“Don’t just stand there admiring the pretty paper,” she commanded him. “Open it.”
Alex gave his mother a pointed look. “Liana wanted a private moment, Mother.”
“Oh.” Lady Courtland’s cheeks turned a most becoming shade of pink. “It’s been so long since your father and I... I’d forgotten.” She turned to give her son and his bride the privacy they’d sought—the privacy she’d intruded upon.
“Mother, before you go...” Alex reached out and took his mother’s hand, brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Have I thanked you for arranging all this—” He gestured toward the tables laden with food and drink. “On such short notice?”
“On no notice, Alexander.” His mother laughed. “I could not have done it if Miranda hadn’t alerted me to the situation—”
He’d wondered how his mother had learned of his plans. Now, he knew. Miranda. The meddling Matchmaker of Mayfair.
“—and if she and her mother, Lady St. Germaine, had not pitched in to help. Nor could I have done it without the help of Lady Manwaring and the bishop and a small army of staff members.” She surveyed the garden and nodded in satisfaction. “Speaking of Lady Manwaring, she’s motioning to me. I purchased host and hostess gifts for Bishop and Lady Manwaring and presented Uncle Charles with the lovely Ming vase he admired…”
“Thank you.”
“I also prepared money boxes with gold coins for you to present to the staff here today. I didn’t know what to do about your attendants…”
“I’ve taken care of it.” He patted his breast pocket. He hadn’t known he was supposed to present gifts to the bridal party until the jeweler had tactfully asked him if he would like to see an assortment of gifts suitable for that purpose.
Alex had purchased a new silver compass on a chain for Daniel from Dalrymple’s to replace the one Daniel had lost on his last mission across the channel and had made him a present of a brand new rifle.
The rifle—the first in production of the latest model manufactured by The Gilpin Small Arms Company in England—which the British Board of Ordnance had contracted to produce in secret and in large numbers, and which Alex had appropriated from one of Napoleon’s spies while in Paris, wasn’t supposed to exist yet. A fact Daniel found as puzzling as Alex had when he’d taken it off the dead spy who had tried to kill him.
The Gilpin Small Arms Company had yet to produce the first run of weapons for the British army. The war had ended before the rifles were completed and production had naturally slowed, almost to a standstill. The British army still wanted the rifles, but there was no longer any hurry to rush them into production.
The weapon, the most modern and accurate yet—more accurate than even the Prussian Jäger rifle—was something no French spy should know about, much less possess. It was designed and manufactured exclusively for use by the British army. Alex had meant to keep it for himself, but had decided to give it to Daniel, who had expressed a desire for one the moment he learned of its production, as a reward for scrambling up walls and over rooftops with him.
He had given it to Daniel as they’d parted earlier that morning. Daniel, to go home to Miranda for an hour or so of sleep and Alex to return first to Ellsworth Court to see who appeared and then home to change before making his way to Lord McElreath’s rented townhouse to intercept Felix Rothermere’s bride.
Daniel had been surprised and genuinely pleased with the gift. “A Gilpin A-1 Rifle.” He’d held it in his hands, weighing the perfectly balanced weapon, before sighting down its brass sights. “Wherever did you manage to get one?”
Alex told him.
Daniel was immediately alarmed. “In Paris?”
Alex nodded. “They’re already in use. And deadly accurate. The coast patrol had them in Calais. I noticed as I was running the blockade.” He grimaced. “Their shooting was better than usual. They must be smuggling them in there.”
Daniel rubbed the place on his side where he’d been shot on his last trip across the channel. “They were pretty good shots the last time I was there.”
“They’re better with these,” Alex said. “I was able to see one up close, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on that one. I had to wait until the next man made a fatal miscalculation.”
“Something is definitely amiss,” Daniel said. “These rifles shouldn’t be available to anyone, let alone the French.”
“I agree.” Alex ran a hand through his hair. “With peace being negotiated in Vienna and Napoleon being confined to Elba, things should be slowing down and returning to normal, but they’re not. Everyone is on edge.” He looked at his friend. “I haven’t been shot at in months and suddenly, I’m shot at twice in one trip. Something big is about to happen. I feel it in my bones. And now, this…”
“Consider yourself well out of it for the time being, Alex.”
“I don’t want to be out of it, Daniel,” Alex told him. “I want to be in the thick of it. I want to do something.”
“You are,” Daniel reminded him. “You are saving Colin’s sister so he can continue his vital work. Who knows? Colin and Gillian may be the ones to figure it out.” He patted Alex on the shoulder. “You’re exhausted. Go home. Get a bit of rest. You’re getting married tomorrow.”
He hadn’t gone home to rest. He’d gone there to change into his formal morning suit and to pick up the special license he kept in his safe as well as the marriage contracts his solicitor, according to his butler, had delivered at daybreak, and the remainder of the wedding gifts he’d purchased for the attendants and special guests.
The mission hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d hoped or exactly as planned, but it was done. And here he was about to present gifts.
For Miranda, he’d purchased a strand of perfectly matched black South Sea pearls. For Caroline, a heart-shaped gold locket marked with a small diamond, which Dalrymple had assured Alex was a suitable gift for a young lady not yet out in society. He was gifting his mother and mother-in-law with heart-shaped diamond pendants, one of which he feared might turn up in a pawn shop in the near future. Liana’s father would have his current gaming debts paid in full and be warned that Alex would not pay a penny on any new gaming debts should Caroline’s locket or Lady McElreath’s diamond pendant mysteriously go missing. And Alex intended to encourage Caroline to tattle to him or to Liana if they did.
“Very good.” His mother nodded her approval. “I’ll let your guests know you and Lady Courtland are on your way.” She smiled at her son. “Don’t take too long.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
Tears shone in his mother’s eyes. “It was my very great pleasure and very great honor to do it for you, son. You made me very proud today. I know your father would be equally proud.” She sniffed into a lace handkerchief. “I am delighted with your choice of a wife.” She managed a smile for Liana.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Liana smiled back at the frighteningly formidable woman who looked and sounded like a most loving mother.
Lady Courtland blew the two of them a kiss as she hurried over to Lady Manwaring and made her explanations.
Alex watched his mother go, then held up the gift Liana had given him. “May I?”
“Please do.”
He wasn’t subtle. Alex untied the ribbons, ripped the paper off the box, and opened it to reveal a set of gold sleeve buttons—cuff links—as the dandies and fashion arbiters had begun calling them, each set with a cabochon emerald. Lifting one from the box, Alex held it up to admire it. “Liana, they’re quite handsome. Distinctive without being ostentatious.”
“Like you,” she said. “And they match my wedding gown.”
“They match your eyes.” Inordinately pleased by her compliment and the gift, Alex extended his arm, pushing the sleeve of his morning coat up to expose his shirt cuff. “Please put them on for me. I’d like to wear them.”
Liana exchanged the gold cuff link engraved with the script letter C for the gold and emerald one, repeating the process
on the other sleeve cuff before handing him the engraved cuff links.
“Thank you, my lady.” Alex pocketed his original cuff links, then shot his shirt sleeves into place, leaving the proper amount of cuff visible beneath the arm of his coat in order to show off Liana’s wedding gift. “I venture to say the other men present will be green with envy at my choice of wife and at her taste in gentlemanly accessories.”
“You’re too kind.”
He met her gaze and the one he gave her was sober. “No, not kind at all.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“Fortunate.”
Chapter Ten
“And the fruits will outdo what the flowers have promised.”
—Francois de Malherbe, 1555-1628
Alex heaved a sigh of relief as the wedding breakfast drew to a close. He’d accepted the toasts, accolades, congratulations and felicitations of family, friends, old schoolmates, and church and club members and been feted and fed and had presented a fortune in thank you gifts to those who had made the wedding and the breakfast possible. Now he craved nothing more than some time alone to contemplate the morning’s events.
Glancing to his right, Alex noted that Liana seemed to be holding her own among the wedding guests, many of whom had been invited by his mother for the express purpose of surrounding the bride with formidable names and titles to lend credence and respectability to her sudden wedding to him following a published wedding announcement to Rothermere. She had to be exhausted, but she seemed more than capable of handling society matrons who belonged to the myriad of clubs and charities to which his mother belonged—including two of the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s—Lady Cowper and Mrs. Drummond-Burrell.
Lady Cowper was young and a daughter of the scandalous Lady Melbourne. Long accustomed to enduring criticism and gossip about her family, Lady Cowper wasn’t one to hold this morning’s aborted wedding against an innocent victim of someone else’s machinations.
Mrs. Drummond-Burrell was one of the chief enforcers of the rules of Society and of the Assembly Rooms, but she was also Scottish. The daughter of the 11th Earl of Perth, Mrs. Drummond-Burrell had taken a fancy to the Scottish Lady McElreath and by extension, Liana, and would do what she could to smooth the way for the new Marchioness of Courtland.
“Thank you for coming, my lord. We are honored to have you attend.”
Alex overheard his bride bidding farewell to a prominent member of the House of Lords and moved closer, unabashedly eavesdropping. “I know the wedding was sudden. I appreciate the effort you made to be here.” Liana gave a little laugh and Alex thought that her sister was right. Mrs. Siddons could not have done any better. His new marchioness could rival any actress currently trodding the boards—including the Great Mrs. Siddons. A smile curved the corner of his mouth as he listened to her complimenting his mother. “I know Lady Courtland can be most formidable, my lord, but only because there is nothing she would not do for her son. Should I be fortunate enough to have a son one day, I will model my behavior on hers and that of my mother as well.”
Liana looked up and met Alex’s gaze.
“My mother and Lady McElreath are not the only formidable women present here today, Lancaster. My marchioness is equally formidable and quite irresistible.” Alex reached over and took his bride’s hand. “I should have realized it would be nigh on impossible to keep our betrothal private for as long as we managed. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate Rothermere’s gambit to force Lord McElreath’s hand.” He didn’t bother to deny the scandal Rothermere had created or McElreath’s part in it. Nor did Alex back away from the enmity that existed between him and Felix Rothermere. The scandal at St. Bartholomew’s was already making its rounds among members of the ton. The best he could do was mitigate the damage to Liana’s reputation. “You may be certain my marchioness is in no way responsible for Lord Rothermere’s presumption. She was the innocent maligned.”
Lancaster harrumphed. “I must say I was surprised to learn you were betrothed to anyone, Courtland, much less to McElreath’s daughter. I took you to be a lifelong bachelor.”
Alex pinned the peer with a hard gaze. “I’m a sitting marquess with a duty to my name, title and the Courtlands who came before me. I don’t deny that I have thoroughly enjoyed my bachelor days, but no responsible marquess remains a bachelor forever. I merely waited for the right young lady to cross my path. And make no doubt about it, my marchioness is the right young lady for me.”
“The father is a liability,” Lancaster warned.
“His daughter is not.” Alex shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, the new Lady Courtland’s worth far exceeds any supposed shortcomings of the father.”
“Married.” Lancaster shook his head. “I would not have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it for myself. You, of all people, caught in the parson’s mousetrap.”
“I wasn’t caught in the parson’s mousetrap,” Alex corrected. “I stepped into it quite willingly.” He smiled at his bride. “And I look forward to spending my life inside it.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.” He gave Liana’s fingers a reassuring squeeze.
“I never took you for a romantic, Courtland.”
“I never took you for a soothsayer, Lancaster.”
Lord Lancaster shrugged his shoulders and walked over to join Lord Royston, another Member of Parliament in attendance.
Liana waited until the gentleman was out of earshot before she spoke. “Who was that odious man?”
“Lord George Calvin Brodrick is the 4th Viscount Lancaster from Pepper Harrow in Surrey. I find him to be priggish rather than odious and exceeding long-winded when addressing Parliament.”
Liana giggled. “Whig or Tory?”
He lifted an eyebrow at that. “Tory, of course. As all good members of the Lords are.”
“Are you?” Liana asked.
“At times,” he answered honestly. “At other times, a Whig.”
“How can you be both?”
“I belong to the Tory party, but unlike a good many of its members, I’m a free-thinker. I believe in doing what I believe best for king and country. All of the country, not just the nobility and the landed gentry.”
Liana smiled, pleased with his answer. She was willing to wager her new husband had never gone hungry or worried about having a place to lay his head at night, but she liked the idea that, despite his massive wealth, he considered the welfare of the common man.
As the daughter of a staunch Tory Scottish earl, she should never have had to worry about going hungry either, but since her father’s title no longer had any wealth or real land attached to it, Liana knew how it felt to go to bed with an empty stomach, knew how it felt to be forced out of rented accommodations on the turn of a bad card. She understood economics and what it meant to be poor—and proud—so proud one did without rather than owe shopkeepers her family couldn’t pay. There had been times over the years when Liana feared her mother would starve herself to death just so her children could eat. If it hadn’t been for her brother Colin, and the money he gave their mother, they might have all starved.
Except her father.
Lord McElreath was rarely at home long enough to know the larders were bare. He dined and drank at his club and at the homes and establishments of the city’s gaming devotees. Her father had always been able to take advantage of the buffet suppers provided for the men and women who spent long hours winning and losing fortunes at the card tables. He ate whether he won or lost. The rest of the family hadn’t been as lucky. “I find it admirable a man in your position considers those less fortunate, Lord Courtland,” she told her bridegroom.
“A man in my position’s wealth and station in life has been built on the hard work of generations of men less fortunate. What sort of man would I be if I could not appreciate the sacrifices they made for my family?”
“A titled English gentleman.”
Alex smiled at the dig to his heritage by his Scottish bride. It reminded him of
his byplay with Colin. “Touché, my lady.”
Liana met his smile with one of her own. “How is it that you and Lord Lancaster are friends?”
“We’re not friends,” he said. “We’re colleagues who occasionally find ourselves on the same side of the aisle, supporting the same causes. And we’re both surprised by it.”
“Yet you invited him to your wedding.”
Alex shook his head. “My mother invited him to our wedding because he enjoys prestige and pageantry and what could be more prestigious than the sudden wedding of a marquess performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury? Lancaster is honest, but he cannot for the life of him control his love of gossip.”
“You mean for the events of this morning to become fodder for gossips?”
He shook his head. “I mean for word of our secret betrothal and subsequent marriage to become common knowledge in order to put an end to the scandal.”
“You’re counting on gossiping Members of Parliament and the ton to save my reputation?” She sounded incredulous. “You cannot be serious.”
Alex laughed. “I see you hold my peers in high regard.”
“As far as I am concerned, my lord, with the possible exception of my brother and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, you have no peers.”
“That’s as it should be, my lady.” The teasing glint was back in his eyes. “A wife should hold her husband in higher regard than the rest of the nobility.”
“I did promise to honor and obey you, my lord,” Liana said.
“Then there is no need for you to worry,” he told her. “I think we shall manage to rub along quite well together. Honor, obedience, admiration, and mutual respect is a good foundation upon which to build a marriage.”
Liana nodded in agreement. “I suppose others have been built on far less.”
“I know others that exist on far less.” Alex gestured toward the two Lady Patronesses of Almack’s in deep conversation with his mother and new mother-in-law. “I don’t require your heart, my lady. I require only the things you promised.”
A Bachelor Still Page 11