An Unlikely Alliance (22 page)
Read An Unlikely Alliance Online
Authors: Patricia Bray
He bent his head and his lips found her. It started as a simple kiss, but the sweetness of his lips teased at hers until her pulses raced and she found herself yearning for more. His hand traced the contours of her face.
A door slammed, followed by the sound of shuffling feet. “I see you found her,” Magda heard Luke say.
Alexander lifted his head from hers. “Don’t you ever knock?”
“I did. Twice,” Luke explained. “I hate to interrupt, but Dugan said you had news for me?”
Magda used the opportunity to remove herself from Alexander’s lap, moving to sit beside him instead.
“It was Sir Charles. He had Magda kidnapped, but luckily she managed to knock him unconscious and escape. She left him in a deserted warehouse by the docks. Dugan should have the location. I want you to go there and find him.”
“And then?”
“And then I have a score to settle with him,” Alexander said grimly.
Luke nodded. “I see.” He flicked his wrist, and a knife appeared in his hand as if by magic. “I’d be happy to take care of this myself. A clean death is more than he deserves after what he’s done.”
Magda’s blood ran cold as she realized he was discussing murder. “Alexander, please don’t let him do this,” she said. “I hate Sir Charles for what he’s done, but that doesn’t give us the right to murder him. Hasn’t there been enough killing already?”
Alexander frowned, but after a moment’s thought his brow cleared and she knew she had won. “If that’s what you want, then that is what we will do. Luke, when you find him turn him over to the magistrates.”
The knife disappeared back into Luke’s sleeve. “Very well,” he said, not bothering to hide his disappointment. “Do you want to come along for the fun?”
“No, I have wasted enough of my time on Sir Charles,” Alexander said. “I have better things to do.”
“Indeed?”
“Yes. We have a wedding to plan,” Alexander said.
Luke smiled. “Congratulations,” he said, coming forward and grasping Alexander’s hand before he gave Magda a kiss on the cheek. “I know you will be very happy together.” Then he left, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.
“Now, where were we?” Alexander asked.
The wedding of Magda Katerina Elena Beaumont and Alexander James Maxwell, seventh Earl of Kerrigan, was widely declared to be the crowning event of the season. By now all of London had heard of their fairy-tale romance, and members of society had vied with each other to secure the coveted invitations.
“This isn’t a wedding, it’s a damn circus,” Alexander had taken to muttering in the days leading up to the great event.
Magda sympathized with his impatience. They had wanted a quiet ceremony, but Lady Stanthorpe had begged to be allowed to plan the wedding, and despite their misgivings they had eventually given in. Alexander had stood firm on one issue, insisting that an engagement of two months was long enough to satisfy propriety. And whenever Lady Stanthorpe’s plans got too outrageous, he brought her back down to earth by casually mentioning that he had already procured a special license, and it would be no trouble at all to fill it out.
But the day finally arrived. Magda stood at the back of the church, Lord Stanthorpe at her side, ready to lead her down the long aisle of St. George’s.
Are you ready, my dear?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
She began the walk down the aisle, her eyes scanning the church for faces she recognized. Many of those present were unknown to her, but there were a few she recognized.
Standing in front was Lady Stanthorpe, taking the place of Alexander’s family. Friends of his from India and his business partners warily eyed those members of the gentry who had wangled an invitation. Over on the left Magda spotted Mrs. Brightwell, the plumes on her headdress bobbing as she chatted with the gentleman seated near her. In the row behind her was a delegation from the Russian embassy, and Magda felt a warm glow as she recalled the letter which she had received only the day before. Count Grazinsky had been overjoyed to hear from her, and even now he was on his way to London.
All eyes were on her, and in a moment of nervousness she wished they had used the special license as Alexander had so often threatened to do. But then she saw him, and the pride on his face was worth all the endless waiting. At his side there appeared to be an Indian Rajah standing in as groomsman, and Magda giggled as she recognized Luke’s features. Trust him to do the unexpected. Lady Stanthorpe must be having palpitations.
But then Magda reached Alexander’s side, and she had eyes for no one else. She could feel the happiness rising in her as Lord Stanthorpe placed her hand in Alexander’s.
“I trust you will take good care of her,” Lord Stanthorpe said.
“I will,” Alexander replied.
“And I will take proper care of you as well, my Lord Kerrigan,” Magda added.
He smiled at her pronouncement, and in his eyes she could see their future together, and it was filled with the promise of happiness.
Rich and beautiful, Lady Felicity Winterbourne has traveled the world, seeking only a home of her own. While there are many gentlemen eager to oblige her, she knows that their ardor has more to do with her lavish dowry than true affection. When she meets Gerald FitzDesmond, Earl of Kilgarvan, his tales of his ramshackle Irish estate seize her imagination. Felicity abandons decorum and proposes a marriage of convenience—with the proviso, lest Gerald prove a fortune-hunter, that she hold the purse strings! His dark looks and roguish charm, however, soon complicate her most practical action with the dizziest of desires.
Despite having proposed to more than a dozen women, Viscount Frederick remains one of London’s most eligible bachelors. His pride stinging from his latest rejection, Freddie leaves London for his country estate.
After six years abroad, Anne Webster returned to New Biddeford with a child at her side—a child whose unruly red hair and mischievous green eyes left society no doubt as to the identity of his mother! Though five-year-old Ian is really Anne's nephew, nothing could erase the stigma with which she had been branded. Anne's girlhood companion, Viscount Frederick, was the only person to offer friendship—and then, a rapturous love. And yet, how could Anne allow Freddie to destroy his life by marrying a woman with a tarnished reputation such as hers?
Marcus Heywood, the new Duke of Torringford, must take a wife in three weeks or lose the country estate he's unexpectedly inherited. His brother, Reginald, suggests an advertisement in the papers, something Marcus refuses to consider—until a wine-fueled evening when he pens one in jest. Now, in a horrible mix-up, the ad has been printed and Marcus is mortified.
At all of twenty-one years, Penelope's spinsterhood seems confirmed; she'll never find a man she can marry. But her half-brother thinks otherwise, and without her knowledge, he answers the Duke of Torringford's advertisement for a wife and signs her name to it. When an announcement of her upcoming wedding to the Duke appears in the papers, Penelope knows she must take her place as his wife, or her honor will be ruined. But it will be a marriage in name only, that she's sure of; until the handsome good looks and warm smile of her new husband make her heart pound in a most unsettling way...
Diana Somerville never imagined that her first London season would end so disastrously or ruin her reputation so completely. When George Wright, the rakehell who compromised her, refuses to come up to scratch at the altar, Stephen Wright, Viscount of Endicott—said rakehell’s older half-brother—proposes to do the honorable thing and marry her himself.
Their engagement is announced, and Diana returns to London, and is soon swept up in the gaiety of the London season. To her surprise she finds herself drawn to the reserved Lord Endicott, who is so unlike his dashing brother. But her newfound happiness is threatened when George returns to London, and begins courting her in earnest, trying to win her back.
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