He was pleased that his mother and sisters recognized the importance of Chloe and Leo in Anthony’s life. There had been no simple show of gratitude followed by the complete taking charge of his son, but a blending. He hoped that would be enough to take some of the sadness out of Chloe’s eyes.
They were halfway through the meal when Leo announced, “I believe we shall all go to the Winglingtons’ ball on Saturday.”
Julian felt an immediate surge of anticipation, something that was not dimmed much by the looks of horror on his mother’s and Chloe’s faces. “That is the night I make my debut, is it?”
“Aye,” said Leo. “They move to grasp hold of as many of your assets as possible. Even the protections we have initiated might not help much. I begin to think your uncle made sure he had allies in the right place so that he could expedite matters when the time was right.”
“I cannot believe that all of this is about nothing more than greed,” said Lady Evelyn.
“Greed is behind many an ill deed, Mother. The more I have thought on it all, the more I realize that my uncle has always suffered from the sin of greed. My wife also. She, however, may be evil, possessing more faults that I could list, but she did not start this. Nor, I think, will Arthur allow her to finish it.”
“You believe Arthur will kill her.”
“My uncle does not share well, and Beatrice will most assuredly demand her share.”
Lady Evelyn shook her head. “I tell you no secret when I say I never liked Beatrice, but never, not once, did I think she was capable of what she has done.” She grimaced. “If nothing else, I thought the woman one of those who only knew how to use her beauty to her advantage. A heartless, and perhaps, witless seducer, one filled with vanity and greed and little else.”
“I wish I had had the same clarity of vision. As for Beatrice planning any of this, I doubt she went beyond the point of agreeing that she wanted it all. Still, although she is not a particularly intelligent woman, she is cunning, especially when it comes to her comfort and her life. Arthur chose her because of those skills, and he chose well. I am but shamed by how long it took me to see exactly what she is.”
Patting his hand, Lady Evelyn said, “You have seen the truth now, and that is what matters. That and the fact that you never let her taint you with all that is wrong in her. I am just so very sorry that you had to suffer.”
“The longer I stayed away from her, the more I realized that it was mostly my pride that suffered.” He looked at Leo. “Is there any more to the plan than my simply appearing in public, alive and well? Have we a tale that must be told to explain it all?”
“Just that you needed to recover from your wounds in a safe place, somewhere where the ones who are trying so hard to kill you could not find you,” replied Leo. “By letting the world think you were dead, we prevented the further threat of your enemies hunting you down.”
“The truth save for the names of my enemies. Very clever.”
“I do try,” murmured Leo and grinned when everyone laughed, but he quickly grew serious again. “I have always found that giving out as much of the truth as possible is best. It worries one’s enemies and arouses the curiosity of others, ones who might well go searching for the truth themselves. And they will naturally share whatever they discover with others.”
“And what of Anthony?”
“We shall try our best to keep him hidden, but there is always the chance that he will be found out. Try not to worry about the boy. He will be very well guarded. The best thing you can do for him is to take away the sword that hangs over his neck.”
As soon as the dinner ended, his mother left, not wishing to arouse too much suspicion by lingering at the Wherlockes’ for too long or too often. Julian was glad his sisters had not come to dine with them, for their constant company would definitely raise a few eyebrows. They did help his mother with her charity work, but not too consistently, as both of them were just entering society, still young and considered far too innocent for much of the work his mother did.
After a short conversation and a brandy in the blue salon, Leo also left. Julian had to wonder what the man did at night, but did not ask. He was sure it was not a continuous round of debauchery, and anything else probably had to remain secret. It amused him, and dismayed him just a little, that Leo had left Julian alone in the blue salon with Chloe without any hesitation. The man did that a lot and Julian hated himself for abusing the trust Leo had in him.
Julian sat next to Chloe even though he knew he should keep his distance. “Are you worried about my debut?”
“Very much so,” she replied without hesitation.
“I am completely healed, or near enough so that it makes no difference.”
“The matter of your health is not a very large part of my concern. Your enemies are.” She smiled faintly. “I know you must do this, that nothing can be solved by simply staying out of their reach, but that does not mean I have to like opening our doors and letting them peer inside. I much preferred it when they thought they were successful in killing off two heirs to the earldom.”
“In truth, so did I.” He exchanged a grin with her. “It must be done. Leo has gathered all the information he can, but nothing exceeds the value of a direct confrontation. No matter what we tell the world, Arthur and Beatrice will know that we are aware of all their plots and what they have done. Oh, they will think they still have a few secrets, but not enough, not as they had before I was stabbed in that alley.”
“I rather agree with your mother. It is so hard to believe that greed alone would make people do this, cause them to kill three members of their closest kin. Plus who knows how many others on the way to achieving that bloody goal.”
“With Beatrice it probably is just greed. Even before I gave up on my marriage, I had begun to notice that there was a coldness in her, a hardness. My uncle? Well, I think his reasons are many. There is definitely greed involved, but I think there is also a long-simmering resentment over the fact that he was not born to be the earl.”
“That was hardly your fault.”
“It is my fault that I continue to stand in the way of him obtaining what he believes should always have been his. Do not try to understand it, or him. There are far too many younger sons who suffer that envy or resentment, although few of them resort to murder to end what they see as a great unfairness.”
Julian could not help himself; he began to toy with one of the fat curls her maid had twisted Chloe’s hair into. Ever since the night in the garden when she had been called away before he could kiss her, he had taken every, and any chance he could grasp to kiss her, to touch her. His whole body ached for more, far more, every time he was near her.
She enthralled him, intrigued him, and aroused him. Every time she was within reach he wanted to touch her, needed to touch her. It worried him. His mind told him he could trust this woman with his life, that she had proven herself over and over again. Yet his battered pride kept him wary. He did not want to feel this way about any woman, especially not one who could prove to be a quick road to marriage. Despite that, he kept coming back to her, kept wanting her.
He leaned closer and whispered in her ear, “You should slap me. I grow too bold.”
“Actually, I believe I should kick you right off this settee and pour the last of the wine over your head.”
Chloe felt a shiver of pure, raw desire go through her as he laughed softly and his warm breath caressed her ear. She really was a fool to allow him to continue what was clearly a seduction. After the way he had spent the last year, it should be easy to keep her distance from the man, to be reasonably wary of his every sweet word and soft touch. In many ways, she did question the sincerity of his desire, but not enough to save herself. The best she could manage was to hope that he was not using her simply because there was no other woman in reach.
“A little violent, but it would certainly prove effective.” He kissed the hollow beneath her ear. “I am still married.”
�
��Who are you reminding of that fact? Me? Or yourself?” Chloe decided that, if any man had a right to forget his wife, it was Julian.
“Both of us.”
“I, m’lord, have never forgotten that. Not once.”
“Yet, you do not push me away.” He turned her so that she faced him and held her face in his hands, stroking the softness of her cheeks with his thumbs.
“Nay, although even a few stolen kisses are wrong by all the rules we try to live by. I tell myself that all the time but,” she felt herself blush and continued in a whisper, “I rather like your kisses. Not that I have anything to compare them to.”
“And that pleases me far more than it should. It also should make me leap up and flee this room, for you are clearly far more innocent than most misses your age. However, it seems that all it makes me want to do is to steal another.”
Before she could approve or disapprove of his plan, Julian was kissing her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the wonder of it. Chloe savored the way his lips and tongue stirred a heat inside her, one that traveled rapidly from her lips to her toes and warmed all the places in between. She savored the taste of him, the crisp male scent that was his alone, and the way her small soft body fit against his large, hard one with such perfection. She even savored the way his touch and his kisses silenced the voice in her head that told her she should not be doing this. This was what she wanted and, maybe, for once in her life, she really would just reach out and take what she wanted.
Julian could not believe how sharp the bite of hunger was but he could not deny it, either. Chloe, with her innocent kisses and unfettered passion, did things to his body, mind, and heart that he had never experienced before. Not even Beatrice with all her wiles had made him so crazed with need so quickly. And crazed he most certainly was, for even thinking of his murderous wife did not make him hesitate in slipping his hand inside the bodice of Chloe’s simple blue gown. The way she trembled in his arms as he stroked her full breast, the way her breath caught in her throat and her nipple hardened to a tempting point with just the light brush of his fingertip ensured that nothing would make him stop now.
“Is this how you repay the debt you claim you owe us? By seducing the woman who saved your son?”
Except that, Julian thought as Chloe squeaked and pulled away from him. The sound of Leo’s voice was like a splash of icy cold water. His questions were like a knife to the heart. Shame reddened his cheeks as he turned to look at the man he had begun to consider as good and true a friend as Edgar. The cold steel in the man’s voice and his tightly clenched fists told Julian that Leo was fighting the urge to beat him bloody. Julian knew that he would not have shown such restraint if he had caught some man pawing one of his sisters.
Chloe looked from her cousin to Julian and back again. If they were dogs, their hackles would be up and their teeth bared in snarls. She was not sure what she could do to soothe the violently troubled waters between the men, but she had to do something. After all, she was as much to blame for what Leo had seen as Julian was.
“It was just a kiss, Leo,” she said in what she prayed was a mature, calm voice and then winced when Leo fixed his glare upon her.
“A kiss does not include fondling a woman’s breasts,” Leo snapped.
Despite the heat of the blush flowing over her cheeks and throat, Chloe frowned at Leo. “I do believe I know that. I also know that I am a grown woman and what I allow or do not allow is my business, not yours. Any folly I stumble into is also my business alone.”
“You are an unmarried woman under my protection. Whatever folly you attempt to commit is my business.”
Shaking free of his surprise over the fact that Chloe was not sitting quietly, blushes covering her pretty cheeks, and awaiting her fate as decided by men, Julian looked at the two cousins. It was plainly evident that they were about to get into a heated argument. Although it was tempting to let them brangle for a while, giving him time to collect his thoughts before Leo’s fury was turned back on him, Julian resisted. He could not allow these people who had done so much for him have a falling-out simply because he could not control his lusts.
“As soon as this trouble is over and I am free of my wife, I will marry Chloe,” he said.
He waited for a feeling of being trapped to sweep over him, choking him, but it did not happen. Julian realized that he felt very calm about stepping out of one marriage and straight into another. It would be easy to think of all the reasons why he did not want to get married again, but his mind refused to follow that path. Instead, all he could think of were the many advantages there would be to having Chloe as his wife, including giving his son a mother who loved him. First, however, he had to make the two people staring at him in shock understand that he meant what he said.
“That would be acceptable,” said Leo.
“Pardon, cousin, but I do not believe he was asking you to marry him,” Chloe said, outrage weighting her every word. “S’blood, he did not even ask me!”
“This is not a proposal, Chloe, but a statement of fact,” said Julian, finding a perverse pleasure in her fury.
“I should have some say in this,” she began, only to make an odd little squawk when Leo strode over to her, grabbed her by the arm, and started to drag her to the door. “Are you, even for one tiny heartbeat of a moment, thinking of tossing me out of this room?”
“Aye, I am,” said Leo and he pushed her out the door, shut it, and latched it.
Chloe stared at the locked door in utter disbelief. “You let me in right now, Leopold Wherlocke!”
“This is men’s business, Chloe.”
She kicked the door and ignored the sharp pain in her toes. “Well, when you are done planning my future for me, do not forget to tell me what it is. Then I shall tell you exactly what I think! Pithily!”
Resisting the urge to kick the door again, Chloe strode off to her bedchamber. There might be a few things she could find there that she would not miss after she threw them at Leo’s and Julian’s heads, she thought. She was all the way inside her room before her temper cooled enough for her to start thinking of anything aside from causing those two men as much physical hurt as possible.
It was all her fault, she thought. If she could just have controlled the fierce infatuation she had for Julian, she would not be facing this trouble now. Chloe had to wonder how anyone controlled desire when it felt so extraordinarily good. It was a wonder people were not indulging themselves in their desires every day and night.
“Considering where I found Julian, they probably are,” she muttered.
The thought of marriage to Julian brought both delight and despair. Chloe would like nothing more than to be his wife, but not this way. She wanted more from him than the fact that he wished to bed her, and there had not been much sign of any deeper feelings from the man. He would also feel trapped, and that could be a curse upon any marriage.
One thought kept her from panicking completely. If she married Julian, then she would truly be Anthony’s mother. Chloe quickly shook the thought from her head. She would not allow that to tempt her into accepting something she should not. For a marriage to work, especially to a Wherlocke, there had to be more behind it than reckless desire.
The only way she would agree to marry Julian would be if he revealed some feeling for her beyond a need to bed her. Julian would have to prove to her that he felt something, no matter how mild, beside desire. Her reputation was of no matter to her, for she was not truly accepted by the society he called home anyway. She was penniless, cast out of her family by her own mother, and one of the very eccentric Wherlockes. It was only Leo’s presence at her side that kept her from being shunned completely. Julian could do so much better then her.
A forced marriage born of some chivalric need to protect her good name and no more could not happen. Chloe knew both her cousin and Julian would not understand what troubled her about it. She also doubted they would listen to her qualms. There was only one thing she needed t
o think about right now while the men planned her fate. She needed to plan how to avoid it.
Julian joined Leo in staring at the door an angry Chloe had kicked, waiting to see if she had any more to say. He suspected she would rebuke them both soon—pithily. It was hard to believe, but that one shouted word had almost made him laugh. When there was no other sound for a few minutes, he turned his attention back to Leo, who was scowling at him. Julian sighed and sat down, knowing he had no excuse to offer for what he had tried to do with Chloe.
“Have you changed your mind?” asked Leo. “Are you about to say you do not wish to marry my cousin?”
“No, I will marry her as soon as I am free of Beatrice. On that I swear.” Julian decided that now the decision was made, he could clearly see just how many advantages there were to marrying Chloe, ones far beyond the need to get her into his bed. “I realize that I have abused your trust in me.”
“Only as pertains to my cousin.” Leo cursed and moved to pour them both a brandy. “I should have seen it. Now that I think on it, it was right there before my eyes. Ha, it was right there in Chloe’s eyes.” He handed Julian a brandy. “Yours as well, but that did not worry me all that much. Chloe is a pretty little thing, and you were not dead. It would have worried me if I had thought more on the way Chloe often looked at you. Leaving the two of you alone as often as I did was asking for trouble.”
“I should have had more control,” Julian muttered and then looked at Leo in surprise when the man laughed.
“When the attraction is equal and the woman has the strange idea that she can act with the freedom of a man? Aye, you should have, but I cannot put this all on your shoulders. Nay, I do not blame you for all of this. Some, but not all. I should have behaved like the guardian I thought myself and I should have paid far more attention to what was brewing right beneath my nose. You will treat her well.”
Although it had been a command and not a question, Julian nodded. “I honor the vows I take, even the marriage ones. What happened with Beatrice…” He paused as he struggled for words.
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