A Pair of Rogues (23 page)

Louisa grimaced at Robert. Their attempts at subterfuge had not been adequate to stifle the servants’ gossip, but at least Ned had concealed Christina’s identity.

A footman opened the door to reveal a wan, disheveled Ned, whose anxious face sported a full night’s growth of beard. Behind him in the corridor stood what appeared to be a boy, his thin, huddled figure loosely clothed in black, his face partially covered by a large, brown cap and a woolen stock.

“This is the servant I spoke to you about, Louisa,” Ned said with a sharp, direct look into her eyes. “I believe you expressed a desire to speak with him.”

“Yes!” Louisa hurried forward. “Do bring him in! I am so glad you have come. And you see, you have caught Robert just in time, for he was about to journey north. But perhaps he will wait.”

Once they were inside the room, she told Marston and the footman that they did not wish to be disturbed. She then closed the door on the stony-faced servants.

* * * *

Ned saw the lack of sleep on their faces, the signs of suppressed fury in Robert’s eyes, and misery gripped his chest. He turned to extend a supportive hand to Christina just as she removed the cap from her head.

Her blond, silky hair fell down onto her shoulders. She shook it out of her eyes.

Even as he faced the grimmest moment of his life, Ned could not help experiencing a feeling of pleasure at the sight of its golden gleam.

“Christina, how could you?” Robert began in a scathing tone.

Ned instinctively sprang to her defense. “Wait right there, Robert. You must give her time to explain. Christina’s intentions were decent. And what may appear to you to be an unpardonable sin was nothing more than a childish prank gone awry.”

“I do not need you, of all people, to tell me how to address my sister, Ned. Her prank, as you call it, has led to her ruin, I make no doubt.”

This last phrase, uttered with scorn, had the effect of prodding Ned’s ire. Reminding himself of his own ghastly reputation, which he for so long had helped to cultivate, he strove to contain his temper. He could not let Robert believe the worst of Christina. Or of himself, if he wanted Robert’s blessing.

“Nothing of a drastic nature has taken place, I assure you, and Christina will confirm what I have said. Nor has anyone but the four of us in this room any inkling that she passed the night in my company. Her reputation is safe.”

Robert’s jaw which had firmly been squeezed shut now opened incredulously. “So you would bring her back and ask us to pretend that nothing has occurred.”

“Nothing did occur!” Ned almost cursed at his friend’s stupidity. “And, of course, I do not expect you to pretend. I have every intention of marrying Christina if you decide such a step is both desirable and right.”

* * * *

Christina flinched beneath his choice of phrase. Up until now, she had allowed the men to go on. She had wondered how Ned would express himself upon the subject of their marriage.

They had spent the morning riding side by side in gloomy silence. Christina had not been certain how much of Ned’s dread had been due to the prospect of facing Robert and how much to the probability that he would be forced to wed her.

She had prepared herself to intervene. Now that she knew what his feelings were, she could stop this charade before it crushed her any further.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Robert, who had been pacing, had seized on Ned’s words even more rapidly and he broke in, “You would marry her, you say, but there is no need? Christina, is this true?”

She nodded and again tried to speak.

But for a second time, Robert forestalled her. He seemed arrested by a thought. “You mean no one saw her? No one has any notion of this prank besides her maid?”

“No one,” Ned said. His features were stony as he reported, “Once I discovered that she had ridden with me in place of my groom, I took pains to keep anyone from catching sight of her face. I left Levington behind with a fabricated story explaining why I had to get back to London. A farmer gave us shelter in his barn, but he believed her to be my groom.”

Robert’s gaze moved back and forth between them as if he detected their strain. “And nothing happened between you in the barn?”

Christina saw the muscle in Ned’s tightened jaw give a twitch.

“I have said that I will marry Christina if you so wish. We have both made it clear there is no need. You may take it that nothing material occurred between us.”

Nothing material? Only that she had found her heart and her peace, which he was doing his best to wrest from her now.

Robert resumed his pacing.

Christina’s distraught gaze moved to her sister-in-law’s face, where she caught an expression of distress.

Robert came to a halt in front of his sister. “Then, all is not lost,” he said. “If no one is the wiser, I do not see a need for Christina to marry Ned at all.”

“But Robert, surely—” Louisa began.

Christina’s gaze flew to Ned’s, but the relief she had expected to see there was not in evidence. Instead, Ned stood frozen, his jaw locked with unexpressed grief. His eyelids flickered, once as if he’d been struck, before he schooled his features again into a tight mask.

“Christina, you will marry Lord Musgrove as soon as he comes up to scratch, and he need never know you were nearly compromised by the greatest scoundrel in London. You may count yourself fortunate indeed that this foolishness of yours has not wrecked your life.

“And as for you, Ned”—Robert turned back, and as if a cork had been loosed from a bottle, he spewed out all his pent-up wrath— “I know my sister would never have been so foolish except for your corrupting influence. That you have no regard for society’s rules is your own affair. That you would purposely set out to corrupt a young, innocent female—one moreover who belongs to a family with whom you have been intimate—”

Christina saw Ned standing stiff at attention like a vanquished soldier, bearing Robert’s harsh accusations with no protest, and the sight of his precious features clenched against the pain made her desperate. She knew how unfair Robert’s charges were. She also thought she knew how much each unjust phrase chipped away at Ned’s heart.

She couldn’t stand it any more. She couldn’t stand for Ned to take the blame for what she had done or for anyone to harm Ned.

She took the three short steps between herself and Robert. “That is enough! I say, stop it right this instant! I will not permit you to abuse Ned, when you must know how much he has done to try to save me from myself.”

All eyes turned her way: Robert’s with shock, Louisa’s with relief. Even Ned had been jerked out of his stiffness.

“You have no idea,” Christina continued, glaring at her brother, “how many times I nearly disgraced this family in some irreparable way. And each and every time, Ned was there to stop me from making a mistake he knew I would regret. He always came to rescue me. He is the only person who has ever understood me.

“And throughout these many months, he has acted with the purest, most selfless instincts of any gentleman I have ever known. He is good and kind and noble, and he has proved the best of friends. And if he would have me for a wife—”

Christina faltered over these last words. They had cost her all her daring. But her courage did not fail her, as she said, “—I should be the proudest and happiest woman alive.”

She hardly dared to look at Ned’s expression, but when she ventured a peek she saw a sight to gladden her heart.

His crooked smile, which had always drawn her with its fun, held so much more than mere amusement now. In his gaze, she saw a bright, sharp gleam of pride. And as she returned his stare, its glow deepened and deepened, lightening her heart with every passing moment as it bid her to accept something more.

She felt his need of her, his desire to give her all she would ever want, and the same aching tenderness she had experienced at his hands last night and so very long ago.

“Christina—” Robert started to speak.

Ned cut him off, his eyes never leaving her face. “Excuse me, Robert. I believe it is my turn to speak.”

He moved to take up her hands, and the warmth from his spread through her. Still speaking to Robert, though he directed his gaze at her, he began huskily, “Remember, Robert, when you said that all you desired in life was to see me humbled before a woman? Well, I am happy to give you that pleasure now.”

He dropped to one knee and, looking up at Christina, he clutched both her hands to his chest. “I declare myself humbled before the Lady Christina Lindsay.  I love her with all my heart and adore her with all my might.”

His eyes were filled with the longing of love as he continued, “I never knew what it was to desire a wife until I met her. I never knew what courage and loyalty could be until she showed me. I want nothing more than to make her happy, to give her a home, to father her children and watch them grow.

“I give you my word, Robert, that I will make a good husband to your sister. I know I am not worthy to clean her boots, but I shall never give you cause to doubt, and I shall love her and keep her till death us do part.

And if my past still concerns you, I vow that no drop of wine shall cross my lips unless it is poured by her hand. Her fortune will remain her own, safe from me. And no other woman will ever share my bed or even my thoughts.

“All I beg is a chance to prove how much I will love her for the rest of our lives.”

Christina’s throat was so clogged with tears, she could only return Ned’s gaze with watery eyes.

Louisa took noisy refuge in her handkerchief.

It was left to Robert to respond, although he was so dumbstruck, he could scarcely turn words into speech.

“Well . . .” he said . . .”well, well, I must say. This puts a whole new face on the business. I am sorry, Ned, if I have accused you unjustly. I had no idea—I never thought that you of all people—and Christina for goodness sake! Well, I—”

“Robert”—Louisa emerged from her hanky—”why do we not give Christina and Ned some privacy?”

He jerked, not a little embarrassed. “Yes—at least, I presume that would be all right—I suppose they are engaged, so it should not matter. We can sort out the legalities later. Send a notice to the Times and all that. That agree with you, Ned?”

Christina, still looking down into Ned’s precious face, saw a glint of his old humor. His boyish, laughing eyes shone up at her.

“That will be perfectly fine, Bobby boy. And you have no need to worry about the proprieties. I have far too much respect for my affianced bride to seduce her in your drawing room.”

“Oh, well—” Robert gave an embarrassed chuckle. “No need to be concerned any more. What I mean to say is, engaged and all that. None of my business, really.”

“Come, dear.” Louisa took her husband by the arm, and beaming a smile back at the couple, pulled Robert away.

Christina could barely wait until the door closed behind them to run her hands through Ned’s thick, ebony hair. She bent to plant a kiss upon his forehead, which served to bring him rapidly to his feet. He swept her into a suffocating embrace.

“Do you truly love me, then?” she asked, when her breathing was finally restored.

“Not at all. I only live to please Robert.”

Christina laughed, but a tender part of her needed to hear his declaration all over again in private. Her eyes made her plea.

“I do love you.” Ned relented, speaking softly in her ear. “And I have for quite some time.

“Yet, you would not tell me. Didn’t you know I’ve been in love with you since childhood?”

“Is that why you tried to drive me frantic with your pranks?”

“Of course. I had to make you pay attention. How else could I capture a rogue as experienced as you?”

“I wanted you to catch me. Lord, how I wanted it! But I knew you deserved someone better than me. The trouble was, I couldn’t think of anyone who could do a better job of keeping you out of mischief than myself.”

“Shall I promise you to stay out of trouble? Or would you suffer tediously with a tame sort of wife?”

“I will take you any way you want to be.”

“Are you sure you won’t be bored with a wife who adores you to distraction?”

“Not if it is you,” Ned said seriously, drawing back to promise her with his eyes. “I meant what I said to Robert. I love you because you are beautiful and brave, yes, and bewitching and beguiling. But most of all, I need you, for you see something in me that others never have seen. When I am with you, I am no longer alone.”

His words echoed her own feelings so plainly, Christina felt no more need for questions now.

She offered up her face for his kisses, discovering in them all the tenderness she had missed most of her life.

Her restless emptiness was gone; her long overburdened heart felt full and light.

“This doesn’t mean,” Ned said later, when they had settled down to sit with Christina’s head cradled on his chest and his arm held tightly around her, “that we need to conform completely to society’s mores.”

“No?”

“No, I have wanted to flaunt one particular more at least. The one that says that husband and wife shall inhabit different rooms and sleep in different beds. I find that much too inhibiting for a rogue.”

Christina relished the blush that infused her from her head to her toes. “As a fellow rogue, I do most heartily agree. We shall simply have to make our own set of rules with respect to those habits.”

“How soon?”

“Have you no more patience, sir?”

“None at all. I’ve wasted enough of my life alone, without you.”

“Then you have my permission to apply to my brother for a speedy wedding, as soon as ever the arrangements can be made.”

Ned gathered her snugly in both of his arms, and his voice was full of emotion as he said, “Then, a fine pair of rogues we will be.”

Copyright © 1997 by Patricia Wynn Ricks

Originally published by Fawcett

Electronically published in 2004 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads