The Princess and the Marquess

by Aliyah Burke

  “Good evening, Wolf. Why have you come here?” She didn’t start at his voice, so he knew she had known he was there.

  “I came to speak to you. Will you give me a chance to explain?”

  “Come sit down and speak your piece.” Tiredness was evident in her entire body.

  Lucien sat down beside her and looked at her. Her skin shone in the moonlight. “How do you like England? It is pretty, is it not? I was surprised to find out that Trenton was your uncle. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It wasn’t any of your business.” Leave it to his princess to ignore the niceties and hit the heart of the matter.

  “If I had known that this was where you were staying, I wouldn’t have said anything. I—”

  “You have no right. I didn’t tell you because where I stay is not your business.” Her voice came hard and fast. “The only reason you wondered is because you thought I was with some male.”

  “Well, yes. I have a right to—”

  “No. You don’t. Whether I chose to stay with a male is not your concern. I ceased being your concern the moment you crossed that field back in America. Before that even. Why are you trying to lay claim to me? I am not yours.” Ciara sighed. “I have never been yours.”

  “Damn it. Yes you are. You always have been, since I woke up in your cabin. Nobody else can have you.” I won’t let anyone else have you.

  “Why? Why not? I am nothing but a novelty to you. Not good enough to marry, but good enough to sleep with. Why can’t I allow the same for someone else? Did you even think of me over the past seven years?”

  “Every day and don’t say that about yourself. You are not a whore. Do you understand me?”

  “Oh. I get it. I am just your whore. I see. So I am to be set up for use at your disposal but not for anyone else’s?” The bitterness she spewed only fueled his own determination.

  “You are not my whore. Not any whore. Do you understand?” His words fell like chips of ice.

  “I forgot. I am the mother of your bastard. Listen to me. I don’t understand what you are doing. I don’t understand why you feel like you have the right to be jealous of someone like Conar.”

  “Damn it. Because you belong to me.” He grabbed her and applied a bruising kiss to her lips as he hauled her up against his body that was rigid. With anger. Maybe fear. “I won’t share you with anyone. You are mine. You always have been.” There was fortitude in the force of those words.

  Wrenching free, she stared at him, tears pouring down her face. “You won’t share me? Tell me then, since I am yours, does that mean during all this time that I belonged to you that you belonged to me as well?”

  “Yes.” He gritted out. “You have always been with me.”

  “That was not my question. Tell me, did you think of me when you were sleeping with your mistress? I am assuming that you had more than one, a man with your reputation. You didn’t belong to me and I don’t belong to you. Don’t you see?”

  “I’m a man.”

  “I’m a mother. Do you understand that? Regardless of what you think, it is not flattering to tell a woman that you thought about her every time you were sleeping with another.”

  “Yes. You are a mother, of my son.” This wasn’t working. Maybe he should be honest with himself and her.

  Ciara fell back against the window, as she just had no strength left to support her own body. “I hated you, you know. For leaving me. For leaving me pregnant. Alone.” She spoke in hushed tones, almost as if speaking to herself.

  “I didn’t know.” His voice pleaded with her for understanding.

  “I know. I was losing my independence and you had left to find your dreams. Then Bryn was born and my world changed. He is my everything. If he likes it here, I will lose him. You have the power to take him from me. You can give him things I can’t even dream of. And I will be left alone again.”

  Oh, sweetheart, what have I done to you? “No. You gave him life, and you fill his life with love. You are his mother and I can’t take that away from you. I don’t want to take that away from you. He loves you so much. His smile, when he sees, you could rival the sun for brightness. I have no wish to take him from you. Ciara, don’t you understand that?

  “I’ll admit that I haven’t been a monk since my return, but I compared everyone I was with to you. They all fell short. I know that is not what you want to hear, but it is the truth.” He ran his hands through his hair. This wasn’t going well. “Ciara, there is something unique about you. You are so special. It breaks my heart to think that I hurt you. I never wanted to do so.

  “What you said to me tonight, on the dance floor, is so untrue. Maybe at one time but not now, definitely not now. I don’t see you as a conquest to be lorded over my friends. I don’t have the words for the exact way you make me feel, but when I do, I will be sure to tell you.”

  Lucien slid his body between hers and the window, so she leaned on him, and he wrapped her in his warm embrace as he spoke softly into her ear.

  “I want you to stay with me. I want you to marry me. I want to marry you. I want to have what your parents had. I know that you don’t believe me, and I will spend every day trying to make you do so. Don’t go back to America without giving me a chance. Please. I will find a way to prove myself to you. I will.

  “I love you. I love you, Ciara Malika McKay. One day you will believe me and that will be the happiest day of my life. Then I will marry you and we will grow old together and watch our son grow up with his siblings. Together. You and me. You will never have to be alone again.”

  He rose and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. Lucien drew her up into his embrace, buried his nose in her hair and just held her. When he felt her relax, he leaned back and kissed her on the mouth, with the utmost tenderness. He kissed her again and again until he felt his body stir in response. To the bed he carried her. After he took off her clothes, he tucked her in.

  Lucien pulled back and placed one last kiss on her lips. “I know my limit. I have to go. I will see you soon. Goodnight, princess. I love you.” Lucien left the room as quiet as he had arrived, leaving an emotionally exhausted Ciara alone in the bed. Confused. Wondering. Wishing. Hoping.

  * * * *

  Ciara rose late the next day. She dressed slowly as though the night had added fifty years onto her life. She made her way downstairs and looked for her son. He was outside playing. With Lucien.

  “Morning, princess.” Lucien’s deep voice reached her as she stepped out into the late morning light.

  “Morning, Mama. I was going to wake you, but he said I should let you sleep.” There was no need for her son to identify who ‘he’ was. “I was going to go with him to name the baby horse we brought him, but he said we had to ask you first. Can I go with him, Mama? Please? I’ll be good. Promise.”

  “Give me a minute, Bryn. Come give me a kiss first. Then I need to speak to him alone.”

  Bryn ran up the stairs and threw his arms around his mother. He kissed her soundly on the cheeks, hugged her and let her go to run back down the stairs. “Well, can we? Mama? Please?”

  “I need to speak to him alone first, Bryn. Go play with Faolan and Kosse for a bit.”

  “I promise to take care of him, Ciara.” Lucien’s voice intruded, unwelcome, into the conversation.

  “See, Mama. It’s all right. He said.”

  “Brenden Kumi. Enough. I said go. I will not repeat myself.” Ciara glared at her son, knowing he knew better than to add anything else.

  As he walked away, he looked back at Lucien and added in a whisper his mom was not supposed to hear, “Mama’s mad. Better be nice to her.”

  “I will.” He sent the response with a wink to the boy who grinned and scampered off.

  Before he could fully turn his attention back to the woman on the stairs, she ripped into him. “Damn you! I will not have you undermining my authority with my son.”

  “Our son.”

  “My son. You will not put him in the middle of this.
Don’t expect him to fight your battles for you. I won’t have it.”

  “Okay, okay. It was poorly done. I just want to spend some time with him. Let him come with me.”

  A footman brought out a message for Ciara on a tray. She read it in silence. Not so much as a flicker giving away what it said. She placed it back on the tray then spoke quietly to the servant and he disappeared into the house.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing for you to concern yourself with.” She bit her lip as she watched her son. “Very well. You win. We tell him now, that you are his father and that he can spend the day with you, on one condition. Faolan goes with.”

  “Why the sudden change?”

  “What now? You don’t want him to know?”

  “No. I do, I just don’t understand why you have decided to agree now?”

  “I never disagreed. I just wasn’t sure of the right time to tell him.” Ciara wouldn’t meet his gaze as she walked over toward her son, leaving him to follow.

  “Bryn. Come sit. There is something that we need to tell you.”

  He ran over and plopped down beside his mom. He looked up at her with such love and trust it damn near brought tears to her eyes. “What, Mama? Can I go with him? To see the horses?”

  “Aye. You can. But first there is something I have to tell you. I should have told you a long time ago.” Lucien sat beside her and rubbed the lower part of her back in quiet support. “It is about your father.” Bryn sat still then and looked between his mom and the man next to her.

  Eyes that were wiser than they had any right to be took in the picture. “It’s you.” Not a question. Just a plain statement. “You are my father. You have my eyes.”

  “Yes.” Lucien’s voice cracked as he answered.

  Bryn looked at his mom. “Did he not want me, Mama? Is that why you didn’t tell me?”

  Ciara reached down for Lucien’s hand and squeezed it as she answered her son in the same language. “No. That is not why. He didn’t know about you until the other day at his house. He wants you so much and loves you. If you are to be angry, be mad at me, not him. Give him a chance, Bryn. He really wants to be a father to you. He would love for you to go with him still today, but it is up to you.”

  “I like him too, Mama. I think I will like having him as a father. Besides, Conar told me that sometimes surprises are the best things that can happen to you. We can be a family now.”

  “One thing at a time. Right now, we should speak English because it is rude to speak with him not being able to understand us. Are you all right?”

  “Yes, Mama. I am strong.” Bryn glanced at Lucien before he asked his mom, “What should I call him?”

  “I think that is something the two of you should work out. Now, no more unless it is in English.”

  Bryn turned to Lucien and looked him in the eye. “What am I supposed to call you? Mama said I should ask you.”

  Lucien swallowed. “What would you like to call me? My name is Lucien but some people call me Saint.”

  A thoughtful look crossed Bryn’s face. “Well, Mama says that you do want me and that the reason I didn’t know about you was because of her. She says you love me. Is that true?”

  “Yes. I love you very much.”

  He rose and scrambled to sit in Lucien’s lap. “Papa.” His decision firm. “I will call you Papa. That way I have both a mama and a papa.” He gave Lucien a hug.

  Bryn pulled back from him and touched his face. “Your face is wet. Are you hurt? You are crying. Mama can fix just anything. You should have her look at it.” He jumped into his mom’s lap and kissed her. “I will go with him still. Are you coming, Mama?”

  “No. There is something that I have to do. You go with Faolan. Have fun and make sure you listen to him.”

  “Yes, Mama.” He jumped up and ran off, yelling behind him, “Come on, Papa, Faolan, let’s go.”

  Lucien rose and pulled Ciara up into his arms. He pressed a kiss to her neck as he whispered into her ear, his words trembling with emotion both shed and unshed. “Thank you. Thank you for giving me a son, my son.”

  She pulled back and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Go on. Have fun. Keep him safe.”

  “Are you sure you won’t come with us?”

  “You two need some time together.” She smiled as she watched her son beckon to the man he had just learned was his father.

  “I love you, Ciara.” Lucien placed a caressing kiss on her lips, making her sigh and lean into him on instinct. His chuckle made her realize where they were. As she pulled back, he smiled at her. “You may not be ready to tell me how you feel, but your body is and does.”

  Ciara backed up to put some much-needed distance between them. “Be good, Bryn, and have fun.”

  “Bye, Mama. Love you.”

  “I love you too, baby.”

  “What about me? Don’t you have something to say to me?” Lucien purred in her ear.

  “Take care of him.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it.”

  Ciara didn’t even get one complete step in before she was spun around. Her eyes wide with shock, she looked into Lucien’s hard gaze. With a jerk he had her up against him and kissed her once more. No caressing kiss, this one spoke of possession.

  He had made his claim and she had just realized it was on her. The kiss was fast, hard, deep and commanding. He had issued his command, remember me, and remember this for you belong to me. Just as fast as it began, it was over, leaving her shaky and wanting more.

  “Have a nice day, princess.” He walked off toward their son.

  Ciara watched as they left for his estate on horseback before she got ready for her appointment. She had sent Faolan with her son and had kept Kosse with her. She would need the support.

  She rode her horse hard. It was a little over four hours on horseback to her destination and she wanted the confrontation over with. Kosse kept pace with her in the shadows of the trees. Artemis held her own as she rode up to the ducal house.

  She swung down and took a deep breath before she handed the reins over to a footman who waited and walked up the steps with Kosse flanking her. As she knocked on the door, a dour-faced butler answered her summons.

  “Where is he?” Ciara asked the pinched-face man.

  “His Grace is waiting for you in the library.” Disdain was evident in the man. “That creature will have to wait outside.” He acted as if he had managed to disrupt her plans.

  “He comes with.”

  She brushed past him and entered the house. Museum would be more apt a word. It was sterile in its cleanness and there was no feeling of warmth present. There were many priceless items, but nothing to make it feel like a home. Ciara suppressed a cold chill as she looked around.

  “He was most insistent that no creatures come with.”

  “Then he will have to be upset. Where is he? You tell me or I will find him myself.” She moved through the foyer as she guessed where the library would be.

  “Wait,” the imperious tone of the butler came. “Follow me.” He led the way past gaping servants to a door that was solid oak. There were intricate carvings in the wood.

  For a moment she forget where she was and gazed at the door as her fingers skimmed over the markings. It was a mythological scene depicting Zeus as he enslaved the Titans. It was beautiful.

  The butler knocked and, when bidden, stood back and let her enter. Then he shut the door behind him leaving her alone in the room with the duke.

  “What do you want?”

  “You were told that you were to leave the animals outside.”

  “I would not be dumb enough to face you without someone I trusted at my back.”

  “Humph. Come in and sit down. We have business to discuss.” A liver-spotted hand waved her forward.

  Ciara went and sat in a straight-backed chair while Kosse stayed between her and the door. “What did you send for me for?”

  “Did you tell my son?”

&n
bsp; “I don’t need your son to protect me. No, I said nothing to him.”

  “Have you no manners? You did not even curtsy when you came in, never mind your dress. Pants are for men.”

  “Why bother with niceties? I did not ride for four hours to discuss what honors you believe I should bestow upon you. You called me. I came. Be happy with that much. What do you want? You are wasting both our time.” Ciara kept her tone hard.

  “How much?” the duke rasped. “How much will it take?” When she raised her eyebrows, he cackled with glee. “I knew it. Money always works for your kind. That is what you were after from the beginning.”

  “Enough,” Ciara broke in. “What are you talking about? How much what? What is it you are trying to buy?”

  “Why, your leaving, girl. I am willing to pay you to go away and not try to marry my son. How much? I will have the money for you before the end of the day. How much will it cost for you and that brat of yours to disappear?”

  “Don’t call my son a brat. I won’t take your money. I never wanted your money. I never wanted your son’s money. I don’t need it. Is that what all this was about? You wasted my day. Goodbye.” Ciara rose and headed for the door.

  “Get back here. I am not finished with you.” His tone caused her to narrow her eyes in response. She turned inch by inch and approached the desk, moving with all the grace of the wildcat that kept pace with her.

  “What? Why do you keep me here?” Ciara placed her hands on the edge of the desk and in silence dared the duke not to back away from her gaze.

  “I could have you thrown onto a ship never to be seen or heard from again,” he spat.

  Her voice dropped to a purr as she leaned in closer to his face. “Aye. And I could have Kosse kill you here and now. Your threats don’t scare me. You are a lot of talk. You hide behind your title and use it to intimidate people. That doesn’t work for me.”

  “Why did you come here?” This sudden change in conversation almost caught her off guard. Almost.

  “To fulfill a promise I made to your son.”