Page 30 of Bedding the Marquess
“Indeed. May I introduce my wife, Lady Caroline?”
Oliver proceeded to execute a flawless bow over Caroline’s hand. “I will admit, this part of the country is tempting. I might be amenable to investing in a small cottage were I not married to such a duplicitous woman.”
“Hardly,” Emily snorted. “You enjoyed a foray outside of London, fresh air, and now a party in a gorgeous castle. I see only benefits to my behavior.”
“Well,” Gideon chimed in, looking at Oliver, “it seems we are both drawn to beautiful, scheming women too cunning for their own good. I, myself, believed I’d be enjoying a quiet dinner, and now I must play host to several dozen guests.”
Caro jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. “Do not lie—you are reveling in every moment of this.”
Gideon laughed heartily and was cheered to see even the corner of Oliver’s lips tilt into the beginnings of a smile.
It was then that he noticed an increase in the whispers and glances around them. With him and Oliver standing together in their formal clothing…why, they must have looked like a pair of matched bookends. He’d be surprised if speculation about their filial ties hadn’t already begun in earnest. He made a silent vow that Oliver would not experience any prejudice amongst these people. These guests were people who mattered to him, but Oliver was blood. Anyone who thought to speak ill of him would have to answer to Gideon.
He and Caroline kept Oliver and Emily near their sides for the rest of the evening, introducing them to the rest of their close circle. As he’d anticipated, Blackwood and the rest were only toohappy to absorb them into their fold. The sight of these men with his brother actually made Gideon’s throat tighten. They were good men who deserved more than the caricatures Society had boiled them down to. Hell-raisers and lovers of beautiful women they may be, but they were not as shallow or dim-witted or without morals as the tabloids would purport. This combination of Gideon’s worlds—the brother he’d always hoped to find and the friends who’d stood in for the family he lacked—was enough to make his throat tighten with emotion.
“Are you ready for one of your gifts?” Caro asked, snapping Gideon from his mental meandering. He’d been so lost in thought that he hadn’t realized the assemblage had begun to migrate outside toward the west lawn.
“This party was not my gift?” he asked, delight welling up in his chest as he allowed Caroline to guide him along with the flow of the crowd.
“Part of it,” she replied with a mischievous smile.
“What have you planned, Lady Swanleigh?” he murmured in her ear, savoring the delighted chill that elicited from her.
“You will see soon enough!”
The early evening sky was painted in broad strokes of goldenrod, unnatural orange, shades of pink, and clouds of lilac. The air was sweet with the scent of freshly shorn grass and warm earth. The night-blooming flowers growing against the west side of the castle were beginning to open, adding an exotic note to the atmosphere.
One excited yip was quickly followed by another. Gideon was confused until the crowd parted and he saw what Caroline had done. The lawn had been cleared, and a long, narrow course had been roped off to create a straight track the length of the gardens. Handlers managed their greyhounds as the lean, angular dogs leapt, snuffled, barked, and paced, ready to do what they had been born and bred to do.
“You organized dog races?” Gideon could not mask his astonishment at the scene laid out before the party. Wagers were already being placed as the dogs with numbers one through five painted on their flanks were paraded before the partygoers.
Having dogs run a track was not the usual format for dog racing, but Gideon knew Caro had always disliked watching coursing, where greyhounds were sent in to chase a loose hare. Though the complex points system was not solely based on which animal captured the hare, the capture and death of the lure was not improbable. This was why Gideon had so diligently sought out other versions of the sport to satisfy everyone’s desire to gamble, the thrill of racing, and the preservation of life. Caro must have contacted the kennels responsible for this format of racing to have them present for this party. The lengths to which this woman had gone through for him…they were humbling.
“I did, indeed,” Caro replied with a smile so bright Gideon thought he might be blinded from its brilliance. She held out her hand and, rather than taking his when he offered it in return, she dropped into his palm a heavy velvet pouch filled with coins. “Go select your winner.”
“I am in awe of you, Caroline,” he breathed, his eyes dancing over her face and delighting in the beauty and warmth there.
“I feel the same.” Her words were soft and intimate, as chaste as a peck on the lips, yet as incendiary as what she’d done to him in her sitting room earlier that day. “Let us go,” she said, giving his hand a little tug. “There are only so many races that can be run before it is fully dark, and I have a good feeling about the brindle number three.”
Following the dograces (during which Caroline had soundly trounced every member of their group with her race selections), Gideon and Oliver were drafted into a game of cards in the room set up for that purpose.
“Caromustlove you,” Kempton said, leaning back in his chair and gesturing appreciatively to the room with his unlit cheroot. The sitting room had been cleared out and reset with tables for cards, roulette, and dice. Servants meandered through, offering an impeccable variety of drinks and cigars. “She went to a great deal of trouble to put all this together.”
Gideon only smiled as he shuffled the cards.
She hadn’t said as much, but Kempton was correct. Everything around them—the weeks of planning, the thought and care that went into every little detail—it smacked of love. His chest constricted. Could she love him?
Could she know he felt that way about her?
He certainly adored her, looked forward to spending time with her, and wanted her with a fierce need the likes of which he’d never experienced. He was proud to have her as his wife and his partner, and the thought of seeing her as the mother of his child someday soon gave him the most peacefully elated sensation he’d ever experienced. Was all of that love? He was beginning to think it was the deepest version of it.
“Are we shuffling all night or are we playing?” asked Brinley with his characteristic sarcasm.
Gideon chuckled and began to deal.
All the men learned in short order that Oliver was quite talented at cards—nearly as much as Gideon was.
Blackwood made a disgusted sound as he tossed his hand of cards to the table. “My pocketbook will never survive attempting to keep up with the two of you.”
