“Grace,” he lifted his head. “This. This cannot be the place or time for… I’m so weak when it comes to you, woman…“ he let out a slow shuddering breath, “But even I...should know better. I care too much about you, Grace, to insult you within sight of a crowded ball and—“
“Unhand my sister!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Damn it!
“You heard me! Unhand my sister, you vile excuse of a man!” Sterling shouted.
Michael lifted his head and surveyed the theatrical nightmare in all its full glory. He’d never heard footsteps on the gravel path approaching them, and it took one glance to ascertain that Sterling was standing on the opposite side of the lavender off the walkway and had strode on the wet grass to make a quieter approach.
Not that this detail made any difference now that Sterling’s twisted displeasure and scathing judgment was conveniently illuminated by the hand lantern that Sterling so gallantly was holding aloft to make sure that his sister’s state of dishevelment was impossible to hide.
He shifted to gently set her off of his knee, struggling to make sure he adjusted his evening coat before he stood up but the instant Grace gained her feet she moved toward Sterling, desperate to reach brother and make her case.
“It was an innocent kiss!” Grace cried out. “I…Mr. Rutherford…is very honorable and…he did nothing wrong! It was my fault! He wanted to…go back…but I…”
Michael winced. With her golden hair tumbling down her back and missing hairpins, lips swollen from his kisses and cheeks flushed—Michael was fairly certain that there wasn’t a phrase of denial in existence to overcome the image of ruin she presented.
“Shut up, Grace!” Sterling barked.
“Don’t speak to her like that again, Sterling,” Michael warned him, a strange calm overtaking him. It was the Jackal’s orchestrated performance but Michael knew his role.
“I’ll speak to my slut of a sister however I wish! What kind of “innocent kiss” requires the darkest corner of the garden?” Sterling growled. “You were on the ground like animals!”
“Hardly,” Michael muttered under his breath and did his best to gently pull Grace back against him, instinctively wanting to shield and protect her. “And lower your voice. I don’t see the need to bring out the entire party for this, do you?”
Sterling glanced back at the house and Michael groaned at the realization that his words were apparently prophetic as the verandah was already lined with spectators ogling their gathering near the garden’s farthest wall.
Shit!
Michael took a deep breath and tried another tact. “Sterling,” he began, his voice low enough not to carry, “this is a private matter and I don’t see how it aids anyone to ensure your sister’s humiliation. I would not hurt her for the world and—“
“Come to my house tomorrow morning and we will settle this as gentlemen. Unless you are dishonorable cad and refuse to come to terms!” Sterling deliberately spoke with the projection and elocution of a stage actor and Michael came within two heartbeats of striking him for it.
“Terms?” Michael had the sinking feeling he’d stepped into a trap.
“You can’t do this, Sterling!” Grace stepped away from Michael, recovering her voice. “It was my fault! He would have walked me back and—“
“That’s enough, Grace.” Sterling held up a hand to silence her and then grabbed her elbow to prepare to go. “Tomorrow, Rutherford.”
“I won’t marry him! You can’t force me to marry someone because—“
Michael winced at the open declaration of her revulsion at marrying him but it was Sterling’s bark that cut her off that sent him over the edge.
“Shut up, Grace!”
Michael gripped Sterling’s coat front and lifted him off the ground so quickly that Sterling dropped the lantern at his feet, extinguishing the light and disappointing the crowd who’d been relishing the show. “I warned you not to speak to her like that again, Porter.”
“No! Please!” Grace pleaded behind him then reached up to try to pull her brother back to earth. “It’s not worth it and I’m—I beg you, Mr. Rutherford! Sterling’s upset! I’m sure he didn’t mean to be snide and horrible. It’s sadly his…natural state…”
Michael smiled at the humor of her words and slowly set his nemesis back onto his feet. “I agree.” He made a show of smoothing out the front of Sterling’s jacket. “You’re a lucky man, Porter.”
Sterling’s fury was palpable as he straightened his clothes and rewarded his sister with a searing look of animosity. “You’ll never do that again, Rutherford.”
Sterling outstretched one hand toward his sister. “Come, Grace. It’s time to go home.”
“Sterling, I—“
“Grace, come.” Sterling’s voice was taut with anger and echoed off the stone walls. “Or we can escalate this into a brawl and despite Mr. Rutherford’s belief that he can bully his way out of this, I will have him subdued and arrested; and you will be carried out of here kicking and screaming. I’d prefer a quieter exit but at this moment, Grace Porter, I leave the choice in your hands.”
Tears finally came and Grace meekly surrendered to take her brother’s hand. She glanced back, a desperate look that gave way to her silently mouthing the words, ‘I’m sorry.’
Michael grimly folded his arms and watched as Grace was led out in disgrace.
It was the second time he was forced to let her go.
God, what a tangle! How will I ever explain it to the others without looking like a complete ass? Ashe will be like a terrier with a bone when he gets wind of this mess. Not only did I lose sight of Sterling in the first few minutes—I’m fairly sure mauling Grace in the garden wasn’t the best way to go unnoticed by Porter’s cronies.
He waited until he was sure Porter had had ample time to make his escape and see Grace safely out and then squared his shoulders to face the gauntlet ahead. He strode out of the garden, up the steps of the verandah and past dozens of strangers whose eyes watched him with raw curiosity and blatant disapproval. Some of the men hissed at him in his wake and Michael fought not to roll his eyes.
He had trouble reconciling the impulsive and sweet fire of Grace in his arms and the condemnation that swirled around him as he progressed through the salon. Guests parted in front of him as if the very brush of his coat against them would contaminate and stain.
He wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as he was angry; angry at himself for blindly putting Grace into such a horrible position, angry for forfeiting reason when the Jaded were counting on him most—and impossibly forgetting every vow he’d made to those men.
Grace.
I made her cry.
What kind of man does that?
Michael walked out of Bascombe’s, his head held high.
Tomorrow would be soon enough to get a better grip on a deadly tiger’s tail.
And forever yield the heaven of Grace’s company to Providence. As far as Michael could see, Sterling may have done him a favor. She had every reason she needed to forbid him from entering into her company. The relationship between them was painfully and abruptly severed and now he could focus on his original mission without the complexities of Grace’s direct involvement.
Sterling would pronounce him a villain and Grace would have to accept it.
And when her brother failed to come home from the East India one evening in the very near future, Michael would arrange for a fortune to fall into her grieving hands to allay the last breath of scandal she might endure.
I can do that much for her.
Even a demon can do that much.
Grace fought to stop crying, fury and shame warring to break her spirit. “That was unnecessary, Sterling!”
He sat across from her in the carriage and for a moment, she didn’t really recognize him. His lack of sympathy stung but the strange excitement in his eyes chilled her to the bone. “That was incredible! I couldn’t have planned that bette
r, if I say so myself! Not that I would have been so ham-fisted and blatant to instruct you to draw him out into a dark garden in the middle of a large ball and let him have his wicked way with you on the ground…” Sterling ran a hand through his hair and leaned back as if the weight of the world had left his shoulders. “Not as elegant as I’d hoped but there is more than one way to skin a cat!”
“Are you mad?” she whispered. “Can you hear yourself?”
“I knew he was taken with you. I knew it! How stupid of me to think it would take a bit of time for you to bring the man to a useful simmer!”
Grace gasped in shock. “What? I’m not boiling anyone alive, Sterling, and if you’re insinuating otherwise, I hate to correct you but I did not seduce Mr. Rutherford!”
Sterling shrugged. “Of course you didn’t! I doubt you would have the talent for it, which is why it is sheer luck that he fell on you anyway.”
“He didn’t—“ Grace bit her tongue, amazed at the twists and turns of the conversation. She used the palm of her hand to wipe off her cheeks, determined to gain control of her emotions. “Sterling, please heed what I am about to tell you. I. don’t. care.” She emphasized each word as if his comprehension were impaired. “I don’t care that those people think I’m…”
“Fast? A slut? A rampant little whore?” Sterling provided with an unkind smile.
Grace took a deep breath before continuing. “Nothing irreparable happened in that garden that needed anything so ridiculously drastic as a threat of terms to Mr. Rutherford. It was a kiss and nothing more! I will never agree to marry Mr. Rutherford under these circumstances or any other of your imagination or manufacture!”
“You will do as I say.”
She shook her head. “No, Sterling, I won’t. Whatever madness has seized you has nothing to do with—“
He slapped her hard enough to throw her across the seat against the carriage’s window frame and for a blazing moment, Grace forgot how to breathe as bright white pain ricocheted through her body. Her cheekbone throbbed with the force of a hammer’s blow and shock alone kept her from crying out. The assault on her senses paled next to the crushing blow against her psyche.
Never. He never before…
“Your erratic manners cause me endless trouble, sister, and you’ll rein yourself in or end up in bedlam,” he said as calmly as if they’d been discussing the mild spring evening’s weather. “I never asked your opinion on the matter and since I am your legal guardian and caretaker, you’ll submit to my wishes or I’ll finish beating you when we get home until you see reason.”
Tears filled her eyes and spilled silently down her cheeks unheeded.
Sterling sat back, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Good. We are in accord at last, dear Grace. Now, be a good girl, sit quietly and let your brother think. There are preparations to be made and while others would rush the game, I am not a man without compassion.”
She pressed one hand over her own mouth to keep a hysterical bubble of deranged laughter from slipping past her lips. Compassion? God help me…what game are we playing?
“Don’t worry, sister. You’ll make a beautiful bride.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“You’ll marry her.”
Michael didn’t move in his seat across from Sterling and held his silence for a moment. The man’s study was a small room cluttered with a collection of exotic bits and pieces in a dark mash that made Michael miss the warmth and welcome of his friend Dr. West’s library. He’d come early at Sterling’s command, but Michael Rutherford had no intention of surrendering.
Not one blessed inch of ground.
At last, Michael summoned a reply. “No.”
“What did you say?” Sterling asked, openly flabbergasted.
“I said, no. You see, there is a bit of a large hole in your net, Porter.” Michael sighed. “You’ve misjudged my character.”
“Have I?”
“I’m no gentleman to worry about my reputation, Sterling. I’m a common man and I have enough friends. What do I care if my name is struck off the invitation lists for the dry-chalk conversations of some crusted Duke’s card party or a Dowager’s childish birthday party for her dogs?” He wrinkled his nose at the notion. “I’d rather take a flogging.”
“You compromised my sister!”
“I kissed your sister. Grace is…very lovely.” Michael stiffened his spine unwilling to appear too engaged in the matter or share the truth of his affections with a man he hated. Any advantage the Jackal had sought to gain, Michael wanted to deny him. “I am willing to make an apology and offer what amends that Grace feels suitable but I’d say that should end it.”
“You ruined her! You publicly ruined her!” Sterling’s hands were splayed against his desk blotter, as if he were preparing to leap over its surface. “Are you saying you also care nothing for her reputation?”
Time to lie to your face, you blackguard.
Michael shrugged, taking on a nonchalance he hardly felt. “Grace made it clear in the garden that she has no interest in…traditional options,” Michael said calmly. “Perhaps you weren’t paying attention but before God and an entire balcony of people, she swore she wouldn’t marry me.”
“That is not her choice to make.”
“Isn’t it?” Michael asked. “Porter, our private business aside, if I thought for a moment that she was truly hurt by this or that I could amend the mistake by making a greater one, I wouldn’t argue but—“
Sterling stood suddenly and rang a bell on his desk.
It was so shockingly unexpected and oddly formal that Michael had to catch his breath. Am I about to be escorted out by an elusive footman he thinks he has on duty? Or the prune-faced housekeeper?
Michael stood slowly, desiring to be on his feet just in case the door was about to burst open with several thugs wielding knives. Before he could think of a clever jest on the matter, the door slowly opened and Grace stood in the doorway to the small room.
The glittering vision of robin’s egg blue had been replaced by grey muslin and black velvet trim but that wasn’t the only drastic change. There was no sign of the spirited creature he’d held in his arms. Her head was bowed, her face averted from him with her shoulders hunched over as she meekly stepped inside and stood against the wall.
“Greet our guest, Grace.” Sterling commanded softly.
Slowly, she lifted her face and Michael’s heart stopped.
“Good morning, Mr. Rutherford.” Her bottom lip was trembling with the effort it took her to keep her composure but it was the angry bruise across her cheek and the swollen ruin around her left eye that made his stomach churn with fury.
My God! He broke her! That son of a bitch!
“Go back to your room, Grace.”
She curtsied, not even risking another glance at Michael, before she turned to leave closing the door behind her. Michael caught a glimpse of Mrs. Dorsett waiting in the hall and the entire horrifying picture dropped into place.
“Now, before you do something stupid, Rutherford and grab my shirt collar and start bellowing about how I treat my sister, I should remind you that under the law, I am well within my rights. While you…” Sterling’s smile faded away. “You care nothing for your reputation, have proudly announced that you are no gentleman and that my sister’s standing is hardly your concern.”
Michael closed his eyes to try to absorb the white-hot rage that was exploding behind his eyelids. Why? Why didn’t I foresee this?
And then it all came to him in a single flash of clarity.
There was no way on God’s green earth that Grace Porter was going to remain under her brother’s roof for a minute more than circumstances required and there was nothing he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice to see to it. He would solve more than one problem by getting her clear of Sterling’s reach and no matter how much she hated him for a forced marriage, it would be worth it.
Once he had Grace, she would be safe.
And Sterling will thi
nk he’s got me in hand—right up until the moment he doesn’t.
He opened his eyes and refocused on the man across the desk. Time slowed and Michael shook off every emotion that would hinder his ability to think. It was a shooter’s trick and he invoked it with the ruthlessness of a mercenary.
“I’ll marry her.”
It was Sterling’s turn to be surprised. “Without hearing my terms?”
“Your terms are irrelevant.”
“Good!” Sterling gestured back toward the chair in front of the desk. “Sit down and we’ll work out the details.”
Michael didn’t move a muscle.
“Or…” Sterling’s brow furrowed, uncertainty filtering into his eyes. “Stand then.”
Michael waited a man carved of granite.
“The only delay is the one needed to post the bans,” Sterling said.
“Omit them. I’m sure you can obtain special dispensation considering recent events.”
“And why are we suddenly in a hurry, Mr. Rutherford?” Sterling’s gaze narrowed with suspicion. “Do you think you can throw me off by playing along?”
“Decide what you want, Porter. You demanded I marry her and I’ve agreed.” Michael gave him a derisive look as if Sterling had pissed in his pants. “I begin to comprehend your weaknesses, Sterling.”
The ploy worked.
Sterling stiffened as if his chair were electrified and the look of loathing he gifted Michael with was a balm to his soul. “I’ll be in touch as soon as things are arranged. See that you don’t leave Town in the next few days.”
Michael didn’t blink. “Anything else?”
“Until I contact you, I forbid you to so much as cross my doorstep since it is clear that you cannot be expected to control your animal passions when it comes to Grace and she behaves no better than a whore under your influence.”
Desire Wears Diamonds Page 17