A Scandalous Deception (27 page)

Fin shook his head, a most boyish expression
on his face. “Oh, it’s too late for words of love to save
you
, Lady Felicity.” And then he dropped onto the bed beside
her, grasped her waist in his hands and tickled her most
feverishly.

Lissy twisted and turned to get away from
him, but she was laughing too hard to truly escape. “I pr-promise!
I pr-promise!” she giggled.

“What do you promise, my darling?” Fin
returned so smoothly as though he was asking her to dance at a
ball.

She tried to catch her breath, but his
assault didn’t lessen in the least. “I won’t c-c-call you Uncle
Fin. I won’t.”

He stopped tickling her. “What will you call
me?” He rolled her beneath him and hovered over her, his dark hair
falling across his brow.

Lissy stared up at him. Her wonderful Fin,
the most honest and true man she’d ever known. Her heart nearly
overflowed for him. “My love?” she asked.

The smile he brandished could have lit a
hundred ballrooms. “I do like the sound of that,” he said before
lowering his head and capturing her lips in a searing kiss.

Tingles raced across Lissy’s skin and before
she knew how he’d done it, Fin had tugged her bodice downward,
freeing her breasts from their constraints. His gentle fingers
caressed her bare flesh and Lissy ached for more. She groaned
against his lips, and then those clever fingers of his teased her
nipples until they were hard peaks, straining upwards.

“Once again,” he whispered across her lips,
“you are overdressed, Lissy.”

But she wasn’t for long. Together they made
quick work of her dress, her slippers, his trousers, his boots and
were joined as one.

Fin’s languid strokes were so careful, so
loving, Lissy was in complete heaven. She might as well have
floated right up to the clouds. And when she fell over that
invisible precipice, Fin fell right along beside her.

Then he dropped onto the bed, pulled her into
his embrace and simply held her close.

Lissy toyed with the bit of hair across his
chest. “How long will you be gone?”

His hand tightened on her waist. “I’m not
sure, but I won’t be gone a moment longer than is absolutely
necessary, sweetheart.”

She smiled at that and then pressed her lips
to his chest. “Do you want to see Edmund…Tell him about…us?”

“I probably should,” he agreed. Then he
kissed the top of her head and smoothed his hand down her side.
“But I might just send him a note instead.”

Lissy couldn’t help but giggle. It was such a
wonderful feeling, knowing that he wanted to be with her as much as
she wanted to be with him. It was a feeling she hadn’t expected to
ever experience in her life. She pushed up against his chest to
look down on him and said, “I will miss you.”

“I should hope so,” he returned before
pulling her down for another kiss.

Traveling back to London wasn’t nearly as
enjoyable as the trip to Prestwick Chase had been, but that was to
be expected as Fin was traveling this leg alone. Borrowing
Beckford’s driver, Fin had departed The Chase at dawn and traveled
a good distance.

When the carriage finally stopped at a
coaching inn for the night, Fin entered the taproom, and was beyond
surprised to hear his name called across the din.

“Carraway!” Lord Staveley rose from his spot
at a table in the far end of the taproom, waving his arm in the
air. “Is Lady Felicity with you?”

“Staveley?” Fin could hardly believe his
eyes. Of all the people he thought he might encounter along the
road, Viscount Staveley would never have topped his list. The man
rarely left his own study. Fin pushed his way through the drunken
patrons to Staveley’s table. “What are you doing here?”

“Caroline said Felicity was traveling with
you,” the man replied, gesturing to an empty seat at his table.

“She was. I left her at Prestwick Chase. I’m
on my way back to Town to attend to some business.” He slid into a
seat across from the bookish viscount.

“Ah.” Staveley nodded. “How is everyone at
The Chase? Caroline’s been so worried about Juliet.”

Fin couldn’t help the smile that spread
across his face. Everyone at The Chase was fine. Especially a
maddening little blonde that he couldn’t wait to get back to. But
Staveley had asked about Juliet, and so Fin adjusted his thoughts
accordingly. “She is quite well. She had her babe yesterday. A
girl. Georgina.”

“Georgina?” Staveley smiled as well.

Fin laughed. “Born on Georgie’s birthday,
actually.” And while in the past, even mentioning Georgie’s name
would twist his heart, that wasn’t the case now. Oh, he’d always
love her. She’d been his first true love. She was kind and
compassionate. Honest and sincere. Perfect in nearly every way. But
Lissy had somehow healed his broken heart, made him feel things he
never thought he’d feel again. And for the first time in what
seemed forever, the future didn’t seem as bleak as it once had.
Just as soon as he dealt with the business of Lissy’s marriage,
their lives together could truly begin.

“I think this calls for a little
celebration.” Staveley motioned towards a tavern wench. “Your best
whisky,” he called. Then he turned his attention back to Fin. “Luke
must be over the moon.”

Fin nodded. “Though suddenly having a
daughter in his arms seems to have struck a bit of fear in his
heart.”

Staveley chuckled. “Years ago, I never
thought I’d see the day he’d be a responsible parent.”

Fin hadn’t either. But the rakish
ne’er-do-well that Lucas Beckford had once been had certainly led
the way to the devoted husband and father that he was now. “The
only one befuddled by the whole thing is Ben. He can’t understand
what all the fuss is about. Wrinkly baby girl who can do nothing
but cry, but everyone seems enthralled over her.”

Staveley laughed heartily. “Rachel was the
same when Adam was born, and he was the same when Emma came along.”
The tavern wench placed a couple glasses of whisky before the men
and Staveley said, “Thank you.”

“Pamela probably thought the same about
me.”

“Probably. Such is the way of things.”
Staveley agreed with an incline of his head. He lifted his glass in
the air and said, “To our new niece Georgina Beckford. May she make
her namesake proud and her father regret each and every last one of
his past sins.”

“Here. Here.” Fin lifted his glass as well
before downing the oaky drink in one large swallow. Then he lowered
his glass and smiled at the studious viscount. It was so strange to
be sitting in the middle of a taproom with him. “Now what
are
you doing in the middle of Northamptonshire, of all
places?”

Staveley dropped his own glass to the table,
his smile vanished quickly and was replaced with a rather serious
expression. “Heading to Prestwick Chase to find Felicity.”

“Oh?” Fin’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t
imagine a scenario that would lead to Staveley searching out
Felicity in Derbyshire.

“It’s all very convoluted, honestly.”

“I have the time.” Fin shrugged, his interest
more than piqued. “Besides, when is anything having to do with her
not
convoluted?”

Staveley scoffed in an apparent agreement,
then a frown settled on his face. “Well, it seems a fellow claiming
to be her not-so-dead husband has come to Town and is looking for
her.”

A chill raced down Fin’s spine. “I beg your
pardon?” he breathed out.

“My thoughts exactly.” Staveley nodded. “It’s
completely ridiculous. Not-so dead husband. Sounds foolish to even
say. I might very well be on some wild goose chase concocted by
that blackguard Haversham just to get me out of Town.”

“Haversham?” Fin’s head began to pulse with
pain. “What the devil does he have to do with this?”

“He went to Caroline. Said this Pierce fellow
was looking for Felicity and thought someone ought to warn her.
Said he thought the fellow would find his way to Prestwick Chase
very soon and that she should be prepared.”

Oh, dear God! Why now? Why after all these
years would Aaron Pierce suddenly get it in his head Lissy was
alive? Had that indentured girl finally broken and revealed the
truth? Had Lissy somehow slipped up and Pierce had recently found
her out somehow? The fact that Haversham was involved didn’t bode
well for anyone. “Why would
h
e care one way or the
other?”

At that Staveley snorted. “The only thing I’m
certain about as far as that man goes is that he’s bound and
determined to capture my wife.”

“Not that she’s willing to be captured.” Fin
smiled at the man. Honest, dutiful Staveley. The last thing he
deserved was that scoundrel Haversham chasing after his wife’s
skirts.

But thoughts of Staveley, Caroline and
Haversham quickly fell aside as panic once again gripped his heart.
Dear God. Was Aaron Pierce
truly
in London? If so, should
Fin race there and put a ball in the man’s chest? Or race back to
Prestwick Chase instead and keep Lissy safe? He didn’t even have to
think about that for more than a second. He could easily pass
Pierce on the road to London and never see the villain, leaving
Lissy defenseless. So The Chase it would have to be.

Staveley rose from his spot, completely
unaware of the turmoil encompassing Fin. “Do excuse me, Carraway.
Nature calls.” Then he started for the staircase at the back end of
the room.

Fin’s mind was awhirl. He’d traveled so much
distance today. It would take quite some time to return. He’d need
a fresh steed. “Actually, I’ll be on my way, Staveley,” he called
to the man. “I’ll see you soon, I’m sure.”

“Godspeed,” Staveley called back over the
din, then hurried up the staircase when he noticed a man waiting
behind him.

Fin pushed his way through the taproom and
out, once again, into the coaching yard. He hailed a young groom
and said, “I need your fastest, most rested horse.”

“R’ght away, sir.” The lad raced towards the
stables.

To everything there is a season, and a
time to every purpose under the sun
. At least that was the
verse from Ecclesiastes that Aaron Pierce’s father had always
pressed upon him as a child. And for all of Aaron’s life, he’d
found those words to be quite poignant.

John had encountered Thurlstone just as
Heaton and Pierce Shipping was at the precipice of financial ruin,
bringing the Englishman and his investments into the business at
the precise moment to keep them afloat.

Aaron had been in the right London club at
the right time to learn that his wife was somehow miraculously
alive.

Thurlstone had gladly offered Aaron and John
use of his traveling carriage to take them to Derbyshire, which was
kismet as Aaron didn’t have one of his own in this godforsaken
country and his funds were particularly low.

But just now, those old words of his father’s
had never been more true. If he hadn’t been seated at exactly the
right spot in the raucous taproom just now, he’d have never
overheard that bespectacled, scholarly looking Englishman mention
Felicity or of the fellow’s plan to warn her of Aaron’s imminent
arrival.

Across the taproom table from Aaron, John
scratched his head. “Why do you think that Haversham fellow sent
him to warn Felicity?” he asked softly.

That Aaron didn’t have an answer for. He
hadn’t cared for Haversham at all upon meeting the man a few days
ago, though he hadn’t seemed the interfering sort. The prick had
seemed self-serving and smug, mostly. But he also seemed cleverer
than he tried to let on. Though Aaron had noticed that, no one else
seemed to. Regardless of the reason, however, Haversham would be
dealt with once Aaron had taken care of the Felicity situation.

“Do excuse me, Carraway,” the scholarly
looking fellow at the next table said as he pushed up to his feet.
“Nature calls.”