A Gentleman Never Tells (7 page)

“If you feel you were trapped by me, why would you agree when you know I was not compromised?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed, and he took a step closer to her. “There are a number of reasons, Lady Gabrielle, not the least of which is the fact that your father is a very powerful duke who knows the King well and considers him a friend. He is well liked and often sought out for advice by the prince. Your father is admired, respected, and feared by many throughout London.”

“So you agreed to marry me because you are afraid of my father?”

Lord Brentwood snorted with derision, and a low chuckle passed his lips. His gaze held firmly on hers. “I am afraid of no man.”

“You say that, yet you ran from my father and his men this morning in the park.”

Suddenly, the viscount was so close she could feel his breath and almost taste his anger. “Do not doubt my courage.” His words were biting. “I ran to find my mother’s dog. When I pulled you into my arms, I let go of Prissy’s leash. She wandered away while you held me bewitched by your charms. I heard her yelping in pain, so I ran to help her, but your father’s men caught me and stopped me.”

Gabrielle swallowed hard. She would have done the same thing had it been Brutus who needed help. But, obviously, if Prissy had been given the kind of training Brutus had, she would have never left her master’s side.

“Oh, I see. I didn’t know,” Lady Gabrielle said without rancor but also without apologizing for misreading the situation. “As you know, it was chaotic after my father and Lord Austerhill arrived, and I’m sorry to say I didn’t notice she was gone. What was wrong with her?”

His eyes darkened as quickly as blackness filled a room when the light was extinguished. “I have no idea. I searched for her after you, your father, and his men left, but I couldn’t find her.”

She lifted her chin in surprise. “You left the park without finding her? Your mother must have been beside herself when you came home without her darling dog.”

He seemed to relax a little, though he stayed very close to her. “I’m sure she would have been if she were still living. My mother died more than two years ago.”

And still he walked her dog.

Gabrielle softened. “Prissy seemed to be very brave. I’m sure she’s fine and that she’ll find her way home soon.”

Lord Brentwood looked away from Gabrielle for a moment, and she saw it truly disturbed him that the dog hadn’t been found. Knowing how she loved Brutus, she couldn’t blame him. She felt ashamed for having as good as accused him of being a coward for running away in the park. She didn’t think that was true and wouldn’t have even said it in the first place had she not been at the point of madness over the entire day.

“I do hope you find her. I know how upset I’d be if Brutus were missing.”

“I have no doubt Prissy will be found,” he said, seeming to casually brush aside her concern. “But to answer your other question, my brothers will be moving their shipbuilding business from Baltimore, Maryland, to London in the coming weeks. Your father made it quite clear to me that, if I didn’t marry you, he had many connections and would make it impossible for my brothers’ business to be successful. Moving their business to London won’t be easy, and I will not allow your father to add to their burden.”

She knew her father would have had his solicitor find out what he could about the viscount before the day was over. When the duke wanted something, he left no stone unturned. It struck her as odd that she and Lord Brentwood were more alike than she could have imagined. She was willing to sacrifice her reputation for her sister, and he was willing to sacrifice his freedom for his brothers’ success.

“So your father gets his wish, Lady Gabrielle. We will be married.”

Gabrielle shook her head in frustration. “I didn’t want to marry Staunton, but at least I was willing to until—”

Lord Brentwood’s brown eyes narrowed and questioned her. “Until what?”

She hesitated before saying, “Until recently, but none of that matters now. I certainly don’t want to marry you, and you don’t want to marry me.”

“Well, take heart, Lady Gabrielle, it looks as though you’ll have plenty of time to get to know me, as the duke said it will likely take weeks to untangle your previous betrothal agreement with Lord Austerhill’s son. As soon as that is done, we’ll post the banns.”

She pulled her shawl up closer around her neck and positioned herself where her back was to her father’s book room window and said, “Perhaps not. I have a plan, my lord.”

His eyes narrowed. “For what?”

“Us. Thankfully, Papa does have to sort out all the financial arrangements with Lord Austerhill and his son, so I propose we lead my father to believe we are in favor of this marriage and find a way to stall it even after all other matters are settled. We can then, sometime after Christmas but before the Season starts in the spring, come up with a reason to call off the wedding.”

Lord Brentwood’s face wrinkled into a frown, but she kept talking. “That way, come the new year, you will be free to pursue more willing young ladies. The scandal of our hasty engagement will have died down, and the gossips will have moved on to someone else’s unfortunate situation. I venture to say that, halfway through the Season, no one will even remember I was once engaged to you or Staunton.”

His golden-brown eyes seemed to burn into hers. A wrinkle of warning formed on his brow. “Did you not hear what I had to say about my brothers and moving their shipping business to London? Did you not hear me speak of your father’s threat to assure they would have no success in their business?”

She blinked rapidly at his sudden change. “Yes, of course I heard.”

“Then mark my word, Lady Gabrielle, we will be married as soon as it is legally possible. I don’t know how to make myself any plainer than that.”

She would have liked to tell him her father’s intimidation was no more of a threat than Brutus’s growl, but she would be lying. The duke would have no qualms about ruining the viscount’s brothers’ business in order to achieve his goals.

Lord Brentwood’s gaze scanned her face, down her neck to her breasts, and back to her eyes. He gave her a lopsided grin. “Besides my brothers’ plight, I’ll be thirty soon, and I could do worse than to marry a powerful duke’s daughter. You will no doubt know how to manage my home. And your father is making sure your dowry is quite substantial. It’s time for me to take a wife and produce an heir. Judging from our short time together in the park, you should do quite nicely for that and be the perfect wife for me.”

She gasped. “How dare you, my lord. That was a perfectly vulgar thing to say. That you should even suggest using me as a brood mare to bear your children sounds positively ghastly.”

He leaned his head in closer to hers and hooded his eyes with determination. “You may think so now, but once I get you beneath me, I will prove to you that you are no lady, Gabrielle. I will have you in my bed, and I promise you will not want to leave it.”

She shivered and hugged her woolen shawl more tightly around her. “You are being unbelievably ill-mannered, Lord Brentwood.”

His gaze stayed firmly on hers. “Perhaps I’m thinking it’s fitting right now for a young lady who walks out of the mist and into my arms. You are a tempting wench in spite of the fact that, for your own selfish reasons, you used me in your plan to get rid of the earl’s son.”

“No, no— I—” For a brief moment, she was tempted to tell him the truth.

“Yes, and now you have me, Lady Gabrielle. Before you approached me in the park, perhaps you would have done well to have remembered the old adage my mother used to say to me: ‘Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.’”

Gabrielle straightened her backbone, his words giving her strength to continue the fight. “I never wished for you.”

“Didn’t you? A knight in shining armor to rescue you from what you perceived was a fate worse than death?”

Gabrielle couldn’t deny that. She could only imagine that if she had married the man her sister loved, death would be welcome.

“The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is if you wanted to be rescued from your father or your fiancé. Perhaps it was both.”

Was that true? Did she secretly want to be rescued from a loveless marriage, from her father’s tyrannical ways?

She fixed him with a determined frown. “If I had wanted to be rescued from my father, that could have been easily accomplished, my lord, because my wedding to Staunton was only a week away. But why would I have wanted to be rescued from one loveless marriage just to be forced into another with you?”

“It’s your story. You tell me.”

“I may be forced to marry you, my lord, but I assure you, your bed will not be an easy one. You will find it cold, hard, and empty.”

His crooked smile turned into an attractive chuckle that held promises she didn’t want to think about and sent her pulse racing. He thought she was lying, and that made her all the angrier.

His gaze swept up and down her face again in a way that sent chills of anticipation storming throughout her body.

“I’m up to the challenge, Lady Gabrielle. Let’s see how cold, hard, and empty that bed will be when you are like butter melting beneath my hot palm.”

“You are no gentleman, Lord Brentwood.”

“I don’t think you were looking for a gentleman when you walked into my arms this morning. But you are the one who walked into my life, and make no mistake, there you shall live.”

He took another step away from her. “I would give you the kiss your pouting lips are asking for if your father wasn’t watching from that window, but there will be plenty of time for that. I’ll see to it. Perhaps later in the week at a party, or maybe I’ll call on you and take you for a ride in the park. For now, I will take my leave and see myself out the back gate.”

Gabrielle seethed with anger. How dare he say she had pouting lips or that she would be like butter melting beneath his hands? She watched him walk away with all the confidence of the titled man he was. So he thought he was in control. So he thought a duke’s daughter would do nicely as a proper wife for him.

He was in for a surprise.

She was no longer the obedient, dutiful person she was just yesterday. That person was gone for good. She rather liked herself as the lady who had the courage to kiss a stranger. And that lady wasn’t going away.

Gabrielle heard the back door open, and she turned and saw her father and her aunt walking down the steps. The duke hadn’t bothered to don a coat or cape, but her aunt was clutching a black shawl around her arms. Fog was stealing in with feathery wisps of mist. The cold air felt damp and threatening. Gabrielle was glad her aunt had come to London and would be staying with her for a while.

“Gabby,” her father said, “now that your aunt is here, I’ve decided to leave for Windergreen the day after tomorrow. The Duke of Norfolk has invited me to his hunting lodge, and I will go there for a few days as well.”

Her heart constricted. “But, Papa, nothing is resolved.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it is. It takes time to settle a breach of contract, and there’s nothing I can do here while that is being done except pray Staunton and his father will be reasonable in what they ask for. I’ll spend tomorrow with my solicitor so he will know what I’m willing to do to settle this thing. Unfortunately, we can’t go any further with Lord Brentwood until that is handled. Your aunt will be of more use to you in the days to come than I will be.” He cut his eyes around to Auntie Bethie and gave her a disdainful look. “I’m sure she’s been involved in more than one scandal in her lifetime.”

Auntie Bethie laughed. “Quite true, Duke. My family never lived down the scandal of my sister’s marrying you.”

“Huh!” he huffed. “You best be glad she did. It has kept you in a fine lifestyle for many years.” He turned back to Gabrielle. “I expect Elizabeth to look after you and not allow you out of her sight. I don’t want to hear one more word of scandal concerning you, or I’ll banish both of you to Northern Coast of Scotland.”

“You’ll have no more trouble from me, Papa,” Gabrielle asserted.

“See that I don’t. And I’ll expect you to take care of your sister. You know how quickly her temperament can change.”

Without further words, the duke turned and went back inside.

Auntie Bethie stepped closer to Gabrielle and said, “Now that the roaring bear is gone, we can talk. You don’t look like you want to, but it would probably be good for you if you did.”

Gabrielle slightly shook her head and turned to watch Lord Brentwood close the gate without looking back at her. “It’s too difficult to explain, and even if I could, you wouldn’t understand.”

“You aren’t giving me much credit for having gained wisdom with my advanced years.”

Staring out over the garden, Gabrielle said, “I’m sorry, Auntie. It’s just that I did the wrong thing this morning, which turned out to be a good thing, which then caused another bad thing.”

Her aunt laughed in a low, gravelly voice. “That’s easy to understand, and it makes perfect sense to me.”

Gabrielle turned toward her aunt and smiled. “No it doesn’t, because it doesn’t even make sense to me.”

“Of course it does,” Auntie Bethie said, trying to convince her. “You did something you shouldn’t have, which must have involved the man who just went out that gate.”

“Yes.”

“It turned out all right because it canceled your wedding, and you are obviously happy about that.”

Gabrielle nodded. Auntie Bethie understood better than Gabrielle thought she would.

“But that something good caused a different bad thing to happen, which I’m assuming is the scandal your broken engagement is going to cause, not to mention your father is quite peeved that he’ll have to settle money and probably lands, too, for your breach of contract. And I haven’t quite decided where the viscount fits into all that, but something about him is bothering you, too.”

Gabrielle looked at her with awe. “You did understand. That’s a fairly close estimate of what has happened because of me and one mistake I can’t take back.”

“I understood because you sounded so very much like your mother when you were talking just now, the way you had that wistful look to your eyes. You want so desperately always to do the right thing, and if you do make a mistake, you must set everything right.”