Now she glanced at Ian across the room.
Prudence leaned close to whisper in Grace’s ear. “I can see why you agreed to marry Lord Castleton. You were right. He is handsome as sin.”
She’d introduced Prudence to Ian earlier, and he’d been charming and polite. Prudence had stuttered and then smiled up at him like a lovesick schoolgirl.
“Are you nervous about the wedding night?” Prudence asked.
“A little.” Of course, she was nervous. Terribly so. She’d heard the servants talk and had even gossiped about it once with Prudence, but it was hardly enough. She realized she knew almost nothing at all about what really lay ahead. She caught Ian’s dark gaze. He looked like a wolf, hungry, intense, and she shivered partly in fear and partly in anticipation.
If he was such a skillful kisser, how would he be as a lover? Grace placed her empty glass on a passing servant’s tray.
“Do you think he’d hurt you?” Prudence looked at her in concern.
“No.” Her response was unhesitant. He’d never harmed her all the times she’d gone to his home.
But it’s different now, she thought. You will share his bed night after night.
Prudence glanced away. “He’s headed this way and has eyes only for you.”
He was. Grace held her breath as he wove through the crowd with purpose. Did everyone see him as she did? A confident self-made man who had no need of a title but looked like the most powerful man in the room?
She braced herself to speak with her husband, but Prudence distracted her, touching her arm. “My mother is waving. She wants me to meet the Marquess of Stanton’s son. No doubt now that you are married, she will increase her pressure for me to find a match. Wish me luck,” Prudence said as she hurried away.
Grace felt overheated as Ian approached. He stopped only to grasp two flutes of champagne from a liveried servant’s tray. Then he stood in front of her, and Grace forgot to breathe.
“One last glass before we leave.”
She raised a glass. They were to leave for his country estate in Kent for a week as newlyweds. The thought of being isolated with Ian for a week made her nervous and excited at the same time.
“Isn’t it too early to leave?” she asked.
“Nervous?”
“Perhaps.”
“I’m told it’s normal.”
“You don’t appear nervous.”
“I’m thinking of other things,” he said, his voice husky.
“Such as?”
“Our wedding night.” He lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “You look beautiful, Grace.”
“Thank you,” she breathed. The way he was looking at her made her senses spin. She was nervous. Bloody nervous.
But she was also curious.
She licked her lips. “You should know that you charmed Prudence.”
“That’s good. I like her, but I don’t want her coming with us.”
Grace chuckled, and her nerves eased a notch. He could do that, she realized, make her laugh and allay her fears.
“I’ll see to the carriage,” he said. “Then I’ll return to say our goodbyes.”
…
Grace finished the champagne and said her farewells to her family and friends. She searched the crowd for Lady Castleton. She’d never had the chance to speak with the dowager, and a concern gnawed at her. Did the woman dislike Grace?
She could easily believe Grace had trapped her son into marriage. Ian was a handsome, wealthy earl, and she was the daughter of an impoverished baron. The notion did not sit well with Grace. She needed to speak with the woman and explain that such an entrapment had never been her intention, and that she would try to make her son happy.
Grace scanned the crowd for the dowager and spotted her leaving the hall. Grace picked up her skirts to follow. A private conversation with her new mother-in-law was more desirable than one in a crowded room.
She headed out into the abandoned hall just as she heard angry voices. Impulsively, Grace ducked behind an open parlor door.
“I’ve heard some disturbing gossip, Ian. Lady Cordele has complained that her husband was at a gaming establishment last night. Have you taken care of that business we discussed?” the dowager asked.
“You mean the Raven Club?” Ian said.
Grace hadn’t known Ian’s mother was aware of his club, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. Prudence had overhead her own mother speaking of it in hushed whispers with her friends.
“You speak about disposing of the Raven Club as if it’s as simple as dismissing a servant who was caught pilfering the family silver. Your demands are unreasonable. The club has been my livelihood since father had all but thrown me out,” Ian said.
Not only did Ian’s mother know of the club, but she had insisted Ian sell it.
“Lady Cordele was right, wasn’t she?” the countess asked.
Ian shrugged a big shoulder. “She was. Her husband lost heavily at the faro tables last night.”
The woman’s lips thinned in disapproval. “You haven’t sold the establishment yet?”
“I will not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the Raven Club will stay a thriving business. I will have Brooks oversee the place for the next few days, as I just married, but I plan to resume its management thereafter.”
The dowager gasped. “You cannot be serious!”
“Oh, but I am.”
“You are now a married man.”
“I never wanted to be shackled with a wife and resent being forced to do so. You of all people are fully aware of how I felt about marrying against my will.”
“If you are referring to the past, you should know that your father sought the best match for you as a younger son,” she said.
“Bullocks! He sought to saddle me with a child in a woman’s body. He’d hated me on sight and never cared for my happiness.”
The woman’s face paled. “That was long ago and—”
“The past is not easily forgotten,” Ian said, his voice tense. “I agreed to your ridiculous plans only because the impending scandal combined with the black cloud hovering over my head regarding Matthew’s death would have irrevocably harmed Ellie and Olivia. Now that my duty is done, I have no intention of changing my life or my ways.”
“What of your wife’s opinions of your club?”
Ian laughed, a cold hard sound. “She is a minor inconvenience. The Raven Club remains open. If Grace doesn’t see it that way, then I will send her away to Castleton house in the country.”
Grace was shocked at the hardness in Ian’s tone just as much as his cold-hearted words. A sickening despair settled in her stomach. He’d lied. He had no intention of closing the Raven Club.
He’d lied.
He knew she’d never consent to marry him otherwise. He knew she despised gambling and everything the Raven Club stood for. Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed hard. She wouldn’t be sick.
Not here. Not now.
She’d suspected all along that he didn’t want to marry. Now she fully understood his motivations. The scandal of being caught in each other’s embrace, combined with the rumors swirling around the circumstances of his brother’s riding accident, would have been sufficient to blacken the entire Castleton name.