His lips parted to answer, but then they both heard Marianna’s sobbing cries as she hurried up the main staircase. “No, I don’t believe you! Blair wouldn’t do that! He wouldn’t sell Deveril House without telling me!”
The spaniels leapt to their feet, whining, and Blair drew sharply away. Laura’s senses were at sixes and sevens, and she could have wept at being interrupted at such a vital and heart-stopping moment. Another few seconds and her wildest dreams might have been realized!
Instead, he was turning toward the door. “Henry must have told Marianna!” he breathed. “Damn it, I should have reminded him to be on his guard with her!”
Laura’s disappointment was so keen that for a moment she didn’t care that Marianna had been acquainted with the harsh truth about Deveril House. But almost immediately she was ashamed. Marianna loved this house, and had just learned of its sale. She was bound to be desperately upset.
The spaniels rushed over to Marianna as she halted in the doorway. She ignored the dogs or Laura as she fixed her accusing gaze on her brother. Her dark eyes brimmed with tears, and her shaking hands were pressed into the folds of her pink jaconet gown. “Tell me it’s not true you’ve sold Deveril House!” When he didn’t reply, more tears sprang to her eyes. “How could you?” she whispered.
“Marianna, what difference does it really make? You’ll soon be married and mistress of your own house, and...”
“No!” she cried. “I despise Alex with all my heart!”
“That’s enough! Hysterics will avail you of nothing!”
But emotion rushed chaotically through her. “You don’t care about me, or how I feel. Well, I won’t marry Alex, because I love Stephen! I’ve already given myself to him!”
The revelation dropped like a thunderclap. Stunned silence hung in the air, broken only by the dogs’ uneasy whining. Then Marianna’s breath caught as she realized the enormity of her blurted confession. The color drained from her face, and with a little cry she snatched up her skirts and fled, pursued by the anxious spaniels.
Laura was beset by conflicting centuries and attitudes. Her modern self could only sympathize with a headstrong young woman who loved one man but was being forced to marry another. Such sympathy placed her in opposition to Blair, who now hurried after his sister.
Laura followed, but the drama still unfolded, for as Marianna reached the top of the staircase, Stephen returned from Cheltenham much earlier than expected. The spaniels rushed down to greet him as he crossed toward the staircase hall, where the unfortunate Mr. Vesey-Thompson still hovered in agitated dismay. Stephen bowed quickly to the lawyer.
“Sir,” he said politely, for they weren’t acquainted, then he bent to the dogs as they jumped eagerly around him.
Mr. Vesey-Thompson inclined his head. “Sir.”
Then Stephen looked up with a glad smile at Marianna. “The wanderer returns, as you see! I arrived in Cheltenham only to find my friend had removed himself to Bath, and—” He saw her pale face. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Stephen!” With a sob she ran down to him.
Blair and Laura watched as she flung herself weeping into her lover’s aims, and the ensuing embrace robbed Blair of any hope that his willful sister had told untruths out of resentment over the house sale.
Stephen’s face drained of color as he realized that the secret liaison was somehow out, but he held Marianna tenderly, stroking the nape of her neck and whispering loving words as he looked guiltily up at her brother.
Mr. Vesey-Thompson began to realize just how much he’d unwittingly stirred. “Blair, I—I don’t know what to say. I didn’t realize...”
“I don’t hold you to blame, Henry, I’d just be obliged if no word of this went beyond these walls.”
“Of course. I—I’ll, er, leave then.” Bowing uncomfortably, the lawyer hurried out of the house.
Laura watched as Blair went slowly down the stairs. “What’s been going on, Stephen?” he asked, his tone ominously amenable.
“Blair, I—I didn’t want it to happen, but—
“Go to your rooms, Marianna,” Blair said levelly.
“No!” she cried defiantly.
“Do as you’re told!” Blair snapped.
She remained rebellious. “I won’t go, and you can’t force me!”
Stephen looked at her. “Do as he says, Marianna.”
“But—”
“Please.”
More tears shimmered in her eyes, but she obeyed, hurrying past her brother and up the staircase, not to her rooms, but to fling herself into Laura’s arms.
Blair was like ice as he faced his friend. “I thought I could trust you, Stephen.”
“You can, but Marianna and I love each other.”
“I need hardly point out that she’s pledged to Alex Handworth.” Blair’s voice shook with suppressed emotion.
“I know, but—”
“Don’t give me excuses, Stephen. Marianna’s transgression is bad enough, but yours is unforgivable.”
“Please let me explain.”
“Explain what? That you’ve betrayed our friendship and ruined my sister? Oh, I think that’s all better left unsaid, don’t you?”
“I love Marianna, and she loves me.”
“You presume somewhat, Stephen. What right do you have to express any feeling for my sister? You have no income or prospects, you’re up to your worthless neck in debt, and now you’ve shown yourself to be a fortune hunter.”
At the top of the staircase Marianna gave an anguished sob. “No, Blair! That isn’t true!”
Blair turned to her. “It is, Marianna, for you may be sure he wouldn’t have risked all this if it weren’t for your inheritance.”
Stephen colored. “Her inheritance makes no difference to me, Blair.”
“You’re right, sir, for until she’s twenty-five it depends upon my consent, and that I will never grant,” Blair replied.
Marianna’s breath caught. “You wouldn’t do that!” she cried.
“But I would, as you’ll discover if you put it to the test.”
She stared down at him. “I hate you,” she whispered.
“I’m merely looking after your interests, as is my duty.”
Marianna’s hands clenched. “And it serves my interests to make me marry a creature like Alex Handworth?”
“It’s an excellent match, and one, may I remind you, that our father wished to—”
Marianna broke in. “I’ll never marry Alex, nor will he want me when he realizes I’m no longer the chaste bride I should be!”
Blair turned frozen eyes upon Stephen. “So that too is true? You haven’t merely paid court to her, you’ve led her completely astray.”
“Would that I could deny it,” Stephen replied, his face ashen.
Blair’s fist caught him on the chin with such force that he teetered backward and fell. Marianna screamed, and the spaniels began to bark frantically as Blair dragged Stephen to his feet before striking him again.
Marianna sobbed hysterically, and Laura cried out, “For pity’s sake, don’t, Blair!” She didn’t realize she’d used his first name.
He hesitated, but then turned away, silencing the spaniels with a single sharp word.
Stephen sprawled on the floor with a cut lip. “I—I deserve this, Blair, but I still love Marianna! It has nothing to do with her fortune, but everything to do with adoring her more than life itself!” Still dazed, he staggered to his feet.
Blair didn’t look at him. “Leave this house immediately.”
“For God’s sake, Blair, can’t we discuss this more reasonably?”
“Leave, or so help me I’ll put an end to you here and now! Your belongings will be sent on.”
Marianna sobbed as Stephen looked helplessly up at her before walking toward the door. She called desperately after him. “I still love you, Stephen, nothing will ever change that!” Gathering her skirts, she fled toward her apartment.
The outer doors closed behind Stephen, and Blair stood with his head bowed, his whole body taut with violent emotion. Laura could feel his agony. The rules of his age demanded that he be the tyrant, but he was also a man who knew what it was to really love. She looked sadly down at him. “Oh, Blair,” she whispered, and the echoes took up the soft sound of her voice.
He turned to look up at her. “I had no choice, Laura, I had to do it...”
Her name rested on his lips like a caress, but as she gazed down into his eyes, he began to melt away. Everything became blurred and distant, and suddenly she realized she was in her hotel room!
“Blair?” She called out desperately, as if somehow she’d be able to bring him back. But the future was all around her.
There was a loud knock at the door. “Laura, honey, I’ve tracked you down at last!” It was Kyle.
Chapter Twelve
Kyle knocked again. “Laura?”
She looked angrily toward the door. She wanted to see Blair, not the bed-hopping toad who’d once broken her heart!
“Laura, honey, I know you’re in there because I heard you.”
Unwillingly, she opened the door. He was the same as ever—golden, tanned, and confident. His designer clothes were casually perfect, and his voice pitched at a calculated note of lazy amusement that had once curled her toes with pleasure, but now grated upon her nerves.
“Hi, honey. Guess you didn’t expect to see me.”
“No, I didn’t expect to see you, and don’t call me honey.”
“Okay, but don’t I at least get a welcoming kiss?”
“Since you’re not welcome, no, you don’t.”
He glanced around. “Have you got someone with you? I heard you talking. Well, maybe not talking exactly. You called someone.”
She looked at him. “I don’t know what you thought you heard, but there’s no one here.”
“I’m not flavor of the month with you, am I?”
“Go to the top of the class.” She turned back into the room, glancing at the watercolor before facing him. “What do you want, Kyle?”
“What kind of question’s that? I’ve come halfway across the world to be patch things up, and you ask me what I want? Well, I want you, Laura.”
“Well, I don’t want you.” Oh, how true it was. She felt nothing for him now, except perhaps irritation.
Ignoring the rebuff, he leaned back against a chair, and surveyed her. “You’re looking good, Laura,” he murmured with a smile.
“And you haven’t changed a bit,” she replied.
He turned smoothly to a different tack. “Look, sweetheart, I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I was a heel.”
“Why the past tense? You were, are, and always will be a heel.”
“I’m different now, really I am.”
“Did hell just freeze over?”
“I guess it must have. Look, Laura, you mightn’t want to believe this, but I didn’t know how much you meant to me until I’d lost you. Let’s try again; I promise it’ll be different this time.”
“I’ve spent the last months forgetting you exist, so if you think I’m going to fall into your arms again, you’re going to be deeply disappointed.”
“Don’t be like this, honey. At least give me a chance.”
“Why should I?”
“Because we once meant a great deal to each other, and I think we can be like that again.”
“God, you amaze me. You think all you have to do is sashay back into my life and pick up where you left off. Well, it doesn’t work like that anymore. I’m over you, Kyle, and that’s the way I want it to stay.”
“There’s someone else?”
She met his eyes squarely. “Yes.”
“Who is he?” he demanded, unaccustomed to rivals.
“Well, since you don’t know him, there’s not much point telling you his name.”
“An English guy?”
“Yes.”
“So who is he?” he insisted.
“All right. Sir Blair Deveril.”
He put on a Noel Coward voice. “
Sir?
Oh, how terribly, terribly impressive.”
“You never could do a good English accent,” she said crushingly.
He flushed. “And you clearly can’t take a little teasing. I can’t picture you as part of the British landed gentry, so what is it with this guy?”
“Don’t blame Blair for anything. It’s just over between you and me, and the sooner you cotton on to that small point, the better.”
“But I don’t want it to be over.”
“And what Kyle wants, Kyle gets? Well, not this time, so tough.”
“I didn’t expect you to throw yourself joyfully back into my manly embrace, but nor did I expect you to play the Ice Queen.”
She remembered what Jenny said about his being after her money, and the irony of the situation struck her. Back in 1818, Blair accused Stephen of being a fortune hunter; now, here in modern times, she suspected Kyle of the very same thing. “Why the resurgent interest in me, Kyle? Am I the most lucrative prospect you have right now?”
“Lucrative? I don’t know what you mean.” But he avoided her eyes.
“No? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway; you see, if you’ve come after me for my money, you’re too late, I’ve squandered the lot. The only reason I can stay at a place like this is because I know the owners.”
His jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish I were.” She smiled brightly. “Still, your globetrotting must mean your bank balance is healthy enough for us both, mm?”
He straightened. “My purse is always like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard, you know that.”
“Yes, I do. Nice try, Kyle, but you’ve fallen on your designer butt.”
“You’re a hard woman, Laura Reynolds.”
“Not before time, where you’re concerned.”
He shrugged, but then gave her a boyish smile. “How about one last shower together, for auld lang syne?”
“Get lost, Kyle.” She went toward the door.
“Well, it was worth a try,” he replied philosophically.
She paused. “There’s just one thing I’d like to know.”
“Ask away.”
“Were you told I was here in my rooms, or did you just come up on the off chance I’d be in?” She knew it was a strange question, but needed an answer. Today’s time travel had commenced in the woods, but ended in the hotel. What had happened here in the future while she’d been in the past? If someone had seen her come up to her rooms, then it meant she had remained visible.
He was bemused. “What do you want to know that for?”
“Just tell me, please.”
“I asked the receptionist, she said she saw you return from your ride and come straight up here. Okay?”
She opened the door and stood aside for him to pass. “Have a nice day,” she murmured.