He's No Prince Charming (Ever After) (5 page)

The man’s gaze remained unwavering as he spoke. “My name is Michael Weller, my lady. I believe his lordship mentioned me in his letters.”

Now that she had pulled herself together, her patience was at an end. She placed the tea on the table. This wasn’t the time for it. Her brother needed her. “I have no time for introductions. I must get back to Marcus! When will the doctor arrive?”

Weller remained unmoving. “He won’t be coming.”

Caro leaped from her chair. “Pardon? He needs medical care immediately!”

She gathered up her skirts, preparing to run for a doctor herself if necessary, when Weller’s sharp voice made her freeze. “Sit.”

Caroline sat.

“Marcus is being brought to his bed. The staff is caring for him. We know what to do to make him comfortable. Not to worry, please. If you will let me explain, my lady, I would appreciate it.”

“If I don’t find your explanation satisfactory, I am fetching a doctor myself.”

“As you wish, my lady.” The valet’s head dipped for a moment before he looked up. Caroline noted for the first time the sadness in his eyes. “Your brother suffers from his memories.”

“I don’t understand. How can memories cause the episode I just witnessed?”

“His lordship has a difficult time coping with his childhood, my lady. Some days he is better than others, but his memories of that time follow him like his shadow. At times, events trigger them to rise up and engulf him. He will recover with quiet, and rest.”

Caroline remained silent, tamping down her own memories as they threatened to surface. She knew her brother had suffered severely while she was safely hidden away with the St. Leons. “Marcus had it much worse than I.”

Weller’s shoulders lifted. “I know.”

“Then he should see a doctor.”

The valet’s eyes narrowed in displeasure and heat infused his voice as he snapped, “And let him end up in Bedlam? Do you know what they do to their
patients
?”

She didn’t, but his tone made her stomach tighten.

“They chain them to the walls and feed them laudanum. Sometimes they’ll try untested treatments on them. If they are fortunate, they die. Your brother’s status would ensure he wasn’t so lucky.”

She felt the color bleed from her face. She couldn’t let that happen to Marcus. It mirrored too much what their father had done.

“We can’t just leave him like that!”

“This does not happen frequently, my lady. And he was much better while he was engaged to Miss Anne. I believe he thought she was coming to accept him, that he could finally live the life of a normal man—have someone love him for himself, and one day have a family. But, then, you know what happened there.” The older man paused before adding, “Unfortunately, when he sees something associated with his past, he has these violent attacks.” The valet’s eyes shifted away from hers. “Today, that something was you.”

The heat of shame and guilt swallowed her, mixed with anger. Wasn’t it enough that she had to live every day knowing her brother looked like a beast because of her? She now had to live with the knowledge that it wasn’t because he didn’t care about her that he didn’t associate with her. It was because he could not stand the very sight of her without suffering a second time. She felt her eyes burn. Placing her cup down shakily, she pressed Weller’s cloth to them, trying to hold back tears.

Her muffled voice creaked weakly. “And here I thought he resented me for all he had to do to protect me. For all the pain he had suffered.”

“He could never resent you, my lady. His lordship would even give up his happiness in order to keep you safe.”

“But he’s already given up so much,” she exclaimed.

Weller’s gaze drifted upward, in the direction of her brother’s bedroom. He began to speak, then hesitated. A resigned sigh escaped him before his attention returned to her. He gave her a sad smile. “It is his choice, my lady.”

Anxious energy tightened her hold on the delicate kerchief, the fabric’s touch dulled by the soft kid of her gloves. “And what about my choices?”

The valet’s wizened features clouded before he cleared his throat. His voice was calm and steady. “You should trust his lordship. After meeting you, I believe I now understand why he would go to such lengths to keep you safe.”

“Mr. Weller, what are you—?”

A knock interrupted their conversation. The butler opened the door, and with a bow to her, informed them, “His lordship has settled and is sleeping comfortably.”

Tension bled from Caroline at the simple words. She’d been so worried. She relaxed into the couch and closed her eyes momentarily.

“Also,” the butler added to Weller, “a letter from G. Green Books has arrived. Shall I place it in his study?”

“I believe he shall want it when he wakes. Place it in his room,” Weller replied before turning to her. “I apologize your visit has gone astray, my lady.”

“No need.” Now that her brother was going to be all right and she had determined her family wasn’t ruined as rumored, she should be going. Caro gathered her belongings and headed for the door. “As you suggested, I shall trust Marcus…for the time being.”

Marcus slowly opened his eyes. The soft light of dusk flooded into his room and painted it a golden pink. Everything about him hurt. His head throbbed and his muscles were stiff. With agonizing slowness, he worked each muscle loose, flexing them back and forth to regain movement. Halfway through the exercise, Marcus caught sight of a letter on his night table. He lifted his tense and tired arm to retrieve it. Elegant script belonging to a woman littered the front. Tired eyes traced the black ink. Miss Green had responded.

Part of him hoped Miss Green would deny him. If she said no, he could blame her just as he did Anne for his sister’s current situation. He could blame everyone but the true person at fault—himself. If only he’d agreed to what his father wanted years ago, he would have saved Caroline.

His stiff, quaking fingers brushed hesitantly over the green wax seal. Just as he hated the fact he drank like his father, but couldn’t stop because of his memories, he hated to do this. He didn’t want to rob a poor girl of her future, but he would do it because he had to.

Breathing deeply, he broke the seal. The ruffle of unfolding paper broke the silence in the eerily still room. Marcus’s heart rose to his throat and his stomach turned as he read the letter’s contents. With a shaky moan, he let the open letter fall to his chest, dropping his palms over his eyes in a pathetic effort to block out the world. His emotions weighed heavily upon his chest, crushing the air from his lungs in a wretched sigh. It would seem he had much to do before midnight.

D
anni ignored the iron step as she dropped out of the carriage. Her fingers slid along the lacquered oak wood of the door. Her mind wandered as she released the small handle, feeling the smooth metal. Its coldness reminded her of the marquis’s freezing eyes. Fresh rage choked her and she slammed the door, rocking the coach. Damn him.

Phillip, a tall and lanky man with dark hair and eyes, peered over the edge of the seat to give her a deadly look. The pious young man serving as her personal coachman wasn’t very happy with her at the moment anyway. What was the harm in adding a broken door to her list of offenses? She would not have involved him at all except John, the man who normally filled this role, was not back yet from the trip with Anne Newport and George. Grinding her teeth, she cursed the girl to hell. She’d ruined Danni’s organized existence, and made Danni the victim of blackmail. She’d never thought helping someone find happiness could cause her so much misery.

Phillip coughed too loudly for it to be natural. When she glared at him, he tilted his nose in the air. “Your father would never forgive me if he knew I was assisting you, Miss Strafford.”

“Then don’t tell him.”

“And running about in men’s trousers! What would your mother think?”

Invoking her mother was the wrong thing to do. She took several deep breaths. She’d had enough of his comments. She had threatened to sack him if he didn’t cooperate before, and now she was going to make it a reality. Just as soon as this little job was done. She usually didn’t mind her servants voicing their opinion, but his constant nagging was too much.

Danni stepped away from the carriage, scouting about, and
enjoying
the way the trousers gave her freedom of movement. This designated meeting place with the marquis was an excellent spot to leave the carriage. The lighting was dim enough to hide their activities from any casual observer, and with several alleyways nearby heading off in multiple directions, it was also perfect for eluding pursuers.

She wished Hu were here. He usually accompanied her. However, she didn’t dare involve him or Annabel in this. They would ask too many questions and try to stop her. And if she were caught, they would suffer as accomplices. As for Philip, well, the way he was annoying her tonight, he deserved to suffer. It was best to keep Annabel and Hu ignorant, and safe. This way they could honestly deny any knowledge of the events.

She was lifting the hoof on one of the horses to check the muffling burlap around it when the sound of an approaching carriage made her glance around. An unmarked coach drawn by a team of four turned the corner. The driver slowed the horses as it approached a curb, and its door swung open, revealing long masculine legs. Goliath, in the form of nobility, emerged from the carriage. Using the step, she noted, snorting divisively. The door shut behind him and the carriage moved on with the barest slowing of the matched pairs’ trot.

Crossing her arms, she moved into the lighted section of the street. The marquis’s boots rang against the stone. At the edge of the illuminated circle, he seemed to hesitate. Danni was in no mood to be pleasant. “Step into the light. I won’t talk to a shadow.”

A deep growl emanated from the nobleman’s vicinity before he strode forward, stopping too close for comfort. He seemed to be daring her to scream in shock.

She didn’t.

But Phillip did.

The cold eyes she remembered spared only a flickering glance at the coachman before focusing on her. It was still alarming to see the disfiguring scars, even though she’d seen them at length yesterday. But it wasn’t terrifying. Not now, when she wished the man to the four corners of hell.

“I am surprised you came.”

Danni glared up at him, ignoring his slightly smug expression. “Yes, and I’m supposed to reply that I did not have much of a choice. Let’s stop the polite chitchat. You knew this would be the outcome of your pleasant little visit.”

He leaned forward slightly. A quirk formed by a scar in his lip caused his sneer to skew to one side. “I did indeed.”

The reek of liquor slammed into her face as he spoke. “You are drunk!”

He sneered at her, eyes glazing. “Not in the least.”

She stared in horror. She was about to commit a crime worth hanging for with an accomplice who was three sheets to the wind.

“Shall we?”

He extended his arm in a chivalrous fashion that didn’t fool her for a moment. Danni sniffed, tilting up her chin. “No need to pretend that you’re actually a gentleman. You forget that I know how you really are.”

The marquis’s leaf-colored eyes hardened, his jaw turning to stone. With a sharp nod of assent, he dropped his arm.

“You cannot be thinking of going off with
him
?”

She cringed as the squeal from her coachman emerged from the underbelly of the carriage. Apparently he’d taken cover there when the marquis had shown himself. She was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t have hired someone new for the trip. She didn’t dare think how Phillip would behave if there were any mishaps along the journey.

She gave an exasperated sigh. “I am, Phillip.”

A muffled sound of disgust erupted from the other idiot beside her.

“Who is that prig?”

“That’s our driver.”

“This is not even remotely funny, Miss Green. Where is that John fellow?”

“I wasn’t trying to be humorous. John hasn’t returned from your ex-fiancée’s trip. She has become a real bother, that girl.”

“I could not agree with you more.”

Danni glanced at the marquis with more than a little surprise. She caught the man giving her the same look—an uneasy regard—before they both looked away. He scanned the area around them intently; Danni found particular interest in the scuffs on her Hessians. She did not want to start sharing any of the same opinions with a blackmailer.

“Ach! Look at me. My brand-new livery is covered with dust.” Phillip’s squeaky whine grated her nerves as he emerged from the shadows.

Danni fought the urge to roll her eyes. Exactly what did he expect? The nether regions of a carriage were certainly not the cleanest of places to hide oneself. She tried to remember why she ever employed Phillip in the first place. It certainly wasn’t his character references. His up-tilted nose tilted further. “I forbid you to go anywhere with this—this ruffian! If your father—”

“Phillip.”

Her tone sharply cut him off. Her coachman glared, but he knew perfectly well what was at stake. So far she’d been able to keep her true identity and her father out of this mess. She intended to keep it that way. Yet another reason to dump Phillip as quickly as possible. The man was sure to let slip things the blackmailing marquis didn’t need to know.

“A father? What is a fraud like you doing with one of those?” The marquis’s voice dripped with distain. “I wonder at what kind of man raised the likes of you.”

Danni turned on her enemy. “I can stand any insults you think I deserve, but don’t you ever think to use my family in your slander. Are we understood, my lord?”

The marquis bent forward, closing the precious distance between them. His eyes smirked at her with that alluring blaze of jade, but instead of the fear they inspired earlier, she now felt breathless.

“Unlike most of the
ton
, my dear little one, I understand ties to family very well.”

Time seemed to freeze as Danni stood this close to him. How could someone so repulsive in looks and character be so fascinating to her? As their gazes held, seconds too long, emotion flickered across the glossy surface of his jade eyes. Regret? Need? Humanity? It was too quick to identify and was shuttered as quickly as it came—as if he killed the feeling before it could blossom. The moment left her confused and shaken.

Phillip’s groan of annoyance penetrated her thoughts. She stepped back, noting with each step exactly how little space had separated them. She shook her head to clear it. This beast was nothing more than a common criminal, soon to be a kidnapper. And certainly
not
human.

“It is already growing late. Shouldn’t you be hurrying?”

The marquis nodded in Phillip’s direction. “He’s right. We cannot waste precious time arguing.”

Danni refrained from taking offense. She was not a child to be scolded, especially when he was the one insulting her. Instead, with deliberately slow steps, she returned to the carriage and dug out a small burlap sack she secured over her shoulders. The marquis gave her a curious look before he led her down the alley opposite her traveling coach.

“Who, exactly, are we going to… borrow?” Danni whispered.

“You might as well say it. We’re kidnapping someone.”

“I’d rather not, thank you.”

She impatiently watched the marquis’s white-blond mane shift from one side to the other as he walked, waiting for his reply.

“Well?”

“We’re
kidnapping
one of the Foley-Foster sisters.”

“Oh, dear God! Of all the people you could possibly want to… to borrow!”

“Why, what is wrong with them? I hear the girls are unusual, but they have wealth enough.”

“Their father is the bloody Lord High Admiral!” Danni hissed.
Not to mention a man who is close friends with my father.
She swallowed painfully, desperately hoping whichever girl he took did not recognize her from any of her father’s social functions.

“I know.”

She halted in her tracks, refusing to move another inch. The marquis turned his head to give her a taunting glance. “What? Afraid the admiral can somehow make his ships land-worthy and launch a pursuit?”

“Actually, I was wondering how someone as witless as you could possibly have uncovered information about my business.”

His lashes lowered only slightly, his displeasure clear. He compounded his outrageous behavior by taking out a small silver flask. He unscrewed the cap and took a swallow. “Can we please proceed?”

“We are risking our necks and you are drinking!”

“Think what you may, but continually saying I am drunk is not going to make it so. Now move on.”

Despite her lack of hope, Danni tried one last time to stop him from making a terrible mistake with his life. And hers. “There has to be someone else, some
way
else! Don’t I have a say in this matter at all?”

The marquis’s even steps faltered. The long scar on his face tilted away from her, almost as if he were ashamed. That was impossible, though. It had to be her imagination conjuring up something she wished existed.

He cleared his throat and resumed walking. “I’m the one marrying her.”

“And I’m the one helping you…ki…borrow her.”

He sneered at her apparent inability to speak the word. “
Kidnap
her, you mean.
You
are the unfortunate reason we are even here. Therefore,
you
must provide me with the resources to get the girl out.”

“Well, I have. Can I go now?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. She isn’t out of the house yet. And you’re not leaving me with that dolt of a driver.”

Danni almost choked on the fury surging in her veins. She was sure her fair skin must be on fire. “And what exactly do you purpose to do about the admiral? I suppose you think we’re simply going to nicely ask him to hand over his daughter.”

He leveled her with a lethal look. He radiated that sense of barely leashed power again. “The admiral is returning from a voyage tomorrow. If we expect to have any chance of success, we have to snatch her tonight. Now or never.”

Fairly twitching with aggravation and helpless fury, Danni slammed her fist against her thigh. Everything about this horrid affair was out of her control. She had no choice. Do this or she, her father, the earl, and probably Annabel and Hu would be ruined. And what would happen to dear, sweet Simon? She gritted her teeth and groaned. “Let’s get this business over with.”

The determined click of Danni’s boots echoed across the narrow, stone street. Tonight, nothing in the air suggested rain, the sky was crystal clear. The brick walls running along the road lightened in color as the eye traveled up and away from the street filth. Not an alley one would expect in this fashionable part of London.

Danni’s heart pounded in helpless terror. She still could not believe she was about to commit a crime. It didn’t matter that the moment the marquis and the girl departed on that coach, she planned to awaken everyone in the house. If this man thought she was going to sit by and allow him to ruin some poor girl’s future, he had better think again. Her lips slowly tilted up, already savoring the image of stunned disbelief that would appear on his emotionless features as the authorities descended upon him.

“Why are you smiling?”

She snapped herself out of her daydream, meeting the marquis’s stern look. “I am most certainly not smiling, my lord.” She lifted the straps of her pack to resettle it. The motion suggested her word was final, but, of course, the Beast was an arrogant nobleman.

“Then what do
you
call it when your mouth curves up at the edges and your eyes glow with mirth?”

“Frowning.”

The marquis looked at her as if she were insane. She fully agreed with him. She felt on the verge of hysteria.

“I believe you are one of the oddest people I have ever met, Miss Green.”

Something in his tone halted her flippant reply. He was giving her that look again. The one he’d given her in the shop. The man seemed almost a wild animal. His size and face were terrifying, yet there was a hungry vulnerability in him as well. The contrast was something she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. It was mesmerizing, and yet it made her extremely uneasy.

She cleared her throat. “At this rate we’re never going to…to borrow her.”

The tension was broken by his exasperated sigh. In the empty echo of the alley, Danni could hear him mutter, “A thief who can’t even speak of her crime.”