by Linda Sole
Oh, how foolish she was! To dream of a life with a man who had not spoken to her of love was the behaviour of a silly girl, but when he looked at her…oh, when his eyes spoke to her, they seemed to speak of a deep passion and a love beyond her imagining.
Tears pricked her eyes. If only Robert had spoken of his feelings openly. She could then have begged her father to send to London for word of him, but Lord Savage would think her immodest and scold her – and he was already very angry because he felt that Mr Charles Savage had brought shame on the family.
Annabel walked as far as the village. She visited the small haberdashery shop and purchased a length of wide ribbon, with which to trim one of her bonnets. Even that pleasure was muted, though for a moment in conversation with the assistant she had been able to put aside the tearing ache in her heart.
Meeting the Reverend Thatcher’s wife, she talked to her of a charity bazaar, which had done well for the orphans and widows in whose aid it had been conducted. Annabel had given some clothes and a china figure of a horse, which Mrs Thatcher said had raised some shillings, and for which she was thanked five times before she made her escape.
The sound of church bells was on the air as she began her walk home. She decided to walk back through the woods and set out at a good pace. The exercise had done her good and though it could not ease her anxiety it had lifted her spirits a little. She began to think about the various meetings she’d had with Major Goss and the look he had given her that last morning. Surely, it had meant something.
It was not for some time that Annabel became aware of the odd sounds behind her…surely that was a twig cracking beneath someone’s foot? She stopped and looked back, called out, ‘Is someone there? Who is it please?’
No answer came and she walked on again, but almost immediately heard the sound again, and glanced back over her shoulder. Seeing a man her breath caught in her throat and in another moment she saw his face – Charles Savage! What was he doing here in her father’s woods? Surely, he should be on his way to France and in fear of arrest? Her father would have him arrested if he knew he was here.
Heart beating rapidly, Annabel stood her ground as he came up with her.
‘What are you doing? Were you following me?’
‘Miss Annabel…’ His mouth curved in a sneer. ‘How fortunate that we should meet this way. I truly could not believe my luck when I saw you leave the village – and alone too.’
Annabel was shuddering inside but she looked into his eyes, determined not to let him know it. ‘I fail to see why you should think it luck, sir. I have nothing to say to you. I despise you and my father will not have you in our house after what you did to Miss Makepeace.’
‘If he wants to see his daughter alive again, he will soon change his tune,’ Charles Savage’s mouth curved in a sneer. ‘Oh yes, you are the one I want. Your sister would have done, but I dislike watering pots and she would have been much like her friend but you – you are of a different mould. I saw that at Christmas.’
‘If you imagine you can blackmail me into coming with you, you are wrong,’ Annabel said, her head up. She was so angry that she forgot caution, temper flashing out of her. ‘You are despicable, sir. I should rather die than come away with you.’
‘What a little cat she is,’ he said, looking delighted. ‘I am not sure that your dear Papa deserves to have you returned to him, for he refused all my father’s pleas for help and allowed him to die still deep in debt. Perhaps I shall simply keep you for myself…’
‘How dare you?’
Annabel tried to run from him, but he moved swiftly to prevent her, catching at her wrist and holding in a grip that pained her. She kicked out at him and screamed three times, but he caught her about the waist and placed a hand over her mouth. He began to drag her back the way they had come. She guessed that he had a carriage waiting somewhere and once he had her in it she would be lost. Sinking her teeth into the hand over her mouth, she bit him as hard as she could. He yelped with pain and jerked away. In that moment Annabel kicked his shins hard and then, as he released his grip, started to run. He gave a yell and began to run after her, cursing and shouting. She did not look back but thrust her way through the trees, hardly feeling the sting of branches as they whipped into her face.
He was so close behind her when they broke from the trees just beyond the lake. As soon as she was free of them Annabel increased her pace, running headlong across the turf. If she could get near enough to her home someone might see or hear her and come to her rescue. Charles Savage was closing on her again. He was so near that he could almost grab her. Annabel bent swiftly and picked up a stone, throwing it into his face. He yelled and she saw that she had cut him above his eye and the blood was pouring down. He faltered for a moment and she sprinted away from him but then he was after her again. Annabel screamed as he lunged at her, his weight bringing her down as he caught her.
He was on top of her as she struggled and screamed, scratching and hitting out at him, her heels drumming against the hard ground as she tried to dislodge him – and then, all of a sudden she was aware of a horse halting suddenly and a man throwing himself down and then he was there, dragging her attacker off her. She sat up and then rose to her feet, a sob of relief in her throat as she saw the two men fighting.
‘Robert…’ she whispered hardly believing her eyes. They rolled over and over on the ground and for a while it was impossible to tell who was in the ascendancy for they were punching and wrestling but then she heard Robert cry out in pain and caught a glimpse of red on his hand. ‘Oh, Robert…’
As she looked about for a weapon to hit Savage with, he hit Robert so hard that he lay winded for a moment, his eyes closed. Charles struggled to his feet and stood gazing down at him. Even as Robert opened his eyes and started to rise, Charles drew a pistol and pointed it at him. Annabel had no weapon but she sprang on his back, her arms about his throat, trying to choke off his air. He jerked his arm up in surprise but no shot was fired. The next moment he had flung her off him, but Robert was on his feet. He lunged at him and they grappled for the pistol and then a shot rang out.
‘Robert…’ Annabel’s heart leaped with fear, but seconds later she saw Charles sag. Robert stood back and the other man crumpled to his knees, his pistol still in his hand, the blood seeping through his coat. ‘Oh, Robert…’ Annabel ran to him. He opened his arms to receive her and she saw the blood on his white ruffles. ‘Are you hurt?’
‘My wound has opened; it is nothing,’ he said and looked down into her face. ‘Did he hurt you my darling? I was almost too late…’
‘I may have a few bruises,’ she said and her words were between a laugh and a sob. ‘He came upon me in the wood and we struggled. I bit his hand and kicked him and he ran after me…but he would have had his way had you not come.’ Her voice broke and tears were in her eyes as she looked at him. ‘They told me you were badly hurt and like to die…’
‘I allowed it to be thought,’ Robert said. ‘I wanted him hounded. I wanted him tried and convicted for attempted murder. He murdered my friend after first seducing and abandoning his sister. He was an evil man, my love.’
‘Oh, Robert,’ she sobbed and looked at him, and then her eyes opened in wonder. ‘Did you call me your love?’
‘Of course I did. Surely you must have known?’ She shook her head. He smiled, bent his head and kissed her. ‘My very dear Annabel. I thought you must have had a clue…when I sent you the muff…’
‘You sent me the muff?’ She stared in surprise. ‘There was no card…I should have thanked you had I known…’
‘I sent no card, but I thought you might remember what we spoke of that Christmas when we first met?’
‘I thought you had forgot me?’ She looked at him in almost painful anxiety.
‘I cannot pretend that I loved you then, but you intrigued me. I had no thought of marriage then and you were but a young girl – but I remembered the muff and thought it would intrigue you the more if you did no
t know who it came from. When I came down for Christmas I was in two minds; there was a very fashionable young woman in Paris and I had for a while considered making her an offer…’ He saw the look in her face and reached out to touch her cheek. ‘It would have been a convenient arrangement, nothing more, Annabel – but the moment I saw you by the lake, I knew the reason why I hesitated to ask her or any other young lady of my acquaintance. I knew then that I had kept your memory close for a purpose, and I knew that you were the woman I wished to marry.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I love you,’ he said and bent to kiss her again. ‘What other reason could there be? Why do you think I asked if you would help me refurbish my house? If you could not be happy there I shall purchase another.’
‘Oh, no,’ she said quickly. ‘I should like to live near my friends and my father…and I liked the house from the outside. I should enjoy making it into a home, Robert.’
Another two horsemen had arrived, Jim and a groom. They glanced in Robert’s direction and then bent over the fallen man. Robert let go of her and went to join them for a moment, glancing down at Savage’s face.
‘The pistol went off as we fought. He killed himself, but he deserved it…’
Returning to Annabel, he reached for her hand, taking it in his own. ‘I cannot make love to you with a dead man lying there, my love. Where can we be alone?’
Annabel was looking about her. ‘I must have dropped my muff in the wood,’ she said. ‘When I fought him…I do not wish to lose it now that I know it came from you…’
Robert smiled. ‘No, indeed, let us go and look for it. Jim and my groom will see to matters here.’
He took her hand and led her away, back into the trees where they could be alone. She saw the muff after they had been walking for a few minutes and Robert bent down to retrieve it for her. He brushed some debris from the fur and returned it to her, smiling as she took it shyly.
‘I thank you for my lovely gift, Robert,’ she said a little shy. ‘Now I must hem a kerchief for you to show my gratitude…’
‘Shall you make me a kerchief every time I give you a present?’ he asked, a teasing laugh in his voice, his eyes bright with mischief and something else that made her heart race wildly. ‘I shall soon have drawers filled with them.’
‘Oh no, I shall knit you some breeches sometimes,’ she said and he threw back his head and laughed.
‘I see I have truly met my match in you, my little rogue,’ he said, then reached out and drew her close to him.
His kisses set Annabel’s heart leaping and she felt that hot tingling glow spread through her until she felt as if she were on fire with love for him. She reached up into the hair at the nape of his neck and stroked him, pressing herself even closer so that she felt they melted into one another and became one being. Her whole body was crying out for more, though in her innocence she hardly knew what she wanted but murmured his name huskily as he kissed the little hollow at her throat.
‘I love you so much,’ she said. ‘When I thought you might die…’
‘I should have written, indeed I intended it, but then I feared he might try to harm you and I rode here as swiftly as I could. Had I not come…’ A deep shudder went through him and she touched his cheek with her fingertips. ‘I think perhaps I should take you home and ask your Papa for his permission to wed you. I am not sure I can wait much longer…’
Annabel opened her eyes wide. ‘Why can you not?’ she asked. ‘I think there is more to loving a man who is your husband than kisses, but Mama died before she told either Mary or I…will you teach me what I need to know, Robert?’
‘It will be my pleasure,’ he murmured his lips against her throat. ‘Do you really have no idea of your power over me…how much I want to make love to you?’
‘Can you not make love to me before we are wed?’
Robert smiled at her innocence and shook his head. ‘No, because I adore you, and I honour you as the lady I would wed. We shall keep some mysteries until our wedding night, my love…but perhaps when we are alone I shall teach you some of the delights of love before then.’
‘Please do,’ she whispered, her breath coming faster. ‘When you touch me I feel so strange…as if I wanted you to touch me more…certain parts of me…’ A flush came to her cheeks. ‘Oh, am I wicked to say such things?’
‘Very wicked but delicious,’ he replied and kissed her again, his tongue flicking at her lips until she parted them, and then touching hers in a way that made her tingle in intimate places. ‘If you keep tempting me I am not at all certain that I shall be able to wait…’
Fortunately for Robert, Lord Savage was pleased with the match, for he was a little fearful of losing both his daughters and the knowledge that Annabel would be living so close to hand pleased him so much that he agreed to an engagement immediately, and a wedding at the end of February.
‘We must let Lydia and Jane have their day, for they have a double wedding and it will be a huge occasion. Yours must wait until they’ve left on their honeymoons, but we can certainly have a party to celebrate your engagement almost at once.’
Annabel glanced at Robert when he emerged from the interview with her father but he was smiling happily, and she knew they had been lucky for Lord Savage might easily have insisted that she at least accompany Mary on her Season in London.
She would have a brief trip to London to stay with Aunt Miriam after her cousins were married and then return with her bride clothes in time to hear the banns read for her own wedding.
‘You shall buy as many clothes as you wish when we go to Paris for our honeymoon,’ Robert told her. ‘In the meantime I shall speak to my architect and set the plans in motion for the new building and refurbishment. If it should not be ready when we return from Paris, we will live in London. If Mary is in London then so much the better for we may all see each other and attend various functions together.’
‘Do you mind that we must wait more than six weeks?’
‘I wish we might be married at once, but your father has been more than generous, Annabel – and it will give you time to get used to the idea of being married.’
‘Mary told me a little…’ she said and dimpled at him. ‘I thought she knew no more than I but Aunt Miriam told her something about marriage, because she was the elder and she thought she would marry first. It is perhaps a little unfair to her that she should be the last, but she promised me that she did not mind – and she is happy for us.’
‘Your sister is an admirable young lady,’ Robert said. ‘I fancy it will be a special man who is fortunate enough to secure her for she is very thoughtful – and would not care for a rogue like me.’
Annabel laughed. ‘Yes, you are a rogue and no, I do not think you would suit Mary for she is very bookish.’
‘I can read books if they are interesting, but not silly poetry.’
Annabel shook her head at him. ‘Mary doesn’t read silly books, as Lydia and I often did. She prefers history and…science.’
‘Indeed? She is a bluestocking then?’
‘Perhaps but she is a good sister to me, and if we are in town I should like to find a nice husband for her – one who will understand her.’
‘The way I understand you?’ he murmured close to her ear. His tongue circled her ear and made her laugh and cling to him. She pressed her lips to his neck in a kiss and then nipped him with her teeth. ‘Vixen! I shall make you pay for that later I promise you.’
‘Will you?’ she gazed up at him in anticipation for he had given her a few clues as to the pleasure she could expect when they were wed, and with what Mary had told her…Annabel was not certain she could wait for her wedding night either…
‘Alone at last,’ Annabel breathed as Robert entered their bedchamber. They were staying at the house of a friend close to the coast and in the morning they would go on board a ship for France, but for now they were alone. ‘I thought we should never get away. People were so kind to us, Robert…so many lovely
gifts and good wishes, but all I could think of was this moment.’
‘Then we are of one mind,’ he said and moved towards her. She was dressed in a fine nightgown of silk, her long hair brushed and hanging loose on her shoulders. ‘You are so beautiful, my love. I adore you…’ He touched her cheek and bent his head, kissing first her lips, then her throat. ‘You will not be frightened of what I do?’
‘I understand now,’ she told him, looking fearlessly into his eyes. ‘Aunt Miriam told me what to expect. She said that if I truly love you, it will be the most wonderful experience of my life…and I do truly love you, Robert.’
‘Then I must make it the best moment of your life,’ he said tenderly and bent to gather her up in his arms. Carrying her to the bed he placed her gently on the edge of the bed, then took the pretty night chemise in his hands and tugged it carefully over her head, letting it fall to the floor. ‘So beautiful…’ he whispered huskily. He knelt before her, his hands touching her hair, her shoulder, sliding down to caress her breasts, his thumbs moving over her nipples. Annabel shivered and arched her throat, crying out with pleasure as he bent his head and stroked her nipples with his tongue. He continued to kiss and stroke her, kissing down her thighs and even her feet.
‘Lie back, my love,’ he said throatily and then took off his dressing wrap, revealing that he wore nothing beneath.
Annabel gasped as she saw a fully aroused male body for the first time, and her aunt’s words and Mary’s hesitant whispers suddenly began to make sense as Robert joined her on the bed. He gathered her to him and she felt the heat of his body, the feel of his satin hard flesh making her tremble and whimper with sudden need.
‘Oh, Robert,’ she whispered as his hand parted her legs and his fingers began to stroke with gentle firmness, making her arch and ache with sudden need. ‘Is this what it means to love?’
‘Yes, my darling,’ he murmured against her throat. His lips nudged at her breast and then he suckled on her. She writhed against him as his finger slid inside her and felt the wetness on her thighs. ‘Are you ready for me now? You are not afraid?’