The Confessions of a Duchess (28 page)

“That is none of your business!” Laura snapped. “I would ask you to leave, Miles, and please take Miss Lister with you.” She turned to Alice. “Alice, I am so sorry. This is no place for you.”

“Well at least you have some sense of decency left,” Miles said. “Miss Lister, I insist that you wait for me in the hall.”

“I shall not!” Alice said, raising her chin. “Laura is my friend and it seems to me she may need my help.”

Miles shook his head in disbelief. “The only time in my life that I try to protect innocence,” he said bitterly, “and I am overruled.” He turned back to Laura. “I suppose that you frequently entertain your lovers in the library, cousin?”

“Of course I do not,” Laura retorted, firing up. “Do you think I would have made such a mess of things if I made a habit of this? Oh no, if I was
practiced
at this I would have dealt with it all with far more aplomb!”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dexter smother a rueful smile. Suddenly she was anxious to finish matters before he could intervene and make them worse.

“Dexter and I—” she began.

“So it is
Dexter
to you now, is it?” Miles said. His tone was murderous. “You do not surprise me.”

“Lord Vickery,” Alice interposed, “it might be better if you did not keep interrupting—”

Miles shot her another exasperated look. “Thank you, Miss Lister,” he said. “You know you will have to marry Anstruther now that you have been discovered alone in this intimate situation,” he added, turning back to Laura. He glanced at Dexter and the anger and dislike flared in his eyes. “I knew that you wanted to marry a fortune, Anstruther,” he said coldly, “but I never thought you would sink as low as this! To deliberately compromise Laura on the very day it was announced she was endowed with a fortune—” Laura felt a pang of shock. In the heated exchange with Dexter earlier she had completely forgotten about the money.

“I am refusing Henry’s money, anyway,” she said, “so it makes no odds.” Dexter was looking at her, a sudden frown on his brow. “I fear you have lost me,” he said. “I had not heard about your fortune earlier when you mentioned it and I do not quite understand—”

“Oh, don’t pretend that you did not know,” Miles interrupted contemptuously. “It was the
on dit
tonight at Fortune Hall! Everyone was talking about it!” He shook his head.

“I never would have thought it of you, Anstruther. I knew that there was something going on between you and my cousin but I thought you had
some
honor. But to set out to compromise a dowager duchess who is practically old enough to be your mother—” Both Laura and Alice gave a gasp of outraged protest and at the same time Dexter took a step forward so that he was face-to-face with Miles. His mouth was set hard and tight. A muscle flickered in his cheek.

“Do not,” he said quietly, “speak of your cousin with such disrespect, Vickery, or I shall be obliged to call you out.”

There was something so cold and firm in his tone that after a moment Miles took a step back.

“I beg your pardon,” he said to Laura. “That was wrong of me.” He turned back to Dexter. “Whether you knew of the money or not, you disappoint me, Anstruther. I did not think you the unprincipled sort of cad who would court a rich debutante and at the same time deliberately seduce a widow for entertainment—”

“He did no such thing,” Laura said hotly. She had heard enough. She was terribly afraid that Miles would insist that she was compromised into marriage. She could overrule him, of course—he could not
order
her to marry—but the whole matter was already getting out of hand. She had lost Miles’s good opinion and she had very probably ruined the friendship between Miles and Dexter irreparably, as well.

“I shall appreciate it if you do not make a fuss about nothing, Miles,” she said quietly, “or put a bullet through Mr. Anstruther, thereby creating a scandal where none exists!”

Miles’s skeptically raised eyebrows were all the reply he gave to this. Laura started to speak again, but Dexter put her firmly to one side.

“I appreciate you speaking up for me, your grace,” he said carefully, “but I must take full responsibility for this.”

“Damn right you must!” Miles said pugnaciously, squaring up to him again.

“No, you must not!” Laura said, inserting herself between the two of them. “I am amply capable of taking responsibility for myself. Besides, nothing of import happened.” Dexter gave her a look that brought the hot color racing into her cheeks in a scalding tide. “Dear me,” he said in an undertone that only she could hear, “that is the second time you have said as much. I must be losing my touch.”

Miles looked at her in polite disbelief. “I found you alone in a room, half-undressed, with a man who was once an accredited rake and—forgive my bluntness—you look ravished, Laura. Do you still wish to persist in this fiction that nothing happened?”

“This is madness,” Laura retorted. “Mr. Anstruther, I must ask you to go—”

“Certainly not,” Dexter said, his blue eyes alight with devilish challenge. “And before you seize on any of your cousin’s ludicrous comments as ammunition against me, allow me to tell you that I have
never
considered you old enough to be my mother. The idea is both absurd and mathematically impossible.”

“You are not helping, Mr. Anstruther,” Laura said through gritted teeth. She could feel the situation slipping well beyond her control now. “I cannot imagine that you could possibly wish to prolong this unfortunate circumstance any further, so I suggest that you simply keep quiet!”

“I beg your pardon,” Dexter said. “I was merely pointing out that there is no sense in trying to suggest that you are in your dotage, for you are not.”

“Thank you,” Laura said starchily. “I am, however, eight years older than you, Mr.

Anstruther, and I have every intention of turning down the money my relatives wish to settle on me. Those are both good reasons for ending any association that there might be between us. So I suggest we bring this farce to an end and that you return to courting your youthful heiresses—”

She stopped. There was a smile in Dexter’s eyes and Laura felt her stomach drop and her heart turn over to see it.

“Not before we have discussed this properly,” he said.

Laura made an exasperated gesture as though to brush away his remarks. “There is nothing more to discuss. We have discussed quite enough tonight. The material point,” she added, looking at Miles and Alice, “is that since no one other than the four of us know that you and I have been here together, Mr. Anstruther, there is not the least necessity for this to go any further.”

Dexter moved closer to her. “I beg to differ,” he said. “I will call on you tomorrow to make you an offer.”

Laura’s eyes flashed. “And I shall not be at home.”

She saw the expression leap to Dexter’s eyes and turned quickly to Miles before he had time to speak. “And I thank you for your concern, Miles, but it is unnecessary. I am well able to take care of myself.”

“I shall still call on you tomorrow,” Dexter said.

“Mr. Anstruther!” Laura said warningly.

“Must you be so stubborn, Laura?” Miles interposed. He gave Dexter a dark look.

“Dexter is, I suppose, trying to do the right thing.”

“Oh, mind your own business, Miles!” Laura snapped, abandoning her dignity.

Suddenly she felt bone tired. Hers was the responsibility for what had happened and the consequence of that dazzling, overwhelming, absolutely blissful moment of passion with Dexter was that he was now obliged to offer her marriage solely because they had been caught. Those were society’s rules and not even a dowager duchess was above them.

Especially not a dowager duchess inconveniently hampered with a cousin who was determined to defend her honor when she did not want him to.

She looked from Miles’s implacable face to Dexter’s unreadable one and wondered what would happen if she baldly announced that she was very happy to take Dexter as a lover but that she did not wish to remarry. That would serve Miles right for his interfering.

Mind you, poor Alice had probably experienced enough shocks for one night.

Laura was aware that Dexter had not taken his gaze from her for a single moment and now he took her hand and she felt the tiniest tremor of emotion go through her. She knew he had felt it, too, that quiver along her nerves that told him she was nowhere near as composed as she wanted to be. He allowed his thumb to rub gently, almost absentmindedly, over her skin and she tried not to shiver.

“Meet me on Fortune Hill tomorrow at eleven,” he said. His concentration was on her alone, cutting Miles and Alice out as though they simply were not there.

“I shall not,” Laura said. Her voice was not quite as steady as she wanted it to be.

She saw the expression flare in his eyes. “Yes, you will,” he said. He raised her hand to his lips and the touch of them on her skin awoke every sensation she had tried to repress.

“You will be there or I will come looking for you. Good night, your grace.” ALICE LISTER, walking back across the paddock toward Spring House, was disconcerted to catch a glimpse of Miles Vickery following her in the moonlight. She had bidden him an abrupt farewell in the hall at The Old Palace and had insisted she did not require his escort home. Indeed she was, at this belated juncture, regretting the impulse that had made her accompany him to see Laura in the first place. She had stumbled into a scandal that had shocked and disturbed her. She felt anxious and stirred up. It would have been so much more sensible to stay at home and tend to her mama, even though Mrs. Lister was now safely tucked up in bed and probably fast asleep.

Alice glanced back over her shoulder once more. Although Miles was not hurrying, his long stride seemed to eat up the distance between them. Seeing this, a strange twist of panic seemed to unravel in Alice’s chest and instead of slowing down and waiting for him like any sensible lady would, she chose instead to hasten her pace and positively ran around the corner wall of the orchard and through the gate into the tunnel of trees beyond. There she stopped, panting a little for breath, and chiding herself on the foolish impulse that had taken hold of her. Miles probably wanted nothing more than to make sure that she arrived home safely. There had been no need to make a fool of herself by running away from him.

She was a young woman of two and twenty, not a silly miss who could not deal with a handsome gentleman even if he was a rake.

And yet Miles Vickery was so
very
handsome and there was something about that lazy look in his dark hazel eyes that absolutely scorched her with its heat. She knew that he admired her because he had made it plain from the moment they had first met. And she…Well, she liked him, too, much more than she ought to like a philandering fortune hunter. She was feeling hot now just thinking about him, and this was a frosty autumn night with the leaves blowing from the apple trees and scattering about her feet.

She rested one hand on the gate then tried to snatch it away as Miles came abruptly around the corner of the wall and placed his hand over hers to stop her moving away from him.

“Miss Lister,” Miles said, holding on as Alice vainly tried to release herself, “may we speak?”

“I…Yes, of course.” Alice gave up the unequal struggle to free herself and waited as he let himself through the gate and joined her under the trees.

“I wanted to make sure that you were safe,” Miles said slowly.

Alice opened her eyes wide. No one had ever cared as to whether she was safe or not in all her two and twenty years and it was seductive to think that Miles might genuinely mean it. She was so charmed that she almost believed him.

“Did you?” she croaked. “I assure you that it is perfectly safe to walk home alone in Fortune’s Folly.”

Miles smiled. It deepened the lines about his eyes and Alice felt the warmth curl in her stomach again. She blinked and told herself not to be a henwit. She knew his real intention and that his professions of concern were only a ruse.

“Perhaps,” she said, “you were also anxious to ensure that I would not repeat anything I heard tonight concerning your cousin?”

Miles did not deny it. She could feel his gaze on her face like a touch and her skin warmed beneath it.

“I assure you,” she said steadfastly, “that I will tell no one. Laura is my friend and I respect her.”

“But you must have been shocked to know that she and Mr. Anstruther were lovers,” Miles said.

Alice hesitated. It was true that she had been both shocked and strangely intrigued by the frankness of the discussion between Laura and Miles and Dexter. She knew of course that Laura had been married and was no doubt vastly more experienced than she was herself, but Alice had seldom felt so naive, or so disturbed. That was when her imagination had started to somersault and present her with a rather fascinating and wayward set of images involving herself and Miles Vickery, of all people…Which, she thought a little wildly, was no doubt why she had run away in the first place when she had seen Miles following her. She made a concerted effort to exercise some common sense and banish all these wayward thoughts.

“You may have heard that I was once a servant girl, Lord Vickery,” she said. “It takes a great deal to shock me. I have seen and heard things that might even shock
you.
”

“Which makes it all the more surprising,” Miles said, “that you have retained such an air of innocence.”

“I do not believe that you would recognize innocence if you tumbled over it,” Alice retorted with spirit. “I know for a fact that you are a most accomplished rake.” Miles laughed. “I recognize innocence in you,” he said, “and I want it. I want to teach you all manner of things, Miss Lister.”

He put a hand up and raised her chin so that she was forced to meet his gaze. His fingers felt cold against her cheek. Alice’s eyelashes fluttered. She wondered if he could read in her eyes all the wanton excitement that was making her pulse race. And evidently he could, for he gave a low-voiced exclamation and the expression in his own eyes darkened and he lowered his mouth to hers. Alice gave a stifled squeak. She had never been kissed and suddenly realized that she did not know what to do or how to go about it.