Wizards Daughter

The woman eyed Rosalind with disfavor. 'You likely don't deserve one. Marry him or I will introduce him to my sweet nieces, who would never consider taking a single step away from him. Just look at him-he has all his teeth and nice and white they are, and there is no fat hanging off his middle, unlike Deacon Pratt, who wears a very wide belt to hold himself into his shirts. I have told him repeatedly not to be a glutton, but he looks at me and says a man must take his pleasure where he can. The gall, I tell him. Marry him, missy, marry him.'

Rosalind stared up at Nicholas, wringing her hands again. 'But, Nicholas-'

'You're not getting any younger,' the woman said. 'If I show him my nieces, he might turn his back on you fast enough. My little Lucretia is only seventeen.'

Since Rosalind ignored Nicholas's outstretched hand, he turned to say to Mrs. Pratt, 'Pray accept my apologies, ma'am, but she will wed me and thus I will not be available to make the acquaintance of Lucretia.' Nicholas gave her a marvelous bow and a fat smile that made her chins wobble anew. Mrs. Pratt gave him a look that Rosalind now recognized as fast-crumbling female principles, and said, just this side of a simper, 'Perhaps my lovely Lucretia is on the young side for you, sir, perhaps it is an older, more experienced lady who would suit you'- she patted the fat sausage curls over her ears then stared down at Rosalind with a good deal of antipathy-'not this harebrained knot-head who ran away from you.'

'But you caught the knot-head for me, ma'am, and I thank you.'

'Only in a very remote manner of speaking, sir. Well, now, I suppose there was no harm done.' And Mrs. Pratt, all her parcels tucked beneath her arms, was gone with one long wistful backwards look at Nicholas and a sneer at Rosalind.

He stood over her, hands on hips. 'Do you really want to sacrifice me to Mrs. Pratt's niece Lucretia?'

'She's only seventeen. You could mold her.'

'You're only eighteen and I would rather mold you. Are you all right?'

'It is about time you inquired. No, I'm humiliated, and you had to rub my nose in it with your fine conversation with Mrs. Pratt.'

'One must consider all Offers. I'm sorry to say this, but you deserved to be humiliated. Would you care to tell me why you bolted, or was I right on the mark?'

She looked away from him. 'I simply couldn 't bear it.'

'Bear what, for heaven's sake?'

'Your-your nobility.'

He could but stare at her. 'If only you knew,' he said finally. He reached down a hand and jerked her up and into him, hard.

She said, her breath warm on his chin, 'It's depressing, my lord. I cannot even execute a dramatic exit with any style at all. Blessed hell, I wish I'd scattered that dreadful woman's wretched pork knivers in the street. What is a pork kniver?'

'A cutlet that's baked with peonies and thyme until it resembles the leather on the bottom of your slippers. It is a challenge to all teeth. Quite tasty really.'

He held her close, ignored the nanny and two children who passed close by. 'So I am noble?'

'Yes, but what's important here is that I'm trying to be noble as well.' She looked at his mouth, leaned forward, and kissed his neck. She actually felt the surge of energy pound through him. 'It's difficult to be noble when you're holding me like this. Nicholas, are you perhaps feeling lust for me from that wee little kiss on your neck?'

'No, damn you, what I am feeling is abused. Now we have a good half dozen people staring at us, Rosalind. I am an important personage. Come along back to the house.'

She took a step away from him. 'All right, I have some distance from you and thus some perspective. Here it is, Nicholas. You are noble, I am noble. I will not, cannot, marry you. Take it to heart, for I mean it well.'

'That sounds like you're quoting from Shakespeare.'

'Well, naturally, since he provided me my name.'

Nicholas said to the heavens, 'I wonder if it would help me understand if I pounded my head against that stone wall over there.' He looked at her, reached out, and managed to grab her hand. He pulled her after him back to the Sherbrooke town house. She didn't yell, for which he was profoundly grateful.

Douglas Sherbrooke, imposing in his black evening clothes and his head of thick white hair, eyed the newly arrived Nicholas Vail, Earl of Mountjoy, and felt a bolt of fear for

Rosalind. This young man was indeed honed hard to the bone, just as Ryder had said, and ruthless, he'd wager.

He watched the young man's eyes search the room until they found Rosalind, who was seated quietly in a wing chair by the fireplace. She looked pale to Douglas, not at all her usual laughing self, and the pale yellowish- green gown she wore didn't help. He frowned. Who had selected that gown for her? He would make sure she never wore it again.

He pulled his attention from Rosalind and her unfortunate gown as Ryder introduced him to Nicholas Vail.

The young man bowed, looked him straight in the eye. Be-damned, Nicholas Vail was as dark as he was, his eyes as black, and his swarthy skin wasn't entirely due to his months at sea.

Nicholas Vail could be my son, Douglas thought, and isn't that a kick to the head?

'My lord,' Nicholas said. 'It is my pleasure and honor to meet you.'

Before Douglas could bear him off to seclusion in the estate room to pry every past sin out of him, Willicombe glided into the drawing room and announced dinner, addressing both the Countess of Northcliffe, all beautiful in dark green, her magnificent red hair twisted up about her finely shaped head (Willicombe occasionally entertained a vision of the countess's head as nicely shaved as his own) and Mrs. Sophie (such a gentle iron fist she had, and a lovely manner). 'Cook requested that I inform you that she has prepared a very fine half calf's head, tongue, and brains, quite in the French way, although 'execrable' springs to mind when one speaks of the Frogs cooking anything.'

The Countess of Northcliffe asked, 'Is there perhaps something not quite so unambiguous she is also serving?'

'Fortunately yes, my lady. Not to be overlooked is her famous hailed bacon-cheek, garnished with spoonfuls of spinach followed by a compote of gooseberries, and cauliflower with cream sauce, all blessedly prepared in the English way.'

'My dreams have come true,' Sophie said.

'I do not see Master Grayson,' Willicombe said.

'He is dining at his club,' Ryder said.

Willicombe bowed and walked from the drawing room, head tilted back, assuming, rightfully, that his betters would quickly follow, which they did.

'He is amazing,' Nicholas said.

'That is what he told me when he became our London butler,' Douglas said.

Alexandra had placed Nicholas and Rosalind across the table from each other, as Rosalind had asked her to. One of Nicholas's black eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing. Douglas spoke about his twin sons' own sets of twins, how they were the pictures of their respective fathers, which meant they were so fine looking it curdled his innards. As conversation and laughter flowed, Rosalind served herself some stewed Spanish onions, and screwed up her courage. She waited until everyone was served and there was a lull in the conversation. She cleared her throat and announced to the table at large, 'Nicholas Vail, Lord Mountjoy, has asked me to marry him. It struck me between the eyes, and only after I accepted, that he did not know who I was, or who I wasn't, and I knew it would be a gross misalliance.

'I wish to announce that I will not marry Nicholas Vail, even though he is insisting upon it because he is very fond of my person and my singing voice and yes, it must be said, he enjoys kissing me. He also speaks of Fate bringing us together, as if it were a meant thing, which sounds romantic, and somewhat mystical, but not at all to the point. He is noble. I am proving that I am noble as well.' She stopped and spooned up some stewed Spanish onions, sweet with a punch of black pepper.

There was perhaps three seconds of stunned silence. As for Nicholas, he slowly put down his fork and smiled over at her. He said to Ryder and Sophie, 'You are doubtless surprised that I have proposed marriage to her so