“You might phrase it more delicately, but that’s the gist, yes.”
“Refuse, Montieth,” Anthony tempted in a soft voice. “Meet me in the morning instead. I won’t kill you. I’ll aim a ways below your heart, so that the next girl you abscond with in the middle of the night will be believed when she says you’ve left her untouched.”
Nicholas had to laugh. Gelding was the threat now? These were his options? He had no doubt that his grandmother could arrange jail, as she threatened. He’d be estranged from her, doubtless, and the truth was, he loved the old witch. Then there was death or grievous wounding if Anthony had his way. Those were the choices.
Or he could marry the loveliest creature he had ever set eyes on. He could probably have the land he wanted. Aunt Ellie was for this marriage. His grandmother and all the Malorys were for it.
Nicholas closed his eyes for a moment, apparently deep in thought. Then he opened them and stood up.
“My lords,” he said evenly, “when is the wedding to be?”
Chapter 11
“SO you’ve come to escort your fiancée to Vauxhall Gardens? To a concert? Never thought I’d see you attending a bloody concert, and in the daytime, at that!”
Derek Malory was enjoying himself immensely, and the look of pure disgust on Nicholas Eden’s face was perfect. They were in the drawing room at Edward’s house, in the very room where the infamous meeting had taken place the night before, and Nicholas had just arrived.
“This is apparently the only way I’ll get to see her,” Nicholas told Derek. “They wouldn’t let me near her last night.”
“Well, of course not. Wouldn’t have been proper. She was told to go to bed.”
“You mean she actually takes orders?” Nicholas said in mock astonishment. “I thought everyone followed hers.”
“Oh, I say. You really are put out about this. I don’t understand why. She’s first rate, you know, a real gem. Couldn’t do better.”
“I would have preferred to pick my own wife, you understand, as opposed to having one forced on me.”
Derek grinned. “Heard you put up quite a fuss. Couldn’t believe any of this when they told me, especially that you’d given in. Know how you don’t like to be told what to do, not one bit.”
“Stop rambling, Derek,” Nicholas demanded. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I’m to come along, don’t you know. Cousin Clare and I are coming with you. Orders from Uncle Edward. Didn’t think you’d get her alone, did you? Can’t have any hanky-panky before the wedding.”
Nicholas scowled. “What the hell difference would it make? I’m already supposed to have bedded her.”
“No one believes that, Nick, at least no one in the family.”
“Except your Uncle Anthony?”
“Don’t know what he thinks,” Derek said more soberly. “But you’d best watch out for him. They’re especially close, you know, he and your intended.”
“She’s his favorite niece?”
“It’s more than that. He was only three years younger than Aunt Melissa, you see, and they were always inseparable. When she died, he was only seventeen. Her daughter kind of took Melissa’s place in his affections. All my uncles felt that way, including my father. But Uncle Anthony, being the youngest, was more like a brother to Regina. You wouldn’t believe the fights he had with my father once he came of age and moved to London, because the old man wouldn’t let him have her part of each year the way Uncle Edward does.” Derek chuckled. “The old man finally gave in because she wanted it, too, and there isn’t much she wants that he doesn’t give her.”
Nicholas grunted. Regina was going to be impossibly spoiled. “Why is it I never met her at Haverston?”
“She was always with Uncle Edward or Uncle Anthony when you came. They each had her for four months of the year by the time you started visiting me.” Derek laughed. “But you did meet her once, that first time I brought you home. She was the little hoyden who spilled the bowl of pudding in your lap when you teased her.”
“But you called the child Reggie!” Nicholas cried.
“We all call Regina Reggie, and she’s grown now. Do you remember her?”
He groaned. “How could I forget? She stuck her tongue out at me when I threatened to blister her bottom.”
“Yes, well, she didn’t like you at all after that. She was at the house once more, I believe, when you came to visit, but she stayed out of your way.”
“She told me that, when you told her about me, she loved me,” Nicholas said dryly.
