Part 68 (1/2)
Millie and Ted were alone almost never. How else to restore a lost reputation? But how to reclaim a lost friends.h.i.+p? They stole hours at night, long after the others were abed and the servants dismissed, that's how.
Millie marvelled at how Ted was even more handsome than she remembered, now that he'd shaved. She wept over the scars the beard and moustache had hidden. The Viscount admired how Millie's figure had grown more womanly, and her glorious hair had grown longer. He spent hours combing it through his fingers, smoothing out the night plait her maid spent hours braiding. They spoke of books, Bristol and his business, of travels they hoped to take and changes they would make in the townhouse. They discussed the reforms Ted could enact when he took his seat in Parliament and which party best suited their values. Sometimes they disagreed, but they listened to each other with respect and considered the opposing views. They fell back into the old camaraderie as easily as Aunt Mary's dogs found the most comfortable sleeping nooks and the most sympathetic servants in their new residence. It was as if Ted and Millie's closeness was part of their very natures, unaffected by time or distance.
What was new was pa.s.sion. Not that the pair hadn't felt attraction before or had treated each other like siblings, but they'd been young, innocent and honourable. Now they were adults, aroused by each other's scents and shapes and skin. They had grown-up desires, growing by the minute, and so many wasted years to make up for.
The household might know how Ted and Millie spent their late-night/early-morning hours and why Miss Cole's hair looked like one of the dogs had slept in it, but no one interfered. The sooner the wedding, the better for everyone. Driscoll House would have a mistress. Aunt Mary would have a comfortable home if her hopes for Mr Armstead went unfulfilled. Winnie would have a wealthy sponsor for her season, her brother a high-placed brother-in-law, and Noel freedom to pursue his own pleasures.
Then Lord Stourbridge returned to town. Ted knew because he had men on his payroll to keep watch at the Earl's residence and clubs.
”You cannot be thinking of calling on him at his own home, in private,” Millie insisted. ”Not without taking the Lord High Magistrate, the sheriff and the Horse Guards. Otherwise, he will shoot you as you walk through the door. Or have his hired thugs do it for him.”
”No, I will not meet him in private. Your disgrace was made public. My supposed treachery was made public. The man succeeds by whispering. Let him hear the whispers now. Out in public, not hidden away in a fortress.”
Millie had to be honest. ”I do believe his humiliation was fairly public, as he waited for his bride to appear at the church. I could almost feel sorry for him, on the brink of losing everything he holds dear, except for what he did to you.”
”We will never be safe if he is left alive in England.”
She knew. ”Be careful.”
Lord Driscoll waited until the Southead Ball. The Dowager d.u.c.h.ess had been gracious enough to include Winifred in her granddaughter's come-out celebration. They knew Stourbridge was attending because no one declined Her Grace's invitations. Her b.a.l.l.s were always memorable, and her approval necessary for entry to the haut monde. Stourbridge was so arrogant, so confident of his own worth that he'd count on facing down any criticism simply by appearing there. Further, common opinion held Stourbridge considering the granddaughter for his countess. He was considering her dowry and connections, at any rate. Not that either d.u.c.h.ess would permit him within a mile of the young girl, not now.
Silence fell over the a.s.sembled guests as the elegant party from Driscoll House arrived at the ball. The Viscount's tailor, barber and valet had turned the savage colonial out to perfection, the paragon of upper-cla.s.s British manhood, which meant he was dressed like every other male in the room in black and white.
Millie wore green: a green silk gown, green satin slippers, a bandeau of green velvet around her red curls and the Driscoll family emeralds. Women turned green at the sight.
Suddenly everyone wanted to know them. Millie could have danced every set, if she hadn't promised all her dances to Ted, her brother, Ted, Noel, Mr Armstead, Ted and the Duke of Southead. Winnie became equally as popular. She'd be in transports over her success, except for Noel scowling at her dance partners. Even Miss Marisol Cole created a modest stir among the older gentlemen, she looked so handsome in the new gown Millie had shamed Ned into purchasing for her, aside from the wardrobe Millie provided.
They danced, they chatted, they strolled, and they kept looking for Stourbridge. He'd arrived, Ted's informants reported. As soon as he was refused a dance with the d.u.c.h.ess' debutante, he went to the card room, where Southead himself invited the Earl to play a hand in his private library. The Duke also sent word to Ted.
The Viscount left Millie with her aunt and gestured her brother and Noel to come with him. Millie waited three minutes, then followed.
So did several others who had an inkling of the coming confrontation.
Stourbridge looked up from his cards and sneered when he saw the men facing him. ”Still a coward, I see, Driscoll. Too afraid to face me by yourself after those lies you've been spewing.”
Ted did not rise to the Earl's bait. ”No lies, Stourbridge. And these are witnesses, not reinforcements.”
Stourbridge took a long, deliberate sip of his wine. Then he tossed the rest of the contents of the gla.s.s in Ted's face. ”Very well, consider yourself challenged. Pick one of your lily-livered cohorts to be your second. Swords or pistols, it matters not. You'll be dead by daybreak. Permanently, I trust.”
Ted had to restrain Noel from charging at the Earl. ”There will be no duel. That's for gentlemen. And these others-” he waved his hand at Ned, Noel, the Duke, three men in the doorway ”-will not interfere if you choose to go out to the garden with me now, man to man, no weapons but our fists. I would like nothing better than to water His Grace's roses with your blood. But you have a choice.”
Stourbridge looked at Southead and raised one eyebrow. ”Is this what pa.s.ses for civilized behaviour in your home? Brawls and name-calling? That might occur in schoolyards and the wilderness. I expected better from your hospitality, Duke.”
”He has proof,” Southead said. ”I am convinced you have done grievous harm to these families, and to our brave soldiers. I'd listen to his offer, were I in your shoes. Your feet are set in quicksand.”
Stourbridge tried to look unconcerned, but his fingers drummed on the table. ”Speak, then, savage.”
Ted nodded. ”Very well. You can meet me outdoors, as I said. Right now, before you can hire a gang of ruffians. You will not survive, I promise. Or you can face a trial before your peers in Parliament. The sheriff's men are waiting outside to arrest you.”
”What, a peer of the realm, on the word of a deserter?”
”I have sworn and witnessed testimony from one of Frederickson's hirelings that you paid the commanding officer to have me and my troops ambushed. Frederickson confessed also, in front of several other officers. Your cousin, wasn't he? He's dead now, you know. An accident, they said, but his own men shot him.”
”And I will testify that you tried to rape my sister,” Cole added, which warmed Millie's heart, there in the doorway. ”You will find no friends in the Lords.”
The Duke concurred. ”You'll be convicted and hanged as a traitor.”
The drumming got louder. The sneer disappeared into a grimace. ”I'll leave the country. Give back the stupid chit's dowry, if that's what you want, Cole. You can have the wh.o.r.e and her money, Driscoll. You've been panting after both of them since you were in leading strings.”
Millie gasped, her brother turned red, but Ted forgot his best intentions and knocked Stourbridge out of his chair with a hammer-hard right punch to the mouth. Then he dragged him up by his neckcloth, which was already spattered with the Earl's blood and teeth. ”Apologise to the lady.”
Stourbridge mumbled something hard to interpret with his jaw broken. Ted tossed him back to the chair. ”You have one other option. His Grace has offered you the use of a small room to the rear of his home. One door, no windows, no carpet. One bullet in one pistol. You can die a gentleman, even though you never lived as one.”
Before Stourbridge could decide, an older man pushed through the ever-increasing crowd at the door. ”No,” Lord Walpole shouted. ”That's not good enough! My youngest son was one of the soldiers you had murdered in Canada.” He pulled a small pistol out of his inside pocket. ”I came tonight to kill Driscoll. I see now I would have been a murderer then too.”
”I am sorry for your loss, My Lord,” Ted said, trying to calm the distraught man. ”Your boy was a fine lad.”
”He did not deserve to die, not that way.” Tears were streaming down Walpole's cheeks. He aimed the gun at Stourbridge. ”But you do, you sc.u.m.”
He pulled the trigger.
The Dowager's ball was more memorable than ever.
Six.
”Come to bed, my beloved.”
The vows were p.r.o.nounced; Millie and the Viscount were wed.
The guests had left, the families including Mr Armstead, who was as close as a bachelor could get to parson's mousetrap without being caught headed back to Kent for a month or so until Ted's t.i.tle was made official. Then they'd all return to London for the grand ball the new couple planned to celebrate.
The servants at Driscoll House in London were dismissed for the rest of the day and night. And maybe tomorrow too, while Lord and Lady Driscoll celebrated in private.
Millie set her hairbrush aside and smiled at Ted's reflection in the mirror. She loved how his bare skin gleamed in the firelight, how he looked so at home in the ma.s.sive master bed.
For his part, Ted could not take his eyes off his beautiful bride. Her red curls crackled from the brus.h.i.+ng as they flowed down her back. She had red curls between her legs, too. He couldn't decide which he found more appealing. He smiled again. Thank heaven he did not have to choose.
”Come, Millie mine. You've been gone far too long.”
”Ten minutes?”
”A lifetime, it seems.”
She smiled back and returned to the bed, to his arms. They lay together, comfortable and content for the moment. Then Millie sighed. ”I cannot help worrying about poor Lord Walpole. Do you think there will be an inquest and charges brought against him?”