by Nerys Leigh
George nodded. “Judge Ravensworth.”
James picked up the bucket. “I’d best be getting back to work.”
Ravensworth walked up to his horse as James left the stable. Gavel snorted a greeting, ducking his head, and the Judge dug a treat from his pocket.
There was half a minute of silence while George wandered along the line of stalls, attempting to regain the feeling of calm that had come when he’d walked into the stable and promptly fled when Ravensworth had arrived. Jordan moved to the front of his stall to greet him and George came to a halt to treat his temporary steed to a rub of his withers.
“I’m not one to dance around an issue,” Ravensworth said.
George kept his eyes on Jordan. “Neither am I.”
“Good, then I’ll come right out and say it. What will it take to get you to go home and leave my daughter alone?”
George stopped rubbing and turned to look at Millie’s father. “I’m sorry?”
“How much will it take to make you leave today? I’m a wealthy man, as you can see. Name your price.”
It was rare these days that George was genuinely shocked, but he was now. He hadn’t imagined Ravensworth would stoop this low. “You’re trying to bribe me to leave?”
“My daughter just got out of an ill-advised marriage to a good-for-nothing blackguard who made her miserable. I will do anything to prevent her from falling straight into another.”
Did he just call George a blackguard? “If Millie did ever do me the great honor of becoming my wife, I would do anything I could to make her happy. I’m not Courtney.”
Ravensworth snorted a humorless laugh. “What kind of fool do you take me for? She wasn’t even divorced before you were taking advantage of the situation. You saw a wealthy woman who was about to become available.”
George’s hands rolled into fists. Throwing the punch he so very much wanted to would be wrong, he knew that. But the truth was, only two things were stopping him – one, the man was Millie’s father, and two, as a retired judge he could probably have George locked up in a jail cell before his knuckles stopped aching.
“I’m going to let that go because you don’t know me, and I reckon, with you being used to dealing with criminals every day, that you’re given to assuming the worst of people.” Feeling the need for some fresh air, he headed for the door, pausing when he reached Ravensworth. “But I’ll tell you this just once, you’re wrong about me. I’m not interested in your money and I wouldn’t accept a penny of Millie’s. The only thing of Millie’s I want is Millie herself. You suggest otherwise again and I’ll take it as the insult it is.”
He marched from the stable building and didn’t unclench his teeth until he was deep into the garden.
~ ~ ~
Millie turned her back to the mirror, twisting so she could see herself from behind. “Is the bustle too big? It looks too big.”
“It depends what you’re planning to do with it,” her mother remarked.
Millie rolled her eyes but giggled nevertheless. “Bustles don’t seem to have made it to California. At least, I didn’t see anyone wearing one in Green Hill Creek. I don’t imagine they would be very practical for everyday life there.”
“Good thing, if you ask me,” her mother said. “Ridiculous things.”
As if to prove her point, Mini sniffed at the hem of Millie’s dress then pushed her way under.
Her mother burst into laughter. “Unless you want to hide a dog, that is.”
Millie lifted her skirt and Mini wagged her tail from underneath. “They’re the latest fashion. Everyone is wearing them.”
“Even the men?”
Mini trotted away and Millie lowered her skirt back to the floor. “Yes, Mother, even the men.”
“So why are you asking if it’s too big?” She leaned down from her chair to lift Mini onto her lap. “Could it be that you’re not sure a certain gentleman from California would like it?”
Millie wasn’t at all sure if her attempt to appear unconcerned was convincing. “Perhaps.”
“Darling, the way George looks at you, you could wear a sack to that ball and he’d still think you were the most beautiful woman there. He won’t care what you’re wearing.”
She heaved a sigh. “Thank you, Mother. Then why am I going to all this trouble?”
“I didn’t mean it like that. Of course he’ll appreciate how you look. He just won’t care what size your bustle is.”
There were times when she didn’t know why she asked her mother’s opinion at all. “Penny, what do you think? Is the bustle too big?”
Her maid turned from where she was hanging the previous dresses Millie had tried on back into her armoire. “It is the very latest fashion, Miss. I’ve seen some much bigger.”
“But what is your honest opinion?”
Penny’s gaze traveled down the back of Millie’s dress. “It is a little on the large side.”
“I knew it! I could smuggle two extra people into that ball under this thing.” She hoisted up the skirt so she could reach the belt holding the frame in place. “Penny, fetch me the smallest one I have.”
~ ~ ~
By the time Millie had settled on a dress, an appropriate sized bustle, and the jewelry and hairstyle she was going to wear with them, it was nearing midday. She headed off to find George and apologize for abandoning him for so long.
On ascertaining that he wasn’t in the house, she extended her search outside, finally finding him sitting on a stone bench by the ornamental pond that marked the very center of the garden.
He was staring into the still water, shoulders hunched and tense.
She approached him slowly. “Is something wrong?”
He looked up and the tension in his posture eased. “It’s nothing. I’m better now you’re here.”
He stood and closed the distance between them, and before she knew it he’d drawn her into his arms and caught her lips in a kiss that left her knees weak and her head in a warm, pleasant spin.
“Much better,” he murmured as they parted.
She couldn’t have agreed more. His kiss did things to her she hadn’t felt in… well, if she was honest, she couldn’t ever remember feeling that way when a man kissed her. Charles had been almost painfully demure, saying anything more passionate than a brief peck on the cheek could wait until after they were married. And as for Franklin, the less said about his sloppy attempts at passion the better.
George, on the other hand, knew his way around a good kiss with a skill that stole her breath away. She suspected she was becoming addicted.
She took the arm he offered her and they began a leisurely stroll along a line of clipped yew trees.
“Did you get all your preparations done?” he asked. “Whatever they were.”
She laughed, squeezing his arm. “You’re such a man. Yes, everything’s ready. Mother found an evening coat of Daddy’s he no longer wears because it’s a bit tight around the middle now. You’ll need to try it on before lunch, in case Harris needs to make any alterations.”
“Sounds like fun,” he said.
“Liar.”
He smiled. “Yup. But for you, I’ll endure it.”
She so loved the warmth that always flooded her chest when he said things like that. However, she didn’t want to torture the poor man. “If you truly don’t want to go to the ball, we don’t have to. I don’t want you to have to endure anything for me.”
He stopped and turned to face her. “I’m just joking. It’s no hardship doing anything for you. You know that, don’t you?”
I love you. She was so close to saying the words that she had to clamp her lips together to stop them from coming. So she smiled and nodded and tugged him into motion again, before she made a fool of herself by blurting out her feelings and and scared him away.
They walked in comfortable silence for a while before she spoke again. “Is it all right if I ask you about your wife? If you’d rather not speak about her, I understand.”
&
nbsp; She’d been wanting to ask him about Zach’s mother since they’d started spending time together back in Green Hill Creek, but she’d never been sure how he would feel talking about her. But now Millie’s own feelings for him were growing so much stronger, she was curious about the woman he’d given his heart to so long ago. Possibly because she wondered if his heart still belonged to Clementine Parsons.
“You can ask me anything,” he said, without hesitation. “I don’t mind.”
She studied the ground ahead of her, considering what she wanted to know. “How did you meet?”
“It was back in Charlotte. I was just walking along the street and there she was, coming towards me. She had the most beautiful red hair I’d ever seen. Couldn’t take my eyes off it. She was on another man’s arm at the time, but that didn’t matter to me. I just walked right up to her and introduced myself and asked her if she’d like to accompany me to a dance that evening.”
Millie came to a halt, her eyebrows reaching for her hairline as she stared at him. “So you can dance!”
“Never said I couldn’t. Just said I don’t.”
She laughed softly and they started walking again. “I can’t imagine that went down well with the man she was with.”
“Reckon he would have liked to punch me then and there, but I was a sight bigger than him. He did get angry though, but all Clem did while he ranted on about my manners was smile, and I knew right then she’d go to the dance with me. And she did.”
“How long was it before you married?”
“Eight months, to the day. Each month on the same day we met I’d remind her of it, give her some little gift or do something special for her. Seemed fitting we chose that day.”
“You loved her very much.”
“I did. She was my life. From the day we met, I felt like I lived for her. And that didn’t change for the whole four years we were married.”
Millie’s heart ached with a jealousy she had no right to feel. What would it be like to have someone love her like that?
“I didn’t realize you were married for that long.”
He nodded. “She got in the family way real quick, but she lost the baby five months in. And then it took another almost three years before she got pregnant again, with Zach.” A hint of sadness passed across his face. “When she died, four days after he was born, I thought my life was over. It might have been, if it hadn’t been for Zach. That first week, I wasn’t thinking straight. There’s no telling what I might have done if he hadn’t needed me to take care of him.”
The ache in her heart transformed into such a sadness for his loss that tears brimmed in her eyes. “Oh George, I’m so sorry.”
They again came to a halt and he wiped his thumb across a drop of moisture trailing down her cheek. “You don’t have to be sad for me. I’m at peace with it now. I’ve had a good life, raised my son into a fine man.” He drew in a breath and looked up at the cloud-studded sky. “To tell the truth, I didn’t reckon on things changing for me before I went to be with the Lord. And then I met you.”
Her breath stuttered at his words. Was it possible that he could love her the way he’d loved his wife?
He lowered his gaze to her, his expression serious. “You don’t think I’m after your money, do you?”
The question took her by surprise. “Not at all. It never even crossed my mind.”
It was the truth. If there was one thing she knew about George, it was that he would never take advantage of a woman. It was part of the reason she loved him. He was as honorable a man as she’d ever met, as honorable as her father, and Judge Ravensworth’s reputation for fairness and justice was well known throughout New York.
George nodded. “Good. Just so long as you know I wouldn’t ever take a penny from you. That’s not why I’m here.”
“I know that.” She hesitated before asking her next question. “So, as we’re on the subject, why are you here?”
“Because until I met you, I didn’t think I’d ever find another woman who would make me feel the way Clem did.”
Millie’s mouth dropped open. She scrambled for an appropriate response, but all she could manage was a breathless, “Oh.”
The hint of a smile twitched at his lips and he raised one hand to touch her cheek. The contact sent warmth tingling through her skin. She stepped closer, he dipped his head, and her heart soared as their lips met.
She was most definitely addicted, to his kiss and to him.
There were no more doubts in her mind that she wanted to be the second Mrs. Parsons.
Chapter 8
George ran one finger around his too tight shirt collar with a grimace.
All right, so it wasn’t really too tight, but it was buttoned all the way up, the collar starched and high, with a white necktie to choke him even more. And the black evening coat felt stiff, even though it fit perfectly thanks to Harris’ expert needlework skills having lengthened the sleeves by an inch and taken in the waist by two more. And he was expected to wear gloves. White gloves. How he was going to keep them clean, he had no idea. He’d never been so gussied up in his life.
He stopped pacing back and forth across the hall to stare up the staircase. What was taking Millie so long? It had been two hours since she’d excused herself, taking her mother and a maid with her to get ready. He’d taken all of fifteen minutes to get dressed, without any help. And that included shaving.
With no sign of Millie’s imminent arrival, he turned to begin pacing again and almost jumped out of his skin at the sight of Ravensworth standing in the doorway to the drawing room, his steely gaze fixed on George.
The judge glanced up the stairs then strode towards him. George lifted his chin and straightened his back. He was only an inch or so taller than the older man, but he was going to make use of every bit of that inch.
“If you’re going to insist on continuing this ruse with my daughter, there’s something you need to know.”
George carefully schooled his features into neutrality. He wasn’t going to let Ravensworth get to him. Not today. He’d had enough of the Judge’s barely veiled threats and insults.
“Why is it so hard for you to believe that a man could want Millie for herself rather than her money?”
Ravensworth’s scowl deepened. “I have no doubt that a man could want Millicent. She’s a beautiful and intelligent woman, and any man would be immensely fortunate to have her as his wife. My problem isn’t with men in general, it’s with you. You and she have nothing in common. You’re from wildly differing backgrounds and social statuses. You saw a vulnerable, lonely, rich woman about to leave her degenerate husband and you took advantage of that. If you’d come through my courtroom with all that evidence against you, I would have had no qualms in sending you to jail.”
For not the first time in his life, George threw caution to the wind. “I reckon you weren’t a very good judge then.”
He hadn’t thought Ravensworth’s expression could get any darker. He was wholly wrong about that.
“Mark my words,” Millie’s father hissed, “if you aren’t gone within two days, I will find a reason to have you arrested. And then I will call in every favor I’m owed from every member of law enforcement and the judiciary to make sure you stay locked up for a very, very long time. And make no mistake, I have a lot of favors owed me.”
A frisson of fear skittered across the back of George’s neck. Insults and animosity he could take, but he had a family to look after back home. Zach would be a father in a few months and George wanted to meet his first grandson or daughter. He also needed to be there in case Zach or Jo needed him in any way.
But surely Ravensworth wouldn’t follow through on such a threat, would he? Maybe he was testing George. Or was he just determined to get him as angry as possible, to give credence to the misguided idea that he was bad for Millie?
Or perhaps he meant exactly what he said.
Either way, George wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing it was wo
rking. Usually, nothing riled him or scared him. Ravensworth had a talent for doing both.
Thankfully, women’s voices from up the stairs provided a much needed distraction and a reason to break eye contact with Ravensworth.
And then Millie appeared at the top of the stairs and George forgot his anger, her father, and possibly his own name.
She wore a dark green silk gown that hugged her body and flared out behind her as she gracefully descended the stairs. Short sleeves left her shoulders and arms bare and her hair was fixed in a mass of curls on her head, with a few left loose to frame her face. The two hours it had taken her to get ready suddenly seemed like time very well spent.
Seeing her in that dress was even worth suffering through a ball. It was only a pressing need for oxygen that got George breathing again.
Reaching the foot of the staircase, she gave him a smile that made his heart thump. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”
He had to swallow before he could speak. “Worth every second.”
Her smile grew, a hint of pink touching her cheeks, and he would have drawn her into his arms and kissed her breathless if they hadn’t had an audience. If it wouldn’t have embarrassed Millie, he might have done it anyway, not least because it would have driven her father to apoplexy.
Ann followed her daughter down the stairs. At least, George assumed it was Ann. He hadn’t really looked, what with not being able to tear his eyes from Millie.
“You look stunning, Millicent,” Ravensworth said, all smiles as he approached his daughter. “You’ll be the most beautiful woman there.”
At least that was one thing George could agree with him on.
Millie’s maid placed a wrap around her shoulders and George offered her his arm, vowing to not release her for the entire evening. Ravensworth got in a last minute glare at him as they left, but for once, George didn’t care in the slightest.
“You look so handsome,” Millie said once they were alone in the carriage and Ira was driving them to wherever it was the ball was being held.