Authors: Julia Talbot
Phineas grabbed her wrist, fingers warm and strong where they touched her bare skin. “No. We will not just abandon you.”
“We who? Him?” She jerked her chin at Rafe, who unfolded from his chair and stalked toward them, the pure devil in his dark eyes.
“Yes, me,” Rafe said. “I am unlikely to leave a lady to such unscrupulous characters, despite whatever impression I have made on you.”
Lelia wanted to move away, but Phineas held her, leaving her unable to run. Rafe advanced until he stood close enough that his sleeve brushed her arm, adding his heat to that of Phineas’ big body.
Confusion overwhelmed Lelia as a tingle ran up her spine, causing her nipples to harden. She’d never been so close to so much… maleness. Not even when Phineas had kissed her. Lelia raised her free hand to touch her mouth.
“I think you’re both being deliberately obtuse. No one ever attempted to harm me until I got engaged, either. If we break it off, I’ll go back to my life and you’ll go back to yours.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” Phineas murmured. “You’ve made a contract.”
“You’re scaring me.” That wasn’t true, but Lelia had no idea what she meant instead.
“I don’t think so.” Rafe pressed against her side, one hand on her hip. “I think we excite you.”
“What is this? What are we doing?” She tipped her head back to look at Phineas, who smiled at her, a wry twist to his lips.
“I have no idea,” he said, just before he bent to kiss her.
She gasped, her heart racing. She tried to reach up to push him away, but he still held her wrist. Rafe pressed against her, and she felt his lips on her neck.
What on earth was happening here? Had they both lost their minds?
“Please,” she gasped when Phineas let her breathe. Rafe answered by turning her, tilting her head back and pushing his head down to kiss her.
“Miss Lelia— Oh! Oh, I’m sorry.” Her footman, Jack, turned and ran from the room.
The three of them sprang apart, staring at one another.
“Lelia?” Phineas held out a hand to her. “I— Are you all right?”
“I need to see what Jack wanted. He never intrudes.” She pulled her dressing gown more closely around her, her body on fire. Fine tremors ran through her, which caused her hands to shake, and her most private places felt alive. Wet.
Lelia left them, her slippers catching on the runner and nearly tripping her up in her rush. Jack stood just outside the door, his face as flaming red as his ginger hair. “I’m sorry, Miss. Your cousin has arrived. I put him in the drawing room.”
“Oh, good God. It never rains but it pours.” She strode into the drawing room, feeling as though thunderclouds were gathering over her little home. “Eustace. I haven’t even had my morning tea.”
“I can tell that.” Eustace turned from the window and raised a pale brow at her. He might not be a man of action like Phineas or Rafe, but he cut a fine figure in his blue tailcoat and snowy white shirt and cravat, his silver gilt hair falling over one eye in a way it had since childhood. “I could have waited for you to dress.”
Lelia wrapped her wrapper once more, adjusting the sash. “Oh, blast you, cousin, what do you want?”
He smiled gently. “Amelie told me of your recent adventures, and I decided it was time to become involved. Ring for tea, will you?”
She gaped for a moment, stung by Amelie’s defection.
“Now, Lelia, Amelie is my wife. As you will soon find, I hope, marriage is a safe place in which both partners can confide. She meant no harm. Tea, please.”
Lelia put her feet down hard on the way to the bell pull, then yanked it with undue force. Jack appeared immediately, damn his eyes for eavesdropping. “Tea, Jack. With something I can eat, please.”
“Yes, miss.”
She crossed her arms, glaring at Eustace. “Well, say it.”
“Say what?” He indicated a chair, settling in the one directly across, which had replaced the one Phineas had split in two. “That you’ve really mucked this up? Why did you not simply come to me?”
“Because you would have chosen someone utterly safe and dull.” She gave in and moved over to perch on the chair. “My life has been very dull for a long time. I wanted someone rather exciting.”
“Mmm.” A strange expression crossed his face for just a moment. Oddly wistful. “Yes, well, Phineas Moore might be too exciting for you.”
She wondered what Phineas and Rafe were doing just now. Perhaps Eustace was right. God knew her heart still pounded with the shock of the two of them kissing her.
“I want to meet him,” Eustace said. “Preferably before the wedding.”
“Eustace…”
He held up a hand. “I know you are under no obligation to me, Lelia, but I worry about you. He has a certain reputation.”
“Yes, I thought that was a good thing.” The reality of that situation had now ambushed her, and Lelia wasn’t sure how she felt about Phineas taking lovers of any sex. The spurt of hot jealousy surprised her, because she hardly knew him and certainly had encouraged him to believe her uninterested.
“Why on earth would you think that? What if he got caught, for heaven’s sake? Sodomy is illegal.”
“Eustace!”
“Well, you did say you wanted excitement.”
Her head began to pound. “Stay there,” she told him. Lelia hopped to her feet and rushed back to her smaller family parlor, finding Rafe and Phineas just where she’d left them. “My cousin wants to meet you, Phineas.”
“Does he? Well, I shall be happy to meet him.” Phineas smiled, the quirk of lips and crinkle of eyes she was so accustomed to already.
“Come along, then. You, too, Rafe. Might as well have this out.”
Rafe’s smile was far more predatory, and she was sure he patted her bottom on the way past her. Beautiful bounder.
They all filed into the drawing room, and Eustace stood, his eyebrows rising to his hairline. “Sir Moore. And…”“Rafael Gaudi, sir.” Rafe stepped up to shake Eustace’s hand, a charming smile on his face. “Sir Moore engaged me to look into the attack in the park.”
“Yes. I heard about that. Most disturbing.”
Jack walked into the room holding a tray, which he almost dropped, he stopped so abruptly. “Shall I bring more tea, Miss Lelia?”
She tried hard not to roll her eyes. “Yes, please. Can we all sit?”
They all found chairs, and Eustace stared curiously at Phineas. “What are you doing here at this time of day, sir?”
“Rafe was attacked last night after I brought him here to meet Lelia. We thought it prudent to warn her as early as we could.”
Lelia blushed when Eustace looked her way, which made him smile faintly.
“Since we have you here,” Rafe said, “who in your family might wish to harm Lelia?”
“No one. Honestly, gentlemen, while Lelia might be unaware, the stipend I settled on her is hardly a dent in the family fortune. There’s no one who’s been disenfranchised or who feels entitled as far as I know, and if they were, they have only to ask me.”
“You are generous,” Lelia told him with a nod. “I’ve already expressed how unlikely any of my suitors are, as well. Really, I don’t see why anyone would want to hurt me.”
“Well, yes, but it must be you, Lelia.” Phineas scowled. “Why else would the attacks begin when you became engaged?”
Eustace tilted his head. “She’s not the only one to become engaged. Have you any family who would object to losing an indirect line to your inheritance, Sir Moore?”
“Phineas, please.”
Lelia jumped to her feet, excitement taking her over. “Yes, Phineas! I had not thought.”
“I don’t have much family,” Phineas said slowly, clearly mulling this over. I made what fortune I have on my own.”
“Ah, but do you have enemies?” Rafe asked, watching Phineas closely.
Phineas scowled. “I—” He blinked. “I won’t put you in danger, Lelia. Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps we should call off the engagement.”
She’d been so certain she wanted that only a short time ago. Now she shook her head. “Certainly not. We have a contract. We’ve announced.”
“No one would blame you for breaking it off,” Phineas said, glancing sideways at Rafe. No, she supposed not, but she wanted him.
She had to admit it and begin as she meant to continue.
“Let’s go through this step by step,” Eustace said. “Have you enemies, Phineas?”
“I would not have said I did, not anyone who would do this. But after what happened in the war...” Agony settled into the lines of Phineas’ face.
Rafe watched carefully, and Lelia felt her own interest sharpen. She went to Phineas to place a hand on his arm. “Tell us what happened in Corunna, Phineas. Tell us about Ned.”
He stared down at her for a long moment before pulling away and walking to the window. The straight line of his back and hard set of his shoulders made her thing for long moments that he would refuse. But then Phineas began to talk.
****
“Ned and I were childhood friends. We went into our commissions together, mostly thanks to his family.” Phineas listened to himself tell Ned’s story for the first time since the bastard had died on him.
“I had few prospects back then, would not have made officer if Ned’s father had not sponsored me.” Phineas sighed, then turned to face Lelia once more. She deserved to know, as did Rafe.
“We were lovers,” he admitted, forcing himself not to glance at Eustace. “But only in that way that two young men who know nothing of love can be. We— Well, by the time we made it to Corunna we’d been retreating across Spain for days, weeks perhaps. We were all injured or ill, and Ned and I clung together at night to keep warm. We couldn’t sleep, so we would talk, telling each other stories about how it would be when we returned home.”
Lelia came to him, her blue eyes dark with sympathy. Once again she placed her hand on his arm, lending support.
“When we reached the port, our ships had not arrived, and we spent days repelling the French. The battles were as vicious as the weather.” The scent of rotting flesh and burning buildings came to him as if a rank breeze had blown through the window. “The last battle Ned and I fought was on our way to the ship we’d been assigned. We couldn’t have been more than a few yards from the gangplank when a ball struck Ned square in the back of his neck.”
“Phineas. How awful.”
Phineas swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, the memory fresh. Perfectly clear. One moment I was holding Ned’s arm and running for safety. The next, I turned to look at him and his head was gone.”
Eustace exclaimed in dismay, then clapped a hand over his mouth. Rafe, though, his dark eyes held a haunted darkness, and Rafe nodded gently. “Thousands lost their lives.”
“Yes.” Phineas pressed Lelia’s hand with his for a moment before stepping away to finish his story. “I— well, I fear I lost all my good sense.” He’d screamed and wailed and professed his undying love. “I had promised his father I would keep Ned safe. I failed. It killed Lord Edmund. When I came home and Ned didn’t, the old man’s heart gave out. He was dead in mere hours.”
Silence fell when he stopped, and Phineas felt his shoulders hunch, his breath catching in his chest. Ned’s broken body, his own hysteria… Well, his actions had sealed his reputation, and he’d been sent down from his commission quietly, with little fanfare.
“Does Ned have any other family?” Rafe finally asked.
“His mother. A much older sister…” He and Ned had met at school. The elder Lord Edmund had come to school often, and Phineas knew him well, but the rest of the family…
“I’ll look into it,” Rafe murmured.
Eustace stood. “Lelia, walk me out, please.”
“Yes, of course.” Lelia glanced at him for just a moment, then led her cousin out of the room. Phineas heard them muttering, and he hoped Eustace didn’t drag Lelia away with him.
Rafe came to him then, sliding an arm around his waist to turn him into a kiss.
Surprised, Phineas allowed it, but then put a hand on Rafe’s chest. “What happened earlier? With Lelia. She’s not to be toyed with.”
“I wasn’t playing and neither with you.” Rafe shook his head. “I don’t know what we’re doing, either, but I want the both of you and I know now you’re not averse to the fairer sex.”
“Not at all. I won’t hurt her.”
“No. I know. I would offer to bow out, but I am a scoundrel.” Rafe chuckled, then sobered. “I need to look into Ned’s family. I shall leave you and your soon to be bride alone for now.”
“What, now?” Phineas tried to hold Rafe close, but he slipped away like smoke.
“
Si
. Now. Keep an eye on her.”
“I will.” Phineas remembered Rafe being beaten the night before. “Be careful?”
“I will. I will see you tonight with anything I might have found.” Rafe slipped out the servants’ entrance to the room, disappearing as if he’d never existed.
“Well, Eustace thinks I’m making a terrible mistake, but he’s supporting my right to make my own— where did Rafe go?”
Phineas shrugged. “Out. Doing what he does best.”
“Skullduggery,” she intoned. “Well, what now?”
“Perhaps you could dress? Then we could go out together.”
“Out? Where?” She turned to leave the room again. “Phineas, you’ll have to attend me. I’m between lady’s maids.”
“How can you be between maids?” Phineas followed her upstairs, genuinely curious.
“Mairi didn’t want to work for my household once I got married. She only wants to work for spinsters.”
“Goodness.” She would have a unique household.
“Yes, it’s most inconvenient. At least clothing is more sensible than it was when I was a child.” Lelia marched directly into her bedchamber, seeming not at all worried about him being there.
He’d visited before, after all.
Lelia dropped her dressing gown before ducking behind a screen at the back of the room. Phineas’ mouth went dry, and his hands became sweaty.
Between her and Rafe, Phineas felt like a green, untried boy.
“Can you bring me the basin and pitcher, Phineas?”
“Yes, of course.” He carried the water to her, trying not to peer behind the screen.
“I’m so sorry about your Ned,” she said, the sound of a cloth being wrung out followed.
“He was not mine, Lelia. We were the best of friends, our bond strengthened by the war.”