Page 14 of A Diamond for Christmas (Diamonds of the First Water #6)

“ C aroline, are you awake and dressed?”

“Yes, Mother.” Drat! Why hadn’t she said she was feeling ill and had decided to sleep in?

With that answer, her mother felt it her place to open the door and stroll in. And thus, Caroline was discovered with an arm full of gowns.

“What on earth are you doing?”

What was she doing? Caroline could barely come up with the simplest excuse.

“I was bored and decided to look through my dresses and see if I should consider having any altered.” With that, she dumped them back on the bed.

“Your poor maid will have quite a time tidying all that up,” her mother said. “If you’re bored, why don’t you come with me? I’m going to the new National Gallery.”

“We’ve already been,” Caroline reminded her.

“Darling, you don’t go once to a museum and consider it finished. You go again and again to study the paintings and remark upon them.”

“Some people go to see who is there and to be seen admiring great art,” Caroline said, hoping to dissuade her mother with the intimation it was a vulgar outing.

Her mother shook her head. “That sounds rather shallow. Something Lady Diamond might do. In fact, she’s probably trying to figure out how to get her own portrait onto the wall.” Then her mother frowned. “Are you well?”

“Yes, why?” Caroline realized she’d gasped aloud.

“You paled suddenly.”

“Did I?” She’d been startled beyond reason by her mother mentioning the name of Diamond.

“And now you look flushed. Sit down.”

Caroline did as her mother said, finding a spot between the gowns just as there came a knock at the door.

“Come in,” her mother answered for her.

Caroline’s maid entered carrying her dark green redingote with its soft gray fur trim.

“Why have you brought that up here?” Lady Chimes demanded.

“Lady Caroline asked me to, my lady.”

Both pairs of eyes stared at her, and Caroline took a step back.

“I was going out because ... as I said, I was bored and I ... I thought seeing how it is cold, I would don my coat and hat while in the warmth of my room.”

“Where were you going?” her mother asked.

“Merely for a walk.”

“Then I shall accompany you. I can go to the museum later if you still don’t wish to go. I suppose some fresh air is a good idea, as long as we don’t stay out too long and risk catching a chill.”

Geoffrey paced Lady Hollidge’s drawing room, but after waiting an hour and a half, it was obvious Caroline was not coming.

Had she changed her mind?

“My lord, I fear something has detained her,” Daphne Hollidge said, stating the obvious while bouncing her little boy on her lap .

Geoffrey feared it was not something but someone .

He eyed the young Alexander Hollidge, knowing the boy wanted his mother’s attention.

The totiken had arrived about twenty minutes earlier after awakening from a nap.

And when he did, he’d made enough noise while entering with his nanny that Geoffrey had been sure Caroline had at last arrived.

He could not know for certain whether it was Caroline’s disinclination to elope that had stopped her or an external factor. He prayed it was the latter.

“I am sorry to have disrupted your household today and to have wasted your time,” he said, wondering if he would be spending another evening tossing coins at Caroline’s window to obtain an explanation.

A noise in the foyer snagged both of their attention.

“Daphne, is he still here?” came Caroline’s voice, and then she appeared in the doorway.

Her hat was askew, her cheeks were pink with exertion as if she’d been running, and she never looked lovelier.

“Oh!” she exclaimed upon seeing him, and then she burst into tears.

Not caring that Lady Hollidge would bear witness, Geoffrey rushed to claim her and wrap her in his arms. She collapsed against him.

“What’s happened? Are you well?”

“My mother thwarted me at every turn. I fear she suspects something since, in the middle of Hyde Park, I finally declared I needed to be alone and rushed straight here.”

“I shall order a pot of tea,” Lady Hollidge said. “Do sit and try to catch your breath.”

Caroline’s lovely gaze looked up at him. “Do we have time? Have I ruined everything?”

Geoffrey tried to calm his racing heart. She was in his arms, and she still wanted to elope with him. Everything was fine again .

“We should begin our journey. It will take three days if we don’t kill the horses. You’ll have plenty of time to sit, I assure you.”

“I have nothing with me. I couldn’t leave home with a bag.”

Lady Hollidge instantly became their angel. “Take tea, please, Caroline. While you do, I shall have a trunk packed at once with everything you’ll need.”

“Dear Daphne. How can I ever repay you?”

“We are like sisters, are we not?” She was already heading for the door. “Catch your breath. Tea will arrive in five minutes, and I vow I will have you out the door in fifteen.”

As good as her word, Lady Hollidge sent them swiftly on their way, and Caroline was a good deal calmer than when she’d stumbled in.

“My friend is so thoughtful,” she said when they were passing Shoreditch Church. “She even gave me a novel and some biscuits and cake.” She was digging in the carpet bag that had been pressed into her hands after a trunk was stowed on top of Geoffrey’s travel coach.

“Her husband is equally kind. I hope you will enjoy their company as much as I do,” she added.

Geoffrey nodded. “Gaining a wife and two friends into the bargain! And I hope, despite Lord Trent’s failings, you come to like him, too. He’s been a good friend to me for years.”

“Maybe we shall gain yet another friend,” she mused, “for he has his sights set upon Miss Holcombe, a pretty brunette.”

Geoffrey was astounded. He had heard nothing about it. “How on earth do you know that?”

She smiled. “I have kept my eyes open all Season. Mostly, I was looking for you. But when you were not in sight, I noticed other people.”

He laughed. “Will you sit beside me?” He patted the leather seat .

“Will you behave yourself?” she asked, tilting her head, beaming with happiness.

He could only promise he would try, but the unusual circumstance of being in a carriage alone with a beautiful woman without a chaperone was titillating beyond all measure.

Moreover, in light of what they were doing, her question gave him pause.

“You know it no longer matters what we do or do not do. We are alone, and thus you are irreparably ruined.”

She wrinkled her adorable nose. “A horrid word.”

“But you understand we shall be spending two or possibly three nights staying at coaching inns. Even if we have separate rooms, which you should demand of me, it shall make no difference to what others will say and conclude.”

“I know,” she agreed quietly. “I am ruined.”

“But you shall be my wife and one day a countess. I believe when we return as a wedded couple, as long as we behave with decorum, the scourge of our disgrace will disappear.”

“Eventually,” she agreed.

“Soon,” he corrected.

“Unless we have a child too quickly.”

Geoffrey’s heart sped up at the realization she was already contemplating swiving, which was practically all he could think about. He didn’t like to consider himself a randy dog, but he hadn’t enjoyed any female company in his bed since the night he slammed into Caroline Chimes.

“Luckily,” he said, “that won’t be the case. Even if we ...” He trailed off when faced with her curious green gaze.

“Yes?” she prompted.

“Even if we share a room tonight, which you should insist we do not, and even if we marry in three days, the baby will be born at the right time. ”

“True enough.” Without another word, she lifted the thick wool blanket under which she’d been keeping warm and changed her place, nestling beside him.

He put his arm around her shoulders.

“I am sorry,” she said, straightening. “This is all wrong.”

Geoffrey tensed. If she’d changed her mind, he would probably throw himself out of the moving carriage over a well-placed cliff if he could find one.

“I need to sit facing the way we travel.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. Many people felt a stomach upset when riding backward, including his own mother.

They rearranged themselves and faced forward, snuggling under the covering.

“Much better,” Caroline said. Once again, she rested her head upon his shoulder.

“I confess I barely slept last night. And then after the excitement of the morning, I believe I could doze off if you didn’t think me too rude.”

“Please, take a journey to the land of Nod if you can. Maybe I shall join you. My driver and footman will alert us if there is any trouble whatsoever.”

As she rested her hand on his chest, his heart bloomed with love, and he thought nothing could be better than having her start snoring gently in his arms.

Until that night when she told him to obtain a single room.

As he descended from the carriage to speak to the innkeeper, she reached out and laid her hand upon his arm.

“After all,” she said, “I consider myself already your wife in all but the formality.”

Her trust in him shook Geoffrey. When he had secured them the best room and were now discussing going downstairs to dinner or having it brought up to their room, he couldn’t help telling her what was on his mind.

“I am actually concerned for you.”

“What do you mean?” She had been removing her outer coat but now stopped to look at him, her pretty lips parted in a smile .

“You are too trusting. What if you were here with a rogue? You can’t tell a man you already consider yourself married. What if I tupped you and left you here?” He was working himself up into righteous outrage on her behalf.

Instead of understanding the gravity of her circumstances, Caroline laughed and finished shrugging out of her coat, which she laid over the end of the bed. Approaching him, she put her hands up to take his face between her slender fingers.

“Geoffrey Diamond, are you going to tup me tonight?”

Swallowing hard at the instant image of fornication that sprang into his brain while his staff sprang to hard arousal as well, he stared into her unfathomable green eyes and could speak only the truth.

“Probably. In fact, certainly. Yes, I intend to.” He stopped babbling as she stroked her thumb over his lower lip.

“And are you going to leave me here afterward as a fallen woman? Or will we continue our journey to Scotland, so we can marry in haste and enjoy our lives at leisure?”

“That is not how the saying goes,” he pointed out. “Regardless, I am never going to leave you anywhere but stay always by your side.”

She nodded, went up on tiptoe, and kissed him full upon his lips.

Before he could wrap his arms around her, however, she had broken contact and slipped past him.

“I am famished,” she said. “If we are going to get to swiving later, then I need to eat now.”