by Lucy Monroe
She dropped her gaze, unwilling to watch Lucas’s countenance change to one of contempt.
“The first thing to do is to discover who is doing the blackmailing. We will have to draw up a list of potential suspects. Ravenswood comes to Town tomorrow, is that not correct?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, Jared wants to be here for the wedding,” Thea replied.
“Good. We’ll call a family conference at Lady Upworth’s tomorrow afternoon.”
“We’ll be there,” Drake said.
“An excellent idea.” Thea sounded quite pleased. “Jared and the Langley’s should be warned about the potential scandal once you and Irisa go through with the wedding.”
“Yes.”
Irisa’s head snapped up and her eyes flew to Lucas’s face. He watched her as if he’d been waiting for her to once again meet his gaze.
“There isn’t going to be a wedding,” she said, “I’ve already explained that. Besides now that you know the truth, you will want to withdraw your offer. I’ll cry off of course. It’s the least I can do.”
“The least you can do is to keep your word. I will accept nothing less.”
“But you cannot want to marry me now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m a...” stopping herself in time, she did not say the word that would send her sister into another tizzy. “Because my parents weren’t married when I was born. I’ll be a constant source of embarrassment for you, Lucas - worse than your mother. Once the blackmailer makes good on his threats, I’ll be more notorious than she ever was.”
“Tell her she’s being ridiculous, Ashton,” Thea said.
Drake laid his hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Hush, darling. Let the man speak for himself.”
Oh, this was awful. Drake and Thea would force Lucas to pretend to accept things that a man of his nature simply could not.
Irisa jumped to her feet. “I don’t want Lucas to speak. I’m not going to marry him and that’s final.” Desolation fought with rage as she glared at her sister and brother-in-law, wishing she had not given into the urge to come here.
Lucas said, “All right.”
Though she had expected them, the two words nearly shredded her composure and she could not make herself respond for the life of her. Thea stared a Lucas with a ludicrous expression of shocked disbelief. Drake maintained a watchful silence.
After several deep breaths and a long silence, she said, “I can return to Aunt Harriet’s tonight, but I must make permanent living arrangements soon. I do not believe that Papa and Mama will want me back in their house.”
Not that any of this was Lucas’s problem, but she did not know what else to say. She could not quite bring herself to thank Lucas for allowing her to break their engagement.
“You will be living with me,” Lucas said in a voice as hard as petrified rock.
“You just agreed to cancel the wedding,” Thea said when Irisa once again found herself incapable of response.
“Yes, but your sister will be living with me.” His eyes held Irisa’s, the message in his almost frightening. “Four nights hence, you will sleep in my bed whether or not there has been a wedding.”
He’d gone mad. She could not live with him without the bonds of marriage. Then an awful thought registered. “You plan to make me your mistress?”
“I plan to make you my wife, but you refuse to marry me. I am not about to give up my wedding night just because you refuse to give me a wedding. I must admit it surprises me you are willing to cause the scandal, though. Although I realize your reputation is not quite as important to you as I first believed, I had thought you were somewhat conventional.”
“I am conventional! There is no way I am coming to live with you unless we are married.” She might be illegitimate, but she was no lightskirt.
“Good. I admit that was my preference, but you were so adamant.”
As the meaning of his words registered, Irisa scowled. “I did not agree to marry you.”
“It sounded that way to me. You said you didn’t want to be his mistress.” Drake matched Lucas’s mad complacency.
Irisa turned to Thea. “Please, help me convince them this is the only way. I cannot marry Lucas and bring scandal down on him and the family.”
But Thea’s eyes burned with humor, not understanding. “I think it would be much more scandalous for you to live with Lucas as his mistress, sister-mine.”
“I’m not going to be anyone’s mistress!” She was sure the scullery maid in the kitchen could hear that pronouncement.
Suddenly Lucas’s hands were there on her shoulders, his body so close she could smell his masculine scent. “No. Little one, you aren’t going to be my mistress, but you will be my wife. If it requires compromising you beyond redemption then that is what I am prepared to do. You belong to me.”
“But you don’t love me,” she wailed.
He frowned. “You told me this afternoon that did not matter.”
“I said it wasn’t the reason I was crying off. I did not say it didn’t matter.” Did he only hear what he wanted to?
“I have thought about this love business a great deal and it is not the romantical nonsense I have always believed.”
“Are you saying you love me?” she asked, dazed.
“That is not something I wish to discuss in front of your sister and her husband.”
Irisa’s gaze skittered from one occupant of the room to the other. “Of course.”
“I want you and you promised yourself to me. I’m holding you to that promise. Whatever it takes,” Lucas said with utter implacability.
“But you can’t want to marry me. I’m everything you vowed to stay away from in a wife. Don’t you see?”
Lucas tipped her chin up and his eyes burned into hers. “If that were true, I would never have courted you in the first place. Do you remember when I asked you to marry me?”
She nodded.
“I told you that I held you accountable for your actions, not those of your family. Your parents are responsible for your illegitimacy. You are responsible for keeping your promise to marry me. Do you understand?”
She comprehended that Lucas would not give up. The man was as bendable as iron.
***
Lucas called on Drake the next morning. He wanted the other man’s impression of the Langleys. Drake had known them for four years, plenty of time to get a realistic assessment of the other members of his wife’s family. Lucas was shown into Drake’s study immediately upon arrival at the townhouse.
Drake offered him a seat. “I was expecting you.”
Lucas nodded. “I would have stayed to talk last night, but I had to see Irisa home. She took a hansom cab to your house.”
Drake’s eyes narrowed. “I trust you informed her how dangerous such an action could be for a lone woman at night.”
“I tried.” Remembering Irisa’s uncommunicative state on the carriage ride home last night, he frowned. “I’m not sure she listened.”
Drake smiled. “She’s a lot like her sister.”
“When I first met her, I thought she was the perfect, biddable female,” Lucas admitted ruefully.
“And now?”
“She’s not biddable.”
“But she’s perfect for you?”
Lucas smiled wryly. “Yes. Not that I ever would have expected a desire to tie myself to an impulsive, reckless and only sometimes proper lady. But there it is.”
“She’s honorable.”
“Yes.” Unlike his mother or his brother, Irisa had a great deal of honor. “Even when she’s trying to renege on our marriage agreement.”
“She’s trying to protect you and her family.”
Lucas nodded. “I’m worried about her. This blackmail attempt seems too damned convenient right after that scare on the tower roof at Ashton Manor.”
Drake leaned back in his chair and tapped his palm with the pencil in his other hand. “You’re right, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.
No one staying at your house had any reason to harm her and even less reason to want the scandal of a broken engagement.”
Which was the same wall Lucas hit in his reasoning every time he tried to cast Langley as the villain. “After the way Langley reacted to her escapade in the park, I thought he might have done it to punish her, but I can’t see him wanting the marriage cancelled unless he’s trying to get back at me.”
“He’s a cold bastard, but I wouldn’t have thought him capable of that perfidy.”
“Tell me about the first countess. She was Thea’s mother, wasn’t she?”
Drake nodded. “Thea and Jared are twins. Jared was born first and Langley whisked him out of Langley Hall within minutes of his birth, promising Anna she would never see her son again. Then Thea was born and Anna was desperate to keep her hidden so she would not lose her too. When it became obvious that staying in England meant not seeing her son and the risk of losing her daughter, Anna fled to the West Indies. She died there several years later.”
“After Langley had already remarried and had another child,” Lucas concluded for the other man.
“Yes. He had never bothered to search for his runaway wife and therefore had no way of knowing whether she was dead or alive. He told Thea he had assumed Anna dead because she never returned to see her son. He and the current countess went through a second wedding ceremony after Thea arrived in London and revealed the date of her mother’s death.”
Lucas was sickened by the lack of moral character Langley had shown. “So he deceived the current countess into marriage?”
Drake shook his head. “More like she trapped him. She was pregnant with Irisa and willingly took the risk of marriage knowing that Anna might still be living. Langley told her the truth although Jared and the rest of the ton believed Anna had died due to complications from childbirth.”
“You’re right. Langley is a cold-hearted bastard.”
“Irisa called herself one, too. Last night before you arrived.”
Lucas’s insides twisted. “She’s innocent in all this.”
“She doesn’t feel that way.”
“Bloody hell. It’s a mess.”
Drake smiled. “Welcome to the family.”
“A family that eats its young.”
“Maybe, but Langley is too damn social conscious to risk the scandal associated with a broken engagement. Besides, he would never threaten to reveal Irisa’s illegitimate birth. It reflects too poorly on him.”
“Then who is trying to blackmail her?”
Drake frowned. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that ever since she showed us the note last night and I can’t come up with a single name.”
“I’ll find him.”
“You sound certain.”
“I have some experience in this sort of thing,” Lucas admitted.
Drake raised his brows in question.
“I played the part of domestic intelligence agent during the war with Boney.”
“You would have been damn young.”
“It was a matter of duty to my country.” Lucas shrugged. “My youth made me appear harmless.”
Drake’s smile turned feral. “You’ll pardon me for saying so, but I can’t imagine a time when you appeared harmless. You’ve got too much killer instinct.”
Coming from his future brother-in-law, Lucas took the words as deep praise. “Whoever is playing these games with Irisa is going to learn just how dangerous I can be.”
***
Lucas’s first impression of Irisa’s brother was that he was bloody glad to have the giant on his side. Though he was only an inch or two taller than Lucas’s own taller than average frame, the man carried enough muscle to overshadow even Lucas’s Corinthian build. The scar that ravaged one side of Viscount Ravenswood’s face only enhanced the man’s natural air of intimidation. Black hair hung down his back to just below his shoulder blades and his eyes were emotionless pools of onyx. He exuded an air of dark menace and Lucas liked him on sight.
Ravenswood glowered at Lucas. “You will be good to my sister.”
Lucas returned the man’s look, stare for stare. “Yes.”
Ravenswood nodded and then turned to Irisa. His expression lightened, although he did not smile. “I’ll know if he isn’t.”
She smiled at her brother and reached up to kiss his cheek. “Lucas is the best of men, Jared. You need not worry on that score.”
Lucas warmed under Irisa’s certainty. She’d spent enough time showing hesitancy at the prospect of marriage to him that he had begun to have a few niggling doubts regarding her feelings toward him. He started to lead Irisa to a small sofa, but she pulled back.
“I would rather stand, Lucas.”
“You want to be ready to bolt?” he asked, not without some amusement.
She did not smile when she nodded her head. “Yes.”
He brushed her cheek. “You know I won’t let Langley hurt you again, don’t you?”
She did not get an opportunity to reassure him of her faith in his ability to protect her because Ravenswood interrupted.
“Langley hurt you?”
Irisa frowned at Lucas and then put a soothing hand on Ravenswood’s arm. “It was nothing. I did something that upset Papa and he lost his temper.”
“He knocked her right off her chair and left a bruise that lasted more than a week. If his fist had been closed, he might have broken her jaw.”
“Lucas.” Irisa looked ready to do a fair amount of damage herself.
Ravenswood cocked his head to one side. “You took care of it, I assume.”
Lucas shrugged. “He won’t touch her again.”
Ravenswood did not reply. He simply turned and walked away. He ended up sitting in a chair that although it was part of the grouping around the fireplace, gave the appearance of being separate, just as Ravenswood did.
“I can’t believe you told him that. Jared already barely tolerates Papa. Now, he’s going to hate him and it will be all my fault.”
Lucas would not let that pass. He gripped Irisa’s face in a gentle but firm hold and forced her to meet his gaze. “You are not responsible for your father’s lack of self-control. If his son hates him, it’s because he earned it. Got it?”
Irisa’s warm brown eyes were still troubled, but she agreed. “Yes. I’ve got it. I still wish you hadn’t told him.”
“I’m sorry it upset you.”
“But you aren’t sorry you said it?” she asked, clearly disgruntled.
“No.” He would not lie.
She sighed. “I guess that’s the best I can hope for. You’re a very arrogant gentleman, you know that?”
“So you’ve said before.”
“Only because it’s true.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps.”
They had more important things to discuss than his arrogance. He pulled Irisa into his side and turned to face the rest of the room. She tried to pull away, but ceased her struggles when he squeezed her warningly.
The entire family had gathered in Lady Upworth’s drawing room. The white haired dowager rested on a brocade chair and oversaw the gathering with the regal bearing of a queen. Lady Langley sat to the older woman’s right, doing her utmost to keep her gaze averted from Mrs. Drake. Irisa’s sister and brother-in-law were ensconced together on a settee. She seemed to take impish delight in trying to catch the current countess’s eye. Langley stood behind his wife’s chair, his expression grim.
“I don’t see why this little family gathering is necessary. I’ve got a great deal to do in readying for my daughter’s wedding. This is very inconvenient,” Lady Langley complained.
“Someone is trying to scare Irisa into backing out of our engagement,” Lucas answered.
Lady Langley gasped. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I agree. Anyone who knows me at all would realize that once I set a course of action I stick with it. I find this attempt at blackmail personally offensive.” He looked directly at Langley as he spoke, bu
t the older man’s face remained stony.
“Let’s hear the details,” Ravenswood inserted.
Irisa stiffened beside him and Lucas took a moment to give her a reassuring squeeze before he went on. He spoke to the room at large, watching each face for a change in expression. “Irisa received a note yesterday threatening to reveal the mockery of her parents’ initial marriage if she did not withdraw from our betrothal.”
Langley’s eyes narrowed in anger and his wife looked shocked. Lady Upworth sighed and shook her head. Ravenswood looked ready to kill someone. Lucas approved the reaction. Drake was also watching the other occupants of the room intently while his wife sent a look of commiseration to Irisa.
“Where is the note?” Langley asked, speaking for the first time since Lucas’s arrival.
Lucas removed it from his coat pocket. “Right here.”
Ravenswood moved with the speed of a striking viper and had the stationary in his hand before Langley could reach for it. He read the words and then tossed the paper in Langley’s direction in a casual move filled with contempt. Langley reached to pick the paper up off the carpet.
Ravenswood returned to his seat. “You’re going to go through with the wedding.”
It was not a question, but Lucas answered anyway. “Yes.”
Six months ago, the thought of tying himself to a woman with Irisa’s secrets would have been ludicrous. That was when he had been looking at marriage to an ideal, a faceless paragon of a woman. His fiancée now had a face, that of angelic blonde beauty, and the only ludicrous thought was contemplation of life without the impetuous little baggage at his side.
Lady Langley looked up from the note her husband had just handed her. “You cannot possibly. At the very least, the wedding must be postponed. We cannot risk the blackmailer making good on his threat.”
“If there is a blackmailer,” Langley said.
Lucas glared at the other man. “What do you mean?”
“How do we know that Irisa did not write this herself?” he asked, pointing to the note now in Lady Upworth’s frail hands.