A Little Mischief (30 page)

Isabella was sick to her stomach, too, just hearing what that awful man had done. He’d made a sport of coaxing young ladies into kissing him for money. No doubt Gretchen was one of his conquests.

Daniel moved closer to her. She felt his warmth and it comforted her.

Mr. Wright lowered his head and slowly shook it. “That’s enough, Amanda.”

Amanda turned to her brother. “No, I want to tell it all. I wanted to make him pay for treating us so badly. I looked down at the table beside me and there was a paper knife. I wanted to stab him in front of everyone so they would know what a horrible man he was. But he walked away before I could. I watched him stop and speak to Gretchen, and then I followed him out into the garden.”

“That’s where I come in,” Mr. Wright said, picking up the story. “A friend told me he saw Amanda walk into the garden alone. I hurried after her and found her struggling with Throckmorten. At first I thought he was accosting her, but then I realized they were fighting over a knife.”

“Sweet mercies!” Isabella whispered.

“I pushed her aside and took up her fight. I only wanted to take the knife from him, but he kept stabbing it toward my chest. I turned the knife away from me, and it just seemed to sink down into his chest. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just saw him and Amanda struggling with the knife.”

“I believe you,” Daniel said.

“We were trying to decide what to do when we heard Gretchen calling his name. There was no time to do anything other than hide behind a large shrub. We were still there when you and Miss Winslowe joined her.”

“How did you get his body out of the garden?” Daniel asked.

“When the three of you left, I picked him up and pulled his coat around the knife and dragged him out a side gate to my carriage. All the footmen were huddled around a fire laughing and talking. I don’t think anyone saw me.”

“I’m the one who wanted to hurt him,” Amanda said. “Not Tom. He thought Mr. Throckmorten was trying to kill me with the knife. He can’t be blamed for this.”

“It will be up to the authorities to decide that, but it sounds as if it was an accident to me.”

“It was, my lord,” Mr. Wright said earnestly. “I didn’t mean to kill him. I didn’t want to hurt him at all. All I saw was my sister struggling with a man who had a knife. I only wanted to save her.”

“You must tell the authorities what happened.”

“I can’t. There is no one else to take care of Amanda but me. Don’t make me do this.”

“I’ll speak to them on your behalf. I’m sure they will listen to a kind word from me. And in return for my assistance, I want your word that you will never breathe a word about Gretchen following Throckmorten into that garden.”

“I would never bring her name into this. You have it. Thank you, my lord.”

Daniel nodded. “Now take your sister home. I’ll speak on your behalf tomorrow.”

Tom looked back at him. “I suppose this ends my intentions toward Gretchen.”

“Yes,” Daniel said without hesitation.

He went to the doorway and called to his servant. He told him to show Mr. and Miss Wright out.

After they left, he turned to Isabella. They smiled at each other. The crises were over. Mr. Throckmorten’s murder was solved. Daniel had saved Gretchen’s reputation. Isabella felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Now Isabella could concentrate on Daniel, and she had made her plans and knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She said, “Can you believe how close we came to figuring out exactly what happened?”

“We were very close, but we didn’t figure out the wager about kissing the girls in your Reading Society.”

“Thank you for not calling them Wallflowers. They are not. I’m appalled they were ever called that. All of them are special young ladies to me.”

“You’re right, Isabella. They are. And I think it’s wonderful you help them.”

“I never thought my association with them might lead someone to do what Mr. Throckmorten did. What a tragedy that it led to his death.”

“Your group of ladies had nothing to do with that. It was Throckmorten’s own illicit games for money that got him killed.”

Isabella looked at Daniel standing so tall and so powerful beside her. She had a great desire to be circled in his embrace and to rest her head against his strong shoulder.

Over the last few days she had become acutely aware of how deeply Daniel had affected her life. She loved arguing with him, kissing him, and laughing with him. She had even found excitement in being jealous of him. She loved the way he tried to be so honorable and how she had thwarted him at every turn. There wasn’t anything about him she didn’t love.

Yes, love.
She loved him.

That was very easy to admit to herself, but how could she make such a confession to Daniel? She had thought about it and decided the best way to let him know that she loved him was to show him.

And the way to do that was to give herself to him. She had no doubts that she had fallen in love with him, no doubts about what she wanted to do. No doubts she would be doing the right thing.

If her father returned and insisted she return to the country with him, this could be her only chance to be with Daniel. She was not going to spend the rest of her life thinking about having missed this opportunity. Daniel was too important to her.

“You’ve been here a long time,” Daniel said. “We should get your maid and send you on your way.”

She stood very close to him. “In a few minutes. I want a little time alone with you.”

Daniel’s eyes searched hers. “That’s not a good idea, Isabella.”

“Why?”

“Must you always challenge me?”

She smiled, feeling calm and wonderful inside. “Yes.”

“All right, then. Because when we are alone together, we do things we shouldn’t do.”

“I know. That’s exactly what I have in mind.”

Her heart was overflowing with love for him. She knew he wanted to save her from himself, but that’s not what she wanted.

Isabella wanted Daniel.

Daniel was too much of a gentleman to come to her so she had to go to him. She understood his reluctance and she appreciated it. He prided himself on doing what was right in all areas of his life.

“Isabella, we’ll talk later. Now go out that door.”

She turned and walked to the parlor door, but instead of walking out it, she closed it and turned the key to lock it before facing Daniel again.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Slowly she started walking toward him. Her maid waited outside with her carriage. Daniel’s servants were in the house. Isabella chose to go against all she had been taught for one afternoon of Daniel’s loving.

“Why did I ask that? You obviously don’t know what you are doing or you wouldn’t be doing it.”

She knew he was trying to make light of the moment, trying to turn her mind away from what she knew she wanted.

Isabella stopped in front of him and said, “You’re wrong, Daniel. I know exactly what I’m doing. I want to kiss you.”

She saw by the look in his eyes that he studied over his answer before saying, “No. Kisses between us lead places I don’t think you want to go.”

“You’re wrong. I do want to go. And I want you to take me.”

Twenty-one

“As much as I would like to accommodate you, Isabella, I can’t.”

His voice sounded serious. His eyes flashed a warning for her not to tread further with this subject, but confident in how she felt and what she wanted, Isabella ignored him and said, “Tell me that you don’t want me to stay here with you.”

“I can’t because that’s not true. I ache for you. You know that.”

She took a step closer to him. “Then why deny me? Why deny what we both want?”

“Because there are some rules I can’t be persuaded to break, and making love to a proper young lady is one of them.”

Isabella reached up and gently pulled on his neckcloth. The bow unraveled in her hands. “And what about my wishes? Don’t they matter?”

“Yes. I’ve taken them under advisement and come to the conclusion you don’t realize how serious it will be if you stay here any longer.”

She placed her palm on the side of his face. She felt the faint stubble of beard on his skin. Her heart filled with love and desire. She leaned over and kissed him, softly, briefly on the lips but long enough to send a bolt of longing striking through her like searing heat.

Daniel drew a ragged breath, and she saw in his eyes that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

“You’ve broken rules for me before,” she said softly. “Do you regret that?”

“I don’t regret anything we’ve done.”

“Then indulge me one last time.”

He placed his fingertips under her chin and tilted her head back a little farther. “Maybe there is one way I could be persuaded to again, but when a gentleman makes love to a proper young lady, breaking that rule comes with a price.”

Wanting ran hot inside Isabella. “I will pay any price for an hour in your arms.”

His hands slid around her waist, and he pulled her to him. He looked deeply into her eyes. “Are you sure?”

Isabella’s heart pounded, but she didn’t hesitate as she said, “Yes.”

“You are so tempting, Isabella.” His voice was a little husky and a little demanding. “More so than any other woman I’ve met. Let me have your word.”

Isabella knew that young ladies who had liaisons with men were ostracized from Society. She would be giving up a lot if that should be what he asked of her, but the way she was feeling right now, she knew she had to take the chance he wouldn’t ask anything so devastating of her.

The first time he’d kissed her, a flame of desire had ignited inside her. She had been waiting for this time with him. She loved Daniel enough to give up whatever he asked of her.

“I promise.”

Daniel’s mouth came down ravishingly on hers in a searing kiss that had been waiting much too long to be delivered. His lips were warm, soft, and moved possessively, demandingly across hers as his arms circled her back and pulled her tightly against his chest.

Isabella parted her lips and accepted his tongue in answer to his burning ardor. His caressing tongue thrust forward into the depths of her mouth, torturing her again and again. Isabella gasped with surprise, with pleasure at the tingling feeling that ran through her. She’d been hungry for the taste of him, and he was being generous.

She put her eagerness and her heart into the kiss. She slid her arms around his neck as she settled into the blazing heat of his embrace. This is what she’d been waiting for.

The hot, potent kiss fueled her already burgeoning desire to experience all he could show her. The warmth of his arms, the passion of his kiss, created an undeniable yearning inside her to demand his loving.

He smelled of soap, clean and fresh. He tasted of flavorful tea and sweet cakes. She felt his strength in his arms and his hands as he caressed her back and shoulders. She delighted in the faint tremor of passion she felt in his body. She knew that he wanted to touch her as much as she wanted him to. That filled her with happiness and a strange sense of comfort.

“Isabella,” he whispered as his lips left hers and he dotted her face with quick, moist kisses, “you have too much control over me.”

“No, Daniel, you make me work for every indulgence you make.”

Daniel moved his hands to the front of her dress and unbuttoned her pelisse. He stripped it from her shoulders and let it drop to the floor. Isabella’s hands found the ends of his neckcloth and she pulled it from around his neck along with his collar, letting them both drop to the floor around their feet.

Daniel looked down at the small settee in front of the tea table. Suddenly he turned and looked behind him at the larger Sheraton settee that stood against the back wall in a small alcove that was framed by green velvet draperies. He reached down and hooked one arm behind her knees and lifted her into his arms, as if she weighed no more than a quill. With long fluid steps he strode to the secluded settee and laid her down on it.

He sat beside her and quickly took off his Hessians before turning back to her. He let his fingertips glide softly across her cheek, down her neck, over her collarbone to the swell of her breasts which showed from beneath the neckline of her dress. She trembled with delicious chills of longing.

“I like the way you look at me,” she said.

“I love to look at you. You are so beautiful, Isabella.”

She smiled up at him. “I’m glad my appearance pleases you.”

He gazed deeply, passionately into her eyes. “You please me.”

With warm confident hands he slipped her dress off her shoulders. He worked with the bodice and her corset until he freed her breasts for his view, for his touch. He grazed her nipples with his palms, and Isabella felt them harden at his touch. An ache started low in her abdomen.

“Your breasts are soft and firm, perfect in size and beauty.”

Isabella didn’t know what to say other than “Thank you.”