The Hellion and The Heartbreaker (7 page)

It had been nearly three years since his last visit to Grey
Oaks, but hardly a day had gone by without him entering her thoughts. 
Despite the passing of time, her memories of him hadn’t diminished in the
slightest.  She could still recall the exact hue of his striking green
eyes, still recall the gentle waves that ran through his thick black hair, and
in her dreams she could still hear the rich, velvety timber of his voice. 
In truth, it was because of her infatuation with Alec that she had finally
embraced her femininity.  With Georgie’s help, she had gradually exchanged
her masculine attire and hoydenish behavior for silks and satins and ladylike
deportment, and soon she would find out if all of her efforts had been
worthwhile.  In a few short weeks, she would see Alec Weston again.

“Scarlett?  Hello…Scarlett.”

She blinked, shaking off her reverie.  “What?”

“It’s your move,” Conner stated, eyeing her curiously.

“Oh sorry,” she said quickly.  “I’m afraid my thoughts
wandered for a moment.”  She immediately dropped her gaze to the
chessboard, hoping there wasn’t a telltale blush staining her cheeks.

Thirty minutes later they remained locked in battle, both
focused intently on the game in front of them when an icy blast of cold air
swept suddenly in from outside.  They looked up, startled as the front
door swung open and a gust of wind blew a large whirl of snow into the
foyer.  Through the wide set of double doors leading to the foyer they
watched the men enter the house, vigorously dusting the snow from their
shoulders and stomping it from their boots.  Poor Mrs. Burns, their
housekeeper, would surely have a fit when she saw the damage they were doing to
her freshly polished floor Scarlett noted in the back of her thoughts, as she
rose excitedly from her chair to greet her brothers.

 “Welcome home!”  Conner said, reaching them first.

As Conner was partially blocking Scarlett’s view, she didn’t
notice that a fourth man had accompanied them into the house.  She stepped
around Conner, a bright smile upon her face and then froze mid-stride. 
Her startled gaze met with an equally startled look from the very set of
brilliant green that had appeared time and again in her dreams and fantasies. 
The shock nearly took her breath away.

“Look who we’ve brought home with us,” Colin said, placing
his hand affectionately on Alec Weston’s broad shoulder.

“Alec, it’s good to see you,” Conner said in friendly
greeting.  “What brings you to the country at this time of year?”

Before he had an opportunity to respond, the McPhearson’s
butler hurried into the foyer with two footmen on his heels who quickly began
relieving them all of their heavy coats, hats and gloves. 

Scarlett took that moment to step back into the parlor,
trying with no small degree of difficulty to steady her rapidly beating
heart.  He was here.  She couldn’t believe it!  The Duke of
Worthe had returned to Grey Oaks. 
Good heavens
she thought, her
hand fluttering to the base of her neck, she wasn’t prepared.  She had
anticipated seeing him in London, fantasized about it actually.  She would
have seen him at a ball, he would have asked her to dance, or perhaps she would
have encountered him at the theater where he would have invited her to share
his box.  She looked down at her simple, pale-blue cotton day dress in
mute frustration.  She certainly wasn’t dressed in the dazzling finery she
had envisioned herself in when next they met, but nevertheless he was here and
she was elated!

Standing in the foyer amidst the four McPhearson brothers,
Alec’s head was suddenly spinning.  His brief glimpse of Scarlett had left
him feeling as if he’d just had the wind knocked out of him.  He
remembered the lovely young girl from years before, but nothing, absolutely
nothing could have prepared him for the actual, heart-stopping beauty of
Scarlett McPhearson now.  Thankfully, the arrival of the servants had kept
him from staring, mouth agape, like an absolute dolt.

Once the men had all been relieved of their outer garments,
Colin quickly ushered Alec and the rest of them into the front parlor.

“Thank heavens you arrived when you did,” Conner said with
feigned gravity, motioning toward the abandoned chessboard.  “Scarlett was
setting herself up for the kill.”

“Trouncing Conner yet again, were you,” Colin chuckled, as he
pulled Scarlett into his arms, hugging her tightly.  “We missed you,
Minx.”

“I missed you too,” she said, placing a fond kiss on Colin’s
cheek.

“You
remember my good friend
the
Duke of
Worthe
, don’t you Scarlett?” Colin asked,
pulling back.

Scarlett struggled to keep her nervousness from showing as
Colin turned her toward the duke.  Rory and Gavin offered a quick “hello
Scarlett” before making a mad dash to warm their hands before the roaring fire,
leaving Conner and Alec standing just a few feet from her and Colin.

“Of course,” Scarlett murmured, as she dipped into a polite
curtsey.  “It’s so nice to see you again, Your Grace.” 
Oh so
very, very nice to see you again,
she thought as her gaze took him in from
head to toe, or from toe to head rather, as she rose from her curtsey.  As
their eyes met, Scarlett felt as though the world had suddenly tilted on its
axis.  If possible, Alec Weston was even more handsome than she’d
remembered.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again as well,” he said
smiling.  “And please, call me Alec.  We’re old friends are we not?”

His smile nearly buckled her knees as their gazes locked and
held.  For an instant, the physical awareness between them was nearly
palpable, and then one of her brothers spoke, shattering the moment.

“Conner, how about pouring us some of the earl’s fine
brandy,” Rory called from his spot by the fire, his teasing smile directed
toward Colin.  “I’m chilled to the bone.”

“I’ll second that,” Gavin chimed in, briskly rubbing his
hands together.  “I’m near frozen myself.”

“I have to keep the expensive stock locked away,” Colin said
jokingly to Alec.  “This lot would drink me into the poor house within a
month if I didn’t,” he joked, glancing fondly at his brothers.  “Go ahead
and fetch a bottle from my study Conner.  It’s a bit early for strong
spirits, but I think we are all near frozen after that long ride from the
city.”

“At least we made it before the worst of it hit,” Gavin
added.  “It’s really starting to come down out there.” 

“It’s a good thing you weren’t delayed any further,” Conner
said jokingly as he headed for the door.  “Scarlett was just getting ready
to send out a search party.”

“Our little mother-hen was worried about us eh?” Rory
laughed, grinning mischievously at Scarlett.

Scarlett merely rolled her eyes, well-accustomed to her
brother’s good-natured teasing.

“So Alec, what brings you to Grey Oaks?” Conner asked when he
returned with the brandy a few minutes later.

“Your brothers kidnapped me,” he responded, with a sardonic
grin.

“Had to get the poor man out of that god-awful city for a
while,” Colin said affably. “Alec tends to forget that clean country air is
good for a man’s soul.”

Once Conner had distributed the drinks, they all seated
themselves upon varying pieces of furniture.  Colin and Alec took the
large wingback chairs placed on either side of the fireplace, Conner took the
upholstered seat near the window; while Rory and Gavin dropped onto the cream
and gold stripped settee, pulling Scarlett down to sit between them.

Rory placed his arm around Scarlett’s shoulder and pulled her
to his side in an affectionate squeeze.  “What have you been up to,
Minx?  Besides trouncing Conner at chess, that is?” 

Scarlett swallowed the sudden lump in her throat as all eyes
were suddenly directed her way, including Alec Weston’s.
 
Feeling the heat of his direct gaze, Scarlett
gave silent thanks for the countless hours she’d spent under her friend
Bethany’s proficient tutelage.  Though Georgie was an apt tutor in most
areas, when it came to dealings with the opposite sex, Bethany was the hands
down expert.
 
With unmitigated
enthusiasm, she had done her best to help prepare Scarlett for her upcoming
reunion with the man of her dreams. 
Drat
,
if she’d known of Alec’s impending arrival she never would have let Bethany
accompany her mother to Ireland to attend her cousin’s wedding.  But much
to her chagrin, Bethany
was
away, and in turn she was on her own. 
Despite her nervousness, she managed to answer her brother without stammering
like a simpleton.  “Nothing terribly exciting,” she admitted.

“She enjoyed the peace and quiet more than anything I’d
wager,” Gavin said with a playful wink.

“She wasn’t the only one,” Conner added with mock sincerity,
looking pointedly at the twins.

During the course of the next hour, Scarlett did her best to
converse with Alec and her brothers without showing any outward signs of her
romantic interest in their guest, despite the fact that her heart skipped a
beat every time her gaze inadvertently connected with his.  The last thing
she wanted was for her brothers to suspect that she had anything more than a
polite interest in Alec Weston.  She would never hear the end of it if
they did.

As Alec sipped his second snifter of brandy, he was still
having trouble believing that the vision before him was actually real. 
Scarlett’s natural beauty was almost too incredible to be believed, and her
hair, the long auburn curls held away from her face by a simple blue ribbon,
was the perfect complement to her stunning features.  He had seen a lot of
attractive women in his lifetime, but none that could hold a candle to
her.  He tried to remember her as she had been the last time he’d seen
her.  She had still been a child then.  Pretty enough as he recalled,
but even so, he’d never imagined that she would blossom into quite possibly the
most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  When she excused herself a short
while later, it was all he could do to keep his eyes from following her from
the room.

That night, as Scarlett dressed for dinner, she spent extra
time on her appearance.  With Tess’ help, she arranged her hair into an
artful mass of curls intertwined with sapphire ribbons that cascaded elegantly
down her back.  She chose a beautiful off the shoulder gown of deep
sapphire blue to compliment her eyes, the style simple yet elegant. 
Carefully, she attached her late mother’s diamond and sapphire earbobs to her
ears, then decided to forgo the matching necklace, leaving her neck and upper
chest bare.  The gown’s neckline was cut low enough to show off the
rounded swell of her breasts and the tightly cinched waist accentuated the
slimness of her figure.  When Tess wasn’t looking, she tugged the neckline
down a tiny bit more.  It was perfect.  Georgie might have considered
it a touch risqué, but Bethany would definitely approve.

When she entered the parlor a short time later, she found
that the men had all gathered once again and were presently laughing at
something that had just been said.  Her breath caught at the sight of Alec
standing across the room.  He was dressed in a superbly-cut black dinner
jacket, a finely embroidered waistcoat, a pristine white shirt and black
trousers.  His thick dark hair was combed and styled to perfection, his
skin was freshly shaved and a snowy white cravat was tied elegantly around his
neck.  She scarcely noticed her similarly clad brothers as she took in
every last detail of Alec’s appearance.  He turned then, noting her
entrance, his face still reflecting his laughter.  To Scarlett, he looked
like a prince from a fairytale.

Alec’s eyes widened at the sight of Scarlett, exquisite in a
sapphire-colored gown that complemented her bold coloring perfectly.

“Scarlett, join us,” Rory said, noticing her presence. 
“Conner was just telling us the funniest story.”

“Oh really, and what story was that?” she asked as she made
her way into the room, her skirt rustling softly around her legs as she moved.

Colin immediately sent his younger brother a quelling look.

“Well, um… it wasn’t actually
that
funny,” Rory
quickly back peddled, obviously realizing, albeit belatedly, that the topic of
the story might be deemed a bit racy for her ears.

Scarlett’s brows lifted in a knowing fashion. 

“That is to say…er…it wasn’t…” he stammered, glancing
helplessly about.

Gavin rolled his eyes at his twin.  “Let’s go eat!” he
said, letting his floundering brother off the hook.

Despite the presence of their guest, or perhaps because of
it, dinner was a lively and boisterous affair, even more so than usual. 
The wine flowed as easily as the conversation, and before long Scarlett was
feeling a bit tipsy.  She rarely had more than one glass of wine with dinner,
but Alec’s presence had her feeling slightly unsettled.  The additional
glasses she’d consumed were definitely helping to calm her nerves, and before
long she was feeling surprisingly at ease.  With her nervousness under
control, she decided to try out a few of her newly acquired skills. 
According to Bethany, her beauty was a powerful tool, and starting tonight she
intended to use it.