Mrs. Younge, can assist you in preventing any permanent stains to your gown.”
Caro could have wept for joy and thrown her arms around Rufus’s neck, but she knew there was a game to be played. “You, sir, are a vexing oaf,” she said, even though it drew a shocked gasp from Lady Andover and a groan from her mother. “This must be remedied at once.”
Rufus did a poor job of hiding the twitch at the corner of his mouth as he gestured for her to follow him out of the parlor. Caro went, listening for hints that the conversation had resumed without them and that they were quickly forgotten. Blessedly, that happened before they turned the corner and started down the hall.
Once they were alone, Rufus grabbed her hand and dashed down the hall, around the corner, down a servant’s staircase, and into a room that appeared to be designated for polishing boots. He shut the door and turned the lock before rushing to take her into his arms. His lips slanted over hers in a kiss of pure desperation.
“This is a right mess,” he said when he finished kissing her.
“I am so angry with my mother right now that I could scream,” she said, still close to shaking with emotion.
“I know,” Rufus said. “I braced myself for an explosion the moment Hazelton dared to take your hand.”
“I will never marry him,” she said, staring straight at him, determined to make certain he knew she was not the sort of milquetoast young lady who did whatever her parents said.
“If anyone can find a way out of a muddle like that, I’m sure you can,” Rufus said, though truth be told, his confidence didn’t reach his eyes.
Caro studied him. He didn’t believe her. She could see it in him. He thought they were both doomed—him to marrying Lady Malvis and her to becoming Lady Hazelton. She had barely begun to fight, however.
“Are you engaged to Lady Malvis?” she asked, bracing herself for the worst answer.
“No,” Rufus sighed. “There is no formal understanding in place, although there is an informal one.”
“So you would not be subject to a lawsuit if you broke things off with her?”
“Not yet.” He pulled her back into his arms, kissing her with a slow, burning passion. “You’re the only woman for me, Caro. I’ve known it from the moment you ran headlong into me that night in Manchester Square.”
In spite of her anger and anxiety, Caro’s heart melted, she leaned into Rufus, splaying a hand across his chest to feel his pounding heart. “Do not give up hope yet, my love,” she said. “Your beloved is far cleverer than most people know.”
“And far naughtier,” he added, closing a hand around her breast and teasing her nipple. “But I like a woman with a healthy appetite.”
Caro laughed deep in her throat and lifted to her toes to kiss him. He accepted her with ardor, and within seconds, their kiss had turned into an intense mating of lips and tongues as their hands sought out each other’s curves and hardness.
At least, until a loud knock sounded on the door.
“My lord,” a deep, male voice said as Caro leapt away from Rufus. “Your father is deeply concerned about your and Lady Caroline’s absence.”
“Understood, Meyerson,” Rufus said, then cleared his throat. He glanced regretfully at Caro. “We have to go back. It is already highly irregular to the point of comment for us to have scampered off like this.”
“And I have so much more to tell you,” Caro said, the haze of lust and disappointment lifting long enough for her to remember what had transpired that morning. “I may know where Miss Dobson has gone,” she said. “In fact, I’m sure of it.”
“And I have things to tell you about Lord Hazelton,” Rufus said, the light of excitement returning to him as he unlocked the door and whisked her out into the servant’s hall. “We have to speak, but how?”
Inspiration struck Caro, leaving a smile on her face. “Come to the school tonight. No one will question your presence, now that we have taken the school into our own hands.”
“Surely someone will question it,” Rufus said, one eyebrow arched doubtfully.
“Perhaps,” Caro said, “but not enough to bar your entrance or to interrupt once we are alone.”
Rufus grabbed her hand before they reached the stairs. “Are you saying you want to be alone with me, Lady Caroline?” he asked, fire in his eyes.
“Most definitely,” Caro said in a deliberately sultry tone.
“Tonight it is then.” Rufus glanced around to make certain they were unobserved, then whisked her into his arms for a thorough, yet all too short kiss. When he let her go he said, “Let me return to the parlor first. I’ll act as though we rowed. Have Mrs. Younge escort you up in a few more minutes.” He waved down the hall to a matronly woman, who nodded as if she were in on more than a few capers.
“Until tonight then,” Caro said, kissing her fingers and placing them on his lips before he turned and dashed up the stairs.
Chapter 4
Somehow, Caro made it through the interminable morning’s social call, but only by staying as far away from Lord Hazelton as she could manage in the cramped room. She insisted that her mother drive her immediately back to the school when the call was done or she would throw herself at Lord Hazelton the moment they stepped out onto the very public street.
“And I believe you know precisely how he would respond to such an action on my part,” she whispered to her mother as they waited in the Herringtons’ front hall for their carriage to drive around.
Her threat had teeth. The way her mother balked and went pale proved it.
“You will not disgrace me and our family name further by attempting to wheedle out of this match,” her mother hissed in return. “I do not know how you have managed to have more of that filth published after the bribe—” She cleared her throat. “After your father had words with Mr. Prentice, but I am certain your husband will put an end to your outrageous activity the moment you are wed.”
In fact, Caro had the oddest feeling that, if she were to go through with a marriage to Lord Hazelton, he would not only allow her to continue publishing, he would brag to all and sundry about her identity and claim he was the hero in all of her fiction. As delightful as it was to know her work had caused such a sensation, she was loath to let her true identity be known. At least, until the timing was advantageous.
By the time she returned to the school, a thousand minor matters required her immediate attention—not the least of which was changing her gown and handing the soiled one over to Flora to see if there was any hope of removing the tea stain. After that, she had to soothe Rev. Ellis’s frazzled nerves in the wake of Felicity and Eliza filling his luncheon soup with tadpoles.
>
“It is the kind of prank I would expect from schoolboys in short pants,” Rev. Ellis complained in a huff, “not young ladies who should already be married and raising families of their own. I am not averse to instructing the pupils of this school,” he went on before Caro could get a word in, “but I implore you to encourage your pupils to pursue that profession for which God intended them, that of wife and mother.”
Caro thanked Rev. Ellis as graciously as she could and insisted that suitable matches were the primary purpose of everything the school had to offer, but inwardly she seethed. Was that all women were to men? Vessels in which they could put their cocks, for propagation or for pleasure? Was a woman either a wife or a whore with nothing in between? She rejected the notion outright, but society, it seemed, was stacked against her.
Which was why, when Rufus arrived at the school as supper was adjourning, her spirits were not as excited as they could have been. Her mood dipped into even more dangerous territory when Rufus was forced to let himself in. When he stepped curiously into the doorway of the dining room without introduction and when the tables of chattering young ladies spotted him standing there—a handsome, young male of impeccable grooming, dressed in the latest fashion, with green eyes and fiery ginger hair—pandemonium erupted.
“Hello, sir.”
The ladies closest to the doorway stood abruptly to greet him, peeling away from their tables and rushing to draw him deeper into the room. Most of the rest of the ladies stood and floated around him as Caro rolled her eyes and rose from her place at the head table. It was at those sorts of times that she missed Rebecca and Jo’s friendships the most.
“Good evening, my lord.”
“We are very pleased to see you.”
“Isn’t he handsome?”
“What delicious hair.”
“And his arms are so strong.”
Rufus glanced desperately at Caro across the sea of hungry young maidens who now handled his person. A glimmer of amusement filled his eyes at the attention he was getting, although it ended with an abrupt yelp. He jumped and twisted before asking, “Who just pinched my bum?”
A chorus of giggles and a second yelp from Rufus started a flurry of activity that would no doubt have ended in disaster if Caro hadn’t reached the group, hooked her arm through Rufus’s, and dragged him away from the ravening hoard and out into the hall.
“Go back to your supper,” she called to the ladies over her shoulder. “And if you’re so randy, seek out husbands.” It wasn’t precisely what Rev. Ellis had advised her to say or do, but it was close.
As Caro led Rufus down the hall, then up the stairs, thinking it wise to get him as far away from the rest of the ladies as possible, he let out a nervous laugh. “If you hadn’t swept in, they would have had me for pudding,” he said.
Judging by the fact that his jacket was unbuttoned, all but one of the buttons of his waistcoat were undone, and one side of the falls of his breeches hung open, he was probably right. His hair was disheveled and his cheeks bright pink to boot.
“I should hire them out to Mr. Khan,” Caro laughed. “I can think of any number of men who would give their eye teeth to be savaged by a pack of ravenous schoolgirls.”
Rufus’s answering laughter was a mixture of amusement and dread. “They would go in expecting to play the master, but they would crawl out, naked, shaking, and dazed after being used within an inch of their lives.”
Caro slapped a hand to her mouth as she led Rufus up to the second floor and on to her room. “They certainly would if Felicity and Eliza were in charge.”
“Dare I ask who they are?”
Caro let Rufus into her room, followed him inside, then locked the door behind her. “It’s best not to know,” she laughed. “Besides, we have more interesting things to discuss.”
Her heart flipped in her chest, and energy zipped through her as she met Rufus in the middle of the room, taking his hands.
“I believe I know where Miss Dobson is,” she said.
“And I have strong reason to suspect that Hazelton’s appearance in the room the night Felix and Josephine nearly caught the diamond thief was no accident,” he replied squeezing her hand between them.
Caro’s mouth dropped open. She hadn’t expected her news to be trumped. “Why was he there?” she asked in a rush. “Is he culpable in the theft of the diamond?”
“I believe he is,” Rufus said, triumph in his eyes. “Though I have no way to prove it as of yet.”
A thousand additional questions popped into Caro’s head. She searched back through all her memories of nights spent at the East India Company’s house, reviewing what she thought she knew about Lord Hazelton. She’d written him off as nothing but a lecherous beast ready to do anything for pleasure, but had there been more to it? Had he attended Mr. Khan’s parties for business purposes as well? He wouldn’t have been the only one.
Instead of asking any of those questions, she shook her head and returned to what she needed to say before she forgot it entirely. “Miss Dobson is currently in residence at her father’s country house.”
It was Rufus’s turn to look surprised, though his surprise switched quickly to thoughtfulness. “I suppose there is a degree of logic in that. The old duke always was fond of his by-blows. Heaven only knows he had enough of them. He’s also been reported to be on his last legs.”
“Do you think Miss Dobson is attempting to wheedle her way into his will?” Caro asked.
“Or to rob him blind when he’s too ill to notice,” Rufus said.
“How far from London is this house? We need to get to her before she slips out of our grasp once again.”
“For what purpose?” Rufus said with a frown.
“To force her to implicate herself in the theft of the diamond, of course,” Caro said, standing straighter in indignation.
A broad smile spread across Rufus’s lips. “I love it when you’re feisty,” he said, slipping an arm around her waist and tugging her firmly against him. “You develop such a fetching blush.”
“Are you certain now is the time to flirt?” she asked, arching one brow, her will to resist him crumbling as fast as a sugar candy.
“Now is always the time to flirt,” he said, his voice lowering to an amorous purr.
He slanted his mouth over hers, silencing any further protests she might have made. Within the blink of an eye, Caro forgot if she was planning to protest to begin with. His arms were warm and powerful around her. His heat infused her. His tongue teased hers, and he nibbled on her lower lip before drinking in another kiss that left her dizzy and throbbing. He closed a hand boldly around one of her breasts as well, kneading her through the muslin of her gown. Some women might have been alarmed at his greedy, roving hands and the speed with which they set to work, but she adored the way he fondled her and had from the start.
“We must seek out Miss Dobson and demand a confession,” Caro sighed as Rufus relocated his kisses to her neck, then sucked on her earlobe.
“I will do anything you ask of me, my darling,” he said, reaching behind her neck to tug at the ties of her gown. “As long as you do anything I ask of you.”
A shudder of desire swept through her, pooling like flames in her sex. A man like Rufus could ask anything. She knew him well enough to know there was no limit to his imagination. Not only that, for the first time since they’d known each other, they were completely alone in a locked room with a bed, where Caro felt with absolute certainty they would not be disturbed. The chance she’d been waiting for since their first encounter in the dark street weeks ago was upon her.
“Ravage me, Rufus,” she whispered, slipping her hands inside his jacket in an attempt to remove it from his shoulders.
Rufus sucked in a dazed breath and stood straight. “I beg your pardon?” he asked, blinking rapidly. His lips were swollen and his color high.
“We won’t be disturbed,” she said breathlessly, pushing his jacket off his shoulders. He shrugged it the rest of th
e way off and let it fall to the floor as she went on with, “I’m tired of waiting for you. I want to feel your skin against mine, your body encompassing me. I want to feel your stiff cock like a battering ram inside me.”
He stared at her with incomprehension, barely breathing. She could see deep temptation in the depth of his gaze along with a good amount of confusion. “Do you,” be began, swallowed, then stopped. His hands brushed her sides as though he were suddenly afraid to touch her. “Do you truly mean that?” Hope now danced along with the rest of the flames in his eyes.
“Do you doubt me?” she asked with a coquettish grin, lowering her eyes to watch as she plucked the last button free on his waistcoat.
“I know you have no objection to me playing with your baubles,” he said, his smile returning as he raised his hands to mold her breasts into his palms. “And you did not object when I tickled your thighs and caressed your beautiful bottom at Khan’s parties.”
“Did you think it was all an act?” she asked, charmed by the sudden, new light that was being shed on his attentions and his character.
“I….” He blinked, reaching behind her to tug open the second set of ties holding her gown in place, then pulling her bodice down over her shoulders. Unfortunately for her, she was wearing sensible, concealing undergarments instead of the froth she wore at the East India Company’s house. “I so hoped it was more than a game,” he said in a low growl.
“I want you, Rufus,” she repeated, wriggling out of her bodice as smoothly as she could and sliding her arms over his shoulders. Her fingers played through his hair. “I’ve wanted you in vivid, carnal ways right from the start. I want you to bend me and twist me and take me in every way you know how. And then I’ll show you more ways to take me.”
He let out a shuddering breath like a cry of mercy and brought his mouth crashing down over hers. This time, his ardor held an edge to it that made Caro’s toes curl. He pulled frantically at her gown, urging it down over her hips and loosening her petticoats with it as he bruised her lips with his.
The Clever Strumpet Page 4