How To Rescue A Rake (Book Club Belles Society 3) (24 page)

He could have brought her jewelry or some other fancy gift, which perhaps she might have expected from the old Nathaniel trying to impress her. Instead he gave her this moment, knowing her better than anyone. It would cost him—perhaps end his new friendship with Sir Jonty once he knew that Nathaniel had lied to steal her away from George that evening. So many people would be annoyed and upset.

Yet he had done all that to sit beside her and make sure she enjoyed the concert.

Reckless, risk-taking Sherry.

Diana closed her eyes, not just to hide the tears that filled them, but to let the music take over completely. Into her very bones it came. And she tightened her fingers around Sherry’s hand, squeezing.

There was no other sound but the music and her heartbeat in her ears.

* * *

“
Sherry! I thought it was you from behind
,” the woman shouted to him as they passed through the Octagon Room after the concert. “I’ve never seen you so still. I thought you must be passed out drunk! But I couldn’t hear you snoring.”

He winced. Couldn’t remember the woman’s name. Julia perhaps? Jenny? Damn it.

Diana had not said a word to him since the music began, but she seemed in haste to get out of the place now that the last note had been played. He tried to keep up with her as the crowd surged around them.

Another woman to the left of their path also waved a program at him. “Sherry! Sherry! What are you doing here? You never were one for music, as I recall!”

“I didn’t know you were in Bath, old chap!” another fellow bellowed behind him.

Nathaniel struggled onward, keeping Diana’s head in his sights as it bobbed in and out. Where the devil was she going in this much haste?

At the doors their progress was hampered by a cluster of folk all trying to get out at once. He caught Diana’s sleeve to hold her back, and instantly wished he had not because they came face to face with another woman with a high-hoisted bosom and a very low-cut gown. Her thick perfume hung in a cloud around them.

“Sherry, darling!” she cried in a gushing breath of gin and aniseed. “I wondered when you would come back to Bath. I thought you had deserted us. No one fun ever calls in to see me anymore!” She noticed then that he was with Diana. Her heavy, languid gaze swept down and up, and then she smiled. “Do call upon me soon. When you are free.”

He moved to pass her and she stuck out her closed fan, poking it into his chest.

“I have missed you, Sherry. All the girls have.”

“Excuse me.” He pushed the woman’s fan away and hurried after Diana again.

When at last he was outside in the fresh air he found her standing by the horses, tears in her eyes.

“Diana, none of those women meant anything to me,” he began. “I went there to play cards, not—”

She silenced him with a gloved finger to his lips. “Don’t say anything. Take me away from here. Now. While there is still time for us.”

“Time for us?”

“The Plumtres will find us at any minute. I saw them in the crowd. And then you will have to explain your actions to them.”

“What do I care?” he muttered.

“
I
care,” she said. “I don’t want a scene to spoil the evening. It’s been so wonderful. Please, don’t let it be over yet.”

Without another word he helped her up into the curricle.

* * *

He’d expected her to insist that he take her back to Wollaford, but instead she wanted to see his lodgings.

“Show me where you stay when you are in Bath,” she said.

He hesitated. “It’s not the sort of place one takes a lady.”

“Then pretend I am not one.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Diana.”

“I am being daring, determined. You accused me before of not being so.”

But he had said those things to her in frustration when he was trying to find a way into her heart and wanted to make her show emotion. “I cannot take you to my lodgings.”

“Where is it then?” she demanded. “A house of ill repute, such as those you apparently frequent while here?”

So much for not wanting the evening spoiled. “No! It’s a perfectly respectable boarding house for single gentlemen, but the landlady doesn’t allow female guests in the rooms.” One hand guiding the reins, he reached for his handkerchief and passed it to her.

She snatched it from his hand. “I’m not crying about all your women, so don’t think I am,” she said. “The music was too beautiful, that’s all. It left a deep impression upon me.”

He wasn’t sure he believed her.

Perhaps reading his doubt in the fluttering amber of passing lamplight, she added, “The music was sad, hopeful, sweet, and bitter all at once.”

“Does that mean you liked it, or not?” One could never be sure with women. Not one like her, anyway.

“Yes,” she replied sulkily, blowing her nose hard.

“Well, that’s alright then.” They rode on a while and then he said, “At least now I know you have some feelings. Finally, tears! For music, of all things.”

She sniffed, blinking her wet lashes.

Nathaniel took a deep breath. “There have been women in my past, Diana. Doesn’t mean anything.”

She was quiet.

“A man cannot change his past,” he said, “only his future.” He cleared his throat and the horses cantered along, the wheels of the curricle rumbling over cobbles. “I hope that the woman I marry can accept me despite my faults and will not hold past mistakes over my head each time she thinks of them.”

“You want her to ignore so much, never to know about those women, never to ask. Is that treating her fairly? You would want—expect—to know all about her past.”

He frowned. “What past could she have had?”

Diana snorted. “See? You want her to ask you nothing, yet she must hide nothing from you.”

“She should have nothing to hide!” He turned his head to look at her and then he repeated, “What past could she have had?”

“She must know nothing of yours. Why should you know about hers?” Her eyes shone, even with her face in shadow.

“I didn’t say she should know nothing,” he muttered, suddenly peevish. “I said she shouldn’t think of it or bring it up every time she wants to start a quarrel with her husband.” The thought of Diana having experience of that kind had never occurred to him. According to Sarah Wainwright’s gossip, Diana hadn’t even wanted to kiss William Shaw. But was that the truth? Two years of an engagement was a long time for a man to go without trying something.

He
would have.

Who the devil was engaged for two years and didn’t even share a kiss, for pity’s sake? Oh, no indeed, she must have… He couldn’t bear to think of it.

Jealousy struck as it never had before, like a serpent’s tongue.

“I think she should at least know what you did with your paramours,” Diana said. “She should know that much.”

“Very well,” he exclaimed hotly, “I’ll show her.” He turned the horses toward Sydney Gardens.

With the wonderful music still singing through her blood, Diana was flying that night. She didn’t want to go home to her book and her bed. Not yet.

This moment with Nathaniel was magical, the sort of moment that might never come again.

Of course she knew there were many women in his past. Nathaniel had never made any secret of it. Seeing their eager faces as they tried to catch his eye had merely reminded her of the fact. He had experienced much that she had not, and tonight she was forced again to consider the disadvantages of being a woman in this world.

Diana had always accepted the fact that if she did marry one day, her husband would have more knowledge in certain matters. Unlike her friends, the Book Club Belles, she had never been particularly keen to know about relations between husband and wife. William Shaw had certainly never inspired those yearnings within her. But Nathaniel…oh, Nathaniel had always upset the rhythm of her pulse.

She’d assumed it was because he was forbidden. He was a man she knew she could not have, the naughty book she could never open. Her mother had warned her about him from the first time they met.

Now that she finally allowed herself to admit her feelings for him, they flourished inside her. They had grown too quickly for her to manage, and tonight they took over completely.

But Nathaniel treated her gingerly, barely daring to touch her. That was not how he had been with other women, she was quite sure. Diana did not want to be treated as if she were made of dainty china and might break.

“I’m stronger than I look,” she whispered.

He had halted the curricle under some trees off a deserted path in the park. It was quiet, the air warm and still.

“Touch me the way you touched them. I want to know what it’s like. With you.”

“Diana—”

“Now,” she commanded. “I want you to touch me. Everywhere.”

* * *

She guided his hand to her breast as they sat beneath the whispering trees, and he felt the hard, thrusting beat of her heart.

“I am supposed to be wooing you properly,” he groaned. The silk taffeta of her gown was soft and warm under his palm as he explored her shape.

“Yes, well… I don’t have patience for that.” She kissed his cheek, licked his ear, nibbled his lower lip.

“The music did something to you tonight.”

She stroked his thigh with a bold hand, then reached for the fall of his breeches.

“Diana,” he moaned, sliding down into the grass with her.

“Hush.” He felt her fingers inside his breeches, venturing eagerly forth. And then she made a small sound when she found what she sought, her hand closing around it. “You gave me a lovely gift tonight,” she whispered. “Let me give you something in return.”

Nathaniel knew that he would need all his willpower tonight to keep from finishing what she began, but at that moment his protesting mind was blank. His body and his white-hot desires took over.

He felt for the hooks on the back of her gown and loosened as many as he could to tug it down over her shoulders. Her skin shone like a polished pearl in a slender shaft of moonlight that filtered through the leaves above. A sweet but very faint scent of lavender reached his nostrils and he inhaled deeply, taking in as much of her as he could while kissing her throat and the curve of her exposed shoulder. The yearning he’d tried so hard to stifle in her presence now pushed at the bindings of his will, desperate to break free.

His lips traveled down over the swelling flesh of her bosom above her corset. He could just make out the darker shade of her nipple under the lace chemise. He let his tongue sweep over it, ruffling and dampening the delicate lace, allowing himself just that one taste. But her nipple instantly rose to attention, pricking through a hole in the thin, dainty border of lace and taunting him. Wanting more. He could not bear the temptation and took her nipple again between his lips. He closed his eyes.

She gasped, trembling. Her hands stroked his manhood, fingertips tracing slowly up and down the length as it grew and stretched. The heaviness and heat of his desire for her mounted.

The pounding in his temple became faster, harder. His breathing was shallow and quick, but he couldn’t hear hers. Was she holding her breath?

He sucked gently and felt her arch under him, writhing.

Her perspiration was sweet, intoxicating, and as he licked it from her skin, Diana’s body responded keenly, stretching and arching. Was she humming? Some sound touched his ears, not much louder than a flutter of butterfly wings.

It was, he realized, just like his lusty dreams in which she came to his bed. As his wife.

His wife. Not a hussy.

She was a lady. Thinking of her mother’s disapproving face was enough to shrink a man’s plums to prunes. “Diana.” Her hasty wriggling had succeeded in slipping the chemise down and freeing her breast. The wet nipple jutted upward enticingly. “We must not.”

It didn’t even sound convincing in his ears and yet it was his voice, his protest.

“I told you, I want a lover, Sherry.”

Nathaniel reached down, meaning to pull her hand out of his breeches, but his fingers brushed her garter instead and then her thigh. He immediately forgot what he’d been aiming for.

With a grunt he lowered his mouth again to her breast, wild with hunger.

She made an odd purring sound, her free hand grabbing his hair, her fingers scratching his scalp.

Lost to reason, he touched her between the thighs, felt her dewy softness rubbing against his palm and then his fingers. He could feel her pulse thudding away, rocking her entire body as he fondled her, exploring, teasing, and tending with slow strokes and quick ones.

She murmured his name, his hair twisted around her fingers, her other hand tugging on his erection until he thought he would explode.

When he felt her peak and heard the groans, Nathaniel had to calm his own desires. His heart was racing, his body seized in the grip of raw lust. He wanted to claim her then and there, but that would undo everything he’d been working for these past few days in her company. Even what he had done now was more than he should have.

But the ice queen had turned into a demanding vixen.

He kissed her while she still trembled, her mouth open on a small, sharp cry of delight, her eyes closed. He tasted her tongue, sucked on it, licked her lips, lingering over her.

She was like no one else. He wanted all of her, including her heart, not just possession of her body.

“The sky will soon be lightening,” he whispered. “I must return you to your hosts, before they send out a search party and have me clapped in irons.”

“But surely we have ages yet.”

Nathaniel sighed and gently kissed her brow. “I fear not, my love. I’ve kept you so late it’s early.”

Yes, it would soon be a new day. New for him in so many wonderful ways.

* * *

He delivered her to the lodge and would have come in with her to explain to the others why they were late, but she made him go. A weary-faced footman answered the door and let her in.

“Lady Plumtre is in the drawing room, madam,” he told her gravely, his eyes coldly disapproving of her tumbled hair. She’d tried, with Nathaniel’s assistance, to put the arrangement of curls back together again and failed miserably. Captain Sherringham wasn’t nearly as skilled at repairing a lady’s disordered wardrobe as she’d imagined he would be. And she was rather pleased about that discovery.

“Thank you, but I think I’ll go directly to bed. I am dreadfully tired.” Thus, Diana slipped upstairs to her room. It might be rude, but she could not face Elizabeth’s censorious scowl or any prying questions. Not tonight. Nothing should be allowed to spoil the beautiful evening she’d just enjoyed.

Of course, she might have known that Elizabeth would not let her rest in peace. Knuckles were soon heard on the bedchamber door, and Diana—in the process of changing for bed—was forced to answer the angry tapping.

“Elizabeth, I am tired. Please, can this wait until morning?”

“Oh, I’m quite sure you are tired. And it
is
morning.”

“Goodness gracious. Is it really?” Diana tried to sound concerned, but unfortunately the music was still playing in her head and Sherry’s kisses were imprinted on her flesh. She was drunk with the joys of discovery.

“What could you be thinking to ride off alone with him, to willfully separate yourself from us and come back at this hour?”

“In truth, Elizabeth, I had no notion of the time. I was enjoying myself too much.”

Her cousin stared, eyes popping. “Your mother will hear of this.”

Diana sighed. “I expect she will.” But it was too late for her mother to do anything about it. She was far, far away.

“You knew that he lied, I suppose—about George’s curricle.”

She felt her cousin’s frosty gaze scraping over her face and looking at the hanging, droopy curls that had been flattened by the exertions of her evening and now dangled untidily against the side of her neck and down to her shoulders. “Not for certain. Not at first.”

Elizabeth marched around the room, fists clenched at her sides. “What do you suppose Lady Dodsworth and the Viscountess thought of you, gallivanting about with that man? He has a terrible reputation, so I hear. It all came to light this evening, but I cannot say I was surprised. I suspected as much from the beginning. I told Jonty it serves him right for jumping into an association with a man about whom he knew so little, but he would not heed me.”

“You should not believe gossip, Elizabeth. It is not ladylike.”

Her cousin whirled around. “How dare you say that to me? How dare you think to tell me anything? The way you behaved tonight has caused me nothing but shame. Oh yes, Lady Dodsworth saw you at the concert.
Holding his hand in public and with no engagement between you
. Nothing more than an acquaintance of a few weeks. Someone told her you were a Clarendon, and when she approached me, I did not know how to explain and apologize for such behavior.”

Diana folded her arms. “I am only half a Clarendon,” she pointed out. “I daresay you might blame any wickedness on my father’s blood.” What would Elizabeth do, she wondered, if she knew what else of Nathaniel’s Diana had held that night. More than his hand. Much more.

“The less said about your father, the better!”

Walking to the window, Diana opened it wide to let in fresh air. “I should tell you, Elizabeth, that I have known Captain Sherringham a great deal longer than a few weeks.” The confession came out of her mouth before she could think to prevent it. In that instant she wanted to shout her happiness out loud through the window. She wanted people to know. Especially Elizabeth, who thought Diana could not know anyone or anything of interest.

Her cousin gripped the brass bedpost with straining, clawed fingers. “I knew there was something amiss with that man! He was too full of smiles, too quick to befriend everybody.”

Diana laughed. “You liked him well enough when you learned of his fortune.”

“No matter how much money one has, breeding cannot be bought. That was confirmed tonight by his careless, scandalous behavior.”

“You sound like my mama.” Diana shook her head. “I may as well tell you that I am the woman who once rejected his marriage proposal, a decision I have come to regret since I know now what I gave up and how I allowed myself to be persuaded by the will of others.” She felt the breeze on her face, gentle as his kiss. “But I blame only myself. From now on, choices will be my own, whatever they are and wherever they take me. I’m sorry if that does not comply with your plans for me, but you see, I do have a life of my own and I was born to live it, not to live for anybody else.”

Elizabeth stood in shocked silence for several moments, and then she walked out and shut the door hard behind her. Diana had no doubt that a letter would immediately be penned to her mother. And before many more days had passed, she would be summoned home.

Tomorrow would be time enough to worry about that.

She climbed into bed and stretched with a lusty sigh. Just one more chapter to read before she closed her eyes.

“I have been thinking over the past, and trying impartially to judge of the right and wrong, I mean with regard to myself; and I must believe that I was right, much as I suffered from it, that I was perfectly right in being guided by the friend whom you will love better than you do now…

“Do not mistake me, however. I am not saying that she did not err in her advice. It was, perhaps, one of those cases in which advice is good or bad only as the event decides; and for myself, I certainly never should, in any circumstance of tolerable similarity, give such advice. But I mean, that I was right in submitting to her…”

Diana knew that her mother had persuaded her against Nathaniel for sound reasons. She had always known it. She had made a coolheaded decision to reject his proposal, being perfectly sensible for both of them since he could not be.

But she and Nathaniel were the same people they had been back then. She could no longer keep her heart out of the equation. This rebellion had not begun when she drank too much gooseberry wine, or he came back to Hawcombe Prior, or even when she told William Shaw that she couldn’t marry him.

It had begun when Nathaniel kissed her under the arches of the Bolt, catching her unawares when she’d thought she had all the facts before her. His kiss had made her realize there was something she’d forgotten. Something she’d left behind that only a reckless, brazen, tree-climbing man would come back to find for her.