Married in Haste (7 page)

Father said I had to take care of you and I feared I would break down and you’d see how frightened I was. Then Father would have been disappointed in me.”

“But you were brave. Father said you were very strong. I remember that, Neil.”

“You held my hand, Tess, just like you are now. And you asked me, ‘Will Mother be all right?’ and I said yes.” He ran his thumb back and forth across her hand. “That memory haunts me. I lied to you. I lied.”

He raised his gaze to meet hers and she could see in the depths of his eyes that he carried a terrible burden. “Neil, what is it?” she demanded, truly alarmed.

“I have something to tell you, something I regret.” He paused. “I’ve lost your fortune, Tess. All of it.”

She laughed, certain he had to be joking. But he didn’t join in her laughter and suddenly, in the cold pit of her stomach, she knew he was telling her the truth.

She pulled her hand back. “I don’t understand, Neil. How could you lose my fortune? It doesn’t make sense.”

He pushed up from the desk and began pacing nervously. “I made some unwise investments. I didn’t do it on purpose. I thought I knew what I was doing.”

“What investments?”

“A man came to me with an idea for some new mechanics.” Neil sat on the edge of the bed. “A battery.

It’s a stack of copper and zinc plates. It gives off electrical current.”

Now Tess knew her brother wasn’t joking. He’d always been fascinated by mechanics.

“It was the most amazing experiment I had ever witnessed, Tess. Revolutionary even. He could make this dead chicken move with this battery. Imagine the possibilities, Tess! He could make dead material move.

But he needed money to do more experiments. Of course, my money is entailed and Father’s will makes it so that I must always turn to Mr. Christopher for permission. It’s such a nuisance because Christopher is completely unyielding to my requests for more cash. Stella is expensive and Town living has its demands.” He stopped his complaints and looked at her, his expression miserable. “I didn’t expect to lose it all, Tess. I thought I was doing what was best for you.”

Standing, she crossed over to him. “Where is this man, Neil? Perhaps we should talk to him.”

“He’s gone. I’ve looked for months now. He’s disappeared with the money, probably back to Italy.”

Slowly, the import of his words sank in. “I am not an heiress.”

“No.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“Because I’d hoped to work my way out of it. I believed that I would be able to cover the money I lost.”

“But you couldn’t.”

He lowered his head. “I’d ask Christopher, if I thought he would advance the sum, but the amount I lost is so big and he’d refuse me, Tess, I know he would.”

Tess slowly walked around his desk, tracing her path with the tips of her fingers on its polished surface.

Only the ticking of the clock over the cold hearth broke the silence.

“Does Stella know?”

Neil shook his head. “I can’t tell her, especially now that she is with child.”

“Oh, Neil.” She felt the hot sting of tears and choked them back.

Together. “What is the solution?”

He came to his feet. Reaching out, he touched her hair. “You are so pretty. Much like Mother, but prettier.” He dropped his hand. “I can’t let anyone know what I did. I have a reputation; I have connections. If this comes out, I will be ruined.”

“What do you want me to do then?” She knew the answer before he’d even said the words.

“I want you to marry this Welsh earl. Leave London. Build a life with him and no one will be the wiser about my, ah, my mistake.”

“But what about the money?”

“He has funds. I overheard at my club that his estate in Wales is quite ancient and very grand.”

“Neil, is there no other way?”

“No.”

“And if I don’t?”

Neil shrugged and then spoke as if the words were hard to say. “We will see our good name ruined. And your chance to marry anyone will be gone.”

For one horrifying second, Tess could imagine the laughter and snide comments of those who would take pleasure in her downfall. Like Neil, she didn’t know if she could live with the public embarrassment. Fear rose up inside her, choking her. She swallowed it back, but still it lingered in her throat, making it ache.

She whispered, barely able to talk, “Will you tell Merton the truth? You mustn’t lie to him.”

“I won’t lie, but I don’t have to tell him everything,” her brother said quickly. “Or else he’ll cry off. Then the rumors would fly.”

Tess didn’t like this. “But he will find out sooner or later.”

“Yes, but by then you must make sure he is willing to forgive you.”

“How?”

“You are asking me how? Women get men to forgive their sins every day. Make him fall in love with you.

Men in love will do anything.”

At that moment, a knock sounded on the door. At Neil’s call, Nestor, the butler, said, “Mr. Hamlin, the earl of Merton is here to see you. Are you at home?”

Neil turned to Tess. “Am I?”

She stood rooted to the floor, feeling as if her head had turned into one of those flying balloons while her body was a chunk of ice. Her brother waited. Finally, she nodded. “Yes, yes, you are at home.”

“You’ll marry him?”

Tess opened her mouth but it took a moment until she could say the words. “Yes. Yes, I will marry him.”

Chapter Four

What the bloody hell had he done?

That thought had first struck Brenn as he’d stood shaving the razor to his throat. His predawn philosophizing had given way to stone cold reality after a good night’s sleep.

Now, as he cooled his heels in the magnificent opulence of the Hamlin sitting room, he realized what Sir Charles had been trying to tell him—especially once he saw how wealthy Hamlin really was. Not only was the house located at London’s most fashionable address, but the furnishings were fresh, new…expensive.

For the first time since Brenn had set off on his fortune-hunting trip to London, the future consequences of what he was attempting to do sank in. The bouquet of rose buttons and forget-me-nots he’d purchased from a street vendor began to wilt in his hand.

He walked across the thick carpet and studied the row of green antique vases trimmed in gold lining the mantel. A well-traveled man, he knew the cost of things, and he would wager just one of those vases had cost more than his officer’s pay for the last year.

Last night, he’d seen the sparkle in Miss Hamlin’s eyes and charged after her like a hungry trout striking bait. Now he was seeing the depth of her wealth. A woman raised in this luxury would expect to continue in this manner.

Brenn thought of Erwynn Keep as it presently was—the shell of a once-great house. Gaping holes marked where the doors and windows had been. Parts of the roof were missing. It was completely uninhabitable. Brenn lived, as his uncle had, in a small crofter’s cottage within sight of the house.

Could a woman raised in this room, in this house, share his vision for rebuilding Erwynn Keep? Would she be happy living in a crofter’s cottage until the house was finished?

He glanced around the sitting room.

The answer was no.

But he needed her money if he was to realize his dreams.

Sir Charles’s warnings plagued him. Why was Hamlin pushing for the wedding to take place with all possible haste? Perhaps something truly was not right. Even his nose was beginning to itch.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of two maids whispering outside the half-closed door.

Thinking that their presence heralded the approach of Miss Hamlin, Brenn moved toward the entrance.

“Who’s in there?” he heard one ask the other.

“A gentleman caller for Miss Tess.”

“Only one? Normally by this hour Miss Tess has a roomful of male callers.”

The maid sucked in her breath. “You haven’t heard then?”

“Heard what?”

“Why, Miss Tess has agreed to marry. That gentleman in there, in fact.”

“Lor’, no! And me not hearing a word! Tell all, Bonnie.”

Their voices dropped even lower as they shared confidences. Brenn shifted from one foot to the other.

He would give his sword to know what they were saying.

One of the maids giggled, the sound ever so slightly malicious.

Manners be damned. He moved toward the door just in time to hear the first maid cut short the idle talk.

“I best get myself upstairs. She was sick again this morning.”

“Oooo, three mornings in a row. I hear the doctor was in yesterday.”

“Aye, it’s true. Never any doubt in my mind, doctor or no—but don’t breathe a word to anyone. She’d have my head if she thought I’d let it slip. It’s a secret. You know the gentry. ‘Course I know what she’s hiding. When her belly pops out with that babe, they’ll all know she was trotting around pretending nothing was wrong and all the gentry will be scandalized…or at least that is what the master’s valet told me.”

“He’s been telling you a lot of things lately,” the other maid said slyly. Her comment inspired a good bit of girlish laughter and then they were both gone—and Brenn had his answer.

Sir Charles had been right.

He stared down at the yellow centers of the rose buttons in the bouquet, wishing he hadn’t heard the maids talking. For a long moment, his pride warred with his plans for Erwynn Keep.

He was being used. She was pregnant and needed a father for her child.

Of course, didn’t he want to use Miss Hamlin for her money?

But could he accept another man’s babe as his own?

At that moment, booted footsteps walked purposely across the marble floor toward the sitting room door. Brenn stepped back just as Neil Hamlin, followed by the butler, strode into the room.

“Ah, Lord Merton, what a pleasure to see you.”

Brenn shook Hamlin’s offered hand. The man sounded friendly enough but Brenn couldn’t help noticing lines of strain around his mouth and that Hamlin’s gaze didn’t quite meet his own.

“My sister will be down shortly. Would you like Nestor to take those flowers from you?” He didn’t wait for an answer but signaled for the butler to do so immediately.

Brenn pulled back. “That’s fine. I’ll give them to her.” He wanted to use his small offering to see if her gaze shifted away from his own like her brother’s had. The butler retreated, leaving a silent footman behind to see to their needs.

“Well,” Hamlin said, clapping his hands together to fill the sudden void of conversation. “This is a momentous occasion. We need a glass of wine to celebrate.” He moved toward a wine decanter and glasses on a nearby serving table.

Brenn watched him, the words Is your sister carrying another man’s child? on the tip of his tongue. He’d always been one for plain speaking but then that had been before he was an earl…before he’d wanted something as much as he did Erwynn Keep. The starched and carefully folded neckcloth around his throat seemed as tight and constricting as a noose.

And then he heard the rustle of skirts and smelled the scent of lilies. He turned…and questions died in his throat.

Miss Hamlin stood in the doorway. Tess. Beautiful Tess. She appeared even more lovely in the light of day than she had in the garden last night, and he no longer questioned his judgment.

Her thick, red-gold hair was piled high on her head but without the fussy curls and jewels of the night before. Brenn imagined that if he pulled out a pin here and another there, it would tumble down to her waist.

Her dress, the shade of a robin’s egg, brought out the vivid blue of her almond-shaped eyes. She raised those eyes to his and said, “How are you today, my lord?” in a honey-smooth voice.

It took him a moment to find his own voice. “These are for you.” He shoved the bouquet forward, conscious that the flowers paled in comparison to her vibrant beauty.

She moved with a grace that made her seem to float across the floor. Her long, elegant fingertips brushed his as she reached for the bouquet. She didn’t wear gloves and he felt the heat of her body all the way down to his toes.

What spell did this woman weave over him?

She lifted the flowers to her nose and he noticed her hands trembled, ever so slightly. “These are lovely,”

she murmured.

“So are you,” he said. The words had come out unbidden; he couldn’t have stopped them if he’d tried.

Her lips parted in surprise. Hamlin chuckled. “Merton, you will have to be less direct. You’re not on a battlefield anymore but ready to join the ranks of married men. Mark my words, if you talk to my sister that way after the wedding, she’ll walk all over you.” He laughed at his own small joke.

But Tess didn’t join him. Instead, two bright spots of color appeared on her cheeks and, for a moment, Brenn sensed the truth. It was there, plain to see. She was hiding something. Both of them were.

The heat of lust was tempered by a slap of cold reality.

His gaze dropped to her slim waist. No sign of breeding—yet.

A woman’s trilling voice announced herself from the doorway. “My lord, pardon me for not joining you sooner.” An attractive blonde swept into the room.

“Merton, this is my wife, Stella,” Hamlin said, gesturing with his wineglass. He handed a glass to Brenn.

“Stella, the earl of Merton.”

Brenn bowed over the hand she offered. “Mrs. Hamlin.”

“Stella, please,” she corrected him enthusiastically. “After all, we are soon to be brother and sister in marriage, are we not? There is no purpose in standing on ceremony.” She gave Tess’s shoulders a sisterly hug that was not returned. “I am so excited that you are marrying our dear, dear Tess. And what a handsome couple you make. Brenn—I may call you Brenn, no?” She charged on, barely pausing for breath. “Neil tells me your family estate is in Wales.”

“Yes, it is.”

“And I imagine you wish to return as quickly as possible,” Stella said almost gleefully. “Oooo, Neil, please pour a glass of wine for me.”

“And you, Tess?” her brother asked. “Do you wish a small sherry?”

Tess didn’t answer him. Instead, she said to Brenn, “Are you really expecting us to return to Wales?”