by Gayle Callen
“So your family home now belongs to my son,” she said directly.
Lady Elizabeth, several years younger than Grace, coughed into her napkin as if her food had gone down the wrong way.
“Yes, my lady,” Grace said, tensing.
“You sold it to him?”
Before Grace could speak, Daniel said, “I dealt with her mother.”
Lady Flora gave her son a measured look. “Miss Banbury, if you are her only child—”
“Oh, I am not, my lady,” Grace interrupted. “I have a brother, Edward Banbury. He lives in London now.”
“So your family has property there, as well.”
May God forgive her for lying, but all she could say was, “Yes, my lady.”
“Please forgive my forthrightness,” Lady Flora said with a sigh, “but does your mother know you’ve come here?”
Grace didn’t understand the undercurrent flowing through the room, although she imagined her unorthodox journey with Daniel to be the reason. “She is traveling in the north, my lady. But my brother knows.”
“Mother, Miss Banbury is not a young girl,” Daniel said impatiently. “And we traveled with her maid attending us at all times. Now can we please enjoy our dinner? You were about to tell me of Mr. Abernathy’s outdoor dinner party. Surely it was ruined by the rain.”
Grace felt a bit nauseated. Daniel’s young cousin was sneaking fascinated glances at her as if Grace were an established courtesan. Lady Flora was nothing but polite and continued occasionally to draw Grace into conversation with the others. Grace had known she would be a curiosity to Daniel’s family, but had never imagined it would be so grueling. But, of course, they were in a society so far above hers. They must believe her a terribly inappropriate match for Daniel. After all, until the duke married and had a son of his own, Daniel was his heir. She’d come here thinking she could redeem him in the eyes of his family, but had now realized that seeing her partnered with Daniel did not appease them.
After dinner, she felt a moment’s panic when Lady Flora suggested that Daniel could meet them later in the drawing room after he’d smoked one of his terrible cigars. But Daniel had demurred, insisting that as the only gentleman, he would remain with the ladies. Grace should have been grateful that he was looking out for her, but she also found herself annoyed. He had surely known how his mother would react to her presence. Why hadn’t he warned her, so she could change her mind about traveling farther with him?
But of course, she’d given him the perfect opportunity to find more time alone with her. She had thought that being home might make him more conservative, but on seeing this palace—this castle—now she knew they could get lost together, and no one would ever be able to find them.
At last she could end the evening without seeming like she was frantic to escape. A maid arrived to show her to her room, and Grace curtsied to Daniel’s family and left them to their private conversations. Although she was in a hurry for some sort of sanctuary, she could not resist looking into any open doorways she passed. Most of the rooms were unlit, too dark to see anything, but they passed one more, and the maid’s candelabrum lit a ghostly whiteness. Grace came to a stop, and the maid came back for her. The candlelight revealed a room scattered with furniture covered in sheets. It seemed rather strange for a room in the main part of the house.
“What is this?” Grace asked.
The young girl glanced into the room and gave an absent shrug. “’Tis the music room, miss. But no one uses it anymore.”
Of course not, Grace thought, intrigued and far too curious. As she followed the girl, she paid attention to where she was so that she could find her way back. Ruby was waiting in her bedroom, and when the housemaid left them alone, Ruby gripped Grace’s arms.
“Have ye ever seen such a place, Miss Grace?” Ruby cried. “I can’t even find the kitchens from here. And there’s bells that tell us what room is ringin’—”
“Ruby, I’m having my own trouble remembering a particular room, so I have to find it now.”
Ruby frowned at her. “Now Miss Grace, ye’ll get yerself lost, and then what will Mr. Throckmorten think of ye?”
“Believe me, he’ll stay far away from the music room. I promise I’ll be back soon.”
Grace took up the candelabrum left by the maid and hurried back the way she’d come, going down one floor, and taking two left turns where corridors met. But at last she found the music room. She knew for a fact that the family wing was on the opposite side of the house, so no one should disturb her. She had time to see where Daniel had spent much of his boyhood.
She took the sheet off the piano and admired its beautiful lines. There were sheets covering cases along the wall, and she found a miniature version of the violin and several other instruments. Lord Wade had said that Simon could play many instruments as a boy. Had he spent hours here happy with his parents?
But he’d given it all up after his father’s death and his mother’s notoriety.
She sat down at the piano. Maybe she was going about their challenge all wrong. Why did he need to be redeemed by her? He was a good man, helping his friends—helping her brother, though certainly Edward was a risky proposition. Daniel had deeply felt his mother’s scandal and fought everyone who abused her. He was not a man who needed redemption. Yet she still wanted him to have a better life.
Was it music he was missing, and not even realizing it? Was this what she needed to give back to him, to make him whole? Perhaps only then would he give up his gambling, risking too much when he had so much to live for.
And could she then leave him and think he was a better man for knowing her?
She ran her fingers lightly over the keyboard but did not play.
The thought of never seeing him again except socially gave her a pang in her heart. Their relationship was becoming more than she’d anticipated. She was getting wrapped up in Daniel’s life, and it was difficult not to let herself fall gladly into his bed. When he left her, regardless of who was victorious, there would be a new emptiness in her life. Her days and nights were all about him now, and when he was gone—
The imagined bleakness took her breath away.
Without realizing it, she accidentally pressed down too hard, and a single note rang into the silence. The sound echoed like a ghostly, happy memory of better days. She froze as it died away. She’d thought she’d heard someone in the hall, and she quickly ran to the door and peered outside, but she was alone, thank God. She didn’t want to have to explain to Lady Flora that she was abusing her hospitality by nosing into private areas of the mansion.
And if Daniel found her, he might either be angry at her intrusion, or he would yet again attempt his seduction, and she would be far too susceptible now.
As she had been from the beginning. She’d known she had a weakness for him, and now it had grown into an urgent need.
Taking up the candelabrum, she made her way back quickly to her room.
She didn’t see Daniel, who silently watched her.
Chapter 17
Daniel knew he could have gone to Grace’s bedroom, pursued her, and experienced even more of her passion, but he watched her disappear down the dark corridor and didn’t follow.
Instead, he went into the music room.
He’d come here without volition, and he should have known she would somehow be able to find the exact room in the mansion that most called to him.
How did she know these things when even he himself didn’t?
He did not have a candle, but there was a lamp in the corridor that cast the faintest glow inside. The draperies had not been drawn over the tall windows, and that helped him to see. Grace had forgotten to cover the piano. He did so to spare his mother.
He had never asked his mother why, after so many years, music still so distressed her. Perhaps it was habit now, like it was for him, to humor her.
He realized there were many things about the past he never spoke of with her. Like why she’d really stopped comp
osing, like how it felt to have the world think one a murderer.
He couldn’t think such things around Grace, who was beginning to see into his thoughts. He was spending too much time with her, letting her see too deeply into him.
And he couldn’t stop, as if he were riding a carriage down a hill with the reins dragging on the ground rather than securely in his hands.
Grace spent a pleasant morning in the company of Lady Elizabeth, Daniel’s cousin. Earlier, at breakfast, Daniel had told her that he had several meetings scheduled with the steward and staff, acting in the duke’s place, and that he would join her later.
Grace had been glad for the distance. She had spent a humiliating amount of time awake in her bed the previous night, wondering if he’d come to continue his seduction. When he had not, she’d been more upset than relieved. What did she want—for him to win this insane challenge?
Or was she looking for every possible chance to be with him?
This wasn’t how she’d thought the challenge would turn out.
So to distract herself, she’d gone riding with Lady Elizabeth and had a tour of the incredible park surrounding Madingley Court. There were more gardeners here than the sum of her entire staff at Maran Park. When at last they’d returned to the stables, a house servant was waiting for Lady Elizabeth.
“My lady, Mr. Baxter Wells is here to see you.”
Grace’s heart gave a sharp thump, and she saw the pleasure the young woman took in having a suitor. But Lady Elizabeth had no idea what kind of pleasures Mr. Wells wanted from her.
Grace knew how he took advantage of a woman’s innocence, how smooth the lies could fall from his lips. Grace had fallen for it all, at the same age as this young lady. How could she remain silent?
When the maid had left, and the groom had led away both horses, Lady Elizabeth walked back out into the stable yard with her.
“Miss Banbury,” Lady Elizabeth said, “would you mind if I leave you now?”
“Of course not, my lady, but first, could you listen to a word of warning?”
The girl’s happy expression clouded over. “I don’t understand.”
“You don’t know me well, so perhaps it is not my place to speak of this to you, but I cannot remain silent. I know of Mr. Wells’s reputation. He can seem the most genial of men, but take care that he does not want more from you than you want to give.”
Lady Elizabeth blushed. “Really, Miss Banbury, I don’t know what you mean. He’s always been perfectly polite.”
Grace felt like the biggest fool, but she didn’t want the innocent girl to suffer. “Some men will try to make their advances on you in private. I—I just want you to be aware.”
Lady Elizabeth gave her a nod of thanks, then took her leave and went up to the mansion. Grace remained behind, knowing she’d made herself look suspicious. But she just could not stand by and watch that man do to someone else what he’d done to her. She still remembered how he’d dismissed her after they’d been intimate, the way he’d accused her of trying to trap him into marriage. She shuddered in remembered pain. She didn’t want to go up to the mansion and risk seeing him again, so she turned back to the stables, wondering if the grooms would allow her to go riding alone.
“Miss Banbury?”
The sound of Daniel’s voice lifted her spirits, and she turned to face him, holding back an absolutely welcoming grin that he might misinterpret.
“Are you doing anything right now, Mr. Throckmorten?”
He arched a brow. “Talking to you.”
“Would you care to go riding?”
“There is a guest up at the mansion. I thought you might wish to be with the ladies.”
“No, thank you, it might be awkward. Now about that ride…”
He agreed to accompany her, and Grace could practically hear his curiosity as if he’d spoken aloud. She knew he would gladly get her alone, to ask questions and to advance his own pursuit.
She was relieved when a groom followed them as chaperone. Daniel just frowned when she gave him a smug smile.
When Daniel and Grace returned from their ride, Grace went to her room to prepare for luncheon—or to don her armor against his mother’s questions, Daniel thought. As he passed near the entrance hall, a man was striding down the corridor as if he’d come from the drawing room.
The man nodded to him. “You must be Throckmorten.”
Daniel stopped, curious. “I am. And who are you?”
“Baxter Wells. I was paying my respects to your cousin.”
“Good to meet you.” Daniel was about to nod and be on his way, when Wells looked about as if wondering if they could be overheard. Unease made Daniel stiffen.
“Lady Elizabeth tells me you’re traveling with Miss Banbury,” Wells said, his voice lowered, his expression knowing.
Daniel found himself wanting to reveal that a maid was also traveling with them, but he hardly owed this stranger any details. “Do you have a point?”
“Only that traveling with her can be quite an adventure.”
The man was openly leering now. Daniel remembered the look on Grace’s face when she’d said that a man had broken her heart.
Swiftly, he punched Wells hard in the stomach once, then took the man’s arm when he doubled over, groaning.
“I suggest that Miss Banbury’s name never pass your lips again,” Daniel said, his voice a growl of warning.
“Of course, of course,” Wells said, bobbing his head as he pulled away and staggered toward the front door.
A footman stood there, his face expressionless, as if he hadn’t seen the duke’s heir accost another man. After the door had closed behind Wells, Daniel nodded to the footman, who nodded back.
And then Daniel went to track down Elizabeth. He found her alone in the drawing room, writing a letter.
She looked up with a smile. “Good morning, Daniel.”
He didn’t smile back. “Is Baxter Wells courting you?”
Her smile faded, and a look of confusion surfaced. “You are the second person today to take offense to him. I have only recently met him, but he seems a kind man.”
“He’s not. Who else spoke to you about him?” As if Daniel didn’t know.
“Miss Banbury. She said he was not to be trusted.”
“He’s not.”
She opened her mouth but seemed to think better of her question. “Very well. I must say that Miss Banbury did not owe me a warning. It was very kind of her to try to help me, when she could not know how I would accept her help. She seems nice, even though Chris’s letter said—”
She broke off, her face a study in regret at what she’d revealed.
“What letter?” Daniel asked, sitting down beside her and speaking in a low voice. “And who did he write it to?”
Elizabeth sighed. “To Mama, of course, but she shared it with Aunt Flora.”
“Don’t make me pry every detail out of you,” he warned, as if she’d ever believe a threat from him.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, if Mama felt free to share it with us, I should share it with you. Chris is worried that Miss Banbury is trying to…”
Her voice trailed off, and Daniel found himself thinking, “seduce you,” as if that was what Grace had in mind. It was almost amusing.
“Trying to what?” he asked.
“Trying to trap you in marriage,” Elizabeth finished, looking uncomfortable.
“That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard,” Daniel said. “And you may tell the rest of them for me.”
“Chris is worried because she’s not exactly of the finest family.”
“And do you of all people believe that family is more important than the person?”
Her own parents had fallen inappropriately in love, and she wouldn’t exist if her father had done as Society would have wanted.
“Daniel, do not involve me,” Elizabeth said. “You made me tell you all this, and I don’t know what to think—and I don’t want to.”
“You s
aid my mother knew about this letter. No wonder she was interrogating Grace.”
“You call her by her Christian name?” Elizabeth said, wide-eyed.
As if that was the worst familiarity a man could be accused of. Elizabeth was so young, Daniel thought fondly.
“A slip of the tongue,” Daniel amended. “Now promise me you’ll discourage Wells and that you’ll never be alone with him.”
“I promise.” She huffed a breath. “And to think, I thought that making my coming out would have everyone treating me as an adult!”
Grace stood outside the drawing room, having overheard more than she meant to between Daniel and Lady Elizabeth. Her heart was doing painful flutters in her chest, and to her horror, she felt like she might cry.
Daniel’s family thought she was trying to trap him. It was the same thing Baxter had accused her of. She would have thought she’d hardened herself to such untruths, but obviously she hadn’t because she could barely swallow past the great lump in her throat.
She had been a fool. How had she not seen this coming, especially after her experience with Baxter? She had taken a chance traveling with Daniel, even when accompanied by her maid, but she’d thought any scandal whispered would have been about his quest for his newest mistress, and her supposed naïveté about his motives.
But her motives were the ones in question.
She could not believe that the Cabots would ever spread such a rumor on to others, but still, it hurt. If they only knew how she was resisting their precious son, she thought bitterly.
Daniel couldn’t believe such a thing of her, not after the way she resisted him every chance she got. She folded her arms tightly over her stomach. But of course, she hadn’t been resisting so successfully lately. He couldn’t possibly think she was devious enough to…mislead him, could he?
After dinner, Grace said an early good night, hoping that the family accepted her excuse of needing sleep for the early-morning departure for London. When in reality, she just had to get away from their unfailing politeness. Now that she knew what they all thought of her, her stomach twisted every time someone spoke to her. Daniel seemed suspicious of her too-quiet behavior. He was staring at her far too much. Would his mother begin to think he was already smitten with her?