Page 13 of A Diamond for Christmas (Diamonds of the First Water #6)

I appreciate your help,” Geoffrey told Jasper before they dropped as silently as possible over the garden wall. Landing on the coal bin had been unexpected, making a clattering sound that caused them to remain motionless, holding their breath. When no one opened the back door, they moved forward.

Although Jasper wasn’t so much helping as offering friendly support, agreeing to be a lookout or a second in a duel if it came to it.

At White’s, his friend had been nonchalant. “We shall go to her home tonight, and I vow you will speak with her,” Jasper said as if sneaking around after dark were the most natural thing in the world for a couple of titled bucks. “Like men of derring-do.”

And now Geoffrey found himself hiding behind a tree in the Chimes’s back garden, feeling more foolish than daring. On the other hand, he would be happy to escape without a lead ball fired into his body, so Geoffrey supposed there was some measure of actual danger.

“I don’t suppose you know which is your lady’s bedchamber,” Jasper asked.

“How would I know that?” Geoffrey asked. Was his friend casting aspersions on Caroline ?

“Don’t get into a high tweague, Diamond. But it would be damn useful if you knew which window.”

Jasper was right. But over brandy, going there at two in the morning had seemed like a good idea and an easy one.

“Would it be better to break in the back door and roam the house?” his friend wondered aloud while staring at the upper floors.

While Geoffrey thought he might meet with better success indoors than climbing a tree or a trellis and knocking on Lord and Lady Chimes’s window by mistake, it was also riskier. He could get sent to jail for breaking in like a thieving fidlam ben .

“If she were my daughter, I would have her room away from the street, I suppose,” he guessed.

“But not at the very back of the house,” Jasper added. “In case any nefarious nobleman wanted to use an apple tree to climb in her window.”

Geoffrey sighed. This was a bone-headed plan. Luckily, the Chimes’s had a corner home, so he could explore the side of the house as easily as the back.

“I’m going to guess that window.” He pointed above them.

Jasper handed him a rock.

“If I’m wrong,” Geoffrey said, “prepare to bolt like a skittish deer.”

Setting his lantern upon the ground, he hefted the rock in his hand.

“I believe it’s supposed to be a few small pebbles, enough to make a noise but not break the glass. Give me something smaller,” he demanded.

“If you hit the house, not the glass, it will be fine,” Jasper insisted.

“That won’t awaken her. I need pebbles,” he insisted. “Maybe I could toss coins. That would make a goodly racket.”

“I don’t think you should throw anything directly at the glass,” Jasper said .

Dropping the rock, he searched in his pockets and withdrew some coppers.

“Perfect. Stand by, Trent.”

“I am, Diamond. I am.”

“Very well.” He jiggled the coins a moment as if he were shaking dice.

“Let them fly,” Jasper said encouragingly.

“I was about to. Stop talking.”

Taking a step back, he tossed them at the window he’d chosen just as the sash lifted.

“Oh!” Caroline exclaimed as a handful of coins hit her in the face and chest. What the devil?

“My apologies,” came Geoffrey’s voice as he bent to retrieve his lantern. “Are you injured?”

As the frigid air swirled into her room, she peered into the side garden. Was he in his cups?

“Who is with you?” she asked, seeing another figure beside him.

“’Tis I, Lord Trent,” came a cheerful voice, and to prove it, he lifted his lantern up to his face.

“A moment,” she said, wondering if she were still asleep and dreaming.

Hurrying to light a lamp, she snatched up her thick wool dressing gown and wrapped it around herself. Having been awakened by voices, she had lifted the sash at precisely the wrong instant.

Returning to the window, she heard Lord Trent exclaim, “What light through yonder window breaks.”

“Quiet,” she pleaded. If her parents weren’t already awake, they would be. And that would bring this unexpected farce to a hasty end.

On the other hand, knowing Geoffrey was mere feet away, for the first time in weeks, she felt happiness drizzle like a gentle rain upon her .

“Yes, do muzzle yourself,” Geoffrey added. Then he looked up. “I need to speak with you.”

“Come closer and speak softly,” she said.

They both shuffled forward, but then Geoffrey waved his friend away. “Stay back, for God’s sake,” he ordered.

“Only trying to help,” Lord Trent replied, but then he and his lantern disappeared toward the wall.

Geoffrey began again. “I am sorry to awaken you and to hit you with coins.”

Her heart melted at his awkward beginning.

“After what you said about not marrying me, I had to discern the true depths of your feelings. I must know what’s in your heart.”

She caught her breath. Perhaps he was the terrible rogue her parents believed him to be, for it was inconceivable he could ask her to state plainly such an intimate thing. And how unwise for her to tell him that she loved him. If he knew, it would put her in a terribly vulnerable position.

In the end, all she said was, “Why?”

“Why?” he repeated. “I assume you are asking why I wish to know.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Because you have moved into my heart and taken up all the space.”

Then they were as twins. How brave of him to confess that to her.

“Your silence makes me exceedingly nervous,” he said. “Moreover, I saw you with an unfamiliar man at the theatre.”

She leaned a little farther out, wishing she could be down in the garden with him, but it was too dangerous to try to sneak past her parents’ room and down the stairs.

Taking a deep, chilly breath, Caroline decided to tell him. Either she would be as happy as her best friend Daphne, who had long since forgiven her for sullying her pantry, or she would become as forlorn as Shakespeare’s doomed Juliet, to whom Lord Trent had just alluded .

“I love you,” she confessed.

When he said nothing, Caroline’s heart began to pound. What was he thinking? That this was a turning point in their lives, or maybe he was pondering the impossibility of their situation given the animosity between their parents.

When she was about to demand he tell her his thoughts, he spoke.

“I wish someone had thought to put a strong rose trellis here or planted a sturdy tree with branches touching your window. I love you, and I swear I would be up there beside you in a twitch of a lamb’s tail if I could.”

Relief poured through her, and she closed her eyes with a long sigh.

“Will you marry me, Lady Caroline Chimes?”

Her eyes popped open. “If I could, Geoffrey Diamond, I would.” It was as honest as she could be.

He stared up at her.

“And you don’t actually long for Mangue?”

“I promise you, I do not. I was stunned when I found out that my parents had spoken to him about marrying me. I should have told you.”

She wouldn’t be so petty as to discuss his mercenary tendency in requesting a larger dowry, for he must be a decent man to wish to marry her despite the ugly rumors.

“I see.” Another pause, and then he added, “I have already told you in front of your mother that I wish to marry you,” Geoffrey reminded her. “That has not changed in all these weeks.”

“Did you tell The Times about the butler’s pantry?” she asked, needing to know.

“I swear I did not.”

“I did,” came Lord Trent’s voice out of the darkness, proving he had been listening all along.

“What?” Geoffrey roared.

“Sshh,” she admonished.

“You said you wanted to do whatever it took to break up an arrangement between Mangue and your lady,” Lord Trent explained. “But I knew you to be too honorable to actually follow through.”

Stunned silence met his statement, and then Geoffrey’s disbelieving exclamation, “You tattled to the newspapers!”

Caroline tried to imagine what Geoffrey had told his friend of their intimate encounter and felt her cheeks heat even with the cool night air streaming against her.

“I made up a story based on the little you told me,” Lord Trent said. “It helped, didn’t it?”

“I would punch you if you weren’t my best friend,” Geoffrey growled.

“Gentlemen,” she said to regain their attention. “I think it was a terrible idea, but what’s done is done. My parents think only marrying Lord Mangue will erase the stain upon my reputation. For you see, if he marries me, it will plainly demonstrate that nothing really happened.”

“Oh!” came Lord Trent’s voice again. “I hadn’t thought of that, only of driving Mangue and his extraordinary eyebrow away.”

She would have laughed if it weren’t all so serious.

“I don’t care,” Geoffrey said. “Marry me, and we’ll weather any storm.”

“You don’t know what it might mean,” she said, although like sunshine between the clouds, a shard of hope broke through the heavy doubt and melancholy that had dogged her.

Then to her amazement, Geoffrey laughed.

“Dearest Caroline,” he said. “Do you forget who my parents are, and what my father has long been reputed to have done? More than anyone, I understand what this could mean. And still, I don’t give a fig.

We shall not be shunned, I promise you. If anything, it lifted my parents into a mythological realm of desperate, undeniable love. ”

Caroline considered his words. Desperate, undeniable love — that was a perfect description for what she felt.

“Besides,” he added, “any blame has been laid at my father’s feet as a bit of a rake. Even then, he is widely forgiven because he married my mother, and they’ve stayed together without anyone ever being able to say either has been unfaithful.”

It was true that she’d only ever heard any fault being placed on Lord Diamond, except where her parents were concerned. Lady Diamond was considered an unwilling victim, and also a perfectly lovely and lucky countess who snared an earl.

“Please marry me,” he said again, his tone causing a lump in her throat.

“How?” she asked even as her pulse fluttered. She might actually get to marry the only man who had ever made her shiver.

“I spoke in jest once about Gretna Green,” he reminded her. “Now I believe we ought to take our chances. The alternative is to wait a year until you don’t need anyone’s permission.”

A wretched long year of being berated, scolded, pushed, and coerced.

“I think a border wedding sounds wonderful,” she agreed. “When?”

She half expected him to say, “Now,” which would have put her into a panicky rub. She wanted to bathe with her favorite floral soap, pack a bag, choose the perfect gown, and tell Daphne the thrilling news.

Nevertheless, if he said it had to be that instant or wait for the reign of Queen Dick, as her father would say to mean never at all, then she would dress in the first gown she had at hand and slip outside to meet him. Or more romantically, she could drop into his awaiting arms.

Gauging the distance, Caroline hoped she didn’t end up with a broken neck.

Luckily, Geoffrey needed time to plan, too.

“Can you go to Lady Hollidge’s tomorrow around ten o’clock? I shall meet you there with enough funds for our journey, and we shall take flight directly.”

Just eight hours! Caroline had trouble catching her breath.

She was going to do something she had never considered possible — elopement!

Some thought it a starry-eyed endeavor. Most knew it was the stuff of foolish girls and greedy, wicked men.

But she was no fool, and Geoffrey was not after her money.

Yet even if she could get ready in time, which she would, her mother would question her sanity at going out visiting at such an impolite hour.

“Eleven would be better, for the sake of civility,” she said.

“Very well. I will be at Lady Hollidge’s home five minutes before eleven.”

In the glow of his lantern, she could see his handsome grin, and her heart clenched.

“I love you,” he said, surprising her.

More than ever, she wished she were in his arms instead of hanging over the casement.

“I love you, too,” she told him, no longer the least bit embarrassed.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” quipped Lord Trent, whom she’d entirely forgotten.

“Shut your gob!” Geoffrey ordered. And then the two men disappeared into the shadows.

Caroline sighed and, with frozen fingers, closed the window sash.

She knew she would not sleep, nor could she ask the staff for a bath or do anything out of the ordinary until morning.

Belatedly, she realized it would have been smart of her to toss a sack down to Geoffrey containing clothing, for she would not be able to leave in the morning with anything except her reticule.

In fact, knowing she would have to hide her excitement from her clever mother, she decided to take breakfast in her room and stay there until the last possible moment.

Even when her maid was delivering the requested hot chocolate and toast to her room, Caroline was still toying with the notion of wearing a second dress under her day gown, but if her mother should see her leave, it would be all too obvious .

Unless she put on her fur-trimmed redingote while still in her room.

“Bring my winter coat up here,” she asked her maid. “I’m going out in an hour, and I’ll get bundled up before I go downstairs.”

Her maid looked at her, probably wondering why Caroline was prattling on and explaining herself.

She offered the young woman a smile and sent her on her way.

And then, as she was wondering which of her prettier dresses would best fit under what she was wearing, something she would be proud to be seen in even for an anvil wedding, there was a knock at her door.

She knew that knock. Only her mother’s knuckles made that particular rapping sound.

Glancing around the room, she began to shove the dresses from her bed into her wardrobe, knowing it to be a hopeless task.

Her plan for a speedy escape was already in ruins.