Conduct Unbecoming of a Gentleman (12 page)

Rhonda’s voice shook with suppressed emotion. “Why don’t you acknowledge what’s in front of your face? Laurel visited her aunt several times while Robert fought for England. His absence gave her plenty of opportunity to have the gems exchanged for paste.”

“How dare you accuse me.” Laurel’s voice rose. “He managed to make it home for Jamie’s birth.”

“For two weeks only. When he returned crippled from the war, he tried everything to keep you content,” Rhonda snapped. “He even decided to modernize some of the jewelry for you but you refused to let him.”

Laurel rubbed the back of her neck and hesitated and when she spoke, her voice cracked. “I didn’t want the character or the history of the pieces destroyed for my sake. I loved the jewelry exactly as it was.”

“More likely you were afraid he would discover what you had done.” Rhonda’s accusation blazed with bitterness.

“Enough.” Adron held up his hand.

Rhonda threw Adron a look of reproach. “I have proof. After I lost Robert, my personal servant discovered Laurel coming from the estate office with a necklace in her hand. Later that day, Percy thought it prudent to lock the collection away.”

“You and Percy had no right to lock anything away. The house and the jewelry belonged to my son. And I deny your maid saw me with anything in my hand.”

“I’ll question her before I leave for Landings.” Adron promised in a weary voice.

“That is completely caper-witted.” With a glance of censure, Rhonda asked, “Haven’t I given you sufficient evidence to lead you in the right direction?”

Exasperated and heartsick, he gritted his teeth. “Allow me to find the truth.”

Rhonda stepped closer to his desk and picked up a small button with a distinctive shape. She gasped. “What’s this?”

Laurel’s eyes widened as Rhonda held up the button.

Rhonda’s voice trembled. “This is your button, Laurel.” She glanced at Adron. “Robert sent all the way to London especially to please her because he knew she loved roses. He had several of this particular button uniquely made for that silk gown he ordered, at great expense I might add, before he left for the war. Where did you find it?”

Adron reached for the button and examined the delicate rose shape. He held the object toward Laurel. “Is this yours?”

Laurel blinked and opened her mouth but could force no words passed her lips. She swallowed. “I hadn’t realized I’d lost the thing. And off my favorite dress too. I’m pleased to have it restored to me.” Laurel reached for the button.

His eyes narrowed to slits. “I’m afraid I can’t relinquish this. And since it was found among the jewelry I’ll hang on to it for a while. At least until I return from Landings.”

“Among the jewelry? But how?” Laurel’s hand trembled as she brushed her fingers against her temples.

“It was in the box with the jewelry.”

“But I haven’t been near the jewelry,” Laurel denied. “Not since Robert’s death.”

“I’ve seen you wear the dress since my brother died. There weren’t any buttons missing then,” Rhonda quickly interjected.

“I’m at a lost to explain it,” Laurel said, covered with confusion.

“Perhaps I will discover why when I return from Landings,” Adron said abruptly.

Rhonda paced a few steps around the room. “If you still mean to carry out this farce of an investigation, don’t frighten poor Essie to death then.”

Adron frowned. “I shan’t go in with pistols cocked. Besides, after three weeks, she and I are well acquainted and Percy will be there to reassure her.”

“But Percy will think you accuse him.”

He scowled and threw his hands up. “I’m going to get to the bottom of the thievery no matter the culprit.”

“I’d best return with you then.”

“I’ll be leaving at first light, hours before you’re normal appearance below stairs.”

“But.” Rhonda tightened her lips.

“No argument. You may return to your home anytime you please.” He glanced at Laurel. “The same does not apply to my ward. Jamie is safe here. He mustn’t be exposed to needless danger. Understood.”

“All too well.” Laurel grimaced and straightened her shoulders.

A humorless smile touched his lips as he bowed the ladies out of his library. “Ladies.”

Adron poured a glass of whiskey and swallowed a gulp before returning to his chair. The one thing his cousin had requested of him, to safeguard his son’s legacy, and he had fallen miserably short. When would he learn? The first occasion he’d failed Robert haunted him to this day. Because he trusted his own instincts failing to heed the signs of treachery in a beautiful woman, Robert and several of his troops had paid with their lives. He couldn’t allow his weakness to blind him again. A lump formed in Adron’s throat.

Evidence pointed directly to Laurel. He couldn’t play the fool and ignore the obvious. Although the case against her was not water tight, there was a substantial amount of evidence. He drew a sheet of foolscap from his desk and began to list the information at his disposal.

Rhonda had access to the jewelry, but he couldn’t imagine his cousin stealing the gems when she’d inherited so much. Laurel also had access to the collection and she had been left with very little. That fact bothered Adron a great deal because Robert would never have been so careless. Adron hunched his shoulders. No Will had been located perhaps because Robert’s attorney had died and his son had taken over the practice. Adron must leave that conjecture until after he met with the attorney. He must concentrate on the facts.

Rhonda thought she glimpsed Laurel wearing a bracelet missing from the collection, not evidence exactly but an indicator. He shook his head and discounted her statement. However, according to Rhonda, her woman had seen Laurel with a necklace from the collection. Again the evidence pointed to Laurel. Adron penned a note across the top of the list to check the servant’s story.

With Robert’s long absences in Spain, Laurel had the opportunity to exchange the jewelry for fakes. Her claim of respect for the collection and wanting to preserve the history of the pieces rang true but perhaps he heard what he wanted to hear. As much as the thought troubled Adron, he couldn’t discount that notion. The most damning information came from a button found among the fake jewelry torn from Laurel’s dress. How had her button fallen into the casket? He frowned in puzzlement, not willing to blame her yet. Further evidence came from Laurel’s own head, several strands of hair the same pure shade of sliver blonde as hers.

Adron gathered the suspect strands and examined the unusual color, the silky texture too. Perhaps since Robert left her with nothing, she could see no wrong in taking what belonged to her own child.

“Blister it,” he muttered under his breath and gritted his teeth. Ready to accept any excuse for her, he fought the temptation to crumple the paper and fling the thing into the grate. He carefully folded the list and slipped it into his pocket.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tightened his lips. He must have a clear head and in order to do so he had to distance himself from Laurel. After all he couldn’t be in love with her, or could he? No, it was only lust and caring between lovers. If he simply told her the relationship had to end, she would toss her head and raise her chin at him. Fire would light her eyes causing him to want to take her in his arms and kiss her until the anger blazed into passion. Best to step back while he still could.

Perhaps the time had come for him to relinquish his freedom and make Melissa an offer. That would settle the situation in which he found himself, in lust with the wrong woman. Until Laurel had distracted him, he’d firmly intended to marry innocent Melissa. For a short time, he’d lost sight of that fact, dreaming an impossible dream. A part of him grieved that his dream could never be realized, but he wouldn’t fail Robert again. He would do the honorable thing and tell Laurel tonight.

Chapter 12

Night fell as Laurel closed the door and leaned against the panel, shutting out the end of a horrible day. Her shoulders sagged as she placed the candle on the dresser and pulled the window hangings together. Momentarily her fingers tightened on the curtains and she leaned her forehead against the draped window before turning to her bed. First she’d been practically accused of stealing Rhonda’s emeralds and later the entire Laningham collection.

She sank onto the bed, removed the chain from around her neck and inspected the key with growing concern. After all the accusations hurled at her today, she wished she’d never seen the key or the case of jewelry Robert left in her keeping.

Laurel dared not reveal the fact she had part of the collection safely tucked away in the false bottom of her trunk. Not after the questions she’d been forced to answer and the suspicions stirred against her.

Not wanting to think about the jewelry or the thief, still she couldn’t push the thoughts away. Had the person who broke into her room been responsible for the theft? If so, why had he bothered to exchange the gems for paste? Laurel stood and slipped the key in her top dresser drawer. Were the pieces she had hidden real or not? She had no answer.

A soft tap on her door brought her heart into her throat. A shuddering breath escaped her. “Enter.”

Adron stepped through the threshold. “Excellent. You aren’t in bed yet. I need to speak with you and I felt it couldn’t wait. I’ll be leaving for Landings in the morning.”

Laurel arched her brows in question. After the way he had treated her, she feared what he had to say. She didn’t speak, afraid her voice would betray her.

He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Best get right to it. I am seriously considering making an offer for Melissa as soon as I return from Landings. It’s my grandmother’s fondest wish and I have raised Melissa’s expectations. As a gentleman, I can’t in good conscience let her down. I thought it only fair I inform you of my decision.”

A knot formed in her chest
and she quickly lowered her lashes. It took her a minute to find her voice. “What does your conscience have to say about me?”

“Laurel, you’re a grown woman, a widow and experienced. You knew what you were getting into.”

“Did I? Yes, I suppose I did. After all, I had been married for all of two weeks before my husband left for the war.”

Shock and regret register in his eyes as she watched, but he remained silent. Accepting defeat, she forced herself to slay all of her hopes. “Then Jamie and I will leave.”

“I said nothing of my ward leaving my household.”

A surge of fury swamped her as a haze of red appeared before her eyes. She didn’t care that her voice held a sharp, sneering edge. “Then you will live with the consequences.”

Laurel began to unfasten her gown button after button with a careless, provocative smile on her lips. She issued an enticing invitation with her eyes. Laurel watched him swallow as she allowed her gown to slip to the floor followed more slowly by her chemise. The thin garment caressed every inch of her body on the way to the floor and his eyes followed the clothing all the way down. Revealed, she stood before him and his gaze heated as he inspected every bare inch of her body. She observed desire in his eyes and reveled in her power over him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” His voice sounded strained.

Her smile widened as she stepped toward him and casually began to untie his cravat. His spicy scent filled her nostrils. “Showing you something you’ve apparently forgotten. You know I’ll not leave here without my son. And with me under your roof, you’ll never be able to take your bride to your bed without thinking of me, longing for me and hating yourself for your decision.”

Adron swallowed again—hard. “Now, Laurel. I can’t allow Jamie to leave. When I read Robert’s last letter, I pledged to him and promised myself that I would guard his heir. That’s exactly what I mean to do in remembrance of him.”

“You expect me to stay and watch you wed Melissa? And leave my son in her tender care? Never.”

“Laurel, be sensible. Melissa will make a splendid mother.”

“But not to my son,” she denied hotly. “If you don’t want complications beyond measure, I suggest you revoke you edict that Jamie remains in your household or rethink your marriage plans,” she said, all the while unfastening his lawn shirt. Laurel curled her fingers around his nape, pulling his face down against his resistance and the tension in his neck. She nipped his bottom lip with her teeth, teasing and enticing with each bite. Darting her tongue between his lips, she seduced him and without further hesitation he wrapped her in his arms. For a moment she almost forgot her part as lover and her role to seduce, to bind him to her, not to succumb to him.

His breathing had deepened and passion burned in his eyes. His response sent ripples of sensations down her spine and to every sensitive pulse point in her body as her heart rate increased. Adron didn’t resist as she divested him of his jacket and shirt. She kissed his jaw and trailed her open mouth down his throat to his chest. He moaned as she stopped to suckle his nipple, already a pebbled nub, before urging him toward the bed. Completely naked now, he pushed her down and covered her body with his.

“Laurel, so beautiful,” he murmured, kissing her forehead, then her eyelids before tasting her mouth. She returned his kiss with all the passion in her.

“You’ll never forget this night or me,” she whispered after finally breaking the kiss.

Laurel wrapped her arms around his shoulders, swirling her tongue in his ear and his ragged breathing rasped against her temple. Urging Adron on his back, her hand lightly drifted from his shoulder to his hip before she encircled his shaft with her fingers. She began to stroke and caress him.

“You like,” she whispered as he groaned. Her tongue followed the same path down his body with deliberate slowness until she finally kissed the tip of him. He moaned and nearly came off the bed.

Laurel crawled on top of him and pushed back against his erection, joining her body with his. She sat up in control of the rhythm, fast then slow, always deeper as he raised his hips to meet her. The tension climbed to a height she had never experienced before. Having control and the power to drive him to the brink with each lunge added to her excitement, higher and higher until she thought she might explode. Her breath came in gasps.

With a final thrust, he quivered, releasing his seed and sending her over the edge to shatter with intense pleasure. Drifting out of the haze of passion, she leaned down and kissed his lips.

“You’ll never forget,” she whispered and withdrew to the side of the bed.

Adron sighed and sat up ducking his head to stare at his hands. He ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t let this change my decision.”

Grabbing her chemise, she jerked it over her head. “Then go to your future bride. But you’ll never be satisfied with Melissa. I will always haunt you. When you glance across the room and our eyes meet, you’ll remember every moment you spent with me. You’ll wish you were with me again instead of her.”

Adron stepped into his pants, gathered the rest of his clothing and hesitated at the door.

“Laurel,” he said slightly above a whisper, seemingly on the verge of offering further explanations. He shook his head and quietly closed the door behind him.

Laurel fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands. Not wanting him to hear the devastation he’d left in his wake, silent sobs shook her shoulders while tears coursed between her fingers.

She couldn’t stay. Her threat to stay and bombard his senses with temptation had been exactly that, a bluff. Knowing he would never touch her again, Laurel couldn’t endure watching as he treated his bride with tender consideration. She couldn’t abide the thought of Melissa blooming with his seed, bearing his child and possibly gaining his love as well. Laurel placed a protective hand over her abdomen, not certain and not wanting to face the answer either way. Not now when he actually stated his intentions to marry another. Burning with shame and fury, she gritted her teeth. Laurel finally lifted her head to swipe the tears from her face and scrambled to her feet.

As she paced, his cruel words still rang in her ears. ‘
Jamie stays. Melissa will make a splendid mother.’”

Sad that he couldn’t see the shallowness of his intended—not merely immature, but her self-centered nature as well, and never likely to grow less self-absorbed. Adron couldn’t see past the end of his nose where either she or Melissa was concerned. After all this time he still expected her to turn the care of her child over to Melissa. Laurel thought he knew her better than he obviously did. He had mistaken her character—as mistaken as she had been in his. How had she so misjudged the caring she’d seen in his eyes?

Fighting to ignore her own heartbreak, she drew a deep shuddering breath. She must concentrate on her child and step out into a future without Adron. Only Jamie mattered and she would never give him up.

She fell on the bed and pounded her pillow. “Damn, damn, damn.” Tears gushed down her cheeks and she buried her face in the pillow, sobbing until there were no tears left to shed.

How would she ever sleep? If only she could run to her aunt for comfort and advice as she had for years, but she couldn’t. Laurel must face this alone. She considered her situation for several long, deliberate minutes. If only she could sleep through the night Adron’s rejection would be less raw and she would find it easier to make a plan. Sighing, she faced the fact that her problem would still be there in the morning. She must decide on an appropriate action now.

What choices were before her? She wouldn’t stay and watch Adron marry Melissa. Laurel couldn’t live with her aunt or marry someone else either. Adron wouldn’t allow her to take Jamie. “Blast the stubborn fool.”

There seemed to be only one course open. Taking Jamie with her, she could run away, far away where Adron would never find her. The thought of leaving Adron behind nearly crippled her and she gritted her teeth against the pain. Then she admitted she didn’t have him anyway. Laurel lifted her chin and forced herself to concentrate on exactly what her choices would mean. She must leave England—her home, her beloved aunt and everything familiar to her. Dreading the thought, still she must face that fact. Nothing else was possible.

What country would be best? France—no, the war had taken her husband. Spain offered the same memories. Aunt Betsy had talked of America. George had talked about America too in the many conversations she had enjoyed with him. He had continued to court her in spite of her many refusals and in times like these, she wished she could turn to him. She couldn’t. Laurel didn’t love him and Adron would never let her marry his friend or take Jamie with her. But America, George had painted a vivid picture of a vast land in which she could easily lose herself with her son.

Leaving here tomorrow after Adron departed for Landings would take caution and must be well planned. She would leave quietly during the night. No hue and cry would be raised until the next day allowing her to reach her aunt’s house. With a pang she acknowledged she couldn’t stay there. Aunt Betsy’s would be the first place Adron would search for her.

Laurel could never allow Adron to find her however much she might have dreamed of a happy ending. She finally accepted the inevitable. With her decision made, her mind stopped circling and a certain peace came over her, but she couldn’t sleep.

After a sleepless night, Laurel stood at the window with the curtains slightly parted to watch Adron emerge and mount the steps to his carriage. This would be her last opportunity to capture the memory of his broad shoulders, his well-balanced frame and his handsome features. She loved him so. Her breath caught in her throat choking her or was it the silent sobs?

Tonight she would leave this place forever.

Adron acknowledged the coachman with a nod. “When I give the signal, spring ‘em. Set the pace. I want to be away from here.”

With that utterance, he boarded the vehicle settling against the tufted squabs behind him and tapped on the roof with his swordstick. After last night’s fiasco, he’d hardly slept a wink and the clouded sky exactly suited his mood. Adron told himself he had acted for the best, not only for Laurel, but for Jamie as well. He longed to take her in his arms and tell her he had no intentions of asking for Melissa’s hand, but that was the reason he could not offer her comfort.

Adron had to approach the problem of the theft with a clear mind. He couldn’t let the mere sight of Laurel cloud his judgment and his judgment did become clouded when he considered her. The ease with which she’d seduced him last night showed him that. He rubbed his temples. Perhaps his lust had grown deeper than he ever intended, but lust for her was all he would acknowledge.

Adron had to consider the situation carefully and from all angles. At first he had scoffed when she mentioned the thief breaking into her chamber but now he could no longer dismiss her claim as irrelevant. Her life might be in danger and he had to protect her as well as Jamie. He would be better served to completely block her from his mind except in regards to her safety, at least for the present. She would be safer away from Landings, the fake jewels and especially him as the estate trustee.

Determined to discover the truth no matter the culprit, he squared his shoulders. He had a duty to perform in the name of his cousin and he would discover the truth. With that thought in mind, he drew his list from his coat pocket and reluctantly began to peruse the information he’d considered pertinent. The housekeeper would be the first person he interviewed. Her position necessitated knowledge about the workings of the estate.

After Adron’s departure, Laurel crept out of the house and deposited her valise beneath a hedgerow a little distance down the lane. She hurried back to the house, her nerves on edge. Time hardly moved until the evening when she retired to her chamber. Asking not to be disturbed until morning, she made the most of her time in arranging her disguise. As soon as the household settled down, she would slip away.