Mistress

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

IPHIGINIA SAT VERY STILL ON THE BLACK SQUABS OF Marcus's ebony carriage. The interior lamps were unlit. Marcus filled most of the opposite scat with his large frame. He had one long leg stretched out along the cushion. The other boot was planted on the floor. There was a dangerous, morose quality about him.

He had said no more than a dozen words since they had left the theater a few minutes earlier. Most of those had been primarily commands to Dinks.

Iphiginia had not been allowed to see the end of Kean's performance. Marcus had muttered something about avoiding the crush of theater traffic, but Iphiginia knew that was not the primary reason he wished to leave early.

When he had brusquely ordered her to accompany him, she had seen the doubt and disapproval in Amelia's eyes. But Iphiginia had quietly agreed. Amelia had remained behind in Zoe and Otis's box. They would see her home.

There had been a thousand questions in Zoe's eyes when Iphiginia and Marcus had escorted Amelia to the box. Iphiginia had ignored them. She knew her aunt had already beard the rumors of Marcus's betrothal, but she had no explanations or answers to give her.

When the carriage moved into the street, Marcus finally broke the thick silence.

"I regret that you were subjected to that unfortunate scene in your theater box." He gazed out into the night. "My brother appears to he immersed in a rather melodramatic phase at the moment."

"Marcus, I think you owe me an explanation." "Mmm."

Iphiginia waited for a few seconds. Marcus said nothing.

"Well?" she finally prompted.

"Well, what?" Marcus did not look away from the window.

Iphiginia made a heroic effort to compose herself in patience. "Well, what is the explanation for that scene in my theater box?"

Marcus hesitated, as though about to tread on uncertain ground.

"I am aware of the fact that you have a rule against explaining your actions to anyone," Iphiginia said. "But I really think that in this instance-"

"Bennet believes himself to he passionately in love with Juliana Dorchester."

"And you do not approve of the match?"

Marcus finally glanced at her. "How did you guess?" "It wasn't difficult."

"It's Dorchester 's fondest wish to shore up the family's flagging fortunes by marrying his daughter into money. Mrs. Dorchester's primary goal is to get a title into the family. Together they have contrived to hurl Juliana at every wealthy, titled gentleman in the ton for the past two Seasons."

"Including you?"

"Last Season I was a target for a short period." Light from a passing coach glinted briefly on the starkly etched Planes of Marcus's grim features. " Dorchester went so far as to attempt to force me into a compromising position with his own daughter."

"Good grief. What happened?" "I won't go into details. It was a shabby little plot, ill-conceived and extremely transparent. Suffice it to say, the attempt faded."

"I see." There was a distinct chill in the air. Iphiginia pulled her white lace shawl a little more securely around her bare shoulders. "I collect that you escaped unscathed."

"Yes." "Unlike the other night in the Pettigrews' Temple of Vesta when you did not discover the truth until too late."

There was a short, brittle pause. Marcus eventually stirred in the manner of a large beast of prey seeking a more comfortable position. He leaned his head back against the cushion, narrowed his eyes, and folded his arms across his chest.

"I made it clear to Dorchester that I would not marry Juliana even if he arranged for the two of us to be discovered nude in bed together," Marcus said deliberately.

"Oh." Iphiginia did not know what else to say. "I reminded him of my rule against marriage. Dorchester apparently took me at my word. He ceased throwing Juliana at my head, in any event. But this Season he seems to have concluded that my brother will make a suitable substitute."

"So tonight you again tried to dissuade him from his goal," Iphiginia concluded. "But this time you find yourself dealing with an additional problem. Your brother is in love with Juliana."

"My brother has succumbed to the lure of physical attraction and the overheated prose of the Byron set. He is not in love."

Iphiginia winced at the disgust in his voice. "How can you be certain that what your brother feels for Juliana is not true love?"

"For God's sake, he's barely twenty. He's in the throes of his first fit of passion, that's all. In the typical manner of young males, he wishes to dignify his perfectly natural lust by calling it love."

"Perhaps his feelings for Juliana run deeper than you believe.»

"Not bloody likely," Marcus muttered. "What did you hope to accomplish by announcing your own fictitious betrothal this evening?"

"The betrothal is not fictitious. We are going to he married, Iphiginia."

"Let's return to that point some other time," she said. "At the moment we are discussing your brother. You think to forestall Dorchester 's plans by causing him to believe that you have changed your mind about remarriage.»

"I have changed my mind." She ignored that. "You may have succeeded in persuading Dorchester that Bennet is no longer a good match for his daughter, but what about Bennet and Juliana?"

"What about them? Juliana's parents wig not allow her to marry my brother if they believe that I will cut him off. Their aim is to get their hands on a portion of the Masters fortune. I control that fortune, not Bennet."

"Marcus, I do not think it will he as easy as all that. I saw your brother's face tonight. He believes himself to be in love with Juliana."

"He'll soon discover that it will not do him any good. Dorchester will remove Juliana from my brother's vicinity and fire her off at another target now that I've removed the primary one."

"Rubbish. You and Dorchester are both idiots if you truly believe that you can control the lives of others in such a fashion. Juliana and Bennet are young, but they are adults. There is no knowing what they might do if you and Dorchester try to bend them to your will."

Marcus watched her from the shadows. "What are you saying? That they might run off to Gretna Green together?"

"It's a possibility, is it not?" "No. I'U admit that in his, present state Bennet might be foolish enough to suggest the notion, but Juliana is a very rational young woman. She is highly unlikely to do anything so impractical as to marry a man whose financial prospects are uncertain."

"Meaning she will marry for money rather than love?"

"Precisely. Do not forget, I saw her in action last Season."

III suspect the people you saw in action were her parents. Poor Juana was no doubt merely attempting to obey their instructions."

"There is no difference." "Marcus, I hesitate to mention this," Iphiginia said, "but you are not quite the great judge of human nature you perceive yourself to be. At least not when it comes to affairs of the heart."

"Affairs of the heart should he handled in the same manner as affairs of business. They should he approached with circumspection and care."

"You mean with cynicism, do you not? I understand what you are trying to do," Iphiginia said gently. "You wish to protect your brother from an unhappy marriage. But I do not think that you are going about it in the right way.

"This does not concern you, Iphiginia." "Nonsense. You have dragged me into it. If you wanted to keep me out of the thing, you should never have told Dorchester that you were about to announce a betrothal. Now we shall both have to deal with all the annoying questions and speculation. It will make everything vastly more difficult.

"I do not see any great problem. I have a rule against answering personal questions."

"But Marcus, people will expect you to announce your engagement to one of the young ladies who was brought out this Season. Not to your mistress, for heaven's sake. Even your own brother assumes that you are going to declare yourself for one of the eligible young women of the ton."

"I am going to betroth myself to a young lady who is having her first Season," Marcus said. "You."

"You are the most stubborn man I have ever met in my entire life."

"You may as well get used to it because I have no intention of changing."

Iphiginia stifled a groan of exasperation. "Let us get back to the matter at hand. I advise you not to take such a hard and inflexible stand with Bennet and Juliana. I fear that by doing so you will only drive them into each other's arms,

"I do not recall asking for your advice on the subject."

"Then why are we having this discussion?" "Damned if I know," he muttered. "It's none of your affair. Bennet is my brother and I will act as I see fit."

"Marcus, I comprehend what you are trying to do. You wish to protect him."

"What is wrong with that?"

"Nothing. I understand your desire. You raised him. I suspect that in many ways you are more of a father than a brother to him. I was in a similar position with my sister. In some ways I was almost a mother to her."

"I'm aware of that," he said quietly.

"You and I both became parents before we had a chance to become mature adults ourselves. And we feel protective toward our charges, as any parent would feel. But as much as we would like to guard them forever, we cannot do so."

"I can and will protect Bennet from Juliana Dorchester,"

"You are going about it in the wrong way."

"What do you suggest that I do?" Marcus growled. "Give my blessing to the marriage?"

"Yes."

"Never."

"Hear me out." Iphiginia leaned forward earnestly. "Tell your brother that you will give the marriage your blessing if he will agree to a reasonable period for the engagement."

"What do you call reasonable?" "Many young couples in the ton are betrothed for a year. Surely you can convince Bennet to go along with such a request. You can ask for six months at the very least."

"And what happens when the engagement period is finished?"

"A year is a long time, Marcus. So is six months, for that matter. If Juliana is the wrong woman for Bennet, there A he ample opportunity for him to discover that fact."

"Breaking an engagement is no light matter." "True, but it can he done and it is done. You can arrange for the thing to he handled quietly."

Marcus's expression darkened. "What if Juliana succeeds in compromising herself with Bennet before the year is ended?"

"You already face that risk. In fact, the threat is greater at this very moment because the pair will be feeling desperate. If Juliana does care for Bennet as much as he cares for her, they may see themselves as star-crossed lovers. They may decide to defy family and convention in order to he together."

"Bloody hell. What you are saying is true only if I am wrong about Juliana's feelings. But if I am right, the entire matter is finished. The Dorchesters, Juliana included, will decide that Bennet is no longer a suitable marriage prospect."

Iphiginia sighed. "My lord, I doubt that you are right in your assessment of the situation. You are a man of science, probably the most intelligent man I know, but you are blind when it comes to dealing with matters such as this. Love makes people do very desperate things."

He slid her an assessing, sidelong glance. "What makes you an expert?"

She refrained from pointing out that she was a living example of the desperate lengths to which love could drive a person.

"I watched my sister fall in love," Iphiginia said instead.

Marcus's gaze became even more intent. "With the man you had thought loved you?"

Iphiginia caught her breath. "You know about Richard Hampton?"

"Yes." Marcus looked out at the street. "You think you know everything, do you not, my lord?"

"It has been my experience that it is better to have all the information one needs before one makes a decision."

"Well, then, as you appear to be all-knowing, you do not need any further explanations from me concerning Richard, do you?"

Marcus met her eyes for an instant. Then his gaze slid back to the night-darkened streets. "Did you love him?"

"The answer would be meaningless to a man who does not believe in love."

"You're evading the question." "I'm merely adopting your own rule against providing the curious with explanations." Iphiginia paused. "But I will make a bargain with you, my lord."

"What bargain?" "I'll tell. you the answer to. your question if you wig agree to answer one of my questions."

"Very well," he pounced. "But you will answer my question first. Did you believe yourself to he in love with young squire Hampton?"

Iphiginia struggled for an honest response. Odd how hard it was to recall her emotions during those days when she had thought Richard might ask her to marry him. Her feelings for Richard had been so pallid and bland compared to her feelings for Marcus.

"I believed that I could have learned to love him," she said quietly.

"You believed that you could have learned to love him?" Marcus scoffed. "What rubbish."

"I do not think it's rubbish. I am a bluestocking at heart. A former schoolteacher. I believe in the powers of the intellect. I am convinced that where the right factors are present and where there is determination, goodwill, and a degree of intelligence, it is possible that one can learn to love."

"The poets would laugh to hear you talk of applying rational intelligence to love."

"You are not a poet, my lord. Why are you laughing?"

"The whole bloody subject is laughable." Marcus shot her a derisive look. "You said that the right factors must he present in order for one to learn to love. Were those factors present in Richard Hampton?"

"I believe so. Richard is a good man. A kind man. Strong, gentle, and constant. Yes, I could have learned to love him."

"He sounds like a damned paragon. Do you honestly think that you would have been happy with him?"

"Yes." "You would have been true to him?" She frowned. "Of course."

"Even if you had met someone else after the marriage? A man who turned your blood to molten fire? A man who made you comprehend the works of the poets? A man who tempted you' to touch the stars?"

"You mean, even if I had met you, Marcus?" He went very still in the-shadows.

Iphiginia smiled wryly. "It is highly unlikely that you and I would ever have encountered each other had I married Richard Hampton. But the answer to your question is yes. Even if I had met you, I would have been true to him. I may not care for rules, but I do possess a sense of honor."

"Passion is not always subject to the dictates of will, madam."

"I disagree. And I think, deep down, you do, too. We are intelligent human beings. Temptation and passion can most certainly he controlled if one is determined to do so.

To her surprise, Marcus smiled slightly at that. "You may he right. What does that say about you and me, Iphiginia? That we lack willpower?"

«No'» She unfurled her fan very slowly and then closed it. "It says that we are both free to indulge our passions and we have decided to do so. It is our prerogative, our right as unattached adults. If we were not free, honor would constrain us from giving in to temptation."

"Ah. I see. We happened to he free to allow ourselves to he tempted, so we were tempted. An interesting bit of logic."

"Perhaps we should return to the subject of your brother's passions, rather than our own. You cannot control Bennet's life, Marcus. Nor should you."

"Don't you think I know that? I don't want to control his life. I want to protect him."

"He will love whom he will. All you can hope to do is purchase some time for him to consider his actions. With any luck he will use the time to make certain that what he feels for Juliana Dorchester is genuine love and not a passing fancy."

"I still think my approach is more likely to produce the desired results," Marcus said. "I wouldn't he at all, surprised if I have nipped the entire affair in the bud this evening."

"I think your approach will lead to disaster." "Hell and damnation. I detest this sort of emotional nonsense."

"You, sir, have no patience with anything that does not conform to the laws of science."

"Things were so much simpler when Bennet was younger," Marcus said in a low voice. "He respected my advice in those days. He asked me for help when he needed it. He sought my approval before he undertook an important task."

"I understand." Iphiginia smiled wistfully. "It was the same way between my sister and myself when she was a child. But everyone grows up eventually, Marcus."

"Must they destroy their own chance of happiness in the process?"

"Sometimes." "The cost of being wrong is too high. I cannot let him do it, Iphiginia."

Iphiginia took a grip on her fan. "Sir, I have taught students for several years. I have discovered that they do not always learn the lesson you believe that you are teaching. Too often they learn something else entirely."

"What is that cryptic remark supposed to mean?" "You must believe me when I tell you that your way of dealing with this situation is fraught with risk. Bennet will learn much from how you handle this situation."

"I should hope to God he will," Marcus said fervently.

"But I doubt that he will learn the lesson you believe that you are teaching. In short, my lord, when all is said and done, there is every chance that he will become more like you if this business ends badly. Do you really want that for him?"

Marcus looked at her in cold amazement. "I beg your pardon?"

"You are teaching him the things that are likely to transform him into a copy of yourself in later years."

"And just what sort of man is that?" Marcus asked in a dangerously soft voice.

"A man who lives by rules that are so rigid and so unbending that they do not allow room for love."

A terrible silence descended inside the carriage. Marcus did not move so much as an inch, but Iphiginia nearly drowned beneath the silent waves of his fury.

"My lord, I do not pretend to know much about your first marriage. I cannot help but conclude, however, that it was not a happy one."

"It was a living hem." "I wish to claim my half of our bargain. I want an answer to this question. Could anyone who knew you at the time of your marriage have stopped you from going through with it?"

For a moment she did not think he would answer. "No." The single word was as heavy as a stone. "Very likely not. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought that I was in love." His smile was savage. "I believed that Nora loved me."

"Perhaps she did," Iphiginia offered tentatively. "No." Marcus's hand closed briefly into a fist. "She needed a father for the babe she carried."

Iphiginia froze. "I did not realize-" Marcus met her eyes. His own were cold. "No one did. I have never told another soul that Nora came to me after she had got herself with child by another man."

"Oh, Marcus. How terrible for you." He fell silent for a while. Iphiginia could not think of anything more to say. She was stunned by the realization that he had kept the truth to himself for so long.

"Nora's family lived on the neighboring farm," Marcus said eventually. It sounded as though he were digging the words out of a grave where they had been buried for a very long time. "I had known her most of her life. I was a year older than she and I had believed myself to be in love with her since the day I turned sixteen."

"Marcus, please, you do not have to tell me this." He acted as if he had not heard her. "She found me amusing, I think. And useful. We learned to dance together at the local assembly rooms. I taught her to fish. She was the first woman I ever kissed."

Iphiginia did not want to hear any more. «Please-» "But I was just a simple country farmer. At the time the title was in the hands of a distant uncle. I never expected to inherit. Nora wanted more out of life than I could ever give her. And she was so very beautiful that she and her parents convinced themselves that she could look a good deal higher than a local country squire. The year Nora turned eighteen, her family took her to London for a Season."

"What happened?" Iphiginia asked, dreading the answer.

"She came home in June of that year and everything had changed. She was no longer the flirtatious, charming, happy young woman she had been when she left. She virtually threw herself into my arms and told me that she had finally realized that it was me she loved."

"I see." Iphiginia looked down at her fan. The waves of Marcus's old anger and pain beat at her steadily, unrelentingly.

"And I was so naive and inexperienced that I believed her." Marcus kept his gaze fixed on the night outside the coach window. "She told me that she had discovered that she did not care for Town life. She wanted us to he wed as soon as possible. Her parents were in full agreement. Her father took me aside and suggested we go to Gretna Green."

"No long engagement, I take it?" "Somehow everyone came to the conclusion that there was no point in wasting the time or the money. And I was so eager for her that I did not raise any objection. Nora and I went to Gretna Green. We spent our wedding night at an inn. I couldn't wait to take her in my arms."

"I really do not think I want to hear this." "I wanted her so much. I was determined to be as gentle as possible with her. But she cried that night. For hours, it seemed. She told me that I had hurt her dreadfully. Told me that I had the rough, callused hands of a farmer." Marcus looked down at his broad fists. "It was true. I did have the hands of a farmer. I was a farmer."

Iphiginia shivered at the memory of his hands on her. Strong hands. Good hands. Hands that made a woman feel wanted, needed. And safe. Tears formed in her eyes.

"The next morning there was a fair amount of blood on the sheets. I learned later that her mother had provided her with a small bottle of the stuff from the kitchen the day we left for Gretna. She needn't have bothered."

"I don't understand " Iphiginia whispered. "Even if there had been no blood, I would not have suspected that Nora had been with another man. I was the virgin in that wedding bed. I was far more ignorant than she about such matters."

"How did you learn that she had had another lover?" Iphiginia asked quietly.

"She miscarried the babe a month after we were married. I nearly went mad. I had no notion of what was happening. I thought she was dying."

"Dear heaven. "I summoned the doctor. When it was all over he told me what had occurred. He wanted to reassure me. He assumed I was the father, of course, and that the babe was the reason for our hasty trip to Gretna. He patted me on the shoulder and told me there would he another babe soon enough."

"You did not tell him the truth?" Marcus's mouth twisted. "Of course — not. What man would admit that he had been duped in such a fashion? And then there was Nora. She was my wife."

"And you felt you had to protect her, too, didn't you?" Iphiginia asked.

Marcus shrugged but said nothing. "You had taken care of your brother for years. Protecting someone younger and weaker than yourself was second nature to you. What did Nora say?"

"When I confronted her with the truth, she cried again. Then she broke down and told me the whole sordid tale. She had been seduced by one of her admirers in London, a young rake who was after an heiress and who had no intention of marrying her. Nor did he hesitate to boast. of his conquest."

"Poor Nora."

"The gossip ruined her. There was no hope of marriage. Her family did not have the social power it would have taken to force Nora's seducer to marry her."

"So they whisked her back home and contrived to marry her off to you?"

"They concluded that the humbling country squire next door was unlikely to discover the truth." Marcus glanced at his hands again. "They were right. To this day I sometimes wonder if I would ever have learned what a fool I had been if Nora had not miscarried the babe."

"Surely you would have known the truth when the child was horn several weeks too soon?"

"I doubt it. I told you, I knew little of such matters. I would have been informed that the infant was horn prematurely and I would have wanted to believe it."

"The rumors I beard said that Nora died of a fever." "She did. Six months after she lost the babe."

"Ale duel," Iphiginia whispered. "That was what the duel was A about, was it not? Shortly after Nora died, you went to London and challenged her seducer."

"He told me I was a fool, which was no doubt true. I-le demanded to know what possible difference it all made now that the wench was dead. I did not give him any answers because I had none."

"You defended your wife's honor even though she had wronged you. Even though she was no longer alive." Iphiginia felt a tear trickle down her cheek. "Marcus, that is so exactly like you."

Marcus scowled. "Bloody bell. Are you crying?"

"No." She gave a tiny sniff.

"I should hope not. The matter does not warrant tears."

"But it does, Marcus. I feel sorry for both you and Nora. She must have been literally terrified when she discovered that she was ruined and pregnant."

"She was young and desperate. She was an innocent girl who had allowed herself to be seduced. She had broken one of Society's strictest rules. She knew that she would have to pay a terrible price. So she turned to you, her childhood friend."

"The thing is," Marcus said, "I wanted her so much I would have taken her on any terms. I would have given her my name and claimed the babe as my own. If only she had not deceived me. That was what I could not forgive."

"Because whenever you think back on her deception, you feel you played the fool."

"I did play the fool." Iphiginia felt a chill in the pit of her stomach. She, tool had deceived him. He no doubt believed that he had played the fool with her, also.

She reached out and put her gloved hand on his leg. "Nora did not make a fool of you, Marcus. No one could do that. You behaved in a noble, chivalrous fashion. You avenged her honor and you kept her secret."

"I had little choice in the matter. I could hardly reveal her dishonor without making myself appear a naive, gullible idiot."

"I do not believe that it was the thought of appearing naive or gullible which bothers you the most about the past," Iphiginia said. "I think it was the fact that you had given her your heart but she did not love you in return. You feel that she used you to save herself."

"And so she did." "I will not quarrel with your conclusion," Iphiginia said. "Nora was little more than a girl and she was no doubt hysterical with fear at the time. Her parents must have been equally frantic and desperate to save their daughter from utter ruin."

«Yes.» "Your marriage was begun under a dreadful cloud. You say that you were the virgin on your wedding night, but I think you were years older than Nora in all the ways that truly count. You had been obliged to grow up very quickly, after all. Nora, on the other hand, was barely out of girlhood."

Marcus said nothing. "Do you know what I think?" Iphiginia said. "I believe that if she had lived, Nora would have grown up and fallen deeply in love with you. She would have learned to love you when she was mature enough to comprehend your finer qualities."

Marcus stated at her. "For an intelligent female, you sometimes spout the most outlandish nonsense. What in the name of the devil makes you believe such a ridiculous thing?"

She smiled. "Because I know how very easy it is to fall in love with you, my lord. Indeed, I have done so myself."

Marcus said nothing. "Do you know what I think?" Iphiginia said. "I believe that if she had lived, Nora would have grown up and fallen deeply in love with you. She would have learned to love you when she was mature enough to comprehend your finer qualities."

Marcus stated at her. "For an intelligent female, you sometimes spout the most outlandish nonsense. What in the name of the devil makes you believe such a ridiculous thing?"

She sniffled. "Because I know how very easy it is to fall in love with you, my lord. Indeed, I have done so myself."