A Scandalous Deception (9 page)

“And I haven’t secured Eliza’s future yet,”
Rotherby said quietly. “I had hoped my nephew might find her
pleasing, that my passing wouldn’t leave her vulnerable…”

“But?” Fin prodded when it seemed the old man
wouldn’t say anything else about his daughter, a young girl Fin had
known all of her life.

“I haven’t laid eyes on him in years, and no
one has heard from Stephen in months.” He heaved a sigh. “When he
does return to England, I’ll most likely be gone. I know I don’t
have a right to ask you, but…”

“What do you need, sir?” Fin asked. Whatever
Rotherby needed, he’d do. The man had, after all, always been there
for Fin.

“I just need to you to keep an eye on them.
Make sure Helen is all right, that Eliza is taken care of. And when
my nephew returns from wherever he’s been, remind him that he’d
promised to do his duty by Eliza.”

What duty exactly? “Did he sign a marriage
contract?” If so—

“I wish I could say yes to that.” A sad laugh
escaped Rotherby. “All I can hope for is that he is as honorable as
his father was. And I’d like for you to ensure that he is.”

Fin nodded, wishing he could do more. “Of
course. What exactly did he promise to do, sir?”

“To marry her. My brother had just passed.
We’d taken Stephen in. The boy was distraught at the time. Helen
was past her childbearing years. I knew he was my heir, you see,
and even then I needed to secure my daughter’s future.”

A sudden uneasiness washed over Fin. “He was
a child?” Not much older than Edmund’s current age if Fin
remembered properly. Rotherby shouldn’t have asked a parentless,
grieving child such a thing. The boy probably thought the roof over
his head was contingent upon his answer. Perhaps it had been.

“He was fourteen, hardly a child.” Rotherby
sighed. “We took him in, Fin, when he needed a home, and now I need
him to do the same for Eliza. With the entailments to my estate, I
don’t have much choice in the matter.”

Fin’s uneasiness grew stronger. What an awful
predicament.

“He’ll get every last farthing.” The earl
wrung his hands. “If only she’d taken when she came out last
year…”

But she had not. Eliza Ingram was a lanky
bluestocking with skittish tendencies. She always had been. It was
no wonder she hadn’t taken. It was no wonder Rotherby had been
concerned about her future when she was an odd child. Fin’s brow
furrowed as he said, “I’ll make certain she is taken care of, my
lord. Lady Rotherby too.”

“Thank you, Phineas. You cannot know the
weight you’ve lifted from my heart.”

And placed squarely on Fin’s shoulders. Oh,
Fin was well aware of the weight. He nodded to the old man, said
his farewell, and then made his way back to the drawing room. Music
drifted down the corridor. Dancing must have begun in his
absence.

As he stepped over the threshold, he scanned
the room for Lissy. And there she was, in the middle of the floor
waltzing with the Marquess of Haversham.

Fin’s vision turned slightly red. Hadn’t the
man, that very day, promised to keep his distance from Lissy?
Unscrupulous blackguard.

“Just what is it you couldn’t say to me in
front of my friends?” Lissy asked the disreputable Marquess of
Haversham as he led her in a turn. She’d been more than surprised
when the man showed up, once again uninvited, and swept her onto
the dance floor.

Haversham’s light blue eyes twinkled with
mirth. “Carraway is like a rabid dog. I thought you should be
aware.”

Fin? “A rabid dog?” What a ridiculous thing
to say. He could be priggishly annoying, but a rabid dog?

The marquess nodded. “Tracked me down at my
club this afternoon to warn me away from you in no uncertain
terms.”

Lissy’s mouth fell slightly open. What in the
world had gotten into Fin?

“He was quite insistent. He refused to leave
me to my play until I gave my word to keep my distance from
you.”

Lissy scoffed. “I see how well that turned
out.”

The marquess laughed. “One should never take
the word of a scoundrel.”

“Apparently,” Lissy muttered softly, though
her temper was rising. How dare Fin try to interfere in her life!
The last fellow she wanted anything to do with was Lord Haverhsam,
not that it was any of Fin’s concern.

“But I thought you should know,” he continued
smoothly. “If someone was behaving that way in regards to
my
daughter someday, I would hope someone would tell her.”

“And she’s how old, your daughter?”

“Eight, I believe.”

“You believe?” Lissy’s brow lifted in
judgment. No matter how uncaring her own father had been, Lissy was
fairly certain the late Duke of Prestwick knew exactly how old his
children were at any given time. Then again, one would have been
foolish to question the old man about such things. Perhaps he
hadn’t had a clue and no one ever knew.

“Thereabouts. Somewhere between seven and
nine.”

“You might want to be certain before you see
her next.”

He chuckled. “I’ll make certain to check my
ledger before next I return to Yorkshire.” His light blue eyes
landed somewhere behind Lissy, and they twinkled with something
akin to mirth. “And there’s your shadow now,” he drawled.

As they turned, Lissy glanced to where
Haversham had indicated, and at once she spotted Fin. The
overbearing saint. When she got her hands on him…

“Took me up on my advice, I see,” the
marquess interrupted her thoughts.

“I beg your pardon?” She drew her gaze from
Fin back to Haversham.

“What did you do, Lady Felicity?” His wicked
lips turned up to an all-knowing grin. “Did you smile a bit more,
was that it?”

“What
are
you talking about?” She
frowned. Honestly, did the man only talk in riddles?

“Well, you’ve done something to catch his
notice. And now that you’ve got it, he doesn’t seem inclined in the
least to let go.”

Lissy managed not to snort. Not that she
needed to maintain a ladylike attitude around Haversham, but that
was beside the point. “You are mistaken, my lord. I don’t have his
notice so much as his concern, his responsibility to my
family.”

“I hardly believe he sees you as an
obligation.”

“Then you don’t know him very well, my lord.
As though my sister was still alive, he seems to think that he’s
responsible for me, much the same way as a brother would.”

Haversham smirked. “And I don’t think you
know him as well as you think you do, my lady.”

The music came to a stop. The marquess
released her and then offered her his arm. But before Lissy could
accept or refuse him, Lord Haversham fell like a sack at her
feet.

A gasp sounded across the room and in an
instant, Lissy’s gaze shot from the fallen marquess to the furious
Phineas Granard, standing over the man, his hand still balled into
a fist.

“Fin!” Lissy’s hand fluttered to her lips.
Heavens, he’d hit the marquess so fast, she hadn’t even seen it.
“Have you gone mad?”

But Fin paid her no attention, his eyes
narrowed on Haversham at his feet. Through clenched teeth he
growled, “You. Gave. Your. Word.”

That was the outside of enough. Fin should
never have spoken to Haversham about her as it was. She pushed
Fin’s arm until he lifted his gaze to her. “That is quite enough,
my lord.”

The intensity of Fin’s dark eyes nearly
scorched her soul. “Step away from him, Felicity.”

Anger surged through Fin as he loomed over
the Marquess of Haversham who, for some inexplicable reason, wore a
blasted smirk.

“For God’s sake, Marc,” the Duke of Kelfield
muttered under his breath.

Fin clenched his hand in a fist, but before
he could do anything more, someone grabbed him from behind.

“Not here,” a man said softly. Lieutenant
Tristan Avery, if Fin wasn’t mistaken.

But Fin wasn’t finished with the malevolent
marquess. “Let me go,” he snapped, yanking his arm free of Avery’s
grasp. Haversham had given his word that very day to keep his
distance from Lissy, and…

“I hate him as much as you do,” Avery
continued, “but this is hardly the place, Carraway.”

The officer’s words were like a splash of icy
water, dousing a bit of Fin’s fire. No, brawling in the middle of
Lord Rotherby’s drawing room wasn’t the best idea. He glanced from
Haversham’s fallen form back to Lissy, who looked as furious as
he’d ever seen her.

Let her be furious. Foolish chit. She was
bound and determined to ruin herself and Lady Arabella right along
with her. Someone had to save her from herself.

Lissy sucked in a breath, turned away from
him, and then said to Avery’s wife, “Phoebe, I would very much like
to return home, but I didn’t bring my carriage. Would you mind
taking me?”

“Of course not,” Mrs. Avery said softly,
stepping closer to Lissy and sliding her arm around her friend’s
shoulders. “Come with me.”

And before Fin could find the words, asking
her not to go, asking for her to say something to him, she was
gone.

The room was as still as a parish church at
midnight. Fin glanced around the room to notice that everyone was
staring at him. Well, of course they were. He’d downed one of
London’s most debauched blackguards right in the middle of a quaint
soiree.

Haversham pushed back to his feet and dusted
his hands on his trousers. “Not the first time I’ve been hit for
dancing with a girl.”

“Marc,” Kelfield grumbled. “Please.”

But the marquess paid his longtime compatriot
no notice at all. He did flick his eyes towards the lieutenant
however. “You could give Avery’s mother a pointer on her upper
cut.”

“Do go somewhere else,” Lieutenant Avery
growled. “Don’t you tire of making trouble everywhere you go?”

“We all have our talents, Avery.” Haversham
smirked. “Still, I should be going. A lady awaits me even now.”

A
lady
wouldn’t have a thing to do
with the blackguard. Well, other than Lissy, which was more than
unnerving. Determined not to give Haversham the satisfaction of any
sort of reaction, Fin turned his back to the man and faced
Lieutenant Avery instead.

“What in the world is wrong with the man?”
Lissy complained as she settled beside Annie against the velvet
squabs in the darkened Avery coach.

“I have never seen him like that,” Phoebe
agreed, which wasn’t all that helpful. It was a vast understatement
to say the least.

Lissy snorted in response. “Honestly, Phoeb,
I think he may be losing his mind.” And perhaps that was it.
Perhaps Fin had finally lost all sense of reason and sanity. For
heaven’s sake, he’d actually
hit
the Marquess of Haversham
in the middle of the Rotherbys’ drawing room. Knocked the man to
the floor!

The coach jostled forward, and Phoebe reached
across the carriage and squeezed Lissy’s hand. “Are you all
right?”