Secrets and Sensibilities: A Regency Romance Mystery (The Lady Emily Capers Book 1) (18 page)

She knew he was teasing her. He had to be teasing her.
“David Tenant, you cannot have your own way in everything,” she told him
sternly.

He did not stir.

Fear seized her. “David?” she tried louder, bending over
him. He grabbed her about the middle and pulled her down into his arms. She
gave herself over to the joy of his kiss, feeling his arms tighten about her as
his mouth warmed against hers. The sweet pressure raised an answering fire
within her. When at last he let her go, she could not find the will to leave
his side.

He smiled at her. “I take it back, Miss Alexander. You make
a terrible chaperone. I’m afraid if you don’t leave this room this minute, you
are going to be thoroughly compromised.”

Hannah returned his smile, her lips tingling along with the
rest of her. “I told you, my lord, that you cannot have your way in everything.
However, I think I can spare you a few more moments before I go tell the girls
we’re staying.”

David pulled her back into his embrace.

David did not wait
until Easter Sunday before venturing out of bed. Hannah found him pulling on
his tweed coat when she and the girls visited him the next morning.

“You lay back down
this minute!” she commanded. Daphne rushed forward to prop him up as if she
expected him to fall over as easily as she did. Ariadne stood by wringing her
hands. Priscilla started laughing at them, and Lady Emily looked disgusted by
the whole affair.

“I’m fine,” David
assured them, disentangling himself from Daphne’s grip. The grimace as he did
so told Hannah he was hedging the truth again. “There are matters I must attend
to.”

“Now he decides to
play the earl,” Asheram said with a sigh from the doorway. “Much as I applaud
your determination, my lord, I must protest. Dr. Praxton said you were not to
rise before Easter.”

“Dr. Praxton
doesn’t have a secret room waiting to be opened,” David countered.

The girls were
immediately intrigued. Over their demands for an explanation, Hannah raised her
voice. “A secret room that has waited for who knows how long. It will still be
there when you are better, my lord.”

David walked slowly
to her side and raised her hand to his lips. “What’s this ‘my lord’?” he
murmured, tracing a line of kisses across her palm. Hannah felt weak at the
knees, but she recognized his strategy. She snatched back her hand.

“I told you
yesterday,” she murmured fiercely back, “you cannot have your way in
everything.”

His eyes twinkled.
“Why not? It’s worked so far.”

“You’re
impossible!” she protested, feeling a laugh bubble up the absurdity of the
situation. She fervently hoped she would always give in so easily to his smile
and teasing.

Asheram cleared his
throat, and she found the girls regarding her with looks of wonder.

“Miss Alexander,”
David told them all, tucking her hand in his arm, “has agreed to be my bride.”

She hadn’t felt
right about telling them the night before, not with the more dismal news
regarding Lady Brentfield. She was gratified to find that they were all
delighted with the announcement. Amidst the well wishes, David somehow slipped
from the room. She knew, however, exactly where to find him. After entrusting
the girls to Asheram’s care, she picked up a candle and entered the passage
again.

She found him
waiting at the crossroads.

“Took you long
enough,” he said with a grin as he leaned against a beam.

With a shake of her
head, she followed him to the room.

She found the lock
cut off and lying on the floor.

“I asked Ash to
take care of the lock this morning,” David explained, kicking the debris aside
with his booted foot. “But I also told him no one was to enter until we did.”
He gazed at her. “Ready?”

Hannah nodded,
mouth suddenly dry. David pulled on the latch, and the door swung open. Both of
them raised their candles.

Light streamed onto
gold and silver and the rich hues of fine oil paintings. David ventured through
the door, and, finding a lamp on the inside wall, lit it. By the increased
light, Hannah saw that the room had been once used as an opulent bedchamber. A
huge four-poster bed dominated the center of the room, with a gilt-framed
mirror as big as the bed over the top of it. The bed itself was littered with
satin covers and pillows and bolsters, all in a lurid shade of crimson.

“And everyone
thought he only enjoyed hunting,” David murmured.

Hannah caught
herself blushing at the love nest. But as her gaze moved beyond the bed, she
found that the rest of the room was crowded with statues, masks, vases,
paintings, and every other kind of art. She easily identified a painting by the
Spanish master Greco and another by Rembrandt. David bent to retrieve a ruby
pendant on a chain of wrought gold that must have belonged to a pirate and
draped it about her neck. “It appears we’ve found Lord Brentfield’s treasures.”

Hannah fingered the
ruby, which was easily as large as her fist. “It would appear so. But we still
don’t have an answer. Did he know that the countess was stealing them? If so,
why didn’t he simply put a stop to it?”

“Perhaps this holds
your answer,” David replied, retrieving a sealed note from the plane of the
great bed. It was fine vellum and bore the Brentfield seal. He broke it and
unfolded the note. Hannah leaned over his arm to read along with him.

“To whom it may
concern,” scrawled the curling masculine hand. “I have grave misgivings
regarding my stepmother, Sylvia, Lady Brentfield. I have spoken repeatedly and
at great length with my father, but he refuses to listen, putting my suspicions
down to annoyance that I must share his attentions. Accordingly, I have done
what I thought necessary to safeguard my inheritance from her cunning wiles. I
can only thank God that Father never informed her of the secret passages that
run throughout the house. I have hidden a number of pieces along them, with the
majority in this room. If you have found this, it most likely means she has
done me in. Be warned.”

It was signed,
“Nathan, Viscount Hawkins, heir to Brentfield.”

“So, it wasn’t old
Lord Brentfield after all,” David mused, setting the note back where he had
found it.

“What a shame his
father didn’t listen,” Hannah said, thinking of the lives lost from the
countess’s greed.

David caught up her
hand and held it tight. “I almost made the same mistake. If you hadn’t
convinced me . . .”

“If the girls
hadn’t convinced me,” Hannah corrected him, enjoying his touch. “We have a
chance now, David. We mustn’t waste it.”

“I promise you, I
won’t,” he replied, bending to caress her lips with a kiss.

By Easter Sunday,
most of the area surrounding Brentfield knew of the earl’s engagement. Servants
will talk, and their masters will listen. Hannah found herself thoroughly
examined at services in the Wenwood Church. Every time her eyes strayed from
the altar, her gaze was met by another woman. To her surprise and relief, most
looked quite pleased for her. When Reverend Wellfordhouse announced the banns
for the first time, someone started a cheer that was quickly hushed. “He is
risen!” Reverend Wellfordhouse greeted them as they left services.

“He is risen
indeed!” Hannah and the girls chorused. As they moved toward the waiting
carriage, Hannah felt joy well up inside her. They were so lucky. None of them
had been seriously hurt by Lady Brentfield’s machinations. The artwork was
being restored to its rightful places. Priscilla’s parents were due to arrive
any day to care for Lady Brentfield. And Hannah was engaged to marry the most
wonderful man in the world.

She turned to see
David teasing the good vicar until the young pastor laughed along with him.
Several of the older members of his congregation cast him dark glances, as if a
minister had no right to so thoroughly enjoy himself. The reverend quickly
sobered. David grinned as he strolled toward the carriage to join them.

Before Hannah could
ask him what had been so funny, Dr. Praxton intercepted him.

“How’s the head?”
the doctor asked. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it this morning.”

“And miss all the
ladies in their Easter best?” David countered. “I’d have to be far sicker than
that. Look at my Hannah in her lilac. Small wonder everyone’s cheering for
her.”

Hannah blushed at
his prideful praise. She had borrowed Priscilla’s dress for the occasion, and
the girls were in bright muslin as well. Even Lady Emily had been persuaded to
wear a sky blue gown that made her look her age for once. Several of the
village youths had noticed, but the girl had kept her head high as she walked
past the admiring glances.

Dr. Praxton
clucked, eyeing him. “You’re still too pale. Get some rest this afternoon.”

As he moved off to
greet others, Hannah glanced at David. He winked at her and turned away before
she could check to see if he did indeed look pale in his navy coat and tan
breeches. She promised herself to give him a good scold when she got him alone,
which would not be soon enough for her.

She was grateful
that he had insisted the girls stay through Easter. Ariadne and Daphne’s family
had made other plans for the holiday, and Lady Emily’s father was in Vienna, so
Hannah and the girls would have had to spend the day at the school. Besides,
there was no place she would rather be than with David.

The girls were
quiet as they rode home in the Brentfield carriage. David could not resist
teasing them.

“Doesn’t Easter
signal the start of this ‘Season’ I keep hearing about?” he asked Ariadne.

“Indeed,” the girl
responded, smoothing out imagined wrinkles in her jonquil-colored gown. “Mother
is letting Daphne and I come out together, even though I’m a year younger.”

“And how many
hearts will you break when you’re in London, Miss Courdebas?” he asked Daphne.

She blushed and
elbowed her sister, who glared at her. “Not enough,” she countered with a
giggle.

David grinned at
her. “And you, Lady Emily?”

Lady Emily eyed him
as if she found him less than amusing. “I don’t intend to participate in the
Season. I intend to gain admittance to the Royal Society for the Beaux Arts.
Besides, I am already promised.”

Priscilla stared at
her, and Daphne and Ariadne gasped.

“You never told
us!” Priscilla complained.

Lady Emily
shrugged. “I saw no reason. It has been arranged since we were children. It
isn’t as if it were a love match.”

Hannah sighed. The
news was the one dark spot in her day. Now that she had found her love, she
didn’t like to hear of others being denied the pleasure. She glanced at David
and saw by his tender smile that he was thinking the same thing.

“But you must have
a Season,” Priscilla protested. “Everyone will remark if you do not.”

“You must dance at
Almack’s,” Daphne put in worshipfully.

“You must partake
of the midnight supper at the ball Priscilla has been planning for ages,”
Ariadne put in with raptured tones.

Lady Emily sighed.
“That ball may not come off, you know. Priscilla doesn’t even have a chaperone
for the Season, now that Lady Brentfield is unavailable.”

Priscilla sobered
immediately, and Hannah opened her mouth to turn the conversation onto a
happier subject.

“I have it!” Daphne
proclaimed. “Miss Alexander can be Priscilla’s chaperone! She could be ours as
well!”

Hannah stared at
her in horror. “No! Absolutely not!”

“Oh, please, Miss
Alexander?” Ariadne pleaded. “My mother is so strict. We’ll never meet anyone
interesting!”

“I don’t have any
social connections,” Hannah reminded them, gazing at David in appeal. He merely
grinned at her and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I wouldn’t
even know how to advise you!”

“But you’ll be the
Countess of Brentfield!” Priscilla protested. “You’ll be welcomed everywhere! I
don’t care what my aunt said; a countess with a talent for painting and an earl
who’s a Yank will be all the rage! Everyone will want to meet you. It would be
perfect!”

“It will be
impossible!” Hannah maintained.

“It could be fun,”
David put in with a chuckle. “I’ve been waiting for Asheram to complete the
paperwork for the confirmation of my title. I’ll be called to London sooner or
later for the king’s approval. Besides, I understand I have a lot to learn
about Society. Who could ask for more congenial teachers?”

The girls beamed at
him.

Hannah stared.
“David Tenant,” she started.

He grinned at her.
“We won’t go right away, if that’s what’s worrying you. I plan a long, extended
honeymoon.”

Hannah blushed.

“But you can’t wait
too long, my lord,” Daphne put in. “As you said, the Season starts right after
Easter.”

“I’ll consider it,”
David replied, drawing Hannah across the coach to sit beside him. “But first, I
have other things to tend to. Miss Alexander will be unavailable for some time.
She has a dalliance to complete.”

“And this time,”
Hannah added, smiling into his eyes, “the only danger will be in stopping too
soon.”

The
End

Thank you for choosing
Secrets and Sensibilities
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Read more about our intrepid sleuth, Lady Emily Southwell.
She and her friends Priscilla Tate and Daphne and Ariadne Courdebas have other
adventures ahead, beginning with their upcoming Season in London. Turn the page
for a sneak peek of Book 2 of the Lady Emily Capers,
Art and Artifice
,
available
now
.

Blessings!

Regina Scott