A Lord Rotheby's Holiday Bundle (39 page)

Quin and the other gentlemen (save
Lord Rotheby, who had declared it high time he took a nap of an
afternoon) had snuck off earlier to do a mite of game hunting,
which didn’t particularly bother Aurora, since the weather was
lovely and the ladies wished to be out of doors with their feminine
pursuits.

What did bother Aurora, however, was
that Lord Norcutt had not gone with the other gentlemen. Not only
that, but Rebecca was not out with the other young ladies. Instead,
the two of them were off by the river having a picnic.
Alone.

Scandalous
. And Aurora couldn’t for
the life of her understand why Rebecca would choose to do something
scandalous with Norcutt, of all the gentlemen she could have chosen
from. It made absolutely no sense. But Lady Aylesbury had seen no
harm in it, and had even neglected to insist a maid go along to
chaperone them. It was hardly Aurora’s place to contradict the
duchess, despite the obvious flaw in her line of
thinking.

So off Rebecca had gone on Lord
Norcutt’s arm, up and over the hill and out of view.

They’d been gone for almost
two hours before they returned: Rebecca, smiling from ear to ear
until the whole of her face was alight with pure joy, and Norcutt,
looking as though he would cast up his accounts on a moment’s
notice, walking along hand-in-hand—
hand-in-hand!
—with the picnic basket
Cook had prepared for them swinging along beside Norcutt as though
he hadn’t a care in the world.

From the other direction, she heard
the hoots and hollers of the rest of the gentlemen coming back from
their hunt. Aurora couldn’t turn to look at them, however, because
her attention was focused squarely upon Norcutt and
Rebecca.

What was his game? She would have to
pull Rebecca aside later that evening and have a serious discussion
with her. This kind of behavior simply could not continue,
regardless of what her mother had to say about it. Rebecca was not
built to live a boring life.

Then the gentlemen were upon the group
of ladies, bustling about and laughing, and generally having a
grand, merry time of it. Could they not see Aurora’s distress? Or
did it not matter to them? And then they were milling about amongst
the ladies, with “My, that is a lovely rendition of the wisteria,”
here and with “I daresay we killed enough pheasants for tomorrow’s
luncheon,” there. Then one of them called out, “Here comes Norcutt
with his ladylove! Come on now, bring her over to join the rest of
us.”

His ladylove, indeed. Rebecca ought to
have spurned his attentions long ago. Leading the man on in such a
way was downright despicable. Even Aurora wouldn’t have been so
cold and unfeeling as to have allowed his ardor to have intensified
to this point. Perhaps she ought to pull Rebecca aside now, to save
Lord Norcutt from as much embarrassment as she possibly could. She
may not particularly like the man, but he was a guest in her
home.

But just before Aurora rose to her
feet and did just that, she noticed something rather odd. Lord
Norcutt searched someone out in the sea of faces gathered beside
the kitchen garden, and gave an almost imperceptible, but very
deliberate nod of his head.

“
What?” she started to ask,
but then stopped herself since she didn’t honestly know what she
had intended to ask. Who had he looked for? Aurora scanned the
faces as well, looking in the direction of Norcutt’s gaze, but only
finding Quin. What could he want with her husband? That made no
sense at all. Quin and Norcutt hardly had an acquaintance before
the house party. Certainly not any real sort of
friendship.

Quin cleared his throat and almost the
entire group turned to look at him. “If I may ask you all to be
quiet for a few moments, Lord Norcutt has something he wishes to
announce.”

Something to
announce
? It wasn’t
possible. Surely Rebecca hadn’t…

Aurora couldn’t allow this to happen.
She abruptly stood and dashed to Rebecca’s side. “I do apologize,
Lord Norcutt. I know this is highly irregular. But I must insist on
having a word with Lady Rebecca.”

Quin’s voice thundered across the
small clearing. “Aurora, you may have your word with Lady Rebecca
later.”

Later would not do. It simply would.
Not. Do. “I am terribly sorry, but I must insist upon having a word
with her right this moment,” Aurora said. She took Rebecca’s free
hand in her own and tugged.

She didn’t expect Rebecca
to tug back. “I’ll not come with you now, Aurora. We can discuss
anything you wish later.” After another, firmer tug, Rebecca
continued with, “
Later
.”

Oh, dear good Lord. Rebecca wouldn’t
cooperate. Quin clearly wouldn’t assist her. There was only one
other person Aurora could think to ask for help. “Your Grace,” she
implored, only to be cut short.

“
Lady Quinton, I would very
much like to hear what Lord Norcutt wishes to announce,” the
duchess said. “Do sit down.” That final bit was delivered with the
authority—and finality—which only a duchess, or perhaps the queen,
could muster.

“
But”

“
Aurora,
sit down
!” Quin roared.
“For once in your life, would you think of someone other than
yourself?”

Aurora immediately plopped back down
onto the blanket spread over the grass. Her face felt as hot as a
smoldering blaze in the hearth. The rebuke from Quin before their
guests was bad enough—but it was accompanied by a churning in her
stomach.

She studied her hands in her lap and
tried to pay attention to Lord Norcutt and Rebecca. Was she
thinking only of herself and not of her friend? Had she always done
as much? She looked up and studied Rebecca’s face. Her friend
seemed happy. Glowingly happy, even.

Could Aurora not see past her own
dislike for the man in order to see the good in him Rebecca
obviously saw?

“
Yes, well…” Norcutt said,
seeming to search the air for his words, since his gaze rested
solely on the sky. “Lady Rebecca has…er, that is I have asked…Oh,
blast. I don’t know what to say.” His eyes widened when he realized
he’d cursed before a crowd of ladies. “Oh, dear. I do apologize
profusely for my language. I’m truly making a mull of
things.”

Rebecca patted his arm gently and
whispered something in his ear. He frowned and thought for a
moment, then gave her a single, short nod.

“
What Lord Norcutt is
trying to say is that he asked if I would become his wife—and I
accepted.”

The small gathering burst into
applause and shouts of “Bravo!” Everyone, it seemed, was overjoyed
by the news.

Everyone except Aurora. She was too
busy wishing she could bury herself under a rock for behaving so
churlishly.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

24 June, 1811

I am a horrible, vile,
utterly despicable friend. It is a wonder anyone puts up with me at
all.

~From the journal of Lady
Quinton

Everything was in place for the
scavenger hunt to begin. After Lord Norcutt and Rebecca made their
announcement, Aurora had made her exit from the gathering, claiming
to feel not quite the thing.

Truthfully, she hadn’t, and it had
nothing to do with Norcutt. The clenching pain in Aurora’s abdomen
had returned only moments after Rebecca had informed the revelers
of their engagement. She didn’t tell anyone about that specific
ailment—especially not Quin. The last thing she needed at that
moment was for him to be relentlessly by her side, worrying that
something was wrong with the baby. She couldn’t allow herself to
think like that. It just would not do. Aurora’s emotional distress
her own behavior—that was all.

So she had gone back to her chamber
and laid down for a rest while Quin had continued to entertain
their guests. When she woke from her nap, the pain was far less
intense—down to a dull throb instead of a sharp, shooting
tightening. Clearly, rest had been precisely what she
needed.

After Rose helped her to dress again,
she set to work making certain the clues were all sorted out
properly. Quin was only too happy that he wouldn’t have to
participate, since Aurora would be judging the activity and
determining the winner. Because of that, she sent him off to do
some of the more rigorous work of hiding the clues about the abbey
and the grounds.

Once she had everything situated just
so, supper time had arrived. She ate and tried to put on a happy
face for all and sundry, even though her heart broke a bit more
each time she looked at Rebecca or Lord Norcutt. She couldn’t
believe her own behavior. Aurora had never seen anyone behave as
gauchely as she had done that afternoon. When the meal was
finished, she adjourned the ladies to the salon so the men could
enjoy their port. She sat and talked and laughed with them all,
even though her heart was not in it.

And then she excused herself and
retired to bed. Aurora was so exhausted that she fell asleep at the
escritoire while writing in her journal. Only when she awoke the
next morning did she realize that Quin must have come in at some
point and carried her to his bed.

His heat enveloped her. He had her
pulled against him, his front to her back, with her derrière held
snug to his hard length. Aurora rolled over to greet him with a
good morning kiss, only to discover that he was still firmly
entrenched in sleep. How could he possibly be so hard and ready if
he wasn’t even awake? Perhaps she would never learn all there was
to know of her husband.

She watched him in his slumber, taking
advantage of the rare moment when he was entirely at peace. His
breaths rose and fell in slow, even measures, almost in time with
his heartbeat.

Aurora could watch him like this for
hours. Quin was so peaceful now. So sweet, even. She chuckled at
the thought of calling him sweet to his face. Her husband would not
care for such a term.

While his eyes were still closed,
Aurora leaned in and placed a soft, chaste kiss upon his lips.
Apparently, that simple touch was all it took to wake him. Quin
rolled over atop her and deepened the kiss.

“
Good morning,” he said to
her a moment later, raising his face to smile down at her. “I could
get used to waking up that way. How are you feeling today,
love?”

Aurora shoved him so he would roll off
her. “I feel perfectly robust.” The untruth was only a tiny one,
not really significant. She didn’t want him to worry about her. Not
today.

Quin did roll over, but essentially
just exchanged places with her, pulling her atop him as he went.
“Have you thought more about your response to Norcutt and Lady
Rebecca’s betrothal?”

Aurora frowned. “I’m trying to be
happy for her. She is my dearest friend and she looks truly happy.
I just don’t know that he’s right for her…”

“
He is a good man, Aurora.
He will treat her well. He won’t…” His voice trailed off into
silence and he looked away from her.

“
He won’t what? Hurt her?
Like you think you’ll hurt me?”

Quin nodded but refused to look at
her.

“
You haven’t, though. You
haven’t hurt me, even though you’ve been scared you would. You
haven’t hurt me though I’ve tried your patience more than any
reasonable man should have to endure. You haven’t hurt me, because
you don’t hurt women.”

Finally, his eyes returned to hers.
“So you would wish a marriage such as ours upon Lady Rebecca?” he
asked, his voice breaking slightly at the end.

Oh, dear good Lord. She hadn’t thought
about it quite in that way. Quin and Lord Norcutt were about as
opposite as two gentlemen could be and still be considered
gentlemen. For that matter, some might not consider Quin a
gentleman at all. But their marriage was…what,
precisely?

He loved her. He had said so himself,
on that morning out by the hermitage. And she loved him. She even
enjoyed his company, now that he’d finally begun to trust her and
share some of his secrets with her, his pain.

“
Yes,” Aurora finally
whispered. “Yes, I would wish a marriage like ours upon her,
complete with all the arguments and disagreements, with the
scandals and the passion. I would wish that on them a thousand
times over.”

“
And who is to say,” Quin
said, “that Lord Norcutt and Lady Rebecca will not have just such a
marriage when it is all said and done? Do you honestly, in your
heart, believe they will not?”

How dare Quin think reasonably, again?
That was a terribly boorish habit he seemed to have. Blast him. “I
suppose I cannot,” Aurora conceded. Even though she would never be
able to look at Lord Norcutt in the way she looked at
Quin.

Then again, she wasn’t the one
marrying the man.

~ * ~

And so they went about their day as it
had been planned, with the scavenger hunt serving as the
culmination of a long day’s events. By the time it was set to
begin, Aurora was exhausted. The dull throb in her belly had
continued throughout the day, intensifying at times and then
lessening at others. She still felt it best to keep that fact from
Quin.