Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (39 page)

Warmth burst in her chest. “I think it shall give any number of members of the ton the vapors.”

“An added bonus, then,” he said, before giving her a long, lingering kiss. And then he was gone, leaving her dazed and exhausted and happy.

She was almost instantly asleep. And when she dreamed, she dreamed of him, and of their future together.

“Oh, Callie! A marquess!”

Callie rolled her eyes at her mother’s exclamation and looked across the carriage to her siblings for support. It didn’t take long to realize that they would be no help at all. Mariana was smirking, obviously thrilled that hers had been relegated to second-most-exciting upcoming marriage for the duration of the evening, and Benedick looked as though he was seriously considering leaping from the moving vehicle to avoid their mother’s chirping excitement.

“I cannot believe you caught a marquess, Callie! And Ralston at that! And you, Benedick,” the dowager countess turned her attention to her eldest child, “I cannot believe that you kept Ralston’s plans from me for so long!”

“Yes, well, Callie and Ralston were eager to keep their courtship a secret, Mother.” The countess burst into a flurry of chatter as Benedick raised an eyebrow and mouthed, From all of us.

Callie couldn’t keep her slippered foot from flying. “Oy!” Benedick exclaimed, reaching down to rub his wounded shin.

“Oh, I am sorry, Benny,” Callie said sweetly. “It must be the nerves making me jumpy.”

Benedick’s eyes narrowed as their mother spoke, “Of course it is your nerves! Oh! To think! Our Callie! Betrothed! To Ralston!”

“Mother, please do attempt not to make a production of the news this evening, will you?” Callie pleaded. “I shouldn’t like to embarrass Ralston.”

Benedick and Mariana let out twin bursts of laughter at the idea that the dowager countess was at all capable of such decorum. “A bit late for that, don’t you think, Callie?” Benedick teased, as the carriage rolled to a stop and he leapt out to hand down his mother and sisters.

Before she exited the carriage, the countess placed a comforting hand on Callie’s leg. “Nonsense, Callie. Ralston’s been around long enough to know how these things are. He’ll forgive an elated mother.”

Callie groaned as her mother exited the carriage. “I should have asked Ralston to elope.”

Mariana grinned broadly. “Now you know how I feel.” With a wink, she was gone, after the dowager countess.

By the time Callie was out of the carriage, her mother had already started up the steps to Chilton House to eagerly share her news with anyone who would listen, and Callie had a sinking feeling that this was going to be the most awful night of her life. She looked into her siblings’ laughing eyes, and said, “You two are no help.”

The eldest and youngest Hartwell children smiled, unable to contain their amusement. “Shouldn’t you try to find Ralston, Callie? Before Mother has worked her magic, that is,” Mariana said helpfully.

“Is that what it is? Magic?” Callie turned to watch as their mother, a beacon in lime green—complete with enormous lace-and-ostrich-feather headdress—spoke excitedly to Lady Lovewell, tapping her fan excitedly against the arm of the most-renowned gossip of the ton. “Dear Lord,” Callie breathed.

“I’ve tried prayer myself,” Benedick said genially. “It doesn’t seem to work with her. I believe she’s made a deal with the Maker.”

“Or with someone else,” Callie posited, adjusting her shawl and following in her mother’s wake, the sound of her siblings’ laughter trailing behind her.

Once inside, Callie tried desperately to find Ralston in the crush of people that filled the ballroom to bursting. She stood just inside the room attempting to appear casual as she turned in a slow crescent, searching for him. Her height, or lack thereof, made the task particularly difficult, however, and eventually, with a sigh, she instinctively made for Spinster Seating.

She had just rounded the corner of the ballroom and had Miss Heloise and Aunt Beatrice in her sights when at her shoulder, a deep, familiar voice spoke quietly. “Where are you off to, Empress?”

A thrill coursed up her spine and she turned toward Ralston, unable to keep her pleasure at his finding her hidden. Of course, once she was facing him—all tall, broad, handsome, impeccably dressed, and starched-cravatted him—she was instantly shy.

What did one say, after all, to one’s fiancé, whom one had last seen in one’s bedroom, as he sneaked out just before daybreak?

He lifted one arrogant brow, as though he were reading her thoughts. She heard the beginning strains of a waltz as he took one of her gloved hands in his. “I should like very much to dance the first waltz with my betrothed,” he said casually.

“Oh,” she said, quietly. She let him guide her to the dance floor and sweep her into his arms.

After several moments of silence, he spoke again. “So. Where were you heading?”

She shook her head, unable to lift her gaze from his cravat. “Nowhere.”

He pulled away slightly, tilting his head to look at her. “Callie,” he said, in a tone that she was certain no female had ever been able to resist. “Where were you going?”

“Spinster Seating,” she blurted, immediately regretting the words. It wasn’t as if people actually called it that.

He blinked once, his eyes moving to the elderly ladies several feet away, then back to her. One side of his mouth kicked up. “Why?”

Her cheeks flamed. “I…I don’t know.”

“You’re not a spinster anymore, beautiful,” he said, close to her ear.

“Don’t call me that.” Callie darted her gaze around to see if anyone was looking at them and might have heard. It appeared that everyone was looking at them. Her mother had worked quickly.

He turned her quickly, regaining her attention. “But it’s true,” he said, feigning innocence. “You are very soon to be the Marchioness of Ralston. I’m not saying that you cannot still socialize with Misses Heloise and Beatrice,” he teased. “I’m simply saying you’ll have to rename the area in which you do it.”

She couldn’t help her smile. “I would much prefer to waltz with you than sit with them, my lord.” The words came quickly, and she wondered immediately if she had been too forward…if she were pushing him too far. After all, Ralston never seemed to like society before, there was certainly no reason why he should begin to attend social events now. She risked a glance up into his knowing, amused eyes.

“I would prefer that, myself, my lady.”

She played the lovely words over and over in her head as he whirled her across the room, and she basked in the knowledge that she would dance again, and often, with him once they were married. Callie looked past him to see Juliana watching them, a bright smile on her face. She turned to Ralston, and said, “You told your brother and sister about us.”

“I thought it better they hear it from me than from your mother.”

Callie winced at the words. “I’m so sorry, Gabriel, I tried to keep her quiet.”

He chuckled. “You should have known better than to even attempt it. Let her have her fun, lovely.”

“You shan’t feel that way for long,” Callie warned.

“Well then, I think we had best enjoy my magnanimity while it lasts, hadn’t we?”

He swirled her to a stop as the music faded, and they made their way to Juliana, who threw herself into Callie’s arms with a quiet squeal. Callie laughed at the younger girl but couldn’t help being caught up in the excitement of the evening and the news that she and Ralston were to be married.

She had no time to chat, however, when a quadrille began and Nick joined them, bowing low and asking her to partner him. She happily accepted her future brother-in-law’s offer, and the two were soon halfway across the room. After the quadrille, she was instantly partnered for a country dance, a second quadrille, a minuet, and so on until she had danced every dance during the first hour of the ball. And she was having a lovely time.

As she promenaded around the room with Lord Weston, a charming young man in line for a dukedom, she wondered at the strange turn of events. From Spinster Seating to the belle of the ball and all it took was a marriage proposal.

She paused. A marriage proposal from Ralston.

Ralston.

And then, as though she’d conjured him up, he was there, at her side. Taking her elbow, he guided her around the edge of the ballroom. “Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked, all innocence.

“You know very well that I am,” she said through her teeth. “You did this on purpose!”

He surprised her with a quick turn, moving through a barely open doorway from the stifling ballroom out onto a small, secluded balcony. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She turned to look at him, silhouetted in the golden light from the ballroom beyond. “You made them all dance with me! Because of my list! How embarrassing!” She took a deep breath, spinning back around to face the darkened garden, and repeating, “How very embarrassing!”

“Callie,” Ralston said, confusion in his tone. “I honestly haven’t any idea what you are about.”

She looked up at the starlit sky. “Dance every dance,” she said quietly. “Ralston, I’ve never danced so much in my life as I did this evening. You cannot possibly tell me you had nothing to do with it. You saw the list.”

“I can, indeed, tell you that I had nothing to do with it,” he argued, “because I had nothing to do with it.”

She turned back to face him. “It’s quite sweet, actually, that you would work so diligently to help me complete the items on my list. I suppose I should thank you.”

“You can thank me, lovely, but I honestly didn’t have anything to do with it.” He took a step closer to her. “Shall I prove it to you?”

She could feel the heat coming from him, welcome in the crisp spring air. “Please.”

“I don’t enjoy watching you dance with other men. I would much prefer we never attend another ball so I never again have to stand by as a line of rogues take the opportunity to touch you inappropriately.”

She gasped indignantly, “They were not inappropriate!”

“You shall have to get used to my being the judge of such things.” He came closer, leaving scant inches between them. He lifted a hand to brush an errant curl from her face. “They were inappropriate. Especially Weston.”

She laughed then. “Lord Weston is madly in love with his wife.” Lady Weston was widely considered one of the most beautiful women in London.

“She pales in comparison to you,” he said earnestly, the words rich and wonderful around her.

Callie blushed. “You really didn’t do it?”

He shook his head, a smile playing across his lips. “I really didn’t, Empress. But I am not surprised they wanted to dance with you. You are, after all, quite remarkably beautiful this evening.”

He lifted her chin, and she was at a loss for words. “Oh?”

“Indeed,” he said, cupping her cheeks, turning her head just enough to ensure the perfect angle of the kiss. He sipped at her lips, teasing her with little nibbling kisses along her soft, full bottom lip before taking her mouth in a deep, passionate kiss that weakened her knees. His silken tongue stroked along her bottom lip, delving inside to taste her sweetness. She sighed into his mouth, eager for more, desperate for them to be anywhere but here—anywhere where they could revel in each other. She pressed closer to him, eager for more of his warmth, and as a ribbon of fire curled in her stomach, he emitted a low growl in the back of his throat.

“I should have known you’d be out here mauling her, Ralston. Ensuring that you have won?”

Callie pulled back instantly at the words, spoken from the entrance to the ballroom. Even without seeing the speaker, the loathing in his tone sent a chill down her spine.

Ralston stiffened and turned to face the newcomer, attempting to block her with his size. “Oxford,” he said, his tone laced with warning.

“I heard the news of your pending nuptials,” Oxford said as Callie moved out from behind Ralston to face the Baron herself. “I’ll confess I was rather surprised to discover that you’ve discovered such an interest in Lady Calpurnia, Ralston.”

“I would think very carefully before you say any more, Oxford,” Ralston said through gritted teeth.

“But why would I do that?” Callie noticed the baron sway with the words, and she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he were foxed. “I’ve got nothing to lose, you see. I’ve already lost, haven’t I?”

At that moment, Mariana and Benedick stumbled out onto the balcony, interrupting the conversation. “Callie,” Mariana said breathlessly. “You should come with me.”

Callie’s eyes widened. “Why? What has happened?”

Mariana met Ralston’s eyes with a scathing, imperious look. “Nothing yet, thankfully.” Turning back to her sister, she repeated, “You must come with me. Now.”

Callie shook her head, backing up until she could feel Ralston’s nearness. Taking in Oxford’s smirking grin, Mariana’s pleading gaze, and Benedick’s stoic one, she turned to Ralston. “Gabriel?” she asked, confusion and uncertainty in the single word.

“Callie. Go with Mariana,” Benedick interrupted.

Callie turned on her brother. “I will not. I will not leave before someone tells me precisely what is happening.” Shifting her gaze to Mariana, she said, “Mari?”