She grinned wickedly. “I think in this one instance, I’d prefer you to kiss me on every part of me you love.”
“Ah, my sweet, wicked wife. Ye command, and I obey.”
Chapter Eleven
A sennight after Nash had last seen Lilias at the Orcus Society, his solicitor sat in Nash’s study gathering the papers Nash had just signed. “That’s it, Your Grace. Lady Lilias’s mother is now the proud owner of Charingworth Manor in the Cotswolds. She’ll receive these papers tomorrow from the Earl of Barrowe, her late husband’s brother, indicating that he has given her the house outright. That was quite a bit of luck that the house you wanted of Lord Barrowe’s happened to be unentailed.”
“Yes,” Nash agreed, picking up his drink and taking a sip. The brandy burned a trail down his throat to his stomach. He wished it could burn away his past sins so he could have a future with the only woman he would ever love.
He finished the drink, set down the glass, and stared out the window into the meticulously designed garden of his Mayfair home. He’d trade all his property, all his money, all his worldly possessions to have had one night with Lilias to keep in his memory before he’d discovered Owen loved her, as well. Night was falling quickly, shadows overtaking the picturesque view of the garden, and with the darkness outside came the darkness within. It had been especially bad since he had said goodbye to Lilias. Every day not seeing her felt like a lifetime.
He considered once more what he’d done for her and her family, what he’d set in motion and asked Carrington to help him do, and he decided he didn’t give a damn if he’d overstepped or not. He needed to give her the freedom to have choices for her life, not to be afraid, not to be compelled to wed Owen if she truly did not wish to. Though he still did not understand why she had kissed Owen on the balcony that night if she had no feelings for him. Since they’d last parted, he had considered going to her and asking her a thousand times, but he dismissed the idea every time.
That was what a selfish person would do. He had to let things go, to lethergo. Nash had sealed his own fate long before he’d met Lilias. He’d done what he could for her, and it would not lead back to him. He’d paid her uncle handsomely to tell Lilias and her family that the earl had decided to make the house her mother’s and that Lord Barrowe had also paid his brother’s, Lilias’s father’s, debts to the miscreants out of a suddenly discovered affection for his late brother’s family. The Earl of Barrowe was to concoct an excuse that he’d almost died and had a dream in which his brother’s ghost visited him and chastised him for not watching out for his nieces and sister-in-law. It was ridiculous. It was a tale worthy of a book, and that’s exactly why Nash expected that his sweet dreamer Lilias would believe it. Even if she didn’t, no one could prove he was the one who had taken care of the debts except his solicitor and Carrington, and neither man would betray Nash.
His solicitor, Mr. Farnsworth, cleared his throat. Nash looked up at the man and asked yet again, “You’re certain we took care of all the family debts?” He wanted nothing left for Lilias or her mother to worry about. He knew Owen could have done it, but he also knew it would have shamed Lilias to ask him. This way, she did not have to ask and could choose her own fate.
“Yes, Your Grace. The man I hired is the best, and with the information you gave me that the Duke of Carrington collected on who Lady Lilias’s father owed, I feel certain no one should be bothering the family anymore. And I conveyed to my man to deliver the message you requested: that you would hunt down any man who bothered them again and make his life one of misery.”
“Excellent. And the other request I made of you?”
The young solicitor smiled. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a friendly face. “That actually turned out to be much easier than I expected. My sister is a seamstress, and with a little poking around and a few passed coins, she got the measurements for all the women in the Honeyfield family. Everything you requested has been ordered, and they will think it came from Lord Barrowe.”
“Very good,” Nash said, grateful they could use Lilias’s uncle to protect Nash’s identity. “Then our business is concluded. You’ve done excellent work.”
“It’s my honor, Your Grace.”
Nash rang the bell, and the butler entered the study. Unfortunately, his mother came along with him, and by the frosty look she gave him, he suspected that he’d done something else to make her unhappy.
As the solicitor followed Sterns out of the study, his mother sat across from him. “What was that about?” she asked.
“Business,” he replied, then got up and poured himself another drink.
When he turned back toward her, she was frowning. “I don’t suppose you were talking to your solicitor because you have plans to make an offer for a lady?”
“You are correct not to suppose that.” He knocked back his drink, welcomed the numbing burn, and set the glass on the desk.
“You are imbibing too much,” his mother said, her voice cold and tone chastising.
He was tempted to pour another just to see if she would show real emotion. Become irate? Throw something at him? She so rarely displayed anything beyond the most muted responses.
“Are you playing at being my mother now?” he asked. “It’s a bit late. I’m all grown up.”
“It is never too late,” she said, her tone full of haughty disdain, “for you to become the duke your father and I expected you to be. You owe me.”
And there it was. She thought he owed her for Thomas’s death. But hadn’t he already given his life? His happiness? His peace? He opened his mouth to say all that, but he shut it just as quick.Penance.The word reverberated in his mind.
“What is it you wish me to do, Mother?”
She looked as him as if he ought to know. “Why, wed, of course.”
The thought made him flinch.
“Your greatest purpose is to wed a woman who will strengthen the Greybourne bloodline and produce many healthy sons.”
“Was that your greatest purpose?” he asked, her choice of the wordhealthystriking somewhere dark in him. He had never liked that they had undermined Thomas’s confidence in himself simply because he was born with one leg shorter than the other and weak lungs.
“Partly, but we are not discussing me. I have a wife in mind for you. Her family line is impeccable.”
