How to Entice an Earl (22 page)

Amelia thrust a folded letter toward her. “Here it is. I thought perhaps you might wish to see it, to determine who sent it. I did try myself, but since I assume this is someone who wishes you ill—and that number could be legion—I decided that you might do a better job of investigating the matter.”

Taking the note, Maddie read the scrawled lines:

Lady Madeline Essex kissed Lord Gresham before an audience last night at Lady Emily Fielding’s card party. I’m sure you won’t be able to keep this all to yourself.

A friend.

“What I dislike the most is that this person assumes I am a gossip,” Amelia said tightly. “It is infuriating.”

“I can see why you’d feel that way,” Maddie said, unsure of whether she should try for commiseration or condemnation.

Amelia stood. “I will leave you now. I feel sure that you have licentious lords to kiss, or some other mischief to get up to.”

With that, Amelia walked from the room and left Maddie staring after her.

Dumbfounded.

But when her puzzlement lifted, she realized that there was something more at stake than her continuing war with Amelia.

Someone had purposely set out to ruin her reputation. Someone who must have been there at Lady Emily’s last night and seen her kiss with Christian.

A chill ran over her as she wondered who would do such a thing. And more importantly, why? Could it be that she was getting too close to whomever had murdered Tinker?

*   *   *

Christian arrived on the front steps of Essex House feeling slightly nauseous at the idea of making his case to Madeline’s father, and clutching a posy of spring roses. It wasn’t that he was afraid. Exactly. It was just that he’d never proposed marriage before. And remembering his discussion in the park with Lord Essex about the suspicions surrounding Linton, he wasn’t quite sure that the man would view him as a suitable choice for his daughter’s hand.

Of course whether Essex saw him as suitable or not had lost all meaning when Christian had sneaked into the fellow’s house the night before and seduced his only daughter. Running a finger under his suddenly too tight cravat, Christian applied the door knocker.

“The Earl of Gresham to see Lord Essex,” he said to the butler before the man had barely opened the door.

Surveying him and the bouquet he carried, the majordomo looked surprised, but ushered Christian in. “I’ll just see if Lord Essex is receiving today, my lord.”

Stepping into the entryway of the town house, Christian was surprised to hear a low-level hum, not unlike that of the card room at the club, or the crowd at a prize fight.

“Is Lord Essex having a meeting of some sort?” he asked the footman who stood near the door. He hadn’t counted on pulling the other man away from a gathering. It would draw undue attention to his visit. Not that he thought the reason for it would remain a secret forever.

“Oh, no, my lord,” the footman said with a smile. “That’s just the fellas who came to bring posies to Lady Madeline this morning.”

Christian froze. “And how many of these fellows are there?” he demanded. When he’d told Maddie not to marry anyone else while he was away, he hadn’t actually thought there was a possibility of it happening.

“Oh, perhaps two dozen or so,” the footman said, blithely unaware of the jealous rage he’d lit aflame in the man before him. “First time for everything, I s’pose. Lady Madeline has never seemed to inspire so many gentleman callers before, but something must have changed them.”

Abandoning his plan to see Lord Essex, Christian strode past the footman and up the stairs, following the sound of male conversation until he reached an open doorway. Stepping inside, he saw the two dozen men the footman had promised, milling about chatting with one another, and presumably waiting to pay their respects to their hostess.

Maddie herself was surrounded by at least six men who all vied for her attention. Laughing merrily at something one of the men had just said, she looked more beautiful than he’d ever seen her. And Christian was swept with a wave of possessiveness that nearly had him striding forward and telling the men surrounding her to go to the devil.

“Good afternoon, Gresham.” A female voice punctured the haze of his jealousy.

Turning, he saw Juliet, Deveril’s viscountess, and Maddie’s cousin. “You look ready to slay the room at large,” she said with a barely suppressed smile. “You needn’t look so murderous. She is merely enjoying the experience of being the center of attention for a change. I have no doubt that as soon as she realizes you are here she’ll send them packing.”

Christian wondered if that was the case. He had left Maddie last night assured of their affection for one another, but perhaps he’d overestimated her attachment to him. After all, she had barely received much male attention at all before he seduced her. Perhaps she wished to determine if some other man might be a more suitable match for her. He suppressed a growl. She would simply have to understand that she was stuck with him. Last night had changed everything and he was damned if he’d sit by while she searched for his replacement.

Excusing himself to Juliet, he strode forward, intending to stake his claim before the halflings and drones buzzing around Maddie managed to turn her head.

“Here’s another bouquet, Lady Madeline,” the second footman, Tom, said, approaching her with another posy. This one was the simplest of the lot. Fresh spring roses in the palest shade of pink that matched her gown perfectly.

Shaking her head in renewed surprise, she buried her nose in the blooms. She would no more have imagined herself in the midst of a crowd of eligible young men than she would have said the moon would come calling for tea, but as soon as the hour arrived when it would be proper to pay calls, the knocker of Essex House had begun sounding and it showed no signs of stopping.

“Thank you,” she told the footman and rose to put them with the others. “Who sent them, Tom?”

“They are from me,” Christian said, looking every inch the nobleman as he strode toward her, scattering the other gentlemen like a cat among the pigeons.

Unbidden, the memory of his face limned in candlelight the night before as he stroked powerfully into her sent a wave of heat through her. As if he could read her thoughts, Christian met her gaze.

Burying her nose in the flowers gave Maddie a moment to regain her composure. Unfortunately it also gave her other gentlemen callers, oblivious to the death looks Christian was sending them, time to regroup around her.

“I chose wildflowers for you, Lady Madeline,” Lord Philip Thompson said, eyeing Christian jealously, “because I thought they best suited your personality.”

“That was very thoughtful of you, my lord,” she said brightly.

“Lady Madeline,” Christian said in a voice loud enough for the room at large to hear. “I wonder if I might have a word?”

Having grown tired of the senseless chatter of the men surrounding her, Maddie leaped at the chance to leave them. “Of course, my lord.”

“Madeline,” Lady Essex said, abandoning her conversation with Cecily and Juliet and approaching Maddie. “It would be highly improper for you to leave the room just now. Especially when you have so many visitors.”

Christian was in no mood to be gainsaid, however. “I beg your pardon, ma’am,” he said with a bow. “I assure you that I will be speaking with Lord Essex shortly after I have a word with Lady Madeline.”

The implication of his statement was crystal clear.

The room that had been loud with chatter quieted.

“I say, Gresham,” Mr. George Vinson said with a touch of annoyance, “do you mean to cut the rest of us out that easily? Not sporting of you. Not a bit.”

A chorus of agreement rose up among the other young men.

Their objections, however, held no weight with Lady Essex, who dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “I will allow my daughter to speak with you, my lord,” she said to Christian, “though I will have your word that you will speak to Lord Essex before you quit this house.”

Christian bowed to Maddie’s mother. “You have my word.”

To Maddie, she said, her eyes broadcasting her wishes, “My dear, please do be sure to listen to Lord Gresham’s speech most carefully.”

Maddie reflected that if Lady Essex were aware of the intimacies she’d shared with Christian last night she would be demanding that her daughter listen to the man’s proposal, rather than requesting.

Nodding to her mother, Maddie put her hand lightly on Christian’s arm as he led her down the hallway to the sitting room where she’d met with Amelia earlier.

He’d left the door open slightly, as was proper, though Maddie thought it rather foolish. But such was the way of proprieties. They really did little to ensure that the lines between good behavior and bad were never crossed.

“Come,” he said quietly, reaching for her arm and pulling her toward him. “Are you well?” he asked, looking into her face, as if trying to determine her mind before she spoke.

“Quite well,” she said, ducking her head with a blush. She was finding it rather more difficult to look him in the eye in the light of day than it had been last night. “And you?”

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “I am well, as well. Also. Too.”

“You are a silly, silly man,” she said, though she meant it with affection. She had come to appreciate his sense of the absurd as much as his strength and loyalty. Who would wish to be tied to a man who never laughed? she wondered, leaping ahead to what she knew this interview was truly about. Not their well-being or their absurdity, but their marriage.

“I am,” he said solemnly, pulling her closer, “but I’ll be your silly man if you’ll have me.”

The confirmation that they were of one mind made Maddie’s heart beat faster. How dreadful it would be to tie him to her if he did not wish it, she thought. She risked a glance up at his eyes. “Are you sure?” she asked, knowing that if he said no she would be wretched for a long time to come.

“I rather think that is what I’m supposed to ask you,” he said seriously. Lifting a hand to stroke her cheek, he said, “Will you have me, Maddie? If so, are you sure?”

Unable to speak around the lump in her throat, Maddie, who had long been the most outspoken of her cousins, nodded, hoping that he understood that she was answering yes to both.

“Then there’s nothing for it but to do the thing properly,” Christian said with a grin, dropping to one knee and taking possession of her hands again.

“Lady Madeline Essex,” he asked, looking at her with such affection and something else that looked suspiciously like love, that she nearly dropped his hands. “Will you do me the great honor of becoming the Countess of Gresham, and not inconsequentially, my wife?”

“Of course I will, you great gudgeon,” she said, pulling him to his feet and embracing him so that he wouldn’t see her tears. “Of course I will.”

He took her by the shoulders and held her away from him. “What’s this, Maddie? Tears?” Christian leaned in and kissed first her eyes, and then traced the path of a tear down her cheek to her mouth.

But his lips had no sooner met Maddie’s than the sound of a throat clearing made them leap apart.

“Am I to take this display of ardor to mean that you have accepted his lordship’s proposal, Madeline?” Lady Essex, accompanied by a less than pleased looking Lord Essex, said from the doorway.

“Hypothetically,” Maddie said with a smile.

Her mother was not amused. “What do you mean, hypothetically? My lord, I was given to understand that your proposal was sincere.”

“Indeed it was, your ladyship,” Christian said, with a warning glance at Maddie. “I fear Lady Madeline was simply referring to the fact that I have not yet spoken to her father.”

“Then let me put your minds at rest,” Lord Essex said firmly. “You have my permission to wed my daughter, Gresham. Just as soon as we can arrange it.”

Maddie frowned. Her parents couldn’t know about the need for them to wed in haste. She had planned to work up to telling them of the necessity.

Christian squeezed her hand. “My lord,” he began, “it’s not that I do not wholeheartedly agree that we should marry before the week ends, but is there a particular reason why
you
think we should?”

The earl’s jaw clenched. “I had not meant to discuss the matter in front of the ladies, Gresham,” he said curtly, “but as you have brought up the subject, I suppose we may as well get it out in the open.”

Turning to pace before the fireplace, Lord Essex stopped and faced them. “I have heard talk this morning that you were seen kissing my daughter during a card party at Lady Emily Fielding’s home last evening.”

“Oh, Papa, it’s not—” Maddie began, feeling shamed to the roots of her hair by the look on her father’s face.

“Do not tell me what it is not, young lady,” the earl snapped. “You were behaving like the veriest lightskirt before an audience last night. Emulating that Fielding widow, no doubt. And bringing censure down on the family while you were at it.”

Maddie would have objected, but Christian was there before her.

“I must ask that you keep a civil tongue in your head when you are speaking with my future wife, Lord Essex,” he said, his hand firm and warm in hers. “It is true that we kissed at Lady Fielding’s last night, but it’s over and done now and there’s nothing to be done about it. And I must respectfully tell you that if you ever refer to Lady Madeline in such vile terms again I will not hesitate to defend her to you on the field of honor.”

Maddie’s eyes widened at Christian’s threat to meet her father over his insult. She’d known that if society learned of the incident at Lady Emily’s, there would be some price to pay—and she supposed that their betrothal was a payment against that bill—but she had to admit that she hadn’t thought through the ramifications of the scandal on her reputation with her family. It was a jarring realization, and hearing her father’s insult followed by Christian’s defense of her emphasized just how serious the matter was.