The Taming of the Rogue

by Amanda McCabe

  Elizabeth departed to look for Edward and the wine, and Anna was left alone with Robert. She snuggled against his side and rested her head on his shoulder, suddenly weary of grand people and their parties and schemes. She felt as if a long, dark evening had just passed—one filled with matters she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to understand.

  But she feared that when it came to Rob she had to know. Her life was wound around his now, for good or ill.

  ‘Would you like to dance, Anna?’ he asked quietly.

  She shook her head. ‘I think I grow tired of revels.’

  ‘Then let us find somewhere quieter and make our own revels,’ he whispered, and kissed her forehead.

  Anna couldn’t help but laugh as he took her hand and led her towards the doors. The party had grown even louder as the night went on, and Edward’s generous supply of wine flowed, and more than a few of the guests seemed intent on making their own revels. They leaned on each other as they spun through the door, and couples kissed half hidden behind tapestries and in corners. Rob led her neatly around the crowds until finally they emerged into the cool quiet of the entrance hall.

  There were people there, as well, but they whispered together and seemed to see nothing else around them. Anna followed Rob down a corridor, their path running beside closed doors and glowering portraits lit only by flickering torches set high in their wall sconces. The farther they went the greater the silence grew, until she could only hear their soft footsteps on the wooden floor, the swish of her skirts.

  They ducked behind the shelter of a heavy velvet hanging into a small window embrasure, where moonlight streamed through the diamond-shaped panes of glass and broke into shards of light on the panelled wall. It was cool there, after the stuffy heat of the great hall, and Anna leaned back on the wall to finally take a breath.

  Rob braced his hands to either side of her, his body pressed close to hers in their own little haven.

  ‘Better now?’ he asked.

  ‘Much. I had no idea Lord Edward was such a generous host.’

  ‘I think he would much prefer to just live quietly here at Hart Castle with Elizabeth and his studies.’

  ‘Then why does he invite the whole county and all of London to a ball?’ Anna thought of Sir Thomas Sheldon. ‘Even those he would prefer to keep away.’

  ‘He has his reasons—for now.’

  ‘And you take a share in those reasons?’ she asked. It was one more reminder to be cautious of Rob, that she truly knew so little of him. Not that she had heeded those cautions much of late!

  Rob’s eyes glittered as he stared down at her. ‘Perhaps, I do. He is my friend.’

  ‘Elizabeth said you have been friends since childhood.’

  ‘And what else did she say?’ he asked.

  ‘She told me the tale of Sir Thomas and Lord Edward’s poor brother.’

  ‘Ah. She was talkative.’

  ‘Does Elizabeth also work for the Queen’s government?’ Anna asked.

  Rob laughed, but she could hear no mirth in it. ‘Edward works only for himself, for his own ends—as we all do in our ways. Sometimes we use the assistance of others when it’s needful.’

  ‘And how are you assisting in this matter?’

  ‘So many questions, fairest Anna,’ he murmured, and lowered his head to kiss her ear, the curve of her neck, biting lightly at the soft skin and then blowing on it to soothe the little sting until she shivered. ‘It’s much too lovely a night to waste on questions.’

  Anna laid her hands flat against his chest and pressed him back. ‘You will not escape me forever, Robert Alden.’

  ‘How can I escape when I can’t help running straight into your arms every time you look at me?’ he laughed. ‘But nor can you escape me now, and I fear you will rue that one day very soon. Perhaps you should flee now, while you still can?’

  Anna pounded her hands against him before catching his doublet in her fists and drawing him back to her. ‘It’s much too late to run for either of us. Oh, Rob, how you drive me to madness!’

  ‘The feeling is quite mutual.’ His mouth swooped down to cover hers, open and hot, and she met him with equal need.

  She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her body against his, holding on as if he would vanish if she let go. The air around them grew hot and blurry, crackling, and she felt his touch slide over her shoulders, skimming her collarbone, her arms, until he covered her breast with a rough caress.

  Anna moaned as he stroked the soft underside of her bosom through the fine, stiff fabric of her bodice and covered her hard with his palm. His fingers stroked her sensitive nipple and she cried out against his mouth. Her hands dug into his back and traced down the groove of his spine, over the shift and hardness of his lean muscles, until she cupped the taut curve of his backside through his velvet breeches. She tugged his hips closer to hers, and felt the press of his erection through her skirts.

  His head arched back and he groaned. ‘Anna! You’re killing me.’

  She reached between them and stroked the length of his penis once, twice, wanting him to feel as wild with need as she was. As desperate for connection, no matter how brief their time in each other’s lives could be. She wanted to feel that he was hers—all of him, here and now—as she feared she was his.

  He grabbed her wrist and held her away from him as he kissed her again, his tongue pressing deep to taste her, possess her. She felt him lift her up against him as he flipped her skirts back and she wrapped her legs tight around his waist. The fine cloth of his breeches rubbed against the sensitive skin above her garters and she moaned at the feeling of it.

  He freed himself from the confines of fabric and drove into her, deep and hard. She welcomed him eagerly. The pleasure washed over her, hot and overwhelming, stealing her breath and thoughts. There was only him, only sensation—only the two of them together with everything else shut away.

  He held her close against the wall, balancing her weight as he thrust again and again, deeper, wrapped all around her as they reached desperately for their release. It was a perfect moment of freedom, of soaring away, and Anna held on to him as she burst into a hundred sparkling stars.

  She caught his shout of climax with her kiss, feeling his body grow taut against hers as he drove himself into her one more time. Then he let out his breath, his shoulders relaxing, and slowly lowered her to her feet.

  Her legs trembled and she leaned into him, holding on until the warm weakness could pass. He held on to her, too, his forehead pressed to hers, and slowly they sank together to the floor.

  They said nothing as they sat there amid the pool of her skirts, just holding on to each other as the night closed around them.

  ‘If this is madness,’ Rob said hoarsely, ‘then I should be carried off to an asylum at once.’

  ‘Oh, Robert,’ Anna whispered. ‘Are we not already there?’

  * * *

  Rob watched Anna as she slept, her face peaceful and pale in the moonlight as she drifted away in dreams. How beautiful she was. How impossible it was for him to resist her.

  But he had to. He had his work to do. And when she discovered the full truth of what he was doing the desire in her eyes would die and there would be only revulsion.

  Feeling hollow and cold inside, Rob drew the bedclothes around her bare shoulders. She sighed and snuggled deeper, and Rob lay down beside her again with his hands under his head to stare up sightlessly at the canopy. Aye, she would abhor him, then forget him, but he was beginning to fear he would never forget her. She would always haunt him. The one good, fine thing that had ever been his, even if it was only for one moment.

  He had to be honest with her now—as honest as he could be without revealing himself too far. He owed her that much. Then perhaps one day she would look back and understand.

  He would take her to meet his sister.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The early morning breeze was cool and crisp as Anna walked along the banks of the river, he
r hand in Rob’s. It smelled fresh, of clean water and green growing things, the loamy sweetness of earth. Birds chattered in the treetops, and she could hear the music of the wind rustling through the leaves. She had never felt farther from London or from her real life, her everyday self.

  It struck her that this was her vision come true—the image she’d had as they’d driven to Hart Castle, of herself and Rob walking by a country stream. A sylvan dream that could not last.

  ‘Where are we going, then?’ she asked, laughing.

  Rob smiled back at her over his shoulder. But even though he smiled she could sense he was in a strange, distant mood. ‘You asked me that before.’

  ‘And you did not answer. I’ll just keep asking until you do.’

  ‘You’ll see when we get there. ’Tis a surprise.’

  ‘A pleasant one, I hope,’ she said. ‘After Thomas Sheldon’s appearance last night I could do without strange surprises.’

  ‘Ah, now, what’s a day without a strange surprise?’ Rob let go of her hand and looped his arm around her waist, holding her close as they walked along. ‘Are you enjoying yourself here at Hart Castle? Despite Sheldon playing the dark witch at our fairy ball?’

  Anna thought about his question, and all that had happened in the short time since they’d arrived at Hart Castle. It seemed as if months and not mere days had passed. So much had shifted inside her since they’d come here. She saw some things more clearly—and other things not at all.

  ‘I have enjoyed being here very much,’ she said truthfully. ‘Hart Castle is beautiful, and Edward and Elizabeth have been so kind and welcoming. It’s a fine life here, despite such shadows as Sheldon. I have a feeling he is not a permanent annoyance, though.’

  ‘I have a feeling you are right about that,’ Rob muttered under his breath. ‘I am glad you like it here. It’s been a haven of sorts to me.’ There was a strange distance in his voice, a faraway look in his eye. He hadn’t left behind that strange mood he had been in ever since they’d woken up.

  ‘We should all be so lucky to have such a haven,’ Anna answered. Sometimes she felt as if there was no place to hide at all. At some moments she did feel safe with Robert, safe held in his arms where nothing else could touch her.

  She knew it was naught but an illusion. But she treasured it nonetheless.

  They turned a bend in the footpath, and the river wound away gently down to a valley. Rob led her up the slope of a hill, away from its banks. At its crest she could see the splendid view spread before her—rolling fields, the dark mystery of the woods in the distance and a village that looked like a doll’s toy of streets and houses. The pale, watery blue sky, dotted with fluffy puffs of low-hanging clouds spreading fleeting shadows on the ground below, spread over all.

  ‘It’s a beautiful prospect,’ she said. ‘Is this the surprise?’

  Rob shook his head. ‘We have a farther walk, I’m afraid. Are you up to the exercise?’

  Anna laughed. ‘I feel I could walk a hundred miles today! I feel so—new. It must be the fresh air.’

  ‘Fresh air is one thing that is most plentiful here in the country,’ he said as they made their way down the hill.

  Even though he held on to her he didn’t seem to be really with her. Was he worried about something?

  The tall grass caught at Anna’s hem, and she lifted her skirts up out of the way. She tried to ignore his distance and just enjoy the day, but she couldn’t quite forget or cease to worry.

  ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a cottage here by this very hill?’ she said, determined to be cheerful. ‘To wake every day to such a prospect, and to the sounds of birds singing?’

  ‘You wouldn’t miss being woken by shouts and slop buckets tossed out of windows?’

  Anna wrinkled her nose. ‘Who would miss that?’

  ‘The country has its faults, as well,’ Rob said. ‘Perishing cold in the winter, no theatres or booksellers nearby.’

  ‘No heads on pikes, either,’ Anna said with a shiver, thinking of the boiled eyeless heads that stared down from atop London Bridge every time she walked past.

  ‘Reminding us of the fate that awaits he who takes a misstep?’ Rob lifted her over a muddy puddle and led her across a small bridge into the village. Even as they walked so close he did not seem to be entirely with her.

  Unlike most rural lanes, the main street was cobbled and wide, lined with half-timbered buildings of shops and dwellings. Thatched roofs alternated with slate tiles, and at the end of the lane was a solid, square old church of faded brown stone, its churchyard of leaning grave markers enclosed in a newer-looking stone wall.

  Merchants were opening up for the morning, laying out their counters spread with wares. Silvery smoke curled out of chimneys, its sweet smell blending with fresh bread from the bake shop. Women lined up with their buckets at the well, children clinging to their skirts or chasing each other about. Older boys were following a black-clad teacher into the schoolhouse.

  Everyone turned to watch them as Anna and Rob walked by, a few people calling out greetings that Robert paused to answer.

  ‘This is the village where you grew up?’ she asked.

  ‘Aye, in rooms above my father’s shop just over yonder,’ he said, pointing to a structure down the next lane. ‘And I went to school there, as those unfortunate boys are now.’

  ‘Learning your Latin?’

  Rob laughed. ‘Getting my palms whipped for being unserious, usually. And over there, in our village guildhall, I saw my first play.’

  Anna looked to where he pointed—a long, low building just beyond the church. ‘What was the play?’

  ‘An allegorical tale of fortune and misfortune, presented by a ragged band of travelling players. I was five, and the hall was so crowded there was no place to sit, so my father stood at the back and held me on his shoulders so I could see. I was entranced, despite the shabby costumes and clumsy line readings. I had never known that mere words could take a person out of the everyday world and into a place that was so—magical. That they could make a person think of things in a way they had never considered before.’

  ‘Aye,’ Anna whispered. That was how watching his plays made her feel—as if she was in a new world, with thoughts and desires she had never imagined before. His plays were a part of him. Did they reveal some of the secrets she longed to know?

  ‘From then on I wanted only to write, to watch plays,’ he said. ‘My father wanted me to take over his business, as sons should do, but I was no good at leather-working. I wanted fine words and poetry. I wanted to move people and make them laugh. And I wanted adventure—to see the world away from this place.’

  ‘You could not be contained by the village any longer?’

  ‘Nay.’

  Anna nodded. ‘I once thought the world I grew up in could not contain me, that I was for another sort of life far from Southwark. I used to dream and plan…’

  Rob held on to her hand, surveying the streets where he had run as a child. It seemed he saw things there she could not even fathom. ‘But where we come from always draws us back.’

  ‘You left! You became what you wanted to be.’

  ‘Aye. When I was seventeen, Lord Henshaw’s Men came through here as they toured the countryside, and I persuaded them to let me leave with them as an apprentice despite my advanced age. My father was furious.’

  ‘Did you ever reconcile with him?’ Anna asked softly.

  Rob didn’t answer. They had reached the outskirts of the village, and he pointed at a small cottage set back in a tidy little garden. His eyes were shadowed, secret. ‘This is our destination, Anna.’

  ‘What is it?’ she asked cautiously, examining the place. It looked like an ordinary cottage—painted shutters drawn back, smoke from the chimney, flowering vines curling over the doorway. But appearances, like the sweet words of a play, could deceive.

  ‘I want you to meet my family,’ he said. ‘What is left of it.’

  ‘Your family?’ Anna c
ried, stopping abruptly on the path.

  He glanced back at her, a frown on his brow. ‘Is something amiss?’

  ‘I—am not prepared to meet anyone,’ she said. She smoothed her skirts and carefully touched her hair to be sure it was still tidy. ‘I should have worn something finer.’

  ‘Oh, Anna,’ he said, a strange, sad note in his tone. He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, warm and tender through the leather of her glove. ‘It doesn’t matter in the least what you wear—not here. And you are always lovely anyway.’

  ‘And you are an unrepentant flatterer, even here,’ she answered. ‘Very well, then. Show me to your house.’

  Rob looped her arm with his and pushed open the garden gate to lead her down the narrow front path. Though the space was small it was well kept, with neat beds lined with flat river stones and a vegetable patch around the side. It had an air of quiet, neat contentment.

  Perhaps too quiet? Anna peered up at the gleaming windows but could detect no hint of life. No one peered down at them, awaiting their arrival.

  Rob knocked at the door, and despite his words Anna felt herself growing nervous. She had no idea at all what to expect. And her trepidation grew as she glanced at Rob’s shadowed, closed face. He seemed so different here.

  There was the sound of quick footsteps from within, and the click of a latch before the door swung open. Anna’s worries eased a bit as she saw the woman who greeted them—an older lady who was not in the least fearsome. She was as compact and tidy as the house itself, with a round, pink face under a white cap, and a dark blue dress covered with an apron. A smile spread across her lips as she saw them there.

  ‘Master Robert!’ she cried. ‘Here you are at last.’

  ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t visit until now, Nelly,’ Rob said. He stepped into the cool dimness of the small entrance hall, drawing Anna with him, and kissed Nelly on her plump cheek. ‘I’ve missed you very much.’

  ‘Ack, you have so much important work to do with Lord Edward you can’t miss us,’ Nelly said with a laugh. ‘And you’ve picked a fine day to visit.’