Brazenly she rose on her toes until her lips touched his. She felt him struggle for control, even as his hands drifted down to clasp her waist and bring her near again. She knew the precise moment when he gave in. His mouth ravished hers with a passion that made her toes curl in her half-boots while his hands deftly released the hooks on the back of her gown.
Carefully, as though she might break if he handled her too roughly, he drew her down to kneel with him on the soft hay. She clasped her sagging bodice to her chest and met his eyes.
He looked at her as if he loved her. She could deny him nothing when he looked at her like that.
The last of her uncertainty evaporated and her heart began to bang hard against her ribs. She slid her hand free of her gown so that her dress slipped to her waist, revealing her transparent shift. Simon’s eyes burned as they focused on her body.
“Oh, my darling—” He reached out to trace the lacy edge of her shift, slowly dragging it lower. Her eyelids fluttered down as she ceded herself to the promise of rapture.
Then, when finally everything in Lydia’s world miraculously turned right, the barn door crashed open and everything in her world shattered into irredeemable disaster.
Chapter One
Rothermere House, London, April 1826
The ball to celebrate a woman’s forthcoming wedding should be one of the happiest events in her life.
Suppressing a sigh, Lady Lydia Rothermere surveyed the crowd stuffed into her brother Cam’s white and gilt ballroom and told herself of course she was happy. This mightn’t be the night she’d dreamed about as a foolish adolescent, but she’d long ago relinquished dreams. She was a mature, sensible woman of twenty-seven marrying a mature, sensible man of forty-one. She was content with her decision. For a woman well past her debut, contentment was something with which she should be, well, content.
The bracing lecture didn’t notably raise her spirits. She muffled another sigh and plastered a smile on her face. This party was in her honor and she intended to enjoy it, even if it killed her. She wore a new dress to mark the occasion, dark blue brocade with Brussels lace, and her maid had twined red and white rosebuds through her thick auburn hair.
“I’m neglecting you, my dear.” Sir Grenville Berwick turned from the political cronies who had occupied his attention for the last half hour and took possession of her white-gloved hand.
Her fiancé’s touch aroused no frisson of anticipation. But then only one man had ever made Lydia tremble with desire, and that had been so long ago, she now viewed the events of that summer day as an aberration in an otherwise blameless life. She didn’t pretend to love the man she promised to marry, but she respected him. And God willing, she’d have children, lots of children, to whom she would devote the vast well of frustrated love in her heart.
Please let it be so.
As she turned to Grenville, she kept the smile on her lips, even if it felt like a rictus grin. Tonight he looked the perfect parliamentarian in his sober dark coat and with his graying brown hair combed back from his high forehead. “I’m not some flighty young thing. You don’t have to fuss over me.”
Sir Grenville’s square-jawed face didn’t lighten and his brown eyes remained grave. “You deserve to be fussed over, Lydia. I still find myself astounded that you consented to be my bride.”
“You’re too good for me.”
She meant it. If Grenville knew how once she’d verged on surrendering her virtue to a scoundrel, he wouldn’t place her on a pedestal. Since that calamitous day at Fentonwyck, her behavior had been exemplary, unless it was a sin to lie awake reliving the only passion she’d ever tasted. To lie awake regretting, wicked creature she was, that her father had erupted into the hayshed before Simon had ventured beyond kisses.
“Your modesty does you credit.” Grenville surveyed the throng with a satisfied air. “The world wishes us well. It’s quite a turnout.”
Hundreds had gathered to celebrate. Sir Grenville was a rising political star and Lydia was much admired for her charity work. She’d even caught sight of the brooding and scarred Jonas Merrick in one of the card rooms. Her brother who hosted the ball was an acknowledged leader of society. This was despite questions shadowing Cam’s legitimacy. It was common knowledge that his mother had shared her favors with her husband and his younger brother. The identity of Lydia’s sire was never in doubt—the late duke’s dashing, rakehell brother had died well before her arrival—but both Rothermere children had grown up weathering scandal.
From habit, Lydia sought Cam in the crowd. Her brother was so tall, she easily spotted his glossy dark head over the heaving sea of people. Beside him stood the ever elegant Sir Richard Harmsworth, her brother’s closest friend and as golden fair as Cam was dark.
Distantly, she was grateful that so many people offered their congratulations. Since consenting to Grenville’s proposal a year ago, she’d felt like a thick wall of glass separated her from the world. She supposed the sense of disconnection would pass. Eventually.
The passionate hoyden who still lurked in Lydia’s heart insisted that she was more than this staid, benevolent cipher. Except after ten barren years of acting the sedate
woman that the world considered her, the bleak suspicion lurked that she had in truth become this dull creature. At least the dull creature was safe and respected and armored against the anguish of strong emotion.
If she hadn’t entirely conquered her longing for something… other, she would by the time she walked up the aisle of St. George’s in Hanover Square in two weeks. This marriage to Grenville was right for her, promising a calm haven and a useful future. She’d spent her life holding her head high against spiteful whispers, the cruel assumption that like mother, like daughter, that bad blood would eventually tell. Only once had Lydia kicked over the traces. And hadn’t that been a complete disaster.
“Shall we dance?” Grenville asked. A waltz had just struck up, the scratch of the violins barely audible above the chatter.
Grenville danced well, if without particular flair. But then, Simon’s desertion had taught Lydia to mistrust flair. What she needed was steadiness and kindness and a devotion to shared ideals. Grenville offered her all of that. She ignored a jeer from her inner hoyden as she circled the ballroom, her heart beating as steadily as if she sat alone at her embroidery.
From long habit, she made sure that her troubled thoughts didn’t show on her face. For so many years, she’d presented an appearance of unruffled calm that it was second nature to her now. Perhaps after another ten years, the appearance would be truth, not pretense.
“I apologize for bringing House business to our party, my love.”
“No need,” she said calmly. She didn’t mind that Grenville devoted the weeks before their wedding to political maneuvering, although something rebellious inside her carped that she should mind.