by Kathy Heart
She waited with bated breath for his reply, and when he answered her, she froze. “I was,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
Maddi forced herself to speak. “Were you on business there?” she wanted to know next.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. I was helping a friend.” His puzzled eyes took her in, and she could feel the questions that he had, but suddenly, she could not stay in the same room with him. He had not denied what she had seen with her own eyes. He had been with another woman, a ‘friend’, and her two children, and by the way in which he had held her and kissed her, the woman meant something to him. Maddi wanted to throw up.
“I beg your pardon, Your Grace,” she said, rising to her feet and forcing him to do the same. “I am suddenly taken ill. I must retire.” She moved hurriedly toward the door, hoping that she could keep her dinner down until she was well away from him. “Jane, please make my excuses to the assembled gathering. I feel rather unwell.”
Before either of them could utter a word or ask a question, she shot out of the library and was running up the stairs, tears streaming down her cheeks. She locked the door to her chambers, and threw herself across the bed. How could she have been so foolish? Drew had as much as admitted that she was not the only woman in his life. What was that other woman, his ‘friend’, to him? Was she more, than friend, and was he lying to Maddi about his status? What if the woman was his mistress, and the two children his?
Her head began to throb from the crying and the worry, and long after the household was asleep, she was still wide awake and no nearer to an answer. She stole from her room as silently as she could. A glass of wine would no doubt settle her, and help her to sleep. Her uncle kept the best tipple in his study, and so she went there first. If he had no wine, perhaps she would find sherry. If all else failed, she would stomach his nasty-tasting whisky. That was sure to do the job. The study door was open, but she did not think anything of it until she was already well inside the room. Someone was already there, sitting in the armchair in front of her uncle’s desk. And by the scent that wafted to her, it was the last person she wished to meet.
She turned to run away again, but his voice stopped her. “You’re up very late, my Beauty. Could you not sleep?” He stood and turned to her as he spoke.
Maddi did not wish to stay to speak to him, but she didn’t know how to leave. So she said, “No. I thought a drink might help to settle me.”
“What would you like?” he asked.
“It’s all right,” she said, “I can help myself.” Then a thought occurred to her. “What are you still doing here? Is your whole family spending the night?” She knew the question was rude, but she felt defenseless against him, and her body was betraying her, wanting to sink into the warmth of his arms when she should be angry and disgusted with him.
“I was invited to spend the night, so I came prepared,” he told her.
“Why only you?” she asked, though she was very afraid that she knew the answer.
“I needed to speak to your father on a matter of some importance. It pertains to you.”
Maddi unlocked her knees and moved away, closer to the door. “I cannot think why you would need to speak to my father concerning me, Your Grace. Certainly your current circumstances would seem to negate the possibility of there ever being anything to discuss regarding me.”
She was proud of herself for managing to get that all out before she fell apart and had kept her voice clear of all trembling. But now she had to leave. She turned to go, but his hand on her arm was an unmovable vise, halting her where she stood. He turned her inexorably toward him and pulled her close, so close that she could feel the hardness of his body beneath his clothes, and the beating of his heart. She tried to pull away again, but he refused to release her.
Chapter 10
“What have I done that has upset you so, my Beauty?” Drew asked, his voice hoarse. Madalene was moving against him in a most shocking manner, innocently arousing him beyond his ability to control his response. His body hardened more with every push against him, and his manhood lengthened behind his fall in a most uncomfortable way. If she didn’t stop wriggling soon, he would not be responsible for his actions.
But she was clearly very upset with him, and he wished he knew why. He supposed that it had something to do with his having been in town, but he could think of nothing that would make her so angry that she would deny the feelings that were still very strong between them. She pulled against his hold again, thrusting herself closer to the evidence of his desire for her, and he gave in and kissed her.
At first it was a hard kiss, meant to stop her from moving, but when she moaned and opened her mouth on a sigh of pleasure, he lost his control and took her tongue and her lips, and then he licked her down the column of her neck, and strolled his tongue across the swell of her bosom. Her moans grew more fevered, and she clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer, pushing herself against his body in a desperate need for his touch. She didn’t know what she was doing...it was all instinct with her. But he knew, and he had to end it before they went too far.
“Madalene,” he whispered, desperate to continue to the place he wanted to take her, but needing to remember where he was and who she was to him. “We must stop now, my love, or all will be lost.”
His words seemed to bring her back to her senses, and he watched as a wash of color rose from her chest until it flooded her face and neck. She backed away, pulling her arms from around him, and he let her go.
“You can have no idea how much I want to keep you in my arms, my love,” he said into the deepening silence, “but I cannot betray the trust that your father has placed in me where you are concerned.”
She laughed, but it was an ugly sound that he did not comprehend. “How honorable of you, Your Grace,” she said, her voice rich with sarcasm. “Does your ‘friend’ know that you have made advances to another woman while she yet remains in your life? And do your children know that their papa speaks pretty lies to unsuspecting virgins?”
Drew stood in shock as she spat the accusations at him, her rage almost palpable. He did not know what she meant by any of it, but she did not seem inclined to listen to reason. He deemed it best to wait until her anger cooled. His plan to ask her to marry him had to be shelved for the time being. Fortunately for him, her father had given his consent for them to wed. Now all he had to do was convince his bride-to-be that she wanted to be married to him as much as he wanted to be married to her. At this point, though, the chances of that happening appeared to be very slender.
“I wish that you would speak plainly to me, my lady,” he said. “Am I to understand that you are accusing me of being unfaithful to you and to another woman?”
She flounced away from him, and said, when she was at the door, “I’m sure you understand me perfectly well, Your Grace. And as you have not denied the evidence of my eyes, I would ask that you refrain from further correspondence with me, that you in fact avoid all contact with me from now on, and leave me alone.” She paused, and then added, “It is fortunate that this has come out now. It frees me to accept the attentions of another suitor who has asked to address me. Who knows? Perhaps I might still return to England affianced.”
She turned and walked away, leaving Drew with his mouth agape, his heart racing, his emotions in disarray. Had she been thinking of another while they had been together? Who had dared to approach her? Why would she have kissed him like she had if she were thinking about another man? Was she just getting back at him because she was angry with him? It wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility for her to have been approached by another suitor, and there was nothing to say she could not entertain more than one as she decided which she would choose. Still, the thought that his Beauty might actually have been thinking of someone else while she was with him enraged him. And more, it cut him to the quick.
Knowing that sleep was now impossible, Drew went to his rooms and considered his options. He could do nothing, and hope that ev
erything would come out right in the end. But he was not the sort of man to wait for solutions to present themselves. He preferred to find them and apply them. So he needed to know what Madalene thought she had seen that made her think so ill of him. And he needed to verify her story of a second suitor. The one thing he could not do was tell anyone of her absurd accusations, or approach her until he had the answers to the puzzle.
In order to ease the tension between them, he left before breakfast the next morning, excusing his departure by claiming to have forgotten an early appointment, and once he was back at the Abbey, he put all thoughts of his private pain out of his mind and concentrated on Cailean, who was recovering nicely. A few days after his quarrel with Madalene he visited his friend, who had been moved from the hayloft to a guest bedchamber..
“Fiona wants to come and visit you,” he told him, “and I think it would be good for her to do so, as she worries about you.”
“How fares my sister and my niece and nephew?” his friend asked.
“They are well,” Drew told him. “And I think that I have found a ship at last that will take you all. The captain says that they will weigh anchor in a week, which means that you will need to rest as much as possible for the journey. I have made appear that you and she are husband and wife, to ease your way aboard, and to make it clear that Fiona is a lady and may not be used to entertain his men. But he will expect you to pull your weight, so you must try to build some strength before the journey. Percy will help with the packing and I have put it about that The Rogue has been mortally wounded and is not expected to survive his injuries.”
Cailean grinned at that news. “My, but you have been busy, my friend.” and then he sobered. “How will I ever repay you, my friend?”
“Build a home big enough to house me and my wife when we come over for a visit,” Drew said.
Cailean stared at him. “Your wife? You have married? A woman?”
Drew laughed. “Who else would I marry but a woman?” Then he too became serious as he added, “And no, I have not married her as yet. There has been a misunderstanding and she is angry with me.”
“What have you done, my friend?”
“I have done nothing, I swear,” Drew said, dragging his hands through his hair in exasperation.
“Yet she accuses me of having another woman and children!”
“How very odd!” Cailean said. “Might she have seen you with Fiona and drawn an erroneous conclusion?”
Drew looked at his friend, and his smile returned. “By God, I think you’ve got it, my friend!” He stood up excitedly. “On the evening of our quarrel, she asked me if I had been in the High Street that day, and I said I had. Then she asked me if I had been on business and I said of a sort. That was all she asked, but the next thing I knew, she was accusing me of fathering two children and having a mistress.”
“I don’t understand,” Cailean said. “What does one thing have to do with the other?”
“The day she saw me with a woman and two children, I was with Fiona. I had taken her to buy some cloth so she could make a few new pieces of clothing for the twins, and a new dress for herself. She must have seen me at some point in the day, and come to that conclusion. It isn’t hard to do, after all, since a man rarely goes out in public with a woman unless they are somehow connected.”
“She sounds very young, Drew,” his friend commented,” if she did not even ask you for an explanation.
“She is young, and she is innocent of the ways of the world. But she knows enough to know how we can be perfidious. And if I am her first love, which I think I must be, then her fears are multiplied every time I am with someone who is not her. We have not known each other long, and I have been neglectful of her,” he admitted,” but only because I have been helping Fiona get her affairs in order, and arranging for your safe passage.”
Cailean sighed heavily. “I am so sorry, my friend, if I or my family have been the cause of your distress.”
“Don’t worry. Now that I have sorted out the misunderstanding, I can return to continue my pursuit. You will no doubt be hearing of my nuptials before another year has passed.” The weight that he had been carrying around for the last few days lifted as the solution came to him. Now he had to get her to see the truth and accept that she was mistaken, and to believe that he loved only her.
The first step would be to get them all back to his home, where all the parties involved would be gathered. And he would have to explain the truth about his absence to her father, who thought that he had business that was keeping him away. Nothing else could possibly go wrong...or so he hoped a he went to his study and summoned the butler. He had a dinner party to plan, and an engagement to celebrate.
Chapter 11
The time for the last house party of their visit was upon them, and as Maddi sat in the carriage that Drew had sent for her family -- her uncle and his family would arrive in their own carriage -- she tried to tell herself that she was calm, and that she could handle seeing the man she still loved and not fall apart. Her parents had been giving her strange looks for the last two days, and she had twice had to tell her mother that she was not ill, just tired. No one asked what made her tired, for which she was grateful. One lie was all that she could manage.
The carriage rolled to a stop before the impressive doors of Claybourne Abbey, and Maddi took the hand of the footman who came to help her down. The family were all once again waiting to welcome them, and their mood seemed to be particularly festive to Maddi, who wondered what good news they had received. Perhaps the perfidious duke had finally made an honest woman of the mother of his children, and she was to be unveiled to the world as his wife. The thought of it made her chest hurt, and she took deep breaths to ease the pain.
She was last in line to be welcomed, and Drew’s was the first hand she touched. The shock of his touch went straight to her toes, and between her thighs, and she had to lock her knee together for a moment to steady herself as he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. His lips lingered, and she tugged on her hand to make him free her. She dared not look into his eyes, but murmured a subdued “Good evening, Your Grace” before moving on.
She was grateful when the party went indoors, and everyone gathered in the drawing room for before dinner drinks. The chatter was very excited all round, and Jane told her, when she asked why, that there were already guests present for the house party whom she had yet to meet. Maddi was indifferent. She had her work cut out for her to maintain a calm appearance when every time she looked up, Drew was looking at her with such deep emotion in his eyes that it made her own burn. How could he do this to her, pretending that he had real feelings for her when there was another who had a claim on his affections?
She looked away, unwilling to let him see how wounded she was, and turned to the door through which new arrivals were approaching. Her jaw dropped in shock at the sight of a petite woman with sunshine for hair and the most beautiful face, leading two precious children by the hand into the gathering. She saw the woman kissed by Drew’s mother and sister, and she saw Drew approach her with a smile of welcome on his face. No one was paying any attention to her, or so she thought until she swayed on her feet and someone caught her before she fell.
“My lady, are you well?” a strange voice asked in her ear, and she opened her eyes and stared...into the most beautiful gray eyes she had ever seen. And she knew that she had seen them before...as he had ridden off with her family’s valuables all those weeks ago. She struggled to sit up, and said as she did,
“Do you make it a habit, Your Grace, to entertain highwaymen in your home?”
No one spoke. Everyone’s eyes were turned to her face, shock and disbelief evident in them all. And when she looked at her mother, she saw embarrassment as well, and it curdled in her stomach. She was making a scene, and embarrassing her family, and the duke’s as well. But she knew that the man who had by now let go of her and was standing next to the woman and her children was the brigand who had robbed t
hem. She would get to the bottom of this, but for now, she needed to try and salvage the very awkward situation that she had created.
Before she could speak, however, the stranger said,
“Do not be alarmed, my lady. You are not the first to remark upon my uncanny resemblance to The Rogue.” He gave her his most charming smile, the same one he had bestowed upon her that fateful day. “I am flattered that you think me as handsome as they say the man is.”
The assembled guests all laughed, mostly in relief that an awkward moment had been settled. And when she looked into the stranger’s face again, he winked at her. She was clearly not mistaken, as she had not been about seeing Drew in the High Street, and yet, here they all were, and her father was not demanding a duel at dawn to redress the wrong done to her by Drew’s perfidy. She joined in the laughter, though she felt as though she were the butt of a jest that everyone else knew about but her.
Her father came to help her to her feet, and kept his arm around her as Drew made introductions. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce my childhood friend Cailean Blair, his sister Fiona, and her twins, Liam and Georgina.” A general greeting was said, and then Drew continued. “They have an opportunity to make a new life for themselves and the children in North America, and will be leaving the day after tomorrow for Nova Scotia in Canada. So tonight’s dinner party is in part a farewell dinner for them.”