2
THE FOLLOWING YEAR…
Miss Mary Rose Marlow’s whole body jolted with surprise. ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, nearly falling down the short flight of garden steps she had just climbed. A broad masculine chest faced her.
Lord Framlington caught hold of her elbow, saving her, only to pull her towards the chest which had caused her exclamation.
He’d appeared from behind the hedge and blocked her path.
Her fingers pressed against the front of his morning coat, discovering solid muscle beneath. Unladylike longings besieged her. She had never forgotten him, and she was ashamed to admit she had often thought about kissing him. Angered by the desire she should not feel, Mary planted her palms on his chest and pushed, denying the attraction that pulled at her.
She looked up and met his gaze. She hoped her anger burned a visible flame in her eyes.
If he saw her ire, the dark amber brown of his eyes absorbed it with cool, quelling disengagement.
Her stomach wobbled like aspic with an unwilling hunger for the reprobate.
‘Miss Marlow.’ He raised his hat a little. ‘It is my good fortune to collide with you.’
Mary stepped back, careful to avoid the steps, her hands falling to her sides as she bobbed a hardly recognisable curtsy. The garden path, lined by tall yew hedges, was barely wide enough for one. She could not pass him without further contact unless he moved aside.
‘Lord Framlington.’ Her voice rang sharp with irritation. ‘If you will excuse me, I really ought to be getting back.’ She moved to pass him.
He stepped to the side and blocked her. ‘No haste, Miss Marlow, the garden party is still in full swing, no one will notice our absence. Everyone is busy playing Lady Jersey’s outdoor games. Have you tried your hand at the archery butts? You could aim an arrow at my heart if you wish, I would not complain, you might snare me if it came from Cupid’s bow.’
‘Do not be absurd!’ The words flew out of her mouth. His comment was too close to her secret wish. ‘You know my brother advises against you.’
‘The Duke of Pembroke…’ Condescension sharpened his words, and a roguish smile tilted his lips. Oh, she remembered that smile, it had plagued her dreams since last summer… ‘What do I care for his opinion, and what do you? I think he did me a favour, warning you off. You have been enamoured ever since.’
He knew! ‘I have not.’ Mary’s hands balled to fists. This was infuriating. Why did she find him so interesting? Because on one evening, nearly a year ago, he had danced with her and talked as no other man had.
He grinned. ‘Careful, or I shall think you protest too much. Besides, I know because I see you watching me. Whenever I turn, there is Miss Mary Marlow staring across the room.’
He leaned forward, his face inches from hers. ‘Your looks call to me, Mary. You whisper to me, come, come, Framlington, closer.’ His husky pitch made her skin tingle with awareness, and possibilities coursed through her blood. His lips were so close.
He lifted his hand and his gloved fingers gently braced her chin. ‘Well, here I am. Come to you. What will you do with me?’
Run away.
She lifted her chin away and took another step back. ‘Let me pass. I should not be speaking with you.’
‘But you are.’ He stepped forward.
When she’d danced with him last season his glittering light brown eyes had melted her bones. She’d fallen irrevocably in love with him during that dance. But afterwards John had advised her that Lord Framlington was a beast. A fortune hunter, chasing dowries. Worse, he was a rake, a philanderer, a seducer, not to be trusted in the least.
It is folly talking to him.
‘Then let me rectify that.’ She moved to pass him.
His hand wrapped about her upper arm, stopping her and turning with her, so they stood side on, facing one another in the narrow gap between the dense greenery of the yew hedges.
‘Stop running and pretending you do not like me. I am not blind. Besides, run, and my predatory instincts say, chase.’ On the last word he leaned forward, pulled her closer and pressed his lips against hers. His other hand came to her nape, urging her not to turn away. His lips brushed across hers.
Mary’s mind screamed, run , but her body had longed for this kiss. This was her first kiss.
Her hands lifted to his shoulders and she clung to him, opening her mouth at his urging, and when his tongue invaded her lips a rush of twisting need slid through her stomach reaching to the central point of femininity between her legs. This was what she’d imagined and longed for.
He moved closer. The thin neatly clipped branches of the yew trees pricked her back, as the intensity of his kiss increased, growing in determination, the connection intoxicating. His palm rested over her breast and squeezed it through the thin muslin of her gown.
A sweet sharp pain travelled from her nipple, catching her breath. It was delicious, but still it was pain and it was enough to rip her focus from his kiss to rational thought.
What am I doing? What am I letting him do?
She ended their kiss so abruptly, it caught him off guard. He stumbled back and gave her the chance to escape.
She fled, not daring to look back for fear he’d follow.
‘Miss Marlow!’ he called after her, a note of humour in his voice. ‘I know you feel the same for me as I feel for you! Stop running and come back to me!’ When she did not stop, or look back, he called again. ‘Well then, if not now, whenever you wish! Simply give me a sign and I shall find a way we can meet!’
She lifted the skirt of her dress and ran along the path, her breathing heavy and her lips burning.
Only when she reached the end of the path did she slow to a walk and let her dress fall.
The lawn was crowded with elite society.
Her fingers pressed against her breastbone. She must be blushing. She had let a man her father and brother had explicitly warned her against kiss her.
‘Mary, there you are.’ She turned as her brother’s voice cut the air. ‘We were coming to find you. Katherine was concerned.’
Mary looked at Kate, who held her brother’s arm. Her sister-in-law was kindness incarnate, but Kate was Mary’s chaperone today.
‘I walked down to the Jerseys’ shell grotto. I wished to see it and I did not like to interrupt your conversation.’
John’s eyebrows rose, saying, you should not have gone alone . She knew that now.
But the kiss had been more beautiful than she’d imagined. She had never thought it would cause her body to ache so warmly… and ache in unspeakable places.
Behind John, Lord Framlington walked out from the end of the path. The rogue smiled at her, then walked on across the lawn, implying, without a word, that something had happened between them.
Warmth rose under her skin. She must be as red as a strawberry.
‘What happened?’ John whispered, in a harsh, condemning tone.
Mary looked into chilling blue eyes. When he was angry his eyes were like ice.
She tipped up her chin, defending herself against her domineering half-brother. ‘I bumped into him. Literally. It was an accident.’
John’s eyebrows drew together as he frowned. ‘I doubt it was an accident. Do not speak to him, Mary, and certainly, never in private. If you are compromised, you will be tied to him. That is probably what he wishes. Have more care. No wandering pathways alone. You’re lucky he did not ravish you and wait for someone to happen along and see the two of you. His desire for money is more desperate than last year. He cannot curb his spending. There is not a prudent bone in his body. His debt is spiralling.’
Mary’s gaze fell to the twinkling diamond in John’s cravat pin. She did not argue. Lord Framlington had proved John right. Every word John spoke was true, but something within her still burned for Lord Framlington. He had lit a flame in her a year ago and it refused to be snuffed. Her heart had longed for Lord Framlington for nearly a year, and now it screamed… He had kissed her and fulfilled every expectation fostered in her dreams.
She shut her eyes for a second to escape a giddy sensation. Denying her inner clamour. When she opened her eyes, John was looking at her far too intently. ‘I know, it was a mistake,’ she told him. ‘I will not do it again.’
‘Do not fret. No one saw.’ Kate linked her arm with Mary’s, and turned her towards the crowd, though she did not lead Mary towards them but into a walk about the edge of them. ‘Did Lord Framlington do or say something to upset you?’
‘No.’ There was no need for her family to know he had kissed her. She did not wish John, her father, or her uncles, challenging him to a duel. It was only a kiss. Except, if she had stayed, she did not think it would have ended there. John was right: Lord Framlington was trouble. He had intended to ravish her.
Why did her silly heart have to make her stomach flutter at the thought?
‘Did he touch you?’ John’s fingers brushed her elbow as he walked at her other side, his voice filled with concern.
‘No.’ Guilt thrust a knife into her breast. She had never lied before, and she was lying for his sake. ‘He merely frightened me.’
‘Well, if he’s scared you, you will hopefully never make such an error again.’
She would not, she had learned her lesson. This could have ended with awful consequences. But she felt torn in two, her heart pulling one way, towards danger, while her head pulled another. She must listen to her head and heed common sense. If she had been seen with him…
The blood drained from Mary’s head. ‘May we go home?’
‘If you wish.’ John’s gaze was deep with concern. ‘I’ll send for the carriage.’ He left them immediately.
‘We will say our goodbyes. We should not just disappear.’ Through the pressure of their joined arms Kate drew Mary closer to her side and led her across the lawn towards where Lady Jersey stood among her friends.
‘I know he did something,’ Kate whispered. ‘You would not be this discomposed over nothing. You do not have to tell me, but mind what John says and do not allow yourself to be taken in by Lord Framlington’s charm.’
They were so familiar, Mary thought of Kate as a full sister. ‘It was nothing. Really. Just nonsense.’ Mary was lucky, her family may caution, but they would always support her. Kate smiled, her eyebrows lifting.
‘Nonsense to a woman, Mary, is manoeuvring to a man. Beware, males are predatory and determined when they choose to be, and Lord Framlington is of that ilk. Avoid him.’
‘I was… I am… It is just… I never thought he would follow.’
‘Doing the things we never expect is what they do,’ Kate advised conspiratorially. ‘But I will convince John not to tell your father and mother of this. There is no need for you to listen to this lecture twice.’
Mary’s smile lifted. ‘Thank you.’
‘Now let us get our goodbyes over with. Then I propose we stop at Gunter’s for an ice on the way home. The day is so hot I am melting.’
As they approached Lady Jersey, Kate’s free hand flicked open her fan and wafted the warm early summer air over them both, cooling Mary’s blush.
When the niceties were completed, as she walked towards the house to leave, Mary’s gaze subtly scanned the crowd for a gentleman with dark brown hair, a head above the rest. She was so used to searching him out she spotted him in a second.
Lord Framlington stood on the edge of a group of men.
His head turned and his gaze reached across the open space and found her. He smiled a self-congratulating smile. Declined his head in a brief bow. Then looked away.
Against her better judgement her mind recalled the feeling of their kiss, and the pulse of her heart was whipped into a race.