Nicole Jordan (28 page)

Nick set his jaw grimly. He was accustomed to rescuing damsels in distress, but usually the peril came from a physical threat. This time, however, he would save Aurora from herself.

He would claim her for his wife…and he would make her forget that she had ever loved another man.

Chapter Fifteen

Contrary to Aurora’s hopes, young Harry’s arrival in London did little to solve her dilemma: how to avoid her persistent, unwanted husband. Rather Harry’s visit merely gave Nicholas further pretext for intimacy. He called at her house frequently, ostensibly to entertain Harry and take him to see the sights of London.

Their almost instant camaraderie greatly dismayed Aurora. Nicholas had won over the boy with his tales of ships and seafaring, along with liberal doses of charm. Yet she was reluctant to disappoint her newest young charge by refusing Nicholas entry to her home.

Frequently she was even grateful for his intervention. It was no small task, keeping an energetic ten-year-old occupied. She took Harry on her morning rides in the park, but that hardly scratched the surface of his adventurous itch. He wanted to see the world, beginning with every inch of London.

Fortunately—or unfortunately for convention’s sake—Raven befriended him, and the two could often be found racing through the park like wild Indians. Aurora could hardly scold, since she had instigated the morning gallops in the first place.

Even wild gallops, however, could not compete with the entertainments Nicholas offered. Harry came home wide-eyed and excited when they visited Exeter ’Change to see the tigers and Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, which boasted curiosities from Africa and the Americas. Three days later he suffered a stomachache from eating too much gingerbread when they attended a local fair with conjurers and tumblers and rope dancers.

When Aurora fretted that Nicholas was overindulging the boy, he brushed off her concerns and told her not to worry.

“Of course I worry,” she responded. “I am responsible for him.”

“I won’t allow him to come to any harm, I promise you.”

She had to be content with that, but there was no question Nicholas was encouraging Harry to test his wings, or that the boy had contracted a feverish case of hero-worship.

Raven accompanied them to Astley’s Royal Amphitheater for a spectacle of acrobatics on horseback. The next day Harry attempted one of the feats of horsemanship and fell off his mount, skinning his knees and bloodying his chin.

Aurora was alarmed, but Nicholas reminded her that skinned knees were a rite of boyhood. When she would have continued protesting, he warned her not to try to rein the boy in too tightly, or he would think she was smothering him as his mother did.

Still, she didn’t like it that Nicholas was aiding and abetting Harry’s rebellion.

The final straw was Burford’s Panorama in Castle Street, which offered murals of, among other things, the naval victories of Admiral Nelson on the Nile. All Harry could talk about afterward was going to sea.

“I think perhaps it’s best if you cease taking him to any more entertainments,” Aurora told Nicholas during their morning ride the following day.

“Why?”

“Because Harry is an impressionable young boy. I dread to think what wild notions he is picking up from you.”

“I would hardly call an exhibit of Egyptian hieroglyphics wild.”

“It is not the entertainment but your company that concerns me. You are scarcely the best influence, Nicholas.”

“Brandon, please, my love.”

Aurora raised her eyes to the sky. “It disturbs me that Harry is becoming so attached to you. I don’t like to consider how disappointed he will be when you must leave.”
Or how she herself would feel.
“He sees you as a hero because of all your adventures.”

“From all reports, I don’t hold a candle to his late brother for adventures. According to Harry, your Geoffrey was a spy.”

Aurora shook her head. “Harry is quite mistaken. Geoffrey was the last man who would ever become involved in spying.”

“Why do you say so?”

“He was far too intellectual. He always had his nose in a book.”

“He sounds deadly dull.”

The accusation irked her, yet Aurora found herself averting her gaze in chagrin. She had scarcely thought of Geoffrey in the fortnight since Nicholas’s arrival in England.

A sharp ache filled her at the realization, along with a profound surge of guilt. How could she be so disloyal to Geoffrey’s memory? She had known him all her life, but she could barely remember him now, his image was so eclipsed by Nicholas’s vital presence.

Compared to Nicholas, he was only a shadow.

Aurora pressed her lips together, determined to conquer her disloyalty. “Geoffrey was a proper gentleman, yes,” she replied curtly, “and a
gentle
man. He would never leave his home and family and risk his life simply for the thrill of it. Unlike some others I know,” she added pointedly.

“Like I said…
dull
.”

When Aurora bristled, Nicholas only grinned and gestured with his head toward a grove of trees beside the Serpentine. “I’ll wager your dear Geoffrey would never have thought of bringing you here, or that you would ever have serviced him so delightfully if he had.”

She realized they were passing the spot where Nicholas had brought her for a moonlit interlude, and she flushed. When she looked at him, though, the devilish light in his eyes faded, and so did the rest of the world.

Aurora froze, ensnared by the silent intensity of Nicholas’s gaze. The raw tension that had lain simmering beneath the surface had returned in a heartbeat with the force of a blow…along with another dangerous emotion.

Desire.
It flared up in her, swiftly, uncontrollably, at a single glance.

For the past two weeks she’d done her utmost to pretend indifference, to ignore the fierce longing Nicholas roused in her, but it was still keenly alive, smoldering between them.

At some point she would have to face it, Aurora realized. Unwilling, however, to deal with the issue just then, she forced her gaze away.

Yet she knew the volatile situation between them could not continue very much longer.

Even with Harry to shield her, Nicholas’s pursuit of her showed no sign of abating, and it kept Aurora in a constant state of conflict. He was turning her life upside down, just as she feared, destroying her hard-won equanimity. It dismayed her, how vulnerable she was to him.

It was more dismaying to remember the danger he faced. The following afternoon, Aurora was rudely reminded just how precarious Nicholas’s situation was: she received a letter from her cousin Percy in St. Kitts, wondering if she had heard from Nicholas.

Aurora feverishly devoured the contents, which implied that at least one earlier missive had gone astray.

Since I last wrote you, I have concluded that the rumors of Nicholas’s survival must be true. Not only are
there reports he was seen in the Caribbean since his presumed drowning, but yesterday I was questioned by naval officers searching for the pirate Captain Saber.

If Nicholas is indeed alive, my dear, you should prepare yourself for scandal, for legally you will still be his wedded wife. I now can only regret my part in arranging your marriage….

Percy also apologized for deceiving her about the hanging.

Nick thought it best to spare you the trauma of watching him die. And knowing the pain you had recently suffered with the loss of your betrothed, I agreed.

It was not Percy’s deception, however, that alarmed Aurora. It was knowing that before long the world would realize the condemned criminal she had wed was still a fugitive from British naval justice.

Her fingers clenched the letter. She couldn’t let this situation go on. It terrified her that Nicholas was risking capture and death to pursue her. She had to make him see reason, to convince him to leave England.

She made an earnest attempt the next day during their morning ride. She’d gotten a later start than usual because Harry’s mount had gone lame from a stone bruise and had to be replaced. When Aurora and Harry finally arrived, the park was already filling with governesses and their young charges.

Aurora joined Nicholas and Raven for a sedate ride along Rotten Row, while Harry spurred his mount on, with her groom following close behind. Raven, for once, chose decorum over excitement, so Aurora was forced to hold her tongue and wait for a private word with Nicholas.

Shortly they encountered an open barouche, where an elegant couple was descending with a very young child. Aurora tensed in alarm when she recognized the Baron and Baroness Sinclair. Damien Sinclair, once known as “Lord Sin,” had been a premier rake of England and a prime leader of the Hellfire League before his marriage. There was every possibility, she knew, that he could identify Nicholas.

Aurora hoped to ride quietly past. She greatly admired Lord Sinclair’s wife, Vanessa, for they had struck up a friendship during Aurora’s come-out a few years earlier, but she had no desire to be seen just then.

As they passed the barouche, however, Vanessa Sinclair spied her and greeted her warmly. Unable to avoid acknowledging the acquaintance, Aurora drew rein.

Lord and Lady Sinclair made a striking couple. Their young daughter, Catherine, was perhaps eighteen months old and just as striking, with her father’s raven hair and mother’s dark eyes.

With great reluctance, Aurora introduced her party and felt apprehensive when Sinclair eyed Nicholas curiously. She was relieved for the distraction when the toddler squirmed in her father’s arms and pointed toward the lake, exclaiming, “Duck! Duck!”

“We are teaching her to feed the ducks,” Vanessa said, laughing.

“If you will please excuse us,” Sinclair said with the sensual smile that had broken half the female hearts in England. “I’ve learned it is better never to leave an impatient lady waiting.”

Before Vanessa turned away, she apologized to Aurora for not calling recently. “We have been in the country this past fortnight. But if you are free one afternoon this week, I would very much like to come for a visit.”

“I would enjoy that immensely, and I hope you will bring Catherine.”

Vanessa smiled at this interest in her daughter. “Of course. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Deverill.”

“And you, my lady,” Nicholas replied, tipping his beaver hat.

Aurora breathed more easily when they were gone, but gave Nicholas an accusing look. “Sinclair seemed to know you.”

“That isn’t surprising. I met him briefly several years ago before he married, during a weekend of shooting in the country.”

“I hear he was quite the rake,” Raven said thoughtfully.

“He was,” Nicholas acknowleged. “But according to Clune, Sinclair is very much in love with his wife now.”

“I could tell by the way he looked at her,” Raven replied softly.

Aurora caught the wistful note in her voice, and so apparently did Nicholas, for he gave his half sister a measuring look. “It is not too late to reconsider your marital aspirations, puss. You don’t have to wed for financial considerations. You can afford the luxury of a love match.”

Raven shook her head adamantly. “I will be quite content with a title. Speaking of which…there is Halford.”

Raven adopted a brilliant smile and urged her horse forward to intercept Aurora’s former suitor, the Duke of Halford.

Aurora tensed at his appearance and watched as he gave a start of surprise at Raven’s bold greeting. Then he glanced Aurora’s way, and his look turned icy.

Involuntarily Aurora winced, shuddering to think of her narrow escape. If not for her marriage to Nicholas, she would have been planning her nuptials to Halford by now.

His grace’s frigid glance swept past her to include Nicholas, who met his stiffness with cool amusement.

“I am honored,” Nicholas murmured to Aurora in an undertone, “that you chose me over him.”

Before she could think of a fitting reply, Halford turned his attention back to Raven. His supercilious expression softened, and whatever he said made her laugh.

Aurora frowned to hear her friend’s charming laugh. She didn’t like to see Raven on such good terms with the duke, for he was still looking for a wife.

“She knows her own mind,” Nicholas said, as if reading her thoughts.

Aurora shook her head. Most young ladies of marriageable age would consider Halford prime husband material, but she didn’t care to think what his coldness would do to someone with Raven’s lively spirit. “They would not be the least compatible.”

“But then you might not be the best qualified to judge suitors, considering the state of your own marriage.”

Nicholas was watching her, Aurora realized, his amusement suddenly gone.

His solemnity made her recall the urgency of his situation and what she had meant to say to him.

“I heard from Percy yesterday,” she remarked. “The entire Caribbean knows you escaped hanging.”

“I expected as much.”

“Nicholas…” She took a deep breath, striving for patience. “It is only a matter of time before someone in authority discerns your true identity. Please, won’t you stop risking your life and return to America, where you will be safe?”

“I would consider it, certainly.”

“You would?” Her eyes searched his.

“Yes,” Nicholas replied slowly. “I would leave tomorrow under the right circumstances.”

“And what are those?”

“If you agree to come with me. As my wife.”

She stared at him a long moment. He was all seriousness now; the charming rogue was gone. Instead he emanated the keen intensity she had noticed about him when they had first met, when his life was at stake.

“I thought we had settled this,” she responded uneasily.