Regency 03 - Deception (10 page)

“
What relationship? Lord Greville
is nothing to me,” she lied, more than a little shocked by what
she’d just learned. “And why should his mistress seek me out even
if there was any truth behind the rumors?”

“
For one thing,” Northwicke
inserted, “she is no longer his mistress. He dropped her shortly
after meeting you. Second, we don’t think she took the separation
well. She quit acting the day after Levi dropped her. He is worried
about her, but she refuses to see him. The most troubling thing is
she refuses to see Bri as well. She’s never done that
before.”

Aurora looked at Adam again. “Why would your wife
wish to see the woman who was once your mistress?” she asked with a
searching look. She tried to ignore the warm little glow that
started when Connor told her of Levi’s dropping his mistress right
after meeting her, Aurora.

“
They are friends,” Adam replied
dryly.

“
Oh.”

“
Yes, well, that is neither here
nor there,” said Northwicke. “If you want to befriend Raven, that
is your decision, my dear. Just be careful.” He stood as Garrett
returned with Ellie, Rhiannon and the maid trailing
behind.

Adam rose as well and offered his arm to Aurora.
“May we escort you home?” he asked gently.

Aurora nodded and placed her hand on Sir Adam’s arm.
Lord Connor fell into step with little Rhiannon and the maid.
Garrett continued as escort for Miss Ellison.

Adam allowed the rest of the party to get ahead of
them. “I am sorry to have distressed you, Miss Glendenning.”

“
Think nothing of it, sir,” Aurora
responded automatically. “I needed to know. And please call me
Rory.”

“
That would not be acceptable, you
know. Can your reputation withstand it?”

Aurora shrugged. “It matters little at this point, I
think. Lord Derringer’s actions probably ruined my chances for
marriage.”

A moment passed in which Adam said nothing, having
nothing to say that would refute the truth in her belief. “And will
you continue to see Raven Emerson, little Rory?” he asked
curiously, an engaging half-smile tipping his lips.

“
I do not yet know,” she answered
honestly. “She was very pleasant to be with and she did hint that
she is not acceptable in Society. But she is a woman, Sir Adam, and
needs friendship just like any other woman. I will have to think
about it, I suppose.”

“
Wise decision, my dear,” Adam
said pleasantly. “And I do hope that she is not out to cause
trouble. She is a very good friend when one has need.”

Aurora looked up at her tall companion.
There was something in his voice that suggested Raven had been just
such a friend to him on more than one occasion. She filed this away
in the back of her mind to ponder later.

*

Levi burst through the drawing room door of Lockwood
House. “Hide me, Bri!”

Bri leapt up from her place next to her husband and
Adam leaned back against the sofa with a look of supreme annoyance.
He glared at Levi as though he could make the importuning young man
disappear by doing so. Levi was too busy drawing the drapes and
peering through the resultant crack to notice Adam’s behavior.

“
Vi, what the devil is the
matter?” his cousin demanded tersely as she beheld his daft
actions.

“
Mama is coming,” he replied
without turning around or relaxing his vigilant search up and down
the deserted street.

“
Oh, Lord,” Bri murmured as she
sank back down on the sofa next to Adam. He placed a casual arm
around her shoulders and lifted one dark brow in silent
inquiry.

“
Levi’s mama is very difficult,”
Bri said tactfully as Levi switched to the other set of windows and
continued his odd actions there.

“
Difficult, how?” Adam inquired
with deceptive mildness.

Levi answered him, again without turning or easing
tension. “She is a shrew, Bri, no need to smooth over the truth.
She is a shrew with a penchant for spending money faster than I can
win it. And since I have quit gambling, I have stopped sending her
money and she has now written to tell me that she will arrive this
morning in order to discover why.”

“
Heaven help us,” Bri said
piously.

Adam sat up with an arrested expression on his face.
“You were gambling to support your spendthrift mama?” he asked in
amazement.

“
In part,” Levi admitted. He bit
his lower lip and stared up the street, his brows drawn down in
concentration. “I do enjoy playing cards, Adam. Well, I did, at any
rate. I got bored with that and started losing.”

“
And you were playing with
Percival Winters,” Adam remarked.

“
What?” Bri exclaimed. “Is this
true, Vi?”

The earl glanced at his family. “Yes, it is true. I
know the blackguard is not always aboveboard, but he made for an
interesting game.”

“
And every time you lost, was it
to him?” Adam inquired calmly.

The earl returned his attention to the scene
outside. “I suppose it was,” he admitted after a moment of intense
thought. He swiveled his head to regard Adam. “Do you think he was
cheating?”

“
I know he was.”

“
I guess it is a good thing I quit
playing, especially with him.” He stared out the window again,
straining his ears for the sound of his mother’s
arrival.

Silence reigned for several minutes. Levi’s
attention never wavered from the scene outside the drawing room
window and Adam sat back with his arm around his wife trying to
calm her. Her agitation couldn’t be good for the baby.

“
And if you did not want to be
disturbed, why the devil did you even get out of bed this early?”
Levi asked as he finally turned to his relatives with an impish
grin, proving that he had been fully conscious of the situation
before he had started enacting his little scene of
terror.

Bri blushed and hid her face in her hands. Adam
scowled at the earl and retorted, “Why are you in my house? My
house, Vi. Not yours, not Bri’s, mine. I can do what I please
within these walls, where I please.”

Levi shrugged. “Then lock the door,” he said
pleasantly as he glanced out the window again. His grin disappeared
as the sound of carriage wheels reached him. “Damn, she is
arrived.”

“
And
why
is she coming
here
?” Adam asked dangerously.

“
Because I’m staying here,” Levi
replied in a tone that suggested Adam should have known
that.

“
I mean,” Adam said from between
clenched teeth, “why does she not stay at Bri’s house in
Mayfair?”

Both Bri and Levi looked at him as if his wits had
gone begging. “You expect Mama to live in Mayfair?” Levi asked,
astounded. “That is hardly a respectable address anymore. Raven
even lives in Mayfair now.”

The countess glared at her cousin. “And what has
that to do with it?”

“
She is a member of the
fashionable impure and an actress, love,” Adam pointed out
reasonably.

“
If Mama found out she was sharing
her street with such a person, she would have my guts for
garters.”

“
That is disgusting,” Bri
commented, her mild tone at odds with her words.

Adam laughed. “That is tame compared to the filth I
heard out of your mouth not too long ago,” he told her as he
pinched her arm.

“
Hush,” Bri admonished.

“
Very well, my love,” Adam replied
equably.

Adam’s butler entered the room with a forbidding
expression on his normally wooden countenance. “Lady Greville,” he
announced in sepulcher accents.

Adam rose to his feet along with his wife. Levi
edged closer to them with a look of fear on his boyish face that
was at definite odds with his size.

Lady Greville moved into the room like a warship in
full sail. She stopped on the threshold and studied the room’s
occupants with the air of someone studying a new and
not-so-fascinating species of insect.

Anyone with eyes could see that Levi got his massive
size from his mother. Nearly as wide as her son and taller than
average, Lady Greville’s size owed nothing to the muscle her son
could lay claim to. Only a few streaks of gray marred her dark
brown hair and her small, dark eyes looked like over-ripe currants
in a mound of pasty-colored dough.

Her gown—a garish monstrosity of chartreuse silk
striped with pinkish orange and embroidered with brightly colored
fruits and flowers—was of a cut more suited to a young girl than a
mature matron. A plump, rouged and painted face peeked out from an
equally garish bonnet.

Taking in the glory that was Lady Greville, the
room’s occupants might be forgiven for thinking she was not Lady
Greville at all but the famous clown, Grimaldi, come to entertain
them. Or perhaps an escaped attraction from Astley’s Circus.

“
Well, are you going to greet your
mama, boy?” she demanded in a gravely voice that had her audience
gritting their teeth.

Levi moved forward and kissed her hand. He was
thankfully able to repress a shudder at the smell of musk and
unwashed body that emanated from her person. Lady Greville did not
believe in this new-fangled nonsense of bathing regularly. She
personally thought that Brummell, who started the fashion of
bathing all over with regularity, was a nodcock and anyone aspiring
to his sartorial elegance and manner was a loose screw as well.

She turned her attention to Bri and Adam. The duo
smiled pleasantly enough but said nothing.

Bri nudged her husband none-too-gently in the ribs.
“Say something,” she hissed through clenched teeth and a smile only
a half-wit would believe was sincere.

“
You told me to hush,” Adam hissed
back. “Oomph!”

“
What was that, young man?” the
countess inquired imperiously.

Adam rubbed at his bruised ribs and scowled at his
smiling wife. “Welcome to Lockwood House, my lady,” Adam said with
a bow. “If you would be so good as to follow Mrs. Campion, she will
show you to your rooms.” He smiled pleasantly at Levi’s mama. Well,
as pleasantly as could be expected from a man with bruised ribs, an
unwelcome guest, and a pregnant wife whose moods were as mercurial
as the English weather.

The housekeeper stepped forward in order to do her
master’s bidding. Lady Greville ignored the servant and glared at
her niece. “And what about you, missy? Are you not going to welcome
your beloved aunt?”

Adam received another poke in the ribs when he
smirked at the woman’s mistaken view of herself. Levi tried to
sneak around his mother, feeling every inch the coward and not
caring one jot. Anyone who knew his mother would understand.

Bri moved forward to greet her aunt. Unfortunately,
her pregnancy still gave her a touch of queasiness upon occasion.
She smiled and accidentally inhaled the aroma of Lady Greville. Her
face turned a shade of yellow-green that was truly remarkable for
how closely it matched her aunt’s gown. Clapping a hand to her
mouth, she fled before she disgraced herself by casting up her
accounts all over her “beloved” aunt.

Adam muttered something and followed his wife out,
leaving the earl to fend for himself. Mrs. Campion was quick to
follow in the baronet’s wake to help her mistress in any way she
could.

Levi sighed, his normal sunny countenance falling.
“Well, Mama,” he said as he helped her to a chair. “How are
you?”

The woman settled her bulk on the recently abandoned
sofa, ignoring the chair Levi had directed her to. Levi eyed the
dainty chair with misgiving. He had never realized before that his
cousin’s taste in furniture was more pleasing to the eye than
sturdy.

Lady Greville removed her ugly bonnet and set it
beside her. “Explain,” she commanded curtly.

Levi knew exactly what she was referring to but he
wanted to delay the moment of his execution as long as possible.
“Explain what?” he asked with a quizzical expression.

“
Why have you cut off my
allowance, Greville?” she demanded. “I have not been able to
purchase a new gown for the past three weeks.”

Thank God for that.
“Indeed, Mama. I am
sorry.”

“
Why have you done it? I have
found the most beautiful silk in the most delightful shade of
pomegranate and I had planned to have it made into the most
becoming gown. But because of you I cannot even afford to buy it,”
she complained.

“
We never could,” he muttered to
himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn’t raise his
voice, knowing exactly what his mother’s response would
be.

She heard him anyway. “Nonsense, Greville. We are of
the upper class. We can afford anything we choose.”

Not when the money wasn’t there to support the claim
to wealth. Levi met his mother’s eyes. “What has stopped you from
making your purchase, Mother?”

“
You cut off my funds, I told you.
Are you not listening to a word I am saying?” Her voice took on the
tones of a petulant child.

He shook his head, sure he was missing something but
unable to put his finger on it. “What has that to do with anything?
Credit would still get you whatever your heart desires.”
Unless
it’s another house.

Lady Greville’s face mottled with rage. “They have
cut us off, Greville. They will advance no more credit. I told them
what you would do when you returned but they laughed and said they
would sell me nothing until you settled the accounts.”