Her Devilish Marquess (26 page)

Someday, there would be children. Whether
they were boys or girls, he didn’t really care. He’d seen enough
ladies and children die to know there was more to having them than
passing on a title. It wasn’t something he’d told his brother, of
course. His brother wouldn’t have listened. Even on his deathbed,
his brother had thought what really mattered was having a son to
inherit a title.

But life was more than money and worrying
about someone who would inherit it. Life was about taking each day
and enjoying it to the fullest. It was about spending time with
people a gentleman cared about. And the gentleman who found a wife
who esteemed him as highly as Danette did was truly rich.

So it was with a confidence he’d never
experienced before that Derek entered White’s. At first, the
gentlemen stopped talking when they saw him. The moment would have
been awkward if this had happened a day ago. But today, it didn’t
bother him one bit. In fact, it was on the tip of his tongue to
joke that he knew how to stun a room full of people simply by
showing up.

But as he opened his mouth, half the room
began clapping. Ethan and Christopher came over to him, laughed,
and patted him on the back.

“
Of all the things you’ve
ever done at a ball,” Christopher began, “last evening’s was the
best. My wife couldn’t stop talking about it.”

“
Mine neither,” Ethan said.
“She couldn’t decide if it was more shocking than the time she saw
you take off your shirt at her father’s ball.”

“
My wife thinks last night
was much more shocking,” Christopher replied. “She said it took up
two whole pages in the
Tittletattle
. The shirt incident only
took up a half a page.” Looking back at Derek, he added, “She
thinks the more the
Tittletattle
reports, the more important something
is.”

“
I don’t know.” Ethan rubbed
his chin thoughtfully. “From what I hear, ladies have a hard time
forgetting what Derek looks like without his shirt on.”

“
Yes, but last night he
threw food at Lady Cadwalader, of all people.”

“
Maybe if he removes her wig
next time, people will forget about the shirt.”

Derek’s eyes grew wide. “Lady Cadwalader
wears a wig?”

Christopher nodded. “She has less hair than
her husband, and you can almost see your reflection on his
head.”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t believe
you.”

“
It’s true,” Christopher
insisted. “The
Tittletattle
never lies.”

“
Well, I wouldn’t say that,”
Ethan replied.

“
It’s true,” Christopher
said. “The
Tittletattle
is one of the most reliable sources we have. If
you want to know what’s really going on, you go there to find
out.”

Ethan chuckled. “I think it’s amusing you
believe that.”

Logan ran in from the other room and came
over to them. “Oh good! I was hoping you’d come by today,” he told
Derek. “I win the bet,” he told the other gentlemen.

“
And I lost,” Christopher
mused, along with some of the gentlemen who started paying Logan.
He looked at Derek. “I thought for sure you wouldn’t come here
because of Warren.”

“
Yes, I’m surprised, too,”
Ethan admitted. “Especially after you made such a fuss over your
wife being friends with Malcolm Jasper.”

“
As it turns out,” Derek
explained, “my wife fully supported me last night.”

Ethan’s eyebrows rose. “She did?”

Derek nodded. “In fact, that’s why I’m here.
I’m not going to let the Ton tell me what I can and can’t say
anymore. From now on, I’m going to say exactly what I want.”

Logan cheered. “I knew he’d say that, too!
Pay up, gentlemen.”

Ethan frowned. “Didn’t you say something
about promising your wife you weren’t going to place any more
bets?”

Logan shot him a pointed look. “It’s not a
bet when it’s a sure thing. It’s only a bet if you have a chance of
losing.”

“
Hmm…” Christopher dug out
his money and handed it to him. “I lost.”

“
Because you refused to
believe in your friend. I, however, never doubted him.” Logan
collected the rest of the money and grinned at Derek. “Thank you,
my lord.”

If it hadn’t been Logan who’d been so quick
to come to his defense last night, Derek might have been insulted.
But as it was, he decided one good turn deserved another. He
grinned in return. “You’re welcome.”

“
I suppose losing the money
was worth it,” Christopher said. “The important thing is, you came
here today.”

“
Yes,” Ethan agreed. “Will
you be coming by more often, or is this a rare
occurrence?”

“
I’m going to be coming here
more often,” Derek promised them.

“
Good!” they both replied in
unison.

“
It’ll be nice to have some
support when Warren starts rambling on about decency and other
nonsense,” Christopher said.

“
Is he here?” Derek asked,
glancing at the other room.

“
Not at the moment,” Ethan
replied, “but you’ll have time to deal with him later. Every time
he comes in, he gives one of his sermons on how we should better
ourselves.”

“
It’s worse than sitting
through church,” Christopher added. “Why didn’t he become a
vicar?”

“
Good question,” Ethan
quipped. “At any rate, why don’t you join us in a game of
cards?”

“
Sure,” Derek replied. “It
sounds like fun.” And it did. Better yet, he’d get the pleasure of
knowing he’d be able to sit back and enjoy each time he came here
in the future.

***

“
Of all the balls I missed,
it had to be the most exciting one,” Regan bemoaned the next
afternoon as she set the
Tittletattle
in front of Danette upon
her arrival at Danette’s townhouse.

Danette only glanced at the
scandalsheets where the headline,
Lord
Dodsworth Compares the Ton to Rats
, was in
big, bold letters. She dipped a sugar cube into her tea and stirred
it with a spoon. “I don’t know if I’d say he compared the entire
Ton to rats. It was mostly aimed at Lord and Lady Cadwalader and
Lord Riggley.”

Regan plopped down next to Danette on the
settee and groaned. “What I wouldn’t have given to see him say that
to Lady Cadwalader! She annoys me the most. Always thinking she’s
better than everyone else. Tell me,” she faced Danette, looking her
squarely in the eye, “what did she look like when he flung the
cheese at her?”

“
I wasn’t close enough to
see her face, but she did shriek as she frantically tried to get it
off of her.”

“
Oh, how I wish I’d been
there! It’s simply not fair I missed it.”

“
Well, you were there to see
my husband take off his shirt at the Duke of Rumsey’s ball,”
Danette teased as she picked up her cup.

“
You get to see him without
his shirt every night. That is,” she added with a twinkle in her
eye, “if you do your wifely duty every night.”

Despite the heat rising in her cheeks,
Danette took a long sip of her tea, purposely making her curious
friend wait until she answered her. “I have seen him without all of
his clothes every night since we married. However, the lady’s time
hindered us from taking full advantage of the bed for a few of
those days. You’ll be happy to know I have been faithful to my
duties on all the other ones.”

“
Then I don’t have to tell
you how wonderful he looks without his shirt.”

“
No, you don’t. But you’ll
never know how wonderful he feels.”

Regan giggled. “Why, Danette, I can’t
believe you’re talking in such a way. Next thing I know, you’ll
tell me you’ve chosen to stop looking for something bad to happen
to you all the time.”

Danette finished her tea then set the cup on
the table in front of them. “As a matter of fact, I have. Last
night taught me you and my mother are right. No good comes from
being afraid of the next bad thing that might happen. I’m better
off focusing on what’s good instead.” Danette couldn’t be sure, but
she thought her friend’s eyes grew twice their normal size. She
chuckled. “I know. I can hardly believe it either. But it’s true.
Last night, I realized trying to please the wrong people isn’t
worth it. I’d rather please the right people.”

Regan groaned. “How I wish
I’d been there. Last night’s ball will be one people will talk
about for years to come, and I missed it. Melissa came over and
told me what happened and brought over the
Tittletattle
, but it’s not the same
as seeing it. I was especially touched to learn that Logan stood up
in front of the entire room and said some nice things about her and
Malcolm’s father.”

“
Yes, he did.” In fact,
Danette suspected it was Logan taking the opportunity to defend
Derek that helped gather the support from half the room. But there
was no proving it, of course. “Did Malcolm hear about what
happened?”

“
He did. Melissa wanted to
tell him, too, because it involved their father.”

“
Did it change the way
Malcolm thinks about Logan?”

Regan shrugged. “I know what Logan said
surprised him a great deal because he’s been in a state of shock
ever since. The poor dear seems to be having a difficult time
adjusting to all of this. First, there’s the thing with Warren, and
now the events that happened last night only added to his dilemma.
Malcolm’s been oddly quiet about the matter, but he feels like he
has to make a difficult choice between his friendship with Warren
and what he believes is the right thing to do.”

“
That’s not an easy place to
be.”

“
No, it’s not.”

Danette caught sight of Derek from the
window as he came up the steps of the townhouse. “My darling
husband is coming, but don’t expect him to take off his shirt.”

Regan chuckled. “I like this new side of
you, Danette. Even if I wasn’t there to see all the wonderful
things Derek did to upset Lady Cadwalader, I’m so glad to see you
this way. I’ll have to thank your husband on my way out.”

“
You’re leaving?”

“
Yes.” She got up and
retrieved the
Tittletattle
. “I don’t want to
deprive your husband of a chance to have you rip off his shirt and
have your way with him.”

Danette almost told her friend she’d already
done that last night, but Regan would only tell her to do it again
today. So, instead, she rose up from the settee and, on impulse,
gave her friend a hug.

“
What was that for?” Regan
asked when the hug ended.

“
For talking me into getting
married even though I fought you on it.”

“
If your friends can’t talk
you into doing something you don’t want to do, then who
can?”

Danette laughed at her joke and walked with
her to the doorway of the drawing room just as Derek came into the
townhouse.

“
You, my lord, are a legend
in the making,” Regan told him, showing him the
Tittletattle
. “Two entire pages
dedicated to you and how brave you are. I wish I’d been there to
see it. All I can say is that I’m thrilled I know someone who knows
how to upset Lady Cadwalader as well as you do. I never did care
for her ever since she made it a point to embarrass my first
husband in front of everyone. So on his behalf, I thank you for
giving the rat what she had coming to her.”

Derek seemed pleased by her praise. “To be
fair, I wasn’t only directing the words to her. There were three
others, one in particular, I was upset with.”

“
I’m sure they deserved it,”
Regan replied. “Malcolm and I will send you two an invitation for
another dinner party in a couple days. In the meantime, don’t do
anything exciting unless I’m there to see it.”

Danette couldn’t help but chuckle as Derek
promised her he wouldn’t.

After Regan left, Derek turned to her. “I’m
glad I didn’t cause any problems between you and your friend.”

“
Regan loves all things
scandalous,” Danette assured him.

“
Well, Malcolm might not
have been as amused by what I did last night,” he
replied.

“
I think Regan is slowly
getting Malcolm to see things her way.” She closed the gap between
them and kissed him. “I wouldn’t worry about him.”

Smiling, he put his hand on the small of her
back and returned her kiss. “Even so, it’s nice to see that I
haven’t done anything to harm your friendship with her.”

“
No, you haven’t. My friend
heartily approves of you. In fact, she recommended I thank you for
what you did last night by taking your shirt off and having my way
with you.”

His eyebrows rose in interest. “Oh?”

“
I almost told her I already
did that last night, but,” she added when she detected the
disappointment in his eyes, “I see no reason why I can’t do so
again. It wasn’t as if I didn’t enjoy myself.”

The spark returned to his eyes, and he shot
her a mischievous grin. “I certainly don’t mind being thanked more
than once.”

With a giggle, she took his hand and led him
to the stairs, “Then come with me.”

And he did as she wished.