A Scandalous Charade (33 page)

“He set his beard on fire?” Penny asked, wide-eyed. Luke smiled at the girl. Neither she nor Peter dropped their h’s anymore. They both sounded like proper little children most of the time, and their achievements could all be laid at Juliet’s door. She had lovingly worked with both of the little urchins, and it was clear they adored her.

It was hard to even envision her as The Ice Princess anymore—especially as he knew how warm she really was. He could stay there all day long just gazing at her, but he’d much rather be holding her. “You must be talking about William Teach,” he remarked and stepped away from the bookcase toward the smiling trio.

Penny flew out of her seat and threw her arms around Luke’s leg, just the way Emma always did. “Uncle Luke, Miss Mitford was tellin’ us all about Blackbeard.”

“Ah.” He tweaked her nose. “My favorite pirate.” Then he sank down to his haunches and smiled at the little girl. “Would you like to know a secret, Penny?”

“Oh, yes!” the girl gushed.

“Well, I’ve just come from the kitchen and Cook has made some little lemon cakes. If you’re really good, I’d bet that she would give one to each of you.” He’d barely finished his sentence before both children barreled out the library door. Truly, he couldn’t help but laugh at their eagerness. He would have done the same thing at their age.

When he turned his attention back to Juliet, he found her frowning at him with her hands on her hips. “Honestly, Luke, I am trying to teach them some decorum.”

With a smile, he crossed the room to her side and pulled her into his embrace. “You’re lovely when you’re annoyed. Did you know that?”

“Is that why you always try to annoy me?”

He winked at her. “I just want your attention, princess. You always have mine. I think if my governess had been as lovely as you, I might have learned some decorum.” Juliet toyed with the hair at his collar, which made his temperature and other parts of his anatomy rise. How long would the children be gone?  He was just about to ask her opinion on the matter, but she was frowning again. “What is it, my love?”

Her eyes flashed to his. “Luke, can I truly trust you?”

It bothered him that she even had to ask. He nodded his head. “Juliet, you can tell me anything. You know I’d never betray you in anyway. I love you.”

She smiled and bit her plump bottom lip. “I love you too.”

Finally. Luke breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing the words from her lips lightened his heart. With a grin, he caressed her slender neck. Then he dipped his head and kissed her. Juliet eagerly pressed herself against him, and Luke was lost to her.

He might have kissed her for two minutes or two hours—truly he’d lost track of time. But when they heard a gasp, Juliet bolted from his arms.

Lydia stood in the doorway, a shocked look marring her face. Juliet rushed from the library, without so much as a look behind her.

Blast and damn!

She had been so close to confiding in him, he could feel it. Luke stared after his princess, but was distracted when Lydia took a step toward him, her eyes narrowed to little slits. “How dare you take advantage of that girl in this home?”

How he despised his sister-in-law. She was one to talk about taking advantage of someone. Robert was a giddy fool, all because of this woman. “That girl knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“Yes, well, I remember thinking the same thing where you were concerned.” She pursed her lips together. “Against my better judgment, I let Robert talk me into letting you stay here, but I won’t let you do to that poor girl what you did to me.”

What he did to her! Luke scoffed. Loudly. “I’ve got news for you, Lydia. No one lets Robert do anything. Regardless of whatever hold you have on my brother, I doubt very much that that has changed.”

“Weren’t you only going to be here a few days, Luke? It’s now been weeks. I’m sure your tarts and gambling buddies must be missing you.”

Luke grinned charmingly, but it was all an act—and they both knew it. “Am I to take it that you’ve grown tired of my company?”

“I certainly meant no offense, but—”

“Oh, Lydia, you meant offense, all right. But don’t trouble your pretty little head over it. I’m not going anywhere. Not until I figure out what you’re after. What you’ve done to Robert.”

“What I’ve done to Robert?” She took a hesitant step backward and stared questioningly at him. “I’ve not done anything to your brother.”

She didn’t look quite right. Her face had grown a bit pale. He must have shocked her with his boldness. Perhaps he could use that and get the truth out of her. “Oh, come now, Lydia. You and I both know that you’re not who you pretend to be.”

“Not who I pretend to be?” she echoed with a frown.

“And now after all these years, you and Robert are suddenly in each other’s pocket? Something is going on, Lydia. I intend to find out what it is.”

She took a staggering step backward and shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking ab—”

But she wasn’t able to finish her statement. Instead, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell, cracking her skull against the corner of a bookcase as she collapsed in a heap on the floor. For just a split second, Luke gaped at her in complete shock. Then he rushed to her side and yelled loudly for help.

When he touched her cheek, Lydia’s eyes flickered and she started to rouse, though it was clear she was dizzy and seemed unable to focus on him.

“Sweet Lucifer, Lydia. Are you all right?” Luke whispered in concern. He’d wanted to distract her, get answers from her, but he hadn’t meant to knock her unconscious. Then before he knew what had happened, Lydia’s face took on a mortified expression of either shock or fear—he couldn’t tell which. And then she cast up the contents of her stomach all over his Hessians.

Damn it, those boots were brand new. Realization struck Luke like a bolt of lightning.

Good God! Lydia was pregnant.

All the puzzle pieces fit together now. The little whore was trying to pass off someone else’s bastard as Robert’s child. She must have had to get into the earl’s good graces quickly, so that the fool might actually believe the child was his. Luke’s pulse pounded in his head as anger set in. She was even more devious and deceitful than he’d first thought. But this…this was unconscionable. Robert didn’t deserve this.

“I’m s—so sorry,” Lydia stuttered as she wiped tears away from her eyes. The color slowly began to return to her face. Then she struggled to sit up, but ended up laying her head back down. Gingerly, she touched a bump that was forming on the side of her head.

Luke shook his head, stood, and backed away as if he’d been burned. “You won’t get away with this,” he growled. When Dunsley hurried into the room, Luke stumbled backward and then fled the library in search of his brother.

***

Juliet sat in a corner of the schoolroom with her face in her hands. The children still hadn’t returned from their sojourn to the kitchen, and she cursed herself for being a fool. She and Luke had been playing a dangerous game, a game she should have been too smart to play. And now it was over. Lady Masten had seen them, and she was sure to sack her. Juliet cringed, trying to figure out where she could go. Heading back to London was too risky with Uncle Albert there.

“Did you hear?” came the smug voice of Kistler from the open doorway.

“Hear what?” Juliet responded, her heart dropping. She was certain that the man was there to tell her that news of her indiscretion had reached all levels at Gosling Park.

Apparently the question was evident on her face, because the valet took pity on her and continued. “I keep forgetting that you’re new and don’t know all the old gossip.”

“Old gossip?” she couldn’t help herself from asking.

Kistler nodded his head and crossed the schoolroom, looking out one of the windows. “Mr. Beckford and Lady Masten were lovers. Well, perhaps they still are. I don’t know why else the rogue would still be in residence here. Dorset is a bit slower than what he’s accustomed to.” Then the valet turned back around and his gaze raked her up and down disparagingly. “He might dally periodically with the staff, but I’d place my wager that the stunning countess is the reason he hasn’t returned to London.”

Juliet’s breath rushed out of her. She couldn’t hold a candle to Lady Masten’s beauty—few could. Was it possible that Luke was her lover?  He could have nearly any woman he wanted. However, the countess seemed so enamored with the earl. Yet something was definitely going on between Lady Masten and Luke. They never met the other’s eyes, and generally acted as if the other wasn’t in the room. Was it all an act, so as to not capture the earl’s notice?

All of Luke’s lies echoed in her mind. He hadn’t really been searching for her, as he’d claimed. He had he come to Gosling Park to continue his affair with his brother’s wife. Juliet had believed every word of it. She’d even believed that he loved her.

Why was she always a fool when it came to that man?

The valet’s smug look angered her to the pit of her soul. Even if his words were true, she wouldn’t give him the reaction he desired. Juliet stood and folded her arms across her middle, leveling Kistler with an icy glare. “I’m certain the earl would be quite put out if he thought you were repeating such malicious things.”

Apparently unmoved, the valet shrugged and started for the door. “I just thought you should know, since you seem to spend a fair amount of time with him.”

Again the conversation Juliet had overheard Mr. Bennett and his brother have about Luke and Lady Masten entered her mind. At the time, the lout had told her that he ‘barely knew’ his sister-in-law. Had he ever told her the truth about anything? She didn’t know what to believe. After a moment, she looked up and realized that Kistler had gone, leaving her all alone.

Juliet found Luke pacing the floor in the golden parlor. She squared her shoulders and cleared her throat, instantly grabbing his attention. “So are congratulations in order?”

Luke stepped toward her. “Congratulations?”

She wanted to beat him to within an inch of his life.  Just seeing him so virile and handsome, remembering his words of love and devotion made her foolish heart leap. But she’d been a fool long enough. There came a time when a woman had to learn from her past mistakes, and that time had now come for Juliet. “Did you honestly think you could keep it from me? That I wouldn’t find out? Or did you think that because I loved you I would turn a blind eye to it?”

Luke snorted, and glared at her. “When, Juliet, do you imagine I had time to do such a thing? I spend every night in your bed, and every waking hour thinking about how to get you alone.”

He hadn’t really answered her question with a simple yes or no though, had he? And there was nervousness to him, one that she had never noticed in him before. Her heart sank, and she folded her arms across her chest. “Are you denying that you and Lady Masten are lovers?”

“Of course I’m denying it,” he spat out.

“And were you ever?”

His mouth dropped open and then he clamped it shut. The truth was evident on his face. She felt tears prickling, so she blinked her eyes wide, shook her head and started for the door.

“Damn it, Juliet,” he roared from behind her, and she stopped in her tracks. Then he crossed the floor and took her shoulders in his hands. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

Relief washed over. She so desperately wanted to believe him. “What am I thinking?”

He stared at her for so long, his emerald eyes boring into hers, that she thought he might never speak. But finally he heaved a sigh and began with a whisper, “It didn’t mean anything. It was years ago.”

Juliet turned away from him, her heart sinking further than she knew it could. “You told me that you barely knew her.”

“And that’s true,” he contended, his voice full of emotion. “She tricked me, and I—”

That sounded like the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “She tricked you? The master seducer? Not a very likely story, Lucas.”

“Believe what you like, Juliet. It’s the truth. She presented herself as an innocent, young thing. But nothing could have been further from the truth.”

Juliet’s mouth went dry. It was years ago, Luke’s voice echoed in her mind. Years? Lady Masten was only her senior by a single year. Thoughts of her flighty sister Felicity and Captain Aaron Pierce flooded her. She’d often wondered what sort of man would take advantage of a young, starry-eyed miss. And now she knew. “How old was she?”

Luke shrugged, though he had the decency to look away from her. “I believe she was sixteen.”

“Sixteen!” she echoed, he voice rising with every syllable. “And she tricked you!”

“She absolutely did,” he roared back. “She wasn’t the innocent maiden she pretended to be. I sure as hell wasn’t going to marry the little tart, even after—”

“Even after what, Lucas?”

He glared at her. “Even after we were caught together.”

Juliet thought she might be sick. She’d always envisioned his lovers as married women, widows, or demi-reps. Until now she’d believed that she had been special—not his usual sort, that there was a sort of magic between them. But apparently debauching virgins was something he did on a regular basis. She was just one of many. “And what if she’d been the innocent you’d thought her to be? Would you have married her then?”