Upon her husband’s death, Ali had been left with both a widow's pension and the inheritance from her husband. So her "job" at the hospital had been as an unpaid volunteer, something she had apparently been doing for many years. It still grated that she had to quit because of him and a rumor he was partially responsible for.
"Are you going to be my new daddy?"
The question startled him, and he could do nothing but stare at the little girl. Her bright blue eyes regarded him seriously while a mischievous smirk played on her lips.
"Philly, you can't ask questions like that," the older girl admonished. She then turned her own very serious gaze on him, and a disquieting shiver ran through his body. "What exactly are your intentions toward our mother, Mr. Netterman?"
"Blimey. You have the candor of a solicitor, Miss Sheiling," he said.
"I prefer a barrister or Bow Street runner," she replied. "Quite honestly I find most solicitors a bit too oily and evasive for my taste."
He couldn't help it, he smiled at the girl in admiration. She might be only six and ten, but she had the straightforwardness of a seasoned investigator. "Honorable, Miss Sheiling," he said, answering her question. "Strictly honorable, I can assure you."
"Do you like children?" the little girl piped in.
He turned back to the little one and smiled. "As a matter of fact, Miss Phyllis, I adore them. I have a whole passel of nieces and nephews I quite adore. And I believe they are quite fond of me as well."
"Really?" she said in awe. "Are any of them my age?"
John smiled down at her. "I do believe there are a few of them that would be about your age."
"Are they in London?" she asked, and he could see her eyes sparkling with excitement.
He grinned. "As a matter of fact, sweetheart, there are one or two of them that are still in town," he said, tucking his bad hand into his chest and dropping to one knee in front of the girl. "Would you like me to introduce you to them?"
"Ohhh, I would ever so love that, Mr. Netterman." She glanced over his shoulder and added in a very loud whisper, "Becky hates playing with me."
He winked at her. "My older sisters and brother were the same way. Fortunately, I had a number of cousins and friends my age that were more than willing to play with me."
"Truly?" she asked.
"On my honor," he said, and then crossed his heart.
"Can we go meet them now?"
"Philly, don't be such a goose," the older girl scolded.
Glancing up, he was surprised to see mistrust on Rebecca's face instead of anger. As if she was sure he was going to disappoint her sister. Impulsively he said, "I don't see why not."
Phyllis squealed with delight, and when his ears quit ringing he added, "You'll have to go ask your mother for permission of course. But I don't see why we can't go today." He looked back up at the older girl. "One of my nieces is about your age as well, Miss. Sheiling. From what your mother has told me about you, I think the two of you will get on quite well together."
He caught her flinch as she regarded him suspiciously. But before she could say anything, Phyllis bolted around the two of them and scampered up the hill bellowing to her mother.
Amused, he stood up and turned to watch the flight of the little girl. But his amusement vanished and his lungs ceased to function at what he beheld—his angel had turned into an angry mama bear and was racing toward him with murder in her eyes. The elegantly dressed woman he had seen minutes before was screaming for her daughters, her golden hair waving wildly in the air. John was transfixed by the sight, until he realized that with the little one screaming like a banshee as she raced away from them, Ali might think he was hurting her children.
Chapter 7
Alison’s daughter's excited voice caught her attention and she turned to look for Phyllis. At first, all she saw was Becky standing with her back to her, her arms on her hips and staring down at her sister. Nothing new nor unusual. But then Becky shifted, and Alison saw a large man squatting down in front of Phyllis, and her heart stopped. Her years of following the drum and protecting her older daughter from unwanted attention crashed back into her.
Just then she heard Phillis’s bloodcurdling scream as she darted around her sister and began running toward Alison. Jerking away from Katie, she screamed her daughters' names and began running toward them. Then, in between one heartbeat and the next, Alison could see her daughter's excited face and hear the excitement in her voice. Glancing past Phyllis, she saw the man just as he stood up to face her.
It was John. Relief slammed into her and she stumbled to a halt. His smile was welcoming. But she could swear she saw a wariness in his face.
"Mummy! Mummy! Mr. Netterman is taking us to meet some new friends. He told me that one of the girls is my age and will want to play with me!"
Her mind emptied of everything except the thought that he was here. More handsome than he had been two days ago in his office. Then, he had been dressed in a sedate brown coat, a waistcoat, and loose-fitting pantaloons—the very embodiment of a serious solicitor. It should have cooled her riotous feelings. Unfortunately, it hadn't.
Today he was even more devastatingly handsome, despite the scars, and dressed very un-lawyerly in tight-fitting fawn colored riding pants tucked into high, glossy black boots, a forest green coat, and gold waistcoat. A hunter on the hunt for his prey. And with the way he was looking at her, she knew she was the quarry he was hunting for.
Alison’s heart fluttered and her throat went dry. Which, considering what she intended to say to him, was a very inappropriate response to the man's smoldering looks.
Phyllis careened into her and wrapped her arms around her mother’s legs, knocking her off balance and back into the present. "Can we go? Can we go? I've ever so much wanted a new friend to play with. And Mr. Netterman says we'll be the best of friends!"
Confused, she glanced down at her daughter as Phyllis released her stranglehold on her legs and began tugging on her hand. "Who?" she asked, and then shook her head. "Who is this little girl? And who are her parents?"
Gripping Ali's hand in one of hers, Phyllis turned and began dragging her down the hill toward John and Becky. "What is my new friend's name?" she bellowed.
"Penelope," John called back. "But she prefers to be called Penny."
"Why, I think that is a wonderful idea," Katie said from behind her.
Releasing Phyllis's hand, she whirled around and glared at her friend as panic crept through her. "What are you doing?" she mouthed.
Ignoring her, Katie called out, "Good morning, John. I'm so glad you were able to join us this morning. As it happens, I have a favor to ask of you. Would you mind giving Ali and the girls a ride home after your visit to Philly's new friend? I've just now recalled an appointment I completely forgot about and that I am late for."
"Katie?" Alison squeaked.
"Why sure, your... I mean Katie. It would be my pleasure," John said at the same time.
Whipping back around, she stared at the man as he gracefully made his way up the hill to them, her traitorous daughter's hand clasped in his. The look on his face was still a bit hesitant, as if he was reciting lines in a play that he wasn't sure about.
Suddenly it all made perfect sense to her, Katie's insistence that they go to Hyde Park this morning so she could tell Alison about her pregnancy. Alison had been properly thrilled to hear that news, but she was still stewing over the lack of response to her letter to John last night. And Katie's insistence that she just needed to be patient.
Slowly turning around, she fixed her dear friend with a hard stare. "You set this up, didn't you?"
Katie grinned back at her. "Got to run," she said, and turned to leave. "Sorry Ali. But I'll see the two of you on Saturday. Seven o'clock. Please don't be late. Gabe has become quite impatient since learning he is to be a father." And with that, her traitorous friend scampered across the grass and vaulted into her waiting carriage.
"It is a bit like being a marionette wit
h only half the strings attached, isn't it?" he asked from just behind her.
"I love marionettes," Phyllis squeaked. "Does my new friend have some?"
Slowly she turned to confront the man as he answered her daughter. "I'm not sure, sweetheart. But you can sure ask Penny when we get there."
Her daughter squealed with delight and took off running down the hill toward Becky, chattering about the puppet shows she and her new friend were going to put on.
"Did you set this up?" she demanded. Alison hated being manipulated, and she was most definitely being maneuvered. The question was, by whom?
John grimaced and shook his head. "No, Ali," he said and pulled two folded pieces of papers from his breast pocket. He held out the first one to her. "I'm just responding to a summons."
Alison recognized the note and took it from his fingers. It was the note she had sent him last night.
I need to meet with you at your earliest opportunity.
She suddenly felt a little queasy.
"It wasn't a summons," she said.
He shrugged his shoulders. "A demand then."
She swallowed the retort she was about to make, because it did in fact sound a bit presumptuous and demanding.
He held up the second letter, and she recognized the ducal stationery and her friend's bold handwriting. She scanned the note quickly and caught the most damning of the words:
Hyde Park, nine o'clock, east end of the Serpentine.
"Bloody hell," she whispered.
"Quite so," he replied.
"I didn't..."
She hadn't what? Summoned him? In the cold light of day her note did have the tone of an order. So had Katie's. But Alison suspected Katie's note had been intentionally written that way, while hers had been just a...
"Oh bloody hell," she muttered. She had summoned him. And in a very dictatorial way too. "I'm s-sorry," she stuttered. "I hadn't... I didn't mean to... it wasn't meant to be a summons. I just needed to talk to you."
He grinned at her, and a rabbit somersaulted in her stomach. "Yes, I know. And I assume you wish to discuss the particulars about our agreement."
An ice-cold chill washed over her, freezing her thoughts and her body. Her eyes flickered to her daughters as they grew closer. "What are you doing?" she hissed.
"Trying to ascertain where it is you and your daughters would like me to take you?"
Alison felt her jaw drop open as she glared up at him. She wanted to blister him with the tongue lashing that he deserved, but Becky and Phyllis had just reached them.
“You said we were going to visit my new friend,” Phyllis whined.
John winked at the girl. “I mean after you have a nice long visit with Penny.”
"Ohhh!” the girl squealed. “Then where are we going, mummy?" Phyllis asked excitedly.
"Well," he said, and winked at Alison this time before turning back to her daughters. "Your mother and I had talked about taking the both of you to the Tower of London, so you could see the royal menagerie. Or maybe a trip to the museum or the art gallery."
"Oh mummy, can we really go and see the lions and bears?" Phyllis squealed.
Alison had taken Becky to all of those places, but that had been years ago and Phyllis hadn't been born yet. She could see that both of her daughters wanted to go to either place. Even Becky looked excited about the prospects.
Turning, she fixed the fiend with a look she had used on countless soldiers and patients. He had neatly outmaneuvered her. And right in front of her daughters. But as soon as she got him alone, she was going to tell him exactly what he could do with his machinations. Just not right then, not with the joyous looks on both her daughter's faces.
"And just where is it we are going today?" she bit out between clinched teeth.
His disingenuous look of innocence nearly sent her over the edge. "Why, my brother's, of course."
She was going to strangle him with her bare hands. "You've got two of them, as I recall," she got out.
His smile grew, and Alison's hand shook. "Gregory. I'm sure you remember me telling you that Marcus and his family are not in town. He's summering in Scotland with his wife's family."
During his recovery, he had told her about his family in great detail. Which included the fact that his younger brother had married a Scottish heiress and that they spent most summers at his wife's highland castle.
Glancing over at both her girls, she could see that they were excited about the prospect of meeting his nieces. "Great," she muttered under her breath. She was going to have to meet the heir to the Earl of Exetter. Normally that would not have bothered her in the least, but considering how she had propositioned John the other day, she wasn’t looking forward to the meeting.
"Girls," Alison called out, "go on ahead and wait by Mr. Netterman's carriage." She turned to him and demanded, "I assume that is your landau parked on the side of the road?"
He waved Katie's note. "As per the duchess’s instructions, yes, it is."
Alison's jaw clinched. She was going to kill Katie. But first she was going to do some serious damage to the man beside her.
Once the girls were far enough away, she turned to him and demanded. "What are you doing?"
His eyes blinked innocently. "I'm just taking my friend to meet my brother so her two wonderful daughters can meet my nieces."
They were friends. Or they had agreed that they were before his eyes’ bandages had come off. Before she had ruined everything by asking him to be her lover. Her stomach suddenly roiled and she grimaced inwardly, because he hadn't ruined their friendship. She had, with her scandalous proposal.
"John," she pleaded, "I need to talk to you about... about what I asked you the other day."
His mouth opened and he batted his very long and sexy eyelashes at her. She started to interrupt him, but he shushed her by placing his finger across her lips. Instinctively, her tongue darted out and tasted him and her heart quivered.
"Ali, we are friends. First and foremost. And all I am doing is spending time with my friend and her two lovely daughters."
"But we can't," she cried past his fingers. Her heart hurt from denying what she really wanted. "If people see us going about together they will assume you are courting me."
"What courting?" he replied, pulling his hands away from her and holding them up in the air. Another pang ripped through her at the loss of his finger against her lips.
"You were Imogene's best friend."
Startled, she rocked backward a step.
"And you are my sister-in-law's friend."
Alison felt her mouth open but couldn't form a single thought.
He closed the distance between them and caressed her cheek so gently that a tear blurred her vision.
"And you are my friend. So, what could be more natural than me spending time with you and your daughters?"
An aching pain gripped her chest and made it hard for her to breathe. She had missed him so much over the past week. A huge part of her wanted to remain his friend. A much larger part wanted to be his lover. But she couldn't.
She turned and stared at her daughters as they talked by the side of his carriage. Her vison blurred, and she turned back to him. "John, I can't..."
He quickly closed the remaining distance between them. "Ali, no. Don't say it."
"John," she wailed.
"No," he said, and gripped her shoulders and began running his hand up and down her arms.
"You don't want to be my lover," he said.
She opened her mouth but couldn't say the words.
"I saw it in your eyes the minute you asked me."
She shook her head no but didn't know why.
"And you don't want to marry me."
One of her hands rose and she pressed her fisted hand against her mouth.
"I understand. And that is fine with me."
A part of her died. She knew she couldn't marry him. And for the girls' sake, she couldn't become his lover either. But it felt like he had just pu
nched her when he said that it was fine with him.
"But I want to be a part of your life. A part of your daughter's lives. You were Imogene's friend, and you are Katie's friend. And they are a part of my life too." His hands gripped her tightly and he stared deeply into her eyes. "I want to be your friend, Ali. I want to have that closeness, that camaraderie we shared while I was recovering."
She wanted it too. But could she be his friend and not be pulled into having the scandalous affair she had proposed the other day? She hoped so. If not for herself, then for her daughters' sake, because they would benefit from having someone like John in their lives. All she had to do was avoid falling into bed with the man.
Chapter 8
The disaster his last investigation had turned into should have been a clue to how his courtship of Ali would go. If it was a courtship. Even if he hadn’t been sure what he wanted from her in the beginning, his desire for her had not waned in the least. If anything, it had grown into a near obsession to be around her. And somewhere during the last three months he had accepted that he did want her to be his lover, but not if it endangered her or her daughters’ reputations or lives.
That realization had prompted him to re-evaluate his own life. Especially the secret criminal investigations he and his firm conducted. Normally he was an active part of any and all of their investigations. Any criminal charges that were handled were done so by the two capable barristers he employed. They also helped in any criminal investigations.
But thanks to the torture he had survived, he had lost some of the feelings in his left hand, and the bones in his right hand had not healed completely proper. Consequently, he wasn’t as competent with a gun as he used to be, nor could he defend himself in a fight as well as he once had.
And on top of those impediments, he still hadn’t regained full vision in his right eye. And, according to Dr. Langton, he might never see properly out of that eye again. In fact, it was more than likely that he would eventually lose the sight entirely.
Alison's Scandalous Affair (The Fallen Angels NOVELLA series Book 1) Page 6