Wallflower (Old Maids' Club, Book 1) (29 page)

“
Don’t go scampering off
to my father just yet,” Tabitha warned. The imperious tone had
returned. He was beginning to find it peculiarly alluring. “I have
more questions.”

What more could she
possibly want to know? But he would have to satisfy her
inquisitiveness or she would never agree. “Go on. I’m all yours.”
In more ways than
she
was willing to concede.

Edging forward on her chair, she
asked, “How did you come to be in such a poor financial state? Why
should I believe we will not end up in the poorhouse, with
creditors knocking down our door, in a few months’
time?”

Here was yet another question her
father had not deigned to ask. That fact rankled, actually. Not
that Tabitha would be so impertinent as to ask such a question, but
that Newcastle had neglected to do so. Was the man so blasé about
his daughter and her prospects that he would allow her to marry any
man, even if the union would be to her detriment? Or was it merely
that he already knew and trusted Noah?

“
My father inherited the
marquessate from a distant uncle,” Noah said. “Until the day he
learned of his uncle’s death, Father had owned a small plot of
land—small according to the aristocracy—that he worked in order to
support our family. Suddenly, he owned vast holdings and no longer
needed to work so hard. He was able to spend his time and energy in
taking care of all of us and our needs, and he did so perhaps to
the exclusion of looking after his properties. He wasn’t
intentionally a spendthrift—not at all. But the previous marquess
had been, and a gambler to boot. Father neglected to notice how
dire the situation had become until he was nearly on his deathbed.
At that point, it was too late.

“
So when I inherited from
him, I also inherited the massive pile of debts. I made sure I had
enough set aside to secure my sisters their marriages. I sold
everything I could, and I cut back the staffs at all of the
entailed estates, to avoid any unnecessary expense. Looking back, I
ought to have invested my depleting funds sooner than I have done,
so I would not be in such a dire situation now. But I
didn’t.”

“
Why not?” Tabitha asked.
Her tone was one of curiosity, not of accusation. She had been
sitting and listening without interruption far longer than he’d
expected she would.

“
I suppose because I
wanted to see all of my sisters happily married before I worried
about such things. Perhaps I was merely trying to delay the
inevitable, and put it off until it was all but too late. Does that
sufficiently answer your questions?”

A brisk nod was his answer. Her
expression did not betray her decision, whether he had answered her
well enough that she would betroth herself to him. He couldn’t
delay any longer.

Noah crossed the room to her and
dropped to his knee, taking her hand into his. “Tabitha, would you
do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

She looked down at him. A virtual war
appeared to be taking place within her eyes as they flashed and
flickered before him. Several long moments passed and still she had
not responded. Finally, when he thought she must not have heard his
question, that maybe he had only asked her in his mind but not
aloud, she spoke.

“
Perhaps.”

Perhaps? What in God’s name did that
mean? He gawked at her, unable to lift his jaw from where it had
imbedded itself somewhere near the tassels of his
Hessians.

“
I need more time,”
Tabitha continued after a few moments. “I want time to get to know
you better, as a man, and for you to know me better as a woman. I
want for you to court me, and only me, for the next fortnight. If,
after that time, I am sufficiently persuaded that your affections
are indeed for me and not merely for my dowry, then I’ll accept
your proposal. If however, I believe you want my portion more than
you want me, then I will decline.”

It was Noah’s turn to arch a brow in
her direction. “And you’ll allow only me to court you during this
period as well? You’ll eschew all other suitors?”

A thin line set in over her nose
between her eyebrows. “Very well.”

This wasn’t precisely what he’d hoped
to be the outcome, but things were looking far more cheerful than
he feared they might. “I’ll agree to your terms on one condition.”
He waited for her nod to continue. “We’ll have the banns called
tomorrow.”

Tabitha shot out of her chair and made
for the door. “Absolutely not!”

Noah rushed to catch her, grabbing
hold of her elbow to stop her from leaving. “Wait. I wasn’t
finished. We’ll have the banns called tomorrow, and we’ll announce
our betrothal at my mother’s wedding—which you’ll attend at my
side.” Her eyes could burn holes through him they were so fiery,
but he pressed on. “When the fortnight has come to a close one of
two things will happen: we will marry right away, if I have proven
myself to you, or I will cry off if you deem me unworthy to be your
husband.”

She sucked in a gasp of
surprise. “Cry off? But you would be shunned by the
ton
for such a thing.
You’d never find another lady to accept you. It just isn’t
done.”

He nodded. “I am well aware of that.
Do you accept my terms?”

“
Yes, my lord,” she
whispered, sliding her tongue along her lips again.

“
Good,” Noah replied. God,
he wanted to taste her again. He couldn’t stop looking at her
luscious lips. She would drive him to distraction with her tongue
if she didn’t stop that soon. Before he could stop himself, he
leaned in for a brief, possessive kiss. “I have one more
requirement. Call me Noah.”

Chapter
Sixteen

“
Cheers,” Tabitha called
out along with the rest of the wedding guests, holding her glass
aloft as Noah resumed his seat by her side. She took a sip when he
turned to her, an expectant smile on his lips. Champagne bubbled
and fizzed in her mouth and she held it there longer than
necessary, allowing the sweet decadence to envelop her
senses.

He gestured to his mother and Lord
Glastonbury. “That will be us in a couple of weeks.”

Tabitha gave him a solid frown.
“Might,” she amended quietly. She didn’t want anyone to overhear.
Particularly not Owen or Elaine, who sat just to her left. Or, for
that matter, any of Noah’s other sisters and their husbands, who
filled out the rest of the table.

Noah leaned in, allowing his breath to
feather over her ear. “Will,” he whispered.

Blast him for always needing to have
the last word.

“
Have you tried the
strawberries?” he asked. “They’re delicious with a bit of that
clotted cream. They’re so good they should be illegal.”

“
Illegal?” Tabitha
scoffed.

Noah reached across and selected a
berry from the dish. “Of course, illegal. Anything this good is
bound to be debauched.” He dipped the berry in the clotted cream
and then put it in Tabitha’s mouth.

A blush scorched the back of her neck
at his intimacy and turned to hide her face from the crowd. When
she had swallowed the bite and found her voice again, she shot him
her frostiest glare. “That was highly inappropriate. Behave
yourself.”

He flashed a roguish grin. “Since when
is it inappropriate for a gentleman to offer his fiancée a bite to
eat?”

“
The offer was hardly the
problem, as I’m sure you’re aware.” Tabitha reached for a napkin
and dabbed at the corners of her mouth.

His eyes twinkled at her in
mischievous merriment, and he waggled his brows. She purposefully
turned away from him and looked at the plate before her.

“
I suppose it would be
even more unseemly of me to kiss you right now, then, would it not?
You’re the most ravishing thing I’ve ever seen, with the way you
color so easily.”

“
You wouldn’t dare.”
Tabitha ventured a glance in his direction and laughed. “You
would
dare. Oh, good
heavens, you are utterly incorrigible.”

“
That’s why you love me.”
Noah slipped his hand beneath the table and gently laid it upon her
knee. All the blood in her body seemed to rush to that spot,
leaving her lightheaded.

She had to look away from him. He’d
melt her to a puddle on the floor if she kept looking at him while
he touched her like that. “I’ve never said I love you,” Tabitha
said softly.

His hand pressed against her knee
gently. “No. But you do.”

Tabitha shivered despite herself.
“You’re very sure of yourself, my lord.” He was very sure of
something Tabitha wasn’t entirely certain of...but she feared he
was right.

“
I’ve asked you to call me
Noah. And yes, I’m sure of this.”

“
Why?”

Noah’s voice lowered, to
that rich, rumbling baritone she only heard when he wanted her.
“Because you kiss me like a woman who loves a man. Because you
haven’t slapped my hand away, even though touching you like this is
unacceptable.” He leaned closer. “Because you answered me
with
perhaps
instead of with an outright
no
.” He took another bite of shirred
eggs and turned to answer Lord Glastonbury’s question.

“
You do love him,” Owen
said on her other side. “Trying to fight it won’t do you any good.
It’s easier to just give in.” He gestured toward Elaine. “Trust me.
I know.”

Tabitha felt herself color even
further. “How much of that did you hear?”

“
Enough. I already knew
his hand was on your knee.”

“
Oh, damn and blast.” She
pinched her eyes closed. Noah’s hand moved ever so slightly up her
leg to reposition over her lower thigh and he squeezed again. Jolts
of awareness pooled between her legs.

“
I won’t say anything to
anyone. You are engaged to be married.” The tinkle of silver
meeting china sounded on Owen’s plate. “But what’s this business
about ‘perhaps’?”

“
It was her answer
yesterday when I asked if she loved me,” Noah said, returning his
attention their way and saving her the awkwardness of coming up
with an appropriate answer her brother would believe.

Tabitha took another sip from her
champagne. The musicians had moved to the dais and begun the
semi-melodic cacophony that signaled they would soon begin to
play.

“
Are you ready?” Noah
asked in her ear. His hand slipped around behind her to settle at
her waist. “Glastonbury suggested to your father that we should
make the announcement just before the dancing begins.”

Prickles of disquiet
formed gooseflesh on her skin. It had been nerve-wracking enough to
sit placidly in her pew on Sunday as the parson had read the banns,
knowing that word would spread throughout the
ton
as instantly as an inferno
raging to life once the service came to a close. Then there had
been the past several afternoons, with friends and acquaintances
all coming to offer her their congratulations, alongside the
gossips and scandalmongers.

The only portions of those afternoons
that had been palatable were the rare instances when she and Noah
were alone in Father’s drawing room. He had charmed her with
honeyed words and thinly veiled hunger to the point that she had
begun to question herself. Perhaps she ought to just give in, to
trust the desirous part of her soul and ignore the part that
continued to warn his ardor would cool once her dowry was in his
grasp, however commonplace those warnings had become of
late.

Lord Glastonbury and his new Lady
Glastonbury stood across from them and moved out to the center of
the room, which had been cleared for dancing. Holding out his hand
for Tabitha to take, Noah rose to join them. “Come. They want us to
share the first dance with them.”

She walked along at his side, one arm
entwined with his, in a daze from the whirling emotions wreaking
havoc on her mind. Somewhere in her consciousness, she became aware
of Owen and Elaine following them, of Father off to the side of the
dais with Toby beside him, of Jo and Lord Leith joining the crowd
to celebrate the union of Lord Glastonbury and Noah’s
mother.

Glastonbury called for the crowd’s
attention and a hush fell on the room, aside from the crash of
waves sounding in Tabitha’s ears.

After a moment, she felt the rumble of
Noah’s voice reverberating through his body from beneath her
fingertips, and she knew he was making their announcement. A chorus
of cheers rang out, with the applause echoing in the cavernous
grand hall of deLancie house. And then Noah swept her into his arms
and whisked her around the room in a waltz. He pulled her
scandalously close, and she felt his arousal pressing its heat into
her belly.

“
You’re being overly
familiar,” she complained. “Half the
ton
is watching.”

“
Smile, Tabitha,” he said.
“This is a celebration, not a funeral.”

If only he could understand. Tabitha
was in mourning. She’d lost a rather significant piece of herself
forever.

The part which believed no man would
ever want her.