His finger curled around her chin, lifting it, forcing her to meet his gaze. His eyes were dark and unreadable. “Leave this room, or leave me?”
Tears pricked behind her eyes. She swallowed, her throat tight and aching. “Whichever you prefer.”
His kiss took her completely by surprise. His mouth was warm, so warm and loving as he feasted on her lips, then slid his tongue inside to take full possession. Hope, blighted into dust, began to gather itself again. “Silly wife. As if I could survive without you.”
“You couldn’t survive without me?” Plum asked, her voice quavering as the tears filled her eyes. He wasn’t upset? He wasn’t angry? He wasn’t hurt and disappointed and shocked by her past?
He kissed her again, gently this time, his thumb wiping away the tears that spilled over her eyes. “You should know by now that I can’t live without you, none of us can. I’m sorry you were treated so poorly, both by the man to whom you’d given your trust, and by your family, but you can’t imagine that it has any effect on us now.”
“But…but…the scandal!”
Harry chuckled, he actually chuckled. Plum’s spirits, which had been residing in the bottom of her new boots, rose and soared. He wasn’t angry! He could laugh! He wanted her still! “I think I like you silly as you are now. It’s such a refreshing change from the competent, unflappable Plum. It gives hope to those of us who are made of much coarser earth.”
“It was a very bad scandal,” Plum said, ignoring his teasing compliment, feeling that as long as he knew the worst, he should be told the full extent of its ramifications. “My father said I would never be received in polite company again, and that no one nice would know me.”
“Your father didn’t reckon with me,” Harry said, his slow smile making Plum’s eyes fill with tears again, tears of love this time. How could any man be so wonderful? “You’re my wife now, Plum. The fact that you were taken in by the worst sort of rogue twenty years ago will not be an issue.”
“But, Papa said—”
“Your father was wrong. I know the ton, and although there is nothing they like more than scandals, this one will not be fodder for their picking.”
“How do you know that? They were very cruel to me and my sister. Thom has been made to suffer, too, by not being brought out when she should, by not having the advantages she should, or being taken in by my family when her uncle died. I wouldn’t want my sin to hurt the children as she has been hurt.”
“Thom looks anything but hurt,” Harry laughed. “She’s blossomed here, in case you haven’t noticed. The only blight on her horizon is those blasted breeches you refuse to allow her.”
“Yes, but the children—”
“Are fine and this cannot hurt them. You might not think much of my title, but I assure you being a marquis has a few benefits, one of which is the ability to blot up any spills in your copybook. What my title can’t induce people to forget, my reputation will.”
“I happen to be a very messy writer,” Plum said, thinking that not even Harry could wield enough power to make the ton to accept the notorious Vyvyan La Blue as his wife. That secret, at least, was safe. No one but her, Thom, and her man of affairs knew the truth, and none of them would speak.
Harry laughed again, hugged her, and kissed her very quickly before gently pushing her off his lap. “If you don’t leave now, I’m going to throw everything on the floor, set you on the edge of my desk, spread your lovely white thighs, and—”
“Harry!” Plum stared pointedly at the open window. A newly employed gardener stood just beyond, staring in with his mouth hanging open.
Harry gave her another of his infectious grins. “You see? You’re a bad influence on me. Now go, before I really give him something to gape at.”
“But, I’m not finished speaking with you about the scandal—”
“There’s nothing more to be said.” He made shooing motions with a handful of papers. “Take your lovely, tempting self off and do something frivolous. But not too strenuous, you’ll need your strength later. I’ve thought up a variation on Hummingbird Supping Nectar that I think you’ll like.”
Plum clung to the door frame, her knees weak at the thought, but she made one more attempt to reason with him. “The scandal—”
Harry set down the papers and walked over to the door, gently pushing her through it. “The scandal is no more. I swear that to you.”
“But—”
“But nothing. There is nothing to but. I defy you to but me again.” He pried both of her hands off the door frame, kissed each finger, then started to close the door. “Thank you for warning me, but now I must get back to work, else I won’t have time to demonstrate my improved hummingbird technique.”
“Harry—”
“Leave. Begone. Avaunt. Off wit’ ye. Bye-bye.”
The door clicked quietly as it was closed in her face. Plum stared at the door for a moment, thought about using the second of her three daily allowed sighs, and decided the moment wasn’t sigh-worthy enough. “Pooh,” she said, instead.
“Just so,” Temple agreed as he rose and handed her a salver full of letters.
“What’s this?”
“His lordship asked me to give them to you.”
“Oh.” A sudden thought brightened her. “Is it something to do with his project?”
“I’m afraid not. They are invitations and letters of congratulations from the local gentry.”
Plum blanched and backed away from the salver as if it contained a poisonous asp seated atop a large pile of offal. “I don’t want them. Take them away. Tear them up. Burn them. Bury them deep in the compost heap.”
Temple watched her back up toward the door, pursing his lips as she fumbled for the doorknob. “I sense you have a reticence with regards to correspondence of a social nature. I do not wish to pry, but would I be permitted to ask for the reason you wish me to destroy invitations issued to his lordship and you from polite persons of an upstanding nature and general good reputation?”
“No, you may not,” Plum said, then made her escape through the door, closing it quickly behind her and standing with her back to it as she tried to calm her wildly beating heart. Harry might be convinced that his name alone could keep people from gossiping about her, but she had no such conviction. Until she was sure that he really did have that sort of power, she’d spurn all invitations that might bring her face-to-face with someone who knew of her past.
Coward, the mocking voice in her head whispered.
“About this I’m simply being cautious,” she said aloud, and went off to see what sort of deviltry the children had gotten into.
CHAPTER Ten
It was the sheerest fluke that Plum happened to be strolling through the lowest levels of the garden when she heard the scream. She was supposed to be receiving the local vicar, but she left Thom to do those honors, and went out with Burt the head gardener to look at reclaiming the last bit of wilderness in what was once a grand tiered garden.
“I believe this was an herbaceous border at one time,” she said to Burt. “If you were to clean it up and plant some — good heavens, what are the children doing now?”