by Lucy Monroe
“She was afraid for her life?”
“No.” Thea swiped at her eyes and he felt helpless in the face of her distress. “She was afraid he would discover me and take me away. Then she would be left with nothing.”
“What do you mean discover you? You said that she spirited you away after he threatened never to let her see you again.”
“No, I said she took me away after he threatened to never let her see her child again.”
He wished for the second time that day that they weren’t publicly exposed in a carriage. She had more secrets than the War Department. Secrets that she should have told him. One more complication to the life of the woman he planned to wed.
“Tell me what you mean.”
He didn’t expect her to acquiesce to his demand, but then when had she ever done what he expected?
“Very well.” She sucked on her bottom lip and he could almost see her mind working on the problem of how to tell him this new development.
Finally, her words came out in a rush like steam escaping through the safety valve on The Golden Dragon’s boiler.
“My brother was born first. Father stormed into the room and took him away right after my mother gave birth. She pleaded with him, but he ignored her. He didn’t care how much he hurt her. I was born a few minutes after he and the wet nurse left Langley Hall. The midwife and Melly agreed to help my mother hide me. She was desperate to keep at least one of her children.”
“If she loved your brother so much, how could she leave England and never see him again?” He hated asking the question after everything else he had already said, but he had to know the whole.
“She didn’t at first. She tried to see him. Lady Upworth would have my brother to visit and then Mama would come over, but Father discovered what they were doing and put a stop to it. Mama’s journal says that he came by one day unexpectedly to harangue her for seeing her son. He almost found me in Mama’s arms. That’s when she decided that to keep me, she would have to leave England. It was a hard decision and she regretted it many times. But, according to Lady Upworth, Father never softened toward Mama and would not have allowed her to see her son.”
He took time digesting what she had told him. Thea had a brother, a twin brother. According to her account, she had never even met him. That must be very difficult for someone with her open heart.
“I understand you not wanting to see your father, but what of your brother? Now that you are of age there is no risk in making yourself known and meeting him.”
He had learned to live with the fact that he had half-brothers and sisters that knew nothing about him. But, he was a man, not a tenderhearted female like Thea.
“I’m not ready.”
A memory tugged at his consciousness. “You said your mother made you promise two things. What was the other one?”
She sighed and wiped her cheeks with her gloved fingers. “To give my brother her journals. She wanted him to know that she never stopped loving him or thinking about him.”
He was beginning to understand Thea’s certainty that her father was beyond redemption. Not only had he torn their family apart, but he had withheld her brother from Thea and hurt her in the process.
“In effect, your mother made you promise to meet your brother.”
She must have worried that Thea would never have made the trip to England otherwise. She must have wanted her daughter to return to their homeland.
“I want to, truly. Just not immediately. Everything has been happening so fast and the most important thing right now is to find the thief and protect Uncle Ashby. But it’s true. To keep my promise, I have no choice but to meet my brother.”
“You have no choice about becoming engaged either.” Didn’t she understand?
The same honor that required her to keep her promise to her mother, required him to marry her.
She frowned, her expression no longer one of pain, but of anger. “Of course I have a choice.”
“Not if you wish to take your place in society.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that it doesn’t matter to me?” Her exasperation with his reasoning was clear in her voice.
“Does your aunt’s acceptance among the ton matter to you?”
She took a deep breath and let it out again slowly before asking, “What do you mean?”
He glanced at her. “If she continues to acknowledge you, as you know she will insist on doing, the damage to your reputation will also affect hers.”
“That is ridiculous. Our friendship aboard your ship cannot affect my aunt’s standing in the ton.”
“I realize that you are naïve of the ways of the ton, but you must accept my knowledge in this matter. I am intimately acquainted with scandal. Your aunt’s life will be made very difficult by our association if we are not engaged.”
“That’s so unfair. I don’t even want to be introduced to the ton and yet if I don’t my aunt will be hurt. If I do and I refuse to become engaged with you, she will suffer. It isn’t right.” She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and his tolerance snapped.
“Stop that. Every time you take your lip between your teeth, I am reminded how good those lips taste and how much I want to kiss you.” And he was bloody tired of driving in an uncomfortable state of arousal.
She immediately let go of her lip. “I… it’s an old habit. I’m sorry it disturbs you.”
He sighed. “Everything about you disturbs me, Thea.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “I suppose we could pretend to be engaged as long as I am in England. If it will make things better for Lady Upworth, that is.”
It would not be a pretend engagement, but he wouldn’t argue that point now. “Good.”
“Still, you should have told me before you said something to Mr. Merewether. I could have ruined our story by denying it in my surprise.”
He smiled. “You are too intelligent to be so easily tripped up. Besides, I had to think on my feet. If I hadn’t said that, he would have written a very upsetting letter to his uncle.”
She started to bite her lip and then stopped, giving him a sideways glance. “I guess so. I’m surprised he accepted your story regardless.”
“Why is that?” He thought he’d done an excellent job of being convincing.
The truth was like that.
“I can’t believe that he accepted the faradidle about you controlling my share of the company once we were married. Mr. Merewether and I are not totally unknown to each other, though we have never met. We have been corresponding since he took over the London office. He must realize that I would never give up my role in Merewether Shipping – even if I were foolish enough to marry.”
Drake frowned at the comment about being foolish enough to marry, but understood her other concern. Anyone who knew Thea at all well would realize she was not the type to give her company over to her husband’s care.
“He believed it because that is what most women of his acquaintance would do.”
“Is that what you would expect from your wife?”
Drake sensed the deeper meaning behind her words and hesitated before answering. “I would not expect you to give up all interest in your shipping company, but you must realize that as my wife and the mother of our children, you could not spend your days at Merewether Shipping.”
“I could do a great deal of business from our home.” She cleared her throat. “I mean to say, your wife could.”
“Yes, you could. It pleases my family for me to do most of my business that way as well.”
“It would not be the usual sort of marriage.”
Drawing the horses to a stop in front of his aunt’s townhouse for the second time that day, he formulated his response in his mind. Once he’d secured the reins, he took her chin in his hand and turned her face toward him. “We are not the usual gentleman and lady. We are both different, made that way by the circumstances of our births and upbringing. I don’t want to marry a lady who has no interest in her business.
I want to marry you. I would only ask that for the sake of our families and children, you be circumspect in your business dealings. There is nothing like the hint of trade to tarnish your standing among the ton.”
She sighed. “Don’t you think one must spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what is and is not acceptable to society when one lives in England? I can assure you that back on my island I did not worry overmuch about what others would think of my actions.”
He smiled. “I have no doubt.”
The footman came out to take charge of the curricle. Drake swung down and went around to collect Thea.
Once he had her on the ground, he tucked her arm into his and gave instructions for the ledgers to be delivered to his aunt’s library. “Shall we tell my aunt our happy news?”
“I suppose.” She did not look overjoyed at the prospect. “Will she be very angry with you when you tell her it was all a sham?”
“I won’t tell her.”
“Oh.” She stopped to think. “We could fabricate an argument and add a pretend crying off to our pretend engagement.”
He gripped her arm more tightly, wanting to anchor her to himself. “Let’s not plan that far into the future.”
If he had anything to say about it, their very real engagement would be followed by an even more real marriage. An unconventional one, but real nonetheless.
******
Thea followed Drake into his aunt’s drawing room, still uncertain about the false engagement deception he was set on perpetrating among the ton.
She wasn’t such a fool she didn’t realize he’d prefer it to be a real one, but she was at a loss as how to convince him his honor would not be tarnished by not marrying her. She understood his concern for her aunt, but surely Thea’s actions would not have such an impact on her aunt’s standing among the ton. Back home on her island, she could not imagine one person being ostracized simply because they were related to an unsavory character.
Not that she was unsavory, but she did seem to have a difficult time adhering to the ways of the Polite World every moment of every day.
“Mama, this is a pleasing surprise.”
Thea’s thoughts scattered to the four winds at Drake’s words. His mother had come to London? She was sure Lady Boyle had told her that Lady Noreen was not expected in Town for the Season. Thea had been disappointed, for she had wanted to meet a lady of the ton with the courage to bear an illegitimate child and raise him as her own.
But now the thought of meeting more of Drakes family gave Thea heart palpitations. What would Lady Noreen do when she heard of the supposed engagement?
She was a duke’s daughter; she would want more for her son.
Thea’s gaze flew with trepidation to the beautiful, petite woman Drake had spoken to. Lady Noreen shared Drake’s dark hair and brown eyes, not to mention a more feminine version of his perfectly formed features, but she was tiny beside her tall son.
“Pierson.” Smiling, Lady Noreen reached her hands out toward him.
He crossed the room with rapid strides and took her hands in his, leaning his big body down so he could kiss her cheek. “It is good to see you.”
“I have missed you, son.”
Thea knew that such open affection between members of the ton was not the usual way of things and she took an instant liking to the woman who had given Drake birth and taught him things more important than mere societal strictures.
He stood up, his smile enigmatic. “Ah, so that explains your presence in Town when I distinctly remember you saying you had no plans to attend the Season.”
“Do not be silly, Pierson.” Lady Noreen’s soft, melodious voice was tinged with censure. “You know very well I’ve come to meet the woman you plan to marry.”
His muttered imprecation barely registered as the small woman dressed in the first stare of fashion, if Lady Upworth’s sketches were accurate representations of such things, waved her hand toward Thea. “Come here, my dear. I have been waiting this past five years or more for my son to choose a bride. I wish to wait not one moment longer to meet you.”
Thea felt inexorably drawn across the room by the woman’s warmth and genuine desire to meet her.
She stopped in front of the other woman and remembered at the last second to curtsy as her mother had taught her. “It is an honor to meet you, my lady.”
Lady Boyle nodded her approval. “Nicely done, Miss Selwyn.”
Amusement lurked on the edges of Thea’s lips as she curtsied toward the old woman. “Thank you.”
“Ah, she has a sense of humor and impeccable manners. I like that.”
Thea’s amusement vanished and she cast a worried frown toward Drake, but he was not looking at her. His attention was fixed on his mother as if he was trying to interpret her reaction to Thea.
It was left to her to tell the elegant beauty the truth. “I’m sorry to say my manners are sporadic. Mama and Aunt Ruth tried their best, but life on my island was not so strict as London. I’m afraid I have some terrible habits.”
“Nonsense, gel. You are a delight and so I’ve told my niece.” Lady Boyle’s championship was as pleasant as it was unexpected.
Surely the old woman was not blind to Thea’s faults.
Even more shocking were Drake’s words. “She is perfect, Mama. Do not let her convince you otherwise.”
She spun to face him, her hands on her hips. “That is not what you told my aunt. You listed my shortcomings for her like a man intent on his last confession before going to meet his Maker. Does your own mother not deserve the same honesty?”
“But I have told her the truth, sweeting. You are perfect for me.”
His words warmed her clear to her toes and she had to clasp her hands to stop them from reaching out to touch him. “Oh, Drake...”
His eyes spoke a message she feared to translate as they stood in silent communication for several seconds.
Finally, he broke his gaze from hers and smiled at his mother of Thea’s shoulder. “You will like her, Mama.”
Blushing, she turned back to face his mother to find the dark brown eyes so like her son’s glistened with moisture.
“My lady?”
“I am very happy right now, Thea. May I call you Thea?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And you must call me Noreen, at least until you are married to my son. Then you will call me Mama.”
Tears burned Thea’s own eyes. “I would be honored to do so.”
But her heart was heavy. She did not wish to see this woman hurt by the disappointment of a broken engagement. And it was apparent no other outcome could be expected. Lady Noreen loved her son and wanted to see him happily settled.
The deception of the engagement was having unforeseen consequences.
******
Thea walked into Lady Boyle’s library and fell into the nearest chair. Slipping her shoes off, she wiggled her toes and wished she had the courage to lift her skirts and massage her feet. She didn’t. Not after spending the entire day shopping in the company of her aunt, Drake’s mother and Lady Boyle. Those worthy ladies had taken it into their heads to help her prepare for the role of Drake’s wife as well as to take her place in society.
She didn’t even bother to stifle the groan the thought precipitated. How could she have allowed Drake to convince her to go along with his phony engagement scheme?
His arguments had seemed so sound in the carriage, when she was still feeling emotionally vulnerable from their discussion about her family. Now, she was sure there had to be a better way to protect her aunt’s reputation. She hated lying and the deception had just begun. Everyone she met from this point forward would believe that she was engaged to Drake.
He’d made sure of that by putting an announcement in both of the major London newspapers. She had protested the announcement as unnecessary, but he had said the damage was already done. Besides, he argued, his mother would expect it.
His mother.
Thea genuinely
liked Lady Noreen. She was everything a lady of the ton was expected to be and yet she was also kind, loving toward her family and fiercely protective of her son. It hadn’t taken Thea any time at all to work out that Lady Noreen had remained unattached through her son’s childhood so there would never be a risk of him being rejected and shunted off to live with relatives in some remote location.
She wanted only the best for Drake and had sacrificed her own pursuits to ensure he got it. Lady Noreen was in alt over his decision to wed, treating Thea just like the daughter she never had, which made the false engagement even worse to Thea’s way of thinking.
When she had brought her concerns on that score to Drake, he had dismissed them with the assurance he had no plans to disappoint his mother.
Was it any wonder she spent a good part of each day wanting to throttle him? Thea asked herself.
The confusing part was that she spent the rest of her time wanting to touch him. It was his close proximity. He never let her out of his sight, except when she went shopping with his mother and the others. He’d been quick enough to make himself scarce this morning when Lady Noreen announced their intentions.
Drat the man. If he was going to plague her, he should at least have the decency to stand by her during an ordeal like shopping for clothes in London. She tipped her head back on the chair and allowed her eyes to shut. She would rest for just a minute before tackling the ledgers again.
******
“I see my aunt has worn you out.”
Thea’s eyes flew open at the sound of Drake’s voice, but she had been half asleep and it took careful thought to reason out what he had said. When she did, she frowned up at him.
He loomed over her, looking altogether too tempting in his simple, but elegant clothes. He made other men, particularly the London dandies she had seen, look foolishly ornamented.
“So, you have come out of hiding now that the torture is over.”
He smiled. “Torture? I thought you went shopping.”
She straightened in the chair and groaned loudly at the stiffness in her body. “Same thing. Have you ever been shopping with your aunt?”
He put his hand out and she took it. Pulling her to her feet, he said, “Once. For some new gloves.”