Never Kiss a Laird (24 page)

“What is the
meaning of this?”
 
Sally demanded angrily.

“Mind your
manners, girl,” Lady Waverly snapped.
 
“Mr. Atherly, I apologize for my granddaughter.
 
She seems to have forgotten that she is a
gentleman’s daughter.”

Sally bit
her lip, her mind in a whirl.
 
 
She watched as her father detached her hand,
and crossed the room to stand beside his wife.
  
She looked over to her grandmother, who was smiling triumphantly.
 
She felt herself to be without support, and
knew that it behooved her to proceed carefully.

“I am
surprised to see you here, Mr. Atherly,” she forced herself to say in a more
moderate tone. “My father did not inform me that you were here.”

“He would
have had a hard time doing so, since I did not know that I was coming here
myself until I left London
yesterday.”
 
He gave Sally a boyish,
smile, and said “I was helpless to stay away, you see.
 
I didn’t know how much I had lost when you
sent me away, Sally, until I tried to forget you.”
 
His blue eyes caressed, with a hint of
mischief.
 
“You see, I couldn’t do it.”

He’s good,
Sally thought with a twist of her lips.
 
The Viscount was regarding him with beaming approval, and even Sally’s
mother appeared to be touched by the sincere note in his voice.
 
Sally, observing him with a slightly more
cynical eye, was not impressed.
 
She
could recall numerous instances in their childhood when a much younger Simon
Atherly had used his charm to get whatever he wanted, and she was far from
succumbing.

“Gaming
debts, Mr. Atherly?” she inquired sweetly.

The
self-satisfied smile was momentarily wiped from Simon’s handsome face, but he
recovered quickly.
 
“You underrate your
charms scandalously, my dear.
 
No, it is you,
and you alone that lured me away from London.”

“You have
wasted you time, I’m afraid,” she replied calmly.
 

“Let’s not
be hasty,” Lady Denham broke in, giving Sally a quelling look.
 
“Simon, you must tell me how you left your dear
mother, and your sisters.
 
Will they
remove to Brighton for the summer again this
year?”
 
She took his arm as she spoke,
and walked with him towards the windows on the far side of the room, nodding
significantly at her mother as she did so.

“Well,
miss,” Lady Waverly addressed Sally in a hissing whisper.
 
“What have you to say for yourself?
 
I hope you mean to tell me exactly where you
have been all these weeks?”

Sally
pressed her lips together, trying to get her temper under control.
 
“It is a pleasure to see you, Grandmother.
 
I want to thank you for allowing me to stay
with you,” she uttered as pleasantly as she could.

“Soft
words,” Lady Waverly spat.
 
She eyed her
granddaughter thoughtfully.
 
In different
circumstances she would almost admire the girl’s cool attitude.
 
And she certainly was a lovely creature.
 
Lady Waverly shook her head.
 
That combination of beauty, charm and spunk could
have made the chit the toast of London,
she thought despondently.
 
Instead the
world viewed her as a light skirt, and the wretched girl didn’t have the grace
to feel ashamed about it.
 
An unwilling
smile softened Lady Waverly’s pinched features.
 
Her granddaughter certainly had spirit.
 
She also had a shredded reputation and the stubbornness of a mule, the
older woman mused.
 
Having one of those
traits in common with her granddaughter, Lady Waverly took a breath and spoke
more temperately than she otherwise would have.

“I
understand better than you think I do, young lady,” Lady Waverly informed Sally
grimly.
 
“I know that you have been dealt
an unfair hand, and you are trying to take control.
 
I admire your spirit, but that does not
change your situation.”

Sally met
her grandmother’s eyes.
 
“I do not think
you entirely understand my situation, Grandmother.
 
I am entirely innocent of the
rumours
that were spread about me.”

“
Don’t be a fool
,” Lady Waverly jeered.
 
“Do you think that makes a jot of difference
now?
 
Society knows that you spent the
night with Simon Atherly.
 
Period.
 
You will
never convince anyone otherwise now.”

Sally’s eyes
blazed with anger.
 
“I only need to
convince my family, ma’am.
 
Those persons who should be disposed to believe and support me.”

“Impudent girl!”
 
Lady
Waverly exclaimed, causing Lady Denham and Simon to look in their
direction.
 
Lowering her voice, she
continued.
 
“Do you mean those persons,
as you term them, whom you should be protecting as well?
 
Do you realize that your entire family shares
your shame?
 
Your brothers will be
tainted by association with a girl who is no better than a strumpet in the eyes
of society?
 
Your parents must endure
veiled insults and slights, unable to mention their daughter in polite company.”

Sally’s
cheeks whitened at the harsh words.
 
Seeing this, Lady Waverly pushed her advantage.
 
“Contrast that with your future if you do the
sensible thing, and marry Mr. Atherly.
 
Your family’s reputation restored, your father able to hold his head
high again.”

At this the
Viscount, who had been watching his daughter’s face, demurred.
 
“I am proud to be Sally’s father, no matter
what,” he assured his mother-in-law.
 
“I
am urging her to this marriage for her own good.”

“Then you
are as big a fool as your daughter,” Lady Waverly informed him in disgusted
tones.
 
She turned to Sally.
 
“You will do the right thing, young lady.
 
Until you accept the offer you that you have
been incredibly fortunate to have received, you will be in this house under
constant guard.”

Sally sprang
to her feet, outraged.
 
Before she could
speak, the door opened, and Marsters informed the little group that dinner was
ready.
 
Suppressing her angry retort,
Sally was impelled to take Simon’s proffered arm, and they walked without
speaking into the dining room.

Chapter
Twenty

Sally sat up
in the four poster bed, a small figure surrounded by bolsters and pillows.
 
She hugged her knees, and stared off into
space, her mind racing.
 
She had thought
that coming back to her grandmother’s house meant a safe, if dull and disgraced,
existence.
 
She had accepted that she
would have to endure her grandmother’s lectures, and submit to her out-dated
ideas of decorous behavior.
 
Sally had
been prepared to tolerate all this until she could find a way out.
 
The arrival of Simon Atherly onto the scene
had changed everything.
 
The pressure to
accept his suit would be intense, and it appeared that she would be under
constant scrutiny until she did so.

Sally threw
off her covers, and climbed impatiently out of the bed.
 
There must be a solution, she thought
desperately.
 
If she could get a message
to Rupert at Castle Kane, perhaps he could find a way to get her to London.
 
Once there, if she could locate her father’s
man of business, there was a good chance she would be able to gain control of
her fortune.
 

She paced
back and forth restlessly, and as she wrestled with her dilemma, she was stopped
by the sight of her door opening.
 
In no
mood to hear anything further from any member of her family, Sally said, “I am
extremely tired, and can have no further conversation on this topic tonight.”

“That is
disappointing,” a deep voice replied.
 
“It was not easy to find your room without being discovered.”
 
The Earl of Kane slipped through her chamber
door, quietly closing it behind himself.

Sally’s
mouth fell open.
 
“What are you doing
here?
 
How ever did you get past my
grandmother?”

“You forget
that Lady Waverly is also my godmother.
 
I spent a lot of time in this house when I was young and am only too
familiar with how to slip in and out undetected.”

Sally felt a
smile tugging at her lips for the first time all day.
 
She shook her head in disbelief as she looked
at the very self-satisfied lord.
 
He was
dressed inexplicably in evening dress, a long tailed coat of severe, black superfine
cloth, knee breeches and stockings.
 
But
his hair was tousled as if he had been riding, and there was a smudge of dirt
on his cheek.
 
He looked young,
mischievous, and to Sally’s eyes, entirely desirable.

“I don’t
understand a thing,” she laughed.
 
“Why
did you come here?
 
And why on earth are
you in evening dress?”

Hugh glanced
down at his clothing.
 
“I received the letter
that your groom so kindly brought to me immediately following dinner.
 
My dear, I wish I had stayed in London long enough to have
come to your aid.”

“You were in
London?”
 
Sally repeated, confused.

“I followed
you there.”
 
Hugh admitted.
 
“I knew you were planning to return Bridget
to her lover, and I wanted to make sure you were all right.
 
I stayed until I saw you successful at the
carrier’s yard, and then I returned to Scotland.”
 

“You
followed me,” Sally shook her head wonderingly.
 
“I did not see you.”

“I was
stealthy,” Hugh explained.
 
He paused for
a moment, looking at Sally.
 
A grin
suddenly quirked his mouth and he commented, “I never would have suspected that
you wear a night cap.”

Sally’s hand
flew to her head, and she pulled the cotton cap from her head.
 
“My grandmother insists,” she muttered, her
cheeks reddening.
 

“You mistake
me, I find it oddly attractive.”
 
Hugh’s
grin widened, and Sally was suddenly aware that she was dressed only in a thin,
lawn night gown.
 

Wrapping her
arms around herself, she said, “It’s a shame you didn’t stay in London a little longer, my
lord.
 
You would have seen me fall victim
to a cut-purse.”

“So your
groom informed me.
 
Sally, you have no
idea how much I wish you had come to me for help, rather than your grandmother.”

“How could
I?’ Sally asked him earnestly.
 
“You owe
me nothing. Besides, I think you are forgetting about Clarissa Riding.
 
How would your new bride feel about you
coming to the assistance of a woman with neither reputation nor means?”

Hugh came
forward and sat on the edge of Sally’s bed, pulling her down to sit beside him.
 
“Since it was my butler who had called
the constabulary on you, I felt a certain responsibility to make sure you were
safe.
 
I must say, I would have given a
monkey to see you climb out of the window and down that old cherry tree.”

Sally smiled
unwillingly.
 
“That still doesn’t explain
what you are doing here in my chamber.”

“I wanted to
see you,” he replied simply.

Sally stood
and walked across the room.
 
The myriad
ills of her situation threatened to crush her.
 
Her reputation, lost to her through no misconduct on her part, made her
ineligible to seek the happiness she wanted so much. Instead, marriage to a man
whom she despised was being pushed on her by her family.
 
And unless she could get her hands on her
money, she was unlikely to be able to stand against the combined pressure of
her parents, grandmother, and the iniquitous Mr. Atherly.
 
The existence that loomed in front of her
seemed bleak, lonely and unavoidable.

“You should
leave, my lord,” Sally stated dispiritedly, tying her night cap back over her
red-gold curls, and walking back to her bed and sitting down beside the Earl.

“I don’t
want to,” Hugh objected.
 
He looked
around the chamber.
 
“You are being
accorded an honor, I see,” he remarked conversationally.
 
“I am never given as nice a room as this when
I stay.”

Sally
refused the bait.
 
“I think you should
go,” she repeated.
 
“If anyone were to
catch you here, there would be a terrible scene.”

“Are you
expecting more visitors, Miss Denlington?”

Sally’s
breath exhaled on an unexpected laugh.
 
“Don’t make fun of me!
 
You have
no idea how hard it is to think of a false name under such circumstances.”

“True, I
have never attempted to do so,” Hugh agreed.

“It is not at
all easy,” Sally assured him in a stern voice.
 
“Of course, I should have thought of a name before I started out.
 
I should have done so many things
differently.
 
I have failed in all I set
out to do, and I have let Millie and Miles down.
 
How I could have been so foolish, I can’t
think.
 
I have disappointed everyone.”

“Not
everyone,” Hugh said gently.
 
“You did a
really good thing for Bridget.
 
I saw her
with her carrier’s lad in Lambeth.
 
They
looked happy.”

Sally
sighed.
 
“Yes, that is the one good thing
to come out of all of this.”

“Not quite
the only thing.
 
Sally,” Hugh urged in a
soft, compelling voice.
 
“You must know
by now that I have no common degree of regard for you.”
 
He placed his palm on her soft cheek, and
gently traced his thumb across Sally’s full lower lip.
 
“And I believe you are not completely
indifferent to me, either.”

Sally closed
her eyes, reveling in the sensations.
 
She felt Hugh’s weight shift on the bed, and his soft breath on her neck
moments before his lips touched that sensitive spot behind her ear.
 
She turned her face to him, and met his
searching mouth.
 
One caressing hand
slipped over her shoulder, skimming lightly over her back sending shivers along
her spine.
  
Sally moaned as Hugh
deepened his kiss, and she allowed him to press her gently back against the
soft coverlet.

Suddenly summoning
all her willpower, Sally stood abruptly, pushing Hugh away.
 
“Are you not forgetting a little complication
of your own, my lord?” she asked, pursing her lips.
 

He leaned
back on his elbows, looking up at her with a puzzled expression.

“Clarissa
Riding?”
 
Sally reminded him, eyes wide
in disbelief of his short memory.

“I am not
betrothed to Clarissa Riding, and have no intention of being so.
 
In fact, from what I observed at dinner tonight,
I think your brother is doing his best to cut me out, and looks like being
successful.”

“Rupert?”
 
Sally asked, amazed.
 
“Rupert and Clarissa
Riding?
 
Her parents will allow
it?”

“So it
seems.
 
My only regret is saddling your
parents with a set of in-laws who will attempt to bleed them dry.
 
I left Mrs. Riding attempting to discover
from Rupert the extent of his fortune, and whether or not his older brother
enjoyed good health.
 
I fear your parents
will be plagued by them for years to come.”

Sally laughed.
 
“It will serve them right,” she said
heartlessly.

Hugh reached
forward and grasped her wrists, pulling her towards him.
 
“Sally, you are the only woman I want.
 
Now and always”
 

Sally stared
into his eyes, searching for the truth.
 
“Really, Hugh?”

“Really and truly.”
 
He pulled her forward until she fell on top of him, and he leaned back
onto the bed, rolling Sally over on to her back.
 

“What about
my ruined reputation?” she murmured as Hugh attempted to kiss her.
 

“Yes,” Hugh
remarked, trailing kisses down her white throat.
 
“There is that.
  
We will have to hope that my spotless
reputation will be enough for both of us.”

“Funny,”
Sally uttered, her senses being pulled away from rational thought, ensnared in
the intoxicating sensations Hugh was creating in her.
 
“But Hugh, how can I ever go back to Castle
Kane?
 
Your staff will know me
immediately as Aileen, your thieving housemaid!”

“Hmm,” Hugh
stopped his progress.
 
“I had forgotten
about Aileen.
 
Do you still have that
black maid’s dress?” he murmured provocatively, one eyebrow
raised
.

“I am
serious, Hugh,” Sally said, her prim mouth belied by the mischievous smile
reflected in her eyes.
 

“My dear
Sally, I have known Mrs. Cameron and Carr my whole life.
 
My father was a cold, harsh man.
 
My mother tried very hard, but she could
never stand up to him.
 
After she died, the
Castle became a very difficult place to live, and Mrs. White’s kitchen became
my sanctuary.
 
The
staff
are
my family, Sally, and they will love you.”

“Are you
sure?”
 
Sally
asked,
a hopeful note in her voice.

“I am sure,”
Hugh assured her, untying the strings of her nightcap and pulling it from her
head.
 
Sally met his eyes searchingly and
saw nothing there but love and understanding.
 
She felt as if a great weight was rolling away from her shoulders, and
she leaned in to meet Hugh’s lips, her whole body instantly caught up in her
desire for him.
 

“Now, where
were we?’ Hugh murmured, skillfully unbuttoning the top of Sally’s nightgown
with one hand.
 

Suddenly a
rap sounded at the door, and they both froze.
 

“You cannot
be found here,” Sally whispered, horrified.
 
She glanced around the room frantically.
 
“Quick!
 
Into
the cupboard.”

Hugh allowed
her to pull him to his feet, and felt her small determined hands on his back,
compelling him towards the cupboard door.
 
“Sally,” he objected.
 
“Maybe we
should just face whoever it is, and brazen it out!”

“No!’
 
Sally implored.
 
“I must have time to tell my family in my own
way.
 
Please, Hugh.
 
I cannot face another scene.”

He looked at
the small cluttered interior of the cupboard, and then back at his determined little
love.
 
“You do remember that I am the
Earl of Kane, do you not?
 
Baron of Thorne?
 
Member of the House of Lords?
 
Peer of the Realm?”

“Quickly!
And watch your head,” Sally cautioned, trying not
to laugh and giving her most eminent beloved a strong shove.