by Cheryl Bolen
Because of him.
She could not have said how long she sat there on the scant ledge waiting for Lord Wycliff to rescue her. All she knew was that the sun was low in the sky when she heard the crunch of rocks above her and looked up to see him smiling down at her.
"Did you find help?" she yelled up at him.
"We don't need help," he shouted, taking his greatcoat and tying its sleeve to the sleeve of his jacket, careful to use the trusty sailor knots. Then he lay on his belly so his arms hung over the cliff's edge, the coats dangling down to just above Louisa's fair head.
She had almost fallen when she stood up. Her knee must have been injured in the fall. She could only barely put weight on it. She reached and tentatively took hold of the sleeve that hung nearest to her. Surprised that it held her weight, she held tightly as she began to rise. She looked up into Lord Wycliff's face, strained as he hoisted her to the top of the upper ledge.
As she reached his hands, he firmly grabbed her wrists and lifted her to where she was even with him. The man possessed incredible strength.
"Be careful," he cautioned as he backed up, causing her upper arms to be bruised on the jagged rocks.
Then they were on firm ground, three feet from the precipice.
"Promise me you won't pick any more flowers," he said with levity as he pulled her up to stand next to him.
When he saw that she was unable to put weight on her knee, a look of worry flashed across his face. "You're hurt."
She looked up at him and nodded solemnly.
"Bloody hell!" he said, giving her a mock scowl. "Now I've got to carry you four miles to Boscastle."
"I most certainly can limp."
"The hell if you will!" He picked her up.
"Put me down at once!" she commanded. "I can wait here until your man comes back for me."
He looked up at the darkening skies and at the setting sun in the west. "I'll not allow my carriage or my horses here at night."
Her lower lip stuck out. "If you don't put me down right now, I'll never speak to you again, Lord Wycliff!"
"A severe punishment, indeed."
"You, my lord, are making fun of me." Her stiffened arms remained at her sides.
"You wrong me, Mrs. Phillips."
She burst out laughing then, and hooked her arms about his neck. "Really, my lord, you have certainly been through enough today without having to carry me for four miles."
"You weigh no more than a sack of grain, and I assure you I have carried many of those in my day."
It seemed quite odd that a peer of the realm had actually toted sacks of grain. But, then, Harold Blassingame, the Earl of Wycliff was not just any peer. She was beginning to feel a great deal of remorse for all the wicked things she had said about him and about the worthlessness of his lot.
He had been right the day they met to ask her not to judge him as she judged others who were born to a title. "My lord?"
"Yes?" he answered in a much winded voice.
"Perhaps we should stop to rest for a spell."
He obliged her, spreading out his coat for them to sit upon.
She waited for him to catch his breath. "My lord?"
He looked at her with eyes full of warmth. "Yes?"
"I am very sorry for the wicked things I have said about you and your class."
"Then I am sorry for the wicked things I said about bluestocking ladies -- in the past."
They both laughed.
"Perhaps we could begin again," she proposed. "Maybe we could be, simply---"
"Harry and Louisa?"
She smiled. "I'd like that."
He took an apple from the pocket of his coat and offered her a bite. "Hungry?"
She took a bite. "There's another thing I need to tell you, my--"
"Harry," he said firmly.
"Harry," she said, smiling. "It's. . .it's that you have made me realize that not all men are selfish, horrible creatures like my father and husband." How many men could have spent three nights in the bed of a woman possessed of some beauty and not have tried to take their own pleasure with her? And how many men would have risked their lives to save a highly opinionated bluestocking who purported to hate men?
His voice was soft when he spoke. "I sincerely hope I can continue to earn your trust, Mrs.--"
"Louisa," she urged.
"Louisa."
Brown eyes locked with blue.
"Nothing you could have said," he continued, "could have meant more to me. I wager you say the same thing to all men who rescue you."
They both laughed. She was grateful that an easy camaraderie had developed between them. Then she saw that his arms were still bleeding.
He followed the path of her gaze.
"Are you in pain?" she asked, compassion in her voice.
"Probably not nearly as much as you -- from your knee."
"But I don't have to carry another person."
He got to his feet, and she thought he looked like a dark god. She forced herself to look away.
He lifted her, and without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck, which was still warm from the waning sun.
As they trod over the moorland, she rested her face against his chest and could never remember feeling such contentment in her entire life. It brought to mind the reassurance she had felt as a small child when her mother, rest her soul, had read her nursery rhymes and Bible stories in her soft, loving voice as Louisa lay tucked beneath her blankets.
She could hear the steady beat of Harry's heart and his labored breath, and she was intensely sorry she was such a burden. In so many ways.
She vowed to do everything in her power to aid him in his quest to regain Wycliff House.
She was almost sorry when they reached the inn in Boscastle, for he would have to put her down. She fleetingly wondered if she would ever again feel such warmth in her life.
She rather doubted it.
Chapter 11
As they sat across from one another over dinner at the tidy little inn, the fire to Harry's back, Louisa thought she had never before felt so comfortable with another person. That was not to say she and Ellie did not enjoy an easy camaraderie, but with Harry she not only felt completely warm inside, she seemed to glow on the outside. Something about being with him set her to sparkling like sun glancing off a bed of crystal. She found herself hoping it would be many days before they found their mysterious lord.
For she knew that when his quest was over, she would return to her dreary life of meetings with those man-hating bluestockings who had been her only social life. Now, companionship with such women held little allure.
She supposed they had filled a deep and retching need in her at the time. Now, though, she felt another need, though she could no more put a name to it than she could understand it. All that she knew for sure about it was that it had something to do with Harry.
Calling him Harry seemed quite natural now, though she found it hard to countenance, as would others who might hear her address him in such a manner. So sitting there in the private parlor of the Cock and Stock, she came to the decision that she would never address him so familiarly in front of others. It would be like her mother's miniature portrait, something she could pull out and take comfort in when she was alone.
"This is the most I have seen you eat on the journey," he commented, his eyes not removed from her clean plate.
"Then the four-mile walk must have tired me, I dare say." There was levity in her voice and an amused glint in her eyes.
He cocked his brow. "A pity it was so exhausting for you. I found it rather invigorating."
She laughed then moved forward ever so slightly and with a feather-like touch ran gentle fingers across his bandaged arms. "I cannot tell you how deeply I am indebted to you."
* * *
Her gentle touch was much like that which she had used when she had tended to his wounds upon their arrival at the inn. Instead of allowing him to look at her knee, she permitted him to carry h
er up the wooden stairs to the room his coachman had secured for them. And there on the high feather bed they had sat facing each other. He had followed her instructions to remove his shirt so she could minister to his wounds. He wasn't sure, but he thought her breath swooped as his shirt fell to the counterpane.
She had been quick to gain control of herself as she deftly cleaned and bandaged his mangled arm.
A pity he had not recovered as quickly as she had. His close proximity to her and the feel of her soft breast brushing against him as she bent over his arm affected him emotionally as well as physically.
Once she finished bandaging his arm, she bent over and lightly kissed his arm, then looked up at him, a flush creeping up her face. He could tell she was embarrassed and wished he could put her at ease.
"I'm. . ." she stammered. "I didn't think of what I was doing," she explained. "I used to kiss Ellie's wounds after I bandaged them when she was little."
He set his hand on her frail shoulder. "You've nothing to apologize for. My mother did the same to me when I was small, and to this day I believe it aids in the recovery."
When his remarks did not seem to put her at ease, he ruffled her hair and laughed. "Rather amusing that you think of me as a child."
"Oh, no!" she protested, looking up at him. "There's nothing at all childish about you. In fact, I believe you must be the bravest man I have ever known."
He made light of her compliment, changing the subject. "I believe we should ask for another bottle of wine."
"Pray, Harry, it's already made me lightheaded."
He became pensive. "I like it when you call me Harry."
"I confess, it seems most inappropriate."
"But there are those who find John Stuart Mill's actions inappropriate, though you and I know his vision is correct."
"You speak of his efforts on behalf of birth control?"
He nodded.
"You had not told me before that you approved of the younger Mr. Mill's efforts."
"You never asked me before," he said.
He could almost see the years of woe peel from her like layers off an onion as her voice became animated, her face lively. "Tell me, how do you feel about slavery in the colonies?" she asked.
"Until I met you, I confess I had never given it a thought." He caught the serving maid's attention and told her they needed another bottle of wine.
"And now?" she asked.
"Now I have decided it is not a good thing."
"Why?" she challenged.
Darn the chit! What was he supposed to say now? He'd never given thought before to African men. Then he remembered Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. He had not read the blasted thing, but the title gave him a clue as to its contents. "Regardless of the color of the skin, a man is a man, and as such should have the right to be his own master and to be treated with dignity." He was completely surprised at his own eloquence. Perhaps he would have made a good show in Parliament.
"Oh, Harry," she beamed. "I cannot wait until we have your voice in the House of Lords."
He experienced a wretched feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had so carefully earned the girl's trust, and now as he held it as securely as a vault, he was about to trample it. Which just confirmed his own low opinion of himself. A pity he was not the man he pretended to be. That man could have been quite noble. Not conniving like Harold Blassingame, the Seventh Earl of Wycliff. Former pirate of the high seas. Murdering and stealing his way to an extremely comfortable station in life.
The return of the serving lady saved him from having to make a response.
"Tell me, if you will," he said to the serving woman. "Is there a Lord. . .What was that man's name, my dear?" he asked Louisa.
Playing along with him, Louisa said, "Goodness me, I cannot at all remember it."
Harry pretended to act drunk. "Can't remember the chap's name. What is the name of the local lord in these parts?"
"We have no local lord, sir," the woman said. "The closest one's Lord Harley over in Binghampton some forty miles from here."
"Is that in Cornwall?" Harry asked.
"Oh, no, sir. It's in Devon."
He watched somberly as the woman poured two more glasses of claret, wishing for the first time in a long while that he could drink himself into oblivion.
* * *
Edward Coke sat next to Miss Sinclair in his curricle as he made his way back to her house after Jeremy Bentham's first talk of the series. It had been difficult, indeed, not to burst out laughing at the most peculiar assortment of individuals he had ever seen in his four-and-twenty years. Reminded him of the first day he had stepped foot at Uncle Robert's former townhouse and faced Mrs. Phillips's room full of man-hating bluestockings. For today he had seen many of those same faces. At least he believed he had seen many of the same women. Though if push came to shove, he would have to say he hadn't actually looked -- really looked -- at any of their ugly mugs, either that first day or today.
Then, too, today there were any number of gaunt men that he'd wager a quid were Methodists. Not a Weston coat in the whole lot of them. In fact, they dressed so somberly they could have been at a wake.
Though none of these peculiar things had Miss Ellie Sinclair seemed to notice. He slid a glance at her rather taking little face. Unfortunately, the chit was still ecstatic over the peculiar little man they had heard speak this afternoon. She kept telling him how enlightening was Mr. Bentham, how brilliant was Mr. Bentham, how this had been the happiest day of her life.
For the life of him, he could not understand the attraction in Mr. Jeremy Bentham. The man's cravat was a disgrace, and he'd wager a quarterly the Bentham fellow had never run to foxes in his life. Probably didn't even know how to fence.
Nevertheless, Edward continued to feign enchantment over the weasel for the girl's sake. He had grown rather fond of her. Not just because she was the prettiest thing he'd seen in a very long time, but there was about her a certain innocence he found delightful.
And, besides, Harry had said he was to look out for Miss Sinclair during her sister's absence, and he had always done whatever his elder cousin asked.
However, looking out after her was far easier said than actually done. He supposed it was because she was country bred, but the girl was possessed of a ridiculous notion that all men had designs on her virtue. He'd like to ring the neck of the governess -- Miss Grimm was it not? -- who filled the poor girl's head with such nonsense.
He'd had the devil of a time getting Miss Sinclair to consent to allow him to escort her to the series of lectures. He glanced behind to assure himself the Phillips's cook was riding in Harry's gig, keeping a sharp eye on his actions with Miss Sinclair. Did the fat old hog also think he had designs on Miss Sinclair's virtue?
He inwardly sighed over the realization that he had to endure three more of these horridly dull talks. The things a man does for a lovely lady.
* * *
The longer Harry sat in the fire-lit room looking at Louisa, the room's only other occupant, the more persistently he wanted her. That, he told himself, would never do. He had finally earned her trust, and he was not about to destroy it.
He looked down at the bandages on his arms. Which reminded him of the feel of carrying her over the moors. His arms had grown tired, and his breath seemed to come only at great difficulty, but he would do it all over again without a moment's hesitation.
Though Louisa had little fat, there was about her tiny body a real softness, a frailness, too, that evoked every protective instinct he had ever possessed, instincts he'd not even known he possessed. Yet they were instincts he enjoyed awakening.
He would always cherish the memory of holding her against him, of her arms secure about his neck, her sweet face resting against his chest as they made their way across the moors to the Cock and Stock Inn.
The more he looked at her face bathed in the glow of the candle, its light flickering in her hair, the more he remembered the heavenly feel of her in his arms, and the more
he realized how difficult it would be to sleep with her tonight.
He took another swig of the wine. "I shall carry you upstairs now." He moved to her and gently lifted her into his arms and carried her to their chamber. "I go to the tavern now," he said simply.
Her eyes seemed melancholy when she nodded.
As Louisa dressed for bed, she heard rain beginning to pelt the window of their tiny room. By the time she had put on her woolen gown and slipped beneath the bed's chilly sheets, a full-fledged storm whistled and roared outside the inn. Then thunder boomed and lightning blazed across the night sky, and she pulled their blankets tightly around her.
Her thoughts drifted back to the day's events. She was sorry she had yet to aid Harry in his search because she wanted to repay him for all he'd done for her. Otherwise, she looked back over the day with no regrets.
She regretted that the trip must come to an end. She had never enjoyed anything so much. She remembered the fear that had robbed her breath when she had watched Harry descend the cliffside, fearing he would fall to his death any minute.
Looking back on it, her heart unaccountably swelled with pride over his actions. He had not only earned her trust today, he had earned her deep and abiding admiration.
Then she thought of the utter contentment of being swept up into his strong arms and of being held against his solid chest. Had anything ever felt so good in her life?
Despite the whooshing winds outside and the hard rain coming down on the roof over her head, she smiled.
Soon Harry would be lying beside her.
She went to sleep with the candle burning beside the bed, a smile playing at her lips.
That is how Harry found her an hour later. He was grateful she was asleep. Had she so much as said a single word to him, he would have been powerless to prevent himself from scooping her into his arms and destroying the progress he had made.
He stood for a moment looking down at her. The wine. She must have drunk nearly a bottle. No doubt it had made her very sleepy.
Which was a good thing.