My Lord Hercules (9 page)

“
Mmm.” His lips trailed
further down her neck and his hands moved further down her
back.

“
Are you mad?” she
asked.

Harrison heaved a beleaguered sigh,
then he lifted his head to gaze down at her. “That is a distinct
possibility.”

“
You don’t know the first
thing about me,” she said, ignoring his barb.

He gently caressed her cheek and said,
“I know that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I
met you. I know that I wanted to crash my fist into Woodsworth’s
face when I thought you were infatuated with him. I know that the
touch of your skin and smell of your lilac scent drive me to
distraction. And I know that no lady’s kiss has ever made me
profess such things before, Miranda.”

She blinked up at him. Did he really
mean all of that? She’d never dreamed of hearing such a profession
from any man. She’d known from the beginning he was the sort she
could fall madly in love with, and that thought still terrified
her. “I don’t know you,” she said cautiously.

“
There’s an easy way to
remedy that.” Harrison gently touched his lips to hers once more.
“Are you unaffected by my kiss, Miranda?”

Hardly that. She’d never imagined she
could feel the things she did in his arms. “You leave me
breathless,” she admitted, though it probably wasn’t wise to say
so.

A satisfied smile settled on his lips.
“So glad to hear it,” he said, then kissed her again. When he
lifted his head, desire shone in his green eyes, warming her to her
core. “Marry me, Miranda.”

Though her heart urged her to say yes,
Miranda didn’t quite trust that particular organ. She heaved a sigh
instead. “I can’t focus on my future, Harry, not until I know what
happened to Tessie.” After all, she would be the worst sort of
friend to abandon Tessie now. What would that say about her
character? That her longtime friend was easily forgotten after a
few kisses and a proposal, even if the man was one she wanted more
than her next breath?

“
Your loyalty commends you,
even if it does put you in danger.” He brushed his knuckles across
her cheek. “If I get the truth from Woodsworth, will you marry me
then?”

A lump lodged in Miranda’s throat, so
she nodded her answer instead.

“
And you’ll promise not to
try to meet him on your own? You’ll trust me enough to get the
truth from him?”

Miranda nodded once more, her heart
nearly overflowing. He would find the truth; she could see it in
his countenance. After weeks of trying to discover the truth, Harry
would help her. He’d see this through, she knew it.

Miranda threw her arms around his neck
once again.

Light poured in through Miranda’s
windows and she couldn’t help the smile that settled on her face.
She hadn’t imagined last night, had she? She hadn’t imagined
Harry’s kisses, his proposal, his heartfelt profession? She
certainly hoped not, though it did seem like a dream in so many
ways.

She sighed, staring up at the ceiling
above. Harry truly was her Hercules. Strong, handsome, and noble.
Even if he failed to get answers out of Woodsworth, he’d at least
taken her seriously. He was going to help her, which was more than
Devlin or anyone else had done. And then there were his
kisses…

Miranda sighed again.

She was going to marry Lord Harrison
Casemore. She was going to marry Harry Casemore, and she was going
to kiss him the rest of her days and nights. That particular
thought would have terrified her as far back as a week ago. She’d
been so wary of men and their motives; but now… Now she couldn’t
wait to see Harry today. She couldn’t wait to kiss him once more,
to let her hands explore his muscled chest, to feel his arms
tighten around her again.

A scratch came at the door, breaking
Miranda from her reverie. “Come,” she nearly sang.

A moment later, her lady’s maid Nettie
strode into the room, a look of annoyance on her face. “Happy this
morning, are you, Miss Miranda?”

More than happy. Miranda
smiled at the servant. “It
is
a good morning, Nettie.”

“
Indeed?” The maid heaved a
sigh. “Did you know one of my dresses has gone missing,
miss?”

Miranda’s smile vanished as she slid
to the side of her four-poster. “A missing dress?” When her toes
found purchase against the rug, she pushed to her feet.

Nettie punched her hands to her hips,
spearing Miranda with a look that would have leveled a field of
approaching soldiers. “Alice saw you take it, Miss Miranda. So
don’t waste your breath denyin’ it. I asked her not to say anything
to his lordship, but—”

Miranda threw her arms around the
servant, then she spun her around. “You are the best,
Nettie!”

“
Miss Miranda!” the maid
protested.

But Miranda paid her no notice, only
spinning faster with the servant. “I had the most marvelous
evening, Nettie. You’ll never believe it.”

“
In my dress?”

Miranda stopped twirling around the
room, grasped the maid’s arms, and grinned her widest. “It’s in my
wardrobe. Thank you so much for letting me borrow it.”

“
I don’t think you
understand the difference between borrowing and stealing, Miss
Miranda.”

“
I won’t do it again,
Nettie,” she promised. After all, she wouldn’t have to. She
wouldn’t need to dress up like anyone other than herself from now
on. Harry believed her, and Harry would help her find Tessie. “Do
help me get dressed for the day, please.”

The maid looked at her as though she’d
lost her mind. “Are you feeling all right, Miss
Miranda?”

“
Never better!” she gushed.
“What do you think about my gold dress today? Alessandra said it
brings out my eyes.”

“
Are you expecting a
caller?” Nettie asked, her brow high, clearly surprised as Miranda
generally didn’t care what she wore.

Miranda grinned again. “One can always
hope, can’t one?” And she did hope. She hoped with every breath she
took that Harry would come for her today. That he’d whisper sweet
things to her, that he might let her drive his bays again, that
he’d…

A knock came at Miranda’s door.
“Miranda?” her sister, Alessandra called from the
corridor.

“
Are you awake?” Penny
called a second later.

“
She’s awake,” Nettie
grumbled, still eyeing Miranda as though she was a foreign species
of some sort.

A moment later, Alessandra and Penny
filed into Miranda’s room. She grinned at her sisters. “I was
thinking about my gold dress today. What do you think?”

It was then that she realized both of
her sisters wore expressions of concern. “Nettie,” Alessandra
began, “leave us please.”

Good heavens. Something had clearly
happened. After Simeon, Papa, and Tessie, Miranda didn’t think she
could take any bad news.

The maid nodded, then quietly exited
Miranda’s chambers without a word or a glance backward. As soon as
she was gone, Penny rushed toward Miranda. “We missed you terribly
last night. Were you all right?”

They missed her terribly at the
Dewhurst soiree? Penny was certainly prone to theatrics. “I was
fine. What has happened?”

Alessandra frowned. Her blue eyes
looked so troubled, Miranda’s heart lurched for her sister. Had
something happened with Puttenham? After all the years her sister
had spent waiting for him?

“
Penny,” Miranda began,
though her eyes never left Alessandra, “I need to speak to
Alessandra.”

“
No one is stopping you,”
Penny replied.

No one except Penny, who couldn’t be
trusted with secrets. “Penny!” Miranda shifted her gaze to her
little sister. “I need to speak to Alessandra. Alone.”

 
A petulant scowl
settled on Penny’s face. “Why can’t I stay?”

“
Because you don’t know how
to hold your tongue. Look at everything that spilled from your
mouth in front of Lady St. Austell yesterday.”

“
I can hold my tongue,”
Penny insisted. “I didn’t tell Lady St. Austell that you had to
stay in your chambers last night when we saw her at the
Dewhursts’.”

 “
You saw Harry’s
sister?” Miranda asked.

“
Harry?” Alessandra and
Penny asked in unison as both sisters’ brows rose in mild
surprise.

Heat rushed to Miranda’s face. Why
shouldn’t she call him Harry, though? He was going to be her
husband and that was what his family called him. “I’ve heard you
call Puttenham ‘George’ often enough,” she said to her older
sister.

A ghost of a smile settled on
Alessandra’s face. “Does that mean Penny’s right? Your Lord
Harrison does plan to offer for you?”

Miranda couldn’t help but smile back.
“Unless he’s changed his mind.”

“
Oh!” Penny squealed at the
same time Alessandra pulled Miranda into her embrace.

Miranda squeezed her sister in return.
Then she pulled back from Alessandra and said, “Neither of you can
breathe a word of this until Harry can speak with
Devlin.”

Miranda and Alessandra both turned
their focus on Penny, whose mouth dropped open in sisterly outrage.
“I said I can hold my tongue. There’s no need for both of you to
look at me so.”

Alessandra slid her arm around their
younger sister's shoulders. “Of course you can,” she soothed. “And
now we can focus on you, Penny. Is there a fellow who’s caught your
interest during the Little Season?”

Penny flushed, which was something
considering her olive complexion. Miranda narrowed her eyes on her
little sister. Was it possible Penny had found a gentleman who had
caught her attention? If so, then she certainly was capable of
holding her tongue. “I didn’t tell anyone—” she shrugged “—well,
other than Alessandra what I overheard Lady St. Austell saying to
Lady Gifford last night.”

There was something in her sister’s
tone that made dread wash over Miranda. “Lady St. Austell said
something alarming?”

Penny looked from Miranda to
Alessandra and back. “You didn’t dress up like a man and sneak
inside some gambling establishment, did you?”

Miranda’s mouth fell open. Harry told
her he wouldn’t ever tell a soul. Why would he tell his sister, and
why would she tell anyone else? That was most upsetting.

“
Of course she wouldn’t,”
Alessandra defended. “Devlin would kill her, and she would
never
risk all of our
reputations by doing something so foolish.”

Miranda couldn’t quite meet her older
sister’s eyes. What if she had been caught by someone other than
Harry? What is she’d destroyed her sisters’ chances at happiness?
All she wanted was to learn the truth about Tessie. No one else
seemed to care, but Tessie had been a good friend to Miranda. If
she didn’t care, if she didn’t find out the truth, no one would.
And that seemed a travesty.

Still, she shouldn’t have put her
sisters’ reputations in danger in the process. That was
unforgivable.

“
I can’t believe she would
say such a thing,” Miranda said instead of answering the charges
before her.

Penny shook her head. “I don’t think
anyone else overheard. They were in the retiring room. They didn’t
even know I was there.”

Miranda wasn’t sure if that made her
feel better or not. Shouldn’t Lady St. Austell make certain that
others couldn’t overhear such tales? And why would she confide them
to Lady Gifford? “What else did she say?” she asked, almost afraid
to hear the answer.

Penny heaved a sigh. “That she’s
worried about Lord Harrison.”

“
Because of me,” Miranda
muttered under her breath.

Penny nodded. “I’m afraid
so.”