Page 25 of A Rogues & Gentlemen Christmas

Chapter 7

“Wherein a villain is exposed.”

15thDecember 1817. Blackdown House. Devon.

Odette clung to Chance’s hand. Had it only been that morning they had woken together on the mattress before the fire at Corry Brook Farm? Oh, how she longed to be back there now. The idea of feasting on fried potatoes and spending the day making snowmen and playing cards and kissing Chance… it was like a lovely dream, and she wanted to return to it and never wake up. Anything rather than meet the cold grey gaze of her uncle, who was staring at her like she’d just crawled out from under a stone. She could hardly bear to meet the earl’s eyes, eyes she now saw were exact same shade of blue as his son’s.

Still, she would not disgrace Chance by acting like some swooning heroine in a bad play, so she stiffened her backbone and returned his father’s uncompromising gaze.

“Now you come home,” the earl said to him with contempt. “Now, when you have caused the most chaos possible, you return and bring that… that wicked girl with you. What is the meaning of this?”

“Odette is not the least bit wicked, father, as I’m sure you know,” Chance replied, with every outward appearance of calm, though he was pale even beneath the warm glow of the lamplight. “She was upset and afraid after her uncle spoke to her harshly. The lady went for a walk to calm her nerves and got lost, as many have done before now. If you’d been a little more assiduous in looking after her, or in searching for her, I would not have had to return her myself. As it is… I am very pleased to be able to do so.”

“You dare lay this debacle at my feet?” his father demanded.

“Oh, no, sir. The blame is not entirely yours, though you did not see fit to give me the slightest information about the young lady you had decided I must spend my life with. The Marquis de Layon must share the blame equally for his machinations, and for frightening his niece enough to make her too afraid to remain in the same building as he.”

Uncle Guy did not even blink. “Keep a civil tongue in your head, pup, or I might decide to remove it for you.”

Odette shivered at the look in her uncle’s eyes. His French accent was barely audible, as he felt he must excel in all things and so spoke five languages fluently. This need for perfection was not only aimed at himself, either. André had suffered cruelly for not being the man the marquis had wanted him to be. Now she would feel his wrath as her perfect reputation was sullied and spoiled.

“Well, child,” he said, and the lack of inflection in his voice had always frightened her the most. She could bear it when he shouted and ranted, but that icy cold usually preceded the worst of him. “You have overturned all my plans and reduced yourself to a pitiful nothing, a whore to be bought and sold, and for what?”

Odette did not have time to gasp at the ugly words as another shock overtook the first. Chance dropped her hand, moving so swiftly she hardly saw it happen. One moment he stood beside her, the next he was standing toe to toe with her uncle, his face a mask of tightly controlled fury. Now she saw the soldier he had been, the warrior beneath the civilised exterior.

“Insult my wife again, Monsieur, and I shall have satisfaction at the end of a pistol.”

For the next few seconds pandemonium reigned as Odette shrieked and ran to Chance, tugging on his arm.

“Non! Non, non, non,” she cried, terrified that she might lose him before their lives had even begun.

“You’re married?” the earl shouted, coming around his desk to confront his son. “How on earth—?”

“Wife?” exploded her uncle at the same moment, his eyes popping with fury. “What do you mean—”

“Quiet!”

Chance’s voice echoed around the room and, rather to her astonishment, both the earl and her uncle were silenced. From the look in his eyes, Chance was a little taken aback too.

“Yes, we are married,” he confirmed. “We saw Uncle Will this morning. He married us.”

A measuring look that Odette was not certain she liked entered the earl’s expression, but she had no time to consider as her uncle stalked up to her, eyes blazing.

“Did he take you yet?” he demanded.

Odette gasped, her cheeks blazing scarlet.

“Don’t play the coquette now, girl,” he sneered. “It’s too late for that. Are you or are you not a virgin? Have you consummated the marriage?”

“N-Non,” Odette said, before she could think better of it.

A triumphant gleam entered the man’s eyes, and he turned back to the earl. “Sign the settlement. It’s to be done just as we arranged, though I will add a clause stating I be recompensed as you have been spared the expense of a wedding. Otherwise it is all as before, you only need sign the papers.”

The earl leaned back against the desk, his expression unreadable.

“But the deed is done,” he said, spreading out his hands. “They’re married.”

Uncle Guy stilled, a dangerous glint in his cold eyes. “Nothing that can’t be annulled. You heard the girl, it’s not been consummated. They’re not legally wed yet, and they won’t be if you don’t keep to our terms.”