Chapter Eleven
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas
My True Love Gave to Me
The Greatest Gift of All
Alexander didn’t know how to stop the chain of events unfolding around him. For a duke, it was a most peculiar and deeply unpleasant feeling.
His guests once again sat at the table, making merry, drinking their wine from Bordeaux, sniping over who shot the most birds in the last twelve days and who had the most inspired gowns.
The banality of it sickened him. Couldn’t they all see his world was crashing around him? No, of course they couldn’t because Alexander always portrayed himself as a man in control. It was incredibly tempting to stand up and start hurtling objects and shock the bloody lot of them.
Nothing could compare with the sensation that his heart was unraveling apace. Adriana sat not ten feet away from him, halfway down the mahogany table, making polite conversation with Lady Jane, but she might as well have been halfway around the world, she was so far beyond his reach.
She was leaving. Him. Georgiana. His life. Suddenly, he wished he were a feudal duke from some five hundred years ago. Then he would have just been able to throw her in a tower. Propriety would be trumped by might and wasn’t he one of the mightiest in the land?
He took a long drink of his wine, ignoring the prattle of one of the ladies to his right.
Lowering his glass slowly, he focused on Adriana. Perhaps… Perhaps he didn’t have to let her go. She loved him. Loved him. And what was the good of being a duke if he couldn’t use his power now and again? He raised his glass ready to propose a toast that would stun England.
The doors banged open at the end of the room and Rothby strode in. The man’s cloak was caked with ice and two rough men followed him, their heavy black traveling cloaks hiding most of their appearance.
His guests fell to a deafening silence.
Alexander stood and eyed the idiotic young lord with an air of boredom, even as his guts demanded he shake the pup. “Come to call me out?”
Rothby sketched a surprising bow. “No, Your Grace. I have come to aid you.”
Every single perfectly coifed head turned in Rothby’s direction.
Alexander stared the young lord down. What the hell could have incited the man to act so rashly? “I made it clear you were not welcome here.”
Rothby bowed again, his light brown hair damp and gleaming in the candles’ glow. “I beg your indulgence.” He gestured behind him. “These men are from Bow Street and when I tell you what I’ve learned, I think we will settle our differences.”
Adriana shot him a panicked glance.
It couldn’t be. Rothby couldn’t have made such a lucky discovery so quickly.
Lucky discovery.
The words repeated in Alexander’s head again and again. He squared his jaw. He prayed luck was on his side this last night of Christmas. “Since you insist on making a spectacle, go on.”
Rothby’s hand shot out and he pointed a gloved finger at Adriana. “That woman is a fraud.” The lord’s shoulders puffed up, his eyes burning with triumph. “Her true name is Adri—”
“Adriana Flint,” Alexander drawled. “Yes. I know.”
Rothby gaped, the bluster going out of him.
Alexander snorted. “Do close your mouth. Codfish are rather unappealing.”
“But she’s an authoress,” Rothby sputtered. “Born—”
“In the East End,” Alexander finished for him again. “Yes. Yes. Her last novel was entitled The Lady Lies, of all things.”
All his guests were now replicas of little fish, gaping, their mouths open, eyes wide as they swung their gazes from Adriana to Rothby to Alexander.
Alexander couldn’t fight the sudden smile that turned his lips. Sometimes the spirit of Christmas was a power to be reckoned with. For it could be nothing else that had given him this rare chance. He backed away from the table and strode slowly to Adriana. “This lady is a successful and very talented authoress. She is also the granddaughter of the Earl of Marlowe.”
Shock met his words and Rothby looked as if he’d swallowed something particularly sour.
“I’ve written to her grandmother, the dowager countess, and she confirms Adriana is her granddaughter and that she is an important member of the family. Even if she has lived apart from them for so long.”
He hated giving the news in such a way. He’d planned on telling Adriana this evening that her grandmother had contacted him. The letter had only arrived this afternoon, but the old lady wished to see her.
Adriana’s eyes were round with shock and a hint of fear.
But he wasn’t finished with shocking declarations so he barged on. “She has been in my employ for some time. I am aware of what she does and who she is. She is good, kind, and the best lady of my acquaintance, which is why I have asked her to be my wife.”
Already pale, Adriana whitened. She turned toward him in her chair, her gown twisting about her legs.
Lady Jane clapped her hands together in delight. “Congratulations,” she cried.
Alexander held up a hand as a general din of questions and halfhearted congratulations came his way. “She has yet to agree.”
Half afraid she was about to be bold, Alexander seized her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Well, sweetheart? Now that everyone knows, there is no reason not to stay. Will you marry me?”
Tears slipped down Adriana’s pale face, but the tears couldn’t mask the uncontainable joy shining in her eyes. “Yes,” she veritably shouted for all to hear. “I will.”
He lifted her hand and kissed the fingertips, well aware that his guests were likely already shocked beyond any measure of recovering. Soon, all of England would know he was making a marriage of scandal, and he couldn’t wait.
At least, he would have love and a family to love.
“Rothby?” he demanded, unable to look away from Adriana’s beautiful face.
“Y-Your G-Grace?” the young lord quavered.
“Why are you still here?”
Lady Jane began to applaud. Slowly, faintly, his other guests joined in their applause. The clock on the mantel began to chime midnight. The last moments of Twelfth Night.
The most magical night of the year.
“Thank you,” he said to the woman who had changed his world.
“For what?” she breathed, her cheeks bright with happiness. “You’ve given me everything. You’ve given me a family.”
“Yes, but you have given me you, the perfect present,” he whispered. With that he forgot to give a damn about his guest’s sensibilities and in the last moments of the Christmas season, he kissed her.
And as their lips met, he knew the seduction had only truly just begun.