by Lydia Dare
But Wes didn’t want Madeline to be resigned to her fate; he wanted her to be happy. But could she be happy with him? He would have sworn she was on the precipice of asking him to kiss her when that dolt knocked on the door with his damned bucket of water. Wes wasn’t foolish enough to believe that if he’d seduced her, she would suddenly fall at his feet in love with him, but it would have been a start. A wonderful start. A start he was dying for.
What was she doing at this moment? Had she climbed in the bed all clean after her bath? Wes rose to his feet, scraping the legs of the wooden chair across the floor in his haste. “I suppose I should go see about her.”
Renshaw motioned to Wes’ untouched whisky. “As I’m paying for it anyway, sir, I think I’ll finish that up for you.”
He could drink all the damned whisky he wanted. “Get some rest so we can leave at first light, will you?”
The coachman nodded. “I could drive this road in my sleep I’ve done it so many times, Mr. Hadley.”
***
Maddie sat in the middle of the tub, looking around the small room. She had nothing to wear. Not one thing. Her dress was, if not ruined, filthier than the Hythe stables. She couldn’t imagine slipping it back over her skin after she’d finally scrubbed the grime from herself. Her chemise had seen better days, too. Somehow one of the ties had even been torn off.
What a miserable night. She couldn’t even enjoy her bath after Weston had stormed out and locked her in this hovel. The entire time she tried to figure out what she’d done that had made him so angry. He’d dumped an entire bucket of water over her head, blast him. No one had ever done anything like that to her in her life, and she didn’t appreciate it. She’d done nothing wrong except want to be clean, for heaven’s sake. That was hardly a crime. Certainly it didn’t warrant him storming off to sulk for some unknown reason.
She shivered a bit as the water began to turn cold. Well she had to wear something, if not tonight, then tomorrow in the carriage for sure. Maddie glanced again at her soiled gown and almost cried. But crying wouldn’t get her a clean dress. She peered tentatively over the edge of the tub to the floor, keeping a watch out for any mice in the vicinity. Not seeing one, she stepped out of the tub and picked her dress up off the floor. Then she eyed the tub once more.
If she was feeling generous, she’d save the water for Weston in case he wanted to make use of it himself. But as he’d stormed out of the room like an infant, she wasn’t feeling terribly generous at the moment. Maddie knelt beside the tub and dipped her lemon muslin in the bathwater. She cringed as she scrubbed at the muddy stains on her dress. It would never recover but it at least it would be a bit cleaner in the morning. She’d have the thing burnt when she got home…
Dear heavens.
Where was home? She certainly couldn’t call Castle Hythe home any longer. But where did that leave her? Wherever Weston Hadley took her, that’s where. Maddie scrubbed harder at the stains, taking out her frustration with Weston on her ill-treated dress. Where would he take her? Where would they live? What could they afford? All day long he’d told her what they couldn’t afford. No maids, no baths. What if she was made to live in a hovel like this for the rest of her days?
Certainly being a ruined woman had to be better than living with vermin and dirt and… What had he said to her earlier, something about not bolting when they stopped to change horses? She couldn’t bolt this evening as she had nothing to wear. But in the morning when they made their first stop, perhaps she could make a run for it.
A knock sounded at the door. “Madeline,” Weston called as the handle jiggled.
She glanced down at her completely naked state and squeaked, “Don’t come in here!”
Something, perhaps his thick head, bumped against the door. “I have to come in, darling. I can’t sleep in the hallway.”
“Just a moment, then.” Maddie scrambled to her feet and picked up her dripping wet chemise. It was much too cold to put it on. She glanced around the room and finally yanked the counterpane from the bed and wrapped it around herself.
The door opened just a crack. “Are you decent?” he said through the opening.
“I wouldn’t call this decent,” she said tentatively.
“Yet, it’s the best we can do, I suppose.” He entered the room and closed the door behind himself, turning a key in the lock. Wes’ eyes settled on her, and Maddie hitched the counterpane up under her arms. “I, um, I suppose I owe you an apology.”
As he did appear contrite, Maddie resisted the urge to snort. “For what?” After all, there were so many things he could apologize for. Locking her in the room, dumping a bucket of water over her head, getting her dirty in the first place, abducting her, stealing her future from her, or for being a Lycan. The list was endless.
“For everything.” He sat on the edge of the bed and tugged off one secondhand boot. “I know you’re accustomed to everything being just so, and I know this journey must seem like a rude awakening.” The boot hit the floor with a thud, and he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You don’t know anything about poisons, do you?”
Poisons? Maddie’s mouth fell open a bit. “I beg your pardon.”
He shook his head. “I thought not.” Then he directed his attention to his other boot.
“Weston,” she began, “I do believe that is the strangest question I’ve ever been asked.” When he didn’t respond, but let his second boot hit the wooden floor, Maddie stared up at the ceiling. “Do you truly intend to sleep here with me tonight?”
He nodded once. “I thought you wanted me to keep all the vermin away from you.” Then he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Besides, we can’t really afford two rooms, my dear. I’m sorry for that, too. But things are as they are. We’ll have to find a way to make the best of it.” Weston stretched out beside her and turned on his side to face her. “Did you enjoy your bath?”
“I feel better now that I’m clean,” she replied softly.
He smiled at her, and once again Maddie was struck by how handsome he was when he smiled. “Good. I hate that you didn’t have any of your rosewater, but I’ll make it up to you once we get home.”
There was that word again. “Weston?” She bit her lip.
“Hmm?”
“Where is that exactly? Home, I mean.”
His smile vanished, and it seemed as though he hadn’t given any more thought to the question than she had. “Well, I was raised in Derbyshire at Hadley Hall.” He shook his head. “But these days I’m more often in Kent than anywhere else.”
The idea of remaining in Kent put her heart slightly at ease. “I want to live at my home. I’m sure Papa would be amenable to the idea.”
Weston tucked a wet lock of hair behind Maddie’s ear. “That doesn’t sound like the best idea, my dear. I think it would be in our best interests to be away from your family as you get used to your new station in life.”
Heavens, he made that sound dreadful, as though she’d be responsible for bedpans or mucking out the stables.
He must have seen the panic on her face because he hastened to add, “I have no claim on Eynsford Park, but I suppose it is home. And it’s close enough to your family and the castle, Madeline. I’m sure Cait will welcome you…”
Eynsford Park. Maddie breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t mean to make her live in a dirty hovel. Still, it would be odd living at The Park as there was no official relation between the Hadleys and Eynsford’s family. Would tongues wag at the unorthodox arrangement?
“…And, of course, Lady Sophia is in residence now. I think you’ll be happy enough there.”
How had Maddie forgotten about Sophie? There were so many things to wonder about. Still she shouldn’t have lost sight of her friend. “What is Sophie’s arrangement at The Park? I would have thought Eynsford’s children were a bit young for a governess.”
“You think she’s there to be the children’s governess?” A self-deprecating laugh escaped him. “Not quite.”
“No, she accepted an indecent proposal from Cait,” Weston admitted with a wince.
That didn’t make any sense at all. “What do you mean by that?”
He lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Dash hired her as a governess for us.”
“Who’s ‘us’?”
“The Hadley men. Archer, Gray, and me. To make us respectable.” He scrubbed at his forehead as though he could wipe away the very thought of it.
“That’s preposterous,” Maddie scoffed. Such a thing was completely unheard of. Sophie would be ruined if anyone learned of it.
“The idea of us being respectable?” he asked as he swung his feet off the bed and got up to cross the room. “Yes, I think it’s preposterous, too. Imagine, the Hadley men being models of propriety. It’ll never happen. But Dash seems to think it will.” Weston stepped behind the screen.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You’re not the only one who was rolling in the mud, darling,” he replied.
Maddie could see his form through the screen as he disrobed. The breadth of his shoulders was in stark contrast to the narrowness of his waist, if the shadows were actually in proportion to reality. She covered her face when he bent to pull his trousers over his feet. Was he naked behind the screen? The very thought made her heart beat faster.
“I feel as though I’ve been rolling around with swine,” he called from behind the screen.
Maddie’s mouth fell open. Swine? Of all the things to call her. Swine, indeed. She stood up and marched over to the screen, then glared around it. But the sight that met her eyes was unlike any she’d ever imagined.
His hips were narrow, his shoulders were broad, and his buttocks, they were… well, they were uncommonly attractive. She tilted her head to study him more closely. She’d never imagined a naked man would look so… appealing. When she’d seen him the night before, it had only been by the light of the full moon. She’d missed quite a bit, apparently.
“Do you like what you see?” he drawled slowly, his back still toward her as he glanced over his shoulder at her. A grin lurked on his face.
“Well, I’m not certain like is the right word,” she murmured, still unable to draw her gaze from his backside.
“Are you lusting for me, Lady Madeline?” he teased as he reached to pick up a length of toweling beside the tub. He wrapped it around those lean hips and then turned to face her. A grin broke across his face that made her want to smile with him. “Would you consider helping me wash my hair, Madeline?” he said with a teasing singsong pitch to his voice.
“I would consider dumping a bucket of water over your head,” she replied.
Amusement made his dark eyes twinkle. “Make it cold water, would you? Because the sight of you in nothing but that blanket is making me insane.” He let his gaze wander down her body. “I’m assuming you are naked under there?” he tossed out casually, as he bent and wet his own hair, then began to soap it while she watched.
She was naked and had never been more aware of it. But so was he. Nothing more than a length of toweling covered his most private places. She let her gaze drop.
“Why, Madeline,” he teased. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you have designs upon my person.” He rinsed his hair, his brown locks darkened even more by the water that sluiced from the ends.
“Y-you’re all wet,” she stammered. Then she gulped.
“If I had to wager on it, I’d bet you are, too,” he drawled slowly. Her heart fluttered within her chest. Then he shook his head like a dog after a bath.
Maddie scurried away as water droplets flew in all directions. She shrieked and ducked behind the screen. “I cannot believe you did that!” she cried. But he barreled around the screen and scooped her up in his arms, then tossed her back onto the bed. She bounced in the middle, clutching the counterpane she’d wrapped around herself to be sure it stayed closed. Even then, a leg slipped out of the opening. She moved to close it, but he got in her way.
“Believe it, Madeline,” he growled as he crawled to lean over her and gazed down, a smile gracing his beautiful face. She reached up to touch his cheek. When had he become beautiful to her? She’d always been terrified of him. And his hair stuck out in every direction, and water dripped from his locks onto the naked skin of her chest. “You are stuck for a lifetime with this loyal dog,” he growled. Then his face softened as he looked into her eyes, his brimming with something she wanted to delve farther into. “It’s regretful that you’re getting such a mutt, instead of a purely bred specimen.”
“You’re purely bred,” she corrected him. His parents had been married after all.
“But with pockets to let and no title to recommend me,” he tossed out as his lips dropped to touch a water droplet on her chest ever so softly.
“I could think of worse things you could be,” she consoled. Why she felt the need to console him, she wasn’t certain. “Like bald.” She trailed a hand through his damp hair and giggled. She tugged gently at his hair. “I wonder if your hair will turn grey or turn loose when you’re older.” She couldn’t keep from exploding with laughter.
“I may be punting on the River Tick, Madeline,” he said regally, “but I do have a full head of hair.” He pretended to mull it over. He lowered his lips to the skin of her chest again and very lightly mouthed at the water that shimmered there. “And I have some other assets.”
“Do enlighten me,” she gasped as his mouth delved down to the edge of the counterpane. The edge of it was just barely tucked beneath her arms.
“Where would be the fun in telling you, darling?” he asked as he rolled from atop her and landed on his back. “You’ll just have to figure them out for yourself.”
Maddie sat up on her elbow and glanced down his body. “And just where might these secrets be hidden?”
He palmed the side of her face as he grinned roguishly and whispered, “Beneath my towel, Madeline. Where else?”
Maddie rolled to her bottom where she could face him. Heat crept up her cheeks, making her feel like a fireplace that had just been stoked. “You shouldn’t say such scandalous things,” she whispered. But she was unable to draw her gaze from that blasted towel.
He chuckled as he wiggled his legs with glee, obviously pleased by her discomfort. He laughed until he had to wipe his eyes from the exhaustion caused by his mirth. “Oh, Madeline dear, I’ll have so much fun teaching you to be naughty. Though I think you’ll be a willing student.” His gaze darkened as he let his eyes slide up and down her body. She felt that movement more strongly than any caress he’d bestowed upon her so far. “I think there’s a small piece of you that enjoys getting dirty.”
“I do not, sir, enjoy getting dirty, and I never, ever will.”
“Hmm. We’ll see about that.” Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “Just to be sure we’re on the same page of this book that is now our lives, you do know that everything has changed, don’t you?” He reached out as though he wanted to touch her. But then he pulled his hand back. “I’m not wealthy or titled. And to top it all off, I’m a Lycan. You are triply blighted.”
She mulled it over for a moment. Things could be worse. He could be Gelligaer or Chilcombe or any number of the other peers her father had brought home to the castle. At least Weston Hadley had had her attention, even before he’d turned into a wolf before her eyes. “I’m not blighted.” She shrugged. “So, my circumstances have changed. Sophie’s circumstances have changed, and she’s making the best of it. I’ll do the same.�
�
Weston scoffed. “Sophie took employment, darling. You’re taking a husband.”
“I knew I’d take a husband one day, and I knew it would be someone I didn’t love. This is not very different. As you so graciously mentioned, I was born to be docile.”
“God, I hope you’re not really docile,” he muttered as he rolled to his side and put out the lamp on the bedside table, casting the room in shadows. “I hate docile.”
He rolled to face her once again, still wearing nothing more than his towel. She lay down on her pillow, never moving her eyes from his. He looked fairly average with his scar hidden in the pillow. But then he reached out and ran his fingertips slowly up her arm. That wasn’t ordinary at all. It made the hair on her arms stand up. It made her nipples press like hard points against the counterpane. “What’s wrong with docile?” she whispered to him.
“Docile is fine for other men. And if it’s what you truly are, I’ll be very happy with it. But if it’s not, I hope you don’t pretend to be obedient or docile just because it’s what’s expected. I’ll expect you to be you.”
“And who am I?” She had to ask, wondering if he saw something more inside her than she even knew herself.
“You’re Lady Madeline Hayburn, only daughter to the Duke of Hythe. And you’re marrying well below your station to become just another Hadley.” He cupped the side of her face and kissed her very gently on the lips. “Too late to change any of that, I’m afraid.”
What if she didn’t want to change any of that? Even if she could? What if, right in that moment, she wanted to throw docility out the window? Was there more to her than that? Maddie had a sneaking suspicion that Weston Hadley had a lot more fun being poor and dirty than she did being rich and clean.
“Go to sleep,” he said quietly. “We have to be up early in the morning.”
“To get married,” she said softly.
“Unless you run off first,” he grumbled as he settled deeper into his pillow.