Regency 03 - Deception (2 page)

Connor smirked and turned a feral glare on Winters
who actually had the gall to remain in the same room with him. “Are
you not wanted somewhere, Percy?” he drawled.

Levi watched all of this with wide eyes. He appeared
surprised, possibly scared to the casual observer. Upon closer
inspection, one might notice a suspicious brightness in the earl’s
eyes as Levi was in fact trying very hard not to laugh.

He actually didn’t like Winters. He only played with
the man since he was always available. It was satisfying to see him
taken down a peg. He was too toplofty for his own good. The man
didn’t even possess a title!

Winters growled something too low for Levi to hear
but Northwicke grinned. “I would love to call you out, Winters.
What say you and I step over to Jackson’s and go a round or two? I
would prefer a more worthy opponent, but you’ll do.”

Percival Winters rose with as much dignity as he
could muster under such an insult and stomped out of Brooks’s Club,
barely remembering to pause for his hat and stick. Levi let one
snicker escape.

Northwicke’s glare suddenly turned on him and Levi
had to force himself not to shrink back into his seat. Eden
Farnsworth tossed a nervous glance between the two men and hastily
took his leave. Levi and Northwicke were left alone at the
table.

“
Care for a drink?” Levi offered.
His brow furrowed slightly. “Look like you could use
one.”

Northwicke wordlessly accepted the glass of burgundy
that Levi pushed across the table. He stared hard at the earl until
Levi squirmed involuntarily. Satisfied, Northwicke quaffed the wine
in his glass and smiled congenially at his companion.

“
Just what the devil are you doing
here, Levi?” His tone and words were at war with his hard
expression.

“
Did Adam send you in here to
rescue
me?”

“
No, I hear things. You’re said to
be swimming up River Tick voluntarily and with a smile on your
face. Not wise, my boy.”

“
For your information, my lord,”
Levi retorted indignantly, “I was winning when you broke up our
game. And I have a plan to get ahead of the duns.”

“
Let me guess,” the other man
offered sardonically. “You have a never-fail bet riding on a horse
called Gypsy’s Fortune because some old hag with a gold hoop in her
ear told you the beast will win? No, I have it! Farnsworth and
Deverell discovered that standing on your head while racing to Bath
cuts two hours off the previous record and you want to best it? Oh,
that can’t be it, though. That’s far too much like work. It must be
darling cousin Bri, then. How much more do you think she will give
you, Levi? Adam won’t let you beggar her, you know. He will kill
you first.”

“
Stubble it, Northwicke! I don’t
need a jaw-me-dead, you prosy arse.” Levi rose to leave. Northwicke
caught the arm of the furious young lord.

“
Adam Prestwich will see you dead
before he lets you destroy his wife…financially or
emotionally.”

Levi shook off Northwicke’s hand, smoothing the
wrinkles from his sleeve with jerky little motions. “I will not
beggar my cousin. And it is none of your concern, Northwicke, but I
will recoup my losses in the time-honored way. I will marry an
heiress.”

There was a moment of silence, then, “Oh, dearest
God in heaven, you are serious.”

Levi chuckled, his usual good humor restored in the
face of Northwicke’s disbelief. “Why is that difficult to accept?”
he asked lightly.

Northwicke just shook his blond head, a smile
lighting his handsome features. “Sit down. I think we should talk
like two civilized adults.”

Levi complied. He was curious. He knew Northwicke
would lecture him in some way about his gambling but the other man
always had interesting ways of going about it. And who knew? Maybe
he’d actually listen this time.

Northwicke sat down and rubbed a hand wearily over
his face. He looked tired. Levi wondered briefly what was weighing
on his companion’s mind.

Folding his hands solemnly before him, Northwicke
said, “I must apologize for my lapse in good manners. I just find
it so damned irritating to see you in here nearly every night while
your pregnant cousin sits at home and worries about your increasing
debts. Why do you continue?”

The earl shrugged. “
Ennui?
”

Boredom could drive a man to do the stupidest things
just to get some relief from the dull monotony of life. And Levi
had done just about every stupid thing imaginable. Even…

“
Did you really walk across Hyde
Park on your hands in the middle of the promenade?” Northwicke
asked abruptly.

Levi grinned that irresistibly boyish grin of his
that never failed to win over young and old, men and women alike.
His dark brown eyes brimmed with mirth. “I won a thousand pounds
for that.”

~~~~~~

“
He is looking for a wife?” Bri
stared. She could not have heard her husband right. “Are you quite
sure you did not misunderstand, my love? Levi would do anything to
avoid a leg shackle.”

Adam snorted. “Apparently, your jingle-brained
cousin has decided the quickest and easiest way to recoup his
losses is to marry and marry well.” He turned away and adjusted his
cravat slightly, then nodded his head in satisfaction.

Bri bit her lip as she watched him. Lord, if Levi
was serious, he must be in a fair amount of trouble. “Perhaps I
should just—”

Her loving husband swung around. “Absolutely not,
Brianna Kai Prestwich! I forbid you to give that jackanapes any
more money!”

Bri, being the stubborn and proud creature that she
was, bristled instantly. Her green eyes flashed like the stones
they so closely resembled. “How dare you? Who do you think you are
to forbid me to use my own money in any way I choose?”

Adam was across the room in two angry strides. He
clamped his hands on her arms and pulled her up against him. “I am
your husband,” he bit out. “A fact you seem to forget upon
occasion.” He smiled wickedly. “Allow me to remind you.”

Before the last word fell from his lips, Adam kissed
her fiercely. She, of course, responded in just the way he
deserved. She boxed him on the ear. Well, she tried to, anyway.

“
Hell and the devil, woman!” he
exclaimed on a laugh as he caught her hand in mid-air. “I ought to
take you over my knee for even attempting that.”

His wife scowled at him.

Adam stared down at his furious little redheaded
mate. “If you just keep handing that boy money, he will never
learn, Bri. You have to let him rescue himself this time. Don’t
worry yourself, love. Earls don’t go to debtor’s prison.”

Lady Prestwich reached up to straighten the damage
her husband had inadvertently done to his immaculate cravat and
thus avoided his penetrating gaze. He sighed.

“
Look at me,” he commanded gently.
She lifted her narrowed eyes to meet his. “I care about Levi, Bri.
I do. You have to trust that I will do what is best for him. He
needs to learn responsibility. Perhaps marriage will help. He’s
been a loose screw ever since his father died, from all I’m told,
and he needs to grow up now.”

“
Very well,” she conceded. “But if
even one of those heiresses breaks his heart, I’ll…why,
I’ll…”

“
Call her out?” Adam suggested
helpfully.

Bri’s chin went up. “Yes, that is exactly what I
will do. I will call her out.”

Adam wrapped his arms around her and laid his chin
on her soft curls. “Not until after your confinement, love. We
wouldn’t want our daughter picking up such bad habits before she’s
even born, hmm?”

Bri smiled and pressed her cheek closer to his
heart. “Daughter? We already have a daughter. I want a son,” she
mumbled contentedly.

“
If it were in my power, I would
grant your wish, my lady. Alas, I am not as omnipotent as I have
led you to believe.”

She frowned. “I have never believed any such thing
and well you know it, Adam Prestwich.”

Adam stepped back, holding her at arm’s length.
“Truly?”

Laughing, Bri replied, “Truly. But I love you
despite that huge flaw.”

Adam stepped away, snatching up a silver waistcoat
and donning it with a few deft movements. “There is something I
know, in all my flawed omnipotence, that you do not,” he remarked
casually as he fastened the buttons.

“
What is that?” Bri was twisting
her own hair up into a credible imitation of a new style she had
just seen in
La Belle Assemblée
. They were going to Lady
Jersey’s rout, which was to be the event that officially opened the
Season.

“
I know,” Adam replied as he
shrugged into his tight-fitting coat of black velvet trimmed with
the thinnest of silver piping, “the names of the heiresses Levi is
courting.”

Bri swung away from her husband’s mirror, her
gray-green iridescent skirts twirling around her. “You know their
names? Do tell,” she cried.

Adam grinned.

“
The names of the chosen ones
are,” he began in a booming voice. He paused for effect and struck
a pose—which action had Bri laughing delightedly. “Number one: Lady
Regina Trent, only daughter of the Earl of Greenwood. Number two:
Miss Suzanne Weatherby, oldest daughter of Baron Weatherby. Number
three: Miss Felicity Davis, only daughter of Sir Henry Davis,
baronet, and heiress to his entire shipping company.”

“
Oh, Lord, a cit,” Bri
groaned.

“
Yes,” Adam nodded sagely,
refraining from reminding her that most of his own concerns were
tied up in shipping, “a cit. And a far sight better than any of
Weatherby’s chits, grasping little hellcats.” He smiled
disarmingly. “You’ll never guess who number four is.”

“
He’s already picked out
four
prospective brides?”

Adam nodded. Then he said nothing.

“
Well, who is she?” his wife asked
in exasperation.

“
Guess.”

“
I don’t want to
guess.”

“
Guess.”

Bri stared at him. And shrugged. “Oh, very well.
I’ll guess. Is it Lady Margaret Fines?”

“
Far from.”

“
Miss Amanda
Goldsmith?”

He shook his head, grinning hugely.

“
Is it Gwen or Jenny? If he has
set his sights on either of them with an eye to their dowries, I’ll
darken his daylights for him,” she vowed grimly.

“
As would Con, myself, and
Denbigh. No, it is not Gwen or Jenny. Keep guessing. Oh and here is
a hint: he is a clunch for even considering her.”

Bri furrowed her brow in concentration. Adam thought
of Levi as a clunch even at the best at times so it really wasn’t
much of a hint.

She shrugged. “I give up. Who is she?”

“
Mari” was all he said.

Her jaw dropped. And she stared.

Adam approached her and gently closed her mouth.
“You don’t want to catch any flies, do you, my love?”

“
Mari? Is he bloody daft? Lady
Marigold Danvers is a cat, a harpy, a bi—”

Adam swiftly clamped a hand over her mouth, grinning
as he did so. “Yes, love, everyone knows how you feel about
Mari.”

She wrenched his hand away from her mouth. “Is he
daft?” she asked again, quite seriously. No one would marry the
Earl of Charteris’s eldest daughter. She was an unlovely creature,
twisted by greed and her belief that she was perfect.

Her husband chuckled. “Yes and no, actually. From
what I understand, Levi does not really want the chit. But she
wants him and her dowry is more than adequate to cover his debts
and her father just wants her off his hands. So Charteris doesn’t
discourage her and he encourages Levi.”

“
That is very bloodless,” Lady
Prestwich commented evenly.

“
Quite.”

*

“
Oh, Ellie, it turned out much
better than I imagined it would!”

Miss Psyche Ellison glanced over at her young
employer. They stood in Miss Glendenning’s dressing room admiring
the gown that her mistress had ordered especially to match her
eyes. It wasn’t the easiest of tasks. Aurora’s eyes were such a
strange shade of blue with just a hint of green so as to be almost
turquoise. But the shimmery material of softest silk seemed to make
the younger woman’s eyes glow. Her blond hair was drawn straight
back into a bun with only a few wispy strands escaping to frame her
piquant face.

Unlike most young ladies cursed with straight hair,
Aurora refused to use curling tongs. She liked being different from
others in looks and in temperament.

Her face was wreathed in a sweet smile of delight as
she beheld her reflection in the looking glass.

“
Do you like it?” Aurora asked
breathlessly.

“
You are beautiful, Rory,” the
older woman replied with complete honesty.

“
And to think,” Aurora continued,
the excitement evident in her voice, “We were actually invited to
Lady Jersey’s rout. It is quite a coup for us, Ellie. I wager I can
acquire vouchers for Almack’s if I play my cards right.”

Miss Ellison smoothed her hands over her own new
gown of dove gray satin. It suited her brown hair and hazel eyes.
She had tried to resist when Aurora had suggested she get a new
dress, but the dear girl had insisted and refused to take no for an
answer. The child was very determined when she wanted
something.

So if receiving vouchers for Almack’s was next on
her list, Miss Ellison was sure it would be done.