How to Dazzle a Duke (42 page)

looking up at her, at her naked breasts, at her naked eyes.

“Lord Iveston,” she said softly, dropping to her knees in front

of him. “Lord Iveston,” she repeated in a whisper.

He took her in his arms and lifted her dress back up over

her back to cover her, kissing the top of her head, her cheeks, her

mouth.

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305

“I’m in love with you, aren’t I?” she asked, looking deeply

into his eyes.

“Yes, Pen,” he murmured, kissing her mouth, sealing the

thought.

“How long have I loved you, Iveston?”

“From the first kiss, Penelope, which is just as long as I’ve

loved you.”

“I shouldn’t have thought that possible,” she said, wrapping

her arms around him and burying her face against his chest.

“Of course, you will marry me, won’t you? I’m quite completely

ruined.”

“I would have married you anyway, Pen, with or without ru

ination.”

“Would you? I have my doubts about that, Iveston, but I

shan’t blacken the moment with discussing it.”

“I would appreciate that, Pen, I truly would.”

They held each other for many more minutes, the light going

quite lavender grey, the roses all around them slowly losing their

color in the fading light.

“Iveston?”

“Yes?”

“Now that I’m completely ruined, have you given any thought

to fi nishing the job?”

Iveston pulled back from her, studied her face, stood, offered

her his hand, and then when they were both standing and their

clothing in good repair, turned his back on her.

“No. I have not.”

If that wasn’t just like a man.

“I can’t see what’s to be lost now. There’s no need to get sen

timental about it, is there?”

“Sentimental?” Iveston said, turning to face her again, his

features fl atly aghast.

306 CLAUDIA DAIN

“Certainly sentimental. I have needs, Iveston. I should think

that, as my future husband, you should be the one to meet them.

In point of fact, I should think you’d want to.”

“I shall meet all your needs, and happily. Once I am indeed

your husband.”

He looked a proper prig, truth be told. She wouldn’t have

thought it possible that the same man who’d tied his cravat

around her eyes and stripped her half bare would turn prudish

now that they’d come to an agreement. A man as changeable as

that was not to be fully trusted, that was plain. He might, if the

occasion presented itself, seek a way out. After all, he hadn’t

loved her even two days ago, had he? He might be the sort who

fell in and out of love like a monkey on a chain.

Certainly she couldn’t let him escape now, now that she had

discovered she loved him. She knew herself very well and knew

she was not one to fall into love often or easily. No, it was Iveston

for her. Now she had to make certain that it was Penelope for

Iveston.

There was only one thing to do. She had to ruin him fully. He

would thank her later, she was certain.

“Now, Iveston,” she said, walking up to him. She must have

had some look in her eye for he backed away from her. She wasn’t

too worried. The windows were behind him. Where could he go?

“Why so skittish? I only want to kiss you.”

“Penelope,” he said, trying to sound stern, no doubt. Poor

Iveston.

“Yes?”

“We should go fi nd your father.”

“We will.”

She was stalking him through the roses, poor Iveston backing

away from her, tipping over a pot or two, the roses tumbling to

gether, falling in a quiet sprawl. The conservatory, her conserva

tory, the room that was supposed to win her a husband, was in

How to Daz zle a Duke

307

shambles and getting worse by the moment. All to a good cause,

though, wasn’t it?

“He could have reservations, be reluctant to give you to me,”

Iveston said. She could see his eyes, his beautiful blue eyes, spar

kling in the light coming from the glass doors to the hall. He

looked both alarmed and charmed. As well he should.

“He won’t,” she said. “Who could possibly be reluctant about

you? You’re Hyde’s heir.”

“You were reluctant.”

“I’m not now,” she said, laughing.

“You thought me peculiar. Don’t deny it.”

“I certainly did. When you act peculiar, you should not be

surprised when you are found peculiar. Rather how you are be

having now, Iveston. Am I to be required to tear the coat from

off your very lovely body?”

Iveston stopped. Of course, his back was to the window, the

light all but gone now, the lights in the houses across the street

illuminating the windows in flickering golden rectangles. He had

nowhere to go. Nowhere but into her arms.

“You couldn’t. What would you say to your father?”

“I would say,” she said, standing up against him, her hands

wrapped around his back, her mouth kissing his neck, “that you

were blind with love for me, ruined me completely, and that your

coat was torn as I struggled to resist you.”

“An interesting telling of events. Quite imaginative,” he said,

kissing her face, running his hands down her back.

“Well, he is my father. I can hardly tell him the truth.”

“And the truth is?”

“That I quite thoroughly ravaged you, Iveston. Haven’t you

guessed?”

And with the words, she ripped his coat very nearly off his

body. The rose thorns did help some, but she had done the best

work of it, let there be no doubt about that.

308 CLAUDIA DAIN

6

LORD Prestwick and Lady Dalby sat staring at each other in the

red drawing room, listening to the sounds of tumbling pots com

ing from the conservatory on the other side of the wall. Lord

Prestwick looked uncomfortable. Sophia did not.

“I think that certainly enough time has passed for Lord

Iveston to make his presence known to me,” Prestwick said, pull

ing at his waistcoat.

“Darling Lord Prestwick, you simply must trust your daugh

ter on this. I have no doubt at all that she is managing Lord

Iveston quite beautifully and will do most of your work for you.

She does have that way about her, which you’ve certainly no

ticed. I know I have.”

“You’re certain that he’ll offer for her,” Prestwick said.

“Completely,” she answered. “What’s more, so is Miss Prest

wick. If she were in any doubt as to her eventual success she

would seek help. As she has not, I know things are well in hand.”

And by
things
, she meant men, but there was no good reason to

inform Prestwick of that. He was Penelope’s father, after all, and

fathers did require a great deal of protection from knowing what

their daughters did when hunting upon the marriage mart.

“And if he doesn’t?” Prestwick asked, fussing with his

sleeve, until the sound of a pot breaking and shattering upon

the floor of the conservatory echoed through the house. Then

he turned a bit white, then flushed, then stood up to walk about

the room.

“Then you shall insist upon it,” she said, “and he will agree

as Lord Iveston is a most honorable man.”

“Honorable?” Prestwick said, staring at the wall that sepa

rated the red drawing room from the conservatory. Sophia was

completely certain he was not staring at the very nice landscape

painting hanging there. “You can say that? Now?”

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309

Sophia smiled and said as gently as she could, “Darling, do

you know your daughter at all? I am quite certain she is manag

ing Lord Iveston beautifully and indeed, will achieve everything

she wants from him. What’s more, she will manage it so that

Iveston wants to give her everything she wants from him. What

more is there to it than that?”

What more, indeed?

Twenty-fi ve

Four weeks later

THE wedding was an intimate affair, but the wedding breakfast,

held at Hyde House, was a complete crush. One could hardly

blame Lord Prestwick for wanting to rejoice extremely publicly in

his daughter’s profoundly good match to Hyde’s heir, and as to that,

the Duke and Duchess of Hyde, who had seen three of their fi ve

sons married in a single Season, were glowing in satisfaction.

Of course, George and Josiah Blakesley, the two remaining

sons without wife, were planning to leave the country on the fi rst

available ship.

As if running ever did any good.

Sophia surveyed the red drawing room of Hyde House with

a very contented gaze. As all of Society and certainly all of the

Blakesley family saw this as a very important marriage, Lord

Henry and Lady Louisa had returned from wherever they

had been to attend, and poor Lord Cranleigh and Lady Amelia

had never even got to leave on their wedding trip, Lord Iveston’s

marriage to Miss Prestwick having been announced before they

could make their departure. As Hyde House was quite large and

possessed of very many bedrooms, Sophia did not think either

How to Daz zle a Duke

311

couple was suffering, although as to that, neither couple was

in the habit of confining themselves to bedrooms. Miss Prest

wick was clearly of the same mold. One did begin to wonder if

it was a family trait, which did cause her to look at the Duke and

Duchess of Hyde with new eyes. What a charming family.

Penelope, their newest member, made her way through the

throng very purposefully until she stood directly in front of her.

“Lady Dalby, I wanted to thank you. You were an invaluable

help to me, which I’m certain you must know.”

Sophia smiled. Charming girl, she did so thoroughly enjoy

Penelope. The girl was a complete original. “Darling, you did it

all yourself. Certainly you must know that.”

“I know nothing of the sort, Lady Dalby,” she answered

stoutly. “In fact, I know you must have done a considerable

amount on my behalf for the simple reason that I made no for

ward progress at all until sitting myself down in your white salon

and begging for you help.”

“Were you begging? I had no idea,” Sophia answered, swal

lowing a laugh.

“I certainly felt as if I were begging,” Penelope said, smiling

a bit reluctantly. “I don’t know quite how I find myself with

Iveston, even now, though I do love him deeply, which is also a

bit of a surprise, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” Sophia responded.

Penelope, her black hair up in quite a becoming manner, just

a few curls trailing across her shoulders, looked quite happily

confused by the whole manner of her marriage. Well, she was

young yet. She’d work it out in time.

“I suppose I may confess that I did think Edenham would be

the best choice,” Penelope said softly, but by no means in a whis

per. As it was her wedding breakfast to Iveston that was being

celebrated, and as at least four people could possibly have heard

her confession, Sophia raised an eyebrow and waited. “Oh,

312 CLAUDIA DAIN

Iveston knows all about it,” Penelope continued in response to

the eyebrow. “I don’t have any secrets from him. What would

be the point?”

Yes, very young. And clearly unscarred by life’s little adven

tures. Sophia had a great many secrets from a great many people,

and could not see anything to be gained by vomiting them up all

over Town. But then, she was no longer young, and even when

young, she had never been as young as Penelope was now.

“I understand completely,” Sophia said, and she did. “I don’t

think you’ll be surprised to hear that I always believed Iveston

to be an ideal choice for you. I’m so pleased that you saw that for

yourself and managed to deliver him to the altar.”

“It was like that, wasn’t it?” Penelope asked on a whisper,

laughing. “It was an awful bit of work, let me tell you, and he

was most obstinate for far longer than made any sense at all, but

I did manage it.”

“You most certainly did, and managed it quite well. You are

content, darling? Truly content?”

“I am,” she said, her dark eyes glowing, smiling devilishly.

“But Iveston and I have discussed it fully and we have decided

that we are each going to give you a gift, because we both know,

no matter what you may say to the contrary, that without you we

should not have found each other. We are quite firm about it,

Lady Dalby. We are going to give you a gift.”

“Well, if you’ve decided quite firmly, then I simply must gra

ciously accept, mustn’t I?” Sophia said with as straight a face as

she could manage. “May I enquire what it is to be?”

“Oh, but you must have guessed,” Penelope said. “It’s some

thing of a family tradition now, and we shouldn’t like to break

form with tradition. Iveston is to give you a lovely Chinese por

celain, and I, because practicality must rule the day, even in gifts,

have arranged for a spectacular black lacquer cabinet in which

the porcelains may be displayed. You approve?”

How to Daz zle a Duke

313

Sophia grinned and took Penelope’s charming chin in her

hand and said softly, “I quite approve. And you are so right. If