Daisy wasn’t sure that her eyes were open. Stars sparkled in a rich darkness that seemed to have filled her mind. But the midnight blue that surrounded her was too small. She needed to burst through it, explode into the air like the fireworks she had seen one New Year’s eve. A million pinpoints of light filled her vision, her whole body tightened, and then soared, racing through the atmosphere to a place she had no notion of before.
Pierce knew she had shattered. Her body had suddenly softened, her gentle cries fading into staggering breaths. He dragged himself back up the bed. Yes, he wanted to taste more of her, but his own need was too great. Her calves caught on the back of his thighs as he found her entrance and he lifted her slender legs higher. Straining to hold back, he eased inside her heat, wanting to savour this moment for the rest of his life.
Lord but she was tight. Tremors surrounded him and he throbbed with the sensations, but however much he wanted this feeling to last, his body had taken over any rational thought. He thrust into her hot sheath.
And his heart stopped as something impeded him, then broke around him. Her whole body stiffened, her nails dug into his shoulders, and she cried out in pain.
Confusion filled him. What had just happened? Was that what he thought? No, it couldn’t have been. She had been married for years. Surely... But her legs held him too tightly, stopping any further movement as her breaths rasped in and out.
“Daisy?” He looked down at her. Tears gathered on her eyelashes. Not the same sort of tears as when she had thought he might reject her. Those tears had been filled with sadness. These were filled with pain. Dear Lord! Could it be true? Married three years but still a virgin? Thoughts raced through his mind. How? Why? “Daisy?” He asked again, not even knowing his own question.
She gave him a watery smile.
“It’s all right. I’m fine, really. I didn’t know quite what to expect.” She looked away from him, her cheeks flaring with heat. Whatever would he think of her?
He leaned on one elbow and took hold of her chin, gently pulling her back to face him.
“I’ll ask questions later,” he whispered. “Now all I want to know is if you can go on.”
She looked up at him, searching his gaze. The pinch of pain had gone, over almost as soon as it had happened. Her body ached for him again and a longing filled his eyes, desire flaring deep. Her smile widened and she gave a small nod.
The local cockerel clearly delighted in waking the inn’s guests. It crowed almost loudly as the one at Portland Hall and Pierce dragged the pillow over his head to try and dim the racket. Damned animal needed roasting. The thought of which brought his mind into focus. Instead of shivering in the cold morning air, he was warm. Actually quite hot. No, he revised his initial thoughts as he realized that he was positively boiling.
The reason why made him smile as he felt movement at his side. Daisy’s riot of wild curls appeared from beneath the bedclothes and tickled his cheek.
“That bird is worse than the one at Portland Hall,” she groaned.
Pierce snorted with laughter.
“Only because this one is right below our bedroom window instead of being quarter of a mile away from you. You try sleeping in the stables at the hall. Then you’ll know which bird is worse.” He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. “Are you well?”
Daisy put her lips to his bare shoulder at his gentle enquiry.
“More well than you can ever know.” The night had been long. Hours of discovery, of passion, and of joy.
“I think I know. I never felt more alive in my life.” He kissed her again, on swollen lips. “But you have some explaining to do. Though naturally I am thrilled about it, I cannot deny that I was surprised to discover...” He stopped as Daisy’s cheeks flushed bright red and she placed a finger over his lips.
Swallowing nervously, Daisy knew that she couldn’t put off telling the truth any longer. She sat up and pulled the sheet up beneath her arms, trying to avoid Pierce’s curious gaze.
“I did try to explain, in a way, but you can imagine my embarrassment.” She wafted her hand in front of her face to cool her scarlet cheeks, then sighed as she carried on. “Robert wasn’t like other men. He had interests and was perfectly pleasant, but he had no passion within him. Well, not for his fellow humans. Neither woman nor man interested him, sexually. It wasn’t as if he suffered from any peculiarities or strange desires either, and yes, before you begin asking, I have heard that some people have more unusual preferences. But Robert didn’t. He didn’t have leanings towards anyone. Including me.”
Pierce took a deep breath as he glanced at the woman beside him. Lush curls cascaded over her breasts, creamy white skin glowed above the covers, the outline of long slender legs could be seen beneath the blankets. Every part of her filled him with desire. He couldn’t imagine any man alive to be immune to her delights.
“He must have been blind,” he muttered.
Daisy’s cheeks dimpled at his compliment, but she then let out a deep sigh.
“Robert was so normal in public life. A little pedantic perhaps, but nothing that would make one suspect...” She stopped for a moment as if gathering her thoughts. “Let’s just say that he fooled me with his dashing courtship. It had taken me long enough, but when I realized that you would never propose, I forced myself to look elsewhere. I even fancied myself in love with him. Not that my errant emotions lasted for long. I knew my mistake on my marriage night.”
Pierce wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear what that might have entailed. Knowing what he did now, it must have been excruciatingly humiliating at the very least.
“I didn’t mean to pry into your private life. You don’t have to tell me.” It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but he didn’t want old and unhappy memories to resurface now.
Daisy felt the tears well into her eyes. Gentle, loving Pierce, always thinking of her before himself. But it was time he learned the truth behind the lies. She blinked the teardrops away.
“No, you don’t understand. It wasn’t simply Robert that couldn’t do it. I found I couldn’t either. I knew what to expect and I wasn’t afraid. But I just couldn’t do it. I told Robert immediately we headed up the stairs. I was panic stricken that he might make me. But he was more than relieved at my stance, because he said that there was no possibility of him consummating the marriage either. We ended up drinking tea for half the night while he explained about the expectations his mother had put upon him. And the impossibility of them.”
A frown creased Pierce’s brow.
“So the baby you were apparently carrying was all a lie.” He looked at her stomach as if checking, even while knowing that he had been her first.
Daisy hesitated before swinging her legs from the bed and reaching down to where the letters had fallen to the floor. She picked up several and began sorting through them, looking at the dates on them before turning back to Pierce.
“It wasn’t all a lie. I wasn’t carrying a baby, but someone else was.” She smiled at his obvious confusion. “It’s not as complicated as it sounds. For all his mother’s demands and tantrums, Robert was never going to father an heir. But that didn’t mean someone else couldn’t do the deed.” She held up her hand at Pierce’s gasp of horror. “No, no, you misunderstand. I had explained to Robert why I couldn’t be a wife to him. And I meant it. But it wasn’t just him. I couldn’t have lain with any man. Except you. And that was unlikely to happen.” She rushed on as it looked as though Pierce might speak. “But that didn’t mean that every woman who becomes enceinte is happy about it. Robert heard about a lady, one of good breeding, who had been seduced by a man who had told her that he loved her. But he turned out to be a scoundrel and left her only days after taking her to his bed. My husband made a secret visit to her and explained his own apparently insurmountable predicament. He needed an heir, but couldn’t father one of his own. If she was agreeable, they might be able to come to an arrangement advantageous to them both. The lady was much relieved at this
fortunate option and entered into the agreement.”
Pierce groaned in realization.
“And you would pretend to carry a child and then become its mother. If the woman had a boy, it would become the new heir of Portland, and if it were a girl, at least it would confirm there was the possibility of a male child in the future. But she lost the baby. And that meant you had to pretend that you had lost...”
Daisy shook her head quickly.
“Yes, and no. She hasn’t lost her baby. She has simply had a change of heart.” She let out another deep sigh. “The lady has changed her mind. Regardless of the scandal, she feels that cannot give up her child.”
Daisy felt the tears well in her eyes. Her hopes dashed at a few strokes of a pen. Not that she blamed the woman. Daisy doubted she could give up any baby of her own, especially if it had been created with love. She swallowed back her disappointment and cleared the lump that had risen in her throat. “As her pregnancy continued, the lady in question realized that she couldn’t let Robert have the child no matter how difficult her situation might become. She loves it regardless of the position she finds herself in and has since moved to the country. I confess that although I was devastated to learn of her decision, I admire her determination in the face of the scandal the affair will garner. And the adversity she will face if her position is discovered.”
Pierce shifted in the bed.
“You were devastated?”
Daisy nodded.
“My life with Robert was more than dull. And there was little probability of it altering. A baby would have changed that, and I swear that I would have loved it as my own. I had grown quite used to the idea of becoming a mother.”
Pierce gazed down at her, a devilish grin upon his face.
“Well, we can certainly try to make that become a reality very soon.” His fingertips brushed her breast through the covers.
Daisy laughed and then placed her hand over her stomach.
“After last night, it might already be true.” Her eyes sparkled.
Pierce picked up her hand and kissed the pulse throbbing at her wrist.
“We could always make sure.” His eyes had grown dark with desire.
“What happened to being back in London early?” She slipped lower in the bed as he rose over her.
His mouth descended, his voice a whisper against her lips.
“I have more important things on my mind. Like showing my wife how much I love her.” His thigh slid against softer than soft skin.
She reached up and wound her arms around his neck.
“And how do I show you that I love you more?”
Pierce nudged her legs apart, his body seeking hers.
“You already have.” He had been her first. Against all the odds. It was a gift he would treasure forever.
And he might have treasured it for longer, but there was suddenly an almighty banging on the door.
Chapter Nineteen
Arresting Accusations
They had barely time to make themselves decent before the door burst open.
“How dare you...” With his shirt still untucked from his trousers and his boots upon the wrong feet, the words barely made it out of Pierce’s mouth before three burly men rushed inside the room, two brandishing pistols and the other a cudgel. A forth man stood at the doorway of the already over crowded space and nodded at his men.
“That’s them.” The man confirmed. “Our informant was right. It wasn’t hard to guess where the criminals would rest overnight.”
Pierce stood in front of Daisy, hiding her from sight as the men pushed forwards.
“There are no criminals here. You have been informed wrongly.” He spread his arms wide, but Daisy had finished gathering the letters that had fallen from her shirt and leaned around him.
“Mr. Mathews, really!” Daisy exclaimed as she recognised the constable who had questioned her once before. “I’d like to know who your informant is, and the charge,” she demanded, wondering if the theft of the letters from Portland Hall had been discovered so soon.
But two of the men suddenly grabbed Pierce’s arms.
“Lord Pierce Trenchard, I am arresting you for the murder of James Robert Benedict, Duke of Portland.” One of them announced
With his hands wrenched behind his back, Pierce could have kicked himself for being a fool. He hadn’t considered that enquiries could have been made and he might have been followed from the Templeton Ball.
“Don’t be ridiculous! I haven’t killed anyone.” His protests fell on deaf ears as the men locked a pair of metal cuffs about his wrists. He turned to Daisy in desperation. “Daisy, I swear to you that I had nothing to do with Robert’s death. You have to believe me.” Once again he was interrupted. The man sporting the cudgel, raised it high and bashed his prisoner over the head. Pierce’s knees wobbled and his vision blurred.
“You fiend!” Daisy yelled, as with her ripped shirt and trousers barely covering her modesty, she dropped the stack of letters again. Leaping to her husband’s defence, she jumped on the constable’s back, and set about striking him about his ears as hard as she could. “Release this man! Lord Trenchard is innocent of any crime.”
But far from releasing Pierce, the man at the door suddenly strode into the room, pushing past his men, and dragging her from his colleague and back towards the bed.
“Now see here, your Grace. You cannot attack a member of the constabulary. I could arrest you for assault as well as aiding and abetting a known criminal. Lord Trenchard is a wanted man. There is a reward for information leading to his arrest.”
Daisy bounced straight back up from where she had been pushed onto the mattress.
“He attacked my husband first, Mr. Mathews!” She responded, and gave the bludgeon wielding constable a swift kick in his calf.
With a shout of pain, the constable whipped about, raising his hand. Daisy held her ground and lifted her chin, daring the man to touch her.
Pierce blinked at the warring pair, shook the stars from his aching head, and bellowed.
“Lay a finger on my wife and I’ll have your guts drawn from here to London and left for the crows to pick!” His shoulders strained to free his arms but the other men and the cuffs held him tight.
Mathews raised an eyebrow.
“You are husband and wife? A bit premature, don’t you think. The Duke is hardly cold in the ground. Ah! But the plot thickens. And more murderous thoughts from you too, my Lord? They say it’s easier the second time.”
Pierce spun to the man.
“I’ll have your guts too by the time this is over, you fool. I never laid a finger on Portland, or tampered with his tack. Anyone can tell you that Lord Devonshire hires security to watch the riders and their animals like hawks. Someone would have seen me, and no one did because I wasn’t anywhere I shouldn’t have been.”
The constable gave a derisory grunt.
“That’s not the information I have received. A little bird told me that you could have sneaked into Lord Devonshire’s stables overnight. You can’t tell me that his men are that good. All night watchmen take time for a smoke, or a piss. And some of them can be bribed.”
Daisy let out a laugh.
“They might well do all of those things, but as I told you before, any sabotage would have been impossible. The Duke wasn’t there the night before the race and so didn’t leave himself vulnerable to that kind of skulduggery. It must have been done on the morning of the race when Lord Trenchard can account for all of his movements.”
Mathews snorted.
“But he can’t account for his whereabouts the whole of the night before the race. He has motive, and means. Lord Devonshire’s estate isn’t that far from London. Lord Trenchard here, could have easily sneaked back to town and cut the Duke’s mount’s girth during the night.”
Pierce struggled uselessly against his bonds.
“And so could a hundred other people.”
Mathews gave a sickly smile.
; “But a hundred other people didn’t just marry the dead Duke’s wife. Seems that you and the Duchess have been keeping some secrets.”
Pierce shook his head.
“But I have an alibi. I was at Lord Lucas Caruthers’ country estate. You can ask him.” He couldn’t quite recall if he was on the estate with his best friend on the exact evening in question, but if he wasn’t, he had been defending himself against Angelique Lancer’s ghastly brother. Either way his whereabouts could be checked.
But Mathews clearly wasn’t having any of it. The man rolled from his heels to the balls of his feet and back again as he spoke knowingly.
“That would be Lord Lucas Caruthers. The famous pugilist?” He clarified. “Isn’t he her Ladyship’s brother? And your closest friend? He is bound to lie on your behalf.” There was a sneer to the man’s tone.
Pierce sucked in a shocked breath.
“So now you are not only calling me a liar, but my friend also. This is simply unacceptable.”
Mathews raised an eyebrow.
“Hurrumph! Surely it is more unacceptable for you to kill a Duke so that you can bed his wife,” he said contemptuously. “How long has your affair been going on? Did the Duke find out? Perhaps he threatened to throw his adulterous wife out.”
Daisy staggered at the man’s words while Pierce jerked his head backwards, butted the man behind him on his nose, and let out an infuriated roar.
“You go too far! If you were a gentleman, I would call you out.”
Mathews chuckled, his whole demeanour betraying delight at his prisoner’s outburst.
“Duelling too! Well, well. You really do harbour a murderous streak, my Lord. But it’s another nail in your coffin, if I might be so bold.” He turned to Daisy. “Any don’t you think about absconding. While I don’t think you the actual murderer, you have clearly played a part. Were you in the plot together?”
A Fragile Chain of Daisies: Flowers of the Aristocracy (Untamed Regency Book 4) Page 26