by Amelia Grey
Loretta stiffened, horrified that Lady Adele had divulged what Paxton had said about his uncle. Paxton and Hawk were equally surprised by her words.
“So he did,” the earl said rather slowly while he looked determinedly at the other four people in the room.
“I hope you don’t mind I mentioned you, Uncle,” Paxton said, recovering quickly and seeming to have no trouble keeping a smile on his face and managing his usual jovial tone.
“Of course he doesn’t,” Lady Adele continued, paying no mind to the startled expressions she was receiving. “My brother has qualities like those as well, my lord. I consider them quiet admirable.”
That statement from his sister raised Hawk’s eyebrows even higher. Loretta was wondering how being so strong-willed you couldn’t show mercy to an eighteen-year-old young lady was an admirable trait. But then she had to remember that Lady Adele didn’t know the entire story of Loretta’s banishment to Mammoth House.
“And though I haven’t known Mr. Quick that long,” Lady Adele continued, “I do believe he has the same commendable attributes as the two of you. I should be quite pleased to call such a man my husband.”
“I’m glad to hear my nephew spoke so highly of me,” the earl said with a nod of arrogance. “And that he pleases you.”
Loretta knew that Lady Adele had taken the things Paxton had said about his uncle as compliments. Though Loretta would bet her pin money Paxton hadn’t meant them that way.
“Yes, Lady Adele, I too believe we are all good, strong men,” her uncle said. “Now, I hate to trouble you, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to sit down. These days I find it difficult to stand for long at the time.”
“Paxton and I will help you,” Lady Adele answered, her happy attitude continuing.
“Please let me attend to that,” Mrs. Philbert said, hurrying over to the earl.
Hawk looked at Loretta, nodded toward the back of the room, and said, “I think I hear a storm brewing. I’ll have a look outside while Price gets everyone a drink.”
“A storm you say?” Loretta asked, following Hawk to the window. She stopped as close to Hawk as she dared and whispered, “I thought I was going to faint when Lady Adele mentioned what Paxton had said about Uncle.”
“I was thinking I was going to have to stuff her handkerchief in her mouth if she uttered one more word.”
Loretta laughed softly. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“No.” A natural, easy smile came to his lips. “But I can’t say I haven’t been tempted at times.”
“She is so innocent. It does seem difficult for her to find fault in anyone. I suppose what Paxton said about Uncle really isn’t bad or even unkind given the right circumstances.”
“Unless you know the meaning behind his words. Obviously, Adele didn’t. Everyone should be willing to bend when the occasion merits it. But I don’t want to talk about him.” Hawk’s gaze caressed her face. “I want to talk about you. How did you feel today? Any ill effects from last night?”
“Actually there was one.”
Concern narrowed his eyes. “What?”
She moistened her lips and said, “My feet were cold all day. I had no one to warm them for me.”
He chuckled softly. “Soon, my love. I hope you are ready to tell his lordship you recanted your vow because I don’t know how much longer I can wait to let him know that you are now mine and under my protection and not his.”
She glanced behind her. Paxton, Lady Adele, and Mrs. Philbert were helping the earl settle into a chair. “I’m ready,” she answered confidently. “But quickly, before we have to go back over to them, I must ask about Farley. Did you find any trace of him?”
Hawk hesitated.
She knew he was trying to decide what to tell her. “The truth,” she whispered.
“I found him. He admitted to taking the jewelry but he no longer has it.”
“Oh,” she said, and looked out the window as her heart constricted with disappointment. Her pain was more than just that the jewelry was gone. Hawk’s words confirmed that Farley had taken it from her. She’d hoped that maybe, somehow it would be proven Farley hadn’t been the culprit. A light rain had started to fall against the windowpane. She turned to Hawk. Swallowing her disillusionment, she said, “If he’s already sold it, did he tell you who he sold it to? Maybe we can buy it back?”
“No, that would be easy to do. He said someone stole it from him. There are reasons why I believe him. There’s no time to go into details right now. I promise I will tell you everything later. The earl is looking at us and it’s too involved to go into at the moment. I’m not giving up though. I will get it back for you. It’s just that it may take longer than I was hoping.”
Loretta swallowed past a lump in her throat. “How is Farley?”
Hawk inhaled deeply. “He’s a fighter. You don’t have to worry about him. He’s going to be all right. Now, are you sure you don’t want me to tell the earl what you did last night? It would give me great pleasure to let him know that his reign over you has passed.”
“It will give me more.”
They walked back to where the earl had made himself comfortable in a chair with Lady Adele and Paxton standing beside him. Mrs. Philbert had gone to ask Price to get a footstool for the earl.
Lady Adele suddenly clasped her arms around Hawk’s elbow, beamed a mischievous smile at him, and said, “Hawk, I just had the most wonderful idea.”
“I’m not surprised,” he said with a hint of a grin. “You have at least one a day.”
“Oh, you can be such a cruel brother,” she said, her blue eyes sparkling with merriment. “Mr. Quick, I do hope you don’t tease your sister so unmercifully.”
“Indeed I do not,” he assured her with a happy grin on his face. “Nor will I.”
“Good. Because one in the family is enough.” She turned her attention back to Hawk. “This is truly an exceptional idea. I was looking at all of us here in the room together and thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you and Miss Quick married, too?”
A prolonged hush washed around the room. There wasn’t even a breath of sound to be heard. Loretta felt light-headed so quickly she thought she might faint. How had Lady Adele managed to take over the reason for evening?
“Why is everyone looking at me as if I opened Pandora’s box?” Lady Adele asked. “Surely you’ve thought about it, Hawk. You’ve never told me but I know you are terribly interested in her. I’ve seen the divine way you two look at each other.” Adele’s gaze darted from Hawk, to Loretta, to Paxton, and then to the earl. “Someone say something.”
Hawk pulled out of his sister’s grasp, picked up Loretta’s hand, and kissed it. He looked down at her and said, “Miss Quick, will you marry me?”
The duke’s seductive gaze filled her with pleasure so deeply she felt it bury in her soul.
“By the stars, Loretta,” the earl said, struggling to stand. “If the man wants to marry you don’t let this opportunity pass you by as you did the last gentleman because you were too young to know what you were doing. Forget that silly, childish oath you made never to marry. This is a duke asking you to be his bride! Say yes and this time mean it!”
“Say yes, Miss Quick,” Lady Adele pleaded.
“Say yes, dear sister,” Paxton encouraged.
Hawk put his lips to the back of Loretta’s hand again and whispered softly so only she could hear, “They don’t know that you have already pledged your love to me and agreed to marry me. Say yes again and make them happy.”
Loretta smiled at Hawk, squeezed his hand with her fingers, and said, “Yes, my love. Yes.”
Dear Readers:
If there is one thing Polite Society adores more than the most salacious scandalbroth, it is to be surprised. And the Duke of Hawksthorn gave us two such newsworthy bits! While London was buzzing about the duke preparing for his sister, Lady Adele, to dodge the mischief-makers during the Season, he was busy making a suitable match for her before the Season even began. Lad
y Adele is betrothed to Mr. Paxton Quick. And while the wily duke was planning a match for his sister, he astounded and fooled everyone in the ton by making a match for himself, too! There is no date set for Lady Adele’s nuptials yet, but I’m told a special license has been granted and the tittle-tattle is flying about like blossoms on a windy spring day for the duke and his bride-to-be. He and Miss Loretta Quick will marry in a private ceremony later this week.
Apparently, rumors that Miss Quick had entered a convent three years ago were untrue. She’s been living a solitary life in the country, waiting for her Prince Charming to come along and make her his bride. Now the prince has arrived. And much to the disappointment of the new belles of the Season, the second Rake of St. James has been taken off the marriage mart.
MISS HONORA TRUTH’S WEEKLY SOCIETY SHEET
Epilogue
Always leave a lady’s presence with a compliment, a bow, and a smile on your face.
A PROPER GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO WOOING THE PERFECT LADY
SIR VINCENT TYBALT VALENTINE
Loretta looked over at Hawk and smiled.
Taking an afternoon ride in Hyde Park was one of Loretta’s favorite things to do since marrying the duke a few weeks ago. Though there was a slight chill in the air, spring had finally arrived. Some days were gray, many filled with rain, but a few of them were as gloriously beautiful as this day. Sunny, warm, and blue skies as far as the eye could see.
She couldn’t help but think that one of the reasons she enjoyed the park so much was because of all the activity from crowds watching a puppet show, vendors hawking their wares, and couples strolling the grounds oblivious to it all. There had been so few people to see at Mammoth House that the busy streets and parks of London were a delight for her senses.
Loretta enjoyed hearing the noise from carriages, wagons, and milk carts. The clopping of horses’ hooves and wheels on hard-packed ground, or milk cans rattling in the backs of wagons, were not an annoyance to her. She welcomed the sounds. She watched everyone who passed by, be they Polite Society, shopkeeper, servant, tradesman, beggar, or peer. She relished the smells, the sounds, and the sights of people going about their daily lives.
“I hope that smile on your face is for me.” Hawk said, guiding the horses into the park behind a stream of other carriages.
“It is, my dear husband. I’m happy to be back in London, to be planning our first dinner party for next week, to be attending the Season with Lady Adele and Paxton.” She looked back at Hawk. “I’m very happy being back in Society, and I do believe I am the happiest person in all of London, or England—no, make that the whole world.”
Hawk chuckled and clicked the ribbons against the horses’ rumps to move them along as they left the path and headed toward the grassy area near the Serpentine. “I think Adele might take issue with you on who is happiest,” he said. “I didn’t think she was going to stop hugging me when she told me that she and Paxton have decided they will marry on the day before Christmas.”
“Yes. She was very happy about that, wasn’t she?” Loretta answered.
“Just in case she failed to tell you, she still thinks I picked the perfect husband for her, and so do I.”
“Oh, no. She told me. More than once. What’s even better, now that she is happily engaged, there have been no instances of anyone trying to disrupt her Season. And she seems to be enjoying all the parties, balls, and festivities immensely. She hardly misses a dance.”
“You are still trying to keep them apart, aren’t you?” Hawk asked with an amused grin.
“No. No. I am not,” Loretta insisted. “I know that Paxton adores her and really wants to marry Lady Adele. I will admit that, at one point, before he met her, I think he contemplated accepting your offer in order to help me be free of our uncle, but that was only for a short time.”
“Hmm,” Hawk said. “He told me just the opposite.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Hawk grinned again. “He said to me, ‘If my sister is going to marry one of the Rakes of St. James, I’d better be a part of this family in case she ever needs me.’”
Hawk turned his attention back to the horses.
“Did he really say that?”
“Not in those exact words, and in my own way I assured him I’d given up my wicked ways for you and he had no cause to worry about you.”
Loretta’s heart melted and she placed her hand on his knee. “Thank you,” she said sweetly, and then after another thought, added, “You’re making up that conversation with Paxton, aren’t you?”
“I wouldn’t do that. I might not have told it exactly as it was said, but rest assured that your brother said he’d call me out if I should ever hurt you.”
Loretta was stunned. “Paxton said that to you? I can’t believe it. He’s such a docile man.”
“I was amazed he had it in him, too.”
“What did you say back to him?”
Hawk ignored her, but he didn’t stop smiling.
“Well, perhaps it’s better I not know. But no matter what you said to him about it,” she added playfully, “he assured me that he is marrying Lady Adele because he adores her. Not for me, not for you, or just to help her avoid trouble during the Season, but because he wants to be her husband. But—”
“But what?” He glanced at her.
“I’m glad they’re waiting until December to marry. It gives them time to be sure this is what they want.”
“Might I remind you,” Hawk said while slowing the horses, “that you didn’t need almost a year to make up your mind about me?”
Loretta pursed her lips and then laughed. “Oh.”
“Yes. Oh.”
Hawk was right, but then Lady Adele and Paxton weren’t professing undying, passionate love for each other as she and Hawk had. However, she truly believed Lady Adele and Paxton enjoyed being together, and maybe that was enough.
“All I could keep thinking about was all the Christmastide dinners I’d have to sit through listening to the two of them trying to outtalk each other.”
Loretta laughed again. “Do you suppose they will ever run out of things to say?”
“No. I’m convinced when they do, they will just come visit us and find more subjects to talk about.”
Hawk stopped the curricle at their favorite spot. He jumped down and reached back for her. She smiled as he swung her off the carriage and set her feet on the ground.
Loretta spread the blanket, and then sat down and opened the food basket while Hawk made sure the carriage was secure. She opened a napkin to cheese, bread, preserved currants, and cold chicken. When she was finished, she looked up to tell Hawk she had everything ready and froze.
She blinked and shook her head. He was still there. She wasn’t imagining Farley.
He was standing no more than twenty feet from her. He still wore the same clothes she’d given him, but now they were dirty, worn. His hair was longer and shaggy-looking again, but he looked fuller, healthier than when she’d last seen him. Maybe even taller.
Loretta slowly rose and stared at him. Hawk came from around the curricle saying, “You know I was about to tell—”
He stopped talking but eased up beside Loretta. He slipped his arm around her waist. Farley slowly came closer, his gaze warily darting from Loretta to Hawk.
“I been following ye since ye left the ’ouse.”
“Why?” Hawk asked and started toward him.
Farley backed up.
Loretta grabbed Hawk’s arm and held him back. “Don’t,” she whispered. “You’ll scare him away.”
Loretta saw faint bruising around the bottom of Farley’s eyes and a fading scar running from his bottom lip. It was good to know he was healing from the beating Hawk had told her about.
Not wanting to mention that incident to him, she asked, “How’s your cough?”
“Gone.”
“That’s good. You’re looking stronger.”
With watchful eyes, Farley slowly lowered a smal
l, dirty brown bag to the ground and let go of it. Loretta hadn’t even noticed that he held it in his hand until he started moving.
“I wanted to give ye this.”
Loretta’s intake of breath skipped, and her chest tightened with hope. “My mother’s jewelry?” she asked, taking a step herself and feeling Hawk hold her back. “You found it?”
He nodded.
She wanted to immediately run to get the bag and look in it, but knew Hawk was right to stop her as she had him. They couldn’t either one do anything to cause Farley to run away, so she forced herself to stay still.
“Not all of it. ’E already sold some of it.”
“You little—” Hawk bit off what he was going to say and finished with, “You told me you didn’t know who he was. You were to let me know if you ever saw the man again.”
“Didn’t need ye.”
“How did you get it back?” Loretta asked.
“Same way I got it the first time. I took it.”
“The man will come looking for you, Farley,” Hawk said.
“’E won’t bother me again. I ’ad ’elp this time. Besides, I won’t ’ave it to give back to ’im. You have it now.”
“I didn’t want that for you. That’s why I told you to come to me and let me handle this.”
Farley shrugged as he did so often.
“Stay here with us, Farley,” Loretta said before she could think about the implications of her words. “You’ll be safe with us. I know Hawk will help me take care of you. Don’t go back to living on the streets. It’s too dangerous for you.”
“’Ere is my ’ome. Not with ye.”
Farley cut his eyes over to Hawk. “’E never liked me anyway.”
“I don’t suppose I ever will,” Hawk said tightly.
“It’s who I am.”
“You can change if you want to,” Hawk argued. “If Loretta wants you to stay I’ll find a place for you, but you’ll have to work and earn your way.”
“Don’t need to. I take care of my ownself. Got me a new friend and a new place to live. ’E’s a nice man and teaching me ’ow to take care of ’is ’orses. Like Arnold did.”