The Regency Season Collection: Part Two. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ happy with the outcome as I know my clients shall be, Lord Montcliffe, and I wish you the very best for the future.’

      * * *

      Ten minutes later Daniel was back on the street and his mood was as black as the clouds he could see amassing over to the west. He had been played like a fish on the line, the bait of his own demise as imminent as the Camerons would know it to be. Until this past week he had not had one single debt of his brother’s presented to him. Did Robert Cameron have some dealings there as well to force his hand and hurry things up?

      But why would he do so? Surely a dozen other down-on-their-luck lords could be cajoled into a union with Miss Amethyst Cameron and with far more ease, even given the scandalous nature of her first husband’s business.

      His mind went back to the carriage ride home. She had acted like a crazed woman, with little sense or reasonableness, her shrill cries still ringing in his ears. He had never met another like her, that was the trouble, one part innocent and the other part as deceptive as hell. She was her father’s daughter on the one hand and her own particular mix of madness on the other.

      Yet he had signed on the dotted line. For his mother and his sisters and a grandfather who barely knew the time of day.

      ‘More fool me,’ he muttered, pleased to see his town house materialise before him and also the possibility of a stiff drink. His lineage would stay safe and Montcliffe Manor would not need to be sold. Such protections would have to be enough. The dull ache in his thigh mirrored the pain in his head.

      Charlotte Mackay arrived on his doorstep just as he did and this time there was no mother or brother anywhere in sight.

      ‘Might I come in just for a moment, Daniel? I realise that I am hardly the person you wish to see, but I would appreciate at least a moment or two of your time.’

      Today she was dressed in a woollen cloak with the buttons done up tightly to her neck. With a quick nod he showed her through to his library, but he did not sit down as he waited for an explanation as to why she had come.

      ‘I am more than sorry for the scene at the Herringworth ball. I have been trying to get up the courage to allow explanation, but it has been hard.’ Swallowing she looked at him.

      ‘The allotted period of mourning society deems appropriate for a bereaved widow has been most...difficult and it is only in the past month that I have been allowed to enjoy my life again. As a result of everything I have come to the conclusion that a year of black clothes and dour conversation shows not only the nonsense of marriage but also my unsuitability to such a state.’

      ‘In what way?’ For the life of him he could not understand why she should be telling him this.

      Her right forefinger tucked an errant golden curl up into the folds of her hat as she gave him answer. ‘I am committed to enjoying every single moment I have left to me, Daniel. After Spenser I saw that sometimes bad things can happen.’ Shaking her head, she went on, drawing herself up a little. ‘Your finances are in a poor state. I have heard that from many people and your brother’s problems at the card table are no longer a secret. As my own bank accounts are most healthy I thought perhaps as a friend I could offer you a way out of the mess you now find yourself in.’

      He knew what was coming and he tried to stop her by holding up his hand, but she took little notice of the gesture.

      ‘I will pay off some of your debts in exchange for you and I becoming lovers again. I have missed you and I made a huge mistake when Spenser offered for my hand. But now there is an opportunity for us...’

      ‘No.’ He could say it in no other way than that.

      ‘No?’

      ‘Thank you, but I cannot take you up on the offer, Charlotte.’

      ‘Because you are angry at me for ruining your chances with Mrs Whitely?’

      At that he laughed. ‘Hardly.’

      ‘Then why?’

      He took his time in answering. ‘Spenser was an only child and the last of his family line. I have heard it said that his parents want you to reside with them in Scotland in return for the large sums of money they have bestowed upon you and which you accepted on your husband’s death. It seems Spenser Mackay’s mother thinks of you as a daughter?’

      ‘You sound like my mother, Daniel, and I do not want to hear this.’ Moving closer, she brought her fingers along the line of his cheek. ‘Scotland is full of sad memories for me and I want to feel again what I did, with you, in your arms, before it all went wrong.’

      Once he might have been flattered by the offer she had just made him, but now all he could think about was the chaos of their past. ‘I think, Charlotte, that the time for us has gone.’

      ‘Kiss me then and tell me that afterwards.’

      She did not wait for him to move, but pressed herself up against him, her lips brushing along his own, warm and full and remembered. The same smell of gardenias and the same feel of softness.

      Shaking his head, he placed both hands on her shoulders and moved her away. Carefully. The clock in the corner boomed out the hour of three and apart from the sound of its heavy ticking there was silence in the room.

      ‘You won’t allow me in because of your brother? Nigel was a...dalliance. I knew as soon as we had slept together it was a mistake.’

      He tried to smother the anger that he could feel building. ‘If it was not Nigel, then it would have been someone else, Charlotte, and by then I did not care enough anyway.’

      ‘You are refusing me?’

      ‘I am.’

      ‘But I love you, Daniel. I have always loved you.’ She was crying now, the tears running down her cheeks. ‘You were distant at the end of...us. If you had been more attentive, none of this would ever have happened. But we can change it and with only a little effort we could again be—’

      ‘Stop. The time for regrets is past and you have duties now to Spenser Mackay’s family and to your own.’

      Rather than placating her, this line of argument made her wail louder. ‘Then both of us have lost and all for nothing, and you will regret this, I know that you will.’

      Gathering up her reticule, she opened the door, his man coming forward immediately to show her out. When she was gone Daniel crossed to his desk and sat down. The letter he had received at his lawyer’s today rustled and he brought the sheet from his pocket. Amethyst’s demands juxtaposed against those of Charlotte’s made him feel his life was taking a less-than-salutary course.

      Lucien’s voice in the corridor had him flicking the missive into a drawer as he waited for his friend to come into the room.

      ‘Tell me that was not Lady Charlotte Mackay in the carriage I just saw pulling away, Daniel, for I thought that affair was long since over.’ As he dropped into the leather chair nearest the desk he reached out for the decanter, upturning a clean glass and pouring a generous libation.

      ‘It isn’t what you think. We are friends.’ As he said it he wondered if Charlotte and he were even that.

      ‘She’s poison, damn it. She betrayed СКАЧАТЬ