by Laurel McKee
“On the contrary,” Hammond panted. “I only wanted her. You were the one who got in the way. If you leave now, leave her with me, I’ll keep my bargain with her, even though she tried to cheat me.”
“I will never leave her,” Dominic said, horribly calm.
“Then you can die with her. It makes no difference to me. In fact, I rather like this ending—the cheap player and the cheating harlot, done in by getting above themselves.”
Hammond’s hand tightened around Sophia’s throat, and she felt herself falling down into blackness. As if from under a roaring ocean wave, she heard Dominic shout her name.
Dominic. No, no, she couldn’t leave him. He had come after her; she loved him. She reached deep down inside herself for one last burst of energy and managed to throw the gun she still clutched in her hand toward him.
As she started to sink to the floor, she heard a woman scream. Hammond, who still held on to her, suddenly dropped her as if he was startled by the sound. There was a loud explosion, a strong whiff of gunpowder, more hysterical screams.
Then everything just seemed to—stop. Sophia could feel the roughness of the carpet under her cheek, but her whole body felt numb. It was almost as if she floated outside herself, in a nightmare.
“Sophia!” Dominic’s voice broke through that haze. He sounded frantic, frightened. But how could that be? Dominic was always cool, remote, even in the midst of passionate moments and fights, always hiding his emotions behind his handsome face. “Sophia, talk to me. Look at me. Curse at me, anything, just be alive!”
Sophia summoned up all her resolve and rolled onto her back. She opened her eyes and saw her husband’s green eyes above her. A cut across his cheek oozed blood.
“I—I am alive,” she whispered. She tried to reach up to touch him, but her arm felt too weak to lift.
“Thank God. You beautiful, wonderful, foolish woman. What would I do without you?” Dominic’s arms came around her, and he lifted her up as he stood.
Sophia saw Lord Hammond’s body on the carpet, face-down in a slowly spreading pool of blood. The woman whose screams had distracted him stood in the doorway, her face buried in her hands as two men held her up. A gawking crowd was gathering behind them, and a man who said he was the owner of the hotel was shouting for order.
But for Sophia all that seemed very distant, all muffled and hazy. The only things that seemed real was Dominic, his arms around her, his body next to hers. Real and alive.
And she let herself give in to the darkness, knowing finally, once and for all, that he would keep her safe.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Sophia groaned as she felt her body coming awake. The light seemed to press hard against her eyelids, forcing her out of the warm darkness of her dreams. She rolled over onto her side, but her whole body ached. Her throat hurt when she tried to swallow, and for a moment she was confused. What had happened to her?
Then she remembered. Lord Hammond, her idea to confront him, Dominic—how it had all gone horribly wrong.
She sat up, and her head felt as if it would split at the sudden movement.
“Lie back down, Sophia,” a gentle voice said. Cool, soft hands gently pressed her back to the bed. “You have had a terrible shock. You must rest.”
Sophia frantically turned her head at the sound and found Dominic’s mother sitting on the edge of the bed. She smiled, but Sophia could see the strain on her pretty face, the tense lines of worry. She glanced around the room, a sunny, pale bedchamber, but there was no one else there.
“Dominic?” she said. Her voice was hoarse, and she could hardly force the one word through her aching throat.
“Don’t worry, he will be back soon. He and his father went to talk to the magistrate. He wouldn’t leave until he saw you settled here, but it couldn’t be put off any longer.”
“The magistrate? No,” Sophia gasped, cold panic roaring through her. “He will be sent to prison, and it’s all my fault.”
“He won’t be sent to prison.” Katherine pressed Sophia back to the bed. She was gentle but surprisingly strong. “There were no constables, no manacles.”
Sophia lay down on the pillows, but she couldn’t rest. She twisted the lacy hem of the sheets between her hands, and she felt the weight of her wedding band on her finger. “But the man Dominic killed—he was a relative of the Duke of Pendrake.”
“And there were witnesses who saw what happened, that this Lord Hammond tried to kill you and that Dominic was only defending his wife,” Katherine said, her voice soothing and steady. “And one of those men was cousin to the queen. Even Pendrake wouldn’t want to make trouble with the royal family. Dominic will have everything straightened out and return here soon. In the meantime, you must rest.”
Sophia nodded and let some of her mother-in-law’s quiet assurance soothe her. “I’m sure you are quite right. I just—well, I have become accustomed to fighting my own battles.”
“You aren’t alone any longer, Sophia,” Katherine said, gently squeezing Sophia’s hand. “Dominic told us about how you broke with your family. But we are your family now. You can be as eccentric as you like, but you will always be one of us now. And we defend our own.”
“Dominic should not have to defend me,” Sophia protested. “I made so many mistakes…”
“What is past is past. Everything will be well now.” Katherine gave her a teasing wink. “And it was good that Dominic could come to your rescue. The St. Claire men like to behave as if they were heroes in a medieval poem sometimes. It makes them feel useful.”
Sophia gave a choked laugh. “Surely there must be an easier way for him to feel useful?”
“I do hope so. This family has seen quite enough perilous dramas for the time being.” Katherine reached for a glass on the bedside table. “Here, drink some of this. It has honey and chamomile to soothe your throat.”
Sophia took the glass from her and drew in a sip. “Thank you. It does seem to help.”
“The doctor says you must take extra care of yourself now, with the baby and everything.”
Sophia nearly dropped the glass. “Baby?”
Katherine smiled at her. “Yes. Did you not know? You were in a faint when the doctor came, but I thought you must already know.”
“No, I—no.” Sophia pressed one hand gently over her stomach. She could feel nothing, but was there really a little life there? Dominic’s baby? “Is he sure?”
“As sure as a doctor can be, I suppose,” Katherine said with a laugh.
“I never would have gone to see Hammond if I knew.” She felt sick when she thought about what might have happened to her child.
“Of course not. But I am so terribly happy, Sophia—my second grandchild. First Lily and Aidan, now you.”
Even if it was a half-Huntington baby? There was still that tiny, cold doubt deep inside Sophia, but she couldn’t say the words. She couldn’t say anything at all. She was overwhelmed by emotion.
“Just rest now,” Katherine said. “Dominic will be back soon. I’ll be just outside the door if you need anything.”
Katherine tucked the blankets closer around Sophia and quietly left the room. Sophia closed her eyes and imagined the baby nestled within her, the baby that had already survived so much.
“I will never do anything to endanger you ever again,” she whispered. “You will always come first with me, no matter what. I promise.”
And your father will be home soon, she added. He had to be. She had to tell him how sorry she was. How much she wanted a new beginning for all of them.
She drifted into sleep again, until she woke to a gentle touch on her hand. She opened her eyes to find that the room was shadowed in evening, and Dominic sat beside her. He looked tired, his hair tousled and his eyes shaded with purple, but he smiled tenderly at her.
“Are you feeling better?” he said quietly.
“Dominic!” Sophia cried. She sat up and threw her arms around his neck, holding him close. She only wanted to know that he was real, that
he was there. “You came back.”
“Of course I did,” he said, laughing. “Where else would I go?”
“Prison? I was so afraid when I woke and you weren’t here…”
He shook his head. “There is little chance of that. I will have to testify at the inquiry, but the queen’s cousin and the other witnesses have signed statements that it was self-defense.”
“But there will be a great scandal,” Sophia said. She knew the furor that would erupt over such a lurid scene as the one at the hotel.
“Very, very great,” he agreed. “Yet that’s nothing now for either of us. I doubt we can ever aspire to respectability.”
Sophia had to laugh. “No, never. But the baby…”
“Poor baby, with such ne’er-do-well parents.” Dominic slid down next to her on the bed to lay his hand gently over the spot where their child nestled. “We will do our very best for him or her, though. It will always know that it’s loved—no matter what trouble it gets into.”
Sophia softly ran her fingers through Dominic’s hair, smoothing back the strands. “Dominic, you must believe I didn’t know about the baby before I went to confront Hammond. I never would have put our child in any danger. I only wanted…”
He looked up at her. His green eyes glowed in the shadows. “Wanted what?”
“To protect you. You married me to help me escape Hammond, and he would have used that to destroy you. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you put your own life at risk? Why would you do that?”
Sophia looked deeply into his eyes, those beautiful eyes she loved so much, and she took the greatest leap of her life. Even confronting Hammond had not demanded greater courage.
“Because,” she said, “I love you. I love you, and I would do anything to protect you. You were right when you said we were two of a kind. We rush out into life without thinking sometimes because we crave it so much. But if we watch each other’s backs…”
“Then we were made for each other. No one else could ever do for either of us.” Dominic sat up beside her and gently took her face in his hands. “I love you, too, Sophia. And I could never do without you. I would do anything for you, anything to make up for the way I treated you.”
Sophia laughed, even though she feared she would burst into tears. Surely there had never been a more perfect moment than this one. “I would say rushing in to save me from a murderous madman makes up for a great deal.”
Dominic laughed, too, and kissed her on her cheek, her brow, and the tip of her nose. “Any time you need saving, I will always be there. Just as I know you will, too.”
“I will.” Sophia wound her arms tightly around his shoulders and held him close. “Promise me there will be no more secrets. That we will never leave each other.”
“I promise. I am yours, forever,” Dominic said. “You and me and this child. I will do whatever it takes to make us a real family.”
“An unconventional family though.”
“Of course. We’re the Huntington–St. Claires. Surely there has never been a stranger match.”
Sophia kissed her husband and gave him a smile full of every joy in her heart. “No, there has never been a more perfect match than that one.”
Epilogue
Edinburgh, One Year Later
No, darling, we must be very, very quiet. Papa is rehearsing.” Sophia smiled down at her tiny daughter as she pushed the pram down the theater corridor. Little Mary St. Claire smiled up at her, green eyes shining from beneath her lacy cap.
“But of course you will be,” Sophia cooed. “For you are the best baby in the world.”
She steered the pram through the open doorway of one of the boxes, and the theater suddenly opened up before them. A vast, darkened space of empty velvet-and-gilt chairs, except for the well-lit stage below, where a rehearsal of As You Like It was going on. Sophia’s scenes were not being rehearsed today, so she had hours to spend with Mary and introduce her daughter to the theater.
Dominic sprang across the stage, laughing as he swung a stage rapier in his hand. All the light seemed to gather only on him, and Sophia could see he was in his true element there. No villains any longer, only heroes to thrill an audience’s heart. Just as he thrilled hers every time she looked at him. Just as she knew her true place every time they took the stage together.
Sophia smiled as she settled in one of the plush chairs and took Mary in her arms. Ever since they had come to Edinburgh so that Dominic could appear at his sister Lily’s theater and escape the scandal of London, all had seemed like a golden idyll. The troubles of London and Hammond’s death seemed far behind them now. Here, in this old city of hills and cobbled streets, of new theaters, they had made a fresh start.
“Your papa will take Edinburgh by storm in this role,” Sophia said, and Mary gurgled happily before grabbing a ribbon of Sophia’s bonnet to chew on.
“Indeed he will—and so will Mary’s mama,” Sophia’s cousin Aidan said as he stepped into the box. “We’re going to have a great success here at the Northern Majestic. Everyone wants to see the famous Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire. And how are you two beautiful ladies today?”
“We are very well indeed,” Sophia answered with a laugh. Mary smiled and held out one chubby little hand to her favorite uncle.
Another of the advantages to getting away from the troubles of London was that she got to see Aidan again and come to know his wife, Lily, and their new twin sons. No one knew better the trials of trying to build a Huntington–St. Claire marriage—or the rare joys. They were happier than any other couple Sophia had ever seen.
Except for herself and Dominic.
“How is Lily today?” she said as she watched Aidan play with Mary.
“Deep in her account books, so ridiculously happy. I will never understand that woman’s passion for numbers,” Aidan answered. He smiled at her and Mary as the rehearsal went on below them. “It’s so wonderful to see you so happy, Soph. I used to worry about you.”
Sophia laughed. “You worried about me? You were in trouble far more often than I was.”
“But you always seemed so discontented where you were, always wanting more, always fighting against everything.”
Sophia looked down at the stage. Dominic was explaining a stage move to another actor, his arm sweeping in a wide gesture as he laughed. Her handsome, dashing, wonderful husband. “I was unhappy then, and it made me behave in foolishly wild ways because I could see no way out. I couldn’t see another way to be. But now…”
“Now you have everything you want. A family, an acting career.”
“Yes.” Sophia held Mary’s tiny hand in hers and watched Dominic as he reached for his coat, still laughing with the other actors. “I do have everything I could have wanted. And so do you.”
“I do.” Aidan gave her one of his rakish grins. “Who would ever have thought it of us?”
“The two black sheep haven’t done so badly.”
Aidan looked at the stage. “It looks like they’ve finished for the morning. Should we go join Lily for luncheon?”
“Of course.” They made their way down the theater’s back stairs, Aidan carrying the pram for her. Mary stared around her at the scenery flats, her eyes wide and enthralled as they always were when she was in the theater. A tiny actress in the making.
“There are my favorite girls!” Dominic said when they emerged onto the stage. “How does the scene seem to be coming along?”
“Very well, of course,” Sophia answered as he took her in his arms. Mary gave a happy coo and stretched her little arms out of her blankets. “Mary was completely engrossed. Whenever she fusses, we only need to bring her to the theater and she calms down right away.”
“My little darling.” Dominic took Mary against his shoulder and leaned down to kiss Sophia warmly, lingeringly. “Have I told you I love you today?”
Sophia laughed and kissed him back. “Not since this morning. But I can never, ever hear it enough…”
Lily
St. Claire is determined to restore the St. Claire family fortune, lost a century before to the despised Huntington clan. But a ghost from her past may be her ultimate undoing…
Please turn this page for an excerpt from
One Naughty Night
Lily settled herself at the tiny table in the corner and watched Aidan Huntington as he made his way to the counter to order. Aidan Huntington—she could hardly believe she was here with him after their long-ago encounter at the theater docks.
What was she thinking? She had vowed to harden her heart to him, to forget the memory of their kiss. She was just getting her life in order again; he was a distraction she did not need. He was a Huntington, for pity’s sake.
But when he smiled at her, flirted with her, when she felt the hard strength of his body under her hand—somehow she simply could not turn away from him. She wanted him to smile at her again.
She was not the only woman who felt that way. Lily watched the crowd as he threaded his way through it, and every lady between the ages of five and eighty turned to study him under their lashes. They all blushed and looked away, only to peek at him again.
Just as Lily feared she was doing herself.
She busied herself with taking off her gloves and smoothing her jacket, but her attention kept drifting to him. Aidan. The slightly exotic, Celtic-sounding name suited him. He was tall and lean like some ancient warrior, with strong shoulders and snakelike hips and—her eyes slid lower—a taut backside in close-fitting trousers above long legs. His rich, glossy brown hair gleamed in the dim light of the cafe, and he shook it back from his brow as he peered over at her. For an instant, his face looked dark and intent, taut as a hawk about to dive onto its prey. His blue eyes, the most unearthly color she had ever seen, narrowed, and she stiffened in her seat. Then he smiled, that charming, careless grin that could capture any woman’s complete attention, and something warm and melting touched Lily deep inside.