She shook her head.
‘Your uncle? Hauling you out of the drawing room in front of everyone the way he did and locking you in your room…’
‘No, no, I don’t care what he thinks of me.’
‘Hmmph,’ he said. ‘So if it wasn’t them, then who was it? Your mother? That’s it, isn’t it? I have often wondered why she isn’t the one bringing you out.’
‘It isn’t because she thinks I’m not marriageable. It’s more because—oh, dear, this isn’t very easy to explain. Especially as for years and years I thought she simply didn’t care about me at all.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Well, she has some very…er…modern ideas about educating females, apparently. But also, well, to be perfectly frank, she is one of the most self-absorbed people you are ever likely to meet. And Papa is a dear, but…’
‘But?’
‘Well, I’m not a boy.’
‘I had noticed,’ he said with a wicked grin. ‘And I thank God for it.’
She blushed, but persisted. ‘Yes, but you see, Papa has always had to spend a lot of time with my oldest brother, Charles.’
‘His heir,’ he said, with a tinge of bitterness.
‘Yes, his heir.’
‘And they spend all day, riding round the estates. So that he can teach him all about the land he will one day have to manage.’
‘Yes. That’s only natural.’ She looked up into his face with concern.
‘Oh, yes, it’s natural, right enough. One day Charles will have to fill your father’s shoes. And should something happen to him, he still has the magnificent George ready to take up the reins.’
‘And also, there is William. He takes after Mama in his mania for the natural sciences. Papa is proud of him for being so intrepid—he’s off in South America, hunting for plants. And Mama dotes on him, too, because of all the fascinating things he writes to her about from his travels.’
‘Ah. Your father has some pride in his youngest son, does he?’
‘Did not yours?’ she asked, finally understanding the source of his bitterness as they were discussing her older brothers.
‘No. I told you, did I not, that I was always regarded as the runt of the litter.’
‘At least I was just…merely a girl,’ said Harriet with feeling. ‘And an afterthought. I always thought nobody quite knew what to do with me, but they never made me feel…’
‘Oh, I think they did, though, didn’t they? That is why, at bottom, we understand each other so well.’
‘Oh, oh…’ She pulled up short. ‘I cannot keep calling you Lord Becconsall. And I absolutely will not call you Ulysses.’
He grinned. ‘My name is Jack. When we are making love, you can call me that.’
‘Oh, Jack.’ She sighed, raising her face hopefully.
And, since he wasn’t a stupid man, he did exactly as she hoped. He kissed her, long and thoroughly.
And somehow, whilst doing so, he managed to direct both of them to the sofa and get them both sitting down. And then almost lying down, with him half over her. And her hands found their way under his waistcoat. And his hands traced the shape of her legs through her thin cotton gown.
‘We should stop this,’ said Jack, rearing back and sucking in a ragged breath.
‘Must we? I have never felt like this before. Never so good.’
‘Yes, I know, but we shouldn’t. Not before we are married.’
‘Oh. Are we going to be married then?’
‘Yes. Definitely.’
‘But I thought you didn’t want to get married.’
‘I didn’t. Not until I met you, anyway,’ he growled.
‘Don’t you think you should ask me, then?’
‘No. If I’m going to do the thing correctly, the person I should ask is your father.’
She thumped him.
He laughed.
And then he kissed her some more.
‘Mmm…no…’ he breathed. ‘Really must stop. I was about to say something important when you distracted me.’
‘I distracted you? I didn’t do anything!’
‘Yes, you did. You looked at me all dewy-eyed and breathed my name as though it was a prayer.’
It had felt like one.
‘No, now, don’t start looking at me like that again,’ he said. ‘I have remembered, I was going to make all sorts of promises, about mending my ways and such.’
‘Oh. Do you have to?’ She ran one finger round his top waistcoat button. Pushed at it, experimentally. And smiled when it popped through the buttonhole.
‘Yes, I do,’ he said, catching hold of her hand. ‘And it isn’t going to help if you start undressing me.’
‘Oh, very well,’ she said, lying back and raising both arms above her head, as though in surrender.
‘You…’ His eyes flicked down over her body, to where their legs were tangled together in a muddle of holland covers. ‘Now, see here, Harriet, I mean to do better with my life than I have done of late. I told you about my father not sparing me a thought, didn’t I? Well, what I didn’t tell you was that he wept when he knew it was I who would take his title and not one of my far more magnificent brothers.’
‘Oh, Jack!’ She stopped trying to be seductive. Reached up and laid one palm against his cheek. ‘How horrid for you.’
‘Yes, well…’ He shifted position slightly. So that she could sit up. Which she did.
‘And how very stupid of him,’ she continued.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, for heaven’s sake, you’d been a major in the army. There is a huge amount of work to do, running a brigade. Or so George is always saying. Mountains of paperwork, as well as handling the men under your command. And Papa is always telling him that there’s hardly any better training for running a large estate.’
‘No wonder I love you,’ he breathed. ‘But,’ he said, his expression turning serious, ‘it wasn’t just him. The others, the trustees and so forth, advised me to come to Town and find a wife. As if they thought all I was good for was passing on the name to the next generation.’
‘Then—oh! That’s why you behaved so badly that even Aunt Susan warned me that you weren’t good marriage material.’
‘Did she? And yet you still lit up like a candle whenever I walked into the room.’
‘Well,’ she said, darting him a look from under her eyelashes, ‘you’d already kissed me, hadn’t you? So nothing anyone could say could influence the way you made me feel.’
His face fell again. ‘Are you hinting that I should not have been influenced by what the trustees said? That I should have stayed in Shropshire and made everyone take me seriously, rather than coming to London and living down to their expectations of me?’
‘No, of course not, I never meant—’
‘It wasn’t just that, you know. It was the memories that leapt out at me from behind every bush, every damn locked door…’ He hung his head, his eyes briefly closed. ‘I felt like a small, scared boy too often for my peace of mind.’
‘Do you want to stay in London then, after we’re married?’
He lifted his head, a grin spreading slowly across his face.
‘I haven’t asked you yet, you forward wench.’
‘Yes, but you will do. Eventually,’ she said drily. ‘So, if you want to carry on living in London, living down to everyone’s expectations, I shan’t mind,’ she said stoically.
‘That’s very noble of you, but, no. That is what I have been trying to tell you. It is high time I went and claimed my estates. Started running them the way I wish. Unless…do you prefer to stay in Town?’ She could see him struggling to be generous as he made the offer. ‘I know a lot of ladies like all the social whirl. The balls and picnics and such.’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I thought I would love all that sort of thing. Aunt Susan and Kitty made it sound so exciting. But I wasn’t here long before I discovered that I much prefer the country, Jack. Which you know, really, deep down, don’t you? Else why would I have been galloping about the park, at dawn, when it isn’t the done thing?’
He smiled at her with evident relief.
‘And while we are talking about going to your estates, and laying claim to them, may I make a suggestion?’
‘Of course!’ His eyes flew wide as though surprised. ‘I don’t want you to feel you have to tiptoe round me.’
She smiled. He clearly wasn’t going to be the kind of husband who would stop her saying, or doing, whatever she wished.
‘Well, when you eventually get round to going to visit my father and asking permission to pay your addresses to me…’
He chuckled.
‘…why don’t you ask him to visit your estates with you and give his advice? He lives and breathes land management. And…actually, he is very well respected in certain farming circles.’
‘So…if I were to get him on my side, you mean, then I won’t have any more trouble with my steward?’
She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t take offence at her suggestion.
He looked thoughtful. ‘Do you think he would be willing to do that? And…if he did, would he cut up rough if I were to ignore everything he said and did it my own way?’
‘I think he would be delighted to have a son-in-law who had a mind of his own. He copes splendidly with Mama, after all, who very rarely agrees with anyone. But, seriously, he would also love to go exploring round someone else’s estates and give them the benefit of his own opinion. He does it all the time. The only thing is…’
‘Mmm?’
‘Well, if he enjoys himself too much, we might never get rid of him. I have been the one to keep Stone Court running smoothly, you see, because Mama is simply not interested.’
‘So he does value you, then?’
‘He certainly values my housekeeping skills. But the moment Charles marries and brings another woman in to take over my duties, he will be perfectly happy to never see me again.’
Jack frowned and looked as though he was about to say something derogatory about her father. But then he bit it back. ‘Then I fervently hope Charles marries very soon, so that I may have you, and your excellent housewifely skills, all to myself.’
‘That was exactly the right thing to say,’ she said. ‘You clever, clever man.’
‘And do I deserve a reward?’
‘Oh, yes,’ she said. And took his dear face between her hands and kissed him, just to prove she could understand what he wanted of her as cleverly as he’d just understood her need for him not to criticise Papa.
She was just starting to gently subside beneath the pressure of his answering kiss when the door flew open, causing them to spring guiltily apart. In the doorway stood her mother, the strings of her bonnet untied and half the buttons of her coat undone.
‘Harriet,’ she said. ‘Do you know where my set of Napier’s bones may be? I know I had them in my trunk when I came to Town, but in the move from your Aunt Susan’s house they seem to have gone astray.’
At her side, Jack sat frozen, as though, if he kept still enough, his presence might go unnoticed.
‘And I must have them,’ Mama was complaining. ‘The calculations Mr Swann put up on the blackboard tonight made no sense whatever. I need to go over them again, myself.’
‘I placed them in the top drawer of your desk when I unpacked, Mama,’ said Harriet, surreptitiously encouraging her skirts, which seemed to have risen up her legs, back to their proper place.
‘Whatever did you put them there for?’
‘Well, I thought you might need them.’
‘Then you should have placed them on top of my desk, not hidden them away in a drawer. Honestly, Harriet, I despair of you sometimes, I really do.’ Then she turned and flounced out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Jack made a low growling noise. ‘Did she even notice that I was here?’
‘Probably not. She has just come in from some talk or other that clearly has her all fired up.’
‘I couldn’t really believe it when you said they wouldn’t miss you, but that…’ he pointed to the door through which Mama had just gone. ‘…that does it. Even if I hadn’t decided to make an honest woman of you, I’d have to marry you now.’
‘Because my mother found us together in a compromising position?’
‘Because the blasted woman didn’t even notice. She should be taking far better care of you. But she never has done, has she?’
‘No, but only think, Jack. If she’d been a strict parent, then we would never have met, would we? Because she would have taught me to behave properly and I would never have gone riding in the park.’
‘Yes, there is that,’ he conceded. ‘But…to leave you alone in the room, with me just now. I mean, I could be anybody. I could be a…an evil seducer, intent on having my wicked way with you!’
‘I was rather hoping you were.’
He gave her a stern frown. Which didn’t fool her one bit, since he hadn’t managed to prevent his eyes from twinkling. ‘Young lady, if you cannot tell the difference between a rake who is intent only upon his own pleasure and a man who is making love to the woman he intends to marry and spend the rest of his life with, then…’
‘Then?’
‘Then I had better show you.’
‘Ooh…’ She sighed. ‘Please do.’
EPILOGUE
‘But, Harriet, I really don’t understand…’ Aunt Susan twisted the strings of her reticule. ‘I thought you wished me to help you purchase bride clothes, not—’
‘Well, yes, I do want your help with that.’ And it had been the one thing guaranteed to soften Uncle Hugo’s stance on their associating with each other. When Harriet had written to tell him she had become engaged and needed her aunt’s help with shopping for the wedding, his reply had been swift, and tinged, predictably, with a touch of gloating that she felt obliged to ask her aunt to perform that office, rather than be able to rely on her own mother. ‘Just not today,’ Harriet explained. ‘Or perhaps, later on. After,’ she said, wriggling across the seat of the carriage in preparation for getting out, ‘we have finished with Lord Rawcliffe.’
Getting out of the carriage did the trick. Her aunt, who’d been displaying such reluctance to be seen anywhere near the house which took up such a large slice of Grosvenor Square, girded up her mental loins and set out after her niece.
‘It is most inappropriate for you to be calling upon such a man,’ she said in an urgent undertone. ‘Even if he is a close friend of your betrothed.’
Her curiosity piqued, Harriet delayed informing her aunt that her betrothed would also be at the meeting he’d arranged. She’d always wondered what it was about Lord Rawcliffe that set her aunt against him as a matrimonial prospect for Kitty. And there was no better time to find out than now.
‘What do you mean, such a man? He seems perfectly respectable to me.’
‘Oh, it is not a question of that,’ said Aunt Susan, panting up the front steps after her. ‘It is just that he has a reputation with…that is, I have lost count of the number of hopeful females who have dashed themselves to pieces against the hardness of his heart.’
‘You mean, women throw themselves at him? Whatever for?’
‘Because he is a matrimonial prize. Or at least, he was considered so, when he was younger. And he still is, in many respects,’ said Aunt Susan, jerking her head at the imposing façade of his house in a meaningful way. ‘It is just that careful mothers keep their daughters away from him. He won’t marry anyone who looks the slightest bit…’
‘D
esperate?’ When her aunt merely pursed her lips and shook her head as though words failed her, Harriet tried another one. ‘Fast?’
‘I think,’ said Aunt Susan slowly, as though choosing her words with care, ‘it is more likely that when he does marry, it will be a woman of his own choosing, rather than one who has thrown herself at him. Well, you saw the way Lord Lensborough reacted when those silly girls threw themselves at his head, at the picnic.’
‘At his feet, don’t you mean?’
‘Harriet,’ Aunt Susan said repressively. ‘The point is, men who are as high in the instep as Lensborough, or Rawcliffe, only ever marry girls of good character, with an impeccable lineage and a fortune to match their own.’
He would remain a bachelor for the rest of his life then. Not that she could say as much, when the front door was being opened by exactly the kind of butler she would guess a man as full of his own consequence as Zeus would employ.
In spite of telling Harriet that setting foot inside Lord Rawcliffe’s house was tantamount to committing some sort of social faux pas, Aunt Susan’s eyes flicked round, taking in every inch of the immense hall, the portraits on the walls, the moulding round the doors, the little tables set at strategic points to display their collection of probably priceless urns and dishes, during the short walk across the hall behind the butler.
‘Lady Tarbrook, Lady Harriet Inskip,’ said the butler, as he opened the door, before stepping aside and making the slightest inclination of his head to let them know they should go in.
‘Harriet!’ Jack had been lounging against the mantelpiece, but the moment he saw her, his face lit up with such obvious pleasure it was impossible not to smile back. Especially since he flew to her side and seized her hands as though he meant to haul her close and kiss her.
She squeezed his hands back, then tilted her head sideways, to remind him that her aunt was standing right there.
‘And Lady Tarbrook,’ said Jack, finally recalling his manners. ‘Thank you both for coming.’
‘I…well, not at all,’ said Aunt Susan, clearly bewildered, but determined not to let on that Harriet had virtually ambushed her.
Convenient Bride for the Soldier & the Major Meets His Match & Secret Lessons With the Rake (9781488021718) Page 44