A Scoundrel By Moonlight

“Byron was a rake, Mother.”

“And you didn’t like him, I know.”

“I didn’t.” He remembered the brilliant, troubled, troublesome man he’d met briefly as a youth. “He was an entertaining fellow, and clever with it, but he left a good many ladies the worse for knowing him. I can’t admire someone so addicted to selfish pleasure that he was cavalier about the harm he did.”

The blaze of heat in Miss Trim’s eyes had cooled to curiosity. He couldn’t imagine why she cared about his opinion of the notorious poet. Leath certainly wasn’t the only person in England to frown upon his activities.

Hell, he needed to stop staring moonstruck at his mother’s companion. He turned back to the table and lifted the parcel. “I’ve brought you a present.”

His mother tried to sit up and Miss Trim rushed to assist with a gentleness that Leath couldn’t help noting. “Oh, how wonderful. I love presents.”

He held the box out. “Careful. It’s heavy.”

“Not diamonds, then?” she asked playfully.

“Not today.”

Miss Trim fetched scissors to cut the string. “I’ll finish those letters, my lady.”

“No, stay, Nell. This looks intriguing.”

His mother tore at the paper, as excited as a child at a birthday party, then reached inside the box. “James, and you pretended to disapprove.”

“How could I disapprove of anything that gives you such enjoyment?”

She drew out a beautifully tooled volume in dark green leather. “The Fair Maid of Perth. How wonderful.”

“I asked Hatchards to send their most popular books. There’s now a standing order each month. If you find that doesn’t meet your needs, they’ll increase it.”

“How can I thank you?” His mother’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

He often sent her gewgaws, jewelry or scarves or trinkets for her rooms. But he couldn’t remember her getting such pleasure from a gift. And it had been so simple to arrange. He felt like a fool that he hadn’t thought of it earlier, and unreasonably nettled that he’d needed Miss Trim to point out how a good book or two might brighten his mother’s restricted existence.

“What fun we shall have, Nell.”

“Indeed, my lady,” the girl said neutrally. Leath cast her another glance and was surprised to see that she studied him without her usual reserve. Instead, she regarded him as if he was a puzzle she couldn’t put together. He wondered why. The mystery here was Nell Trim, not the Marquess of Leath.

“Can you stay, James?”

“Of course,” he said, although now he paid closer attention to his estates, he was surprised how much work it took to run them. Even more surprising was how he enjoyed meeting the challenge of his vast inheritance.

“Lovely. Perhaps Nell will read on. She’s most entertaining.”

He stifled a groan. The last thing he needed was that low, husky, damnably suggestive voice describing seduction.

“I’m sure his lordship doesn’t want to listen to me,” Miss Trim said.

She’d avoided him recently. Was she still smarting after their talk in the library? Or had his mother told her that he’d tried to send her away?

“You should read James some of those agricultural reports that arrived yesterday,” his mother said drily.

“How did you know about those?” he asked, although he shouldn’t be surprised. His mother remained mistress of the house, despite rarely leaving her rooms.

“I have my spies,” she said. “They tell me that the ghosts are back.”

“What nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense. As a new bride, I saw Lady Mary on the battlements.”

“On a foggy night, Mamma.”

“I’m not the only one.”

“At least you were sober.”

His mother’s jaw firmed. They’d had this argument before. She fancied that the castle, parts of which dated to the fourteenth century, was haunted. “Lady Mary’s visiting us again.”

“On the battlements?”

“No, in the library. For the last three nights, lights have been seen after midnight.”

He thought he heard a strangled gasp from Miss Trim, but when he glanced at her, she’d lowered her eyes in her perfect servant pose.

“Who the devil’s skulking in the gardens at that hour?” he asked.

“Garson was watching for poachers.”

“And drinking to pass the time,” Leath said with grim amusement. “I’ll have a word with him. If my gamekeeper has taken to the bottle, he’s not safe wandering the property with a gun.”

“You mock, James, but you know it’s true that Lady Mary’s husband strangled her.”

“I know that’s true. I don’t know it’s true that she lingers to keep an eye on her descendants. And if she does, I doubt that she’s developed a taste for literature. Especially as I have it on good authority that my library is full of boring books.”

He didn’t look at Miss Trim. But his brain worked, even as he argued with his mother’s conclusions. Despite his joke, Garson wasn’t a drunkard. If he said he saw lights in the library, odds were that he had.

A determination to catch Miss Trim in the act gripped him. If he could prove to his mother that the girl meant no good, he could send her away.

And conquer this inconvenient itch to bed her.

Chapter 6

Nell had read every thought that crossed the marquess’s mind when his mother told him about Lady Mary’s ghost. He’d known immediately who was flitting around his library. Fear had twisted her stomach into knots as she waited for him to denounce her. Then she’d realized that he’d take this as a golden opportunity to catch her prowling about.

Her suspicions were confirmed that evening when she saw Mr. Wells, the daunting butler, delivering a tray to the library. Obviously refreshments for his lordship’s watch.

For once, she was a step ahead of Lord Leath.

The diary wasn’t in the library. The next likely place—in fact always the most likely place—was his lordship’s bedroom. After all, the scandalous document would hardly be shelved alongside Fordyce’s Sermons where anyone could lay their hand upon it. The problem was entering the marquess’s rooms unobserved. His vigil in the library provided the ideal chance.

Now as she crept along darkened hallways, only a candle to light her way, the house seemed twice the size as it did by day. And by day, the sprawling pile stretched for miles. Thick carpeting under her feet muffled her passing, but she remained preternaturally alert.

His lordship’s valet lived above his rooms, but last week Selsby had been called away to his sick mother. Everything conspired to allow her to search Leath’s apartments.

She prayed that she’d find the diary quickly. She desperately needed to escape Alloway Chase. The longer she stayed, the flimsier became her resolution. Every moment she spent with the marquess left her more befuddled. Witness today when he’d surprised his mother with those books. Hardly the act of a thoughtless cad. And was he hypocrite enough to denounce Lord Byron for sins he himself had committed? She wouldn’t have thought so.

If she’d been ignorant of the marquess’s offenses, she’d like him. Oh, who was she fooling? She’d more than like him. Even knowing his wickedness, she found him breathtakingly attractive.

However dirty that made her feel.

How could she yearn after the man who had destroyed Dorothy? Was she victim to the same fatal weakness as her half sister?

Carefully she inched open the door to the marquess’s apartments. Although he was safely ensconced in his library, her heart skittered with fear that somehow he was in two places at once.

She stepped into a dark, cavernous space. She closed the door and raised her candle to reveal a sitting room, as masculine in decor as the marchioness’s was feminine. Flickering light glanced across a leather couch and two armchairs beside a cold hearth. Piles of books teetered on heavy mahogany tables. She’d lay money there wasn’t a novel among them. Light glinted off decanters on the sideboard.

James Fairbrother’s presence was palpable, as though he stood right behind her. The muscles across her neck and shoulders knotted until she told herself to settle down. He was downstairs. She was safe, at least for now.

She pushed open the door from the sitting room and entered a short corridor. Shelves lined the first room off the hallway. She inhaled to calm leapfrogging nerves, then wished she hadn’t. When had the marquess’s scent become so familiar? Her senses expanded with pleasure as she recognized sandalwood soap and clean, healthy male. Riffling through the clothes he wore on that strong, hard body seemed unforgivably intimate, and she fumbled the door shut with a loud click that made her heart jolt with alarm.

Desperately listening in case someone came to check on the noise, she stood motionless.

Nothing.

She sucked air into starved lungs. Nell didn’t take easily to deceit. Sneaking around and eavesdropping and telling lies went against her character. Another reason to leave Alloway Chase sooner rather than later. Much more chicanery and she’d be a wreck.

The next door revealed a bathing room of a luxury beyond anything she’d imagined when her world was confined to Mearsall. At last she found proof of sensual self-indulgence. The marquess presented a restrained façade to the world. Something at Nell’s deepest level insisted that beneath that proper exterior lurked a man who appreciated pleasure.

The thought of James Fairbrother standing naked in this blue-tiled magnificence heated her blood. She couldn’t help seeing him as he doused himself with water, stroked soap along his wet skin, lounged in the huge bath.

This time, although she closed the door carefully, panic nipped more sharply. Her invasion of the marquess’s rooms inflamed her senses in a way that appalled her.

One door remained.

Only her piercing need to run away made her proceed. If she failed at this hurdle, she was likely to fail altogether.

As she opened this last door, her hands shook so violently that her candle cast wild shadows over the walls. She felt like Bluebeard’s bride breaking into the locked room. A discomfiting thought, as the nosy girl came to a nasty end in that tale. At least she did in the pragmatic version told around Mearsall’s firesides.

The bedroom was so enormous that the candle’s light didn’t penetrate its far reaches. A fire burned in the grate, but the flames left most of the room in shadow. The room was circular with tall windows facing three directions. She must be in the castle’s west tower. Quietly she closed the door behind her.

The huge four-poster bed sat on a dais, curtained in gold brocade. The ceiling was so high it dwarfed even this lofty structure. The covers were turned down, ready for the marquess’s powerful body. Nell shivered with a dread that, she was ashamed to admit, included a dollop of forbidden excitement.

If she’d felt like she infringed the marquess’s privacy elsewhere in these apartments, here where he slept, he could be standing at her elbow. A book lay open on the nightstand as if he’d just laid it down. A shirt draped across a chair. A black velvet dressing gown as soft as panther fur spread across the base of the bed, waiting for its owner to shrug it over his long body. She could picture him wearing it as he enjoyed a last brandy before sleep.

The image of Leath as his real, animal self, not the civilized man he presented to the world, was painfully vivid. Here it was easy to envision him with a lover. Not a girl he tumbled to scratch an itch, but someone he wanted. Perhaps even … loved. Nell released a soft gasp of distress when she realized that the fantasy woman in Leath’s arms bore her face.

Enough. She swallowed to control her queasiness. She didn’t have long. And she couldn’t waste it on nonsense.

Recalling Lady Mary’s “ghost,” she crossed to the windows to check that the curtains were closed. Then she set her candle on a small table and surveyed the room.

This vast, idiosyncratic chamber was full of interesting nooks and coffers. Fertile ground for her search. She leveled her shoulders and stepped toward a large studded chest near the hearth with the year 1676 picked out in heavy iron nails.

Then the unthinkable happened.

The door opened and his lordship strode in.

Nell caught her breath and held it as if somehow that made her invisible. Her queasiness changed to cramping horror.

Shock flared in his face then his gaze narrowed on her. He couldn’t be nearly as appalled to see her as she was to see him.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Thick black brows lowered over deep-set eyes. He was dressed informally. A loose white shirt and breeches with boots. He looked utterly terrifying.

Nell held her breath so long that it hurt when she exhaled. She felt dizzy with lack of air, stabbing dread, self-disgust.

Curse him, what could she say? What could she do? She faltered back, although there was no escape. Leath’s formidable form blocked the only door. She should have thought of some excuse for being in his room. But what excuse could there be?

She dipped into a wobbly curtsy. “My lord.”

His furious gaze didn’t waver. “Just what are you up to, Miss Trim?”

“N-nothing, sir,” she stammered. “I’m sorry for intruding. I’ll leave you alone.”

He didn’t budge as she scuttled toward the door. Her knees trembled so badly that she feared she might collapse in a heap before she reached it. She darted past him, and for a brief, mad moment thought that she might make it.

Until he turned and slammed the heavy door in her face. “Not so fast, my inquisitive chit.”

The impulse to haul at the handle died as it arose. She’d never win a physical battle against Leath. She panted, more with fright than exertion, and twisted to press her back against the door. “Let me out.”

“Not yet,” he said mildly, placing his palms flat on either side of her head. His calmness was more frightening than shouting. It hinted at the tight rein he held over his temper. He was so huge, this was like facing down a planet. An angry planet. Dear heaven, she was in such trouble.

“You’re scaring me,” she said, hoping to appeal to his softer side. He had one; he’d shown it to his mother. The problem was that if Dorothy’s story was true—and surely it was—his benevolence didn’t extend to women outside his class.

“You deserve to be scared,” he said grimly.

Without touching her, his body hemmed her against the door. The evocative scent of his skin was rich in her nostrils. Something other than fear started to beat in her blood.

Hating herself, she met his uncompromising expression. “That’s … that’s not kind.”

His eyes glittered. She knew he was no respecter of innocence. Even if he was, what was he to make of her invading his bedroom? Panic tasted rusty on her tongue and she licked dry lips.

His gaze dropped to the betraying movement. The same awareness that had extended between them their first night sizzled through the pause. “I’m not feeling kind.”

She shivered. “Please …” she whispered. “Step back.”

He loomed above her, impervious and unforgiving. “Not until you tell me what you’re doing here.”

“I …” Desperately she sought for some way to explain her presence. Nothing came to mind.

Black brows arched in cynical inquiry. “I what?”

“I can’t think when you stand so close,” she muttered crossly.

Despite the nasty edge to his soft laugh, the sound stroked along her skin. Every hair on her body stood to attention. This heady mixture of desire and alarm sent her into a complete spin.

“I don’t want you to think. I want you to tell me the truth.” He frowned. “Have you come to steal?”

She should be grateful for the accusation. It jolted her out of cowering like a mouse. She straightened and glared at him. “Of course not.”

“Then what are you doing?”

She avoided his eyes. “I thought you were in the library.”

“Catching Lady Mary.” His acerbic response made her wince. His concentration on her burned like a flame.

“I saw Wells bring you supper.”

“What a busy little miss you are.” It wasn’t a compliment. “I already know you’re the ghost.”

Her eyes flashed up. “I wanted a book,” she said desperately.

“One you can’t find during the day?” His voice bit as he continued. “With dear Mr. Crane’s advice on your choice?”

If he was another man, she’d think he was jealous. But the great Marquess of Leath wouldn’t care about a maidservant’s flirtations.

He went on before she could protest. “Surely you won’t say that you’re here for something to read.”

She raised her chin. Knowing that she risked disaster, she said the only thing that came to mind. “I wanted to see where you sleep.”

Surprise had him lurching back. “What the devil?”

She took advantage of the few extra inches of space to draw a breath, tangy with sandalwood. Turning red as a tomato would lend credence to her explanation. “Please don’t make me admit this.”

He watched her like a snake watched a rat. “Admit what?”

“Must I say? You put me to the blush.” That at least was true.

“Yes, you must.”

She pressed her damp palms to her skirts. How she’d love to punch him, but she had a horrible inkling that his jaw would be much harder than her fist. Dear heaven, help her to sound convincing. But not too convincing.

“Hasn’t a servant ever been besotted with you, my lord?” To her surprise, her question emerged steadily.

“Not to my …” He spoke very deliberately. “Are you saying you have a penchant for me, Miss Trim?”

He didn’t sound pleased. She should be relieved that he wasn’t ripping her clothes off. After all, her confession could be taken as an invitation. Yet again it struck her that he was a remarkably restrained libertine.

She struggled to appear bashful instead of scared out of her wits. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m sure.” He sounded skeptical, as well he might. “You’ve never seemed dazzled.”

She turned her face away, staring at his hand spread against the door’s rich mahogany. Like the rest of him, his hand was big and powerful and beautifully formed. Despite everything, she couldn’t resist imagining that hand on her skin. His gold signet ring, visible symbol of his rank, gleamed evilly from his little finger. “I have my pride.”

“Of course,” he said drily.

She struggled to look humble and shy and innocent. All were true. Well, apart from the humble part. Her stepfather had frequently warned her that a mere sergeant major’s daughter had no right to be so stiff-necked. “I’m aware of the gulf between us.”

“And it breaks your heart.”

If only she could squeeze out a convincing tear. “I can’t help my feelings.”

He didn’t move closer. It just felt that way. “Do you really expect me to credit this balderdash?”

Her temper stirred. “You underestimate your effect on an impressionable girl.”

He snorted disbelief. “More balderdash.”

Damn him. A turbulent mix of desperation, anger and reckless bravado gripped her. Frantic hands grabbed the front of his shirt. “I’ll show you balderdash, my lord.”

She stretched up until her lips crashed into his.

Chapter 7

Leath stiffened—everywhere—under Miss Trim’s unexpected assault. He had to give her credit. She’d dare the devil. He hadn’t expected her to take this absurdity about her tendre for him to this length.

But then, he’d cornered her, hadn’t he?

Her lips were soft and endearingly clumsy. She kissed like a young girl. This might be another ruse to disarm him, but he didn’t think so. Even more unbelievable than her supposed infatuation, the glorious Miss Trim wasn’t much good at kissing.

Which turned out to be a damned lucky thing. As it was, he was hard as an iron bar. If she demonstrated an ounce of skill, his sanity would dissolve completely.

Because he was still marginally sane, he caught her shoulders. For a moment, he reveled in her slender strength. Then with more difficulty than he wanted to admit, he pushed her away.

She panted as her lips slid free. Throughout the brief, urgent kiss, she’d kept her mouth closed.

“What—” She looked dazed, as if he’d painted her world with rainbows. Imagine if he’d kissed her back, taught her what to do.

Except that he refused to kiss women he didn’t trust. And he most definitely didn’t trust this one. Although the shine in her eyes, firelit amber, might almost convince him that she really was smitten.

She licked her lips again, slowly, as if tasting him. He bit back a groan and drew her closer, when good sense dictated that he throw her out on her delectable rump. Solving the puzzle of her presence was impossible when the wicked urge to have his way with her jammed his brain. He wasn’t used to his head and his instincts being at odds. His head should be winning.

It wasn’t.

“I give you points for trying,” he said, the hint of savagery directed mostly at himself. Her flinch stabbed him with guilt, although heaven knew she’d asked for trouble.

“I’m sorry.” Her slender throat moved as she swallowed. “If you tell your mother I kissed you, she’ll let you dismiss me.”

He was surprised that his mother had mentioned his attempts to send Miss Trim away. “If she knows you came to my room, that’s enough,” he snapped and felt guilty again when she flushed with humiliation.

“So you’ll win.”

More easily than he’d expected. He wondered why he wasn’t happier. He should be dancing a jig, now that this conniving baggage had overreached herself. But his lips tingled from the pressure of hers. His head flooded with the lemon perfume of her soap, more familiar than it should be. Just the sound of her voice made him yearn.

He didn’t believe that she wanted him. But by God, he wanted her. Except she hadn’t claimed to want him, had she? She’d claimed a silly schoolgirl infatuation.

It would serve her right if he showed her what risks she took. Tossed her onto his bed and flung himself on top of her.

Except …

Except in her face, he saw secrets and mysteries. But he also saw innocence. Whatever else she was, she wasn’t experienced with men. That one awkward, incendiary kiss betrayed Miss Trim as a novice.

She played dangerous games.

He should send her away with orders to pack.

His hands tightened on her shoulders, holding her in place.

“Why don’t you tell me to go?” she asked wonderingly. For once, she sounded like a bewildered young girl, not the woman whose actions tormented him with questions and whose presence banished his sleep.

“You want to kiss me?”

“No,” she said quickly, then less certainly, “Yes.”

She struggled to keep up the pretense of girlish adoration. Except that after she’d kissed him, he’d caught arousal stirring in her eyes.

“Which is it?”

She bit her lip and before he could stop himself, he bent to kiss her, to stop her torturing that luscious mouth. Her shocked gasp was a whisper of warm breath on his face.

His hands slid around her back, holding her as a lover holds a woman he intends to kiss. Thoroughly.

Knowing he’d pay, knowing this was absolutely the last thing he should do, he brushed his lips across Miss Trim’s.

Nell still shook with reaction from her first kiss. The experience had left her confused and strangely frustrated. She wasn’t sure she’d enjoyed it, although it had been … interesting.

She hadn’t expected the heat and intimacy and sheer physicality of placing her lips on a man’s. His mouth had been firm and he hadn’t responded. Not that she was sure what she wanted him to do.

For a long moment, Leath watched her with an unreadable expression. His hands dug into her shoulders and she feared that he was about to shove her out the door. She was bizarrely reluctant to go. She braced for a summary ejection from his room, then tomorrow a summary ejection from Alloway Chase.