After Cian, one by one, the other members of the family stopped in to speak with her and watch Iefan for a while. With a jolt, Mairin realized they were doing what they had done with Will and Bridget. For Will and Bridget it had seemed perfectly natural and appropriate everyone would gather around and offer their support.
Raymond made the same observation, as he stood at the foot of the bunk. “You and Bridget both clung to the idea that the family was not for you. I think you’ve both learned, as Lilly did, that this family makes its own mind up about who is part of it and who is not. Iefan, too. Inside the family, you can be anything, do anything, and always belong.”
Mairin sighed. “He didn’t think anyone cared about him.”
“He didn’t pause long enough in his frantic search to learn the truth.” Raymond’s smile was small and grim. “I know something about that.”
Mairin looked at him, startled.
“One day, when the telling of it doesn’t make me feel extraordinarily foolish, I will give you the story,” Raymond said.
“You? Foolish? You are…you are the Rock of Gibraltar in our lives,” Mairin said, her gaze falling upon the enormous bulk of the Rock drifting past the port hole. “I don’t know what any of us would have done, after Father…if you had not been there.”
He kissed her forehead. “Thank you, sweet Mairin.” He moved to the door. “Try to avoid more adventures for a few months, please? I like peace and quiet.”
Many hours later, as Gibraltar moved out of view, Iefan stirred.
Mairin hitched the stool closer, her heart stirring.
He frowned. “Ship…” he croaked.
“You’re on the Natasha Marie,” Mairin told him.
Iefan drew in a deep breath and let it out with a heavy sigh. Then he opened his eyes and looked around the cabin. His dark gaze fell on her and lingered.
Her heart beat faster.
Iefan pushed himself up, wincing.
“No, you should lay still—”
“I will not do this lying down,” he muttered. He straightened slowly, a hand on the heavy splints under the blanket, and paused, waiting for the pain caused by his movements to fade.
Mairin realized she had jumped to her feet, too. She stayed on them, just in case he needed her help.
Iefan held out his hand. “I can do this better if I’m touching you.”
She put her hand in his. His long fingers curled over hers and he pulled her closer, until her hips rested against the wooden side of the bunk.
His gaze met hers once more. “I still cannot believe you traveled all the way to Algeria by yourself, to find me. Just to tell me you loved me.”
Mairin’s cheeks heated. “It wasn’t nearly as brave as everyone seems to think it was. Once I knew where you were, I simply couldn’t stay in England. My soul would have died, I think.”
“That isn’t exactly what I meant, although I am still in awe of your courage. No matter what you say, it was an undertaking many men would have shrunk from.” He shook his head. “What I really cannot believe about any of it is that you came looking for me.”
“Oh…” Mairin tilted her head. “Now who is being modest?”
“Humble,” he corrected her, his voice low. “I’ve taken far too long to learn this lesson, Mairin. I saw you kissing Gascony and like a petulant child, I raced for Paris to vent my fury upon the Prussians, and still couldn’t see the full truth. It wasn’t until you killed Rashid on the rooftop I understood.”
“You love me,” she breathed.
He frowned. “Of course I do,” he said, sounding puzzled. Then his frown cleared. “No, it’s not simply that I love you…and I do, with every fiber of my being. It’s that…” He drew a breath. “I spent my life looking for an honest world and there you are.” He stroked her hand. “You are my honest world, Mairin. It is a small world. A tiny world. It is just you and me and it is all I need. I can go anywhere, do anything, be anything. As long as you are with me, I need not look any further.”
Mairin let out a trembling breath.
Iefan’s fingers squeezed a little harder. “Will you stay with me?” he breathed.
“I think I might run out of air to breathe if I did not,” Mairin whispered. “You are so much a part of my life already, my life would shatter without you in it. It did shatter. That was why I had to find you.”
Iefan kissed her. It was as warm and rousing as any kiss he had given her. Mairin had missed his kisses. She leaned into this one, her body stirring, making her aware of how few layers of clothing were between them.
Then Iefan groaned, and it was not a groan of pleasure. Mairin threw herself back, away from him. “I’m sorry! I forgot!”
He grimaced, his hand on the splints once more, moving over them as if he was trying to soothe the leg. Then he hammered softly on the split, frustration in his eyes. “I won’t be able to do a damned thing until this is gone.” He looked at her. “Can you wait? Will you?”
“For you?” Mairin smiled. “Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Great Family Gathering. Innesford, October 1871.
Look at them,” Bridget said, her tone chiding. “I feel as though we have been spirited back ten years.”
Mairin shaded her hand, to watch the group of men supposedly playing cricket. Jasper, Cian, Will, Jack, Peter, even Dane and Ben, were all in their shirt sleeves, with not a hat in sight. They booted the cricket ball between them. The cricket game had somehow shifted to a football game. They shoved each other out of the way with their elbows and shoulders, trying to drive the small red ball with their feet toward the stumps at either end.
It was a silly game, yet they were laughing and challenging each other in loud voices.
Iefan was among them. Mairin’s heart shifted, for he laughed as hard as any of them and shoved just as thoroughly, even though he was forced to keep one hand on his cane. He even flipped the cane upside down and used it as a croquet mallet to knock the ball out from between the many feet.
“Give them the smallest excuse and they turn into children,” Bridget added. “Not one of them has properly grown up.”
“Thank God,” Mairin replied flatly.
Bridget glanced at her. Then she smiled. “Yes, I suppose you are right.”
The game broke up. Will jogged up to the low canvas lounge chairs where Mairin and Bridget reclined. He plucked his shirt from his chest. “Could I have a word, Bree? Inside?”
“Of course,” Bridget said, with a small, warm smile. Will helped her to her feet and they walked arm-in-arm into the house, talking softly.
It left Mairin alone on the row of lounge chairs, which gave her a chance to observe Iefan walk across the croquet court to the tent where lunch was being prepared. He emerged a few seconds later, with his cane over one arm and a glass of punch in each hand. His limp was noticeably worse without the cane to help him balance and the contents of the glasses sloshed, although he didn’t spill any. He presented one to her with a bow. “Mrs. Davies.”
“Thank you, Mr. Davies.” She couldn’t help smiling at him. “Sit down and rest a moment,” she told him. “Or did you think I haven’t noticed how much your leg is hurting?”
Iefan’s smile was warm. He settled carefully into the lounge chair beside her. “As long as no one else notices, I don’t mind.”
“It will stay between you and me,” she promised. She sipped the fruity concoction, which was lovely and cold. “How are you finding the Gather, Iefan? Is it as frightful as you thought it would be, all those years you avoided it?”
Iefan glanced at her. “You know I don’t feel that way anymore.”
“Although this was a test of a sort, wasn’t it? The entire family, en masse, for a whole week.”
Iefan raised his brow. “It is rather frightening the way you pluck my thoughts from the air.” He glanced around the grounds of Innesford, at the pavilion and the now empty cricket pitch and the croquet court, and the row of empty chairs beside them. Her mot
her and Raymond were walking by the cliffs, two figures in the distance. Blanche and Emma were giggling in the maze, their light voices traveling. “I thought it might be difficult, this week, only it hasn’t,” he said. “Not even for an instant.” He picked up her hand. “To tell the truth—”
“Always,” she interjected, making him smile.
“We’ve lived in France for most of the year and in Peking for three months. Now we are here, I have to say this is the first time I have felt as though we were…”
“Home,” Mairin finished.
“There you go, plucking my thoughts again.”
“Then you don’t want to live in France anymore?” she asked.
“No, I don’t think I do.”
“London,” she breathed. “You want to live in London.”
Iefan turned on the chair so he could look at her directly. “Will said he and Bridget are having a devil of a time finding someone they trust to act as agent for them in London, to deal with the merchants and tailoring companies.”
Mairin’s heart stirred. “What did you tell him?”
“I said he was not thinking broadly enough. He needed someone who knew all the French businessmen and could sell their tweed to the fashion houses in Paris.”
Mairin caught her breath.
“And,” Iefan said, “it would be useful if they had someone who could mingle with society here in England, to gently remind the ladies that Kirkaldy tweed is the best in the land.”
“Me?” Mairin said, startled. She hesitated. “We both hate society so much, Iefan…”
“Only, if we’re there together, then it isn’t their world.”
“It’s our world,” she finished, smiling.
Iefan kissed her hand, the one with the plain ring on it, smiling.
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Rules of Engagement, Book 8.0
They loved each other before she died. Now she can’t remember why.
Lady Eleanore Neville, sister to the Duke of Gainford, was thought to have been lost at sea. Miraculously, she was rescued, only now her life is empty of meaning. She reaches for steadily more risqué entertainment and company in an effort to find it.
Cian, Earl of Innesford and the head of the Williams family, whom the Nevilles openly despise, has loved Eleanore for years. He hovers on the edge of Eleanore’s life, helping the Duke curtail the worst of Eleanore’s excesses, despite knowing there is no hope of his beloved Ellie ever truly being his.
The delicate balance begins to unravel when Cian discovers a nude portrait of Eleanore in a public gallery and is forced to act…
Tracy Cooper-Posey takes us into the staid yet surprisingly bawdy Victorian Era where appearance is everything and secrets are held inside the family.
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About the Author
Tracy Cooper-Posey is a #1 Best Selling Author. She writes science fiction and romance. She has published over 90 books since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favorite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.
She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated four times for Book Of The Year and Byzantine Heartbreak was a 2012 winner. Faring Soul won a SFR Galaxy Award in 2016 for “Most Intriguing Philosophical/Social Science Questions in Galaxybuilding” She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught writing at MacEwan University.
She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, reading science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Tracy’s site and click on the cover you are interested in: http://tracycooperposey.com/books-by-thumbnail/
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Vistaria Has Fallen
Vistaria Has Fallen
Prisoner of War
Hostage Crisis
Freedom Fighters
Casualties of War
V-Day
Scandalous Scions
(Historical Romance Series – Spin off)
Rose of Ebony
Soul of Sin
Valor of Love
Marriage of Lies
Mask of Nobility
Law of Attraction
Veil of Honor
Season of Denial
Rules of Engagement
Once and Future Hearts
(Ancient Historical Romance—Arthurian)
Born of No Man
Dragon Kin
Pendragon Rises
War Duke of Britain
High King of Britain
Battle of Mount Badon
Abduction of Guenivere
Downfall of Cornwall
Vengeance of Arthur
Grace of Lancelot
The Grail and Glory
Camlann
Kiss Across Time Series
(Paranormal Time Travel)
Kiss Across Time*
Kiss Across Swords
Time Kissed Moments
Kiss Across Chains
Kiss Across Deserts
Kiss Across Kingdoms
Time and Tyra Again
Kiss Across Seas
Kiss Across Worlds
Kiss Across Tomorrow
Romantic Thrillers Series
Fatal Wild Child
Dead Again
Dead Double
Terror Stash
Thrilling Affair (Boxed Set)
Beloved Bloody Time Series
(Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)
Bannockburn Binding*
Wait
Byzantine Heartbreak
Viennese Agreement
Romani Armada
Spartan Resistance
Celtic Crossing
Beloved Bloody Time Series Boxed Set
Scandalous Sirens
(Historical Romance Series)
Forbidden*
Dangerous Beauty
Perilous Princess
Go-get-‘em Women
(Short Romantic Suspense Series)<
br />
The Royal Talisman
Delly’s Last Night
Vivian’s Return
Ningaloo Nights
Blood Knot Series
(Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)
Blood Knot
Southampton Swindle
Broken Promise
Vale
Amor Meus
Blood Stone
Blood Unleashed
Blood Drive
Blood Revealed
Blood Ascendant
The Sherlock Holmes Series
(Romantic Suspense/Mystery)
Chronicles of the Lost Years
The Case of the Reluctant Agent
Sherlock Boxed In
The Kine Prophecies
(Epic Norse Fantasy Romance)
The Branded Rose Prophecy
The Stonebrood Saga
(Gargoyle Paranormal Series)
Carson’s Night
Beauty’s Beasts
Harvest of Holidays
Unbearable
Sabrina’s Clan
Pay The Ferryman
Hearts of Stone (Boxed Set)
Destiny’s Trinities
(Urban Fantasy Romance Series)
Beth’s Acceptance*
Mia’s Return
Season of Denial (Scandalous Scions Book 7) Page 22