“Stubborn. I like a man who knows his own mind. It’s one of the many things I admire about you. Heroic, too. Giving up the woman you love for noble reasons.”
“I never said I loved you,” he said, exasperated. How did women make everything so complicated?
Her eyes widened. “I’ll correct myself for now. Giving up the woman who loves you. Better?”
“No,” he spit out, irritated at himself and her. She’d perceived his weakness and gone in for the kill.
“Because it’s true?” Somehow, she’d made the space between them evaporate. When had she put her hand on his chest and tilted her face up? “Kiss me, and then tell me you don’t love me.”
A stronger man might have been able to resist her. He imagined himself picking her up to set her aside, but he couldn’t. When he encircled her waist and tipped her back as though to lift her, he crushed her closer. His other hand sank into the silkiness of her hair, demanding her lips meet his.
A victorious smile crossed her face before their mouths connected, but he didn’t give a damn if she thought she’d won. All the spoils of war were his as he plundered her mouth, tasting a hint of sweetness and a surge of heat. Her hands stroked his neck driving him wild. He wanted to find the nearest flat surface and do things that would shock her.
****
His lips left hers, but she didn’t complain as he kissed a line down her neck. Shivers shot through her when he grazed over her collarbone and continued toward the lacy edge of her gown. She didn’t dare breathe or move for fear of breaking the moment as she leaned back in his arms.
A bee hummed near her in the watery sunlight as Jim’s kisses neared her cleavage. He swatted at the insect, his hand flicking across her breast. Her gasp of surprise awakened him and he froze in place, his breath warm against her skin. Grasping him under the chin, she straightened him until their faces met. She wanted to continue the kiss, but his eyes made her pause. His deep blue irises were almost black, darker and more intense than she’d ever seen them.
“Jim?” She wanted him to speak, but her words jolted him. His eyes became unreadable for several long seconds. Straightening himself to his full height, he removed the letters from his pocket again and dropped them on the ground between them.
“I don’t love you.” His voice was low, almost inaudible as if the words didn’t want to be heard.
“What?” Then, she remembered her challenge before it was lost in the haze of the kiss.
“I don’t love you,” he repeated, more clearly. He opened his mouth to say more, but slammed it shut. Without speaking again, he walked away from her toward the rose garden’s center and further from the house. He was either lost or not fit for company.
She wasn’t an expert on love, but sometimes Richard was careless with his books. At sixteen, she’d found an illustrated work of lovers tucked under a sofa cushion in his library. In her perusal, she’d learned a few things about the male anatomy. Jim was definitely not fit for society, especially since men’s trousers fitted so tightly according to current fashion. She smiled although no one could see it.
He may claim not to love her, but the signs told a different story. And she did love a good story. Now, how to bring about their happily ever after?
She scooped up the letters from the ground, idly running her fingers over them, and noticed the broken seal on the outside one. He’d read it. She pulled the piece of string holding the packet together to check the other seals. Flipping through, she noted each one was broken. He’d read them all.
Why would a man so convinced of their incompatibility open the letters? The first one she could understand. He simply wanted to know why she’d written him, but the others? Oh, that definitely showed interest. How she longed to know how many times he’d read each.
Ella returned to the drawing room alone with a reassuring nod to her eagle-eyed brother and a wink to Sophie. She settled on the window seat, giving her a view of the gardens where Jim still stalked about.
“You’ve lost your companion?” Edmund observed with his usual charismatic smile. No wonder her sister succumbed to his charms after years of refusing him. He was a wonderful example of what persistence could do for a relationship. “Fascinated with the water pumping system?”
“Couldn’t drag him away,” she responded, accepting a cup of tea from Annabelle.
“Let’s hope all encounters between you and Mr. Ferguson are over so quickly,” Richard said. “I don’t want you alone with him since I can’t trust you will behave in a rational manner.”
“Yes, of course, Richard.” Her easy agreement immediately raised his suspicions, and he was about to say more when Mary interrupted.
“We’ve received a note from your mother, Ella. As it turns out, she’ll be joining us on Thursday and she’s bringing Lady Bedham with her. She sends her love and says to be a good girl.”
Lady Bedham, whom they all secretly called Lady Bedlam, was an intimate friend of her mother’s, one of the biggest gossips of the ton, and a force to be reckoned with. Consequently, Ella worked hard to stay on Lady Bedham’s good side. Young ladies who did not, paid the price. “Why Mother is so fond of that woman is a mystery to me,” Ella grumbled to no one in particular.
“Ella, our mother’s choice of friends may seem peculiar to you, but I’m sure she has her reasons.” Richard took a sip of tea. “I did hear Mother mention that Lady Bedham had offered to coordinate your second season. She was so wonderfully successful at marrying off her own daughters.”
“Second season? There’ll be no reason for that.”
“You know something I do not?” Richard’s head of the family voice cut through the idle conversations in the room.
“No, you would, of course, be the first to know. Possibly even before me. But it’s several months until the next season begins, and I see no reason to rush to conclusions about a second.” Especially when she’d been dangerously and intimately close to Jim Ferguson not ten minutes before.
“I’d think about it if I were you. Mother was quite smitten with the idea of Lady Bedham managing you. I even saw the list of eligible bachelors she pulled out of her…” Richard indicated where the bosom of a lady would be on his own chest and set his lips into a thin line. “Anyway, I noted that Baron Edgeton was her first choice for your future husband. So convenient he’s one of our current guests. A wonder you didn’t go shooting with the gentlemen today to have an opportunity to impress him with your skill. If Lady Bedham were here, you’d be cleaning his guns for him as a sign of your amiable nature.”
The baron, otherwise recorded as the too wet kisser, was slightly round, half a head shorter than Ella, and going bald at five and twenty. And, despite owning two country estates, a terrible shot. The only things in danger when the baron hunted birds were leaves from any trees within a league. Ella felt so sorry for him two days ago she pretended her own kills were his. She regretted her generosity if Richard were going to use it to torment her with an unsuitable beau.
“Perhaps another day when you can chaperone us,” Ella suggested, knowing Richard wouldn’t bite. He hated hunting.
“It wouldn’t be a bad match for you. Mary, make sure you send Ella down with Baron Edgeton tonight for dinner,” Richard instructed. Across the room, Sophie suppressed a giggle into a cough.
“I’ve already done the arrangements,” Mary said. “Mr. Ferguson will escort her this evening. I hate to rearrange my table at such short notice.”
Richard glanced at the porcelain and gold clock on the mantle. “It’s over nine hours until dinner.”
“Yes, but I have so many things to do today with a house full of guests and,” Mary rested her hand on the bump beneath her gown, “I was hoping to get some rest with only family in the house while the others are out shooting.”
“I can see I’m beaten here. I’ll be in my office where I’m still in control of something.” Her brother made for the doorway leading into the hall. “One word of warning, Ella. If I suspect a moment o
f impropriety, I will send Mr. Ferguson on his way. And no force,” he glanced at his wife and Annabelle, “will be capable of making me issue another invitation to him.” He pointed his finger at his two sisters and Mary. “Is that understood?”
“Perfectly, dear,” Mary said and the others nodded. They waited until Richard’s office door slammed closed before permitting the penitent expressions to become smirks and laughter.
Chapter Three
“How many trunks and boxes you have!” Ella observed a little later in Sophie’s room while her friend unpacked. Sophie would have described herself as average in appearance, perhaps even boring. Sophie would say disparagingly that her hair and eyes were the color of weak tea, but tea didn’t shine and flash. Sophie complained of her stunted height in comparison to Ella, but she was exactly the size men thought wonderful. Lastly, Sophie lamented she didn’t have one good feature. Since the shape of her face and features was perfection, finding one good quality presented a difficulty, but Sophie never saw it that way. “How long do you plan to stay?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve become quite the vagabond this summer with Mama and Papa traveling on the continent. I’ve visited three of my elder sisters and their families and now I’m burdening Edmund and Annabelle. I hate being a third wheel with a newlywed couple.”
“You can stay here forever, you know.”
“Thank you, but I’d like to go home.” By home, Sophie meant her family estate, which bordered Oakwood Manor, but without her parents or brother in residence, she couldn’t live there alone.
“Edmund will be back and forth between the houses. I wonder why he and Annabelle aren’t staying there now that I think about it.”
“They wanted to be here for some reason. I think it may have to do with you.”
“Me? What do you know?” Ella questioned excitedly.
“I was in Bristol a few weeks before we journeyed here, and you were the center of much discussion.” Sophie’s voice dimmed as she dug to the bottom of a trunk.
“Was Jim there?”
“For some of it.”
“How did he look?”
“Uncomfortable whenever your name was mentioned.” Popping up over the trunk’s edge, Sophie smiled wickedly.
“Delicious. Tell me everything.”
“I wish I knew more, but something is brewing.” Sophie tossed a pair of beaded evening slippers onto the floor.
“About Jim and me?”
“Partially, but much of what I overheard.…”
“Still listening at keyholes?”
“Naturally, how else have we managed to keep the most entertaining journal ever written by two debutantes?” Sophie plopped onto the floor, leaning against a stack of boxes with her legs crossed. Ella scooted off the bed, spreading her skirts around her as she too sat on the polished wood. Since their friendship spanned nearly their entire lifetimes, exchanged confidences in whispered conversations were de rigueur.
“So?” Ella prompted.
“At first I thought it was some huge business deal for Edmund’s company. He and Jim met until late into the evening and they had all sorts of charts and plans unrolled on the dining room table. Low voices, whispering, all very mysterious, but I assumed it was business and didn’t concern love.”
“But it does?”
“I heard a bit of conversation between Annabelle and Jim. He was insisting that he didn’t want to come here, but Edmund said he needed to check on his estate so Jim would have to tag along so they could finalize their plans and make the meeting.”
“So?”
“Jim thought that Richard wouldn’t allow him here after…” Sophie made a little wave of her hand between Ella and an imaginary person.
“Yes, yes.” Despite herself, she felt the heat rising to her cheeks.
“Annabelle assured him that he was welcome.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. A maid came along and I had to scoot around a corner. When I returned to the door, Jim was promising to come.”
“It didn’t take her long to convince him.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“If Annabelle is involved,” Ella began piecing it together in her head, “it can’t all be the shipbuilding business. When did this secretive conversation take place?”
Sophie reached into a bag on the floor near her and retrieved a leather-bound journal. “I should have the date in here.” She flipped past several entries. “Here it is. I arrived in Bristol on August twenty-fifth and the conversation took place two days later.”
Ella jumped up and raced across the hall to her own room. Pulling her diary from under the chair cushion where she’d left it this morning, she opened it to the entry for August twenty-ninth. Just as she remembered. Something was definitely afoot.
Sophie slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. “What is it?”
“Richard announced that Baron Edgeton, Sir Eliot, and Lord Spencer were coming for a visit on the last day of August. None of us were aware that he had issued any invitations until then. As a matter of fact, I was to have gone to Lady Preston’s house party for a week and was forced to cancel so I would be here to entertain the young men.”
“Perhaps Richard just invited them as potential suitors for you.”
“I’m sure he did, but I suspect he has a devious intention as well.”
“But what?”
They both sank down onto the plush rug in Ella’s room, unmindful of their dresses, as she contemplated Richard’s hidden agenda.
“He’s trying to force my hand by putting the four men I’m most likely to consider in the same place at the same time to see what happens.”
“Baron Edgeton?” Sophie wrinkled up her nose.
“He is sweet and very wealthy.” A bit like a puppy, Baron Edgeton followed her around with his large brown eyes always hopeful of attention.
“Sir Eliot?”
“Serious minded, moderately wealthy, moving up the ranks in Parliament. He’s probably Richard’s choice for me.” He’d be one of the most important men in the country by forty, and he was pleasant enough although in a somewhat smug, condescending way. “He’ll make some ambitious woman a wonderful husband, but he’s not for me.”
“Lord Spencer?”
“Handsome, charming, but broke if the stories are true. He must marry well and will probably be quite mercenary in the process.” With his piratical good looks, he was the most attractive suitor of the trio, but keeping him in waistcoats and horses would tax any lady’s fortune.
“Jim Ferguson?”
“Too perfect for words.” She couldn’t stop the ridiculous smile even when Sophie pointed at her face and laughed until she couldn’t breathe. “He is perfect. He’s physically attractive. You have to agree with me there with his broad shoulders and all that majestic height.” She sighed. “And he’s intelligent, hardworking, and he has the cutest…oh, stop laughing at me.”
“Wouldn’t the others be jealous if they heard your description of Mr. Ferguson?” Sophie leaned back, resting her head on the chair.
“Jealousy. That’s it.” The most marvelous plan popped into Ella’s head. “Men can’t stand it when their women are interested in other men or said men pay attention to the woman. I’ll flirt with the others and make Jim jealous, and he’ll see that he can’t live without me. It happens all the time in the novels.”
“That’s a dangerous game, Ella,” Sophie cautioned. “What if someone takes you seriously?”
“It’ll only be for a few days.” She brushed the objection aside. “Say from now until the ball on Saturday. That’s five days. Just enough time to make Jim very jealous.”
“It won’t be convincing if you flirt with all three.” Sophie offered a refinement to her scheme.
“Good point. I’ll pay attention to Baron Edgeton and Sir Eliot, but my target will be Lord Spencer. He’s so easy to flirt with.”
“When will you begin?”
“Tonight.” Ella c
lapped her hands together. “I shall ask Mary to rearrange the table.”
“She already refused when your brother asked her.”
“I’ll be very persuasive,” Ella assured her friend.
****
Ella inclined her head to him across the dinner table like a queen recognizing the existence of her servant. A position he supposed he deserved, but didn’t like. Between Lord Spencer, the aristocratic ass, on her right and Edmund, who under normal circumstances was Jim’s closest friend, on her left, she never glanced his way again during the first course.
His dinner companions, though pleasant, were unable to rivet his attention the way Ella did her neighbors at the table. He gave up surreptitious glances at her when he realized she never once acknowledged him beyond that little nod. Instead, he openly stared and didn’t give a damn who saw. And despite his behavior this afternoon, he wanted her to notice him. Call it vanity, but he wanted the sparkle and shine she currently directed at Spencer to be for him.
She seemed determined to engage every other man as she smiled and waggled a flirtatious finger at Baron Edgeton where he sat further down the table. The ridiculous man blushed nearly the same shade as the tomato bisque of the soup course.
She couldn’t be interested in the baron, but Spencer was a different matter. Even Jim could see the man was everything young ladies supposedly desired on the surface. Underneath, Jim knew Spencer was the worst type of man. Bitter experience had taught him that.
“Is your room comfortable? Edmund wanted you to have enough light so you could work.” Annabelle addressed him from his left side. He turned to answer her question, while straining to hear what Ella said to Spencer.
“I’d be delighted to walk into the village with you in the morning. What a wonderful diversion!” She rested her hand on Spencer’s arm for a moment, making Jim grit his teeth. “Whom shall we invite to join us?”
Jim couldn’t make out Spencer’s reply, but from Ella’s reaction he could guess. She covered her mouth with one hand as though shocked and blushed, but she smiled in an engaging manner. The conspiratorial grin on Spencer’s face matched hers. He wanted to rip Spencer’s throat out.
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 193