The Husband List

  “I think you mean you kept my father and the whiskey company,” Jack said.

  He laughed. “It was tough duty, but someone had to take it. So where were you?”

  “Picking up that Providence brewery. We finished negotiating at three this afternoon, and I’m out of the buying business until my cash reserves can catch up with my ambition again.”

  “It sounds to me as though it’s time to marry Harriet,” Eddie said. He inclined his head to Jack’s right. “She’s over there, done up like some princess or another. You could get her to the altar after our dawn breakfast without even waiting for her to change her dress.”

  “I’d rather do with less breweries,” Jack said flatly. The moment he’d realized he was falling in love with Caroline, he’d also lost his sense of humor about Harriet’s fervent pursuit.

  “Good. You’d just be stealing Caroline’s thunder,” Eddie replied before handing his wineglass to a waiter and requesting whiskey instead.

  Jack had a feeling he should be asking the waiter to make it two. “Caroline has news?”

  Eddie nodded. “She should by the end of the night. Bremerton plans to propose.”

  Forget a glass. Jack wanted the bottle.

  * * *

  IT WAS only an hour into the ball, and Caroline had already become very talented at both dancing with a bow and quiver on her back and dancing around Lord Bremerton. After one obligatory waltz and some cursory chat, she had made her excuses and headed off to dance with others. She now stood on the far side of the ballroom from the Englishman, taking a much-needed break. Caroline amused herself by counting the number of new gilded mirrors hung from the silk-covered walls beneath the equally new crystal-laden electric light fixtures. They numbered more than the male guests clad as highwaymen, but not by much.

  Mama, who had been watching Caroline all night, sent her another disapproving look. She didn’t need to bother. Caroline’s freedom would end at midnight when O’Brien rang the chimes announcing dinner. There was no escaping one’s dinner partner. Naturally, hers was Bremerton. But until then, her time was her own.

  Caroline was preparing to join a group of friends who stood not far away when a highwayman approached from her right.

  “Hello,” she said.

  He nodded a greeting, but didn’t speak. He must have decided to distinguish himself from the pack by being a mute robber, but his black cowboy hat in lieu of a top hat already did that for him.

  His hand closed around her wrist with just enough firmness that she knew she was being instructed to follow. He turned back the way he’d come and led her from the ballroom. If anyone noticed them—and as wrapped up as they were in their own pleasures, Caroline doubted they had—they didn’t say anything. He urged her out of the crush of the crowd and on to the south wing of the house. With his free hand, he pushed open the glass and wrought-iron door to the conservatory and drew her in.

  Unlike the rest of Rosemeade, this room was lit only by gaslight. Its sole fixture, a filigreed, multiglobed bronze chandelier, was suspended from the conservatory’s high center peak. It made for a romantic setting, if not too practical for nighttime botany. But her highwayman was no botanist.

  “Hello, Jack,” she said once the spring-hinged door had swung shut behind them.

  He released her. Caroline could have stepped away, but she didn’t want to.

  “You knew it was me?” he asked.

  “Of course.” She’d known the instant he’d touched her. “Do you think I’d let just anyone abduct me?”

  He laughed.

  “It’s good to see you,” she said, then added, “Well, as much of you as I can see at the moment.”

  He took off his hat and set it next to a spindly fern. Then he reached behind his head, untied his black fabric mask, and let it drop to the hat. “Better?”

  “Yes. Much.” She tried to judge his mood by his face, but he wasn’t giving anything away. And while she preferred to dance a circle around Bremerton, she wanted to be direct with Jack. “Now that you’ve gone to the effort of getting us alone, is there something you want to say?”

  He reached out one black-gloved hand to touch her face. “You look beautiful tonight. You make the perfect Artemis.”

  She wanted to tell him that flattery wouldn’t work, but it would. Too well.

  “Thank you, though you didn’t have to bring me here to say that,” she replied before sidestepping him and walking farther into the large conservatory. When she’d been younger, this had been her jungle and each fern and flower an exotic new species to discover.

  Jack pulled even with her. “I brought you here because it’s your favorite place,” he said, sounding slightly irritated.

  “Well, thank you again. That was unusually considerate of you.”

  The corner of his mouth bent upward. “Unusually? You are upset with me, aren’t you?”

  She hadn’t meant to send that arrow flying, but now that it had been shot, she felt better. “I have reason to be.”

  “I know.” He looked down at the ground and then back at her. “I also brought you here because I’m not going to eat crow in front of six hundred people.”

  “But you will in here?” she asked, feeling pleased by the offer.

  This time he full-out smiled. “Yes, if you want me to.”

  “A few bites might be nice.”

  “Okay,” he said, and then drew a breath as though preparing himself for something strenuous. “I’m sorry for the way I acted the other day. You’re important to me. You deserve better.”

  Which was exactly three bites, Caroline thought. “You’re referring to the exchange in your carriage, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  She could ask for more crow-eating, but Flora had been right. Impatience on Caroline’s part had brought about this situation. More impatience wouldn’t solve it.

  “Thank you, then,” she said.

  Jack blew out a quick breath that Caroline figured was pure relief.

  “I saw Bremerton all weighed down by gold chains,” he said. “Which king is he supposed to be?”

  “A young Henry the Eighth,” she replied.

  “Young, huh?”

  “Those were his words, not mine,” Caroline said, trying not to smile at Jack’s skepticism. According to Debrett’s, Bremerton was seven years older than Jack.

  Jack shrugged. “He’s got an old Henry’s dissipated look.”

  Caroline laughed. “I’ve missed you.”

  He came closer. “Your brother says there’s supposed to be an engagement announcement tonight.”

  “That’s just Mama’s talk. Bremerton hasn’t asked me.”

  “Yet,” Jack said.

  She nodded. “Yes, yet.” The thought hung over her like an executioner’s blade.

  Jack settled his hand on her arm. Caroline wished his gloves would go the way of his hat and his mask. She wanted the comfort of his touch, not leather.

  “Since you’re not yet engaged, it wouldn’t exactly be a hanging offense if I did this.…” He brushed a kiss against her lips and then moved back.

  “That was a highwayman’s kiss?” she asked, pretending shock.

  He laughed. “What, not dangerous enough?”

  “Not even close,” she replied.

  Jack returned. His mouth hovered over hers. “Ready?”

  “A highwayman just takes what he wants,” she reminded him.

  And so he did.

  This time his kiss was all hot persuasion, quickly stealing what little sense of propriety Caroline had when it came to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck. The heavy satin of his black cape felt sleek against her bare skin. She held on as he teased her mouth, tempting her to give more, and then making a low sound of triumph when she did. If he was this good at stealing kisses, she’d happily give him whatever else he wanted to take.

  Jack ran his hands from her ribs to her waist, jostling her bow and quiver. He broke the kiss to say, “Let’s disarm you.”

/>   He helped her ease her costume pieces over her head, and she quickly set them on the floor. Then he drew her back into his arms. This time his hands ventured even lower, and he pulled her hard against his body.

  “Now I’m really liking this costume,” he said.

  She smiled. “I’m growing fonder of it, too.”

  He kissed her again. His hands slid lower yet, past the curve of her lower back. She drew in a sharp breath, and he rather slowly retreated from the new territory.

  “No. Stay. It was good,” she assured Jack before kissing him again.

  She had understated the feeling. This was amazing. All she could think about was how much she wanted to feel him, skin to skin. She couldn’t have that, but one wish could be granted tonight.

  Caroline moved just far enough away to speak. “Take off your gloves.”

  Jack unwound her arms and set her away from him. He looked around the conservatory. For a heart-stopping instant, she thought he was going to call an end to their kissing.

  “This way,” he said.

  He took her by the hand and led her to the outer wall of the hexagonally shaped room. He stood her with her back against a short stretch of solid wall where two angled expanses of glass met. Mama had not lit the lawns as she had the front. Nothing but darkness was on either side of Caroline.

  “Put your hands on the glass,” he said.

  “But—”

  “You heard me,” he said in a mock stern voice.

  Caroline did as he’d directed. The conservatory still held the day’s heat, but the thick windows were cool beneath her palms. His gaze didn’t leave her as he worked on the fingers to the first glove.

  “Someday we’ll have a bed,” he said as he dropped the glove to the floor.

  Caroline’s heart pounded.

  He started on the next glove. “A whole bed with just the two of us, and the rest of the world be damned.” The second glove hit the ground.

  Her breath was coming shallowly. She pressed more fully against the wall behind her. It was that or join the gloves.

  Jack reached forward. He slipped her costume and the thin chemise strap beneath it off one shoulder. Both went without resistance. “When that day comes, I’ll start here.”

  Caroline gasped as his mouth settled over the skin he’d just bared. He was hot. So hot. And now she burned, too. He kissed his way across her collarbone and down the slope of her breast. Caroline’s fingers dug for purchase against the glass.

  “Jack…” she said after a minute.

  He looked up at her. Even in the flickering light, she could see how much he wanted her. “Yes?”

  “The other side, too.”

  “You’re full of commands tonight,” he said. “So far, I like them.”

  This side of her costume did not cooperate as well. Hungry to feel his touch, she reached up and tugged at the silk. It gave, but not graciously.

  Caroline returned her hand to the window. She felt safe with him. They could play at her surrender, but he would never really harm her. Jack ran the backs of his fingers across the slopes of each of her breasts.

  “I’m one lucky highwayman,” he said. And then he slipped his hand inside the fabric and cupped her breast. “Damn lucky.”

  Skin to skin. Caroline drew a ragged breath, tipped back her head, and closed her eyes as his fingers brought pleasure to parts she’d had no idea could be so sensitive.

  He kissed her again, deeply. Caroline tried to concentrate, to capture every moment. She wanted to hold on to the newness and the excitement forever. But then something took her out of the moment. The sound was so small that she wanted to believe she’d imagined it. But she hadn’t.

  She turned her head, breaking off the kiss.

  “I didn’t say you could do that,” Jack said in a teasing tone.

  “Wait,” Caroline whispered.

  He slipped his hand from her skin and moved back a half step. She looked toward the sound she thought she’d heard and listened intently, trying to pick it up again. “Did you hear that, a few seconds ago?”

  “What?” he asked in a regular voice.

  She held her finger to her lips. “Shh…”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied as though she were a librarian. He did use a lower tone, though. “What did you hear?”

  “I thought I heard the door. The hinges have always squeaked,” she said. “Didn’t you notice it when we came in?”

  “I wasn’t thinking about the door,” he replied, then dipped his head down to kiss the upper curve of her breast.

  She couldn’t fault him for that. Still, she braced her hands against his shoulders and held him off.

  “Hello?” she called. “Is anyone there?”

  Only silence answered.

  “I’m sure I heard something that first time,” she said to Jack. “We need to leave.”

  He didn’t hesitate and he didn’t ask questions. She loved him all the more for that.

  He did give a shake of his head as he slipped her costume back onto her shoulders. “That bed, Caroline. It’s necessary.”

  She nodded. “Maybe one day.”

  He gave her a quick kiss that was about comfort. “Absolutely one day.”

  Caroline was touched by his tenderness, but her sense of some sort of looming heaviness hadn’t dissipated. She didn’t want to worry Jack, so she worked up a smile. “Go on back to the ball. We shouldn’t walk in together, anyway. I’ll be right along.”

  He reached out a hand and brushed a loose tendril of hair from the side of her face. “You’re okay?”

  She nodded. “Fine.”

  Jack bent down to pick up his gloves and then stood and looked at her for a moment. “You’re sure?”

  “I’d feel better if we got out of here quickly,” she admitted.

  “I’m out the door,” he said.

  Caroline took a second to repin the few pieces of hair that had come down. Slight rustling sounds came from the front of the conservatory as Jack stopped to pick up his hat and mask.

  “Don’t forget your weaponry, Artemis,” he said before leaving. “Not that you need it to vanquish men.”

  And then, as she’d expected, the conservatory door gave a tiny squeak on his way out.

  Caroline walked to the front of the conservatory and gathered her costume parts. She’d just finished slinging the bow and quiver over her shoulder when the door opened.

  Bremerton walked in. He looked unperturbed, unruffled … all things calm. For a moment, Caroline held on to hope that he hadn’t been in here a few minutes earlier. But then she saw him glance at the spot on the bench where Jack’s hat and mask had been.

  “Your mother told me I’d likely find you in here. It’s nearly time for dinner,” Bremerton said in a conversational tone.

  “I’m ready. I just needed a few moments away from the crowd,” she replied.

  He smiled, but it stopped short of his eyes. “I’m sure you did.”

  He reached a hand toward her throat, and Caroline flinched. Bremerton made a tsking sound. “Your necklace is askew. Hold still while I straighten it. We can’t have you at dinner looking less than the beauty you are.”

  Two could play at this charade. She swallowed her nerves and said, “Thank you.”

  “There,” he said. “The virgin huntress is as she should be.”

  Caroline could almost breathe again.

  Bremerton looked more closely at her. “Or nearly as.”

  Before she could make a sound, his hand shot out. She felt a tug at her bodice, and then he held up the lace that Annie had added to Caroline’s costume. He dropped it at her feet.

  “It had come loose, somehow. But no loss,” he said. “You shouldn’t hide the bounty nature has given you.” He held out his arm. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” she said with a calm that wasn’t even skin deep.

  They were out of the south wing and nearly to the dining room when Bremerton spoke again. “I’m sure you recall our conversati
on from last week. What is the only thing you need to do before I give you the world, Caroline?”

  “Ask,” she said.

  “Correct. Ask.” She could feel him looking down at her. She kept her gaze forward and her face serene. “But I’m sure even you are sophisticated enough to realize that you cannot ask for a lover until you’ve given me an heir.”

  SIXTEEN

  “I still don’t understand why Lord Bremerton failed to propose last night,” Mama said to Caroline as their carriage neared the Newport polo grounds. “Let’s hope he’s feeling more inclined today.”

  “He’ll be playing polo,” Caroline said. “I don’t think he’s going to pop out a proposal on horseback.”

  “Don’t use that tone with me, young lady,” Mama said. “And improve your posture. I’ve had no more sleep than you, yet I’m managing to look rested and content.”

  “Yes, Mama,” Caroline said, though to her, Mama looked more driven than content. She sat ramrod straight with her dark green parasol held rigidly above her head like a fireworks rocket ready to launch. Since Caroline couldn’t work up the energy to hide her exhaustion, she brought her parasol down to better shield her face.

  “I wish you’d have worn pink,” Mama said. “Your yellow is making you look sallow.”

  Small wonder. The whole family had been awake until seven this morning, when the last of the guests had departed Rosemeade after a dawn breakfast. Caroline had been allowed a three-hour nap before Mama had started drilling her about the night’s events. According to Mama, the lack of a marriage proposal had marred what would have been a perfect evening. From Caroline’s perspective, that had been the night’s saving grace.

  “Are you certain Bremerton didn’t broach the subject of marriage in your conversations?” Caroline’s mother asked yet again.

  “I’m sure.”

  Mama shook her head. “I simply don’t understand this.”

  Caroline had no intention of illuminating her mother, when she’d worked so hard to keep her in the dark. From dinner on, Caroline had stuck by Bremerton out of self-defense. They had appeared to be the perfect courting couple. Only Jack, who’d left just after dinner, had reason to know differently.