by Amelia Grey
“Did the column mention my name?”
“No, no names in this issue, but that does not mean Lord Truefitt doesn’t know. And don’t even ask how he finds out about such things. All the writers of scandal sheets have their little spies at every party. It’s simply how Society works. Something this delicious couldn’t possibly be kept from the eyes and the ears of the ton. That would be unforgivable.”
“You think that, even if I’m the one being talked about?”
Agatha sounded like she was enjoying this, but that couldn’t possibly be true.
“The proper settlement can silence the sharpest of tongues when it comes to scandal.”
Olivia cringed. She had allowed the earl to touch her and kiss her. And worst of all, she’d enjoyed it far more than she should have.
“Now, there’s no reason to fret, Livy. I’ve sent a letter to your great uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, seeking his counsel.”
“The duke? He’s not really my uncle, is he?”
“Of course he is—by way of three or four marriages to be sure, but he’s still related to you.”
“But why mention last night to him? I don’t understand.”
Agatha reached down and picked up Olivia’s discarded embroidery and looked at it. “For one thing, he’s always been a favorite of the king as well as being in excellent standing with the prince. Lord Dugdale would know this. Besides, the duke would want to be consulted in this matter as you are a distant relative and without a close male guardian.”
An unusual feeling of unease stole over Olivia. Conferring with the powerful duke seemed over the top for such an innocent—partially innocent—meeting with an earl. Was this really happening? All she had wanted to do was spare her aunt the stigma of being remembered as an old woman who had gone mad and searched houses for ghosts.
“Besides all that, I’m eager to hear what Lord Dugdale has to say for himself,” her aunt added.
Olivia was not one to run away from anything, but she didn’t want to be pushed into anything, either.
Agatha looked up from the embroidery and said, “I’ve always said you do lovely work, Livy. You have an eye for color and design.”
Olivia wasn’t going to be distracted. “Auntie, it’s time for us to quit this idea of finding a ghost and go back home.”
Agatha laid the sewing aside and looked into Olivia’s eyes. “Last night changed everything, Livy. This is home now for both of us.”
Her aunt’s words were far too final sounding for Olivia. They chilled her.
“Excuse me, Miss Loudermilk,” the housekeeper said. “The Earl of Dugdale has arrived.”
Olivia’s stomach tightened.
“Right on time,” Agatha said with a satisfied smile. “Show him in, and then arrange for tea to be served.”
Olivia watched the door as her aunt mumbled something more about their distant blood relationship to the Duke of Norfolk.
The earl walked in and Olivia’s heart tumbled. His posture was straight but not rigid. His clothing was impeccable yet he appeared comfortable. On him, the tight, intricately tied neckcloth he wore seemed commonly casual. He looked even more impressive today than he had last night. Tall, powerful, commanding.
It was madness the way her breath caught in her throat and her pulse raced at the sight of him.
Their greetings were much more formal than seemed necessary after the events of last night. The earl purposefully looked directly into her eyes. She had the feeling he was trying to intimidate her, but the only thing his magnetic stare managed to do was fascinate her.
She didn’t know why, but she found everything about him exciting.
“Is your solicitor joining us later?” Agatha asked.
“No, I’m alone. Had I thought he was needed I would have contacted him. I feel sure that by the end of our meeting this afternoon you will have realized that Miss Banning was not compromised and there is no need to involve anyone else in this matter.”
“Perhaps you are right, my lord, and perhaps you are not. We shall see.” Agatha looked down at the embroidery hoop. “Both of you please sit down while I put this away.”
Her aunt walked to the back of the room and Olivia sat down on the gold-and-green striped settee. Lord Dugdale took a chair opposite her.
As soon as Agatha’s back was turned the earl leaned toward her and whispered, “Far more clever ladies than you have tried to tie me by strings of matrimony, Miss Banning.”
Olivia drew her brows together in a tight frown. “How presumptuous of you to think I want to marry you,” she whispered back to him. “I am only appeasing my aunt by this charade.”
“Your innocent act is wearing. Drop it and admit you are trying to trap me into marriage.”
“And your arrogance is offensive, sir. I wouldn’t marry you if the prince himself demanded it.”
“Does your boldness know no bounds?”
“Not when I’m talking to an overly suspicious man who will not listen to the truth.”
“I’m sure you are aware that your actions speak louder than your words.”
It was proving difficult to best him in a war of words, but Olivia would not give up the fight.
“Why would I want to marry someone who doesn’t love me, a man who doesn’t even know me?”
“My thoughts exactly. However”—he paused as his gaze dropped to her lips and lingered—“I haven’t forgotten how well you enjoyed my kisses last night, have you?”
Olivia gasped and glanced back to Agatha. “It’s not very gentlemanly of you to even mention such a thing, especially where my aunt might hear you.”
“I’m not feeling very gentlemanly right now, Miss Banning.”
“I don’t think you ever have.”
Lord Dugdale chuckled low in his throat. His face was relaxed, handsome in laughter. But his tone was serious when he said, “I don’t like the idea of being forced to marry a fortune seeker.”
“You go too far, sir. I do not need your financial status, your protection, or your name, nor do I care for your condescending attitude.”
“Then why did I find you in my bedchamber, more than willing to accept my kisses?”
Olivia hated having to whisper when what she wanted to do was shout her outrage at this man. She glanced again at her aunt, who seemed to be taking a long time at putting away the sewing basket.
She then leaned even closer to the earl and whispered earnestly, “You are an egotistical beast. I have no desire to force you into anything. There is a true gentleman in Kent who has caught my fancy. If I marry anyone it will be him. Not you.”
“Excellent. How soon can you leave London and go back to him?”
“Not soon enough, as far as I’m concerned. It is quite clear to me now why you are the only one of the Terrible Threesome who is not wed. No lady in her right mind would marry you.”
“Oh, good. Here is the tea,” Agatha said, rejoining them and taking a seat by Olivia on the settee. “Let’s enjoy a cup while we talk, shall we?”
Olivia was steaming. She couldn’t believe her aunt seemed oblivious to the tension between them when she sat down. The earl’s dark, honey-colored eyes never left her face while her aunt poured the tea. Lord Dugdale was angry, but so was she. How dare he continue to assert that she designed to marry him?
He took the cup of tea Agatha offered but Olivia was certain his cup would remain as untouched as hers.
Agatha said, “Lord Dugdale, I sent a letter over to Claudette this morning and invited her to join us this afternoon, but I never heard from her. I assume she must have already left her house by the time my note arrived.”
“I don’t need assistance from my Aunt Claude, Miss Loudermilk.”
“An earl need help? Oh, I should think not. However, she and I were friends long before you were born and I felt I needed her here. But s
he and I shall talk another time. Right now, I’d like to hear what you plan to do about the harm you have done to my niece’s reputation.”
“If I considered that Miss Banning had been violated because of me, I would do whatever was necessary to save her reputation, but that isn’t the case.”
“Then perhaps you haven’t seen this?” Agatha set her teacup aside and pulled a sheet of newsprint from the pocket of her skirt.
Olivia cringed, knowing that it had to be a copy of Lord Truefitt’s column.
Lord Dugdale remained calm as he said, “No, I haven’t seen it.”
She extended the paper to him. “I’ll give you time to read it.”
The earl put his cup aside and quickly glanced at the paper. Olivia felt as if she were sitting on pins. She hadn’t seen the article, either.
“It mentions no names,” he said and returned the paper to her before glancing at Olivia again.
“How long do you think it will take before everyone knows her name?”
“Hundreds of scandals have surfaced over the years without names being printed.”
“Yes, but I’m sure you are aware that the names are almost always circulated by word of mouth, which is the worst kind of gossip.”
“I had hoped not to mention this, but now feel I must. When I happened upon Miss Banning in my rooms she told me she was looking for a ghost. That’s not something most intelligent, rational people do. In order to spare her embarrassment, I didn’t mention this in front of the other ladies last night. I’m sure you wouldn’t want that kind of information about her known.”
Olivia pierced him with a hard glare. “Just what are you trying to imply, my lord?”
He sent a cold stare right back at her. “I’m not trying to imply anything. I’m merely making your aunt aware of what you said you were doing in my room.”
“I think you are suggesting I’m simpleminded or perhaps that I’m insane because I search for someone from the spirit world?”
As soon as she said the words she realized that was her reaction to Agatha when she’d first mentioned looking for Lord Pinkwater.
“You said it, Miss Banning. Not I.”
“Quite frankly, Lord Dugdale,” Agatha said, “I would have rather she had been found in that bedchamber with Lord Pinkwater’s ghost than with you. It would have been much easier to explain to the ton that she was with a ghost than with you. Obviously, I think that marriage between the two of you as soon as possible should settle this affair quite nicely.”
Olivia rose from the settee. “Aunt Agatha, you know I don’t want to marry him.”
Lord Dugdale rose, too. “Miss Loudermilk, I can’t imagine you or anyone insisting I marry a young lady who goes around hunting ghosts in strangers’ houses. It goes beyond the pale.”
“I am perfectly sane, sir,” Olivia shot back at him.
“You won’t find it easy to force me to the altar, no matter that your aunt has known mine a long time.”
“Olivia, Lord Dugdale, please lower your voices,” Agatha said from where she remained seated on the settee, holding her teacup.
When they both looked down at her she continued. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to persuade or influence you or Claudette. This sort of thing is best left to a man. That’s why I sent a letter to Olivia’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, this morning asking his counsel in this matter.”
“Olivia’s uncle?”
“Yes.” Agatha paused and smiled charmingly at Lord Dugdale. “You didn’t know we were related to him?”
It was quite clear to Olivia that he didn’t know she was distantly related to the duke, a crotchety old man who was known for detesting anything that defied convention. In Society’s circles he was revered almost as much as the old king and the prince regent, too.
“I suppose I thought Claudette would have mentioned it to you. Naturally, I told him speed was of the essence. No doubt he will be in touch with you within a day or two.”
“No doubt, he will.”
Olivia looked at the earl, knowing her own expression was filled with outrage that her aunt intended to push them through this forced marriage, but when she saw Lord Dugdale’s face, she knew what people meant when they said if looks could kill.
Six
When Olivia heard the front door close behind Lord Dugdale she turned to her aunt, who was pouring herself another cup of tea. Agatha looked far too comfortable and much too pleased with herself to suit Olivia.
And Olivia had a feeling she knew why.
She walked over to her aunt and sat down in the chair that Lord Dugdale had just vacated. “You are serious about this, aren’t you?”
Her aunt remained silent, but her expression spoke volumes.
Olivia was aghast. “You want to force Lord Dugdale to marry me. Why?”
Agatha took a dainty sip of her tea before focusing her attention on her niece. “He’s an earl. It’s what he must do, considering he compromised you. Society would demand it even if I didn’t.”
This was incredible.
Olivia saw her dream of a quiet family man for a husband slipping away. “Doesn’t it matter to you that I was in that room for you, looking for Lord Pinkwater’s ghost? Doesn’t it matter that I don’t want to marry Lord Dugdale?”
Her aunt looked directly, firmly into Olivia’s eyes and said, “No, my dear, it doesn’t.”
Olivia felt as if she’d been struck across the face. “You don’t mean that.”
“Of course I do,” Agatha said, keeping her matter-of-fact tone.
“You’re telling me that what I want doesn’t count? You’ve never done that before.”
“I’ve never had to. If I had been alone when I saw you and Lord Dugdale together in his room, or perhaps even with Claudette there, maybe we could have prevented this and settled it between our two families. As it is, with Dorothy and Lady Lynette knowing and now the scandal sheets no doubt on the verge of telling all, it’s impossible for this to go away without your reputation being ruined. The only thing that will save you is marriage to him.”
Olivia didn’t understand. They had only kissed. True, it was more than one chaste little kiss, but their aunts didn’t know that.
“What about happiness, Auntie? How can I be happy with a rogue who was forced into wedlock? My mother married a man of Lord Dugdale’s reputation and lived a life of loneliness and regret. You were jilted by such a man and never loved again. How can you want me to marry a man like Lord Dugdale?”
“I’m not saying I want you to marry him. I’m saying you must marry him.” She placed her delicate cup on the tea tray and turned a serious expression on Olivia. “And as for happiness, Livy, no man can make you happy. That is something that comes from within you. Only you and the way you feel about things inside here.” She lightly touched Olivia’s chest just above her heart. “Right here in your heart is the only place where you can find true happiness.”
Surprising Olivia, Agatha then relaxed her straight shoulders and sat back in the settee and smiled. Her aged gaze affectionately brushed Olivia’s face.
“You think that because I’ve never loved but one man that I haven’t been happy all these years?” She laughed gently, briefly. “Nothing could be further from the truth, silly girl. You have brought me more happiness than I could have ever imagined. I have never regretted leaving London to be your guardian.”
Her aunt’s words touched Olivia’s heart warmly. She had always felt Agatha’s love and concern for her even though it had seldom been voiced over the years.
Olivia leaned toward Agatha and said, “Then why would you want me to leave you and marry a man I don’t know, a man who will never love me?”
“That is life. All species give up their young. I must, too. If I consent to Lord Dugdale’s wishes, all your life you will be considered a ruined woman unless you marry someone right awa
y. I couldn’t live with myself if I allowed you to carry that shame. Society will never forget, and you would never be welcomed in anyone’s home again if you don’t marry. On your mother’s grave, I won’t allow that to happen.”
“I would agree to all you said if I had intended to make a match here in London to a titled gentleman such as Lord Dugdale. My reputation is ruined beyond repair, but I want to go back to the country and marry a man like Mr. Yost.”
“Do you really think that would be possible, Livy?”
“Yes.” She smiled, thinking her aunt might be willing to consider seeing this her way.
Agatha settled more comfortably on the settee. She seemed to ponder Olivia’s words carefully before saying, “Truly, dear girl? You think Mr. Yost or someone like him will want to marry you after he hears that you were caught with Lord Dugdale in his bedchamber?”
Doubt suddenly clouded Olivia’s enthusiasm. It seemed so distasteful when Agatha put it that way. “But Mr. Yost never comes to London. He wouldn’t have to know, would he?”
“There’s mention of the incident in Lord Truefitt’s column. It’s only a matter of time before everyone knows the lady in question is you, whether or not it’s ever mentioned to your face. And even if someone like Mr. Yost agreed to marry you, do you think he would find himself at times wondering if Lord Dugdale’s lips had touched yours with passion, or if his strong hand had caressed your soft cheek, or if he held you close and whispered lovely words in your ear? Don’t you think Mr. Yost would wonder what went on during the time you were alone with the earl in his rooms?”
Olivia’s throat grew tighter with every word Agatha spoke. All the things she mentioned had happened. It was as if Agatha had witnessed her moments alone with the earl. How could she have known—but suddenly Olivia had a pretty good idea how her aunt knew.
Agatha had loved a man just like Lord Dugdale. Lord Pinkwater must have been every bit as charming and enchanting to Agatha as Lord Dugdale had been to Olivia. No doubt she and her aunt had had similar experiences with the two men.
Olivia slowly shook her head. Agatha was right. Mr. Yost wouldn’t want to marry her. No man would. She wasn’t innocent any longer. She had let Lord Dugdale kiss her and touch her and enchant her.