And of course, the crowning detail—that the Weslorian gentleman involved in this scheme was his future father-in-law.

Caroline had turned pale by the time he’d finished. “What are you going to do?”

“I plan to take the Weslorian women to Helenamar with me and have them speak out against the men who did this to them.”

“But what about your engagement? Won’t your father be angry?”

His father would be livid, of that, Leo was certain. “Possibly. Probably. I don’t know what all will happen, Caroline. All I know is that I am determined to take these women to Alucia and have them speak against the men who had bought and sold them for political favors. I intend to expose them, the consequences be damned.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and then her eyes began to well with tears.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, reaching for her hand.

“Those poor women. And you, Leopold. What a noble thing you’re doing, and yet everyone thinks...they assume...”

“I know what they assume. I’m not noble, I happen to be in a unique position, that’s all. Do you believe me?”

“I do.” She sniffed back a tear. “The Duchess of Norfolk told me about her husband. I never dreamed there were more women like that poor girl. But Leopold, what of your reputation? It’s all but ruined, and I...oh Lord, how I regret it! I helped it along. I gave Hollis gossip to print—”

He squeezed her hand. “Darling Caroline, think nothing of it. My reputation was not a grand one to begin.”

She shook her head and looked away from him for a moment. “You said there are more women?”

He nodded. “I know of one in the Pennybacker house. The other two... I’ve not yet discovered where they’ve gone.”

Caroline gasped. She squeezed his hand. “You must attend the Pennybacker ball, Leopold. That was all my doing, and I will undo it. Nancy Pennybacker can be persuaded, I am certain. Leave it to me. You will accompany Beck and me. Beck swears he won’t attend, that balls are a colossal waste of time, but I know he will if you come.”

“Caroline...” Leopold was so moved in that moment, that she would want to help him in this, that he leaned across the space between them, put his hand to her nape and kissed her.

She pushed back. “Garrett—”

“God help me, but I can’t help myself. I will mourn you when I go, Caroline. You have...you have enlightened me. Shown me what it is to live freely in one’s skin. You have made me feel things I’ve never felt—”

“Leopold, there’s more,” she said quickly. “You’re being followed.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE


Mayfair is abuzz with anticipation for the Pennybacker ball. No expense has been spared, and curiously, the invitation list has recently been expanded by one noble name. Even more curious is that the expansion occurred the morning after the select list of invitees for a supper at the home of Lord Farrington were delivered. There is no explanation for this change, but we all know that rivalries die hard.

—Honeycutt’s Gazette of Fashion and


Domesticity for Ladies

AMAZINGLY, LEO DIDN’T ask who was following him or why right away. He sighed wearily, as if this was not completely unexpected.

Caroline got up and hurried to the door to the drawing room. She looked out into the hall, then quietly shut the door.

“What—”

She put a finger to her lips, listening for footfall in the hallway. When she heard none, she breathed, and went back to the settee and sat next to Leo. “They were gentlemen from the foreign secretary’s office. They asked me to...to keep an eye, really, and said there was reason to believe you were plotting with your uncle to overthrow your father.”

Leo drew a breath that flared his nostrils. “Bloody hell.”

“I can fend them off,” she said confidently.

He snapped his gaze to hers, alarmed. “These are not parlor games, love. You must tell Beck.”

“Are you mad? He’d not let me out of his sight, much less allow me to attend the Pennybacker ball. Listen, we haven’t any time to spare. I must call on Nancy Pennybacker and gain you an invitation—”

He suddenly wrapped his arms around her and drew her into his chest, cupping the back of her head and pressing it against his shoulder. “For God’s sake, don’t do anything. I told you about the girls only because I wanted you to understand—not to involve you. I love you, Caroline. I would never put you in harm’s way.”

Caroline gasped. She pushed out of his embrace, with a strength born from a sudden and wild mix of emotions. Had he really just confessed his love for her? And did he really think she would be so easily put off? She took his face in her hands and made him look at her. “I am going to help you, Leopold, and you can’t command me to do otherwise. I am the only one who can help you.”

He caressed her earlobe with his thumb. “You’re right. I came here because I need your help. In fact you are the only one who can help me, the only one I can trust. I need to hide them.”

That was not the sort of help she had in mind. “Where? Here?”

“It’s better than the Clarendon Hotel. Can you imagine the speculation?”

Oh, but she could. “Not here,” she said, her thoughts churning. “Beck—”

“Je, of course,” Leo sighed and bowed his head. “I knew it was asking too much, but thought it worth the chance.”

“Not here. Hollis’s house.”

Leo’s head snapped up. “I won’t involve her, either, Caroline.”

“You can’t take them there, obviously, but perhaps you could send them with one of your guards?”

“Caroline! Hollis Honeycutt knows nothing about this. I won’t do it.”

“You won’t, but I will,” Caroline said. “Hollis will help in any way that she can. And she will because I ask her, Leopold. She loves me as I love her.”

He looked as if he wanted to argue. But he didn’t. He said, “As God as my witness, I have done nothing in my life to deserve you. I do love you.”

He couldn’t possibly know what those words meant to her—more than life itself in that moment. But they were almost too painful to hear. She couldn’t bear to hear him confess his love, then set sail for a marriage in Alucia. “Don’t say that,” she whispered. “Please don’t say that.”

He didn’t say it again. He pulled her to him and kissed her. It felt to Caroline as if the room closed around them, shielding them from the world. She could feel an eruption at the core of her with all the yearning she’d felt for him since that night in Chichester, a tiny volcano of want and need and hope. That was the first time she’d really noticed how handsome he was, how tall he stood, how finely he dressed, how his smile seemed to radiate from somewhere inside him. And then all the yearning she’d had the day Eliza married, when she’d seen him standing so regally beside his brother.

And in these last few weeks, all the yearning she’d suffered every time he’d touched her or kissed her. His lips were the beacon, his warmth the shelter, his strength the fence around them. Here she was again, aroused by all those feelings for him, his lips banishing any doubt or concern or fear in her. Everything faded away but the two of them, and the only thing that remained was a deep desire to hold him and love him. She desperately wanted to love him.

Her arousal scorched her blood. She pressed against him, into the hard planes and angles of his body. She touched the corner of his mouth with her fingers, angled her head so that she could deepen this kiss between them. She could feel his arousal, could feel the tension of his desire in the taut way he held his body, in the restraint that radiated from him.

He held her tightly to him, and part of her hoped he never let go. She hoped they never left this room, never ended this kiss. But Leo did end it. He nipped at her lips, kissed her cheek, her forehead, then lifted his head. “Caroline, mang leift, my love, we can’t continue this,” he whispered. “I have three poor souls waiting for me.”

Everything in her hummed. The caress of his voice, his hand...but she nodded. Her body was pulsing and wet and she felt like she could explode with a single touch, and she couldn’t let that happen.

But neither did she want it to end. Because the moment they opened that door, it could very well be the last time he touched her.

Leo stood up and held out his hand to her to help her to her feet. He kissed her once more, this time with particular tenderness. “It would be the end of you and possibly the death of me if anyone of your household was to find us like this,” he whispered. He dropped his hands and stepped away and walked to the door. He glanced back at her, his gaze full of longing. “Tonight? Eight o’clock?”

Caroline nodded. And then she pressed her hands against her belly and watched him walk out the door.

When he’d gone, she stared up at the ceiling and the papier-mâché scrolls there, blinking back tears. She didn’t hear Garrett come in until he spoke.

“Madam?”

Caroline was a master at recovery, she discovered. “Ah, Garrett, there you are. A cloak please. I’m going round to call on Hollis, and I won’t be home for supper.”

She knew herself well enough to know that she was in desperate trouble. Her heart was headed for collision with reality, and it was going to shatter into pieces very soon, because Hollis was right—she loved Leopold. And now he was going to ruin everything by being a good man.

Her heart would be irreparably broken, she was certain of it. But until the moment of its death, there was nothing to be done for it—she had to help him.


A DAILY MAID let Caroline into Hollis’s home. She found her friend in the drawing room, not in her office. Hollis was perched on a chair before the hearth, reading a broadsheet, a serious look of concentration on her face. Caroline took the chair beside hers and looked around the neat room. It was quite a contrast from the clutter of her office. Even the two cats seemed to be in their places, curled up together on the end of the settee. “Where is Donovan?” Caroline asked.

“I don’t know,” Hollis muttered.

Caroline bent forward to catch Hollis’s eye. “Good evening, Hollis! How are you? What are you doing?”

“Reading the Daily News.” Hollis sighed and lowered the broadsheet. “It’s edited by Charles Dickens. Do you know him?”

“I’ve not met him.”

“He’s printing things that are...worthy, Caro. Items of news that ought to be spread around. Not on-dits. Did you know that Parliament means to establish an entire new system of county courts?”

Caroline laughed. “I certainly did not, and I refuse to know it now. Darling, put that away. I need you just now.”

Hollis blinked. She put the broadsheet away. “Why? What’s happened?”

“I must have Leopold invited to the Pennybacker ball.”

Hollis stared at her. And then she laughed. She laughed so hard she fell back against the settee. “Caro, you are the one who made certain of it he was not invited.”

“Yes, I am well aware, thank you, Hollis. But now I realize it was a terrible mistake.”

Hollis wasn’t through laughing, however. “The seeds you sow, dearest. Shall I venture a guess? You do love him.”

Caroline didn’t have the patience to be coy today. Time was of the essence. “Yes! I am in love with Prince Leopold. There, are you happy now? Will you help me?”

Hollis was still giggling. She reached for Caroline’s hand. “I am happy now. You’re a perfect match. You, too bold by half and terribly impetuous at times, and him, too fond of his ale. All right. But it will require a little cunning.” She stood up and began to pace, one hand on her waist, one finger tapping against her lip. “Ah. Here we are, then. Lady Farrington’s husband has come into quite a lot of money, as I am sure you know.”

Caroline snorted a laugh. “Everyone knows. Priscilla makes certain of it.”

“Nancy Pennybacker can’t abide it when Priscilla has something she doesn’t have. If Nancy knows that Priscilla is having the prince to dine—because you tell her—she will have the prince to her ball. No matter what she thinks of Prince Leopold, she will not allow Priscilla to have royalty into her house before she does.”

A slow smile spread across Caroline’s lips. “That is positively diabolical, Hollis.”

“I study the on-dits, darling. But you must convince Priscilla she ought to have him.”

Caroline stood up. “That’s the easiest thing I might do this week. But Hollis, there is more.”

“No,” Hollis said, and fell very ungracefully into her chair, and propped one foot against the fire screen. “I can’t help you with Lady Norfolk.”