Page 17 of How to Court a Rake
She pressed a hand to her stomach and calmed her breathing. Horrifying,yes. Unexpected, no. He’d warned her and she knew he’d make good on his word. It was all suddenly just soreal. She might be sitting down to supper with a man who would become her husband in a few short weeks.
Mary gripped the edge of her dressing table and sat down. ‘The pink will do, Minton.’ She tried to sound as if the fairy tale she’d surrounded herself with last night and today hadn’t come crashing down. ‘What do we know of our dinner guest?’ Right now, she needed information, not panic. Lady Mary Kimber was a cool, self-assured debutante, not a woman given to flights of fancy. But there was no denying that the tide she’d held back this afternoon was now fully in.
***
Caine’s roses in their magnificent Bohemian crystal vase had been removed from the drawing room. Mary noticed their absence immediately when she appeared downstairs at twenty minutes to seven. Her parents and their guest were already assembled. But Mary had wanted some time to herself, arguing that she didn’t want to appear over-eager and give the impression of waiting on their guest’s arrival. She hoped the roses hadn’t been thrown out, but perhaps they had been once her mother had realised who had sent them.
‘Mary, dear.’ Her mother swanned over, meeting her at the door and taking her arm, the gesture designed to draw the gentlemen’s eyes to the new arrival. ‘There you are, looking lovely.’ Under her breath she said, ‘Isn’t your father’s friend handsome? And young? He’s so eager to meet you.’
‘Where are my roses?’ Mary replied sotto voce, offering their guest a polite, demure smile at a distance.
‘In the music room. They were too ostentatious to leave out here in the public rooms. Showiness is so gauche. One can always tell a gentleman by the flowers he brings.’
They approached her father and their guest, her father making the introductions. ‘Your Grace, allow me to present my daughter, Lady Mary Kimber. Mary, this is His Grace the Duke of Amesbury.’
Amesbury, blond, blue eyed and sleekly elegant in dark evening clothes, reached for her gloved hand and pressed a brief kiss to her knuckles. ‘Enchanté, Lady Mary. I’ve hoped we might meet for a while.’
‘How is it that we have not, then? It seems everyone in society knows everyone.’ But she did not know him. She was sure of it. Mary carefully retrieved her hand with another polite smile. A third duke and something of an unknown. She wasn’t sure how that made sense in the social circles of London. An unmarried duke did not escape scrutiny for long.
‘It’s a bit complicated,’ Amesbury demurred, which only intrigued her more. Where in the world had her father unearthed a duke?
‘We have time before supper.’ Mary offered her arm. ‘Take a turn with me about the drawing room and tell me, the short version at least. I love puzzles.’ Amesbury could not refuse, not in front of her parents and certainly not if his claim to wanting to meet her was to be believed. The offer pleased her parents who exchanged a knowing look as Amesbury took her arm. Perhaps it made up for driving out with Caine.
‘Once London gets wind of you, you will be quite popular,’ Mary began the conversation. ‘How is it you’ve managed to escape social attentions until now?’
‘I was never expecting to be found, if I may be blunt?’ He raised a polished, practised blond brow in enquiry. ‘My cousin, the Duke, died in an accident a few years back, leaving no heirs, very unexpectedly. I was abroad and it took a while to determine who the heir was and then time to locate me.’
‘I am sorry,’ Mary offered.
‘As am I. Being a duke is a lot of work.’ He gave a short chuckle. ‘Between transferring the title, mourning, going through the paperwork and figuring out the estates, there has been no time for socialising.’
‘But now all is in order?’ Mary asked as they stopped before one of her father’s prized Constable paintings.
‘Yes, all is in order so that I might begin to set up my town house, responsibly sit in the Amesbury seat in the House of Lords and set up my nursery, of course, to ensure that such a disaster does not happen again.’ So, the man was wife-hunting.
‘How do you know my father?’ That seemed the next logical question. If the man had truly been buried in paperwork, how had her father found him?
‘We have a few mutual investment interests. We met at a shareholders meeting, actually.’ He smiled to reveal straight white teeth. The Duke of Amesbury was certainly well appointed, which was all to the good. He would turn heads and mamas still reeling over losing Harlow for their daughters would be more than appeased by this consolation prize.
‘My mother and I would be more than happy to make introductions for you. We can begin tonight at the theatre. If you’d care to share some of your interests, I might be able to make some suitable recommendations.’ The sooner she could deflect his attentions, the sooner she would not have to endure him. There was something too sleek about him, too perfect, as if she could not quite see behind and beyond the mask of all that perfection. That made her nervous. Caine was honest and blunt. He didn’t put on airs. He walked through a ballroom as God made him.
Amesbury placed an overly familiar hand atop hers and gave another chuckle, eyes smiling with a facsimile of kindness. ‘There is no need for that. You do surmise correctly that I am wife-hunting. But the hunt is over. I have already settled on the woman I want.’ A frisson of ice snaked down her back. She did not miss the unspoken implication that the woman he’d decide upon washer.
Mary steadied herself against the shock of the realisation and the subsequent shockwaves that followed. When a woman was settled on sight unseen, it meant only one thing. This had been arranged between him and her father.Withouther consent. This was the height of male arrogance and egoism.
‘And the woman in question? Has she settled on you?’
‘I am sure she will.’ He smiled easily, his eyes teasing as if this were all a grand bit of humour, as if they both knew who the ‘she’ was and both of them had agreed to the arrangement. ‘We’ll have a few weeks to get to know one another, but even so, we’ll have a lifetime to discover each other.’ A lifetime in which there would be no choice to leave if that ‘knowing’ didn’t turn out favourably. That sounded ominous,notoptimistic. It called to mind Caine’s advice that a person could not change another person.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Even a man was trapped, although to a smaller degree, by marriage. ‘Sometimes we learn unsavoury things. It would be unfortunate if something unpalatable came out once it was too late to turn back.’
He laughed and leaned close for a moment, invading her space. It was not at all a pleasant sensation to have him so close…yet she’d enjoyed such a gesture when it was Caine Parkhurst leaning in. ‘That’s what asylums are for, aren’t they?’ He gave her a wink as if they’d exchanged a joke. But Mary knew such things weren’t joking matters. A woman could be put away on grounds of the least provocation as long as there was a doctor’s concurrence.
Then he sobered and patted her hand. ‘I know a very nice place up in the Yorkshire Dales. My wife would have the best of care. But I don’t anticipate that would be a problem. My wife will be biddable and loyal.’
Of course his wife would be those things if she knew the consequences that awaited her rebellion. Mary felt another shiver crawl down her spine. Amesbury embodied a different kind of boldness. A comparison arose organically in her mind, the afternoon still a vivid recollection, and the man she’d spent it with. Caine Parkhurst was bold because he gave a woman a choice—the chance to choose him and what he offered. But the Duke of Amesbury, whom she knew by title only, was bold simply because he believed no one would stop him.
‘By the way, Lady Mary, you are all your father said you’d be and more. Quite impressive, actually. I am looking forward to the theatre tonight, are you? I am told Blackmantle’sThe English Spyis quite intriguing.’
