Seducing The Perfectly Enchanting Marquess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance)

by Scarlett Osborne

  “I suppose,” Joseph replied. They were standing outside the door to the ballroom now. The warm light spilled out into the garden.

  “There is another reason why I won’t be making my mother happy and marrying Amanda, but I’m not quite ready to divulge that yet. Just trust me, My Lord. I am on your side in this. She’s all yours.”

  All mine.

  Joseph looked through the glass window at the ballroom inside, scanning the space for Amanda, but she was nowhere to be seen.

  Is she really all mine? She had not had time to give me an answer.

  “I assume?” Lord Brubrun continued. “I mean, there is an infinite array of things that can happen in a dark alcove of a garden during a ball. Most of them good, right?”

  Joseph looked back at Lord Brubrun, and for the first time, he felt as though he could genuinely return the man’s affable smile. “I don’t think we are fighting anymore if that’s what you mean.”

  Lord Brubrun slapped Joseph on the back. “Well done, My Lord. Well done. Now let’s go back inside and save Amanda before my Mother can do too much damage. Did she look terribly vexed?”

  Joseph rose his eyebrows. Vexed was an understatement.

  Chapter 27

  “Well, I must say, Miss O’Neil. It’s is a good thing I found you. I shudder to even think what that man might have meant by getting you alone in that hidden corner.”

  Amanda’s face was bright red as she was led across the room.

  For heaven’s sake, lower your voice, Please!

  “I shudder, also, to think of what he might have thought to get up to with you in his house all those nights. Tell me, dear, he hasn’t tried anything, has he? And here I thought that a respectable widower like him would have some decorum. Why, he was holding you like you were some chambermaid coquette. A Marquess, no less! Behaving like a…like a…”

  “My Lady—” Amanda strove to cut in as the Dowager Marchioness searched for a fitting epithet.

  “And furthermore, I certainly hope that being caught out has shamed him enough that he will not try any of this mischief again, under my roof or not. My poor dear, you must have been perfectly terrified. To think that such a thing could happen while you are under my protection.”

  “I wasn’t terri—”

  “Come here, Miss O’Neil. Come and sit in the quiet parlor with me, and we will have some tea to calm your nerves.”

  Amanda sighed. It was no use trying to get a word in. She followed the lady into a quiet room, where the wall muffled the sounds of the party. A moment later, a maid brought in a tray of tea and left silently. Amanda took her cup and stared into its depths, swirling it gently.

  “I think it’s time we had a heart to heart,” the Dowager Marchioness said, her tone somewhat softened after a slow sip of her favorite tea. “One woman to another.”

  Amanda steeled herself.

  “Now, I understand that it can be exciting. To have that kind of attention from a gentleman. Especially a gentleman of such rank and wealth as Lord Ethelred. I was young and beautiful once, you know. I remember.”

  Amanda sipped her tea, still blushing.

  “But you can’t let these feelings crowd out reason. These…carnal desires are not enough to build a marriage on. And the sad fact is that a man with honorable intentions would not have stirred up such feelings in a young lady without first proposing to her. Lord Ethelred is older than you, and cannot be innocent of these things. He knows better.”

  She waited.

  “Have you nothing to say, Miss O’Neil?”

  Amanda looked up. “I’m sorry, My Lady. I don’t know how to answer.”

  The Dowager Marchioness shook her head. “Now, Edan, on the other hand. He is a good man. An honorable gentleman. He likes you, and he could take care of you. Just because he has a sense of propriety, and would never trap you in a garden alcove, cannot be mistaken for lack of interest, do you understand?”

  Amanda nodded dumbly.

  “He may not seem as thrilling and exciting as Lord Ethelred right now, but a relationship should be built on friendship, on steadiness and mutual understanding. I know my son better than anyone, and I have come to know you almost as well in our years together. I know that you two would be happy together, and I trust you know how deeply I desire for you to be a part of our family.”

  Amanda swallowed, growing somber as she looked across at the old lady who had done so much for her. She would not have ever even met Joseph if not for her. That she wanted her to be her daughter was a great honor.

  She did not want to disappoint her or seem ungrateful in any way. But she couldn’t agree to a marriage she didn’t want just for that. That would be a marriage founded, first of all, on guilt and duty.

  But how can I explain this without hurting her?

  “I am honored that you would consider me as a wife for your son, My Lady,” Amanda said, in perfect honesty. “Truly, this is a great compliment.”

  “But your heart is telling you to cast caution to the wind and go back to Ethelred Manor,” the Dowager Marchioness stated it with calm certainty.”

  Amanda did not deny it.

  “I ask, at least, that you give my son a chance. A true chance. Don’t compare him to Lord Ethelred. Try to let your opinion of him rest solely on his own merits. You will see, then, what I see. That your happiness with him is secure and guaranteed.”

  She didn’t know how to answer. She couldn’t tell the Dowager Marchioness that Joseph had just proposed to her. One main reason being that Amanda had not actually had time to give him an answer. If she knew this, the Dowager Marchioness would surely do everything in her power to be sure that Amanda did not say yes.

  She decided that nodding was the best answer she could give. “As you say, My Lady. I will give him a chance.”

  She justified this to herself by remembering that she had given Kelly an honest chance. When she had been sure that Joseph did not love her, she had been spending all her time pondering what a marriage with Kelly would be like. She had not been cruel or dismissive of the Dowager Marchioness’ son.

  After their little tete-a-tete, the Dowager Marchioness was certain to keep Amanda by her side for the remainder of the ball. She searched with her eyes to find Joseph and was relieved to see him leaning against a doorframe talking with Kelly. The two gentlemen seemed much easier now than they had before. It was a sight that warmed Amanda’s heart.

  Joseph glanced her way, and Amanda smiled, biting her lip.

  * * *

  The following morning was bright and sunny, save for the high, puffy clouds that listed across the dome of the sky like mounds of cotton. The breeze had died down and the air was warm.

  “Perfect weather for walking,” the Dowager Marchioness declared at breakfast. This morning, Kelly and Joseph were cracking jokes and carrying on as if they had grown up together. Even little Heather picked up on the light atmosphere and she giggled away even at the jokes she was too young to understand.

  “It is a lovely morning,” Amanda agreed, her heart light.

  “Were I ten years younger, I would be off already. There is so much to see and do in London, you know. You young people shouldn’t squander this time, and if you don’t take it upon yourself to see the sights, I shall have to concoct a list of errands to force you out of doors.”

  Amanda laughed. “There’s no need to force. In fact, I was about to ask if it would be all right for us all to go to Hyde Park. I so wish to see it.”

  “And I want to look at shops!” Lady Heather added.

  “What do you want to buy?” Joseph asked his daughter, incredulously.

  She lifted her nose into the air. “I have some coins saved up, Father, and I can spend them how I wish.”

  “That’s child’s language for I am going to spend all my pin money on sweets and there’s naught you can do to stop me,” Kelly said knowingly.

  Joseph chuckled. His laugh was never as loud or unguarded as Kelly’s, but even his gentle chuckle, lo
w as it was in his throat, brightened his face.

  “Well, darling, when you get sick from eating too many sweets, don’t come to me for sympathy.”

  The little girl shook her head. “No, I shall go to Miss O’Neil.”

  Amanda laughed, reaching over to tuck a wayward strand of the girl’s hair behind her ear.

  With those arrangements made, the four of them set off on foot into the beautiful morning. Dew still clung to the grass as they walked toward the sprawling park, glistening on each blade of green. Amanda and Joseph each held on to one of Heather’s hands and she swung them back and forth enthusiastically while Kelly laughed, exclaiming that he couldn’t wait to have children.

  “Why aren’t you married, Lord Brubrun?” Heather asked him bluntly.

  Amanda shot the little girl a hard glance, but Kelly took it in stride. “Oh. These are complicated grown-up things. It wouldn’t interest you, Lady Heather. Would you like to have a footrace to the edge of the pond?”

  This was more than adequate to distract the little girl and, after Joseph counted off the opening of the race, the two mismatched competitors took off on a tear through the damp grass.

  “I hope he doesn’t—”

  Just as she said it, Amanda saw Kelly slip in the dampness, skidding to his knees as Heather pulled ahead. She laughed as he got up, brushed off his knees, and kept running after the girl.

  “Perhaps it’s good he’s not married. I pity his future wife. Five-and-twenty years old and still getting grass stains on the knees of his trousers. She will have her work cut out for her; I’d wager.” Amanda clicked her tongue teasingly.

  Joseph looked at her, his lips gently smiling and his eyes searching, hoping. The question he had asked that she had not had time to answer hung between them, a glittering beacon of hope.

  “Yes,” Amanda said.

  “Yes?” he asked.

  She nodded, smiling.

  He stepped closer to her, glancing at the others and seeing that they were still turned the other way. Quickly, for propriety’s sake, he kissed her, touching her cheek softly as he did.

  Amanda’s heart soared. As simple as that, she was engaged. Joseph would be her husband, come what may. Regardless of what the Dowager Marchioness said, regardless of anyone’s expectations.

  Her joy was tempered only by the bittersweet reminder that she had felt this way before. She had sealed an engagement with a soft kiss, full of excitement and hope. And yet she had never been a wife.

  She knew, at least, that the gentle sadness that softened the edges of her joy was not limited to her only. Joseph also was feeling it. They understood each other in their love for each other but also their fear. That was something that Amanda would not have found with Kelly.

  Chapter 28

  They stayed in Hyde Park until the afternoon and all the dew had evaporated into the air. Kelly took no notice of the grass stains on his knees, and Amanda thought that, in fact, they seemed only to add to his overall charm. Lady Heather was the first to say that she was tired of the park.

  “I’m hungry,” she said. “Can we get something to eat now?”

  And so the happy quartet wandered down a road that looked promising until they found a little tea shop where they ordered milk tea and sandwiches. Amanda had never been so content. As she bit into a crisp cucumber sandwich, she felt as though she were living her life for the first time. Not just being swept along by the tides of other people’s expectations or carried along by convention. She was truly living.

  She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of Joseph. Now that she looked at him with eyes that knew him as her own, he had never looked more beautiful. His shy grins and sharp eyes that seemed to take in everything, his every small movement brought a surge of happiness to her.

  “I hope this day never ends,” she said as she settled her teacup gently into its groove on the saucer.

  “Me too!” Lady Heather said through a mouthful of cake.

  Kelly looked at her, then at Joseph, and his smile widened.

  After their light meal, the adults followed the lead of the little girl, who had strong opinions about which shops she wanted to go into. It was a pleasure to follow behind her and try to work out the machinations of her mind as she counted and recounted the small number of coins that jingled in her little purse.

  In the end, she didn’t end up spending it all on sweets, as Kelly had predicted. She also got herself several ribbons and a bundle of violets for good measure.

  It was nearing dinner time when they returned to the Dowager Marchioness’s London estate. Amanda’s legs were tired from walking all day, but it was a pleasant sort of tired. Her skin felt kissed by the sun and her cheeks ached from smiling.

  “Well, don’t you all look as fresh as daisies!” the Dowager Marchioness exclaimed happily as they came into her parlor. She had been reading a book, but she put it aside eagerly. “My! Lady Heather, what a lovely bouquet you have. You have a very shrewd sense of money, it seems. Because if there is one thing that I have learned in my many long years, my dear, it is that flowers are always a good investment.”

  Amanda smiled as she lowered herself gratefully into a comfortable settee. The Dowager Marchioness, for all her odd, blunt ways, was truly a kind lady. Despite her untold wealth, she still saw the beauty of a simple bundle of violets bought from a shoe-less flower girl in the streets.

  Amanda recalled how disappointed the lady would be when she found out that Amanda would not be marrying her son, and her spirit darkened slightly.

  “Good heavens, Edan! Your trousers!”

  Kelly glanced down. “What? Oh,” he laughed. “Lady Heather was besting me at a foot race and I decided to give it my all.”

  “Well, did you win?”

  “No, see, I couldn’t recover the lost time from the fall.”

  The Dowager Marchioness scoffed dramatically, making Lady Heather giggle as she sat cross-legged on the floor, spreading her spoils out before her. Three long ribbons, all in a row. Amanda wasn’t at all sure that the colors of the ribbons really went with any of Heather’s dresses, but it didn’t seem to matter to the girl at all.

  The Dowager Marchioness called for a maid to bring a teacup of water into the drawing room for Lady Heather to arrange her violets in. A peaceful quietness settled over all of them as happy fatigue set in.

  After dinner, Amanda and Joseph went up together to get Lady Heather into bed. The girl was so tired that she asked Joseph to carry her up the stairs. He told her that she was too big to be asking to be carried, but he relented, heaving her into his arms as they climbed the stairs.

  As they got her into her nightgown and tucked into bed, Amanda looked forward to the years that would come. Gazing down at Lady Heather now, knowing that she would be her stepdaughter, made her heart clench with happiness.

  A passing thought of the children that she and Joseph would have together made another part of her body clench pleasurably. She glanced at him as they passed through the door together, shutting it softly behind them, and imagined for a moment what he would look like as he removed his clothing on the night of their wedding.

  Before they returned to the drawing room to play cards with Kelly and the Dowager Marchioness, Joseph caught her by the waist and kissed her passionately. His warm tongue slipped past her lips and she gasped, pressing her palms against his chest and leaning against him.

  “I think perhaps we should not tell the Dowager about our engagement right away,” Amanda whispered breathlessly.

  “If you say so,” he replied as if he were half-listening. He kissed her earlobe, then took it between his teeth and bit down softly so that a shiver of pleasure ran down Amanda’s spine.

  She wished she could forget about cards and just pull him into her bedroom right then. She’d wasted time waiting for a wedding night before, and the thought of biding her time again, her anticipation constantly growing, seemed impossible.

  She wanted him now.

  He seemed to re
ad her mind. Apparently, he felt the same temptation because, when he grasped her hips and brought them against his, she could feel the hard ridge of his manhood growing harder by the moment. A thrill of excitement and trepidation went through her.

  But then he pulled away, looking down at the floor and taking several deep breaths. Amanda giggled softly.