Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage

was brighter.

She’d spend her day at the fair. With Stephen.

On her beloved Dreare Street.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

In the early hours of the morning of the fair, Stephen was with Jilly again, and she was all over him. It was pure heaven—

Until he smelled her breath.

Good God.

Onions?

His eyes popped open.

“Captain!” Lady Hartley was in his face, and she was stark naked. She laid a kiss right on his gaping mouth.

He sat bolt upright on the pillows, wiped his lips with the back of his hand, and pointed at the closed bedchamber door (which he should have locked, he realized a little too late).

“Get out, Lady Hartley,” he said in low tones. “Get out before I call Sir Ned in here.”

She pulled a sheet up over her breasts. “You wouldn’t.”

“Yes I would.”

She stuck out her lower lip. “But Captain—”

“Your behavior is entirely inappropriate,” he said.

She turned to him. “Do you not find me attractive?”

He couldn’t say no. He was too much of a gentleman.

“You’re married,” he said. “That makes all the difference.”

Dear God, listen to him! A wave of guilt ricocheted through his chest.

Lady Hartley’s brow puckered. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, ah, married women are off limits. It’s a vow I made long ago to keep, come hell or high water.”

“Oh, all right. If that’s all it is.”

“Yes,” he muttered, and looked away from her. “Please go. Before we cause a scene.”

She tittered. “Very well.”

He heard her stand, and then she began humming.

“Are you decent yet?” he asked her.

“No, you naughty man.” He could hear small sighs emanating from her as she dressed.

“Please hurry.” He could barely contain his impatience. It was a terrible way to wake up in the morning, even worse than being called to watch on board ship in the middle of the night after a day-long storm that had already left everyone weary.

He heard her sigh and then she thumped on her heels over to the door. “You can look now, Captain.”

Slowly, reluctantly, he turned toward the door.

She was wrapped in a voluminous silk dressing gown. “Just remember this,” she said, fingering the cleft between her breasts, “married women are experts at sneaking about. And we have the experience you’re looking for, without the diseases.”

“Oh,” he said brightly, “that’s a high recommendation. Makes me want to give up my lightskirts right away.”

She nodded sagely. “I thought so. If you ever change your mind…”

She left the statement unfinished.

“Right.” He gave her an uncomfortable half-smile and waved her off.

But she paused in opening the door.

“I forgot to mention,” she said. “Lord Smelling will be here today, and he’s prepared to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.” She began to chuckle. “It’s really quite amusing. He prefers country living, you know. Can’t bear London. But he’s got a shrew of a second wife, who insists he purchase a home in Mayfair for her mother to live in permanently, and the daughter occasionally, when she visits Town. So he decided it would be an awful joke to buy a house on Dreare Street. He hopes the bad luck will rub off on them both.”

He sounded rather a stupid man, Stephen thought.

“I wonder what Miss Jones will think of having another old harridan as a neighbor?” Lady Hartley asked him.

Ah, Miss Jones. His heart gave a sharp twist of longing.

The baronet’s wife didn’t wait for a reply. “At any rate, Lord Smelling is willing to pay through the nose to get his hands on this house.” She pursed her lips provocatively and waggled her brows. “Are you certain you wouldn’t like to celebrate with me?”

Dear God. The poor woman looked like a clown from Astley’s when she did that thing with her eyebrows.

“Positive,” he replied. “You do understand.”

He attempted to look noble—

Which he wasn’t.

He’d slept with a married woman only the day before.

He must have succeeded in his effort, however, because Lady Hartley fluttered a hand in front of her face, as if she were terribly hot. “Oh, thank God for men like you, protecting the motherland with your commitment to principles!”

And then she gave a mighty gasp which subsided in a strange wail, almost as if she were—hell’s bells, he didn’t even want to think what it sounded like—and pulled the door shut behind her.

He threw himself back on the bed, aghast.

The sooner the Hartleys left the premises, the better.

He released a pent-up breath.

On further thought, the sooner he left, the better, too.

* * *

“It couldn’t be a prettier day, Captain!” An hour later Mrs. Hobbs went scurrying past him outside his house, carrying one of many pots of flowers the neighborhood ladies had assembled to beautify the special section of the street designated for Prinny and his advisors to occupy during the theatrical performance.

“Yes, Mrs. Hobbs,” he called after her. “And we had not a shred of fog this morning.”

“Surely a good sign, capitano!” called Pratt to him from the bottom of the balcony Stephen had built for the Canterbury Cousins. Pratt was rolling the contraption to the center of the cobblestones with several other men, Nathaniel among them.

Stephen looked up and down Dreare Street. As far as he was concerned, it looked spectacular. Every house was brightened by paint. The doorsteps had been cleaned and swept. The trimmed hedges and trees were perfectly lovely. Newly cleaned windows shone, and the faces of his neighbors were bright with optimism.

He felt a surge of pride.

And defiance.

They’d raise the money, they would, and send that money man, Mr. Redmond, packing.

But Stephen must admit, he also felt a bit of melancholy. He’d grown to like this place. Yes, it was damned foggy most of the time, but the people—well, they were sterling. Everyone, that is, except Lady Tabitha, Lady Duchamp, and perhaps Mr. Hobbs.

On the bright side, at least Lady Tabitha didn’t live here on a regular basis. And Lady Duchamp was old—and perhaps in pain—and so rude she was almost entertaining. She could be forgiven her godawful disposition on both counts. Mr. Hobbs at least had a fine wife and children to recommend him.

Despite his best intentions to avoid thinking about personal matters while he was cast in the role of leader of