Four Times a Virgin (Irresistible Aristocrats Book 2) Page 7

  Georgie and Lucy came to her on the elegant green and gold settee and sat, one either side, as the ladies’ tea ritual commenced. Slipping her hand into Georgie’s, she asked quietly, “Are you enjoying yourself?”

  As usual, Lucy spoke first, her voice bubbling with happiness, and didn’t give Georgie a chance to do anything but nod. “I’m having such a wonderful evening.” Lucy gripped Carina’s other hand. “Mr. Templeton was a most entertaining dinner companion. And, Alice...I mean Lady Johnston, although she implored us, Georgie and I, to address her as Alice, as you are such great friends with the Duke and she wants us to become bosom confidants…She told us, Georgie and I,” she leaned around Carina and smiled at her sister, “that she hasn’t many good friends, or at least ones her own age in town in whom she can confide, you know, share one’s secrets wishes with, and she really, really wants us to─”

  “Lucy, sweetheart,” Carina chuckled as she patted her sister’s hand, “take a breath. It’s good you’re enjoying yourself because I was worried you might be overwhelmed.” Slanting her glance towards Georgie, she added, “Both of you.”

  Her fear that Georgie wouldn’t emerge from her cocoon of silence long enough to engage in conversation had almost made Carina send a note of regret to their hosts. She’d worried that Georgie would feel overwhelmed being with this large group of men but, although she’d watched her sister as closely as a hawk all night, Georgie had showed no sign of panic.

  “Are you enjoying it, too?” Her sister lifted her head and Carina saw happiness on her face, a long forgotten emotion that gladdened Carina’s heart.

  “The dinner was easier than I expected and everyone has been most kind.” The corners of Georgie’s mouth turned up and she came closer to a genuine smile than Carina had seen for a long time.

  Carina swallowed down the lump in her throat and offered up a prayer of gratitude. Georgie’s late husband had repeatedly abused her until her confidence was destroyed. Time and patience were needed before she could rediscover her courage. Carina brushed aside her tears before Georgie noticed and lifted her head, but shivered when her eyes met the direct gaze of her adversary.

  Max stood a small distance away and stared at her with unblinking black eyes. She needed to be outwardly strong, even if she quaked like a jelly inside. Max read her far too easily, when she needed the reverse to stay a step ahead of him. She needed his grandfather’s journals and she had no time to lose, because the longer she stayed around Max, the more susceptible she’d become to his sexual advances.

  The Duke was a constant reminder of her past life and a time which she wanted to stay buried. The only way to banish her pain once and for all was to deal with the men involved and then disappear. Ideally, her sisters would have found decent husbands before her own plans came to fruition, and then she’d be free to travel to the exotic places she’d read about.

  Max stepped closer and she braced herself. “Now you’ve joined us, Alice can play for you. She’s eager to demonstrate the musical expertise she’s acquired during her seventeen years.” Despite her polite smile, Max understood her message. Alice was young, innocent, and immature and he was trapped into going ahead with a marriage he’d loathe, because a gentlemen couldn’t cry off from a long term arrangement like his. His attendance was mandatory at Alice’s planned musical performance, and at the altar on his wedding day.

  He spoke to his hovering fiancée, despite not taking his eyes off Carina. “I’m eager to see and hear you play since your mother has extolled your musical talents for several weeks. I look forward to not just this performance, but to the many we will enjoy during our marriage.”

  Lady Johnston senior had hovering near them, waiting for a chance to take charge of the conversation once more. She popped up like a bird eager to catch the early worm at Max’s elbow and chirped in a bird like voice, “Your Grace, you’ll not be disappointed. Our delightful girl looks like an angel, plays and sings like one, and embroiders with as fine a stitch as an Italian nun. Your furniture will be enhanced by her needle-worked linens.” She clasped her hands and heaved a heartfelt sigh. “Alice shall make you a wonderful wife, and my husband and I are delighted that we’ll be able to visit you often.”

  Carina started to laugh but smothered her blunder with a cough. The Duke’s jaw tightened and his fists clenched while his future mother-in-law gushed about how much they looked forward to spending time with the married couple, insensitive to Max’s loathing of her plans. Carina put her hand on his arm, intending it to be another careless irritant, but she surprised herself when she rubbed his taut arm with her thumb in a placating gesture. She was being silly. He didn’t need comforting, especially not from her, and she needed to direct her pity towards Alice, not Max.

  “Oh, Max,” she gushed in an overdone voice, “how lucky you are. At last, you’ll have close family, after being alone for─”

  “Not alone!” The clustered women all jumped at this sharp rebuttal. “My grandfather was with me.”

  “However,” Carina said, “the late Duke’s ideas were somewhat old fashioned and often not in keeping with society’s normal rules. As a young gentleman, deciding which of his rules to accept must have been a constant trial for you. Though I believe you’re now sorting out for yourself which rules to apply to your present life and which to disregard.”

  Alice’s eyes widened and Lady Johnston gasped. “Lady Dorchester,” the older lady said, drawing several short breaths before she could continue. “No one in this room can say what may, or may not, have influenced either the late Duke or the present one. In any case, the past is of no consequence.” She fluttered her gloved hand in the air like a fairy-godmother waving her wand and wiping the entire subject from everyone’s minds. “Thankfully, His Grace now has us, the entire Johnston family, to assist him and his bride in adjusting to married life.”

  The aforementioned bride had plonked herself without ceremony into a nearby chair and sat as if carved from stone. Her fingers twisted the folds of her skirt into haphazard pleats and her bottom lip trembled. For once, Max noticed her distress and, stepping closer to Alice, bent to speak in a soothing tone.

  “Lady Alice, please don’t upset yourself. Lady Dorchester alludes to the time after my grandfather’s passing when I was old enough to form my own opinions. Until then, I’d followed my grandfather’s teachings to the letter. Nevertheless, everyone grows and matures eventually, and so it was time for me to move ahead with my life and put the past behind me.”

  Max dipped a brief nod in the older Lady Johnston’s direction. “I’ll be celebrating my thirtieth birthday very soon. So you, my dear lady, may leave all decisions regarding Alice and our marriage in my hands and rest assured that your daughter’s happiness will be foremost in my mind at all times.”

  Carina clapped her hands, attracting the attention of all standing nearby. “Oh, well said. A striking speech. And knowing you as intimately as I do,” she said, pretending not to see Max’s glower and unspoken warning, “I’m positive that in all your future undertakings with this delightful family, you shall be the consummate gentleman. Caring, selfless and considerate of all their wishes.”

  Lady Johnston frowned, swiveling her head from Carina to Max as if sensing wrong but unable to pinpoint the problem. She looked to her daughter and fluttered a limp hand in her direction. “Alice, please play for us, now. Your Grace, would you be so kind as to turn the sheets of music at the pianoforte?”

  Max bowed deeply to all the ladies. “My pleasure, my lady.”

  He took Alice’s arm and escorted her to a well-polished instrument standing proudly on spindle legs on the raised stage in the corner of the room. Lady Johnston clapped her hands to attract attention and watched while her guests found seats. Alice began to play and a hush fell over the gathered onlookers as her talent shone.

  Several songs later, Carina’s gaze drifted around the room to survey the attending gentlemen. The cream of society was gathered here tonight, probably due to the at
tendance of an influential duke. Several gentlemen claimed close acquaintance with Stirkton, so he hadn’t kept himself aloof from all society. And his investment and trading ventures would throw him into constant contact with his peers and other investors, plus her investigations had uncovered the names of several elite clubs to which he subscribed.

  Despite having to mix with men and women often, the upright and uptight Duke of Stirkton held himself at a distance, which was more mental than physical. Perhaps, Carina mused as Alice’s fingers ran over the ivory keys to produce a passionate sonata, Max’s solitary upbringing prevented him from disclosing more of his private side.

  She blinked several times and straightened in her chair to look over at where Max stood engrossed as he turned the pages of sheet music, and realization dawned. Whenever she’d teased him, Max had been disconcerted and unsure how to respond because he’d had no siblings to roughhouse with and to tease, as she’d done with her sisters. From beside her, Carina heard Lucy’s long sigh.

  “Look,” Lucy said, pointing at the dais to where Max gazed down at Alice with an expression of stunned awe. “See at the Duke’s expression and how he looks at Alice. Perhaps he’s truly going to fall in love with her.”

  Carina’s stomach clenched and, without thought, she rubbed a hand over her middle to ease the ache, hating herself for being upset at the idea of Max in love with someone. It would suit her plans a lot better, so why did it disturb her?

  Georgie chuckled and both sisters looked at her in surprise. “Having Max fall in love with his wife would make their marriage so much easier. However, His Grace appears more in love with the sonata than the musician.”

  The three women swung their eyes back to scrutinize Max’s features, normally shadowed and dark, but which were now lit up as if from an inner fire. Georgie’s observations were correct, as they always were, because she had an instinctive awareness of the emotions of others, even ones they were at pains to hide. Carina tried to fit this newly revealed aspect of his character with what she already knew.

  By his transfixed look, the music held him in thrall, and when Alice’s hands moved to pound out the final cords his eyes drifted closed, as if in ecstasy. With his face relaxed, its harsher crease lines were eased and the curves and hollows of his sculpted face stood out more in relief, increasing his already large masculine appeal.

  When he later walked to join them, Georgie spoke first as if she was the best of friends with the Duke. “Oh, my heavens, Max, was not Alice’s playing simply breathtaking?”

  With one of his brief bows of acknowledgement, a slight bending from his lean waist, he said, “It was indeed breathtaking, Lady Georgiana. I recall my mother playing the very same sonata when I was much younger and I would sit and listen, entranced by the music.”

  Once more, Carina felt that tug of guilt. Her treatment of him had been abominable all evening and her only excuse was that some imp in her nature prodded her to stir the rigid man out of his customary unbending stance. She longed to ruffle him until he snapped, broke his self-inflicted chains and allowed himself to act more like a normal person and less like a duke.

  After hours wavering between tormenting Max until he exploded in front of his future family and was compelled to fulfill her request and get rid of her as fast as possible, and pitying him for being unable to extricate himself from a situation his grandfather had locked him into, the long evening finally drew to a close. Even Max groaned his relief when they’d at last escaped the suffocating atmosphere at the Johnstons’ house. Lord and Lady Johnston gushed over Max’s status, his elegance and his titled acquaintances, until Carina feared she’d disgrace herself and be physically ill on their front steps.

  Carina meanly pictured a future for the detached Duke of Stirkton, in which the Johnston family descended upon him and his wife, en masse, several times a year. Max sat at the pinnacle of London’s social ladder and the Johnston family, the elder lady in particular, dreamed of seating themselves alongside him in the rarified air of the city’s haute ton. If she was a gambler, she’d lay odds that Max would send the Johnstons running, with their tails between their legs, before he and Alice celebrated their first year of wedded bliss, or perhaps wedded disharmony.

  Carina’s only disquieting moment happened as they were seated in the ducal coach and rolling through the heavy road traffic to Woods House. Georgie shared a bench with Max, squeezing herself into the corner to avoid any accidental contact with his broad-shouldered frame and stretched out legs. Her cloak slipped off her shoulder and she shivered. To Carina’s great surprise, Max was the first to notice. He moved to pull the cloak over Georgie’s shoulder but when his arm stretched out, Georgie flinched and threw up her hands.

  “No!”

  Max’s hand hovered midair before he dropped it back into his lap. “I regret having frightened you, Lady Georgiana. I was going to adjust your cloak, as you appear to be suffering from cold. I apologize that my coach isn’t warmer.” He gave Georgie a smile that was full of understanding, yet she huddled in the corner and her shoulders shook.

  Carina jumped into the breach. “I apologize, Max, but Georgie doesn’t care to be touched, especially by men.”

  At the same moment, Georgie leaned a few inches towards Max. “Your Grace, I’d be most grateful if you’d assist me with my cloak. I suffer with the cold more than most people.”

  For the next ten minutes, no one spoke. Lucy’s face showed her astonishment and Carina was stunned that their sister accepted a man’s touch, and had even invited Max to touch her clothing.

  Sensing the change in Georgie’s attitude to this particular man, Lucy said, “Your Grace, you must come to Woods House and hear Georgie play. She also plays like an angel.”

  “Oh, Lucy,” Georgie said, her hands rising to cover the hot flush rising on her cheeks. “His Grace wouldn’t wish to waste his valuable time listening to my efforts at an instrument.”

  “On the contrary, Lady Georgiana, it would bring me great pleasure to hear you play.”

  “And,” Lucy said with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “Carina sings beautifully. In fact, all three of us adore music.”

  “I also adore music, “Max admitted. “It is one of my weaknesses.”

  Carina, having recovered her equilibrium, couldn’t resist one last jab at Max. “One of your weaknesses?”

  “One of several, I’m afraid.”

  “Surely, Your Grace, you’re not admitting to succumbing to common frailties like ordinary men? I assumed that the revered Meacham name guaranteed you’d live without the common impulses and customary sins of mere mortals.”

  Max grunted, half laugh and half rebuff. “I think, Lady Dorchester, that if you continue pushing and prodding this particular Meacham, you’ll discover that I’m as human as the next man, and that I’m capable of committing a wide range of sins. But you’ve already compiled a list of my sins with the help of your sleuths, haven’t you?”

  Tension emanated from her sisters and pervaded the carriage’s enclosed space as they awaited Carina’s reply and, most likely, dreaded her next cutting response. But she, of all people, knew how stressful this long evening had been for them and how difficult it was for Georgie to ride in this small space with a man. If she created any more unpleasantness for her sisters, she’d deserve to be horse-whipped.

  She laughed. “Touché, Max, touché. You’ve bested me this evening.”

  “No.” Scant inches below the red-leather padded roof, he shook his head in a slow motion of denial. Carina watched, fascinated, as the lamp light reflected the gleam from several blue-black streaks that lifted and swung and shone above the rest of his dark hair. Their sinuous slide as they settled back into place made her yearn to stroke and soothe them, or to trail their silky softness between her fingers.

  “...All evening, as earlier it seemed you wished to cause me embarrassment. Why was that, Countess?”

  Carina’s attention snapped back to his face and away from her fanciful wanderings
. She’d missed what he said and stared at him with her mouth open, looking and feeling like a complete ninny. “Umm...”

  “Could it be that my presence makes you nervous? Anxious?”

  Silence reined after that enigmatic comment. Georgie and Lucy were no doubt replaying in their minds the evening’s events and trying to analyze Carina’s interactions with Max during the evening. They’d subject her to rigorous questioning when they were safely above stairs and away from eavesdroppers, demanding confirmation that her relationship with Max involved more than a week or two of sifting through old papers. In the way that only close siblings can do, they’d doggedly poke and prod at her, until her thoughts were muddled and she let slip something to give away her turmoil where Max was concerned.

  Her tired mind couldn’t formulate an answer to soothe her sisters and appease Max’s curiosity. However, she gained an amnesty when the carriage pulled to a stop before Woods House. “Oh, look, we’ve arrived home.”

  Leaning forward, she grasped the door handle and jerked the lever upwards before the footmen found their places outside. Her shove on the door almost knocked the wig from one footman’s head as the well-oiled door swung outwards. Without waiting for assistance, she clambered from the carriage in an ungainly manner, stretching one foot to the footstep and then the other down to the road. Her slipper hit the shiny Macadam surface and she slithered sideways, only the quick thinking of the stunned footman saving her from sprawling face- first. His white gloved hand shot sideways and grasped her hard around the elbow until, by sheer brute strength, he steadied her.

  “Oooh,” she shrieked as she tottered on her toes, before finding her balance and being able to settle back on her heels. “Oh, my goodness,” she gasped, dreadfully relieved that she’d not ended as a legs-in-the-air spectacle in front of all these men.