The Temptation of a Gentleman (2 page)

As her father shifted his considerable weight from foot to foot in anticipation, the massive mahogany front door swung open. A man appeared in its shadow. Marion squinted in the afternoon sun to see him better, curious about this man who could agitate her father so.

When he stepped onto the wide, covered terrace, she was disappointed to see he was just an ordinary man. An older man, at that. At least her father’s age, but probably a handful of years older. His dark eyes were hard to read from so far away, but they were most definitely focused on her rather than his business associate. It gave Marion a strange shiver and she adjusted her lacy shawl to better cover her arms.

“
Mr. Hawthorne,” Lucas said with a thin smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You have arrived at last. And I see you’ve brought the item we discussed.”

“
Yes.” Her father’s voice suddenly grew cold. “I brought it.”

“
Well, come inside out of the heat and we’ll make a proper greeting.” Lucas motioned them through the door.

To her surprise, Marion’s father offered her his elbow. It had been years since he’d shown her anything that resembled civility. After a wary pause, she took his arm and they followed their host inside.

Mr. Lucas led them to a sitting room where tea was already laid out for them. The small party sat and a maid poured the fragrant brew.

“
Now that we are comfortable, Mr. Hawthorne, do introduce me to your charming companion,” Lucas said.

Marion shivered under the other man’s scrutiny. At closer proximity she could see his eyes were steely gray and at the moment very focused on her. His hard gaze made her uncomfortable, and she turned to look at a large painting above the mantelpiece. It was of a girl about her age. Marion wondered if this was their host’s daughter and if the young lady still remained at home. Any company would be better than that she currently shared.

“
This is my daughter, Marion Hawthorne,” her father said. “Marion, this is Josiah Lucas, a… business associate of mine.”

“
I’m very pleased to meet you.” Marion gave him the expected smile, then took another sip of her tea.

“
As I am to meet you. I must say, Walter, if you had told me just how lovely your daughter was, I would have sent for you earlier.” Lucas nodded in her direction as if she were to take the comment as a compliment. When she didn’t smile at his pretty words, his nostrils flared a bit.

Her father’s ruddy face darkened an even brighter red, but he said, “Thank you. She gets her looks from her mother.”

Marion winced at the bitter way he said the word
mother
. Fourteen years after Ingrid Hawthorne’s death, Marion’s father continued to despise her, though he’d never given Marion a reason why.

“
Well…” Her father seemed anxious to change the subject. “How are things in Woodbury, Josiah? I hear your new Marquis has not yet paid a visit to the shire.”

Lucas’s face fell. “No. The old Marquis has been dead and in the ground for six months now and yet the young man hasn’t come to Woodbury to inspect the property nor visit the tenants or the villagers. Still, we may be happy for Noah Jordan’s absence.”

“
Why is that?” Marion asked.

It wasn’t that she was particularly interested, but she’d heard a malice in her host’s voice that surprised her. Her natural curiosity made her wonder what would cause such strong emotions.

Mr. Lucas gave her another of those leering smiles. They practically dripped with lurid interest.

“
Well, my dear, if you must know, our new Marquis has something of a reputation both in London and abroad. Seems he is good with racing and women of a certain type. Those men are seldom as talented with the running of an estate. We’ll find out soon enough. He has sent word he will be arriving any day now.”

“
Perhaps we shall have the pleasure of meeting him,” Marion’s father chimed in. His face lit up at the thought of rubbing elbows with an important person in the
ton
.

“
Perhaps.” Lucas’s face transformed to one of conceit. “After all, he is interested in touring the shire and making the acquaintance of the important people who reside here. What am I, if not a vital part of Woodbury’s future? He’s already sent a letter wishing to meet with me.”

Marion stifled a yawn. Here she’d thought she was going to hear something interesting about the Marquis, something to pass her time thinking about while she spent a few dreary weeks in Woodbury. Instead all she’d learned was that the new Marquis was nothing more than a washed up rake that could most likely barely stay on a horse in his inebriated state.

How dull.

With the slight shift of his body, Noah urged his stallion faster. Phantom bounded over a hill and the rush of wind left Noah exhilarated and breathless. By the way the horse tossed his head, it seemed the animal felt the same. The old boy loved to run as much as his master.

“
Adventure, Phantom,” he murmured. “A last taste of it before we both settle down to stud.”

The horse whinnied in disapproval, but continued on. Noah turned him sharply toward another hill where Phantom could leap to his heart’s content. After they jumped a few more times over low hillocks and fences, a little lake appeared in the distance.

“
I think you’ve earned a drink,” Noah said as he slowed the animal and patted his neck. “So have I, but mine will be much stronger.”

The horse trotted to the edge of the water and Noah swung off with a sigh. All adventure had to come to an end, he supposed.

He was almost to the lake’s edge with the horse when he noticed the stump of a long-ago fallen tree a few feet away. On its flat surface a few items had been placed. He dropped Phantom’s lead and stepped to the stump. Charcoal pencils and a sketch book. He picked up the book and turned it over. On the first page was a lovely sketch of the very lake where he stood. He turned the next and found another of a place he didn’t recognize, with bluffs and the ocean rushing up wild on the rocks.

He was about to turn the next page when a woman’s voice pierced through the quiet of the afternoon.

“
You there, put that down this instant!”

Noah lowered the sketchbook and watched as a young woman came racing from the other side of the lake. She had the hem of a very pretty blue gown caught up in her hand and as she sprinted toward him, he caught a tantalizing glimpse of shapely ankle and a flash of stocking-clad calf.

She had almost reached him when she stumbled and tilted forward onto her knees on the ground. Noah moved to assist her, but she was on her feet again immediately, apparently unaware of her flushed face, locks of chestnut hair toppling around her shoulders and now-dirty skirt that flapped about her feet.

“
Are you quite all right?” Noah called out, still too stunned to truly comprehend what was going on.

“
Put that down this instant!” she repeated as she stormed up to him, past him and approached his horse.

Phantom was a big animal. Black as night and intimidating as hell. The girl did not seem impressed as she slapped him gently across the nose.

“
Give it back!”

Noah rushed over to her and stared. “What in the world are you doing, young lady?”

She glared at him. “Are you daft as well as blind? Your horse is
eating
my pencils!”

Noah blinked as he turned toward Phantom. Indeed, the last remnants of a charcoal pencil clung to his fat lower lip. And there were no signs of the other three that had once sat on the tree trunk.

“
Good Lord,” he said as he caught the rein and backed the horse away from his chosen snack. Not that it would do any good now. The damage was most certainly done.

“
And while we’re at it,” the young woman said and she reached out and snatched the sketch book from his arms. She clutched it against her chest. “I hope you didn’t intend for this to be his second course.”

Noah couldn’t help it. He laughed. And to his surprise, the young woman’s face relaxed a fraction.

“
I do apologize Miss…?”

“
Marion Hawthorne.” She wiped a grass stain from her hand onto her dirty skirt and held it out to him. From the angle it was obvious she expected him to shake it.

Confused, Noah did so.

“
Miss Hawthorne,” he repeated. “I wasn’t paying attention to my horse. Even if I had, I’ve never known him to snack on pencils, so I will be more careful in the future. My only excuse is that Phantom and I rarely get to run freely and perhaps we were both taken in by the rare experience. I shall certainly make amends for the loss of your pencils if you tell me where you live. I’m afraid I haven’t visited this place for many a year now and don’t know all the folk who reside here.”

Miss Hawthorne’s face became solemn as the outrage faded from her eyes. “I accept your apology since I know what it’s like to be kept under tight rein. But I don’t live here. My father and I are staying with Mr. Lucas at Toppleton Square a few miles away.”

“
With Mr.
Josiah
Lucas?” he asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone. Suddenly this chance meeting had turned into something much more.

Miss Hawthorne blinked once with what could only be described as a condescending smile. “Is there another Mr. Lucas and another Toppleton Square in Woodbury?”

Noah arched an eyebrow. Touché.

It had been a long time since he’d met someone who could match his wit, and a woman especially. The lass was a spitfire. Now that he’d had a good look at her, an extremely beautiful spitfire. Her skin was a warm peach color, her cheeks darkened by just a hint of pink from the exertion of her run. The sun glistened off her chestnut hair, casting flashes of gold in the tangled locks when she turned her head at certain angles.

As if she sensed his appraising glance, she raised one slender hand to vainly push her locks to the right place. Immediately they fell back into disarray.

“
Is there?” she repeated.

Noah shook his head, brought back to the present with her laughter-filled question. “Is there…?”

“
Another Josiah Lucas in Woodbury?”

A half-smile tilted Noah’s lips. “No, I believe there is only one. And if you’ll allow me, Phantom and I will escort you back to Toppleton Square with our apologies yet again for the horse’s bad behavior.”

She eyed him with mistrust. “The horse I have no quarrel with.”

She walked to Phantom’s side. Immediately the old boy lifted his head from where he grazed and nuzzled her neck. She rubbed her hand along the entire length of the animal’s nose and whispered, “Apology accepted, my fine boy.”

With a nicker, Phantom edged a little closer. Not that Noah blamed him. If she touched
him
like that he might just fall under her spell, as well. Her delicate hands looked like they could hold a man captive for hours, playing along his skin as easily as they played a pianoforte.

Noah started. Was it not only a week before when he’d stood in Charlotte Ives’ sitting room and told her he wouldn’t play the rake during his time in Woodbury? And now he stood a few feet from a young woman he’d just met and already he was concocting ways to have a tumble with her.

Suddenly she turned away from the horse. “Yes, the animal I trust. But you, sir, have no name as of yet, and I have been told never to take walks with strangers.”

He bowed low. “My apologies, Miss Hawthorne, I’ve forgotten my manners. I was surprised to find you here since this lake is little known in the shire. And I was also taken aback by the skill in your drawings.”

She blinked. “You liked my work?”

He nodded. “Immensely. You are very good.” She flushed and he shifted with a sudden discomfort. She was really very pretty. “Er, at any rate, my name is Noah Jordan, Earl of…” He shut his eyes with a quiet curse at his slip of the tongue. “My apologies, the Marquis of Woodbury.”

Miss Hawthorne’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open. “
You
are the Marquis?”

He couldn’t help a grin at her utter shock. “You sound as though you’ve heard of me.”

“
Who hasn’t?” she said with a laugh. “Even a visitor such as myself has heard about the escapades of the rakish Lord Woodbury.”

His smile fell as did his spirits. In the end, it always came down to this. “Ah, my reputation.”

For a moment, she only stared at him with her head cocked and little curls tumbling down one shoulder in a most tantalizing fashion. But even still, there was something serious about her expression. Like she was sizing him up and he was desperate to know what conclusion she had reached.