“Very smart of me, was it not?” He tipped his hat to both ladies.
Rose glanced at him sideways. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Eden. I thought you would be caught by a clever mama for her daughter, but instead you made a very wise choice. I saw the announcement in the paper a few weeks ago. I’m glad you’ve come up to town. You must attend our summer rout tonight, mustn’t he, Mama?”
Lady Darnell blinked thoughtfully, causing him to be wary. She was a very astute woman, Lady Darnell. “We would be delighted to see you there, Eden. And I sure Della would be overjoyed, though she is playing down her betrothal a little.”
His offered her his displeased expression, which more than likely wasn’t at all intimidating. “I hope she isn’t misbehaving while I can’t keep my eye on her.” He raised his eyebrows, trying to act like a possessive fiancé.
Rose and Lady Darnell glanced at each other. “I think she misses you,” Rose eventually said. “She’s moping.”
He tried not to smile, but his heart lightened considerably. Even his horse managed a jaunty trot.
* * * *
Della had not been warned to expect to see Eden at the Darnell’s soiree. When she spotted him, talking easily to one of this season’s debutantes, a brown haired, pretty creature, Della’s body froze. She fought to hold her poise as she turned her back on him and flirted with Lord Alexander Rydale, a very attractive bachelor. Not as handsome as Eden, but no one could be. He was also a trifle rigid, and appeared not to approve of her overblown sense of the ridiculous. Eden did, and he always topped up her exaggerations with a straight face.
She tried not to remember everything she had once thought adorable in him, because that easy-going Eden no longer existed. He had been replaced by a dangerous man with very loose morals.
Her conversation plodded with Rydale. Her mind was on Eden the whole time. She likely made no sense. Although Rydale listened patiently, he let her know he thought she was a spoilt brat, instead of thinking so and making her see how overstated her thoughts were, as Eden did by agreeing and adding more embellishments. However, being with Rydale made her feel safe. Even she knew he wouldn’t lay a hand on her, nor obligingly remove her virginity. Eden would, and he had.
Her former experiences of Eden led her to believe that he would be at her side as soon as he saw her. Minutes passed. Half an hour passed, during which time she tried not to see him here, there, and everywhere, except by her side. All the mothers adored Eden. Della didn’t know what they would say if they heard he bedded innocent young virgins, who weren’t wise enough to resist his lures. Likely she wasn’t the only one. He probably left a trail of broken hearts behind him. The thought hurt. Teasing Eden Day, indeed. Every day since she had left him at his house had been Teasing Della day.
“Are you ready?” Rose stood beside her, beautifully innocent in yellow satin gown overlaid with lace.
Della wore drab blue to match her mood. She lifted a breath out of her chest. “Yes. I suppose I should warm up first.”
“I’ll turn the pages for you,” Rose said, cautiously eyeing her.
“I don’t need pages. I know the music.”
“You sound a little tense.” Rose widened her eyes into a deliberately innocent expression. Her eyelashes fluttered so deliberately that Della knew she was about to do or say something dreadful. “I think I need a sip of brandy to warm my voice,” she said coolly.
Della’s lips twitched. “Good idea.” She needed no more encouragement to straighten her spine and heighten her chin. “I’ll have a sip to warm my fingers.”
“That’s an even better idea. You’ve been looking rather grim. You know ...” Rose paused. “Eden only flirts because he is constantly accosted by women who want to flirt with him. He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
Della’s eyes prickled and she turned away. She had thought she was special to Eden but in the end he was nothing but a regular marauding male, taking whatever he could from any bedazzled female who offered. Soon, he would insist on the betrothal being ended. Because he had found taking her virginity so easy, he thought he could use her without having her in his house, or in his life.
Rose grabbed a half-full bottle from the serving tray and surreptitiously tucked the brandy under her arm, covering her elbows with her shawl to hide her theft. She led the way to the housekeeper’s cupboard where she and Della took enough swigs to make their cheeks pink. Arm in arm, and their confidence renewed, they marched back to the window end of the ballroom, which ended in an alcove. Della seated herself at the piano. Rose placed the music sheet on the holder. “I haven’t warmed my throat but I think the brandy has. Are your fingers nice and warm?” She giggled softly.
“My arms are so loose they could fall off. I’m not at all tense, not that I was. Ready?” Della plunged into the introduction of Beethoven’s Adagio Sostenuto, a dramatic composition sure to capture the attention of most of the guests. As soon as the majority had turned in her direction, she segued into the planned melody, a boring sentimental ballad about a lady’s true love. Ignoring the words Rose trilled in her beautiful soprano, and not noticing her own playing, she lifted her gaze from the piano keys. Eden stood among his fashionable friends, watching her hands. He appeared to be absorbed, probably by her patterns. His expression said he was thinking deeply.
His thinking face dissolved her insides, and her fingers melted. Every deliberately misguided fault she’d given him disappeared. She saw a tall and straight man, with a firm chin, careful eyes, and a kind mouth. Her chest ached with longing. The slight tap of his hand on his thigh told her that he had found her pattern and was encouraging her to slow down. Orderliness governed his every action, from the way he ate his food to the way his house ran. Possibly from habit, he couldn’t help but support her.
She slowed and Rose followed. The drama of her soprano intensified with the longer notes. Even Della began to note the words Rose sang. When she sped up with his pattern again, Eden’s head dipped once in approval.
Finally his eyes swept across her face. If she had his gaze for the rest of her life, that wouldn’t be long enough. She offered him a wavering glance. He acknowledged her with a nod. The song finished to a long applause, while she and Rose curtseyed demurely.
“That was wonderful,” Rose whispered. “You are a marvel to slow down when she lost her lover. You captured the drama so well.”
Della squeezed Rose’s hand in appreciation, knowing Eden had far more sense of drama than she did, but if she admitted he had controlled her pacing, she would be humiliated. Eden controlled me. Even her parents had never been able to control her.
Finally the crowd dispersed to gossip again, but Eden remained, clearly waiting for her. While Rose’s mother gathered up her daughter, Eden offered his arm to Della. She slid her hand under his elbow. “I was wondering when you would come to town,” she said, hoping she sounded disinterested.
“Were you?” His face turned to stone. “And yet you didn’t tell me you were leaving.”
“It seemed of little moment at the time.” She let him escort her across the floor to a side window with a view of black treetops standing against the night sky. An array of stars scattered the dark with glitter. Not wanting to continue this conversation and have her heart broken right now, she prolonged the moment by asking, “Would you want to move those stars into a pattern?”
“Somehow, the random pattern works because of the random sizes.” He put his hand on top of hers and glanced at her, and continued with the subject she couldn’t face. “Have you reconsidered my offer?”
She looked away. “To be your mistress?”
“Did I make another?”
“We are betrothed,” she muttered, unable to look at him.
“Did I ask you to marry me?”
She froze. Her fingers turned to ice beneath his and finally her eyes met his. “No.”
“I had you without marriage.” His eyebrows lifted. “Why should I marry you?”
A lump formed in her throat. �
�We had a free sample of each other. That should be enough.”
“It’s not enough for me, Della.”
“Then, I shall tell my parents that our betrothal is ended. I hope not to see you ever again.” She tried to take her hand from his arm, but he clamped his palm over her fingers, a warning to her that she would have to struggle to be rid of him and his impossible expectations. For a moment she closed her eyes, but she couldn’t shut out the reality that she wanted to spend the whole of her life with him, be she a mistress or a wife.
“You appeared to have enjoyed our night together.” He shrugged, and lowered his deep voice. “You could have asked me to leave at any time. I would have, but you prevented me. Tell me you didn’t.”
“I was foolish, but not enough to ruin my life and yours. Society would despise you if you took me as your mistress.”
“But other than out of consideration for me, you would?”
She shook her head, her thoughts muddled and confused. “I discovered that I also have consideration for myself. You would leave me sooner or later for someone younger, prettier, kinder ...”
He nodded, slowly. “That was on the cards,” he said, with his usual regard for the truth. “You would have no redress if I did. With an informal arrangement, when we parted, I would no longer be responsible for your upkeep, nor for a settlement. I expect, by then, your parents wouldn’t take you back.”
She stared at her shoes. “Clearly you can’t resist making clear to me how foolish I was.”
“Too often, you are thoughtless of the feelings of others.” He gentled his grip on her.
“Whose feelings? Certainly not yours. You are heartless.”
“But you don’t care what I think.”
“Of course, I do. Please, let me go.” Her tone had become a distressed whisper.
“You do care what I think? When did this happen?”
She swallowed. “When you offered me the position as your mistress. You made me face the consequence of my actions, then. I had used you, and you decided that you then had the right to use me.”
“Was I wrong?”
She shook her head. Her throat ached. “Now, may I leave?”
He let her go, and bowed. “I shall seek an interview with your father tomorrow. Unless you have anything further to say to me?”
Her humiliation cut deep. She would rather get the whole matter over and done with now, but she owed him at least an explanation. “Do you think you can bear to be alone with me before you see Papa? I can’t say what I want to say in public.”
He nodded courteously. “I’ll call on you tomorrow.”
* * * *
Eden dressed scrupulously for his interview with Della and her father, deciding not to wear his yellow jacket or his cravat with wide blue stripes. Today he needed to look like a respectable gentleman. His helpful valet chose a dark burgundy jacket, beige breeches and a snowy white, well-starched cravat. He drove his phaeton and arrived early, and stepped down, telling his groom to take the horses home, because he planned to walk back. Using the front door knocker discreetly, he awaited entry.
Within moments, the door opened. The Hayden’s butler, an elderly, upright man who possessed not an ounce of humor, took Eden’s hat and gloves, and indicated the waiting footman. “Miss Hayden said to send you to her in the conservatory when you arrive. Thomas will escort you.”
Eden would have liked to say ‘no need’ because he knew his way, but the Hayden’s butler would never allow such a shocking thing to happen in his household. He walked behind the man to the back of the house, where a glass addition was used as summerhouse and lined on the sunny side with potted citrus trees. The sweet scent of oranges tickled his nose as the door was opened and he was formally announced.
Della, dressed in her favorite color, blue, rose to her feet, watching his approach. Her face was white and set. He knew he had been hard on her yesterday, but if she couldn’t say she loved him, he had no hope of a successful alliance with her. Picking up her hands, he kissed her fingers. She appeared surprised.
“Please take a seat.” She indicated the couch she had been using.
“If you don’t mind, I prefer to stand at the moment.”
“So that you can make your escape faster?” Her face lost all expression. “I won’t waste your time. I’ve had time to think. You appear not to remember the fact that I asked you to kiss me, and you agreed. I didn’t force a kiss on you. As I recall you were quite enthusiastic. I didn’t force you to do a thing.”
He nodded.
“Then after that, you kissed me again and lifted my skirts and touched me. You taught me what I didn’t know about my body. I didn’t ask you to do that. You volunteered. It’s no use you telling me that I am good for nothing other than being your mistress, because you taught me what I wanted long before I knew myself. You are as complicit in this as I am.”
He nodded again.
“You are guilty of double standards.”
He shrugged. He didn’t have double standards. He simply wanted her to see exactly what she had seen more clearly overnight. “Well, I wanted you.”
“What’s that have to do with our current situation?”
“What is our current situation?”
“You are here to tell my father that you wish to end our betrothal.” Her eyes turned glossy. She wrapped her fingers together. “Before you do so, I must tell that I have realized are an amazing man, and I’m sorry I have treated you as anything less. While I was staying in your house, I saw the regard in which your servants hold you, and I soon discovered how much your family adores you. You were their protector most of their lives, your sisters said, and you never stinted your attention to any one of them. I can’t think of a single person who doesn’t see how marvelous you are.”
He waited, examining the expression on her lovely, clever face.
“My parents think you are quite wonderful and can’t imagine what you see in me. I know I’m selfish and self-centered, and that I have always taken advantage of your generosity.”
His heart began to thud with hope.
“Without you, I have no music in my life. I simply play the piano using the right keys.” She spread her graceful fingers, staring at them, heaving in a breath as she lifted her gaze once more to his. “I know you care for me, too, or you wouldn’t have wasted all those hours with me. I don’t think you should tell Papa that you don’t plan to marry me, because I think we are meant for each other.”
He curled his forefinger on his chin, as if he were thinking, when not a single thought filled his brain other than the need to hear the words he wished to hear from her.
“Even before we made love, I thought about you most days, but because I saw you most days, I didn’t realize why. It’s rather like having breakfast every day. You don’t think about it because it’s there.”
“To you, I am bread and butter and a cup of coffee,” he said in his mock serious voice.
She almost smiled. “More like salmon and eggs.”
He knocked the base of his palm against his head. “Not a nice big sirloin?”
“Eden, I am not trying to make a joke of you. I’m trying to tell you that I didn’t understand what love is.”
“And you do now? What is it?”
“It’s you. It’s giving without taking. It’s being there no matter what.” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “I was a thoughtless fool. I wanted you to kiss me. I wanted you to do everything you did to me. I didn’t want the duke near me. I didn’t want to marry anyone but you, but I didn’t know.” She lifted her shoulders. “Until I lost you, I didn’t realize how much I wanted you.”
She had always done too much of her share of talking. “Do you suppose you are working up to saying you love me?” He unfolded his arms and took a step forward.
“I’m trying not to. I don’t want to burden you with more than you should have. I don’t want you to be sorry for me.”
“Why should I be sorry for you? I think loving me
is a good idea, frankly.”
Her eyes appeared to grow in size. She didn’t move. He could see the pulse throbbing in her throat. “Well, I have that good idea because I think I do love you.”
“And I’m completely sure I love you.”
“Oh, Eden.” She landed her face against his chest, and wound her arms around his neck. “Do you forgive me for being a fool?”
“Why do you think I let your parents think we were planning to marry?” he asked, hoping she would look up at him.
“I thought it was because you were backing me up.”
“Why would I always back you up?”
“Because you love me?”
His mouth found hers. His thumb found the underside of her breast and he stopped the kiss with a groan. “You’re doing it to me again, Della,” he said into her soft hair. “I have to see your father and I don’t want to seek him out when I’m hard for you.”
“You’re not going to tell him we’re not betrothed!”
“I hadn’t planned to. I came today to ask him to set a date for the wedding. Then I thought I would seek you out and tell you that I insist on being married to the woman whose bed I plan to share for the rest of my life.”
“You put me through all that for nothing?” She sounded outraged, but since she was leaning against him with both arms around him, he didn’t think she was at all cross.
“It’s not really nothing, Della. You are kissing me. I call that a bonus.”
CHAPTER TEN
Eden and his new bride settled into his town house soon after the honeymoon in Cornwall, where they spent days wandering along the coastline, hand in hand. He enjoyed the crunch of the sand beneath his feet and the lace-tipped waves curling into the shore in an erratic pattern that didn’t annoy him in any way.
While he had been in Cornwall, changes had been made to his town house in St. James Place, whose many rooms contained old fashioned furniture left largely untouched since his late father’s occupancy more than ten years ago. Although Eden lived in town nine months of the year, he had never used the enormous ballroom, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had entered the music room.
Sinfully Delectable (Regency Four Book 2) Page 8