by Jaimey Grant
But Aurora Glendenning was as stubborn as Derringer. She pursed her lips and refused to say more.
Admitting defeat for the nonce, the duke rose. His dark eyes fastened on the lovely countenance before him. “Be aware, Miss Aurora Glendenning of the Staffordshire Glendennings, what you don’t tell Levi will come to light. You would do well to pray that your love for him is enough.”
~~~~~~
“Are you all right?”
The deep voice came from the shadows near the cracked door. Aurora smiled through her tears and tried to stifle them before the earl got a good look at her. She was too late, however, since he left the shadows and approached her where she stood at the open window of the antechamber.
They were both guests of Lady Osmond at her ball in honor of her daughter’s comeout. Aurora and Levi had laughingly agreed that the poor girl resembled nothing so much as a horse munching on a particularly sour pickle. Parties were obviously not to the young lady’s taste.
Aurora’s laughter had dissolved into tears. Excusing herself on the flimsy reason of a torn flounce, she’d fled to the chamber in which she now stood. Apparently she hadn’t fled far enough.
Levi took her arm and turned her so her face was in the moonlight. She looked down and he gently brushed a tear away with his thumb. One hand cradled her face, his touch failing to warm the coldness inside her.
“Tell me what ails you,” he implored, leaning closer.
Aurora shook her head and stepped away from him, back into the shadows. He stayed where he was and watched her with a perplexed look on his face.
“Rory, love, tell me, please,” he begged. He took a step toward her and she backed away. “What the devil ails you? You act as though I have done something wrong the way you keep moving away. What is it?”
“It is nothing,” she whispered. Indeed, she could hardly define her feelings in her own mind. Everything just seemed to coalesce into this one evening, every emotion, every longing, and every memory of why she so desperately needed a powerful husband.
And how unlikely that all seemed now. Derringer’s actions at Almack’s had had some pretty far-reaching results, not least of which was the loss of her vouchers. The patronesses could not countenance the attendance of one who’d captured the duke’s eye in such an unflattering manner.
“I am just sad, that is all.”
“That is all?” Lord Greville said in disbelief. This time when he approached her she stayed where she was. He took her hand and nudged her in the direction of the sofa not three feet from where they stood.
“Tell me what is troubling you, Aurora Glendenning,” he commanded softly.
How would he react if she confessed her love for him?
What Lord Derringer had said was true. She was deeply, irrevocably in love with Levi Greville. The realization had made her just a trifle melancholy ever since. She’d told the earl too many lies and kept too much from him for her to expect him to ever trust her much less love her back. Her desolation consumed her.
She couldn’t possibly tell him any of that. So she sat mum and stared at their entwined fingers. He very softly stroked his thumb over the back of her hand and she wondered if he could have any idea how his very gentleness was tearing her apart.
“Rory,” he whispered.
She looked up into his dark eyes. They looked black in the light of the moon. She sensed more than saw the question in his look. She didn’t look away and nodded her head almost imperceptibly, with no conscious thought that she would do so.
His hand released hers and came up to gently cradle her face. His other arm went around her waist and drew her closer, lips touching hers with infinite tenderness, like the caress of moonbeams.
She sighed and her lips parted. The sudden fluttering in her stomach at the touch of his tongue nearly made her jump. She tried to garner the urge to move away from him, but there was nothing she wanted more at that moment than to be thoroughly kissed by him.
The sensations she experienced with Levi Greville eclipsed any paltry feelings she might have ever had for Desmond Forester. She had never imagined making love could be so very wonderful. She realized Desmond had taught her nothing of making love and had only robbed her of her virginity.
None of that mattered now. Aurora forced the memories away, allowed herself to live in the moment, and kissed him back with all the love she felt.
Slipping her arms around his neck, she pulled him closer, hardly noticing when he left her lips to trail kisses over her neck. Tiny pinpoints of sensation erupted through her body, centering in her middle where it burned into a desire to have him closer still.
And then, some niggling twinge of discontent entered her mind, some unwelcome doubt that pierced the bubble of desire and broke her from its hold.
She’d experienced the act once before with unpleasant results.
As Levi stroked his fingers over her neck, Aurora tried to pull away. In the haze of dissipating passion, a new sound entered the room.
The door creaked.
Within seconds, the room was flooded with light and party guests. The couple broke apart, looking as guilty as humanly possible.
“Well, this is not a wholly unexpected turn of events, I must say,” remarked a distinctly heartless voice.
~~~~~~
“He has not compromised me!” Miss Glendenning exclaimed furiously. Her vivid blush put the lie to her statement. “He has not”—her voice broke—“compromised me,” she ended on a tearful note. She raced from the antechamber with a concerned Miss Ellison and a worried Lady Connor following in her wake.
Northwicke managed to clear the room of all but Adam, Bri, and Lord Derringer. He had tried to convince the duke to leave but no one made the Duke of Derringer do anything he did not want to. With a shrug, Lord Connor followed his wife.
Adam and Bri confronted Levi with concern and a large measure of disappointment plainly visible in their expressions. The duke’s benign look was no better. Levi stared at the closed door as if he very much wanted to flee as well.
Lady Prestwich approached her cousin and laid a hand on his arm. “Vi, what happened?”
Levi threw off her hand and glared at Adam when that gentleman took a step forward to defend his wife. His gaze settled on everyone in turn, measuring each reaction and discarding the results. Their opinions mattered little.
Bri held her husband back with a single gesture, ignoring Derringer’s look of derision.
Releasing a bitter laugh, Levi’s disbelieving expression made his next words unnecessary. “You know what happened.”
“It was only a slight chance, but I had hoped there was some logical explanation for what we saw,” she told him with far more patience than was her wont.
Everyone ignored the mocking snort that came from the duke’s direction.
“Are you blind?” the earl scoffed. “Five more minutes and I’d have had her skirts up over her head.” That thought caused a tightening in his middle that threatened to spread lower unless he got his thoughts under control.
Bri locked a stern expression on her cousin. “You have compromised her, Vi. I saw Silence Jersey out in the corridor. Rory is completely ruined now.”
“Bloody hell, Bri, do you not think I know that?”
He spun around and slammed his fist into the wall leaving a telltale mark. He stood there staring at the impression, his fists clenching rhythmically at his sides. He would need to pay to repair that, he thought dully.
Adam and Bri just watched him silently as he struggled to compose himself. The duke shook his head at his friend.
The earl collapsed into a chair with no thought for his bad manners. His cousin, Lady Rothsmere, still stood. Dropping his head into his hands, he released a sigh that rumbled from his chest.
He hated what was happening but he couldn’t go back and change anything now. He wasn’t sure he would even if he could. No, that wasn’t right. He’d lock the door, he thought with a twinge of his usual sense of the ridiculous.
With a huge sigh, Levi looked up at his cousin and her husband. “I know I have ruined her,” he said with far more calm than before. “And I will spend the rest of the Season trying to convince her of that.”
“Oh, I think she will agree readily enough that she is ruined,” Adam inserted with a frown. “Everyone she meets will be sure to let her know in some way. I don’t think even Derringer here could have effected such a splendid scandal,” he added with sneer aimed in the duke’s direction. The duke, of course, merely bowed in recognition of the truth of the statement.
“What are you going to do?” Bri inquired, her brow furrowed and a distinct expression of concern marring her features.
“I am going to marry the chit.” His dark brows drew down into a V. “What did you think I would do? Let her live in a hell of my creation all by herself?”
“And if she doesn’t agree with you?” Adam asked then.
“She will not,” Derringer inserted confidently.
Levi’s look of annoyance encompassed both gentlemen. “I’ll convince her to marry me if it’s the last thing I do,” he said determinedly. “Even if it takes the rest of my life to do it.”
“Perhaps you should ask her to tell you the truth before you decide to align your name with hers,” the duke offered, one finger tapping his chin.
Everyone swung around to stare at him. “What?” Adam asked.
Derringer shrugged, waving his hand in the air. His attention never wavered from his friend. “That girl is full of secrets, Vi. Her love or yours may not be enough to see you through.”
It was the earl’s turn to scoff. “Loves me? The devil she does! She hates me, Hart. And she has every right to her feelings, too, after tonight.”
The duke shrugged and actually looked confused. “Does a woman respond that way to a man she hates? I must test this theory.” He fell silent, contemplating his clueless friend.
Levi stared at Derringer for a few tense moments. He remembered thinking that Aurora seemed to find it very easy to lie. He remembered how she had kept her illustrious family connections a secret. He remembered wondering what other things she was hiding from him.
And he found he didn’t care. He wanted her. He would marry her even if he had to kidnap her and spirit her away to Gretna Green and marry her over the anvil against her will.
And she would fight him every step of the way, he knew.
Levi leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and stared at the floor between his feet. She would fight him forever if he forced her to do anything. He would never win her love if he did that.
That’s what he wanted more than anything. He wanted her love.
“Damn her,” he muttered to the floor. “And damn me for being fool enough to fall in love with her.”
~~~~~~
Aurora wept miserably in the arms of her dearest friend. Miss Ellison just patted her on the back, telling her everything would come out right in the end.
“I am sure he will do the honorable thing and offer marriage, my dear. He is a gentleman, after all.”
“That is no comfort,” she muttered into Miss Ellison’s shoulder.
Aurora was in love with Lord Greville. He desired her only and now he would have to marry her. She wouldn’t do it, she swore fiercely. She wouldn’t ruin his life by chaining him to a woman that he couldn’t possibly love. She would bear the scandal alone and try to make a life for herself in spite of the persecution she was sure to have to endure because of it all.
She couldn’t marry him, anyway. If he discovered the extent of her deception, he would come to hate her and that she simply could not bear.
Lady Connor sat on her other side and took her hand. “Do not despair, my dear,” she said very softly. Her own violet eyes glimmered with sympathetic tears. “He will do the honorable thing, I am sure of it.”
Verena had meant her words to be comforting. It was a complete shock when her friend erupted from her seat with a growl of frustrated rage.
“Why does everyone believe a simple wedding ceremony will solve everything? Besides, I doubt I could get permission to marry a gambling wastrel such as Levi Greville!” She started pacing, her angry steps taking her from the settee to the fireplace and back.
Verena glanced from Aurora to Miss Ellison, her brow knit with confusion. “Permission? Are you not in place as a sort of guardian?” she asked the latter.
“Indeed I am,” the older woman assured her. “However, the trustees would want more than just my word that Lord Greville is a suitable match. His reputation for gambling is a decided mark in his disfavor.”
Verena shared a significant look with her husband, who inserted calmly, “Surely they cannot deny him, under the circumstances?”
Aurora stopped before the fireplace, throwing over her shoulder, “Oh, they’ll let me marry him, as I am old enough to decide for myself. They just won’t…never mind.” Her shoulders tensed as she turned around to face her friends. “None of that matters. I will not marry him.”
Closing her eyes, Aurora forced herself to calm. Her anger was accomplishing nothing. When she had her emotions under control, she continued.
“I am so sorry. This is not your problem,” she told the small group as one. “I have to take responsibility for my actions and as much as I would like to simply pretend none of this has happened, I can’t. I cannot marry Lord Greville even if he does do the honorable thing and asks me. I simply can’t do that to him.”
She smiled sadly at the idea of how wonderful her future could be with Levi’s love to warm her and carry her through the difficult life that she had created for herself. If only she had never met the handsome earl. “If only I did not love him so very much,” she whispered.
~~~~~~
The resultant scandal was of epic proportions. Aurora hid in her little house in Mayfair and refused to leave. She refused to see anyone and rarely left her bed. The only person who managed to get anywhere near her was her maid and Rhiannon.
She barely noticed when her invitations to balls, routs, breakfasts, and any other gathering planned were rescinded with the bare minimum of civility. She’d lost her vouchers for Almack’s after the duke’s interference and Aurora had felt the social sting of having lost them. She didn’t even blink when Ellie informed her of the loss of all the other invitations. Aurora did not care for the ways of the Ton, so what did she care if they didn’t want her anymore?
What a scandal it would be to reveal the extent of her wealth! Some of Society would fall over themselves to regain her favor. They could all go to the devil, Aurora thought. She no longer wanted their good opinion.
The only invitations that were not taken back was a dinner party given by Lady Connor Northwicke and a picnic in Surrey held by the Countess of Rothsmere. These, Aurora declined.
~~~~~~
It was with some considerable interest that the Duke of Derringer embarked on a whole new mystery. He was becoming bored in his passive role of nanny to his harebrained friend and looking into Aurora Glendenning’s past was proving far more intriguing than he’d ever imagined.
Tracking down his favorite bully-boy, the duke made his way into London’s East End. After questioning several unsavory characters the like of which Derringer’s companions would be shocked to see, he’d learned enough to know that Aurora Glendenning had far more to fear than she realized.
The duke was returning home when he decided to visit a certain bird and tie up that loose end as well. He couldn’t have wronged mistresses going around making trouble for honest citizens.
He entered Mayfair, finding it a rather ironic coincidence that Levi’s mistress and his would-be bride lived so near each other.
Did they know?
Derringer thought not. If Raven Emerson had realized how close her nemesis lay her head, there was no knowing what might have befallen Aurora.
He murmured something to that effect to his horse. Satan whinnied in response, making Derringer’s companion grunt.
“What?” he asked Bruiser. “Don’t you find it rather an odd occurrence that the mistress and the fiancée reside in the same street and have never met in that street?”
“Odd,” Bruiser grunted in agreement.
“Exceedingly.”
Satan chose that moment to rear up, neighing in anger. Derringer brought him under control, cursing at whatever twit had spooked the beast.
As Satan eased his tension, Derringer caught a glimpse of a man, blond hair gleaming in the sun, darting between horses in a bid for freedom. Derringer considered reaching for the pistol he kept ready and decided against it. There was time enough to deal with Aurora’s sinister watcher.
Being a duke did have some benefits, he thought moments later as he was ushered into Raven’s pretty front parlor.
The Ebony Swan stood with her back to the window, her exotic features blanked of all expression.
“Lord Derringer. What brings you by?”
“Simple curiosity, Miss Emerson.” He sauntered in, his easy movements misleading to the ignorant. He studied her carefully, moving until the light from the window was on her face instead of shrouding it in glare. He saw wariness in her gaze, something that never would have been visible if she hadn’t been so confused by her feelings for Lord Greville.
“You are not the actress you once were, I think.”
One exquisitely elegant brow arched at his comment. “You have come to insult me?” Her voice came out a throaty purr, a tone he knew she’d practiced.
Derringer chuckled lowly. “Don’t try to use your wiles on me, my dear girl.”
A very Gallic shrug was Raven’s only response.
Finding a chair, the duke lowered himself into it, showing her with just one action how little he considered her a lady.
She smiled. “I don’t need an ill-bred duke to show me how far beneath him I am,” she informed him stoically.
“Would you like to be beneath me?”
A very slight, very secretive smile was her only response to his provocative query. “What the devil do you want?”
He cocked his head to one side, studying her. He noted the determinedly relaxed set of her shoulders, the carefully uninterested air and, as the seconds passed, the dawning anxiety in her black eyes.