How to Entice an Earl (36 page)

“You didn’t,” Juliet said, raising a hand to cover her mouth. Her eyes widened as Maddie nodded her head in confirmation. “You did!”

“Miss Amelia Snowe,” Yeats said, opening the door to usher Amelia into Maddie’s inner sanctum.

Her eyes narrowed, the beauty looked at the three cousins, seated so carelessly around the tea table. “Lady Gresham,” she said, offering a slight curtsy. “To what do I owe the very surprising invitation?”

Maddie stood and waved her guest over to the table, pulling a chair over from the other side of the room for her. Once Amelia was seated, Maddie picked up the dance card from the table.

“I believe this belongs to you,” Maddie said, proffering the mother-of-pearl-and-gold fan to her.

Amelia reached out and took it from her. Opening the card like a fan, she looked at the names scrawled on the ivory petals in pencil. And turned it over, frowning as she read the admonition to:
smile, bat, tilt.

“I found it in the retiring room at the Bewle ball,” Cecily said carefully. “I believe you dropped it.”

“We’ve been meaning to get it back to you this age,” Juliet said casually, as if she were discussing a missing glove.

Amelia looked up at them. She looked … confused.

“This isn’t mine,” she said finally, setting it back on the table.

“Of course it is,” Maddie said with a strained laugh. “Who else could it belong to?”

“I have no idea, Lady Gresham,” Amelia said, for the first time in Maddie’s memory showing genuine emotion. “I do have one like it.”

She pulled open the drawstring of her reticule and pulled out a dance card identical to the one on the table. “You see?” She held it out to her and Maddie took it. Sure enough, when she unfurled it like a fan, the petals were empty of names. As it would be if Amelia had planned to use it again before the end of the season.

Amelia laughed. “I must admit, I was quite puzzled when you asked me to call on you, Lady Gresham. Though I had hoped that we might have gotten past our earlier … enmity.”

“You mean when you shrieked like a banshee at Maddie’s betrothal ball?” Cecily asked casually. “I would call that enmity.”

Maddie shushed her cousin. “That’s all behind us, Cecily. Miss Snowe and I came to an understanding. She’s the one who told me about Gresham’s trip to the Hidden Pearl.”

Juliet choked on her tea. “I hadn’t realized that.”

“Oh, yes,” Maddie said seriously. “She did me a great service. Without that news I might not have known of the threats against my brother and Lord Tretham. So thank you, Miss Snowe.”

Amelia looked at the floor. “I perhaps didn’t have the best motives for that visit, Lady Gresham.” She looked up, her cornflower-blue eyes shadowed with remorse. “I was so angry, you see. That the three of you had all managed to get husbands before the end of the season while my prospects just seemed to dwindle with every day that passed. And when I overheard my brother talking about Gresham at the Hidden Pearl, I decided to tell you. In an effort to destroy your marriage.”

She looked up. “I am sorry, now. I’ve done a number of things this season that I am not particularly proud of.” She turned to Juliet. “Like mocking your limp. And worse when the truth of your injury became known.” Now she turned to Cecily. “I was simply horrid to you as well.”

Maddie watched as the young lady who had gossiped and harangued and in general made her and her cousins’ lives difficult over the past few years sat before them. It would be easy to dismiss her now. To tell her that she had burned her bridges with them and would never be allowed the luxury of their forgiveness.

But that would be the wrong thing to do. In her heart she knew it. Remembering how she and Juliet had spilled punch on Amelia’s gown at the Bewle ball, she realized that she and her cousins had been just as awful in their own way to Amelia as she had been to them.

It was time for all that nonsense to stop.

“I forgive you,” Maddie said, catching her cousins’ startled eyes and willing them to follow her lead. “We all forgive you. For everything. But only if you’ll forgive us for our own bad behavior.”

“Yes,” Cecily said with a slight shrug. “We were hardly innocents.”

“I suppose I can forgive the cruel remarks about my limp,” Juliet said carefully.

Perhaps sensing that Juliet’s case might be the most difficult to navigate, Amelia reached across the table to touch Juliet’s hand. “I am so sorry, Lady Deveril. It was horrible what I said and did to you. I am ashamed to admit it, but I was so desperately jealous that you’d caught Lord Deveril’s eye. I said the first thing that I could think of that would put you in your place and would keep me on my pedestal.

“But it was lonely there on that pedestal,” Amelia continued. “With only Felicia for comfort. Do you know how awful she is?”

“I have some idea,” Juliet said wryly. “Perhaps you’ve been punished already.”

They all laughed together at that.

“Peace, then, Amelia?” Maddie asked.

The other girl smiled, and for the first time since she’d met her, Maddie thought that Amelia was actually quite as pretty as she was rumored to be.

They had settled back down with their teacups when a soft mewl sounded from the other side of the room.

Cecily sat bolt upright. “I almost forgot!”

Rushing over to the table where the basket she’d brought with her sat, she picked it up and hurried over to the cozy corner. “We had the most shocking surprise last week,” she said over the noises coming from the basket. “You’ll never guess.”

Opening the lid, she revealed her cat, Ginger, who was nursing three kittens. One black, one tabby, and one snow white.

“Ginger’s a girl!” Juliet cried, leaning over to get a better look at the kittens. “How marvelous.”

“We didn’t know until we found him with the kittens,” Cecily said, shaking her head. “I thought he was finally growing up. He was small when Winterson gave him to me, but I thought that was because he was still a kitten. Instead he was small because he was a female.”

“I want the black one,” Maddie said, lifting out the tiny mewling baby and snuggling him to her ear. “I’ve always wanted a black cat.”

“I would love to have the white one,” Juliet said, slipping a gentle hand down to remove that one from the basket.

Amelia peered over the edge of the basket, looking in wonder at the ginger-haired tabby who moved toward the side of the basket and began to climb out.

“You shall have the ginger, Amelia,” Cecily said, lifting him to put him in her outstretched hand. “He likes you.”

The ginger kitten, not knowing that he was being held by the most reviled beauty in London, began licking her palm with his tiny sandpaper tongue. Amelia laughed.

The cousins exchanged a look. None of them had ever heard her laugh.

“May I?” Amelia asked, her eyes filling with tears. “I’ve never had a pet before. Mama forbids them. But I think I could keep him hidden in my bedchamber.”

“Of course,” Cecily said, lifting out her own Ginger from the basket and cuddling her close.

The four ladies sat playing with the kittens and Ginger for some time.

Like friends.

Epilogue

“How long has it been since the last report?” Winterson demanded, his hair sticking up at all angles while he paced the Aubusson rug in his study.

“Only an hour, old man,” Deveril said, putting an arm over the other man’s shoulder and drawing him to the leather sofa.

“How about a drink?” Gresham asked from the sideboard where he poured out three glasses of brandy.

As married ladies, Juliet and Maddie had been allowed into the bedchamber where Cecily labored to bring the next generation of Wintersons into the world. Though Maddie had confided to him that she was not quite prepared for the realities of the birthing process, Christian had known that when the time came she’d not be kept away from her cousin’s bedside. She was a brave girl, his Maddie. And come next summer, she’d be going through the whole business herself, so he knew she was taking mental notes.

“Babies are born all the time,” Deveril offered, taking the drink from Gresham. “Cecily will be right as rain. You’ll see.”

“Spoken like a man whose wife hasn’t gone through the process,” Winterson growled, getting up to pace again.

A brisk knock on the door had them all turning. Smiling, despite the tears coursing down her cheeks, Maddie stepped in.

“It’s a boy!” she cried, rushing over to hug the duke, who was looking suspiciously close to tears himself.

“Cecily is well?” he demanded. “Tell me, Maddie. I can handle it.”

Maddie laughed. “Of course she is,” she told him. “She wishes to see you as soon as you are avail…” She trailed off as Winterson sped out of the room and up the stairs.

Deveril excused himself to go find Juliet, and Maddie and Christian were left alone.

Wordlessly, she stepped into the circle of his arms.

“Well?” he asked. “Was it as terrifying as you expected?”

She thought about it. “Yes and no. It was amazing. And I will no longer doubt that Cecily is the strongest woman I’ve ever known. But it was quite natural in its way.”

“Will you be able to endure it, do you think?” Maddie felt the tension in his body and smiled. He was frightened on her behalf, the dear man.

“I think so,” she said, lifting up to kiss him. “Though I think I should like for you to be there with me.”

She felt the terror course through him. But all he said was, “If you wish it.”

That was one of the million things she loved about him. Despite his own fear, despite his own natural inclination, Christian would walk on water if she asked it of him. Because he trusted that if she asked there was a darn good reason for it.

“I do,” she said, leading him to the leather sofa. “Because I cannot imagine bringing your child into the world without your being there to meet him.”

He squeezed her hand. “I might pass out, you know.”

“And so might I,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder.

“Love you,” he said, holding her close.

“Not as much as I love you,” she said.

And they both knew that it was enough.

Also by Manda Collins

How to Dance with a Duke

How to Romance a Rake

Praise for Manda Collins’s delightful debut …

How to Dance with a Duke

“A fast-paced, adventurous love story that will enthrall readers. Her dynamic characters, a murder, and passion combine with the perfect amount of lively repartee.”

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“If Manda Collins keeps writing novels like [this], she is sure to become a bestseller.”

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Blue Ribbon Review

“A vivid reminder of why I love historical romances.… an excellent debut by Manda Collins that has me desperate for the next book in this trilogy.”

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Top Pick

“Manda Collins is a sparkling new voice in romantic fiction. Her smart, witty storytelling will keep readers turning pages.”

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How to Dance with a Duke
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“Sexy, thrilling, and romantic—whether she’s writing of the mysteries of the heart or of the shady underworld of Egyptian relic smuggling, Manda Collins makes her Regency world a place any reader would want to dwell.”

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