I Know You Read online

  “Lord Ridgely,” the butler bowed him in. “I do not believe Mr. Edwards was expecting you. He is out at the moment.”

  David nodded and removed his card from his pocket. “I am actually here to see Miss Edwards if she is at home.”

  The butler took the card and nodded genially. “I shall inquire. Please come in.” The butler directed a footman to take David’s hat, coat, and gloves, before striding up the stairs to see if Anne would speak with him. He was sure that she would, but, again, the amount of upheaval in her life might mark him as not welcome for most things.

  As luck would have it though, Anne herself was the one who sauntered down the stairs to receive him in the foyer. “Andrews, could you have cook prepare a tray for Lord Ridgely and myself? Also, please inform Bernadette that I am in need of a chaperon in the blue parlor.”

  Anne smiled at him and took his proffered arm as she steered him toward the aforementioned parlor. It was a rather airy space that really was decorated with numerous shades of blue. “My mother loved this parlor most of all. She said that with the light from the windows slanting just right, the colors in the room would be set off perfectly.”

  Coward that he was, David found himself, once again, looking for any other subject than the one that he came here to discuss. “How long has it been since you lost your mother?”

  Anne’s eyes immediately clouded and he kicked himself for broaching that subject, which of course was bound to be sensitive. “Almost two years. She caught a lung infection and couldn’t shake it off. The doctor believed that fresh air would make it better, but it didn’t help. She died in her sleep one night while my father was escorting me to a local assembly.”

  Oh God! Her mother had died alone while Anne had been out dancing. No wonder her eyes clouded so quickly. He reached over and grabbed her hand. “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have asked you so suddenly.”

  “No,” she said, dashing the tears from her face with her free hand. “Don’t be silly. I was the one who mentioned her in the first place. She was so full of life and color that there is not much that doesn’t remind me of her. You cannot take the blame for my own foolish emotions.”

  “No emotions, if sincerely felt, are foolish.” He cringed at his own cliché, but it was a true sentiment. He hated that society called for members of the ton to adhere to rigid rules of behavior, including when it was or wasn’t appropriate to laugh or cry.

  “Thank you.” She smiled brilliantly and it reminded him of exactly why he was willing to risk everything for his plan to work. She was the brightness that both he and Geoff needed in their lives. “I am sure you didn’t come here simply to make me feel better about my tears. What brought you today?”

  And there it was. No way to dodge out of it now. She had asked pointedly what his business was and she expected an answer. He swallowed and closed his eyes. “I realized the other night that you may have been compromised.”

  “Don’t be silly.” She waved her hand and laughed off the comment as absurd. “It’s not like we…well, it’s not like you…” Now it was her turn to look uncomfortable. “There can’t have been any consequences from what we…did.”

  Damn, but she was smart. He should have known that the same excuse he’d used with his father wouldn’t have worked for her. “It wasn’t what we did that concerns me.”

  Her gasp was accompanied by her jumping to her feet and pacing toward the door. Just then a footman came in with a tea tray. She bade him to place the tray on the table, but did not wait for him to exit before continuing.

  “I can explain.”

  David put his hand up quickly, quelling her off the cuff excuse as to why she and his valet were making love in his back parlor the night before. “As interesting as I am sure the explanation would be, I need you to understand a few things first.” He lifted a finger as she began to speak, shushing her instantly. “First of all, I am mostly to blame for last night.”

  Her mouth dropped open, but no sound of protest escaped.

  “I was fully aware of your relationship with Mr. MacAuley - whom you know as Mr. Geoffrey Rockford. When you presented me with his information I had only the slightest doubt that the two gentlemen were, in fact, the same person. Had I informed Mr. MacAuley of your presence in London, things may have played out a little differently; or at least with far less subterfuge.”

  “But…”

  A second finger went off. “Secondly, there must have been reasons for Mr. MacAuley’s change of name and disappearance from your life. I was not aware of them, so I was not at liberty to divulge his presence in London to you. I cannot be upset by this factor as, if I am not mistaken, you and I would not currently be betrothed had you known he was here.”

  Instead of interrupting this time, Anne simply nodded.

  “And thirdly, I have spoken to Mr. MacAuley about the situation and both of us have determined that the most prudent course of action is for you and I to marry more hastily than previously decided.”

  “You want to move up the wedding?!” The sentence was more blurted than spoken, and accordingly Anne gasped in shock and covered her mouth with both of her hands.

  “Yes, Miss Edwards. I do believe that a sooner wedding date would be most agreeable considering the current circumstances.” He pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to her. “This is for your father, explaining things a bit more delicately, but in essence it suggests that our families retire to my father’s country estate in Kent this weekend. I have already made arrangements to procure a special license and Mr. MacAuley is currently planning all of the travel arrangements for both of our households. All that needs to be done is for you to agree to be my wife.”

  With a flourish, David pulled a brown velvet case from his coat pocket and handed it to Anne. She opened it with shaking hands and gasped yet again at what she found there. He wondered if she recognized the design.

  Not wanting to answer the sensitive question that might be occurring to her, David reached over and slipped the ring out of the box. “Are you willing to do this, Anne?” His use of her given name was deliberate. He wanted her to know that he thought of her as a person first and foremost. As a friend. She was agreeing to spend the rest of her life tied to him, and he did not want a distant relationship between them.

  Slowly she nodded her head and held out her hand. Once the ring was placed on her finger a weight lifted from David’s shoulders. It was done. He was now responsible for the life and happiness of two people, whether they both knew it or not.

  Something just wasn’t right about this.

  As soon as David had left her townhouse on Wednesday she turned to Bernadette, who had slipped into the parlor without a sound sometime before the tea tray arrived. Her maid simply nodded and said “Well, we must get you packed. Friday is but a short time away.”

  And in a whirlwind of activity her entire life was packed up and transferred to Ridgely House, with the exception of the few trunks that she would take with her to Kent.

  Her arrival in Kent was just as much of a whirlwind, servants flying this way and that around the manor, preparing for the guests that would be arriving in waves for the Wedding Breakfast the next day. It had been decided that the wedding would in fact be held privately in the library with only the family in attendance. Then afterward neighbors and friends would arrive for a breakfast celebrating the Marquess and his new Marchioness.

  In all of the hustle and bustle though, Anne could not quite put her finger on what was bothering her most. As she looked down at her ring she fought to recognize the familiar design. She was sure she’d seen it before, perhaps long ago. But if she had, the memory was stubbornly hidden.

  Then there was Geoff’s role in these events. She had yet to speak with him - or even see him - since the night after her betrothal ball. She knew he was here though. She’d heard mention of “MacAuley” amongst the servants, so he had most definitely not stayed behind in London. Of course, why would he? He was David’s valet. David would need him
here.

  In a fit of frustration, Anne stood up and threw the ring across the room. What was Geoff thinking? David had made it clear that the both of them had decided that her marrying David quickly was the best option, but why hadn’t Geoff told her so? What were they hiding?

  Anne walked across the room and picked up the ring, allowing her gaze to drift to a book on the desk near where the ring had landed. The book’s title was written in a foreign language, but she knew what it was without even guessing. How many times had she and Geoff giggled over the pictures in the book when they were younger?

  But what was it doing here?

  She couldn’t ask Geoff himself - not even knowing where he slept at night - but she could ask David. She very much doubted that Geoff did anything without David’s knowledge. And she wanted answers before she pledged before witnesses to honor and obey one man while still being in love with another.

  Quickly she pulled her dressing gown around her and opened her chamber door, checking both ways to make sure no one was in the hall to see her scandalously clad and even more scandalously sneaking about the house in the middle of the night. If she was correct the only people housed with her in this wing tonight was her father and the clergyman performing the ceremony so early in the morning. And they were further on at the end of the hall, likely arranged on purpose.

  On tip toes she made her way to the family wing - on the same floor but set further back. She knew precisely which room David’s was, having been given the tour that morning, and she also knew that his father’s rooms were equally distant from David’s rooms as her father’s were from hers.

  She reached for the door but heard a moan before her hand made it to the handle, concerned that David was having a nightmare of some sort and not wanting to startle him she carefully turned the handle and stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

  The moan came again and she swung around to see that David wasn’t having a bad dream. In fact, David wasn’t even the one moaning. He was the one causing the moans.

  She moved further into the shadows not knowing what to do or how to react, but what she was witnessing was not anything close to what she had expected to discover. When she thought of possible explanations that could be given for the way David and Geoff were acting, she had imagined a business partnership, or a criminal ring that they were heavily involved in. Not once had she considered the fact that they were lovers.

  Yet on the other side of the room, standing next to the bed, Geoff was standing with his fingers entwined in David’s hair. He was moaning spasmodically as David sucked and licked his engorged cock.

  Geoff’s eyes were closed, but even if they had been open she was fairly sure he wouldn’t be seeing her. For one thing, she’d been on the receiving end of David’s oral pleasure, so she knew full well that open eyes didn’t guarantee that things were being seen. For another thing, the shadows cast near the doorway were dark enough that her gray dressing gown blended in perfectly with the walls.

  In her mind she was screaming that she needed to leave - not just the room, but the manor, and probably England as well. She needed to get as far away from David and Geoff and their lies as possible. Yet her breaking heart wouldn’t let her move from her position. Somehow she needed to see everything that was going to happen. She needed to see how it all played out.

  As David’s head bobbed on Geoff’s member, Geoff threw his head back and moaned yet again. This time words were only slightly intelligible. Something like “that’s it” and “God, this is good”. He was enjoying it there was no doubt, so she couldn’t say that Geoff was being forced by his master to serve him.

  It occurred to her at that point that maybe Geoff was the one forcing David to service him. Though it wasn’t talked of in society circles she’d heard tavern girls in the village talk about maids forcing their masters to “give them tongue” or else they would tell some awful secret to the lady of the house. Maybe this was what was happening?

  But even that excuse failed to make her feel better. It would make Geoff a monster, and it would make David weak. Neither prospect was inviting to her. David was the strong lord who had made her feel important in his questions and protected in his concerns. Geoff was the childhood friend who had sworn to love her all of her days. Something else had to be at play.

  David sped up his movements as he bobbed up and down, adding his own groans to the sounds drifting across the room. It became apparent quickly that his efforts were achieving their goal, because Geoff’s hips started bucking back and forth. His fingers twirled tighter into David’s hair and with an all mighty grunt, Geoff climaxed right into David’s mouth.

  Anne was paralyzed in her shock. Never before had she experienced something so base, and considering the book that was currently sitting in her chambers that was saying a lot. David removed Geoff’s shaft from his mouth, licking it clean in the process and looked up at him. She could not see his eyes, but the way Geoff was looking down at him, she could tell that there was definite affection between the two.

  Her hiding place now proved itself to be secure as neither noticed her presence as David rose to his feet and kissed Geoff - hard - on the mouth, and then began to trail the kisses down his neck. Geoff reached his hand around between the two of them and must have grabbed David’s cock, because David hissed and Geoff smiled slowly, working his wrist in a rhythmic manner.

  Anne was sure that she was about to witness Geoff getting to his knees and returning the favor to David, but she soon realized that she was terribly wrong. David pressed Geoff away and onto the bed. He walked over to the bed stand and picked up a bottle of what Anne could only assume was oil. He dripped it onto his fingers and glanced toward Geoff, as if to see if Geoff was watching.

  He was watching, but only long enough to see David coat his cock with the thick oil. At that point he flipped over onto his knees and positioned his feet over the end of the bed. Anne had no idea what was about to happen, but her gut clenched as David stepped in behind Geoff.

  Her hand went up to cover her mouth, but no sound was coming out anyway. She just stood there, wide-eyed as she watched first one finger, and then a second, disappear between the cleft in Geoff’s bottom. Geoff groaned as if the feeling was enjoyable and David worked his fingers further in time to the sounds Geoff was making.

  Suddenly David removed his hand from Geoff and positioned himself between Geoff’s feet. He leaned over and gently kissed Geoff’s shoulder, then thrust forward, fully impaling himself inside Geoff. The thrusting of David’s hips began almost immediately and Geoff only gave out one howling moan before both men stiffened and then shouted their release at the same time.

  This was too much for Anne, who moaned piteously under her hand, and turned to grapple with the door. She heard a commotion behind her, but she was too determined to get out of the room in order to care what either of the men were saying.

  She ran down the hall, holding back her sobs as she fled down the stairs and right to the front door. By some stroke of luck the door had not yet been bolted for the night, so she was easily able to throw the door open and escape into the dark.

  Anne didn’t know quite where she was going to go. After all, she was alone, in her dressing gown, on an unfamiliar estate. But she knew one thing: she needed to be alone to think, because like it or not, what she’d just witnessed hadn’t disgusted her as her brain told her it should have. No, it had aroused her. And she just wasn’t sure how to deal with that.

  The minute he heard the groan he knew he’d made a big mistake. His brain immediately split into two parts: the part that was still releasing after David had coaxed him to his second - more intense - climax, and the part that was very much aware that Anne had just witnessed far more than she had been prepared for.

  He should have told her!

  David ripped out of him and jumped toward the door calling her name, but Anne was already scrabbling at the door handle. Before he could reach her she was already out in the hallway, running
as if a monster was chasing her. And in her mind, maybe one was.

  Geoff jumped off the bed and grabbed for his dressing gown, but David held his arm out. “No!” He was already pulling on his own dressing gown, ready to run into the night. “I’m the one with the least to lose, and I’m the one that messed up. I should have told her. I had the chance on two occasions and I didn’t take it.”

  “I’ve known her nearly my whole life. I owed her…”

  “Are we really going to stand here and argue over who messed up worse,” David asked, kissing Geoff lightly on the head. “Or are you going to let me go after her and explain everything?”

  He knew that David was right. It was stupid to play the blame game. Especially when Anne was probably running out into the night - alone and angry - without knowing anything about the estate. Geoff found himself just nodding and watching David disappear out the door, too.

  What was he going to do if Anne couldn’t forgive them? Or worse, what if she didn’t agree with their idea? There had always been a chance that she wouldn’t like it. After all, the Church said very baldly that marriage was between one man and one woman. That was two people, not three. And those people had to be opposite gender.

  Yet Geoff couldn’t help but think that love was far more of an amalgamation than something that could be bound up that tightly. How could anyone put restrictions on something that powerful? He hadn’t asked to fall in love with…

  Bloody hell!

  Geoff sat down on the side of the bed, suddenly not able to catch his breath. He was in love. With David. He was in love with David. In. Love. With. David. How had this happened? How had he managed to actually lose all control of his force of will?

  He put his head between his knees and started to breath deep, hoping that he could clear his head and think of a solution. There had to be a way to think his way out of losing his heart to a peer of the realm. One that he happened to work for.

  “Hurts like hell, doesn’t it?”