Intentions of the Earl (Scandalous Sisters, Book 1)

by Rose Gordon

  “Why did she throw the book?” John asked gravely, ignoring his wife’s words, but holding her arm.

  Paul shrugged. “I haven’t a clue.” He really didn’t. He tried to think back to what had happened. She had been furious ever since that bowl accidentally hit her foot. He had tried to stop it, but had not gotten a good hold on it and it kept rolling. But that was why she had elbowed him, not why she threw the book. His mind raced forward to the conversation in the salon. He remembered asking that her parents keep her away. He remembered they wouldn’t agree to that. Then they left.

  What happened after they left? Nothing. He couldn’t remember anything happening at all. He and Liberty stared at each other for a moment before he jerked his gaze away. He was so mad he didn’t want to even see her. He may be a man of God, but he was still a man, and anger was something he couldn’t always hide.

  Paul was trying to think hard about the earlier events and rubbed his chin. Then his fingers brushed something. It was his cravat. Why wasn’t that lying flat on his chest? Then he remembered exactly what happened.

  “I do believe I may remember what transpired.” His face pinched up in confusion. “Though I remember it, I have no idea why it caused Miss Liberty to throw a book at me.”

  “That’s all right, Paul, just tell us what happened,” John said as smoothly as he could. His body looked like it was tensing up and his hand tightened on his wife’s arm. His face looked especially hard and tortured.

  “I was sitting here, wishing she would just go away, when I started feeling overly warm. I felt like I was about to choke to death on my own cravat, so I undid it, and the top button of my shirt in order to get a little air. Less than a second later, this giant brick of a book came flying at my head. The next thing I know I’m dreaming of being a soldier and sniffing gunpowder, which turned out to be Mrs. Banks’s smelling salts.”

  John’s face was blank, except for a puckered brow. “I shall speak to my daughter immediately,” John stated with such a harsh voice that startled Carolina and Paul so much they both jumped in unison. John abruptly let go of his wife, shot up out of his chair, and started for the door.

  “That will not be necessary…” Paul started.

  John quickly turned back and leveled an icy glare at Paul. “It is necessary. You stated earlier you wanted to avoid her presence. Now, you shall have your wish.” John strode back toward the door then turned back around again to speak to his wife. “Carolina, after I am finished talking with her, she may be in need of some consoling. That will be your job—be warned.”

  As if he were going off to war, John stomped out the door and down the hall in what Paul could only presume was to begin his search for Liberty.

  Mrs. Banks stayed in the room with Paul and waved her salts in front of her own face, repeatedly saying, “Oh dear.”

  ***

  By the time John found his daughter, who had been hiding from him for several hours, his temper was beyond his control. He had long ago decided he was not going to demand a reason for her actions, nor did he even care what reason she did or didn’t have for her behavior. He just walked into the room where she was sitting all curled up on a settee by the window. She had tears on her cheeks and her face was whiter than a lily with little blotches of red on her cheeks. He took one look at her and thundered, “Liberty, your recent behavior toward Mr. Grimes is unacceptable. From this point forward, you are not allowed out of your mother’s sight. Is that understood?” John looked over at his daughter who had not spoken, nor made any move to agree or disagree with his words. “You will not attend any balls, soirées, or any other social event until I say that you may. You, young lady, may very well be a spinster before I let you out into society again!”

  “But…but…” Liberty tried to speak between sobs.

  John understood she only wanted to tell her side of the tale, but he didn’t want to hear a word of it. “That’s enough,” he barked. “I have made my decision, and it’s final. You have five minutes to go find your mother. If I see you more than five paces away from her at any given time, I will personally load you on the next ship bound for America and you shall go back to New York alone and wait for us to return.”

  Feeling a little stab of guilt at his harsh words and threat, John decided to duck out quickly before adding to them with more heartbreaking words. Until today, he’d never spoken so harshly to any of his family, but Liberty was determined to bring out the worst in him.

  Chapter 23

  Andrew lay in his bed that night thinking of Brooke. Her soft skin. Her flowing hair. Her bright smile. Her delectable body. He even smiled thinking of her bound breasts.

  In his mind, she was the perfect woman. It was too bad that she couldn’t be his perfect woman. That thought made his smile disappear.

  She could never be his woman. He could not offer for her, and if he did, she would never accept him after what was about to happen tomorrow night.

  Earlier in the evening he’d planned it all out. He was going to take her out to the woods promptly after dinner. He’d suggested to a few of the gentlemen tonight that they should go out and see Alex’s telescope tomorrow night. Andrew wasn’t into much astronomy, but he did know a little. He casually mentioned that some planets could be easily seen tomorrow night. Whether true or not, he didn’t know, nor did he care. All he needed was for a few people to see that Brooke had been compromised.

  The extra benefit to doing it this way was only the truly scientifically interested would be coming out. Which would be enough for Brooke to be shamed, but this group was not a bunch of gossips, so the tale was unlikely to spread so quickly it would cause her any more undue stress. It would spread of course, but not so quickly that her whole family would be forced to steal away in the dead of night.

  The whole idea made his stomach turn sour. How could he have ever agreed to such a stupid scheme? What on earth had possessed him to do so? Until a day or two ago, he'd kept reminding himself of the money he would be able to earn after he got the estate back. Not a lot, but enough to get him out of debt and get on with his life. Then, the money problem seemed to fade when Willis mentioned the mines. Not that he wanted the mines, but if there was no other choice, he would drill. The problem was he would still have to come up with the blunt to put the mines in, but that was minor compared to what he was about to do.

  Then he’d tried to use his guilt for his past relationship with his mother as a reason to go through with it. The dowager house at Rockhurst had burned down fifty years ago and the impoverished earl at that time could not afford to rebuild it. No one since then had bothered to, either. His guilt ate at him. He had wronged his mother so many years ago by sending her back into that isolation in Essex, all because he couldn’t handle the taunts and rumors about them and their pasts.

  The problem of his mother’s residence could also be solved by the mines. If they made enough money, he would be able to build a house wherever she wanted.

  So why was he still going to go through with it?

  Then he remembered the written agreement he had with Gateway. There was nothing written about consequences Andrew or Brooke would face if he didn’t go through with it, but he knew there would be. There always were.

  More than ten years ago, he’d learned that lesson for himself when he refused to lie for Gateway when Gateway went out drinking one night and missed a mathematics examination the next morning because he overslept. Not only had he not lied about Gateway’s whereabouts, but he'd refused to tell him what was on the examination. Later, when Andrew was riding on his way to London, he was attacked by a band of highwaymen who had stolen anything valuable he had with him, including his horse. Then when he was walking down the road to find a new mount, Gateway came up behind him and jumped him. They each threw a few good punches, but because Gateway had the advantage of catching Andrew unawares, he came out the victor of the fight, if one could call it that. That’s when his nose got broken and he decided to never deal with Gateway again. He�
�d held to that well enough for ten years. Now he wished he’d held to it longer.

  Shaking his head, Andrew rolled over, stuffed a pillow under his stomach, and tried to sleep.

  But sleep wouldn’t come.

  The next day passed in waves of boredom and tension. Tonight was the night, he kept reminding himself. Both of their futures would drastically change after tonight—one for good, one for bad. Knowing this led to Andrew’s inability to concentrate and pay attention to anything anyone was saying.

  Andrew was still trying to get past his guilt and unease when he met up with Brooke outside the servant’s entrance. They'd arranged to meet there to sneak out to the telescope to look at some stars.

  They walked in silence to the gazebo where Alex kept his telescope. Andrew occasionally looked over at her form. She was beautiful. She walked with such grace and she had good posture, even for being an American. Her body was so lean and straight, and when she walked she looked like she was floating. Never did she stumble or misstep. She was perfect. Too bad this would be the last time he’d get to look at her thus.

  When she looked over and almost blinded him with her smile, a knot formed in his gut. He tried to chase it away by thinking of the wrong he was going to be able to correct by pulling this off. He was going to make amends with his mother, and Brooke was going to be safe from Gateway back in America. However, as much convincing as his mind was doing, his heart felt heavy and for some reason hurt. Was there really any greater good by doing such a vile thing? Andrew gave a harsh laugh at the thought.

  “Is something funny?” Brooke asked innocently.

  Andrew started when Brooke’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “No,” he answered smoothly.

  Brooke nodded, but looked like she didn’t understand at all.

  They continued to walk in silence. “I must say that I didn't pin you as one who was interested in stargazing,” Brooke said lightly.

  Andrew flashed a smile. “No? I may not be very knowledgeable, but when I go to Rockhurst sometimes I look up at the sky.” That wasn’t entirely a lie; he did look at the stars at Rockhurst, just not from a telescope.

  “I’ve noticed it’s nearly impossible to see anything through the thick fog in London.”

  “Is it easy to see the stars in New York?” Andrew asked casually, fighting for calm from the storm that was brewing in his body.

  “Yes. Well, most times. To be truthful though, I have no earthly idea what anything up there is besides the sun, moon, and stars.”

  Andrew put his arm down and grabbed Brooke’s hand. With her hand in his, he intertwined their fingers. “You mean you have no idea about the constellations?” he asked in mock horror. At his words, her brow puckered. “Is that not a term you are familiar with?”

  “No,” she admitted. “I assume it has something to do with the stars. Beyond that I fear I am without knowledge.”

  “We’re even then. I haven’t a clue about them, either. Alex has a telescope out here that we can look through, but I have no idea what we'll be looking at,” he confessed with a small smile.

  Brooke smiled at his open acknowledgment of lack of knowledge. “Most men I know would never admit such a thing. Instead, they try to pretend they know everything about the subject until they’re proven wrong. Even then, they are still reluctant to admit they were clueless all along. That’s what I like best about you, Andrew. You’re so honest with me.”

  His heart felt every word of her statement. If only she knew just how dishonest he'd been with her since the day they’d met.

  They walked together in companionable silence a little further before Brooke stopped walking and turned to face him. “We’re not just here to look at stars, are we?” she asked. Her voice had a hint of excitement.

  “Perhaps. Perhaps, we might do something else,” Andrew allowed. Was he really that transparent? He hoped the excitement in her voice was not nervous excitement.

  They walked a few more steps before finding a little gazebo-type structure that was tall and thin. Up at the top of the gazebo was a long tube hanging out one of the top windows.

  “This is it,” Andrew said, gesturing to the gazebo. “I believe we must climb up a few stairs in order to get to the eyepiece.” He walked over to the entrance and waited for her to step inside.

  Brooke stepped inside and looked around. “It’s rather dark,” she mused after a minute.

  “Good thing I brought these, then,” Andrew said as he pulled two candles and small holders out of his pocket. “I wasn’t sure if there were candles already down here, so I took the liberty of swiping some on the way out.”

  Andrew lit the two candles and handed one to Brooke, who took it and walked a whole three steps to the other side of the gazebo.

  “Not very big is it?”

  Andrew stifled a small laugh. “No, I’m afraid not. Alex probably doesn’t make a regular practice of bringing guests here. We’re probably the only people besides Alex to ever step foot in here.”

  Brooke walked back to his side and together they looked at the makeshift ladder. “I hope this can hold us both,” Andrew said, giving it a shake to test its durability.

  Brooke let out an unfeminine laugh.

  Andrew’s gaze shot to her. “Is something funny?” he asked, using her own words back to her.

  “Yes. No. Well, a little.” Andrew's arched brow prompted her to say, “It’s just that you are just like other men. Instead of inspecting the wood to make sure there are no major cracks or broken steps, you jiggle the ladder to see if it gives way.” She shrugged. “It’s just funny the way you're testing the ladder, that's all.”

  “But why?”

  “It just doesn’t seem like your personality. I thought you’d just walk right on up,” she said flippantly.

  “And find out the ladder is unstable that way?” Andrew asked, stepping away from the ladder. If she thought he looked ridiculous by jiggling the ladder, he’d just let her test it herself. “All right, the ladder is all yours. You may check it however you see fit.”

  Brooke put her candle down on a nearby ledge, marched right up to the ladder and began to climb.

  Immediately Andrew’s hands went to her waist and tried to pull her off. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

  “What does it look like?” she responded defiantly.

  “It looks like you are about to break your silly little neck.”

  “Do try not to act so worried. If Alex climbs up this ladder, there is no reason that it would not be able to hold me.” She looked over her shoulder, and cast him a skeptical look. “Do you see a reason it would not?”

  “No,” Andrew said hastily.

  “Good, because if you were going to say anything to imply otherwise, I was going to have to brain you with the telescope,” she said with a smile.

  Brooke climbed up a few steps up to the telescope and looked out. “Oh, it’s wonderful! It is like the stars are so close I could touch them.”

  Andrew put his candle down next to hers and came up behind her. “Are they?” he murmured in her ear as his hands moved to clasp her waist.

  Brooke slightly jumped at his touch.

  Andrew steadied her. “It’s all right. Just relax. What do you see?”

  Brooke put her eye back up to the telescope and looked out again. “Stars. Lots of stars.”

  “Anything else?”

  She gave a little shrug. “The moon.”

  “Tell me about the stars you see,” Andrew whispered in her ear, his fingers rubbing slow circles on her waist and hips.

  Breathlessly, Brooke went into detail about every star she saw until she was rambling about absolutely nothing.

  Andrew took Brooke’s inability to form a proper sentence as a good sign. His hands moved from her hips and he was massaging her lower back with his thumbs while his fingers were splayed over her ribs.

  “No corset tonight?” he murmured against her ear.

  “No,” she breathed.

&nbs
p; He lowered his head and feathered kisses along the back of her neck and in between her shoulder blades. Slowly he took his hands from her sides and brought them up to where the buttons started at the back of her gown.

  Resisting his primal urge to rip that row of buttons apart with no regard to her gown, he traced slow patterns on her neck and upper back where it was exposed. He took delight in the shiver that ran through her body.

  He bent his head close and reverently kissed her soft, warm skin again. Her skin was so perfect against his lips, and her sighs so sweet to his ears, he had to resist his own urge to sigh.

  He kissed her with open-mouthed kisses on her back while undoing the first button of her gown. He undid two more and pressed his lips to each of the points of her spine he’d just exposed, giving each a warm, wet kiss.

  Her whole body relaxed against his. “We should probably get off this ladder,” he whispered in her ear.

  Brooke let out a little gasp as he undid a few more of her buttons, but did not resist when he stepped down from the ladder, taking her with him.

  Once she was off the ladder, he snuffed their two candles and tucked them back into his pocket. Taking Brooke by the hand, he led her outside.

  They walked about twenty feet in the direction of the house when he tugged on her hand and walked over to a little area of trees he had seen earlier. This area afforded them some privacy, but was still close enough that anyone who came walking by would notice something going on and would be likely to stop and inquire—which would in effect lead to the demise of Brooke’s reputation.

  Shaking off his guilt as best he could, Andrew dropped to his knees and pulled Brooke down with him.

  Brooke’s hands went to his face and she ran her fingers along his hard cheekbones and jaw bones while his hands found her hair and began to remove the pins. “I’ve wondered what it looks like when it’s all down,” he murmured before taking her mouth in a consuming kiss.

  Brooke’s lips relaxed and relinquished control. Andrew’s lips took the control that was offered and he kissed her with the stark hunger of a starving man who could only survive if he ate and drank what Brooke’s lips alone could offer.