Treacherous Temptations

by Victoria Vane

  “But of course he does, dear girl. And now you are returned, all may proceed unimpeded. If you are quite certain you are prepared to meet your prospective suitors, you may count on me to help secure for you the best gentleman of the lot.”

  “Thank you, my lady. You are all that is gracious.”

  “It is nothing, child. I only seek your happiness.” Lady Blanchard rose with a shake of her skirts. “Now that all is settled, let us get you to your rooms. You must be dead with fatigue after such an ordeal.” That much was very true, for Mary was near to collapse. “I will order water carried up for your bath and then send Nanette to attend you.”

  “Nanette?” Mary repeated. “But where is my Jenny?”

  “No doubt still looking for you. When you did not return by sunrise, she and Hadley’s valet departed to continue combing the streets for you. I will send her as soon as she returns.”

  “Thank you, my lady.”

  “It is nothing, child.” The countess smiled benignly, but when the door closed, Mary heard the tumblers turn.

  …

  “You lying bastard!” With her blue eyes blazing fury, Barbara burst into Hadley’s chambers. “You told me that you had won the girl over and that you would easily convince her to wed you. You have failed!”

  “I thought I told you never to come to my private apartments again, Barbara.”

  “I am the mistress here and will go wherever I damn please. Need I remind you that it’s no longer your house, Hadley? And never will be again, because you allowed a fortune we could never even have dreamed of to slip right through our hands!”

  “You over-react.” Hadley poured a brandy.

  “I do not!” she cried and threw herself down on the settle. “The girl wants none of you! How could I have entrusted this to you? I’ve given you ample opportunity and you squandered it! You should have taken her as I said. I never would have imagined you becoming so spineless. If only you had done your part we could leave this place and live like royalty.”

  “We?”

  “But of course ‘we’! This was my idea after all. And once we are finished with her we will be free to go wherever we wish and live as we please.”

  Hadley didn’t know what precisely had caused his hackles to rise but something suddenly didn’t sit right. He lifted a bland brow. “Finished with her?”

  Barbara gaze lit upon him with a glimmer that was vaguely akin to sexual arousal. “I refer to our little heiress’ accident,” she replied with a coldness that amazed him. “Of course that must wait until we go abroad, when there will be no one to ask questions about it.”

  Sweet Jesus! That’s what Barbara intended? To murder the girl? Was her mind disordered? “You appear to have given this much thought,” Hadley remarked and blithely downed his brandy. He was thankful Mary had played her part so convincingly, for if Barbara knew that they had already wed, he feared where that might lead. Now realizing the current danger, he scrambled to reorder his priorities.

  “It couldn’t be simpler, really,” Barbara said. “Although not as simple as it was with the earl, poor besotted fool! Although he did the deed himself, he made such a mess of it. All that blood! And then he left us with no money.”

  Had she also planned to murder the earl before he lost his fortune? Is that why she had wed him? The avaricious and conniving bitch! Hadley’s pulse raced with rage. He poured another drink in an effort to maintain his outer calm. “And how do you propose to contrive Mary’s accident?”

  “It can be done any number of ways, darling. She could fall from a horse, or a coach, or perhaps off a ship. The channel passage can be very rough, after all. Of course there’s always poison, but it can be tricky to disguise the taste. Suffocation with a pillow is relatively easy. But I suppose we need not decide yet.”

  “No,” he agreed. “There is ample time to determine the best means to employ.”

  “Once it is finally done, we will only need to return to England long enough for you to play the grieving widower and collect the land rents.” She brightened. “Then, my darling, after a suitable period of mourning, we will go back abroad together. We need never return to this accursedly damp and dreary place. I’ve so longed to travel again. After Italy, England has seemed the dullest place in the world.”

  Hadley downed his drink. “It seems you were right all along, Barbara. The girl is frigid and tiresomely obstinate about relinquishing her chastity. Though I abhor such methods, there is naught to do now but put your scheme in motion. I’ll go to her and get this tedious business over with.”

  “Good,” Barbara replied. “You must go to her tonight, breach her maidenhead, and then take her to one of those prison chapels. Surely, you know someplace discreet. I’ve locked her in her room and have laudanum to quiet her, although I daresay most men would prefer the challenge.”

  “I have no need of the laudanum.”

  Her eyes gleamed. “You will take her by force? I should like to watch you, Hadley. Perhaps when you are finished…”

  “No.” He said. “I dislike an audience. Besides, I still hope to achieve a modicum of cooperation that I won’t get if you are present. It would much facilitate matters if we are to abscond to the Continent.”

  “I suppose you are right, but you are much changed, Hadley.” Her lips pursed in a show of disappointment. “You have grown selfish. Once you might have shared your pleasure.”

  “I only act with the discretion you seem to lack. You pay too little heed to servants. They are neither blind, deaf, nor dumb. Scandals are nurtured and spread below stairs. It would behoove you to remember that. Moreover, you would act with unseemly haste. I must make proper arrangements or all will surely go afoul.”

  “But you must do it now!” Barbara insisted. “Before Sir Richard can contract an alliance with another. He plans to do so tomorrow night. He’s already prepared the contracts and only awaits the signature of the one he chooses.”

  “Nevertheless, if a contract is signed tomorrow eve, they will do nothing more than congratulate themselves with much drink. If Sir Richard insists on a hasty union, you must stall them for a time. Claim her flux indisposes her. That excuse will put off the eager groom for half a fortnight for a certainty.”

  “We don’t have half a fortnight!”

  “No. We do not,” he agreed. “But I will need at least a day or two to take care of urgent business.” Like getting Mary the hell out of Barbara’s clutches. The sheer depths of her depravity had taken him by surprise, even after all this time.

  “What can be more pressing than this?”

  “How about leaving the country with a whole skin?” he suggested with a steely stare.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, penciled brows raised.

  “You know what kind of activities I have been involved in. Do you not understand the risk I take by crossing Sir Richard?”

  “But once out of the country—”

  “Getting out undetected is precisely the issue, Barbara. Do you honestly think I am the only man involved in the games? Sir Richard has eyes and ears in diverse places. I must take extreme care or he will surely have me imprisoned…or worse. As I said, I need a bit of time. But I will go to the girl this night and see the deed done.” He extended his hand, palm up. “The key, if you will?”

  Barbara dangled it from her fingers. “You will report to me when it is finished?”

  He snatched it from her with a scowl. “I see no need to share the details, but I will inform you when my plans are solidified.”

  He could feel Barbara’s suspicions and jealousy. It filled him with an urgency to get Mary away to someplace safe, someplace they could begin a life together, and where he could forget his guilt, bury his shame-filled past, and start anew.

  …

  Barbara poured herself a drink and downed it on a swallow, incredulous that she’d lost him. She who had always had her pick of men, who had teased and tormented and left scores of them begging to grace her bed, had lost Hadley! Of all
the men she had known, Hadley had been the best. He knew how to read a woman’s most intimate thoughts, how to evoke her most salacious desires, how to make her scream with rapture. He had been the perfect lover because she had taught him everything he knew. The knowledge that she had lost him to that coarse little slut, made every pore seethe with jealous rage.

  Even worse was his deception. As soon as she’d laid eyes on Mary, she’d known something was amiss. The little baggage thought herself so clever, but Barbara could smell the deception in the air. It was, after all, a most familiar perfume. Either she or Hadley was lying, or perhaps both. If he hadn’t fucked her already, he certainly would tonight. And then he would spirit her away at the earliest opportunity.

  Though he tried to conceal it, he had betrayed himself with his protective display where Mary was concerned, as if he sought to position himself between them. It was also clear he had no intention of sharing. He intended to keep both the girl and her money for himself…a betrayal she would not tolerate. After all she had done for him? She would make that lying, manipulating whoreson pay dearly for his treachery and greed. She would make them both pay!

  How delightful.

  How titillating.

  Consumed with delicious visions of vengeance, Barbara penned her first missive to a private address in Bloomsbury, and then a second note to Sir Richard. Then, not wishing to waste even a moment waiting for her coach to be put to, Barbara called for her sedan chair, directing it to the Houses of Parliament where she dispatched her running footman with her urgent message.

  Sir Richard came to her chair with a scowl. “What the devil is so pressing that you would call me away from my duties, Barbara?”

  “There’s something afoot, Sir Richard. Both Mary and Hadley are playing exceedingly coy. I can only surmise that they are planning an elopement.”

  “The hell you say!”

  “Hadley is in need of an heiress and intends to steal her right out from under your nose. He will secrete her out of the country, just mark my word!”

  “But you called him here for precisely that purpose, didn’t you, Barbara? To claim her fortune? But now he would abscond and cut you out, eh? Is that it?”

  She pouted. “But how can you even think such a thing? I have always been devoutly loyal to you. I even keep the girl under lock and key, but I doubt that will suffice should Hadley decide to whisk her off.”

  “He won’t succeed,” Sir Richard replied. “I advised him to return to Rome. I even warned him what would transpire if he defied me. Now he will suffer the consequences.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’ve people tracking his every move. Within the hour I will know precisely what he has planned…and when.”

  “What will you do?”

  His fleshy lips curved in an evil smile. “Precisely what I promised him I would, my dear. I am, after all, a man of my word.”

  “And the girl?”

  “Will be wed, post haste.”

  “Have you come to a settlement already?”

  “Not yet but I will apply myself wholeheartedly to doing so at once.”

  “Sir Richard, you once mentioned Lord Barnesley. He seems the ideal candidate.”

  His gaze narrowed beneath his bushy brows. “Barnesley? With all that is rumored about him? How cruel you are to suggest it, Barbara.”

  “But the girl has proven that she needs a firm hand to rein her in.” She smiled. “Who better than Barnesley?”

  He pursed his fleshy lips in thought. “’Tis a suitable enough punishment, for Barnesley will never tolerate her headstrong ways. Besides, he was one of my best prospects to begin with. The buggering bastard controls at least thirty votes in the Commons.”

  “Then you approve of the match?” she asked, with care to conceal her eagerness.

  “Aye. I’ll speak with him anon. I doubt he will waste any time in procuring a license.” He gave her a smug smile and kissed her hand in parting. “They will both rue the day they crossed us, my dear.”

  When Barbara arrived back at Hanover Square, a reply to her earlier missive to Bloomsbury awaited. Barnesley had accepted her invitation to call the next afternoon. How positively charming. She clasped the reply to her breast with a chortle she made no effort to stifle, for it couldn’t have played out any better.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was nearing midnight when Mary leaped from her bed at the sound of a key turning in the lock. “Jenny,” she whispered, hoping that it was only her maid finally returned. She heard the door open, but could not see into the blackness beyond. The heavy footsteps, however, revealed a male. The door closed softly, followed by another click of the tumblers.

  She scrambled for the tinderbox, refusing to confront the intruder in darkness, but her hands shook too violently to be of any effect. She next heard the strike of flint against firesteel and held her breath, waiting for the trespasser to make his next move. After a flash of sparks, a flicker of candlelight broke the darkness. “Hadley?” she exhaled on a gush.

  “Yes. Me,” he answered. “I thought you were asleep.” He placed the key on the mantle.

  “I was, but now I am not.” She scrambled to cover herself with her dressing gown. “What are you doing here? I thought we were not to see one another for several days.”

  With slow deliberation, he loosened and removed his cravat. “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans that call for certain matters to be expedited.” His coat followed.

  “Matters? Expedited? What do you mean?” she asked.

  “To be frank, I am come to ravish you.” He stripped off his waistcoat.

  “Ravish me?” She clutched her dressing gown and backed away a pace. And then two.

  “Yes, my dear. It is Barbara’s idea. Since you won’t have me otherwise, I must now force myself upon you.” A dry smile pulled at his mouth.

  Mary bit her lip. “By force?”

  “If necessary, but I still don’t despair of achieving your full cooperation.”

  He made short work of the buttons on his shirt, before it too, littered the floor, revealing his naked torso. She diverted her gaze but couldn’t ignore the scintillating sparks growing in her belly. “How?” she asked nervously licking her lips. “How do you plan to go about this…this…ravishment?”

  He kicked off his shoes and advanced toward her. His lingering half-smile broadened into a wolfish grin. “Slowly and thoroughly, I hope.”

  All of his movements seemed cool and measured, while all of her senses flared with alarm. She made another half-hearted protest. “Y-you said it could wait a short while…that I could become accustomed to the idea.”

  “But my dear girl, have no fear, for I promise by the time we complete the preliminaries you will be exceedingly accustomed to the idea.”

  “If it is consummation you seek. I will not thwart you.” Although she had done her best to put it off, it seemed there would be no more delaying the inevitable. They were wed. “I know it must be done.”

  “Oh no, my dear girl, that shall not do at all.” He cupped her face in his hands, forcing her to meet his blue-black gaze and gently chided, “We will begin this conjugal union the same way we intend to go on. We must make this legal, but I will not bed a stiff and frightened virgin.”

  “But what do you expect of me? I am anxious! How can I not be? I have no experience in these things.” It wasn’t the act itself that terrified her, but the thought of surrendering not just her body, but her heart.

  “I have felt your passion, Mary.” He feathered his lips over her face, lightly brushing her jaw. Her cheeks. Her eyelids. “It’s like a banked fire inside you. You need only let it loose.”

  “But—”

  “Did you not vow to take my lead in all things?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “There is no ‘but’.” His warm, smooth lips now skirted her jaw and lingered in the exquisitely sensitive spot behind her ear. “As your husband, it is now my privilege to guide you. If you w
ill but follow my lead, I will show you the greatest delights.” His gentle touch and persistent kisses warmed her blood, and his words sent it pulsing through her veins to heat every inch of her body. “There are many way to pleasure, Mary, ways you still know nothing about. These are things I wish to teach you. Will you let me, my sweet?”

  How could she deny what she wanted most? Yet the words would not emerge.

  “I want to hear it from your mouth. I want you to tell me that your greatest desire is to release your passion, Mary. Do this, and I promise before this night is out, you will scream in ecstasy.”

  Dear God! A pool of heat gushed to the place between her thighs. He would show her no mercy at all. “But if we only need to make the marriage legal is all this really necessary? Can we not just get the business over with?” Yes, just get it over with and stop this slow torture that would surely destroy her.

  “Necessary? Not at all,” he answered darkly. “I assure you at this very moment I could spread your legs and thrust into you to my heart’s content, without you ever having to touch me or even look at my cock. I assure you it’s done thusly all the time, but is that what you desire? Is that what you want from your wedding night?”

  No, it wasn’t what she wanted, but neither did she wish to suffer heartache and disillusionment later. “You talk almost as if this was a real marriage between us.”

  “It is as real as you want it to be, Mary. And I assure you the consummation shall be very real indeed.” He slid his hands to her shoulders, and plied his mouth to her throat in hot open-mouthed kisses that sent racking shivers through her body. Yes, this was real. It was real and divine, and a vivid reminder of how he had made her shatter once before. He made a leisurely exploration of her throat to the juncture between her collarbones, kissing, and caressing her to such distraction that she hardly noticed her wrapper slithering to the floor.

  He cupped her breasts and gently squeezed. “Tell me now, Mary,” he murmured hotly against her skin. “Tell me that you wish for us to be lovers.” He punctuated the request with a long and languorous kiss, a kiss that swept her away into the perilous sea of desire. She entwined her arms about him and clung as if drowning.