Wedding Night With the Earl (27 page)

Pharaoh roused his head and woofed. He rose and trotted toward the doorway, but Adam called him back. “Pharaoh. Come here.” The dog stopped and looked over at Adam and then back to the door. He barked again and then stared at Adam as if to say,
I hear something
.

“Answering the door is Clark’s job, remember. Now, get over here beside me. Besides, it’s probably just another messenger dropping off yet another invitation to a dinner or party. Whoever it is, he doesn’t want you standing at the door growling at him.” It seemed to Adam that he received two or three invites a day.

Clark walked into the book room and whispered to him, “The Duke of Quillsbury is here, my lord. I took the liberty of asking him to wait in the drawing room and offered him a drink. I hope that was all right.”

Adam relaxed against his chair. So either the aunt or the butler had seen him kiss Katherine yesterday afternoon in the garden. Sweet hell, he had no one to blame but himself. He’d known the chance he was taking when he went to see her. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her. Even though he hadn’t stayed very long, had he sabotaged himself?

“Tell His Grace I’ll be right in.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Adam rose and so did Pharaoh. He looked down at the dog. “No. Stay.” Pharaoh quarreled with him and barked. “Yes, it will be a difficult visit, but I don’t need you in there, my friend.”

“Are you talking to the dog again?” Dixon asked.

“Yes.” Adam didn’t want the chance of Dixon wandering into the drawing room and overhearing his conversation with the duke either.

“Dixon, I’m going to close the door behind me. Stay in here with him and see he doesn’t get out. I have a guest in the drawing room. Understand?”

Dixon ran over to Pharaoh and put his arms around the big dog’s neck. “He won’t get out this time.”

Adam rubbed Pharaoh’s head and then Dixon’s before slipping out of the room and closing the door behind him.

“Good afternoon, Your Grace.” Adam stopped and bowed before continuing on into the drawing room.

The duke rose and greeted him with a slight bow and nod. “I’m sorry for arriving without making an appointment. I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important in your afternoon, my lord.”

“Not at all. My business has been concluded for the day. Please, sit down.” Adam walked over to pour himself a nip of brandy and asked, “Can I add a splash to your glass?”

The duke shook his head and sat down in the wingback chair. “I suppose you know why I’m here.”

No reason to make it easy on the old man,
Adam thought as he settled himself in the chair opposite the formidable-looking duke. “I wouldn’t presume to venture a guess.”

“No, I don’t suppose a clever man would ever implicate himself in anything. I now know of three instances where you’ve been seen with my niece in your arms.”

Guilty of the three and a few more.

Adam remained pensive. He knew what the duke wanted. Hell, Adam wanted it, too.

“The first was outside my own front door, which as you know I witnessed.”

“You know the reason for that incident, Your Grace.”

“And thanks to Lady Leola’s quick thinking, the repercussions were manageable. Besides, I only know what I was told about the evening.” His gaze held firmly on Adam’s. “Then there was the afternoon in front of Potts Orphanage, which Katherine has been known to frequent carrying her donations from that ridiculous Wilted Tea Society to which she belongs, though only God knows why.”

The duke paused again and looked at Adam as if he expected an explanation, so Adam obliged.

“It’s true we were both there at the same time. Quite by accident. No doubt Miss Wright has explained how that incident came about.”

“I’ve not spoken with her about it, or about my visit to you this afternoon. Nor do I intend to.”

Adam found it odd that the duke hadn’t questioned Katherine before coming to see him. He would do his best to make sure no condemning light was shed on Katherine.

“She was doing her charitable work, and I was there because Dixon, my heir, lived at the orphanage until I was located. Some of his personal things were left there when he was brought to me. I was checking on them for him.”

“I’ve no doubt you both had obvious and legitimate reasons for being there. There were several who witnessed her in your arms that afternoon, and it cost me a tidy sum to squelch the rumors swelling from it before they were printed.”

Adam had wondered why the incident never showed up in the scandal sheets. He’d assumed it was because it was clear Pharaoh was the villain and he’d had to help Katherine up off the ground.

“So you know it was my dog who created that scene and there was nothing I could do but help Miss Wright stand up.”

“Surely I don’t have to tell you that gossip and truth are seldom cut from the same cloth.”

There was a long silence. Adam swirled the brandy, but he hadn’t tasted it.

“And then there was the incident yesterday in my back garden,” the duke said.

Oh, yes, there was
.

And for that one, Adam had no viable excuse as to why Katherine was in his arms. Maybe it was the warm sunshine on his back. The scent of freshly trimmed shrubs, the earth, and Katherine’s fresh-washed hair. Just the fact that she was in his arms and dancing with him. Whatever it was, once he saw her, he knew he couldn’t leave without tasting her passion for him once again.

“I’m sure if I asked, you’d tell me she tripped over a twig and you had to help her.”

So the elderly duke had a sense of humor.

“I fear if she falls one more time before she is betrothed, my lord, she’ll lose all the offers she currently has for her hand in marriage.”

“I don’t see that happening, Your Grace.”

“One never knows. So is there anything you want to ask me?”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. He knew exactly what the duke was getting at. And hell, yes, he’d like to offer for her hand right now, but how could he chance getting her with child? Fate had made that impossible.

He met the duke stare for stare, wanting to do what was right, what he wanted. But he said, “No.”

His Grace’s passive expression never changed. “So, you don’t think you have damaged her reputation beyond repair and you have no responsibility to save her from further scandal and ruination?”

That was a harsh way for the duke to say it. Still, Adam remained silent.

“Our servants will talk to their servant friends about what was seen yesterday afternoon. Those friends will talk to their employers and other friends, who will talk to their friends. By the time everyone is finished dragging Katherine’s name into the woods and back with a man that’s been called the beast, I fear not even that besotted young Viscount Rudyard will want to wed her.”

Adam grimaced. The duke was making a powerful case for marriage. Adam was tempted. There were precautions he could take, that Katherine could take, to keep her from getting with child, but that’s all they were: precautions.

“If you are not a beast but a man of honor who holds dear the title Earl of Greyhawke, I implore you to do the only respectable thing for my niece and offer for her hand and save her from the torrent of gossip that is sure to follow her for years if you don’t.”

The duke knew how to aim directly for Adam’s heart. And hit it. He felt as if it were exploding in his chest. If he married her, he couldn’t stay away from her. That was a fact. He wanted her too desperately. He knew himself too well.

“I will ask for her hand,” he answered before he could talk himself out of it yet again. “With your permission, I’ll come to your house in an hour. I’ll expect a few minutes alone with her.”

The duke rose and set his glass on the table. “That’s all I wanted to hear. Consider it done.”

Chapter 26

When sorrows come, they come not single spies

But in battalions.

—Hamlet,
act 4, scene 5

Katherine walked through the front door behind her aunt. The afternoon card party they’d attended was crowded, loud, and quite enjoyable, even though the rain, which had been torrential at times, had moved the festivities inside the Windhams’ house. No one let the pouring skies dampen their spirits or their zeal to win every game. Even Lady Leola, who often only tolerated card parties, seemed to have an especially jovial time, playing several hands before declaring it was time for them to go.

“I’m heading up to change and rest before the round of evening parties begin, my dear,” she said. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course not, Auntie,” Katherine said, taking off her damp bonnet. “It was a rather long event. I’m sure you must be tired. We stayed longer than I thought we would, anyway.”

“And perhaps you should go up and get out of your wet shoes before you do anything else. You know what they say, cold feet will put a cold in your chest.”

Katherine laughed as she laid her cape and gloves on top of her bonnet. “Auntie, I have on my leather high-top boots because it was raining when we left. My feet are dry.”

Aunt Leola raised her brows but said nothing.

“What will I do after I marry and I don’t have you to tell me I need to rest, to change my clothing, to rest my leg?”

“I would like to think your husband will take as good care of you as your uncles and I have.” A rare serious expression settled on her face. For an instant, Katherine thought she saw tears start to pool in her eyes. “That is what he will promise to do when he says his vows. You will tell me if he does not, I trust?”

“When I marry,” she answered cautiously. “Of course, if there’s a problem, I will tell you.”

“I will miss you when you leave this house, but it is time for you to have a home of your own. I’m going up. I’ll see you later in the afternoon.” She patted Katherine’s cheek and started up the stairs.

Katherine supposed she would never outgrow her aunt’s and uncles’ affection to pat her cheeks. She started to follow Auntie Lee when she saw the duke walk out of the drawing room and saunter down the corridor toward her. He looked up at his sister. Aunt Leola paused on the stairs and stared down at him. He nodded once to her and then she continued on her way.

That was an odd exchange between them, and an unusual feeling that something wasn’t quite right stole over her.

“Hello, Uncle,” she said, reaching up to give him a kiss.

“How was your afternoon, dear girl?” the duke asked.

“Very enjoyable, and yours?”

“Good. Lord Greyhawke is here to see you.”

Something was wrong. Katherine’s stomach knotted. “Oh, I … well … Are you sure?”

The duke stared at her for a moment, and then his bushy brows drew together in concern. “I didn’t think it would be a surprise to you that he asked to spend a few minutes alone with you considering your relationship with him.”

Her breath trembled in her lungs. The duke was wrong. It surprised her greatly. There was usually only one reason a young lady would be left alone with a gentleman. If he had intentions of proposing. That thought weakened her knees and her palm pressed harder onto the handle of her cane. That couldn’t be the reason, could it?

Surely not. He had told her many times, and again just yesterday, he would not marry. Had he changed his mind? Hope thudded in her chest and clamored throughout her being.

“Anyway, I’ve granted him that consideration,” her uncle continued. “Do you have any objections?”

Did she?

No, of course not!

Reeling from the shock, from tamping down the joy that wanted to flood her senses at the possibility of marriage to Adam, she managed to say, “No, none.”

“Then I’ll give you some privacy with him. He’s in the drawing room. I’ll be next door in my book room.”

“Thank you, Uncle,” she whispered.

Her stomach was jumping as she walked into the drawing room, feeling as tight as the strings on a violin. Adam stood in front of the fireplace, handsomely dressed in fawn-colored trousers, dark red waistcoat, and black coat. His features weren’t as welcoming as she’d hoped considering the assumed nature of his visit. That gave her a moment’s pause. There was still something about this that didn’t feel right.

Adam walked to meet her in the center of the room. His expression softened as his eyes swept her face. She wondered if he could see or sense her eagerness.

“You look lovely this afternoon, Katherine. The peach color of your dress enhances your skin and makes your eyes sparkle like emeralds.”

“Thank you, my lord,” she answered, still anxious that this visit might not be what she suspected.

“I see you have your cane. How are you walking?”

It had been such a natural part of her for so long, it wasn’t easy to give it up. Katherine took her cane and laid it on the settee behind her. “I seldom use it when I’m alone.”

“That’s good, Katherine. That’s very good.”

His praise calmed her a little, and she cleared her throat. “Uncle said you wanted to talk to me. Alone. I must admit I’m quite taken aback by this.”

“I’ve come to ask for your hand in marriage, Katherine.”

A silent gasp escaped her lips, but once again she sensed in him that all was not as it should be. “But you said you’d never want to marry again.”

“That was my plan when I came to London. I had no idea I would meet you and that our relationship would progress as it has and open you up to ridicule and scandal.”

She blinked slowly, convinced even more that all was not as it should be. “So you want to marry me to save me from scandal?”

“Your uncle is right. I have damaged your reputation more than once. It was never my intention to cause you harm in any way, and because of that I am honor-bound to offer for you.”

Katherine’s back stiffened. He wasn’t saying exactly what she wanted to hear and that bothered her. “It sounds as if you want to offer for me to save your honor.”

His forehead wrinkled in concern. “Katherine, that’s not what I said.”

“If not, then perhaps you should start over if you intend to ask me to marry you.”

“All right, it’s true that I have compromised you, but make no mistake that I am asking you to marry me because I love you.”