The Rake

by Georgeanne Hayes

  The sound of voices filtered slowly through her heated brain and the scrape of footsteps on the stairs jolted through her. She moistened her lips. “Yes,” she whispered a little desperately. He released her at once, tucking her breast into her bodice once more.

  In a heated confusion, she watched as he adjusted himself. It dissipated abruptly as her gaze focused on the telltale ridge of flesh that bulged against the front of his trousers from his waistband downward.

  Such a display of manly flesh could hardly go unnoticed. Glancing down, she noticed her flesh above her bodice was reddened from the abrasion of his whiskers. From the faint tingling around her mouth, she had no doubt she looked as thoroughly kissed, as well.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Here you are, my dear!” Lady Wyndham said gaily as she reached the bottom on the stairs. “The supper room was closed nigh an hour ago!”

  “So we discovered,” Garrett said easily, although his voice was still husky and deep.

  Lady Wyndham’s gaze flickered over them, but it was impossible to tell from her expression what must be going through her mind. Demi only hoped that the corridor was not so bright that she could discern immediately what she’d interrupted. “I have offered to give Lady Shelley a ride home, my dear. I hope you won’t mind leaving a little early?”

  “I will give her a ride home, mother,” Garrett said at once.

  Demi flicked a glance from Garrett to his mother and managed a faint smile. “I do appreciate it, my lord, but I have a touch of headache. I believe I will go with Lady Wyndham.”

  He studied her a long moment and finally bowed, saluting her hand. “Until tomorrow then.”

  She was relieved when they settled in Lady Wyndham’s coach, but worried that either Lady Wyndham or worse, Lady Shelley, might have noticed something in her behavior. Either Lady Shelley was a very good actress, however, or she’d had too much on her mind to notice. She could talk of nothing all the way home but her anxiety over her young daughter’s illness, which was why she’d been summoned home.

  When they’d set her down, Demi fully expected a thorough dressing down. Lady Wyndham surprised her by smiling. “You did very well, my dear.”

  “I did?” Demi said in surprise.

  Lady Wyndham chuckled. “Naughty! But it will not hurt to allow Garrett a taste of what he will miss if he does not play his cards right.”

  Demi blushed to the roots of her hair. “But he only …it was only a kiss.”

  Her brows rose. “I should think it was a bit more than that. I must say I hadn’t realize my son was such a strapping young man. No wonder--never mind. It will do him no harm to suffer a little. I believe we will leave for Bath in the morning,” she added pensively.

  “Tomorrow? But he has only just arrived in town,” Demi objected.

  “Mmm and on the hunt, make no doubt, but I’m of no mind to make things easy for him. We will most certainly leave for Bath. I will reserve judgment until I’ve seen how long it takes him to take the scent. If he’s to go off and sulk each time you slip through his fingers it will certainly serve him right if another man snaps you up.”

  Demi studied Lady Wyndham uncomfortably. “What if he gives up?”

  “Then he doesn’t deserve you, my dear. He’s had months to pop the question and instead he has dillied about like a green boy instead of approaching you straight away and making certain he fixed your attentions. I confess, I find this as intriguing as it is frustrating. It can only mean he is completely besotted with you, whatever you think of it. He would not be so anxious, or clumsy, if it did not mean a great deal to him. Take my word for it, he has never been shy before.”

  Demi grimaced wryly. She wouldn’t call him shy precisely. She was rather more inclined to think his intentions had never been honorable and that he’d approached her exactly as he’d meant to, clandestinely, because he’d never meant to offer her anything more than a slip on the shoulder.

  “I see the wheels of your mind turning, but you will allow that I am vastly more experienced than you, my dear, and I know my son. He told me months ago that he had decided that it was time to settle down and that he had his eye on someone.”

  Demi twisted her hands in her lap. “But he didn’t say it was me.”

  Lady Wyndham waved that away. “He didn’t need to. It was as plain as the nose on your face. It is just as Sarah said. From the moment you entered any room, he rarely took his eyes from you.”

  Demi said nothing, for she was certain she would have noticed herself if that had been the case. The mention of Sarah distracted her, however. “I thought Sarah was to be my maid.”

  Lady Wyndham shrugged. “I left her in the country for further training. In any case, she has already proven that she can be trusted to allow you to wrap her around your finger at any time you want something, whether it is good for you or not. You are putty in my son’s hands and need someone about you to shake a bit of sense into you … not someone who is putty in your hands.”

  Demi flushed, but she could hardly deny the accusations.

  She was relieved when they reached Lady Wyndham’s townhouse. The headache she’d claimed had manifested itself and she excused herself and went directly up to her room. She’d only just settled in her bed when she heard the commotion downstairs of an arrival. Her heart immediately leapt as it occurred to her that it might be Garrett, but she knew Lady Wyndham would be extremely displeased with her if she leapt from the bed and dressed herself.

  In a little while, the guest departed once more. Shortly afterwards, Lady Wyndham arrived at her door, tapped lightly and entered, a devilish smile curling her lips.

  “Who was it?”

  Lady Wyndham chuckled. “My son, of course. I had the butler tell him that we had retired for the evening and that he should call around tomorrow at a decent hour.”

  Demi’s eyes widened. “I thought we were leaving in the morning?”

  “We are, my dear. Garrett will almost certainly be most put out.”

  Demi was dismayed, but despite that, Lady Wyndham was so obviously enjoying herself hugely that she couldn’t help but be amused, as well.

  “You are not worried that he will be furious with us both?”

  She laughed. “I’m counting on it!”

  Demi was exhausted by the time they arrived in Bath, both physically and emotionally. She might have been inclined to think the grueling pace they set was in the nature of flight except for the fact that they had set a similar pace when they had left Wyndham Park for London and it had become clear that Lady Wyndham was not one who cared to travel sedately. She focused completely upon her destination and wanted no time wasted in reaching it.

  Despite that, the coach was no match for a determined rider. Sir Curtis and Lord Melville set out with them as escorts. Garrett and Mr. Collier caught up with them on the road.

  One look at the set of Garrett’s jaw was enough to assure both ladies that he wasn’t at all pleased with the turn of events. Since Lady Wyndham had had the forethought to have the servants pack a basket for them, however, he was not given the opportunity to express his displeasure before they reached Bath.

  When they reached Bath, Lady Wyndham thanked their escorts and dismissed them, assuring them that they would be at home to visitors the following day. Garrett refused to take the hint and followed them inside.

  “I must suppose my memory is at fault, for I do not recall that you said that you would be leaving London for Bath today,” he said tightly the moment the door closed behind them.

  Lady Wyndham lifted her brows at him, but instead of commenting immediately, she turned to Demi. “You must run up to your room and rest, my dear. I can see you are quite pale with fatigue.”

  She nodded wordlessly. The truth was she was tired, but she was also anxious to escape the confrontation she could see brewing between Lady Wyndham and her son. Garrett stopped her, caressing her cheek lightly and she looked up at him with a mixture of surprise and doubt. His expression was more w
orried than angry, however. “You are certain you are not taking ill?”

  Demi shook her head. “I am only tired.”

  He released her, but she felt his gaze on her back as she climbed the stairs.

  “I was certain I must have told you we would be removing to Bath,” Lady Wyndham said airily, drawing his attention as she turned and made her way into the parlor. She inspected it cursorily to make certain the servants she’d sent down the night before had cleaned it thoroughly and finally settled on the settee. “It was growing far too hot to remain in London and we had made the plans more than a week ago.”

  Garrett’s lips tightened. “I only just arrived in London,” he said coolly.

  Her brows rose. “Well, I must suppose that is why you hadn’t heard,” she retorted. “I’d expected you to follow us weeks ago.”

  His eyes narrowed, instead of answering her at once, however, he paced to the window and stood looking out, his back to the room. “I had business that needed attending at Wyndham Park that had been neglected in my absence.”

  Lady Wyndham released an irritated sigh. She didn’t doubt that it was true, but she did not believe the business of the estate could have required so much of his time. “Well, we are here now.”

  “For how long?”

  She shrugged, although she knew he was still facing the street and couldn’t see her. “Until we are ready to move on … a few weeks, certainly.”

  “What game is this the two of you are playing at?” he asked, his voice deceptively soft.

  Lady Wyndham uttered an irritated hiss of displeasure. “I should ask the same of you.”

  He turned to study her for several moments. “Then I will tell you ‘tis no game I play. I am in deadly earnest, mother.”

  She might have been tempted to dismiss the remark except there was something in his demeanor that she had not seen before. She rather thought his opponents on the dueling field might have, but she had not. Uneasiness touched her, but not altogether because she saw very clearly that he was, indeed, deadly serious.

  She was almost certain that Demi was with child. Demi did not seem to be aware of it yet, and she was fairly certain that Garrett did not suspect, or hadn’t until a few moments ago when he had studied her so searchingly.

  She had undertaken to teach Garrett a lesson, not only because she felt he was in dire need of it, given his most ungentlemanly behavior, but also because she loved him. She did not want to see him hurt by his own hardheaded determination to refuse to acknowledge his feelings for Demi--or Demitria either, for that matter. It was all very well to speak of complacency, but if Garrett could convince himself that it was not so, then he might also convince himself that he had wed her only because he was duty bound to do so after he’d dishonored her, and that way led to disaster.

  On the other hand, if it was true that Demi was with child, she was playing with fire and they might all be burned.

  “Demi is not playing any game at all. She simply could not bear to think that she was an object of misplaced duty. I told her she did not need to settle for so little. She is a sweet girl. I love her quite as much, I think, as if she had been my own daughter. She deserves a man who loves her. Hopefully one whom she holds in high regard, as well. I have every confidence that she will receive a proposal from Sir Curtis, and very likely Lord Melville, as well, before the summer is out.”

  “She is mine!” he ground out furiously. “I will not allow you to interfere, mother!”

  Lady Wyndham was more than a little discomposed by the underlying fury in his voice, but she wasn’t about to allow him to think he could cow her merely by roaring at her. She gave him a look. “You are not a savage, Garrett! You are a lord of the realm! You cannot simply throw her to the dirt and claim her as if you are some conquering barbarian!

  “I cannot say that she has behaved just as she ought, but she is a lady, nevertheless, and neither can I, of all people, sit in judgment.”

  Garrett studied her in silence for several moments. “It is not your place to interfere in my life either, mother, especially when you know very well that my sense of obligation is warranted and that that is only a part of it.”

  Lady Wyndham looked at him in despair. “I know nothing beyond the fact that you have behaved abominably toward that girl! And neither does she, for that matter.”

  He flushed, but he didn’t dispute it. Lady Wyndham studied him for several moments and finally decided that she had kept her own council long enough. If there was any chance that speaking would help Garrett to understand, then she owed it to him to tell him the truth. She sighed, feeling a welling of sick fear, but whether Garrett hated her once she’d told him or not, she loved him enough that she felt that it was worth it.

  “I don’t know how much you remember about your father. I’ve never spoken of him to you … not really.”

  Garrett sent her a frowning glance of confusion. “I’m afraid I cannot see the relevance of telling me at this late date,” he said tightly.

  “I’m telling you now precisely because it is relevant,” his mother snapped. “I should have told you long ago, but I was such a coward. And, truth be told, I figured sooner or later you would learn of it anyway, for there’s no getting around the fact that it was a scandal.”

  A faint smile curled his lips. “I am well aware that you are no saint, mother.”

  She blushed faintly but shook her head. “I was mad for your father. Sometimes, looking back, I think I truly wasn’t entirely sane. I worshipped him almost from the first moment we met. I would have done anything for him. I was perfectly willing to do anything he asked of me … eager actually. Which is why it is so easy for me to understand Demi.

  “What happened next was almost inevitable. I found that I was with child. It frightened me so badly I could think of nothing but telling your father and he, naturally, assured me he would do right by me, which he did.

  “He was still quite young, however. We both were, but I think he resented me for forcing him into responsibility before he was ready for it. I always believed he did. Eventually, I began to see that my love for him was only hurting me. He never told me he loved me. He allowed me to believe that he had only wed me because he knew he was honor bound to do so. Maybe that was all he ever felt. I never knew, but I did finally realize that I could not go on wondering, doubting.

  “I set out to kill my affection for him. It was the only way that I felt that I could find peace. I don’t suppose I ever did stop loving him, but in the end, it didn’t matter.”

  Her chin wobbled slightly as she looked up at him. “It was my fault he was killed … the duel … it was because of me. I don’t expect you to excuse me, or forgive me. I never could forgive myself.”

  Garrett sat heavily in the chair facing the settee where she sat, as if his knees had given out. “He believed you had been unfaithful.”

  Lady Wyndham nodded. There were tears streaming down her cheeks now, but she made no effort to brush them away. “I don’t expect you to believe me, but I wasn’t. I still loved him, in spite of everything, but he seemed to want me to go my own way. He had his own interests, and they rarely, if ever, included me. I thought that he would be more content if I accepted the way things were and I suppose I hoped that he would want me if I wasn’t quite so … desperate to please.

  “It was not at all uncommon for married women to have young attached males escort them. It never occurred to me that he would fly into such a rage over it, that he would assume things happened that had not.” She shook her head. “You see, I am still trying to make excuses for myself, trying to understand, trying to live with what happened. And I have had this awful fear that history was about to repeat itself.

  “If you do not care for her, even just a little, Garrett, be kind and let her go. You have both made one terrible mistake already. Do not pay for it in blood. I will take care of Demi. The right man will love her in spite of what has happened and forgive her for being human and less than perfect.”

>   Garrett studied her for several moments and finally scrubbed his hands over his face, rubbing his eyes tiredly. When he looked up at her again, he swallowed convulsively before he spoke. “I think….” He paused and smiled crookedly. “I think I am my mother’s son. I love her, mother. So much it scares the hell out of me.”

  He stood abruptly and began pacing. “I have made the most damnable mess of things. What am I to do?”

  Lady Wyndham didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She did a little of both. “Tell her, you fool! You cannot surely doubt that she adores you every bit as much, if not more?”

  Garrett’s gaze went at once to the ceiling, as if he could see through it and into Demi’s room. He swallowed convulsively, turning a slightly sickly color. “Now?” he said doubtfully.

  Lady Wyndham gave him a look. “For God’s sake, Garrett! The child will be grown before you gather your nerve at this rate!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Child?” Garrett echoed blankly. He transformed before her eyes into a raging barbarian once more. “Mother!”

  “Don’t use that tone with me, Garrett! I’m still your mother. As it happens, I’m not entirely certain of it myself, and I don’t think Demi’s figured it out either. Nevertheless….”

  Garrett slammed the door so hard on his way out, the windows rattled. Lady Wyndham bit her lip as she heard him taking the stairs two at the time. Finally, she shrugged. It was long past time they handled their own affairs. She felt certain that Garrett would figure it out.

  An odd sort of peace settled over her. Garrett had always been the very image of his father. It had been a source of both pleasure and pain for her, and now she thought it had given her a measure of peace, as well. She thought, perhaps, that Gerard truly had loved her in his own way, in spite of the circumstances surrounding their marriage. Perhaps, like Garrett, he had simply found that it was something too difficult to express, a weakness he was fearful of disclosing?