Regency 03 - Deception (12 page)

“
Not in the park. Why are you in
London? What are you looking for?”

“
The same as any young lady in
London for the Season. A husband.”

“
What are your
requirements?”

“
Why?”

He hardly knew. He didn’t want nor did he need to
know. He already suspected. His spies had been very thorough in
regard to Miss Glendenning.

Shrugging, his reply sounded as uninterested as he
intended. “Humor me.”

But Aurora Glendenning refused to be drawn. She gave
him a placid look, as if trying to take his measure and unsure what
to make of him.

Which was quite acceptable to him. He smiled. She
glanced away, most likely to reassure herself that her sister was
safe but he was unprepared for her sudden gasp of shock.

The duke followed her line of vision, seeing a man
of quite the prettiest countenance he’d ever beheld. As blond as
Aurora, the man would have made a perfect match for the lovely
Glendenning chit.

Aurora looked away, closed her eyes, mumbled
something the duke couldn’t comprehend, and looked back. Derringer
knew what she would see, since his gaze had never really left the
other man.

“
He’s gone, Rory.”

She turned at his soft tone, attempting a smile and
a shaky, nonchalant, “Who?”

Her breathing returned to normal as the tension
slowly left her body. Derringer resisted the urge to comfort her,
his need to remain aloof paramount.

“
Who is he?”

But Aurora Glendenning was as stubborn as Derringer.
She pursed her lips and refused to say more.

Admitting defeat for the nonce, the duke rose. His
dark eyes fastened on the lovely countenance before him. “Be aware,
Miss Aurora Glendenning of the Staffordshire Glendennings, what you
don’t tell Levi will come to light. You would do well to pray that
your love for him is enough.”

~~~~~~

“
Are you all right?”

The deep voice came from the shadows near the
cracked door. Aurora smiled through her tears and tried to stifle
them before the earl got a good look at her. She was too late,
however, since he left the shadows and approached her where she
stood at the open window of the antechamber.

They were both guests of Lady Osmond at her ball in
honor of her daughter’s comeout. Aurora and Levi had laughingly
agreed that the poor girl resembled nothing so much as a horse
munching on a particularly sour pickle. Parties were obviously not
to the young lady’s taste.

Aurora’s laughter had dissolved into tears. Excusing
herself on the flimsy reason of a torn flounce, she’d fled to the
chamber in which she now stood. Apparently she hadn’t fled far
enough.

Levi took her arm and turned her so her face was in
the moonlight. She looked down and he gently brushed a tear away
with his thumb. One hand cradled her face, his touch failing to
warm the coldness inside her.

“
Tell me what ails you,” he
implored, leaning closer.

Aurora shook her head and stepped away from him,
back into the shadows. He stayed where he was and watched her with
a perplexed look on his face.

“
Rory, love, tell me, please,” he
begged. He took a step toward her and she backed away. “What the
devil ails you? You act as though I have done something wrong the
way you keep moving away. What is it?”

“
It is nothing,” she whispered.
Indeed, she could hardly define her feelings in her own mind.
Everything just seemed to coalesce into this one evening, every
emotion, every longing, and every memory of why she so desperately
needed a powerful husband.

And how unlikely that all seemed now. Derringer’s
actions at Almack’s had had some pretty far-reaching results, not
least of which was the loss of her vouchers. The patronesses could
not countenance the attendance of one who’d captured the duke’s eye
in such an unflattering manner.

“
I am just sad, that is
all.”

“
That is all?” Lord Greville said
in disbelief. This time when he approached her she stayed where she
was. He took her hand and nudged her in the direction of the sofa
not three feet from where they stood.

“
Tell me what is troubling you,
Aurora Glendenning,” he commanded softly.

How would he react if she confessed her love for
him?

What Lord Derringer had said was true. She was
deeply, irrevocably in love with Levi Greville. The realization had
made her just a trifle melancholy ever since. She’d told the earl
too many lies and kept too much from him for her to expect him to
ever trust her much less love her back. Her desolation consumed
her.

She couldn’t possibly tell him any of that. So she
sat mum and stared at their entwined fingers. He very softly
stroked his thumb over the back of her hand and she wondered if he
could have any idea how his very gentleness was tearing her
apart.

“
Rory,” he whispered.

She looked up into his dark eyes. They looked black
in the light of the moon. She sensed more than saw the question in
his look. She didn’t look away and nodded her head almost
imperceptibly, with no conscious thought that she would do so.

His hand released hers and came up to gently cradle
her face. His other arm went around her waist and drew her closer,
lips touching hers with infinite tenderness, like the caress of
moonbeams.

She sighed and her lips parted. The sudden
fluttering in her stomach at the touch of his tongue nearly made
her jump. She tried to garner the urge to move away from him, but
there was nothing she wanted more at that moment than to be
thoroughly kissed by him.

The sensations she experienced with Levi Greville
eclipsed any paltry feelings she might have ever had for Desmond
Forester. She had never imagined making love could be so very
wonderful. She realized Desmond had taught her nothing of making
love and had only robbed her of her virginity.

None of that mattered now. Aurora forced the
memories away, allowed herself to live in the moment, and kissed
him back with all the love she felt.

Slipping her arms around his neck, she pulled him
closer, hardly noticing when he left her lips to trail kisses over
her neck. Tiny pinpoints of sensation erupted through her body,
centering in her middle where it burned into a desire to have him
closer still.

And then, some niggling twinge of discontent entered
her mind, some unwelcome doubt that pierced the bubble of desire
and broke her from its hold.

She’d experienced the act once before with
unpleasant results.

As Levi stroked his fingers over her neck, Aurora
tried to pull away. In the haze of dissipating passion, a new sound
entered the room.

The door creaked.

Within seconds, the room was flooded with light and
party guests. The couple broke apart, looking as guilty as humanly
possible.

“
Well, this is not a wholly
unexpected turn of events, I must say,” remarked a distinctly
heartless voice.

~~~~~~

“
He has not compromised me!” Miss
Glendenning exclaimed furiously. Her vivid blush put the lie to her
statement. “He has not”—her voice broke—“compromised me,” she ended
on a tearful note. She raced from the antechamber with a concerned
Miss Ellison and a worried Lady Connor following in her
wake.

Northwicke managed to clear the room of all but
Adam, Bri, and Lord Derringer. He had tried to convince the duke to
leave but no one made the Duke of Derringer do anything he did not
want to. With a shrug, Lord Connor followed his wife.

Adam and Bri confronted Levi with concern and a
large measure of disappointment plainly visible in their
expressions. The duke’s benign look was no better. Levi stared at
the closed door as if he very much wanted to flee as well.

Lady Prestwich approached her cousin and laid a hand
on his arm. “Vi, what happened?”

Levi threw off her hand and glared at Adam when that
gentleman took a step forward to defend his wife. His gaze settled
on everyone in turn, measuring each reaction and discarding the
results. Their opinions mattered little.

Bri held her husband back with a single gesture,
ignoring Derringer’s look of derision.

Releasing a bitter laugh, Levi’s disbelieving
expression made his next words unnecessary. “You know what
happened.”

“
It was only a slight chance, but
I had hoped there was some logical explanation for what we saw,”
she told him with far more patience than was her wont.

Everyone ignored the mocking snort that came from
the duke’s direction.

“
Are you blind?” the earl scoffed.
“Five more minutes and I’d have had her skirts up over her head.”
That thought caused a tightening in his middle that threatened to
spread lower unless he got his thoughts under control.

Bri locked a stern expression on her cousin. “You
have
compromised her, Vi. I saw Silence Jersey out in the
corridor. Rory is completely ruined now.”

“
Bloody hell, Bri, do you not
think I know that?”

He spun around and slammed his fist into the wall
leaving a telltale mark. He stood there staring at the impression,
his fists clenching rhythmically at his sides. He would need to pay
to repair that, he thought dully.

Adam and Bri just watched him silently as he
struggled to compose himself. The duke shook his head at his
friend.

The earl collapsed into a chair with no thought for
his bad manners. His cousin, Lady Rothsmere, still stood. Dropping
his head into his hands, he released a sigh that rumbled from his
chest.

He hated what was happening but he couldn’t go back
and change anything now. He wasn’t sure he would even if he could.
No, that wasn’t right. He’d lock the door, he thought with a twinge
of his usual sense of the ridiculous.

With a huge sigh, Levi looked up at his cousin and
her husband. “I know I have ruined her,” he said with far more calm
than before. “And I will spend the rest of the Season trying to
convince her of that.”

“
Oh, I think she will agree
readily enough that she is ruined,” Adam inserted with a frown.
“Everyone she meets will be sure to let her know in some way. I
don’t think even Derringer here could have effected such a splendid
scandal,” he added with sneer aimed in the duke’s direction. The
duke, of course, merely bowed in recognition of the truth of the
statement.

“
What are you going to do?” Bri
inquired, her brow furrowed and a distinct expression of concern
marring her features.

“
I am going to marry the chit.”
His dark brows drew down into a V. “What did you think I would do?
Let her live in a hell of my creation all by herself?”

“
And if she doesn’t agree with
you?” Adam asked then.

“
She will not,” Derringer inserted
confidently.

Levi’s look of annoyance encompassed both gentlemen.
“I’ll convince her to marry me if it’s the last thing I do,” he
said determinedly. “Even if it takes the rest of my life to do
it.”

“
Perhaps you should ask her to
tell you the truth before you decide to align your name with hers,”
the duke offered, one finger tapping his chin.

Everyone swung around to stare at him. “What?” Adam
asked.

Derringer shrugged, waving his hand in the air. His
attention never wavered from his friend. “That girl is full of
secrets, Vi. Her love or yours may not be enough to see you
through.”

It was the earl’s turn to scoff. “Loves me? The
devil she does! She hates me, Hart. And she has every right to her
feelings, too, after tonight.”

The duke shrugged and actually looked confused.
“Does a woman respond that way to a man she hates? I must test this
theory.” He fell silent, contemplating his clueless friend.

Levi stared at Derringer for a few tense moments. He
remembered thinking that Aurora seemed to find it very easy to lie.
He remembered how she had kept her illustrious family connections a
secret. He remembered wondering what other things she was hiding
from him.

And he found he didn’t care. He wanted her. He would
marry her even if he had to kidnap her and spirit her away to
Gretna Green and marry her over the anvil against her will.

And she would fight him every step of the way, he
knew.

Levi leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and
stared at the floor between his feet. She would fight him forever
if he forced her to do anything. He would never win her love if he
did that.

That’s what he wanted more than anything. He wanted
her love.

“
Damn her,” he muttered to the
floor. “And damn me for being fool enough to fall in love with
her.”

~~~~~~

Aurora wept miserably in the arms of her dearest
friend. Miss Ellison just patted her on the back, telling her
everything would come out right in the end.

“
I am sure he will do the
honorable thing and offer marriage, my dear. He is a gentleman,
after all.”

“
That is no comfort,” she muttered
into Miss Ellison’s shoulder.

Aurora was in love with Lord Greville. He desired
her only and now he would have to marry her. She wouldn’t do it,
she swore fiercely. She wouldn’t ruin his life by chaining him to a
woman that he couldn’t possibly love. She would bear the scandal
alone and try to make a life for herself in spite of the
persecution she was sure to have to endure because of it all.

She couldn’t marry him, anyway. If he discovered the
extent of her deception, he would come to hate her and that she
simply could not bear.