Letter From a Rake: Destiny Romance (25 page)

It was nearly three in the morning, and the Radley brothers were sitting in their father’s study, warming their feet by the fire. Alex had arrived at Strathmore House in the early evening, only to discover David had gone to a party somewhere out near Highgate and wasn’t expected back until tomorrow.

Fortunately, the party had died an early death and David had made the trip back to London. More heartfelt words of apology had come from Alex, followed by a solid punch on the arm in return from David, after which they had declared a truce. A second bottle of the duke’s favourite red from Italy was taking the edge off the long evening.

‘So when is this scene to be played out?’ David asked.

Alex sat staring at the wine as he swirled it around in his glass. The light from the fire turned the wine the colour of a late summer sunset. ‘I don’t know. I am leaving the details up to Lady Clarice, but I hope she doesn’t intend to make me wait. One, because the suspense is killing me, and two, the quicker she puts me out of my misery, the sooner I can get back to the real task at hand – which is Millie.’

David’s eyebrows lifted slowly.

Alex took a sip of wine from his glass. ‘Believe me, I have done all I can to make things right with Clarice. With any luck, she will come out of this with her reputation intact, if not enhanced. As for me, I will be lucky if I get invited to any social functions for the rest of my life.’

‘And thoroughly deserved it would be, if you became a social outcast,’ David remarked.

‘Thanks.’

David raised his glass, but stopped short of putting it to his lips. ‘You are heir to one of the largest fortunes in the country, so give over on the “woe is me”, will you? There will always be plenty of title-hunting mamas ready to shove their daughters at you, so I doubt you are in any danger of dying alone, Alex.’

They both laughed. ‘And I wonder why I missed you these past few days,’ Alex said.

‘Well, you can miss me for another few hours, dear brother. I am off to bed.’ David emptied his glass and placed it on his father’s desk. Alex stood and for a moment they stared silently at one another.

‘I am a complete idiot who does not deserve a brother like you, so once again let me tell you how sorry I am,’ Alex said. They both blinked hard as they slapped each other roughly on the arm.

‘I know, but someone has to save us from you, and Stephen is not yet old enough to be hauling you out of tavern brawls, so it comes down to me,’ David smiled.

He put his arm around Alex and led him to the door. ‘Come on, Hargreaves has had a bed made up for you in your old room; it’s too late for you to be walking home. Let’s both get some sleep, and see what tomorrow brings.’

It was with an odd mix of excitement and fear coursing through his body that Alex set out for the ball, knowing full well that he had willingly agreed to be publicly humiliated. Only a matter of weeks ago he would have cut his own throat rather than even consider what he was about to do.

The note from Lady Clarice had arrived earlier that afternoon and, after consulting with David, he had decided to let her take the lead and dish out whatever punishment she felt was warranted.

She had only made him wait two days before sending word of when the axe would fall. Sitting in the back of the carriage on the way to the ball, with David opposite, he counted his blessings. ‘At least the odour of this scandal will have lessened by the time the season is at its height. Not everyone is back in London. Mama and Papa won’t be back for another few days,’ he said.

David leaned over and poked Alex in the ribs. ‘Good chap, keep telling yourself all the lies you need. As long as we get through this evening without being set upon by a murderous horde, anything else is a minor detail.’

His brother was attempting to be his usual jovial self, but Alex could hear the grinding of David’s teeth from across the other side of the carriage. It wasn’t only Alex’s future that was at stake this night. Much as David denied the possibility of ever being allowed to marry Lady Clarice, he still lived in hope.

‘I won’t foul this up,’ Alex replied. The consequences if he did were too dire to consider.

The carriage slowed to a halt in front of an imposing medieval building in Bishops Avenue. As he walked under the brick archway that covered the entrance to Fulham Palace, Alex turned to David. ‘Why do I suddenly wish I had been stricken with some terrible malady?’

‘Yes well, uncle’s ball is one of the social highlights of the season, and as the only members of the family currently in London, it would have looked odd to say the least had we not made an appearance,’ replied David, walking up the front steps.

Alex’s blood ran cold as he saw the Bishop of London standing at the top of the stairs.

‘Alex my boy, come to set a date?’

‘You do know that the Bishop is related to the Duke of Strathmore, and therefore to the one person in London I am attempting to avoid?’ Millie remarked as she scanned the ballroom.

‘Yes, I do,’ Charles replied.

‘Then why the devil are we here?’ she snapped.

Charles shook his head. ‘Blasphemy? May I suggest that if you intend to use that sort of language in the palace of a bishop, you might want to get yourself off to church first thing? I am sure they will excommunicate you if you don’t’

She gave him a look of disgust. ‘They can bring on the Spanish Inquisition for all I care, just as long as I don’t have to speak to Lord Brooke,’ Millie replied.

Over the past few days she had managed to turn Alex’s title into a form of insult. If she found anything distasteful, she made a point of thinking of him. By associating unpleasant things with Alex, she hoped to build a high and wide wall between them.

Avoiding him wherever possible also helped. She had seen him two days earlier in Hyde Park, late in the afternoon, standing with Lady Clarice Langham and her friends. For two people who were supposedly in love, they both looked thoroughly miserable. From where Millie had stood, hidden at the back of the group of her new friends, she could see they barely exchanged a word.

Alex occasionally gave a nod of his head, as Clarice’s friends flittered around him like a flock of pigeons. Horrid Susan, as Millie had named her, spent all her time laughing and grabbing at Alex’s arm. Seeing the look of discomfort on his face had, she admitted to herself with some shame, made her day.

Good. You thoroughly deserve to spend the rest of your days surrounded by brainless harpies. Such a pity Lady Clarice does not see how suited to them you are, Lord Brooke.

At that moment, one of her new gentlemen admirers had told a particularly amusing joke, and Millie had roared with the most unladylike laughter. After several social outings with her new group, she realised they appreciated her openness and candour. With Millie they were able to relax, knowing she did not have a secret agenda. She was not interested in hurrying any of the men down the church aisle.

As she composed herself and wiped the tears of amusement away, her gaze had once more fallen on where Alex and his harem stood. While Lady Clarice and the other girls were busy fixing their bonnets and taking no notice of their surroundings, Alex stood staring straight at Millie.

For the first time since she had met him, he appeared unable to muster a smile. His shoulders were slumped, and the look of annoyance that appeared on his face every time Lady Susan let out a laugh did not give the impression of him being a happy man. Before she turned back to her friends, Alex gave her a small wave of his hand. Millie had never seen him so despondent.

She could barely remember the hour she and Charles had just spent in the park, nor the walk home. If Alex had what he wanted, why did he seem so sad? It made no sense.

Perhaps now that he was about to settle down, he had been forced to face the reality of being a married man: that he would no longer be able to play the field. She prayed he would take his marriage vows seriously, and try to be a good husband to Lady Clarice. He could be an utter charmer when the mood took him, but he also knew how to break a heart.

‘Millie,’ Charles whispered. ‘Stop staring into space.’

She shook her head, roused herself from her musings and gave her brother a hard stare. ‘I was thinking, you dolt. You might want to try it some time.’

‘Not if it makes my face look like yours when you are deep in thought,’ he replied with a laugh.

‘Be quiet, or I shall make you dance with dreadful Lady Susan; I know she is here tonight, I can feel it in my bones,’ Millie replied.

Charles clapped his hands together. ‘Blasphemy and now witchcraft; keep it up, my girl, and you shall have us both burned alive at the stake. Though if it warmed us up a bit, I wouldn’t complain. No one in this country has decent heating; I am always cold.’

‘Have you heard?’ David asked.

‘What?’ Alex replied, as his gaze roamed the room.

‘The Earl of Langham is here tonight, and he is looking for you.’

Alex swore, and then sucked in a deep breath. Lady Clarice had better have a bulletproof plan, or he was in serious trouble. If his uncle and the earl got hold of him, he would have a glass of champagne in one hand and a fiancée in the other. Knowing his uncle, the bishop would not care who she was as long as she was from a good family, and breathing.

‘More importantly, have you seen Lady Clarice? If she is going to jilt me, it had better be soon. If not, I am off. I will not stand around here waiting for someone else to decide my fate,’ Alex replied, his nerves on edge.

David placed a firm hand on Alex’s shoulder. ‘Fear not, little brother, I have managed to locate your jilter; she awaits you in the library.’

Alex shook his head, sensing a trap. ‘I’m not going into any library or any other room with an unmarried miss. She can speak to me in the hallway, or I am leaving right now.’

‘Come on, then. I shall chaperone you, and I will not leave you alone with Clarice for one minute,’ David replied. ‘The last thing I wish is a forced marriage between the two of you.’

They headed down a nearby hallway and stopped outside a closed door. David knocked on the door and Lady Clarice quickly opened it. A brief exchange followed, and Clarice came out and closed the door behind her. From the look on her face, it was apparent she was not happy.

‘Seriously, Alex, if I were intent on trapping you into marriage, I would have done it days ago and saved us all a lot of trouble,’ she snapped. ‘But if you are such a hothouse flower, then we will have to discuss our plans out here.’

From where she stood at the other end of the hall, Millie watched as Alex, David and Clarice put their heads together. Deeply engrossed in their discussion, they were oblivious to their surroundings. Every so often one of them would pull away and shake their head, the others would then wave their arms around, and then the dissenting party would rejoin the group.

At first, she thought it was an argument, but from the amount of nodding they were all doing, she was beginning to have her doubts. She stood watching the proceedings for several minutes, until Charles took her by the arm and led her away to join their friends.

‘What do you suppose all that was about?’ she asked, turning her head to get one final glance at the threesome.

Charles shrugged his shoulders. ‘No idea. Probably trying to work out how they will announce the engagement while the duke and duchess are still out of town. A brave move if you ask me; I certainly wouldn’t do it, but I’m sure her father must be urging them to make it public. We shall find out soon enough. In the meantime you and I need to go and have some fun.’

Millie gave her brother a quick smile. He was right: Alex was no longer a part of her life. What did it matter to her what he did?

‘Yes, let’s go have a fine, fun and frivolity-filled . . .’ She screwed her nose up, trying to think of a word to complete the sentence.

‘Function?’ Charles offered.

Millie gave the back of Charles’s hand a solicitous pat. ‘It will have to do, young man.’

Alex decided that attempting to appear nonchalant while waiting to have one’s face torn off in public was an art form he could not master.

A slow trickle of nervous sweat was working its way down his back, when out of the corner of his eye he saw Lady Clarice.

For years afterwards, the look on her face at that moment would haunt his dreams. He would wake at night in cold sweats, having dreamt that the hounds of hell had appeared and screamed his name. The hounds all bore the look of Lady Clarice Langham at the Bishop of London’s 1817 early summer ball.

‘ALEX RADLEY, YOU BLACKGUARD! How could you do this to me?’ she bellowed as she pushed her way through the crowd that mingled around the dance floor.

‘Strength, Alex, just remember it will all be over soon,’ David muttered, as he walked away and left Alex standing alone to face his fate.

‘Lady Clarice?’ Alex replied as his heart began to race.

Clarice came to a halt several feet away. Her hands were placed firmly on her hips.

‘Don’t you “Lady Clarice” me, you swine. I know full well where you were last night AND this afternoon. I may not know their names, but I know what those women are, and if you think I am naive enough to accept you in these circumstances you are a bigger fool than I ever thought.’

Alex shook his head, trying to remember his lines. ‘Now, now, Clarice, don’t go jumping to any conclusions or saying anything you might regret, especially not in the present company.’

He stepped forward and tried to take her arm, but she pulled away. ‘Don’t you dare touch me, you disgusting brute.’

‘But, darling–’ he replied.

The slap, when it landed, nearly knocked him off his feet. His teeth rattled in his mouth and tears sprang to his eyes. The sound of it echoed throughout the room, closely followed by a collective gasp from the gathering.

‘I am not your darling – I never was and never will be, Lord Brooke. When I choose to marry, it shall be to a man who respects and values me, not some . . . some cad like you,’ Clarice cried. She let out a wail of distress, and with her hands covering the sides of her face, she ran from the room. A more consummate actress had never set foot on the stage.

David came to his brother’s side and whispered into his ear. ‘Time to move, Alex; I can see the earl headed this way.’

Alex blinked back the tears, and quickly followed David towards the front door. Fortunately for the Radley brothers, the gathering was a large one, and Clarice’s irate father struggled to make his way through the crowd to reach them.

Once outside, they hurried down the stairs, across the yard and took refuge on the far side of the palace gatehouse.

‘That was close; I thought he had us there for a moment,’ David said, catching his breath.

Alex leaned against the high brick wall of the gatehouse. His face hurt like the devil. ‘I didn’t realise girls could pack that much into a slap. I almost bit my tongue.’ He rubbed the offended cheek; it was still hot.

David put his hand over his mouth, but Alex could see he was laughing. ‘That was absolutely priceless, Alex; we could not have rehearsed that better. Mind you, I don’t recall us discussing Clarice giving you a good old slap to the chops – not that you didn’t deserve it. After all you have put her through, just be grateful she didn’t have a pistol.’

Poking his head out from behind the wall, Alex ventured a quick look back towards the front entrance of the palace. ‘Let’s get out of here before the earl sends some of his lads to look for us,’ he said, as he turned and trotted further down the driveway. ‘The sooner we are in the carriage and away from here, the better I will feel.’

A few hundred yards further on, an unmarked black carriage awaited them. As the Earl of Langham was not a man renowned for his charitable nature, a quick, discreet departure had always been part of their plan. As the carriage slowly made its way back to Bird Street, Alex reflected on the evening’s events. Apart from having had his face slapped in public, he had to admit he had managed to get out of a dire situation rather lightly. He was now free of the expectation to marry Lady Clarice, while her reputation had remained intact.

He hoped she had thoroughly enjoyed her improvised, theatrical exit from the ballroom Lady Clarice Langham would no doubt be the talk of most
ton
breakfast tables in the morning.

‘Well, at least that part of your loosely thrown together plan went well. Now you just have to convince Millie Ashton that you are serious and get her to agree to marry you,’ David noted as they climbed the front steps of their townhouse the following afternoon.

‘Yes, I have managed to achieve the highly unlikely, now I just have to pull off the near-impossible,’ Alex replied. ‘I am going to give it a couple of days before I attempt to speak to her. I would suggest it might seem a little uncouth to be jilted on one night by one young lady, only to try to woo another the next day.’