Eight Hunting Lyons (The Lyon’s Den Connected World)

Chapter Nineteen

T he Amberley ball was well underway when they arrived. As they entered, Madeline was acutely aware of how she looked. Her lips were swollen from the stolen kiss they’d shared in the carriage. Her hair was slightly mussed—not enough to be scandalous but enough to give anyone looking at her pause. It was intentional, of course, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t also been incredibly enjoyable. The gown she wore, a green silk with gold embroidery, had been carefully altered by Lucy to reveal what her mother would have called a shocking amount of cleavage.

In the receiving line to greet their hosts, Madeline surveyed the couple. They were nearer to her own age than she might have imagined. She had never actually met them and had assumed they would be contemporaries of Mrs. Dove-Lyon rather than herself. Viscount Amberley was terribly handsome with sun-kissed skin and hair that was blacker than night. His viscountess was less striking in her coloring but was nonetheless very beautiful. She wore a gown of wine red silk that was a perfect foil for her artfully done brown hair.

When at last they reached them, Oliver greeted the viscount with familiarity. But it was Lady Amberley who pulled Madeline aside and said, “My dear, we have a mutual friend who has suggested that you may require our assistance. There are guests who have been invited that I understand will require some degree of confrontation. Whether this requires an audience or whether it is a matter you wish handled privately, you have but to ask.”

Madeline sighed. “I think we are better with an audience. The truth of the matter is that my sister will twist any event to serve her own ends and, therefore, having it observed by others will only aid us in our cause.”

The viscountess nodded. “I do understand. Family is often complicated and far more dangerous to us than anything we might encounter in the greater world.”

Madeline had the distinct impression that the viscountess understood her perfectly. “I do hope that we can be friends. Beyond just our mutual acquaintance, I feel we may have a great deal in common.”

“I shall call on you the day after tomorrow,” the viscountess replied with a twinkle in her eyes. “I feel you are quite correct in your assessment. Now, alas, I must greet our other guests. I wish you all the best tonight.”

After greeting their hosts, Madeline stepped deeper into the room, Oliver by her side. He was watching her quizzically. “You and the viscountess were quite thick as thieves there. What was all of that about?”

“We were discussing our mutual acquaintance. Mrs. Dove-Lyon,” Madeline whispered. “I think that we are not the only married couple here tonight who owes their union to that remarkable woman.”

Oliver glanced back at their hosts. “She does good work. But I would dance attendance on my own wife than think about what might have led some other fellow to his.” The dancing had already been opened and as soon as a new set began, a waltz no less, he swept her onto the dance floor.

He was a perfect dancer, of course. Just because he didn’t like society didn’t mean he hadn’t perfected all the skills necessary to navigate it. As they swooped and dipped about the room in a dizzying display, Madeline was aware of only two things—the sensation of his hand on her back and the heat she could see in his gaze when it locked with hers.

“We are causing a stir,” she said.

“Wasn’t that the point?” Oliver fired back.

Madeline’s lips quirked upward in a smile. “I suppose it is. I do believe that both Coraline and Edmund are here. And I should think that, by now, they are both aware of our presence.”

“Very likely,” he agreed.

“What shall you say to them?”

“Whatever is necessary,” Oliver replied. “I will not have your name bandied about by jealous, vicious harpies or their pathetic minions.”

“Well, we will never find them if we do not stop dancing with one another.”

“They can wait… for a bit,” Oliver stated firmly. “I’m not ready to let go of you just yet.”

Madeline looked away, but the smile was fixed firmly on her lips as she basked in his appreciation. It was such a strange thing to be with someone who seemed to be happy with her company, with her appearance, with her personality. He never offered criticism of her. While she was not foolish enough to think that their current state of euphoria was a permanent one, that the newness of their marriage and their physical relationship did not have something to do with this positive regard, she had the sense that they could be truly happy together. So long as they could limit the influence her family might have on their lives together .

The sooner they could confront Coraline and Edmund and get them out of their lives forever, the better off they would be. As if her thoughts had summoned them, Madeline caught a glimpse of Coraline’s very unhappy countenance on the edge of the dance floor. Edmund stood beside her looking very uncomfortable and as if he would rather be anywhere else.

“It seems our pleasures are to be short-lived,” Oliver noted, his gaze traveling in the same direction.

Madeline sighed as the music began to fade, the musicians winding down as the set closed. “Then let’s get it over with. The sooner we face them down the sooner we can return home… just you and me.”

“Why, Lady Foxmore, I do believe you are trying to seduce me,” he teased, as they made their way from the dance floor to where Coraline and Edmund stood, sour-faced and emanating waves of displeasure.

As they neared, Coraline was the first to strike, her vicious tongue lashing out. “I am amazed that you have the nerve to show your face in public… to foist yourself upon society when you have no appreciation and no obedience for its rules.”

“As you married your sister’s betrothed at what was to have been her wedding, I should think you would be the last person to take anyone to task for their adherence to society’s dictates, Mrs. Wortham.” There was a cold snap to his words that was at odds with the warmth with which he normally spoke. “I’ve come to offer a friendly reminder. You are not in any position to make demands of us. As for your threats to blackmail my wife regarding exposure of intimate details of our marriage, you neither possess accurate facts nor do you hold your inaccuracies in secret now. Your husband has mitigated that threat entirely by putting our names on the betting book at White’s.”

Madeline watched as Coraline’s mouth opened and closed much like a landed fish. It was a rather unattractive expression, which made it all the more enjoyable to observe.

“Further,” Oliver continued, “I spoke to a friend of mine. Your membership has since been revoked and any bets you may have placed on such a truly dishonorable topic have been scrubbed.”

Edmund’s face paled perceptibly. “You cannot have me evicted from the club. If you do that, we shall be ruined!”

“Perhaps you should have considered that before behaving so recklessly and impulsively,” Madeline said. “You have cast wicked aspersions about my marriage to Oliver. One would think, given how invested you appear to be in seeing my marriage ripped apart, that perhaps you are having second thoughts about the choices you made on what should have been our wedding day. But I, Edmund, am not. Your decision to marry Coraline has been the greatest gift of my life. For now I am married to a man who is ten times the man you are. I wish you and my sister all the happiness in the world. But make no mistake, I wish you would enjoy that happiness far from us.”

“You can’t do this,” Coraline hissed between clenched teeth. “You’re not allowed to have what I cannot!”

“Why not?” Oliver interjected. “At what point did the laws of nature and laws of man decree that you must always be granted what you want, Mrs. Wortham? Your spies in our household are being dealt with. And if you continue your harassment of my wife, or your husband continues to harangue us for a fortune he is not entitled to, I will see you both dragged through every scandal sheet in London. And I will see to it that all of his considerable debts are called in. He does not have the protection of a title and he will be tossed into the fleet. Think on that before you act further.”

“That is not in your authority,” Edmund protested, though he was clearly shaken.

“Isn’t it? You were invited here tonight, by peers of the realm who prior to issuing your invitation, did not even know you existed. That, Mr. Wortham, is what happens when you have friends and connections. You have neither. No doubt even the foolhardy associate who vouched for you at White’s will have abandoned you in embarrassment by now,” Oliver pointed out calmly. “Even if I cannot see to it personally, I have the ear of those who can and will at my behest.”

With the round won, with Coraline and Edmund both staring at them in abject horror as each realized the other had overplayed their hand and ruined any opportunity they might have had to claim any sort of social benefit as a result of their connection to an earl, Madeline turned with Oliver to walk away. He took one step, paused and then smiled down at her.

“I almost forgot something,” he said.

“What could you have possibly forgotten?” she asked.

He said nothing, simply turned and planted his first firmly into Edmund’s face, sending the other man sprawling to the floor. “I warned you, Wortham, what I would do to you the last time you dared speak ill against Madeline. I told you, in her father’s study, what would happen.”

With Edmund bleeding on the floor, clutching his nose and Coraline shrieking like a fishwife, they turned and walked away. Passing their host and hostess on the way out, Viscount Amberley gifted them with a wink. All was well and the confrontation would play out in the scandal sheets as that of a devoted husband defending his wife’s honor against the betrothed who had jilted her and then experienced regret.

“Let’s go home,” Madeline said. “If we never have to brave society again, I shall call it an answered prayer.”

He glanced down at her. “I thought that was what you wanted… to reclaim your social position.”

“I thought I wanted it, too. But now I’ve better things to do with my time,” she replied with a soft smile. “I’ve a husband who requires constant attention, after all.”

“Well, he does require your immediate attention, at any rate.” With that, still standing in the entry hall of the Amberleys’ elegant townhouse, he kissed her—thoroughly and scandalously. “Home. Now.”