The Wedding Runaway (35 page)

Regina looked up at him
,
her dark eyes serious.
"
It is only the dollhouse roof.
"

When he got to the nursery
,
Victor saw the problem.

"
I am ever in a predicament
,"
said Sophie.
"
Richard threw his tin soldier up here and see.
"

The chair she had used to climb onto the four-foot-high dollhouse had tipped over. She was not so high up she could not slide down
,
but her dress had caught on a miniature chimney.

"
I shall either rip the dress or destroy the smokestack. I quite think the dress would be the lesser of two evils
,
but I am not sure which it shall be.
"
Sophie giggled.

Victor walked over and untangled her skirts
,
just as Keene hit the door.

His half-brother leaned against the doorframe and glowered at his wife.

"
Ah
,
now you will have to watch the children while I soothe his ruffled feathers
,"
said Sophie as she slid down to the floor.
"
He will be quite angry that he was frightened only about the dollhouse chimney.
"

Sophie pressed a tin soldier in Victor
'
s hand before she walked past her husband in the doorway. Only Victor noticed the heated glance she tossed her husband
,
who followed her without a word.

Victor wondered sometimes
,
if Sophie was not quite as feather-brained as she acted. Perhaps Keene had not been a dutiful husband lately. Sophie knew exactly how to fire her husband
'
s blood.

Regina slipped her little hand in his. "You shall have to help me with Richard," she said. "He can be very unruly."

"Yes, well, it is good to unruly some of the time."

Reggie looked up at him skeptically. His heart twisted in his chest. He wanted to hold his daughter to him. Yet he knew he could never explain that Keene really was her uncle and Richard her cousin, and she should be more tolerant of family. But, unlike Victor, she would have more than ill-conceived, unacknowledged relationships in her life. She already had one half-sibling and another on the way.

"What would you like to do?" he asked her.

"I should like to have a tea party," said Regina primly. She gestured toward a small table in a corner where a doll slumped over a heartily disturbed tea set. "But he always knocks everything down." She frowned in the toddler's direction.

Victor's nephew sucked on a tin soldier.

"By all means let us take tea then, Miss Reggie. I'll see if I cannot restrain Master Richard's boisterousness." However, Victor had learned that channeling his nephew and godson's enthusiasm was easier than restraining him.

Victor had to drop his daughter's hand to remove the drooled upon soldier from Richard's mouth. After wiping his hand and Richard's face on his handkerchief, Victor crossed the room to sit at the tiny table, his knees up to his ears. He helped Reggie arrange the miniature tea set.

He found he could distract Richard by rolling a ball across the floor for his nephew to retrieve.

How the ton would laugh to see him taking tea with a little girl, and rolling a ball across the floor and blocking his nephew from the tiny tea table. But then the moment with family members, unacknowledged as they were, was precious to him.

He only had siblings through his father's nefarious activities, and he was always grateful for their acceptance of him. Keene's mother had been destroyed by what his father had done to her. The previous earl annihilated the friendship that had existed between his mother and Keene's since they were young girls. Victor did not doubt that Keene's mother's seduction and Keene's conception had been at best forced. The strain of bearing a son not her husband's had created wounds that still bled.

Yet, he had created almost the same situation when he fathered Reggie. Nothing he could do, not even coaxing a smile from Reggie as she served him imaginary tea, would make up for the destruction he had wrought.

~*~

Lydia sat nervously on a gold brocade chair in the front drawing room of the Sheridans
'
home. In two days she had been moved from Victor
'
s home and installed in a spare bedroom at Sophie and Keene
'
s town home. Now she was to meet her brothers and fiancé. After a few discussions with her new guardians, they had decided that she would meet with her pursuers on neutral ground at the Sheridans
'
.

Felicity
,
Sophie
,
Keene
,
Tony, and Victor were all on hand, although Victor stood in the corner shadows just past the farthest window. Ever since that kiss on the street
,
where Millars had to interrupt them
,
Victor had kept well away from her
,
usually with several yards and a couple of pieces of furniture between them. His message was clear. Even if he wanted her
,
he did not want to want her
,
and saw his desire as only doomed for disaster.

First shown into the drawing room door and announced by the Sheridans
'
butler was her brother James, who did not wait for further introductions but crossed directly to her chair and loomed over her like a giant tree.
"
Do you know how worried we have been?
"

She stood
,
knowing that James used his size to intimidate anyone who crossed him.
"
I am sorry for the worry I caused you
,
but I am fine.
"

She did a quick pirouette in front of him
,
knowing that he could not see the healing bullet wound through her high-necked, long-sleeved day dress. Nor could he see how much turmoil churned in her heart. On the surface
,
she was fine.

Oscar entered behind James, looked her over and said
,
"
Why would you cut your hair?
"

"
Don
'
t know too many boys with long hair
,"
said Keene
,
stepping behind her chair.

"
Oh
,
I much preferred short hair," said Sophie. "If it were not that Keene hates it
,
I would keep mine short too. So much easier to care for. Really, we do not need to be bound by archaic notions that women should not cut their hair.
"

That Victor
'
s friends were rallying around her
,
ready to protect her from the wrath of her own family felt odd
,
yet strangely comforting. She did not know that she needed protecting from her brothers
,
she just needed them to pay attention to what she said.

Trevor was the last to enter the room and he shouldered past James and Oscar and wrapped her in a bear hug. Mist clouded Lydia
'
s eyes at the tight enfolding hold of his embrace.

She patted him on his broad shoulder and noticed his coat was new
,
tailored in tighter London fashion. A coat by Weston? Since when had Trevor been so enamored of style?

He leaned back and looked her over.
"
You look wonderful
,
Lydia.
"
Although she noticed just the faintest of furrows between his brows.
"
Now
,
let us get your things and go home.
"

Trevor was the last one she would have expected to start ordering her about. Not that he listened to her any better than any of the other males in the family
,
he just normally left orders to the others. She had hoped he might be her best ally in selling her plans to stay in London.

"
I
'
m not ready to go home.
"
Lydia stumbled back from his embrace and found Oscar waiting his turn to embrace her
,
as if reminded he had the right of it as her fiancé. His rich mahogany hair glistened with bear grease
,
the reddish highlights darkened by the pomade. He looked as handsome as ever
,
his features chiseled like a fine Greek statue
'
s
,
but Lydia blinked
,
thinking he looked almost too perfect
,
his hair too restrained.

As his arms came around her, she could not help but glance in Victor
'
s direction. His hand blocked his face
,
his fingers on his scar as if he did not want to witness a happy reunion between her and her fiancé.

"
Now
,
you must have a bit of tea
,
and I am sure that you have many things to discuss that cannot wait
,"
said Felicity.
"
I assure you we will give you time alone with Lydia
,
but first let me introduce you.
"

As Oscar stepped back
,
Lydia felt relief
,
nothing like the wrenching sense of loss she felt when Victor simply looked away from her.

Felicity led James by the arm.
"
This is Sophie Davies and her husband Keene. They are housing Lydia for her stay in London.
"
She stopped in front of Victor.
"
And here is Lord Wedmont
,
who discovered our little Lydia and penetrated her disguise.
"

Trevor gasped and then glared in Victor
'
s direction. Had he guessed that there was more than that? Did he know that she had been living in Victor
'
s house
,
sleeping in his bed? How could Trevor suspect anything?

Victor bowed negligently as if bored with the whole conversation.

"
Exactly where did you find her?
"
asked Trevor
,
his tone belligerent.

Victor looked in his direction.
"
I discovered her in a gaming hell.
"

"
What on earth were you doing in a gaming hell?
"
demanded Oscar.

"
Winning
,"
supplied Victor as he stepped out of the shadows.
"
I do believe you took home more than two monkeys in winnings that night
,
did you not
,
Miss Hamilton?
"

"
Yes
,"
she answered. While he had told no lies
,
it was hardly an accurate representation of the night. She had not been winning because she could not get her bets on the table
,
and she had only won when he played her one-on-one.

"
Good Lord!
"
said James.
"
Over a thousand pounds?
"

"
She's quite a good gambler
,"
said Keene.
"
And her disguise as a boy was quite effective too.
"

"
Yes
,
I am sure we could have all been blown over with a feather
,
when we learned she was really a female
,"
Sophie said.

"
I did think
,
however
,
that
Leonard
was too young to be on the town alone and decided to take the young man under my patronage
,"
said Victor.

"
How
,
exactly
,
did you determine she was a girl
,
if her disguise was so remarkable?
"
asked Trevor.

The amount of venom directed at Victor dismayed Lydia. Trevor was her sunny
,
too-indolent-to-be-bothered brother. The one who rarely if ever displayed his temper. Her stomach turned, thinking he disliked Victor.

Victor looked at Trevor questioningly as if he too wondered at the animosity.
"
Let us just say that her costume did not hold up to the light of day.
"

"
It is one thing to trick people in the darkness of a gaming club at night
,
another to be so persuasive under closer scrutiny
,
during the day
,"
Tony said.
"
Lydia
,
gentlemen
,
please have a seat.
"

Lydia sat so fast, the chair hitting her backside stung. Poor Tony
,
his shot leg had to be aching.

"
And I never fooled anyone for a minute
,"
said Sophie.
"
I believe Lydia
'
s disguise was well thought out and executed.
"

Oscar looked around the room and said
,
"
I am sure we are all mindful of the depth of gratitude we owe you for looking after Lydia
,
but we must take our leave.
"
Oscar reached under her left arm and pulled her to a standing position.
"
We shall book passage for Boston immediately.
"

Lydia bit back the wrench of pain
,
feeling moisture bead her upper lip. If it were not for her wounded shoulder
,
Oscar
'
s lifting her up would not have been uncomfortable
,
except it was the way one would treat a recalcitrant child. She closed her eyes to stop the spinning room and control the nausea that churned in her stomach.

"
Unhand her!
"
Victor
'
s voice was laced with low fury and just behind her chair. He must have dashed across the room the minute Oscar reached for her.

"
Sir
,
she is to be my wife and she needs to learn some obedience.
"