Her stiff smile melted into a mischievous grin. “Oh, decidedly, my dear,” she said mockingly. “Every goose ought to be plucked regularly.”
The roar of laughter following this riposte set the mood for the table, and for the first time since Louise’s death, Heath was allowed to sit comfortably in the company of his peers. This was not the company he would have chosen, but Killarnon’s worldly guests would circulate the tale of this episode and generate the first shreds of doubt about his guilt.
Killarnon retained the sense to stay out of the way until they departed. Once Aubree’s bags were packed into the landaulet, warm lap robes wrapped about her, and Matilda settled in the open seat beside the driver, Heath gave the signal for them to depart. John would follow later after he and the horses had rested.
Without an audience to entertain, the couple fell into silence. Heath threw his wife surreptitious glances, wondering what went on beneath that pert hat of hers, but he was no closer to the truth now than ever. He understood the reasons for her anger, but he could not fathom her deeper emotions. He would have a price on his head should the duke find they were together. Would that make her happy? Or even angrier? She had certainly showed him no sign of affection. Had he only imagined her feelings earlier? Or had they faded with her stay in London? Perhaps she had learned to enjoy the temptations London had to offer. How did he go about approaching her to find out?
Aubree took his silence for indifference. He had made it evident he did not intend to let her stray, but for what purpose? He showed no interest in her now, asked no questions, did not even scold her for her behavior. He had her money and evidently had no interest in her company; why had he ridden himself to exhaustion to prevent another having her? His question of the night before provided the only clue. He wished to be certain he sired his heir before he allowed her the freedom of a mariage de convenance.
Her chin jutted stubbornly at this conclusion. She would not bear a child simply for the sake of his lineage. That could very well mean she would never have children. The thought of Peggy’s gurgling baby and the two delightful Adams cherubs brought a teardrop quivering to her eyelash. She wondered if Adrian and Emily were still in Devon, if she would ever see them or their children again. She would have to make herself more at home in Emery and Peggy’s house, perhaps. That meant enduring family gatherings that included her father and his various and assorted haughty relatives, but she would have to learn to be docile if she wished access to her nephew.
But as the carriage rolled on and the churning in her stomach returned, another suspicion began to replace Aubree’s previous unhappy thoughts. Heath had told her that he and Louise had not conceived a child in nearly two years of marriage, that relations on just a few nights had very little chance of being fruitful. Emery and Peggy had been married nearly a year before Peggy was breeding. And one of the first signs of increasing was morning sickness. So this churning uneasiness every evening could not possibly be what Austin had accused her of. She could not possibly be carrying a child.
But if she were not, then something else must be wrong with her. Aubree tried to remember the last time she had needed linens for her bleeding, but she could not. These last months had been such a jumble of ups and downs, it was not surprising if she were a little irregular. But the nausea was more than irregular.
As the carriage lurched into a bad rut, Aubree turned green and signaled desperately. Heath yelled for a halt and lifted her from the carriage, holding back her skirts and pelisse as she bent beside the road and brought up the remains of their late breakfast.
Mattie moistened cloths in a nearby stream, and between them, they managed to settle Aubree in the carriage again, none the worse for wear except for the embarrassment. The driver watched the road with more heed, and they proceeded with less haste.
Inside the carriage, Heath studied her with concern. “You did not seem prone to travel sickness the last time we made this journey. Perhaps I should send for a physician when we reach Southridge.”
Curling up beneath the warmth of the furred robe, Aubree considered her husband’s countenance through lowered lashes. Her nausea had all but disappeared again, but now he seemed visibly distracted. Poor man, he was probably unaccustomed to watching ladies lose their meals. But he had been heroic in his efforts to help, so she ought to reply with civility. “I am fine now. I think something I ate the other day must have disagreed with me. I am sorry if I disturbed you.”
Heath ran his hand through his hair and looked at her with indecision. “We’ll let your aunt decide. She’s more experienced than I at these things. You have not been feeling like this for long?”
“Only since I left London,” she reassured him. “I am quite well. Please, will you tell me of your sister and her family? Are they still in Devon?” As long as he was talking, she would extract what information she could from him.
“No, I’m sorry, they sailed last month. I had hoped to keep them for the winter, but circumstances. . .” Heath stopped and started again. “They left a letter for you. I thought my mother sent it on.”
“Perhaps you did not explain to her that I would not be returning to read it,” Aubree suggested.
“No. Yes. Confound it, Aubree.” Heath stared at her distractedly, his hair now in a rakish tangle upon his forehead as his eyes burned blue and fierce. “We must talk.”
“About what? About how you had to use my inheritance to save the abbey? I really don’t feel well enough for such a discussion. I think I will nap awhile, if you don’t mind.” She turned her head away and closed her eyes. She really did not feel well enough to handle such a topic. She would prefer to do it with ax in hand.
“Very well,” he answered curtly, “but if you would overcome your childish habit of ignoring what doesn’t please you, such as letters from solicitors, then other unpleasantness might be avoided. Sleep on that thought, my dear.”
And of course, she couldn’t.
Chapter 35
Lady Clara welcomed them warmly, but she showed a particular delight in Heath’s arrival. She clucked and bustled and smiled as she ushered her guests to their respective rooms.
Pleading weariness, Aubree retired after dinner, leaving Heath with Aunt Clara. Once Aubree was out of the way, her usually befuddled aunt turned serious.
“What has his grace done this time?” she demanded. “I thought certainly that Aubree had chosen a husband who would not cater to Ashbrook’s whims, but it seems I was wrong. Am I?”
Heath leaned against the lovely Adam mantel and gazed in bemusement at the gray-haired lady in the straight-backed chair by the fire. Her soft, fluttery exterior evidently hid a spine of steel. No wonder she, alone, had kept Aubree in line.
“There is more to it than meets the eye, my lady. I must act in what I believe to be Aubree’s best interests,” he replied stiffly.
Clara gave a muffled noise of disbelief. “Have you consulted Aubree about your decision?”
“It was my decision to make. I told her all she needed to know. To tell her more would be more painful than helpful.”
“Oh, fustian! You are protecting his grace from his daughter or vice versa, no doubt. There is no winning that battle. They worship each other and show it by fighting like brother and sister. It is Ashbrook’s fault, I suppose. After he lost both his wife and his son, he cut himself off from everyone, including Aubree. He cannot bear to think of losing her, so he attempts not to think of her at all. Quite impossible, I must say, but the duke is a stubborn man.”
Lady Clara swung her fan. The heat from the fire reddened her cheeks, but she remained where she could glare at him.
Heath gave a shrug of acknowledgment. “That may be so, but I see no way out of it. I am not even certain Aubree wants out of it. She has asked for her pets to be returned here.”
Lady Clara grew indignant. “Don’t you dare! That child needs you more than those animals. She adores you. Her letters from the abbey were the happiest I have ever received from her. If
you have sent her away, you have done the worst possible thing in the world for her. Do you have any idea of how many relatives she has been placed with in her brief life? I daresay I could list half the aristocracy in England. They all sent her away for one spurious reason or another. And, of course, her father does nothing else. You are her husband. If you don’t find some way to keep her, I think I shall be tempted to take a horsewhip to the both of you.”
Heath chuckled. “I don’t doubt that in the least, my lady, but it is not so easy as you make it seem.”
“How much difficulty is there in marching up those stairs and telling Aubree why she cannot return to your home?”
“I am not so certain she will listen.” Heath tried to picture the outcome of such a confrontation. “And if she did, I am not so certain that she will react wisely. You truly do not know what you ask.”
“Do you love her?” Aunt Clara demanded.
He smiled sadly. “I can answer that one without hesitation. I love her too much to wish to see her hurt in any way, but I am given only a choice of pains to inflict upon her.”
“Then let her make the choice.” She laid her fan down with finality.
Heath nodded, accepting this wisdom. He gazed upon Aubree’s elderly aunt with respect and affection. “Your judgment is sounder than mine when it comes to Aubree. We are both lucky to have you.”
Clara’s cheeks grew a little pinker, and she waved a dismissal at him. “Go on with you, then. If that girl does not choose you over her father, my judgment means nothing.”
Heath bowed out and took the steps to their chambers two at a time. He had been wanting to talk to Aubree about his predicament for some while. The opportunity would never be better, and her aunt’s words gave the encouragement he needed. He had no desire to antagonize Aubree’s family or alienate her from them, but Lady Clara was right. The choice was Aubree’s.
He knocked lightly at her door, not wishing to wake her if she slept. When he received no reply, the disappointment weighed on him, and he could not resist at least reassuring himself that she slept well. He eased the door open and stared at her empty bed. Untouched. Her nightdress neatly laid across it.
Heath swore to himself, but only a second’s consideration was needed to realize her whereabouts. He raced down the corridor, taking the back stairs as the fastest route, nearly knocking down one of the maids in the servants’ hall.
He hurried down the unlighted garden walk. Bare branches scraped the garden wall and tossed about overhead in the chilly wind. In the summer, this had been a dense haven of greenery and shade, but now only a few stubborn leaves clung to twigs of bushes and trees. Heath focused on the light flickering in the window at the end of the path.
The Southridge stable was not nearly so elaborate as the abbey’s. During the summer, all sight of it was obscured by the garden greenery. Heath paused in the partially open doorway, not wishing to startle the stable’s occupants. Propping his hand against the doorjamb and allowing his racing heart to quiet, he watched the scene inside with quiet joy.
Aubree sat amid the straw in the first box, a lap full of kittens crawling about her skirts and up her shoulder, batting at the fringe of her shawl, tumbling over each other in play. These weren’t the proudly bred Siamese she had left in Devon, but simple tiger farm cats, accustomed to barn life. The mother cat sat nearby, tail twitching. Candlelight illuminated Aubree’s golden curls as she bent to untangle one of the furry balls from her shawl.
When she looked up again, she smiled a welcome at Heath. She held a purring kitten against her cheek and gestured for him to enter.
“You were looking for me?” she asked.
The mother cat rose anxiously at his entrance. When he lowered himself to a seat on a bale of hay and did not object to her lying across his lap, she made herself comfortable. He scratched absently at her head while studying his wife. How did one go about broaching a subject certain to cause argument in a setting as peaceful as this one?
“You are feeling better?” He evaded the issue a little longer, wanting to seal the serene expression on her face in his memory.
“I am well,” she replied politely, betraying no curiosity.
“Your Aunt Clara tells me I have wronged you by trying to protect you. She seems to think you are strong enough to make your own decisions.”
That awoke a flicker of interest behind those great green eyes, but her expression remained unfathomable. “You have already made your position clear. You think I am too young. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions.”
What he wanted to do was to take her in his arms and hold her tight and whisper words of love in her ear and forget all else, but Heath could not afford even this small luxury. He had hurt her very badly, and now he must pay the price.
“You are young,” he agreed, “and in some things I may have more experience than you, but you are the only one who knows how you feel or what you want. I have no right to take those choices from you.”
Aubree cuddled a kitten and watched him with suspicion. “Isn’t it a little too late to discover that?”
“Your father is carrying a warrant for my arrest, Aubree. If he discovers I am here with you, he can have me charged with smuggling and locked behind bars.”
She showed no sign of shock, only a frown of anger. “Why would my father want you arrested?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said, Aubree? I’m a smuggler, a felon in the eyes of the law. On top of everything else, you’re married to a criminal, Aubree.” Heath strove to make her see the seriousness of the situation.
“I know that,” she answered. “I’m not naive. How else would one go about making a fortune in six months’ time with a ship? Everyone would be sailors if it were that easy. I believe I knew it when the navy officers delivered Adrian and said they must return to catch a smuggler. But if you were not on the ship, how can they arrest you?”
Heath brushed his hair from his brow and stared at her in perplexity. “It doesn’t bother you that at any moment you may be exposed to society as the wife of a smuggler?”
“Heath, half society is engaged in immoral flummery of one sort or another. I neither condemn nor condone it. The only sin seems to be getting caught at it. As far as I am concerned, there are far worse crimes than smuggling. If Napoleon is fool enough to think he can keep us out of Europe simply by saying we can’t use his ports, then he must be all about in his wits. And you would certainly think the navy would appreciate fine wine from France, and I’m not averse to good lace and silk myself. What I do object to is you endangering your life, and my father involving himself in what evidently is none of his business. Now tell me how he can have you arrested?”
Heath listened to this speech with astonishment, laughter, and delight. She was still delightfully naive, but certainly not stupid. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?” he offered inanely in reply.
This time, Aubree looked as if she might fall over in shock. “You are quizzing me,” she decided.
“I am not,” he denied. “I daresay I have loved you from the very first moment I laid eyes on you. I cannot think why else I made such a cake of myself as to walk out with a green girl onto a dance floor. But I never thought about it until you sent me that package of shorn hair. I nearly died. I thought for certain you had done something abominable like taking a boat to India or a camel to the Orient or Lord only knows what. I really ought to thrash you for scaring me like that, but I’m not certain I have that right anymore. I wanted to wait until I had earned the right to ask you to be my wife, but it has become too important to me to know how you feel right now. I am not wealthy, Aubree, but it is my money rebuilding the abbey, not yours. You may put yours in trust for your children for all I care. I cannot offer you a lavish home, but it is mine. You know the worst about me by now. Do you still wish to be my wife?”
During this speech, she had tucked the kittens, one by one, into their box, and the mother leapt from her perch to join them. Her mind whirled helples
sly at these words she had never hoped to hear, could not believe she was hearing now. There was so much left unsaid, so much to be explained, but none of it seemed important any longer. He was asking her to trust him, and she loved him too much not to. If she could not believe her husband, she could never believe in anything or anyone again.
With wonder, she finally met his eyes. She had once wished she could hear him ask her to be his wife and had wondered how he would do it. She had never dreamed it would be in the stable among the straw, but she should have known. She had to smile at his typical single-mindedness.
“I have never stopped wishing to be your wife, Heath, only I want to be a wife who stays by your side.” She ducked her head and studied her hands. “I know I am too young and have not the experience you prefer in a woman, but I want to learn. Austin, I. . .”
Before she could finish, he had slid to his knees and wrapped his arms around her, forcing her to look up. “Do not tell me what I prefer, halfling,” he whispered fiercely. “You are what I want and I will take no other.”
Aubree’s arms flew about his waist as he kissed her, and tears flooded her eyes as he held her where she belonged, at last. She tasted the hunger in his kiss, but also the love and the longing, and she returned them full measure. Her fingers clung to the corded muscle of his back as he pressed her close, and she could feel the wild pounding of his heart next to hers.
“I have loved you for so long, Heath,” she whispered as his lips released her to spread their heat across her cheek and hair. “I sometimes thought you didn’t even know I existed.”
“Little fool.” He could feel her slightness in his arms, trace each curve and count every rib beneath the light wool of her gown, so well did he remember the feel of her. They had not come to the end of their problems, by any means, but he could endure anything in the security of her love.
He ran his fingers into her tousled curls and tilted her head back. “Knowing everything you do, you will still agree to be my wife?”
Indigo Moon Page 34