The Lady Forfeits (19 page)

Diana turned to see Lord Dominic Vaughn standing threateningly in the doorway, the pistol in his own hand pointed directly at the waistcoated chest of Charles Prescott.

Diana’s knees almost buckled in the relief of knowing Gabriel had not come here alone, that he’d had the
forethought to bring his friend with him. As Gabriel had once told her, he had several times trusted Vaughn with his life, and now it seemed he was trusting him with her life too.

‘It appears we are at an impasse,’ Charles drawled.

‘Really?’ Dominic said pleasantly, only the icy greyness of his eyes a warning that his mood far from matched that tone. ‘I have already shot and killed one villain this past month; I would not hesitate to dispatch another piece of vermin.’

‘Do not waste your shot, Dominic.’ Gabriel acted so quickly and capably that Diana could barely follow his movements as he used Charles’s distraction with Dominic to move forwards and wrest the pistol from his uncle’s hand with a mere twist of the wrist.

Charles clutched his arm to his chest, his face turning deathly pale. ‘I believe you have broken my wrist, damn you!’

‘You cur!’ Jennifer turned to glare her dislike of Gabriel even as she tended to her husband.

Gabriel appeared unconcerned as he weighed the weapon he held in his hand before answering. ‘No doubt,’ he finally said. ‘I have no idea what ships are leaving the English docks today and neither do I care, as long as the two of you are on board one of them when it departs.’

Jennifer straightened, her expression one of indignation. ‘And how are we to live?’

Hard midnight-blue eyes glittered dangerously. ‘Why should I care how, or even where you live, as long as you are both safely out of my sight?’

‘News of your own behaviour will cause a scandal—’

‘Another one, my dear aunt?’ Gabriel eyed her disdainfully. ‘I assure you, I am beyond being concerned about any further scandal you might care to create with your lies and deceit.’

‘And what of Lady Diana—is she beyond the consequences of a scandal, too?’ Jennifer challenged triumphantly.

His jaw tightened. ‘She—’

‘—will be only too happy to go into a court of law at any time and give evidence against you and your husband for the atrocities you have committed against both Gabriel and his family,’ Diana said firmly as she stepped deliberately to Gabriel’s side in an unmistakable show of support.

The other woman appeared less confident now as she looked at Gabriel. ‘You cannot just dismiss us in this arbitrary way!’

‘Oh, I believe you will find that I can and I will,’ Gabriel said as he once again took hold of Diana’s arm. ‘Be on that ship tomorrow or risk finding yourselves arrested and incarcerated on the day following.’ The utter coldness of his gaze warned that he meant every word that he said.

Diana gave Dominic a grateful smile as he stepped aside to allow her to leave the oppression of the Prescotts’ suite of rooms, keeping his pistol levelled upon the other couple as he and Gabriel then exited the room and shut the door on the indignant faces of the Prescotts.

Diana looked up at Gabriel gratefully. ‘I—’

‘Don’t say another word,’ he warned her through
gritted teeth as they began to ascend the stairs of the inn down to the street below.

‘But—’

‘Best not to speak to him just now, Diana,’ her future brother-in-law murmured softly as they stepped out into the sunshine. ‘Gabriel is slow to let loose his anger, but when he does it is best to beware.’

Diana looked bewildered. ‘But I have done nothing wrong—’

‘Nothing wrong?’ Gabriel repeated incredulously, his face furious as he turned to hold her up in front of him. ‘You followed that woman without thought for your own safety. You allowed yourself to be seen and to be taken to the Prescotts’ rooms and held there as their prisoner. Don’t you dare interrupt me, Diana!’ he said as he gave her a little shake.

‘I did attempt to warn you, my dear,’ Dominic said sympathetically.

‘Stop it, Gabriel!’ She pushed against the hardness of his muscled chest—a totally futile gesture as she still suffered the indignity of remaining firmly held in his grasp.

‘Perhaps I should take Diana back to Westbourne House, old chap?’ Dominic offered pleasantly as two carriages drew up beside them and both grooms jumped down to open the doors. ‘It will give you time to walk off some of that temper, perhaps?’

It seemed as if Gabriel had not heard the other man for several long seconds as he continued to glare down at a rather dishevelled Diana for long tense seconds before a sudden stillness came over him. He drew himself up to his full and imposing height and then
finally released her. ‘That will not be necessary, thank you, Dom.’

Diana turned nervously to Dominic. ‘Perhaps it would is best if I go with you, my lord—’

‘Dominic will return in his own carriage and you will return to Westbourne House with me.’ Gabriel looked down the length of his aristocratic nose at her as he stood waiting for her to step into his carriage. ‘And once there you will go immediately to your bedchamber and remain there until I send for you.’

‘I most certainly will
not
!’ There were two spots of angry colour in her cheeks as she turned to glare up at him. ‘How dare you order me about as if I were no more than—?’

‘I gave her every opportunity, did I not, Dominic?’ Gabriel turned and spoke conversationally to the other man.

Dominic gave a pained wince at whatever else he heard in Gabriel’s tone. ‘You did, yes. But she is young—’

‘Her youth is no excuse for the danger in which she placed herself and others.’ He no longer waited for Diana to step up into the carriage, but instead swung her up into his arms and carried her inside himself, the door immediately closing behind them and leaving them locked in the dark confines of the carriage together.

D
iana immediately began to struggle in Gabriel’s arms to be released, a move that proved totally unsuccessful as he sat down on the padded bench seat with her still held firmly in his arms and the carriage began to move forwards.

‘You will release me this instant!’ she demanded.

‘No.’

She stilled. ‘No?’

‘No.’ He did not even glance down at her, knowing that if he did so, he could not be held accountable for what happened next. She had deliberately and wilfully placed herself in danger. Had made herself the victim of any action the Prescotts might have decided to take against her. Damn it, she had calmly sat in a room making conversation with Charles whilst the man pointed a pistol at her!

“Gabriel!” she protested, squirming at the sudden instinctive tightening of his arms.

He released her so suddenly she almost tumbled to
the floor, only stopping herself just in time to scramble inelegantly to her knees. And still he did not dare risk looking at her. ‘Sit down and do not speak another word until we have arrived back at Westbourne House,’ he ordered autocratically.

Diana sat. Not because Gabriel had ordered her to do so, but because a reaction had now begun to set in at the realisation of the danger they had all been in only minutes ago; her legs were now shaking so badly they would no longer support her. The time she had spent with the Prescotts had all seemed so surreal whilst it was happening, but now that she thought back to the unscrupulous Charles Prescott and the way he had so calmly sat and aimed the pistol he held in his hand directly at her…

She clenched her hands tightly together in order to stop Gabriel from seeing their trembling. Although he surely could not have missed the pallor in her cheeks, and the horror in her shadowed blue eyes, if he bothered to look at her. Which he did not. Instead, he sat across from her in complete self-containment as he silently continued to look out of the carriage window at the people milling about on the busy London streets. Almost as if he had forgotten she was even there!

She turned away as her eyes filled with the heat of her tears, blinking rapidly in an effort to stop them from falling down her cheeks. It was humiliating enough that Gabriel had been put to the trouble of rescuing her from the clutches of the Prescotts; she could not bear for him to see her crying at his haughty dismissal of her.

‘Diana—’

‘Don’t touch me!’ She turned, her face flushing with
temper as she glared fiercely across at him as he sat forwards on his seat with the obvious intention of doing just that; her humiliation really would be complete if she now broke down in tears at the slightest hint of softening towards her in his manner.

Gabriel drew in a sharp breath before sitting back against the plush upholstery to resume his previous silence, his eyes narrowing briefly on Diana’s flushed face before he turned away; she could not have demonstrated any more clearly how abhorrent she now found the prospect of his touch.

Diana was vastly relieved when the carriage came to a halt outside Westbourne House, the groom having barely succeeded in folding down the steps before she moved down them to hurry into the house. Only to come to an abrupt halt in the hallway as Caroline emerged from the drawing room with Malcolm Castle at her side!

‘Malcolm insisted on waiting once he knew that you had returned to town yesterday,’ Caroline informed her happily.

‘Indeed.’ Diana turned a frosty gaze on that young man. ‘To what do I owe this pleasure?’

‘I will tell you everything once we are alone.’ Malcolm’s face was alight with his own pleasure in seeing her again. He was a little under six feet in height, with fashionably styled golden hair and a handsome evenness of features, his brown eyes first widening and then narrowing on the man who had just stepped into the hallway beside Diana. ‘Lord Gabriel Faulkner, I presume.’ He bowed formally.

‘You presume correctly.’ Gabriel’s tone was even as
he inclined his head. ‘If you wish to talk privately with Mr Castle, Diana, then you may use my study—’

‘But I do
not
wish to talk with Mr Castle, privately or otherwise.’ She did not even glance at Gabriel as she instead gave Malcolm a sweepingly disdainful glance, at the same time wondering how she could ever have believed she found his insipid good looks in the least attractive! ‘Indeed, I have no idea what he is even doing here.’

‘Diana!’ her sister gasped.

‘I believe Malcolm is perfectly capable of speaking for himself, Caroline.’ She gave her sister a quelling glance. ‘Well?’ She eyed the man coldly.

Malcolm flushed uncomfortably. ‘I have come to beg your forgiveness, Diana, and to ask you to marry me. I made a mistake when I ended our friendship and have told Vera so,’ he continued in a rush as her expression remained distant.

‘Then I suggest you return to Hampshire post-haste and beg Miss Douglas’s forgiveness instead of mine,’ she said in a bored voice, ‘for I will not have you.’

His eyes widened. ‘But—but—’

‘But we are no longer betrothed, Diana,’ Gabriel murmured as he stood at her side.

She turned those frosty blue eyes on him. ‘And?’

‘And so you are now free to marry where you also love,’ he explained, scowling at the very thought of her marrying this indecisive young man. Neither was he enjoying being a witness to this conversation in the slightest. Oh, he acknowledged that Diana was perfectly within her rights to want to punish Castle for having ended his friendship with her in favour of a woman
with a fortune. But the man had admitted his mistake and was here now pleading for her forgiveness.

Diana gave a humourless smile. ‘In saying that, are you presuming I am in love with Mr Castle?’

Gabriel looked surprised. ‘Of course.’

‘Of course you love me, Diana.’ Malcolm crossed the hallway to take both her hands in his. ‘You have always loved me—’

‘Your conceit really is beyond belief!’ Diana said exasperatedly as she extricated her hands from his clinging grasp. ‘I am going to say this only once, Malcolm, and so I suggest that you listen carefully. I may have believed I loved you once, but I know now that I did not. I have never loved you. I
will
never love you.’

‘But—’

‘You don’t love him?’ Gabriel repeated slowly.

‘I have just said that I do not,’ she confirmed irritably.

‘But you broke off our betrothal because he’d come back to you!’ he exclaimed.

She snorted. ‘I did not break off our betrothal at all, my lord—you did! It was very clear you no longer wished to be engaged to me.’

‘Diana!’ Malcolm protested.

‘Diana?’ Gabriel murmured softly.

‘Yes, that is correct, I am Diana!’ She crossed the hallway with a flounce of her skirts, her face flushed, eyes glittering. ‘A warm, flesh-and-blood woman who is tired of being passed between you two gentlemen as if I have no will or emotions of my own!’ She glared from Malcolm to Gabriel.

Gabriel could only gaze back at her with complete
admiration, even though he was still totally bemused by this whole conversation; damn it, he would not have let Diana go at all if he had not thought her to be in love with Castle, would have fought with every measure at his disposal to prove to her he was worthy of her himself.

She turned as she reached the bottom of the staircase. ‘You, sir, are conceited and lily-livered!’ she told a stunned Malcolm Castle. ‘And you—’ she turned that blazing glare upon Gabriel ‘—are so embittered by the past that you cannot see the worth of marrying a woman who loves you when she is standing right beneath your arrogant nose! Now, if you will excuse me, gentlemen. Caroline…’ she nodded briefly to her incredulous sister ‘…I wish to go up to my bedchamber now. And I hope not to be disturbed by any one of you!’ She ran swiftly up the staircase.

‘Gabriel?’

He dragged his gaze away from Diana as she disappeared round the corner to turn and look enquiringly at the thoroughly dazed Caroline.

‘What just happened?’ she asked.

Gabriel grinned at her. ‘I believe your sister has at last rebelled against subjugating her own needs and desires in order to please everyone else and has decided to please only herself,’ he said.

‘And she was quite magnificent about it.’ Caroline came out of her daze to turn and look pityingly at Malcolm Castle. ‘It would seem that you are not the man my sister loves, after all.’ She began to smile, that smile turning to a chuckle, then to outright laughter. ‘I must
say, Gabriel, I much appreciated her comment about your arrogant nose,’ she teased.

Gabriel was still trying to decide if that remark had really meant what he hoped it had, or if it were merely wishful thinking on his part. Could Diana, after calling him embittered and arrogant, really have also implied that she was in love with him?

‘Is that the same innocent cushion as yesterday that you are destroying, or perhaps another one?’

She should have known that Gabriel would choose not to listen to her wish for privacy—he had never heeded her wishes before, so why should he begin to do so now? She placed the cushion down on the
chaise
and stood up, her profile turned determinedly away from him. ‘Has Malcom gone?’

‘I am sure he cannot have gone far away if you have changed your mind about marrying him,’ he said, testing the water.

‘I have not changed my mind in the slightest!’ Her eyes sparked furiously as she finally turned to him. ‘How he had the audacity to come here at all is beyond me.’ She frowned. ‘What do you want now, Gabriel? To reprimand me once again for what happened earlier this morning? Or perhaps you wish to upbraid me for refusing what is, after all, an advantageous offer of marriage for someone as without funds as I?’

Gabriel’s admiration for her intensified; Caroline had been in the right of it earlier—Diana in this mood was truly magnificent! Her eyes shone as bright as the sapphires they resembled, her creamy cheeks were flushed, her lips red and inviting, and the gentle swell
of her breasts was made all the more eye-catching by quickly rising and falling with her agitated breathing. Truly, wondrously magnificent!

‘If that is the reason you are here, my lord, then I believe I should tell you now that I do not care!’ she carried on before he had the chance to reply. ‘Either about the Prescotts or Malcolm Castle.’ She began to pace the bedchamber. ‘The Prescotts are both too despicable and too beneath contempt to waste my time discussing them any further, and Malcolm can just go to the devil!’

Gabriel was fascinated…no, totally mesmerised by Diana in her present mood of rebellion. ‘I totally agree.’

She gave him a startled glance. ‘You do?’

‘Oh, yes,’ he murmured softly. ‘Diana, why did you ask to be released from our betrothal?’

Her cheeks flushed. ‘I told you, I did not—’

‘
Why
, Diana?’

‘Because
you
wished to be free of it!’

‘I made no such statement—’

‘There was no need for you to do so when your every word and action since your mother’s return to health has shown that you no longer have need of or require a wife.’

‘And
that
was the reason you brought an end to our betrothal?’ Gabriel stared at her in disbelief.

She raised her proud little chin. ‘You have made it more than obvious recently that you have no further need of my company, let alone wish to take me as your wife.’

‘An earl is always in need of a wife, Diana.’

She gave dismissive movement of her shoulders. ‘Then no doubt once you are established back amongst
the
ton
you will eventually settle for some suitable and accommodating young woman.’

‘Suitable and accommodating…’ Gabriel murmured consideringly. ‘And what if I would prefer that my wife be strong-willed and courageous rather than suitable and accommodating?’

‘Then no doubt you will find a woman with those qualities amongst the ton, too.’

‘And if I have already found her?’ he wanted to know.

She swallowed hard. ‘Then I would say that you have acted even more quickly in finding my replacement than I had anticipated.’

‘And if
you
are the woman to whom I refer?’

Diana looked at him wordlessly for several long seconds before her back stiffened and her chin once again jutted proudly. ‘I do not appreciate your toying with me in this way, my lord.’

‘But you will agree with me that you
are
strong-willed and courageous?’ he teased.

‘You gave me every indication earlier that you considered me reckless and headstrong!’ she protested indignantly.

‘It takes a certain courage and will to be both of those things, too,’ he acknowledged ruefully.

Diana huffed. ‘You are talking nonsense, my lord.’

‘I am indeed,’ he conceded. ‘I am discovering love does that to a man.’

She gave a snort. ‘Appreciative as I am of Lord Vaughn’s assistance earlier, I have no wish to discuss him now, either!’

‘Lord Vaughn?’
Gabriel repeated in utter confusion. ‘But—’

‘My lord, I have decided that if I cannot have what I wish in my marriage, then I will not marry at all.’ She could see herself years from now, the elderly and spinster aunt to her sisters’ children—

‘And what is it that you want from marriage, Diana?’ Gabriel prompted huskily.

She gave a sad smile. ‘Something that is completely beyond your comprehension.’ Yes, as time passed she would become an aunt to her many nieces and nephews, and no doubt be considered as slightly eccentric by the rest of her family, and as the long and lonely years passed her by—

‘Diana, if I were to get down upon one knee and beg you to marry me, would you at least consider it?’ Gabriel suited his actions to his words as he knelt before her and took her hands in his. ‘I have been a fool,’ he continued urgently. ‘A blind, insensitive fool! But I am a blind and insensitive fool who is also deeply, irrevocably in love with the woman who happens to be right beneath my arrogant nose.’

Diana stared down at him as if he had completely lost his senses. ‘Get up, do, Gabriel.’ She attempted to pull him to his feet and failed miserably as he refused to be moved.