by Lydia Dare
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Lydia Dare
Cover and internal design © 2012 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover illustration by Alan Ayers
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
About the Author
Back Cover
For the ladies at Clarkston who have been my beta readers since day one:
Michelle (who is quite attached to Lady Madeline’s surname)
DeShelia
Lesley
Melissa
Tyler
Susan
I love you all—Jodie
Prologue
Blackmoor House, Mayfair
April 1820
Lady Madeline Hayburn was more than ready for the Season to be over. Ball after ball. Soirees and garden parties after more soirees and even more garden parties. There was no point to it all. Oh, she knew her father was hopeful Maddie would somehow stumble upon her destined husband at one of these inane events. But if it hadn’t happened during her three seasons on the marriage mart, Maddie wasn’t terribly optimistic it would happen tonight.
“Madeline,” whispered her grandmother, the Duchess of Hythe, as she nudged Maddie’s arm. “Do you see Blackmoor over there?”
Maddie glanced across the sea of people littering the ballroom until her eyes fell on the intimidating duke. “Yes, of course,” she whispered back. What on earth did her grandmother care about the Duke of Blackmoor? He and both of his brothers were married and hardly prospects as far as Maddie was concerned.
“The man was a degenerate,” Grandmamma informed her. “One of the worst rogues London has ever seen.”
Just idle gossip then? Maddie smiled at her grandmother. “So I’ve heard.”
“His wife should be commended for bringing him to heel.” Grandmamma gestured toward the pretty duchess who was still greeting her newly arrived guests at the entrance. “Let that be a lesson to you. The right woman can take charge of even the most imposing man.”
Not idle gossip, but another lesson on the management of men. Maddie nearly sighed, but doing so would only earn her another lesson of a different sort. “I can manage Papa,” she said instead.
Her grandmother agreed with a nod of her head. “Of course you can. You’re my granddaughter.”
Maddie giggled.
“And you can manage any other man you set your mind to, as well.”
“Thank you for your confidence.”
Grandmamma continued as though Maddie hadn’t spoken. “I just wish you weren’t so finicky about this whole marriage endeavor, my dear. I would like to actually meet my great-grandchildren, you know.”
Maddie couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. “In that case, you should probably have this conversation with your grandsons.” Who knew how many great-grandchildren her grandmother might already have.
Grandmamma scowled, but before she could begin a lecture, Lieutenant Hawthorne bowed before them in greeting. “Your Grace, Lady Madeline.”
“Lieutenant.” Maddie smiled with relief. Thank heavens he’d saved her. “I hope you are well this evening.”
“I will be better if I can urge you to stand up with me.”
And whisk her away from her grandmother? Maddie could have kissed him, if only she liked him a little bit. Alas, she didn’t. Besides as the fourth son of a baronet, Lieutenant Hawthorne needed to find a wealthy wife. His interest in Maddie began and ended with her dowry. Still, he was her salvation, if only for a moment. “Thank you, sir. I would be honored.”
He offered her his arm and then led her to the middle of the ballroom where sets were being formed for the minuet. As they circled each other, Maddie couldn’t help but glance across the crowded room and her breath caught slightly in her throat.
Heavens. What was Weston Hadley doing here? Maddie stumbled and would have fallen if Lieutenant Hawthorne hadn’t caught her arm.
“Are you all right?”
Maddie shook her head and tried to regain her composure. “Just clumsy,” she muttered. Though her eyes still fell on Mr. Hadley, as if she just couldn’t help it. The Duchess of Blackmoor’s ball was the last place on earth she would have expected to see a man of his ilk.
Oh, he was born of nobility like everyone else in attendance. And he filled out a coat better than most, even if the coat tended to be a bit on the shabby side. But there was something dark and mysterious about him. And then there was the scar he sported across his cheek.
Lieutenant Hawthorne must have followed her gaze because an expression of amusement settled on his face. “Weston Hadley?”
Maddie straightened her back and stared at her companion as though he was an imbecile. “Hardly.” When they turned the opposite direction, she cocked her head to one side. “Are you well acquainted with Mr. Hadley?”
The lieutenant shrugged. “We’ve met.” He glanced over her shoulder and smirked. “Seems he can’t keep his eyes off you, either.”
And it had been that way ever since she’d met Weston Hadley. She wasn’t quite certain what to make of him. She never had been. And whenever their paths crossed, his gaze followed her. “My dowry has that effect on most men.”
Lieutenant Hawthorne chuckled. “You do know how to wound a man, Lady Madeline.”
She hadn’t meant to insult him. “That wasn’t my intent at all,” she hastened to explain.
“I’m certain it wasn’t,” he agreed good-naturedly. “But I can understand your concern about him. He’s hardly the sort I would imagine has any honorable intentions.”
That was an understatement. He was a Hadley, after all. The most degenerate set of brothers of Maddie’s acquaintance.
“Do you know how Hadley came by that scar of his?”
“No.” But Madeline had wondered about that very thing every time she saw Weston Hadley. “Do you?”
The lieutenant shook his head. “Sadly, no, but there is a bet on the books at White’s about it. I would love to know.”
“Has he never said?” she asked, even though she shouldn’t think about Weston Hadley or his scar. After all, he was one of those penniless Hadley brothers. Even worse, he was a friend of her brothers.
That alliance on its own was hardly one to recommend him.
“Never breathed a word about it, as far as I know,” the lieutenant muttered just as the music came to an end. He smiled and then bowed. “Ah, here comes your admirer now.”
Maddie glanced over her shoulder to see Weston Hadley headed straight for her. His dark eyes raked across her form, sending shivers skittering down her spine. Something about his gaze always left her the tiniest bit breathless.
“Lady Madeline,” Mr. Hadley drawled. “What a pleasant surprise.”
Before she could think better of her actions, Maddie offered her hand to the rogue. And when he touched his lips to her gloved knuckles, her knees threatened to buckle beneath her weight. Maddie snatched her hand back and stood her tallest, hoping she appeared more poised than she felt.
“Do have a good evening, sir,” she said before turning on her heel and heading for a small group of ladies at the very edge of the room.
His eyes were still on her; Maddie could feel them. But she refused to turn around, to acknowledge him any further than she had already done. No, everything would be better if she just kept her distance from Weston Hadley with his penetrating dark eyes and his even darker scar.
One
Castle Hythe, Kent
Four months later…
Maddie had always suspected that men were the most perfidious of creatures. Now she was certain of the fact. It didn’t seem to matter whether the man in question was one’s own derelict brother, a detestable fortune hunter, a disreputable gambler, or even the King of England. Not one bit. Men were perfidious creatures. All of them. Well, at least all of them that Maddie knew.
She leaned across the expanse of her bed and squeezed her dear friend Lady Sophia Cole’s hand. Poor Sophie was the last person Maddie would have ever imagined as a victim of men’s perfidious natures. Yet it had happened nevertheless, and there wasn’t a blasted thing either of them could do about it. Perfidious men, after all, ruled the world. However, one particularly powerful lady might be up to the challenge of that ambitious endeavor, if anyone was.
“I’m certain we’ll think of something, Soph,” she said soothingly.
Sophie shook her head as though she knew Maddie had no real hope of solving her dilemma. “Something? Shall we dress as highwaymen and rob Lord Radbourne with pistols as he returns to Kent from that farce of a trial?”
Well, that wouldn’t be the first plan to pop into Maddie’s mind on how to reclaim Sophie’s pilfered fortune. Still, the idea made her smile. “And don trousers? Grandmamma would be scandalized.”
Despite her new status as an impoverished gentlewoman, Sophie giggled. “Heaven forbid we scandalize the Duchess of Hythe.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. Sophie had never been a particular favorite of Maddie’s grandmother, but if ever there was a time to try and appease the duchess it was now. “Do try to stay on Grandmamma’s good side.”
“Does she have one?”
“Indeed she does,” Maddie declared. “And Lady Eynsford happens to live on it. So if we play our cards right—”
“What a terrible thing to say.” Sophie groaned and flopped backward across Maddie’s feather mattress and stared at the canopy above them.
Considering that Sophie’s recently deceased father had played his cards wrong, Maddie could see her friend’s point. “Poor turn of phrase on my part. I apologize. But you’re not listening, Soph. Lady Eynsford is the key to getting your fortune returned. Or as much of it as possible, whatever that blackguard hasn’t spent.”
Sophie pushed up on her elbows, her grey eyes intent enough to make Maddie wince inwardly. “I’m listening now.”
Maddie took a deep breath, and words just poured from her mouth. “I don’t know why, but Lord Radbourne and those brutish brothers of his follow Lord Eynsford around like a pack of puppy dogs.”
“Puppy dogs?”
“Like he’s their master or something. It is very strange. But what is more important is that I’ve never seen a man so besotted with his wife as Lord Eynsford is.”
“You’re right. That is strange.”
“Do be serious.” Maddie folded her arms across her chest. “If we are able to whisper the circumstances of your predicament to the marchioness, she could have her husband order Radbourne to return his ill-gotten gains.”
Sophie dropped back onto the bed and laughed which, considering the fact that Maddie had just suggested the best plan for restoring her friend’s place in society, was the tiniest bit irritating.
“I hardly find it amusing.”
Sophie brought her mirth under control and sighed dramatically. “Maddie, you’ve never had to live without. But Radbourne has most of his unfortunate life. I don’t care how devoted Lord Eynsford is to his wife or how obedient Lord Radbourne is to the marquess, the blackguard would never return my fortune simply because someone asked it of him. All I truly want is Bindweed Cottage. Papa had no right to gamble it away. It belonged to Mama. It was my dowry. The rest would belong to Cousin Freddie now, anyway.”
No, Maddie had never had to live without the most expensive and lavish of luxuries, but that didn’t mean her plan was silly. “You’ll have to trust me, Soph. I’ve seen Lord Eynsford order Lord Radbourne about, and you haven’t.”
Sophie narrowed her eyes on Maddie as though she were a simpleton. “You’re not making any sense. Why would Lord Radbourne pay one whit of attention to anything Lord Eynsford has to say?”
“Because they’re brothers.” Maddie covered her mouth so quickly she nearly fell backward. Heavens! She couldn’t believe she had uttered such a horrible thing aloud.
“I beg your pardon?” Sophie sat back up, giving Maddie her full attention.
Maddie shook her head, refusing to repeat any more vile rumors and still mortified she’d said the last one.
“Madeline Hayburn! Are you suggesting that Lord Radbourne was born on the wrong side of the blanket? That he is the late Lord Eynsford’s by-blow?”
Maddie shrugged.
“Tell me!” her friend ordered.
Maddie dropped the hand from her mouth and sighed. Once Sophie made her mind up to know something, there wouldn’t be any peace until she learned it. “I don’t know anything for certain.”
“But you suspect?”
“They look so much alike, is all. Almost like twins. In fact, they look more similar than Radbourne’s ill-mannered twin brothers, the Misters Hadley. Of course, those twins did look the same until one of them acquired a most unflattering scar across his cheek.” She couldn’t help the shiver that raced down her spine. There was something wild about Mr. Weston Hadley, and the way he always stared at her was the tiniest bit terrifying. Besides, that scar was most unappealing.
“So do you believe Eynsford is blackmailing Radbourne with this information? That he can depend upon the man doing his bidding in order to keep his secret?”
Maddie shook her head. “No. You’d have to see them together. Blackmail would never cross my mind with regard to their relationship. It’s more like brotherly devotion. In fact, all of the Hadley men look to Eynsford in the same way. So if we can gain Lady Eynsford as an ally, I am certain she will see your entire fortune, including Bindweed Cottage, returned to your hands and not the new Lord Postwick’s.”
“Wouldn’t Cousin Freddie be furious if I ended up with my fortune after all is said and done?” For the first time since Sophie arrived at Castle Hythe, Maddie saw a glimmer of hope in her friend’s eyes. “Do you truly believe this is a possibility?”
Maddie grinned. “And Grandmamma asked Lady Eynsford for tea this afternoon, mainly to gossip about that travesty occurring in the House of Lords. But regardless of the reason, Lady Eynsford will be here without any of her husband’s sycophants in tow. We’ll have her all to ourselves.”
“Tea, huh?”
“Indeed. Should we go in search of Grandmamma?”
Sophie winced. “If we must.”
“We must.”
&n
bsp; “No ideas that don’t include the duchess?” her friend asked hopefully.
“Sorry.” Maddie giggled. “But as Grandmamma is the reason Lady Eynsford is paying a call, I suggest you try to get along with her.”
Sophie swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Very well then. Let’s go face the old dragon, shall we?”
Another giggle escaped Maddie. “If she heard you say that…”
“She wouldn’t be surprised in the least.”
Silently Maddie agreed. Nothing much ever surprised her grandmother, who both knew and relished her reputation as a terrifying matron of the ton. Maddie linked her arm with Sophie’s and started for Grandmamma’s favorite parlor. With a little bit of luck, she could see her friend’s fortune returned to her in less than a fortnight.
“You said Lady Eynsford lives on the duchess’ right side?” Sophie asked as they descended a circular set of stone steps.
“Grandmamma adores her.”
“And the lady controls her husband and the brothers Hadley?”
Maddie nodded.
Sophie laughed. “Heavens, I can hardly wait to meet this paragon. She must be nothing short of magical.”
What a ridiculous idea. “I think it has more to do with the fact that men find her beautiful and Grandmamma finds her cunning.”
“A dangerous combination,” Sophie agreed.
As they rounded one corner, Maddie could hear her grandmother’s laugh filter into the hallway. Lady Eynsford must already be here. Very few people had the capability to make her grandmother laugh. She pulled her friend to a halt and whispered, “Now let me do all the talking.”
“I’m perfectly capable of telling my own tale.”
“Yes, but your talking usually annoys Grandmamma.”
Sophie rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.
Maddie tugged her friend over the threshold of Castle Hythe’s white salon. Her grandmother and Lady Eynsford were seated together on a brocade settee. They turned their heads at once at the intrusion.
“Madeline.” Her grandmother gestured toward a pair of high-back chairs close to her. “You and Lady Sophia should join us. We were just discussing hypocrisy at its highest.”