Chapter Twenty-Two

" W hy didn't you tell me the moment you awakened me?" Alex asked as he hauled Clarity to her feet. "I had lost all notion of the time."

After the most intensely glorious climax of Alex's life, Clarity had casually announced they ought to return to the ball. It was already in full swing, like the many bells in "Oranges and Lemons," which they all learned in the nursery.

"I thought it was obvious," she explained, smoothing down her skirt. "After all, I'm wearing a party dress, am I not?"

Pulling the neckline back into place, she hid her beautiful breasts, which was the sole reason he was able to speak coherently.

"I am still wearing my day clothes," he pointed out, reaching for his crumpled coat.

Shrugging into it, he stood before her.

After she brushed at it and made him spin around, she did the same and let him brush her off. They ended in an embrace that caused a bonfire of desire to blaze through him again.

"Let us skip the party," he suggested.

She didn't reply before tossing the hem of her skirt over her arm and stepping onto the ladder.

"You should have let me go first," he grumbled, but she was already halfway down to the wood planks of the stable floor. "If you fell, I could have caught you."

"I think tumbling on top of you once in a day is enough."

He jumped down beside her, grinning, with a pointed glance back up to the hayloft. Clarity's cheeks turned rosy.

"Very well," she said " Twice tumbled is enough."

"Not nearly enough," he protested.

Taking her hand, they ran like children to the main house and in through the side door.

"Let me go change," he pleaded.

"If you must, but I shall wait outside your door," she insisted. "I am not going into the ball without you, nor can I change as everyone already saw me. They would wonder at my disappearance and at my appearance in a new gown."

Alex sighed and made a decision. It would be unfair to make himself neat and tidy while allowing her to remain disheveled.

"Never mind. If you are going in all scruffy, I shall, too."

"Scruffy?" she repeated, glancing down at her obviously wrinkled skirt. "Am I too rumpled?"

"You are perfect," he said.

Of all the things they'd ever done, showing up in a state of disarray was probably the most outrageous. He could only pray it wasn't painfully evident they'd been rolling around in the hay. To that end, he tried to pick the last few pieces of straw from her hair, but the damage had been done.

He would be lucky if her father didn't shoot him on sight.

Offering Clarity his hand, they strolled through the hallway and entered the ballroom. He would swear the musicians faltered and a hush went over the room for a few seconds, but it might have been his imagination.

However, there was no imagining Lord and Lady Diamond's stare, nor how swiftly they were approaching.

When Clarity's parents were close, her mother's eyes widened. Amazingly, she smiled.

"What the deuce!" her father said with a shake of his head, his still raven-black hair lifting and falling.

"I apologize, my lord. I know I am not exactly cutting a bosh figure tonight."

"Not your natty self, to be sure," the earl agreed. "But then my daughter also seems to have been through the mill and let the cat drag her in."

"Geoffrey," Clarity's mother addressed her husband, "it looks like we're going to have a wedding."

Instead of demanding a duel at dawn, Lord Diamond clapped Alex on the shoulder.

"Welcome to the family," the earl said. "And God help you!"

"Father!" Clarity exclaimed. But her beautiful smile was in evidence, and Alex couldn't remember ever feeling happier.

"Lady Hollidge got her wish, after all," Lady Diamond said, threading her arm through Alex's. "Would you like me to tell you about it?"

And he let the woman who would become his mother-in-law take him for a stroll around the room as she explained how his own mother had wished for him to marry Clarity.

At the same time, despite his untidy appearance, she proudly introduced him to one and all as her eldest daughter's fiancé, turning the party into an engagement celebration.

The single blemish on the evening was the blue-deviled face of his aunt, standing alone. And although she accepted a glass of champagne in his honor, she looked anything but congratulatory.

As soon as he'd made the rounds and had his health and Clarity's toasted a dozen times, he broke free of the throng and went to the side of the woman who'd been a steady presence in his life.

"I hope you aren't too disappointed by the departure of Miss Brambury. We never would have suited, you know."

With a twist of her lips, Aunt Elizabeth took his measure, head to toe.

"Perhaps not, at least not as you are lately."

"I fell asleep in the hay," he explained, brushing his hand over his coat, even though he knew it was hopelessly wrinkled.

She shook her head. "I didn't mean merely tonight, although you should have changed before strolling in here like a plucky peacock."

Alex cocked his head. "I am sorry you disapprove."

His aunt startled. "I didn't expect you to apologize to me."

"I know you have a heartfelt interest in my future. I appreciate how you've tried to guide me."

To his amazement, tears glistened in her hazel eyes.

"What's wrong, Auntie?" he asked. "Are you that upset over my engagement? I assure you Lady Clarity makes me happy, and I, her."

"It's not that. I, too, wish for you to be happy, more than you know. Yet I fear falling in love with Lady Clarity will cause you misery in the end."

Of all the things his aunt might have said at that moment, those words were the most unexpected.

Handing him her empty glass, she drew a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.

"I loved my brother very much," she said. "And I know at times I was an unwelcome appendage to the family."

He started to gainsay her, but she cut him off.

"When you were a small boy, my husband had only recently died."

"Yes, Lord Henry Aston. I know. My mother told me once that was why you went on holiday with us."

His aunt nodded. "Lord Aston was —" she interrupted herself. "Your fiancée appears to be looking for you," she told him, gesturing with her handkerchief behind him.

Glancing over his shoulder, his heart squeezed when he looked at Clarity. Her sister Purity was surreptitiously pulling a piece of straw from Clarity's sleeve.

When he thought of how she'd become in such a state, he couldn't help smiling. He would try to show more restraint until their wedding night, but it would be difficult. Joining with her had been the most joyful experience of his life.

"Go to her, Alex."

Nodding, he took a step and then halted. Lady Diamond was smiling over something her husband said, and they were holding hands. Adam was rolling his eyes over the antics of his youngest sisters, who had been allowed to attend the ball but were trying to snatch his glass of champagne.

And Clarity — his dear Clarity — was whispering in Purity's ear, making her younger sister burst out in uncharacteristic laughter. Purity was usually so proper.

"Come along, Auntie. We are all going to be family. We might as well start acting like it."

He offered his arm, which she took, and they crossed to the jubilant side of the room.