Cleo’s brows climbed in their characteristic gesture. “I’d sooner hazard a guess as to just which female of my acquaintance obligingly made herself a bed and now complains because she must sleep in it. If she has half the common sense I trust she has, she will attend to the business of making that bed a comfortable one for both herself and her husband.”
Victoria blinked at the unexpected lack of support. She crossed her arms under her breasts and stared at her aunt. “You do not seem unduly shocked by all this.”
“Forgive me. I have already had to deal with the shock of finding you in that inn last night. One shock at a time is sufficient at my age.”
Victoria felt herself turning an angry red. She looked away. “Yes, of course. I am sorry for that. Far more sorry now than I was when you first discovered us, I assure you.”
Cleo’s face softened. “Vicky dear, I fear you are letting yourself be unnecessarily upset. I am not surprised to hear that Lucas is not as well off as you had assumed. He told me the truth this morning while we waited for you to dress at the inn.”
“He told you he was marrying me for my money?”
“He told me he had asked to be introduced to you because he was, to be blunt, hanging out for an heiress. But he said that he was marrying you because he had become quite fond of you and decided you would make him a very suitable wife in every respect.”
“Fond of me. How very gracious of him,” Victoria said.
“Victoria, I shall be quite blunt with you. I knew from the first that you were probably bound to get into trouble with Stonevale. There is something between the two of you that fairly crackles in the air when you are in the same room together. But I rather liked him and I decided that if you were to risk everything for a man, it might as well be with him.”
“I am so glad you approve, Aunt Cleo.”
“There is no need to take that tone with me. You are the one who brought yourself to this pass.”
Victoria looked down at the pattern of the carpet and then raised her eyes to meet her aunt’s sympathetic, but unyielding gaze. “You are right, as usual. Now I must decide how to proceed.”
Aunt Cleo softened her tone. “The first thing you must do is change into your traveling clothes. Lucas is determined to be on his way this afternoon and I must say I think he is absolutely correct. The sooner you are out of town, the better.”
“I have no intention of going anywhere with Stonevale.”
“Vicky, you are being unreasonable. You have no choice but to go with him.”
Before Cleo could say more, there was a desperate pounding on the door. Nan’s voice came clearly through the wood. “Forgive me, ma’am, but his lordship says to tell you that if yer not so obligin’ as to come downstairs immediately, he’ll be obliged to come up here and fetch you down.”
Lucas would do it, too. Victoria did not fool herself on that score. There was no point in delaying the inevitable interview. She stepped past her aunt and then, her hand on the doorknob, she turned and looked at Cleo. “I have certainly got myself a most charming and gallant husband, have I not? What bride could ask for more?”
10
He was waiting for her in the library, standing near the window that looked out onto the garden where he had so often waited for her at midnight. Victoria walked into the room and heard the door close very softly behind her. A respectful hush seemed to have fallen over the household, as if everyone was holding his or her breath.
The entire staff, including her maid and Rathbone, was moving with great caution, she noticed. Lucas had only been her husband for a few hours and he was technically a guest under her aunt’s roof, but he had clearly established himself as a figure of authority. No one wanted to risk his temper. That was left for Victoria to brave.
“You sent for me, my lord?” she asked, taking refuge in an icy, correct politeness.
He watched her come part way into the room and halt. His expression was starkly controlled. “You have not changed into your traveling dress.”
It took more courage than she had expected to face him and tell him her decision. “For the very good reason that I will not be joining you. I wish you a good journey, my lord.” She swung around on her heel and started for the door.
“If you walk out on me now, Vicky, you will regret it more than you can possibly imagine.”
The deadly soft tone stopped her as nothing else would have. She turned back to face him. “I beg your pardon. Did you have something else you wished to say to me?”
“A great deal. But the time grows late and I would rather have this conversation in the coach than here in your aunt’s library. For now, however, I will only say that I apologize for Lady Atherton’s emotional outburst. I assure you, I had no idea she would fall apart in such an unfortunate manner.”
“Yes, her timing was rather poor, was it not? When had you planned to tell me the truth, yourself?”
“What truth would you have me tell you? That I once asked Jessica to marry me? That is old news, Vicky, and need not concern us.”
“Damn you,” she hissed. “You know very well which truth interests me now. You deliberately set out to form a connection with me because I am an heiress. Do you have the gall to deny it?”
Lucas held her cold glare. “No. You guessed as much at the time, if you will recall. I seem to have a very clear memory of your warning me off. But you wanted what I offered, regardless, didn’t you? You played a risky game and you lost, but it was your choice to play. Did you not once inform me that there was no real risk without real danger?”
“Must you throw my stupidity in my face like this?”
“Why not? It is little more than you expect from me, is it not? I am nothing but a heartless fortune hunter who has snagged himself an heiress.”
She felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. “And now you expect me to accept my humiliation without protest?”
He crossed the room in a few short strides and gripped her upper arms. His eyes were blazing. “I expect you to show some trust in me, damn you. For the past few weeks you’ve been willing enough to trust me with your safety and your honor. Now that you are my wife, I expect no less.”
“Trust you? After what you have done to me?”
“What have I done that is so wicked? I did not set us up to be discovered last night. I told you the entire plan was dangerous, but you had to have your night of intellectual inquiry at all costs, remember?”
“Don’t you dare mock me, Lucas.”
“I am not mocking you. I am reminding you of how you tried to justify your desire to let me make love to you. You wanted what happened last night as much as I did. Hell, you even told me you loved me.”
Victoria shook her head, her eyes moist. “I told you I thought I loved you. I was obviously mistaken.”
“You gave me the painting of Strelitzia reginae and then you gave yourself to me without any reservations. I believed you did love me, madam. When your aunt knocked on the door, my first instinct was to protect you. What would you have had me do? Refuse to offer marriage?”
“Pray do not twist my words. You saw the opening you had been waiting for and you took it. Do not bother to deny it.”
“I will not deny that I wanted to marry you. I would not have risked your honor or my own last night if I had not been certain that sooner or later we would be married. It was unfortunate that your aunt discovered us and precipitated this chain of events, but the end result was inevitable.”
“There was nothing inevitable about it,” she stormed.
“Vicky, be reasonable. You must see that we could not have carried on as we had been for much longer. Things were getting shaky enough even before we went off together last night. People were starting to talk and you were doing nothing to stem the gossip. We were taking dangerous risks to indulge your midnight whims. Sooner or later we would have been discovered, and once that happened neither of us would have had a choice. There was also the possibility you’d get pregnant, did you
think of that?”
“Why could you not have told the whole truth before any of it started?” She could hear her voice climbing toward the hysterical shriek of an enraged fishwife. Frantically she fought to control herself.
“To be perfectly blunt, I told you nothing because I was out to win you and I was afraid that if I went into a great deal of detail about my personal financial circumstances, you wouldn’t give me a chance. You were so adamant about not getting married, so skittish on the subject of fortune hunters, that I had no choice but to woo you in the only way you allowed. You will never know how hard the past few weeks have been on me, Vicky. The least you could do is show some consideration and kindness.”
She was incredulous. “Kindness? How dare you attempt to make me feel sorry for you now?”
“Why not? You are quite prepared to be kind to everyone else, up to and including Lady Atherton. I saw the way you were trying to offer her some comfort as she wept all over your shoulder in the conservatory.” Lucas released her abruptly and ran his fingers through his hair. “Why shouldn’t I try to gain a little kindness for myself? After all, I am your husband and God knows that role is not going to be an easy one.”
“What have you got to offer in return?”
He took a deep breath. “I will do my damnedest to be a good husband to you. You have my word on it.”
“And just how do you interpret the notion of being a good husband to me?” She rubbed her hands over her forearms where his fingers had gripped her tightly enough to leave red marks. “Obviously you will not have to provide financial support. I am the one supplying the capital in this marriage, according to your former love. You do bring me a title. I’ll grant you that much, but I have never been overly concerned with titles.”
Lucas’s mouth tightened. “I also brought you the adventure you had been seeking.”
“You mean you tricked me with adventure.”
“Vicky, listen to me ….”
“There is one thing I must know, Lucas. Do you intend to begin a romantic liaison with Lady Atherton now that you have taken care of the business of getting married?”
“God, no. ’Tis plain you don’t think much of my integrity at the moment, but if you knew Jessica as well as you think you do, you would realize the whole idea of a romantic liaison with her is out of the question.”
Victoria winced. “Forgive me. Of course it is. Lady Atherton is a paragon of all that is proper. She would not dream of getting involved in an illicit affair with you.”
“Quite right.”
“She is such a noble creature. She had no qualms at all, apparently, about following the dictates of duty rather than her heart four years ago when she accepted Lord Atherton’s offer instead of yours.”
“She did what she was obligated to do,” Lucas said impatiently.
“How dreadfully understanding you are about the entire matter,” Vicky said.
“Four years is a long time,” Lucas said with a shrug. “And to tell you the truth, I am greatly relieved now not to be married to Jessica. Lately I have come to realize it would have been a bad match.”
Victoria gave him a sidelong glance. “Why do you say that? She seems so very perfect for you. She is obviously the sort who would be a dutiful wife, being, as we have just noted, a paragon of female behavior.”
“Sheathe your claws, Vicky.” Lucas’s mouth quirked faintly. “The fact is, I find her rather dull. I have discovered recently that I prefer a more adventurous sort of female. And after last night, I would have to say that I also prefer a more passionate sort.”
“Really?” Victoria’s chin rose. “You speak from experience, I presume? You have had an opportunity to compare my performance in bed with that of Lady Atherton’s?”
Lucas’s smile broadened into a wicked grin. “Don’t be a goose, Vicky. Even in your wildest flights of imagination, can you possibly envisage Jessica sneaking off to an inn with me or any other man? I assure you, she was just as prim and proper four years ago as she is today. She would never have risked her reputation for a man or a night of the sort of intellectual inquiry we shared at that inn.”
Victoria sighed. “Unlike me.”
“Yes. Unlike you. Completely unlike you. In fact, I have never met a woman who is anything like you. You are quite unique, Vicky. Which is why I am not always certain just how to handle you, I suppose. But I assure you, I fully intend to do my best. Now, we have wasted far too much time on this pointless discussion. Go upstairs and change at once.” He glanced at the clock. “You have fifteen minutes.”
“For the last time, my lord, I am not going anywhere with you.”
She jumped slightly when he moved without any warning, covering the short distance between them with his distinctive, oddly balanced stride. He caught her chin on the edge of his hand and forced her to look up at him. When she did, she froze. The full, unleashed force of his will glittered in his eyes.
Victoria suddenly understood why men had followed Lucas into battle and why everyone else in the household was walking about with such extreme care.
“Victoria,” he said, “it occurs to me that you do not fully comprehend just how serious I am about leaving in fifteen minutes. That is no doubt my fault. Until now I have been so indulgent of your headstrong ways, so willing to ignore my own better judgment in an effort to please you, that you are obviously under the impression you can disregard a direct order from me. I assure you, that is not the case.”
“I do not take orders from you or any other man.”
“You do now, Vicky. For better or worse, you have a husband and he means to leave London in”—he paused to glance at the tall clock—“thirteen minutes. If you are not dressed for traveling when he is ready to go, he will personally put you into the coach in whatever garment you happen to have on at the time. Is that very clear, madam?”
Victoria sucked in her breath, realizing he would do exactly as he said. “You appear to hold the whip hand, my lord,” she drawled in a scathing tone. “And like most men, you do not hesitate to use it.”
“I assure you, I would never use a whip on you, Vicky, and you know it. Now stop trying my patience. You have less than twelve minutes left.”
Victoria turned and fled.
The journey into the distant wilds of Yorkshire was the longest Victoria had ever endured in her life. She saw very little of her husband along the way. Lucas spent most of his time outside the coach, choosing to ride his stallion, George, alongside the vehicle, rather than deal with Victoria’s temper. At night she and Nan shared a room at the inns where they stopped and Lucas took a separate room for himself and his valet. Meals were a series of chillingly polite affairs.
By the time they reached Stonevale, Victoria’s mood had not improved one bit and she suspected Lucas’s hadn’t either, although he seemed content to ignore her as long as she gave him no trouble.
Her first view of the lands surrounding her new home was not inspiring. It did not take even her extensive background in horticulture and botany to detect that this summer’s crops would be mediocre at best. There was a generally depressed atmosphere about everything she saw, from the farmers’ run-down cottages to the gaunt animals standing listlessly in the fields.
The lack of goods in the village shop windows emphasized the economic gloom that hung over the area like a dark cloud. Victoria frowned at the sight of several children playing in the dirt. Their clothing was as bad as any street urchin’s in London.
“This is inexcusable,” she muttered to Nan. “These lands have been allowed to wither and die.”
“I reckon his lordship has a sizable job ahead o’ him,” Nan offered cautiously. She was well aware of her mistress’s feelings about the earl. “He’ll earn his fancy title, he will, if he manages to put some life back into this place.”
“Yes, he certainly will,” Victoria agreed grimly. And he’ll need my money to do it, she added silently. For the first time she began to realize the magnitude of the responsibility Lu
cas had faced when he had inherited Stonevale. Everyone living in and around the estate depended on the general prosperity and leadership of the great house that dominated the economy. Victoria was well aware that the fortunes and futures of the local tenants and villagers were closely tied to Stonevale.
If she had been handed the task of salvaging these lands, would she have been above marrying for money? She wondered. Probably not. As Lady Atherton had said, damn her, one did what one must.
That acknowledgment did not make Victoria feel any more charitable toward Lucas, however. She might be able to understand his need to marry an heiress; she would never forgive him for choosing her and tricking her into this marriage. Surely he could have found a willing sacrifice if he had been willing to search for one among the ladies of the ton. There were those who would have traded a fortune for a landed title.
“It’s a lovely house, ain’t it, ma’am?” Nan said, leaning eagerly out of the coach window to catch the first glimpse of the great house of Stonevale. “Pity the grounds and garden are so shabby. Not like Lady Nettleship’s country place at all.”
Victoria found herself leaning forward for a look, although she had vowed she would adopt an air of disdainful aloofness about everything concerning Lucas’s home.
Her maid was right. Stonevale was a magnificent house. The stone facade was imposing and well proportioned. The wide front steps descended to a cobbled courtyard and a huge curving drive. A large fountain and pool decorated the middle of the curve. But the pool was full of rubble instead of water. The fountain was silent.
There was the same air of depression and hopelessness about the house as there was about the village and surrounding fields. Victoria stared at her new home with a sense of dismay as the coach halted. It was all a far cry from the luxurious, comfortable, well-gardened world she had known with her aunt.
Lucas turned his mount over to a groom and came forward to escort Victoria up the steps and into the house.
“As you can see,” he said quietly, “there is much to be done.”