Secret Pleasures (6 page)

“It’s not a ridiculous fascination, Mother
.
We
—
Ow!” squealed the girl
.
Ivy suspected her mother squeezed the girl’s arm or gave her a good pinch which she dearly needed.

“Hear me, Arianna
.
Your father has not abandoned his desire for a union with
the Earl of Westhaven
since your sister’s broken engagement
.
Nothing will stand in his way, so be careful of how you speak of your relationship with the young reverend
.
I’ve convinced your father that the infatuation was nothing more than a young girl’s momentary fancy and that’s all it shall ever be.”

“How can you let him marry me to a decrepit old man?”

“You will be a countess, and that will be everything.”

“Not everything.
”
Ivy strolled from behind the screen
.
“There are some things once lost that can never be regained.”

Ivy intended to walk out
of the room
, letting her words hang in the air like a specter, undermining the girl’s already unstable mood
.
But o
ne glimpse at Arianna’s desperate red-rimmed eyes
changed her mind.
Ivy could not be so callous.

“Excuse me, madam, but I was having a private conversation with my daughter.
”
The girl’s mother glanced toward the door, apparently recognizing the pariah in her midst.

“It’s Miss
.
Miss Ivy Templeton.
”
Ivy reached into a deep pocket in the folds of her gown and offered Arianna a round case inlaid with pearls and amethysts
.
“It’s from France and hides red better than most.”

“My daughter is not allowed to wear powder.
”
Mrs. Maddox moved behind her daughter and gripped her shoulders. “She is far too young, but thank you, Miss Templeton.”

Ivy was a bit taken aback by the woman’s politeness
.
She must be the reason she and Darien were not escorted down the marble steps the moment they arrived.

“Thank you for letting us past the butler
.
I shall watch the door and break off conversation if anyone approaches.
”
She reached out and put the box in Arianna’s hand
.
“She will need this
.
No one likes a puffy-eyed bride
-to-be
.”

“I don’t think anything will help.
”
Even so,
Arianna took the gift and clutched it to her chest.

“Perhaps it might not hurt to powder your nose,” the mother said with a quick nod of gratitude.

Ivy surveyed Arianna’s delicate features
.
The red tip of upturned nose only
enhanced
her youthful appeal and her wet lashes added more drama to her honey-colored eyes
.
Yes, Ivy could see why Robert claimed to be enchanted by her
.
He could never resist a damsel in distress.

Ivy did not think either of these two had the fortitude to stand up to the likes of Henry Maddox.

“It is not too late,” Ivy said, fulfilling her promise to Darien to the best of her abilities
.
”Once the thing is announced, well, then it gets complicated
.
I have a house in the country if you both would like a place to escape so you may think over your decision in peace.”

Mrs. Maddox tensed, fright in her brown eyes, while Arianna took a step toward Ivy.

“It is too late.
”
Mrs. Maddox firmly squeezed her daughter’s shoulders, holding her in place.

“Reverend Fitzgerald might have taken up the clergy because he is untitled with no other prospects, but he is a man of his convictions
.
He won’t come near you after you are married.”

Arianna closed her eyes, anguish clearly written on her features.

“What do you want?
”
The mother’s curt question proved her ingrained good manners had finally been
breached
.

“To prevent Westhaven from destroying another young girl’s dreams,” Ivy answered, knowing she spoke not only of herself but Diana and maybe even Melody
.

Shrill laughter preceded a group of matrons entering the female retreat
.
Ivy spared Arianna one last glance before she squared her shoulders, preparing herself for the pinprick of whispers that would surely follow in her wake.

The three women who created the noise of a gaggle of geese paused to openly gape the moment they spilled into the female retreat
.
Thankfully, Ivy was far enough away to not be suspected of conversing with the Maddox girl
.
Ivy steeled herself and marched directly through the center of the group, forcing them to part in outrage.

“Miss Templeton
.
Thank you for your kindness.”

The damn girl
had
spoke
n
to her back
.
Ivy turned before she escaped through the door, unable to ignore Arianna.

She stood in the middle of the room, Ivy’s petite vanity box held out to her.

“Keep it
.
You shall need it if you go against your heart.
”

The girl pressed the case to her chest and lowered her gaze
.
“I have no choice.”

“There is always a choice.
”
Of course, one could not have told Ivy that at the time she
had
made the worst one of her life
.
“But do not be hard on yourself if you feel you must do what convention dictates
.
You shall not be the first.”

Ivy left wishing she had something more hopeful to say to the girl
.
But at least the conversation spurred Ivy’s
own
courage
.
She would face Gregory Blackmore, Earl of Westhaven, knowing she could never find satisfaction for herself, and likely do nothing to save Arianna
.
But Diana would not die in squalor while that pompous bastard toasted his nuptials with the finest champagne
.
There was the matter of a child at stake.

…
which is exactly why you shall make such a smashing earl.

“Follow me.
”
Darien’s father turned and walked into the press of bold gentlemen and their tentative ladies, sparing only a brief grunt of acknowledgement in response to their overly solicitous greetings.

Darien followed the choking scent of cigars and brandy wafting off his father’s clothes
.
Hopefully his sire wasn’t leading him to the other side of the house to have him tossed out the back door
.
Of course, Gregory Blackmore would not bother with anything so public
.
Deadly silence and back
room manipulations better suited his iron-claw style of dealing with his offspring
’
s misconduct.

A door on the left blended with the woodwork of the narrowed hall
.
His father turned the brass handle, allowing a cloud of smoke and low grumbles to momentarily darken the festivities
.
Once Darien’s eyes adjusted to the gloom of the exclusively male domain, he noticed the mounted trophy heads ranging from boar to badger crowding the oak-paneled wall
.
No doubt Maddox would dearly love to make room for Darien’s front and center
.
A group played cards in one corner
.
In another, men squeezed around a bar lined with a dozen bottles while a servant poured steadily.

His father plucked a goblet pregnant with cognac, his father’s favorite emotion-numbing elixir, from the polished mahogany and took a bracing swig
.
A man, one of his father’s aging cronies, saluted Darien, then moved aside, signaling for the rest of the group to clear the area
.
Darien noticed they didn’t go far and gathered in the corner, a graying group of wolves, no less dangerous in their declining years.

“Whiskey,” Darien said to the bartender, silencing his promise to Ivy
.
He doubted she expected him to survive the meeting with his father stone-cold sober
.
“Irish if you have it.”

Darien almost wept when he spotted the Kilbeggan label on the bottle the servant scavenged from behind the peach brandy and smuggled French cognac
.
The moment the crystal-stemmed glass grazed the polished counter, he greedily downed the whiskey despite his father’s cold blue stare and a mild plea from his anemic conscience
.

“Leave the bottle,” his father said
.
“Why are you here, Darien?”

“To ruin your party, of course.
”
Darien leaned against the bar, his back to the nearly full bottle so temptingly close.

“Why?
”
His father slugged back the dregs of his drink, matching Darien’s enthusiasm
.
The servant promptly refilled the earl’s goblet as if he’d been instructed to do nothing else all night
.

Darien paused to study his father
.
To really look at him for the first time in years
.
Perhaps for the first time ever
.
Tallish and stout, with thick bushy eyebrows that gave him a permanent scowl, the man had always scared Darien
.
Even as a baby, his mother said his face would collapse and he’d wail if his father so much as leaned over the crib
.
They’d been avoiding each other ever since.

“You certainly don’t look the happy groom,” Darien observed dryly
.
Though his father wore what appeared to be a freshly tailored suit, the severe black wool with matching velvet piping appeared too big and drooping off the slant of his once stern shoulders
.
Hell, it looked more like something one would commission for a burial rather than a ball
.
If it were anyone else, Darien might be concerned
.
Gregory Blackmore was too stubborn to succumb to the petty tyranny of old age
.
His father detested weakness of any kind in a man
.
A woman could be indulged, but a man
?
Not bloody likely
.
Especially a son
.

“For once in your pathetic excuse for a life, don’t be an ass
,” his father barked. “
I’ve no patience for it anymore.”

“Anymore?
”
Darien laughed
.
“Well I guess I must start behaving myself
.
Why did you not say so before?”

“Don’t ruin this for me
.
For us.”

“Us
.
I don’t see how this arrangement will benefit me in the least.”

“I can still make you suffer
.
You might own that measly piece of land outside the estate, but I don’t have to let you have the run of the estate’s herd or her grazing pastures
.
I could shut your little sheep-breeding enterprise down anytime I choose.”

“And then you’d lose the income
.
And your most productive tenant
.
Hank has aligned himself with me in case you have not noticed.
”
Darien straightened, smugly satisfied until he noticed that his father no longer towered over him
.
He was taller, but not more than an inch or so
.
And Darien sure as hell had not started to sprout in his third decade.

“Are you so selfish that you would ask a good man to leave the land his family has lived upon for generations, where they have buried their kin?
”
His father shook his head in sheer disgust, a gesture Darien had become all too familiar with over the years
.
“Hank has a sister and a stillborn daughter in the estate’s cemetery along with his parents and grandparents
.
And what would you do
?
Have him cram his wife and his children on your spit of land?”

“There is other land for sale.
”
Darien waved away the hovering bartender and poured himself another drink, hating the way his father always succeeded in painting him as a petulant child
.
He had forgotten about the stillborn girl who had almost broken Hank’s wife’s spirit
.
He had no idea Hank had lost a sister
.