Regency Diaries of Seduction Collection: A Regency Historical Romance Box Set

by Lucinda Nelson

  She reacted so easily to his touch, so eagerly, that Eric knew that this seduction was no trick. She really must desire him.

  They broke apart breathless, but Eric kept her close, leaning his forehead against hers.

  “You know,” he said, trailing his index finger along the edge of her neckline, imagining the soft skin of her bosom that rested just beneath her clothing. “I always thought, when you didn’t answer my letters, that you had forgotten me. Or that you must not be interested in me.”

  “Never that,” Charlene said fiercely, turning her head up for another kiss. This time, when he slid his tongue into her mouth, she moaned, her fingers twisting in the fabric at his back.

  When Eric finally let her go a few minutes later, her lips were dark, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes bright. She trailed her tongue absently along her abused bottom lip, already looking as though she’d been thoroughly ravished.

  For a moment, Eric wondered how little it might take to make her spill over in ecstasy. Could he bring her to the brink with just his mouth, nibbling and sucking along her body? Perhaps his fingers, sliding deep inside of her warm entrance?

  He had half a mind to lay her out right here on the divan and have his way with her, but he held his passions in check. Too much too soon and he was sure that he would frighten her. He had no desire to do that.

  He caught her hands and led her to the divan, though, sitting close enough that he could feel her warmth against his thigh. Charlene leaned into him, putting her head against his shoulder and tracing absent patterns against the back of the hand that still held hers.

  “It was never that I wasn’t interested,” Charlene promised him. “You must realize, however, that you have half the women of England after your betrothal.” She paused. “I saw you at the ball, dancing with Lady Annabelle.”

  Eric groaned and put an arm around Charlene’s shoulders, holding her close. “She has made it quite obvious that she’s interested in me,” he allowed.

  Charlene grinned up at him. “You don’t sound very thrilled with that,” she said, sounding thoroughly satisfied with that answer.

  Eric had to grin at her. “Would you have been jealous if you thought that I was interested?” he asked her curiously.

  “I was jealous,” Charlene admitted, not seeming ashamed of the fact. “When I saw the two of you there in the garden, why, I wanted nothing more than to interrupt you. I needed to find Matilda, though. And anyway, I didn’t think it was any of my business, whom you chose to be intimate with.”

  “Well, rest assured that I would rather have spent that evening with you,” Eric told her, nuzzling the smooth skin just below Charlene’s earlobe and hearing the way her breath caught.

  He breathed out his next words against her skin: “Of course, I would rather have spent that evening with you in private.” There was no doubting the meaning in his words, and he could feel Charlene’s shiver.

  He pulled back, smiling at her, and watched as a blush again stained her pale skin. “And you?” he asked her. “Any paramours that I ought to know about?”

  He was simply teasing her, and so he was surprised to see the way she flinched and turned away. “Not exactly,” she sighed unhappily.

  Immediately, Eric was worried. “What does that mean?” he asked her, sliding further away. Was she betrothed to someone? How could he not have known?

  Then again, how could he have been so foolish as to think that one such as herself would be unattached? She was beautiful, intelligent, and charming. Of course someone else must have noticed that fact.

  “Lord Ambrose DuBois Johnson came to see Aunt Helene and I the other day,” Charlene admitted, picking at a loose thread on her sleeve. Eric frowned at the change of subject, but he didn’t want to pressure her.

  “Myself as well,” he told her.

  Charlene gave him a shocked look. “Why would he come to see you?” she asked.

  “Seems a certain warden likely wasn’t happy with the way I pulled rank on him,” Eric admitted wryly. “The Marquess was very clear that I’m not to interfere or to bring you back to Newgate, unfortunately. I’m sure that if you’d like to visit your father again, though, we can find some way.”

  Charlene shook her head. “I’m sorry if I’ve gotten you into trouble,” she sighed.

  Eric laughed. “Lord Ambrose will give me no trouble,” he promised the young woman. “I am worried about the way he is handling the investigation with your father, however. It seems he’s made up his mind that your father must be guilty, and he isn’t willing to listen to any other facts.”

  “I had the same fear,” Charlene said, sounding worried.

  “I’m sure there’s some way that we can clear his name, though,” Eric said, before she could become too distraught. “After all, I did promise that I would help.”

  Charlene was quiet for a long moment, and Eric wondered if she had lost her faith in him. Finally, she looked up at him. “When Lord Ambrose came to see me, he did suggest one way that I might save my father,” she admitted quietly.

  “What is it?” Eric asked, immediately wary. People like Lord Ambrose didn’t help people like Dr. Ellington for free, and based on what Eric had seen of the man, he didn’t much care to proclaim the doctor innocent. What might possibly change his mind?

  Charlene took a deep breath. “He suggested that if I were to promise my hand to him, then he would make the charges go away,” she told Eric, and suddenly he was able to make the connection from their earlier conversation.

  Charlene didn’t have any paramours that he should know about, but she did have the Marquess attempting to blackmail her into a no-doubt ugly marriage. Eric felt his blood boil at the thought.

  “I hope you told him no!” Eric blurted out. “You must have heard the rumors about his first wife’s demise.”

  Charlene nodded, her face pale and unhappy. “I’ve heard the rumors,” she agreed quietly. “But I don’t know that I can tell him no.”

  She looked away from Eric, laughing bitterly. “Of course the last thing I want in this world is to marry Lord Ambrose. At the same time, though, this might be the only way to save my father.”

  “Surely not,” Eric said, shaking his head. “There must be some way that we can prove his innocence.”

  Charlene shrugged one shoulder, her expression gone distant. “I never thought that I would marry anyone,” she said. “Of course, I always hoped that one day you would come back for me, but I was under no illusions.”

  She bit her lower lip and shook her head. “I don’t want to marry the Marquess, but if I scorn him, then it is certain that he will send my father to hang.”

  “No,” Eric said firmly. He grasped both of Charlene’s hands in his own.

  “Charlene, I swear to you that I will never let you marry this man. I will do everything in my power to prove your father’s innocence. If it means that I have to go above the Marquess’ head to the magistrate himself, then that’s what I will do.”

  He smiled crookedly at her. “You know, being a duke does have its perks. I have connections that the Marquess could never dream of.”

  Charlene smiled weakly at him. “But what can you really do? We haven’t any idea what’s truly happened. Father doesn’t even know who might have framed him.”

  “I’m sure there’s some way to get to the bottom of this,” Eric told her. “If I have to talk to everyone in the entire country to clear your father, then that’s what I will do. You keep the Marquess interested in you for now. Don’t make him any promises, but don’t deny him either.”

  He hated the thought of her having to string the Marquess along, but he knew it was for the best for now. It would buy them time.

  He only hoped that it would buy them enough time to clear Dr. Ellington. Otherwise, he might just have to poison someone himself.

  Charlene nodded, leaning into him once more. “Thank you,” she whispered against his chest. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Eric
stroked her hair. “Everything is going to be all right,” he promised her. He only hoped that he could deliver on those words.

  Chapter 13

  Miss Charlene Ellington

  In the aftermath of Lord Ambrose’s visit, Charlene had found herself feeling distraught and unhappy. She knew that she needed to tell Aunt Helene about the Marquess’ proposal, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that for the time being.

  She did wonder what her aunt would have to say about the proposal. Helene herself had never been married. She claimed that she wouldn’t put up with a man who didn’t act as though she was his whole world, yet she had no need for a second shadow.

  Thus, there was no reason to have a husband. Although she had introduced Charlene to society in the hopes of making a match for her niece, she hadn’t seemed bothered that Charlene remained unmarried.

  Yet if this was the only means of saving Helene’s dear brother, then surely her aunt would see Charlene’s refusal as the height of betrayal. As a means of turning her back on her family. She would likely see it as Charlene’s duty to marry the Marquess.

  Charlene still felt sick at the thought of giving her hand to Lord Ambrose, however. It wasn’t just the fact that it went against every notion of justice that Charlene had ever had.

  The investigator shouldn’t be able to blackmail her in order for justice to be done to her father.

  If Dr. Ellington was innocent, and Charlene was still sure that he was regardless of whatever evidence they might think they had against him, then the innocent man should walk free.

  Besides that, though, Charlene couldn’t believe the nerve of the man. He didn’t deserve her, she was sure of that. And moreover, she was sure that the man knew that, or else he would have asked her while her aunt was present.

  He would have asked her without having to blackmail his way into getting her.

  She felt depressed, the more she thought about it. It was all so wrong. Even the women she knew with unhappy marriages had at least had some happiness out of the courting.

  Charlene had been denied even that, and she was sure to have an even unhappier marriage. Yet if she could do anything to save her father, then she must.

  She hadn’t been sure that she should say anything to Eric. Of course, he claimed he was trying to help her save her father. If there was some way that she might do that, then she owed it to him to at least mention it.

  Except, what did he care if the Marquess wanted to marry her? That kiss in the carriage had been nothing more than nostalgia for when they were younger and more carefree, she was sure.

  She finally made up her mind that she had to see him either way, simply to see if he had learned anything more.

  She ought to at least tell Eric that the investigator seemed to think that the case was as good as solved and that they were running out of time. Perhaps she would keep the Marquess’ proposal to herself.

  All her plans had gone out the window, though, when she had actually seen Eric. He was like a breath of fresh air. The one solid thing in her life right now, when so much was up in the air.

  She was in his arms almost before she had realized that she had moved. Perhaps it wasn’t right for her to be so forward with him, but Eric hadn’t seemed to mind.

  And then they had been kissing, and then the next thing she knew, she was telling him about the Marquess’ proposal.

  She left his place confident that Eric would do what he had said, though. That he would find some way to prove her father’s innocence, and that if the Marquess tried to do anything underhanded, he would use his connections to ensure that justice was still served and that her father wasn’t sent to hang.

  She breathed a little easier that night, and for the first time since this whole ordeal had started, she slept well, dreaming of nothing more than Eric’s body curled around hers.

  If only those feelings of contentedness could have lasted into the next day.

  Charlene knew that there was something amiss when Helene knocked on her door and burst into her room while Charlene was still getting dressed with the help of her maid.

  “Oh Charlene, you’ve really done it this time!” the woman snapped. She looked at the maid. “A moment alone, please.”

  The maid scurried away, and Helene took her place, forcefully lacing Charlene into her bodice. “You’re the talk of the town this morning, you know that?”

  “Whyever for?” Charlene asked worriedly.

  “Someone spotted you leaving the duke’s house. Alone! The rumors are everywhere.” Helene sounded angrier than Charlene had ever heard her.

  As well she might. The last thing her family needed right now was this sort of blow to their reputation.

  Charlene could barely breathe, and not only because Helene was showing no mercy as she cinched the young woman into her clothes.

  Of course she knew there was a risk in going alone to Eric’s house. But, she had figured, the two of them had made it all the way to Newgate and back without being discovered.

  It should be safe in the privacy of his house. And she had needed to talk to him. What was she to do?

  Now, she felt foolish. She should have told Helene what she was planning a long time ago. She should have asked for the woman to accompany her to Eric’s, even if it meant that the two of them couldn’t be as free with one another.

  She tried to clear the air now. “Auntie, you know it wasn’t like that,” she said, turning to face Helene. “Lord Eric is helping me clear Father’s name. That’s all.” She paused. “Father and I saved his life once, a long time ago. He’s merely paying us back.”

  Helene’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t excuse your behaviour,” she snapped.

  She shook her head. “Oh, what your father would have to say to you, if he only knew. Bad enough, that time that you were caught riding astride that horse. Now society has no choice but to speculate that that horse isn’t the only thing that you’ve been astride.”

  “I haven’t!” Charlene said, aghast to hear her aunt say anything of the kind. But she felt guilty, knowing that Helene was only telling her what half the women in the city must be saying about her. “All we did was talk, I swear it.”

  “Then you should have had someone else with you as you talked,” Helene said tartly. “No, don’t give me that look. You know it’s true.”

  Charlene ducked her head but was spared from responding by a knock at the door. One of the servants poked his head inside. “Lady Helene? Miss Ellington? Lord Yardley is here.”

  Charlene winced yet again. Lord Yardley was Miss Matilda’s father. If he was here, there could only be one reason: he had heard the rumors, and he was here to fire her.

  She couldn’t possibly be a suitable role model and escort for his daughter if she herself was gallivanting unchaperoned with the young duke.

  “Well?” Helene said acidly. “He’s not here to see me! And if you’re hoping that I’ll bail you out of this mess, you can think again.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I suppose I don’t need to remind you that the stipend that Lord Yardley pays you, albeit not much, is our only income currently, with your father in prison.”

  Charlene flinched. She wanted to explain things further to her aunt, but she knew better than to keep her employer waiting. She hurried downstairs.

  “Lord Yardley,” she said, sweeping into a curtsey the moment she entered the room.

  “How dare you deceive me into putting my daughter into your care,” Lord Yardley snapped.

  “The duke and I didn’t do anything of ill repute,” Charlene said desperately. “Lord Yardley, as I’m sure you’ve heard, my father is currently under investigation with regards to the death of Lord Henrich.

  “Duke Cumberland is only helping me attempt to clear my father’s name. I simply went there to tell him that Lord Ambrose believes my Father will be sentenced soon and that we’ve little time left to find out who was really at the bottom of Lord Henrich’s poisoning.”

  Lord Yardley shook hi
s head. “I knew the moment I heard about your father that I should have fired you,” he said.

  “But not only are you the daughter of a man accused of murder, you have proven yourself to be a woman of low morals. A dalliance with the duke, my God. You are no fit company for my daughter.”

  Charlene gaped at the man, hardly believing his words. He, like everyone else, seemed certain that her father was guilty. And he wasn’t listening to her with regards to the duke.

  There had been no dalliance. Sure, she had been seen alone at his house, but that didn’t mean anything.

  She knew it was no hope, though. She and Eric had only kissed, and no one had any proof of even that. But they didn’t need proof for their imaginations to run wild.