A Family Affair

by Jennifer Wenn

  Fanny was dancing with Nicholas Pembroke, gracefully moving with the music. She wore a beautiful white gown laced with knitted flowers. Pearls graced her neck, her ears, and her hair. She laughed at something her dancing partner said, and Devlin caught himself smiling in response.

  She sparkled; there was no other way to describe her.

  He had thought about her a lot, as there was not much else to do when one was riding all the way to Bath and back. But even though she was fantastic in his dreams, she was even better in real life. It was hard to understand why she was called homely. To him, she was anything but that.

  The dance ended, and Nicholas Pembroke, as the obedient beau in desperate need of being accepted into the family, walked Fanny back to her parents where they stood in the midst of all the Darling relatives. Devlin almost smiled when he saw the Darling men throw themselves around the poor Mr. Pembroke, like wolves over their prey.

  Fanny was immediately cornered by a bunch of suitors who almost tripped over each other in their rush to reach the fair maiden who just happened to be a very wealthy heiress.

  George, looking quite disgruntled, was held back by his wife as Fanny again was dragged away to the dance floor, this time by the notorious womanizer Lord Burnsville. Devlin growled to himself, watching how the man kept looking too often and long at the gentle curve of her breasts. Some people might think Burnsville quite handsome, with his strawberry-blonde hair and square shoulders, and Devlin had known a certain amount of liking for the chap, as he was a jolly good fellow.

  But that all ended the second Burnsville put a lingering peck on Fanny’s fingers, and she blushed.

  Devlin didn’t like it at all.

  She wasn’t supposed to be blushing when other men gave her a peck on her hand, as it was just common flirting. But she was, and he couldn’t help but frown at her.

  Unfortunately, she was too caught up in what Burnsville was whispering in her ear even to realize Devlin had arrived. So maybe he was a wee bit late, but at least he was there. At Almack’s, for goodness’ sake. If this didn’t tell her of his devotion for her, nothing could.

  He again made his way through the crowd, until he reached the small doorway leading to the ladies’ restroom and, further in, the patronesses’ meeting room. Sooner or later she would head for the restroom, and he would be ready.

  Luck was on his side, as he had to wait for only two more dances, and two more suitors, before Fanny excused herself and headed his way. He hid in the meeting room until she came out from the restroom into the empty hallway. Then he pounced. Before she knew what was happening, he grabbed her arm and dragged her into the meeting room, where he closed and locked the door.

  She had no time to react. As soon as the door was locked, he dragged her into his arms and did what he had been yearning for since he first met her in the darkness of the Easton balcony.

  He kissed her.

  His right hand pressed the small of her back gently, forcing her body to yield to his. His left hand found its way into the curls of her hair, holding her head. His lips slanted across hers, forcing them to open so he could ravish her mouth with his tongue.

  Fanny’s hands were on his shoulders, her nails digging into the cloth of his eveningwear, leaving marks that would last for days. As he deepened the kiss, she moaned. Unwittingly she pressed her body and lips even closer to his. His hand found its way to the modest neckline of her debutante dress and, with a contented sigh, he did just what he had dreamt about earlier.

  He let his hand dive in and gently caress the softness of her full breasts. She became rigid for a second, as the sensation hit her, before she staggered against him, her legs not managing to hold her upright. Without letting his lips leave hers or his hand leave her breasts, he nudged her to the couch, where they sat—or rather fell—down, and he placed himself on top of her, forcing her legs apart with one of his knees.

  She kissed him back with so much enthusiasm it almost did him in. But somewhere in the back of his head he knew a roll on a sofa wasn’t the way he wanted to take her virginity. He would never forgive himself. He wanted her first time to be in his bed, with his ring on her finger, and so he drew back just a little, to gain some space between them.

  Her disappointed moan almost made him change his mind, but he hardened himself and sat up, leaving her lying on the sofa in a lovely, breathless mess.

  “What was this all about?” was all she managed to ask as she sat up.

  “This was for forgetting me.”

  She looked up from straightening her bodice, and he almost kissed her again as he looked at her blushing face with its swollen lips made for kisses.

  “Forgetting you? Whatever do you mean?”

  “You were dancing with every eligible bachelor, and a couple of those not so eligible, and not once did your eyes search the crowd in hope of finding me there.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Fanny laughed. “How should I ever be able to search the crowd while dancing? I would knock down most of the other ladies, while turning in the dance, if I looked for you instead of concentrating.”

  Devlin drew his fingers carelessly through his hair, completely destroying the windswept coiffure his valet had fought to attain. Turning to Fanny, he watched her try to straighten her own hair. She sent him a shivering smile while putting every curl back in its place.

  He gave her a lust-filled grin, and she turned fiery red and wet her lips with her tongue. He moaned, and before he could stop himself, he leaned forward and captured her lush lips with his, kissing her thoroughly without touching the rest of her body.

  When he finally let her go, she looked at him in a dreamy daze. He took her chin in his hand, and forced her to look deep into his eyes.

  “You have to marry me now, you know,” he said seriously.

  She nodded, tears filling her eyes. He knew it was crazy, as they had only known each other for a few days, but it felt so right.

  She was the right woman for him, so why wait? Why continue with courting her, while watching others do the same, when he could have her neatly engaged to him and thus safely his? He stroked her tears away with his thumbs, and she put her hands around his, savoring his touch against her cheeks. It was amazing how such a simple gesture could mean so much to him.

  “I’ll try to make you happy,” she whispered softly with a tender smile, and he had to kiss her again for being the wonderful person she was.

  “Happiness is my job,” he finally managed to say, as he looked down into her gray eyes. “Yours is to be crazy in love with me, for the rest of your life.”

  She blushed even deeper, and he put a last kiss on the bridge of her nose before, with a sad sigh, he removed his hands from her and helped her straighten her appearance.

  When they had destroyed the last evidence of their hot embrace, he slipped out through the door, and Fanny followed his lead a couple of minutes later.

  ****

  As Fanny entered the ballroom, she found Devlin in the midst of a heated discussion with her uncles and brothers. She sighed and joined her parents, who were listening to the younger men with indulgent smiles.

  “Can you believe they are arguing about the best way to get rid of him, with him right there, overhearing every word?” George chuckled, and Caroline just shook her head.

  “Men,” she sighed. “They are impossible beings, and especially the Darling men. I don’t understand why they must always argue about everything.”

  “Because it’s fun,” George drawled, and his wife looked at him as though he were ridiculous.

  “Fun?” she repeated. “You think they are having fun?”

  George shrugged. “I don’t think they are having fun. I know they are. It’s just a heated discussion, nothing more. It’s all about being the one who says the final word.”

  Caroline snorted.

  “I believe you, because you Darlings never know when to quit.”

  “And this is why we Darling men are the best, because we always contin
ue until we have finished our personal crusades,” George replied, and gave his wife a wolfish grin that made her blush prettily.

  Before Devlin’s kiss, Fanny wouldn’t have thought more about it. But with that hotly burning sensation still in mind, she understood what her father was telling her mother between the lines, and she too blushed. Fortunately, her father was too busy making love to her mother with his eyes to notice his daughter’s telling blush.

  Fanny’s heart swelled with love as she watched her beautiful parents, so apparently in love with each other after all these years. And they were not at all bothered about the unfashionable way they showed it to everyone.

  This was what she had always wanted for herself, especially as she had seen her friends’ parents behave in a more we-are-married-now-and-I-have-to-cope-with-it way.

  She sneaked a peek at her secret fiancé-to-be. Devlin was looking at Sin with an amused grin, as her brother was trying to convince Uncle Jamie how kidnapping and hiding a man somewhere in the dungeons at Chester Park indeed was the best way to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Jamie was more for selling him as a slave, to be shipped off to the West Indies.

  He fit in, she realized, as if there had always been a spot there among her relatives, just waiting for him to fill it. Even the Darling men had noticed. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been arguing so openly in front of him.

  When they were really against someone, they just whisked him away, not looking back. But with Devlin it was different, as they were dragging him into the discussion, forcing him to argue for himself.

  Fanny felt tears fill her eyes again, and she sighed at her own silliness. Devlin wouldn’t have a hard job getting her crazy in love with him, as she was a goner already. It was amazing to think she’d met him only a week ago, but so much had happened so fast, and she was caught: forever and ever his.

  Just then Devlin happened to look at her, seeing her teary-eyed happiness, and he gave her a genuinely happy smile that went straight to her heart and made it skip a beat.

  Lord, he was such a beautiful man. There was not a man in this ballroom who looked half as splendid as he did. Not even her own relatives, whom she always had thought were the handsomest of men. He was the essence of elegance, in his black tailor-made evening wear, and she noticed she wasn’t the only female who ogled him. Most of the women around him couldn’t help but cast a glance in his direction. As he stood there, a little wicked smile playing on his full lips, he looked like an ancient Roman statue, too beautiful to be true.

  The music stopped playing, and the dancers moved away from the dance floor to make room for new couples, and she saw Devlin catch her father with a question in his golden eyes, and George nodded.

  Without a word, Devlin held out his hand to her with a secretive wink, and blushingly she gave him hers. He led her out onto the dance floor, joining the other dancers in the beautiful country dance.

  Fanny usually loved to dance, despite the need to concentrate on the steps, but dancing with Devlin was pure heaven. Every time their hands met, electricity flowed through her body, and she tingled all over.

  Devlin obviously felt the same, because he couldn’t take his eyes off her, instead drenching her in their honey-colored heat. He brushed his arm against her chest as he passed her in the dance movement, and she couldn’t stop shivering with delight. Her whole body yearned for his hands and that wonderful sensation they had given her earlier, in the meeting room.

  When the dance ended, he had to give her up to the beau who had written his name on her dance card earlier, but as soon as the card had an empty spot he danced with her again.

  Everyone in the ballroom noticed what was taking place. The handsome and powerful Duke of Hereford was courting the rich and well-connected heiress Lady Francesca Darling, apparently with her parents’ approval.

  “I guess I’ll be having a visitor soon.” George whispered to Caroline, who looked as dazed as her daughter did as she watched the couple twirl by.

  “Do tell me, brother dear, what will your answer to the man be?” Rake asked, having overheard George’s comment.

  “When it comes to Fanny, I’ll guess she will shoot me in the foot if I say anything other than yes. She is spellbound by him. I mean, look at her—she is so happy, one would think she will never be able to stop smiling again. I will of course ask her of her opinion before I give him any answer, but I think we all know what the answer will be.”

  Rake nodded slowly.

  “But what do you think of Devlin?”

  George frowned.

  “It’s complicated. He is her perfect social match, as she is the granddaughter of a duke and daughter of a marquess. Honestly, I would have a really hard time giving her away to a man of lower standing, such as Mr. Pembroke, if he had been her choice. Personally, I like Devlin. Or at least I think I do. I keep thinking of him the way he was during the summer he spent at Chester Park, and I’m afraid I will miss any flaws in his character just because it was a long time ago. People do change, you know.”

  “He hasn’t changed so much,” Rake mused, “Not really.”

  “No?”

  “In my opinion, I would say he’s better now, as he has done his wild days. Now he is ready to settle down. And one thing is for sure. He will never do anything to make Fanny or any future children unhappy, as he had the worst childhood imaginable.”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” a familiar voice interrupted. Lord Saxton appeared from nowhere, suddenly standing between them, watching the couple who had eyes only for each other.

  “Whatever do you mean, sir?” George frowned.

  “Conan succeeded so thoroughly with his patronizing of his son that Devlin has got a rather stupid idea of how his own presence would affect the one he loves, in a bad way.”

  George and Rake stared at him, not really understanding what Lord Saxton was trying to say.

  “Devlin thinks Fanny and eventual future children would be much happier without him, so he will make sure they will be influenced by her loving family instead of by him.”

  “What?” Rake said hoarsely.

  “I know.” Lord Saxton shook his head. “It’s so stupid.”

  “Goodness me.” George could hardly believe his ears. “How can he ever think she will be happier without him by her side? And his children happier without him? They need a husband and a father, not someone who comes to wish them happy birthday once a year!”

  Rake shook his head. “It is the dumbest idea I ever heard of, but somehow I’m not so surprised. I know all about how awful Conan was toward Devlin. All the small, petty things that small boy had to endure under his father’s roof.”

  Lord Saxton nodded in agreement.

  “He needs love, something he has lived his whole life without. But in his urgent need to make everything right, he is going to make himself even more miserable, and probably Fanny too.”

  Rake lifted his head and looked at his niece, who was just giving her courting beau another dazzling look that made Devlin’s eyes darken into darkest brown, and then he smiled.

  “Don’t worry. It will never happen,” he said slowly.

  “No, it won’t,” Lord Saxton agreed, all too aware of what Rake meant, as he himself had come to the same conclusion the day before.

  “She’ll never let him.”

  “No, she won’t.”

  George looked from one to another and threw out his hands in despair.

  “What?”

  Lord Saxton whacked him in the back, making his son-in-law stumble by the force of it.

  “You know your daughter. Fanny will never let him slip away to some faraway corner to lick his wounds while telling himself he’s doing something for the greater good. Your daughter is a resourceful young woman and will probably drag him home again with a good grip of his ear.”

  “Ah,” George breathed, enlightened. “No, she will never let him have his way. She is too used to being surrounded by everyone to let him play the sad knight in shining armor.”


  “Do you think we should tell her?” Rake asked Lord Saxton.

  “No, don’t spring it on her now. It’s not something that affects their relationship nor their perfect match. Personally, I think this is the only bad thing about him, and you should let her try to handle it herself, if it ever will come to it. And then, and only then, should we tell her, just so she knows it’s not about her.”

  George looked hard at his father-in-law. “How do you know him so well?”

  “He’s one of my boys.”

  This caught George by surprise. “He is?”

  “And clearly one of the best. He has done more for his country than anyone ever will know.”

  “Does Fanny know?”

  Lord Saxton shrugged. “I don’t know, and I’m not going to ask her. I think it’s up to him to tell her, if she doesn’t already know about it. It’s all about trust, you know.”

  “You are a good man, sir,” George told the only man alive who had the ability to make him feel like an awkward little boy.

  “I know,” Lord Saxton said as he left them, heading for his wife and daughter.

  Chapter 18

  Fanny lighted the candle beside her bed and closed her eyes with a happy sigh. It had been such a wonderful night, filled with romance and laughter.

  And two wonderful and surprisingly hot kisses.

  She sighed happily again.

  Those kisses had moved her world. Nothing would ever be the same again. Now she could hardly wait for the next secret meeting, and the next hot kiss.

  She had been a bit upset with him for scaring her when he dragged her into the meeting room, but all anger had vanished when his lips claimed hers. Nothing in her most vivid fantasies had been even close to how wonderful it had been to be in his arms.

  She couldn’t help wondering if this was how everyone felt when they kissed someone, but something made her think it wasn’t.

  She was in love with Devlin, and it must make some difference, she thought. For example, when her uncles kissed their mistresses, she was sure it wasn’t the same. Those women were only there to fulfill the men’s needs, not to enlighten their lives.