Page 6 of Just Think of the Scandal (The Fairplace Family Novellas #2)

T heo reined in his frustration. “What happened last night?”

Miss Czerninová shook her head. “That’s what I mean to ask you!”

He sighed and ran both hands through his hair. “I came across you in the upstairs drawing room, passed out with an empty bottle like a swizzler—”

“I do not know that word, sir,” Miss Czerninová said stiffly.

“Swizzler? A drunkard. Drunk as an owl,” Theo continued, ignoring her gasp of outrage. “So I tried to do the kind thing and carry you to your bed so no hissing tabbies would see you still feeling alcohol’s effects the next morning, nor would any rogues in residence come across you in a, ah, vulnerable state.” For goodness’ sake, the tips of his ears burned. He broke eye contact, glancing at the ground between their chairs.

“You carried me to bed?” Miss Czerninová stared at him in a mixture of horror and dismay. “Into my bedroom? And what do owls have to do with alco—never mind, that’s not the important part.”

Theo fought to withhold a frown. “Yes, we’ve established that. I did it to save you.”

Her bloodshot eyes widened. “Save me! Save me?” She pursed her lips. “Like you saved me after the farmyard game?” Color rushed up her neck, staining her cheeks, and she shut her eyes as if wishing to pretend she’d never said that. Gods, she was beautiful.

An awkward silence fell between them. Guilt at his inaction last night made his eyes ache more.

Theo had a sudden epiphany. “That’s why you drank yourself silly.”

Her eyes slitted open and she glared, which was tantamount to a confession.

He leaned back in his chair, all the pieces coming together. “You left as soon as you could after that terrible prank.”

She gave a jerky nod, expression imperious, as if she dared him to mock her now.

“And instead of reading to distract yourself from Miss Glumley, you drank a whole bottle of port.”

The pink in her cheeks turned to red. “I read and sipped port. Besides, it was hardly the whole bottle.”

Theo raised his brows.

“It wasn’t the whole bottle,” she insisted with great dignity.

He decided there were larger issues to discuss and let it go. “It seems like we both had the best intentions, fully innocent, and—”

“ Why couldn’t you leave me in the—drawing room?” Miss Czerninová began to wail, then immediately hushed to a whisper. Theo bet she’d never felt the morning after effects of drink before, and her head was probably throbbing worse than his.

“Because I did not trust some of the men around here while foxed. You were more vulnerable than you knew. There was…intemperate talk after the ladies went to bed, and I thought it possible one of the men, while inebriated, might accost you.”

She blanched.

Finally . She understood.

“I truly was trying to help you,” he added quietly.

Miss Czerninová sighed and rubbed her forehead with long, delicate fingers. “What a pickle.”

“Should I ring for some teacakes?” Theo wasn’t sure how to proceed with this conversation. “You won’t cast up your accounts, will you?”

She gave him a haughty look. “I think not.”

Theo slowly stood, giving himself time to adjust to the new elevation without falling over, rang the bellpull on the wall behind the desk, and sat back down. “So. I have little time, it appears, before an impromptu appointment with the archbishop. Should we take that time to get to know one another?”

She stared at him incredulously. He shifted nervously. Just when he thought she would burst into tears, she threw back her head and laughed, then groaned and put both hands on her head as if she could stop her brain from rattling inside her skull.

“I don’t even…I cannot comprehend…” She finally gave up and gave him a practiced, polite smile. “If we are betrothed you might as well call me Eliska.”

“I thought your Christian name was Elizabeth?” Theo liked the sound of Eliska, though. Sweet, plucky, winsome, it was everything she seemed to be, based on their conversation last night while she leaned against his chest.

“It is the English version of my name. But I’ve always been called Eliska. It’s an old family name, which is why my father named me despite it being Czech.”

Theo wasn’t up to date on the latest politics of Central Europe, but he knew that most Bohemian nobility were actually German or Austrian, and pledged fealty to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. Her family was one of the few ethnically Czech aristocratic nobles in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown.

“Of course whenever we visited the court of the emperor and empress in Vienna, I went by Elisabeth. My mother hoped I would find favor with the empress by sharing her name.”

“Did it?” Theo inquired. He’d never met Queen Victoria, the English counterpart. Eliska was more elevated and connected than he’d first assumed.

Eliska shrugged. “Perhaps. But she is still so at odds with the dowager empress and the rest of the court. It didn’t make much difference for me.”

“Do you have hopes to return to the Habsburg court?” Theo asked, realizing they might have completely different goals in life. What would he do with a wife who didn’t want to live in England? Or perhaps theirs could be an aristocratic marriage, where they lived together just long enough to have a child or two, and then part ways amicably.

Eliska shrugged again, pain and resignation glinting in her red-rimmed eyes. “If the courts release my inheritance. If the Lands of the Bohemian Crown can find a balance between Czech revolution and Habsburg absolutism.”

He’d heard stirrings of war and revolution across Central and Southern Europe, but he hadn’t paid much attention. Once he’d seen the aftermath of the Crimean War in his older brother and other returned veterans, he didn’t read the newspapers with as much enthusiasm anymore. Most of his investments were in Canadian, Australian, and British railroad stock, so he didn’t have to be an expert on the Austrian kingdom.

“Prague is a beautiful city,” she continued, eyes growing distant. “Have you ever been?”

Theo shook his head.

“The cathedrals and clocks, the coffee shops and mansions…it’s unlike any other city on the continent. I hope you get the chance to go someday.”

Theo cleared his throat. “Perhaps you can take me. I can’t go on a honeymoon trip abroad right now, but in a year or so?”

She blinked, returning to the present. “Oh. Yes. Because we’re marrying one another.”

Right. Just that wee detail.

A maid entered with a fresh tea tray, complete with buttered toast and other light food. Eliska thanked her, then poured both of them tea and delicately munched on some toast. Her color looked better, he noted. Not quite so sickly pale.

“Please call me Theo,” he said, trying to make some headway in the last few moments he had.

“Not Theophilus?” Her lips quirked upward.

He shuddered. “God, no. No one calls me that but the baron. And my mother, when I’m in trouble.”

“You mentioned your mother earlier,” she prompted, sounding hesitant.

Theo smiled. “Yes, she lives in Nottingham with my older brother and his family. We were raised in London, but when my brother and his wife began having children they went to our father’s family home. She joined them to be near the grandchildren.” Eliska and I will give her more grandchildren. The thought struck him like a bullet, seeing his future rearrange itself, sharpen and change. He’d always imagined he’d marry sometime, when he found the right woman. And children would likely follow.

Now he had a name. Now he knew his children might have her red-gold hair and her pale eyes. And maybe she’d sing them German lullabies. The swift motion made his eyes blur and stomach grow queasy. Life wasn’t supposed to change in a split second, was it? This morning he was a happily single man, and now he was fairly certain his children would grow up learning German from their mother.

He stood abruptly, not able to breathe under the weight of new expectations.

Eliska stared up at him, confusion spreading across her face. “Are you leaving already?”

Theo nodded, resisting the urge to rub his temples. “I should go,” he said, searching for a reason to flee the room. “The, uh, train.”

Eliska nodded gravely and rose. “Return as soon as you can. I’d like to discuss how we can change the argument of my court case.”

He winced. “What?”

“If you’re my husband, the courts will listen to you. We’ll need to schedule a meeting with my English solicitors and review how this marriage will change the way we approach the magistrates in Prague.”

Oh, god. He was inheriting a massive legal headache on top of a wife. How had this—never mind, he knew how this had happened.

“Let’s wait until our heads stop ringing,” Theo suggested.

Her lips curved into a small smile and she nodded.

Eliska’s eyes truly were gorgeous, he realized, even when bloodshot. They stood, staring at one another, so close her skirts nearly brushed his calves. The air grew thick around them. Theo’s heart pounded in his ears, making his head hurt worse. But he continued to stare at her, taking in those delicate features, the sharp nose and thin, arched brows. Her eyelashes were so fine and pale.

“Mr.—I mean, Theo?” she murmured, raising those dawn-colored eyebrows in question.

Theo mentally shook himself. “I should…I should be going.”

She nodded.

Unaccountably warm, Theo turned to leave. He paused. His brother, Dennis, always touched or kissed his wife before leaving the room. His father had always gestured some sort of farewell to Theo’s mother, too. He cleared his throat, heat rising up his neck. But if he were doing this he’d do it right.

Quickly, before he could overthink and before she could scorn his attention, Theo bent back to her and dipped his head, pressing his lips to her cheek, and whirled out of the room.

At least, that’s what he meant to do. But when his lips met the warm, smooth skin of her face, he breathed in her soft, violet scent. Wisps of wild, pillow-mussed hair tickled his face. This close to her, he became intensely aware of her figure and the warmth of her body.

She exhaled sharply through her mouth, the rush of hot air flitting across the bottom of his jaw. The soft, feminine sound sent a bolt of awareness and arousal through his body. He bit back a groan just before it escaped. His groin tightened.

Theo forced himself to pull back, rocking on his heels. Her eyelashes were fine filaments of gold he could only see up close. Dazed, he searched her face for any similar signs of connection or longing. She stared back at him, eyes as wide as saucers, hand hovering in the air, as if she’d been bringing them up to grab at him, but he’d left too soon. He had a sudden impulse to step forward, to take those hands and wrap them around him.

He cleared his throat and dipped into a short bow. “Miss Czerninová. I shall return.” He fled, jerking his jacket to cover what little it could of his trousers. No one needed to know a little sigh and kiss on the cheek had him already at half-mast.