“What happened to cause you to run away, Jo?” He softened his tone.
She avoided meeting his gaze. “I have a great-aunt living in Hampshire. She is the sister of my grandfather. But the two argued many years ago, so I have never met her. Nevertheless, I thought she might take me in. But I was robbed within days of setting out for Hampshire, leaving me with no money to pay my coach fare. I walked the rest of the way but became lost and found myself here instead.”
“None of those statements was an answer to the question I asked.”
Jo was aware of that, just as she had known from the onset that this man was far more intelligent than her cousin Edgar, as he was more worldly than her grandfather. That Daniel was not, as he had already stated, a man to be fobbed off with lies and half-truths.
She grimaced. “My cousin chose a husband for me whom I could not marry.”
“Why not?”
“I considered him too old and did not care for him at all.”
“The man’s name?”
“A Mr. Pendleton—”
“Pendleton?” The earl look appalled. “Can you possibly be referring to Owen Pendleton?”
Jo gave a tight smile. “Obviously, you know or have heard of the gentleman.”
“I know him as not being a gentleman at all.” The earl began to pace the study. “Good God, the man is twice your age and a complete charlatan, entrapping gentlemen in his web by allowing them to borrow money from him and then—” He broke off, his eyes narrowing on her face. “And then demanding outrageous restitution for those debts…”
“Such as the hand in marriage of the cousin of the Duke of Cheshire, along with the rest of my body,” Jo said bleakly. “But not before he had ‘tried me out’ first, which was how my cousin put it, I believe. As Edgar also stated it was his intention to ‘try me out’ himself before the wedding took place.”
Daniel was so surprised by the reason for Jo’s flight from Cheshire, he was rendered momentarily speechless. He had thought perhaps she’d had a falling-out with her family, that there was possibly even a young man involved in that disagreement. The truth was worse, so much worse, than he had imagined it might be.
Not least because it placed him in the difficult position of not knowing exactly how to proceed.
Propriety dictated he should return Lady Josephine Kendall forthwith to the home of her cousin and guardian, the Duke of Cheshire.
Except for the knowledge Daniel now had of the fate which awaited her when she got there.
How could he send her back to her cousin knowing she would be raped first by Pendleton and then by Cheshire?
He could not. The mere thought of it made his blood boil and churn.
So what was he to do with her?
He certainly could not keep her here with him at Latham Park, a young and unchaperoned lady of Society, for any length of time. There must be some other way— “The great-aunt you mentioned, do you have her name and address?”
Jo shook her head. “Only her name, Lady Anthea Kendall, and the village of Potton in which she resides. But it is a small village, so I am sure I will have no difficulty in locating her once I am there,” she added hopefully.
No doubt the hope was that Daniel would allow her to travel to her great-aunt’s home, possibly in one of his own carriages.
“I am sure we will deal very well together. By all accounts, she is as eccentric as her brother once was.” Josephine’s smile was one of affection for the gentleman who had been her guardian since she was six years old.
Daniel reminded himself this young woman was still in mourning for that loss, and she obviously lived in fear of being returned to her feckless cousin and the man Cheshire had chosen for her to marry. Daniel doubted it had been much of a choice, and that Kendall must surely be in debt to Pendleton, as so many other young men in Society were. He suspected Josephine was merely being used as a pawn as the payment for the settling of Cheshire’s debts.
Even so, Edgar Kendall was Josephine’s closest male relative, and as such, he could demand restitution from Daniel if her presence at Latham Park was discovered. A restitution, if it involved marriage, Daniel would have no choice but to refuse to pay.
His mouth thinned. “No matter what happens in the future, I forbid you to run away from here again.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Is that a yes in agreement with my dictate or a yes in that you understood the command?”
“My lord?”
He breathed deeply through his nostrils. “As you are irritating me immensely, I believe we will put off any more discussion on this subject until after you have bathed and eaten.”
“Cows.”
“I beg your pardon?”
She shrugged at Daniel’s expression of puzzlement. “The first time we met, I smelled of horses. Today I smell of cows, after spending the night sleeping in a byre with a dozen of them.”
“Ah.” In truth, Daniel had only ever smelled lavender and cleanliness on her since she had taken that first bath and washed away that odorous smell of horses. His senses had been too filled today with the female essence of her to notice the smell of bovines. “Where are you going?” he prompted as Josephine stepped toward the door.
“You dismissed me, so I am going to my room over the stables. I fully understand why you informed Mr. Haynes I would no longer be working there,” she added dully, obviously resigned to being returned to her cousin’s guardianship.
A future Daniel was in no way decided upon. Owen Pendleton was an old lecher and a mountebank, and no doubt the man would ignore or discard Josephine once he had broken her spirit with his demanding and repeated visits to her bedchamber. He might not even marry her at all once he had “tried her out,” which would leave Josephine ruined for any other marriage and prey to Cheshire’s attentions even if she was safe from Pendleton’s.
Daniel clenched his hands at his sides even imagining Josephine suffering such a fate. “I severed your employment in the stables because as a young woman, you cannot return there or to your room over those stables.”
She swallowed. “Then where am I to go?”
“I will have Bedford show you to a bedchamber upstairs.” He rang the bell for his butler.
Her eyes widened. “I am to stay in the house?”
“Where else would the granddaughter of a duke stay?” Daniel drawled.
“I may not have ventured into Society, but even I know it is not proper for a single gentleman to have a single lady staying in his home unchaperoned.”
Daniel gave a snort at this stating of the obvious. “I believe it is a little late for either of us to worry about propriety.”
Perhaps so, but Jo could only foresee the earl bringing scandal directly to his door by offering her sanctuary. Even briefly. “I do not think—”
“For now, it might be better if you did not do so,” the earl dismissed briskly. “You will remain here in the house until I have decided what shall be done with you. I will have Bedford instruct one of the maids to provide you with gowns more fitting to your station in life, one of which you will wear when you join me for dinner this evening. My daughter-in-law leaves several gowns in her bedchamber for when she is visiting, I believe they will be a good fit, as you are both small of stature and figure. At least, she was of small stature and figure. She now grows bigger every day with my grandchild,” he added with a frown.
Jo looked at Daniel searchingly, but could read nothing from his expression. “I do not wish to cause trouble for you— Any further trouble for you by involving you in a scandal,” she corrected with a wince as he raised mocking brows.
“Scandal and I are old friends,” he dismissed. “Ah, Bedford.” He glanced toward the door as his butler entered the room. “You will take Lady Josephine to the mauve bedchamber and see that she is provided with hot water for a bath and anything else she might need for her comfort. Report back to me once you have done so. We will meet again at dinner, Lady Josephine.” He gave her a formal bo
w, as if she had not been for the past few weeks, and still was, dressed in a boy’s clothing and known to all on the estate as Jo Turner.
Jo had to admit it was wonderful to first take a leisurely bath and wash her hair before donning the female clothes. The latter had been lying on the bed for her when she re-entered the adjoining bedchamber wearing only a towel. There was also a maid to help her dress.
The undergarments were white, lacy, and very feminine. The gown was of a peach color, which, when Jo checked her appearance in the full-length mirror after the maid had departed, complemented the honey tones of her skin and gave golden highlights to her upswept hair. The latter had grown long enough in the past weeks for her to be able to secure it in a cluster of curls at her crown.
Every vestige of the disreputable and raggedy Jo Turner had disappeared, and she was a woman again.
A woman Daniel would find attractive?
As Jo found him attractive?
She would be lying if she claimed otherwise. Something about Daniel fascinated and drew her into watching him every chance that presented itself, as Mickey Bates had discovered only yesterday.
Daniel was an extremely handsome gentleman, of course, but it was so much more than that. She was also drawn to his strength. To the loyalty and respect he garnered from the people who worked for him in the house and on the estate, as well as the people in the village of Latham. All had nothing but praise for the earl.
Jo was also intrigued by Daniel’s earlier comment regarding he and scandal being old friends. She could not help but wonder how and in what way.
She could also not help questioning why such a handsome and eligible gentleman had never remarried. He was possibly aged only in his late thirties or early forties, and had been a widower for many years according to estate gossip, and yet he seemed content to remain so.
There was no reason why he should remarry, of course. He had his heir, and his son and daughter-in-law would soon provide him with a grandchild. Hopefully a boy, and another heir to the Latham titles.
Which brought Jo back to that enigmatic comment regarding the earl and scandal. What sort of scandal? And involving whom?
If she wanted any answers to those questions, she would have to ask the earl himself, and considering the trouble she had already put him to on her behalf, she did not think attempting to delve into his private life was a suitable way for her to repay that kindness.
That did not stop her, as she walked down the wide staircase, when it came time to join Daniel for dinner, from studying each of the family portraits on the wall beside her as she went. She found portraits of the previous earl, of Daniel, and of his son, George, but to Jo’s great disappointment, there was no portrait of the deceased countess.
The portrait of Daniel was very fine, though. He appeared to be several years younger than he was now and had been painted standing beside a huge pale marble fireplace shot through with veins of color the same auburn shade as his hair. The artist had managed to capture the coloring of that burnished copper hair perfectly, as well as the beautiful green of his eyes surrounded by copper-colored lashes. His expression was perhaps a little austere, but it was the style of the times and meant to give an air of gravitas to those who did not possess it. Daniel possessed it in abundance.
And she, Jo realized with a warming of her cheeks, was well on her way to becoming infatuated with him.
“Our dinner is growing cold.”
She turned with a guilty start at the sound of Daniel’s harsh voice echoing up into the cavernous hallway, reaching out to clutch onto the bannister as she glanced down at him.
Her breath caught in her throat at how magnificent he looked in black evening clothes and snowy white linen, as if he was dining with any lady of Society. Of which Jo should have been a member but was not.
She could not help but wonder what would have happened if the two of them had met as equals and under different circumstances. Perhaps been introduced at a London ball or a musical evening. Would Daniel have lingered to speak to her, or politely acknowledged the introduction before moving away and forgetting her existence?
Probably the latter, she acknowledged regretfully. Her looks were nothing extraordinary, and her connections questionable. Oh, not the dukedom, but certainly the gentlemen in her family who had most recently possessed that title. First an eccentric grandfather who shunned Society, and now a disreputable cousin and his equally disgraceful friends. No, a man as fine and upstanding as the Earl of Latham would not have associated himself with one such as Lady Josephine Kendall.
“I can only assume by your tardiness you prefer cold food?”
Jo blinked to clear her head of such negative thoughts as she realized, during her distraction, Daniel had ascended the stairs and now stood beside her. His expression, unfortunately, appeared to be just as austere and remote as the one in his portrait.
Jo lowered her lashes demurely. “I apologize for keeping you waiting, my lord.” She placed her gloved hand on the arm he held out to her, neither of them speaking again as they descended the stairs and entered the dining room. Jo kept a polite smile on her lips to cover the disappointment she felt at Daniel’s omission to compliment her on her change in appearance.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was a small family dining room with a round table rather than a long formal one. It would have been very uncomfortable and made conversation virtually impossible if she had been seated miles away from Daniel at the other end of a formal dining table.
“The weather has been very clement today, has it not, my lord?” She gave an inward wince as she automatically launched into banal conversation once they were seated and Bedford served their soup, which was not in the least cold, if the steam rising from it was an indication.
Daniel had no intention of qualifying such a ridiculous statement as that with an answer. The weather may have been clement today, but the situation the two of them found themselves in was very stormy indeed.
He had spent the past two frustrating hours contemplating how best to resolve the problem of having Josephine Kendall in his home, even for the few days it might take to locate her great-aunt.
He had considered inviting George and Amelia for a visit, only to realize that Amelia was now in her eighth month of confinement and not up to traveling. Besides, they were far away in Devonshire, and he would hopefully have resolved this situation long before they could have arrived here in answer to his summons.
Daniel could think of no other female relative he might invite to act as chaperone, and inviting any of his friends and their wives was just as unacceptable. He would never hear the end of the teasing from any of them, after his years of evading embroilments, perhaps even smugly so, with any female of Society. Josephine might not have attended any of the London Seasons, but her breeding meant she was without a doubt a member of that Society.
Every single one of those thoughts had fled his head the moment he’d looked up and seen Josephine studying the portraits on the wall as she moved slowly down the wide staircase.
Even when she had presented herself as a boy, she had been beautiful. And as Daniel had discovered yesterday, her female figure was shapely. But he had been struck dumb at seeing her clothed in one of Amelia’s gowns, a peach-colored one that complemented Josephine’s coloring perfectly and rendered her wholly feminine.
The low neckline revealed the tempting swell of her bosom, and her hair was upswept and secured in a cluster of curls, revealing the slender arch of her neck. Merely looking at her had caused Daniel’s breath to falter and his cock to once again stir inside his evening breeches.
It was the reason he had spoken so harshly to her as she lingered on the stairs. He was growing tired of this constant cock stand and having to deal with the problem himself. He had not needed to give himself sexual release to this degree since he was a young buck and simply looking at a woman’s bosom had caused his cock to swell.
“I apologize.” Josephine spoke again once Bedford ha
d left the room, her cheeks flushed. “I always chatter on when I am nervous.”
Daniel raised his brows. “You are nervous now?”
“Well…yes.” Her movements were flustered as her gloved fingers pleated the edge of her napkin. “I have never dined alone with a gentleman before.”
“I believe you must have dined alone with your grandfather or your cousin Edgar.” The fact the two of them should not be dining alone together caused Daniel’s voice to once again sound harsh. Nor did he particularly care for the fact he’d had to dress for dinner, when for the past week he had eaten informally, more often than not sitting at the desk in his study.
Truth be told, he had no idea what he was doing where Josephine was concerned.
His desire for this woman had returned the moment he had seen her on the staircase. Even now, a part of him wanted to lay her out upon the table top, throw up her skirts, and then enter and lay claim to the wet heat between her thighs.
Another part of him wished to take his time, first removing the pins from her hair before stripping her slowly from the elegant gown. He would then feast on her as he worshipped and pleasured every inch of her body with his lips and hands.
Propriety said he could do neither of those things without consequences. Not least of all to Josephine.
“That is hardly the same thing when I am related to both of them,” she admonished playfully.
“Perhaps it might help if you consider I am old enough to be your father,” he rasped.
Her brows rose. “Not unless you were very precocious as a child.”
“I am aged one and forty, and became a father when I was but nineteen,” he revealed.
Her eyes widened. “You must have married very young.”
“My wife’s family lands adjoined my own in Devonshire when I was Viscount Portland. Part of our wedding contract was that those lands would became hers upon the death of her father, and consequently mine as her husband. My son, George, and his wife now live on that estate.”
Jo sensed there was more behind those events than the words stated. Besides, Daniel had not actually answered her question. For instance, had he married for love or to secure the adjoining lands and so enlarge his estate?
Tamed by the Earl Page 6