Sweet Temptation (5 page)

Consequently, she had hardly known what to do when Miss Adelaide came to her room, just as Sara was preparing to go to bed, and set down an enormous box in front of her.

“This was your mother’s jewelry,” she had said, opening the box so Sara could gaze at its contents. “It was given into my safekeeping when you came here. Until now you have had no need for anything more than a strand of pearls, but a married lady, especially a countess, will find a use for all these and more.”

Sara was struck dumb by the number of jewels crammed into that box. “How can there be so much?” she asked without thinking. “Mama and Papa weren’t married very long.” A softened look came over Miss Adelaide’s face.

“Your father never got over your mother’s death. He continued to buy fine pieces and put them away in this great box. There’s no telling how much would be here now, if he had lived to see this day.”

Sara remembered the many hours her father had spent looking at the great portrait of her mother that hung in the library. That had been their sanctuary, a place where they could sit for hours, each alone with the other. She realized now that her father had spent those long hours with her mother and not with herself, and somehow she felt a little more lonely than before.

Chapter 4

Despite pain that grew more severe with every passing day, Georgiana Carlisle, Countess of Parkhaven, smiled bravely as her nurse placed extra pillows behind her back. She was about to receive a visit from her son, and she was determined he would not find her flat on her back.

“Ye have no business putting yourself about for anyone as young and healthy as Master Gavin,” reproved Rose, the Countess’s nurse and personal servant for more than twenty years.

“He should have come during the morning, when you were feeling stronger, but he had
things
to do,” sniffed Olivia Tate, the Countess’s equally long-term companion. “I’d own myself greatly surprised, if it was anything more pressing than a visit to his mistress or one of his horses.”

“Don’t be forgetting yer medicine,” Rose said, handing the Countess a glass with a half-inch of liquid in the bottom. “Yer tae have a goodly dose this time, or ye’ll not be able tae see anyone for the rest of the week.”

Georgiana swallowed the bitter opiate without protest. She had swallowed so much in these last years, what difference could a little more make? Her malady, a Strange and inexplicable deterioration of the muscles, had come upon her after the birth of her only child, and it had been nearly fifteen years since she had been out of her bed for as much as three days in a row. The doctors were constantly at her to remain in London, where they could watch her more closely, but despite the considerable suffering as her condition worsened, Georgiana insisted upon returning to Scotland every summer.

“Hand me my mirror, Olivia,” the Countess requested, straightening her cap. “I don’t want Gavin to know I haven’t been well.”

“It’s about time he did,” Olivia said. “The very idea of him roistering about town, while you lie tied to that bed, is shameful.”

“What would you have him do, come sit and hold my hand?” The Countess laughed. “That would soon ruin both our dispositions. I’ll not have my tiresome condition stand in his way. It’s not as though he could do anything to help me.”

“He should be here,” Olivia insisted stubbornly.

“I prefer that he be where he likes.”

“Do you plan to keep him in the dark right up to the end?”

“I don’t know,” Georgiana replied, unable to mask the pain of knowing that she was dying. “It depends on whether it will serve any purpose.” She wiped away a tear and forced the smile back on her face. “Now don’t either of you say anything to make me cry, while Gavin is here. I shall not forgive you if you do.”

“Ye know we willna,” Rose assured her roughly, wiping away her own tears. “Just lie back and enjoy yer visit.”

“You can help me with the design of this quilt until Gavin arrives,” offered Olivia. “I fear it will never be ready in time for Christmas.”

Gavin’s arrival unsettled the quiet of the room. He examined his mother with loving but critical eyes, before bending over to give her a kiss. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?”

“It’s no more than what happens several times every winter,” the Countess assured him, presenting her cheek for his salute. “I know I look a perfect hag, but I keep hoping you won’t notice.”

“You still look beautiful to me.”

“So how come ye didna arrive this morning like you were supposed tae?” questioned Rose. She had been Gavin’s nurse, and she had never relinquished her right to deal with him more harshly than his mother ever would.

“Go away, Rose. I didn’t come to see you,” Gavin said. “I make mother unhappy enough without you drawing attention to my misdeeds.”

“You never make me unhappy,” his mother was quick to assure him.

“Yes, I do.” He put his hand gently over her lips to quiet her objections. “You never reproach me, but I know you’re disappointed in me.”

“Then why do you not give up your loose women and take a proper interest in lands that will be yours someday?” demanded Olivia. “You can’t expect your father to live forever.”

“If you two can’t leave Gavin alone, I shall ask you to leave,” the Countess warned as severely as she could. “This is
my
visit, and I won’t let you ruin it by putting him into a temper, with questions which are really none of your concern.”

“It’s time they were asked,” insisted Olivia.

“When I want them asked, I shall do so,” Georgians said gently, but with a tone that caused her companions to gather up their belongings and depart, Olivia with an offended air and Rose muttering dire predictions of disaster.

“They mean well. Unfortunately, they’ve forgotten what it was like to be young. But I want to talk about you, not them. Your father tells me you’re about to be married,” she said smiling. “I’ve waited so long for this news, I was afraid I would never hear it.”

“I knew it would bring a gleam to your eye. I never knew a female yet who didn’t get excited at the prospect of some man being clapped in irons for life.”

‘That’s because we know what wretched creatures you are. Even the most admirable man is in need of a little polishing every now and again.”

“According to my esteemed sire, I need a good deal more than polishing.” Gavin could not keep the bitterness from his voice.

“There’s nothing wrong with you that settling down and raising a family won’t cure. Now tell me, who is the young lady? I hardly know anyone these days, and your father refused to say a word.”

“You know this one. She used to visit us at Christmas.”

“Do you mean Sara Raymond?” Georgiana exclaimed in surprise. “Poor child. I haven’t seen her in years, but I think you’ve made an excellent choice.”

“She wasn’t my choice.”

“I wish you would try to be more enthusiastic,” Georgiana reproved her son gently. “She used to admire you so much. She would sit for hours talking about how well you rode, how handsome you looked, and how you never seemed to be afraid of anything. I think we females must be exceedingly timid creatures,” she observed with a merry twinkle in her eyes. “Why should we otherwise admire a man who dashes about attacking all comers, when we know he’s behaving quite foolishly?”

“What an unflattering picture, Mama.”

“Men are the dearest creatures, but not even the silliest female would do half the things they do and think them something to be proud of.”

“If that’s how you feel, why do all women wish to be married?”

“I suppose it goes back to being timid. We need a man to protect us. In return, we work dreadfully hard to make something useful of him.”

“How come you’ve never told me this before?”

“It’s a trade secret,” Georgiana whispered with a smile. “Now we’ve talked enough nonsense. Tell me, when are you to be married? I have so longed for the day when I could hold my first grandchild in my arms. You are going to live in Scotland, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“I know you’re much fonder of London than I am, but I had hoped your children would grow up where you did.”

“I hope Miss Raymond likes Scotland.”

“I’m sure she will. She used to tell me how much she preferred the country to London. Poor girl, she hardly ever had a proper home. Her mother died soon after she was born, and then her father was carried off by some dreadful disease he contracted in India. I was distressed when your father discontinued her visits to Estameer, but this tiresome malady made it impossible for me to get out of bed.”

“So father kept her locked away in some convent…”

“Miss Rachel’s Seminary for Young Women.”

“… until it was time for me to gobble up her money, just like he did yours.” Ordinarily the pained expression on his mother’s face would have stopped Gavin, but he was still too full of the sense of his wrongs. “Rose and Olivia complain that I don’t take an interest in the estates, but I’d rather be called a womanizer and a wastrel than to be forced into constant association with
him!”

“You’ve never understood your father—”

“I understand him all too well.”

“No, you don’t,” the Countess reaffirmed, showing a temper of her own. “Oliver did take my money, and there have been times when he has not treated any of us with compassion, but he suffers under the cruel necessity of having to be thankful for my fortune. No one can go on being grateful for years on end without choking on it sooner or later. I hope you and Sara manage better than we did. You never did get to know her, and you don’t remember her kindly, but
try
to give her a chance to learn to love you. She has led a sheltered life, and is untutored in the ways of the world. Take care you don’t frighten her so from the very first that she will have any difficulty coming to you willingly in the end.”

“I don’t want a terrified virgin who has to be coaxed into my bed,” Gavin said, too angry to watch his words.

“Neither, I should hope, do you want some shameless tart for whom you have no use outside of it,” retorted his mother. “Being gently born does not mean a woman is incapable of learning to please her husband,” Georgiana pointed out more kindly. “It merely means she hasn’t had the experience allowed men. I never wished for a lover, but I do think it unfair that men should be admired because they know so much about the world, while a woman with the same knowledge is shunned.”

“What do you think we ought to do?” asked her unrepentant son with twinkling black eyes. “Set up schools of worldly knowledge?”

“I was thinking more of sending every boy to a monastery until he marries,” answered his mother, returning his gleam of mischief. “Then both would start on an equal footing.”

“Then nobody would know how to begin,” Gavin responded. “You wouldn’t have a dozen babies a year in all of England.”

Shamelessly listening with her ear to the door, Rose was relieved to hear mother and son laughing naturally, but when she entered the room, the Countess was looking quite exhausted.

“I’m pleased ye had a nice visit with Master Gavin, milady, but it’s time for yer rest.”

Gavin stood immediately. “You have a good nap,” he said, planting a kiss on his mother’s soft, withered skin, “and be sure to tell me everything the doctor says.”

“What do they ever say to purpose?” asked his mother with a weary sigh. “They poke and prod, ask questions and consult, then say they must go to make their decision. But they only come back with someone new, who must prod and ask more questions before
he
goes away to ponder a decision no one ever makes. I don’t know why I bother.”

“Because it pleases them that love ye,” said Rose. “Now go away, yer lordship, or yer mother willna be strong enough tae see ye for a fortnight.”

“Remember, have patience and be kind,” Gavin’s mother reminded him. “What you’re trying to build has to last longer than one night.”

“How ye do talk, milady! I blush to hear it,” scolded Rose.

“You’re an old maid. You blush at anything.”

“Nevertheless, I know a thing or two,” insisted Rose.

“Then maybe you can teach both of them to my future wife,” Gavin said.

“Get along with ye,” Rose admonished him severely. “I never did understand what a respectable woman wanted with a man. It seems tae me, they must always be hankering after what will give them a worse bellyache than green apples. Ye can get over green apples, but ye can no’ get over a worthless man.”

“How about a worthless woman?” countered Gavin.

“There’s no such thing,” replied Rose with her first full-mouthed smile. “Now be gone with ye before I have Miss Olivia chase ye off. ‘Tis on a merry chase that boy shall be leading his wife,” she prophesied after Gavin had gone.

“She adores him and thinks he can do no wrong,” said the Countess.

“Then he’d better take her off to Scotland before she learns any better,” announced Olivia, returning with the ever-present quilt.

Georgiana lay back, while the two women busied themselves settling her in for her nap.

“I want ye tae have a bonnie rest,” Rose said. “Ye be looking a bit peeked tae me.”