Page 12 of An Earl by Any Other Name
Ivy did not look at him. She felt changed. Their secret moment had awakened her and melted whatever defenses she’d thought she’d built against his charm. How was she ever going to think clearly when all she wanted to do was relive that kiss? The carefully crafted battlements around her heart quivered, trembled, the walls crumbling.
Oh dear…
Chapter 6
The house was a flurry of chaos. Servants rushed back and forth: luggage in footmen’s arms and ladies’ hats and coats carried by the upstairs maids. The high ceilings of the entryway reverberated with the voices of the guests. Leo stepped out of the way, allowing Miss Leighton to rush over to a tall, striking man with a dark mustache and olive skin. Her father, he assumed, given the similarities of their features. Certainly foreign. It was no wonder she was such an exotic beauty.
“Hampton!” A loud voice cut across the merry din, and Leo was smacked soundly on the shoulder by Owen Hadley.
“Hadley, I’ve never been happier to see you.” The familiar face of his friend eased the tension in Leo’s shoulders. He would have one ally in the midst of this social fray.
Owen laughed. “Good of your mother to invite me. I think she knew you would have need of me.” He nodded toward the mixed group of men and women in the hall. Leo recognized the faces, but they were all more of his mother’s friends than his. Aside from Owen, Ivy was perhaps the only person he was interested in. Had his mother done this on purpose? He’d insisted she invite Mildred and her parents for the party after he guessed her intentions, but how was he to treat both Mildred and Ivy equally during the party? His body wanted Ivy, but the rational part of his mind reminded him he needed to focus on his future bride. It was a bad predicament. One he was quite sure his mother had contrived deliberately.
Owen’s eyes twinkled. “What are you thinking about? You have that look in your eyes.” He leaned a shoulder against the wall, watching Leo with a piqued interest.
“My mother is scheming. I am merely trying to outmaneuver her.”
His friend laughed. “Scheming? Christ, aren’t you too old for that to be a threat? What’s the worst she could do?”
Leo sighed and nodded discreetly in Ivy’s direction. “That is her latest plan. Mother does not count herself among Miss Pepperwirth’s admirers and is determined to upset my plan to propose by distracting me with a lovely young woman instead.”
Owen’s face twisted in an unpleasant grimace. “Lord Pepperwirth’s daughter? Good God, man, do you hate yourself? Why tie the knot with such a…” He paused, caught himself, and amended more politely, “She’s a lovely lady, I’m sure.”
“I know full well Miss Pepperwirth is not ideal. Her temperament is severe, but her father’s influence in the House of Lords would be beneficial, and her dowry would keep Hampton well set for the next several generations. I need to consider that above my own desires.” He slid his hand into his pocket, rubbing his fingers over the smooth silver of his pocket watch. The little tick of its metal heart beat against the palm of his hand. Time was eternally moving forward, another second lost, another minute wasted. Leo’s gaze drifted back to Ivy and the tempting curve of her smile as she hugged her father. Such a warm, affectionate creature. Would she be the same with a lover?
“I never envisioned you as the martyr sort,” Owen observed.
It was a statement Leo would have agreed with before his father had died. But in the last year, he had been forced to change as he’d taken the reins of the estate after his father’s disgraceful passing.
“You’re fortunate you don’t have to worry about such things,” Leo said.
A footman rushed past them and Owen lowered his voice. “Of course I worry about this, more so than you.” His friend’s face was suddenly plagued with shadows and his eyes were haunted. “My own estate in the Cotswolds is in utter shambles. Ever since I returned from the war, I’ve been fighting to get it back on sound footing. I understand how you feel, Leo, I do, but I know you. Marriage to a sharp-tongued harpy won’t make you happy. It’s liable to drive you mad. I wouldn’t risk it, ol’ boy.”
Leo stared at Owen, shocked. How had he missed that his friend was in such poor circumstances? God, he was a bloody bastard for not knowing his friend was in a worse state than he was.
“Hadley, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”
Owen shrugged but the movement lacked the carefree manner his friend used to have. “It isn’t your fault. The debts of our fathers’ estates are a burden to us all.” He glanced away for a long moment as though trying to hide his worries. Then he turned back to Leo with a forced grin. “So who is the lovely lady caught up in your mother’s schemes? Perhaps I’d like to get tangled in that web myself.”
It was then that Leo noticed Owen’s eyes were fixed on Ivy and the look was a little too appreciative. Owen loosened the collar of his shirt as his gaze ran the length of Ivy’s body.
A sudden desire to punch his oldest friend nearly overtook Leo. His fingers curled into a fist and it took every ounce of his willpower to not haul back and strike the other man.
“Will you introduce me?” Owen asked, flashing Leo a wicked grin as though he could read Leo’s murderous thoughts. They were of the same height and muscular build. A battle of fisticuffs would be painful, and both of them knew it.
Through gritted teeth, Leo nodded. “An introduction, but nothing more. Try to behave yourself with my guest. She’s…” He’d been about to say innocent, not that he could explain why.
She was a stranger. He’d never seen her before until he’d pulled up next to her motorcar and found her glorious legs waving in the air, but he knew she was innocent to the ways of men. The memory of the kiss he’d stolen, the way he’d coaxed her into responding, taught her mouth how to move with his. Such a foolish thing, for him to kiss a woman he had no plan to marry, but he couldn’t resist. Not after the way she’d gazed at him as though he could give her the moon and the stars, and he’d had the strangest urge to tap the tip of her adorable nose…it was rather like a half-remembered dream, as though he’d done it a thousand times, yet it felt new.
There was no doubt in his mind that Ivy was crafted by the gods to tempt him. With those almond-shaped eyes fringed by long, sooty lashes and intoxicatingly lush lips…the way she’d dressed him down over the voting issue. He’d loved the verbal sparring. She lacked the acidity Mildred possessed, whose comments always seemed rooted in scorn for everything. He shuddered. Owen was right. Marrying Mildred would be a foolish endeavor on its own, but couple it with doubling Hampton’s estate…a man could overlook an ill-tempered shrew of a wife, couldn’t he?
Owen nudged his elbow. “Don’t leave a man out to dry, Hampton. I want to meet this lady.”
Leo shot his friend a cool look as they walked through the throng of guests, murmuring greetings until they reached Ivy and her father.
“Welcome to Hampton, Mr. Leighton. May I present my good friend Mr. Owen Hadley to you and your daughter? Mr. Hadley, this is Mr. Leighton and his daughter Miss Ivy Leighton.”
“Good to meet you, my lord. I’ve heard much about you from Lady Hampton.” Mr. Leighton offered a hand, the intimate gesture catching Leo off guard, but he shook it regardless and then Leighton was doing the same to Owen. Owen then turned the full weight of his charm on Ivy, whose blush made her slightly olive skin turn a beautiful dusky rose.
