A Gentleman's Game

by Rebecca Matthews

  “Oui.”

  Darcy longed for the past when the two women had shared laughter, card games, and the camaraderie their unique situation provided. This young woman had essentially rescued Darcy’s sanity at a time when life was not worth living. Now Darcy seemed incapable of saving Eva, or even reaching her. Eva dwelt in a dark, sullen place of her choosing. No amount of begging, pleading, prodding, or threatening could extricate Eva from her designated self-torture.

  Darcy grieved the loss of the close friend Eva had been, but she was not going to let it interfere with her new journey to happiness and a relationship with the wonderful man Cole proved to be.

  Darcy celebrated the end of her mourning by being seen in public dressed in an elegant purple gown trimmed in gold and white and the man of her dreams on her arm. They had dinner at the hotel and then went to a ball where they danced the night away. She was thrilled to be seen out and about, looking young and beautiful rather than an older-than-her-years widow. She was especially proud to be seen with her handsome escort. Things had been so tense at home, she had essentially been housebound again for fear of what Eva was capable of doing.

  Cole had bestowed a bouquet of roses on her tonight when he came to claim her for an evening of dining, drinking, and dancing. At the end of the very enjoyable evening in which Darcy was the envy of the crowd, Cole drove Darcy home in the gray, predawn light.

  “Oh, Cole, I don’t know when I have had so much fun. Thank you so much for a marvelous evening.” She kissed him lightly on the lips. “You truly are my shining knight, who rescued me from my lonely castle tower.” Her voice became hushed, and suddenly shy, she looked down at her hands in her lap. She paused for a moment before continuing. “I only hope I do not disappoint you when the time comes for me to reward you for your acts of chivalry.”

  Cole could just make out the flush of Darcy’s face in the grayish light.

  “That my dear is an impossibility. No reward is necessary, only mutual enjoyment of what awaits us both.” They kissed tenderly as the horse plodded slowly along the cobblestones on this hot, humid night.

  Before long, they were arriving at her door. Cole accompanied her up the walk and reluctantly turned to leave her after a long, passionate kiss at her doorstep. “Goodnight my love. Leaving you here and walking away is getting harder and harder with each passing visit. I love you so much Darcy, and now you are free to live your life as you see fit. I have waited for a year to have you as my wife. You already own my heart, mind and soul, please take my name as well.”

  She took a deep breath but did not answer.

  “Darcy, fear and doubt are demons that have held you chained in their powerful grip for far too long, keeping you as much a prisoner as Edgar did. It is time to take away all the power you have given them, and stop letting them control you and your chances for happiness. I have done everything I can to convince you that I truly do love you. Please marry me so we can really be together. Please, Darcy. It’s time.”

  To his amazement, without a second’s hesitation, she answered, “Yes, Cole, I will marry you.”

  He expected her to be evasive or flatly refuse, but instead she had agreed so freely and easily that he was utterly flabbergasted.

  “W-What did you say?”

  Darcy laughed as he stammered and stuttered in response to her acceptance of his proposal.

  “I said, I will marry you, Cole.”

  “You will? Oh, Darcy!” He grabbed her up and swung her around, kissing her again and again as he placed her feet back on terra firma. He was ecstatic. His patience and forbearance had paid off. She was willing to take him into her life, her heart, and her bed. He could not believe his good fortune, and he could not stop kissing her.

  Giggling at his exuberance, she finally pulled back to catch her breath.

  “Cole, let me breathe!” She knew he would be rather surprised and thrilled at her answer, but she was surprised at how happy she was now that she had agreed to become his wife.

  “Well, good night. We will talk tomorrow. We have much to plan and do now.” Brushing a final kiss across her lips, he released her and turned to leave. Smiling, she watched him go.

  When she entered the foyer, the bouquet of roses Cole had sent lay scattered all over the floor. Every flower was cut from its stem. She knew whose vicious act of vandalism this was. She would deal with her later.

  Right now, she didn’t want any arguments or disagreements to ruin the beauty of this moment. She was going to become Cole’s wife! He had proven himself over and over, and she was finally willing to admit to herself he was the man she loved and trusted; there was no need to test him further. What other man would have watched over her so carefully, been so faithful in his devotion to her, and waited this long to have her for his own? Not one, she was certain.

  Climbing the stairs to bed, her feet barely felt the tread beneath her shoes. Her heart was light as a feather, and her mind in a dream-like fog.

  No, that fog is real. It’s smoke!

  She saw light beneath Eva’s door and tried to open it to warn her the house was on fire, but the door was locked as usual. She began banging on it, calling out to Eva.

  “Eva, please open the door. The house is on fire. Please open the door and come out. We have to get out, now! Oh, please Eva, don’t be mule-headed now. I still need you. Please.”

  No response from inside. The door was hot. Smoke was filling the upstairs hallway. She screamed for the staff to get out quickly, then she ran downstairs and out the front door to try to flag down Cole before he got too far away.

  “Cole, Cole!” she screamed after him in a panic-stricken voice. “Help Cole! Help me!”

  Her words reached him, and he spun in his seat to look back. He could see a red glow from the upstairs window and knew her home was ablaze. He quickly turned the buggy, nearly tipping it over, and whipped the horse to gallop back to where Darcy was standing on the sidewalk, hysterical, illuminated by flames leaping from the upstairs windows.

  “Oh, Cole, Eva is locked in her room and won’t come out. Please, can you break it down so we can get her out?”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, he jumped down from the buggy, throwing her the reins.

  “You stay out here, Darcy. It is too dangerous for you to go back inside.” He peeled off his jacket and wrapped it around his hand and arm as he ran into the flaming inferno.

  Darcy was never one to follow commands, and she quickly dropped the reins and ran after him. Up the stairs they went, as fast as they could. As she passed, she glanced at the expensive paintings in their gilt frames that were curling up and turning brown from the heat of the fire; the exquisite furnishings that were becoming ash; and the expensive, polished wood of the banister as it sizzled. It all meant nothing to her.

  Cole, with Darcy on his heels, reached Eva’s door. He banged on it and tried the knob with his wrapped hand. He could feel the heat through the thick layers of cloth.

  “Stand back!” he told Darcy as he reared back and kicked the door with all his might. It took three tries, but finally the door splintered and gave way. They rushed inside to find Eva lying face down on the floor, pinned beneath some debris, gasping for air. Some official looking documents were clutched in her hand.

  “Eva, darling, we must get you out of here.” Darcy could hardly speak for the thick smoke.

  “No, no.” She gasped. “You don’t…need me… You have him.” She labored over each word. Her life was ebbing away, yet her hatred for Cole still alive and well as she fiercely glowered at him.

  “Hush, Eva,” Darcy sobbed. “Let us get you out of here. Cole can carry you.”

  “No! I tried…to kill him…like Edgar.”

  “What? You…you killed Edgar?”

  Coughing and gasping, Eva made her confession to Darcy.

  “Oui He needed killing... I wanted…him dead…too.” Her gaze rested on Cole. Coughing uncontrollably, she gasped, then closed her eyes for the last time.

  Cole
and Darcy looked at each other with horror and comprehension. Leaping flames reflected in Cole’s dark eyes, and Darcy pulled at him to stand up. Without speaking, Cole scooped up Eva’s body and carried her rapidly down the stairs, dodging falling pieces of burning ceiling and other flaming debris as they raced out of the blazing inferno.

  Darcy followed close behind, the smoke choking her and burning her throat. She glanced around and could see servants dashing about making their escape. She didn’t take the time to count, but it appeared that they had all made it down from the third floor.

  Once outside, Cole carried Eva’s body a safe distance from the house and laid the corpse on the soft grass. A crowd was gathering, and the fire fighters had arrived. Darcy fell upon Eva’s body and wept bitterly for the friend she had lost long before the fire took her life. Eva was a murderess, and she had tried to kill again. It was more than Darcy could absorb all at once. Coughing, still bent over the body of her best friend, she kissed the woman’s cheeks and stroked her singed, frizzed hair.

  Another rack of sobs claimed her, but this time she turned to Cole, burying her face in his shoulder. He was the only one she needed now. He had just risked his life trying to save the woman who wanted him dead. How could she have misjudged him so badly?

  She had believed Eva with all her heart and soul, yet had doubted Cole. He held her as she sobbed. Sitting down on the grass beside her, he pulled her onto his lap as they watched her lavish, expensive home engulfed in flames. Within moments it crumbled into a huge pile of ash and charred remains, a total loss. The fire department informed her it had been too late to save her home by the time they arrived. All they could do was concentrate on preventing the neighboring houses from catching fire.

  The house, which had been a dark museum of horrors and an austere reminder of times Darcy would rather forget, was gone. She could feel no sadness to see what had been a torture chamber for her and Eva come crashing down to mere rubble. It was a huge financial loss, but it was, in fact, cathartic to watch it burn to the ground and remove all remnants of her former life.

  “What is that paper Eva had a death grip on?”

  “It’s the Bill of Sale from when Edgar purchased her. The only proof she was owned by anyone.”

  “That must have been what was in the locked cabinet at his office! Poor Eva.” Darcy sniffed, then sighed deeply.

  “I’m sorry about your house, my love.” Cole’s lips were close to her ear, pressed into her disheveled hair, reeking of smoke.

  “I’m not. There are plenty of places to live. I thought it was so important, and I wanted to keep it so badly, but now I am actually relieved that it is gone. It is no coincidence that Eva destroyed the place that had been her hell on earth just as she had destroyed the man responsible for it.”

  Cole kissed her reassuringly and possessively. Her face smudged with soot, streaked with tears, and glistening with sweat, had never looked more beautiful to him. At last, she is mine!

  “You will never have to go through any type of hell again, if I can help it. We will build our own home, though not as grand, it will be a bright and cheerful place where friends can visit and our children will play. It is where you and I will live happily, and grow old together, just as it was meant to be.”

  “Oh, Cole.” She lovingly held his face between her hands, kissing his lips softly, sweetly. “I’ve finally discovered it is not the house, it is the husband you share it with that makes all the difference. It’s not luxury, but the love that fills it that matters. You are more wonderful than I could have ever hoped”—her gaze fell to her lap, as tears filled her eyes—“or deserved. Thank you, my darling, for not giving up on me.” She planted a soft, seductive kiss on his lips. With a sultry look on her soot-smudged face, she told him, “Now, let’s go back to your hotel.”

  With an eager smile and a deep sigh of relief, he whisked her up in his arms and carried her to the buggy. They looked nothing like the stylish, impeccably dressed couple who had driven up to this address hours ago. Their clothes were sooty, torn, and scorched, their hair flecked with ashes and smelling of smoke, but their smiles showed through the smudge and grime, foretelling better days ahead. The night of tragedy had transformed into a new day. The sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing as he drove her directly to his hotel.

  My dream has finally come true: she has come to me of her own free will because she wants to be with me, now and for forever.

  At last, Darcy Decker Higgins was free—free to feel safe in the arms of the man she loved, free to enjoy the physical wonders between a man and woman, and free to enjoy Life’s journey. Ahead lay secret joys, physical ecstasy, and the security of knowing she had someone to share all of Life’s good and bad times with her. This time she freely chose the tie that binds two people in marriage for all their natural lives. Best of all, she could have what she thought was forever lost to her, to love and be loved.

  The end of this horrific chapter in her life was like waking from a nightmare to the dawning of a bright, new day, just like this one…Darcy had truly never seen a more beautiful day. At the door to his room, they stopped as he found his key and unlocked the door to their future life together. Stooping, he picked her up in his arms and carried her across the threshold to a new beginning.

  There in his room she proved to him in the ultimate way that she loved and trusted him and by giving herself to the one who loved her, she received what her heart and soul had been seeking all this time—freedom. She was not just rid of Edgar, she was completely and truly free; free of her emotional chains that bound her, free of her sickening physical abuse, free of her feelings of worthlessness. She was free to love and be loved, and to live the life she chose. Crossing the threshold in Cole’s arms she was dealt a new hand, a winning hand, in the most important game of all—the game of Love.

  A word about the author...

  Rebecca Matthews is a retired registered nurse who has had a passion to become an author ever since junior high school. This is her first published work, but several more are “waiting in the wings” for publication. Although born in Kansas, she has always had a strong affinity for the South, and a love of history, particularly the Civil War. A hopeless romantic, she combines her love of romance writing and her profound interest in history into entertaining novels that are timeless in their core theme and set in the romantic Deep South.

  Rebecca and her husband live in Lakeland, Florida, and have two grown children and two grandchildren, all of whom are very proud of the fruition of her dream to become a published romance author.

  Visit Rebecca at:

  lovewriter2014.com

  Thank you for purchasing

  this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.