Virginia’s hand tightened, but she forced herself to relax. “So they would not allow you to marry.”
Jamie grimaced. “They wouldn’t allow me anywhere near her. We set ourselves to wait, but after Ralph died, you got half the estate, if not more.” When Virginia would have protested, he held up his hand. “It was not your fault. I admit, I resented you at the time, but I had just seen all my dreams turn to dust, because the entailed lands were not enough for Maria’s parents. They rejected me again.”
His hand tightened its hold on his wife’s. “It was a dark time. I did everything I could to increase my wealth, and I did succeed, but not enough for them. They had set their sights on a duke at least, or so Maria told me.”
Maria made a dismissive sound between her teeth. “What did I care for that? But they put people around me to keep us apart, and in time I thought he would find someone else. Then they told me I was to marry the Duke of Colston Magna.”
“He’s a good fellow,” Francis offered. “He is a friend of mine, you know, so I heard of the match.” He sighed. “His heart has never been engaged, I fear. Even Angela Childers, who he says he is desperately in love with, knows better. They flirt.”
“I like him well enough.” Maria’s teeth touched her lower lip. “If I could not have Jamie, then he was as good as any, but I had never wavered. I still wanted my first love.”
“Why did you not tell us at the SSL?” Virginia demanded.
“I couldn’t.” She glanced at Jamie again, as if for reassurance. “I couldn’t risk them discovering that we were still in contact, or they would have put me somewhere Jamie could never find me, and I could never escape.”
That sounded ominous. “Aren’t you an heiress despite your parents?” Virginia asked. “Could you not marry where you pleased?”
Maria shook her head. “My parents have to approve of my husband, or the estate will not pass to him. My grandmother put the clause in place to protect me from fortune hunters. Not that it helped much. They still came.”
“But you’re here,” Virginia pointed out.
“Yes, I am. I have you to thank for that.”
Jamie laughed roughly and went to the sideboard, where he poured himself a glass of wine and held it up. Francis nodded, but Virginia shook her head in polite refusal. Jamie brought the glasses over and handed one to Francis, returning to his self-appointed station behind Maria’s chair.
He rested his free hand on the back in a protective gesture that melted Virginia’s heart. “When I heard she was to marry Colston Magna, I thought all was lost. I confess, proposing to you was not my finest hour. I did it partly out of revenge, to show Maria I had moved on with my life, and partly out of despair. I wanted to put an end to that miserable period of my life. But instead, your savior arrived.” He gave Francis a mock toast before taking a sip from his glass.
“Jamie found me on the way out of the Conyngham ball,” Maria said, beaming. “When I heard he was courting you, I knew I could not marry anyone else. There and then we arranged to elope. I did not care about my fortune anymore.”
“Neither did I,” Jamie said. “Everything I did was for Maria, always.” He shrugged. “I don’t pretend to understand Ralph’s reasoning, but I don’t care anymore. I have what I always wanted. Maria reached the age of majority a week ago. I went to Doctor’s Commons the day after that and obtained a special license. We married last week and set out immediately for home. Maria was afraid her parents might kill me.”
“They still might,” his wife said, her face tensing.
“No they will not,” Jamie said softly. “I informed all the newspapers and set up gossip in all the clubs. Society will know by now that we are married. This is no longer a secret, my sweet. They may cast you off, but they cannot claim you.”
“Clever.” Virginia had to admire his tactics. If Jamie died mysteriously now, society would turn to Maria’s parents.
“But I am penniless,” she pointed out. “I have nothing.”
“You have everything I have ever wanted.”
Time for Virginia to make her confession. “I have nothing, either, or I will not once I marry Francis.”
There. Both of her secrets in one sentence. She was breaking the terms of the will once more, but Jamie deserved to know.
As they listened to her account, horror, amusement, and shock reflected on their faces, but Virginia did not stop until she had come to the end. “So Francis and I are not yet married, but when we are, the property is yours, with extreme restrictions.”
Jamie made a sound of disgust. “Such a waste. I have sent for my lawyer from Exeter to arrange a marriage settlement, so we may have the whole thing made final then. Have done with it all.” He touched his wife’s shoulder as if he couldn’t bear to go a minute without making contact. “I do not care. I have enough to support Maria. I have all I want here. All I’ve ever wanted.” He shot a glare at Francis. “And we will arrange for your marriage, as well as providing a settlement for Virginia.”
Francis smiled mildly. “I have already made arrangements.” Virginia turned in a flurry of silk to regard him with surprise. “When I visited the bishop, I confessed everything. He gave me a bishop’s license and made me swear to use it. Which I intend to do the minute I have you safe. Before the month is out, we will marry.”
Jamie hadn’t been responsible for any of the things that had happened to her. He was entirely innocent. At the thought, relief swept through her. She had not wanted to believe it, and now she didn’t have to.
“But if you did not send these people after us, who did?” she demanded. “The attacks on Francis, the attempts to isolate me from my friends?”
Francis shook his head. “I have no idea.” He gave Jamie a speaking glare. “How about you? Do you know?”
“Smugglers,” Jamie said. “They have a small empire. If the plans were threatened, they would not hesitate to kill to further their ends. With this plan, they would have created a web of secure places for their ships to land.”
“I doubt Crace could have set this up,” Francis said.
“So do I,” Virginia answered. “And my late husband did not live in this area, despite being a native. He would not have known where to set the safe houses without advice.”
“Whoever it is, they will have no way of getting to you again, except through me,” Francis said grimly. “We will be man and wife, and until then, I will not leave her side.”
Francis gave Virginia no option. But she did not want any. Nearly losing him had told her that. She would take Francis any way she could have him, and if that included losing her wealth and with it her security, then so be it.
Even marriage. There was only one reason for the change. She loved him. Just loved him, so dearly she was ready to throw everything she had away and go to him.
Not only loved him but trusted him. His word meant something. He would never abandon her or change the way he treated her. And she loved him. The more she repeated it in her mind, the closer she came to saying it aloud.
While she agreed with Jamie, that the estate would probably go to waste, exploited by the trustees and not cared for as it should be, it was none of her concern now. Time to let it go.
* * * *
A convivial dinner was served early enough for them to enjoy it. Truly, it was as if his body had marked a safe place to sleep and was now making the most of it, Francis acknowledged. He lifted a glass of excellent burgundy to his lips and took an appreciative sip.
The table was cleared and dessert set out. Nobody seemed inclined to leave the room, and Francis was disinclined to allow Virginia out of his sight. Not that he would not trust her with his life, but he needed to know that she was safe and happy. To call their recent experience at the manor a fright would be to underestimate how he’d felt to the point of irony.
He would not lose her. No doubts remained. Th
is was the woman he needed to spend the rest of his days with.
“So Hurst came to the rescue,” Francis said. He owed that man a stupendous bonus.
“He ran all the way here. I sent a man to inform the excisemen, and I rode back with more men to find you.”
“He did well. I will certainly reward him.”
Jamie nodded. “He deserves it. The smugglers have threatened me in the past.”
“And me,” Francis acknowledged. “Although never so much as recently.” He took another sip.
“What about the couple who were supposed to be looking after the house?”
Jamie gave a sound of disgust. “Paid off by the smugglers to leave the house empty but open. They are local villagers. Used to their ways.”
Virginia toyed with a piece of apple. “My husband was not against them. He said much as you have, Francis, but with fewer scruples. He said once that the smugglers could be an army if they were better organized.”
“A navy, more like,” Francis murmured. “And ruffians like that do find their way into the King’s service. Perhaps we should have them all pressed.”
They all laughed, but Francis did have a point. “So you did not know we were there when you raided the place?” he asked.
“No.” Jamie’s expression turned grave. “By the time we had returned here and discovered Hurst, you could well have been dead. They had cleaned up all traces of your presence. There was nothing left to indicate anyone else had been there.”
“And Butler was captured with us.”
“Yes. But there was this.” Plucking a small item from his pocket, he tossed it over the table.
Francis caught it reflexively and burst out laughing. He handed the SSL pin to Virginia. “Crace took this from you.”
“He had it pinned to his coat when we captured him,” Jamie said. “I recognized it because Maria has one.”
Of course she did. He might have known Maria was a member. And no man should be wearing that pin.
“At first he claimed he didn’t know what we were talking about, that you must be hiding somewhere in the house, but the pin gave the lie to that.” He grinned. “We persuaded him to change his mind and tell us where to find you.”
Virginia turned the pin over in her hand. “And this saved us.”
“It did,” Jamie said. “If not for Crace wearing that, I wouldn’t have known where to look for you. I’d have wasted time searching the manor house.”
“And then you found us,” Virginia said.
“I did. These houses have cellars. We found more than the silver pin.” Dipping his hand into his pocket, Jamie came out with three golden coins. “Have you seen these before?”
Virginia gasped in shock. “I had a brooch pendant. I thought it was an antique coin.”
“They’re tokens,” Jamie said. “I’ve seen them before in the magistrate’s court. Safe passes for smugglers and their clients.”
Francis growled low. “Her husband had one, and he gave one to her. Are they solid gold?”
“Yes. I doubt everyone gets a gold one. Crace had one, but the other men had the same design rendered in tin.”
Virginia swallowed. “So Ralph was in league with them?” She had to face the truth before she could go forward with her life. Perhaps this was another reason for her hesitation. She needed to finish with the past before she could make a future.
Jamie shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. Merely that he received their goods and safe passage. Many people see smuggling as a way for poorer people to make a living. He could have been one of those.”
Considering his other behavior, Virginia did not think that was likely. But the withdrawal of his protection might have caused the gang to attack her, fearful that she knew too much, that Ralph had told her more than he actually had.
Chapter 21
To her self-disgust, Virginia could hardly stay awake. Giving up, she retired to bed early, to the pretty room her cousin had assigned her. She slept alone, waking alone and feeling as if she was missing something. Francis, to be precise.
At their hosts’ insistence they spent the rest of the day resting, thinking of nothing. Francis stayed with her and finally confessed he was bone tired. “I meant to come to you last night, but I fell asleep. It’s hardly a romantic gesture, is it?”
“You fell off your carriage, raced breakneck to my side at Staines, fought off villains, traveled in the most uncomfortable carriages it has ever been my misfortune to encounter, nearly drowned—and you’re apologizing for falling asleep?” She laughed, lifting her head and letting the joyous sound free.
“I did not,” he said in a stiff voice, “fall off my carriage. I have never had an accident yet. I am accounted a tolerable whip. Someone fired a stone at me.”
Her laughter increased, his tone of injured pride was so good.
A week ago, she would not have known him so well. A week ago, she had not fully appreciated how much she—
Was loving him so bad?
“Sweetheart, let it go.” His voice gentled, became caressing. “For once, don’t think. Just be, for a few days.”
It was too late. The same old fear gripped her, that she had nothing, was nothing. Her title was an empty one. “I can bring you nothing,” she said.
“You heard what your cousin-in-law said about his wife. You bring me your own sweet self. That is all I want, all I have ever wanted. Why is it so difficult for you to understand that?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Truly I don’t. But the feeling comes over me, and I feel useless and without purpose.”
“You’re tired. I want to take you home,” he said. “To my home. I want us to be married there. We’ll wait for our wedding day, rest and recover.”
She stared out of the window at the garden. “At least I won’t make him homeless,” she said. “This is an elegant house.”
“Indeed. I have every expectation of Miss—Lady Dulverton’s parents giving in. After all, the deed is done.” He lifted his hand, indicating the pretty room and the rest of the house. “Meanwhile, this is hardly purgatory.”
Virginia agreed. “Does that make me a dowager?”
“For the shortest possible time.” He took her hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed her knuckles. Her melancholy passed; she actually felt it lifting. Perhaps that was the answer. It would not come all at once. He was right. They needed to rest. Her exhaustion was probably adding to her feelings of inadequacy.
“May I come to you tonight?”
She gave him all her attention. “You need permission?”
“I would rather have it. If you wish for another night alone, then you shall have it.”
“No. I missed you this morning.” That was the nearest she could get to telling him how much she wanted him. The revelation, that after all these years she had finally found that elusive creature, love, was still settling into her mind. And to find it with Francis.
* * * *
Francis and Virginia had been given rooms next to each other. As far as anyone knew, they were married. But Virginia still had a frisson of illicit excitement when the door to her room opened and he came in. He wore a robe of dark blue that was somewhat too short for him, since he was depending on their host to dress him suitably. Virginia rather liked it.
She wore a nightgown of fine lawn, and as she sat up, he groaned. “That is a deeply seductive garment.” He threw off the robe, revealing his lack of nightwear.
Virginia drank in his strong body, from the thick dark hair on his head, down his chest with the patch of dark hair at its center, to the dark trail of hair leading to an impressive erection, and the long legs, banded with powerful muscle.
This man was hers. Every wonderful bit of him.
When she would have removed her night rail, he held up a hand. “No, don’t. Let me.” Crossing the room i
n three strides, he tossed back the covers and stared down at her. She loved that he had no shame, that he was allowing her to gaze at his powerful body. He leaned over, planting his hands on the mattress, and bared his sharp, white teeth. “Are you ready for the wolf, madam?”
Her smile came unbidden, broad and joyous. “More than ready.”
“Let’s see, shall we?”
He let his gaze roam over her. Virginia arched her back, displaying her body for him, no longer afraid of what he could bring her, or that he took such pleasure in her body. Her reward was a growl, a rumble low in his throat that she could feel when she flattened her hand against his chest. His heart beat against her palm, and she lifted her gaze to meet his eyes in blatant invitation.
“What have I unleashed?” he murmured with a sultry smile only she ever saw.
“We should find out, don’t you think?”
She sat up and let him help her off with her night rail. “On our first night together, I was so very unsure,” she said.
“Last week you mean?”
With a light laugh, she nodded. “Yes. Last week.”
“Although,” he continued as he slid into bed next to her, “we have known each other for much longer. This was our inevitable conclusion. I knew you first, wanted you always, and now you’re mine.”
His tone was altogether too self-satisfied for her liking. “Not yet,” she reminded him.
“But soon. I will hold you to your promise, Virginia. You are not changing your mind now.”
“No,” she answered. She was not. Making love with him had been everything and more, but at the back of her mind, even now, as her body readied itself for him, she had misgivings.
But as he moved over her and took her mouth in a deep, passionate kiss, she gave herself up to him. Because she could do nothing else.
Francis’s mastery over her body had only increased since their first night together. He knew her now, the way she enjoyed him tweaking her nipples before licking around them and taking them into his mouth, one by one, firing her up, sending heightened awareness soaring through her body.
Virginia And The Wolf Page 24