The Clever Strumpet Read online

  Caro tugged on Rufus’s sleeve and pointed more vehemently. “It’s the least he could do, should someone locate the diamond at last, considering it isn’t where you thought it was.”

  All at once, Rufus sucked in a breath. He snapped straight, glancing to Saif with a wide grin. “Fifty thousand pounds should do the trick,” he said.

  “Fifty thousand pounds is highway robbery in and of itself,” Saif said, laughing.

  “Does your father have the money?” Rufus asked, his voice brimming with so much confidence that Caro knew he saw not only the diamond, but a way for the two of them to be together.

  “Perhaps,” Saif answered, a slow smile spreading across his face. “If not, my father has the ear of Emperor Akbar. The Mughal Empire would hardly miss fifty thousand pounds.”

  “Are you certain?” Rufus asked. “Fifty thousand pounds would go a long way to convincing my father to allow me to marry the bride of my choice.” He reached for Caro’s hand, grinning at her in victory.

  Saif was smiling fully as well. “Understood, my friend. I believe my father would understand as well, and he would be only too happy to give something precious in return for something precious.”

  “If that is the case….” Rufus let go of Caro’s hand, stepped forward, and crouched so that he could reach under the table and pick up the diamond. He stood, moved to Saif, and deposited the diamond in his hand. “There you go,” he said. “One priceless diamond in exchange for another.” He stepped back to Caro, sliding his arm around her and winking at her.

  That wasn’t enough for Caro.

  She let out a victorious sigh of, “We did it,” and threw herself against him, lifting to her toes to bring her mouth crashing against his in a kiss that could have ignited the world.

  Chapter 10

  There was surprisingly little for Caro and Rufus to do once the trap had snapped around Mr. Newman and Lord Herrington.

  “You might want to return to your school,” Saif told Caro as the Runners prepared to escort Mr. Newman and Lord Herrington out of the room. “I was told that Miss Dobson stole back into the school, thinking she would be safe there after she sensed trouble brewing.”

  Caro’s eyes widened. “I can only imagine what Felicity and Eliza have done to her.”

  What, in fact, Felicity and Eliza had done to the woman was to catch her the moment she walked through the door, drag her down to the wine cellar in the school’s basement, and shackle her over the barrel the same way she’d mistreated so many of her pupils in the past. As horrified as Caro was to see the older woman’s backside exposed as Felicity and Eliza took turns swatting it with carpet beaters, Caro couldn’t help but feel there was a certain sort of justice to the action.

  “Let her go,” she said with a somewhat reluctant sigh, taking Felicity’s carpet beater from her.

  “Yes, let me go,” Miss Dobson wailed. “I swear, I’ll retire to the country, I’ll move to the continent. Anything you ask of me.”

  “Send her to India,” Eliza said, brandishing her beater threateningly.

  “No, send her to New South Wales,” Felicity said.

  “She may go wherever she wants to go,” Caro said. “Provided it is not within the British Isles. And,” she quickly added, “provided she assign the ownership of this building and the school to me.”

  Felicity and Eliza brightened, and Miss Dobson cried out, “Anything. Anything at all. I’ll have my father’s solicitor draw up the transfer of ownership immediately.”

  Caro motioned for Felicity and Eliza to set Miss Dobson free. They did so, and the three of them escorted the vile woman up to her office.

  “You realize that you may not be able to own this building or the school outright,” Eliza murmured as they headed up the stairs. “The laws regarding women’s ownership of property are vexing.”

  “It may not be a problem,” Caro said, grinning at Rufus as they reached the top of the stairs. “I may simply have her transfer ownership to my husband.”

  Eliza’s brow shot up. “Are felicitations in order?” she smiled.

  “Give me tonight to sort it,” Caro said with a wink.

  She left Miss Dobson in the capable hands of Felicity and Eliza, as well as Rebecca and Nigel, who were ready to cart Miss Dobson off to prison as an accomplice in the theft if she failed to cooperate. That left Caro and Rufus free to leave the school and to head into the heart of Mayfair, to Herrington House.

  “I still think it’s madness for you to accompany me on this errand,” Rufus told her as his family’s confused butler let them into the house.

  “Errand?” Caro shook her head incredulously. “This is a matter of life and death, and I will not be left out of it.”

  Rufus’s father seemed to have other plans. He was already in a towering temper when he marched into the small, family parlor where Caro and Rufus had been sent to wait for him.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Lord Herrington demanded as he strode into the room.

  A lesser woman might have been intimidated into tears by the sight of the raging, older man, but Caro had come to do battle. “Your son is here to dictate his terms, my lord,” she announced.

  “Dictate his—” Lord Herrington shook his head in annoyance. “This is a matter between me and my son,” he told Caro. “Please leave at once.”

  “Caro will stay,” Rufus said, pulling himself to his full height and squaring his shoulders. “She is to be my wife.”

  Lord Herrington’s expression darkened, and he narrowed his eyes. “We have discussed this. You will marry Lady Malvis and her fortune. What you choose to do with your affections is secondary.”

  “I will marry Lady Caroline,” Rufus insisted, taking a step toward his father. “And I will bolster the fortunes of our family with my own fortune.”

  Lord Herrington blinked, confusion clear on his face. “What fortune do you refer to?”

  “The reward money for recovering the Chandramukhi Diamond,” Caro answered.

  Lord Herrington glanced at her in surprise, then back to Rufus. “Explain.”

  “I found the diamond tonight,” Rufus said, giving the barest possible explanation. “The reward for its recovery is fifty thousand pounds.”

  Lord Herrington looked flabbergasted. “Fifty thousand pounds?”

  “Yes, Father. And I will be giving all of it to the family as a means of improving our situation.”

  Lord Herrington gaped at Rufus for several long moments. Caro watched his expression flicker from outrage to confusion to consideration. But all too soon, he shook his head and said, “Impossible. Fifty thousand is an immense fortune, but it is not a sustainable amount. Our landholdings need a continual infusion of income over the course of several years before they can be saved.”

  “Then it is imperative that your son marry a woman with a substantial income,” Caro said. Her stomach filled with butterflies at the prospect of playing her trump card at last.

  “Precisely,” Lord Herrington said, though with a puzzled look and narrowed eyes that said he knew there was more to what she was saying. “Lady Malvis is such a woman.”

  “As it happens, I am also such a woman,” Caro said, her grin growing.

  Lord Herrington studied her. Rufus studied her with a calculating expression as well, but unlike his father, he smiled.

  “Forgive me, Lady Caroline,” Lord Herrington said at last, “but I am familiar with your father and your family. While his title is old and respected, his income is modest.”

  “I am not referring to my father’s income or my dowry,” Caro said, unable to keep her excitement inside. “I am referring to my own income.”

  “Mrs. Vickers,” Rufus said with a sudden laugh. “You clever strumpet.”

  Lord Herrington blinked, looking both embarrassed and impressed. “Am I to understand that you are the authoress of those works of salacious fiction that are currently taking London by storm?” he asked.

  “I am, my lord,” Caro said with a modest nod
. “And I can assure you that the income derived from such works is substantial.”

  “How substantial?” Lord Herrington asked. When Caro gave him the figure, both his and Rufus’s jaws dropped in shock. “So much for such frivolous and scandalous works?”

  “The ton adores frivolity and scandal, my lord,” Caro said. “Though I can assure you, I will do my best to maintain the secrecy of my literary activities so as not to damage the Herrington name.” Never mind that a small number of people already knew her identity. She could impress upon the Duchess of Cavendish the need for discretion. Surely the woman had enough of a heart to understand the need for secrecy.

  “What do you say, Father?” Rufus asked, hope bright in his eyes. He added, “It would be quite a sensation to welcome the heroine of the recovery of the Chandramukhi Diamond into the family. I am certain Caro’s part in the recovery will come to light and be celebrated.”

  Lord Herrington appeared impressed for a moment, but his expression quickly dropped. “Lord Cunningham will be furious when the announcement of your engagement is made.”

  Caro didn’t care one bit about Lady Malvis. Her heart soared at the implication of Rufus’s father’s words. He was going to allow them to wed. They had triumphed after all.

  “Thank you, Father,” Rufus said, rushing forward to clasp his father in a manly hug.

  “We will inform your mother of all this in the morning,” Lord Herrington said, hugging Rufus in return, and looking rather relieved to Caro’s eyes. “Now, take your lady love home, and we’ll begin arrangements for this match in the morning.”

  “Yes, sir,” Rufus said.

  He took Caro’s arm and led her out of the room. But instead of heading to the front hall and the door, Rufus glanced over his shoulder to be certain his father wasn’t following them and that they weren’t being observed. He veered down the hall in a different direction, whisking Caro into the servant’s stairway and up.

  “I’ll be damned if I’m returning you to that school tonight,” he whispered as they rushed up the stairs to the first floor. “You’re warming my bed tonight as my betrothed, and there isn’t a damned thing anyone can do to stop us.”

  Caro giggled, ready to wrap herself around Rufus and never let go. She had to wait as they crept as silently along the hall to his bedchamber as they could, narrowly avoiding Lord Herrington as he retired to his room as they went. Blessedly, Rufus’s room was far removed from the bedrooms of his parents, and they were able to slip inside and lock the door behind them unseen.

  “Thaddeus is the only one we have to worry about,” he said between kisses as he backed Caro toward his bed, attempting to remove both her clothes and his as he went. “And bless him, my brother is all of nineteen. If he overhears us, he’ll be more interested in abusing himself than telling tales.”

  Caro laughed, “You are aware that informing me your younger brother may eavesdrop on us is not an encouragement toward amorous activity, are you not?”

  “Since when do you need encouragement toward amorous activity?” Rufus purred, undoing the ties of her gown and pulling the sleeves off her shoulders.

  Caro gasped as her back pressed against one of the posts at the foot of Rufus’s bed. If any other man had said such a thing to her—Lord Hazelton, for example—she would have been furiously offended. But coming from Rufus, the frank statement of her appetite sent a carnal shiver through her that centered in her sex. He peeled her bodice down to her waist and plucked at the laces of her stays.

  “You are a goddess of lust,” he went on, bending to shower kisses over her shoulders as he opened her stays and gathered her breasts in his hands. “You are a paragon of carnality, and I love you for it.”

  “Do not let my mother hear you say that,” Caro laughed, then gasped as he trailed kisses across the top of her breast to close his mouth around her nipple.

  She tilted her head back against the bedpost and sucked in a breath as he ignited fiery sensations within her. If she was a goddess of lust, then Rufus was a satyr and a rake who knew all too well how to elicit pleasure from a woman’s body. A polite and proper woman would have been scandalized by his skill, knowing where he gained it, but she reveled in it, opening herself fully to the pleasure he imparted. It was far better to be the last and lifelong love of an experienced man than the perplexing object of a man who had no idea what a woman’s body was for.

  Her eyes were closed and she had just begun to sink into the beautiful warmth pulsing through her when Rufus clamped his teeth around her hardened nipple with just enough force to make her gasp.

  “I’ve learned a few tricks from Felix,” he told her with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. “Now that we’re destined to spend the rest of our lives together, I would be happy to share them all with you.”

  “Not as happy as I will be to learn them,” she purred in return.

  He made a sound of approval that sent shivers through her, then returned to work loosening her gown and pushing it down over her hips. “I want you naked and splayed in my bed,” he murmured in her ear, nibbling on her earlobe as he worked for what he wanted. “I want to do things to you that Seven Dials whores would find obscene, and I want you to do those things to me as well.”

  “You’re in luck,” she answered, reaching for the buttons of his jacket as soon as he pushed her sleeves and stays off her arms, freeing her to reach for him. “I want all of those things too.”

  He pulled her away from the bedpost so that he could whisk her chemise up over her head, leaving her standing in front of him in nothing but her stockings. His gaze swept her body appreciatively, and he growled as though he’d like nothing more than to devour her.

  But Caro had hardly begun her own games. She leaned into him, running her hands up his chest so that she could remove his jacket, and closing her mouth over his in a greedy kiss. He gripped her hips as she invaded his mouth with her tongue, then circled his hands around her bottom to lift her against his erection. He was already hard and straining against his breeches, and Caro ached to bring him out and play with him.

  “Are you pleased to be marrying a wanton wife?” she asked, making quick work of his waistcoat, then tugging his shirt out of his breeches.

  “More than you can know,” he said in a voice rumbling with desire. He tore his shirt off over his head as Caro went to work on his breeches. “I did not relish the thought of marrying a woman who would probably blanch at the sight of a stiff cock.”

  “Whereas I adore such a sight,” Caro said.

  She proved her point by sinking to her knees and tugging Rufus’s breeches down over his hips to bunch around his knees as she did so. He let out a sharp sound of pleasure as his cock leapt free of its confinement and stood straight up. That sound turned to a long, deep groan of pleasure as Caro took hold of him, treating him to a few, quick strokes, then leaned in to draw his head into her mouth.

  It had been so long since she’d been able to put the skills she’d learned that fateful summer to good use, but every nuance of pleasure that her one other lover had instilled in her came rushing back to her. She teased Rufus’s tip with her tongue, causing him to gasp and the muscles of his groin to clench in response. She then drew him in slowly, teasingly, making him wonder just how far she was capable of going. All the while, she used her tongue and gently-applied pressure to treat every inch of him to sensation.

  “You’re going to be the death of me, Caro,” he gasped as she drew him in so far she was in danger of choking. He reached for the bedpost, balancing himself against it as his hips twitched involuntarily.

  Mischief raced through her. She held his thighs tightly and moved against him, wondering how far she could push him. He’d exhibited amazing control that first time, in her room at the school, and while she had never truly enjoyed the sensation of a man spilling himself in her mouth, she wanted to drive Rufus right to the edge of doing exactly that. So she moved fast and hard, so much so that her eyes watered.

  Rufus swore and gras
ped a handful of her hair. “I’d marry you even if my father forbid it,” he gasped.

  Within seconds, he’d reached the end of his control. He wrenched away from her, panting, sweat slicking his face and chest. He only paused for a moment to catch his breath before bending to lift her off her feet, practically tossing her onto his bed. Caro gasped and wriggled as he crawled onto the bed after her, grabbing her knees and thrusting them apart with fierce command.

  “Such a naughty woman,” he growled, then lowered himself to lightly bite the inside of one of her thighs.

  The unexpectedness of the move caused her to suck in a breath. He stretched her open even wider, holding her legs too firmly for her to move. She writhed all the same, excited by the touch of helplessness she felt. When he brought his hungry mouth to the slit of her sex, then parted her lip with his hands so that he could lick and tease her, she cried out and gripped the bedsheets desperately.

  It was his turn to tease her with pleasure until she was ready to burst. He knew just how to stroke and thrust in a way that claimed ownership of her while giving so much pleasure in return. He was a master in the art of sensuality, circling her clitoris with his tongue until she was nearly weeping with desire. She deliberately held out as long as she could, wanting the pleasure to build to towering heights and to last as long as possible.

  She was so close that her body buzzed with imminent release when he pulled back and whispered the single word, “Stubborn.”

  For a moment, she was suspended in a cloud of near orgasm. Before she could beg him to finish her, though, he reached for her and flipped her to her stomach. She barely had time to get her bearings before he lifted her hips and crashed into her.

  The suddenness of his thrust and the glorious way he stretched and filled her shot her straight back to the edge of orgasm. He pounded into her with strength and depth that left her in no question of his power and his adoration. She cried and moaned in time to his thrusts and the carnal sounds he made. The sensation of her breasts jerking freely as he mated with her only added to the overall sensation of being thoroughly and deliciously fucked.