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“Mind yourself, Nick. We are in public.”
“And if we were in private?”
“You’d have two black eyes instead of one,” she said promptly, taking another swallow. The quicker she emptied her glass, the quicker she could escape.
Nick chuckled. “You never rattle, do you?”
Julia ignored him and took another sip of the ratafia. For the first time since this morning, she felt calm and relaxed, as if she had no cares, no concerns. Perhaps she should go in search of Alec and tell him how silly their argument was.
But no. Alec didn’t want her.
The thought brought an unexpected flood of tears. She took a swift drink to wash away the lump that lodged in her throat. There was less than a swallow left, the last mouthful unexpectedly bitter. Julia shivered.
Nick leaned forward, his chair much too close. “I have been meaning to tell you how lovely you look without those infernal spectacles.”
Though his forwardness irked her, a pleasant feeling of lassitude washed all negative thoughts away. “I wish I’d worn them tonight. I almost didn’t realize that picture was of me.”
“I was amazed at how quickly you dispatched Therese.” Nick’s voice came close to her ear, his arm brushing her shoulder. “Rarely have I had such a worthy adversary.” He lifted her hand and placed a kiss on her wrist.
Julia knew she should retrieve her hand, but her arm seemed laden with an invisible weight. She blinked fuzzily and watched with almost detached interest as the ratafia glass slipped from her other hand.
Nick caught it as it fell. “Perhaps you need some fresh air, my dear.”
Yes, that was what she needed. Fresh air to blow away the cobwebs that had descended over her brain. Julia stood and almost stumbled, her knees buckling beneath her. Nick grasped her arm and held her upright, his other arm slipping about her waist.
Julia leaned against him. “It’s so hot in here. I can’t breathe.”
“Hold onto me. We don’t have far to go.”
She was vaguely aware that he led her toward the balcony. It seemed as if the ballroom had narrowed into a long, thin tunnel of blue. Faces peered at her, whispers echoed like shouts. Julia concentrated on placing one heavy foot in front of the other.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, they reached the balcony and the cool night air blew across her, chilling her through the thin silk. But the cobwebs did not go away. Instead, they increased until she was forced to lean against Nick, all her efforts focused on staying upright.
The world tilted first one way, then the other. “Good God. What’s wrong with me?” Her words sounded slurred to her own ears.
His breath stirred the hair at her forehead, his arms tight about her. “Nothing but a touch of laudanum.”
Somewhere far away, the words sounded an alarm. But Julia didn’t have the energy to do more than mumble a protest.
“Come, Julia,” he murmured against her hair. “We have only a little further to go.” He placed an arm about her and half led her, half carried her into the garden and down a path. At some point they reached a coach, the jangle of the traces loud in the silence. The lights from the house seemed far, far away. Nick spoke a quiet command to his coachman.
“Nick,” said a sharp voice from the direction of the garden. “What are you doing here?”
Julia focused on the silver figure and made out Therese’s furious face.
“I am taking my cousin home,” he said calmly as if discussing the weather or the placement of a cravat pin. “She is not feeling well.”
Therese examined Julia. “She is drunk!”
He chuckled and stroked Julia’s hair with a strangely gentle gesture. “Go away, Therese. I have everything well in hand.”
“It looks like it,” she sneered. “What are you going to do with her?”
Nick shrugged, the movement causing Julia’s cheek to rub against his coat. He turned to his coachman who stood silently waiting. “Open the door.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The door opened and Nick lifted Julia onto the seat. She didn’t even have the strength to hold her head upright, but let it loll against the squabs. In the darkness, the voices outside the coach seemed even louder, echoing inside her head with painful clarity.
“If you take her with you, I will tell everyone what you have done.”
“Tell whomever you like, Therese. I will be on my way to Langley before you even reach the ballroom.”
Therese unleashed a furious screech. “Langley? That’s where we first—”
“Spare me your maudlin memories. My hunting box will be perfect. It is private, nestled away where no one will find us.”
A sob rose in the night, followed by another. “Damn you, Nick. You cannot treat me this way! After all I did!”
He sighed. “I suppose you are talking about that little trick with the portrait. It was overdone, but effective. Just how did you manage to convince a coward like Bentham to put himself at such risk?”
The sobs ceased abruptly. “That is no concern of yours.”
“Ah, but I think it is,” Nick said in a horrifyingly quiet tone.
“Y-you promised to marry me.”
“No, my dear. That is an illusion you created.” There was a pause before he added, “Besides, I have found other, more delectable prey.”
Julia felt his hand reach through the darkness to caress her cheek. For an instant she was glad she was too drugged to feel anything more than distracted revulsion, for she would surely have wretched.
Therese shrieked. The unmistakable sound of a scuffle followed, only to end with the crack of a harsh slap. Hysterical sobbing filled the night.
Nick called to his footman. “Lady Frant has had too much to drink. Take her back to the ballroom and deliver her to her mother.”
Without waiting to see if his orders were obeyed, he swung into the coach beside Julia and settled her in his lap, tucking her in with a cloak as if she were a child.
All too soon, the cocoon of warmth, combined with the swaying motion of the coach, sent Julia tumbling helplessly into a black, dreamless sleep.
Chapter 29
“There you are.” Lucien’s voice came from the balcony steps.
Alec turned from where he had been leaning against a tree, fighting for a semblance of control. “What do you want?” The cool bubbling of the fountain had done much to soothe his anger, but not the vast ache that had taken the place of his heart.
Lucien pulled out a cheroot and lit it, his eyes hard in the flare of light. “What in the hell were you doing, to leave Julia like that?”
Alec set his jaw. “I was angry.” Angry, furious, jealous…hell, he’d experienced more emotions this evening than he’d realized he possessed. And all because of the unavoidable fact that his wife loved another. The thought weighted his shoulders like a sack of stone.
Lucien made a sound of disgust. “Oh, yes. And you have such reason to be angry. Your wife has taken in a child, saved a woman destined for ruin, transformed your household into a living, breathing home, and squandered your funds on charity. I’m surprised you aren’t calling for her head on a platter.”
“You don’t know the half of it. She’s incorrigible, impertinent and—”
“You love her.”
The ache swelled into something more and he had to swallow before he could speak. “Julia doesn’t believe Nick had anything to do with this latest debacle.”
Lucien shrugged. “She wouldn’t. In fact, I’m surprised she hasn’t found him a position in your house. He’d make a hell of a butler if you could keep him from the liquor cabinet.”
“This is not a laughing matter!”
“I don’t think it is,” Lucien said shortly. “If you had seen Julia’s face when you left her in the middle of the dance floor, you would agree.”
Remorse ripped at his tenuous control, but Alec subdued it. He hadn’t meant to cause her pain, but he seemed unable to look at her without experiencing the agoniz
ing burn of jealousy. And that, he admitted, was what had made him stalk from the dance floor like the cad he was.
Alec raked a hand through his hair, emptiness holding his heart in an icy grip. All his life he’d been selfish and intemperate, caught up in the pursuit of empty pleasures until he’d met a spirited, no-nonsense American reformer who believed she could change the world. And she had changed the world—his world. Now, he could no longer imagine life without her and the realization frightened him to death.
A pain akin to fire lanced through him. He loved Julia. There was no denying it any longer. But…did she love him? Was it even possible after the way he’d treated her? Or had Nick managed to convince Julia, with her boundless passion, that he could offer her more than her own foolish husband?
Alec fisted his hands and stared into the darkness.
From behind him, Lucien asked, “Alec, you must do something to right this.”
Alec roused himself with an effort. “There’s nothing to do. I lost my temper. I’ve been so fixated on winning the inheritance, keeping it from Nick that I didn’t see—“He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’ve been a fool, Lucien. A damned fool.”
“We agree on that, at least,” Lucien said in a grim voice. “Your grandfather would have been pleased beyond thought to know you were in love with someone other than yourself. I’m not sure that isn’t what he had in mind to begin with.”
Was that possible? The conditions of the will had seemed improbable, bizarre even. But frankly, it didn’t matter. At the moment, all he could think about was the fact that his wife loved another man.
Lucien sighed. “I know you promised your grandfather you would try to keep the fortune from Nick, but…isn’t Julia more important than the money?”
Julia was more important than everything. “Luce, she…she doesn’t want me.” The words burned his throat, but he choked them out anyway. “She wants Nick.”
Lucien frowned. “Bloody hell.”
“I know. But the signs are all there. He’s forever around and she defends him every chance she gets. Even tonight, she said Nick didn’t even know about the portrait, that it was all Therese’s doing.”
Lucien dropped to a bench by the fountain, his brow lowered. After a moment, he said, “Alec, she could be right. Therese holds sway over Bentham, not Nick. Furthermore—”
One of the bushes sprang to life, the leaves rustling violently. Edmund stumbled into the clearing. “Thank God you are here, Alec!” The younger man’s voice held an unmistakable note of panic. “Julia’s disappeared with Nick. Aunt Maddie said for you to come at once.”
The world spun crazily for one mad moment. Alec was running before he knew it, pounding down the pathway and bursting into the ballroom. Without a word to those he pushed aside, he made his way to Lady Birlington.
“Demme, Hunterston,” she hissed when he reached her. “Didn’t that silly nephew of mine tell you not to make a scene?”
“Where is she?”
Maddie’s chin quivered and, for the first time since Alec had known her, she appeared all of her seventy years. Clenching her gnarled hand about the cane, she gathered herself and scowled through her tears. “We don’t know. Nick escorted her to the balcony ten minutes ago or longer.”
Edmund added, “They were mighty chummy, too. He had his arm about her waist and she was leaning against him like—”
Maddie thumped her cane near enough to Edmund’s foot that he jumped. “Not another word! I won’t have my own family telling tales!”
“But Aunt Maddie, I saw them myself! Julia walked right by me and didn’t even say a word! She looked—”
Alec whirled on Maddie. “Damn it, why didn’t you stop them?”
The brilliant blue eyes sparkled. “Why didn’t you stop them? She’s your wife!” Maddie sniffed, her lips quivered. “I would have stopped them if I could, but I’m not as young as I once was. By the time I got to the balcony, they were gone.”
“And then Therese—” Edmund stopped and turned a bright red. “But no one believed her.”
“Believed what?”
Edmund eyed Maddie’s cane. “Not sayin’. Would sound bad and m’aunt says—”
Alec curled his fist in Edmund’s lapels and lifted him up on his toes. “No one believed what?”
Edmund gulped and began talking so fast his words tripped over one another. “Th-Therese burst into the ballroom screeching th-that Nick had lied to her, p-promised to marry her. She was hysterical, s-sobbing th-that he’d stolen Julia away to his hunting I-lodge.” Edmund’s hand gripped Alec’s wrists. “That’s a-all she said, Alec. I swear.”
Suddenly aware of the look of panic on Edmund’s face, Alec loosened his grip. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” Edmund straightened his cravat. “All to pieces, worrying about Julia. I perfectly understand.”
Lucien quirked a brow. “Do you think Therese was telling the truth?”
Edmund nodded. “Bound to be. Made a regular cake of herself, crying all over the place.” He leaned forward and said earnestly, “Alec, I think it’s a trap. Nick knows you will come after her. He had to know Therese would tell, too. She’s not very circumspect.”
Alec gave a cool nod though his heart slammed against his ribs in a furious beat. “Then he’s won one battle.” He turned to call for his carriage, but Lucien caught his arm.
“You should know something. I heard Grenville say just this evening that Nick was on the verge of ruin. He is desperate and will do whatever he must to get the fortune.”
Alec shook off the restraining hand. “I don’t have a choice.” All that mattered was Julia. He prayed he would not be too late.
Julia awoke slowly, her mouth dry and bitter, her head aching furiously.
“I was beginning to think you would never awaken.”
She blinked toward Nick’s voice. His large form loomed before her, his golden hair lit by firelight. She struggled to sit upright on a small settee, hampered by her gown which had twisted about her ankles.
“Don’t try to move too swiftly,” he said. “It takes some time for the effects of the laudanum to wear off.”
Laudanum. Memories flooded back and with it came all of the fear she had been too drugged to feel. Heart pounding in her throat, Julia rested her head against the back of the settee. Before I do anything, I must regain my wits.
Accordingly, she took a long, slow breath and examined the room. Low and wide, it was decorated in masculine tones, with heavy, dark furniture flanked by a huge, stone fireplace. “Where are we?”
Nick made an expansive gesture. “Welcome to my private hunting box. The only thing my mother ever left me worth possessing.”
“It’s very nice.” Her voice creaked like the hinge on an old door and she placed a hand to her throat.
A frown flickered across his face. He crossed to the table and filled a cup from a pitcher. “Here, drink this.”
She regarded it with suspicion but made no move to take it. “What is it?”
Nick smiled and took a deep drink from the cup before offering it to her again. “Only water. Nothing more, I assure you.”
Julia took the cup, her hand trembling with even that small effort. “It was very nice of your mother to leave you such a pleasant retreat.”
“It once belonged to an elderly nobleman. I often wonder how many times my mother serviced him in order to gain it. She was a whore, you know.”
He said it in the most commonplace of voices, but Julia saw the flash of emotion in his blue eyes. In a way, Nick was very like the children from the Society. Hurt repeatedly, they became tough and rebellious, ready to handle life’s worst and often seeking out that very thing as if to test themselves. “It is still very nice she left it to you.”
Nick shrugged and looked around the room. “It was all she had to give.” His gaze returned to Julia. “But we are not here to speak of my mother.”
“Oh?” Julia pushed her hair back from her face. It had long s
ince fallen from the pins and streamed over her shoulders in a tangled mess. “Why are we here?”
His hooded gaze followed her every move. “Perhaps I have decided I care nothing about the fortune and want only you.”
Julia raised her brows in polite disbelief.
Nick chuckled. “Always the pragmatist, aren’t you? But you are correct. No woman can outshine seventy thousand pounds a year.”
“Not many men, either.” Though Alec had managed to. He was worth much, much more. Her throat tightened as she recalled his anger at the ball. God, please, don’t let that be our last conversation ever. I have so much to tell him, so many things to explain and—No. I can’t think about this now. It hurts too much. She smoothed her skirts over her knees, her palms damp. “You…you know Alec will find us.” Provided, of course, he chose to come after her.
“Oh, I am counting on it.” Nick leaned an arm on the mantle, picked up the iron poker, and stirred the flames to a higher level. “I would be most disappointed if he did not.”
Realization dawned. “You want him to miss the meeting with the executors.”
He smiled.
“You had this planned all along!”
“My only worry was how to lure you away from Alec long enough to give you the ratafia. Then you two staged that brilliant row in the middle of the dance floor. Heaven, shall we say, has smiled on this venture.”
Though Julia felt better by the minute, her head still throbbed a relentless beat. “Heaven is not smiling now.”
“Ah, but it is. Imagine how it will look to the executors: Alec will chase after his wife who has, to all intents, run off with another man, while they meet to discuss whether he has stayed free of scandal. The answer should be obvious, even to that bunch of ninnies.” His smile widened. “I have destroyed any influence you may have had with the executors. Now, they will think you an adulteress and worse.”
She sniffed. “I’ve never even met the executors.”
Nick’s gaze flickered, an odd smile on his lips. “I beg to differ.”
“What do you m—”