Devin’s hand went lightly on her arm. “Do you truly believe he is alive, or are you pretending because it is easier than the alternative?”
Aggie eyed him. She didn’t like the probing. Didn’t like having to question her own faith that Jason was alive. She looked away, staring out the window at the light of the morning brightening the trees. “Honestly, I am not sure. I would like to be, but he has just been away so long. If he is alive, I am certain he would have contacted us by now. Especially if he knew about father and…” Her voice trailed, cut off by her own fears.
If Jason was alive and knew about the danger his family was in, he would have been back. Aggie was sure of it. But he didn’t know. That was the only explanation. That was the only reason he would stay away.
She ran her fingers over the smooth backbone of the panther. “One of the last things my father said to me was to keep the panther with me always—I guess to keep the hope of Jason alive. So the panther stays with me. It keeps me optimistic, as it is my only link to the hope that he is well.”
“Can I see it?”
Devin took the offered sculpture, turning it back and forth in his hands, studying it. “It certainly is an exquisite piece. The craftsmanship is of very high quality.”
Devin handed the panther back to Aggie.
Her finger ran along the front outstretched leg of the cat. “Yes, Jason always did have an eye for fine craftsmanship.”
She stood, turning from Devin, and carefully rewrapped it. Jason had to be alive, she repeated in her head. He just had to be.
Devin stood and Aggie turned to him.
“Before we go, Devin, there is something else as long as we are talking about Jason and the estate.”
“Tell me.”
He crossed his arms across his chest, and Aggie swallowed. She wondered if he always had to brace himself when she was about to talk. But then, he was the one that said he didn’t like her omitting information.
“I do not want to burden you more than I already have, but I have a favor to ask. Will you help me with the dealings of the estate? I don’t want to lose anything before Jason returns, and I fear I am doing just that. Father never included me in any discussions about the estate, and why would he? So I have tried, but I know I have been making a mess of things.”
Aggie smirked up at her husband as his stance relaxed. “Plus, I am sure Jason would have settled a more-than-generous dowry on me, and I can still make that happen. The hasty wedding did not exactly leave any time to discuss such important details.”
Devin mirrored her smirk. “The last thing I need is your money, Aggie. You are what I wanted, nothing more. That said, I would be happy to help in any way you need me to.”
Relief visibly went through her body as she exhaled. “Thank you. You have no idea how that would alleviate my worries. I will just be happy if the entire estate is not lost by the time Jason returns.”
~~~
Aggie looked across the carriage at Devin. He was watching her, grey eyes hovering, as usual, and she found it both comforting, and suddenly, slightly unnerving.
Unnerving because she wanted to love this man.
Hell.
She probably already did.
She had been denying herself that truth for the entire first half of the day. It was too soon for something as fanciful as love, she kept telling herself. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t safe. And she had only known him for a few days.
A few days that felt like forever.
He had no reason to help her that first night, yet he had. He willingly took on her problems. The problems of a stranger. And then he didn’t let her disappear. Time and again, he showed up. And that told Aggie all she needed to know about his character.
She denied him repeatedly, denied his help, but he didn’t listen and refused to cave to the demands of her pride. Instead, he simply took care of her. Took her burdens. Took her worries. Put her first. He wasn’t just a man. He was a force. A force she was no match to resist.
Her eyes moved across his wide shoulders, settling on his chest, and the memory of her mouth on his skin, gasping for breath, flashed in her mind. He was also a force that could twist her body into incomprehensible pleasure. How could she not be falling in love with him?
Why was she fighting it? He was her husband. What more could she need? Had she become so jaded over the past year she had no room for love? Or was it that she didn’t want him hurt? If she still wasn’t safe, that meant he wasn’t safe. The thought settled into her chest, and she didn’t like the weight it added to her breath.
“The worry lines on your forehead.” Devin’s voice startled her. “They were not there a moment ago. Is something wrong?”
Aggie pasted a smile on her face. “No. Absolutely nothing. Just an errant thread of thought.”
Devin’s eyebrow arched, and Aggie could see him start to question her. She wasn’t about to share her current thoughts with him. Not yet.
“Truly. Nothing of concern.” Aggie searched her mind. “Stonewell. Tell me about it. You grew up there, correct?”
“I did.”
Aggie waited, but those were the only words he spoke. “That is all you are going to share?”
He shrugged. “Why don’t you tell me about your childhood?”
Aggie’s face lit up. “Happily, but only if you reciprocate and tell me about your own.”
Devin sighed. “I would rather not.”
“Well then, I would rather not either.” Aggie crossed her arms and looked out the window at white sheep dotting the greenery.
Several moments passed in silence.
“Fine. Deal.” Devin looked none too pleased at the manipulation.
“Excellent.” Aggie smiled and held out her gloved hand for Devin to shake. He paused, but then grabbed her fingers. Aggie saw the slightest smirk pass on his face as he shook her hand.
“So…where do I start?” Aggie tapped her finger on the fold in the fabric of her maroon skirt. Her eyes glowed as memories filtered to the front of her mind. “I had a happy childhood. Occasionally we spent time in London, or at one of the other estates, but those times were infrequent. Mother rarely wanted to leave our country estate, Clapinshire. But you probably know all of that about me already, don’t you?” Aggie had gathered that Devin knew much more about her than she knew of him.
“I have done some research, yes.” Devin shrugged.
“Then I shall talk about my brother. Jason and I were extremely close. We were two years apart in age, and I idolized him. He always had time to explain things to me, why frogs ate flies, how to build a boat that wouldn’t sink, how not to get stuck to one’s knees in mud—all the terribly important things.”
Aggie paused for a moment and gazed out the window. Memories of mucky, wet, wonderful days put a soft smile on her lips. “We used to play in the woods and creek for hours and hours at a time, fishing, building platforms in the trees, playing hide-and-seek. Fun and more fun. Days that disappeared into everything and nothing. Father was gone at times, but whenever he came back from London, he would bring us little gifts. My favorite was a bow and arrow set—”
“Your father gave you a bow and arrow?”
Aggie chuckled. “Not exactly. Hiders-rights won out. I constantly stole it from Jason, and I had three fantastic hiding spots for it. Jason got tired of looking for it. Papa got tired of hearing him complain about it. So he eventually purchased another set for Jason.”
“Brat,” Devin said with a smile.
“Yes, well, I got what I wanted.” Aggie smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t going to argue the point. She had been a brat. “Anyway, I became quite good. I always enjoyed shooting at targets and I loved to challenge Jason to contests. It took me half-of-a-year of practice, but the day I beat him was the day he refused to compete with me anymore.”
“I don’t blame him. And that your parents encouraged the behavior—double the brat.”
“Yes. And I have not even gotten t
o the pistol part yet.”
“Pistol? Do I want to hear this part of the story?”
“You did ask about my childhood.”
“Fine, tell me, and we will prove the point that ignorance is bliss.”
Aggie’s hands settled into her lap as she smiled. “Jason was humiliated when I beat him—although he continued to dispute the outcome of that contest. So he dropped the bow and convinced father it was time to become skilled in shooting firearms. It gave Jason the perfect chance to flaunt something that only he was allowed to do, for he knew that our father would never let me touch a pistol.”
“And rightfully so.”
“Yes, well the bugger took away all my fun. He started to spend all his time practicing his aim and cleaning his pistol. I lost my playmate…and then when he wanted to leave me behind, all he had to do was tell mother or father that he was going off to practice shooting, and that it would not be safe for me to come along. So I was resigned to sit inside. My mother would inevitably corner me with her needlepoint and make me practice it.” Aggie cringed.
“I take it you do not enjoy the needlepoint?”
“I think it does not enjoy me. I am terrible at it. While I am glad for the experience, it is best for both my fingertips and the thread that I resist taking needle to cloth.”
“So you must have escaped you mother’s watch?”
“I did. I was so very jealous of Jason and his pistol, on top of being irritated that I no longer had anyone to show off to or to compete with.”
Devin’s forehead wrinkled in trepidation. “You turned to a life of crime again, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” Aggie nodded. “The only way I could humiliate my brother again—which was my main objective, of course—was to also become an expert with the gun. Knowing that my brother and father would never let me near a pistol, I secretly constructed a practice area, far into the woods, where I could sneak off with one of the pistols my father rarely used, and practice my shot.”
Aggie paused, hedging. “Now if I tell you the rest of this, you must promise not to laugh at me, for you must remember that I was young, and possibly a bit impetuous.”
“And you are not the slightest bit impetuous now?”
She raised an eyebrow to glower at him. “Possibly. But I have also managed to survive. So I will accept that flaw.”
Devin chuckled. “As that is true—best you keep that flaw, then. Please, continue.”
She tilted her head at him, not sure his words qualified as a promise.
“Please. I would like to hear how this story ends.”
“All right. It was a sunny day, right in the middle of the afternoon, and I snuck into my father’s study and took one of the oldest pistols—thinking, of course, that it would be the least missed one. I took off into the woods and set up my little target at the practice field.” Aggie smiled to herself. “I was so proud, grinning ear to ear. I think I was even humming. But having only observed in bits and pieces what Jason actually did with his pistol, I loaded the bullet and gun powder, not, of course, knowing at all what I was really doing…”
A deep groan coupled with Devin’s cringing face. “What did you hit?”
“My foot.” Aggie closed her eyes, not wanting to see Devin’s reaction.
Silence.
She cracked her eyelids.
He held a tight smile, but no laughter escaped. It looked like it took immense effort.
Aggie’s eyes opened fully.
“Laugh now?” Devin squeaked out.
“Yes, fine, laugh, get it over with.” Aggie sighed, shaking her head, laughing at herself. It was hard not to with Devin’s rumble filling the coach.
“So, bullet in your foot, what happened?”
“I screeched like a fox, and it turned out my secret practice grounds were closer to the house than I had figured, for within a few moments, my brother and father came busting through the woods and took me home.”
“How did your foot fare?”
“I was lucky. The bullet went right through my foot—I did not lose any toes—and I just have the scars on the top and bottom of my foot as remembrance.”
“But that does not explain how you became the excellent shot you did,” Devin said. “You should still be shooting yourself in the foot every time you pick up a pistol.”
Aggie gave a wicked smile. “That was the true beauty of what my plan turned into. It was epic in its failure, but plans can change for the better. And I was smart enough to recognize when mine did. After my foot healed, my father decided it was safer to teach me the proper way with a pistol, than to risk having my other foot marred. He knew how stubborn I was—”
“Am.”
“We really are taking a tour of my flaws, aren’t we?” Aggie shrugged. “But again—alive, so I will take it. Regardless, once I received proper instruction with the shooting of a pistol, I became quite good.”
“Better than your brother?”
Aggie smirked. “He was humiliated once or twice more. But I think he was proud of me, even though he would never admit it.”
“After we reach Stonewell and settle in, I shall be sure to challenge you to a shooting contest of our own.”
Tilting her head at him, she chuckled with competitive gleam in her eye. “I would be delighted to take you up on that challenge.”
Devin’s eyes twinkled from her story. His eyes were still dangerous, but when he smiled they had a light in them that Aggie couldn’t look away from. Her breath actually caught at the raw shining power that emanated from him.
Even though she was still in danger, at that moment, she felt lighter than she had in years. She was actually smiling, and she couldn’t remember the last time a true, heartfelt smile had crossed her face. A smile that wasn’t fake. Wasn’t pasted on to soothe others. A smile just because she was in a moment of happiness.
Aggie forced herself to turn from his gaze. If he could do that to her, what else could he do? The thought was absolutely terrifying. The last time she was truly happy was when Jason was still home and her father was alive. Her heart hurt at the thought. She didn’t think she could go through loss like that again without breaking like her mother had.
The carriage slowed.
Aggie perked up, looking out the window. “Are we stopping?”
“Yes, we are well within my main lands now, so I thought you could use a short stop to refresh yourself. My men have checked the area. There is a brook along the border of these woods.” Devin leaned forward and pointed to the thick of trees they pulled up next to. “We are only about two hours to my home, but it has been a long day so far, and we should take a moment to enjoy the sun.”
“This seems a bit too convenient.” Aggie’s eyes narrowed into suspicion. “You would not be trying to get out of our little bargain about talking about your childhood, would you? Because stalling will not work with me. I rarely forget things, and I am not about to forget our bargain.”
“The thought never crossed my mind. You, my dear Augustine, have a very suspicious mind.”
“My suspicious mind has been quite useful, so I will not let it rest just yet.”
The carriage came to a full stop, steps were pulled, and Devin exited and then assisted Aggie. Foot on the step, her hand ensconced in his, he grabbed her about the waist and gently lifted her and placed her on the ground. Feet firm, she turned in his arm to peer up at him, surprised by his spontaneous, affectionate motion. She hadn’t expected it from him.
He smiled at her, but the smile almost immediately disappeared as a frown crossed his face and creased his forehead. It threw Aggie, and she stepped backward, loosening his hold on her. Had she done something wrong?
She looked over her shoulder at the water at the bottom of the slight embankment, trying to hide the disappointment that she knew was obvious on her face. “I would like a few moments to freshen up at the stream,” she said, not bothering to turn back to Devin with the words.
She stopped along the edge of the woo
ds, sliding down the green mossy bank, and paused at a large boulder. Kneeling, she dipped her handkerchief into the gurgling stream to soak it. She pressed the cool cloth to her eyes and mouth, chiding herself for running so quickly when Devin’s demeanor suddenly changed.
He had suddenly looked fierce, and all she could think of was to escape from whatever had darkened his face. She didn’t know why the sudden change, but she should have held her ground and found out. She let herself be intimidated, and she hated the feeling. In the future, she would never run away as she had just done. Never.
Sitting back on the bank, Aggie looked up at the sky. The sun had moved behind fluffy clouds, but it was pleasantly warm, warm enough to dip her toes into the cool water for just a moment. Hiking her skirt up, she unlaced her tall traveling boots, untied her stockings, and scooted down to the water. Big toes in first to test the waters, she slowly slipped the rest of her feet into the brook.
Enjoying the soothing sounds of the bubbling water, and the earthy smell of the adjacent woods, she unbuttoned her traveling jacket to let the air breeze to her white pleated shirt. She leaned back upon the mossy embankment, arms crossed above her head, and relaxed her body, trying to regain some sort of control over her thoughts and emotions that had been running rampant over the past days. The clouds moved past the sun and she closed her eyes to the bright rays.
All of it simmered together in one big pot of emotional stew—almost being killed, Devin saving her, marriage, the leader being killed then not killed, the beautiful things Devin had done to her body last night, the ease of being with him, actual laughter—it was no wonder she ran from him when his mood changed. She could barely keep her own emotions level, much less worry about— Two jarring blasts of pistol shots tore through the air and ripped her upright.
She rolled, hands fumbling under her skirts for her pistol strapped to her thigh. Damn. Empty leg. She didn’t have it with her. On her stomach, searching the road, she moved up the bank, fear seizing her. Highwaymen? Was Devin injured? Two more shots blasted. Moss flew into the air next to her head, and Aggie realized the shots were aimed at her.
Hold Your Breath 01 - Stone Devil Duke Page 15