Surrender to Love

The Dowager’s laugh tinkled like a high silver bell. “Oh my dear Nicholas! You sound... Why, if I did not think I knew better I might imagine you had actually fallen in love! How very amusing!”

He had opened the door before he turned to look at her and say quietly, “I do not think you know me at all, Belle-Mere.”

The door closed firmly, and Adelina’s brow puckered in a thoughtful frown as she stared at it for some moments. And then, with a shrug, she gave an impatient tug at the bell cord. First things first! The ball and its minor attendant crises could wait for a few minutes longer, until she had talked to Newbury—and perhaps to Charles as well, in case his courage needed bolstering.

To the Dowager’s advantage, although she did not know it yet, Charles and Alexa had started up the stairs when Nicholas came down with his face as black as thunder and quite as furious, almost cannoning into them before he halted on the step above, his eyes narrowing unpleasantly as they dwelt on Alexa, and going down from her swiftly averted face that had suddenly gone pale to her hand that was clasped firmly in Charles’s. It was impossible for them to pass as long as he stood there deliberately barring their way, and of course he knew it, Charles thought furiously, his face reddening.

“What a coincidence, to be sure. How quickly the lady becomes engaged and disengaged! I’ve just been told. Or is it not official yet?”

“Embry, if it is your intention to make a scene...”

Nicholas drawled: “A scene? But why on earth should I make a scene, and over what? I must admit, though, that since we are all such close friends I am hurt that you two did not confide in me. Or was this something very sudden?”

“If you don’t mind, Alexa and I are going up to see my grandmother,” Charles said stiffly.

“Alexa has not yet confirmed or denied anything, has she? And it is not like her to be so subdued and silent. You must not feel guilty, sweet Alexa, for changing your mind, although you might have told me last night at least.”

“Why, you...!” Charles had begun when Alexa, clinging frantically to his hand, looked defiantly up at her tormentor.

“Stop it! Stop this...this hypocritical farce at once, do you hear me! Go back to your own fiancée and leave me alone.”

He ignored Charles as if he did not exist when he caught her hand clutched onto the banister, tugging it free. “Alexa, damn you, I want you to tell me the truth. You’ve decided to marry Charles? Just like that? Why, for God’s sake?”

Her voice was close to the breaking point and sounded almost hysterical as she tried to tug her aching wrist free of his grasp. .

“I...I love Charles, do you hear? I’ve—I’ve always loved him and I’m going to marry him. Is that enough for you? Is it? And now will you leave me alone? I wish I’d never have to see you again. I... Let go of me!”

“Isn’t that enough of an answer for you, you blackguard?” Charles said furiously. “By God, if I had a pistol...”

“You don’t, Deering. And I happen to have a knife, as your blackguards found out soon enough last night,” Nicholas said in a dangerously pleasant voice. “And as for my answer—well, so as not to appear a bad loser, am I at least allowed to give the prospective bride a congratulatory kiss? Since I’m obviously not going to be invited to the wedding...!”

He had taken her by surprise—damn him, damn him!— dropping her wrist as suddenly as he caught her chin to tilt it up. And he hadn’t kissed her for over a second or two either, just long enough to tell her something she didn’t need reminding of, especially with his gold chain lying about her hips. He had known it too—although his face didn’t move a muscle she had seen that dark flicker in the depths of his green eyes, like a crouching black panther—tail swishing. He knew how weak he made her, and she hated him for it and for his mocking farewell salute before he went past them. “Hasta luego, mi mentirosilla!” How dared he call her a little liar!

“Alexa, my dearest, never for the world would I have subjected you to such rudeness if I’d thought... You’re shaking, my love! Does seeing him frighten you that much?”

“He... Of course the sight of him upsets me! Can you blame me for it? And you saw how he acted, how he treated me. Oh, how I wish sometimes, that I had been born a man instead of a female! It is only our reputations that can so easily be ruined by some unscrupulous male, and never his, no matter how glaring his crime. ‘What a man boasts of, a woman confesses!’ How true it is of our society, and how unfair!”

“There’s trouble? Or is this only a lovers’ quarrel?” The Marquess of Newbury stood at the foot of the staircase gazing up at them with his usual rather aloof expression, and Alexa could not help the flush that stained her cheeks when she wondered how much he might have seen or overheard.

While she sought for words it was Lord Deering who said furiously: “It’s intolerable! You should have seen— and heard—how insolent he was just now with his hints and innuendoes and his complete lack of any trace of conscience. Not only did he speak without any show of respect, but he even went so far as to seize my fiancée forcibly by the wrist when she tried to evade him—and in front of me, mind you—and to force his so-called congratulatory kiss upon her as well. He has no idea, I tell you, of either civilized manners nor deportment! How can you, as head of the family, tolerate his outrageous behavior? It’s an insult to us all.”

“I’m afraid Embry is rather inclined to either ignore or deliberately flout our social codes,” the Marquess said rather absentmindedly. And then, quite obviously changing the subject, he said, “But why don’t we all go upstairs to my mother’s rooms? I am quite sure she will have some ideas as to how this matter should be dealt with.” He looked directly at Alexa for a moment before saying in a rather hard voice, “And it will be dealt with too, I assure you, Lady Travers.”

Alexa had spoken earlier with the Marquess of Newbury and had found it easier than she had anticipated, since she had not had to look at him directly but had been able to turn her head away or look down while she related,

with Charles prompting her, the story she had prepared for them all. At least he had assured her that he was flattered she had felt herself able to confide in him so frankly on a matter that he was sure must be unbearably painful for her to discuss. By not the slightest nuance in his speech or demeanor had he betrayed anything other than polite concern and support when she had virtually thrown herself on his mercy. And in no way had she allowed him to guess that she knew he had asked about her— -for her, Solange bad said—or that she was aware of the cellarlike apartment he kept at that discreet house of assignation and the purpose for which he used it. If she had let herself as much as think about it, she might have given herself away by shuddering each time he looked at her. -“You had better stop being such a greenhorn, my dear, if you mean to survive among these people you are dealing with!” Solange had warned Alexa when she had angrily criticized her for allowing such horribly evil things to go on in her establishment. “What did you think I was running here, anyway, an exclusive boarding school for girls? Anything goes in this kind of school, and my customers get anything they are willing to pay through the nose for. If they did not they would go elsewhere for it, and I’d soon be out of business! Newbury lets me alone now, I’m too old for him and he had his fill of me a long time ago, but he patronizes my place and he pays damn well, so he can have what he wants and do as he pleases—you understand? If you saw life and human nature from my point of view it would soon make you think differently about a lot of things, and it would make you as hard as nails too, the way I am. So take my advice and learn fast—or else step aside and out of their way before you’re stepped on and squashed like I was and your mother was too, in a way.”

No, Alexa had thought then; and now again she told herself the same thing. No! She was different, and she had the weapons with which to fight back. Hadn’t she already surprised them all by taking the war into their own camp, so to speak? Newbury couldn’t very well pursue her any longer, since she had openly appealed to him as head of his family to protect her reputation. And her convenient engagement to Lord Charles had helped her outface and outwit even Nicholas and would surely keep him away from her at a safe enough distance so that he could no longer continue to take advantage of her own treacherous senses, her purely physical weakness for a man her mind hated and distrusted. Now there was only the Dowager Marchioness to be faced in the very boudoir where she sat like a spider spinning her webs of intrigue and treachery— the most dangerous and yet the most telling confrontation of all.

“So you’re suddenly being clever, for a change,” the Dowager said abruptly as soon as they were alone. She had insisted that the men must leave them together for a frank talk between females and sent a significant look at them both before they had left and she turned back to Alexa with a strange smile.

Was she supposed to let herself be taken aback by rudeness? Alexa smiled back deprecatingly and shook her head slightly before she said, “Oh, but not anywhere near as clever as you are, madame, although I am trying to learn from your example. Are we to be direct with each other?”

“Skirting the usual politeness usually saves time, I’ve found. So, let’s have directness by all means! What do you want? If it’s another title, poor Charles seems quite besotted by you and he has one. It cannot be money, for you have more than enough. Any so-called revelations you might think to gain something by making could only reflect for the worse on you, you must realize quite clearly. And on your unfortunate mother and the man who was kind enough to offer her bastard his name. I have also noticed that you haven’t mentioned your ridiculous story to my son Newbury!”

“Shall I?” Alexa said sweetly. “Perhaps he might have some recollection of a marriage that took place some twenty years ago? And, madame, please don’t think me quite so foolish as to hint at things without having proof. h fact, I have with me tonight facsimiles of a marriage certificate and a birth certificate taken from the original documents and attested to as such. And the original documents are in safekeeping, to be handed to no one but myself, unless of course something should befall me, in which case they are to be made public. Very public indeed, along with all the circumstances involved, which as you know were not exactly—savory or moral, to say the least! But then of course you have already realized that I am no poor little French imigree who is easily intimidated. In fact, I think I take much more after you than I do my mother or even my father. Perhaps it is because I am beginning to think more as you do and to want...”

“Well, since you’ve come this far, you might as well go on! What do you think to gain from all this without being ruined yourself?”