She cast a frantic look round for something she could use as a weapon while Mickey pulled her effortlessly toward the main door of the stables, the flames and noxious smoke starting to gather momentum. Mickey’s intention was obvious: he would leave these horses to die.
“You bastard!” Having found no weapon within her reach, Jo began to kick at his ankles with her booted feet. “Bastard, bastard, bast—” She broke off with a gasp as Mickey lashed out and punched her in the mouth. The force of it made her head ring. The split on her lip reopened, and she tasted fresh blood in her mouth.
“Not another word out o’ that pretty ladylike mouth,” Mickey warned as he pulled her outside into the fresh air and shut and barred the door, shutting in the fire and the horses with it. “Maybe, just maybe, once we’re away from ’ere, I’ll let you use it to suck me off like you did the earl this mornin’,” he added with relish as he dragged her off toward the darkness of the woods behind the stable.
Jo gasped. “How did you…”
She gave a shake of her head. It was of no consequence right now how Mickey knew of her behavior in the study, or that he obviously knew she was a female rather than male. Not when the frantic whinnies from inside the stables told her the other horses were now aware of the flames and smoke.
“Fire!” Jo shouted desperately. “Fi—” Mickey placed a filthy hand over her mouth as he lifted her off her feet in front of him. Jo kicked desperately and tried to free herself as he carried her into the shadowed woodland.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gave one last glance back and saw the flames licking along the windows of the stables. The grooms and stable lads began to emerge from their sleeping accommodation above, no doubt alerted by the screams of the horses rather than her own attempt at drawing their attention.
“Listen to me, and ya listen good,” Mickey ground out harshly beside her ear once they were safely hidden by the trees. “When the earl sees what ya done, yer finished wiv ’im good and proper. So shut ya mouth and do as yer told, and maybe, just maybe, I won’t snap that pretty neck right ’ere an’ now. Got it?”
Oh yes, Jo got it.
She had not understood all that Mickey had said to her these past few minutes, but one thing she did know. When Daniel discovered his stables alight and her gone, he could come to no other conclusion but that she was the one responsible.
And he would hate her for it.
Knowing that, all the fight went out of her and she gave herself up to her fate.
Whatever Mickey decided that fate might be.
Chapter 11
“Really, my dear Josephine,” her cousin Edgar drawled as the two of them sat in the green salon of Cheshire House in London four days later, “you might at least try to look a little happier to be here with me after Mr. Bates was so kind as to return you to me yesterday.”
Wearing the fashionable gown he had ordered for her, her hair equally as fashionably styled, Jo was beyond feeling anything as she recalled the misery she had suffered during those three days—and nights—spent with Mickey Bates.
He had taken great delight in informing her he had been outside the window when she made the confession of her real name to Daniel. How he had listened with greedy interest as she related what had happened to her in Cheshire to cause her to run away dressed as a boy.
She now also knew that the reason Daniel had left her so suddenly the following morning, sprawled across his desk after the intensity of his lovemaking, was because Mickey Bates had been watching the two of them through the window. Daniel had caught up with him outside and instantly dismissed the other man.
Not that any of this made the slightest bit of difference to how Daniel must feel about her now.
Even if the grooms and stable lads at Latham Park had managed to get the horses out of the stables before the flames completely engulfed them, Daniel would never be able to forgive her for what he would perceive as her involvement.
Nothing mattered beyond that.
Certainly not once again finding herself under the guardianship of her hateful cousin Edgar.
Jo eyed her cousin with distaste. “I believe he received a suitable reward for having done so.”
Edgar gave a satisfied grin. “A paltry sum when you consider what I shall receive once you and Mr. Pendleton are married. I have had time during your absence to reconsider the…sequence of those events, by the by.” He nodded his satisfaction with the conclusion of those thoughts. “No man, once he has fully tasted the delights of a woman’s body, would then wish to make her his wife. With that in mind, I have arranged for a physician to visit here later on this morning to confirm your maidenhead is still intact before informing Pendleton of your return, followed by the announcement of your betrothal.”
It was perhaps as well Jo was already seated; otherwise, she might have fallen down. “You intend to invite a stranger into the house so that he might poke and prod the intimate parts of my body in order to assure Owen Pendleton my virginity is still intact?”
“Hardly poke and prod, my dear Josephine,” Edgar drawled. “Otherwise, he might inadvertently rid you of your maidenhead himself. I shall be present to oversee and confirm his findings myself, of course.” His eyed her with greedy appreciation. “Pendleton would expect no less.”
“No.” Jo was horrified at the thought of what Edgar was proposing. “I will not allow it.”
His eyes narrowed. “I believe your absence this past month to have nullified any attempt on your part to allow anything.”
Jo held on to the chair as she stood. The past four days she had been emotionally distraught, with the added humiliation of having Mickey taunting her about having her “suck him off” whenever she did not do as he told her. A threat guaranteed to ensure her compliance as, once they were safely away from Latham Park, they made the journey to London by public transport. The cost of which Mickey had demanded be returned to him once they reached Cheshire House, along with a sizeable sum for having returned her at all.
“Unless…” Edgar’s voice rumbled ominously, “…Latham has ensured you are no longer a virgin?”
Her inexperience in such matters meant that Jo was not a hundred percent certain she was still a virgin after the intimacies she and Daniel had shared. But she suspected she was. He had not penetrated her fully, with his fingers, tongue, or cock.
A part of her was tempted to tell Edgar a lie and claim she and the Earl of Latham had been lovers during the time she had spent on his estate. But she doubted that claim would stop Edgar from allowing a doctor to examine her intimately. It was doubtful he would deny himself the pleasure of being present to oversee and confirm whatever the physician might learn about her.
Even if Edgar could be persuaded into forgoing the examination, she would be placing Daniel in a tenuous position by doing so. That she simply would not do.
She stiffened her spine to stand as tall as her two inches over five feet would allow, her head tilted at a regal angle. “Surely you are not so stupid as to believe the word of a clod like Mickey Bates?” she sneered. “As if a man like the Earl of Latham would ever be interested in one of his own stable boys.”
“I believe he said you were not still pretending to be the stable boy when the two of you…dallied.”
She snorted. “Mickey Bates is a bully and an opportunist and would say whatever he chose to in order to cause the most trouble.”
“It is a fanciful tale, I admit, but there’s no doubting the way you were dressed when you arrived here yesterday, or that you’ve cut off all that glorious hair,” he lamented.
“If you insist, then I will suffer the doctor’s examination. Alone,” she added pointedly.
“Pendleton will insist—”
“Let us not play games, Edgar,” Jo snapped. “You are the one who is insisting. As you are the one determined to be in my bedchamber during the doctor’s visit.” She eyed him scathingly. Aged in his late twenties, Edgar would be considered handsome by many, with his thick dark ha
ir and blue eyes. Jo found him loathsome. “Your own intentions toward me are not only unwelcome but incestuous.”
“We are cousins, not brother and sister.”
“I doubt I would have been safe from you even if that had been the relationship between us!”
“Probably not,” he drawled as he rose elegantly to his feet. “If you are hoping to anger me, Josephine, let me assure you your taunts are having a completely different effect.” One of his hands drifted down to cup the bulge in his pantaloons. “Mickey Bates took great delight in telling me how much you enjoyed catering to Latham’s pleasure, so perhaps now might be a good time for you to demonstrate those particular skills on me? I should enjoy it very much, and as Latham was no doubt aware, it has the added benefit of keeping your virginity intact.”
Jo realized her mistake too late, her cheeks paling as Edgar’s hand moved to the buttons on the fall of his pantaloons. She backed up a step as he approached her. “You will not—”
“Your Grace, the physician you sent for has arrived,” Farrell, the butler, announced fortuitously.
A look of fury twisted Edgar’s face before he brought the emotion under control. His hands dropped away from his pantaloons before he turned to face the other man. “Show him up to Lady Josephine’s bedchamber, Farrell. We will both join him shortly.”
“Very well, Your Grace.”
“There.” Edgar gave Jo a beaming smile once they were alone again. “What an entertaining afternoon you and I are going to have.”
“You’re mad,” Jo gasped as waves of nausea washed over her at the thought that entertainment was going to be her. “I always thought there was something odd about your mother, but you are even worse—” She broke off as Edgar slapped her face. Hard.
“You will not speak of my mother in that way,” he warned coldly.
“I will speak of whomever I please in whatever way I please.” She eyed him defiantly. “I am also growing tired of men thinking they can slap me whenever they feel like it.” She bared her teeth, her hands clenched into fists. “First Mickey and now you. I warn you, if you do that again, I will grab you by your tiny balls and squeeze until you squeal like a woman.”
Edgar stepped back, a look of distaste on his face. “Your weeks of working in the stables have obviously not improved your vocabulary.”
“Oh there’s plenty more you have not heard yet.” Her challenge was pure Jo Turner.
“Oh dear, oh dear,” her cousin tutted. “I am afraid Mr. Pendleton is not going to like this at all. I fear I will need to beat this out of you before the two of you meet again.”
“You can go fuck yourself!” she scorned. “Because if you think you are laying one finger on me today, or any other day, then you are mistaken.”
Edgar’s eyes turned flinty. “You always were a superior little bitch. Thought you were so much better than the rest of us. Grandfather’s fault, of course. You were always his favorite. Well, he is no longer around to protect you—”
“But I am.”
Jo did not know which of them was more surprised by the sound of that familiar voice—familiar to her, that is—Edgar or herself.
She knew which of them was filled with the most pleasure as she spun round to find Daniel standing in the doorway. Her hungry gaze took in all of his appearance in seconds, from the top hat on his dark auburn hair, his handsome face, fashionable attire, and high-polished boots, and the silver-topped cane he carried in his hand, before returning to his face.
Daniel’s eyes, as dark and cold as emeralds, were not looking at her but at Edgar. “Cheshire.” He nodded.
Edgar looked affronted by the intrusion. “What do you mean by walking in here unannounced, Latham?”
“I am afraid your butler is…incapacitated, at the moment, and so was unable to show me in,” the earl drawled as he strolled farther into the room.
“What do you mean?” Edgar hurried over to the door to look out into the entrance hall. “Good God, man.” He turned back to Daniel. “What have you done to my butler to cause him to writhe about on the floor in that way?”
The earl lifted the cane in his hand and studied its tip for several seconds before placing it back on the carpeted floor. “He was unreceptive to my having called.”
“That is because I had told him you were not to be admitted under any circumstances.”
“I warn you not to attempt to forestall me further, or you will receive the same treatment,” the earl bit out coldly.
Jo stared at her cousin. “You expected Dan—the earl to come here?” She could not say follow me here because she was not sure that was what Daniel had done. Was not sure why he was here at all when he had not even looked at her and his expression was so cold and grim. Perhaps he had merely come to demand repayment for the burning down of his stables and the death of his horses?
Edgar gave her a sneering glance. “I considered it a possibility. A man would have to go a long way to find another woman who can suck cock in the satisfactory manner Bates described to me,” he taunted.
The bile rose to the back of Jo’s throat as Edgar continued to denigrate an act that, at the time, she had considered to be the height of loving intimacy.
It took great effort for Daniel to keep his expression impassive when all he wanted to do was beat Cheshire to a pulp. He dared not even look at Jo, or he would lose what little control he had left over his temper. A control which was tenuous at best after overhearing Cheshire threatening Jo upon his arrival.
“Personally, I always found Mr. Bates prone to exaggeration,” Daniel drawled. “Besides which, I believe you will find he has…revised his opinion on the subject.”
Cheshire’s brows rose. “Indeed?”
“Yes,” Daniel murmured with satisfaction.
“You have seen and spoken to Mickey Bates?” Jo put in softly.
His expression softened somewhat as he turned to reassure her. “Your reputation is quite safe.”
“This is all very touching, but I fail to see the reason for your visit, Latham,” the duke challenged arrogantly. “Unless you are here to offer for my cousin yourself, given the liberties you have taken with her? I will, of course, give my permission, if that is your intention. For the right price,” he added greedily.
Daniel eyed the other man with loathing. “I have no intention of giving you so much as a single penny.”
“Pity,” Cheshire drawled. “In which case, would you kindly remove yourself from my house? Josephine and I have an invited visitor waiting for us to join him.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “I did not see anyone else when I arrived.”
“That is because—”
“You will be quiet, Josephine.” Cheshire glowered at her.
“—because,” Jo continued determinedly after glaring in her cousin’s direction, “the physician is waiting upstairs for us in my bedchamber.”
Daniel’s brows rose to his hairline. “Oh.”
She smiled tightly. “My cousin feels it is necessary my virginity be confirmed by a doctor before he announces my betrothal to Mr. Owen Pendleton. He also feels”—she eyed the duke with disgust—“that his own presence is necessary during the examination.”
Daniel had heard and seen enough. More than enough, as it happened. If he heard any more, he was likely to throw his cane aside and rip Edgar Kendall apart with his bare hands. As it was, he was having trouble restraining himself from doing exactly that.
Nor did he care for the bruise at the side of Jo’s mouth, its sickly yellow color indicating it was of several days’ duration. He should have killed Bates when he had the chance.
One of her cheeks was also redder than the other, implying she had recently been slapped. Cheshire would pay for that before Daniel left here today.
In spite of the bruising and red cheek Jo looked beautiful and yet so very fragile at the same time, as if she too had come to the end of her endurance but was determined to put up a fight anyway. She had also lost weight since Daniel last s
aw her, the flesh tight across her collarbones and causing deep hollows at the base of her throat.
Daniel knew from his conversation with Mickey Bates late yesterday evening, when he ran the little rat to ground, that although Jo’s time with him must have been unpleasant, she had not been subjected to anything more than threats and taunts from his ex-employee during the three days she had spent traveling with him to London. Bates had omitted to mention that he had slapped or punched Jo some time during those three days.
Daniel’s own journey to London on horseback had been less straightforward. He had first traveled into Hampshire, in the hope Jo might have gone to the home of her great-aunt.
He had returned disappointed to Latham Hall, only to have Haynes come to him and confide he suspected Mickey Bates had not left the area the day Daniel had ordered him to do so.
As he was not exactly popular with the other stable lads, several of them had reported seeing Bates hanging about in the woods after Daniel had dismissed the other man. Some had even gone so far as to suggest Bates might have been responsible for starting the fire in the stables that night.
It was a tenuous lead at best, but Daniel had been so concerned for Jo’s welfare, he had instantly traveled to London. He sought out Mickey Bates at the address he had given Haynes as the residence of his next of kin when he first came to work at Latham Park: the less than salubrious home of his widowed mother. It had proved to be a most enlightening visit and resulted in Daniel calling on the Duke of Cheshire’s home this morning.
Daniel would have come here the previous evening if not for the fact he had not felt able to trust his temper. Instead, he had retired to Latham House and consoled himself with a decanter of brandy, with the added promise to himself of ordering his carriage and calling upon the duke at Cheshire House this morning.
With a single glance at the superior butler who had answered the door to him, along with that man’s claim that “The duke is not receiving visitors this morning,” all Daniel’s efforts to control his temper had evaporated. Hence the reason the man was now writhing about on the floor in the entrance hall.
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