Wicked Proposition (46 page)

Elise decided she could endure the man until she
concluded her business. As it turned out, she more than endured
it.

Elise wrapped her hair into a bun and replaced
the blonde wig. Her hands shook at his insulting words and tears
formed in her eyes. She closed her eyes and pushed the pain away.
Mrs. Van Ryker was an early riser and was bound to be looking for
her. Catherine allowed Elise to dress her hair for the ball. She
saw the girl’s obvious distress. She was angry Nicholas wouldn’t
put his lusty friend in check.

Catherine was certain there was more going on
between Tieghan and the maid than she knew. Elise seemed strung so
tightly, she would break with the least little pressure. Tieghan
appeared to be more moody than normal as well.

Nicholas was right. It was not her business.
Elise did her job well and she could find no fault with her.
Catherine met her eyes in the mirror and saw the girl’s fall,
unable to hold hers. She wanted to say something, but suddenly the
girl announced she was finished.

Elise turned to see to her gown and assist her
to dress. She had painstakingly arranged her curls, pinning here
and there with crystal pins that matched the dress. She left
ringlets dangling at both sides of her face.

Catherine was smiling as Elise did up the
buttons in the back of the gown and both women sighed as she
adjusted the gown. The emerald gossamer silk was cut in an empire
style with a wide emerald ribbon sash under her breasts.

The neckline was simple and trimmed in fine,
blonde lace and intricate beading that made her feel like a
princess. The sleeves were puffed and fitted at her elbows. The
skirts were tiered panels and whispered about her legs as she
walked.

The signs of her pregnancy were disguised and
Catherine felt like a princess as she fingered the heart pendant
and met her maid’s look of approval with a squeal of delight.

Elise retrieved her mistress’s reticule, cloak
and slippers and looked relived as her mistress left to join her
husband. The maid slipped out of the room purposefully.

###

Catherine was pleased at how handsome her
husband looked when she entered the salon. He talked with his
brothers and Tieghan in low tones. They went silent when she
entered the room. The four pairs of eyes looked appreciative as she
drew near.

Catherine avoided looking at Tieghan all
together, disappointed in his uncouth behavior. He was bedding her
maid and she disapproved heartily. She wouldn’t ignore it as her
husband did. Nicholas’s breath caught in his chest at the sight of
her. Catherine looked beautiful and his heart swelled with pride.
She was pleased as she looked him over in his elegant evening
wear.

He grinned at her expression when she saw he
refused to remove his earring out of spite. He wouldn’t pretend to
be something he was not. She had given up arguing with him.

Tieghan appeared distressed at Catherine’s
obvious act of ignoring him. Nicholas smirked when his wife
returned to her room for an item she had forgotten in her
haste.

“You might wish to keep your desires for Miss
Grey confined to the bedroom from now on, Tieghan,” Nicholas
advised in amusement. “My wife is very much aware of it. Next time
you are cavorting in the hallways, make sure you are alone
first.”

Elise sat before her mistress’s dressing table
and began her own transformation, a bitter gleam in her hazel eyes.
The brown wig was flattering. Her deft use of darkening pencils
transformed her brows and eyelashes to the point where none would
attribute them at all to Miss Grey’s pale ones. Even Tieghan would
not recognize her now.

Madeline had always said with the right clothes
and a change of hair color, you could fool your own lover. She
prayed that was the case. Elise knew Tieghan would be there
guarding Catherine. She never knew exactly what Tieghan guarded her
from. He spoke so little, unless angered. He spoke a great deal of
late, and most of it was demeaning and nasty to her.

The gown was beautiful and a deep amber silk.
She had sewn it long into the night. Her skills as a seamstress
served her well. None would know she had not commissioned the
gown.

It was a necessary skill for her trade when they
were light in the pockets, and in between jobs. She and Madeline
had to fashion their own clothing often. Tolliver had always
boasted Elise was a genius with a needle and if she ever tired of
the cons they played, she could go into business for herself.

Elise refused to weep for what had become of her
adopted father and older sister. They would be avenged very soon.
She stared at the lovely brunette that looked back at her in the
mirror.

Elise donned the paste topaz jewels and nodded
at her appearance. She slipped on the matching gloves and rose,
pulling the wrapper from the back of the wardrobe door. Getting out
of the house without Tieghan there to dog her every step was easy.
The servants were playing cards in the kitchens.

They thought Miss Grey was too good to join them
and remained in her room. She took a steadying breath as she
slipped down the servants stairs, careful to make no sound as the
steps creaked under her slippers.

###

Nicholas helped his wife down outside the
elegant manor on Grosvenor Square. Every window in the house was
lit up. A crush of coaches dropped elegantly clad ladies and
gentleman outside. Catherine’s eyes light up with excitement. He
looked down at her rapt expression and smiled gently. Tieghan
looked like he was in pain and wanted to bolt.

Tieghan walked with them to the front door,
giving Nicholas a look that spoke volumes. Nicholas could see him
cringe when they stepped into the luxurious foyer.

They heard the shrill cry of delight as Lady
Billingsley approached like a glittering swan. The other nobles
lingered in the foyer. They regarded the couple and the imposing
giant with something akin to fascination.

“Captain and Mrs. Van Ryker, at last you are
here!” she exclaimed warmly as she hooked her arm with Catherine’s
and drew them forward to the cloak room. A uniformed maid took
their cloaks and her wrap. “I am so pleased you came to my little
party.”

Nicholas nearly choked with laughter at
Tieghan’s incredulous look at the huge gathering from the top of
the stairs that led to the lavish ballroom.

“And who is this fine fellow?” Lady Billingsley
inquired, her bird-like neck craning up to look at the giant
Norseman. She gave a delicate shiver as his pale eyes met hers with
a bland stare.

“He is a close friend of my husband. May I
present Jarl Tieghan Haarsgard of Norway, Lady Billingsley,”
Catherine said softly.

Catherine smiled as the woman looked up at the
man with such fervent delight, Tieghan appeared ready to run.
Catherine eyed him meaningfully and he bowed elegantly over Lady
Billingsley’s hand, making the woman titter appreciatively.

“It is all my pleasure, Lady Billingsley,”
Tieghan said very appropriately and Lady Billingsley sighed.

Her calculating blue gaze sized up the situation
and declared the evening a smash before it had even begun. She was
fairly simmering with glee at her success in snaring not only the
celebrated couple, but an impossibly interesting foreign nobleman
that would make every woman in the ballroom swoon. He looked like a
Viking with his immense size and smolderingly handsome face.

Lady Billingsley clapped her hands together and
the majordomo came forward to announce the trio. Catherine’s hand
trembled upon Nicholas’s sleeve. He met the interested stares of
the people below as they were announced.

Every neck in the room swiveled to view them and
Nicholas muttered a crudity under his breath. She smiled up at him
and he could see the warning glint in her eyes as they descended
the marble steps to the ballroom below.

Tieghan received almost as much attention as
they had. He glowered at a tittering group of colorfully dressed
fops and sent them scurrying.

Lady Billingsley led the way through the throng
of guests. Everyone stared so obviously at them that Catherine was
now gripping Nicholas’s sleeve in her distress.

Nicholas looked down at her in concern. He
looked at the crowd of people. His sky blue eyes met every gaze
until they had the grace to look away before he whispered for her
ears alone.

“You look beautiful. Do not give them another
thought,” he said and squeezed her hand in his. “They are no better
than us, I’m told.”

Catherine held her chin a notch higher at that.
She smiled up at him. He wanted to chuckle in humor at her struggle
to not appear flustered. They were introduced to several nobles
along the way to the refreshment table. Catherine was pleased her
husband and Tieghan maintained their anger as an elderly matron
looked at her like she was an insect and promptly cut her.

Catherine met Nicholas’s reassuring gaze and she
could see the devilry in his gaze. His eyes met the matrons and the
woman had the grace to flush and move away from them.

Nicholas got his wife a glass of punch and
wished for it to be over.

Tieghan gazed at them both with a pained look.
“Have you had enough yet? May we leave now? I feel like I’m
suffocating,” he albeit whined in a very non-Teighan-like manner,
his pale eyes flaring as he followed the matron with his gaze.

The woman looked like she would swoon in fear as
he glowered at her for her rudeness to Catherine. He didn’t like
these people and their petty cruelty. It was no different in his
homeland.

“We just got here, Tieghan. I am not leaving
until I have danced with my husband!” Catherine said and smiled up
at him. “And you will find a partner as well.”

Tieghan seemed to pale at her words. He looked
about the ballroom filled with elegantly clad ladies eyeing him
with something akin to hunger in their gazes. He flatly
refused.

“We will not leave until you have danced as
well, so I would find a partner amongst these fine ladies who
pleases you.”

“I see none who pleases me,” Tieghan said
defiantly and grabbed two flutes of champagne from a passing tray.
He drained one in one gulp and nursed the other as he looked about
glumly.

Nicholas grinned at Tieghan’s attitude and found
himself scanning the room for Gabriel. He knew he would be here.
Like a moth to flame, he thought darkly. He could not stay
away.

Nicholas noticed Lord Iverleigh with an
auburn-haired lady across the room. The woman hung on his every
word. Nicholas saw his former friend was healing nicely.

Nicholas longed to hit him again. He knew
Gabriel despised these things. He only showed up to see Catherine.
Nicholas didn’t trust him to keep silent until the child was born.
He would continue to push the matter until Nicholas was forced to
tell Catherine everything.

Gabriel was aware of their presence. Nicholas
met his dark eyes and saw the glimmer of amusement there. He was
acting as though he didn’t see them for the other guests benefit,
but Nicholas knew he had waited for their arrival. He conversed
with an older gentleman and a pair of ladies now. Gabriel never
failed to allow his gaze to linger upon Catherine. Nicholas
clenched his teeth, forcing his eyes away from Gabriel.

Nicholas retrieved a glass of champagne and eyed
Tieghan warningly. He noticed Thomas Sullivan now standing with the
Earl and his growing group. Tieghan eyed the brown-haired man
discreetly and nodded.

Sullivan had not noticed anything around him, so
intent on gaining the older gentleman’s favor. Nicholas knew it was
Lord Rudd he spoke to. Nicholas’s blue eyes turned murderous. The
man was not unknown to him. He had aged, but even at the distance
that separated them, Nicholas would have known him anywhere. His
knuckles turned white gripping the crystal flute.

Nicholas looked down at Catherine and was
surprised at the sudden look of recognition on her face as well.
Then it was gone and she looked away. His lips tightened. Had she
seen Gabriel or some other?

Nicholas could not be sure as she sipped her
punch and seemed unaffected. Perhaps he had been wrong in
interpreting her look.

###

Catherine felt a bit of shock when she followed
her husband’s gaze. She saw the golden-haired man from her dreams
come to life across the ballroom. He met her startled gaze with
his.

Catherine felt a magnetic pull towards him and
hurriedly looked away. Her heart began to pound and the pain in her
head grew in earnest. She sipped her punch and prayed she did not
faint.

“Catherine, are you alright? You look pale,”
Nicholas commented worriedly.

“It is a bit warm in here,” she lied and felt
those dark eyes upon her. She was shaking as the images began to
run together all at once.

Catherine knew the man she saw was a figure of
importance from her past. His gaze had met hers so knowingly she
had cringed. He knew her as intimately as her husband. The dreams
were real. The man across the ballroom had been her lover before
she had lost her memory. She felt raw from the sudden insight that
everything she experienced in those vivid dreams had once been a
reality.

She felt exposed and felt his gaze sliding over
her and quivered inside. Nicholas and Tieghan conversed between
themselves. Catherine was able to look at the golden-haired
gentleman under her lashes. He was staring at her again. A slight
smile curved his lips. His name came to her suddenly and silently.
Gabriel.

Catherine felt distress as the name repeated
itself in her head, trying to recall one detail to make him known
to her. She felt bereft to know there were none. He was just a
handsome stranger to her now. Suddenly she felt an excruciating
headache coming on without warning. She felt faint. She grabbed at
Nicholas’s sleeve and her vision righted itself.