Dangerous Joy (10 page)

The dark eyes turned watchful. "I wish to marry a local man."

He looked down at the dancers. "If this is the best the area has to offer, cailin. your choice is limited. There's few enough who are single, and it's clear why they are languishing on the vine."

She closed the fan with a snap, playfulness done with. "Better the devil I know."

"Better no devil at all. Felicity, let me guide your choice."

"I don't think so." Then she spread her fan again and peeped over the lacy edge. "Are you sure you don't want to marry me yourself, Miles Cavanagh?"

In a deliberate imitation, Miles raised the cat and peered between silky ears. "Yes."

She flushed and lowered the fan. "Why not?"

"Are your feelings hurt? Perhaps I want a better housekeeper."

"Then you should hire one!"

Her eyes were bright with anger. It would be interesting to see those eyes flashing with warmer emotions...

Miles lowered the protective cat and stroked her. "Ah, but I'm a niggardly fellow, my dear, and would prefer to get one free through marriage."

"In that case, I'd think an heiress would be of great interest."

Miles turned Gardeen and addressed her. "Faith, but I think the woman is after me in truth! First, she flaunts that creamy bosom. Now, she flaunts her wealth." He looked back at his red-faced ward. "Try me again when you're of age, my dear, and I'll consider the offer."

She closed the fan and rapped it hard across his knuckles. "Oaf!"

But she immediately controlled herself, which was both interesting and alarming. He wasn't sure he knew the real Felicity, or what game she was playing.

The music paused and she rose. "You requested a dance, sir, I believe." Without looking back, she headed down to the hall in a swish of silk. Miles returned his feline protector to the music gallery and then followed at his leisure.

Felicity awaited him, her foot tapping with impatience.

The music started for a line dance, and they joined in. Perhaps because of the trace of anger still in Felicity's eyes, Miles was struck again by her beauty. She was certainly no milk-and-water miss. She was strong, brave, clever, kind...

Desirable.

Perhaps he should have kept the cat to hand.

If Felicity had planned to stir his lustful attentions this evening, she was being completely successful.

The dance involved a lot of swinging, and he soon found himself touching Felicity more than he had since that first night. Then he realized she was using the dance to press and rub against him. With another type of woman, he'd think he was being primed for a night of pleasure, but Felicity wasn't that type.

Or was she?

He remembered Joy.

Angered by her behavior, he crushed her tight against him and nipped sharply at her earlobe. Spinning her free, he said, "Don't play with the animals, cailin. They have sharp teeth."

She was angry, but she was also shocked. That convinced him of her fundamental innocence. Devil take it, she had to be stopped from playing these games before some man took advantage.

The dance over, he saw her safely partnered with a middle-aged man and asked the beautiful Miss Hill to be his partner. Despite physical perfection and a determined effort to please—and the fact that she was doubtless highly trained in domestic management—Miss Hill did not stir his interest at all.

Miles stole a look up at Gardeen's ledge to see the cat cleaning herself. Obviously, Miles was safe...

Faith, if he kept up this fancy, he'd be believing it!

But when the set ended, Miles realized Felicity was no longer in the hall.

At first, he was not concerned, for there were doubtless many tasks requiring her attention. Even so, he needed to know where she was.

She wasn't in the drawing room with the older ladies and cats, or in the card room. She wasn't in the refreshment room or on the stairs. She wasn't dealing with some domestic emergency.

There was a sharp frost, so she would hardly be in the garden.

There were few remaining possibilities, and one alarmed him.

He went to her bedroom door.

Miles had never been in Felicity's bedroom and hesitated to intrude. As he debated it, however, Gardeen appeared and wove around his ankles, miaowing. Taking that as a sign, Miles knocked. When there was no answer, he turned the knob and walked in.

Felicity was there, standing far too close to Rupert Dunsmore. They turned, both wearing insolently disdainful expressions.

"What the devil are you doing here, Dunsmore?" Miles asked.

"Miss Monahan invited me," the man replied, taking out a gold snuffbox and inhaling a pinch of the powder.

"Felicity?"

She tossed her head. "Heavens above, Miles, are you going to play the grim guardian? I wanted to talk to Mr. Dunsmore about Kieran, that's all."

"In your bedroom?" There was no evidence, but Miles would bet Argonaut that these two had kissed in this room. Felicity had invited Dunsmore here and let him kiss her?

His hands became fists.

She sighed with impatience. "The house is full of people and we wanted privacy."

"I'm sure your discussion could have waited until tomorrow." Miles stepped back from the door. "I believe you wish to leave, Dunsmore."

Dunsmore eyed him with considerable hostility. "But that would leave Felicity here alone with you, sir."

"I am her guardian.

"A laughable conceit."

"Not at all. It is both full and legal. And as her guardian, I might rethink my tolerance of your improper behavior and make this a matter for pistols."

"Well, really!" Felicity exclaimed.

"Be quiet," Miles snapped.

"I might welcome that," said Dunsmore icily.

"I certainly would."

Felicity stepped forward. "I won't be quiet. I forbid you to fight over me!"

Miles ignored her, keeping his eyes on Dunsmore. He wanted the man absolutely certain that if he took one more irregular step with Felicity, he'd die.

Perhaps Dunsmore understood the message, for he wet his finely shaped lips. "Since Miss Monahan does not wish any fuss, I will avoid it. This time."

"Very wise."

As Dunsmore walked toward the door, Gardeen leaped onto the back of a nearby chair and hissed. The man jumped with alarm, then snarled back at the cat before hurrying on his way.

Miles closed the door and faced his ward.

"This is most improper," Felicity said, color high. "To be in here with the door shut..."

"It was even more improper to be in here with Dunsmore."

"I'd trust him rather more than you!"

"And what have I done to deserve that?"

"You bit me!"

"That was a warning, not a seduction."

She looked at him with troubled eyes. "You want me."

"No—"

"Don't deny it! I can sense it." She ran her fan nervously through her hand. "It...it unnerves me."

She was right, damn it. "Dunsmore wants you, too."

"Not in the same way."

Had she been in here with Dunsmore because she felt safe with him? She needed some wits shaken into her.

"Felicity, you're a very attractive, very rich woman, and many men will want you. Yes, in a sense I want you, but I won't attack you. I won't even try to seduce you. I wouldn't say as much for Dunsmore."

"He won't attack me either."

"Damn-it-all, are you blind?"

"He won't attack me because he won't need to." She raised her chin. "I will kiss him willingly. Anywhere, anytime."

Miles sucked in air, feeling as if he'd been punched. "As you were doing before I intruded?"

"Exactly." But she turned away to look into the dancing flames in her fireplace.

"Felicity, Dunsmore's no catch."

She spun back. "Don't try to make these decisions for me. I know what I want."

"You know nothing! What's the appeal of the man? He's handsome enough, but cold as a fish and has scarce a penny to bless himself with other than his son's money." Miles stopped dead. "That's it, isn't it? Kieran."

"That's what?" But she wouldn't look at him.

"You're trying to marry Dunsmore so as to look after Kieran."

Her color betrayed her. "And what is wrong with that?"

"Everything! Hell and the devil, Felicity, even if you marry the man, you can't protect the child. If Dunsmore decides to thrash Kieran every day, or send him away to the crudest school in the land, you won't be able to stop him. If you were to try to take the matter to court, your position would be impossible. You'd only be his stepmother. And in the meantime, you'd be Dunsmore's wife. Think what that means!"

Though her deepening color spoke of her agitation, she kept her eyes wide and steady on his. "You mean the marriage bed? I'm sure Rupert is an excellent lover."

"I doubt that. He's not a man to be kind once the courting's over. Think of his behavior to his first wife."

"Kathleen said he was a lusty lover."

"Doubtless trying to get her with child so as to have a claim to her estate."

"Whatever the cause, she had no complaint except that he ceased his attentions after...after Kieran."

"Dammit, Felicity, she had no business speaking of such matters to a young girl."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, why should she be mealy-mouthed? I've held the mares for covering. I'm no swooning innocent. I would have thought that after our first encounter you'd know that. In full knowledge, I plan to marry Rupert Dunsmore. So, can we have an end to this matter of dragging me off to England? It will do no good and I would prefer to marry Rupert immediately."

"Good or not, you are coming to England with me, Felicity. You need to meet some real men."

She slapped the fan into the palm of her hand. "I don't need to meet real men. I am sure you think of yourself as a real man. I've met you, and it hasn't changed my mind at all!"

She would have swept out of the room, but he seized her arm and dragged her close. "Perhaps you need more than a mere meeting, then, to see Rupert Dunsmore for what he is."

She twisted angrily. "Are you going to show him up? But, no. You're my guardian, and you take your role so seriously." Her tone was scathing, and her eyes shot magnificent rage.

"Since you won't be guarded by me, it's a lost cause." He spun her onto the bed and crushed her beneath him. She fought with every inch of her strong body, but he pinned her down ruthlessly. She tried to scratch, so he captured her hands.

"Get off me, you foul, pox-ridden—"

He silenced her with his lips. She bit him, and he jerked back with a hiss. She twisted again and almost won free, but he regained his hold.

A burning pain shocked him back to his senses.

He saw a row of deep scratches on his hand, already beading blood, and a small cat hissing inches from his nose. Horrified by his actions, Miles loosed his bruising grip and eased off Felicity, half-expecting to be clawed by her, too.

She slithered off the far side of the bed, rubbing her bruised wrists, hair and eyes wildly disordered. "Try something like that again, Miles Cavanagh, and I'll put a pistol ball where it'll do the most good. On the Cross of St. Patrick, I swear it!"

She scrambled to her feet and ran from the room. Miles collapsed into a chair, staring at an agitated black cat.

"And by the Cross of St. Patrick, Gardeen, I'd deserve it. Thank you, little guardian."

Felicity watched from nearby until she saw Miles leave. Then she ran back into her room, slammed the door, and locked it.

She collapsed onto the bench before her mirror and tried to pin her hair back into order. Her shaking hands were useless, however, and she sank her head onto them, fighting tears.

She would not cry over any man, particularly not one like Miles Cavanagh.

It had been as much her fault as his, though. She shouldn't have played with him as she had earlier, but it had been as if a wildness had seized her, commanding that she prove she could stir him as a man.

A sob escaped as she thought of what might have been. Imagine if they had met more casually, he the stepson of her uncle, paying a visit to Foy Hall; she a simple, well-bred young lady. Then, their teasing conversations, their intertwining music, their moments of understanding could have been so precious.

If she'd flirted with him, then, and he'd reacted with that hot, intent look, they could have kissed. They could have touched...

Imagine if she'd been worthy of an honest man.

Imagine if she'd never met Rupert Dunsmore.

She pushed violently to her feet and paced the room.

Damn Rupert Dunsmore to hell.

He was desperate, though, and turning the screws. A week ago, he'd stopped Kieran's visits. Tonight, he'd told her he'd spanked the boy for insolence before leaving the house.