Regency 05 - Intrigue (13 page)

The next day, Malvina had read the book loaned to her and found it to be very enlightening. While she couldn’t care for Mary Wollstonecraft herself or condone many of her personal choices, Malvina was wise enough to see the logic in the woman’s teachings and understand the frustration she must have felt at her lot in life.

It made sense to Malvina that women were as capable as men of learning, thought, and logic. It also made sense that men would feel threatened by a woman learning to think for herself.

What didn’t make sense was her betrothed encouraging her to do just that.

Further confused by the enigma that was Lord Holt, Malvina entered the breakfast room earlier than was her wont. It was surprisingly empty, even of servants. Curious, she turned around and went in search of another human.

When the house yielded no results, she walked through the front door. A silent scream rose up to choke her at the sight that met her eyes.

Gideon was trying to kill her baby!

The two men were stripped to shirtsleeves and stockinged feet, moving back and forth in a dance of death, silver foils flashing in the late morning sunlight.

Malvina strode forward, intent on ending the contretemps, little heeding the flash of metal as their weapons met time and again.

Someone reached out and stopped her before she’d made it three steps. Shockingly, it was Keeley, the butler. She was about to reprimand the man for laying hands on her person when she became aware that Lady Samantha had approached and stood watching at her side.

“Could you not have stopped him, my lady. He is your brother.”

The sound that issued from Lady Samantha’s delicate throat closely resembled a snort. “He is not my brother, Lady Malvina. I have no idea who that man is. Can you not stop him? He is your betrothed. Come to that, the other is your son.”

Throwing a glare at the importuning butler, she muttered, “I am not to be allowed to interfere, I think.”

In that moment, Wolf released a snarl and lunged at the earl. Malvina held her breath, unsure for whom she was most afraid. A second later, her son was disarmed, his foil flying through the air to stick in the ground at her feet. She was momentarily startled, realizing that had she been standing even one foot closer, she’d have been skewered.

Her heart beating in her throat, she glanced up to see Gideon holding his sword at her son’s neck. Maternal instinct took over. She determinedly shook off the butler’s restraining hand, snatched up the foil at her feet, and marched over to the combatants.

Malvina didn’t think. She snapped the foil up and pressed it beneath Lord Holt’s chin. “Release him!”

Brows quirking slightly at her, Gideon obeyed. His foil fell away from Wolf’s throat while Malvina’s dipped slightly. Suddenly, she found herself disarmed.

It was unclear to her how it had happened. One second, she was holding the earl at bay, heart hammering in her throat, and the next, her weapon was gone and she was being marched into the manor with a very angry betrothed at her side.

He paused only long enough to retrieve his boots and outer garments

Leaning close, he murmured lowly, “When I said you need to think for yourself, I did not mean to imply you should make stupid, thoughtless decisions that put your life in danger.”

“Stupid, thoughtless…! How dare you, sir! You tried to kill my baby!”

Shoving her through the first door he came to, Gideon’s reply was succinct. “He is not a baby, Malvina. He’s a man now and so damned confused about it that he has no idea how to go on.”

His words silenced her for a mere second. “How is assaulting him supposed to solve that?”

“I was not assaulting him,” her companion sighed. He threw his outer garments aside and sat down to pull on his boots. “He came at me with murder in his eyes and I gave him the chance, merely.”

She was visibly horrified. “You gave him the chance? Are you mad?”

He looked up. “I knew he could not win, Malvina.”

“You
were
trying to hurt him!”

Standing, he watched her hands clench. He caught her before she managed to use them on him. Drawing her closer, he said, “I was not going to hurt him. Only teach him a lesson.”

“What lesson is that? Violence solves all arguments?”

“That he is not invincible and should not go through life with the mistaken belief that he is.”

Silenced, Malvina stopped struggling. She was duly released and used the opportunity to move away from Lord Holt. “I do not care for your methods,” she told him calmly.

“I did not expect that you would,” he informed her. “Hence, the reason you were not informed.”

She stared at him, her green eyes shimmering suspiciously. “Is this the way it will be, my lord? Will I have no say in my own son?”

Closing the distance between them, Gideon grasped her upper arms. “I am not usurping your position as the boy’s parent. I am trying to help guide him in a way that you cannot.”

Her chin rose a notch. “Why can I not? I am just as intelligent as you.”

He laughed, the wretch. Placing gentle fingers on her cheek, his other hand slid over her back. “No one is debating that, love. But you are not a man and what that boy needs is a father.”

Her anger deflated. “What am I to do with him?”

“Dare I suggest you trust me?”

He drew her closer. She stared up at him, not sure how to answer him. The effect his nearness was having on her breathing did not help matters.

Gideon’s hands found their way into her hair, tipping her face up to his. Mesmerized, she didn’t pull away. She moved her hands to his waist and pulled him closer and closed her eyes.

“You have trusted every man you’ve ever met. Why do you not trust me?”

Her eyes snapped open. Blinking slowly, she replied, “You are not what you seem. You hold yourself and your thoughts away, revealing only what you want known.”

She found herself released and standing alone by the time she finished her words. Her emotions jolted severely when he simply looked at her with his typical sleepy expression, the very expression he employed to hide something.

“When involved with a woman like you, a man must protect himself.”

“And you want to marry me.”

Malvina was surprised at the confidence in her tone. She finally believed he wanted to marry her. Suspicion whispered in her ear, however, a sneaking belief that whoever had ordered him to investigate her had not told him to marry her.

She was unpleasantly surprised when her betrothed again took her arms with no gentleness. “Oh, I have my reasons for wanting to marry you, Lady Malvina Brackney. It does not mean I will ever trust you. How can I? You send young men to their deaths for…what? Money?”

Hard green eyes snapping in anger, she told him, “Of course. What other reason is there for criminal behavior?” She wrenched her arms free and slammed both hands into his chest. He stumbled back, taken by surprise. With what sounded suspiciously like a growl, she added, “Of course there is no money involved, Lord Holt. It only ever was blackmail.”

He smiled. “Why?”

She hesitated, considering a lie. Realizing he would see right through it, she opted for silence instead.

His smile turned grim. “I see. Why are
you
marrying
me
?”

Malvina moved to a chair near the window and sat. She gave him an unreadable look. “You possess what every woman desires, my lord earl. Title, fortune, good looks. A woman can be sure she will never starve, she will have all the envy of her peers, and may be reasonably attracted to the man who claims possession of her body. Why would I not marry you?”

He seemed stunned. As though her claim was not something he’d ever considered before. “How very logical,” he murmured finally, “for a woman in your position. Let us hope you do not find your marital duties too unpleasant.”

“Logical?” she shot back, ignoring the rest of his comment. “It is not logical. It is mercenary and cruel. Do you not mind being considered a mere object to be used?”

“My, my. You are an innocent, are you not? One would never think it to consider your age.”

Wounded and unwilling to show it, she said, “Quite. One wonders why you want such an old woman in your bed.”

“Perhaps I am a bit like Prinny. I find myself attracted to women who could be my mother.”

It was perhaps fortunate that the door slammed open before she had a chance to reply to
that
vexing remark.

Her son marched in, violence radiating from every line. She repressed a shiver at the fierce image he presented, his dark red hair falling about his face and giving him a half-crazed look. Was his anger directed at her, or Lord Holt?

Glaring at the earl, Wolf snarled, “What have you done to her?”

Gideon’s brows quirked upward. “I have done nothing. I was preparing to ravish her but you have rudely interrupted.”

Malvina’s eyes grew impossibly huge. She placed herself between her son and betrothed when she realized the former was about to attack the latter.

“He is jesting, Wolf,” she tried to reassure her child. It did not help that Gideon took advantage of her position by drawing her back against him. “He is in an impossible mood.” A well-placed elbow in the ribs made the man step back. “I was about to do him an injury, in all honesty.”

She magnanimously chose to ignore the disbelieving snort from the man behind her.

Approaching her only child, she asked, “Are you injured?”

“Injured?”

“From the fight outside.” She looked him over, searching for signs of blood and bruising. She missed the embarrassed look on her son’s face.

Gideon saw it. “My dear, perhaps you can give me a moment to discuss this matter with Wolf. It is, unfortunately, a matter between gentlemen.”

A little affronted, Malvina nevertheless agreed. She left the room in a bit of a huff.

Gideon and Wolf eyed each other with distrust and unease. The elder had little experience with young men and the younger had little trust for adults in general.

“I realize you don’t want to replace your father,” Gideon began.

“Not for the reason you think.”

The earl stared. “What was your father involved in?”

“Why should I tell you? I don’t think you are exactly who you say you are. Sure, you’re an earl, but I want to know why you are after my family.”

New respect for young Sir Beowulf filled Gideon’s mind. He studied the boy’s defensive stance—crossed arms, narrowed eyes, tensed shoulders—and knew he would lie to protect his mother even if it meant angering the man who questioned him.

“Be at ease, Wolf,” the earl told him. He gestured for the boy to sit, lowering himself into another chair. “I was not sent to destroy you. My superiors merely want answers.”

“Who are they?” The young baronet finally sat, openly surprised that his companion admitted he was at the beck and call of someone else.

Gideon debated what to reveal and decided to trust the boy to an extent. He needed the boy’s cooperation if he were to discover a way to prove Deverell’s guilt, and determine whether or not there was any truth to the suspicion of Sir Richard Brackney’s treasonous activities.

His observations to date did not lean heavily in favor of the late baronet.

“I work for the Home Office,” he said, deciding there was little harm in the boy knowing that much.

A glimmer of what appeared to be genuine interest lit Wolf’s dark blue eyes. “Ferreting out spies and the like?”

“Among other things,” was Gideon’s careful reply.

“That sounds dashed exciting. Have you ever been shot?”

“No. I hope never to be shot.”

“Are you here to catch the cur blackmailing my mother?”

Gideon felt a partial truth answered best. “Yes.”

The large young man visibly relaxed, slumping a little in his chair. “So your engagement is merely a ruse. Dashed relief, that.”

Ignoring the pinprick he felt, Gideon swiftly disabused his companion of such a belief. “Why should you think it merely a ruse?”

Wolf’s forehead wrinkled, a hank of long dark red hair falling into his eyes. He impatiently shoved it back. “You are younger than her. You cannot possibly want to marry an older woman.”