Regency 03 - Deception (8 page)

The earl stared at his cousin-by-marriage. “It was
on your very pointed suggestion that I started this blasted
marriage business in the first place. Now you tell me to marry for
love? Perhaps I fall in love with an impoverished young woman who
has several dozen dependents. Will you support us?”

“
Of course not. Find yourself an
occupation and support your own family. Better yet, fall in love
with an heiress.”

Levi shook his head, exasperated. “If it were that
easily done, all marriages would be love matches.”

Northwicke smiled and patted Levi on the back. “I
agree with Adam, to an extent. But I also think you should ignore
everyone’s well-meant advice and follow your own heart and mind, my
friend.”

“
Including yours?”

The other man laughed. “Of course not, you clunch. I
am the only one making any sense these days.”

“
Yes, well,” the earl muttered. “I
was looking for Derringer. Have you seen him?”

Adam gave him a shrewd glance. “Are you going to
berate the dangerous duke over his treatment of a certain young
lady that my wife likes to talk about constantly?”

“
That is none of your concern,
Prestwich, and I’ll thank you to stay out of my
affairs.”

“
Be easy, Greville,” Northwicke
said. “I am sure Adam thinks you should. Just be careful that you
don’t anger him too much. Derringer is more than just dangerous. He
is ruthless and some say heartless as well.”

Levi’s sense of humor saved him yet again. He
laughed. “Do you know, some people call him Lord Heartless? I
wonder if Hart knows. He would find it amusing, I am sure.” The
earl shrugged and a troubled expression briefly crossed his face as
he added, “Well, he would if he was amused by anything at all.”

Northwicke gave him a rather strange look. “Just how
well do you know the duke, Vi?”

Levi shrugged again. “I don’t know. Not at all and
better than most, I would say,” he replied with a half-smile. “Hart
doesn’t befriend just anyone and he never turns his back on those
he does befriend. He’s an enigma, that’s the long and short of
it.”

“
Quite,” Lord Connor murmured. “I
have to find my wife, gentlemen. Excuse me.” He started to walk
away but paused and turned back to the earl. “I saw Derringer
headed for the exit, by the way. He looked none too
pleased.”

“
Thank you,” Levi said with a
perplexed look at Northwicke’s odd behavior. Adam shrugged and took
his leave as well.

Lord Greville turned to go and found Miss Suzanne
Weatherby blocking his way. “Oh, my lord, how do you do?” she
asked, her rouged lips tipping up in a seductive smile.

“
I am well, Miss Weatherby,” Levi
murmured politely.
I was, in any case.

She laid her hand on his arm in a conspiratorial
manner. “I have missed you, my lord.”

Like a cat misses a mouse.
“Indeed?”

“
Oh, yes,” the auburn-haired
beauty said in a seductively arousing voice that Levi couldn’t help
but react to. He was only human, after all, and the woman was
dashed beautiful. “I have thought of nothing since that dance we
shared and I find I quite long for another.”

“
I am afraid I cannot oblige you,
ma’am.”
Thank God, Zeus, Hades, and the devil.
His gaze
darted to the door, a tightening in his chest hinting at
panic.

She pouted prettily and turned guileless green eyes
up to him. “I have been dying to waltz with you, my lord. Have you
not been wanting to hold me in your arms?”

Can she be any more forward? It is positively
nauseating.
“Alas, fair lady, I am promised for the last waltz.
I am sorry.”
Nearly
as sorry as a man who has suddenly
struck it rich.

“
Can you not un-promise it?” she
asked as her hand slipped to his chest and started a downward path
to his hard stomach and lower still.

He grasped her hand and held it captive before she
could reach her ultimate destination. “No, Miss Weatherby, I
cannot. And might I add that your behavior is disgraceful,” he said
through clenched teeth.

Miss Weatherby only smiled, something in her
beautiful eyes alerting Levi to imminent danger.

~~~~~~

Aurora was parched. Logically, she entered the
refreshment room.

Instead of the lukewarm lemonade she anticipated,
she found the Earl of Greville and Miss Suzanne Weatherby. The earl
held the hand of the beautiful redhead, smiles of apparent delight
wreathing both faces. Their disregard for their surroundings was
appalling. Anyone could enter and see the scandalous position they
were in.

Aurora felt a twinge in her heart that curiously
resembled disappointment.

This was her dance, she thought rebelliously. And no
Friday-faced hussy was going to steal it from her!

Aurora marched up to them and smiled with all the
condescension she could muster. “Am I to offer congratulations, my
lord?”

“
Good God, no!” the earl exclaimed
with a horrified look. He dropped the lady’s hand as if it was a
hot coal and turned to Aurora. “This is not what you think,
Rory.”

Aurora ignored the pleasant swirl of emotion in her
breast at his use of her personal name.

“
Oh, but it is,” Miss Weatherby
contradicted with a feline smile. “I have been compromised by you,
Lord Greville. Now you must marry me to save face.”

“
The devil I do, you little
hellcat!” He glanced at Aurora. “I apologize for my language, Miss
Glendenning,” he murmured. He turned back to the beautiful witch.
“I will not marry you and I did not compromise you. How can you be
compromised in the middle of Almack’s?”

“
We have been in here alone all of
five minutes. The
ton
requires much less as
proof.”

Society was just as nonsensical as Miss Weatherby
insisted, Aurora knew. They would delight in shredding a few
reputations, forcing a marriage guaranteed to be a misery.

“
Who do you think they will
believe, Greville?” the beauty hissed. “You are known as a rake and
libertine and I am the famously beautiful Miss Suzanne Weatherby, a
most proper young lady.”

“
Proper, hah! You are nothing more
than a courtesan in the garb of a lady…barely. I will not attach
my name to that of a whore,” he said, raking her over with
contempt-filled eyes.

The look on his face made Aurora uneasy. What if he
ever found out…?

Miss Weatherby slapped him and Aurora gasped. “How
dare you, sir?” the beauty said shrilly. “I will show you, you
bastard.” She marched away with her nose in the air and the light
of war shining in her emerald orbs.

Lord Greville muttered a foul oath. With an
apologetic glance at his companion, he added, “Forgive me.”

“
Do not worry so, my lord,” Aurora
said. She forced a confidence into her expression that she didn’t
feel. “I will help you come about, you’ll see.”

“
How?”

With a tight knot in her
middle, Aurora glanced up at him. “Let us just say I have a few
tricks up my sleeve, my Lord Greville. Things the
ton
doesn’t know that
they may find far more interesting than the accusations of London’s
most notorious…lady.”

*

Scandal, courtesy of Suzanne Weatherby, awaited them
in the ballroom when Levi entered with Aurora on his arm. Several
pairs of accusing eyes were trained in their direction, those of
Suzanne and her father foremost among them. As was often the case
at executions, the impending death of a reputation was looked on
with almost as much glee.

“
How do you propose to help,
Sprite?” Levi asked low enough that it didn’t go beyond her
hearing.

“
I will tell the truth,” was
Aurora’s enigmatic reply.

Brow furrowed at her odd tone, all he could say was
“Very well.”

Bri made her way in their direction along with
Verena and Miss Ellison, Adam and Northwicke trailing along behind.
The countess took up a martial stance as if she would fight anyone
who dared to come near her beloved cousin. The gentlemen stood with
the earl and Verena stood on Aurora’s other side with Miss
Ellison.

As far as vanguards went, it was insufficient. But
it was better than nothing.

“
Greville, you have compromised my
daughter,” Lord Weatherby blustered as he advanced on the earl with
his spiteful daughter in tow. “I demand that you do the honorable
thing and marry her.”

Levi stared at the man as if he’d lost his head.
“Your daughter was not compromised, my lord,” he bit out.
If
anyone was, it was I.

“
Do you have proof of that?” the
man asked belligerently.

There was an answering murmur from the assembled
crowd. Even the patronesses, who possessed the power to put a stop
to it from the very start, stood back and watched the contretemps
with ill-concealed delight mixed with only a small measure of
contempt. It was sickening to see adults behaving so very much like
children.

“
Of course I have no proof,
Weatherby. How would I have proof?”

“
Miss Weatherby was not
compromised, my Lord Weatherby,” Aurora inserted in her soft tones.
The crowd silenced instantly. “I attended them the whole time.
Nothing untoward occurred.”

Levi gave Aurora a searching look. She returned a
barely perceptible nod that he follow her lead. He looked back at
his would-be wife and her father. “Miss Glendenning is right.
Nothing happened.”

“
And who are you?” Lord Weatherby
asked insolently, as if her identity had anything at all to do with
her honesty.

Aurora smiled brilliantly at him. “As Lord Greville
just said, I am Miss Glendenning…of the Staffordshire
Glendennings,” she added after the briefest of pauses. “Who are
you?”

Apparently, no one there had known she was one of
the Staffordshire Glendennings, a family that could trace their
noble lineage as far back as William the Conqueror. There may not
have been any titles in the family, but one of Aurora’s ancestors
was one of the knights who crossed over from Normandy beside the
first King of England—King William’s most favored knight, in
fact.

The hush that fell over the guests was deathly. Then
it became a buzz of sound as everyone turned to the lady or
gentleman next them.

“
How utterly ridiculous to believe
the word of a person based entirely upon their lineage.” She turned
laughing eyes up to the earl and froze at the look of suspicion she
saw there.

“
What is it?” she
whispered.

Levi murmured something placating and wondered what
else she had kept from him. And she had lied for him so easily,
quite as if it came naturally to her to tell less than the truth.
What did he actually know of this girl?

“
But you cannot be!” insisted
Baron Weatherby, quite beside himself with outrage. “You cannot be!
I knew the late Theodore Glendenning. He had no
children.”

“
Of course he did not, Lord
Weatherby,” Aurora offered, her soothing voice washing over the
assemblage. “He was my father’s brother and never wed. But I am
indeed a Glendenning, my lord. I am sorry if this distresses
you.”

“
All stuff and nonsense,” the
baron sputtered rudely. “And this has naught to do with Greville’s
compromising my Suzy.”

“
It does not, does it?” Miss
Glendenning’s thoughtful tone swept over the crowd. “The fact is,
Lord Weatherby, I fail to see how anyone could have been
compromised. We were in the refreshment room. Anyone could have
entered at any time. This disturbance should never have occurred.
”

Dark laughter floated over the gathering. The crowd
turned as one to the door, witnessing the odd merriment of the Duke
of Derringer. Lord Connor had been mistaken. Derringer had not
left. Then again, what patroness, or lock for that matter, could
stop Lord Heartless if he chose to return?

Applause filled the room. The duke’s delight
apparently knew no bounds. Levi couldn’t repress a groan, knowing
his friend well enough to suspect they were in for a scandal of
monumental proportions.

When he had everyone’s attention Derringer stopped
clapping. His dark gaze surveyed the crowd, finally settling on
Lord Weatherby. “Good evening, Weatherby. Enjoying the party, are
you?”

The baron sputtered out a response, flummoxed by the
duke’s mild tone.

“
For the love of…” Levi
muttered, closing his eyes briefly.

Derringer smirked, a flare of what seemed to be
annoyance lighting his black eyes. “I do hope you are enjoying
yourself, Weatherby. It will be the last gathering you will attend
for quite some time, I should imagine.”

Levi, although the wronged one, felt the need to
step forward at his friend’s dire words. “Hart, this is really not
necessary.”

The look he received for his impertinence was
eloquent. “This doesn’t concern you, my lord.”

“
How does this not concern
me?”

The blasphemy that emerged from the duke’s mouth had
mothers all over the ballroom clapping their hands over their
daughters’ ears. Nervous giggles were heard throughout. Levi threw
his hands up in surrender, retreating from the contretemps for fear
of making matters worse.

“
As I was saying before I was so
rudely interrupted,” the duke began again, moving further into the
room to stand before the silent Baron Weatherby, “this will be your
last party for some time. No one will want to entertain your
daughter when she is no better than she should be.” Leaning closer,
he added in a stage whisper, “Trust me, I know.”