Mischief by Moonlight (27 page)

He grinned when he saw them. “What's all this about?” he said as he neared the bottom. “Not that I'm not happy you've come for a visit, Josie.”

His eyebrows drew together as he noticed that neither Colin nor Josie was smiling.

“Is something amiss?”

“You'll doubtless find it so,” Colin said.

What
was
he
doing?
Surely he couldn't possibly be planning some kind of public confession. He was a private man. He hated emotional spectacles. Ames was coming back, and two footmen had appeared near the stairs.

“Colin,” she said warningly in a low voice. He didn't listen.

“I'm in love with Josie, Nick. And I mean to court her.”

Oh
no! He'd done it!

Nicholas blinked several times, then his face darkened with growing fury. She knew just how he felt because she was furious with Colin, too. Nicholas moved closer, his jaw hard with tension.

“What the devil do you mean by this, Colin? Is it some sort of jest?”

Nicholas looked at her then, and she wanted to cringe. “Josie?” he asked quietly.

“I…” What could she say? Now, when Nick was so recently returned, he was hearing about her betrayal. Their betrayal. And here, of all public places. Why had Colin done this?

“It's no jest,” Colin said. “I had started to care for her before you were engaged, and I fell in love with her while you were away. You of all people can understand that a man would find her irresistible. I would never have declared myself now, but your engagement was broken.”

“Only so I could court her again,” Nicholas ground out, any trace of the congeniality she was used to in him replaced by the unyielding hardness of a man accustomed to battle. “You bastard.”

He sent his fist crashing into Colin's jaw.

Josie gasped as Colin staggered backward, knocking a vase of flowers off the long, narrow table behind him. It shattered on the floor as he hit the wall.

Ames, who'd been watching the proceedings with a look of shock that was turning to outrage, stepped toward Nicholas, but Colin put up a staying hand.

“I deserved that.” He looked Nicholas in the eye. “And I'm sorry. I know this all looks very bad, but I love her, and I believe she just might care as much for me. I won't let her go without a fight.”

Nicholas took a step closer. “If it's a fight you want,” he growled, balling up his fist again.

Colin jerked his head toward the corridor. “In the library.”

Now
he wanted privacy? She was ready to punch him herself.

Both men stalked toward the library with Josie at their heels. She pushed the door closed behind her and faced them. They were looking at each other, shoulders stiff, jaws hard, fists clenched.

The two most formidable men she'd ever known.

They were furious, and she was the reason why. She swallowed hard and forced herself to speak.

“Nicholas,” she began, but neither man paid her any attention.

“And you called yourself my friend,” Nicholas said in a voice laced with derision.

“If I believed that you both loved only each other, I wouldn't be here,” Colin said coldly.

What did he mean by that? Did his remark have something to do with Nicholas's French lady-spy?

Colin's words sent Nicholas's fist crashing into his jaw again and knocked him backward over his desk.

He was on his feet in a trice. “This is for courting Josie while you were in love with another woman.”

Nicholas
was
in
love
with
another
woman?

Then Colin,
reserved
Colin, punched his best friend and sent him crashing into a delicate round occasional table, which shattered under Nicholas's weight.

In a flash, he was upright and they were brawling.

“Stop!” Josie shouted, but they ignored her.

It was as though they'd entered some private competition and they were oblivious to everything but the punches they were raining on each other. Books and papers slid off Colin's desk as he shoved Nick along the top of it. Nick got up and slammed Colin into the wall, Colin's momentum knocking loose a pretty landscape miniature Josie had always loved.

She rescued it just in time but was unable to save the bust of Horace that toppled off its stand. They were going to destroy the entire room, never mind what they were doing to each other. Already Colin had a bleeding cut on his cheek and Nick's bottom lip was split.

She rushed out of the room, seeking help, and found the servants standing in the hallway, horrified. She asked for a bucket of water, which was quickly procured, then she rushed back into the room and threw it over them, aiming for their heads.

Startled, the men stopped for a moment, shaking the water from their faces. They looked ready to resume.

“Please!” she cried. “No more hitting.”

They looked at her as though finally aware of her presence. Nicholas pushed a hank of dripping hair off his forehead and turned his gaze to her.

“Do you love him?” he demanded.

“I…” Her throat was suddenly a desert. How could she talk about this? And with both of them? She wanted to crawl away and curl up in a ball somewhere dark and hidden.

“Josie?” Colin pinned her with his eyes. “Will you tell the truth?”

“I don't want to talk about this!” she said as she watched the blood trickle down his cheek. “I don't even understand why you created such a spectacle.”

“Don't you?” he said quietly. He took a step toward her. “You think I keep my emotions so closed up that I have none to share with you.”

He came closer still, to stand right in front of her as he spoke these astonishing, frank words. “You think I won't allow the mess of feelings, that I'm too bottled up to be the man who would love you as wholeheartedly and freely as you deserve.”

A thought broke through, but she could hardly credit it. Had he truly just deliberately made an emotional, public spectacle of himself as a sort of bouquet for her, a way of showing her how much he cared?

“Oh,” she said, her heart in her throat.

Something shone in Colin's eyes. “Yes, Josie,” he said. “I did this for you. You have to understand that not only does my heart beat for you and no one else, it will always be open to you. Open to whatever happens. I would never close myself off to you, because you're the woman who makes me happy. Yes, I need solitude at times, but I would never retreat from
you
. I love you.”

They stared into each other's eyes. This was it, the moment she'd hardly dared to hope for. This was true love, and it was real and untidy and emotional, an everyday love that also made her heart soar.

“I'm still here,” Nick said from across the room.

They turned toward him where he stood by the desk. His lips pressed together grimly.

“Right,” he said in a clipped voice. “It doesn't take a genius to see that there's quite a bit going on between you two.”

Josie went to him. She wished he hadn't had to be caught up in her indecision. But in truth they
didn't
really know each other well. What was six weeks of giddy courting to a year and more of a soul-deep friendship turned to love?

“I'm so sorry about all this, Nicholas,” she said softly, searching for understanding amid the anger and unhappiness in his eyes. “It's all been shifting so rapidly that I didn't know what to do. We were devastated when we thought you'd been killed, and Colin and I had been the best of friends. We were a solace to each other. By the time you came back, something had grown between us. But I cared for you and was honored that you cared for me, and it seemed right to try to make things work.”

“I see.”

She felt awful having to say such blunt things, but not being clear about what she wanted had been such a mistake.

“You deserved a much better fiancée,” she said. “And I think you'll agree that I never was the paragon you thought me.”

He looked away from her, his eyes settling on the floor. “Perhaps it was a mistake to want anyone to be a paragon.” His voice sounded dull, but beyond the tightness of his jaw, there was nothing that spoke of a heart truly crushed by what she'd just said.

Josie thought about what Colin had said:
If
I
believed
you
both
loved
only
each
other, I wouldn't be here
.

Nicholas took in a deep breath and looked up. “In truth, Josie, I probably got exactly what I deserved: no fiancée.”

She wanted to reach out to him in friendship, but things were too tangled for such a gesture. “You can't believe that. You're a wonderful man, and you deserve a wonderful woman with whom to share your life. I'm just not that woman.”

“No,” he said slowly. “You're not. While we're telling the truth…there is someone else, a woman I love. I wanted to tell you about her, but it's complicated. But”—he shot Colin a grim, rueful glance—“Colin was right. You deserved better than what I was offering.”

He and Colin exchanged looks, and though they'd been battling each other only minutes before, it was as though a summer storm had come through, exploding the pressure of a sweltering day and leaving calm in its wake.

“I understand,” Nick said to Colin. “And—perhaps I'll even say thank you.”

Colin inclined his head in reply. The skin along his jaw, where Nick's fist had connected, was very red.

Nick walked out of the library, closing the library door behind him.

Colin came up and put his hands on Josie's shoulders.

“He told me about a lady-spy he'd met in Spain and admired,” she said, “but he never said more. It's to do with her, isn't it?”

“Perhaps. None of that matters now, though,” he said, stroking her cheek, “because I got the right girl. I'm still waiting, you know, to hear that I really did get the girl.”

She felt a huge smile breaking over her face. “You did.” She was hardly able to speak over the giddy joy bubbling up in her. “It took me a long time to realize that I loved you, Colin. But then when I knew, I was afraid to trust you.”

“Yes,” he said in a slightly pained voice. “I know. But I understand why.”

“Maybe some part of me knew you were right for me all along, and that was why I felt so unsettled about marrying Nicholas.”

“You almost undid me when you kissed me at the ball in London.” He leaned his forehead against hers, and his breath fell softly against her skin.

“That kiss made me a little crazy too,” she said. “I didn't understand why I couldn't stop thinking about you even though I was engaged to such a wonderful man.”

“You will make me much happier if you stop talking about other men right now, especially ones you deem wonderful. Let's talk about how much you love me. Because I love you more than anything. I always will. And this time you're going to accept when I propose.”

“Bossy again,” she said in a mock scold. “But yes, yes I will marry you, Colin Pearce. I love you, and you're the only man for me, forever.”

She reached up to cup his cheek. “Though I was ready to brain you when you announced to Nicholas in the foyer that you wanted to court me. I never realized you were capable of doing something so—”

“Stupid?”

“Yes, and impulsive.”

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. “Actually, I'm getting an impulsive idea right now. But perhaps it's too wicked for you…”

“Now you'll have to tell me what it is.”

“I'd rather show you. That is, if you feel you can slip down to your back garden tonight at midnight.”

“Child's play.”

They left Greenbrier and set out on the path back to Jasmine House. She pestered him the whole way back to tell her what they were going to do that night, but he wouldn't say.

***

Josie stepped silently out into the Jasmine House garden as the case clock in the sitting room struck midnight. The night was chilly and very dark, and she saw that the moon was a crisp, silvery crescent. Though it offered scant illumination, the little curl of celestial light seemed cheery.

Like
a
heavenly
smile
shining
down
on
lovers
who
meet
by
night
, she thought, and grinned at her own ridiculousness.

And then Colin was by her side.

“So where are we going?” she whispered. “To the lake? A picnic under the stars?”

“Nothing so tame, and it's a surprise. Now, turn around.”

He tied a blindfold around her eyes.

“Is this even necessary?” she said. “I could hardly see my hand in front of my face as it was. And as I haven't seen you since this afternoon, I was rather looking forward to seeing you now.”

“It's definitely necessary. Now, if the nearly Countess of Ivorwood will march?”

Taking her hand, he led her carefully along. It was chilly, but she'd put on a thick wrap, and Colin's hand warmed her. A nightingale began to sing quite beautifully, or perhaps she heard it with new ears because of Colin's blindfold.

“I wouldn't have trusted you to lead me like this last week,” she said. “Or the week before that.”

“I know.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Though I wouldn't have said ‘no' if
you'd
offered to blindfold
me
.”

“There's something wicked in your words.”

He just chuckled and directed her to take a large step to avoid something in her path, to watch her head, to be careful descending some small hill. It was possible that his directions were a ruse to give her wrong ideas about where they were going, but if they were, she didn't care because she was having too much fun.