Married By Midnight (5 page)

The rest of the family laughed at the duke’s teasing tone, but there was an obvious discomfort in the room, as if they all feared he might take hold of Lady Anne and actually do it.

Still shaken by his father’s affable behavior, Garrett turned to his betrothed. “Father, allow me to present Lady Anne Douglas.”

She fell into a proper curtsy. The duke took hold of her hand and helped her rise. “My word,” he said, “but you are an absolute angel. How lucky my sons have been to marry such lovely creatures. Garrett is the last now, but certainly not the least, for he is the one who will break the curse. It’s all up to you now, my boy. Isn’t that right?”

Another hush fell over the room, and Garrett felt a stirring of unease at his father’s high expectations. Was there a veiled threat in it?

You’re useless. You’ll never be anything but a bloody bastard. Get out of my sight, boy. I can’t even look at you.

Garrett pushed the memory down and focused on the point of all this, and why he had come home. The money. He would say and do what he must to secure it.

“
Indeed,” Garrett replied. “On Christmas Day, everything will be put to rights. You’ll see.”

Yes. To rights—for I will be well on my way back to Greece by then with a substantial piece of your vast fortune in my possession. And you will never have to see me again. Just as you always wanted.

The duke turned to Lady Anne and offered his arm. “Why don’t you come with me, my dear? We shall sit by the fire and sip claret, and you can tell me all about your home in Yorkshire.”

“
I would be delighted, Your Grace.” With a charming smile, Anne accompanied the duke to the chairs in front of the fire while Garrett watched her with a hint of concern, for surely she must feel as if she had fallen down a rabbit hole as well?

She gave no evidence of that, however, as she began to converse with his father. She smiled dazzlingly and laughed at all the things the duke said.

At one point the duke reached forward and kissed her hand. It appeared she had captured his heart completely in the first few minutes of their acquaintance.

If he even had a heart... Garrett sincerely doubted it.

“
Well? What do you think of her?”

Garrett turned to his brother Devon who handed him a glass of sherry. “You chose well,” he said. “Father seems to like her, and she is a beauty, to be sure.” Garrett raised the glass to his lips and took a drink. “Makes me wonder, though.”

“
Wonder what, exactly?”

Garrett frowned as he continued to watch her in the dancing firelight. She was not just another pretty young lady. There was something particularly enticing about her—a beguiling charisma that made it difficult not to stare.

“
What the devil is wrong with her?” he replied. “One would think a woman like that would have been snatched up on the first night of her first season.”

“
Perhaps you should ask
her
about that,” Devon replied as he set his glass down on a table. “You will have plenty of opportunity tomorrow. We’ve organized a sleigh ride and an afternoon of skating at the lake.”

Garrett continued to watch Lady Anne converse easily with their father. “So there
is
a reason, then,” he replied. “A blemish on her character. I shouldn’t be surprised, for she and I are both selling our souls to the devil this Christmas. Does Father know?”

“
No, and we intend to tell him nothing. All that matters is that you sign the marriage certificate by midnight Christmas Eve, then Father will rest easily in his old age and our family’s fortune will be secured.”

Lady Anne turned her enormous dark-lashed green eyes toward Garrett just then, and smiled. Her open gaze and astonishing beauty caused a spark of excitement in his core, which caught him off guard and caused him some discomfort—for he had certainly not come home to enjoy himself.

* * *

The snow was covered in a thin sheen of sparkling ice the following day when all the members of the family exited the front door of the palace. Four horse-drawn sleighs had been brought up from the stables and were lined up in a row, waiting to carry them to the lake house for ice skating and hot apple cider.

Anne gathered her heavy wool cloak and scarf tightly about her neck and pressed her hands deeply into her fur muff. The temperature was well below freezing. She could see her breath like tiny puffs of smoke on the air, but there was not the slightest breath of wind.

One of the horses tossed his head and stomped his heavy hoof on the frozen ground, impatient to get under way as Anne and the other young ladies—Rebecca, Chelsea, and Charlotte—approached.

“
Each sleigh carries four people,” Charlotte explained, “but you and Garrett shall have this one all to yourselves. Father insisted.”

Anne glanced across at the duke, who was stepping into the first sleigh. As he sat down, the duchess laid a fur blanket over his lap. He clasped her hand and kissed her on the cheek.

Anne was touched by the affection she saw in his eyes, and the blush that colored the duchess’s cheek.

Garrett was the last family member to arrive. Dressed in a fur-trimmed greatcoat and elegant top hat, he came skidding across the icy drive with his hands outstretched as if on a wheel, to balance and guide him.

Charlotte laughed at him. “You’re going to end up on your backside if you’re not careful!”

He skidded to a halt and slammed into the side of the sleigh. “That’s slippery,” he said to his sister, as if Anne were not even there.

She felt rather out of place among all these siblings. She had an older brother, but he and his wife had abandoned her after the scandal and they had not spoken since.

“
When was the last time you donned a pair of ice skates?” Charlotte asked Garrett. “I doubt it’s a common pastime on those sweltering Greek islands you are so fond of.”

“
It’s been too long,” he replied. “I hope I remember how to stop without careening like a cannonball into the bank.”

Charlotte touched his arm. “You will be perfectly fine, and what about you, Lady Anne? Are you a seasoned skater?”

Anne sniffed in the cold. “Yes, I enjoy skating very much. This has been a good winter for it. Everything is frozen solid.”

Charlotte glanced uneasily at the duke. “Yes, which hasn’t helped Father’s anxieties at all. But now that you two are finally here, I believe he will rest easier. Let us have a good time today. We are all in need of some laughter. Up you go now,” she said to Anne. “Garrett will help you. I am off to ride with Rebecca and Chelsea in the next sleigh. Devon and Blake will bring up the rear.”

She hurried to join her sisters-in-law, while Anne’s eyes met Garrett’s blue-eyed gaze in the chilly midday sunshine.

He held out his gloved hand. “Allow me to assist you.”

Anne hesitated. How very attractive he was. Hence, she was not surprised when a shiver of physical awareness moved through her as she slid her fingers across his palm.

Without any effort at all, he handed her up. There was a fur blanket on the red leather seat. She waited for him to sit beside her. After he adjusted the flannel-wrapped bricks she covered both their laps with the blanket.

“
It’s a fine day,” Garrett said, looking up at the clear blue sky. The sleigh lurched forward and the bells jingled on the harness. They began in a convoy, moving across the fields toward the forest, which was blanketed in pure white snow and ice that weighed heavily upon the evergreen branches.

Garrett’s profile was relaxed as he looked over the fields and back at the palace.

“
Pardon me for saying so,” Anne mentioned, “but you seem in much better spirits this morning.”

“
How so?” he asked, finally meeting her gaze.

“
Last night you did not seem happy to be here, or to meet me. I believed you would decide to stay behind this afternoon, but here you are.”

“
Yes, well, here I am, forced to endure the fresh winter air and cheerful sunshine.” There was a touch of friendliness in his eyes this morning, and she was pleased he was making some effort at conversation.

Perhaps this would not be so difficult after all, Anne thought as she looked out over the frozen landscape and felt the vigorous breeze on her cheeks. Perhaps Garrett had merely been weary from the journey the night before. He had traveled a great distance, after all. How could she fault him for it?

“
You were very good with my father last night,” he mentioned. “I was watching you. You seemed at ease and not the least bit...” He paused.

“
Least bit what?” she pressed. “Do you wish to compliment my acting skills? Was I believable?”

He glanced in the other direction. “Yes, I suppose that is what I was attempting to say. For some reason I couldn’t find the right words.”

“
A poet who cannot find words. That is rather unfortunate.”

He regarded her with a surprising hint of amusement.

“
You’re quite right, Lady Anne. It is. Perhaps that is why I haven’t written anything lately. I suspect it is not my true calling.”

The driver slapped the leather lines to urge the horse to trot faster, for the other sleighs were slicing through the snow at a very brisk pace.

“
Hurry up slowpokes!” Charlotte called out from the ladies’ sleigh as they sailed past with bright red scarves flying and bells jingling.

Garrett chuckled with an obvious note of affection for his sister.

“
You and Charlotte seem very close,” Anne commented.

“
We are fraternal twins. Did you know that?”

“
I did. Your brothers, Devon and Blake, educated me on a number of family topics. They also told me that your palace is known to be haunted. That it is built upon the ruins of an ancient monastery that was torn apart during the reign of Henry VIII.”

Garrett’s eyebrows lifted and he looked straight at her. “And that didn’t frighten you off?”

She felt rather giddy under his direct gaze as a rush of butterflies invaded her belly. Lord Garrett was strikingly handsome. She found it more than a little unsettling.

“
I enjoy a good ghost story,” she replied, nevertheless. “And I doubt there’s any truth to it. Or perhaps I am too skeptical. Have you ever seen a ghost at Pembroke Palace?”

“
Not me, but Charlotte might claim otherwise. Poor girl. We used to haunt the subterranean passages when we were children. It couldn’t have been easy for her, growing up with four brothers. She certainly learned to stand up for herself—no doubt about that.”

Anne regarded him with interest as the horse pulled the sleigh into the shelter of the forest. Suddenly they were among heavy branches covered in fresh snow that fell in big clumps that plopped around them.

“
Why are you looking at me like that?” Garrett asked as he leaned back and rested an arm along the back of the seat. “You seem almost baffled.”

“
I am merely surprised by your openness this morning, compared to last night,” she replied. “You seem like a different person.”

He shrugged. “I suppose now that I’ve met you, I am able to relax a little.”

“
Why?”

He considered her question for a moment. “I think I was worried that any lady who would agree to a plot such as this would have to be unpleasant in some way, or undesirable, or perhaps possess some secret ulterior motive. I feared she might want to lure me into a real marriage. That has happened to me before, but you don’t strike me as any of those things.”

Anne spoke honestly. “I told you last night that I am here to gain my independence and freedom, not another yoke around my neck.”

His eyes narrowed, as if he wanted to look deeper into her character and study her. Find out why. Perhaps test her. “Yes, but some women say that when they don’t really mean it. Deep down, what they really want is a fairy tale.”

The sleigh jostled them about as they glided over a small knoll where patches of earth showed through the snow. Anne pulled one hand from her muff and pressed her winter bonnet more firmly onto her head. “It’s not that I don’t believe in fairy tales,” she said, “or want true love for myself one day. I do. It’s just not something I felt I could attain.”