Alex smiled. “I’ll wager you remember them soon enough. Come, my little termagant, tonight it is just thee and me against the world. Let us see what we can make of it.”
Carrying her easily, he rose from the chair, and instead of going through their dressing rooms, where their servants waited, he took her across the hall and directly into his chamber. A fire burned in the grate and a single lamp lit the bed.
As Alex returned her feet to the floor, Evelyn began unfastening his jabot. A pleased grin crossed his face, and he bent to whisper against her ear, “I’m yours to command, little rebel. How would you like the forces employed tonight ?”
“On me,” she announced, reaching for the fastenings of his breeches. “You’ll need full artillery and a cavalry charge or two, I suspect. Are you prepared?”
His laughter echoed through the chamber.
Chapter 31
The workmen and the plumbers began tearing apart the dressing rooms the next morning. The commotion of collapsing walls, pounding hammers, and a constant stream of noisy boots stomping up and down the back stairs disrupted much of the household. The noise even carried to the front salons, where the guests looked questioningly for explanation.
Evelyn’s attempt to explain Alex’s decision to install a bathing room brought such blushes to her cheeks that Deirdre laughed for the first time in weeks and took over the discussion. Evelyn gratefully left her in charge when a servant appeared in the doorway to announce that Mr. Farnley would like to see her. She excused herself and hurried to the study.
The elderly solicitor greeted her with more excitement than she had ever seen him display. Evelyn clasped her hands in her lap and watched him expectantly.
He didn’t disappoint. “I have found the individual you requested we look for, Lady Cranville.”
Reining in any display of emotion, she watched him to judge his feelings about this news. “What have you found out?”
“The girl is approximately fourteen years of age, in good health, apparently well thought of in the community. She has attended the village school taught by the local clergyman and his wife and has shown a remarkable intelligence in all her studies. The vicar speaks well of her but says he has taught her all he knows. She is currently helping teach the younger students.”
Evelyn nodded in relief. “Please go on.”
“The roads are poor this time of year, so I have not gone to see her myself. My correspondent tells me she is attractive in a wild sort of way. Hampton blood will tell, you know. She has the dark hair, the dark eyes, and unfortunately, the temper. I don’t think there’s any mistaking her parentage. Her mother and her adopted father were both fair. There is little doubt among the villagers as to whose child she actually is.”
Evelyn put her hand to her face in a futile attempt to hold back the tears. When Mr. Farnley halted in his recitation, she shook her head. “I am fine. Please continue.”
“Her mother is a bit simpleminded, but her adopted father apparently doted on her. He died last spring and left his entire holdings to the child. The girl has wisely rented out much of the land, since she cannot possibly work it herself, but she does oversee a few small plots near the house. She’s quite comfortably off, actually.”
“But she’s only fourteen,” Evelyn whispered between her fingers. “What a terrible age for a girl not to have a father to protect her. She will be a victim to every fortune hunter in the county.”
“That’s quite possibly so. There were hints of such in my correspondence with the vicar. He displayed some fear for her well-being and asked if I could use my influence with Lord Cranville. I have not answered him,” Farnley said.
“I must tell him, mustn’t I?” Clenching her hands, Evelyn met the solicitor’s gaze.
“Immediately, if I may be so bold,” Mr. Farnley suggested.
“But he is likely to be angry, and then he will do nothing. I have to find the right time, but I cannot bear to think what might happen to that child. She is too young yet for such responsibility. Is there nothing we can do until Alex can be brought around?”
Having been the Hampton family solicitor for over two score years, Farnley knew their tempers well. Evelyn could see that he understood, but a subject as explosive as this one was like live ammunition. He shook his head in defeat.
“I would suggest she be sent to a proper girls’ school, but I cannot justify such an expense without Cranville’s approval. I see no hope for it but to tell him.”
Evelyn met his gaze with defiance. “Then I shall tell him, but first you must write to your correspondent and arrange for appropriate transportation. I want the child informed and on her way here before I tell Alex. If you are quite confident that this is Alex’s daughter, I will not have her left in ignorance and danger any longer. He may throw as many tantrums as he likes after the fact, but the child will be safe. Can you do that?”
“You would bring the child here?” The obvious incredulity in his voice revealed he had not even considered that solution.
Evelyn rose and applied the full weight of her newly acquired authority. “Would you send her off to school without even the opportunity of meeting her father? I daresay they will not get along. Hamptons seldom do, from what I have seen of them. Do not think I’m being foolish and romantic about this. The child is old enough to be offered choices rather than moved about as a pawn in some adult game. Before she is brought here, she should be informed of her parentage, and then she should be asked if she would like to make the journey to London to meet her father. If she is any kind of Hampton at all, she will have the intelligence to recognize what is best for her and the fury to wish to confront her neglectful parent. I would rather have your task than mine.”
Unable to remain calm any longer, Evelyn left the solicitor standing there with his mouth open. Her heart beat so fiercely she did not think she could stand still. Alex would never forgive her for this interference. What had she done? Just as they were coming to some closer understanding, she had to throw fireworks between them.
But she could not leave Alex’s daughter to the whims of a cruel world. Evelyn knew the pressures men could apply. What chance did a young girl have against deliberate seduction by charming liars, or brutal rape by less subtle suitors, without a father’s protection? Those were the ones who would apply to her first. The more honest ones would not even consider courting a child that age. The girl had to be made safe. Alex could sulk all he liked.
She was afraid to tell Deirdre, and she was terrified of keeping secrets from Alex. She wished Alyson and Rory had stayed awhile longer or that her mother was here. She needed good sound advice, but she had no one to turn to.
When Alex came home early again that night, Evelyn almost babbled out the whole story. Only the fact that he was still immersed in his own world and paying little attention to her prevented her from revealing her news.
“Can you put together a small dinner for some of my friends and their wives?” he asked.
Evelyn forgot her own concerns and stared at him in astonishment. When he looked up impatiently at her lack of reply, she nodded. “Of course, Alex. It is not as if I have to cook it myself. Deirdre will help me with the menus and invitations. Just give us a list.”
Alex frowned at her hint of hesitation. “Are you certain? I can arrange to entertain the men at my club if you prefer.”
Evelyn felt as if she were walking on eggshells. She wanted to please him and avoid a hideous argument. Yet she could not stand here and say nothing. “I would be happy to entertain your friends, Alex. I’m just uncertain that they will be happy to meet me. I have met a few who are hostile to the idea of a Yankee countess.”
Alex looked thunderstruck, then grim. “Who? Who has not treated you as your name deserves? I will have them hounded out of town by sunrise.”
Evelyn sighed at this flare of temper. “I do not want retribution, Alex, only your recognition of the facts. I am a stranger and an outsider to these people. I do not know your objective fo
r this dinner, but I do not want it harmed by my presence.”
Alex gestured in irritation. “You are protecting me again, Evelyn. If they are such fools as to object to your background, then I do not need their support. I am not an utter idiot.”
“If my attempting to help makes you an idiot, then I shall refrain from doing so again. Heaven forbid that a woman should interfere in a man’s world!” Evelyn could not hold her tongue any longer. “Just give me your list, and I will worry about my gown and the menu and other such feminine things and leave the important issues to those masculine minds better equipped to deal with them.”
“Evelyn, by all that’s holy, you would drive a man to madness for a simple request! You may speak your mind as you will, but just stay out of my way while you’re doing it. I have too much to do to leave myself victim to your tongue.”
“You insufferable ingrate!” Lifting her skirts, Evelyn swept from the room with head held high, losing her dignity only when she slammed the door behind her. Chandeliers throughout the house shook at the blow.
Before she could so much as reach the hall stairs, Alex stuck his head out for the last word. “Cad! The word is ‘cad.’ And this insufferable cad will be up to warm your bed as soon as you cool down!”
Evelyn mounted the stairs and glanced back over her shoulder to the arrogant man below. “I’ll cool down when hell has snowballs, Hampton.”
“Good, then I won’t have to waste time warming you up.” He grinned, then slammed the door behind him again as he retreated into the study.
Evelyn flounced down in the middle of the stairs and burst into tears.
It wouldn’t do. She would never be able to tell him. The tension of these last few days had her nerves twisted in such balls that she could not untangle one emotion from another. Everything she said seemed to cause an argument. And every argument seemed to lead straight to bed. She had no objection to that. Alex in bed was as volatile as his temperament. He could be both fierce and gentle, but most of all, he was loving. It was rather like living on the edge of a volcano. It was no place to discuss lost daughters.
***
After the days of tension, the dinner was mere child’s play. The service went well, the food inspired praise, and the company was congenial. Afterward the ladies retired to the salon, leaving the men to their politics. Many of the ladies had been to one or more of Evelyn’s tea parties, and they were eager to take up the enlightening discussions that had ensued there. Evelyn obligingly provided them with more stories of her home.
After their guests left, and they were left alone in the privacy of their chambers, Alex drew his wife backward against him and began to remove the pins from her hair. Instantly suspicious at this solicitousness, Evelyn tilted her head back to better judge his expression.
“Your discussion went well?” she asked.
“Swimmingly,” he agreed, casting aside the pins and tumbling her hair over her shoulders. His hands closed about her upper arms and held her against him as he brushed a kiss against her ear. “There seemed much talk of starving children. You wouldn’t know aught of that, would you?”
His fingers drifted to the low-cut neckline of her gown, and Evelyn could scarcely think at all, much less find the direction of his question. She waited for the moment when Alex’s hand would slide beneath the silk and satin to find the aching point of her desire. Her breasts strained upward, eager for his touch.
“Starving children? What was the topic of your discussion?” she asked.
His hand finally stole beneath bodice and chemise to locate the sensitive crest that removed all her inhibitions.
He smiled as she arched into his palm. “Do you have some doubt, my lady? The revocation of the Stamp Act, of course. We will be forcing it to a vote shortly. Now, why were my guests discussing starving children in relation to a tax law?”
“Do you have to ask?” Evelyn reached behind her to struggle out of the hooks preventing his full access to her flesh. Alex obliged by nimbly unfastening everything in sight. “The act has halted trade, destroyed the economy,” she informed him. “We are not rural landholders. We live in cities, just as you do. We don’t grow our own food. We have to buy it. Where there is no money, there is no food. Of course children are starving.”
The bodice slipped from her shoulders, and Alex tugged impatiently at the ties of her stays. The excitement building between them did not affect his speech, however.
“I never mentioned such to them. Do you think they took it into their own heads to come to those conclusions?”
“Any sensible man ought to be able to divine the results of his actions,” Evelyn replied tartly. The stays were loosening. Any minute now the ties to her hoops would fall victim to his hungers. She took a deep breath as his warm hand slid between whalebone and cambric to cover her belly.
His voice whispered huskily in her ear, “But it was their wives who brought it to their attention. How is that, my love? How did those good ladies know of starving children in the colonies?”
“I can’t imagine.” Smiling, she leaned back into him. Her panniers and gown slid past her hips to the floor. Once all the padding and material were removed from between them, she could feel his arousal. She rubbed suggestively against him.
“I can.” He lifted her from the puddle of fabric and turned her around to face him. Kicking the gown aside, Alex still did not allow her toes to touch the floor as he met her eyes. “You’ve been interfering again, my lady. What am I going to have to do about it?”
Evelyn curled her brow up thoughtfully as she wriggled closer, skillfully finding his shirt fastenings.
“We could argue about it, I suppose. I would say I’m helping, not interfering, and you could roar something appropriate. And then we could fall into bed and make violent love. Or you could thank me for my helpfulness, and I could kiss you all over, and we could fall into bed and make violent love. Or . . .”
Alex laughed, a slow laugh that started as a chuckle deep down in his chest and grew over the time and distance it took to reach his throat. By the time it roared full force, he had her sprawled across the bed, trapped beneath his weight, and wriggling ecstatically to the rain of kisses upon her face and neck.
“Let us skip the preliminaries then and go directly to the main event. Take me in, wife. I want to be reminded who is master here.”
“I’ll grant you supremacy in this, husband,” Evelyn agreed, lifting her legs to wrap around his hips. “You’re bigger than I am.”
She giggled as he bit at her ear, then drew his head down to taste her kisses. She still wore her chemise, and he was fully clothed, but the rough brush of his clothing between her legs was as erotic as his nakedness. She rose against him and felt him groan between her lips. She wriggled, and his imprisoning hands left her shoulders to unfasten his breeches.
He might be bigger, but there were one or two things she could still do to keep them equal. Deirdre’s explanations of months ago had never rung truer, and she smiled happily as she felt Alex finally naked against her.
When he lifted her hips and plunged in, she cried out in sheer joy. There were still some things she preferred that he be master in.
***
When they lay in each other’s arms later, Evelyn knew the time had come to reveal her secret. Alex was nearly asleep, and so content that she hated to disturb him, but it had to be done. Mr. Farnley had already informed her that the girl was on her way.
She twisted her fingers in the dark mat of curls on his chest and kissed his bare shoulder. “Alex? Are you awake?”
“No.” He settled her more comfortably against his side and stroked her breast.
“Good. Then I don’t have to tell you that Mr. Farnley found your daughter.”
Alex lay still, his fingers playing with the nipple rising to his caresses.
She feared he hadn’t heard her, but she did not dare repeat herself. “Her adopted father is dead, and the local vicar fears she might be in danger from overeager suito
rs. She is only fourteen, Alex, but her father’s lands—”
His hand moved from caressing her breast to clenching her arms. He jerked her over him until she could stare down into the black fury of his eyes. “What father? What have you done now, Evelyn? Did I ask you to dabble in my life? Did I say, ‘Evelyn, be my wife and interfere in everything I do and dig up the secrets of my past while you’re at it’? Did I?”
He didn’t shake her, but his fingers were pressed so cruelly into her arms that he didn’t need to. His face was contorted with fury, but the small bedside lamp gave enough light to reveal the pain there too. Evelyn braced one hand against his shoulder to steady herself, then caressed his jaw with the other.
“Scream at me if you must. I know I have trespassed where I shouldn’t, but I love you too much to leave you always hurting for what was done so long ago. I know you didn’t want a wife, Alex, and I know I should be meek and obedient and grateful for all you have given me, but I cannot. I cannot be any less than I am, any more than you can be. And I know the man you are will not blame a child for the sins of her parents.”
“You know a damn lot, don’t you?” Alex wrapped her in his arms and felt her hair cascading over his arms as she rested against his shoulder. Soft kisses burned against his throat, and he crushed her, trying not to control his rampaging emotions. Since first he’d laid eyes on this witch she’d had this effect on him. Life had been much easier before she turned him inside out, exposing all his feelings for the world to see.
But it had been a miserable excuse for a life just the same. “Is she well?” he whispered hoarsely.
Hot tears dripped on his bare shoulder, and he felt Evelyn’s nod.
“According to Mr. Farnley’s spies, she is fine and happy. They say she resembles you. She’s very intelligent and has learned all the local school has to offer. Mr. Farnley thinks she ought to be sent to a girls’ school.”
“Does he now?” Alex growled. “And has he asked the girl if she wishes to go? What is her name?”
Rebel Dreams Page 32