by Jaimey Grant
He was tired of playing games with these bloody parasites. They would learn tonight what it meant to annoy the Duke of Derringer.
~~~~~~
“It is most odd, Levi,” commented that gentleman’s wife. “I don’t want to pretend as if nothing has happened and I don’t understand why Adam has taken it upon himself to inform us that we should.”
Levi shrugged into an evening coat of dark green. He glanced at Aurora, who stood just to his left, twisting the life out of what appeared to be a silk scarf. “Rory love, he is right. Think of what a scandal will ensue should we raise a hue and cry over Rhiannon’s disappearance.” He took both her hands in his, squeezing them gently. “It will all be over after tomorrow night so take heart.”
Aurora glared at her husband. “My daughter is at the mercy of a madman and you worry about the scandal?”
Levi dropped her hands as he would drop a hot coal. “I am surprised,” he uttered scathingly. “You must not realize that if word about this gets out the world will brand you for a whore and treat Rhiannon like the illegitimate child she is. Oh, but I am sure you will come up with some lie to explain everything.”
The sound of flesh striking flesh seemed to echo in the relative emptiness of the chamber.
Levi reacted without thought. He reached out as she tried to flee, hauling her up against his hard body. His other arm snaked around her waist in an iron grip. “Much as I would like to spank you for that, madam wife,” he told her angrily, “I haven’t the time. You will finish dressing, you will accompany me to this damned rout, and when we get back, we will discuss this incident in detail.”
Eyes growing huge in her small features, Aurora nodded, her unease in the face of her husband’s anger apparent to the veriest lackwit.
Levi stared down at her, hating the look of fear in her huge turquoise eyes. He hadn’t meant to be so harsh but he was feeling the unease and anxiety just as she was. With a muttered oath, the earl covered her lips with his, kissing her until she responded. Her arms slid up around his neck and he lifted her up against him.
~~~~~~
In spite of his anger, Levi’s kiss was achingly tender, so full of love and the promise of future happiness that tears sprang to Aurora’s eyes and she held him tighter.
“Ah, Rory,” groaned her husband. “I would to God that none of this had happened.”
Aurora looked up, her eyes awash with tears, saw the suspicious brightness in Levi’s dark brown gaze and suddenly couldn’t stop her own tears from falling. She hadn’t realized, hadn’t truly believed until now that her husband was suffering as much as she was with Rhiannon’s kidnapping. Probably even more since he also had her lies to contend with. All the times she’d cried since Forester took her child were nothing compared to the agony that ripped through her in that moment.
It was a Herculean effort, but Aurora managed to shove the agony aside, leaving a bitter, dull ache in its place. A watering pot could not help Rhiannon. One tear escaped, captured on Levi’s thumb as he stroked her cheek.
“I apologize, Levi,” she told him sadly, evidence of her distress mirrored in her watery gaze and shaky voice. “I should not have struck you. I deserve your contempt and more.”
Cradling her face, he replied, “No, my love, you don’t. You made a few mistakes; so have I. I should not have said what I did. I should not have handled you so roughly. I am sorry.”
He gathered her to him, wrapping her in his warmth and safety. Aurora sighed, feeling the security seep through her and praying desperately for an end to all the miserable drama she’d instigated.
Levi held her like that for another moment, then stepped away, his hands gently holding her upper arms. “Much as I would like to stay home and prove to you how sorry I am,” he said with a gleam in his dark eyes that told her exactly what he meant, “we really should make an appearance at Lady Donner’s.”
~~~~~~
Nearly two hours later, the Grevilles descended their carriage in front of a mansion in Cavendish Square. Carriages lined the street and there were members of Society everywhere.
“Sad crush,” remarked Levi as he handed her down from the coach. He saw the bleak expression on her face. “Chin up, my sprite. If I am not mistaken, Connor and his lady are just over there and I see Adam and Bri’s carriage only three behind us.”
His wife nodded, silent, allowing him to tuck her hand in his elbow and lead her into the press of people.
Once inside, they made their way through the receiving line, up the stairs to mingle with a few of their acquaintances and then turned around to find Lord and Lady Connor waiting patiently to talk to them.
“Levi,” said the other man, a look of unease on his face.
Levi greeted him, wary of the strange expression. Then he bowed over Verena’s hand, murmured something innocuous about her appearance and turned back to Northwicke, leaving the two women to chat with false brightness.
“My sisters are about somewhere,” remarked Lord Connor distractedly. “Mama could not make it and so asked me to escort them when she discovered I’d changed my mind about attending.” He gave Levi a meaningful look. “The odd thing is, I don’t remember changing my mind.”
Levi cocked one eyebrow. “Adam convinced us to attend. He said it would be best if we pretended nothing was wrong.”
“And he is probably right. But it has never been like Adam to care what Society thought, even if it affected someone else. No,” Northwicke murmured softly, “this was not Adam’s idea.”
Just then, Adam joined them, his wife held in a grasp so tight Levi saw her wince. He had to steel himself against tearing his beloved cousin away from her husband.
Comprehension dawned and as he greeted his defiant cousin, he said lightly to Adam, “Has the little wife been giving you trouble, Adam?” Chuckling at the anger that settled in Bri’s eyes, he told him, “Thrash her if you must, but please don’t do it here. Although,” he said thoughtfully, “if you were to cause such a scandal, perhaps it would lessen the chances of ours being found out.”
Bri so far disgraced herself as to try to kick Levi in the shin. He took a step back, laughing at her mulish expression.
“Brianna love, if you do something like that again, I’ll take Levi’s advice and thrash you,” grated the baronet. His gray-green eyes were hard as rock as he looked at her. “Stop behaving like a petulant child. Next time you decide to snoop into things better left to madmen like Derringer, don’t get caught.”
Bri sent him a glare, sent a dazzling smile to Northwicke, a look that promised revenge to her cousin and wrenched her arm away from her husband’s grasp. She then went in search of Verena and Aurora.
“I honestly don’t know how you can put up with her fits and starts,” Levi told Adam, watching her leave.
“I am a bloody saint.”
The gentlemen heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to see a large dowager of indeterminate years glaring haughtily at them. Adam glared back, apparently caring little if she was offended by his speech. Northwicke bowed, taking advantage of his vast store of charm, made a pretty apology to Lady Bowers, and sent a look of reproach to his friend as soon as that lady walked off, only slightly mollified.
“Really, Adam, that was too bad of you.”
Adam favored his oldest friend with a charming grin. “It was, was it not?” he agreed.
“Have you been taking lessons from Hart on bad behavior?” inquired Levi, grinning. Then he stopped. “Where is Hart, anyway? I expected to see him here.”
“Why would you expect that?” Adam asked casually. “From what I understand, Derringer shuns ton events.”
Northwicke wasn’t fooled. “You know something,” he accused.
“Why do you say that?”
“You clenched your teeth,” the other man informed him. “You always clench your teeth when you have a secret you are not at liberty to divulge.”
Levi’s brows rose at this observation, a laugh forming on his lips.
&
nbsp; “If you so much as snicker, Levi Greville, I’ll beat you to a pulp,” warned the baronet.
Levi contented himself with an amused smile. Northwicke did laugh since the threat wasn’t directed at him and Adam had to smile but he still said nothing about the secret he supposedly carried.
~~~~~~
“You did what?” exclaimed Aurora, wide-eyed with shock. She had already known, but to hear it from the countess’s own lips made it all the more shocking.
“Shh,” warned Bri fiercely as gossipy Miss Grantham watched them with speculative interest. “Do you want the whole of Society to know?” whispered Bri.
Aurora lowered her voice. “No, of course not. But how could you?”
“Very easily, I assure you,” she replied tartly. A small groan came from Lady Connor’s direction.
“But how could you drag Doll into?”
“Oh, pish tosh,” remarked the baronet’s wife. “She has more bottom than looks claim. She was more fierce in her questioning than I was.”
A fetching blush greeted these words. “Nonsense, Bri. You exaggerate,” insisted the younger woman with a guilty look thrown in the direction of her handsome husband.
Bri saw the look and her mouth fell open. “Con is unaware?” she demanded, incredulous.
“Indeed.”
“Well, of all the…! That heartless devil!” sputtered Bri. “He told Adam about our foray into Cheapside. That…that…lick-spittle!”
“Bri!”
She gave each of her friends an unrepentant look, completely ignoring the four or five persons standing near enough to hear her slip into cant.
She lowered her voice a bit, not truly wanting to cause a scandal, even a minor one. “He is. I’ll not call him anything else when he is nothing more than a bitter talebearer, determined to make everyone as miserable as him.”
“Who?” inquired Aurora and Verena together.
“Who else? The blasted black duke with the blacker heart!”
Aurora’s lips twitched ever so slightly. “Hart told your husband you were in Cheapside?” Bri nodded. “And you are upset with him? Lord, Bri, you were buffle-headed to go there in the first place.”
Bri’s face took on an outraged expression. “I go out of my way to try to help you and this is the thanks I get. Besides, Cheapside is not dangerous. Just…barely respectable.”
“When men like Mr. Forester inhabit a place, it is no longer safe,” Verena commented, confirming for her listeners that she regretted having ventured into the City with Bri.
“Where is Lord Derringer?” asked Aurora, suddenly anxious to speak with the duke.
Bri shrugged and Verena assured her that she wouldn’t know. “Perhaps Levi knows,” suggested Bri, her grudging tone suggesting she was still angry that everyone seemed to be against her. “He does call that black devil friend, after all.”
Aurora chose to ignore this comment although she thought it was unfair of Bri to call him that. She made her way over to her husband and his friends, dimly aware that Bri and Verena were not with her, having been detained by Lord Connor’s twin sisters.
Before she could reach the safety of her husband’s side, she found her path blocked by a familiar figure in black evening dress—one she’d hoped never to see again.
“Why, hello, Lady Greville. How are you this evening?” inquired Desmond Forester smoothly, executing a graceful bow.
In other circumstances, other times, other places several years in the past, she would have found his behavior charming. Now, all she wanted to do was slap his smug face.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, repressing the urge to wring her hands in distress. Really, when had she fallen into a Gothic novel?
“I was invited, I assure you,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine. He, apparently, is a gambling crony of your husband’s.” The last word was uttered with quiet, but very real, disdain.
Aurora braced herself for the worst, knowing the real Desmond Forester as she now did. Forester turned his head, beckoning to a man of medium height with brown hair. The man was handsome in a way, she supposed, but there was a ruthlessness in his eyes that reminded her of Derringer at his worst. The only difference, and it was of monumental importance, was that where the duke had the look of a dangerous man, he still had a spark of humanity in him that anyone with a modicum of sensitivity could feel. This man, however, had the look of a veritable demon, without heart or soul or the least bit of fellow feeling. She shivered.
The man bowed before her, taking her hand up to his lips for a kiss, and Aurora had to steel herself from snatching her hand away and causing a scene.
“My dear Lady Greville, it is indeed a great pleasure to finally make your acquaintance,” murmured the gentlemen with a smile that Aurora was sure he intended to be charming.
“Thank you, Mr. Winters,” she replied stoically. “I am told you are a friend of my husband’s?”
“That I am, my lady,” he assured her. “In a manner of speaking.”
Unsure how to respond to this cryptic remark, Aurora gently disengaged her hand, murmured something like “hmm” and looked around her for escape.
“I was sorry to hear of your recent difficulties,” remarked Mr. Winters.
Aurora’s head snapped around. “What difficulties?” His tone was so benign as to be unthreatening and yet, she sensed something quite the opposite.
She couldn’t like the hellish gleam that entered her companion’s eyes. “Why, the news that you are, after all, very rich.”
“Excuse me?” Aurora hoped he couldn’t hear her heart pounding. For a second, she thought he knew about Rhiannon.
“Your vast wealth, of course, Lady Greville,” inserted Forester. “All the gentlemen are commiserating each other on the loss of your precious…self from the ranks of available débutantes.”
Aurora, in a rare show of cynicism, replied, “Yes, I am sure you are. Wealth like mine does not come up for…auction every day.”
Her loathsome companions smiled at her show of pique, sharing a meaningful glance with one another. She resisted the urge to kick them in the shins and merely stared back.
“And how is that adorable da—I mean, sister of yours?” inquired Forester with feigned interest.
Becoming suddenly still—she had not missed his slip and she was sure Mr. Winters hadn’t either—Aurora mentally prepared herself for battle. This blackguard was not going to discountenance her!
“My sister is fine, sir,” she replied with all the calm she could muster.
“That is not what I heard,” inserted Mr. Winters with an evil smile.
Panic flared, the air around her becoming chill despite the press of bodies and the hear of candles. Where was everybody? Here she was, surrounded by people and never had she felt so helpless, so scared. And just where the devil was Levi?
Her fingers sought the pendant around her neck, the same one Levi had given her the day of their betrothal as a symbol of his affection. The smooth pearls against her skin brought her a measure of solace, reminding her that Levi was never far. Just as the belief wound its comforting way around her heart, her husband’s large form became visible through a break in the crowd.
“I am loath to cut our conversation short, gentlemen”—the biggest falsehood she’d told yet—“but I see my husband beckoning to me. Please excuse me.”
~~~~~~
Levi paused in what he was saying, looked down at his wife, and wondered what had her in such a pucker. Then he looked over her shoulder.
“That bloody—!”
“No, Levi, please don’t!” Aurora caught his arm as he made to charge across the room and confront the very man responsible for Rhiannon’s disappearance.
“Levi,” said Lord Connor softly, “murdering him before the eyes of the ton will only get you clapped up in gaol. Please refrain from making a scene.” He placed a comforting hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Believe me when I say that I
know exactly how you feel.” He directed a pointed look at the man at Forester’s side. “That bastard with whom you used to play cards has been a thorn in my side since I met my wife.”
Levi calmed outwardly at these words but inside he was seething. That either of these men had the gall to appear in public was nauseating.
“Actually,” remarked Adam meditatively, “it is all to the good that Forester is here.”
Levi glared at the baronet. “How do you determine that? Unless I am very much mistaken,” he added, his arm slipping around Aurora’s shoulders and drawing her close, “those bloo…cads spoke to my wife. I don’t want her upset anymore.”
“Very noble of you, Levi,” agreed Northwicke.
“Trust me, gentlemen,” insisted Adam, “it is good that Forester is here.”
“Where is Hart?” Aurora asked suddenly, staring at all three men.
Lord Greville saw Northwicke glance at Adam, whose jaw clenched tight. Despite the obvious conclusions he was drawing from Adam’s actions, Levi could feel a smile tugging at his lips.
Lord Connor spoke up, treating Aurora to a benign expression.
“He was not able to make it. Had some…business to attend to.” His voice rose at the end, making it sound like a question rather than the statement it should have been. His glance passed from Aurora to Adam.
“He told me the same,” said Sir Adam.
“Here is Bri, Sprite. Go with her, please.”
To her credit, Aurora’s expression was frankly questioning but she did as her husband requested anyway, moving off with Lady Rothsmere. Levi was quite sure he’d hear about it later.
“Out with it, Adam. Where is Hart?”
Adam assumed a look of innocence. “I swear I have no idea.”
“Fustian! Tell me or I’ll throttle you here and now.”
Watching the baronet far closer than the other man knew, Levi could tell he was uneasy. Logic insisted his unease had everything to do with Derringer’s absence. Levi felt a sinking in his own stomach at the possibility of the duke doing something to get Rhiannon killed.
Adam sighed. “Cheapside, I assume.”