“Gentlemen,” he said calmly, “I wonder if you would all be so good as to allow Edgeworth and myself a word in private.”
One of the young pups looked up, scowling. “Here, now, we were just getting into some deep play. You’ve got no right to barge in like this.”
But another young man was already on his feet, eyes widening in belated recognition. “Your pardon, Stonevale. Take your time. I believe we can all wait to continue this particular game. Perhaps our luck will turn in the meantime.”
Lucas glanced at the man and smiled faintly. “The only way your luck will come about is to find another game. As long as you play with Edgeworth, you will no doubt continue to lose.”
“I’ll have you know I won several hundred pounds not more ‘n an hour ago,” the first man declared.
“Did you really? And how far down are you now?”
The man glared at Lucas. “That’s none of your business.”
“I agree. But you may do as you wish. I assure you I have no great interest in your losses. Now, if you will excuse me?”
“Come on, Harry,” the second man muttered, dragging his friend away from the table. “You don’t want to get into a brawl with Stonevale. Take my word for it. Friend of mine served under him on the Peninsula. Says he knows how to take care of himself.”
Edgeworth watched the two young men disappear and then he turned to face Lucas. “I don’t much appreciate your scaring off my lambs before they have been properly fleeced, Stonevale. Just because you have had the good fortune to marry money does not mean the rest of us must not continue to make a living.”
“I am certain you will find other sources of income before dawn. You have always been quite adept at relieving the unwary of whatever they happened to have in their pockets. Tell me, Edgeworth, is there a bit more sport to be had in cheating foolish young men who have merely had too much to drink than there is in stealing from young men who are dead or dying?”
Edgeworth ruffled the cards on the table. “So you did see me that day. I wondered about it at the time. I should have slit your throat while I had the chance and made quite certain you were dead.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Edgeworth shrugged. “To be honest, I did not think you would live until sundown with that hole in your leg. Who could have guessed you’d make it, Stonevale? You do seem to have the most amazing luck.”
“Lately someone has been trying to change my luck. I decided to consult with you to see if you might have any notion of who would want to do that.”
Edgeworth smiled, his eyes glittering behind half-closed lids. “Someone who has lost a great deal of money to you at some point in the past, perhaps?”
“That list would include yourself.”
“So it would.”
Lucas paused. “Are you going to force me to kill you, after all, Edgeworth?”
“Rest assured, I have no intention of letting you call me out. Just how do you perceive your luck to have changed? It seems to me you have done very well for yourself lately.”
“There have been one or two minor incidents. There is no need to detail them. If you truly know nothing about them, then the less said, the better. If you do have some knowledge of them, however; then you may want to see that they cease.”
“Why should I care what happens to you? You have been a great nuisance to me, Stonevale.”
“Let me put it this way. If there is another incident of any sort that I find, shall we say, disturbing, I shall come looking for you and we will discuss the matter in more depth. Perhaps at Clery Field? At dawn?”
Edgeworth’s hand stilled on the cards. “Hardly fair if I am not the perpetrator of these incidents.”
“Yes, but very little in life is fair, is it? I found that out for certain the day I watched you walk among the dead and wounded and take whatever you could find in their pockets.”
Lucas got to his feet, turned, and walked away from the card table without a backward glance.
Victoria was standing at the window clad in her nightgown when she heard the connecting door open behind her. She whirled around. Lucas had changed into his dressing gown.
“There you are. Thank heavens. I have been so worried.” She flew to him on bare feet and threw herself into his arms.
Lucas staggered a bit as his bad leg gave slightly under the impact, but he caught his balance quickly. His arms closed tightly around her. “I shall have to see to it that you get worried more often if this is the greeting I can expect.”
“Pray do not tease me.” She raised her head from his shoulder and frowned severely. “Where have you been? What have you been doing? Did you discover anything useful?”
Lucas caught her chin in his hand. “One question at a time, sweetheart. I have had a long night.”
“Well, so have I. And I must tell you, Lucas, that I will not allow you to order me to stay home again while you are out larking about in search of information. Sitting around waiting is very hard on the nerves. Now, just what did you do? Did you find Edgeworth?”
He released her and dropped into a chair. “I found him, for all the good it will do. I cannot tell if he knows anything about what is going on or not. But he does have some motive for wanting to cause trouble for me.”
She nodded quickly, sitting down across from him. “Because you are more or less responsible for making him unwelcome in the clubs.”
Lucas rubbed his leg. “Actually, it all goes back a bit farther than that.”
She studied him intently. “Just what does it all go back to, Lucas?”
“To the day I got this damned hole in my leg. Edgeworth was there.”
“You mean he also fought that day?”
“Not exactly,” Lucas said. “Let us say he chose to watch the battle from a safe distance.”
Victoria finally understood. “He broke and ran?”
“It happens in battle. Edgeworth was not the first, nor will he be the last. Who knows? If more men had the sense not to stand their ground and shoot at each other until there was no one left standing, we might have less warfare.”
Victoria was astonished. “Lucas, you are not condemning him for his cowardice?”
“Not particularly. Cowardice under fire may not be considered an admirable trait—”
“I should think not.”
“But I can understand it.” He slid her a cool glance. “And forgive it. Fear is not easy to deal with and warfare is a remarkably unintelligent way to resolve problems. If I learned nothing else during my career in the army, I learned that much. The idea of a man choosing to flee from the scene of battle is not so difficult to accept. It almost seems rather logical when you think about it.”
Victoria recovered from her initial shock and gave that notion some close thought. “You may have a point. Never let your friends in the clubs hear you say such things, though.”
He smiled. “I am not a complete fool. I only say such things to you, Vicky. You are the one person I know with whom I can talk freely.”
She smiled at him, aware of a sweet warmth welling up inside. “That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me. I am very glad you feel that way, Lucas, because I have discovered I feel exactly the same toward you. I have told you things I have never even told Aunt Cleo.”
“I am glad,” he said simply.
Victoria smiled warmly. “But no matter how you feel intellectually on the subject of cowardice under fire, I know you would be incapable of behaving like a coward yourself. Edgeworth undoubtedly knows that, too. Is that why he holds a grudge against you? He knows you saw him flee?”
“That is partly it. The other part is that I saw what he did after the battle. He walked through the field and robbed the dead.”
Victoria stared at him. “Good God, I can hardly credit it.” Then another thought shook her. “Did he know you were lying on that field? Did he see you?”
“He saw me.”
“And he did nothing to help you?”
“He assum
ed I wouldn’t last long anyway and he was rather busy collecting jewelry, watches, and other souvenirs,” Lucas explained.
Victoria leapt to her feet and raged back and forth across the room. She had never been so shaken with fury. “I will shoot the man the next time I see him, I swear I will. How dare he sink so low? How could he act in such a despicable fashion? To leave you lying there like that. It is absolutely unforgivable.”
“I tend to agree with you that he sank to the depths that day. Nor has he conducted himself with much honor since,” Lucas said grimly.
“No, he certainly has not. I wonder if Isabel Rycott found out about his habit of cheating at cards. Perhaps that is why she dropped him. She likes weak men, but she may draw the line at that sort of weakness.”
“Perhaps.”
Victoria whirled around and paced back the other way. “So you believe Edgeworth really is behind the incidents? That he holds a grudge against you because you know the truth about him?”
“It is possible. I cannot escape a certain feeling that he knew more than he was willing to say tonight. I warned him that if anything else happens, I will look to him first for an explanation, but …”
She eyed him carefully. “But you are not one hundred percent convinced he is to blame for what has happened to us?”
“I think there is more to the story.”
“Because I was the target of some of the incidents?”
“’Tis entirely possible Edgeworth selected you as a target because he knew it would annoy me,” Lucas said.
Victoria sat down on the edge of the bed. “This is very frustrating. We are no better off than we were before you sought him out.”
“That remains to be seen. If there are no more incidents, I will be able to assume I warned off the right man.”
“True.” She frowned, thinking about it. “But if the incidents continue, we must also consider the fact that my stepfather is alive.”
“Regardless of the outcome in that quarter, I, personally, feel that I made tremendous progress in another area this evening,” Lucas continued smoothly.
She looked over at him, intrigued. “How is that?”
“I was referring to your admission that I have the power to seduce you anytime I please.”
“Oh, that.” She felt the heat flood her cheeks.
Lucas got to his feet and came toward her. “Yes, that. A minor issue to you, perhaps, my dear, but a matter of overwhelming import to me. It gives me great hope, you see. One of these days you are going to take he last step and admit you love me.”
She rose and backed away from him. “You probably should not read too much into what I said as we got out of the carriage, Lucas. I was very annoyed with you at the time and spoke without thinking.”
He smiled. “Are you going to retract your words now? You cannot possibly deny them. I will not allow it.”
She groaned and took another step backward. “You are going to assume far too much from this. You will see it as a form of surrender. I just know you will.”
“Would surrender be so bad, Vicky?”
“Intolerable.” She took one more step backward and found herself up against the wall. Her eyes widened as he stalked toward her.
Lucas’s eyes were gleaming as he closed the distance between them. Very deliberately he caged her, flattening his palms against the wall on either side of her head. His mouth hovered bare inches above hers.
“Intolerable, hmmm? Very well, madam, why don’t we call it a step toward a negotiated truce rather than a step toward surrender?”
She caught her breath. “In order for it to be a step toward a negotiated truce, we would both have to give up an equal amount of ground, my lord. You would have to admit I have the same power over you.”
“Yes, I would, wouldn’t I?”
Her tongue touched the corner of her mouth. “Are you admitting I can seduce you at will?”
“Madam, you can seduce me by merely walking across the drawing room or serving me a cup of tea. Every time I look at my picture of Strelitzia reginae, I am seduced.”
“Oh.” Then she smiled slowly. “Is this another example of your skill at strategy, Lucas?”
He did not answer that with words. Instead, his mouth closed over hers, hot, exciting and intoxicating. Victoria put her arms around his neck, glorying in the heat and strength of him.
He slid his hand down her side to her thigh and lifted the thin stuff of her night clothes up to her waist.
“Lucas?”
“Part your legs, sweetheart.”
She moaned softly and, shivering delightfully, did as he directed. His hand slipped between her thighs.
“Lucas.”
“Yes, sweetheart. That’s it. That is what I want from you. Call it a truce or call it surrender. It does not signify.”
She clutched at him as his tongue eased into her mouth just as he eased a finger into her moist heat. He began moving both tongue and finger in and out of her in a simultaneous rhythm. Victoria thought her legs would collapse.
She retained just enough self mastery to fumble with the opening of his dressing gown. She found him hard and heavy with his arousal. Her fingers circled him gently.
“Oh, God, Vicky.”
He pulled her back toward the bed, dragging her down onto it. Then he was on top of her, kissing her breasts, her silky stomach, and the soft skin of her thighs. Without warning, his kiss became even more intimate. Victoria gasped, first in shock and then in wonder, as she felt his mouth on the most secret part of her.
“Lucas, this is outrageous. You cannot mean to …” Her fingers clenched in his dark hair and her whole body tightened unbearably. “Lucas.”
She was still in the midst of her searing climax when she felt him glide up the length of her and surge deeply, heavily into her body. Victoria’s teeth sank into the skin of his bare shoulder. She clung to him as if she would never let him go as his hoarse, exultant shout echoed in her ears.
18
“I must say, you and Lucas have certainly contrived to brush through the entire incident quite nicely.” Cleo raised her watering pot to reach a fuchsia plant that hung from a beam. “You were a great success at the Foxtons’ last night. It is obvious you do not even need Jessica Atherton’s public approval. The ton has decided you are their favorite couple, and the Season, one hopes, will be over before you can do anything to ruin that status.”
“One hopes.” Victoria grinned. “I believe Lucas is harboring the same sentiments. You and he must get together and share your concerns over my behavior.”
“We would no doubt have a great deal to talk about, would we not?” Cleo smiled. “I did tell him once that one is seldom bored around you.”
“Well, as far as I am concerned, it is not Lucas and I who contrived to escape the potential scandal, Aunt Cleo. You are the one who accomplished that. With a little help from Jessica Atherton, of course,” she added in regretful honesty as she studied the half-finished painting of a cactus on the easel before her. Cacti were a nuisance to paint. All the little spines were something of a bother.
Cleo moved on to the next pot but she searched Victoria’s face with concerned eyes. “I worried a great deal at first after Lucas took you away to Yorkshire. I could have strangled Jessica Atherton for showing up the morning of your marriage and causing such a stir.”
“I had a few thoughts along that line myself. Lucas did, too.”
“Not surprising. I am certain he could have done without her interference. The whole situation bordered on disaster, but I told myself that there was only one man of your acquaintance who could deal with such an imbroglio and you were with him. When I got your first letter requesting plants for his gardens, I knew the worst was over,” Cleo explained.
“’Tis true we have arrived at an understanding of sorts, Lucas and I.”
Cleo’s head came up sharply. Her eyes sparkled with laughter. “An understanding? Is that what you call it? You should see yourself when you are anyw
here near him, my dear. You practically glow. I trust you are no longer worrying about following in your mother’s sad footsteps?”
Victoria carefully mixed yellow with a touch of blue to create just the right shade of green she was seeking. “Lucas is no Samuel Whitlock.”
“Good heavens, I should say not. Just as you are nothing like your mother, dear Caroline, rest her soul. She truly loved your father, you know. If he had lived, everything would have been much different. She would never have become an easy target for Whitlock’s charms. But she was so hungry for love after your father died that she fell immediately for the illusion Whitlock was quick to offer.”
“Love is a dangerous thing, rather like electricity, I believe. I think it is better to form a solid, working partnership with a man. That is what I am doing with Lucas, you know. We are making progress.”
Cleo gave a start. “I beg your pardon? You are forming a business alliance with Stonevale?”
“It is the logical thing to do, given the circumstances under which we were married. There is no denying that Stonevale itself is an excellent investment. It is good land.”
“I see.” Cleo looked dazed. “How very fascinating.”
“The arrangement works well, for the most part, although Lucas does have the lamentable habit of giving orders when he cannot get his way through reason and logic.”
“Vicky, dear, this is quite interesting. Stonevale is going along with this partnership notion?”
“On the whole. I am meeting with some resistance in certain areas.”
Cleo’s eyes widened. “I can imagine. What areas?”
“He would still very much like to believe that I am in love with him and he never loses an opportunity to try to coax me into admitting it.”
Cleo put down the watering pot with a small thud and stared at her niece. “Are you not in love with him? Vicky, I assumed from the start that your heart was charting your course in all this. Otherwise, I would never have insisted—”
“Of course I am in love with him. I would never have gone to the inn that first night with him if I hadn’t been. But I am not about to give him the satisfaction of admitting it to him,” Victoria declared.