The Brooding Earl's Proposition

by Laura Martin

  Although it was meant as a joke he could see he’d got to the heart of the matter. Selina might have resolved not to become his mistress, but that resolve was only paper-thin and anything could upset it. He wondered for a moment if he should grasp the opportunity, take her in his arms and kiss her, push them towards the inevitable without any further delay, but the confusion in her eyes was enough to stop him.

  ‘No seduction tonight,’ he promised, wondering even as the words left his mouth if he already regretted them. ‘Just companionship, friendship and good food.’

  He led her to the table, pulling out her chair and making sure she was settled before taking the seat at right angles to her. They were close, close enough for him to lean over and take her hand, to caress the back with his fingers. Already the promise of no seduction was weighing heavily on him.

  ‘I have this urge to kiss you,’ Matthew said quietly. ‘Talk to me, distract me, so I don’t break my word thirty seconds in to our evening.’

  She smiled at that, the uncertainty from moments before gone from her eyes.

  ‘Something distracting...’ she mused. ‘I could tell you about the time I got trapped on the roof in just my nightgown...’ she paused for effect ‘...and it started to rain.’

  Matthew groaned, the image as clear and vibrant in his mind as if he’d been there right beside her.

  ‘That is hardly going to make me want to kiss you less, but I’m going to have to hear it anyway.’

  ‘Are you sure? Alternatively I could tell you about the time I got caught in a storm and had to beg far too small clothes from a stable boy to make my walk home in.’

  ‘I think you’re a cruel woman.’

  ‘Or the time I went for a refreshing paddle in the pond on a friend’s country estate and had to abandon my underclothes in the water as I got caught in the pondweed.’

  ‘I really hope all these stories are true,’ he said, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.

  ‘I wouldn’t lie to you.’

  ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘You can’t leave me to my own imagination. I want details. Vivid details.’

  ‘The episode on the roof happened just six months ago. Before I came to you I worked for a Lord and Lady Gilchrist, teaching their little boy before he went off to school.’

  ‘I’m struggling to imagine what led you to be on the roof in just your nightgown.’

  Selina grimaced. ‘For the first few months I worked for them I was treated as a servant, summoned to report my progress with Edward, but not seen or spoken to outside that meeting. I walked in the shadows.’

  A hard change from the life she must have been used to. As a beautiful young debutante she would have always been the centre of attention, showered with compliments and never truly alone.

  ‘I didn’t really mind. I was still adjusting from my change in circumstances and still grieving my father. I liked to keep to myself. One evening Lord Gilchrist called me to his study, on the pretence of finding out how his son was faring with his Latin in preparation for school.’

  Matthew felt the anger rise up inside him. He knew what was coming next, the older man taking advantage of the younger woman. A man in power trying to intimidate a woman alone, in his employ.

  ‘He started getting rather over-familiar and, when I was less than accommodating, he suggested I should do as he desired or I would be out of a job.’ She sighed. ‘It was so clichéd, the employer and the governess.’

  Selina sounded vaguely amused and wearied by it rather than annoyed and Matthew found some of the tension seeping from him. Lord Gilchrist couldn’t have got what he wanted going by Selina’s reaction.

  ‘He started trying to corner me in various locations around the house, whenever he thought no one was looking. Of course he wasn’t anywhere near as discreet as he thought he was being and one day Lady Gilchrist took me to one side. I thought she was going to throw me out immediately, accuse me of trying to seduce her husband.’

  ‘She didn’t?’

  ‘No, she was very reasonable, told me her husband was a randy old goat and she would appreciate it if I would submit to him, and that she would raise my salary accordingly.’

  Matthew couldn’t help but laugh, although he was shocked. ‘Probably glad to get the old man out of her bedroom and interested in someone else.’

  ‘I refused, politely, of course, but I found myself having to go to more and more ingenious lengths to avoid both of their machinations.’

  ‘And the rooftop in the rain?’

  Selina smiled at the memory of it. ‘Not one of my finest hours. I kept my bedroom door firmly locked and one of the maids who had previously been on the receiving end of Lord Gilchrist’s attentions showed me how to wedge a chair underneath the handle for added security. When I was in there I could at least relax a little.’ She paused, looking at Matthew for a moment and moving her fingers on the table so they were just touching his. He felt a jolt pass through him and knew, no matter what he’d promised, he wouldn’t be able to stop pursuing Selina, not until she was his entirely. ‘One night Edward was restless in the nursery. I went through to his bedroom and sat with him a while. His tossing and turning must have woken his father and I heard the old man coming up the stairs. My bedroom was back along the hall, too far away to safely get back to it and lock the door. I had two options: to stay where I was and risk being pawed at in the nursery, or climb out the window and hide on the roof until Lord Gilchrist had lost interest.’

  ‘You chose the roof?’

  ‘It wasn’t a hard decision.’

  Matthew had a perfect image of Selina dressed in her floor-length cotton nightdress swinging her legs out of the window and scrambling up on the roof.

  ‘I stayed very quiet and very still and my plan would have worked perfectly if Lord Gilchrist hadn’t decided to close his son’s bedroom window before leaving the room.’

  ‘He trapped you?’

  ‘He didn’t know I was out there, but, yes, he trapped me. It was only about midnight, a balmy summer’s night luckily, but a couple of hours later it started to rain. There was nowhere to shelter, no way of getting down and, to top it off, the roof started to get very slippery as it became wet. I had to cling on to a miniature stone turret for about four hours, shivering in my sodden nightdress.’

  ‘You paint quite the picture,’ Matthew murmured. He had a very vivid image of the scene. In it Selina was wearing something scanty and see-through and was draped across the roof in a rather enticing manner. ‘How did you escape?’

  ‘One of the maids caught sight of me in the morning as she started cleaning. She had to summon one of the footmen to help me inside.’

  ‘Lucky man.’

  ‘It wasn’t one of my finest moments.’

  ‘Please tell me you left the Gilchrists’ employ very soon after.’

  ‘Only when their son left for school.’ She looked at him straight in the eye. ‘Governess jobs aren’t that easy to come by, especially when you have a rather vague past like me. I can hardly tell potential employers who I really am, I doubt anyone would want the illegitimate daughter of Lord Northrop bringing any hint of scandal into their house.’

  ‘Then they are fools,’ Matthew said, sitting back as the first course was brought into the dining room by two footmen. Only when they were alone again did he continue. ‘How did you get your first job with no references and no formalised education?’

  ‘You would be surprised how little people check on what you tell them. I made some references to a school for girls in Cambridge I used to help out at occasionally, and people just assumed I’d first been educated there and then stayed on as a teacher.’

  For a moment they fell silent, then Selina’s eyes flicked up to his.

  ‘Now I’ve told you one of my most embarrassing moments it’s only fair you reciprocate.’

  ‘I could t
ell you about the time I got trapped in the family crypt and was so convinced the skeletons of the dead were about to rise I was a babbling wreck for weeks after. Or the time I had a very narrow escape from the bedchamber of an Indian noblewoman who had a reputation for suffocating the men she lured to her bed.’

  ‘I’m intrigued,’ Selina said, her eyes lighting up. ‘You have to tell me more.’

  ‘It was during a visit to the very southern tip of India. I had just started looking into the spice trade and was on a trip around the region, scouting for opportunities to acquire whatever they had available. On these trips I often spent much of the time wooing the local royalty or nobles, setting up good relationships for future deals.’ He paused. Just talking of India conjured up the sights, the smells, and he felt the familiar yearning for the heat and the thrill of succeeding in setting up another successful trade. ‘Much of the land was owned by one very influential landowner who I spent much time with. He was genial and had a keen intelligence—a man who liked to have long dinners discussing the state of the world.’

  ‘Strange to think that no matter where people reside in their world, what country they are born in, we are basically all the same. The same needs and desires, the same interests.’

  ‘You’re right, human nature is the same in London as it is in the most remotest area of Tamil.’

  ‘Tell me more about this man and his wife.’

  ‘He confided to me one evening that he was content in life apart from one thing. His wife had a voracious sexual appetite and he wasn’t able to satisfy her. He suggested it would be a great favour to him if I visited her.’

  ‘Had you met her?’

  ‘No, the dinners were always just me and him. I didn’t want to get involved. I wanted to build a long-term trade relationship with him and knew, no matter what he said, if I did what he asked he would always carry some resentment for me.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘The next night he invited me to walk about his gardens and the walk just happened to end up in his wife’s bedchamber. He patted me on the back and walked away, locking the door behind him.’

  ‘He locked you in there with her?’

  ‘He did. We weren’t alone, there were half-a-dozen female attendants buzzing around excitedly. One was quite young, new to service and looking absolutely petrified. I was led to a seat and plied with wine and delicacies, all the time wondering how to make my escape without offending my host.’

  Matthew shook his head ruefully at the memory of it. He’d felt an exhilaration at the time, the thrill of a problem to be solved. That memory seemed so far removed from his life here and he expected to feel more nostalgic, more eager to jump aboard the nearest ship and set sail for the country that had been more of a home than England these past few years. Instead he felt a peculiar contentment he’d never expected to feel about living in England, in Manresa House, with a life of simple domesticity.

  ‘While I was being fussed around the young serving girl came up and whispered in my ear. She told me quite firmly I needed to get out, right away. I could see by her expression she was deadly serious, but she had no time to tell me anything more. Just then the nobleman’s wife appeared, dressed in layers of brightly coloured silk designed to tempt and tease. She was quite large, with long dark hair and eyes that seemed to pin you to the spot.’

  Selina was leaning forward in her chair, utterly engrossed in his story, and he had to suppress the urge to take her fully by the hand. He’d promised no seduction tonight and the only way he would be able to keep that promise was if he kept his distance.

  ‘I’ve never been a superstitious man, never believed in the occult, but right then I had some sort of premonition. I knew if I stayed it would turn out badly for me. The door had been locked, but the windows were only shuttered, opening from the inside. I bowed, begged the nobleman’s wife for forgiveness, then threw myself out of one of the windows. Luckily it was on the ground floor and I was able to pick myself up and beat a hasty retreat.’

  ‘Did you go back? Finish your trade deal?’

  Matthew shook his head. ‘I made some subtle enquiries. It seemed the nobleman’s wife had a reputation as a predator. She would get her husband to lure men into her bedchamber, have her way with them and then strangle them at the climax of their union.’

  ‘Surely someone would have put a stop to that?’ Selina said, her eyes wide with shock.

  ‘They were the most powerful landowners in the entire region, no one dared challenge them. I realised that the nobleman knew exactly what was going to happen when he locked that bedroom door and the wonderful relationship I thought we had was actually all a ruse. He’d sent me in to his wife as a way of ridding himself of a troublesome foreigner wanting his resources.’ Matthew smiled ruefully. ‘I kept well away after that.’

  ‘I wonder if the rumours about her were true?’ Selina mused. ‘History can be very cruel to women who don’t conform to stereotype.’

  He shrugged. ‘I wasn’t about to stay around to find out.’

  His eyes met hers for a moment and he felt a warm glow in his chest, a contentment he hadn’t felt for a very long time. There was something wonderful about sharing these little bits of his life with someone. For so long he’d blocked himself off from any deeper human interaction, not even allowing his comrades in the navy to get to know who he really was. It felt good to open up to someone, to trust someone.

  ‘Do you know, I’ve never told anyone else that story,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Why not?’ Selina looked puzzled. It wasn’t particularly personal or damaging to him.

  ‘I’ve never had anyone else to tell it to.’

  He held her gaze for a long moment, wondering when she had crept under his skin and into his heart. There was desire coursing round his body whenever she was near, but there was more than that. He cared for her, cared about what happened to her, how she felt. Cared for her happiness. Cared what she thought of him and cared that she did think of him, often.

  For so long he’d been so careful about protecting himself from any connection, scared that he wasn’t worthy, scared of anyone having any hold over him, but somehow Selina had managed to slip through all his defences and slip into his heart.

  He could tell she was just about to say something and by the sentiment that glistened in her eyes he suspected it was something rather emotional, but at that moment the footmen entered the room and whisked away the dinner plates, placing a perfectly formed tray of marzipan fruits between them.

  The moment was lost, he saw that as soon as they were alone again, and Selina’s eyes were now shuttered and wary.

  ‘When do you plan to return to India?’ Throughout the entire time he’d known her this subject had been the most difficult to discuss. First she had worried about the girls losing another person from their lives, but now he suspected she felt as he did—that he would miss her terribly as well.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, his fingers tracing patterns around the marzipan fruits. ‘I had planned to leave next month, to sail before Christmas.’ Ever since he’d left India he’d felt this urge to get back, to return to safety where no one really knew him, where no one had any expectations of him.

  ‘You had planned?’ Selina challenged him softly a spark of hope in her eyes. ‘What do you plan now?’

  ‘I find myself more and more reluctant to leave.’ It was the truth, finally admitted. He couldn’t imagine sailing away, leaving Selina and his nieces behind. Not knowing how they fared for months on end, not being part of their daily lives.

  Selina looked down at the table as if not able to bring herself to look him in the eye.

  ‘Don’t go,’ she said quietly. ‘None of us wants you to.’

  Eventually he would have to. It was where his business was based, his livelihood. Everything he’d built up from nothing, everything he was proud of. Eventually..
.but not yet. He’d left a very capable man in charge of keeping things going, a man with vision and ambition. From the reports he’d received since returning to England everything was going well so far, although being so far away the news lagged months behind. Still, it was a flourishing business that was in steady hands—a few more months in England surely wouldn’t hurt.

  ‘I never thought of staying,’ he said after a long pause. ‘Not for more than a few months.’

  ‘Sometimes life goes in a completely opposite direction to what you expect.’

  Matthew nodded, leaning back in his chair. He could stay for Christmas at least, see in the New Year. Perhaps wait for the spring and better sailing conditions to set off.

  ‘Perhaps I could,’ he murmured, feeling a relief spread through him at the idea. He’d felt so panicked at the thought of leaving, but he’d been so set on that path it had seemed impossible to even think of anything else. Now he’d broached the subject in his own mind he would need some time to adjust, some time to get used to the idea of staying a little longer, but already it felt as though a great weight had been lifted from him.

  ‘Never in my life would I have thought I’d want to stay longer here at Manresa House,’ he said, looking round the oppressive decor.

  ‘A house is only made a home by the people in it.’

  ‘Wise words, Selina.’

  ‘And you could always do a little redecorating.’ She looked around the dining room critically.

  ‘Could anything make a dark house on the moors homely?’

  ‘Some fresh wallpaper and new curtains and the place will be unrecognisable.’

  For the first time ever Matthew had the urge to make the house into a home, to put his own heart into it and supplant those who had come before.

  ‘Perhaps...’ he said, lost in the idea of a home. Something he hadn’t had for a very long time.

  Next to him he vaguely noticed Selina getting to her feet. She stepped closer to him and bent down, kissing him gently on the cheek.