In Love With a Wicked Man (32 page)

“Sir, you will keep a civil tongue, and get out!” bellowed Upshaw. “And you, madam”—here he stabbed a censorious finger at Julia—“
you are drunk!
”

Julia managed to straighten up, and stab a finger back at him. “And you, sir, are a p-pompous pr-pr-prig!” she said, bursting again into giggles.

“
Eh bien
, Reggie,” said Aurélie, patting his bare back. “It was bound to happen.”

But Upshaw bore down on them like a frigate under sail. “Aurélie, for God’s sake, have you no shame?” he boomed from the foot of the bed. “That man is half your age!”

“
Vraiment
, Archie, I am mortified!” said Aurélie. “Mortified, I tell you. But still, he is not
quite
half my age! Reginald,
mon coeur
, must we surrender our dread secret once and for all?”

But Reggie had crawled from the bed, clad only in his drawers, and was backing away as if Aurélie were a snake, horror writ plain across his face. “
What
dread secret?” he uttered, snatching up clothes from the floor. “What the devil, Francis! What have you done to me, damn you?”

“I did what you paid me to do, you fatuous fool,” Sir Francis gritted, seizing Julia’s arm and dragging her out.

“Dear God!” Upshaw had clapped a hand over his eyes. “I do not believe this.”

“
Ça alors
, Archie,” said Aurélie, doing up her buttons. “You know I am incorrigible. But please, I beg you! I shall break with Reggie at once. Just do not force him to wed me. He’s too young—and alas,
much
too poor.”

“
Marry
you
?
” Reggie jerked upright, his arms filled with clothes. “Are you mad?”

“Now wait just one moment, you upstart!” Upshaw ordered, dropping his hand.

Out in the passageway, Lady Julia sounded near tears with laughter. Sir Francis was trying to quiet her.

Reggie stopped halfway to the door and turned back, a black, patently evil gaze trailing over Aurélie and Kate as he drew a tremulous breath. “By God, I know not how the two of you brought this about,” he gritted, “but someone is going to pay, and dearly. Do you hear me?”

Kate finally gathered her wits enough to speak. “Reggie,” she managed, “what were you doing in my bedchamber? Do you care to explain it?”

Rage shuddered through him. “Get out of my way, Upshaw.”

Reggie’s gaze was one of such unmitigated evil, Upshaw actually stepped aside.

But then, from beyond the corridor, there came a deep, languid voice. “Gads, Reggie!” said Edward. “Not really the done thing, cavorting about in one’s drawers. Frightens the horses, you know. We could hear the din upstairs.”

Kate peeked out to see Reggie jerk to a halt. “Go to hell, Quartermaine!” he gritted, shaking with rage. “I see your hand in this. Well, you shall
never
have her!
Never
. You may have taken my house, but by God, that’s where it ends!”

Aurélie had hopped from the bed and was yanking on a wrapper. Shaken, Kate turned to Upshaw, and laid a hand on his arm. “Have a care, Uncle; this isn’t what it looks,” she quietly warned him. “Go back to bed and let me deal with it.”

“Young lady, I will tell you—”

“Uncle, please,” she said firmly. “This is my house. Go back to bed and we shall speak of it in the morning.”

Upshaw’s jowls quivered with indignation. “Then I hope, Katherine, that you know what you’re doing!”

Kate hoped so, too. She also hoped her mother had not entirely lost her mind.

Her knees were shaking, she realized. She had dodged one scandal, only to find herself embroiled, potentially, in a worse one with her mother. Still, never had she dreamt Reggie could be so cruel.

And had his wicked trick succeeded . . . dear heaven! No one could
force
Kate to do anything, it was true. But even her title could not protect her from that sort of scandal, or the resulting censure.

A little sick at the stomach, she followed Upshaw out to see Edward loitering in the dimly lit passageway, his arms crossed. The Comte de Macey stood beside him, still in his evening clothes, his expression wary. Everyone else had vanished.

Without sparing either a word, Upshaw went back into his bedchamber and slammed the door shut.

“Well, that was interesting,” said Edward.

“
Bonsoir
, Mr. Quartermaine!” said Aurélie, coming out behind Kate. “What extraordinary hearing you have!”

“Yes, it’s often been remarked,” said Edward calmly.

“Oh,
mon Dieu
, de Macey!” she said, seeing him in the shadows. “Did we wake you, too?”

“No, I was coming up the stairs, my pet, when I heard you scream,” he said a little drolly. “It was worthy of the Opéra-Comique. Are you cheating on me again?”

“Yes,
mon coeur
, with a much younger man,” said Aurélie. “Edward, I trust we did not disturb your rest too thoroughly?”

“I shall survive it,” he said.

“So shall I,” said Aurélie, “if someone will fetch me a brandy.”

“I suppose we are beyond any pretense or formality now,” Kate grumbled, starting off down the passageway. “Besides, I could use a drink myself.”

She went back into her parlor, and the three of them trailed in after her. Edward had apparently carried in her lamp and turned it up, softly lighting the room. Kate went straight to the sideboard and extracted Anstruther’s Scotch whisky, deciding that French fortification was simply not up to the task.

De Macey followed her, and seeing Kate’s hands shaking, took down the glasses with a soothing noise, and began to pour. Aurélie draped herself over the divan, and winked at Edward.

“How cozy this is!” she declared. “All of us here together in our dishabille, almost like a family.”

“I am entirely dressed, my pet,” said de Macey, pressing a whisky into her hand.

Aurélie took a sip, and wrinkled her nose in horror. “
Ma foi
, this is Anstruther’s rot!”

“Just drink it, Aurélie,” said Kate grimly, sitting down opposite her mother. “Now, kindly explain what just happened.”

“
Mon Dieu
, I was caught in bed with my young lover!” said Aurélie, batting her inky lashes. “Is it not obvious?”

“The only thing that is obvious to me,” said Kate, as Edward joined her on the sofa, “is that you manipulated me tonight. And that your name is in ruins. So out with it, Mamma. I must save you from Uncle Upshaw somehow.”

“Oh, Archie!” Aurélie wrinkled her nose, and took another drink of the whisky. “He is bound to think the worst of me, regardless.”

“Mrs. Wentworth,” said Edward quietly, “I hope you won’t make me tell your daughter what happened in the rose garden tonight.”

Kate turned to glare at him. “Are you involved in this?”

“Unwittingly, I fear,” he said. “I do know significant sums of money have passed back and forth between Reggie and Sir Francis recently—and no small amount of scheming, it would now appear.”

“That I wouldn’t doubt,” muttered Kate.

“And tonight,” he continued, “I collect your mother managed to overhear a bit of that scheming?”

Kate shot her mother a dark look. “Aurélie,” she commanded, “out with it.”

Aurélie just shrugged. “There was some vile talk between them,” she finally said, “of attempting to compromise you. Reggie is in rather a snit that you’ve refused his proposal. He gave Sir Francis back the money he’d won at cards in exchange for a small service.”

“Ah,” said Edward. “So the point was, I gather, that Sir Francis would loudly burst in, pretending to be drunk, and discover, to his mock horror, that Reggie was in bed with Kate. And do so loudly enough to disturb everyone—particularly Lord Upshaw.”

“Alas, Katherine sleeps like the dead,” said Aurélie, shrugging. “He might have got away with it.”

His expression darkening, de Macey had settled on the end of Aurélie’s divan. “This is beyond the pale,” he said grimly. “Reggie imagined Upshaw would pressure Kate into marrying if she were compromised—but to do it with certainty, Reggie knew he needed the perfect witness.”

“And by that you mean Lady Julia, London’s most relentless gossip,” said Kate angrily. “It would have been dreadful, yes. But I would not have given in. Oh, Mamma! Why did you not simply
tell me
of Reggie’s plan?”

Her mother looked weary. “Because,
mon chou
, Reggie would never have given up,” she said. “Indeed, he still may not. But it is I who made the grave error of bringing him here, so it fell to me to fix it. No sane person could expect you to marry your mother’s castoff lover.”

“But what of you, Mamma?” Kate protested. “The scandal—the talk about Reggie—now
you
must face it. And face Anstruther, too.”

Aurélie gave another of her languid shrugs. “
Eh bien
,” she said. “He will never notice. And so I said to myself, Aurélie, you imbecile! You can easily bear one more scandal attached to your name! And so I did. I made a scandal. It is what I do well,
n’est-ce pas
?”

“Oh, Mamma!” Kate felt emotionally exhausted. “What will happen next?”

“Next?” Her mother lifted both eyebrows. “Next Julia will quiz me mercilessly. I shall maintain a stoic silence—after all,
mon chou
, half a story is always more intriguing than the whole. Thus thwarted, Julia will run back to London whispering her tale, and trying to find out from all our friends how long Reggie has been sharing my bed. And Reggie—well, he will give up, or so I pray.”

“So we all pray,” said de Macey doubtfully.

“Mamma, you ought never have done this,” Kate warned. “I confess to grave unease. I fear Reggie will take revenge on you now.”

“Bah! Reggie cannot trouble me!” said Aurélie with Gallic disdain. “What is he to say? The truth? That he tried to trap a dear friend into marriage? And by the most contemptible means imaginable?
Non
,
mon chou
, I think he will not admit to
that
.”

“My pet, you’re dangerously diabolical,” said de Macey, rising. “But I collect Katherine would like to scold you in private, so I will take myself off to bed. But on the morrow, I will be explaining to Reggie—and to Sir Francis—that our friendship is at an end.”

Aurélie uncurled herself and rose, too. “Filou will be missing me,” she said, covering a yawn. “Katherine, take back your bed now, and tomorrow you may scold me to your heart’s content.”

“Good night, Mrs. Wentworth. De Macey.” Edward had risen to open the door. “I trust you will both sleep well.”

“And you, too, Mr. Quartermaine,” said Aurélie suggestively as she passed. “You must be weary, too, what with all the exciting events of this night.”

E
DWARD REALIZED THAT,
under anything remotely akin to normal circumstances, no sensible person would have left Kate standing in her nightclothes with a gentleman who was half undressed himself—and a gentleman who had a less than stellar reputation in the bargain.

But nothing about this night had been normal—nor was de Macey or Aurélie, come to that. At present, however, he was more concerned about Kate. She had been suffering under no small amount of strain, he realized, what with her sister’s elopement, and a houseful of guests cutting up her quiet life, topped off by Lord Upshaw’s censure and now Reggie’s betrayal.

And then there was her entanglement with him. Yes, perhaps he, too, shared some of the blame.

Kate was pacing back and forth across her parlor carpet now, the matronly wrapper whipping at her ankles each time she turned.

“This is dreadful,” she said sharply. “I could throttle Reggie! And what
can
Mamma have been thinking? How am I to calm Uncle Upshaw now? This, on top of Nancy’s elopement?”

Edward edged nearer. “Kate, I think this is just your mother’s way of trying to help.”

“Trying to
help
?” Kate jerked to a halt, and turned to him, incredulous. “In what way does this help any of us? If Anstruther had any love left for her, this will have ended it. And now I must try to convince Uncle Upshaw his sister-in-law is not insane. And Nancy—! Nancy just married the village rector! I have taken
such pains
to see that gossip did not taint her! Mamma simply didn’t stop to consider how ugly this would look. And to have done it on
my
account? No. No, Edward. This is madness.”

She resumed her pacing, and Edward followed her to the window. Her pensive posture put him in mind, strangely, of the way she had been looking through the drawing room window the first time he’d kissed her. He remembered that day now, in this poignant and dangerously charged moment—perhaps with good reason.

“Kate,” he said, settling a hand lightly on her shoulder. “Your mother is cut to no ordinary pattern, it’s true. But she’s being a parent in the only way she knows how.”

“Then why doesn’t she learn better?” Kate cried, spinning around. “
Why
, Edward? Did Nancy and I not deserve it? How hard can it be?”

“Harder than you might think,” murmured Edward.

But Kate stood rigidly by the window, shaking her head. “Then one finds a way,” she gritted. “When you have children, you have obligations.
You raise them.
You watch over them, and teach them how to go on. But Nancy and I never had a normal family. We have never been . . .
parented
, if that is a word, in any ordinary fashion. We have always suffered Mamma’s antics and Papa’s neglect. And I am sick of it.”

“Kate, you’ve just suffered a shock, that is all.” He tried to set an arm around her shoulders but she threw him off. “You’ve had a brush with public ruin. You didn’t realize the depths to which Reggie might stoop—nor did I, for that matter.”

“I appreciate your effort to explain this away,” she said a little stiffly. “But all I can think of is the fact that Nancy and Richard will be back tomorrow, and that we have a dozen of our neighbors coming to celebrate their marriage—and all people will be talking about is how the bride’s mother got caught in bed with her sister’s former fiancé.”