The Viscount's Sweet Temptation (5 page)

“Yes. I believe it will snow tomorrow.”

“Perhaps Papa will harness a few of the sleighs so we might have a ride before the ball.”

Harriet stretched her legs and wiggled her stockinged feet in the warmth from the fire. “Do you think there will be so much snow? I hope not. Burney says not all of my cousins have arrived. I’d hate for them to have to travel in the snow.”

“You are right. I long for a sleigh ride, but not for the snow necessary to accommodate us.” Mama was silent for a bit, looking toward the orange glow, then spoke. “Your Lord Morley is quite the Bond Street Beau.”

“Isn’t he?” She quickly caught herself. “But he’s not my Lord Morley. He’s merely Ellie’s brother.”

“He reminds me of your father when we met. So handsome, and I would guess there was no padding in his clothes.”

“Mama!” Harriet fanned her face. Her mother never spoke of such things to her, and how much more embarrassing it was that she did so over Archie.

“Now do not tell me you and Ellie don’t discuss all your beaux in minute detail. Young ladies haven’t changed so much in twenty years.”

“But he is not my beau. And I couldn’t speak to Ellie about her own brother.”

“I imagine he’d be quite the skilled lover.”

“Mama, please. I wouldn’t know.” She couldn’t bear it. At any moment, she would cover her ears and run screaming from the room.

“Forgive me, my dear. But it has struck me that you are a young woman in full, now, and will probably leave me soon to live with your husband. There’s no more pretending you don’t know what goes on between a woman and a man.” She cleared her throat. “A husband and wife.”

A sad note in her mother’s voice tugged at Harriet’s heart. What would Mama do when she and Miriam were both gone? Lee had been away from home for several years, but she and her sister spent so much of their days with Mama. “I had hoped to have another year before having to choose. Do you suppose Grandpapa has made the choice for me?”

Mama laughed. “He might think so, but your father will speak his mind.”

“I don’t find the idea of Papa’s choice any more comforting. Why can’t I choose my own husband? I am the one who must live with him.”

Reaching across the space between the chairs, her mother took her hand. “Perhaps you will. Or perhaps you will be pleased with the man your grandfather has in mind.”

“I doubt that. He’s probably forty years old with six children. Why else would he require the assistance of a duke to claim a bride?”

“My father is never that cruel,” Mama said. “His schemes run to land acquisition and the joining of powerful families. He would have made a grand king.”

Harriet sighed once more. As tired as she was from the days of travel, she wouldn’t sleep this night. Even the excitement of the Christmas Eve ball on the morrow couldn’t stir her. She did not want to face Grandpapa in the morning and hear whom she would marry.

~*~

Taking another nibble of her porridge, Harriet listened to the laughter around her. There were so many unknown faces at breakfast she wondered where Grandpapa had found all the young men and ladies who were now apparently betrothed to her cousins. With all the conversations going at once, she was unable to ascertain who was marrying whom.
 

Or maybe she didn’t want to know. By all appearances, her cousins were quite happy. Was she the only one here who had yet to learn her fate? And would she and her betrothed be able to laugh so easily?

A spot-faced footman spoke beside her. “Pardon me, Lady Harriet. You are to join His Grace in the library at once.”

All those sitting nearby stopped speaking for a moment, then whispers followed her from the room.

She had thought Grandpapa would at least wait until after the holidays to make his pronouncement. Or until she finished breaking her fast. But maybe it was better to face her fate on an empty stomach.

Chapter Nine

Harriet heard the shouting long before she neared the library. Her father and grandfather never raised their voices at each other. Well, Papa never raised his. Good heavens, what could be amiss? It most certainly had to do with the man intended to be her betrothed. This did not bode well. Even the footman kept a hurried pace as if he wished to be away from the location.

With the servant standing at the door, she couldn’t delay her entry. Her stomach dropped at the thought of finally meeting the man her grandpapa had chosen. Pinching her cheeks and pasting on a smile, she approached the door as the footman opened it. And stopped so quickly she was nearly struck when he yanked it closed.

Lord Morley stood beside her father opposite the imposingly immense desk where the duke sat.

Why had Archie come to Danby Castle?

Her jaw dropped, but she caught herself just before Grandpapa glanced her way with an odd gleam in his eye. She smiled and dipped her head in acknowledgement.

Her father and Archie had their backs to her, their faces in profile while they threw their verbal punches. Her father’s rant continued unbroken. “If you had any intention of seeing my daughter safe, you would have returned her to the inn posthaste. You cannot convince me you had any other than dishonorable intentions by doing otherwise.”

Archie stood several inches taller than her father and used it most advantageously. He glowered down at Papa. “I had advised my driver to turn around as soon as the conditions allowed. You were on that road. You know how poor the surface was. If Smithers were to try to turn the carriage, we might have landed in a ditch rather than simply losing that wheel. I had nothing but your daughter’s well-being in mind when I instructed my man to wait until it was safe.”

Grandpapa appeared to be enjoying the argument, his elbows resting on the arms of his sturdy chair, fingers steepled before his face. He nodded on occasion, pursing his lips at other moments as if considering the merit of the statement. A judge presiding over his court. Or a king.

Harriet merely shook her head and waited at her safe distance. She couldn’t recall anyone raising Papa’s ire to such extent. It was really quite amusing to behold, if she weren’t aware that Archie’s reputation, his very name, must be under severe scrutiny. Should she confess his innocence? It was the right thing to do.

“Papa, if I might have a word–”

He spun on her, one brow up, the other sharply slashing downward. “When I need your prattles, I will ask for them.” He opened his mouth to further harangue poor Morley when Grandpapa cleared his throat.

“I believe I should enjoy hearing what young Lady Harriet wishes to say on the matter.” He nodded ever so regally at her, which sent shivers coursing over her skin. She’d never had to confess anything to him. Never done anything to displease him. How would he take her news?
 

She stepped closer to the desk, but not too close. “Papa. Grandpapa. It would seem Lord Morley is being blamed for a situation not of his doing.”

Papa growled. “Yet in my carriage, you agreed he was escorting you to visit his dying sister.”

The duke tilted his head, looking first at her father, then back to her. She drew a deep breath. “He was protecting me. I had seen his carriage from my window and slipped inside while he dined at the inn.”

Grandpapa’s voice interrupted whatever her father was about to respond, but the older man’s words seemed to contain more restrained laughter than anger. “And why would you run away with this young man with no word to your parents?”

“I didn’t realize Lord Morley was traveling alone. I never considered the possibility. When I saw the Wrenthorpe crest, I assumed my friend Lady Eleanor, his sister, and her family were at the inn.”

“I ask again,” the duke said more firmly. “Why did you not tell your parents what you were about?”

She bit her lip. If Archie could lie for her, she could bear admitting the truth for him. “I wished to avoid coming here, Grandpapa.”

His eyebrows rose and he rocked back in his chair. “You wished to avoid seeing me?”

“Yes, Grandpapa. Well, no, sir, not really. I wished to avoid meeting the man you had chosen for me to marry.”

At that, he burst out laughing. Harriet hoped the discussion was over, the tension washed away. But it wasn’t to be. Her father wiped a hand over his face. Archie met her gaze with a smile that warmed her clear to her toes. She longed to ask him why he had come, but would wait until Grandpapa dismissed them.

When the duke finally caught his breath, he resumed the severe countenance, which he directed her way. “You presume to know my plans for you, do you? And believe me incapable of choosing a suitable husband for you?”

“Well, sir, how can you know what I wish for in a husband?”

“How ridiculous a question. I was married all those years ago. I know what is required of a husband. You have nothing but silly books and even sillier dreams on which to form an opinion. Nonsense! You are just like your mother was, a foolish dreamer.”

“But Grandpapa—”

“Don’t interrupt your grandfather, child,” her father snapped. “I taught you better.”

She mouthed an apology to Papa and tried to focus on what Grandpapa was saying. But it was quite difficult with Archie standing so near. Like a bee toward the first bloom in spring, she was drawn to him. What were his thoughts in all of this?

Dipping her head slightly, she peered from the corner of her eye to find him watching her. His hair was slightly disheveled, his cravat askew as if tied without a mirror. With his heavy coat off, his wool coat and rather plain black waistcoat bore the wrinkles of travel. He had not groomed himself for a meeting with her grandfather. What could have been so urgent?

Realizing Grandpapa had asked her a question, she asked him to repeat himself.
 

The duke pierced her with his pointed gaze. “I asked, do you wish to be married here in the castle or at the church in town?”

She grew faint at his pronouncement. “I don’t wish to be married, Grandpapa! Not to the man you chose, or to Lord Morley. You mustn’t punish him for my imprudent actions. He doesn’t deserve to have me forced on him. None of this was his doing—”

Archie placed a hand on her sleeve. “I will not have you coming to my rescue as if I were a lad in leading strings. I can and will speak for myself.”

Chapter Ten

For a moment, Archie questioned the wisdom of his coming to Danby Castle, but it passed in the blink of an eye. Lady Harriet was proving quite troublesome, taking a man’s place in this discussion. It would not do. When they were married, he would be sure she understood he fought his own battles. He tugged at his cravat, which was suddenly very constricting, and faced the duke. “I accept my role in this charade, Your Grace. While not the one to conceive of the scheme, I was complicit in carrying it out. However, I had your granddaughter’s reputation in mind, not my own.”

“I see. You sought to be her Sir Gawain, protecting her from herself.”

“Yes, sir. Your Grace. I mean, no sir. I’m not sure I understand your meaning. I knew her to be a close friend of my sister’s and only thought to do for her as I should hope another might for my own sisters.”

The duke nodded, his jaw moving about as he considered the statement. “And you feel duty-bound now to marry my granddaughter, to further protect her reputation?”

“Yes, Your Grace.” He grimaced and shook his head. “Forgive me. This is all very sudden. I have not prepared the sort of speech one might give a prospective father-in-law—or grandfather-in-law—when asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage. I will not claim an undying and romantic sort of emotion some might declare in times such as this, as I do not believe such a love is believable on such short acquaintance.”

The old man’s face remained unchanged. Morley refused to look at Harriet to see how she reacted to his odd declaration of not loving her. As such, he didn’t see her take a breath to speak.

“But, Archie,” she cried in a hushed voice. “You don’t need to do this. They don’t even know about the kiss.”

Morley would swear the duke smiled before bellowing in perfect harmony with Lord Alderford. “A kiss?”

Rounding on Harriet, Morley grabbed her upper arms. “They do now. But it doesn’t matter. I wish to have you as my wife, Harriet. In spite of the voice of reason that told me to hie straight to Bath, I found I couldn’t do so. No matter how we try to bury the trip in my carriage, someone might learn of it. Your reputation could be in tatters, your husband wanting nothing to do with you. And I couldn’t bear the thought. You don’t deserve to be ruined over so small a slip in behavior.”

“Is it truly so? You wish to marry me? In spite of—”

“In spite of your foolish schemes. In spite of your penchant to act without thought. In spite of how you emasculate me before your father and grandfather. I will not flatter you with pretty declarations on love, but if Eleanor finds your company so pleasant, I am certain we shall suit each other.”

She gnawed her lower lip, drawing his gaze there and making him long for a taste. He forced himself to look into her misty eyes. “You must marry someone Harriet. Say it will be me. Will you marry me?”

“I will. Yes. I will!” She threw her arms around his neck, and he finally took the kiss he craved. He held his lips to hers, breathing in her sweet pea essence.

In the back of his mind, he registered silence in the room and realized the question hadn’t been settled. He pressed Harriet to step back, and he faced the two men. “Your Grace, I am aware I am making a mull of all this, but perhaps now you might bestow your blessing on us.”

Silence echoed off the bookshelves as the old man studied him. The duke’s glance towards Lord Alderford surely didn’t seek advice. Danby drew the moment out until Morley thought he would burst. At last the man rose and extended his arm with a broad smile. “Welcome to the family, young man.”

The moment Morley released the duke’s hand, Harriet filled his arms again. He fought to push her a respectable distance away. How had he thought he could control her once they married?

Harriet’s laughter filled his heart. “I must write Ellie this very day! She will not believe the news I send her. And to think I dreaded this visit.”