The Stolen Bride (11 page)

“Why are you staring? You are rich and good-looking. You do not need to pay for service. I do.”

Cliff made up his mind. He would send Rex a gift, a very seductive and alluring gift. “I didn’t mean to stare. If you are determined to be a gentleman farmer, I will not try to dissuade you. And some women have found you infinitely more attractive than me.” That was the truth. Surely Rex did not think himself handicapped because of his amputated leg?

Rex shook his head. “I do believe that is ancient history, brother. And it was my uniform they admired.”

Cliff was suspicious, although Rex was right on one point. The ladies had adored any soldier in uniform during the war, especially a cavalry officer.

“I sense a scheme,” Rex said abruptly. “I hope I am not involved. You have always been too reckless for your own good. It amazes me that you remain alive, considering your current status.”

He had no intention of mentioning the present he intended to bestow on his brother; it would be a surprise. “As a privateer?” It was how he preferred to label himself, should a label be necessary, and when in society, it was.

“As a pirate hunter, who is but a hair’s breadth away from drowning or the gallows,” Rex said.

Cliff flashed a white grin. “In Barbary, they behead their enemies. The Moors and Turks do so, as well. The Spaniards have a new trick—it is called walking the plank.”

“How pleasant for you.” Rex took a seat, stretching out his unscathed leg. Absently he rubbed the remainder of his right thigh, which ended above the knee. “You and Eleanor are so very alike.” He seemed distracted now.

Cliff sat eagerly. “Good! The very subject I should wish to discuss.”

“The similarities you share with our sister?”

“So you still have some wit? No, brother, I wish to discuss our little sister and her impending marriage.”

Rex smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. “You wish to compare notes?”

“I most certainly do,” Cliff said grimly.

E
LEANOR HAD BEGUN TO PACK
, planning on taking only a small satchel with her. But as she did so, she
started thinking about Peter and the fact that their wedding was scheduled for the very next day.

Her heart lurched. If only Peter were cruel, cold and ugly. But he was none of those things; he was handsome and kind. He was going to be jilted. She wished he could somehow be spared the heartbreak.

An image suddenly crossed her mind, of Peter standing at the altar, waiting for her arrival. But the bride never appeared.

There would be confusion at first. Everyone, both family and guests, would assume her to be late. But then there would be chaos when one and all realized that she had disappeared—worse, run off.

Eleanor stiffened with dread. No one knew Sean was present, so no one would guess that she had run off with him, but she was very much in the public eye because of her impending wedding. A search party would be manned. The authorities would be summoned. As she stood there, with a few belongings scattered across her bed, she realized that if she left Peter, she would lead the British right to Sean!

Stunned, Eleanor realized that the wedding must be canceled this very minute. She must instantly shed her status as a bride. But her father would never agree to break the signed contracts at the eleventh hour—not without a very good reason.

She could not lose Sean again. There had to be a
solution—and in that moment, she knew what it must be.

She must somehow convince
Peter
to jilt
her
.

He must be the one to withdraw from the marriage contract.

Eleanor didn’t think twice. She raced through the house. Peter was sitting outside on the terrace with his sister, Lady Barton, and her husband. Lady Barton was a beautiful and elegant blond woman. Her husband was a bit older and somewhat dour in countenance. Eleanor managed to greet everyone pleasantly enough even though she was trembling with determination now.

Lady Barton came to stand beside her. “You must be so terribly excited, Eleanor. I remember what my wedding day was like! I simply could not wait to walk down the aisle in my wedding gown.”

“I am very pleased, my lady,” Eleanor somehow said. Her lips remained stretched in a smile that felt impossibly stiff. How she hated doing this!

Lady Barton patted her arm. “Do call me Dianna, my dear. Would you care to take a stroll? I noticed your brothers entering the maze.”

Eleanor realized she was perspiring. “Actually, I had hoped to take a stroll with my fiancé.” She sent Peter a smile and realized her look had undoubtedly been beseeching.

Peter raced to her side. “I should love to stroll with you, my dear,” he said.

Lord Barton spoke up. “Dianna, I am scheduled to tour the estate with his lordship. I am afraid I must leave you to your own devices.”

“Oh, darling, never mind. I am sure I can amuse myself.” Dianna pecked his cheek as he nodded at everyone and left.

“Do you wish to join us?” Peter asked his sister.

“Oh, I would not think of intruding.” She beamed. “Do enjoy yourselves. I shall wander the gardens.”

Eleanor suddenly glimpsed Cliff standing at one exit to the maze. She turned to look at Lady Barton and realized she was staring after him. Society was notorious for its affairs and she realized that Lady Barton had been in her brother’s bed that morning. She just couldn’t care.

“My dear?” Peter prompted.

Eleanor allowed him to take her arm and they left the terrace slowly. Her heart raced with her nervousness and dread. He deserved love and loyalty, and certainly not the ill treatment he was receiving.

“You are so quiet!” he exclaimed. “Is everything all right?”

She met his blue eyes and saw that he was worried. “I wish to apologize for my behavior last night.”

His eyes widened, and then he blushed. “I very much enjoyed watching the stars with you, Eleanor,” he said, low.

She did not want to go anywhere near the subject of his kisses and her inebriated responses to them, but that was precisely what she must do. She swallowed and said, “My behavior was terribly improper. I beg your pardon!”

He took both of her hands, halting her. “Darling! There was nothing improper about last night. Tomorrow afternoon we will be man and wife.”

She knew she was red. Her mouth was also terribly dry. “I was foxed,” she said.

He was clearly taken aback by her bold statement. “I do realize that.”

She bit her lip. Lying was utterly distasteful to her, but there was no other choice. So she would try to convince him that she enjoyed drink far too much. “I do enjoy a glass of wine—or two.”

He started. “Darling, I have never seen you drink, other than a single sip of champagne, in the entire time we have known one another.”

Her cheeks were on fire. “I didn’t want you to know.”

He stared, stunned. “What are you trying to say?”

“I am a bit like Rex,” she managed, feeling terrible.

“You mean…I don’t believe it! I understand his leg hurts him, but he drinks in the morning—he drinks at noon! Do not try to tell me that you drink all day, too!”

She couldn’t. “No, I just meant, I am fond of wine—and its effects. A bit too fond…for a lady. I didn’t want you to be surprised—after we are married.”

He appeared suspicious of her. “Eleanor, if you insist you like a glass of wine, then I am pleased. We have a wine cellar in Chatton, and while I should not admit it, the wines are French, the finest in the country. We will be able to enjoy a fine bottle every night! It is my preference, in fact, not to drink alone.”

She turned away. Well, that ploy had certainly failed.

“Every lady I know enjoys a good glass of wine or sherry. Or do you like brandy and a cheroot, too?”

She worried the ribbon on her gown. “No, I don’t drink brandy and…” She stopped. “I have heard that in Paris, there are women who smoke.”

His eyes bulged. “Yes, there are. They are not ladies. You are not going to tell me that you smoke?”

He was horrified, she realized, with no satisfaction.

She stared. She realized that she should be telling him the truth. She should tell him that he was wonderful, but she simply couldn’t marry him because she was in love with someone else. “I ride.”

Relief flickered in his eyes. “Excuse me?”

“I ride a stallion, astride, in men’s attire. It is more comfortable than a riding habit,” she added.

A terrible moment ensued. She knew her cheeks were crimson. “Eleanor, why are you doing this?” he asked slowly.

“You must know these things, if we are to wed,” she somehow said.

“I do know about your dawn rides.”

She gasped. “You know?”

He smiled at her. “I watch you when I can. You are magnificent. You ride as well or better than any man I know. Watching you gallop that stud at dawn is breathtaking,” he said. “I will confess that I was shocked. Not by your skill as a horsewoman, but by the manner in which you dress. But then I realized you could not ride as you do if you were not astride. It would be a physical impossibility. And I understood that you must dress in that manner. I am glad you have confided in me, dear.”

Eleanor was stunned. “How can you be so complacent? Ladies do not ride astride in breeches!” she cried. “It is a terrible faux pas.”

“But you do, and you
are
a lady—the lady I love. Why don’t you understand? I have never met a woman like you before. You are so proud and beau
tiful and so original! Why do you think I am smitten? My God, Eleanor, I have never felt this way about anyone and I never will, because there is no one else like you.”

She felt her legs collapse. He helped her to a lawn chair. Peter loved her for who she was, not what she had appeared to be. How could this be happening? Desperately she looked at him as he knelt before her on the grass. “Don’t you want a proper lady in your home?” she begged. “The English are so frightfully proper!”

“I am not that way. And my friends are not that way, either. They already adore you! Well, the gentlemen admire you as I do. I am sure a few of the ladies are rather jealous of the attention you receive.” He smiled tenderly at her. “Why are you so distressed?’

Here was an opening and she should seize it. She could tell him that she had loved Sean forever and that as fond of him as she was, she simply could not go forward with the wedding. But Sean was but a few hundred meters away. She must not tell anyone the truth; no one must ever know that he had been at Adare, not until they were safely gone.

“I am not certain I am the right wife for you,” she managed.

“It doesn’t matter.” He pulled her close. “
I
am very certain that you are perfect for me.”

E
LEANOR HURRIED BACK
to her rooms, torn between despair over her relationship with Peter and an acute awareness that in a few hours, she would be with Sean once more—and that their time together was running out. If she failed to appear at her wedding now, if she ran away with Sean, she could be the cause of Sean’s capture and death. She was at a terrible loss. She could not be his downfall and she was beginning to realize that she was going to have to let him go to America without her. Her mind had become blank and she could not come up with a plan that would allow her to escape with Sean. Wasn’t his freedom more important than anything else? Wasn’t love about sacrifice? But this was too painful to bear. And suddenly, two men blocked her path.

Rex smiled at her, but without mirth. “Are you in a rush?” he asked politely. But there was nothing polite about his stance as he barred her way.

She looked from his odd smile to Cliff, who was helping him impede her progress upstairs. His expression was almost identical and she knew that she had been discovered.

She turned to flee but someone seized her—it was Cliff. Reluctantly she met his gaze. “We’d like to chat with you,” he said in a strangely neutral tone.

She felt like a child again, caught in some stupendously inappropriate act, about to be severely punished. But she wasn’t a child and these were her brothers. She could manage them both at once, if she had to. She inhaled for some courage and smiled. They could not know that Sean was hiding in the woods or that she intended to see him that evening and, if she dared seduce him, she would make love to him, too. If they ever suspected her intentions, they would move mountains to stop her.

Rex indicated that she should precede them into an adjoining room, a small salon used on the rare evening, when only one or two family members were present. Eleanor walked inside uneasily, followed by both men. Cliff closed the door behind them.

“How is the bride?” Rex asked, his gaze searching.

“Very nervous, but that is expected, is it not?” She looked from Rex to Cliff.

Cliff said, “I thought you had decided to jilt Sinclair at the altar.”

Dismayed, she looked at Rex and saw that he was hardly surprised by Cliff’s comment. “I see you have betrayed me,” she said to Cliff, but she was too distressed to be angry with him. “How much did you tell him?”

Cliff smiled. “Everything I know and suspect.”

She hugged herself, wondering what he meant, exactly. But did it matter? She was supposed to marry Peter tomorrow, and if she did not, they would search for her—and find Sean. If Sean was captured, he would hang, and it would be her fault.

She was going to have to go through with her wedding and let Sean go. And if that were the case, Cliff and Rex could help Sean flee to safety. Sean would be furious over her betrayal, but she had heard Cliff brag that he had never been outrun at sea, or defeated there in battle. He had spoken with such quiet confidence that she knew it was the truth.

Did she dare give Sean up? Did she have the strength?

Rex spoke. “Last night, you were in love—or so it seemed. Today you are jilting your fiancé at the altar, and gathering men’s clothes! How odd this sudden turn is, especially as I know you well. You are not unkind. If you were to change your mind about Sinclair, I know you would be speaking with Father now. My little sister would never jilt her groom at the altar.”

Eleanor knew she must be selfless, but she was paralyzed; she could not speak.