A Marquis for Mary (5 page)

Crispin hesitated as he stared down at Gemma. Then he nodded. “No, it is not my story any longer, you are right.
You
are my story.” He glanced at Edward and his expression was a fraction gentler. “Take your time, Woodley. But know I am just on the other side of that door.”

Edward looked as surprised by their acquiescence as Mary felt, but he nodded as Gemma and Crispin left the room. Gemma even closed the door behind her to give them privacy.

Mary stared at the now-shut barrier. They were well and truly alone. And she felt so incredibly awkward at that fact since she had truly no idea how Edward felt or what he thought or even if he blamed her for what had happened.

Of course, there was only one way to find out. She lifted her chin and looked at him. “I can only imagine what you think of me at present.”

His brow wrinkled. “What I think of
you
?”

She shrugged, determined to remain strong even though her insides quaked uncontrollably. “Yes. I allowed you some liberties like the worst wanton, then my father comes along and entraps you, forcing your hand.”

“You believe I blame you for my own lack of control and the mercenary qualities of your father?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know. I think no one would blame you or your family if you did.”

He sighed. “Mary, my family is slightly confused by this news, yes. After all, I left the house with my sister as a single man being harangued to wed. I came home engaged under trying circumstances. But neither they, nor I, judge you for my own lack of control or the circumstances that followed.”

“But the scandal—” she began.

He barked out a pained laugh. “I have created worse for them, my dear. And I think that is what you truly want to know, isn’t it? You asked Flynn about our shared past?”

Suddenly Mary’s lips felt very dry and she found herself nodding far too slowly. “Yes,” she whispered.

“My understanding is that before your sister’s marriage, you were out in Society but not necessarily in the highest echelons of the
ton
. Do you know that I was married before?”

She tilted her head. “I—no. I admit I know very little about you.”

His smile was tight and small. “That will soon change. Yes, I was married. I am a widower.”

Mary searched his face for his feelings on the subject, but his expression was curiously flat and unreadable. “How long ago did you lose her?”

“A little more than three years,” he said, his tone softer.

She moved toward him, cautiously feeling out his response. “I am sorry, Edward. It must have been difficult for you.”

“She was a suicide,” he said, his tone still flat. “Though very few people know that fact thanks to my silence and the machinations of her family.”

Mary drew back in horror. “A-a suicide!”

He nodded. “She threw herself down the stairs at my London home. And she killed my unborn child in the process.”

Mary couldn’t help herself—she reached for him, setting her hand on his. “Oh, Edward!”

He stared at their intertwined fingers but didn’t move away. “What you must understand, Mary, is that my wife was not a good person. She was manipulative and cruel. Even her death was her way to lash out at me. And she used Flynn to that end as well.”

Mary stared. “Crispin? I—what do you mean?”

“Even before we were wed, Alice, my wife, toyed with him. She let him believe she loved him and attempted to make him her lover even after we were married. He was her tool against me, just as the unborn baby was. Just as her attempt at suicide was. Her writings just before her death made it clear she didn’t mean to actually succeed, only to make me miserable.”

Mary drew away as his words, all these ugly words and stories, sank into her. “Could someone truly be so…so evil?”

“Evil. That is the word for it. Yes. You may ask Flynn, he knows the truth as painfully as I do. Alice’s lies very nearly killed him for a long time. It was only your sister who saved him.”

Mary nodded. “When they were first forced to wed, I know he was troubled, but I had no idea the cause. He and Gemma are so very happy now.”

He pressed his lips together and his tone was bitter. “I had no one like your sister to save me. I retreated after Alice’s death. I hid from her family’s hatred and my own family’s attempts at solace because I didn’t want to burden them with the whole truth.”

“So they don’t know?” Mary said in surprise.

“I told my man of affairs the truth, but not my family,” he said, his eyes growing sad. “Shutting them out had consequences because they didn’t understand the cause of my grief. I was so lost in betrayal and anger that I couldn’t be there to protect my sister. Not Audrey—the older of the two, Claire. She ran away with a charlatan over a year ago and hasn’t been seen since. I know they blame me for that. My relationship with my two brothers is strained. I am a broken, ugly man, Mary.
That
is the truth of my past. And now you know it and why it is true. The question is, does it change what you think of me?”

Edward held his breath as he awaited Mary’s answer to his question. He knew his voice sounded reasonably calm. After so many years living with his past, he had found ways to control his emotional response to it. But inside, he was desperate.

Mary stared at him, her eyes wide and filled with tears, her lip quivering with emotion. But he couldn’t tell how much of what she felt was empathy for him versus anguish for herself that she had become entrapped in such madness merely because he could not control himself.

She cleared her throat. “It
does
change what I think of you, of course,” she said softly.

He dipped his head. “I understand your feelings. I don’t know how we will manage to escape this trap your father has placed us in, but I’m sure Flynn and your sister will help us. He, after all, cannot be any happier about this potential union than you now are.”

She moved forward, her lips parted, as he spoke. “Edward—Edward, please stop.” He ceased speaking at once, pinching his lips together, and waited for her to continue. “When I say my thoughts about you have changed, I do not mean I think less of you. I certainly don’t mean that I won’t marry you as we agreed.”

“No?” The word was said softly because he could hardly speak at all.

Her shaking hand lifted to gently caress his cheek. It took all his self-control to force himself to listen to her next words rather than simply melt into that warm and welcoming touch.

“No,” she whispered. “I admit, I’m shocked to hear about your past, both with your wife and what you have shared with my brother-in-law, but it has obviously given you strength rather than weakened you. I admire that you have handled your wife’s cruelty and betrayal with such calm. It must have hurt you terribly.”

Edward hesitated. So many people close to him had said something similar in the face of grief they couldn’t fully grasp. He had always put them off with false smiles and platitudes. But now, staring down into the green-gray of this woman’s bright eyes, he couldn’t do that. He jerked out a nod.

“What she did broke everything in me, heart and soul,” he croaked.

She made a sound of pain in her throat and stroked those soft fingers across his cheek. “Of course it did. But Edward, I want you to know, I am not like
that woman
. Not at all. I would never manipulate you. I would never lie to you or betray you. I would certainly never make a purposeful attempt to hurt you. If we marry…
when
we marry…I will be a good wife to you.”

He stared at her. His confession had been for the purpose of allowing her understanding of his past. It was meant to cut off the possibility that someone else would whisper a twisted version of the tale to her and make her fear or hate him. He had never expected it to elicit a vow of fidelity from Mary.

But hearing it, seeing the earnestness in her eyes as she spoke it…a small part of his heart, a part he had thought long ago murdered by Alice and her lies…sprung back to life.

“I believe you,” he whispered, and was rewarded by her beautiful smile again. “And I vow the same to you. This may not be a beginning we expected, Mary, but our life together could be,
will
be, as happy as I can make it.”

She lifted her other hand and cupped his face gently. “Edward,” she whispered, her voice filled with a need he recognized and mirrored.

“Mary,” he returned before he lowered his mouth to hers.

She tasted just as sweet as she had in the garden a few hours before and her moan of surrender was just as wanton and wonderful. Her arms slid around his neck and she lifted against him, as if she couldn’t get close enough. He cupped the back of her head with one hand, angling for access, and molded her closer with the other. His erection throbbed, begging him to strip away both her propriety and his own and claim what was his. Now.

Instead, he forced himself to disengage from her, stepping back with a groan.

“If we do not stop this, we will be in much bigger trouble than we already are,” he murmured.

Mary was breathing heavily. “I think I’d like to get into trouble.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face with another moan. “Great God, the things you say and do to me. But if Flynn catches me with you in my arms, I fear you will not have a bridegroom.”

She stepped closer, a wicked light in her eyes. “Isn’t it a risk you’re willing to take?”

He was about to grasp her hand, drag her against him a second time when there was a light knock at the door. It opened to reveal Gemma, this time without the baby in tow, and an anxious-looking Crispin. As they entered, Mary sent Edward a sidelong glance and laughed.

And with that one light sound, all his doubts about their future, all his worries about what would happen next fled. He might not have chosen this, but looking at Mary he could see that she was the very best thing for him. Her light and her innocence already brightened his day. And he would get to hold her close forever.

“I hope you have explained as best you could,” Flynn said, shooting a brief and somewhat worried glance at Mary.

She smiled and moved toward her brother-in-law, her expression toward him as gentle and understanding as it had been toward Edward. “I’m so sorry for what you went through,” she said softly. “Both of you.” She glanced back at Edward over her shoulder, temptation without even meaning to be. “But I hope you two will try to put the past behind you. We are all going to be family soon.”

Edward tensed. He hadn’t fully thought that part through, actually. He would be family with Crispin Flynn, a man he had at times hated, occasionally blamed, sometimes felt sorry for and ultimately envied. The two men locked eyes and he could see Flynn’s discomfort mirrored his own.

Slowly, Edward stepped forward and extended his hand. “Shall we let the past rest at last?”

Flynn stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, then extended his own. As they shook, Flynn said, “You always got the worst of what Alice had to give. I am sorry for my part in it.”

“There is no need to apologize,” Edward said with a shrug that was so dismissive of the pain he had held for years. “We both know that.”

“Then we shall start over,” Flynn mused as he stepped away with a smile that looked as awkward as Edward now felt. He turned now to Mary. “You are truly happy?”

Mary stepped closer to Edward, and he was surprised as she took his hand, making them a duo, a force which would face the future not individually, but together. She glanced up at him, a small smile brightening her face.

“I think we will be,” she reassured her brother-in-law and sister.

Edward blinked in surprise. When Mary said those words, he could believe them. He felt her light spirit winding into his own and filling him with thoughts for the future that he had been squashing since Alice destroyed him years ago. Now he had been placed on a very different path and he found he actually looked forward to it. To her. To
them
.

“Because of the unexpected nature of our engagement, I believe it would be prudent to read the banns swiftly,” he said.

Gemma exchanged a look with Mary, and both sisters blushed deeply.

“Given time, our father will only make this situation worse,” Gemma verified. “So I cannot disagree that the wedding should occur swiftly and as properly as possible.”

Edward waited for dread to hit him, but none came and the smile he gave the women was not forced. “Then I will make sure the first notice is posted this week. Will four weeks be enough time for you to prepare?”

Gemma laughed. “In comparison to how both my weddings were done, that sounds like an eternity. We will be ready, my lord, I assure you.”

“I should be going,” Edward said with a sigh. “When I took Audrey home and my news came out, my family was naturally taken aback and had a great many questions. I should return to them and do my best to answer. Will you escort me out, Mary?”

The smile on her face had faltered slightly, but she nodded as she reached out to take his arm. “Of course.”

He nodded his farewells to Gemma and Flynn, and they exited the room together. As the servant went to call for his carriage, he looked down at Mary with an arched brow.