Regency 03 - Deception (20 page)

Aurora and Levi moved away with the vicar to sign
the special license.

It was done. They were married. They looked at each
other, each one dwelling on thoughts of a similar vein, neither
realizing just how unsure they were of each other.

As Levi watched, Aurora’s eyelids fluttered. For
barely a second, he thought she might cry. Then her eyes rolled
back in her head, her breathing seemed to catch and her body went
limp.

She fainted.

*

“
Not a very promising start, Vi,”
remarked Derringer from where he crouched next to his friend on the
floor.

“
Stubble it, Hart,” Levi muttered.
He very gently lifted the recumbent form of his bride into his
arms. “Your views on the situation are not welcome.”

The duke shrugged and stepped aside to let the
ladies fuss over their fallen friend. If he had his guess, he was
positive that little Miss Glendenning had neglected to tell her
newly made husband a few things that were bound to rear up and bite
her before too long. Especially since Desmond Forester was still
making himself a nuisance about Town.

Derringer smiled malevolently. He would dam up that
particular wellspring even if he had to kill the man to do it.

As Levi took his bride to an antechamber, Derringer
plotted. The gaggle of females followed close behind. They didn’t
look at Derringer as they passed, too caught up as they were with
their companion.

Derringer replaced the smile with a blank look and
caught Northwicke’s eye. His black eyes lit with a hellish light
that quickly faded until they were as blank as his face. Northwicke
revealed his unease in the way his face twitched before he could
control it. Derringer eased a bit, confident he’d find no trouble
from that particular gentleman. It was always good to keep people
guessing as to his actions.

Glancing around, one thought would not leave
Derringer’s mind. Why had Forester not made some move to stop the
wedding? It hinted at an ulterior plan. An ulterior plan of which
the Duke of Derringer knew nothing.

That
was unacceptable. The duke was
accustomed to knowing what was happening around him. It was the
only reason he was still alive.

Derringer approached Levi as he followed the ladies
out. “I have to go, Vi,” he told his friend softly. “I have
something to take care of.”

~~~~~~

Levi knelt beside the sofa upon which he’d placed
his wife and laid a gentle hand on her pale cheek. “What happened?”
he asked Lady Connor.

Verena shrugged but said nothing.

Aurora came to slowly, apprehensively. She did not
want to face anyone just yet. She did not want to face her husband.
Her eyelashes fluttered, then opened to reveal troubled green-blue
eyes.

“
What happened?” she asked,
although she knew very well what had happened.

Levi’s hand smoothed the wrinkle from her forehead.
“You fainted, my love,” he told her softly.

My love? My love?
The endearment swirled
through her still befuddled mind until Aurora felt like screaming.
My love?

“
I want to go home,” she mumbled
instead.

The earl’s brows rose a fraction and he glanced at
Lady Connor. She shrugged again, her face revealing her own
confusion.

“
Take me home,” Aurora insisted.
“I want to go home.”

Miss Ellison crouched beside her. “You cannot go
home yet, dearest. You must go with your husband first and perhaps
he will take you home later,” she told her, correctly interpreting
the young woman’s desire to return to Staffordshire. She smiled
down at her sadly. “You have made your choice now, Rory,” she
whispered for Aurora’s ears alone, “and you must live with that
decision.”

~~~~~~

The Duke of Derringer was used to a certain amount
of power. He was a duke, after all. He had no fear of death and no
fear of man whether he be commoner or monarch. His own immortality
seemed entwined with the honest belief that his life was
meaningless. Ironically, it was this belief that kept him
alive.

When one considered the facts, the only conclusion
one could reach was that Derringer’s charmed existence had
everything to do with his uncanny perspicacity.

Quite simply, he noticed what others overlooked.

Realizing he had no idea what was in the twisted
mind of Mr. Desmond Forester, he was determined to remedy such a
glaring lapse in judgment.

He went the one place no one would have expected. He
went to see Raven Emerson.

Admitted without hesitation, Derringer sat in her
tiny drawing room, awaiting her arrival. He paced impatiently,
occasionally stopping to finger the odd item here or there, his
mind recording every nuance of the room as well as every item it
contained. The best avenues of escape were duly noted as well as
which items would make the best weapons should the need arise.

He turned when Raven entered, his lips twisting into
a smile at the seductive creature she presented to the world. Her
glorious black mane cascaded freely down her back while her
movements suggested an extensive degree of expertise in using her
body to its best advantage.

Her appearance was potent enough to have the desired
effect on him. But while the idea of bedding her was distinctly
appealing, Lord Derringer firmly believed in not poaching on
another man’s reserve—even if that man had dropped her of his own
volition.

“
The lovely Ebony Swan. So good of
you to agree to see me again,” he said, neglecting any outward
gesture of respect.

She smiled thinly. “Did I have a choice, your
grace?”

“
No.”

She nodded, one dark brow quirking in much the same
way as the duke’s. “How may I be of service to you?”

She gestured for him to be seated. After the
briefest of hesitations, he complied.

Sitting opposite, Raven just looked at him.
Derringer’s expression gave nothing away, he knew; hers was just as
concealing.

“
What has your friend Forester
been up to?”

“
He is not my friend, your grace,
any more than you are.”

“
That gives one pause, does it
not? After all, we are such good friends, you and me.”

Her dark eyes narrowed. “Are you here for
information or simply to bait me?”

“
A little of both, I should
think.”

Raven’s gaze shot heavenward as she muttered
something about penance and balmy dukes but Derringer could only
make out so much before she firmly clamped her lips shut. Her eyes
met his guileless expression and he could have sworn she actually
growled.

“
If I tell you what I know, will
you depart? I have no desire to be associated with you and your
kind anymore.”

“
What of Lady
Prestwich?”

“
She is more my kind than yours,”
she sneered.

Derringer nodded. After all, he was not an
unreasonable man. “What is Forester planning?”

“
As to that, I don’t know,” she
replied, her tone all sincerity. “I do know he is not alone in his
machinations.”

Derringer’s eyebrows lifted. This was news,
indeed.

He leaned forward. “Who?”

“
I cannot say. He has been seen
with a man at one time, a woman at another, both of whom seem quite
familiar with him. I have not learned their identities.”

Derringer waved this away. “No matter. I will
discover that. From now on, Miss Emerson, I suggest you steer clear
of this whole debacle. One would hate for you to be implicated in
anything that may harm the Grevilles.”

Derringer was amused to note the flaring of anger in
her eyes at his command. Here was a woman who did not take kindly
to orders.

She said nothing, however, wise woman that she was.
The duke sauntered to the door, adding as he went, “I would hate
for you to inadvertently get hurt, my dear. Forester and all those
who associate with him will need to die, I’m afraid.”

“
The crown may take exception to
your penchant for murder, your grace. Perhaps it is you who should
steer clear of this matter.”

He turned, surprise apparent in every line on his
face and muscle in his body. “Murder? Who said anything about
murder? One cannot control what happens to a body in this life.
Vagrants and thieves lurk around every corner, ready to do a body
in.”

The smile that suffused his lovely companion’s
features held all the menace in Derringer’s own. The duke was
impressed. “In that case, your grace, I wish you well.”

~~~~~~

Miss Ellison was worried. After the wedding
breakfast, she traveled with the earl and Rory back to the rented
house in Mayfair. Thank the Lord that Lady Greville—the Dowager,
that is—had decided to leave Town, she thought in relief. That
sharp-tongued viper would not help matters any.

She wondered what would happen when Lord Greville
discovered the truth about his wife. It would not be pretty, Miss
Ellison knew. He couldn’t possibly just brush it aside as
unimportant. Good Lord, Rory was a mother! Had been for three years
now.

Oh, well,
she sighed, as she readied herself
for bed. She had suggested tea before bed but the looks on the
newlyweds’ faces was answer enough for her. Their problems were
their own now, she told herself firmly.

She sighed again and cuddled down into her warm
blankets, trying not to think about what was transpiring just a few
doors down the corridor.

~~~~~~

At that moment, not much was happening. Aurora sat
on the edge of her bed, trembling in fear and anticipation while
her husband was in the adjoining room, preparing to come to
her.

What on earth am I going to do? I have to tell him
before…before…things happen. If he does not know, he will…well, he
will…Oh, what am I to do?

Levi entered the room to see his wife tearing the
sash of her dressing gown to shreds and muttering to herself. He
smiled lightly and approached the bed. “Rory love, what is it? Are
you afraid?”

Aurora looked up at her…husband…and nearly fainted
again. He was standing before her in a dressing gown of dark gold
silk. She wondered if he had anything on under it and felt her
heartbeats accelerate until she was sure it would burst.
I
cannot do this!

“
I cannot do this,” she heard
someone say in a voice amazingly like her own.

Levi took a deep breath and sat beside her on the
bed. He took her hand and smoothed his thumb over her palm. “I
would like to tell you that we can wait, but I don’t think that is
such a good idea,” he told her honestly, misunderstanding the
source of her fear. “Your unease will not disappear with time, it
will only increase.”

He looked deep into her troubled turquoise eyes and
smiled that boyish smile that always set her pulse racing. She
smiled hesitantly back and opened her mouth to say something,
anything to stop what was about to happen. She opened her mouth but
what came out was not at all what she had meant to say.

“
I don’t want to wait.”

Levi smiled and very gently took her in his arms,
obviously believing she was still frightened. He was gentle and
tender, easing her tortured thoughts and filling her with a longing
that she’d hardly been aware of until that moment.

*

Aurora awoke to find herself alone in her bed. She
frowned, stretching her sore muscles, a pleased grin curving her
mouth. Glancing at the opposite side of the bed, her smile
disappeared. Where was her husband?

She rose without waiting for her maid and hurried
into her dressing room, throwing on a muslin gown of bright sunny
yellow and running a brush through her straight locks. Twisting her
hair up on top of her head in a loose chignon, she winced when she
pricked her scalp. She darted from her room into the passage
beyond, but her steps slowed as she neared the breakfast room.

Right before the butler opened the door for her,
Aurora took a deep breath and pasted a smile on her face. It wasn’t
difficult considering how supremely happy she was. She bestowed her
radiant look on the butler whose eyes crinkled in return, although
he did not go so far as to actually smile.

Aurora swept into the room and stopped short on the
threshold. Her smile faltered and then disappeared completely when
she beheld the hard look in her husband’s eyes. Was he displeased
with her then?

She thought of the night just past. It had been
heaven to be in Levi’s arms. He had made love to her only once but
that one time was beyond anything she could have ever imagined. She
had thought he felt the same. Now she wondered.

“
Where is Ellie?” she asked more
to break the fearful silence than any real desire to
know.

Levi gave her a hard-eyed stare. “I asked her to
give us some privacy and she said she would pack. She is leaving,
Aurora.”

“
Leaving? Why?”

“
It is time,” was his
uninformative reply.

Aurora sat down next to her husband with an
inelegant thump. “It is time? What does that mean?”

His dark brown eyes seemed even darker than usual.
He stared at her until she dropped her eyes in confusion. Then he
went back to eating his substantial breakfast.

Aurora watched the food on his plate disappear and
waited for Edward to bring her some toast. Then she realized that
the footman was not present either. And Levi had not offered to get
her anything. In fact, he had not even risen from his seat at her
entrance as good manners dictated a gentleman must.

“
What is wrong, Levi?”