Deception (27 page)

“That’s right,” Ethan added triumphantly. “The villains would not come around if his lordship and the rest of us were there with you. You’d have to go along the Dark Walk all by yourself in order to win the dare. You’d be too frightened to do it, I’ll wager.”

“Yes,” Hugh taunted. “You’d be frightened to take a walk on the Dark Walk all by yourself.”

Robert glared at his brothers. “I’m not afraid to go down the Dark Walk.”

“Yes, you are,” Hugh said.

Jared arched one brow at the twins. “That is quite enough. An intelligent man does not respond to the dares and taunts of others. He rises above such foolishness and makes his own decisions based on reason and logic. Now, if you have finished your breakfast, you may go prepare for today’s lessons.”

“Yes, sir.” Hugh gave Robert one last sly look as he jumped out of his seat.

Ethan snickered and got to his feet.

Robert manfully ignored his brothers as he rose and made his bow to Olympia.

Jared waited until he and Olympia were alone in the room. Then he gazed down the length of the table. “I trust today’s schedule meets with your approval, my dear?”

Olympia gave a small start. “Yes. Yes, of course.” She waved her spoon in a vague fashion. “You’re very good at schedules and such. I vow I have come to rely upon you in matters of that sort.”

“Thank you. I do my best.”

Olympia scowled briefly. “Are you laughing at me, Chillhurst?”

“No, my dear. It is myself I find rather amusing more and more often of late.”

Olympia’s eyes brimmed with disconcerting perception. “Jared, why do you mock yourself and your own passions? Is it because you do not like to admit that you are capable of strong emotions?”

“It has been my experience that forceful passions have a generally negative effect on a man’s life. They lead to foolish excesses, dangerous adventures, and reckless behavior of all sorts.”

“Only uncontrolled passions lead to such bad endings,” Olympia said gently. “Your passions are always under control, sir.” She blushed furiously. “Except, perhaps, when you are in the throes of romantic passion.”

“Yes,” Jared said, “except when I am making love to you.” He met her eyes.
You are my great weakness, my most vulnerable point, my Achilles heel. My siren
. Jared finished his coffee and set the cup down with due deliberation. “You must excuse me, Olympia. My students await me.”

“Jared, wait, there is something important that I wish to tell you.” Olympia put out her hand as he went
past. “It is about my latest discovery in the Lightbourne diary.”

“My dear, the one thing that I will not discuss on my wedding day is that confounded diary. You know how much the damn topic annoys me. Once and for all, I do not want to hear another word about it.” Jared lowered his head and brushed his mouth across hers.

“But, Jared—”

“Try to spare some thought for the wedding night which awaits us, siren,” he ordered softly. “Perhaps you will find it almost as interesting as the Lightbourne diary.”

He walked out of the breakfast room.

  “You wish me to open up your townhouse?” Felix leaned across his desk to pour himself a glass of claret. “Certainly. I shall be happy to see to the matter for you. You’ll be requiring staff, of course?”

“Yes.” Jared tapped his fingertips together, thinking swiftly. “But you need not bother with a housekeeper. We already have one.”

Felix gave him a skeptical glance. “The one you brought with you from Upper Tudway? Doubt she’ll know how to run a gentleman’s house here in town. She won’t have had the experience.”

“We shall manage.”

Felix shrugged. “Your decision, of course. Claret?”

“No, thank you.”

“Very well, then, allow me to toast your impending nuptials.” Felix took a long swallow of claret and put down the glass. “I must say, you’ve gone about this matter in a most unusual fashion. Perhaps you’ve inherited some of your family’s tendency toward eccentricity after all.”

“Perhaps.”

Felix chuckled. “You can hardly announce the glad tidings to the polite world in the papers because the
ton
already believes you to be married. May I inquire how you intend to celebrate this momentous occasion?”

“We are taking my fiancée’s nephews to Vauxhall tonight to see the fireworks.”

“Vauxhall
. Good lord.” Felix grimaced. “What does your bride think of this plan?”

“She is content to leave that sort of thing to me. On another subject, Felix.”

“Yes?”

Jared reached into his pocket and brought out Torbert’s handkerchief. “I want you to see that this gets returned to Mr. Roland Torbert. Along with it, you will convey a message.”

Felix eyed the handkerchief curiously. “What is the message?”

“You will inform Torbert that if there are any more incidents such as the one which caused this handerker-chief to be abandoned in Lady Chillhurst’s garden, he will find himself dealing personally with her lord.”

Felix took the handkerchief. “Very well, but I doubt that you face much of a threat from that quarter, Chillhurst. Torbert is not the sort to be slipping in and out of ladies’ gardens.”

“No, I do not think I need worry about him overmuch.” Jared stretched out his booted feet and regarded his old friend. “There is one more thing that I wish to discuss. Have you had an opportunity to speak with the insurers?”

“Yes, and the results were no more useful than the results of my other inquiries.” Felix got to his feet with a troubled expression and began to pace the room. “You will have to accept that the person behind the embezzlement scheme was Captain Richards. There simply is no other explanation.”

“Richards has been with me for a long time. Almost as long as you have, Felix.”

“I’m aware of that, sir.” Felix shook his head. “I regret to be the bearer of such ill tidings. I know how important loyalty and honesty are to you. I understand how you must feel about being deceived by someone you have trusted for years.”

“I told you the other day that I do not care to play the fool.”

  Half an hour later the hired hackney rattled to a halt in front of the fashionable Beaumont townhouse.

Jared got out. “Wait for me,” he called up to the coachman. “I shall not be long.”

“Aye, m’lord.”

Jared pulled his gold watch out of his pocket and glanced at the face as he went up the steps. He had left the boys at home with Mrs. Bird while he paid this call on Demetria.

He did not have much time to waste before he was due to fetch Olympia from the library, but he told himself that would not be a problem. He did not have a great deal to say to Demetria.

The door was opened by a butler whose disapproving look extended not only to Jared’s unfashionable attire but to his equally unfashionable mode of arrival. It was obvious that most callers at the townhouse traveled by private carriage, not hackney coach.

“You will inform Lady Beaumont that Chillhurst wishes to speak with her,” Jared said without preamble.

The butler looked down the long length of his nose. “Your card, sir?”

“I do not have a card.”

“Lady Beaumont does not receive visitors before three in the afternoon, sir.”

“If you do not let her know that I am here,” Jared said very politely, “I shall see to the matter, myself.”

The butler glowered but wisely withdrew into the hall to carry out the instructions. Jared waited on the steps until the door opened a second time.

“Lady Beaumont will see you in the drawing room.”

Jared did not bother to respond. He walked into the hall and allowed himself to be shown into Demetria’s presence. She was waiting for him at the far end of the room, her pale blue and white silk skirts artfully arranged on a blue and gilt sofa. She smiled her distant smile at him as he approached. Her eyes were cool and wary.

It occurred to Jared that she had always watched him with that same remote expression. Three years ago he had mistaken the look for an indication of self-control and self-restraint. He had thought at the time that such qualities were precisely what he wanted in a wife.

Later he had learned that what Demetria was controlling and restraining was her distaste of him.

“Good morning, Chillhurst. This is a surprise.”

“Is it?” Jared took in the expensively decorated room with a casual glance. The walls were hung with blue silk. The fireplace was trimmed with carved white marble. Heavy, blue velvet draperies framed classically proportioned windows that overlooked a large garden. There was a cool opulence about the whole that underlined Beaumont’s great wealth.

“You’ve done very well for yourself, Demetria.”

Demetria inclined her head. “Did you seriously doubt that I would?”

“No. Not for a moment.” Jared came to a halt and studied her, aware that she was very much at home in the richly furnished room. No one looking at Demetria now would ever guess that she had once been nearly
penniless. “You were always a very determined woman.”

“Those of us who were not born into wealth must either learn determination or consign ourselves to a very insecure life. But you would not understand that sort of problem, Jared, would you?”

“Very likely not.” There was no point telling her that he had learned that lesson long ago. He did not think Demetria would care
to
hear of how his own childhood had been fraught with both financial insecurity and the emotional chaos created by his eccentric, passionate family.

It occurred to Jared that he had never gotten around to talking to Demetria about his past. Not that she would have been particularly interested. She was concerned only with her own future and that of her brother.

Demetria rested one arm languidly along the back of the sofa. “I assume you have a particular reason for calling upon me at such an early hour?”

“Of course.”

“Of course.” Demetria’s voice held a bitter edge. “You never do anything without a particular reason, do you, Jared? Your whole life is controlled by reason, your watch, and your damnable appointment journal. Very well, then, tell me why you are here.”

“I wish to know why you and your brother and your very good friend, Lady Kirkdale, paid a visit to my wife yesterday.”

Demetria’s eyes widened guilelessly. “Why, Jared, what a strange question. We merely wished to welcome her to town.”

“Save your lies for your husband. At his age he is no doubt content to believe them.”

Demetria’s mouth tightened. “You are in no position
to pass judgment on my marriage, Chillhurst. You know nothing about it.”

“I know that it was very probably inspired by greed on your part and desperation for an heir on Beaumont’s part.”

“Come now, Chillhurst. We both know that greed and the desire for an heir are the two factors which characterize the vast majority of all marriages in the polite world.” Demetria’s eyes narrowed in speculation. “Surely you do not expect me to believe that your own alliance with that rather odd female you’ve got hidden away in Ibberton Street is based on more noble sentiments?”

“I did not come here to discuss my marriage with you.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“To warn you and that extremely annoying brother of yours to stay away from my wife. I will not allow either of you to play your cat-and-mouse games with her. Is that very clear?”

“What makes you think we were playing a game with her? Perhaps we were merely curious to see what sort of female had met your requirements?”

“You must be very bored, indeed, these days to bother with Olympia.”

“Is she so very dull, then?” Demetria gave him a look of mocking innocence. “What a pity. How long will she retain your interest, do you think? Or do you find a boring little bluestocking perfectly suited to your taste?”

“Enough, Demetria.”

“Have you gotten what you wanted, Chillhurst?” Demetria’s eyes glinted with cold anger. “A woman who will conform to your bloody schedule? A woman who knows nothing of passion, herself, and therefore
will not notice that you are sorely lacking in such matters?”

“You need not concern yourself with my private affairs.” Jared turned to leave and then paused. “You got what you wanted, Demetria. Be content.”

“Is that a threat, Jared?”

“I believe it is.”

“You cold-blooded, arrogant bastard.” Demetria’s hand curved into a small fist on the back of the sofa. “It is so easy for you to make threats. Just because you were born with everything, a fortune and a title to go with it, you believe yourself to be far above the rest of us. But do you know something, Jared? I do not envy you.”

Jared smiled. “I am relieved to hear that.”

“No, I do not envy you in the least, my lord.” Demetria’s eyes blazed. “You are doomed to live your whole life never knowing the kind of passion that sets fire to your blood. You will never know what it is to surrender to a river of violent emotions capable of sweeping you away.”

“Demetria—”

“You will never learn the sweet joy of being with another whose soul touches your own. You, with your merchant’s heart, will never know what it is to have the power to make a lover respond, will you, Jared?”

Jared met her eyes and knew that she was recalling the same afternoon that he was. It was the day he had kissed her in the stables at the Isle of Flame.

That kiss had not been a polite, chaste caress as the others had been. It had been a desperate effort on his part to incite a response in her. He had surprised them both with that kiss, but not with the answer it had given him.

He knew that both of them had realized the truth that day. There could be no passion between them. It
was the first time Jared had even acknowledged that he had wanted passion in his marriage. He supposed he owed Demetria for having opened his eyes to his weakness.

“I shall just have to manage as best I can,” Jared said. “Good day to you, Demetria. Do not let me find you pestering my wife again. And I advise you to keep your damned brother out of my sight.”

“Why?” Alarm flared in Demetria’s eyes. “You cannot hurt him. My husband is a rich and powerful man. He will protect Gifford from you if necessary.”

Jared’s brows rose. “Your husband is far more concerned with finding a cure for his unfortunate affliction than he is with protecting that fool brother of yours. Furthermore, if you want to do Seaton a favor, you will cease trying to protect him. He is three-and-twenty years old. ’Tis past time he became a man.”