by Sara Orwig
“Take off that dress, Lianna, or I’ll rip it off.”
“Edwin, I feel so confused…Perhaps…Kiss me first,” she breathed softly, and held out her arms.
She saw the flare of surprise in his expression; then he growled, “So, you like it rough, eh?” He laughed. “And all this time I thought I had to be so cautious. Come here, wench.”
Lianna smiled and walked to him, throwing her arms around his neck.
She stood on tiptoe to kiss Edwin. His hand yanked the pins from her hair and it tumbled down as she ran her fingers over his chest, raking her nails across his flesh while she rained kisses on him. His fingers fumbled at the buttons of her dress and she felt it fall from her shoulders. While his fingers roamed freely over her full breasts, she ground her hips against his and trailed her hand over his buttocks while she kissed him passionately.
He groaned softly. “What a tigress you are! If I had known!”
Lianna twisted closer against him, reaching back with one hand, her fingers closing around the poker. If she missed, if Edwin stopped her, his fury would know no bounds. And in a few minutes all her chances for freedom would be gone.
Suddenly, with all the strength she had, she broke free and swung the poker, locking both hands around it as it came down.
Edwin’s eyes flew open. “Damn, Li—”
The poker crashed down on his skull with a sickening thud as he lunged for her, his hands locking on her waist, sending them both crashing to the floor.
He fell on her, pinning her down, and her heart pounded in fear. He lay, a deadweight on top of her, blood pouring from the wound in his head.
Lianna struggled to push him aside, pulling her dress up over her shoulders. She yanked on his coat, anything to cover her. Frantically she searched the pockets for the key, then decided Edwin might have lied. There might be servants waiting in the hall.
Swiftly she extinguished the lamps, thrust aside the drapes, and unfastened the locks on a window to open the casement. She dropped outside and ran for her life.
When she reached home, she slipped in through the back gate. She knocked on the door, hearing the lock turn. It swung open and a maid peered out.
“Let me in, Marie.”
The maid gasped. “Mercy! Mrs. Raven!”
Lianna stepped inside, her pounding heart beginning to return to normal.
“Thank goodness I’m home. Is Phillip all right?”
“Phillip’s fine. But you?” Her round eyes were filled with fear and her jaw hung open as she stared at Lianna.
“I’m all right now. Ready a hot tub, please. I want nothing more than to bathe. And tell Upton to refuse entrance to Captain Stafford. No one is to enter this house tonight with the exception of Mr. Brougher.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Marie said, and left to do as she was told.
Lianna went into the nursery to look at Phillip. Betsy lay asleep, snoring softly in her room with the door open between them. Lianna touched the sleeping baby to reassure herself that he was safe, then tiptoed out.
When she bathed, she scrubbed as if to wash away the distasteful memory of Edwin’s touch. How much he had changed since childhood! Along with anger over the difficulties he had caused her was sadness over the discovery of the man he really was.
It was impossible to sleep and she left one small lamp burning while she lay staring into space, the swift-changing events swirling in her mind. Where was Josh and why hadn’t he returned to see her? Had Edwin harmed him?
Looking down, she saw she had clenched the covers into knots. Slowly she released them and thought about the morning.
The next day, Lianna dressed, summoned Betsy to get Phillip ready, and shortly, over the protests of her closest servants, she was in a gig on a journey to Cathmoor Manor. She left strict instructions behind: Upton was to try to discover how badly she had injured Edwin. No one was to relate to Edwin Stafford her whereabouts.
She received instructions how to get to the manor from a curious apothecary in the village. He polished the glass counter while he peered at her through spectacles.
“Ma’am, a Mr. Brougher has taken over the property—to everyone’s relief in these parts.”
“Does Mr. Brougher stay there?”
“No, ma’am. Word has it he’s going to build a new house. No one stays in the old house.”
“How can I find Cathmoor?”
He craned his neck to look past her. “You’re a lady alone? You and the baby?”
“Yes.”
He leaned closer, smoothing his long black beard while he talked. “Don’t go, ma’am. I don’t know what prompted you to want to see Cathmoor Manor, but don’t take the baby or yourself near it.”
“You said no one lives in it.”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “The old duke’s ghost haunts it.” The man’s voice gave Lianna a chill, and she tightened her arms around Phillip. Determination outweighed all else, and she persisted, asking him, “You’ve seen the ghost?”
“Ma’am, did you know the duke?” He looked at Phillip and she was thankful Phillip lay sleeping and didn’t have his wide green eyes, so like Josh’s and the duke’s, revealed.
“I’ve met him.”
“Hmpf.” He arched his eyebrows and looked at Phillip. “He was a mean one, a real devil. Killed off his wife—”
“You mean murder?”
“No, ma’am. Made her life such a hell, she just ran away. Left two sons that he was a tyrant to until they got old enough to run away.”
The chill Lianna had felt before intensified in an aching hurt. Josh had told her how cruel his father had been; she had seen the scars on his back, but the flat, calm statement of the apothecary added to the picture of how terrible Josh’s childhood had been.
“Had a bastard son and daughter by Drusilla Chance.”
“There was a daughter?”
“The old duke ran her down with his own carriage. She got in the way. He just went right on. Tossed some coins out the window.”
Lianna gasped without realizing it until he nodded. She thought of the duke holding Phillip and wondered if time had changed him, if he’d had regrets or guilt.
“Y’see? The duke had three women in the village—two of them mothers of his bastard children. One hanged herself. Another disappeared from the village one night. Never seen again. The mother of the boy lost her mind. Someone came and fetched him to a family in London, and someone pays a nurse to care for her. Sends her a pension, but she doesn’t know anything. Don’t go up there. No one will. Someone finally put a ball right through his black heart. They hauled the duke’s body out of there and laid it to rest and left the house just as it was. You don’t want to take a baby there.”
“I’ll just look at the outside, if you’ll tell me how to find it.”
“I think you’ll regret it.”
Lianna wondered if she would have to give up and go elsewhere for directions, but he continued, “Take this lane. You’ll see one branching to the north. It has stone pillars, and the lane that goes to the house is overgrown with brambles. Doubt if you can get the carriage down it anyway.”
“Thank you. Mr. Brougher doesn’t stay around these parts?”
“No, ma’am. Heard he’s a ship’s captain and strong as an ox. Won’t help if he meets a ghost, but he doesn’t intend to live in the house, I’m sure.”
“Thank you.”
“You take care, ma’am. It’s no place to go.”
“I’ll remember.” She left, climbing into the small open carriage to take the reins. While she had been inside, the sky had become overcast with dark clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Betsy and Upton had been scandalized that she would take Phillip and go alone without a driver. They were afraid of Edwin’s interference, afraid for her to travel alone. As if to seek reassurance from something harmless and normal, she glanced down at the picnic basket.
When the road became shadowed by spreading branches of trees and the only sound was
her gig, she was tempted to turn around and go back to London, yet she felt she had to see where Josh had spent his childhood; maybe she would understand better his hardness. And something deep within her made her want to take Phillip. It was a link to his past too, even though he was too small to know.
Edwin bound by greed, Josh by hatred. She looked at Phillip, whose eyes were open now, and was fiercely determined he would have love, so much love. He stirred, opening his eyes, and she talked to him while she drove the gig.
She would have passed the lane, except for the stone pillars. The path was overgrown with weeds, but the bushes were low, and she urged the horse along it. Even though spring had come to England, beneath the overgrown branches it was dark and cool.
Shortly she glimpsed Cathmoor through the trees, the house gone to ruin. Birds flitted through a broken upstairs window. The front door swung on rusty hinges; the emptiness and silence were bleak and desolate. Once more, she almost turned the carriage toward London, but she felt compelled to see where Josh had lived.
Clutching Phillip tightly in her arms, she picked her way through the brambles to the front door. It creaked as she pushed it open and entered.
The house looked as if it had remained untouched since the duke had died. A rat scurried across the floor, disappearing beneath the great staircase that wound to the second floor. Along with statues, pots with long-dead plants lined the hall. She went into the salon and stood quietly. Beneath the wear of time was a bleakness. Her home had been sparsely furnished, with little beauty, but this held furniture that was large and dark, oppressive in appearance. She looked over the mantelpiece and gasped, then went closer.
A picture ran from the mantel to the high ceiling, and at first she had thought it was Josh; then she noticed the differences. She moved closer and looked at the duke at a young age; his face bore similarities to Josh and Fletcher, to green eyes and thick brown hair, to the prominent cheekbones of both sons.
Phillip stirred, and she held him tighter, holding her skirts up as she moved on. Rats scurried across the long banquet table in the dining hall. She could see where a pistol had been fired at the wall. Silver flagons were overturned on the table and dusty plates still rested there. The creak of the front door grated on her nerves and she wanted to go, but she had to see Josh’s room. Reluctantly she clung to the banister and climbed the steps, carefully avoiding a spot where rotting wood left a hole.
At the head of the stairs she paused, trying to decide which door to open. Wind banged a shutter and she jumped. Stiffening her shoulders, she crossed the hall and entered a small bedroom. There was a narrow bed, a washstand, and nothing else. It was devoid of anything, and she wondered if it had been occupied. She remember Josh’s answer when she had asked him about the lion’s head on his belongings—and he had answered that he had owned nothing for so many years.
She tried another and found the same. A bed, a washstand, nothing more. She entered another room and knew she was in the duke’s room.
A bed, canopied with heavy velvet that was brown with dust, stood at one end of the room. There were chairs and a fireplace. A woman’s dress lay on the floor. She moved around the room, looking at the possessions: a snuffbox, a brace of pistols, a yellowed shirt on the floor, a pair of worn boots. She glanced at a corner of the room and froze.
A long rawhide whip rested against the wall, its leather darkened. She wondered how many lashings had been inflicted on Josh and Phillip. She turned, hurrying to look at other rooms, opening doors to find the same desolation, until she opened the door on a room where a woman’s dresses were strewn about. The bed was canopied, and the room held chairs and a desk. The two barren rooms had to belong to Josh and Phillip. Her heart ached for Josh and she could finally imagine him as a child, growing up with such a father, becoming so hard that he couldn’t love or recognize love when it came to him.
“Oh, Josh!” she cried softly, aching because of the terrible childhood he’d had.
Suddenly she had to get out and away. She started down the steps and stopped dead as she looked down at the foot of the stairs.
37
Josh stood below. Dressed in a leather riding coat, high brown boots, and brown trousers, he held out his arms.
Clutching Phillip, she descended the stairs. Green eyes held hers, their silent message unmistakable. She came down the last steps, walking into Josh’s open arms. As he banded them around her, she closed her eyes. At last she was pressed to his heart, where she had longed to be.
He held her carefully, so he wouldn’t crush Phillip. “Lianna,” he said hoarsely.
“I had to see where you lived when you were a child.”
“I love you more than my life, more than anything.”
Tears burned her eyes. “I had to see where you grew up, what…”
“And so you did.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all past now, as is your childhood.” He scooped her up and headed for the door. “Let’s get out of here.”
He swung her into the carriage. “I’ll be right back.”
“It’s going to rain.” Thunder rumbled loudly and Josh looked skyward. “A spring shower. I’ll be only a minute.”
He went inside. Lianna wondered if there was something he wanted to keep. Why would he return to Cathmoor now, after all this time?
He came out in long strides and tied his horse to the carriage before they left. She looked at his horse, lathered from a hard ride.
“Josh, your horse…”
“I came as swiftly as possible. Edwin Stafford had Fletcher taken aboard the Eagle yesterday.”
“Oh, no! More of Edwin’s treachery.”
“Otherwise I would have seen you last night.”
“Is Fletcher safe?”
“Aye.” Josh laughed. “He slipped free in the night. We gave chase, and he jumped from their ship. We fished him from the water and raced for home. I went to your house as soon as I could.” He looked down. “Phillip still sleeps. Our talk won’t wake him?”
“He can sleep through a gale.”
“My little sailor.” Josh brushed the baby’s cheek, then squeezed Lianna’s shoulders.
“I’ll show you where we’ll live.”
Her heart jumped at his words. It was settled in his mind and in hers, even though they hadn’t talked it over. She rested her hand on his knee.
“I love you—and you already know it.”
“But I want to hear you say it over and over forever. I knew when Upton told me you had driven to Cathmoor Manor. It would take love and courage to enter that ghastly place.”
“Josh, did Edwin cause your wounds?”
“He has tried everything in his power to keep me from you.”
She closed her eyes in pain. “I’m sorry, so sorry! I knew when I went with him, as soon as I was on his ship, I knew I had made a mistake. He asked me to come talk to him and then he gave me brandy with something in it that caused me to lose consciousness.”
Josh turned in the seat to stare at her while he swore bitterly. “Fletcher said you left of your own free will.”
“I’d intended to go only for a brief time.”
“I tried to catch up with you.”
“I saw the sails. Oh, Josh!”
A drop of rain struck her and Josh slowed the gig to pull off his coat. “Here, hold this over your head and above Phillip.”
Josh glanced over his shoulder and she looked back, then stiffened in shock. “Josh…” She watched a tongue of flame curl out of an open upper window.
“Aye, it’s long past due. When the timbers burn, the stones will fall. That great roof will come tumbling down because the Horsham slabs of stone are heavy. I’ll have this land cleared and give this plot away to a family wronged by my father.”
His voice became rough. “It gives me great pleasure to spend my father’s money on people he treated cruelly.”
“I hope, as time goes by, I hear that tone in your voice less and less. Josh, your
father came regularly to see Phillip.”
“I can’t believe it!” He stared at her, amazement in his eyes.
“He did. He was so proud of Phillip.”
“So that’s why he changed his will. I wondered what had brought it about.”
“Maybe he began to regret some of the past.”
“I doubt if he would have changed toward me.”
“He said the two of you were too much alike.” She watched him, soft locks of brown hair curling over his forehead, his face covered with healing cuts he’d suffered because of Edwin, and she ached to be in his arms again. She touched his knee, catching his fingers in hers.
He smiled at her. “Let’s be gone from here. Ah!” Phillip stirred, and Josh reached down to scoop him into his arms. “Lianna, take the reins and let me have a word with my son.”
They huddled together, Josh holding the coat with one hand, Lianna holding part of the coat with the other.
When they reached the road, she looked back to see a spiral of black smoke billowing upward. A light rain fell, but not sufficient to stop the roaring fire that sent flames dancing skyward.
“This is a large estate,” Josh said. “I’m building a new house on the opposite end of the land from here, as far from this as possible.”
“And my farm, Josh? What about it?”
“We’ll do whatever you want.” Holding Phillip, Josh took the reins, halting the carriage beneath a tall tree to wait until the rain stopped. He shifted Phillip and placed his arm around Lianna’s shoulders.
“Lianna, there’s a vicar down the road. This child needs a father, ma’am. Will you marry me?”
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She gazed into shining eyes filled with love and felt like laughing and crying and throwing her arms around him at once. “Yes!”
“Even if I’m a jackanapes pirate and a—”
“Josh Raven! Don’t remind me what I said. I hoped you would forget.”
“Never. I’m getting soaked. Let’s go.”
They were wed with Josh holding Phillip. When he reached for her finger, Lianna produced her gold wedding band. For an instant Josh looked startled, then slipped it on her finger. Next he reached into his pocket to withdraw a gold band set with a sparkling diamond, which he slipped on beside the plain band.