His lordship didn’t speak for a moment. “I’m glad you used Chumleigh. He has a great deal of experience in these matters, does he not?”
“Yes,” she replied haughtily. “With a girl as well endowed with fortune as Lucy, one cannot be too careful.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” He looked at Lucy now. She met his gaze coolly, blue stare on blue. That and his dark hair was the only thing he’d inherited from her side of the family. He tried a friendly smile. She smiled back. “Lucy must be properly cared for.” He turned back to Lady Royston. “I cannot have one of my closest relatives in need or married to a wastrel.”
Nettled, her ladyship replied; “If she chooses to do so it is no concern of yours, sir.”
“Not if she makes the choice herself. Then we should all have to learn to live with it.” He turned back to Lucy, regarding her with a clear-eyed stare. “Are you happy in this choice of husband?”
“Oh yes. Most happy.”
Philip nodded, unsmiling. He saw more than she probably wanted him to, and the more he saw her the more he wanted to talk to her alone. There was nothing he could do today. “Then I offer you my felicitations.” He turned to the Dowager, now visibly triumphant, her head held higher than ever, a small smile played about her lips. “He is reputed to be a man of great fortune. However - but no mind, if you’re happy I’ll say no more.” He hoped to sow a tiny seed of doubt in her. “You will send me an invitation?”
“Naturally.”
“Then I’ll do all that’s proper. If you need any assistance pray call me.”
The interview at an end, Lady Royston got to her feet, and so everyone else was forced to stand. His lordship shook hands with them all and they left.
He stood close to the window and watched their departure. He’d seen enough to convince him that Lucy wasn’t entirely aware of her fiance’s character. He suspected she was being deliberately misled. The man was handsome, a man about town, but if he could manage it, Lucy would know the whole before the wedding. She wasn’t a child any more, although her mother was desperately trying to keep her that way, and she was quite capable of making up her own mind, if she were given the facts. How to do it he didn’t quite know, but there would be time to work that out later. The marriage wouldn’t be for some time yet.
Rattling home in the carriage afterwards Lady Royston declared; “He would have put a spoke in it if he could, but I think we’ve confounded him.”
“It seemed he was only concerned for dear Lucy’s welfare.” said Aunt Honoria mildly.
Lady Royston turned a look of pure triumph on to her companion. “Yes, he’s very clever, isn’t he? But you see my dear, if Lucy dies without issue, the estate reverts to him.”
Honoria was shocked. “But surely you don’t think he - “
“Would want to hasten her death?” Her ladyship let her words sink in. “I wouldn’t be in the least surprised.”
Lucy was appalled by the implication. They might be estranged, but she never suspected Philip of anything as bad as that. “Mama. He has never said - “
Lady Royston smiled indulgently at her only child. “Of course not. He has more intelligence than his brother, but his ambitions are the same. Once we made it clear that an alliance with them was out of the question, Bernard Moore never stopped railing at your Papa. It is my opinion that he harassed him into his grave, and I shall never forgive him that.” she dabbed the corner of one eye with her lacy handkerchief in a most affecting way. “However, he, too, has passed on, so I shall say no more on that subject. There is no doubt that Philip Moore is of the same mind, though he has too much sense to harp on it like his brother did. He wishes you married to him, or dead, my dear, and I’m not sure which fate would be worse.”
Lucy said nothing. She had liked her cousin when she had been allowed to, when her father was alive, but since his death, her mother had kept them scrupulously apart. Lucy suspected it might have been Mrs. Moore’s temerity in producing two healthy boys, as much as her base birth that had resulted in Lady Royston’s dislike, but she never voiced that opinion. Lady Royston believed in hands-on discipline, and her hands could be very hard indeed.
It was impossible to ignore Lord Royston, especially at this time. Family relations must appear to be cordial. At Lady Norris’ ball, Lucy saw him again, and recognised, with a sinking heart, that he was going to ask her to dance.
To do him justice he danced very well, and he didn’t ask her to stand up with him for a waltz. That was the privilege of her new betrothed husband and those of her admirers who, disappointed but not cast completely down by her choice, asked her to remember them fondly. There were other heiresses.
Lady Norris’ ballroom was not large, but she made up for that by only inviting the best of the ton. It was beautifully appointed, rows of brightly coloured Corinthian columns heightening the effect made by the highly polished floor, inset with coloured marbles from all over the world.
She took Lord Royston’s hand and looked up into his face. “I’m surprised Lady Norris invited you,” she said, smiling prettily at him.
“Oh, I’m received everywhere these days,” he replied calmly. He led her into the set.
It wasn’t possible to exchange more than trivial pleasantries during the course of the dance; something both parties were extremely good at. They passed from the weather to the new fashion in colours, to the shocking prices hunters were fetching these days with hardly a thought. At the end of the dance, Lucy began to move towards her mother and Aunt Honoria, but Lord Royston had other ideas. “Just a moment, if you please. I need to say something. Will you grant me a moment’s privacy?”
Lucy looked at him wonderingly, but she knew no harm could come to her with Philip, whatever her mother said, so she allowed him to lead her away. They passed through a card room to a small anteroom near the main salon. “I can’t say too much to you here,” he said, “But I would appreciate another visit from you soon. I have things to tell you.”
He stood close to Lucy, but she didn’t mind a bit. She was reminded of their long lost friendship, ruined by ambition and greed. “What things?”
He sighed. “About your future husband. I completed the enquiries your mother began and abandoned.”
She was startled enough to stare directly at him, the polite smile fallen away. “You had no right.”
He met her stare, his blue eyes grave. “I have some right. I’m the head of the family, and I have always been your friend. Mr. Chumleigh had them completed. He’s your legal guardian, is he not?”
“No.” she denied vehemently. “He’s my trustee. I’m four and twenty, I have no guardian.”
He smiled thinly. “I beg your pardon. Trustee, of course. Then he has completed the enquiries to safeguard your fortune.”
“And has he found anything?”
“I’d rather not say here and now. It’s not the place, and I haven’t the papers with me. If you could favour me with another call to my house?”
“I’ll talk to my mother,” she informed him. Even if he was a relation, she shouldn’t have consented to come here with him, she realised.
“No. Just you. If you are old enough to make your own decisions, come on your own.”
“I couldn’t possibly come on my own.” Lucy felt outraged. “The proprieties.”
“Bring your aunt. I’d like to talk to you without your mother’s constant presence.”
“Why? She has every consideration for me.”
“That’s the trouble.” His voice was wry. “Her opinions seem to be of paramount concern to you. I want to see if you can still think for yourself.”
“Of course I can.” she protested indignantly.
“I hope so. You always used to. Lucy, I don’t want to be at outs with you. Before your father died we were good enough friends, were we not?”
She thought back to that time, and remembered a charming and fun loving playmate, one she had seen every summer. “Yes, we were. What happened, Philip?”
He turned away to rest his arm on the mantelpiece, and stroked his chin with one finger. “Bernard thought your father’s suggestion that he marry you was a good one, but when you refused, he became bitter.” He turned back to her, bleakness filling his expressive eyes. “I never meant for it to happen, but I was the younger brother, and it was none of my business. Bernard took it personally, and signed up.”
“Did he love me? He never said so.”
Philip laughed, but it sounded more like a choke. “No, he didn’t. He liked you, and the match appealed to his sense of neatness. He would have the fortune, and the earldom. But you would have had to share him, Lucy, and I don’t think you would have liked that.”
She stared at him, eyes wide and reached one white gloved hand out to him. He caught it in his, and kept it. She made no effort to take it back. “No, I wouldn’t have liked that.”
“We were very different, Bernard and I, but he was my brother, and he died a hero.”
“You used to rescue me when we were little. He thought it amusing to torment me.”
He smiled. “Yes. He didn’t realise he was tormenting you, playing the tricks he did. He didn’t do it to torment you.” He caressed her palm with his thumb, enjoying the closeness. He hadn’t been this close to her in years. “Bernard was bored. He thought being an earl would be more fun than it turned out to be, once your father began to instruct him in his duties. He wasn’t deeply intelligent, and the practicalities of the position drove him demented.”
“I don’t think he would have made a very good earl,” she ventured, her voice soft.
He laughed. “I’m damned sure he wouldn’t. I think he would have tried to appoint me his agent, so that he could spend the money and I do all the work.” He paused, biting his lip. “I shouldn’t speak ill of him. It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t cut out for it. He made a good soldier.” When he dropped his gaze Lucy moved closer to him, feeling instinctively that she wanted to hold him, comfort him. He must have been very alone when Bernard died. His parents had been dead for years before that. “I wanted to come and see you when he died, but Mama wouldn’t permit it. Bernard’s proposal had given her a disgust of your family.”
He looked up at her, fixing her with his gaze. She couldn’t have moved if she’d tried to. “Thank you. I wanted to see you, too, but I knew it was impossible.”
“I would come now. If it happened now I would come. I was younger then, and not as confident.”
Neither of them quite knew how it happened but Lucy found herself in his arms, and still under a spell she couldn’t deny. It felt right, and when he pressed his lips to hers she welcomed it.
They had never kissed before. It felt to Lucy as though she had never kissed anyone before. Everything disappeared in a wonderful melting, a union she had never felt the like of. His hands moved gently over her back, urging her closer, to feel the full length of his masculine hardness.
Lucy found herself moving closer, feeling safer than she had ever felt, but at the same time thrilling to his touch, wanting more. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, coaxing a response from her. She caressed it with her own, pushed her hands under his evening coat.
He drew away, but only to murmur her name and kiss her jaw.
“No.” With a jolt as startling as a lightening bolt, Lucy came to herself. How could she do this? How could she let herself be inveigled this way? “You’re two of a kind, you and Bernard. You want my fortune too, don’t you? Not me, never me.” In tears she whirled away, heading for the door, but he came up behind her and seized her arm. In his eyes she thought she saw an echo of her own bewilderment and confusion. He also bore a spark she recognised immediately as anger, and didn’t know why. Surely is was she who should have been angry?
“No. I’ll go. You can’t let anyone see you like this.” He moved in front of her and turned to face her, his face contrite, but still with that spark lurking in the depths of his eyes. “I’m sorry, Lucy. I never meant that to happen.”
Before she could say anything he left her. Lucy gave herself a few moments to still her pounding heart and stop her hands from shaking before she returned.
Lady Royston looked at her daughter suspiciously when she entered the ballroom, to all intents and purposes, perfectly in control of herself. “Where have you been?”
“Talking with Royston.”
Her fiance, standing by her ladyship’s side. “Did he insult you?”
“No, of course not. He said he wanted to see me privately to discuss family affairs.”
“I don’t think we have anything more to discuss,” her mother said, frostily.
“He wanted me to go alone. Without you, Mama,” Lucy told the older lady. She took some pleasure in antagonising her mother even further. She didn’t want to confront Philip again, not as closely. What she had just experienced wasn’t something she felt sure about at all. She knew that she had been out of control for a few minutes, and suspected that Philip might have felt the same. It didn’t bear thinking about.
Lady Royston was beside herself with fury, but to look at her, one would think she was having a wonderful time. Only Lucy saw the tightening of her smile, the narrowing of her eyes. “To compromise you, to persuade you against marrying Sir Geoffrey?” she asked. “You won’t go.” It wasn’t a question.
“No,” Lucy assured her.