Compromising The Duke's Daughter

скачать книгу бесплатно


‘Mmm...love and hate are close kin. I recall you both protested too much,’ the Duke commented reflectively. ‘You mooned about for a while and as for Rockleigh...most fellows would have accepted a token of my gratitude and esteem if only to humour me. But he wouldn’t take a penny, then or now. I applauded his lack of avarice two years ago, but this time I’m uneasy about it.’

‘But you recently gave him fifty pounds, didn’t you?’ Joan sounded perplexed.

‘Is that what he said during this private talk you had?’

‘Yes...no...’ Joan amended in confusion. ‘He told me you’d offered him that amount and I assumed he’d taken it.’

‘I did offer it, but he would not have it. He also refused to come and thank me for my most generous gesture.’ Alfred was still smarting over the snub.

‘You wanted a street fighter to come here?’ Joan’s dark brows shot together in disbelief.

‘Of course not, my dear,’ Alfred answered tetchily. ‘I travelled to his territory and waited in a carriage in Cheapside. The detective I engaged delivered the note asking him to meet me and claim his reward.’ Alfred snorted in indignation. ‘Rockleigh dismissed me as though I were a nobody! Deuced cheek of the man!’

Joan nibbled her lower lip while digesting that astonishing fact. People—even those with wealth and standing—kowtowed to her father, bowing and scraping to earn his favours. But Rockleigh was a breed apart, it seemed.

‘So...what are we to do about all of this?’ the Duke muttered to himself as he got up from the sofa and began prowling the Aubusson carpet. ‘I’m hoping the Squire, as my man Thadeus Pryke named him, is as honest and sincere as was Drew Rockleigh, but I’m not sure.’

‘What do you mean, Papa?’ A shiver of apprehension rippled through Joan. The Duke of Thornley was rarely lacking in confidence, or at a loss to know what to do about any situation.

‘Rockleigh is cognizant with our secrets. He has not once hinted to me about your youthful indiscretion since you committed it and in the past we’ve often met at clubs and functions. But he is a different person now; who is to say the Squire will not seek to capitalise on what he knows? A man who has lost wealth and rank might claw his way back into society by whatever means present themselves,’ Alfred concluded bleakly.

Joan realised that her father’s attitude was horribly cynical, yet a similar fear had tormented her when Rockleigh had reminded her of her disgrace. ‘Your secret’s safe with me, my lady...but that might be all that is...’ A sultry gleam had been in his eyes, leading her to believe that lust was behind the threat. But perhaps the base desire he had was not for her, but for the riches lodged in her father’s bank vault. ‘He promised not to betray us, Papa,’ Joan said forcefully in an attempt to reassure herself as much as her father.

‘Promised? You talked about your disgraceful behaviour two years ago?’ The Duke had stopped roaming the room to bark questions at his daughter.

Joan nodded, inwardly berating herself for having brought her heated exchange with Rockleigh to such a dangerous point. The vicar had told her the Squire was a womaniser and she’d been unable to resist hinting at what she knew. He’d retaliated by bringing up the subject of her brazen visit to his hunting lodge.

‘If he means to blackmail me...’ The Duke left the rest unsaid, but his florid physiognomy told of the impotent rage he felt at the idea becoming reality. ‘He is no longer friendly with your brother-in-law so there is no loyalty at stake to make him hesitate.’

‘He will never risk you calling his bluff, Papa. A gentleman accused of seduction is not completely off the hook.’ Joan managed a wan smile, but her rapid heartbeat made her quite breathless.

‘It seems Rockleigh is no longer a gentleman and I doubt he gives a toss for fair play or etiquette.’ The Duke headed towards the sideboard to use the decanter. The cognac he poured was shot back in a single swallow. ‘Of course he might welcome marrying you now to get himself out of the mess he’s in.’ The Duke rubbed his chin with thumb and forefinger, adding rather wistfully, ‘If I truly believed that beneath the Squire’s scruffy exterior still beat Drew Rockleigh’s heart, then I’d hear him out if he called.’

A few of Joan’s slender fingers stifled her horrified laugh. ‘Well, thank heavens he made it clear he wants no more of me now than he did then.’

‘That must have galled,’ the Duke said gently, eyeing his daughter’s proud profile. His little Joan was easily wounded; indeed, when he’d told her two years ago that Rockleigh had declined several thousand acres of prime Devon farmland, together with a handful of Mayfair freeholds, rather than contract to marry her, Alfred had thought she might blub. Of course she had not...pride had seen to that. His daughter had concealed her humiliated expression. Then she had acted as though Rockleigh’s slight was to her liking. Just as she was doing now.

‘I don’t know why the matter cropped up,’ Joan rattled off airily. ‘Our lucky escape from a forced marriage was of little importance then or now.’

‘Yet crop up, it did,’ Alfred said. ‘And who raised it?’

‘It wasn’t raised...just hinted at.’

‘By whom?’ The Duke stubbornly insisted on knowing, even though he could tell that his daughter desired the subject to be dropped.

‘I don’t recall, Papa.’ It was a fib. Joan could remember everything that had occurred during her meeting with Rockleigh. She’d wanted to know whether a street fighter regretted turning down the chance of netting a fortune and a duke’s daughter. And she’d received an answer without asking the question. ‘Nothing’s changed for me...’ he’d drawled while looking privately amused that she might have thought otherwise.

‘Do you believe him corrupt, Papa, and capable of blackmail?’ Joan asked solemnly.

For a moment the Duke said nothing, simply shaking his head slowly from side to side. ‘I always liked the fellow; Rockleigh was not only your brother-in-law’s chum, but a friend to you and me when he dealt so coolly with your misbehaviour. But now...who knows? An empty belly might turn a saint into a sinner...’

Chapter Five (#u3d8486f4-3769-5b6b-a3d3-32e09db06ec1)

‘You are lucky, Joan! Nothing thrilling ever happens to me.’

‘Lucky?’ Joan spluttered, gently extricating herself from her friend’s welcoming embrace. ‘You think it fortunate to be set upon by beggars while an elderly relative swoons at one’s side?’

‘I almost swooned with boredom in Kent,’ Louise Finch riposted. ‘There was nothing to do in the evenings but play bridge with my elderly relatives. I did attend a jig at the local assembly rooms, but I can’t recommend a country affair. The ladies were quite standoffish and all the gentlemen had ugly clothes and loud voices.’

‘Not so different then from the people we are used to,’ Joan commented wryly as they strolled past two young bucks in garish waistcoats, quaffing champagne and chortling at their own jokes.

‘Speaking of coarse fellows...’ Louise winked slowly. ‘Vincent mentioned that a pugilist nicknamed the Squire acted the hero, putting an end to the skirmish in Wapping.’ She grinned on noticing Joan’s heightened colour. ‘A gentleman down on his luck who is acquainted with your brother-in-law, is how Vincent described him. I’ll wager your Mr Rockleigh is a very handsome rogue.’

‘Handsome is as handsome does...’ Joan bit her lip, feeling uncharitable. Her saviour might fight for a living, but just minutes spent in Rockleigh’s company proved him to be mannerly and intelligent. And protective...and provocative. Intriguing, too, she realised; she certainly couldn’t stop thinking about the infuriating individual.

Joan forced her concentration to another gentleman as they strolled on towards the supper room. She was miffed that Vincent had blurted out her news before she’d had a chance to tell Louise in her own way about the drama.

Within hours of his aunt and cousin arriving home from visiting his family in Kent the vicar had made a point of paying a call on the Finches. He’d been eager to report how one of the Duke’s coachmen had taken a wrong turning, landing his female passengers in a dreadful pickle. Louise had listened, open-mouthed, to her cousin’s account, but had been keen for more gory details. The invitation to the Wentworths’ ball, propped on the mantelshelf, had provided a prime opportunity for a chinwag with the main protagonist. Louise was confident that Joan would attend as the Duke and Duchess of Thornley were chummy with their hosts.

Moments ago the two young ladies had spied one another through the throng of guests. Simultaneously they’d left their groups to have a fond reunion beneath the scintillating chandeliers.

Joan linked arms with Louise and they began to perambulate the edge of the dance floor, avoiding the sets forming for a quadrille.

‘This is something else I’ve greatly missed,’ Louise said. They had arrived in the supper room, where a dining table was spread with silver platters filled with delicacies. ‘Country fare leaves much to be desired.’ Louise popped a marchpane pineapple into her mouth, enjoying it and licking her lips before adding, ‘Vincent’s people are nice folk, but I couldn’t live on broth and stew as much as they do.’

‘I enjoy a good pheasant casserole.’ Joan fondly remembered the hearty meals served up at Thornley Heights, her father’s primary ancestral seat. During dismal Devon evenings, when the winds sometimes blew so loud that it seemed banshees inhabited the chimneys, she’d loved to curl up by a roaring fire with a book, feeling cosy and content after a satisfying repast.

‘Who is that young lady? She keeps staring at us,’ Louise hissed, holding a napkin to her lips. ‘I’ve not seen her before.’

Joan had been choosing titbits from the buffet, but stopped to glance over a shoulder. Her grey gaze collided with a pair of china-blue eyes, then the stranger flounced aside her face. The girl was buxom and fair-haired, although a sulky twist to her lips marred her pretty features. By her side was a couple Joan guessed to be her parents. The woman was very similar in looks and colouring; the fellow dark-haired and heavy jowled. ‘I don’t recognise any of the family. Perhaps they are just arrived in town.’ Normally Joan might have taken more notice of newcomers, but since her friend had brought up the subject of the beggars moments ago her thoughts had been back in Wapping. She wanted to know what Rockleigh might be planning to do. In common with her father, she longed to believe him still honourable, despite his hardship, yet niggling doubts were chipping away at her peace of mind over his trustworthiness.

‘Ah, there you are, girls.’ Maude had sailed up to join them with Mrs Finch in tow. ‘Oh, those look tasty.’ The Duchess began filling a plate with an assortment of tiny vol-au-vents.

Hot on their tails came Aunt Dorothea’s thin bombazine-clad figure. She announced her presence with a cough.

Since the Duke had sent his sister back to her own home, Joan had seen nothing of her aunt. She felt rather mean thinking that the respite had been very welcome.

‘I promised Lady Regan that we would have a chat to Mrs Denby and her daughter.’ Dorothea swivelled her eyes to indicate the newcomers. ‘My friend has kindly taken the girl under her wing.’ Inclining closer, Dorothea muttered, ‘Sooner hers than mine, I can tell you.’ The widow’s loaded comment soon gained her companions’ interest.

‘What is amiss?’ Maude darted a glance at the strangers. ‘Is there some scandal?’

‘Indeed there would be! If news of it circulated.’

‘Surely it already has, if you know of it,’ the Duchess pointed out.

‘Oh, I have given Lady Regan my word not to tell a soul.’ Dorothea observed that several quizzical looks were turned on her. ‘Of course, I may confide the sorry tale to people I know I can trust.’ She gave her niece a hard stare.

Joan and Louise exchanged a look of muted amusement.

‘Well, don’t leave us in suspense,’ the Duchess prompted in an undertone. ‘I must say Mr Denby appears bored rather than embarrassed.’ As the fellow glanced her way Maude attended to her plate of food. ‘I expect he might prefer to play faro while the ladies mingle,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll ask Alfred to speak to him later about a game of cards.’

The Duke of Thornley had come to find endearing his second wife’s gauche social manners. Maude found nothing strange in expecting him to befriend lesser mortals. And neither did he since she’d entered his life like a breath of fresh air.

‘Oh, that is not Mrs Denby’s husband.’ Dorothea’s explanation emerged from behind her quivering fan. ‘She is a widow. Mr Saul Stokes is Cecilia’s guardian. The girl has just turned eighteen, although she made her come out last year and just as well she did!’ Dorothea added darkly. ‘For I doubt she’d shine this Season.’

‘She is surely old enough to do without a guardian,’ Maude responded. ‘My two girls were independent from an earlier age.’

‘And so was Louise,’ Mrs Finch piped up, keen to join the conversation.

‘Since her debut Cecilia has been a terrible trial to her mother.’ Dorothea pursed her lips. ‘The chit needs a father’s discipline. If she were mine I’d disown her...after I’d taken a stick to her back.’

Maude’s widening eyes prompted her sister-in-law to hurry on. ‘A while ago the minx was caught on the Great North Road, attempting to elope with a groom.’ Dorothea employed her fan so energetically her companions also received its benefit. ‘Of course, the family are adopting a united front, but then they would.’ The widow gave an emphatic nod. ‘Mrs Denby will want the little hussy sporting a wedding band as soon as may be.’

‘What a dreadful thing for her poor mama!’ The Duchess darted horrified eyes to Cecilia’s profile. ‘Mr Stokes caught up with the lovers in time then, you say.’

‘Oh, he didn’t save the day...it was her uncle brought her back and she behaved like a harpy all the way, so I’ve heard. At one point she tried to jump from his speeding carriage so he bound her hand and foot.’

‘Her uncle seems the better choice to keep her in check,’ Maude ventured.

‘He’s sunk out of sight following some trouble.’

‘Bad blood the lot of them,’ Patricia Finch summed up with a sniff, turning grateful eyes on her well-behaved daughter.

Louise was still single at twenty-one, having rejected the only proposal that had ever come her way when she was seventeen. At the time Patricia had been exasperated to lose a future son-in-law with so little consideration given on Louise’s part. Her daughter had said she needed no time to think: the fellow wasn’t right for her. As he had gone on to duel over a Covent Garden nun, then flee abroad to escape arrest, Patricia had to admit that Louise—despite her tender years—had been the wiser of the two of them on that occasion.

‘Your friend is taking a special interest in the girl, you say?’ Maude glanced through the open dining-room doors. Lady Regan, an influential, veteran hostess, was settled on a sofa with her entourage around her. She didn’t seem to be putting any effort into welcoming the Denby family herself.

Maude could pull rank on every female present, should she choose to, but she had not long been elevated through marriage to the peerage. She knew that there were those present who resented her good fortune and thought her an upstart. Her husband’s sister was a prime example, as was Lady Regan.

‘Is your friend related to the Denbys in some way?’ Maude was keen to understand why a snob would lend her name to nobodies.

‘I believe her ladyship’s husband has asked her to be of assistance in the matter.’ Dorothea raised her sparse eyebrows. ‘Mr Stokes is Lord Regan’s friend, I understand.’ Dorothea hurried on. ‘Vouchers for Almack’s have been procured for Cecilia. The little hussy is luckier than she deserves to be.’

Having listened with mounting interest to the older ladies’ debate Joan realised she felt rather sorry for Cecilia Denby. She was sure the strangers knew they were being gossiped about. There but for the grace of God went she. She’d acted recklessly when a similar age and Joan knew she’d no excuse, other than a hankering for an adventure, for having done so. Cecilia, on the other hand, could claim love as a purer motive for her outrageous conduct.

‘Shall we say hello to them?’ Joan suggested with a bright smile. On impulse she set off towards the Denbys and some hissed words of restraint told her that her stepmother and aunt were not far behind.

‘I’ve come to introduce myself,’ Joan blurted, giving a little bob and one of her hands to shake. ‘I’m Lady Joan Morland.’ For an awkward second it seemed her friendly overture might be rebuffed, then the older lady extended her gloved fingers.

‘How nice of you to take the trouble to speak to us. We know few people here this evening. I’m Mrs Denby and this is my daughter, Cecilia.’

‘Mr Stokes at your service, ladies,’ the gentleman trumpeted with a stiff bow.

After the other introductions had been politely made the silence lengthened. ‘There is a fine selection of dishes on the dining table,’ Joan rattled off. ‘Would you like to sample a few, Miss Denby?’

‘I’ve no appetite.’ Cecilia sighed.

‘The lemonade is very refreshing, too.’ Maude attempted to keep the conversation going. ‘I should like another glass.’ Her smile drooped when the gentleman present made no courteous offer to fetch it for her. She had hoped to get rid of Mr Stokes for a short while as he seemed to be a barrier to a more informal chat with the Denby women.

‘It is very warm in here...might I walk with you, Lady Joan?’ Cecilia flicked open her fan to cool her pink cheeks. ‘I noticed you and Miss Finch were strolling in the ballroom earlier.’

Joan crooked an elbow in an affable way. ‘Let’s go and watch the dancing.’ Her sympathy for Cecilia increased as she realised the poor thing was desperate for an excuse to escape her guardian’s eagle eye.