Part 26 (1/2)
”Miss Elizabeth,” the footman pointedly informed Ian, ”does not know how to cook. She has always been much too busy to learn.”
Ian endured that reprimand without retort because he was thoroughly enjoying Elizabeth's relaxed mood. and because she had actually been teasing him. As the huffy footman departed, however, Ian glanced at Jordan and saw his narrowed gaze on the man's back, then he looked at Elizabeth, who was obviously embarra.s.sed.
”They think they're acting out of loyalty to me,” she explained. ”They-well, they recognize your name from before. I'll speak to them.”
”I'd appreciate that, ” Ian said with amused irritation. To Jordan he added, ”Elizabeth's butler always tries to send me packing. ”
”Can he hear?” Jordan asked unsympathetically.
”Hear?” Ian repeated. ”Of course he can.” ”Then count yourself lucky,” Jordan replied irritably, and the girls dissolved into gales of laughter.
”The Townsendes' butler, Penrose, is quite deaf, you see,” Elizabeth explained.
Dinner progressed among bursts of merriment and revelations about both Alexandra and Elizabeth that amazed Ian, including the fact that Alexandra was evidently as handy with a rapier as Elizabeth was with a pistol. So entertaining was Elizabeth that Ian found himself ignoring his very satisfactory meal and simply lounging back in his chair, watching her with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt and pride. She sparkled like the wine in their crystal gla.s.ses, glowed like the candles in the centerpiece, and when she laughed, music floated through the room. With the instincts of a natural hostess she drew everyone into each topic of conversation, until even Jordan and Ian were partic.i.p.ating in the raillery. But best of all, she was at ease in Ian's presence. Artless and elegant and sweet, she turned to him and teased him, or smiled at something he said, or listened attentively to an opinion. She wasn't ready to trust him yet, but she wasn't that far away from it, he sensed.
After dinner the ladies adhered to custom and adjourned to the drawing room, leaving the gentlemen to enjoy their port and cigars at the table.
”Ian was lighting a cigar the first moment I saw him,” Elizabeth confided to Alex when they were comfortably seated in the drawing room. Glancing up, she saw the worried frown on Alexandra's face, and after a moment she quietly said, ”You don't like him, do you?”
Alex's gaze flew to hers while the faint disappointment in. Elizabeth's voice registered on her. ”I-I don't like the things he's done to you,” she admitted.
Tipping her head back, Elizabeth closed her eyes, trying' to know what to say, what to think. A long time ago Ian had told her he was half in love with her, yet now that they were betrothed he'd never spoken a word of it. had not even pretended. She wasn't certain of his motives or his feelings; she wasn't certain of her own, either. All she really knew was that the sight of his hard, handsome face with its chiseled features, and bold amber eyes never failed to make her entire being feel tense and alive. She knew he liked to kiss her, and that she very much liked being kissed by him. Added to his other attractions was something else that drew her inexorably to him. From their very first meeting, Elizabeth had sensed that beneath his bland sophistication and rugged virility Ian Thornton had a depth that most people lacked. ”It's so hard to know,” she whispered, ”how I ought to feel or what I ought to think. And I have the worst feeling it's not going to matter what I know or what I think, ” she3dded almost sadly, ”because I am going to love him.” She opened her eyes and looked at Alex. ”It's happening, and I cannot stop it. It was happening two years ago, and I couldn't stop it then, either. So you see,” she added with a sad little smile, ”it would be so much nicer for me if you could love him just a little, too.”
Alex reached across the table and took Elizabeth's hands in hers. ”If you love him, then he must be the very best of men. I shall henceforth make it a point to see all his best qualities!” Alex hesitated, and then she hazarded the question: ”Elizabeth, does he love you?”
Elizabeth shook her head. ”He wants me, he says, and he wants children.”
Alex swallowed embarra.s.sed laughter. ”He what?” ”He wants me, and he wants children.”
A funny, knowing smile tugged at Alexandra's lips. ”You didn't tell me he said the first part. I am much encouraged,” she teased while a rosy blush stole over her cheeks.
”I think I am, too,” Elizabeth admitted, drawing a swift, searching look from Alex.
”Elizabeth, this is scarcely the time to discuss this-in fact,” Alex added, her flush deepening. ”I don't think there is a really good time to discuss it-but has Lucinda explained to you how children are conceived?”
”Yes, of course,” Elizabeth said without hesitation. ”Good, because I would have been the logical one otherwise, and I still remember my reaction when I found out. It was not a pretty sight, ” she laughed. ”On the other hand, you were always much the wiser girl than I.”
”I don't think so at all,” Elizabeth said, but she couldn't imagine what there was, really, to blush about. Children, Lucinda had told her when she'd asked. were conceived when a husband kissed his wife in bed. And it hurt the first time. Ian's kisses were sometimes almost bruising, but they never actually hurt, and she enjoyed them terribly As if speaking her feelings aloud to Alexandra had somehow relieved her of the burden of trying to deal with them, Elizabeth was so joyously relaxed that she suspected Ian noticed it at once when the men joined them in the drawing room.
Ian did notice it; in fact, as they sat down to playa game of cards in accordance with Elizabeth's cheery suggestion, he noticed there was a subtle but distinct softening in the att.i.tudes of both ladies toward him.
”Will you shuffle and deal?” Elizabeth asked. He nodded, and she handed the deck of cards to him, then watched in rapt fascination as the cards seemed to leap to life in Ian's hands, flying together with a whoosh and snap, then sliding out in neat little piles that flew together again beneath his fingers. ”What would you like to play?” he asked her.
”I would like to see you cheat,” Elizabeth said impulsively, smiling at him.
His hands stilled, his eyes intent on her face. ”I beg your pardon?”
”What I meant,” she hastily explained as he continued to idly shuffle the cards, watching her, ”is that night in the card room at Charise's there was mention of someone being able to deal a card from the bottom of the deck, and I've always wondered if you could, if it could . .” She trailed off, belatedly realizing she was insulting him and that his narrowed, speculative gaze proved that she'd made it sound as if she believed him to be dishonest at cards. ”I beg your pardon,” she said quietly. ”That was truly awful of me.”
Ian accepted her apology with a curt nod, and when Alex hastily interjected, ”Why don't we use the chips for a s.h.i.+lling each,” he wordlessly and immediately dealt the cards.
Too embarra.s.sed even to look at him, Elizabeth bit her lip and picked up her hand.
In it there were four kings.
Her gaze flew to Ian, but he was lounging back in his chair, studying his own cards.
She won three s.h.i.+llings and was pleased as could be. He pa.s.sed the deck to her, but Elizabeth shook her bead. ”I don't like to deal. I always drop the cards, which Celton says is very irritating. Would you mind dealing for me?”
”Not at all.” Ian said dispa.s.sionately, and Elizabeth realized with a sinking heart that he was still annoyed with her.
”Who is Celton?” Jordan inquired. ”Celton is a groom with whom I play cards,” Elizabeth explained unhappily, picking up her hand.
In it there were four aces. She knew it then, and laughter and relief trembled on her lips as she lifted her face and stared at her betrothed. There was not a sign, not so much as a hint anywhere on his perfectly composed features that anything unusual had been happening.
Lounging indolently in his chair, he quirked an indifferent brow and said, ”Do you want to discard and draw more cards, Elizabeth?”
”Yes,” she replied, swallowing her mirth, ”I would like one more ace to go with the ones I have.”
”There are only four,” be explained mildly, and with such convincing blandness that Elizabeth whooped with laughter and dropped her cards. ”You are a complete charlatan!” she gasped when she could finally speak, but her face was aglow with admiration.
”Thank you, darling,” he replied tenderly. ”I'm happy to know your opinion of me is already improving.”
The laughter froze in Elizabeth's chest, replaced by warmth that quaked through her from head to foot. Gentlemen did not speak such tender endearments in front of other people, if at all. ”I'm a Scot,” he'd whispered huskily to her long ago. ”We do.” The Townsendes had launched into swift, laughing conversation after a moment of stunned silence following his words, and it was just as well, because Elizabeth could not tear her gaze from Ian, could not seem to move. And in that endless moment when their gazes held, Elizabeth had an almost overwhelming desire to fling herself into his arms. He saw it, too, and the answering expression in his eyes made her feel she was melting.
”It occurs to me, Ian,” Jordan joked a moment later, gently breaking their spell, ”that we are wasting our time with honest pursuits.”
Ian's gaze s.h.i.+fted reluctantly from Elizabeth's face, and then he smiled inquisitively at Jordan. ”What did you have in mind?” he asked, shoving the deck toward Jordan while Elizabeth put back her unjustly won chips.
”With your skill at dealing whatever hand you want, we could gull half of London. If any of our victims had the temerity to object, Alex could run him through with her rapier, and Elizabeth could shoot him before he hit the ground.”
Ian chuckled. ”Not a bad idea. What would your role be?” ”Breaking us out of Newgate!” Elizabeth laughed. ”Exactly.”
After Ian left for the Greenleaf Inn, where he planned to stop for the night before continuing the trip to his own home, Elizabeth stayed downstairs to put out the candles and tidy up the drawing room. In one of the guest chambers above, Jordan glanced at his wife's faint, preoccupied smile and suppressed a knowing grin. ”Now what do you think of the Marquess of Kensington?” he asked.
Her eyes were s.h.i.+ning as she lifted them to his. ”I think,” she softly said, ”that unless he does something dreadful, I'm prepared to believe he could truly be your cousin.”
”Thank you, darling,” Jordan replied tenderly, paraphrasing Ian's words. ”I'm happy to see your opinion of him is already improving.”
Chapter 26.
Elizabeth was undeniably eager to see Ian again, and more than a little curious about the sort of house he lived in. He'd told her he had purchased Montmayne last year with his own money, and, after being with him in Scotland, she rather imagined a ruggedly built manor house would suit him. On the one hand it seemed a foolish waste not to live at Havenhurst, which would offer them every convenience, but she understood that Ian's pride would suffer if he had to live with her in her home.
She'd left Lucinda behind at the inn where they'd spent the night, and the coach had been traveling for more than two hours when Aaron finally turned off the road and pulled to a smart stop at a pair of ma.s.sive iron gates that blocked their entry. Elizabeth glanced nervously out the window, saw the imposing entry, and reached the obvious conclusion that either they were in the wrong place or Aaron had pulled into the drive to ask directions. A gatekeeper emerged from the ornate little house beside the gates, and Elizabeth waited to hear what Aaron said.