An Undomesticated Wife Part 18

Andrews's face flushed. "My lord, I a.s.sure you that I did not read the letter you sent to His Grace. I simply chanced to overhear him speaking with Mr. Fisher. His Grace was mightily perturbed, and his anger focused on Mr. Fisher. Later, I heard in the kitchen that Mr. Fisher was considering leaving."

"I doubt if Miss Morrissey would agree to leave until after the wedding." His laugh was humorless. "Mayhap that is the very reason Grandmother is determined to have the wedding with undue haste. She abhors any disharmony in the house that she does not herself create."

Andrews said, "She has been very bothered by your extended absence. She has missed you dearly."

"As I have her, if you wish me to own the truth." He clapped his valet on the shoulder. "Rid yourself of the long face, Andrews. You know that, despite any comments I might make in frustration, I love Grandmother deeply."

"As she does you." He squatted to avoid a branch, but the water streamed down on him anyhow. "As Lady Daniston clearly does."

Marcus was astonished at the pleasure in his valet's voice. Andrews had always been critical of the women in his lord's life, although he had saved a special distaste for Jocelyn. Even Regina had not gained his favor ... until now.

When his lord did not answer, Andrews pushed through to the wall by the narrow road. He clambered over the stone wall as limberly as a man half his age. With his hands on the top, he turned to ask, "And, my lord, if I may be so bold, although I know it is none of my bread and b.u.t.ter, do you love Lady Daniston as well?"

"You are right." Lord Daniston leapt over the wall and strode toward the carriage waiting a few yards along the road. Over his shoulder, he snapped, "It is none of your bread and b.u.t.ter!"

"But, my lord-"

Lord Daniston turned to face him and scowled. "Andrews, my life is about to resume the path it should have. The path I want it to have. Nothing else needs to be said."

"Yes, my lord," he said. As he watched his lord go to speak to the coachman, he glanced back at the trees behind him. So many jokes he and Lord Daniston had shared, but he suspected Lady Daniston was about to be made the b.u.t.t of the cruelest jest of all.

Regina folded the blanket ... again. Dropping it back on the bed, she shook her head. None of the corners were even as Kamil would have managed to make them. She truly had no idea how he-or the staff at the duke's townhouse-had made such complicated tasks look so easy.

She reached for the blanket again, then, with a curse that would have earned her a rebuke from Papa, stuffed it into the case. It would have to be laundered when they returned to Berkeley Square. A few more wrinkles would not be a problem.

As she jammed the edges of the blanket down around the clothes in the case, something crackled under her fingers. She reached into the bag and drew out a single sheet of paper. She was about to toss it back on top of the blanket when a name caught her eyes.

Jocelyn!

Pressing her hand over her suddenly aching heart, she gasped as she realized this was not something Marcus had brought with him to the cottage. The date at the top was yesterday's.

Put it away, her heart commanded. Put it away, and pretend you never saw it. Do not ruin the glorious love you have discovered with Marcus. Hold onto the glories of a happy marriage.

She could not. By opening her heart to Marcus, she had dared to believe he loved only her. Instead he had been writing to his convenient.

My dear Jocelyn, I pen this short missive to let you know that upon my return to Town, I shall come to call upon you. There are many things I need to say to you, for our relationship has been in my thoughts much during my forced absence from London.

Regina dropped the page to her lap, unable to read the last few sentences. Covering her face with her hands, she shivered. Was this how it felt to have one's heart break? Where happiness had been moments before, there now was nothing. Not even pain. Nothing but an unrelenting numbness that threatened to swell outward to envelop her in its bleakness.

"Regina?"

She moaned softly as she heard Marcus call to her. Hastily she dropped the page into the bag, making sure it did not drift down the side out of sight.

Never let them know when you are troubled. Papa's voice rang through her head.

Standing, she took a deep breath and released it slowly. That advice was the only shield she had now. Her most precious dream was dying at the hands of a man who should have made it come true.

Sixteen.

Regina had hoped that Marcus would speak to her of the letter that she had left on top of the opened case. Instead he sent Andrews to retrieve the cases and load them in the carriage's boot. She waited for Marcus to say something on the way back to Town, but he was as silent as when they had been driven to the dowager cottage.

The silence ended when they reached Berkeley Square. Although the hour was long past midnight, every window was bright with the glow of lamps. The dowager d.u.c.h.ess met them at the door herself.

"My dears, how wondrous to have you home!" she cried, embracing first Marcus, then Regina. "I cannot tell you how I have worried about you! Do come in and tell me all about your long journey from Attleby Court. Do you know that I have had reports of a thief there?"

"What is this?" came the duke's voice as he descended the stairs, pulling his robe closed. "My word, Marcus! Son, what are you doing here?"

"Grandmother wrote for us to return."

"Mother, I told you-"

The dowager d.u.c.h.ess clucked her tongue. "I have heard enough of your doom-sayings. My dear children have been returned to the bosom of their family. And none too soon." She put her hand to her bosom. "There is poker-talk throughout the Polite World. I shall not have such things said about my family. There is no choice but to hold the wedding posthaste."

"What is going on?" Another voice sounded from the top of the stairs. Mr. Fisher rushed down, followed by Aunt Elayne. Even the s.p.a.cious foyer started to feel chock-full. Mr. Fisher glanced at the duke before saying, "This is not a good idea."

Regina said, "Whether it is a good idea or not, I am fatigued from our journey back to Town. I am sure Marcus is, too. Can we not talk about this after the sun rises? After all, nothing is going to happen tonight."

When Aunt Elayne put her arm around Regina's shoulders, Regina was glad to let her aunt sweep her up the stairs. At the top she glanced down and met Marcus's eyes. He smiled. She bit her lip and turned away.

Beatty was awash with tears when Regina entered her room. Murmuring "My dear, dear lady" over and over, the abigail brought Regina a clean nightgown and turned down the bed that would not be scented with remnants of mildew. Two pearlescent tears rolled along the woman's face, and Regina was ready to ask her to stop crying. There was nothing she could tolerate less than tears, but she remained silent. Beatty would not be soothed until she had a chance to cry her fill.

Although Regina would have preferred to ask both women to leave, she encouraged them to stay as they tended to her as if she was no more than a child. She did convince Beatty not to rout the serving la.s.ses to bring a bath, but she let them tuck her into bed and sit with her while she pretended to fall asleep.

She heard them leave. She heard the others seek their beds. And she heard the door between her room and Marcus's squeak open. As the familiar, beloved footfalls came toward the bed, she tensed, but squeezed her eyes closed. She did not need her eyes to sense how closely Marcus stood. When his lips brushed her forehead, she did not move. Slowly the footsteps moved away from the bed, and the door creaked closed. She heard the key turn in the lock and was sure her heart had shattered.

Regina learned the very next day that her hopes had been futile. She saw Marcus in the foyer as she was coming down to the breakfast parlor. Her heart lurched when she saw the elegant cut of his rust-colored coat that perfectly complemented his tan breeches. The complex style of his cravat seemed too fancy for a ride in the Park.

"Have my horse brought around, Gardner," he said. "And my carte de visite."

"'Tis early for calls, my lord," the footman replied.

"I would not call at this hour where I was not welcome." His smile was the very clue Regina needed to guess where he was bound.

Blinking back tears, she edged back toward the stairs to her bedchamber. She did not need to look in their cases to know that the note to Jocelyn was no longer there. No doubt Marcus had sent it to his incognita already. This morn he could not wait to be on his way to Jocelyn's side.

"Regina?"

She whirled, startled and, despite herself, delighted at Marcus's voice. Mayhap she had misread his intentions, seeing an eagerness to leave her to visit Jocelyn where there had been only relief to be coming home. Hurrying back down the stairs, she held her hands out to him.

"I thought you were going-" She swallowed the incriminating accusation she must not speak. "I heard you call for your horse, so I a.s.sumed you were going out."

"I am." He released her hands as he drew on his gloves. "I wished to tell you that I will be busy for most of the day, but that I hope you will stay close to the house."

"Marcus, you should not stray far from here. You cannot guess if there might be danger for you, too."

"If you accept Grandmother's opinion, the danger is past."

"I have not spoken with Her Grace, and, in my opinion, the situation is still hazardous."

"So you and Fisher believe."

She grasped the banister. "What did Mr. Fisher say? He was unsettled when we arrived."

"You will have to ask him or Father. I have several appointments I must keep." The clatter of horseshoes on the street drifted into the house.

She resisted the urge to soften when he drew her into his arms and kissed her swiftly. Her hands clutched onto his sleeves as she gazed up at him.

"You were asleep early last night," he murmured.

"I was tired."

"Get your rest today, sweetheart." He kissed her again before he went out the door to leave her to wonder if he would come to her directly from his particular's bed.

"I have not seen Mr. Fisher since last night," Beatty said as she bustled around the room. "Shall I have Gardner tell him that you wish to see him upon his return?"

"Yes," Regina answered.

The abigail glanced at her, but Regina did not elaborate. Sitting in her chair that overlooked the square, she did not want to own that she was watching for Marcus's return.

A knock on the door interrupted Beatty's next question. It opened before either of them could move. Aunt Elayne bustled in, her gold gown an explosion of ribbons and ruffles. When Beatty beat a hasty retreat into the dressing room, Regina guessed the two women had arranged this. She would have been more curious what "this" was, if every thought was not wrapped around Marcus and what was keeping him away from the house for hours.

"You look well in spite of your tribulations," Aunt Elayne said, giving her a quick buss on the cheek. Sitting on the window seat, she rearranged the flounces and furbelows around her.

"I enjoyed my time in the country." She almost laughed at the understatement. That time, while she and Marcus had been isolated from the rest of the world, might have been the best time of her life.

"Then why did you come back so precipitously?"

"The dowager d.u.c.h.ess wrote, as you know, for us to return."

Aunt Elayne sighed. "This is so upsetting. I have written to your father of this terrible set of circ.u.mstances."

"Oh, Aunt Elayne, you shouldn't have."

Her eyes widened as she shook a finger at Regina. "Now you needn't take that tone with me, young lady. I know you think yourself quite able to handle anything, but you are wrong."

"No, I have no thought that I can handle anything." She ran her finger along the sculptured edge of the table by her chair. The pattern of vines and fruit was softened by the layers of varnish, and she wished she could hide the splintered wreckage of her heart as readily.

"Then you must agree it was the right thing to do."

Regina sat straighter as she heard the sound of horseshoes in the square. She sighed when she saw a carriage roll past. "No, I cannot agree to that. What can Papa do save worry about me? Can you doubt that he sent me here to marry Marcus for one simple reason?"

"Which was?"

"To get me away from the danger he saw coming in Algiers. He wrote of that to the duke." She laced her fingers together so tightly that her knuckles whitened. "Who would have guessed that the same danger would shadow me to London?"

"You cannot be sure there is a connection between those men who tried to abduct you and the government of Algiers. They may have been nothing but common thieves who saw the opportunity to steal more than a purse."

Regina opened her mouth, then shut it tightly. Before she had had the encounter with the man at the creek by the cottage, she might have been enticed to listen to her aunt's commonsensical a.s.sessment. But Aunt Elayne did not know the truth about the powder horn they had found, and Regina intended to shield her from it as long as possible.

Aunt Elayne refused to be so silent. She vented all her opinions, then, when she realized that Regina was in no mood to refute them, left with an urging that Regina rest.

Regina was grateful to be alone, but that ended when the door opened only moments later to reveal the dowager d.u.c.h.ess. The elderly woman was wearing a flattering shade of green that she usually chose for calls, but this afternoon she clearly was interested in talking only with Regina.

Or at, Regina owned with a silent sigh, when the dowager d.u.c.h.ess launched into a soliloquy about the upcoming wedding.

When the old woman paused to take a breath, Regina asked, "Your Grace, one question, if I may. Why did you send a message with Andrews for us to come home?"

"I told you." Impatience glittered in her eyes, which were as volatile as her grandson's. "There has been too much talk about you and Marcus. Suggestions that you are living a sinful existence. Suggestions that you have gotten with child before your wedding."

She glanced back at the square, not wanting to own that that was no longer impossible. The dowager d.u.c.h.ess had believed that both she and Marcus would keep their vow to wait for the wedding. "But we are married. The ton should realize that."

"Not all of them."

"Then do not listen to those who are ignorant enough to spread such scanmag."

The dowager d.u.c.h.ess treated her to an hour of a reprimand and examples of what happened to those who were so careless as to disregard the rumors that fled through the elite. Knowing that no answer was required of her, Regina simply nodded and mumbled an apology when the old woman seemed to be done.

She sagged in her chair as the door closed behind the dowager d.u.c.h.ess. The quiet of the cottage, where her only company was Marcus and her own thoughts, now seemed even more wondrous. She longed to return there and put this h.e.l.lish day out of her head.

Knuckles rapped against the door just as Beatty came back into the room. Regina rolled her eyes, but bade Beatty to open the door. This must be the duke, for he was the only one of the household-save for Marcus and Mr. Fisher, both of whom were out on business of their own-who hadn't come to her door this afternoon.

She smiled as the duke bustled into the room. Coming to her feet, she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"How are you, Regina?" he asked as he sat exactly where Aunt Elayne had.

"Very well."

"Then why are you hiding in your room?"

"If my aim were to hide, it seems that everyone has found me."

He smiled at her ironic tone. "You look strained."

"It is uncomfortable to be here when the situation may not have changed." She hesitated, then added, "And I am worried about Marcus, who seems to be unwilling to own that he might be endangering himself."

"There has been no sign that he is in any peril."

She walked to the door of the dressing room and closed it, not wanting Beatty to overhear. "Your Grace, if these are, indeed, the Dey's men, and I share Papa's and your suspicion that they are, they will strike where they may to reach their goals."

"I should have guessed there was no sense in trying to bamboozle Rudolph's daughter." He stood. "My mother and your aunt have been persuaded that the danger is less, but I am glad to see that you are wiser than they."

"I have seen to what ends a dey will go in order to get what he wishes."