An Illicit Engagement (The Gentlemen Next Door)
Page 5
Chastity mulled over Francesca’s sensible answer. Surely there wasn’t a need for it. But what did she really want?
* * *
Lucas felt anxious as he made his way to Chastity’s home per her invitation. She seemed to be avoiding him since their encounter at the ball. She’d been mysteriously absent all of yesterday and he’d only just learned she’d been staying with a friend across town.
He could only hope she’d come to her senses about her desire to marry Mr. Highster.
Not that he knew if he wanted to marry Chastity. He was understandably tentative about becoming engaged to anyone…ever…again.
Her butler, Jeffrey, led him to the study, where her companion was seated on a perch in the corner and her sister was nowhere to be found. Chastity was seated nervously on her chaise, twisting a piece of paper in her hand.
"My lord," she said, rising to her feet.
"I thought we’d agreed Lucas was more appropriate."
He knew he was in trouble when she didn’t even smile. Instead, she held the paper out to him.
He snatched it from her fingers. It was a certificate of shares in Drummond Shipping that had been transferred to his name. Here in his hands, he realized, he held enough money to care for himself, his children, his children’s children and many more, as well as his entire barony. He held an object his brother had desired for years. And he wanted nothing more than to shred it to bits.
"What’s the meaning of this?" he asked, tossing the shares on the table between them.
"We had an agreement."
"We never formalized any agreement," he said.
"Don’t be stubborn."
"You’re accusing me of stubbornness?" he railed. "Me? You’re the one who insists upon marrying a man who would make you miserable."
"We could never work—you don’t know what you want in a wife. How else can you explain your six engagements, each to a woman more different than the next?"
"This isn’t even about me," he said. "Do I wish you’d come to your senses and give us a chance? Yes. But this is about more than that. This is about you marrying a man to take over the company you should be running. You. Not him."
"It’s impossible," she said.
"What’s impossible is living with the mistake you’re about to make. Do you know how long I’ve waited to feel something, anything—to feel the way you feel about those ships? Now that I’ve found it, now that I feel it, I can’t let it go, Chastity. I don’t know how you can, either."
She picked up the certificate and held it out to him with shaky hands.
"Say something to me," he begged.
"You said this isn’t about you," Chastity said quietly. "Well, it isn’t about me, either. My family has known what it is to want something. We’ve known what it is to want to eat. To want to be safe. To want to sleep at night without rain pummeling our cheeks."
"I wouldn’t let that happen to you," he promised.
"If I’ve learned anything about poverty, it’s that it’s not something you let happen. Now, please. Leave."
Lucas grabbed the certificate, ripping it into shreds and leaving a trail to follow him out the front door.
Chapter Five
Chastity fussed with her father’s cravat.
"I’ve got it, dear," he said, pulling the silk from her fingers. "Goodness, I was only gone for a few months and there was occasion for me to wear a cravat on my travels." He gripped her hands in his to calm her. "I remember how to do this."
"Of course you do," she said with a breath of relief.
"Is something the matter, dear?" He rested his hands on her shoulders, for they were nearly the same height now—her father always having been a shorter man. She remembered when she would have to crane her neck to see anything above his knees.
"Everything is perfect," she said, but her tone felt false even to her ears. "Come, we don’t want to keep Mr. Highster waiting."
Chastity called for Cassandra, who reluctantly descended the stairs in a green muslin dress that matched her eyes—good. At least she’d made an effort.
Neither Cassandra nor her father were too pleased about attending tonight’s ball—or any ball, for that matter—but Mr. Highster had made it clear he wanted to discuss personal matters and personal matters were therefore to be discussed.
Personal matters that had nothing to do with Lucas Willoughby.
She steeled herself against any reaction to him. She repeated over and over during the carriage ride that she would be friendly and smile, but not speak with him. While their wraps were being taken, she made herself promise not to dance with him. And by the time they entered the ballroom and she saw him across the dance floor, every good intention fled from her mind.
"Is that our neighbor?" her father asked, his expression foggy as he found the object of her attention.
"Yes," Chastity answered. "It is Lord Willoughby." Lucas, she thought. It was Lucas.
"Never remembered him as such an intense fellow."
"Me, either," Chastity sighed.
She deliberately forced herself to find Mr. Highster in the crowd. He raised his brow when he saw her and came toward them, waiting patiently as she introduced him to her father.
"Might I have the next dance?" he asked finally.
Chastity stared at his outstretched hand. She felt the weight of her decision. She could see it now—her future laid out for her. She’d never wanted to run from anything more in her life—not from poverty, not from social cruelty.
But she forced herself to glance at her father, who was watching her with his kind face and forgetful expression. At her sister, who was anxiously glancing about the room with tightly pinched eyes.
She forced a smile and took Mr. Highster’s hand.
* * *
Could it really have been a week ago that he’d been at a ball much like this one watching his six fiancees dance with other men—and hadn’t felt a thing?
What a difference a week could make.
As he watched Mr. Highster lead Chastity onto the floor, Lucas was struck not just with wanting, not just with feeling, but with a sickness for her. With the knowledge that she had somehow infected every ounce of him so that if he left the room, she’d still be in every thought, in every pore.
He’d wanted to want, and now he’d gotten what he wanted, he thought with a sardonic laugh.
He felt a hand on his arm and looked to his left to see his brother and sister-in-law. "At least this time, she left you before the engagement was official," he said.
He walked away, leaving Grace behind. She gave him a sympathetic smile. "If you’d looked at me the way you’re looking at her," she said, "I wouldn’t have left."
Lucas stared at her, surprised. She gave him a shy smile.
He bowed. "I’m sorry I did not give you the attention you deserved."
Her gaze found his brother’s back. "I’m not," she said, walking away.
Lucas looked back to Chastity as she waltzed across the floor in Mr. Highster’s arms.
He was walking toward her before he even knew it. Couples separated as he pushed between them. He was halfway to her when the violin music screeched to a deafening silence.
The whispers began at once. The whispers he’d tried so hard to avoid.
Chastity’s blue eyes widened with alarm as Mr. Highster released her. He knew how he must look—dark and avenging.
"May I help you?" Mr. Highster asked, looking between them.
"You may release my fiancee," he said.
The crowd gasped, as did Chastity. But Mr. Highster stepped back, mumbling apologies, and Lucas smoothly stepped in, taking her hand in his.
"What are you doing?" she said in an outraged whisper.
"Dancing with my future wife," he said.
The music swelled over the hushed murmurs of the ton and they moved, stepping in a square, coming together and apart, placing their palms together and turning in a circle.
"You’ll ruin everything," she said.
"If you tell me you love him, I’ll walk away."
"Love? Don’t be ridiculous—this isn’t about love."
"Yes, it is," he said quietly.
She stopped dancing, frozen in the middle of the floor. "It is?"
"It is," he said, swelling with the feeling, finally putting a name to it.
"But…the company, my father, my sister—"
"Exactly," he said. "That’s all you need. The company, your father, and your sister. You don’t need Mr. Highster. You never have, and you don’t now."
"But shareholders will never—"
"Your father never wanted shareholders to have your company. Why do you think he hasn’t opened it to public shares?"
Chastity glanced over to her father and Lucas watched the unspoken conversation between them. She turned back to him, eyes shimmering.
He wondered if he’d gone too far. The entire ballroom was watching them now. His brother was staring, aghast. At least Grace was smiling at the scene. He looked back at Chastity’s face. Her lips parted slightly. He felt the ticking of time with every beat of his heart.
"Say something," he begged.
Chastity leaned forward with a smile and brought her lips to his ear. "Lucas," she said.
He grinned as she pulled back. "Here?" he said. "In the ballroom?"
"Lucas," she repeated with a devilish wink.
And with that, he lowered his lips to hers.
The End
* * *
The complete Gentlemen Next Door Series is available – get it now!
A Delightful Arrangement
An Illicit Engagement
A Dangerous Expectation
A Flirtatious Rendezvous
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The Jane Austen Academy Series
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Fall For You: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice
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Suddenly You: A Modern Retelling of Mansfield Park
Only With You: A Modern Retelling of Emma
Always You: A Modern Retelling of Persuasion
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A Delightful Arrangement
An Illicit Engagement
A Dangerous Expectation
A Flirtatious Rendezvous
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Falling
Fading
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About Cecilia
Cecilia Gray lives in Oakland where she reads, writes and breaks for food. She also pens her biographies in the third person. Like this. As if to trick you into thinking someone else wrote it because she is important. Alas, this is not the case.
Cecilia has been praised for “instilling a warmth and weight into her characters” (Romancing The Book Reviews) and her books have been praised for being “well-written, original, realistic and witty” (Quills & Zebras Reviews).
Her latest series of young-adult contemporary Jane Austen retellings was named a What’s Hot pick (RT Book Reviews magazine) and is a Best of 2012 pick (Kirkus Reviews) where it was praised for being a “unique twist on a classic” and offering “a compelling mix of action, drama and love.”
She’s rather enamored of being contacted by readers and hopes you’ll oblige.
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