How to Romance a Rake (21 page)

“No sudden moves, guv,” a raspy voice said in his ear, just as he felt the muzzle of a pistol at the back of his neck. “Or I might lose my grip on this here gun.”

“Where is my coachman?” he asked, raising his hands to indicate that he had no intention of struggling. “And my outriders?”

“They’re all tied up snug on the other side of the carriage,” the voice said. “No need to worry about them. Or the little lady. She’s going right back to the hospital where she belongs.”

Hospital?

“I don’t understand you,” he said, his mind working to figure out a way to extricate himself and Juliet before the man behind him made good his threat.

“Oh, her mam told us all about it,” the man said, pushing him forward to the front of the carriage. “Takes a cold-blooded fellow to steal a girl away from them that’s got her best interests at heart just for the sake of a fortune. Not that I wouldn’t be tempted meself, o’course. A fortune would make things a bit easier, I can’t lie. But this gel’s not in her right mind and that’s why I agreed to help.”

“Wait,” Alec begged. “What do you mean ‘not in her right mind’?”

Obviously Turlington and Lady Shelby had concocted some sort of story to convince this man to help them kidnap Juliet.

“Lor’ don’t tell me you don’ know about ’er problems. You would know, wouldn’t ye, since ye stole her right out of the ’ospital where she was being kept.”

“My good man, you obviously haven’t had a chance to speak with the lady. If you had you would know that she’s quite capable of speaking on her own behalf. Come, let’s go and I’ll show you.”

He felt the man behind him pause, hoped that he’d made some inroads with him. But the pistol pressed harder into the back of his head.

“They said ye’d deny it,” the man holding him said.

Deciding that argument would not be the means by which he effected their escape, he threw back his elbow into the man’s midsection and ducked as the gun discharged in a cascade of powder. Catching the man’s shoulders behind him, he flipped him over his head and onto his back. The wind knocked out of him, his attacker lay stunned while Alec searched him for a weapon. He found only a knife, which he took from the protesting man. Unwinding his neck cloth, he used the knife to cut it in half and used each piece to bind the man’s hands and feet.

“When you learn the truth of the matter, you’ll be glad I stopped you before you harmed me,” he told the fellow. “It’s a hanging offense to murder a peer.”

Shouting from the other side of the carriage drew his attention.

“Alec!” he heard Juliet shout from the other side of the carriage. Not wanting to alert Turlington and Lady Shelby to the fact that he was free, he made his way to the edge of the carriage and peered around it. He saw Turlington and Lady Shelby each with an arm locked onto Juliet’s arms, marching her toward their parked carriage. Aside from the coachman, he could see one outrider waiting for them.

“Be quiet,” Lady Shelby said through clenched teeth. “Deveril is not going to help you. If you had simply listened to me and accepted your fate none of this would have happened. Turlington will make you an excellent husband.”

“Yes, if I wish to be overcome by revulsion night and day,” Juliet responded, still trying to break away from them. “Alec!”

“You will keep a civil tongue in your head, miss,” Turlington snapped. “Do not forget your mama’s offer to give you to me without benefit of marriage. It is only through my good will that you are getting a ring on your hand at all. I might yet change my mind if you continue to insult me.”

Since they had their backs to him, Alec crept around his carriage, keeping close to the vehicle. He found his own driver slumped over the box, and to his relief, still alive. Careful not to make noise, he searched the cubby where he knew the fellow kept an extra pistol and was rewarded to find their attackers hadn’t checked for it themselves.

Ensuring that it was loaded, he made his way to the other vehicle, and was able to hear the heated discussion going on inside.

“Really, Juliet,” Lady Shelby was saying harshly, “it is bad
ton
for you to be so missish about this. Any other young lady would be pleased beyond measure at the prospect of marrying Lord Turlington.”

“Be that as it may, Lady Shelby,” Alec said, opening the coach door, “she will not be marrying him, bad
ton
or no.”

*   *   *

Juliet’s relief on hearing Alec’s voice was unparalleled. He stood in the carriage door looking disheveled and angry and more handsome than she could have imagined.

“Despite my family’s reputation, madam,” he continued to Lady Shelby, “I’ve never struck a woman, but in your case I might be pressed to make an exception.”

Wrenching herself away from Turlington and her mother, Juliet hurled herself out of the carriage, and was relieved to feel Alec’s free arm pull her close.

“Now,” he said to her erstwhile kidnappers, “I want you both to remain here in your carriage. I will retrieve your cohort, and give him into your tender care. Then you are to return to London. At once.”

Turlington huffed, his already pink cheeks growing redder. “I will not be ordered about by a—”

“At once,” Alec said, his hand holding the pistol unwavering, his voice as sharp as a gunshot.

“This is preposterous,” Turlington said with a snarl. “You have no authority here, Deveril.”

“I have no qualms about killing you, Turlington,” Alec said coldly. “The only thing preventing me from doing so now is the presence of Juliet. I would challenge you to a duel, but since you have shown yourself again and again to be anything but a gentleman, I do not feel the need to adhere to the rules of gentlemanly conduct where you are concerned.”

The raw hatred in Turlington’s eyes terrified Juliet on Alec’s behalf. She had little doubt that the man would do his best to harm Deveril at the earliest opportunity. Still, she was grateful to be out of the villain’s clutches for now.

“I hope you’re pleased with yourself, Juliet,” Lady Shelby said, making her disgust apparent. “Do not expect to be welcomed back into the family with open arms.”

Whereas at one time Juliet might have been cowed by her mother’s words, in Alec’s arms she felt none of the old fear as she faced her now. “The only family I need,” she said firmly, “knows of your cruelty and has assured me that they will support me. I have no fear of losing them and they are all that matter now. As for Father, I doubt he’ll even notice I’ve gone.”

Which was little more than the truth. Though she did love her father, Juliet had long ago realized that he was far too concerned with matters of state to trouble himself over his wife’s misdeeds.

Before her mother could protest, Alec said to her, “I would not recommend your recounting this misadventure to your cronies back in London, Lady Shelby. If any word of this gets out I will see to it that your own scheme to marry your daughter off to your lover is known to every gossipmonger in the beau monde. You will be unable to show your face in polite society ever again.”

Lady Shelby glowered at him, but did not speak.

*   *   *

With a short nod, Alec closed the carriage door on Lady Shelby and Lord Turlington, and led Juliet back to their coach. Their coachman had regained consciousness and had found and untied their outriders, and before long they were under way.

Ensconced once more in their own carriage, Alec eyed Juliet. “Are you all right?” he asked, brushing his hands down her arms as if to reassure himself of her safety. “Did they hurt you?”

“They had no time to hurt me,” she responded truthfully. “They had barely got me away from the carriage when you returned. How on earth did you escape so quickly?”

“I grew up with Devil Deveril,” he said with a slight smile. “I am quite adept at defending myself.”

There was something he wasn’t saying but Juliet didn’t push him. They’d gone through quite enough already this morning.

“Now,” he said with a grin, “let’s go to Gretna and get married.”

*   *   *

Gretna Green was a town very much aware of its most precious resource. And it wasn’t the scones in the ramshackle tea room at the edge of town.

Rather than retire to the inn to refresh themselves, Alec and Juliet went at once to the blacksmith’s shop which dealt almost exclusively with young couples crossing the border from England to marry. The man who presided over their wedding was, to Juliet’s surprise, not a blacksmith at all, but Robert Elliot, grandson by marriage to the original Gretna blacksmith, Joseph Paisley.

“Now,” the man said, “who have we here?”

Alec quickly told the Scotsman their names, and the man gave a broad grin. “Mother,” he called to his wife, who was seated at the pianoforte in preparation to play a musical accompaniment to the ceremony. “We’ve got ourselves a Romeo and Juliet!”

“Then I shall have to play sommat special for them,” she said, flipping quickly through her stack of sheet music.

“Now then, Romeo,” Mr. Elliot instructed, “you stand here, just so. And you, Juliet, will walk down this short aisle to meet your groom at the altar.”

It was indeed a very short aisle, but Juliet, a posy of violets that had cost Alec an exorbitent amount clutched in one hand and her walking stick in the other, waited in the rear of the shop while Alec followed the blacksmith/minister to the front.

“He’s a handsome laddie,” Mrs. Elliot said to Juliet as they waited for the signal from Mr. Elliot. “It’s plain to see yours is a love match, and no mistaking.”

Before Juliet could correct the woman, she launched into a wretched performance of a popular ballad based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. As neither Mr. Elliot nor his wife seemed to mind the unhappy end that those famous lovers met, Juliet supposed she shouldn’t either.

Her head held high, she walked carefully down the short aisle toward a smiling Alec, and was relieved when Mrs. Elliot brought her song to a premature end.

The ceremony itself borrowed much from the Church of England service—or as far as Juliet could tell it did. When Elliot joined their hands together and Alec slipped his signet ring onto Juliet’s finger and pronounced them married, she felt as much emotion as she might have done had they gone through all the pomp and circumstance of a fancy London wedding. And when Mr. Elliot slipped up and referred to her bridegroom as Romeo, she felt a giggle escape her.

“Och, man, kiss yer bonnie bride!” Mr. Elliot said with a beatific smile. And he didn’t need to say it twice. As Alec touched his lips to hers, Juliet silently vowed to keep him from ever regretting this marriage made in haste.

“Let’s go back to the inn and order luncheon,” Alec said with a crooked grin. “Getting married makes me hungry.”

Juliet’s cheeks heated as she caught the possible double meaning of his words. But he seemed not to notice the entendre. Deciding to go along with the jovial mood, Juliet smiled up at her new husband. “Me too.” And they walked in companionable silence to the inn.

Twelve

Seated across from Alec in the private dining room he’d arranged for their wedding luncheon, Juliet felt the return of her old nervousness around him. After their extended trip to Scotland, she’d thought her anxiety was gone forever. But the weight of his emerald on her finger, coupled with the knowledge that they were now bound to one another, till death did them part, made it impossible for her to eat more than a few bites of the excellent venison pie.

Whereas they’d found plenty to talk about on the journey to Scotland, now the ease between them had been replaced by a tension that had everything to do with the ring now snugly fitted to her ring finger. As if sensing her thoughts, Alec reached across the small table and took her hand in his.

“It’s all right to feel nervous,” he said softly, his thumb caressing the back of her gloveless hand. “New experiences are always a little terrifying, don’t you think?”

She looked up at him from beneath her lashes to see the now familiar crooked smile that gave his perfectly formed features a boyish quality that made him even more handsome.

“But you aren’t anxious,” she couldn’t help pointing out, a shiver running through her at the light touch of his skin on hers. It was hard to imagine this handsome, perfectly mannered gentleman, who seemed to be at ease with everyone he met, feeling out of his depth at all, ever.

“What makes you say that?” he asked, in mock surprise. He raised his left hand as if taking an oath. “I am utterly terrified, I assure you.”

Juliet sighed. “I find it difficult to believe that you’ve never done this before.” She waved a hand in the air to indicate she was speaking of the private parlor, the meal, and not necessarily the circumstances.

“But I’ve never done this with a wife,” he said, his blue eyes serious. “Never with you.”

Her chest constricted, and she looked away lest he see just how much she’d been affected by his words.

“Juliet,” he continued, “you are not alone in any of this. We are partners now. Partners look after one another.”

She fought a laugh. “You need the least looking after of anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I think you have me confused with some other paragon of perfection,” he said with a shake of his head. “I am just a man, my dear. Just like any other. And I shall need your support just as you’ll need mine.”

“Is that how marriage works?” she asked, really wanting to know his opinion on the matter. “I’ve only had my parents’ union as a model,” she said, “and they can hardly stand to be in the same room with one another. I find it difficult to believe that they managed to—” She broke off, a blush stealing into her cheeks.

“Quite,” Alec said. “My own parents were much the same.”

Remembering his father’s reputation for brutality, Juliet felt a stab of sympathy for her new husband. She was going to change the subject but he surprised her by continuing. “Their marriage was arranged, so I don’t believe there was any promise of love between them. But when he wished to be, my father could be quite charming. I have little doubt he worked his wiles on my mother until she adored him. It was his way, you see. I saw it happen enough over the years, and not only with my mother. He would entice her with gifts and kind words and wooing. Then once she was in his thrall, he’d become controlling and cruel. I can’t count the number of times Mama attempted to leave him. In the end, she only found her escape through death.”