And whether or not it really would be better to live as Lysander’s wife, and his continued disgust for her, rather than suffer another day of living under Arthur’s guardianship…
“His lordship seems very nice.” Esther smiled across the breakfast table at Bella the following morning.
“Yes,” she confirmed, no longer knowing what Lysander was, but not wishing to alarm her sister.
Last night had been traumatic for all of them.
Lysander had taken Bella in his carriage to Winslow House, where she had woken Esther to tell her they were both leaving. While Esther was dressing, Bella had packed enough clothes into a bag for the two of them to be able to manage overnight and today.
Throughout all of it, Arthur had waited downstairs in the entrance hall with Lysander. An icy silence existed between the two men when the sisters came down the staircase together. The malevolent expression on Arthur’s face as he looked up at her warned Bella she had not heard the last of this situation from him.
It was very late by the time they left Winslow House, and for convenience sake, Lysander had decided the two sisters would stay at Trent House for the rest of the night and he would discuss the situation with his parents in the morning.
Quite what he intended to tell his parents today in regard to her, Bella had no idea. When she and Esther had come downstairs for breakfast earlier, Hatfield had informed her the marquis had already left the house.
As soon as Bella saw Lysander again, she intended to tell him she could not marry him.
She had not slept at all last night for thinking about the future and Lysander’s announcement that he intended to marry her.
Of course she had considered accepting the situation. Only a fool would not do so. But ultimately, Bella had decided that a marriage based on the distrust and contempt Lysander now felt for her, and her own desperate need to free herself and Esther from their brother’s guardianship, could not possibly hope to succeed.
Her own affections toward Lysander were already engaged—how could they not be after their intimacy last night?—not quite love, but most certainly a deeper attraction than she had ever felt for any other man. To live as his wife under those circumstances would be a living hell unlike any other.
She did hope, as he had helped her and Esther escape Arthur’s clutches, she might prevail upon Lysander’s kindness a little longer and that he might assist her in finding somewhere for Esther and her to stay where Arthur would not be able to find them. Perhaps somewhere in the country. Arthur hated the months they spent in the country and would not go there by choice.
Having made her decision for the future, Bella had determinedly put thoughts of the intimacy that had occurred between her and Lysander firmly to the back of her mind. There was no point in torturing herself by thinking about it when the estrangement between them had come so swiftly after.
“What are we doing here, Bella?” Esther spoke softly, no doubt as aware as Bella of the servants going quietly about their duties around the house. Hatfield stood at the ready by the door to supply them with anything they might need.
She put her hand over her sister’s as it rested on the tabletop. “I will explain it all later, darling.”
Esther’s eyes were wide. “It is something to do with Arthur, is it not? I know how you have tried to protect me from the worst of him all these years.”
Bella stilled. “You do?”
“Yes.” Her sister sighed. “I have not liked to mention it before because I did not want to be a burden and make things any more difficult for you than they already are.”
“Oh, darling.” She squeezed Esther’s hand. “You are the only thing that has made my life bearable since Mama and Papa died.”
Esther’s frown was pained. “Why is Arthur so mean, do you think, when Mama and Papa were so nice?”
Bella had wondered the same thing. Many times. Her parents had been kind and gentle people, and she could not imagine how someone like Arthur, brutal and without affection, could possibly be their son. She knew Arthur’s gambling addiction was responsible for much of his bad temper and bullying. But it did not excuse his bouts of brutality toward her. A brutishness that the beating she had received two nights ago proved was escalating. Bella feared he might kill her the next time she displeased him.
Whatever ingredients had been in the duchess’s salve had certainly worked. The backs of Bella thighs were still slightly sore, but the burning had gone and so had the raised welts. She had even been able to put on drawers this morning—
“Good morning, ladies.”
The sisters both turned toward the doorway at the sound of Lysander’s voice. Bella’s cheeks warmed, and her gaze instantly became guarded as she saw he still looked grim, his eyes retaining the coldness they had taken on last night once Arthur arrived.
No, before Arthur arrived. When she had told Lysander the truth he had asked for.
Esther was less restrained as she stood up to run lightly across the room, resting her hands on the marquis’s forearms before going up on tiptoe to place a kiss on his cheek.
His brows rose almost to his hairline. “What was that for?”
“For rescuing us from Arthur.” Esther beamed up at him.
Bella could see that her sister was already half in love with Lysander. No doubt she considered him to be her white knight in shining armor. A state of affairs that really would not do.
“My lord.” She stood to give a formal curtsey so at odds with her younger sister’s impetuous and warm greeting.
“Miss Reynolds.”
Bella’s heart sank as Lysander greeted her as formally as she had him, the remoteness of his gaze, as it met hers, sending a frisson of apprehension down her spine.
Esther’s giggle broke the tension. “Silly, you don’t have to call her Miss Reynolds.”
Bella winced inwardly at her sister’s lack of decorum. At fifteen, and not yet out in Society, Esther’s experience with the aristocracy had been limited to small social events in the country. Most of the people she met there had known her since birth, and they made allowances for her youth.
To her surprise, Lysander’s expression softened as he looked at Esther. “Your sister has not given me permission to call her by your family’s name for her.”
Bella did not remember “giving him permission” to make love to her last night either, but he had done so anyway. Her cheeks warmed at the direction her thoughts had taken. “Please do so,” she invited evenly.
Lysander’s smile faded as he glanced at her. “My mother and father are expecting the two of you at Landingham House later today.” He pointedly omitted calling her by any name.
“About that—”
“I wonder if you would mind leaving Bella and me to have a private conversation?” His voice gentled as he spoke to Esther. “Nothing too drastic, I assure you,” he soothed as the young girl looked alarmed. “There are merely a few details of your visit with my parents I wish to discuss with her.”
Esther nodded. “In that case, I will go upstairs and repack my bag.”
“She is a charming girl,” Lysander remarked once Esther had skipped out of the room.
Completely unlike her sister, Bella picked up from his tone.
Chapter 6
“Would you care to join me in the library?” Lysander felt reluctant to take her to his study, the scene of their intimacy the night before.
It had been an unpleasant shock to have Bella admit last night to having been intimate with many other men before him. It did not change his decision, however. In fact, he had made his announcement regarding marrying Bella after knowing of her promiscuity. But it was still a shock nonetheless.
He waited until they were both seated on leather couches opposite each other in the library before continuing. “As I mentioned yesterday evening, my father is a close friend of the Prince Regent, and he will be talking to him this morning in regard to obtaining a special marriage license—”
“I cannot p
ossibly marry you,” Bella stated firmly as she rose agitatedly to her feet.
Lysander regarded her calmly as she began to pace the room. “Why not?”
She gave him a brief glance before looking away again. “I thank you for the kindness of your offer but… You cannot possibly want to marry someone like me.”
He had not thought to marry anyone at all for the foreseeable future, but if he had to marry, then Isabella Reynolds would do as well as any other woman. There was even a certain irony to the situation. His own birth was rooted in scandal, just as Bella’s promiscuous behavior in the present would be judged scandalous if Society were to learn of it.
It was to her credit, however, that she wished to spare him from involvement with her behavior. “One wife is as good as another,” he dismissed. “I take it you would have no objection to providing my father with his heir?”
She blinked. “Are you not his heir?”
“To the dukedom? Oh yes,” he confirmed dryly. “But any son we have, I would consider my father’s heir, not mine.”
“I do not understand…”
“Sons marry to provide their own father with the future heir.”
“They do?”
“In my case, certainly.” Lysander frowned his irritation. “We must marry, Bella. Surely you see that.”
A frown gathered between her eyes. “No, I do not see.”
He stood restlessly, scowling as Bella stopped pacing and instinctively took a step back. “I promise you here and now I will never lay a hand upon you in temper.”
She gave a wan smile. “It never occurred to me that you would. I simply do not think a marriage between the two of us would succeed.”
“Why not?”
She stared at him incredulously. “We are too different. We do not know each other. What you do know about me, you dislike,” she added heavily.
Lysander had been feeling slightly aggrieved since last night, when he had felt forced into stating it was his intention to marry Bella, and at the same time offering his protection to her younger sister. But hearing Bella state she did not wish to marry him evoked even stronger feelings of chagrin. “We are compromised. Well and truly, as you and your sister spent last night in this house.”
“No one need know about that.”
“Someone always knows, Bella.”
“We slept in separate bedchambers.”
“Did someone spend the night standing guard outside the door of your bedchamber I am not aware of?” he asked derisively.
Her eyes flashed deeply violet. “Of course they did not.”
“Then I repeat, we are compromised. A fifteen-year-old girl will not be considered chaperone enough,” he added before she could even suggest such a thing.
She gave a shake of her head. “You must have been aware of that when you allowed us to stay here last night.”
“Of course I was aware of it.” He eyed her impatiently. “Having already informed your brother of my intentions, there seemed little point in rousing my parents from their bed at that time of night so they might take you in.”
As if she were a waif and stray, Bella acknowledged heavily. Which, in some ways, she was. Since last night, she had neither home nor family apart from Esther, for whom she was now completely responsible.
“You have Esther’s future to think of as well as your own.” Lysander seemed to guess her thoughts. “As the sister-in-law of a marquis, with a dowry to match, she can one day expect to receive marriage proposals from any gentleman in Society.”
Bella’s weakness.
If she went through with her idea of retiring to a cottage in the country, then Esther’s future marriage prospects would be as small as her own. The most Esther could hope for would be the local parson or squire.
If Bella married the marquis, then Esther could look forward to taking her own place in Society one day.
But what of Bella herself?
Perhaps she had forfeited any right to her own happiness the first time she allowed Arthur to bully her into ensnaring a victim.
Her chin rose proudly. “If you are sure this marriage is what you want?”
Lysander was no longer sure of anything. Until he had learned of the extent of her duplicity, he had liked Bella, been attracted to her, had desired her. He still desired her. Merely being in the same room with her now had caused his cock to swell, proving his desire for her had not abated in the slightest, despite what he now knew of her. And he had not imagined her responses to him last night.
It was not love, for either of them, but desire was there. It would have to do.
“It will not be so bad, Bella.” He stepped forward to take her in his arms. “I believe physically we will prove compatible, at least,” he added ruefully as, after a brief hesitation, she rested her head against his chest. The softness of her body and the perfume of her hair caused his cock to harden even more. “From what I have observed of Society, it is more than some couples have in their marriage.”
If Lysander had one day hoped to marry for love, to find the same happiness as his parents had together, and his brother and Tia also had, then he was old enough, had grown cynical enough these past three months to accept desire for one’s wife was as good a substitute for love as any.
And those other lovers Bella admitted to having had?
That was less palatable, certainly. But at two and thirty, did he really want some virginal miss who would have to be coaxed into lovemaking like some skittish colt, and then gently tutored? Outwardly, Bella was still a lady; privately, she was less so. Nor had she engaged in those other relationships of her own volition, but rather had been coerced into them by her brother.
In some ways, Bella really was as blameless about her own past as he was in regard to his illegitimate birth. They could be two misfits together, he acknowledged wryly.
And she did feel so very good in his arms, the soft curves of her body accommodating the hardness of his…
His head lowered at the exact same time Bella looked up at him. Her lips were slightly parted, as if she knew the two of them kissing was inevitable.
Her lips opened wider as his took possession, coaxing, and then demanding her surrender as his tongue slid inside her mouth, tasting her with each leisurely stroke. The tea and toast she’d had for breakfast. He pulled her thighs up tight against his own, leaving her in no doubt as to the effect she had on him. In this, at least, they would be completely honest with each other.
His lips slid to her cheek and then her throat. “Do you want me?”
“Please, Lysander…”
“Do you?” His teeth latched on to the delicate skin of her throat, biting just hard enough to cause a quiver of pleasure to curve her spine, pressing her breasts harder against him. “Answer me, Bella.” He moved his head lower, to where her breasts spilled over the top of her gown, kissing and licking the warmth of her flesh, tongue delving between those two orbs. He pulled the bodice of her gown lower before kissing his way to where he had now bared rosy pink and engorged nipples. Delicious.
Bella gave an aching groan, fingers becoming entangled in Lysander’s hair as she held him against her. She finally had her answer to the question she had asked herself two evenings ago. It was very pleasurable to have her nipples in the heat of a man’s mouth as they were licked and sucked. In Lysander’s mouth. So pleasurable, so hot, Bella could feel that now-familiar heat building between her thighs.
Her neck arched back as Lysander’s other hand curled about her other breast, the nipple captured between finger and thumb as he began to squeeze and alternately pull on it in the same rhythm as his lips and tongue suckled its twin.
The pleasure grew between her thighs with each squeeze and tug on her nipples, the ache becoming as hot as fire, the dampness now flowing copiously—
“I do not care if his lordship is dancing naked upon the coffee table singing hymns, I intend talking to him this instant!”
Bella suddenly found herself free of Lysander’s mouth an
d hands and the bodice of her gown pulled back into place before she was put firmly away from him. Just in time, as the library door was thrown open and she easily recognized Sebastian Falkner, the Duke of Stowmont standing there.
Lysander’s older brother.
“Dancing naked on the coffee table and singing hymns, Seb?” Lysander drawled.
He could do very little to hide the obvious intimacy that had been taking place seconds before his brother burst into the room. For all that he had straightened Bella’s gown, her lips were swollen, and the skin on the tops of her breasts and throat bore obvious marks from the stubble on his jaw. He had been in too much of a hurry to speak to his parents this morning to waste time shaving. His tousled hair no doubt also bore signs of having had Bella’s fingers gripping it tightly only minutes ago too.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “As you seem to have taken complete leave of your senses, such an occupation did not seem beyond the realms of possibility.”
Lysander grimaced. “You have been talking to Mother.”
“And she has been talking to me,” his brother confirmed ominously.
“And here I am, spending a quiet half an hour or so with my betrothed.”
Sebastian looked incensed. “That is the reason I believe you to have lost your senses! No offense intended, Miss Reynolds.” He nodded abruptly at Bella.
“None taken,” she assured shakily.
Lysander looked past his brother to where his butler stood in the hallway. “That will be all, thank you, Hatfield. Come in and close the door behind you, Seb,” he instructed evenly, having no intention of this scene continuing any further in front of one of his servants.
The force with which his brother put that piece of wood back into place demonstrated the depth of Sebastian’s anger. “Now what do you mean by this nonsense?” he demanded. “A special license so that you might marry within days. You have known each other only a matter of days. You cannot possibly— Oh.” Sebastian stilled. “Oh.” His eyes widened as he stared at Bella.
At any other time, Lysander might have enjoyed his arrogant brother’s obvious discomfort as it belatedly occurred to him there was one glaringly obvious reason why he and Bella might very well wish to marry quickly. But today, in these circumstances, he did not welcome Sebastian’s interference, no matter how discomforted his brother now looked.
Seduced by a Marquis (Regency Unlaced 8) Page 6