The Inconvenient Elmswood Marriage (Penniless Brides 0f Convenience Book 4)

by Marguerite Kaye

  When they had found Sir Marcus’s summons waiting, after they’d walked back in silence from the churchyard that terrible day, it had seemed like a message—fate telling them that their parting was necessary.

  Daniel had left the next day, and the intervening hours had been an agony, as he’d packed up both his belongings and the man she’d thought she loved.

  When he left, they bade each other goodbye like strangers. He had offered to write—there were practical details still to be sorted regarding Elmswood—but Kate had refused, and since then the only contact she had had with him had been through his lawyer. She knew it was for the best. But it didn’t stop it from hurting. A lot.

  Life goes on, she told herself, her mantra, as she got up from the desk. There was no shortage of tasks to fill her day as she prepared to close up Elmswood Manor for the foreseeable future and to start to hand the estates over.

  Oliver, who was finally starting to relax in her company again, after an awkward few weeks when he had clearly been terrified that Daniel had betrayed him, would continue to stay here, to look after the grounds and the house, but he had refused her offer of the estate manager’s role. He was a gardener, not an accountant. So it was the farmer Edward Styles who would take over the estate, and who would oversee its transition from Fairfax ownership to the new trust which was being set up.

  But Kate was determined she would not be at Elmswood to help. The house was so empty and so silent, so full of memories. She would look back on it with pleasure, but for now there was only pain, for everywhere she turned she was reminded of what might have been.

  If only Daniel had believed in himself. She would not and could not accept that his love for her was anything other than real. No one could fake what had transpired between them—that meeting of body and heart and spirit that had happened when they’d made love. At an elemental level they were two halves of one whole.

  Kate—practical, pragmatic Kate—would have scorned such an idea in the past, but she would have been wrong. She’d seen the same bond existing between Eloise and Alexander. She was delighted to see her niece so blissfully happy, but had declined her invitation to return for a longer visit, for it would be bittersweet. Eloise knew that Daniel had left, and had tactfully said nothing of her own feelings. The fact that she hadn’t even asked about Kate’s told its own story.

  Outside, the rain was falling softly and the paths were strewn with newly fallen leaves. The walled garden was no longer her sanctuary, but she forced herself to open the door, to take the clockwise route to the wilderness and their bench.

  She would be leaving in less than a week. She had taken a six-month lease on a house in Devon, because she had never lived by the sea. She hoped to give herself time to think through her next steps. Money was not a problem. As Eloise had pointed out, Kate had earned the generous settlement Daniel had made, and she was entitled to a comfortable independence. So she had accepted it, and had started putting it to use. Though Daniel would never know...

  The bench was damp. Kate sat down, heedless of her gown. There was a space there...right there...where Daniel should be sitting, his long legs stretched out in front of him, his arm carelessly around her shoulders, his hand covering hers.

  But it would never be filled now. Never again.

  Admiralty House, London

  ‘So, have your bags packed first thing tomorrow and you’ll be on your way.’ Beaming, Sir Marcus handed Daniel a slim folder. ‘No need to tell you to destroy that. You know the drill. Welcome back, Fairfax. We have missed you.’

  ‘Have you?’

  Sir Marcus’s smile faded. ‘Dammit, Fairfax, I had to be seen to be doing something after that debacle. It simply wasn’t possible to allow you to get away with such blatant disobedience. You know the rules.’

  ‘And I broke one of them trying to save a man who had risked his neck for a country that isn’t even his own.’

  ‘What is the point of discussing this now? It’s over and done with. You’ve served your time, and now there is a new, exciting role here that is perfect for you.’

  ‘It’s very different from the last one.’

  ‘A challenge, but I know you won’t let us down. I swear, Fairfax, if I asked you to play Lady Macbeth you’d be able to do it,’ Sir Marcus said with a barking laugh. ‘Or even Lord Elmswood, at a stretch. And your success there, I have to tell you, surprised even me.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘You know perfectly well I was concerned that you were—how shall I put it?—taking the role too seriously? Yes, that covers it nicely.’

  ‘You thought,’ Daniel said baldly, ‘that I had fallen in love with my wife.’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite so forcefully, but I did worry that I might find it difficult to prise you away from her. She’s a feisty thing, and though not in the first blush of youth I could see how she would appeal to you. Not in the usual way. Like yourself, in other words.’

  ‘Kate is not like anyone else I know.’

  ‘Precisely, and that’s why I thought she’d appeal. Then there was the fact that she’d saved your life too. And the nursing. All that time you were cooped up on various ships together. It was bound to form a bond. It’s been a lesson for me, I can tell you. The next time I have to rescue a man from prison I won’t send a pretty woman to bring him back to me. However, no harm done, eh?’

  ‘Save to Kate.’

  ‘Ah...’ Sir Marcus pursed his lips. ‘Still, in the grand scheme of things she’s been on her own eleven years, and she had you playing the loving spouse for such a brief time that she’ll be content to get back to normality, I’ll wager.’

  ‘Actually, you are quite wrong. Kate is leaving Elmswood.’

  ‘Really? I didn’t know that. Stopped keeping tabs on the place when you came back here.’

  ‘There was never any need for me to remain there, was there?’

  Sir Marcus, wisely in Daniel’s opinion, chose not to prevaricate. ‘I won’t have you deciding which rules to follow and which to break, Fairfax.’

  ‘And when you sent me off to see Alex you didn’t worry that I’d see how happy he was and make the same decision he did?’

  ‘I know you better than that, Fairfax. Sinclair served us well, but he ran out of puff, so to speak, and he’s happy enough now, settled up north, doing his good deeds. But that’s not you. I understand you probably better than anyone else does. I know what makes you tick, and it’s not a little cottage with a little wife and a little baby.’

  I understand you as no one else does.

  A shiver ran down Daniel’s spine. ‘Yet only a few months ago,’ he said, ‘you ordered me to enjoy the company of my lovely and very faithful little wife, the fresh country air and my neat and tidy little estate, and to be grateful that I am still alive.’

  Sir Marcus tittered. ‘Were those my very words? You have a remarkable memory. A positive boon in your line of work.’

  ‘Flattery doesn’t become you, Sir Marcus. I did as you asked. I didn’t enjoy being on the estate—but then you knew that was impossible, for you knew my father.’

  ‘That man didn’t appreciate you, Fairfax, but we do. We have been here for you over the years, haven’t we? We’ve looked after you. No matter where you were in the world, you knew you could turn to us, that we’d take care of you. And we proved it, didn’t we, when we rescued you from that hell-hole? I can tell you now, in the strictest confidence, that we’d have left a lesser man than you to his fate.’

  You can turn to me.

  You’re not alone.

  You can rely on me to look after you.

  ‘You knew I hated Elmswood. You sprung me from one prison and then put me in another. I fail to see how that is taking care of me.’

  ‘Think of it as an endurance test. Look, Fairfax, I don’t know what particular point you are trying to make, but I have
always been like a father to you, and—’

  Daniel got to his feet. ‘That is exactly the point,’ he said, staring at the man who had been his mentor for almost twenty years as if he was a stranger. ‘Too much like my own father, in fact. Manipulating me into doing what you want me to do. Moulding me, shaping me, pushing me and pulling at me until I am whatever shape it is you require me to be at the time. But you don’t give a damn about me, do you?’

  ‘You are our best man. I had several other good men risk their necks to bring you out...’

  ‘Spare me the recital. I am grateful, but it’s no more than I deserved, considering that I was risking my neck on a daily basis for you, and have been for almost two decades.’

  ‘You don’t serve me—you serve your country.’

  ‘Not any more, I don’t.’

  ‘What do you mean? Fairfax, I forbid you—’

  ‘You what? I think you should reconsider that remark.’

  Sir Marcus sank back into his seat as Daniel leaned over the desk. ‘Don’t threaten me.’

  Daniel laughed. ‘I’m done with this. Kate was absolutely right. I can be any man I choose, and I choose not to be your man any longer, Sir Marcus, nor anyone else’s. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to see it, but out of all the people who have used me for their own purposes you are the worst—or should I say the best?’

  ‘I think you are still suffering from a fever. You are clearly not ready to return to service yet. A spell by the seaside, I think...’

  ‘Dear God, I’ve not got consumption—and the only fever I have is a desire to get back to Elmswood before Kate leaves and it’s too late.’

  ‘Fairfax!’

  Daniel turned, and there must have been something in his smile that told Sir Marcus he had lost.

  ‘Leave the folder on the desk on your way out, there’s a good chap. I hope you don’t live to regret this.’

  ‘How can I possibly regret living my own life for the first time ever?’

  Elmswood Manor, three days later

  Kate was in the music room, mid-way through her yoga practice, when she heard carriage wheels on the driveway. Peering out to the hallway, watching for Sylvia to open the door when the bell was rung, she was astonished to see the door scrape open.

  Her knees turned to water.

  Daniel’s lithe figure was draped in a black woollen greatcoat. He was paler than the last time she’d seen him. She felt sick with longing, looking at him, and with dread too. What new hell could this be?

  Steeling herself, she stepped into the hallway. ‘Daniel. To what do I owe the pleasure?’

  ‘You’re here.’ He threw himself at her, yanking her from her feet in a breathless embrace. ‘You’re here.’

  ‘Until the day after tomorrow. Put me down, Daniel.’

  ‘Kate.’ He was instantly contrite. ‘I forgot myself. I have missed you so much. The journey here from London felt interminable.’

  ‘What is it? Why are you here? I thought you’d be in darkest Africa by now.’

  ‘I was supposed to leave yesterday, but I—I can’t believe you’re still here. I was so sure—I have missed you so much.’

  ‘Daniel!’ She took a step back, looking at him properly, and what she saw made her silly heart leap. ‘You look strange.’

  ‘I feel very strange—not like myself at all. Or rather, exactly like myself.’ He laughed slightly hysterically. ‘I think we’d better go somewhere other than the hallway, I don’t particularly want Sylvia to hear what I have to say.’

  Out of habit, for she was wearing her yoga trousers and tunic, Kate returned to the music room, sitting down cross-legged on the rug.

  ‘You have been keeping up your practice, I see,’ Daniel said, yanking off his greatcoat.

  ‘I enjoy it. It makes me able to look at myself in the mirror. Unlike you, I don’t cast everything off when I decide to move on to the next stage in my life.’

  Daniel pulled off his coat and boots and sat down with his usual annoying fluidity opposite her.

  ‘I’m ready to move on to the next stage in my life too.’

  ‘I thought you already had.’

  He shook his head. ‘I told Sir Marcus what he could do with his assignment.’

  Her heart flip-flopped. ‘This particular assignment?’

  ‘And every other assignment that is waiting to be assigned in the history of assignments.’

  She was having difficulty breathing. ‘Daniel, are you drunk?’

  ‘No, merely intoxicated. By life and its endless possibilities.’

  ‘What endless possibilities? What are you proposing to do now?’

  ‘That very much depends on you.’

  ‘I have no idea what I’m going to do. I’ve rented a cottage...’

  ‘In Devon. I know. Sorry,’ Daniel said, looking not at all apologetic. ‘I had to wring it out of the lawyer, but if I had missed you here I needed to know where to find you.’

  ‘Why, Daniel?’

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘I know you do.’

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t. I thought—Oh, you know what I thought. But I was wrong, Kate. It didn’t go away. It got worse and worse, the missing you, with every passing day. And the more determined I was to try and forget you, the more I kept remembering how you made me feel—how you make me feel.’

  She could feel her smile growing from the inside out. She could feel warmth seeping through her, as if the sun was shining in her tummy.

  ‘And precisely how is that, Daniel?’

  ‘Like I can be any man I choose. And I choose to be with you—if you’ll have me.’

  She wanted to throw herself into his arms and tell him yes, please, but...

  ‘You want to know what has changed,’ he said, though she hadn’t spoken. ‘It’s not so much that things have changed, it’s more that I see things differently. It’s not that there is no Daniel Fairfax—it’s that he’s never had a chance to find out who he is. I’ve always been someone else’s man. My life has been a constant process of reinvention, or reincarnation—whatever you want to call it—but I have never been myself. Never. I have never been happy. Except when I’ve been with you, Kate.’

  ‘But what does that mean? How are we to be happy?’

  ‘I have absolutely no idea, save that we will be together. And that it won’t be here. But those are my only two stipulations.’ Daniel grinned. ‘What do you think, Kate?’

  ‘I don’t want to be Lady Elmswood.’

  He snapped his fingers. ‘Then we shall dispense entirely with the title and leave it to gather dust until whoever inherits picks it up.’

  A bubble of laughter escaped her. ‘Do you mean that?’

  ‘Well, I’m damned sure I don’t want to be Lord Elmswood. No one can force us to use the title. Do you have any other stipulations?’

  ‘Only that you love me—first and foremost and always.’

  He leaned towards her, cupping her face with his hand. ‘That’s the easiest thing in the world to promise. I will always love you. First and foremost and more every single day.’

  ‘Oh, Daniel. I have missed you so much.’

  ‘Then you agree?’

  ‘We will be Kate and Daniel. And wherever we go it will be together. I agree. I love you.’

  ‘I love you with all my heart, my darling Kate.’

  He pulled her towards him, falling backwards on the mat, taking her with him, and their lips met and their kiss instantly wiped away the pain and the sorrow of the weeks spent apart.

  ‘I love you,’ Kate murmured against his mouth.

  ‘I love you,’ Daniel whispered, his words reflected in his eyes.

  Their kisses deepened but they made love slowly, watching each other, matching each other, each touch, each kiss, their hands roaming over each o
ther’s bodies, remembering and arousing, casting aside clothes when they got in the way, murmuring ‘I love you’ in between kisses. His hands were on her back, on her bottom, on her breasts. She was stroking his chest, licking his nipples, relishing the hardness of him pressing between her legs.

  More kisses. The slide of his fingers inside her. Her hand curled around the hardness of him. Her leaning over to replace her hand with her mouth. The deep groan that kiss drew from him. The surge of passion it evoked. Frantic kisses. The aching anticipation in the seconds before he entered her. The way she moulded herself around him.

  And then the frantic rhythm, the thrusts that made her shudder and cling, the way he said her name, the sudden unstoppable jolt of her climax, and his deep, guttural groan as he came too.

  And afterwards a new sensation as they lay sprawled together on the floor of the music room. Daniel was smiling, his eyes shining with love, and she had a feeling as if she had cut the tethers she hadn’t known were holding her down.

  The future was theirs to make. Together.

  Epilogue

  Le Pas à Pas Restaurant, London,

  April 1833

  ‘The Elmswood Coven, finally reunited,’ Estelle said gleefully.

  ‘We’re not at Elmswood,’ Eloise said. ‘We’re in London’s top restaurant.’

  ‘And we’re about to eat a dinner cooked by London’s top chef.’ Phoebe beamed around the table. ‘What’s more, our coven has doubled in size. Who would have thought, when Uncle Daniel arranged Eloise’s marriage, that we would all four of us make a love match? I think we owe him a huge vote of thanks.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Daniel replied, ‘but if anyone is due a vote of thanks it’s Kate. If she hadn’t proposed marriage to me none of us would be here.’ He lifted his champagne flute, tilting it at his wife. ‘To Kate, who has made all this possible, and who has made me the happiest man in the world.’