“There is nothing to fight about. You will no longer write the articles for The Times.”
“Yes, I will.”
He jerked the stack of papers off the desk and acted as if he were about to rip them in two.
“Stuart James McKenzie, if you rip those up, I swear you will rue the day you ever met me, and I will never share your bed again. Those are not articles.”
“What are they?”
“A story, if you must know. I am writing a novel, or attempting to. That is part of my work. Now, may I have it back?”
Mack held the paper out of her reach and perused a few pages. “This Bartleby, who is he?”
“The hero,” she muttered.
“And he has ‘penetrating grey eyes and dark hair that looked like a raven’s wing in the sun’.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds very familiar. In fact, I think I saw something like that in the mirror this morning while getting dressed for work.”
“Damn you, Mack. Give me back my bloody papers!” Cassie stomped on his foot, and Mack dropped the papers. “You didn’t have to drop them,” she accused as she fell to the floor and began gathering them up.
“Bloody hell, did you have to stomp on my foot?”
Cassie peeked around the corner of the desk as she watched Mack limp to a chair. She blindly placed the papers on the desk and crawled quickly to his side. She raised up so that she knelt next to him and tentatively laid a hand on his knee. “Mack, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he bit out.
“No lies, no secrets, remember? This marriage might not have much, but it will at least have those rules. Now, I am sorry I did not tell you about my novel. It just didn’t come to mind the last few days. There now, what’s wrong?”
“You stomped the same foot that a wagon rolled over this morning.”
“A wagon rolled over? What were you doing that close to a wagon?”
“Attempting to avoid being run down by a carriage.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Someone tried to kill me on the way to work this morning.”
All the air seemed to leave Cassie, and she looked defeated. Her buttocks rested on her heels. “Perhaps you should start over.”
“There is nowhere to start. I walked to work this morning. As I crossed the street, a coach came barreling down on me. My only option was to throw myself beneath a passing wagon. Somehow I managed to have only a foot run over by the wheel. The same foot that you just stomped on.”
“I’m so sorry. If I had known… Do we need to call for a physician?”
“No. I think it’s just bruised. The wagon was empty.”
“Was it an assassination attempt? You have such a dangerous job.”
“I don’t think it was. Not in that way.”
“What do you think it was?”
“I received this at work today.” He reached inside his coat and pulled out the letter, handing it to her. He had not been going to tell her about it, but her “no secrets, no lies rule” put paid to that. “Actually it came yesterday.”
Cassie took the letter and opened it. She read it several times, carefully committing every word to memory before handing it back to Mack. “Whoever this person is, isn’t after me, are they? They just want me to suffer.”
“That’s what Gabe and I believe. I have men watching your father’s house, our house, and Gabe’s house.”
“Oh, no. Mikala and the baby…”
“Are well protected. Gabe will see nothing happens to them. He has his own defense system besides the one that I sent over.”
“Good. I couldn’t live with myself if anything were to happen to Mikala or the baby, not after everything she has done for me. Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“I just have some bruises here and there. More sore than anything.”
Cassie nodded. “Sit here and relax, I’ll be back in a moment.”
He grabbed her hand before she could disappear. “Where are you going?”
“I’m not leaving the house. I’ll be back in a moment,” she started to leave, but turned back toward him on impulse. She leaned over and engaged him in a kiss that left them both just a bit winded. “I missed you just a bit today.”
“Just a bit?”
“Well, I don’t want you to get any ideas that I want you underfoot all the time,” she saucily winked at him before leaving him and disappearing from the room.
Mack relaxed back against the chair and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing in his foot.
“Bartlett, drag that table over.”
He heard Cassie’s order and his eyes opened. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to save you a few steps.”
“Cassie, my foot hurts a little. I’m not crippled and incapable of walking,” he said, exasperated.
“I know that,” she returned, slamming the tray down on the table harder than she should have. “Forgive me for trying to do something nice for you.” She spun to leave the room when she heard and uneven thud-thud cross the room. A firm hand grabbed hers, holding her in place. She turned to look into the smoky grey eyes she had been writing about all afternoon.
“John, leave us,” Mack ordered.
“Gonna need a bigger house,” the man muttered as he closed the study door behind him.
“Thank you, Cassie.”
“You’re welcome. I shouldn’t have slammed the tray down. This whole thing has me a bit rattled.”
“I know it does. Let’s sit down and eat.” They each took a chair at the round table that John had pulled to the center of the room. Cassie had filled them each a plate and brought him a mug of ale and her a pot of tea.
“Meat pies?” Mack asked.
“Don’t ask about our original meal,” she said.
“Now my curiosity is piqued.”
“I attempted to cook today,” Cassie admitted.
“And?”
“It caught fire. John left and came back with these.”
Mack threw back his head and laughed. He could just imagine whatever she had attempted to cook, catching on fire, flames escaping when she opened the oven door.
“Mack, it really wasn’t that funny,” Cassie remonstrated. When he continued to laugh, she threw down her napkin and stood, causing the chair she sat in to scrape backwards on the floor. “Dammit, stop laughing, right now. I was trying to make you supper.”
He tried to stop laughing, but couldn’t stop the little chuckles that escaped. “And have you cooked before?”
“Well, no. Chang usually does that. The most I do is buy fruit or something like that. Slice cheese and meats.”
“Then what inspired you to try and cook tonight’s supper?”
“Because I’m a wife now. I was trying to care for my husband’s needs.”
He pushed back his chair slightly, a smile still on his face. “Come here.” He held out his hand until she took it. Mack tugged her gently until she fell onto his lap. “Cassie darlin’, don’t you know you already satisfy my needs?”
“Stuart James McKenzie, I swear you are a lust-mad man.”
“Only for you, Cassiopeia Elizabeth McKenzie. Only for you,” he whispered against her lips.
***
Two days later, after a long day of strategy meetings, Mack came home tired and irritable. Cassie greeted him at the door with a long kiss.
“Ah, that’s the best thing that has happened to me all day.”
“Bad day?”
“How one man can wreak so much havoc I’ll never understand.”
“Am I correct in assuming you are referencing Bonaparte?”
“Aye. After we eat, I need to spread the maps out on the table.”
“Anything I can help you with?”
“A fresh pair of eyes might be just the thing. Perhaps you’ll see something I can’t. What do you know about America?”
“Other than they are ‘upstart colonists’?”
“That’s about it
. Right now, they’re like an irritating gnat, swarming about and trying to draw our attention from what’s going on with Bonaparte. I just don’t know what they have to win with this war. They already have their freedom. What more could they want?”
“Have you not been reading the papers?”
“Of course I read the papers?”
“All right then. Do you read the flyers that are printed by the sympathizers of both sides, the French and the Americans?”
“What’s the use? That’s all just rubbish.”
“That ‘rubbish’ is very informative. For example, embargoes and impressment are the main reasons behind the Americans’ war declarations.”
“I’m well aware of that, but how are you aware of that?”
“That ‘rubbish’ that you just talked about. I read it. And, if I were in the Americans’ position, I might have done the exact same thing. Their men are being force to fight in a war that isn’t theirs to fight in. Their trade is dying because they have no one to trade with, thus their economy is in danger of collapsing. England is old and well established, America is not. They are a fledgling country and something like this could destroy them before they’ve even spread their wings.”
“You’re rather brilliant, aren’t you?”
“Was this ever in question?”
“You have a smart mouth, too.”
“As I said, was this ever in question?”
Cassie felt his firm hands on her upper arms as he grabbed her and pulled her close. She relished his hot, hard mouth grinding into hers, claiming her as his.
“Do you know what I’d like to do to your smart mouth?”
“What?” she asked breathlessly.
He bent and whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her.
She looked up into his eyes, her face flushed, and she said, “What are we waiting for? Supper will wait.” They raced each other up the stairs to their bedroom, and slammed and locked the door behind them.
***
The next few weeks passed in much the same fashion. The only difference being there were no attempts on Mack’s life, nor anyone else’s. There were no threatening letters. Nothing. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Cassie would have thought they had imagined everything if not for the two notes tucked away with the maps and other documents beneath that loose floorboard hidden underneath the rug. She still had not talked to her father. She found she still harbored some resentment at the way he had manipulated her and Mack into marriage. Mack had told her about his conversation with Papa, and how he had challenged Sir Graham into controlling her better.
Oh, that had been quite a row between the two of them. If Cassie recalled, there had even been some heavy objects thrown at her faux Scottish brute, as she had started calling her husband. She had called him many impolite names and threatened him within an inch of his life if he ever thought to control her. Somehow the heated exchange had ended up with them in the bedroom behind a closed door, ripping each other’s clothes off.
That was definitely one thing Cassie could say about the two of them. Sexually, they were extremely compatible, but that seemed to be all it was. At least on his part. On her part, well, she found she was falling in love with her taciturn husband, and she feared that most of all. Mack was still the epitome of a military man. Nothing touched his heart or soul. It was his job to serve as protector of everyone. The only thing he allowed himself to enjoy was their physical intimacy. Even alcohol he limited to one mug of ale a day, if even that.
When she asked him why he didn’t partake of whisky or smuggled brandy like some men, he merely replied, “If we’re going to win this war, I must keep a clear head. Besides, the last time I drank whisky I found myself betrothed.”
She stepped out of the rented hack and walked up the steps to the Hawkescliffe’s large house. Cassie paid the driver. “Please wait until I get inside, and then you may leave.”
“Yes’m,” he tugged his forelock.
Cassie walked up the path to the front door and used the door knocker. The butler answered it and smiled when he saw her.
“Mrs. McKenzie, please come in. Lady Hawkescliffe will be delighted to see you, I’m sure. Please come this way.”
Cassie followed him into the parlor and took a seat on the settee to await Mikala. She didn’t wait long before she heard her sister-in-law chattering with another woman. Cassie looked and saw Mikala with her other sister-in-law, Lady Simmons. Cassie shot to her feet and dropped into a curtsy.
“The next time she does that, I do believe I’ll strangle the chit,” Mikala said conspiratorially to the other woman.
“I hope she’s not doing it for my benefit. I only like to make the women who were unkind to me curtsy like that,” Lady Simmons confided to Mikala.
“Indeed. Cassie, you’re family now. No need for curtsying, as if there was before.”
“But Lady Simmons and I…”
“Tessa,” the auburn haired beauty, said, gently laying a hand on Cassie’s arm. “And, yes, we are family.” She then hugged Cassie, startling her. “Congratulations on your marriage. You’ve quite a catch there. I’ve been to a few parties since the event and let me tell you, there are plenty of women envious to the point of wishing you bodily harm.”
“Because of Mack?”
“Have you not looked at him lately?” Mikala asked.
“Well, yes,” Cassie found herself blushing.
“And?”
“He cuts a fine figure.”
“Cassie, do you forget I am married to the man who could almost be his twin? He and Gabe are as handsome as sin.”
“Mikala, you’ve embarrassed her,” Tessa admonished.
“I’m sorry, Cassie. I don’t always think before I speak. It is a problem that I have, and most times I don’t care, but sometimes I overstep, especially with friends and family.”
“It’s all right. I didn’t think I could get embarrassed. Actually I came to ask for advice, but…”
“Oh, come, we love giving advice, don’t we, Tessa?”
“Mikala loves hatching schemes. I listen.”
“Yes, mother,” Mikala stuck her tongue out at Tessa.
“Mikala, you would think you were a child sometimes instead of a woman grown expecting her second child.”
“Oh, hush. Let Cassie tell us what’s wrong. You can listen, and I’ll hatch a diabolical plan.”
“I give up. Cassie, what’s the matter?”
Tessa’s kind heart and lilting Scottish voice, so like her husband’s accent soothed her nerves. “First of all, Mack would strangle me if he knew I had come to the two of you about this, so this can go no further.”
“I understand,” the two women said in unison.
“I really don’t know how to say this. You see, Mack and I, well in the bedroom, well not just the bedroom…” she broke off and blushed.
“You haven’t consummated your vows?”
“No, no, I mean, yes, we have,” she said, flustered. She stood and paced the room, finding it helped ease her nervousness. Then she saw the door to the parlor stood open. She quickly crossed the room and shut it before returning to the other two women.
“Have you not reached fulfillment with Mack?”
“Kala,” Tessa put her head in her hands and shook it.
“What? No, I mean, yes. Mack makes certain…” She stopped. “I can’t believe I’m telling the two of you these things. I should go.”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Mikala jumped up, grabbed her arm, and dragged her back. “You can pace all you want, but my interest is so piqued right now, you have to tell us what’s wrong.”
Cassie looked at the two women, as they intently stared at her. She fisted her hands at her side, and took a deep breath. “It’s just the act.”
“Oh,” both women said in unison.
“That’s precisely how I feel.”
“Are you certain?” Tessa asked.
Cassie nodded and to her dismay, she felt tears fill her eye
s. What in bloody hell is this about? She sniffed and swiped at the salty liquid that started to roll down her cheeks. “Look at me. I never cry. Not since my mother died. Not when I was facing an unwanted marriage. What’s wrong with me?”
“Perhaps you’re falling in love,” Tessa offered hesitantly.
“With Mack? I highly doubt that. Oh, I care about the ruthless rogue, but love him? He is irritating and tyrannical. He is always trying to order me about. Why he tried to order me to quit…” she trailed off.
“Quit what?” Mikala asked, scooting to the edge of her seat.
“Nothing,” Cassie muttered.
“Cassie, you’re no fun.”
“Mikala, stop it,” Tessa tried to reign in her sister-in-law.
“I’ll tell you, but it can only be between us.” She waited until both women nodded their agreement. “I am C.E. Jones.”
“Who?”
“C.E. Jones. I use that name to write editorial pieces in The Times. They tend to be about treatment of soldiers’ families and the poor.”
“I’ve read few of those,” Mikala said. “They were excellent.”
“I’m sorry, with twins, I haven’t much time,” Tessa shrugged.
“That’s all right, I don’t expect everyone to read them. Anyway, Mack has told me I cannot write them anymore.”
“But you are continuing on, aren’t you?” Mikala asked.
“Are there still poor in England?”
“Mack does deserve you, Cassie dear,” Mikala giggled.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, Mack can be a bit stubborn in his own right. He doesn’t like to be ordered about either. I hear Gabe forever talking about how Mack has angered this person or that person. I just find it a bit funny is all.”
“Back to the problem at hand,” Tessa tried to get the women back on topic. “Cassie, you believe there is no way the feelings you have could be love?”
“No,” she began pacing. “Well, I don’t think so. Perhaps. Oh, I don’t know,” she stomped her foot. “It was so much easier when I ransacked his house and laid him out flat on his back.”
“You did what?” Mikala asked, a smile spread across her face.
“Mikala, it isn’t important right now. Can’t you see that Cassie is truly upset?”
“Oh, all right. Go on, Cassie.”
Seducing the Ruthless Rogue Page 25