“I cannot take the money from you,” he refuted adamantly, “especially when we’re at odds with one another.”
“Then let’s not be at odds any longer.” Trepidation quivered in her voice. “Please, Jack, I hate quarrelling with you and I…I have missed you these last days.”
“I as well,” he allowed, thankful she had said the words first then cursed himself for being a coward.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she rambled on. “I would like to…er, continue on with you…if you like. In our affair, I mean. Perhaps not right away, I realize I am not terribly attractive at the moment and I realize now what you said was true to some extent. I don’t have much experience with passion at all and I know you weren’t as pleased by our initial—”
Jack took the shortest path to silencing her drivel.
With his kiss.
His lips took hers ardently, pressing her lips open. He drew her close to him with an arm around her shoulder, bending her head back against the crook of his elbow and ravaging her with his tongue as it swept in, teasing hers and compelling her to join him. With a moan, Kitty surrendered to him, drawing on his tongue as her fingers tunneled deep into his dark, silken hair, pulling him closer. Hesitation was gone. His lips were powerfully passionate and intimately satisfying. A heart-wrenching reminder that she loved him so dearly, despite his archaic categorizing of the female species.
How she had missed this! How she loved him! Jack Merrill might be a stubborn, willful, overprotective Scot, but he was the man who owned her heart. It cried out to him, willed her to beg for his in return.
“Oh, Jack,” she whispered as his lips slid down her neck.
“You are a fool, my love,” he returned huskily, his breath harsh in her ear. “How can you think for one moment I don’t want you? How can you think I don’t feel wonder when I make love to you? I have never felt such satisfaction as I do with you.”
Kitty trembled at his words, his confession arousing her even more. “But I thought…You said…”
He drew back, cupping her face in his strong hands. “I am an ass, my love, but you read way too much into things. You were the first to use the word ‘noteworthy’, don’t you recall? I tossed it back but meant it in jest. You said words as well I imagine weren’t entirely truthful that night, didn’t you?”
She flushed with embarrassment. “But you told Freddie…”
“What would rile him the most,” he finished for her. “I needed him off balance and willing to strike without thought. I said what would enrage him the most, but it was only words.”
“Really?”
Haddington rolled his eyes with no little frustration. “Tell me. How would you describe what you feel when we kiss? When I made love to you? Tell me.”
The flush that warmed her cheeks a moment before returned in a rush of heat and she ducked her head in embarrassment, but he forced her bright green gaze up to meet his with an inquiring arch to his brow.
“I…I cannot!”
“Come, my love, tell me.”
Feelings raced through her, but she couldn’t think how to describe them. Were there words that could actually be spoken aloud? But his eyes were encouraging so Kitty dug deeply for an adequate description.
“Incredible,” she said in a whisper so low he could barely hear her. “Overwhelming, breathtaking, passionate.”
“While to me it was but extraordinary, magnificent, and astonishing.” He rested his forehead against hers. “And quite the most mind-boggling experience of my life. What we shared is unusual, my love. Not a mere meeting of bodies.”
“Truly?”
“Just so,” he confirmed huskily, tracing a palm over her shoulder to cup her breast as he kissed her lips softly. “What I would propose would be a long, extended affair.” He kissed her again. “An affectionate affair.” Another kiss. “And a monogamous affair. For as long as it pleases us both. Does it please you, Kitty?”
It was amazing what a little reassurance did for one’s state of mind. Calm settled over her, clearing her mind of the troubles that had worried the previous nights and days. She had not disappointed him or been found lacking. Their intimacy had affected him as much as it had her. Such knowledge was more empowering than she might have imagined for surely, if she roused his passions to unexpected heights, she might one day incite love in his heart.
“Yes.” She smiled up at him. “I only wish we could begin right this moment, but I fear that might be more than my mother could handle right now. Will you come to me tonight, Jack?”
As if she could have stopped him. “Aye, my love, I will.”
“You…you don’t mind all the bruising?” she asked self-consciously.
“As I said before, my love.” He took her hand and engulfing it in his own. “You are all that is beautiful to me.”
Chapter 37
There were certain things that had to be done,
and if done at all, done handsomely and thoroughly;
and one of these, in the old New York code,
was the tribal rally around a kinswoman
about to be eliminated from the tribe.
~ Edith Wharton from The Age of Innocence
Manhattan, New York
Three weeks later
“Jury, how do you find?” Judge Fulmont leveled a stern look upon the jury assembled in the courtroom until the foreman stood, shuffling his feet nervously as he read from a piece of paper.
“In the matter of the State of New York versus Frederick Hayes, on the charges of assault, we find the defendant…not guilty. On the charges of murder in the first degree, we, the jury, hereby find the defendant…guilty as charged.”
A roar swept through the courtroom as Maggie Preston gathered her girls in her arms, tears of relief pouring down her cheeks. Kitty and Eve hugged their mother in return as their eyes met over her head. Satisfaction curved their lips.
The trial had lasted two weeks. After his arrest, Freddie had been immediately transferred to Manhattan for trial. A very speedy trial, by anyone’s reckoning, with virtually no chance for Hayes to mount a defense or petition for a delay. Freddie’s father had come down from Boston and used every bit of his power to have the charges dropped. The trial was delayed but, in the end, he had only been able to offer the best attorney money could buy.
It hadn’t been enough.
Thanks to the efforts of her father’s close friend, Judge Fulmont, the trial had been put on the first available docket. He used all his considerable political pull to bring Hayes to a speedy trial, claiming blandly and innocently to reporters that it was the defendant’s constitutional right under the Sixth Amendment to see the thing done quickly.
And so it had been.
Freddie’s two hired thugs, Jasper and Meany, testified against him as promised, joining Kitty and Jack in taking the stand as witness to Freddie’s confession of murder. The former pair expounded on how Hayes had bragged of doing the deed. Their testimony put the three Preston women in tears as they heard about how proud Hayes had been of his deed and how he had gotten away with it.
Maggie Preston testified to Hayes’ verbal threats in the week before her husband’s death, while Preston’s secretary and clerks offered testimony placing Hayes in her father’s office on the day of the murder. They explained that initially they hadn’t considered foul play, given the advanced age of their employer, but had been suspicious of the temper Hayes displayed when entering the offices and of his hasty departure. Given Lelan Preston’s habit of napping at his desk, he wasn’t discovered until the time for a scheduled meeting ten minutes after the murderer had left.
As the jury presented their verdict, Hayes jumped to his feet and, despite the best efforts of his lawyers to calm him, began brandishing threats and curses upon the jury.
Judge Fulmont pounded his gavel forcefully on the bench. “Order! Order! Mr. Hayes, enough! Mr. Albright! Calm your client before I hold him in contempt!”
Several moments of banging foll
owed before Hayes was forced into silence and the judge continued, waving for the defense to rise. “Mr. Hayes, considering the violent premeditation in the killing of one of New York’s most upstanding citizens, and your own lack of any remorse for your actions, I have no choice but to offer the harshest sentence available. Frederick Hayes, for the murder of Mr. Lelan Preston, this court sentences you to death. At the court’s earliest convenience, you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
Another round of uproarious noise came from the gallery, causing Fulmont to bang his gavel again. The gallery, Kitty knew, was filled with reporters and dozens of Preston Shipping employees, all there to see justice rained down upon his killer. She could hear their satisfaction in the sentencing. She herself was satisfied. They needn’t even pursue the kidnapping charges in Rhode Island now. Freddie would pay for his crimes. His father’s money and influence had not been able to save him. In the end, however, nothing would bring her father back.
Jensen and some of her father’s closer friends and colleagues gathered around to congratulate them on such a favorable verdict. She could hear Freddie yelling for her as he was hauled from the courtroom but ignored him, with some effort, and tried to focus on her mother while they shook hands with the gathered men. Instead, her eyes roamed the room, searching for Jack.
Her eyes met his as he lounged lazily against the wall near the rear of the courtroom. Her pleased but sad smile was met by his satisfied nod. It was done, but a bittersweet victory. Barring any appeals, Freddie Hayes would soon hang for his deeds, his life in payment for the loss of a beloved father and husband.
Jack’s healing touch and caring words had done much these past weeks to relieve her of her overriding guilt. Their friendship blossomed even more, despite days spent in the courtroom while others were confined to the company of her family. But he squeezed in time for rides to the park and was always at her side for dinner, ready to entertain her. And, most importantly, he passed that friendship on to her daughter, taking upon himself to play catch and even at dolls with her.
Once, when coming up to the nursery to tuck her daughter in, Kitty had come upon him carefully combing the tangles out of Hannah’s mutinous curls. Her daughter had been fresh from her bath and wrapped in a robe as she sat placidly upon the earl’s knee while he picked his way through the masses. She did not fight with him as she might with Kitty or her nurse, but rather pointed to pictures in a book while Jack helped her with the words or talked to her of silly things. Kitty had hidden herself, peeking around the edge of the door, watching with tears in her eyes as Jack plaited the curls for the night. Something she had never been able to accomplish.
With that moment and so many others, her love for him grew as strong as their friendship. The more time he spent with Hannah, the more Kitty realized she wanted Jack to be a father to her daughter and any other children she might have as well. Never had she met a man more patient or able to interact with children. He could be a father very much like hers had been, if he only allowed himself to care.
The more time he spent with her, the more she understood what a perfect match for her he was, as well. Haddington was a lively conversationalist, well read and most opinionated but able to argue and defend his beliefs, much to Kitty’s delight. They spent several evenings debating philosophy, politics—here their views were vastly different, given the diverse cultures they had been raised in—and even argued whether Edison was more brilliant than Tesla.
Jack discussed his investments with J.P. Morgan to merge Edison Electric with the Houston-Thomas Electric Company into one corporation, to be named General Electric. It had been coming along well, with speedy returns looking promising. He was pleased that he would be able to pay her back quickly, probably within a year or so.
Though he had returned most of the funds she had forwarded to him after paying off the debt of the previous earls, Kitty urged him to invest for his future more diversely and insisted he also retain enough monies to repair his family’s ancestral home. Jack had been hesitant, and in a way, she understood. However, in the end, she prevailed after a long, drawn-out quarrel, repeating her admonishment of his terrific pride while throwing his own argument from the Cliff Walk back at him.
She did argue with him, and secretly loved every minute of it. More that she could rather than she was itching for a fight. Jack might refute her arguments, disagree heartily, but he never grew angry. The ability to fight for her beliefs was a wonderful new concept for Kitty, at least doing so without fear of retribution. She was safe with him and that made her adore him even more.
And she showed him that love openly, even if she dared not speak of it. Each night he would sneak into her rooms—a feat that had grown more difficult when they had moved back to her mother’s Fifth Avenue home for the duration of the trial. Their affair went beyond anything she might have ever imagined. He was passionate, playful and eternally inventive during those nights.
Jack’s ardor had not waned, nor had hers. Indeed, she looked forward to each evening with anticipation and gloried in the intimacy that continued to grow and flourish.
It was getting more and more difficult to refrain from confessing her love in response to the tender words he murmured during their lovemaking. Kitty longed to tell him but dared not risk what she had with him.
She was still certain he would flee the moment the words left her mouth.
* * *
Though the family was still officially in deep mourning, Maggie Preston decided a small celebratory dinner was in order following the ruling on Hayes’ trial. Some of Lelan Preston’s closest friends and associates attended, bringing their wives, many whom were friends of the widow’s as well. The dinner was filled with joyful conversation but, as the evening progressed, it began to grate on Haddington’s nerves the Society ladies’ ill-treatment of Kitty.
It began simply enough, he supposed, with a curt greeting or stilted conversation, but throughout dinner where they were so far down the table from Francis or Eve, he found himself her sole companion. Normally, their dinners were filled with interplay between the five of them. The family was in public mourning, after all, and Kitty hadn’t been out in Society since their return but this night, with others seated beside and across them, the scandal of her situation suddenly came home.
She was a divorcée now, in the eyes of the Knickerbocker society, where once she had been one of their most pursued debutantes. She was a woman who had used adultery as grounds for that divorce. And now she was also the former wife of a man convicted of murder. These things must be a catching disease, so studiously did their guests ignore her, talking around her or overlooking her attempts to join in the conversation.
It infuriated Haddington to watch the realization of her predicament come to Kitty. The dawning of comprehension in not only her eyes but also those of her sister and finally her mother, whose brow furrowed ever more deeply as the night dragged on. Her disquieted gaze lingered more and more upon her daughter.
Kitty was a real sport, naturally. She kept her expression pleasantly neutral and did not let on that their rebuff had disturbed her in the least. Determined to aid her as much as he could, Jack paid her marked attention, flirting and showing as much interest as he dared, though he longed to kick the lot of them out by the seat of their pants.
Let them all think an earl was courting her, he thought. Let them see that her scandal and tragedy were nothing in the face of her warmth and friendly appeal. Regardless of her past, she didn’t deserve such vile treatment.
* * *
By the time the last of the guests departed, Maggie was fraught with nerves and worry. “Katherine, my darling,” she said when the door finally closed. “I am so sorry I did not anticipate this. And in our own home.”
Kitty wrapped her arms around her mother, comforting when inside she needed to be comforted. “Don’t worry, Mother. Eve and I talked about this and though it was a bit worse in reality, I was expecting it to a degree. I must admit I thought Da’
s friends might be more understanding. Mr. Jensen was quite pleasant though.”
Of course, he had been at the opposite end of the table.
“I should have seen it coming though,” Maggie wailed. “But my own friends? How could they?”
“I expect you will have words with them all, Mother,” Eve said sternly, brooking no argument. Both Jack and Francis heartily agreed, so offended were they on Kitty’s behalf. “If Kitty is to stay here in New York with you, she should not have to worry over a lack of loyal friends on top of everything else. We are still Prestons, after all, and she is the sister-in-law of the Earl of Glenrothes. She is above any petty slights. Make them understand that.”
“You’re right, of course,” their mother agreed. “They shan’t treat my daughter so. I shall write everyone on the morrow, demanding they embrace Kitty back into Society. I suspect that if I can bring Julia Astor around, the rest shall fall in line, but perhaps Mrs. Oelrich as well…?” She trailed off, tapping a finger to her lips, her mind already on her task. “Yes, perhaps. I think I should start straight away. Good night, my darlings.”
Embracing her mother after Eve said her goodnights, Kitty watched Maggie ascend the stairs before turning back to the remaining trio, only to find them all watching her with concern written all over their faces.
“Oh, stop,” she cried. “I’m fine. I knew it was coming eventually.”
“It was an outrage,” Jack replied even as Eve and Francis cast their own indignation upon the evening’s turnabout, while Kitty waved them off.
A bit of a smile lifted the corner of Eve’s mouth though. “Merrill certainly disconcerted a few of those ladies. That was most well done of you, Haddington,” she offered reluctantly. “That old biddy, Mrs. Winterborne, was about to swallow her false teeth when you started paying such marked attention to Kitty. She has a daughter she’s been trying to marry off and I would wager she thought her place at your side was a Godsend. Then to see that an earl was still interested in Kitty despite everything? As I said, well done.”
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