Three Times the Scandal (13 page)

A week, thought Fortuna. Had he already put a time limit on her stay? Perhaps he thought the deception wouldn’t survive any longer.

“
I’ll have him choose something simple, that you’ll have no trouble with,” said Giles.

* * * * *

Twenty minutes until dinner, and Giles stood with his brow pressed to the cold glass of the cheval mirror in his dressing room. Damnit if things weren’t getting out of hand. He’d felt like a raging bull most of the day and had taken himself out of the house for that very reason. Now, after the encounter in the garden, he felt possessive as well as aroused. Sharing her affections with the twins hadn’t been on the agenda. Still— and he shook his head to think of it—how could he deny her, when excitement at the prospect had shone in her face, and the change it had made in the way she kissed... Well, that had damn near undone him.

He couldn’t let her awakening interests consume him entirely, though. There were other issues to think over. Sir Hector Macleane for example. According to Darleston and the gossip mill, Macleane had spent almost the entirety of the last two days at the Allenthorpes’s house. Surely, he wasn’t expecting Fortuna to turn up
virago intacta
and marry him. It didn’t make sense. Macleane’s views on women, virtue and marriage were well known. His previous two brides had both been girls fresh from the convent. Both French too. Neither had survived eighteen months of marriage with him, one succumbing to the ague, and the other to some wasting sickness. “What are you after, you overstuffed prick?” he wondered aloud. “Why are you so set upon her?”

“
Were you asking me something, sir?” Leach bustled into the room carrying a pile of starched neck cloths. He handed the topmost one to Giles and placed the remainder on a nearby stool.

Giles eyed the crisp white linen a moment then began to wind it around his throat. Darleston had passed on Lucy’s threats to expose Fortuna whereabouts. He’d always known she was a bitter, jealous scold, but he’d never pegged her as being quite this vindictive before. Damn, the woman to some Catholic vision of hell.

What was going on? When he’d offered to look out for Fortuna on the snowy terrace it had all seemed astoundingly simple. They disappeared into the moonlight. She escaped an unwanted marriage and he had some fun with a lady instead of a trollop for a change.

Having botched the knot of his cravat, Giles thrust the crumpled fabric aside and reached for another.

“
You seem a little unsettled, sir,” Leach observed.

“
Just get over here and fasten this damn thing will you?”

Leach obeyed, and then helped Giles into his evening coat. “I believe the lady is already waiting, sir. There wasn’t much to choose from that she could get into herself. Ladies need a maid.”

Giles batted him away. Excellent! They’d sit down to a nice civilized dinner together and he’d keep his damnable thoughts of stripping her naked under control until they’d finished the meal.

She was awaiting him at the top of the stairs.

Giles glimpsed her and darn near fainted. All the heat he’d felt moments ago drained from his body. How could he have made such a stupid mistake? He should have picked something out for her to wear, not left it to Leach.

The dress was a simple slender column of the palest turquoise. It sheathed her lithe body to perfection, just as it had sheathed another’s not so long ago. She was beautiful, radiant, but his desire for her was abruptly rerouted.

Stupid, so very stupid!

He should have burned that dress, rendered it into ashes. Emily had worn it the night he’d forced her compliance. The night he’d irredeemably disgraced himself. He’d been an abysmal brother, forcing her into that marriage, and it had all been for nothing in the end. At the time it had been so easy to blame his father, but really, he was the one who’d sold his sister to keep the roof over his head.

* * * * *

Fortuna felt like a water nymph in her slender high-waisted gown and delicate white lace shawl. They were two of the most beautiful things she’d ever worn. Giles’s family clearly had money, despite the lack of servants in his household, or at least more money than the Allenthorpes, who while they could trace their line back to the Norman Conquest, had to rely on their shipping interests to maintain their status.

Giles bowed to her, and held her chair so that she could sit. He had dressed in a dark blue coat with matching breeches, and a waistcoat of cream silk brocade. How she wanted to reach out and touch it. Stroke her fingers over the satiny fabric, and feel the heat of his body radiating through it. His cravat was slightly crooked, but when she reached out to correct it, he backed away.

It didn’t take long to realize something was amiss.

At the dinner table, Giles was equally taciturn and it was a struggle to maintain any sort of conversation.

“
I’m sorry,” she said, stirring the food around her plate, after ten minutes of monosyllabic grunts from him in response to her conversation. “I thought... Well, you seemed so relaxed with it, so that I thought you didn’t mind. I didn’t realize. You see, I wanted him to kiss me.” She was explaining badly, but was there a better way? This really was beyond her experience.

Giles paused mid-bite to look at her. Slowly, he lowered his fork and set it down upon the plate. “What are you talking about?”

“
Neddy,” she said. “You’re angry with me because of what happened.”

His brow furrowed. “Whatever makes you think that?”

“
You’re scowling at me.”

“
Oh!” His expression softened slightly, but the hard sheen remained in his eyes. Giles clasped his wine glass and took a deep draft. “No, no, it’s not over that. I’m not jealous over what happened in the garden. It’s something else.”

Something else. Heavens, what had she done?

He took another swig of wine, and gestured for her to do the same. Fortuna turned the glass, within her palm, but barely wetted her lips with the ruby liquid.

“
I’m not jealous, or hurt.” The force of his words seemed to suggest otherwise. Truly. I believe in free love, Fortuna. I’ve explained that. I am hardly going to become upset because you allowed another man to kiss you. That’s your decision to make. I’m all for expression without shackles.”

“
It doesn’t make you feel even a tiny bit jealous that I might be imagining him naked, and not you?” she asked. His definition of what constituted free love, seemed to change with the moment. Yesterday it had been all about marriage. Today, jealousy seemed to be the issue. How exactly did taking multiple persons to bed at the same time fit into his agenda?

“
I was rather under the impression that you were thinking of us both. Which of course, is fine. It’s equally fine even if you were just thinking of Neddy. You’re free to love whomever you wish, and there’s nothing to stop you showing affection for more than one person at a time.”

Fortuna chewed a forkful of meat. He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as her. “Have you shared with Neddy before?” she asked.

Giles gouged his lower lip with his teeth. “Yes. Once or twice.”

“
And with Lord Darleston?”

“
Yes, with him too. But don’t let your thoughts wander in that direction. Lucy is already making threats. She doesn’t love him any more than he loves her, but she’s using the knowledge that you’re here to manipulate him. She’ll keep quiet providing he has nothing to do with you.”

“
Is that why he was horrid in the garden?”

“
Possibly.”

“
He propositioned me just after we arrived back from the ball.”

Giles nodded as if unsurprised by this revelation. “Evidently you didn’t bite, as we’re still enjoying a peaceful dinner.”

“
No,” she raised her head and met his gaze, “because I suspect he does bite. He scares me.”

Giles snatched up his napkin and dabbed his mouth. “You’re scared of Darleston after having braved Pennerley? I think you have that backwards, although Robert’s tastes do run in some curious directions.”

“
Perhaps it’s because I’ve experienced Pennerley,” she replied.

Their eyes locked and she felt some sort of shift in their understanding of one another. Giles turned away first. He drew his timepiece from his waistcoat pocket and rubbed the silver casing against the leg of his breeches.

“
Tell me one thing, Fortuna. Did you go willingly to Pennerley’s bed?”

Tremulously, she inclined her head. “I foolishly sought him out. I don’t know what I expected. That I’d be the one woman to transform his black heart, I suppose. He seems so free, Giles. So unconstrained. But he’s not really, is he?”

“
He’s a rule unto himself. I won’t even attempt to dissect his anatomy. I don’t think you were foolish though. It’s not foolish to pursue something you desire. I just think you sought the wrong thing of the wrong man.” He rose and came to squat beside her chair. Fortuna turned towards him and settled her hands upon her lap. When he said no more, she reached out to trace the smooth bit of skin beside his ear.

Giles flinched. He scuttled backwards, careening into another chair. “Oh, God, Fortuna.” He covered his eyes. “Dammit. Take it off. Take that damn dress off.”

“
What?” Fortuna lurched onto her feet.

A nervous tick played in the side of Giles’s jaw. The tendons in his neck stood out, visible even below the line of his cravat. He continued to shield his eyes, and refused to look at her. “You’ve a chemise on, haven’t you?”

“
But this dress is beautiful.” Not to mention that she wasn’t used to being asked to strip at dinner. She looked down at the wash of pale blue-green silk in confusion and dismay.

“
Fortuna, please. I can’t stand it. It may seem irrational to you, but I need you to do this. The alternative is that I leave you to dine alone.”

The request was highly irregular, but his face was so contorted with pain, she hastily plucked at the ribbons and pins, and having drawn her arms out of the short sleeves, let the watery silk slither to the floor.

Feeling distinctly under dressed, in her plain chemise and half-stays, Fortuna resumed her seat.

“
You look much better now.” Relief swam in his eyes and softened all the creases in his brow.

Fortuna dipped her chin and kept her gaze upon her plate. She stared at the food, but her appetite had shrivelled. “I look like a whore,” she mouthed.

Giles crouched beside her again. He picked up the gown in a pincer-grip and cast it out of sight under the far end of the table. “You most certainly do not. I’m sorry about that. I should have picked something out myself instead of leaving it to Leach, but in truth I’ve been rather more preoccupied with what I’d be unveiling tonight, than what I was fastening you into.”

She bit her lip. “I don’t understand.”

“
There are too many memories tied up in the weft of that gown. Bad—painful memories. I’ll call Leach and have him bring you another.”

“
No.” She reached out towards him. “I’m fine. I’d rather sit here in my chemise than have Leach see me half-dressed.” She pushed her plate away. “I don’t want anything more to eat, anyway.”

Giles gently touched her cheek. “Me neither.” His touch slid down to her shoulder, where his thumb stroked back and forth along her collarbone. “That dress belonged to my sister. It was once her favourite.”

Giles’s hand began to tremble. He rested his palm more firmly against her shoulder, but she could still feel the tremors running up his arm. Old pain swam in the depths of his eyes, grief still too raw to properly talk about. She sensed it seething, gnawing away at his heart.

“
How long?”

“
Last spring,” he replied. “She was supposed to have a child.”

Fortuna tugged him firmly towards her, and cradled his head in her lap. As she stroked her fingers through the soft brown waves of his hair, she realized that in that respect she’d been lucky. She’d never lost anybody close to her, not even a sibling as a babe. She couldn’t really comprehend the pain, how it would feel to no longer have Gabriel, Alicia or Mae in her life, or one of her other sisters.

“
Do you want to tell me about her?”

Giles raised and then shook his head. “Let’s do something less maudlin.” With a shake, he cast off his mood. “How would you like to spend the rest of the evening?”

“
In bed,” she said, and shocked by her own boldness, clamped her fingers over her mouth. How had that escaped? What a dreadful thing to admit.

“
My bed?” Giles teased. “Or are you still captivated by the thought of Neddy?”

“
Yours,” she whispered through her fingers. “I want you to kiss me all over.”

“
Kiss you, eh? You do realize you’re making that rather difficult.” He teased her fingers away from her mouth.

Fortuna’s pulse raced, and her breath emerged as a gasp.

“
Like this?” he asked. His tongue wetted her skin, tickled as it traversed the pulse point in her neck. Fortuna clove to his upper body as her body warmed to his touch. “Tell me where you want to feel my caress.”

“
Upon my nipples.”

Giles’s palm covered one breast so that the surface brushed roughly over the nipple. A dart of pleasure shot to her sex in response. Fortuna groaned and pushed herself more firmly against him.