by Sandra Heath
He laughed and whirled her more and more wildly around the floor. She felt lighter than air. Particular distinction? What a masterpiece of journalistic understatement!
The other dancers glanced uncertainly at one another and then continued to watch as Sir Dane and Lady Marchwood gave themselves to the new dance that many still regarded as too outrageous for polite society. Outwardly, everyone pretended to disapprove, but privately the ladies envied Kathryn the intimacy she shared with one of England’s most desirable and notorious men. The gentlemen eyed Kathryn’s curvaceous figure approvingly, and wished she was to grace their beds that night instead of her husband’s.
Kathryn was lost in the sheer happiness of being with Dane, but then she saw Thomas watching from the edge of the floor. His tormented gaze followed as she danced, and for a moment she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. But at last she did, and looked up at Dane instead.
“Let’s go home now,” she urged.
“Now? But we’ve hardly danced at all, and you wished to see the fireworks display.”
“I don’t want to dance, sir, and I have fireworks of my own in mind,” she said softly.
“Do you indeed? I confess you’ve persuaded me,” he murmured, offering her his arm.
They made their way from the floor, and she averted her head from Thomas. Five minutes later their carriage drove smartly out of Cheltenham.
Kathryn’s head rested against Dane’s shoulder as she gazed back at the disappearing lights of the fashionable spa town. Would she be allowed to spend the rest of the night with him? Would they make love until dawn again? She prayed so, for this was her last chance before his trust was finally shattered tomorrow at the sailing of the Lady Marchwood.
As had happened earlier on the bridge with Thomas, she wanted to warn him what was to come. Once again the words refused to come to her lips. Tears filled her eyes and she moved her head in order to look up at him in the darkness. “Love me tonight, Dane,” she whispered.
He smiled. “You may count upon it, madam,” he murmured, turning to kiss her.
Her mouth trembled needfully against his, and then she sighed as he pushed her gently down to lie on the seat. He pressed his lips to the pale perfection of her throat, and her yearning hands moved eagerly over him.
“When did we last make love in a carriage, my lady?” he whispered, sliding his hand sensuously beneath her gown.
“If you’ve made love in a carriage, sir, it most certainly wasn’t with me.”
“No? Then we must correct the omission,” he said softly, moving his hand further up her leg to caress her thigh.
“Are you going to take me as if I were a common strumpet, my lord?”
“No, madam, I’m going to take you like the warm-blooded, desirable, fascinating woman you are,” he breathed as he drew her gown up-to her waist and began to undo his breeches.
His arousal sprang urgently from its confines of silk, and seemed to find its own way between her eager thighs. The heat of him was wonderful as he slid inside with leisurely ease. Her breath caught with intense pleasure as he pushed in as far as he could, gripping her buttocks with his hands to tilt her in order to penetrate further. She felt him quiver with desire inside her, and then her body arched beneath him as he began to move slowly in and out. Acute gratification invaded her entire being. Never let this finish. Never.
Chapter Seventeen
It was the morning of Lammas Eve, the day on which Dane would discover the truth about Rosalind and Thomas Denham, but when Kathryn awoke her only thought was fear that she might have been transported back to her own time again instead of remaining in the past with the man she loved. She didn’t dare open her eyes, but lay there with them tightly closed. Please let her still be in 1815.
She could hear birdsong outside, but there were birds in the past and present. What she couldn’t hear was anything modern, like traffic noise. Let her be able to slide her hand across the bed to touch him. She moved her fingers slowly and tentatively over the sheet. He was there! She smiled and opened her eyes gladly to see the morning sunlight slanting through a crack in his apartment curtains at Marchwood.
He had yet to stir. His hair was tousled, and his lashes dark against his cheeks. A sheet covered him to the waist, and a thin band of morning sun fell across his chest, shining on the soft curling hairs she’d pressed her lips to during the night. She leaned up on an elbow and pushed her tangled hair back from her face in order to gaze at him.
Surely this was what it was like in paradise? Just to wake next to him made her feel complete. She could hardly credit how intense her feelings were. It went far beyond simple physical attraction. It was as if she breathed only because he breathed too. She was in tune with everything about him, and the sensation was matchless. This was true love, and if it was only to be granted for these few hours, she was grateful to have experienced it at all. When the time came for her to go back to her own time forever, she’d never forget what she’d known with Sir Dane Marchwood. She’d always worship him. Always. Bending her head, she put her lips tenderly to his.
“Good morning, sweet sir,” she whispered.
He opened his eyes and smiled. “Good morning, my lady,” he murmured, reaching out to pull her on top of him.
She luxuriated in the delicious feel of his body, and moved sensuously against his warmth.
“Make love to me again,” she breathed, sliding her hand down to his loins, and capturing his slumbering maleness. She cupped it tenderly in her palm, and savored its response. It thickened and lengthened, making ready to take her again.
He rolled her gently on to her back and leaned over her. “Your request is my command, sweet lady,” he breathed, mounting her as her thighs parted to welcome him inside. He lowered his hips until his erection nestled up to her, the tip touching her most secret places.
He pushed slowly and inexorably inside, until he filled her. There was no lessening of excitement, no dulling of satisfaction, and renewed passion surged irresistibly through them both. His strokes were slow and leisurely, as were the rich undulations of delight that spread irresistibly through her. She did not doubt now that she was in paradise, or that this was the ultimate ecstasy. If her heart should cease beating at this moment, she’d die knowing the reality of total fulfillment. Flawless, exquisite, unqualified fulfillment...
They lay quietly side by side afterward, and several minutes passed before he spoke. “What fools we were to waste so much time. It should have been like this before, and I should never have doubted you, but I always feared this was only a marriage of convenience to you, entered because your father arranged it.”
“Isn’t that how it was for you? You’d never have married again if your father hadn’t wanted you to.”
“I married again because I wanted to.”
“But, I thought...”
He smiled a little. “I let you think I was merely being dutiful, but the truth was rather different.”
“What was the truth?”
He smiled wryly. “The truth? I thought you loved Thomas Denham. If your father hadn’t decided I was the better match, I was sure you’d have rather been Mrs. Denham than Lady Marchwood.”
“And I was sure you were still in love with Elizabeth, and—” She broke off as she suddenly realized he wasn’t wearing the chain and pendant.
Her reaction wasn’t lost on him, and he got up to go to the window and fling the curtain back so the sunlight streamed dazzlingly into the room. Then he looked back at her. “I ceased to love Elizabeth the moment I discovered her infidelity,” he said quietly.
Kathryn sat up slowly. “Her infidelity?” she repeated incredulously.
He turned to gaze out at the park. “You’re the only person I’ve ever told this, the only person apart from me to know anything of it. Elizabeth wasn’t the paragon everyone thinks, and I’ve only shielded her reputation because she’s the mother of my son. There’s no doubt Philip is mine, and so for his sake I’ve allowed her memory
to remain untarnished.”
So this was Elizabeth’s bitter legacy. Kathryn found it all difficult to take in.
He glanced back at her. “Philip must never know the truth about his mother.”
“You know he’ll never hear it from me. But I still don’t quite understand. If you fell so completely out of love with her, why have you continued to wear her likeness?”
“As a reminder never to love so foolhardily again. I gave my heart to her, and she broke it. I had no intention of permitting that to happen again, especially when I met you and knew how dangerously similar the circumstances would be if I married you.”
“Dangerously similar? I don’t understand.” She got up and went to slip her arms around him from behind. “Please tell me everything, Dane, for I have a right to know.”
“Yes, you do, but I find it hard to speak of things I’ve kept hidden for so long.” His hands rested tenderly over hers. “To be painfully honest, until now I would never have conceded you had the right to know anything about my past.”
“Why not until now?”
“Because until today I would not have confessed my love to you.”
Her heart missed a beat. “Please say that again,” she whispered.
“I love you, Rosalind.”
At last he’d said the words she longed to hear! She moved swiftly around him and linked her arms around his neck to kiss him fiercely on the mouth. Joy caroled through her, and for a moment she forgot the harsh truth—that later this very Lammas Eve he was going to learn about the affair with Thomas Denham. She forgot too that she was Kathryn Vansomeren, a woman from another time, another life...
He drew back first, taking her face in his hands and looking into her eyes. “Rosalind, I couldn’t bear it if you failed me as she did...”
“I won’t, I swear I won’t.” But the bitter truth was beginning to wash soberingly through her now. Lammas Eve, the duel... Time was ebbing away, and she was powerless to change what was going to happen.
His thumbs caressed her. “I’m yours now, Rosalind, your creature, unable to do anything without you, unable to spend a night unless I make love to you. You’ve made me this way, you’ve stolen into my heart and enslaved my body. I trust you because when I look in your eyes now I can see my love and need reflected so clearly that I might almost be gazing into a mirror.”
“Oh, Dane...”
But as she raised her lips to be kissed again, he shook his head and released her. “There’s something I have to tell you, Rosalind. I haven’t told anyone else, and the only others who knew are dead, but it will explain why I despise Thomas Denham so much.”
She leapt to the wrong conclusion. “Are...are you going to say he was Elizabeth’s lover?” she gasped.
“No, not Thomas, his brother William.”
She was shaken. “And that was why you called him out?” she whispered.
“Yes. I’ve fought three duels. The first was in my hot-headed youth, over the dubious honor of a fashionable courtesan, and the second was when I caught a cardsharp with five aces in his hand. Neither reason was worth dueling over, and now, with hindsight, I can see the third wasn’t either. Elizabeth was never the woman I believed her to be. Behind her smiles and glorious beauty, she was cheap and shallow, her only talent being an unequalled ability to seem loving and faithful. She was an adulteress, but she was carrying my child, there was no question of that, and for the child’s sake I protected the reputation of the mother, which is why I held my tongue over the reason for calling Denham out. He had his own reason for staying silent. As you know, his father was a strict church-going man who believed in the Ten Commandments. He’d have cut William off without a penny if he found out about Elizabeth.”
Kathryn reeled from the shock of what she’d just learned.
No wonder Dane despised the Denhams. She found herself recalling what Jeremiah Pendle had written about the duel. The banker claimed Dane had tampered with Thomas’s pistol, and went on to suggest the same might have happened when William died. No, she still couldn’t believe it. Dane would never do anything so contemptible, not even in the face of such unbelievable provocation. Two wives, both guilty of adultery with a Denham, and now, to make his anguish even greater, the second wife carried her lover’s child!
He took her trembling hand and drew the palm to his lips. “Rosalind, that’s what I meant earlier about thinking the circumstances would be dangerously similar if I married you. I knew there’d been something between you and Thomas Denham, and feared you might repeat Elizabeth’s adultery, but I wanted you so much I couldn’t help myself. So I had you, but I wore Elizabeth’s likeness as a reminder never to give my heart completely. Each time I felt your spell, I looked at her and remembered what she’d done. That way I was protected from further hurt.”
She didn’t know what to say. Suddenly everything was so clear. “What happened to Elizabeth?” she asked.
“The duel took place about a month before she was brought to bed, and I allowed her every comfort and consideration. I didn’t know what I intended after the birth, but then she died, and the onus of decision was taken from me.” He looked into her eyes again. “Can you understand how I felt when I returned from the war and found you so cool? And then, when I heard the rumors ...”
“Rumors?”
“Your name was linked with Denham’s, you’d been seen together, and—”
“I met him socially, that was all. Oh, and once when I was out riding I encountered him.” What else could she do except lie? But it was becoming increasingly difficult. She wanted to tell him the truth, but knew there was no point. Fate would march relentlessly on. Later today he would find out about Rosalind and Thomas, and at dawn tomorrow the duel would be fought.
He smiled gently. “I know now that my suspicions were unfounded, but a man who’s been betrayed before sees fresh betrayal at every corner.” He ran a fingertip down her cheek.
“You asked me if the Lady Marchwood was named after you. Of course she is, for I would never name her after Elizabeth.”
She caught his hand urgently. “Dane, you do believe that I love you, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever happens, I’ll never stop loving you.”
Puzzled, he looked into her eyes. “What is it? Why do you say it like that?”
She couldn’t reply, and had to look away.
He turned her face toward him again. “Tell me, Rosalind. Whatever it is that bothers you, I want you to tell me.”
She had to dissemble. “There isn’t anything,” she said, trying to smile.
“Sometimes I find you so changed, that...” He didn’t finish.
“Yes?”
“That I feel I’ve fallen in love again with someone new. As if you’re my third wife, a different woman entirely from the others.”
She gazed at him with silent anguish. I am someone new! I’m Kathryn Vansomeren, and I love you so much my heart’s breaking!
He released her then. “Now I’ve bared my soul at last, I need to blow the final cobwebs away. Would you mind if I go for a ride before breakfast? I believe a wild gallop across the park will be the ideal way to bury the past once and for all.”
She didn’t want him to leave her, but knew he must. She smiled. “Of course I don’t mind. Just come back to me.”
“You know I will.” He searched her eyes again. “Promise me you’ll tell me soon.”
“Tell you what?”
“Whatever it is I should know.”
“There isn’t anything.”
He smiled. “Oh, yes, there is, and when the time’s right, I know you’ll tell me.” Bending his head to kiss her on the lips, he turned and went into his dressing room.
When the time was right? The time would never be right to tell him a truth like this! She glanced toward the connecting door to her own apartment, and suddenly knew Alice was waiting beyond it. Time was always the master, and was about to dispatch Kathryn Vansomeren back to the future.
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br /> Chapter Eighteen
Kathryn went through the door and faced the nurse. “I’m finding this more and more difficult,” she confessed without preamble.
“I know.”
“He’s told me about Elizabeth and William Denham.”
Alice smiled, “Then you have his love, my dear.”
Tears sprang to Kathryn’s eyes. “Yes, his love and his trust! He believes in me now, Alice, but later today he’s going to find out about the real Rosalind and Thomas Denham! I can’t bear to think of the pain he’ll experience when that happens. Have you any idea how he suffered the last time? He loved Elizabeth, and she failed him. Now he loves me, and he’ll think I’ve done the same thing. It will destroy him.”
“You may be able to save him from that.”
“How?” Kathryn demanded bluntly. “It seems to me there’s absolutely nothing I can do except lie to him, and I’m starting to hate myself for it. I began this for purely selfish reasons; you promised me the sort of pleasure I’d always wanted, and I thought why not? But things have changed. I love him, and can’t endure the thought of how he’s going to feel a few hours from now. He’s going to be so devastated he’ll never trust anyone again, and who can blame him?”
Kathryn turned away, trying to blink back the angry tears. Now wasn’t the moment to lose her grip, she had to think! Mustering her composure, she faced the nurse again. “I know Rosalind and I have been trading places. Every time I’m here as her, she’s in the future as me. And she’s pregnant, right?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s in all this for her?”
“I will tell you later today, when the challenge has been issued and you experience the torment of being rejected by Dane.”
Kathryn gazed at her. “Oh, thanks, it’s great to know you’re on my side!” she said dryly.
“Don’t misunderstand me, my dear. It is necessary for you to go through it all, for only then will you be able to make up your mind about something that will change your very existence.”