“Bane!” She looked up at him, her eyes reflecting mingled shock and humor, then the bonnet brim dipped again, and she continued talking as she walked. “No, he fell off his horse while on parade and hit his head. According to the story I was told—one of my cousins knew his sister—he was drunk at the time. He never regained consciousness.”
“Too good a death for him,” said Bane, disappointed. But there was nothing to be done about it. Gray—whatever the rest of his name was—was gone beyond Bane’s retribution. Bane’s lady was right there on his arm.
“Were there… consequences?” Bane asked.
“I did not have a baby, if that is what you mean. I told Mama what had happened, though, and she explained to Pa and Aunt Ginny that she was too ill to stay in London, and that I did not want to remain without her. Both of which were true, as it happened. She never told Pa, for the man was the son of a manof high estate, and what could Pa do? Ruin me in the eyes of the world for no purpose.”
Bane nodded. Women seldom received justice.Ah! That is why Livy is so ardent in her desire to help those who have been cheated out of their virtue!Well. And good for her. In her name, and as a counterbalance to Gray Scum-sucker, Curston, and all their ilk, he would help her in that cause.
First, though to address the idea that he guessed she had eating away inside her.
“Livy, it was not your fault,” he said. “You were the victim of an older and more experienced man. But even if you had had a wanton affair, why should that stand in our way? I have already told you that I am not a virgin. What a hypocrite I would be to expect you to be one.”
She stopped in her tracks, looked up at him, and examined his eyes. What she saw there must have reassured her, for she began walking again. “Most men are hypocrites, then,” she said.
“Many men of wealth or position, I suspect,” Bane allowed. “I am not. And neither is Drake.Isthat your objection to marriage, Livy? That a scoundrel once lied and charmed his way under your innocent skirts, and so you think I will reject you?”
“Are you saying you will not?”
Every conversation with Livy seemed to become a tennis match. “I want you as my wife, Livy. Nothing you have said dissuades me.”
“Why?” his darling demanded. “Why me? I am old, contentious, not particularly pretty, and used goods.”
That sparked his anger, partly at her for believing such nonsense, but mostly at those who had eroded her confidence in herself. He wished he had Drake’s silver tongue, but he would have to rely on the plain unvarnished truth, since that was all he could command.
“Why? Because I found myself face to face with you on Misrule Night, and you were magnificent. Powerful. Confident. Lovely as the night. An armful of a woman who was physically a match for an overgrown gowk like me, but also a woman of character I could spend my life striving to deserve. Since then, I have come to know you, and found that all of those things are true. You sayold, I sayjust the right age for me. You saycontentious, I saychallenging and interesting. I know you will require me to be the best version of myself, and will support me as I try.”
He was reaching her. A smile was dawning, and her silver eyes were intent on his.
“You saynot particularly pretty, my darling, and there, I must take issue with you. To me, you are indescribably lovely. I love how you look. I could spend hours worshipping every inch of your body, and I hope one day soon to have the right to do so. As for ‘used goods’, I beg you never refer to yourself that way again. What happened to you long before I knew you only matters to me because it hurt you. On the other hand, it meant you remained single, and I can only see that as a gift to my heart, for here we are at last. Together. Are we together, my love?”
“Am I?” she demanded. “You have said you love how I look, but do you love me?”
“Gowk!” Bane called himself, thumping his own thigh. “I have not said, have I? Not in those precise and precious words. I love you, Olivia Wintergreen. Thoughts of you consume my mind and haunt my dreams. My heart belongs to you. Everything I am and everything I have is at your feet. Will you pick it up, my love?”
She said nothing and his heart sank. “You don’t have to answer now,” he assured her. “If you do not love me, and think you can never love me, allow our betrothal to stand until the gossipmongers find something else to care about, and then youcan go your way, and I will at least have been of service to you. Or, if you care a little, let me use our fake betrothal to court you. Give me, give us a chance.”
“No need,” said Livy, and he thought she meant to dismiss him immediately, and wanted to howl, but in the next moment she elevated him from hell to heaven in a few words. “I think I began to fall in love with you that night, when you came alone to face us all, for the sake of your brother. And then we met at the inn, and when I scolded you, you turned it back on me with a quip on your lips and a smile in your eyes. Let us not bother with a long betrothal, Bane. Let us marry and begin our lives together. I am yours if you are mine.”
Bane lowered the cup of the umbrella so that their heads would be hidden from anyone who was out in the rain at this unfashionable hour, and bent, but only slightly, to present his lips. After a moment’s hesitation, his brave lady stood on tiptoe and pressed her mouth against his.
Either she had not been kissed enough to master the skill, or she had been kissed by idiots with no idea of how to treat a woman. Bane lost himself in the glory of her mouth, relishing her wordless sounds of pleasure. If not for the need to hold the umbrella and the hinderance of their coats, he might—he would—have taken things much further than his lady was ready for. Thank goodness for the rain.
Even so, he walked her back to her home with his mind in a whirl, and she, to his secret joy, seemed even more dazed than he. He was going to be wed! And he could not have been happier.
*
Cilla
Cilla and Livyinsisted that Jasper and Curston needed to face justice. Papa pointed out that they couldn’t have a trial without the whole matter becoming public, especially since Lord Marple would need to be tried by the House of Lords. And then Cilla and Livy would be found guilty and condemned by the court of public opinion. Also, Pearl, Beryl, and Ruby would not come out of such an ordeal unscathed.
“We cannot just let them go,” Livy declared. Cilla nodded. She quite agreed.
“We cannot see you punished along with them,” Drake pointed out.
“We will not,” said Bane. “Would you accept permanent exile as an appropriate punishment? For all four of them? The Curstons and your aunt and cousin?”
“Aunt Ginny would never willingly leave England,” Cilla said. “And what of her daughters? Even Beryl did not want to obey her mother, and Pearl and Ruby have done nothing wrong.”
