An Heir of Deception (35 page)

The duke and duchess blessed everyone with their presence, arriving in grand style at the fashionably late hour of ten o’clock, causing a cyclone stir when they entered the ballroom looking every inch the highest-ranking peer in a realm of lofty nobles. Their manner toward her could be equated to a sunny day in the Arctic. They may have accepted their grandson but that didn’t encompass her. Pleasantries—as Charlotte chose to call them—were blessedly short; truly the ideal duration when dealing with disapproving mother- and father-in-laws.

Suddenly alone for the first time that evening, Charlotte glanced around the domed room. Elizabeth had recently dashed upstairs to attend her fretful child. Missy was playing host and Amelia and Katie were on the dance floor enjoying an energetic polka. And James and Alex, having returned from wherever they had disappeared to a short while ago, appeared to be carrying on a friendly conversation with Derek and Thomas near the terrace doors. Charlotte couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her husband looking so at ease, his smile radiating a certain
joie de vivre
.

Just about to join Missy, who stood alone at the circumference of the dance floor, Charlotte saw him framed in the entrance. Had she held a glass in her hand, it would have shattered on the polished floors.

Staring at her, his eyes lit with pleasure, was Lucas Beaumont. Instinctively, Charlotte turned toward where she’d last seen her husband and found him boring holes into Lucas with his gaze.

Charlotte wasted no time rushing over to Lucas, arriving at his side at the same moment Katie did.

“Lucas, what are you doing here?” she asked, aware she didn’t sound at all pleased to see him.

A lazy smile turned up the corners of his mouth. “Your sister invited me.” He looked at Katie, interest blatant in his eyes. “And I hadn’t the heart to refuse her.”

Charlotte looked sharply at her sister, who was blushing profusely. So that was how it was. It was about time, her sister deserved happiness. She’d have to speak to Lucas in private, maybe tomorrow. She hoped he was serious about her for she would not have her sister’s heart broken.

“Apparently you could not,” Charlotte replied. “Listen, Alex has already seen you and he’s hardly pleased. Katie, do make sure Lucas stays out of his way. The last thing I want is a scene.”

A glance behind her revealed her husband shouldering his way through the crush toward them, his expression pleasant if one preferred storm clouds and pelting rain. “Hurry, the next set is starting. The two of you go dance.”

Amused, Lucas proffered his elbow, which Katie readily accepted and they proceeded to the dance floor.

Moments later, Charlotte’s arm was caught in a firm grip. She didn’t have to turn to know it was Alex who held her. She felt his breath on her ear before he demanded in a voice that reminded her of icicles, “What is he doing here?” By this time, he began steering her from the ballroom, his smile frozen in place as he threaded their way through the throng of guests cluttering the entrance. In the hall, he glanced around and then urged her into her brother’s study.

What had promised to be a wonderful evening vanished like a coin in a magician’s nimble fingers. Alex looked fit to be tied.

“I did not know Lucas would be here. Katie extended the invitation.”

He made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a growl. Spinning on his heel, he stalked toward the desk.

“Alex, there is nothing going on between me and Lucas. Truth be told, I believe he’s set his sights on Katie and that his interest is returned. Let us just enjoy the evening without acrimony.”

Alex spun violently back around. “He is interested in Catherine? Do you not find that at all rather distasteful? She
is
your identical twin.”

Charlotte knew precisely what he implied and he couldn’t be more wrong. “It isn’t like that a’tall. You act as if we are the same person. If that was the case, then I would have to worry about you being attracted to Katie.”

“Oh don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped. “I knew the two of you together. You are individuals to me. He met and was attracted to you first. It’s only recently he’s discovered there’s another just like you.”

“Even if he was once attracted to me, that doesn’t change that we are only friends now. You are acting as if he is a threat to what you and I have, and you couldn’t be more wrong.”

“What we have?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow. “And what exactly do we have, dear wife?”

“Alex, don’t do this. Don’t be ugly,” she whispered. “You said you wanted us to talk.”

“What I wanted was you in my bed again. But that doesn’t mean anything else has changed. You are in my house because of my son and you are in my bed because it’s convenient for me. Why should I slake my needs elsewhere when you are more than happy to oblige me
every
night?”

“You’d like me to believe what is between us is just physical need and lust. But you know in your heart it is more.” She refused to allow him to reduce it to that.

“Do not purport to know what is in my heart,” he replied tersely.

“Then why do you care so much about Lucas? If I’m just a body, does it matter who I had in my bed when I wasn’t with you?”

“I care because you are
my
wife. Your fidelity was the least you owed me. I wasn’t the one who left you.”

“I explained why I did.” But as explanations went, she may as well have held her tongue for all the good it did.

“Did you take a lover at all in that time?”

Surprised, Charlotte stared up at him. She found her voice soon after. “No I did not. I had a son, and the rigors of raising a child on my own isn’t easy and didn’t leave me much time for anything else.”

“That was by choice. You needn’t have been alone. Your son had a father who’d have happily provided for him if only he knew his son existed.”

Charlotte gave a weary sigh. “Nonetheless, I was on my own.”

“So you wanted to take a lover?” he asked, refusing to let the subject drop.

How she wanted to tell him yes, she had wanted to take a lover. What she couldn’t bear to admit was only he could ever have fit the role. Her body may have ached for the touch of a man but her heart had yearned only for him, and she had been unable to allow her body to go where her heart could not follow.

“No, I had no desire to take a lover,” she said, unwilling to lie to him.

“Why?”

He wanted her heart bared. “Because of you that is why. That’s what you want to hear, isn’t it? I know you had no such compunction. I know you’ve had dozens upon dozens of women since I left.”

The second the words left her mouth, she regretted it. Jealousy had its fangs in her when she had no right to feel it.

“What did you expect me to do, live the rest of my life like a monk, nursing my broken heart over your portrait?” he shot back.

“What has happened to you? The moment you saw Lucas, you changed. And things were getting better between us, you know they were.”

Alex straightened to his full height and simply stared at her. He stood silent a good while, his eyes unblinking.

When he began speaking it was as if the anger had drained from him. “At times I believe I can live with what happened and not hold you in judgment over the choices you made. But there are other times when I can’t see beyond your abandonment and what you took from me. How you leaving me changed my life, my whole world.”

She approached him and gently touched the sleeve of his coat. All she wanted to do was hold him in her arms and kiss him deeply. Soothe the creases from his brow and wipe all traces of unhappiness from his beautiful visage.

“Alex,” she whispered, heartsick.

“Perhaps we’re rushing this.” His tone was as serious as she’d ever heard it. Which said much.

It felt as if she was bleeding inside, but she wouldn’t deny him his space if that’s what he felt he required. And perhaps he was right. How did one heal five years of hurt within months? His wounds ran deep as would hers if their positions were reversed.

“We shall take it as slow as you’d like,” she replied softly.

He took her elbow. “Come, let us return to the ball before the guests begin to comment on our absence. They are all here, after all, to celebrate your return.” His mouth lifted at the corner.

As they rejoined the ball, Charlotte prayed that
not rushing this
didn’t take on the connotation of stopping altogether.

Chapter Nineteen

When Alex returned from his morning ride the day following, Alfred informed him the marchioness and his son had gone to Rutherford Manor so he found himself alone.

It was funny, he’d lived there alone for almost three years and with his wife and son only the past two months. But when they were both gone, the house felt empty, too big for him alone.

“Milord, the duchess is here. Shall I show her to the drawing room?” Alfred asked after a brief knock on the study door.

His mother here? He’d thought they’d gone back to London. Then he remembered his mother owned a house nearby. But she and the duke rarely made use of it.

“Yes, do. Tell her I’ll be with her momentarily.”

“No need to inconvenience yourself, I shall be just as comfortable here,” his mother said, appearing behind Alfred.

With a sigh, Alex waved his butler away. The duchess stepped into the study and looked around, taking silent inventory of everything.

“This room is so dark. Perhaps you might redecorate it in a lighter wood. All this redwood makes the place feel like I’m in constant mourning.”

“Good morning, Mama. I should have thought you’d have slept till noon as late as you remained at the ball.”

His mother advanced in, looking imperial and impeccable, her dress the sort that flowed easily when she moved. None of those stiff cages for Her Grace, she was too old for all that unforgiving rigidity, she claimed. But she’d been saying that the past fifteen years.

“I certainly would have done if the need to speak to you in private hadn’t been urgent,” she said. It took her a moment to decide on which chair to sit and then she sank onto the sage sofa with the grace and elegance of a swan.

“And just what was so urgent as to disturb your beauty sleep?” Alex was certain it was some trivial matter.

“Well first and foremost, pray do endeavor to keep your feelings for your wife to yourself. The way you watched her at the ball last night…Well, my dear, it was hardly appropriate. Please do your best with that.”

Alex sat up straight in his seat. “How did I watch her?”

The duchess’ eyebrows rose. “Oh, I suppose you could not have known. Well it was the sort of look a man reserves for his mistress
not
his wife. It is such women gentlemen use to satisfy those sorts of carnal appetites. My darling, it was positively scandalous. I mean, truly, she
is
your wife. And since you are my son, I feared I’d have to hide my face. One might assume you’d picked that sort of thing up at home.”

Did his mother think to embarrass him with her observation? Yes, he desired his wife. He wasn’t ashamed of that. And he’d wanted her desperately last night, despite what he’d said about taking things slower.

“Oh, do not glower at me. I’m telling you for your own good. If the girl realizes how smitten you are with her again, God help us. Next time who knows what she’ll do to break your heart. Thank you very much, but I have no desire to go through that again.”

How like his mother to remind him of the past. As if it didn’t weigh on his mind constantly as it was. “Is that all you’ve come to say?”

“No, of course not. That’s hardly something I could not have waited to tell you.” She harrumphed indignantly and lightly touched her coiffed hair at the side. “Your cousin has been making inquiries about your marriage. He had the temerity to come to our home and accuse us of participating in your deception. He says he intends to have the authorities investigate the legitimacy of your marriage papers.”

Bloody hell!
Just what he needed. But the more he thought about it, he should have expected something like this from Henry. Perhaps Rutherford
was
correct in his suspicions.

“He can look all he wants, he will find nothing out of order.”

“The papers have only just been filed at the general register office in London. I would say their arrival five years late is enough to open an inquiry. If nothing else, it may well be enough to invalidate the marriage altogether. We do not want it to get that far. Therefore you have two choices, either marry the girl again and ensure the whole thing is legal and binding and then get her with child as soon as is feasible. If it’s a male, an inquiry would be pointless for Henry would not be remotely in line to inherit.”

“And the other choice?” he asked, his eyebrow propped high.

“You can allow the marriage to be declared invalid and marry someone else. Of course in the second case, Nicholas would not inherit. But he may not be able to inherit if your cousin is able to have your marriage proved invalid.”