Sam looked at him with very narrowed eyes.
“You were cuddling her last night. Is that why you’re marrying her, Cousin Knight?”
“Cuddling is part of it. Your mother and I are fond of each other. We wish to do what is best for us and for you.”
“It’s awfully soon,” Theo said, his thin face pale and suddenly tense.
It was awfully soon, Knight thought. “Come here, Laura Beth.” He gathered her up and placed her on his knee. “Theo, please attend me. Sam, are you comfortable enough?” At Sam’s nod, Knight continued. “You are my legal wards. Your mother agreed to that so Ugly Arnold couldn’t ever again threaten her about your welfare. Fortunately, even though your aunt Gertrude is more closely related to you than I am, I have the resources to ensure that they can’t hurt you or take you away from me. Unfortunately, Lily isn’t your real mama, so she can’t protect you by herself.”
“She is!”
“She’s my mama!”
Knight held up a quieting hand. “You love her, I know that, but the fact remains that—”
“She’s my mama!” Laura Beth cried again, bouncing up and down on his knee.
“No, snippet, she isn’t your real mama, but that isn’t important. She’s your mama in every way that counts. But, you see, the English courts wouldn’t take that into account.”
“We had to do that, sir,” Theo said.
“Do what, Theo?”
Sam shrugged. “Tell him the truth, Theo. He already knows most of it.”
Theo gave Knight a long, searching look, seemed satisfied, and began. “When we went to the Damsons in Yorkshire, Lily told them the truth, that she had been our father’s financee. Aunt Gertrude didn’t behave like a lady toward her and Ugly Arnold tried to hurt her, but I stopped him. We all escaped the next morning. The only thing we could come up with was to make Lily Laura Beth’s mother and my father’s widow.”
“She is my mama,” Laura Beth said again, turning on Knight’s knee. For the first time he noticed a resemblance to her father. That stubborn chin of hers.
“Once she is wed to me, no one will ever challenge it. Theo, what’s the matter? You’re worried about something?”
“Mama is very beautiful. Men are always staring at her. Usually she doesn’t even notice. But sometimes they are very obvious and it makes her unhappy. Sam and I have tried to protect her. We truly like you, Cousin Knight, but Mama comes first. Do you promise that you’re not forcing her to marry you?”
My God, Knight thought, poleaxed, from the mouth of a nine-year-old. He couldn’t answer that question. He wouldn’t. He said instead, “Is it that you mind having me for a father?”
“You’re too young to be our father,” Laura Beth said, twisting around to look up at him. Her thumb promptly went back into her mouth. Why? he wondered. Because she was afraid of both her statement and his reply?
“Not really. I’m twenty-seven. Surely that’s a great enough age to have sired the lot of you.”
He saw the flash of pain in Theo’s eyes and added quickly, “You had a father, a wonderful father. Tris was my cousin and I cared about him. Unfortunately, he had to leave you. I will be your stepfather and I hope you will allow me to take care of you. Even though you’re all devils, absolute heathens, I do find that I’m quite fond of you. Most of the time.”
“You like to order us about,” Sam said.
“That’s right. Particularly your actress sister here.”
Laura Beth took her thumb out of her mouth and gave Knight a beatific smile.
“Will we have to go to Eton?” Sam asked in his most belligerent voice, but he couldn’t quite meet Knight’s eyes.
“Certainly. I went there, as did my father before me. It’s a tradition among Winthrop men, you know.”
“Did Papa go to Eton?”
“Yes, Sam, he did. He was a terror there. A scourge, and he had many friends, I understand.”
“When will we go, sir?” Theo asked.
“Perhaps in January. We’ll see.”
“Will you hurt Mama?”
“Oh, Sam, of course not. I will take very good care of her and you. If, that is, you promise to stay away from an angry mare’s hind legs.”
Sam grinned.
Theo rose and extended his hand. Knight, nonplussed, shook it. “What’s that for, Theo?”
“We’ll let you marry Mama,” Sam said.
“Thank you,” Knight said. “Thank you very much for trusting me.”
Laura Beth took her thumb out of her mouth and beamed at Knight. “You’re Papa now.”
If Knight didn’t look utterly taken aback, he certainly felt it. He stared at the child, thinking: I, a father? Ridiculous, absurd. Oh, God, they are mine now and I am responsible for them.
“Now, Laura Beth,” Theo said, and Knight saw that he was rubbing his hands together, a nervous habit. “Cousin Knight isn’t used to children. Surely he doesn’t want—”
“Stow it, Laura Beth,” Sam said more forcefully. “Cousin Knight is our guardian, not our papa.”
Knight rose slowly, setting Laura Beth on her feet. He looked from Sam to Theo to Laura Beth. “Actually, I think if you can bring yourself to call me Papa, I should like it very much.”
“Papa,” said Laura Beth.
Sam’s lower lip suddenly jutted out. He shook his head. “No,” he said in a very aggressive voice. “No, my papa’s dead. I shan’t forget him. I shan’t.”
“I should hope not,” said Knight. He felt at a loss for a moment and wondered if it had been such a good idea to speak to the children without Lily being present. He drew a deep breath. “Think about it, Sam. I’m truly not trying to take your papa’s place.” But he was and he realized it at that moment. He wanted the children, wanted them to love him and look to him when they were in trouble, which, he thought with a small smile, just might make him gray-haired in a very short time.
“Sir,” Theo said, clearing his throat, “we will think about it.”
“Oh, close down your scarmy trap, Theo.”
“Sir, Sam’s not feeling too well right now and—”
Before Sam could take further exception, Knight said, “I understand. Now, Theo, Laura Beth, let’s leave Sam to garner his strength. He needs it to be on crutches next week.” Knight paused and smote his forehead with his palm. “Oh, Lord, what will you do on crutches, Sam? Should I warn the neighbors and the magistrate?”
“You what?”
“I spoke to the children and they gave me their permission to marry you.”
“But Laura Beth didn’t say a word to me, not a single word. And Sam was asleep and I couldn’t find Theo—”
“I told them to keep mum. I’m impressed with Laura Beth. She really kept quiet?”
Lily was clearly distracted. A nice job of spiking her guns, Knight thought, and cut a hefty bite of his fillet of grouse.
“Yes, she did. You bribed her. You bribed her. You let her out well before dinner, Knight. That’s not fair.”
He grinned at her shamelessly. “Anything, Lily. Anything at all until you’re my wife, all right and proper. Then I’ll revert immediately to my former obnoxious, overbearing, cloth-headed self.”
“No,” she said, her voice laced with sad acceptance, “no, you won’t, because you aren’t any of those things. What you will revert to is being nice again.”
He arched a dark brow. “Nice, huh? You’re sure about that? You’re finally convinced that I do have a fine and wonderful character?”
“You shouldn’t have gone behind my back with the children.”
“Why not? I thought it excellent strategy. You’re in my net now, and you’re well and truly caught. Give it up, Lily. If you like, we can tell the children about the jewels. If they’re anywhere amongst their things, they will turn up. Can you just imagine Sam with an assignment like this?”
“No, I don’t want them to know about the jewels. They wouldn’t let it rest there; they would want to know everything. I don’t
want them to know that those awful men killed Tris.”
Lily had racked her brains, headache and all, to try to figure a way out of Castle Rosse and away from Knight Winthrop. Now he’d done her in. Aloud, she said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“If you’ll tell me the problem I will try to help, truly.”
She looked up, clearly startled.
“You spoke out loud, Lily.”
“I didn’t mean to. Oh, Knight, can’t you simply settle some money on the children? I’ll take them away with me and you won’t have to be bothered ever again. Please, I’ll—”
His partially empty wineglass sailed by her head.
She froze, staring at him.
“Why are you looking so appalled? You have shot missiles at me more times than I can count.”
“Just twice.”
“With deadly intent.”
“You deserved it.”
“Well, unlike you, I wouldn’t have hit you. I did intend the red wine to spill on your bosom, though. Very interesting result. Would you like me to mop you off, Lily?”
Lily looked down. This one gown wasn’t cut high as were her others, but it wasn’t low either. She suddenly felt the wine snaking down between her breasts. “You’ve ruined my gown,” she said, not looking at him. “I only have three, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll buy you a hundred.”
She felt a dull thud of pain at his words. “I don’t want a hundred gowns. I don’t want you to buy me anything.”
Knight sat back in his high-backed chair. He regarded her closely, saying nothing. Finally, in his Adult-to-Sam voice, he said, “I don’t really give a good damn what you want at the moment. Your wardrobe is lacking, to say the very least. I will see you suitably gowned. Now, have you anything else to say to me? Take care, Lily, the bottle of wine is at my elbow.”
“You’re marrying me for all the wrong reasons, Knight. Can’t you see that?”
“Be quiet, Lily. Now, here is your betrothal ring.” He pulled a ring from his pocket and held it out to her. Lily stared at it. It was an immense emerald surrounded by diamonds set in a delicate gold band. It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she’d ever seen in her life.
“Billy’s Baubles?”
“Amusing, aren’t you? The ring belonged to my mother and my grandmother before her.”
“It must be ancient, then, given the fact that the Winthrop men never wed until they are forty.”
“No, that nonsense began and ended with my father. I am twenty-seven and nearly the husband of a very beautiful woman and stepfather to three children. It’s amazing, I freely admit it, but it is very nearly done, Lily. Day after tomorrow, my dear, and you will be a viscountess. I’m rich as well as titled. Doesn’t that stir any greedy embers in your soul?”
“Yes,” Lily said, smiling at him. “Yes, it does. I am marrying you for your money and what you can give me. You were right about why I came to London when I’d heard you were hurt. I hoped you would marry me on your deathbed, then I would have had everything.”
“Excellent,” he said, sitting back in his chair and giving her a charming smile. “This way is better, don’t you think? You will have all the money you wish, and in addition, you will also have my randy man’s body as often as you can handle it.”
Lily could think of no words.
It wasn’t until she was lying wide awake in her bed some three hours later that it occurred to her that she hadn’t even asked Knight how the children had responded to his news.
They’d probably shouted hallelujahs.
Even as she thought it, she shook her head. No, it was much too soon for them to accept Knight in Tris’s place. She would speak with them in the morning.
She’d accepted things, she realized. What choice had she but to marry Knight?
She couldn’t say that she found him repellent.
Nor could she say that he was wicked and mean like Ugly Arnold.
But she could say that he didn’t love her. And that hurt, awfully. Damn his title and his money. Damn his ruthlessness. Damn him for being the most wonderful man she’d ever known in her life.
Lily stopped her damning in an instant at the sound of a loud crash. Sam. She ripped back the covers and pulled on her dressing gown even as she was running out of her bedchamber.
Eighteen
Lily’s yell died in her throat. She skidded to an abrupt halt just inside Sam’s bedchamber. She stared.
Sam and Knight were tangled together on the floor, two blankets wound about them.
The night table beside the bed lay on its side, the pitcher cracked and empty on the wooden floor, water snaking toward Knight’s elbow.
Sam’s splinted leg was nearly vertical to his body. He was laughing.
Knight was trying to keep Sam’s leg straight. He was cursing.
“May I ask what’s going on?”
“Mama,” Sam said, then went off again into a fit of giggles.
“You’re not hurt, I gather.”
Knight clamped down on his curses. “No, that is, Sam certainly isn’t hurt, not with me holding his leg in the air for him. As for myself, this damned splint of his weighs at least five stone. Don’t you dare laugh, Lily, help me get Sam up. He’s under the influence of a goodly amount of laudanum. He, the dear little chap, doesn’t feel a blessed thing.”
Lily let a giggle escape her own throat until she realized that Knight was in his dressing gown and the dressing gown was open to his waist and he wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She gulped and stared at him. He knew that she was staring, and even if he’d been embarrassed to the roots of his hair he couldn’t have prevented his body’s announcement of his feelings. Thank God the room was cold. That helped, that and the fact that Lily now kept her eyes on Sam’s face.
“Oh, dear,” she said, then doubled over with laughter. Knight eyed her as she hugged her stomach.
Sam giggled.
Knight gave him a stern look. “You’ve enjoyed enough laughter at my expense, you foul brat. Go back to sleep now and dream about all the wedding delicacies you’ll doubtless eat.” He patted the boy’s face, straightened his blankets, then stepped back. He looked over at Lily, who had finally stopped laughing.
Indeed, he saw that she was looking up at him, and that look did him in immediately, irrevocably. It could have been fifty degrees colder in the room and it wouldn’t have mattered. Oh, God. He was hard, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, to leave to her imagination. He wanted to grab her, he wanted her to take him in her hand and caress him, he wanted to feel her beautiful breasts while her mouth—
“Oh, Cousin Knight, could you stay a minute? Er, Mama, would you leave, please?”
“Leave? Whyever for?”
“Mama, I have to relieve myself.”
“Oh, that,” Lily said and gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t be silly, Sam.”
“You shouldn’t be here, Mama. Cousin Knight will help me. Won’t you, sir?”
Knight patted Lily’s shoulder. “You’re barefoot, my dear. Go back to your bed. I’ll take care of the brat here. Go.”
She went, but not before she heard another giggle from Sam.
She wasn’t surprised, not really, when she heard her door open quietly a few minutes later.
“Is Sam all right?”
“Certainly. He enjoyed oversetting me, I think. Bringing me to my knees, so to speak. I believe he’s just like his mother in that regard.”
“But I wouldn’t bring you to your knees, I—”
“Lily,” he said. He was closer now, standing beside her bed, looking down at her. “Lily, after we are married, you will have me on my knees. First I intend to strip you naked, very slowly, and I’ll keep you standing, close to the fire, of course. I wouldn’t want you to catch a chill. Then I’ll kiss every inch of you—I’ll lift the hair off your neck and nibble my way around your throat to your soft mouth. Ah, and then your breasts, Lily. Can you imagine how you will feel when I ca
ress your breasts in my hands and caress you with my mouth? Then you’ll feel my tongue on your belly, then lower, until my tongue is sliding inside your beautiful body and then—” He broke off at her gasp and frowned. “Surely you are quite knowledgeable in all matters carnal?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Lily, don’t.” He sat beside her, able to make out her features now in the dim light. “Don’t ever lie to me. I don’t care about the past, you must believe me. All I care about is you and me and the children and our future together.”
“Of course you care about the past. You become incredibly nasty whenever you think about me with other men. I told you, Knight, I didn’t live with Tris, I lived in his house. There is an immense difference, if you would but admit to it.”
But those men knew of you, he wanted to shout at her. They called you Tris’s fancy piece, Tris’s whore—
“I want you now, Lily.” Before she could say anything, he was stretched out beside her. “Kiss me.”
I can’t let this happen, she thought. She twisted her face away, so that his kiss landed on her left ear. If he kissed her mouth she would succumb immediately.
His right hand held her wrists, his left stroked over her throat, downward, until his fingertips touched her breast. She sucked in her breath, reared up, and pulled away from him. She rolled to the far side of the bed. “Go away, Knight. You won’t do this to me.”
He lay there, feeling equal parts foolish, bereft, and furious with her. Then he laughed. “You’re right. It’s just that I want you so much I forget I’m a gentleman, a civilized man.” He rose, straightened his dressing gown, and said in a calm voice, “Good night, sweetheart. Tomorrow we’ll find Billy’s Baubles. Dream about me, Lily.”
“Good night, Knight.”
He laughed and was gone.
She didn’t dream about him. She dreamed about Monk and Boy and knew fear. They had to find the jewels.
They didn’t find the jewels. Knight made a game of it with the children. He told them only that if they found anything of interest in their belongings, they would be rewarded. Every item of clothing the children owned was closely examined, every toy squeezed, taken apart, and otherwise probed and prodded. Nothing.
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