Regency Collection 2013 Part 1. Louise Allen

said loyally. ‘Your face has gained maturity and strength.’

      ‘Thank you.’ He smiled affectionately. ‘I found myself thinking that I had changed significantly and how little she had, if you discount the effects of the smallpox. And suddenly, about an hour ago, it dawned on me.’ How could he ever express to her how it had felt, that relief, that blinding sense that an emotional death sentence had been lifted? Then he saw the love in the blue eyes watching him and he knew that Bree’s feelings for him were as deep as his for her. And that her hurt had been as acute.

      ‘I sat for a while, just trying to work it all out, make certain I was not mistaken. Then I knew I had to come to you.’

      Piers cleared his throat, jerking them both back to the present. ‘Rosa said she knew things.’ He blushed. ‘Private things about your marriage.’

      ‘I expect Drusilla confided in her.’ Max shrugged. ‘Not the sort of thing one should talk to girls her age about, of course, but she was angry, bitter, confused and I suppose it all came out.’

      ‘What are we going to do now?’ Blinking in the candlelight, Bree looked as though she had just woken up from a bad dream.

      ‘We send out the wedding invitations. Or at least, I get my secretary to do that.’ He couldn’t resist it. He got up and went to sit on the arm of her chair, and began to stroke the mass of blonde hair she had bundled roughly into a net.

      ‘Yes.’ She leant her head into his caressing hand like a cat being stroked. ‘But what about Fanny? Max, what made her do it? I just cannot believe she is intelligent enough to work this out for herself.’

      Damnation. He had hoped she would not realise that. Once he had emerged from the shocked joy of realising that Drusilla had not come back to haunt him, Max had wondered that very thing. And then the memory of Ryder’s letter fallen to the floor at Latymer’s feet in the club had come back to him. This time he was going to call the man out, and this time he had every intention of putting a bullet into him.

      And despite the fact that she could not see his face, Bree had sensed his reticence. Hell, he thought with the sense of willingly giving up not just his heart but his entire life, I’m never going to be able to keep anything secret from her.

      She twisted round in the chair to look up at him. ‘Max. You know something.’

      ‘I think it is Latymer again. I suspect he read a letter from Ryder to me. It named no names, but it had enough in it to give him a start if he was wanting to pry into my business.’

      ‘What are you going to do?’ Piers demanded, on his feet, fists clenched.

      ‘Call him out. He will not be able to wriggle out of it this time. I have no intention of accepting an apology.’

      ‘Max—what if you kill him?’ Bree’s brow was furrowed with anxiety. ‘I don’t want to be left standing at the altar while you flee to the continent!’

      ‘You don’t worry he might kill me, I notice,’ he teased her, amused at himself for the warm glow of pride her assumption of his superior skill gave him.

      ‘Of course not.’ She rubbed her cheek against his sleeve. ‘But you must be careful. He might be such a bad shot he will hit you by accident.’

      ‘May I be a second?’ Piers asked.

      Max nodded, ignoring Bree’s gasp of denial. ‘Yes, you and Ryder. One of you will have to act for Latymer—I can’t afford to let anyone else in on this, not even Nevill.’

      ‘Piers is too young!’

      ‘No, he is not. I’ll look after him.’ Max winked at Piers over Bree’s head.

      ‘It is supposed to be the other way round,’ she scolded. ‘Oh, I suppose it will be all right if Mr Ryder is there—he, at least, seems sensible.’

      ‘That has put us in our place,’ Max observed to Piers. ‘Now, let’s think this through. We will confront Fanny after breakfast. I want Ryder there. I think it will be useful to have a witness from outside the family.’ Bree glanced up and smiled, a fleeting curve of her lips, acknowledging that word. Family. ‘We will see if our suspicions are confirmed and then deal with it.’

      ‘And Fanny?’

      Wring her neck for causing you one moment’s pain. Max bit back the words. ‘What do you want me to do about her, my love?’

      ‘Give her a modest pension, find her a cottage—a long way away.’

      ‘Reward her for trying to ruin our lives?’

      ‘Show you are as generous as you are loyal and clever and brave.’

      ‘I think I’ll, um … go and see if the hackney is still waiting,’ Piers announced gruffly.

      ‘We’re embarrassing him.’ Bree smiled.

      ‘Do him good,’ Max rejoined unsympathetically. ‘He’s learning about affairs of honour, he can start learning about sex.’

      ‘Max!’

      ‘And love, of course. Which reminds me—how long is it since I kissed you?’

      ‘Far too long.’ She curled deliciously into his embrace, squeaking with alarm as he slid into the chair with her, bundling her in his arms until she was sitting on his knee.

      ‘You know, you make me feel younger than I did when I met Drusilla.’

      ‘I do? Why?’

      ‘Because you are a grown woman. You don’t need treating like a child, you don’t sulk, you deal with me as an equal. So I can relax.’

      ‘Oh.’ The twinkle in Bree’s eyes was decidedly grown up. Max could feel the effect of it solidly in his groin. ‘I am not sure I want you very relaxed.’

      The only answer to that was to kiss her.

      ‘Bree, how many days now until we are married?’ Lifting his lips from hers, Max sounded as breathless as she felt.

      ‘Nine?’ she hazarded vaguely.

      ‘I don’t suppose we can send Piers home in the hackney and—’

      ‘No.’ Bree planted one hand firmly on Max’s chest and got to her feet.

      ‘Oof! I thought you’d say that.’ Apparently resigned, he stood up. ‘Off you go, then. Ryder and I will be there by seven if I can locate him, then we can decide how best to confront Fanny. Catching her off guard will probably be best.’

      He opened the study door for her, then seized her round the waist and bent to kiss her again as he slowly walked her backwards towards the front door. Torn between ecstasy and giggles, Bree let herself be shuffled slowly along, her fingers tight around Max’s lapels.

      ‘Do you wish the door opened, my lord?’

      With a squeak Bree jumped backwards. Bignell was standing there, immaculate in full livery, a branch of candles in one hand and an expression that she could only call stuffed on his face.

      ‘Thank you, Bignell,’ Max said with admirable aplomb, rather spoiling the effect by enquiring, ‘Do you sleep in your livery?’

      ‘No, my lord. Upon hearing voices, I first came upstairs in my nightgown, if Miss Mallory will excuse the mention of such a garment. Having identified your voice, my lord, I returned downstairs, restored the blunderbuss to its cabinet and assumed my garments.’

      ‘I see, excellent.’ Bree could see that Max was biting his lip, presumably to stop himself laughing. ‘Er, carry on.’

      Outside he hurried her down the steps and into the hackney, hanging on to the open door and giving in to his amusement with his back safely turned to the butler.

      ‘Oh, dear,’ Bree said faintly, ‘I really do not think Bignell approves