A Reckless Promise

“I beg your—what?” To look any more smug he’d have to push out his chest like a pouter pigeon, drat him.

“Speaking practically,” he repeated, retaking his own seat. “Marley is now mine. You? You’re rather just floating about, aren’t you? Neither here nor there, neither fish nor fowl, as it were. The aunt. The spinster aunt, well past her first blush of youth.”

“I beg your pardon!”

“You cut your wisdoms years ago, Sadie Grace, even if you are not yet at your last prayers. I can’t hire you as governess and pretend you are no more than a paid employee, not when you’re the aunt. I can’t allow you to wander about my household in the aforementioned neither fish nor fowl category until Marley is grown and gone—or until you molt. If I were to marry, how on earth would I explain you to my bride? Oh, and one thing more—I’ll be damned if I’ll give you a Season. So what does that leave us, Sadie Grace, hmm?”

“You can’t mean this.”

“I can’t do myriad things. I can’t fly. I can’t swim across an ocean. I can’t pat my head and rub my stomach at one and the same time—but you might want to apply to Rigby on that one, as he believes the feat extraordinary when he does it. I can, however, see the merit in a marriage of convenience between us. Purely a business arrangement. And think how pleased Marley will be, to know for certain that you’re not going to leave her. Consider the child, Sadie Grace.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Oh, come now, am I that terrible? I’m fairly attractive, even with the patch. My teeth are good, I bathe on a regular basis and am complimented on my abilities on the dance floor. Oh, yes, I’m also so very wealthy I could grow old just counting my money. In short, I’m quite the coup.”

“And so modest with it all, although I suppose I do appreciate the bathe regularly part of your self-serving description. You did, however, neglect to mention that you can be exceedingly annoying, entirely too enthralled by your own wit, not to exclude the fact that you don’t really do anything, do you, my lord?”

“Do anything? I’m a viscount. That’s what I do.”

Why couldn’t she stop talking? Was she trying to get herself booted out the door?

“That was an accident of birth. But what have you done that you can point to and say, ‘I did this thing. I made this difference’?”

He pushed at his left temple. “Are we having our first fight, Sadie Grace?”

“Do you feel useful, my lord?”

“At the moment? No. Shall we make it a part of our business arrangement that you save me from my feckless ways and point my toes in the direction of good works?”

“There could be worse fates,” Sadie said, suddenly feeling more in control of her own future, which she hadn’t done for a long, long time. “I do not wish for Marley to grow up believing she is nothing more than a fashionable ornament.”

“So you’re accepting my proposal?”

She looked at him curiously. Why so suddenly formal? “I thought I had no real choice.”

“There are always choices, Sadie Grace. I need to hear you tell me that we will marry.”

“Perhaps you’d like me to write it down?” she asked, yes, facetiously.

“I’ve already seen one example of your letter-writing skills. A simple yes will do.”

“Very well, then,” she said, getting to her feet once more. “Yes. Yes, my lord, I agree to our arrangement.”

“Not my lord, but Darby,” he said as he rose, as well. “And I like to think of our marriage more as a bargain, with benefits on both sides.”

“That only seems fair. A bargain, with benefits on both sides, I imagine, although I’m not quite certain what you believe to be your benefits. But we really must rejoin the ladies now.”

He followed behind her, down the hallway, down the stairs, and only said as they stepped into the drawing room: “About my benefits, Sadie Grace. Did I perhaps fail to mention that I’ll want an heir?”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE AIR WAS COOL, the breeze brisk, but most of Grosvenor Square was still washed in sunshine, making a stroll reasonably pleasant. Save for a few nannies and their charges, the area was also conveniently devoid of possible interruptions. Residents of the square who did leave their homes headed directly into carriages, and visitors to the square did much the same in reverse.

Society was social only when it wanted to be, and when it had specific destinations in mind it might as well be wearing blinders.

Darby had counted on that when he’d first suggested the stroll. Propriety ensured, the chance of interruption slight, Mrs. Boxer feeling assured she was within easy reach of the duke’s mansion, the safety of her new friends.

Now he could kiss Miss Sadie Grace Hamilton senseless smack in the middle of the square and, save for a few raised eyebrows and giggles from the nursemaids, nobody would so much as give a damn.

And the stroll no longer a reason for an inquisition meant to pry her secrets out of her. What a lucky turn of events bringing the puppy to Marley had been, but then Darby knew himself to be a lucky man.

A lucky, apparently useless grasshopper of a man in Sadie’s eyes.

“You have the headache again,” Sadie said, the first words she’d spoken since they’d escaped the mansion ten minutes earlier. “And again, it’s my fault.”

Darby realized he was rubbing at his forehead beneath his curly crowned beaver and quickly dropped his arm to his side. Yes, he had the headache. The familiar vise had gripped his head while they were still in her bedchamber, and he doubted it would let go anytime soon.

“I believe there’s enough blame to go around.”

“You’re correct. There is. You certainly didn’t have to take my hand and drag me into the drawing room to announce that we had realized our attraction and were now betrothed. You made it sound as if we had been upstairs all that time because we were being...being...”

“Indiscreet. Try that one. Anyone who can’t think beyond Maxwell Boxer probably needs all the assistance she can get.”

“You can stop chewing at that bone now, my lord, if you’ll pardon the canine reference. I know what I did, and it wasn’t my most shining hour. However, indiscreet only serves to pretty up what they all must have been thinking.”

“You’ll have to admit it certainly eased us through your small deception without much trouble, as the ladies were so delighted to hear our other news. Apparently you’ve found new friends there.”

“Your friends were no help when they arrived with their ladies. Patting you on the back and congratulating you. I would think gentlemen would stand together.”

“You mistake them. They did stand together, believing they know what’s best for me, most especially since their ladies, as you refer to Thea and Dany, clearly approved. If each of them weren’t so obviously in love I’d think they were of the belief that misery enjoys company.”

“Or perhaps it was revenge for the puppies.”

Darby smiled. Gabe, Coop and Rigby had all arrived during the time he and Sadie had been absent. With them, they’d brought their gifts from him, the remaining spaniels in the litter, just so recently delivered to each of their domiciles with the viscount’s compliments.

The ladies were delighted. Marley was nearly over the moon when all the puppies were put on the carpet and they immediately began crawling over her, licking her, reducing her to helpless giggles.

It had felt so strangely wonderful to hear Marley’s giggles. That was what childhood should be. A time of giggles and puppies. And innocence. Or so he would like to believe.

“Shameless toadeater,” Gabe had said to him jokingly as the four men stood together, away from the fray, “making certain all the ladies love you. Now explain yourself. How the devil did you go from reluctant guardian to engaged man in five short days?”

Later, he’d promised them, over drinks at their club, and before Sadie was happily attacked by the ladies, much like Marley had been by the puppies, he managed to extricate her and, well, here they were.

He’d left Sadie to contemplate her future, their future, as they circled the square, but now it was time to move on to the next step. She hadn’t responded to his whispered announcement to her that he expected an heir from their bargain, but he was in no rush to push her on the subject. After all, he did know how to nudge...

“I gave the ladies only vague instructions. How many gowns did you order?”

“I have not ordered any gowns. I never asked for any gowns. Or the shoes, or the gloves or the bonnets or the scarves or the cloaks or reticules. I did not agree to having my hair trimmed, nor my fingernails buffed. I neither need nor want anything.”

“All right,” he said, trying not to smile. “Let me rephrase that. How many gowns—and the rest of it—have the ladies ordered for you?”

Sadie sighed. “Too many, too much. And for Marley, as well, but I saw the point in that, as she is growing very quickly right now and complained that her half boots have begun to pinch. The duchess assured me every piece was necessary, or else I would be an embarrassment to you, as your ward’s aunt. All the bills for the small army of tradespeople who have been tracking in and out of the mansion these past days will be sent to your direction. I should thank you, I know, and I do, but please understand I only agreed because of Marley.”

“Yes, Marley appears to be at the center of everything you and I have done these past days. So young and defenseless, and so clearly troubled. John’s death affected her greatly, didn’t it? I would imagine it would, at her age.”

I know it would, at her age. But I won’t think about that. I never think about that.

He guided Sadie to one of the benches situated along the square and invited her to sit down, then spread his coattails and sat beside her.

“She’s afraid. You’ve noticed that, as well. Susan, Marley’s mother, passed away when Marley was only just three, and she barely remembers her, which is sad in itself. I did my best to step in for her, coming to live with them, helping in John’s surgery, taking it over for the time he was away and...and until he died.”

She seemed open to telling him things now, so he decided to see just how much information might be forthcoming. “You never mentioned where John and Marley lived. Where he had his surgery.”

She looked up at him curiously, and he noticed that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. It hadn’t been the best of days for her, not for a many number of weeks and months, and he felt his heart soften toward her. She was quietly brave, and he admired her for that, as well. He could even forgive her lies—her one lie, for that’s all it had been, really. She had done what she had thought best under the circumstances. As had he, come to think of the thing.

Careful, Darby, you’re in danger of turning into a softhearted ninny. What would your friends have to say if they suspected any such nonsense? Well, that’s simple enough. They’d think you’d once again fallen into a mud puddle only to come up smelling like the first roses of spring, that’s what they’d think, because Sadie Grace is an exceedingly beautiful woman, apparently both inside and out.

“I didn’t? I certainly wasn’t hiding that information. We resided in Dibden, in Hampshire. I doubt you’ve heard of it.”

Darby shook his head slightly, for he’d gotten lost in his own thoughts and for a moment didn’t have the faintest idea what Sadie was saying. “Oh, Dibden. No, I can’t say that I’ve heard of the place. Not quite the thriving metropolis, I’ll assume. But you didn’t always live there?”

“No. I remained in our parents’ cottage in Huyton, not much distance from Liverpool, after they’d passed, happy with a small allowance. Papa had been a tutor and Mama a fine seamstress, and they left me as well-provided-for as they could. But that was only until Susan died. I’m a country mouse, and content. I’ve really never been anywhere, and yet now here I am in London, and soon to be a viscountess. I still can’t quite imagine it. You’re marrying quite beneath you, my lord Nailbourne, but with your friends’ support, I believe there’s still time for you to come to your senses. Ah, and here they come now, marching to your defense, I should hope.”

Darby looked across the square to see Gabe and Coop approaching, Rigby and his Clarice bringing up the rear. He suppressed a smile at the sight of Rigby’s betrothed, who apparently had discovered a love for furs, as the ermine muff she carried rivaled the size of a bandbox. She certainly had adapted well to her new station in life.

“Miss Hamilton,” Gabriel Sinclair intoned, bowing in her direction, as did the others, while Clarice shooed Darby from his seat and quickly occupied it, giving a surprised Sadie a quick hug that left her to surreptitiously pick a few bits of ermine fluff from her tongue.

“Excuse us, Sadie,” Darby said as he joined his friends a safe distance away from Clarice’s happy chatter. “Gentlemen? You’ve come to thank me for the puppies?”

“What?” the red-haired Rigby said, momentarily confused. “Oh, yes, yes, indeed, the puppy. Quite the surprise, that. Not so much as Gabe’s birds, but Clarice is happy enough. Can’t walk a parrot in the park, you know, although Lord knows we did the next best thing. Clary’s already named him Goodfellow. Er, yes, thank you very much.”

That was the beauty of Jeremy Rigby; he was easily distracted.

Gabe and Coop, however, were not.

“You want to tell us what the devil’s going on?” Gabe asked.

“Why, Gabe, gentlemen, whatever would make you think something is going on? I will admit I have only a faint hope that the ladies swallowed that farradiddle about Sadie and I discovering a mutual affection, but they won’t question it. In truth, Miss Hamilton made a foolish mistake, I committed a worse faux pas, thus compounding the error, and now we are constrained to marry. It happens every day. Or at least it seems to. As I recall, Gabe, it nearly happened to you. Oh, wait a moment, it did. To both of you, to one degree or another. I suppose I’m simply following in your footsteps, taking my hints from watching you.”

“Thea was deliberately putting herself in danger. I had no choice.”

“There are always choices, Gabe. And you, Coop, you and Dany were on your way to the altar within four and twenty hours of your first meeting, which I was so fortunate to witness.”

“There were unusual circumstances, and you know it, and the engagement was meant only as a ploy, a temporary solution.”

“I was rather in on that, as well, wasn’t I? Perhaps the fates are having their fun with me now, as a sort of punishment. Do you think we’ll tumble into love when we least expect it, Sadie and I, as you fellows did? I doubt it, but at least my ward won’t have to worry about losing her aunt.”

“Yes, at the bottom of it, it’s the child, isn’t it,” Coop remarked, not as a question, but as a statement he felt certain was correct. He always had been the most levelheaded of their group. “This all has something to do with John’s orphaned daughter.”

“It may also have something to do with the obvious beauty of that young lady over there.”

“I admit to an attraction, Gabe, yes,” Darby said, laughing. “In fact, marriage to Sadie has seemed the only logical solution since we first met, if she’s to become a part of my household, and clearly Marley loves her. The events of this morning only gave me an opportunity to avail myself of that solution. There. Are you all happier now? I’m not exactly throwing myself away strictly for the child, or on impulse. I may have only the one eye, but it sees quite well.”

“But marriage, Darby?” Gabe shook his head. “Out of your own mouth, you didn’t even know her true name an hour ago, if she really is John’s sister. We’d hate to see you hoodwinked.”

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