Chapter 3 3

III. One Rake Down

"You know what you shall do," Lady Gertrude pointedly told Adrien.

Mary flinched when he shot to his feet and cried out, "Nothing bloody happened!"

"That is not what those people outside think now, dear boy," Lady Gertrude said rather too calmly, pointing her elegant finger at the closed door of the library. "If I cannot make you marry Mary, then by God, your father will!"

Mary remained silent, her head bent, her fingers twisting restlessly over her lap. What had she done? How the bloody hell did this happen? Yes, she had planned on seducing someone and to compromise herself, but it turned out not exactly as she had hoped it would be!

First, she had caused a very big scandal. The people who had seen them must now have repeated the scene they witnessed with a few juicy false details for exaggeration. She was ruined. Completely and utterly so. Barty and Collin Featherton could very well start preparing for a party of celebration.

Second, she was caught on a scandal with the wrong man. But Preston had entered the room! She saw him! But she was stopped by Belinda and her friends. He must have somehow slipped out of the room while she was trying to get away from the ladies' unwanted conversation.

Third, she had let herself get carried away. It should not have happened. She should have run out the door the moment she recognized Adrien Haverston. But what did she do? She'd let herself be ravaged by the rake himself!

Lady Gertrude was saying something and Mary forced herself to listen. "You have to marry Mary!"

"But I don't wish to be wed! Not to anyone, not at all!"

Mary started to agree but Lady Gertrude was not done. "You have ruined her for any other men, Adrien. We all know that her reputation is not one anyone would gladly take but now you have completely-utterly-ruined her for good!"

"I liked my reputation as it was," she found herself saying for she took offense from Lady Gertrude's words. Adrien shot her a sharp look and she immediately looked away. He was angry. Very much so.

"My dear, do you wish to live your life a spinster? No, I don't believe so! You have just lost your father and now this?!" Mary flinched at the reminder of her father's death. Lady Gertrude did not wait for a reply. She turned to Adrien. "You will marry her as soon as we can set a date."

Adrien's face tightened. Now with the lights on, Mary could see his handsome face flush with anger. Gone was the playful rake from earlier.

"Lady Gertrude," she was saying but Adrien's voice stopped her words in her throat for he said, "Alright."

It took a long moment before Mary understood his words. Did he say alright?

"Good! Let me tell the guests that a wedding is to follow! We do not want your names on the Herald by the morrow. If they ought to be, it shall be about a wedding announcement!" Lady Gertrude was gone in a flash to relay the news to the guests who must by now be wondering what was happening inside the closed doors of the library.

Mary was suddenly anxious. Her eyes landed on pieces of glass that were still scattered on the wooden floors.

"We do not have wed and-" she started but Adrien stopped her words by whirling around to face her.

His eyes glared at her, blue fire. "You have planned this. Do not, for one second, think that I will believe you did not do so."

Anger surged up inside her. "I did not plan this at all, my lord!" She was not even certain if she ought to address him as 'my lord' but he had been addressed as such for as long as she could remember. Maybe because he'd be inheriting the Easton estate once Calan Haverston took over Haverston.

"Ah, you did not? You did not deliberately come in here without locking the door? Any sensible chit would have stepped away by the sight of a man in a darkened room!"

"I thought you were someone else!"

"And you expect me to believe that horrible lie? You should have flown out the door when you realized I was not-"

"I did try to get away!" she interjected hotly.

His face reddened further. He was aware that he was at fault here as well. If he did not stop her, this would not have happened!

"You knew I would have taken advantage," he insisted.

Mary was horrified. The gall of the man! "My lord! You very well know I did-"

"You came in here with all intent to seduce me! I would not be surprised if you had planned this with my aunt." He whirled around and started for the door. She stared after him, her mouth dropping open. He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder at her. "I will marry you, Mary Featherton, but my name is all you will ever get from me. You have just made the worst blunder of your life."

Mary's eyes filled with tears as the door closed behind her, separating her from the rest of them all, alone and feeling utterly vulnerable.

Oh, God, I caught myself the wrong husband.

*****

Adrien left the ball in fury. He managed to avoid the half-hearted and nearly sorrowful felicitations from the guests when he made his way out of the Macy estate.

Bloody, bloody fool! He cursed at himself.

He had let himself be trapped and now he was doomed!

Mary Featherton. Who would have thought the chit was capable of such wicked plan to seduce him?

He knew of her, of course. He had been a member of the Mary House for years and he had seen glimpses of her in some occasions he was there. She would always be holding a book as she turned into one of the private corners of the club. He had always thought her a quiet and reserved woman in a very chaotic club.

It was foolish now to think that he had once admired how she faced the ton's condemnation of her and her father's business. She was similar to every other greedy chit out there after all, he angrily concluded.

He wanted to blame everyone for his misfortune so he stormed right into his brother's chamber when he reached Oakham Manor.

Calan jerked awake as Adrien sent the door crashing against the wall. He strode inside, intending to berate his brother but then the panic had set in and he burst out, "You should have come with me last night. You should have-bloody hell, what do I do, Calan?"

Calan stared at him with heavy eyes and asked, "What the bloody hell are you talking about, Adrien?"

He roughly wiped his hands on his face as though he was trying to convince himself that he was awake. God, have mercy on rakes for this one bloody moment and wake me up! Make this a dream! "I can't believe this is happening to me," he groaned in his hands.

"What is it?" Calan's lazy voice asked. His brother had gotten used to his pointless and stupid fits in the past that this was not new to him. But this was bloody different! This was no longer a matter of measly gambling loss or a stupid duel with an angry brother or husband.

He addressed his brother's question instead for he was suddenly feeling helpless. "I am bloody getting married."

Calan rolled his head in a pillow. "I don't appreciate your games at this time of day, Adrien, so-"

"I am bloody serious!"

"Uh-huh..."

"Aunt Gertrude and that chit had set me into a trap!"

"I can believe Aunt Gertrude doing just that, but who is the chit?"

Anger rose in his throat once more. "Bloody Mary Featherton!" he shouted at his brother. "I am bloody marrying Mary Featherton!"

"Mary? What did you do to her?"

"What did she do to me should be the bloody question!" he cried out, satisfied now that he had gotten Calan's full attention. He relayed the general details of what had transpired in the Macy ball. When he was finished, he rubbed his face with his palm once more. "What should I do, Calan?"

"This is your problem. You deal with it," his brother simply answered.

"Can I challenge someone in a duel?"

"No one will stand for Mary," his brother answered dryly. "She is quite literally alone."

That stopped him for a moment. She had no one? Yes, of course. Her father had just died. She was in a mourning gown. Had her father's death turned her into a crazy, desperate woman? Maybe he could still get out of this marriage after all. She had told him herself that she thought he was someone else. Maybe she would reconsider? Surely she would not wish to be wed to someone like him!

Ah, but I have given my word, he thought with disdain.

"Have you tried talking to her?" Calan asked, breaking the silence.

"It was not what I would call a talk for we nearly shouted all throughout," he admitted.

"What do you plan to do? I am sure if you really do not wish to marry her, something could be done."

Adrien groaned and turned toward the door. "I need to think. I bloody need to think and I bloody need a drink! Crawley! Send me the best brandy at once!"

*****

Mary wanted to go to someone for help but who? Cressida was no longer in the Town. Her father was dead. She had no other friends. Her maids would only talk. She really had no one.

She came home to Mary House where she had been keeping residence with her father ever since her mother had died.

Why did her perfect plan turn out a nightmare? She asked herself as she stumbled in the darkness of her bedchamber. She locked the door behind her and leaned against it. Her tears fell from her eyes and she closed them.

Papa, you're wrong. I am not strong enough, she silently cried.

She stripped herself of her gown, the one Lady Gertrude had helped put in order the moment she was found with Adrien Haverston in that library.

She had never felt the need to escape and hide until now. Her reputation may not have been perfect but she had taken pride in it.

Her hands began to shake once more. Giving up on the gown, Mary fell into her bed, bodice and skirts in one. Burying her face in the pillow, Mary cried herself to sleep. She'd cry for tonight for later was another day. And later she would think clearly. She would dress and have tea and think.

Now she only ought to cry.

*****

Adrien woke up and found himself wanting to go back to sleep.

It had not been a dream.

He was still living the nightmare. The end of his bachelorhood had finally come.

But it didn't have to end, he thought with determination.

Yes, right. Who had said that a wedding had to happen? He only ought to talk to Mary Featherton and convince her that marriage to him would not only be horrible but very unimaginable.

Without sparing another thought on logic or social norms, Adrien jumped out of bed and quickly dressed. Once done, he called for his carriage to be drawn out front. Calan was eating in the dining room when he rushed by.

"Where are you going at this time of day?" his brother demanded.

"I shall bribe my bride," he muttered under his breath in answer, certain that Calan did not hear.

His climbed inside his carriage and ordered to be driven to Mary House. He smiled to himself. Mary Featherton would not say no. If she was telling the truth, he was not even the man she wanted!

Ah, but she had answered to his touch like he was the only man in the world. She had kissed him as hungrily as he did. Her body responded to his touch like a-

Adrien groaned. Bloody hell. He ought to forget about how she felt in his hands or how her mouth tasted like. He would never wed.

Never.

The door to the club was still closed and he had to knock hard before someone answered.

"Timothy," he said to the butler. "Call your mistress now for I have an urgent matter to discuss with her."

"Mistress?"

"Miss Mary Featherton! Who else?" he impatiently cried, stepping inside the club.

"But Miss Featherton is still as-"

"I don't bloody care. Wake her up and tell her I have come. And trust me, Timmy, she will come down. I will be in the west parlor," he said without another glance at the confused butler.

He strode alone the corridors and hallways of the Mary House, having memorized every known nook and corner except the private passages and corridors that were only available to the servants and the owner, formerly Ernest Featherton and now Mary Featherton.

He found a comfortable chair in the west parlor which was a small room filled with books and a small table and lounge chairs. There were only a few people who used the room, most of them gentlemen who wished to discuss matters in private.

He waited impatiently for Mary to come down and when she did, the door burst open and his eyes widened in surprise. She was dressed in naught but her night dress and a robe she hugged over herself. Her stark black hair was down and for the first time he realized how beautiful Mary Angel Featherton really was.

Her eyes were brown yet they were almost gold in the strong light of the parlor. Her cheeks had a natural flush in them not very common among ladies in the Town. Her lashes were thick and she still smelled the same as last night.

Suddenly he remembered how she had felt in his arms and tasted in his lips. If he had known she looked like this, he might have definitely gone too far.

"Timmy had said that you demanded for my presence," her gentle, soft voice said, drawing him back to the present. As he studied her face further, she appeared to have spent the time between now and the ball crying.

Bloody hell. He hated tears. "Are you not going to change?" he snapped with irritation.

"My butler was quite adamant that you were demanding for my immediate presence. What do you want?" she asked.

"I do not wish to wed," he said without hesitation.

She blinked and the sight of her standing in the middle of the west parlor, clad in white robe, hugging her slender figure with a slight stoop, her eyes quite swollen from crying, almost made Adrien take back his words.

She is quite literally alone.

His brother's words rang in his mind again. No, he could not sacrifice both their future simply because he felt a pang of pity toward the woman.

"If you need money, I can give it to you," he added with a straight face.

Mary Featherton frowned. "I do not need money."

He felt himself flush. Bloody hell. She had just inherited a large fortune. Of course she didn't need money.

"Nothing happened. We can still find a way to get out of this," he tried once more.

"No."

He stiffened, then blinked. "What did you say?"

Mary Featherton hugged herself even tighter as her golden brown eyes met his blue gaze. "No. I am not letting you get away from this marriage."