The Girl Who Stepped Into The Past

by Sophie Barnes

  Setting her carefully on her feet, James ignored his own discomfort as he quickly undid the ties on Jane’s dress and pulled it off over her head. Her teeth chattered and her body shook with violent shivers. Blood smeared the area between her shoulder and breast where she’d been wounded, staining the left side of her chemise in red.

  Anger rose inside James again as he thought of what might have happened if she hadn’t moved as fast as she had. For her sake, he tamped down the harsh emotions and started undoing her stays. When she flinched in response to his touch, he calmed his movements, doing his best to avoid her cut.

  “Please hurry,” she said, her voice tripping over her trembling lips.

  He reached for the hem of her chemise and drew the garment off swiftly, then reached for the blanket covering the bedspread and pulled it around her shoulders, wrapping her in the warmth of the wool and concealing her nudity seconds before the footmen and Margaret arrived.

  “Here,” James said after lighting a fire in the grate. He guided her toward it. “Stay here until your bath is ready. I will return in a moment.”

  She fumbled clumsily with the blanket until she found a gap through which she was able to extend her hand. Her fingers touched his, and he felt his heart stutter while heat seeped under his skin. “Thank you.”

  He stepped toward her and kissed her lips, heedless of who might happen to see. “It is I who should be thanking you,” he said. Reaching up he brushed a wet lock of hair from her forehead. “You sacrificed everything for me this evening and saved my life in the process. Whatever it takes, no matter what I must do, I will ensure your happiness, Jane. You can count on that.”

  Reluctantly, he quit her room and hurried on over to his. Discarding his jacket and vest, he peeled off his soggy shirt, and stepped out of his trousers and smalls. Socks followed in quick succession until he was utterly naked. Crossing to his wardrobe, he grabbed a towel and wiped himself down, removing as much of the clamminess as possible before locating fresh clothes and getting dressed once again. His own bath would have to wait. He’d warm himself by the fire in Jane’s room for now. But leaving her alone any longer was not an option. She called to him, the need to be with her and to know she was safe demanding he hurry back to her room as quickly as possible.

  When he returned, the footmen were just leaving while Margaret stood next to the bath ready to assist.

  “You may go,” James told her.

  Margaret glanced at Jane, then back at James. “Are you certain?”

  He gave her a decisive nod. “Yes.” When she still hesitated, he said, “You need not worry, Margaret. My intentions are perfectly honorable. I mean to marry Jane as soon as possible.”

  The astonishment on Margaret’s face was undeniable. Her lips parted and her eyes widened. “Oh,” was all she managed to say, and, “Well then.” She crossed the floor, pausing briefly beside Jane to give her a quick hug before bobbing a curtsey on her way out the door. It closed firmly behind her, leaving James and Jane quite alone in the room.

  “Come on,” James said as he put his arm around Jane’s shoulders and urged her toward the bath. With the most delicate touch he could manage, he removed the blanket she wore and helped her into the steaming hot water.

  Her sigh of pleasure and the perfect view she gave him of her elegant back and gorgeous bottom sent a dart of desire straight to his groin. He sucked in a breath and expelled it slowly while forcing himself to consider her needs. She was wounded, after all, and in need of comfort, not lust.

  With this in mind, he handed her the soap. “Can you manage on your own?” he asked.

  She nodded, allowing him to retreat to the spot in front of the fire. “I still find it hard to believe Rockwell killed both Betsy and my sister,” he said after a while. The sound of water lapping about soothed his senses while the warmth from the flames pushed aside any lingering cold.

  “He panicked,” Jane said.

  “But he was like family.” The idea of it and the lack of morality needed for someone to act so callously was shocking. The fact Rockwell knew them, had danced with Tatiana last season and laughed with her during conversation, strolled with her and played cards with her, made it more unfathomable and worse.

  “I know.” Jane was watching him with regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry it turned out to be him, James.”

  “Me too.” He averted his gaze and stared into the flickering flames before him while Jane climbed out of the bath. “His sister’s prospects are ruined.”

  “Oh my God! I didn’t even think of that.” Jane picked up a towel and wound it around her slender figure. “Poor girl.”

  Casting a look in her direction and seeing blood begin to pebble once more around her wound, James found a clean handkerchief and went to press it against her. “Can you hold this in place for a minute?” When she nodded, he went to fetch a bottle of brandy from his room, along with one of the rolled linen strips he kept for this exact purpose.

  “This is bound to sting a bit,” he told Jane as he grabbed another clean handkerchief, dampened it with a splash of the brandy, and held it up for her to see. When she nodded, he removed the previous one he’d given her and pressed the newly prepared one over the wound.

  She hissed on a sharp inhale, her entire body going immediately tense.

  “Sorry,” he murmured.

  “It’s all right. The last thing I need is an infection.”

  “I quite agree.” He began unwinding the strip of linen, using it to tie the handkerchief securely in place. “Which is why we need to keep an eye on this and change the compress regularly.” Locating her nightgown, he helped her into it with as much indifference as he could muster. Which wasn’t a lot.

  “Will you stay with me tonight?” she asked once he’d finished.

  He nodded. “Of course. Leaving you now after everything you have been through is out of the question.” Considering the still warm bath water, he contemplated a quick soak but then decided against it. He was tired and so was she, judging from her red-rimmed eyes and the yawn she kept trying to hold down.

  So he pulled the counterpane back and waited for her to climb into bed before joining her on the other side. Still fully clothed to avoid the sort of contact that would invariably lead to arousal, he hooked his arm over her side so her back was pressed snugly against his chest.

  “I love you, James.” She whispered the words as her breathing settled into a slumberous rhythm.

  He inhaled the fragrant scent of honey still clinging to her hair while his heart latched onto those words. “I love you too, Jane. I always will.”

  Chapter 15

  Four weeks had passed since Rockwell’s arrest. He’d since been found guilty on two counts of murder, stripped of his title, and sentenced to death by hanging. From what Jane had heard, a silk rope had been commissioned in deference to his rank though she and James did not yet know when the execution was scheduled to take place.

  Trying not to think of it since she did not want her mood to be dimmed on this particular day, Jane smoothed her hands over her skirts and regarded herself in the mirror. A smile touched her lips in response to the vision that greeted her. Expensive baby-blue silk fell in soft folds around her, trimmed with the finest white lace. Beneath her breasts was a wide satin sash, tied neatly in a voluminous bow at her back.

  It was quite a departure from the grey servant attire she’d worn for the first week she’d been here. But all of that had changed the moment James announced their engagement. Which he’d done the morning after she’d told him she loved him. The happy news had seemed to brighten the atmosphere a little, even if James’s mother had looked as though she’d just been informed of her son’s death as well.

  Jane sighed. Hopefully the dowager countess would come to accept her eventually. Until then, Jane chose to smile and focus on the happiness flowing through her. This was her wedding day after all, the most unexpectedly wonderful experience of her life.

  “Are you ready?”

>   Jane turned toward Elise who stood in the doorway.

  “She will be in a second,” Margaret said as she picked up a diamond necklace and hung it around Jane’s neck. “There. As pretty as a princess.”

  “Camden won’t know what hit him,” Elise said, her eyes twinkling as Jane came toward her.

  She grinned. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Thank you for inviting me.” Elise met Jane’s gaze with a frankness Jane wouldn’t have expected from someone so young. “Most of our friends have cut us off. The stigma is one we will never escape and our lack of title and the land that went with it has significantly diminished our status, which means Mama is now quite determined to see me marry above my rank.”

  Jane sympathized. “Perhaps you’ll meet someone here during the wedding.”

  Elise managed a smile. “You forget that only the most desperate of peers would think to consider me now.”

  “Then forget what your mother wants and make your own choice the way James and I did. Marry for love, Elise, and I have no doubt you’ll be happy.”

  “I’ll certainly consider it,” Elise said as she took Jane’s arm and guided her out into the hallway. They proceeded to the stairs and descended toward the foyer where the servants awaited.

  Jane looked at them all in turn, at Mrs. Fontaine and at Cook, at Tilly who stood beside Mr. Goodard, and Hendricks whose serious expression slipped a notch the moment their eyes met. Mr. Snypes, of course, had been fired on account of inappropriate behavior and disloyalty, his position now filled by a Mr. Finch.

  Passing them all, Jane swept out of the house and into the awaiting carriage with Elise climbing in behind her.

  “When I see you again, you’ll be the Countess of Camden,” Margaret said as she helped arrange Jane’s skirts around her feet. She glanced up and smiled. “Good luck.” The door closed and the conveyance rolled into motion, scattering Jane’s nerves like a swarm of butterflies taking to the sky.

  Excitement and trepidation whirled inside her, twisting her stomach until she felt slightly ill. This was it, the biggest decision she’d ever made, and as right as it felt and as much as she wanted to go through with it, she couldn’t quite shake her concerns. After all, she wasn’t the only one giving up everything for this marriage. James was too, his decision to marry his maid sending shockwaves through every level of society.

  When the invitations had gone out, many had sent their regrets, and although he’d shrugged off the blatant disapproval of his peers, Jane couldn’t help but wonder if it didn’t bother him just a little, knowing he’d been shunned.

  But when she stepped inside the church and saw him waiting by the altar with Harrington by his side and her eyes met his across the distance, she knew they had no choice but to wed. Because this was what love felt like, that invisible bond linking them together and easing her troubles with nothing but assurance. His smile said it all, conveying without the need for words how much she meant to him and how happy he was to have her in his life.

  She felt the same, and as she walked toward him, the butterflies disappeared somewhere over the horizon, leaving nothing but calm and the strongest sense of rightness she’d ever felt in her life. This was what mattered. Them, together, forever, as one. He was her best friend, her confidant and her lover, and as he slipped the ring on her finger a short while later and bent his head to kiss her, she silently thanked the universe for its interference. As impossible as it seemed, she’d found the man she was destined to be with and nothing in the world felt better than that.

  “Have I told you how stunning you look?” James asked as he came to stand beside her.

  Needing a bit of fresh air, Jane had stepped out onto the terrace. Her hand rested on the balustrade as she gazed out over the sun-kissed garden before her. The weather was fine, perfect for a wedding, with birds chirping in the nearby foliage and heat warming her skin.

  “About ten times or so,” she said with a smile while accepting the glass of champagne he handed to her. “Have I told you how dashing you look?”

  His lips hitched into something she easily recognized as the beginnings of a mischievous grin. “I believe so, but I will happily hear it again.”

  She laughed and playfully slapped his arm. “You are incorrigible.”

  “Incorrigibly in love with you,” he murmured in that seductive tone that weakened her knees. His arm wound around her shoulder, pulling her closer to his side. “What prompted you to stay?”

  They’d never really discussed it; there had been so much else to deal with in the wake of Rockwell’s arrest and their ensuing wedding preparations. “I couldn’t leave you.” Her heart ached at the very thought of her choosing a different path – a path without him by her side. “Not just because Rockwell threatened your life and saving you mattered more to me in that moment than anything else, but because I need you, James. It wasn’t really a choice in the end. It was the only way forward for me.”

  His lips brushed her forehead with slow and whisper-soft tenderness. “It would have destroyed me, I think, if you’d gone. I cannot even begin to imagine how—”

  “Then don’t.” She turned in his arms, her eyes burning with pent-up emotion. “I am here, James, and I have no intention of going anywhere. This is where I will build my life. Here, with you.”

  As she said it, she reflected on how she’d changed the course of history. When she’d first arrived at Summervale as a tourist, records had shown that Tatiana’s murder had remained unsolved and that James had never married. All of that would be different now and Jane could only hope that the universe’s plan for her to meet James had not offset its balance.

  Affection warmed James’s gaze as he drew her more firmly against him. And then his lips found hers, desperate for assurance and eager for their celebration to be over, so they could retreat upstairs and enjoy the rest of their day alone. “You mean the world to me, Jane,” he said between kisses. “You are my compass, my certainty, my heart.”

  “As you are mine,” she promised, meaning it with every fiber of her being. “You are my destiny, my future, my love.”

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank the Killion Group for their incredible help with the editing and formatting of this book. My thanks also go to Chris Cocozza for providing the stunning artwork. And to my wonderful beta-readers, Maria Rose, Susan Down Lucas and Jacqueline Ang, thank you for your insight and advice. You made this story shine!

  About the Author

  Born in Denmark, Sophie has spent her youth traveling with her parents to wonderful places around the world. She's lived in five different countries, on three different continents, has studied design in Paris and New York, and has a bachelor's degree from Parson's School of Design. But most impressive of all - she's been married to the same man three times, in three different countries, and in three different dresses.

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  While living in Africa, Sophie turned to her lifelong passion - writing.

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  When she's not busy dreaming up her next romance novel, Sophie enjoys spending time with her family. She currently lives on the East Coast.

  You can contact her through her website at www.sophiebarnes.com

  And please consider leaving a review for this book.

  Every review is greatly appreciated!