With His Ring (Brides of Bath Book 2) (3 page)

He shook his head, impish doubt on his
beguiling face. "Is that a problem?"

"Of course not," she reassured. "George will
be utterly delighted to have you here, and I confess I, too, am
glad of the company."

He fell into step beside her. "Devilishly
cold, is it not?"

"Indeed it is," she managed.

He began to remove his many-layered woolen
coat and drape it across her shoulders. "Can't have your lovely
teeth chattering."

She looked up at his darkly handsome face as
he was looking down at her. The tip of her head barely came to his
shoulders. She felt utterly feminine. "I cannot take your coat, Mr.
Blankenship."

There it was. His bone-melting grin. She
could swoon. "Mr. Blankenship?" he asked with mock indignation.
"Since when did you decide to stop calling me Blanks?"

"You addressed me as Miss Pembroke, first,
then there is the fact you
are
the head of your family now,
and neither of us are children any longer." There! Let him think on
that.

He took her hand, patted it and tucked it
into the crook of his arm. Suddenly she was no longer cold, but
warm and as content as a kitten in the sunshine.

"I must confess," she said, "I do prefer
calling you Blanks."

"And I prefer to remember you as that
charming little sister who snuck away from the schoolroom to follow
George and me about in the wood." He let out a little chuckle. "Are
you still afraid of frogs?"

Of course she was, but she was not about to
admit it. "I'm not a silly child anymore," she said haughtily.

"How could I forget? The ravishing Miss
Pembroke, Belle of Bath. Pray that your rejected suitors do not do
in themselves."

He had noticed her success! This was very
good. She still reveled from his compliment on her teeth and his
gesture of shedding his own coat for her comfort. "While I'm
languishing on the shelf, another younger lady will be sure to
supplant me." This was good. Let him think of her as old enough to
be on the shelf.

A hardy laugh broke from deep within his
powerful chest. "I would hardly say you're on the shelf."

This was not at all what she wanted. "I
suppose I'll have to take a husband next season whether I love him
or not. I wish to be a married lady with a home of my own."

He stroked her arm. "Your prince will come.
Give him time. After all you're not yet twenty."

So he remembered her age. This, too, was
good. "I cannot tell you how wonderful it will be to have your
company at Hornsby Manor. It's been dreadfully dull here. As you
know, George and Diana are so perfectly besotted over each other,
they make for most tedious company. You must promise to be my
partner for whist tonight."

"You now play whist?"

She scowled again. "I will have you know I
can beat George half the time."

"Then I will be happy to be your
partner."

They walked along the gravel path that would
place them at the front door of the manor house in less than a
moment's time, and Glee slowed her steps to keep Blanks with her
longer. "What brings you to Hornsby Manor?" She looked up into his
manly face, admiring his dark flashing eyes. For once, he was not
smiling.

"I've had some rather bad news."

Her brows plunged. "No!" First, his father's
death. Now. . . what?

"It seems my financial expectations are not
to be fulfilled. I need advice from George on how to live within
reduced circumstances."

"Are you saying your father squandered away
his fortune as our father did?"

"No, nothing like that. He apparently feared
I
would squander away his fortune."

"Then he left it to your younger brother?"
she asked, her voice incredulous.

He nodded solemnly. "He did, indeed. Or
close to it. His will stipulated that if I was not wed by my
twenty-fifth birthday, the money and lands would go to
Jonathan."

"Your twenty-fifth birthday is in June, is
it not?"

"The sixteenth day of June."

"Then you'll simply have to marry by then."
Her heart somersaulted. He was here surely for a few days. No other
woman could get her clutches into him. Oh, she had her work cut out
for her!

* * *

Keeping her mind on the card game proved
difficult when Glee felt the solidness of Blanks' knee briefly
touching hers under the table. An overwhelming envy of his current
mistress seized her. What would it be like to lie with him? To have
his long brown body stretched out beside her? She could picture his
muscled torso, firm and strong. She could imagine trailing her
fingers through a mass of hair on his rippled chest, for she
instinctively knew dark hair would mat there. She ached to feel his
arms come around her, pulling her into him. She grew hot and
throbbed low in her belly. She longed to feel his firm mouth
settling over her own. When he looked up and met her gaze, her face
flushed.

It was terribly difficult to concentrate on
her cards. His solemn face proved far more enticing. When he
studied his cards, she studied him. She couldn't remember Blanks
without that devastating smile of his revealing perfectly even,
chalk white teeth. When he grinned, a dimple pinched his smooth
brown cheek on one side only. But now as she watched him, he seemed
somber, his jaw tightening, his mouth firm. She watched the
flickering candlelight play with his closely cropped, slightly
curly mahogany brown hair. Brows in the identical shade of brown
hooded eyes the color of deep amber. His dark lashes lifted, and he
shot her his familiar heart-stopping smile. Like an image
reflecting off the pond, she instantly returned the smile.

She forced herself to keep her mind on the
game. After all, she had to convince him she was mature and
intelligent, to purge his mind of memories of a childish Glee. She
counted trumps diligently. She defended her hand cunningly. She bid
intelligently.

And she and Blanks won the first rubber.
With his devastating grin dimpling his bronzed skin, he met her
gaze. "It seems our Glee has grown up to be an admirable whist
player."

Our Glee
. Could she dare hope? She
only smiled demurely and concentrated on the next hand. At least
she gave the appearance of concentrating. Men did not desire to
share their lives with talkative misses. And the only person in the
world she wanted to share her life with faced her across the table.
She dare not appear to be a talkative miss.

"She's a devilishly good whist player,"
George snapped. "I wish I could be smarter than one of my sisters.
Daresay they're wise because they've always got their heads in a
book."

"You're very wise," Diana assured her
husband. "I doubt that Felicity or Glee could have turned the
estate around as you have." Diana gave Glee an embarrassed look. "I
mean no offense, dear sister."

"You only spoke the truth," Glee said.

"A good thing Diana forbid me to wager on
the game," George said.

"Speaking of wagers, Blanks," Glee said,
"you owe me a sovereign."

"Why?"

"Because I wagered that Jason Pope would
marry before the year was out, and you insisted he would never be.
. .
shackled
. I know it's terribly difficult for you to admit
you were wrong."

His eyes hard and cold, Gregory tossed her a
sovereign, still incapable of admitting he had been mistaken.

Glee turned back to her brother. "Shame on
you for saying Diana forbid you to wager. "I daresay my sister is
not so forceful as to forbid you anything."

"She has merely fooled you," George said.
"My wife commands most sweetly."

"And George jumps happily through her
hoops," Blanks declared.

George laughed. "You wait, my friend. Before
the year is out I expect to find you shackled."

Diana's lovely face went solemn.
"Shackled?"

Glee watched as George set his hand on his
wife's, stroking it tenderly. "For Blanks, it's shackled. For me,
it's heaven."

How Glee envied the love that bound her
brother and Diana as eternally as the tide. She was almost
embarrassed as Diana pursed her elegant lips and sent a kiss across
the table at her beloved.

It was apparently more than Blanks could
stand. "Who's bid?" he asked.

"I think it's yours, pet," George said to
Glee. He never called his wife
pet
. She was always
my
love
.

They played in relative silence, with Glee
and Blanks winning the next rubber before the foursome retired for
the night.

* * *

Sleep eluded Gregory. The solution to his
dilemma had seemed so obvious to everyone. To Willowby. To Glee.
And to George. Only Gregory knew how useless it was for him to
contemplate marriage. He had long ago vowed to never marry. All of
his sexual intimacies had been conducted with experienced women who
knew how to prevent pregnancy. He had no desire to impregnate a
woman he valued and loved to lose her in childbed as he had lost
his mother.

He had grown to hate his father for his
mother's death and forcing an uncaring step-mother on him. Aurora
had always despised Gregory for usurping her precious Jonathan from
their father's vast fortune.

And now she had won. The fortune would be
Jonathan's.

* * *

Sleep was the last thing Glee wanted. This
all-encompassing love she felt for Blanks demanded contemplation.
She could almost curse him for disrupting her heretofore placid
existence, yet the sweet rapture of her love was intoxicating. It
seemed her entire nineteen years had been but a prelude for this.
This
. This brink of fulfillment. This delicious arousal.
This yearning to intertwine her life with his.

If only she knew more about him. Then she
could commence on her plan to snag his heart. But he guarded his
feelings as securely as a vault. That smile she had come to love so
dearly was but a mask. Even his extravagant pranks and excessive
living must conceal a man of deep feeling. If only she could
penetrate the armor he had erected around his heart.

She bolted upright in her bed. How foolish
she had been to expect to win his love! Never would that be freely
given. No, she must not even try. He obviously feared such a
commitment. What he needed now was a wife, not a love. For he was
not ready for love. She must learn to take her happiness in feeble
increments. First, she would have to convince him to marry her.

A marriage in name only.

Like a general with a battle plan, she would
conquer his heart later.

One thing seemed clear. He had no desire to
marry, even if it meant forfeiting his fortune. What was there
about the state of marriage that could repulse him so?

Chapter 3

Only Blanks was in the breakfast parlor when
Glee came down the following morning. George had persisted in
coddling Diana since her confinement and insisted she take
breakfast in bed. It was just as well. Glee intended to hoard
Blank's company. Her heart did an odd flip when she stole a glance
at him sitting at the walnut table, stirring his tea unconsciously
while gazing out the window. Smoky half-moons rested under his
eyes, and he seemed not at all the Blanks he carefully revealed to
the world.

But when he heard her footfall and turned to
face her with his dazzling smile, she felt the deception of his
persona. "Good morning," she said, shooting him a smile she did not
feel and pouring hot coffee from a sterling urn on the sideboard.
He sprang to his feet as she walked toward the table, and he began
to pull out the chair on his immediate left.

Yesterday's voluptuous clouds had reneged on
their promises of rain, and the warm sun now revealed itself for
the first time in days. "A good day for a ride," she said.

"But I thought you were terrified of
horses."

She sighed. "My dear Mr. Blankenship---"

"Blanks." His eyes glittered.

She ignored him. "Must I continually remind
you I am no longer that child you persist in remembering me
as?"

His slow, sensuous grin dissolved her. "Are
you not still waiting for your prince?"

"The past two seasons, yes, but I assure you
I no longer harbor such childish illusions."

"A pity," he said with a bit of moroseness,
his warm chestnut eyes studying hers.

She selected a scone from beneath the
covered salver on the table. "I admit being surrounded by the
boundless love of George and Diana and Felicity and Thomas is a bit
daunting. I suppose being party to such devotion would be pleasant,
but I cannot aspire to such."

His brows lifted. "So jaded at
nineteen?"

She placed her scone on the dish and
directed an icy glance at the man she loved. "I am not a child,
Mister
Blankenship, but a woman with realistic
expectations."

"Somehow I miss the girl who believed in
happy endings."

His words cut through her like a rapier. She
did so believe in love and happy endings, but she knew Blanks
wanted no part of them. She had to convince him she shared his
abhorrence of being shackled. Only then could she cultivate his
love.

"Please say that you'll ride with me this
morning," she said, looking up at him with hopeful eyes.

"It will be my pleasure."

After breakfast, she took great pains with
her toilet. With help from Patty, her abigail, Glee donned her
emerald green riding habit. Emerald was most definitely her best
color. A good match for her eyes. For years she had lamented that
she was not blonde with periwinkle eyes like her sister Felicity.
But after two seasons of unequaled success, Glee had discovered
that her auburn hair and ivory skin were as appreciated as her
sister's blonde fairness.

She hoped her success had nothing to do with
the fine wardrobe she had been able to acquire since Felicity had
married a man with the means to restore to them the lifestyle of a
viscount's family. How she had detested wearing Felicity's
well-worn hand-me-downs and having no funds for abigails or
slippers without holes. Most of all she had hated having no money
for subscriptions to the lending libraries. Now, thank heavens, she
was able to read whatever she liked whenever she liked. At least
when she was in Bath.