Page 1 of The Bachelor
Chapter One
April 1809
Armitage Hall, Lincolnshire
Lady Gwyn Drake paced the ornamental bridge like a tigress in a crate. What did it mean when one’s blackmailer was late? It certainly didn’t bode well for the negotiations she hoped to initiate.
Perhaps she was at the wrong spot.
She drew the man’s note out of her pocket and read it again:
To Lady Gwyn,
Tomorrow at 4 p.m., bring fifty guineas to me on the Armitage estate near the bridge that crosses the river if you wish to guarantee my silence. Otherwise, I will feel free to tell such secrets about you and me as will ruin your good name. You know that I can.
Captain L. Malet
Not the wrong spot, then. This was the only bridge over a river on the estate. Did he realize that the house occupied by the estate’s handsome gamekeeper, Major Joshua Wolfe, was a short distance away? Or did he just not care?
She scowled. When she’d last seen “L.” Malet, ten years before, he’d been only an ensign in the army and she’d been only twenty. But if he was expecting to meet that same wide-eyed, foolish girl, he was in for a surprise.
Balling up the note, she tossed it into the river. Then she slid her hand into her muff to touch the pocket pistol she’d lifted from the closet of her twin brother, Thorn, otherwise known as the Duke of Thornstock. Though the pistol wasn’t loaded—she had no clue how to fire a gun, much less load one—the feel of the carved ivory stock beneath her fingers was reassuring. It should look impressive enough to hold off a coward like Lionel Malet.
She heard the crunch of wheels on gravel just in time to see him descend from a phaeton. He probably owed money on it, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him sauntering down the hill to the bridge without a care in the world.
Hard to believe she’d risked everything years ago for a pair of blue eyes, a smug smile, and a head of raven curls. Even in a mere ensign’s uniform, Lionel had looked incredibly appealing to a woman surrounded by her stepfather’s aging friends—or her teasing brother and half brothers.
Today, dressed even more impressively in gentleman’s attire, he lacked the power to move her. How could she not have seen the truth back then, that he was debonair and slick, the kind of man who slithered his way into a naïve woman’s life, then poisoned her and her future with one bite? If she’d just recognized . . .
It didn’t matter. She recognized his true character now. So as he approached, looking utterly sure of himself, she drew out Thorn’s pistol and aimed it at him. “That’s close enough, sir.”
He laughed at her, blast him. “You mean to shoot me, do you?”
“If I have to.”
“But you don’t.” He cocked his head rakishly. “You merely need to pay my price. Fifty guineas is a reasonable amount for my silence, wouldn’t you say?”
Her hands shook. She hoped he couldn’t see that. “I’m surprised you ask so little, considering what you’d get if you married me.”
“Are you still interested in that?” When she merely glared at him, he shrugged. “I didn’t think so. What a pity. A marriage would suit both of us.”
“I’m sure it would help your finances, but in what possible way could it benefitme?” she asked coldly.
He let his insolent gaze trail down her. “You’re by no means as youthful as you were at twenty. It won’t be long before you’re considered an out-and-out spinster, and then no one will marry you.”
“Good. That suits me perfectly.” Oddly enough, it was the truth. “I’m afraid you have soured me on men, sir.” That, too, was the truth. Or part of it anyway. “Nor am I some green girl to fall for your machinations again.”
“So why do you need the pistol?”
“My brother has been fearful that you might try to abduct me, as you tried to do with Kitty Nickman at Christmastide on this very estate.”
Mention of his failed plan seemed to spark his temper. “I considered it. But I know Thornstock. If I kidnapped you, he would cut you off, and then we’d both be poor. Indeed, he threatened as much years ago.”
The memory of that betrayal settled into her chest like a bad cold. That it still had the power to wound infuriated her. “He was trying to protect me, as any good brother would.” Still, it rankled that her twin had read Lionel’s character so well when she’d been oblivious to it. “And judging from your attempt to blackmail me, he was wise to do so.”
“This is not an attempt.” He took a step forward. “I mean to get my money.”
She steadied the pistol on him. “I don’t have it.”
