The School for Brides (25 page)

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Authors: Cheryl Ann Smith

BOOK: The School for Brides
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Eva struggled not to smile. After spending the evening glowering, his sudden change of mood was unexpected, and welcome. With one of his hands holding hers and the other circling her waist, she felt as if he was making a public claim to her. Of course it was just a dance, but for a moment, she felt as if they belonged together.
“Oh, dear. I do apologize, Your Grace. I fear the list would be far too long to write and would cramp my hand.” She flexed her fingers on his shoulder to make her point. “I think the first ten should suffice.”
“Hmm.” He drew them to a halt when the music faded, but kept hold of her until the music swelled again. Several men lurking nearby frowned, then turned away. Nicholas seemed not to notice. “Perhaps I should help. Let’s see. You have called me arrogant. I will give you that. One.”
Eva bit her lip to hide a smile. He smelled of spirits and exotic spice. His high stock framed his manly jaw, and the cut of his black coat accentuated his broad shoulders to sinewy perfection. She suspected every unattached woman at the ball, and some married ones, too, envied her at this moment.
Remembering how it felt to be sensuously assaulted on his desk, her body tingled. If he asked her to run from the room and follow him to his town house, she would not refuse.
“Two. I agree I am spoiled and used to having my every wish fulfilled. You must blame my mother for that. As her only child, she refused me very little. Yet, there is much I still desire.”
Somehow, under the weight of his perusal, she suspected he wasn’t talking about horses and estates, but remembering their amorous encounters. If they were alone, he would make very good use of Lady Pennington’s immense dining table to debauch her in the most delicious ways.
Her nipples budded beneath her gown. She very much needed to find something less arousing than His Grace and his vigorous lovemaking to occupy her mind and time.
“Insufferable, outrageous, domineering. Three, four, and five.” He grinned, and she shook her head. He tightened his hand on her waist. It was proving difficult to hear him over the rapid beat of her heart. His warmth seeped through her, and she felt and saw nothing outside the circle of his arms. “Impossible, intolerable, infuriating, disrespectful. Six, seven, eight, nine.” He seemed to ponder the last, which made her giggle in spite of herself. He
was
impossibly charming when he wanted to be. “I hope you do not consider my lovemaking skills as a fault, love,” he said finally. “I do not think I could bear it.”
“Your Grace,” she scolded. A quick look about confirmed no one was near enough to hear, and she breathed again.
“I remember I kissed your neck and nuzzled your ears with gentle vigor,” he continued casually, as if he’d not heard her protest. “I suckled your breasts sufficiently. Your moans bespoke your pleasure.”
Heat sizzled through her body. A scandalized laugh caught in her throat and she choked out, “Please stop, Your Grace. Someone will hear.”
“My thrusts were deep and enthusiastic. I plundered you fully until you reached cry-inducing orgasms.” He locked onto her eyes and his gaze was all innocence. “You called out my name. More than once, as I recall.”
Now she laughed outright. She caressed his shoulder and no longer cared who noticed. She was thoroughly enjoying herself with this man, her lover, at her first and only ball.
“You are such an exasperating man.”
“Ten. Exasperating. Your list is complete.” He whirled her around as their laughter mingled and drew dozens of eyes.
 
 
I
t was two women, standing shoulder to shoulder, to whom the dancing pair were of the most interest. Lady Noelle Seymour and Her Grace, the Dowager Duchess of Stanfield, whispered quietly, a matching set of frowns marking their faces.
“Miss Winfield is a woman of quality and good character?” the duchess asked, her keen eyes sharp.
Noelle nodded. When the duchess had approached her, she had worried that she had discovered the ruse and planned to have the two sisters ejected from the ball. To her delight, Her Grace had learned the truth about Eva’s liaison with her son but was not outraged. In fact, she wasn’t displeased with her son’s clear preference for Eva over the other lovelies.
“She is. She was an innocent when your son seduced her.” Noelle wanted to make certain Eva was rightfully portrayed as the victim, and her innocence in the seduction fully established in the duchess’s mind. “I do not know the particulars, but it was not her intention to go to his bed.”
The duchess nodded. “Nicholas has a certain charm with women.”
They watched for a moment as son and sister lowered their heads to speak intimately as the music died. All eyes were on them. “They do make a magnificent couple,” Noelle said, sighing.
“They do,” Her Grace agreed, “delightful.”
Noelle was only just learning about her sister, but knew she’d suffered for the sins of her parents. To see her with His Grace, laughing and happy, brought her joy.
Eva complemented his dark looks with her fire. Though she denied her feelings for him, Noelle saw the way Eva looked at the insufferable duke. She was ensnared by him. It would not be long before she was headlong in love, if she wasn’t already.
“Will he wed her?” Noelle asked.
The duchess narrowed her eyes. “He will if I have a say in it. My son deserves to be happy. If Miss Winfield can bring him that, I will welcome her gladly into my family.”
Noelle turned her head. The duchess seemed sincere. But there were secrets left to test Her Grace’s goodwill. “There are things about Eva you do not know, Your Grace.”
Green eyes met hers. “I know more than you suspect, Lady Seymour. Her mother’s past is of no consequence.”
This was a surprise to Noelle. She knew Her Grace had lived with humiliating scandal. Her husband had lived the life of a whoremonger, a man who carelessly drifted from affair to affair, with no concern for the feelings of his wife. When he died, all of London had let out a collective sigh of relief.
The duchess was immensely popular among society. Though they’d gossiped about her shame, they also sympathized with her plight. Now she was free, and there wasn’t anyone who didn’t think the heart seizure that took the duke had not been deserved.
Noelle mentally crossed herself for thinking such a horrible thought. This was a night of surprises, starting with finding Eva in an embrace with the duke. She would not tarnish her joy over her sister’s happiness with grim and unhappy thoughts.
It must be all the duchess had lived through that left her sympathetic to Eva’s situation. Whatever her reasons for accepting her sister, Noelle would not question them. As long as the duchess was on her side, Eva and His Grace stood no chance of escape.
“Then we have work to do, Your Grace.”
Chapter Fourteen
 
 
E
va left Noelle in the hallway and walked to her room. It was a strange feeling to be wandering the same hallways, eating at the same table, enjoying the same comforts her father had enjoyed under this roof. These halls echoed with his laughter, his anger, his touch.
Here, he’d lived one life with his wife and children. With her mother and her, he’d enjoyed another life. They were two parallel worlds, carefully kept apart. As Noelle and Margaret were growing up here and at his home in Kent, Eva grew up in a town house in Mayfair, some miles away.
It took the curiosity of her sister for the two lives to collide. She no longer doubted Noelle’s reasons for seeking her out. Noelle cared for her, as she cared for Noelle. It was a strange circumstance, yet not so, when one considered the source. Noelle liked to press against the boundaries of societal rules, and Eva was a part of that. Their becoming friends was a wonderful twist to this adventure.
Eva wondered what her father would think of two of his beloved daughters finding each other.
She suspected he’d be pleased.
It was impossible not to expect that at any moment he would appear in an open doorway and pull her into his arms for one of his hugs that smelled faintly of pipe tobacco.
“I miss you, Father,” Eva whispered, and took a few deep breaths. She rubbed her arms and stopped outside her room.
In the last few weeks, she’d gone from an innocent to a mistress, then from being an only child to having a sister. Two, if she counted Margaret, even though she clearly wanted no part of Noelle’s plans to meet Eva. No matter. She was quite satisfied with the sister she had.
Swept from the darkness of a sheltered existence into the light of the Ton, Eva was not at all sure how it would work out.
Truthfully, she was fearful that she was on a runaway horse racing toward the edge of a cliff, and no amount of sawing on the reins would stop the frantic beast.
Tomorrow, she’d pack her bag and return home to her orderly life, leaving Noelle to offer an explanation for her disappearance.
It was her sister’s idea to drag her to the ball, and it was Noelle who’d have to make appropriate excuses when suitors called. Her sister would undoubtedly come up with a plausible explanation. Noelle loved a good tale.
Eva smoothed her hands over the gown and smiled. Once the clock had struck two and they’d left the ball, she’d turned back into a scullery maid. A well-dressed scullery maid. She wouldn’t feel a bit guilty leaving Noelle to mop up the mess she’d created.
The house was quiet when she entered her room and lighted a wall sconce. The frothy pink bedroom was not her taste. Apparently, Margaret had chosen the colors as a child, and it hadn’t been changed a whit since then. Eva imagined Margaret’s pinch-faced displeasure if she knew the daughter of her father’s mistress was spending the evening in her bed.
The idea brought another smile as she reached for the buttons on her gown. Undoing them proved difficult as she twisted to reach behind her. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the maid. Unfortunately, the girl liked to chatter, and Eva was not in the mood to listen to her endless selection of topics. She was pleasantly exhausted and wanted to be alone.
“Need some help?”
Eva yelped and spun around. On the far side of the bed and in shadow, His Grace sat on a spindly chair, his booted feet up and crossed on the deep pink coverlet, without a care for the fabric.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed, listening for hurried footsteps in the hallway. When no alarm sounded in response to her cry, she planted her hands on her hips and tapped her toe. “How did you find me? How did you get in?”
Thankfully, the room was near the end of the hall and the closest room to it was empty. If Noelle had discovered him lurking in her room, she’d have had him dragged out and horsewhipped under the light of the moon.
His teeth flashed in the dim light. “I deduced you might stay here as part of the ruse. I instructed my footman to find out which room was yours. The oak outside your window was an effective ladder. It was only a small jump to the sill and a fistful of ivy, and then I was in.”
“You climbed the tree?” That was difficult to believe. From what she could see, he hadn’t a scuff or a stain anywhere on his clothes. “You don’t seem like the tree-climbing type.”
“You would be surprised what mischief I can get into when I’m motivated.” His gaze caressed her body and his eyes darkened. Her peaks hardened beneath her gown. “Tonight I could not resist the temptation drifting from your window. I had to climb up and help you undress.”
“I see.” She removed her earbobs and returned them to the case. Her body was filled with nervous tingles. He must have left the ball before she and Noelle had, from the arms of his almost-fiancée, to come to her. It made her ridiculously happy to know that he would rather be with her than the lovely Lucy. Again. “Noelle will have to instruct the groundskeepers to cut down the tree tomorrow.” She returned his enticing gaze. “I wouldn’t wish to be the cause of your death if you fall.”
“I couldn’t fall.” Mischief spilled from him. “We have plans for this evening that I’d hate to miss, should I crack my head open in a tumble from the tree.”
She arched a brow. “Funny. I do not remember making plans with you.”

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