She’d never seen him so angry, but Jock wouldn’t make her feel worse than she already did. Eden rose to her feet, ignoring his vicious expression. “Yes, I liked it. In fact I loved it! I love Damon and I always will. Why can’t you understand my feelings for him? Why do you want to marry me when you know I’ll never love you? This incident today spoke louder than any words. People won’t forget it, certainly not any of your Wellington friends. If you marry me, feeling as I do about another man, I’ll only be a detriment to your career.”
“Everyone will forget in time.”
“But I won’t forget! For God’s sake, Jock, I’m having Damon’s baby!”
The anger disappeared from his face, and he gently grasped her by the shoulders. “Believe me, people will forget and so shall you.”
He was so chillingly calm, that a shiver of apprehension slid down Eden’s back. “I don’t want to forget,” she admitted with a hint of defiance in her voice.
“You will, Eden. You will.”
With an unruffled air, Jock left her and went outside to join his guests.
~~~
Tessa was quiet, much too quiet for Damon’s liking. After they arrived home from High Winds, Damon carried a sleeping Collin to his room and settled him in bed. He stood over the child and felt a strong surge of love rush through him. Collin was perfect in every way. He’d never known a more lovable and affable little boy. Collin was the only good thing which had come out of his marriage to Tessa.
He knew she seethed with anger, and it was only Collin’s presence in the buggy which had prevented her from unleashing it. When he entered the parlor he found her pacing the floor, the steady swish of her gown the only sound coming from her. He’d embarrassed her, as he knew he would, but the kiss was meant to humiliate Eden. Yet now that he’d kissed Eden again, touched her again, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. If he took Tessa to bed, perhaps his ache for Eden would go away. He discarded the notion. He didn’t want to bed Tessa. He didn’t want any part of her.
He wanted Eden.
Tessa heard him enter the room and she twisted around to survey her glum-faced husband. “Proud of yourself, Damon? Did you have to make a laughingstock of me in front of the whole Otago with your whore?”
“You’re the whore.” He calmly took a cheroot from a silver box on the sofa table.
“Ain’t you ever goin’ to forget the past?” Tessa pleaded. “I want to be your wife and you better consider yourself damn lucky that I still want you at all, after the touching scene between you and the Widow Flynn at High Winds this afternoon. People were snickerin’ behind their hands. And believe me, Jock Sutherland ain’t goin’ to take kindly to what happened.”
“Since when do you worry what Jock thinks?”
“Since … since never,” she spat out. “I don’t care about Jock. It’s you I want, Damon. I want you to bed me.”
He lit the cheroot and sat on the divan. Tessa had that look about her again, the sort of look a mare in heat gets when a stud is put in the paddock with her. She had that same wild gleam in her eyes a few weeks back. She’d pleaded with him then to bed her and he’d refused. Then one night he had noticed a sense of contentment about her and she hadn’t begged since.
The thought passed across his mind that she’d been with another man. Could Jock have been that man? More times than not she brought up Sutherland in the conversation, and always she worried about Jock’s reaction to something Damon had done or said to him. It would be just like Jock to bed Tessa as a means of manipulating her. But what would controlling Tessa gain him?
Unless Jock had discovered Tessa’s whereabouts and brought her to Thunder Mine so Eden would marry him!
Perspiration broke out upon Damon’s forehead. There was no other explanation for Tessa’s sudden appearance.
He grew still and observed his wife, seeing her for the first time not as the conniving whore he thought her to be, but as a desperate woman. She’d tried every trick to gain entrance to his bed. Damon slept in another bedroom on the opposite side of the house. One night she’d sneaked into his room while he slept and slipped naked beneath the covers. He awoke to fiery hands stroking his shaft, and he’d thought for a few fuzzy moments in the dark it was Eden beside him. He instantly hardened, only to lose his arousal to find Tessa beside him.
Tessa’s curses rent the air when he lifted her from the bed and placed her in the hallway, locking the door behind him. Other men desired his wife, but she repulsed him. It was then he’d heard her shrill shriek. “Jock Sutherland wouldn’t turn me out!”
And Damon bet he hadn’t. But would Tessa go to Jock again for satisfaction? Was this the way to get his divorce, keep his son, and then claim Eden for his wife? Tessa paced like a lioness in a cage, and if he kept refusing her advances, she’d break out of her prison and find a willing man. And if that man was Jock…
“Go to bed, Tessa. You’re overwrought.”
“Aye, I’m overwrought,” she spat at him. “What would you have me be after you kiss that Flynn woman in such a way, and me standin’ there with egg on me face, tryin’ to pretend there ain’t nothin’ to it? A fellow behind me commented that you seemed ready to tear the gown off her.” She pointed to the trophy on the mantel. “I wish you wouldn’t have won the bloody thing.”
“I’d say Sutherland wished the same thing, and speaking about the contemptible bastard brings up something I need to ask you. Did he bring you back here from Christ Church?”
Tessa’s mouth fell open and she stopped pacing. “Why would you be thinkin’ such a thing?”
“Because I wonder if he knew where you were all these years and decided to make my life a living hell when I thought I’d found heaven, that’s why.”
Tessa sneered at him. “Ah, because of your precious Eden, you think he needed me to break you up. Well, you’re mistaken, me love. But if he had found me and talked me into returnin’ to Thunder Mine, then he did you a favor. Your wonderful lady friend hightailed it, she up and left you.” Tessa bent down, hissing into his ear. “Now if she loved you like she claimed, she’d have fought for you. Wouldn’t she, duck?” A smug smile lifted her lips and she went to her bedroom, slamming the door soundly behind her.
Damon couldn’t argue with her forthrightness.
~~~
Jock finished reading the message from Tessa which he had found on the desk in his study earlier that evening. The crafty bitch must have sneaked into the house sometime during her visit. Leaning back in the large, comfortable chair, he swirled the brandy in his snifter and his mouth twitched with amusement at what she’d written. Her spelling was so poor as to be laughable, her grammar atrocious; but she had made it perfectly clear she was in need of some physical attention. It seemed her virile husband wasn’t performing his husbandly duty by her.
“Never fear, dear Tessa, I shall come to your rescue,” he muttered and downed the brandy. She was falling right into his hands, and all because of her own wantonness. It was her greatest weakness which was going to destroy Damon, the man she so desperately loved but couldn’t convince to bed her.
Jock hoped she’d enjoy their tumble together, really he did, because it would be her last.
Chapter 23
High Winds buzzed with anticipation. On the morrow Eden Flynn would marry Jock Sutherland, and a constant stream of guests arrived for the festive occasion. Happy chatter wafted through the ceilings and drifted down the hallways as the visitors from Wellington were shown to their rooms, many of them to sleep four to a bed, as space was limited. Some of the locals from town had set up tents on the lawn. No one wanted to miss this wedding, it seemed. The wagging tongues had wagered it would be just as entertaining—and surprising—as the Sutherland Meet only two weeks before.
Some individuals bet that the beautiful Mrs. Flynn wouldn’t marry Jock Sutherland but would run off with Damon Alexander. Rumors were flying that Damon and his wife weren’t getting on well, and that Eden Flynn was the cause of the dissension.
<
br /> Not a chance, others espoused, and deciding they were in the know, upped the ante. Damon Alexander might not care for his wife, but he wouldn’t dare put in an appearance. They knew for a fact through the servant grapevine and High Winds’s stationhands that Alexander was to be barred if he approached Sutherland property. If he was unlucky enough to trespass near the house, Mr. Jock Sutherland had ordered the man shot. And it was a known fact that no one disobeyed Gentleman Jock—ever, not when the secretary-general himself was staying at High Winds for the wedding and counted upon Sutherland for protection. Why, the local magistrate was to attend the ceremony, and what an embarrassment it would be for him if Alexander broke through and caused a ruckus.
For all the betting and joking, Eden didn’t find any of it amusing. She thought High Winds looked like an armed camp with the stationhands riding the borders and instructed to shoot Damon if he attempted to approach the house. It was ridiculous, something out of a medieval romance, for Jock to believe Damon might stop the wedding. He’d gone so far as to forbid her to go no farther than the copse of trees around the house.
But Jock didn’t take into account Damon’s hatred of her. Eden had, and knew Damon wanted nothing to do with her. She was also made more humiliated by Jock’s overprotective attitude. With the armed stationhands nearby, no one forgot what had happened at the Sutherland Meet. Jock had made her a virtual prisoner, and sometimes she thought the guards were there not so much to keep Damon out but to keep her in.
The night prior to the wedding, Jock led her downstairs into the candlelit dining room where they dined with the secretary-general and his wife, and other Wellington dignitaries. As usual, Jock was a charming host and he complimented her later that she’d played her part of hostess well. He was proud of her. Drawing her close to him when he brought her to her room, he kissed her with such pent-up passion that Eden grew dizzy, not with longing but repulsion.
“Tomorrow night you’ll finally be completely mine,” he whispered, fondling her breast. “I’ve waited a long time to possess you, Eden.”
She realized Jock had given her time to come to care about him. He could have forced her into submission, but he wanted her to come willingly to him. If only she could do that, if she could love him and block out his faults. But she’d never forget how he’d manipulated her into this marriage and would never forgive him.
When she went into her room, she lay on the bed and stared up at the moon-streaked ceiling. After tonight she’d never have to sleep alone again, but the man whose arms she ached for wasn’t Jock.
~~~
“It’s about time you were gettin’ here,” Tessa groused to Jock. She peered at him from the bushes along the Shotover River as he reined in his horse. “I gave you my note long ago, and now you’re just gettin’ around to meetin’ me. I’ve got other things to do besides waitin’ out here in the dead of night for you.”
“Your time must be taken up with bedding your husband,” he snidely remarked as he led her deeper into the woods.
“Shut up, Jock. I ain’t here to talk about him. But after you’re married to that Flynn bitch, he’ll be wantin’ me again.”
“Tessa, my dear, if a mating is imminent between you both, then why have I been hounded by you to meet you here?”
Jock halted, and Tessa stopped behind him. The moonlight gave her face a translucent glow, and she looked so vulnerable to him, like the sweet young girl he’d loved all those years ago. She licked her lips. “Because I need me a man, and I want you, Jock.”
“I’m second best, eh?”
“No,” she hastily reassured him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Tonight you’re the only one.” Tessa wantonly pressed her body hard against him. Jock felt himself swelling with lust and need. Just for a short while, he’d forget her past and be transported back to a time when he loved her. This one last time would be sweet for them both. He’d see that Tessa enjoyed his lovemaking. He’d take her slowly to the summit. In fact, he’d make love to her more than once and when he had finished with her, she would be so satiated that she’d fall fast asleep in his arms beneath the stars and wouldn’t awaken.
She’d never know he had killed her.
~~~
A shooting star soared through the glittering firmament. Marjorie grabbed Tiku’s shirt-sleeve and pointed to it. “How breathtaking it is! she cried, leaning closer to him as he guided the buggy along the road from town. “I’ll wish upon it,” she said, and closed her eyes.
Tiku chuckled. “You’re superstitious.”
“Yes, aren’t you?”
“Not really.”
“Don’t you want to know what I wished for?”
“I can see you’re bursting to tell me, so I’m listening.”
Marjorie smiled, and a feeling of love washed over her. No matter how strange other people might think her to be, Tiku never laughed at her. He always listened to her. “I wished we’d always be together.”
Her fingers stroked his cheek as she gazed up at him in adoration. “I also wished to give you a son,” she whispered.
Stopping the buggy, Tiku stared down at her. “Are … are you having a child?”
“Yes.”
Instantly she was in his arms and he showered a myriad of kisses upon her face. Marjorie giggled. With others, Tiku was always so restrained and serious, but with her he was playful and constantly expressed his love for her. But then his kisses ceased and his face was so solemn that her heart threatened to break. She knew what he was thinking.
“We can’t be married, Marjorie. People won’t accept us.”
“Pooh on them. We love each other; our baby was conceived in love. I don’t give a fig what anyone says about us or our child. And … and I love you so much that I want to tell everyone I’m proud to be having your child.”
“Ah, my pretty Marjorie, I am indeed blessed.” He sighed his contentment when she laid her head upon his chest.
She was truly happy now, truly complete.
The buggy started rolling down the road toward Kia Ora. Jock’s wedding was tomorrow afternoon, and the hour was late. They must get home and go to bed, but Marjorie doubted they’d get much sleep. Too many mornings both she and Tiku were exhausted from their lovemaking and stayed abed later than they should. Bonnie Day, whom Marjorie guessed didn’t approve, never expressed by word or deed that she thought her employer was living in sin with a savage. But Marjorie didn’t need Bonnie’s approval—or Jock’s. After tomorrow, Jock and Eden would leave for Wellington, and though she’d miss them, her life was now to be lived only for Tiku and their child.
Marjorie snuggled next to Tiku and smiled to herself. But her happy musings ended abruptly when a rider on a white stallion rushed from a trail near the Shotover, some two hundred feet ahead of them. By the light from the moon she was able to identify the rider as Jock. Apparently he hadn’t noticed them.
“What in the world could Jock be doing out this time of night near Thunder Mine?” Marjorie glanced in bafflement at Tiku. “He should be at High Winds, preparing for his wedding tomorrow.”
Tiku laughed. “You sound like his mother. Your brother is a grown man and can come and go as he pleases.”
“Yes, you’re right,” she agreed, clasping her hand over his. She must stop worrying about Jock, but the habit of many years standing was hard to break. He’d been responsible for Bert’s death, she knew that, but she couldn’t hate him. He was her brother.
She comforted herself with the thought that Jock was taking a late-night ride because he might be nervous about marrying. Though this endeared him to her, his midnight ride still caused her a strange uneasiness.
~~~
“Where’s my momma?” Collin inquired of Damon the next morning.
Gulping down his coffee, Damon hauled the child onto his lap. “Sleeping, in her room.”
“No. I was in there and Momma’s not sleeping.”
“She must have gotten up early and gone outside.” But that was highly unlikely
, Damon realized. Tessa never rose until noon.
“Lanu said she wasn’t outside.”
Damon placed the child on a chair and served him his breakfast. They spoke about the pony in the stables, and Collin insisted that Tessa be found since she was to watch him ride the pony without the help of the groomsman. “All right, you nag,” Damon teased. “I’ll go find your mother. Finish up your breakfast.”
Collin nodded agreement and Damon went into the kitchen to ask Lanu if she’d seen Tessa. Lanu and the servants all claimed they hadn’t seen her since bedtime the night before. Damon checked the master suite and discovered the bed hadn’t been slept in.
So the tart had slipped out on him. He’d expected Tessa would eventually sneak away to meet someone, and he wasn’t surprised. However, he was surprised that she’d been gone all night. Tessa was the sort who took her pleasure swiftly and then wanted a long night’s sleep alone.
Had Tessa been with Jock? Damon tensed to believe she had been and wished to beat the devil out of Sutherland. It would be just like the unprincipled man to bed Tessa on the night before his marriage to Eden.
Eden.
Days ago he’d promised himself he wouldn’t think about her, but she invaded his dreams at night. Today was the day she was to marry Jock, and he would lose any chance to claim her again. As it was, even if he believed she still loved him, he’d be unable to take her away. Jock had turned High Winds into a veritable fortress to keep him out, which caused Damon to wonder even more why Sutherland feared him.
He’d lost Eden but gained a son. From this day on, Collin would be his life.
~~~
“Ah, how beautiful you are,” Nonnie exclaimed, clapping her hands. “Such a pretty bride.”
“Yes,” Marjorie agreed, misty-eyed. “Eden is the loveliest bride I’ve ever seen. My brother is so lucky to be marrying her.”
The object of their heartfelt compliments barely acknowledged them. Eden stood in the center of the bedroom in her ivory satin wedding gown. Summer daisies decorated the crown of her upswept hair, and Nonnie smiled as she competently arranged the gauzy veil. Eden wanted the ceremony completed, not certain she’d hold up under the strain of waiting. But as the time drew near to the moment when she’d go downstairs to be united to Jock, the secretary-general, who was to give her away, hadn’t put in an appearance.
Lynette Vinet Page 26