“Here. We’ll need to share the flask.” David handed it to her. “No goblets or brandy balloons here.”
“Ohh dear, I must have forgotten to pack them. What a failure.” She took a healthy swallow and let the fiery liquid warm her from inside out. “That’s better.” She passed the flask to him, bent forward and found the pastry that was left. “I’ve no idea what’s in this.” She broke it in half, passed one portion back and sniffed the piece she still held. “Meat of some description.”
“Meat of any description will do when you’re hungry.” For a few moments there was silence then David sighed. “That’s better. So what shall we do now to pass the time?”
“What do you mean?” she asked in a voice full of suspicion.
“I mean it innocently,” he said quickly. “Not as an invitation or innuendo.”
“But what if I wanted to take it as such?” She reddened and coughed. “That just slipped out. Ignore it.
“I can’t. And if you do mean it, my resolve will be tested. I swore to you and myself I would take no liberties. So we will ignore any opportunities for dalliance and talk about oh, I don’t know, the weather.”
“It is storming. Next topic.”
“Damn it, woman, I have no idea, you choose. But for the love of God, not about wanting what we shouldn’t. Perhaps share with me any more thoughts on marrying?” His body thrummed with nervous arousal at the thought of her as his wife. He had to believe that would be her final answer—nothing else would do.
“Lots, none conclusive. Maybe I best tell you about my childhood. That was to be my intention tonight, so I’ll just bring it forward a little. It might turn you away from me. Heaven knows it is enough to show how unsuited I am to be a wife.”
He noted she didn’t add ‘and mother’. Interesting.
“Tell away. Come on, get comfortable and we will be open and honest.” He touched her shoulder. “If you hold yourself like that for too long you’ll get rigwelted. Like a sheep, stuck on its back with its legs flailing in the air and unable to move. Be in that position forever more.”
Josephine giggled. “Such a lovely word for a horrible thing.” She edged back to lean against him and slowly her body relaxed.
His body chose to react in the opposite way. His staff stiffened and even his nipples became hard nubs. Lord above, and that was with her fully clothed. Goodness knew what would happen if they ever did get naked.
David counted to ten in his mind. And ten again. “You were going to tell me about your childhood,” he prompted. “I bet you were a pretty little girl. What is it they say? Cute and bright as a button. Did you have ringlets and were you unable to pronounce the letter ‘s’ properly?”
“Ringlets, sadly, yes. A speech defect, no. I had very little else to recommend me, though. You spoke of how your father was toward you. At least he gave you some attention, the wrong sort though it surely was.”
A tremor ran through her. David wrapped his arms tight around her and rested his chin on her head. “You don’t need to tell me if you would prefer not to. I can’t see why it would have any bearing on our future.”
“Ah, that’s where you are wrong,” she said sombrely. “It has every bearing on our future.”
That sounded ominous. “Then perhaps you should share it with me. Then I can offer my opinion.” He nuzzled her head and dropped a gentle kiss where his chin had rested, before he resumed that position. “I promise to be honest.”
“I’m sure you will.” She spoke in a soft undertone he had to strain to hear. “But it is hard to open up and show my parents for what they are.”
“I know, love.” He waited for the ache in his scars. Again, it didn’t happen. Relief flooded him. Perhaps he had truly accepted what he was about to say, and no longer paid lip-service to it. “I promise you that after the first revelation, things get easier. And with each disclosure, it tears away a little of the bitterness. I now accept it was not my fault I was treated the way I was. Those failings were my parents’. Specifically, my father’s. My mama was not a strong enough character to disobey him. I wanted to blame her as well, but I couldn’t. She was weak and knew it. But, for her sake, it was perhaps as well she was. To defy my father comes with grave consequences.”
“The scars?” Josephine asked softly. She tightened her hands over his in a silent gesture of sympathy. “I could not help but see them, however I promised myself I would not pry.”
“The scars,” he confirmed. “Both those outside and those within. What I do know is I can learn from it, and make sure I am nothing like my father.”
“Then I have hope as well. Tell me…” She stopped talking. The only sounds around them were the patter and splash of rain outside as it bounced off rocks and into the sodden earth, a distant rumble of thunder and their own breathing.
If the rain didn’t ease soon, they’d have trouble getting out of the gorge. Oh, they were safe where they were but it wasn’t the sort of place you’d want to be stuck in for long. At least the side where they were was on a slight incline, or they would be in danger of a ducking. David well understood how dangerous flash floods were in the area. He remembered many a time hunting for stranded animals, and on one horrific occasion, a shepherd who had gone to rescue his flock. They had arrived too late to rescue the man.
“Tell you what?” he prompted. Anything to stop worrying about things he had no control over.
“If, hypothetically, I agreed to marry you, what would you expect of me? I know we touched on it, but, believe me, this matters. It’s important.”
“Before you tell me about your childhood?” he asked.
“Before then,” she confirmed. “What do you expect from a wife? All of it that you know and intend should happen.”
Now he was puzzled. Surely he had explained everything previously? However, he was willing to reiterate his desires. “To be the other half of me. My wife, my lover, the mother of my children. My helper, my rock, my completion.” The words burst out from him without conscious thought. They came from the heart. “To run my households, of course.” What else? “To grow old with me.”
“Hmm.” She turned until she knelt facing him. This close in the gloom, her green eyes shone with a mysterious glow. “Let me describe to you a hypothetical scenario.
“You are married and, at this moment in time, ensconced in your county home with your wife and child. A girl, say. No heir as yet.”
“An heir doesn’t matter,” David interjected. “There is little entailed these days and my own money would go to my wife and child or children. The title is irrelevant because it holds no happy memories for me. I would give it up if it means we can be together. I would imagine there’s an odd second cousin or someone tucked away who is next in line. If not, the title dies when I do. Whether I have sons or daughters or we are not blessed is irrelevant.”
“But you said you’d like to keep it.”
He nodded. “Not at the expense of happiness for us.”
She gulped. “Ah…very well. However, that aside, I wondered what you would expect if your daughter injured herself. Say, oh, I don’t know, broke her leg. She, of course, would want attention. But you had to return to town. What would you expect your wife to do?”
“There is only one answer to that, surely.”
“Which is?” she asked huskily.
“If I could possibly not go to town, I wouldn’t. If I had to, say for an important vote in the House, then I would go and be back as fast as I could.”
“And your wife?”
“Would stop with our daughter, of course. What else?”
“Even if you had a ball or something to go to in London?” she persisted. “Or you just wanted her with you?”
“My needs are a poor second to the needs of a child. Especially our child. Nanny or governess aside, this is one time where a child takes precedence over everything possible. I would have responsibilities, and one of the most important ones, if not the most important one, would be my family. M
y child or children. Along with my wife, that would be my priority. My workers, my estates. They come next. My papa might not have shown me how to behave but by God he showed me how not to.”
“My parents were not like you say you will be,” she said so quietly he had to strain to hear. “I broke my arm. They left me with my governess. I had chicken pox. They didn’t even come home to see how I was. My papa wanted a son. He said girls were worthless. They just cost money. I overheard him tell my mama that I wouldn’t even be a good catch, even with the money he could give me for a dowry if he felt so inclined. ‘No man would want to lie with a skinny under-endowed woman.’ Then I heard him tell my mama she should make a push to find some poor sap to marry me, and I’d be off their hands with someone else to be forced to look after me. For, as he said, ‘this tomfool idea of mine to move to my own house might put me out of their orbit, but, unfortunately, not ultimately out of their care’.”
If her papa had been anywhere in the vicinity, David would have happily shown him the error of his ways. “Your father is an imbecile, and doesn’t deserve any consideration at all. You, to me, are perfect. Everything I want in my wife. Every last thing.” What else could he say?
“To know you would expect our children to come first is music to my ears,” Josephine said. “Not all the time but you know… Not when…”
“They are fit and healthy and we want each other. No, not then. That would be our time, and we would enjoy it on a normal occasion without any interruptions.” David ran his hand over her bosom. “These are a perfect handful that I ache to try.”
Josephine swallowed. “Then will you kiss me, please?”
He wondered what was in her mind. “Anything to oblige, my lady.” He drew her close and set his lips to hers.
Passion flared as though it had been ignited by a flaming branch. David moved his mouth over hers. Her lips softened and carefully, gently, he let his tongue slip between them He wanted—needed—to show her how much more he could give her than an ordinary kiss. How a kiss was only the beginning. Josephine moaned deep in her throat as her tongue meshed with his, a guttural unearthly sound that vibrated through him and touched his soul.
The blanket slipped down as she swayed until her breasts, those neat round orbs he ached to touch, rested firmly on his bare chest. Even through her clothes, the heat of her body scorched him.
David tore his mouth away as he moved one hand to knead her breast over her blouse. “Lord above, I want you. Want all of you. But we cannot.”
“Why?” Her hands moved to the placket of his buckskins and he removed them before she managed to undo it. She was drunk on passion and he doubted she really understood what she asked.
“Why? You are an innocent. If I take you, we marry. I promised I would do nothing to force your hand.”
“Not even if I beg?”
“Not unless we are betrothed, no.” How difficult it was to say that.
“Damn it. You were a rake. “
He rested his forehead on hers and moved his hand to give her other breast the same loving treatment as he had delivered to the first. Josephine pushed into his palm and sighed. “That creates so many delicious emotions inside me.”
“Was a rake is the operative expression. Stop it, Josephine. I’m trying to be noble here and it is bloody difficult.”
“Couldn’t you revert for a few minutes?” she asked plaintively. “Just long enough to show me what I need to know.”
“Hell, love, I can think of nothing nicer than burying myself in you and loving you as you deserve to be loved. But not here, not now. And believe me, when I take you, if I take you, it will be for more than a few minutes. I intend to set several hours aside for our first loving. If it happens,” he added hastily. Too much was at stake to act as if it were a foregone conclusion.
“Hours?” She blinked as if she were coming out of a trance. “It takes hours?”
“Hours,” he confirmed. “If we wish to savor every minute and make long, slow, lingering and exquisite love. And in a bed. Much better for your first time.”
“First time. But…” She paused and took a deep breath. “You mean we do it more than once? But I thought… Oh, never mind what I thought, it sounds incorrect. Glory, what have I done, what do you think of me? How forward.” She put her hands to her cheeks and closed her eyes. “I can never look you in the face again.”
David moved her hands and kissed each eyelid until she opened her eyes. “That’s better. You have done nothing except for giving me hope. All I can ask is you mull over what I said and believe me. I can’t do any more, because let’s face it, only time and the occasion will prove me to be honest in what I vow. Now trite, but true, I do believe the rain is easing and we need to get out of here.”
Or you do, it’s not going to be as easy for me.
Josephine sighed. “I suppose so, but it is so cozy.”
David burst out laughing. “This? Cozy? You are easily pleased, I’ll have to remember that.”
She punched his arm lightly. “You know what I mean. Away from all the people who try to influence me.”
“You mean your parents. I’m so sorry I spoke to your father. However, I felt I better do things properly. For once. Will it matter?”
“Who knows? No, it won’t. I will do as I think fit and he might not like it, but will accept it is so.”
“That was the impression he gave me,” David said. “Something about a mind of your own.”
“Exactly. So how do we get out? Bearing in mind I doubt you can walk and I do not think I can carry you.”
This was it. “You’ll have to go and get Will or Bert to come and help me.”
“No, no and categorically no. You are not stopping here by yourself. What if no one can get back? What if the cave floods, what if…?”
He put his hand over her mouth. “Shh, stop that, I promise you the cave will not flood. The land here is too high. However, I’d hate you to be stuck here overnight. It might be safe and dry but it definitely wouldn’t be comfortable. What if you please do as I say and put my mind at rest? I’ll need help. Male help. Have a look outside and relay to me what you see.”
“Rain, I would imagine. And not much else.”
“Humor me, please, love.” He was apprehensive about what she would report. If the storm didn’t appear to be passing, she’d have no option but to stay, and that would put them in an awkward position. She would be well and truly compromised.
Josephine wrinkled her nose but nodded in the manner of pandering to a particularly annoying companion. “Ah, very well.” She wiggled away from him and once more he was treated to the view of her perfect bottom. If she chose not to marry him, he didn’t know what he would do.
“Good grief, David, apart from a few yards close to us, the place is underwater. The sky is brightening, I can’t hear thunder, the rain is less heavy than it was and there are several brand-new waterfalls. Are we really safe in here?”
“We are, but honestly I need you to try and get back to the house. That way I cannot be accused of compromising you.”
She sat back on her knees. “Hmm. I’d not let it bother me.”
“Perhaps not, but your papa could see it as the ideal way to make you marry me. I’d be the one vilified.”
“Ah, I hadn’t thought of that. Very well, what shall I do?”
“Supposing your horse is still where you left it and hasn’t bolted, your best way is to go up this side of what Rose and the boys called the dragon. It’s reasonably stable, albeit a bit longer. Then, well, then ride to the stables, and get someone to say you had a groom with you. Lord, whatever you do will not be easy. Luckily it is not yet noon.”
“It isn’t?”
He shook his head. “My timepiece is still going. It wants but twenty minutes to ten.”
“Then I stand a good chance of getting back without my parents knowing what I’ve been doing. If I can get up to the horse.”
David looked beyond her and grinned. “The cava
lry is here.”
“Ha. He means me, Lyddie, Will and Bert,” James said as he ducked his head and crawled in next to them. “You do choose your times for an adventure, David. Couldn’t you have waited until the storm stopped, and done yourself an injury then? Is it broken?”
“I think so.” David groaned. “Big mouth.”
“Broken? You informed me it was just a wrench,” Josephine said accusingly. “You lied.”
He shrugged. “Guilty. But I lied in a good cause. I promised you that you would not be forced to marry me. I want your decision to be as easy as possible for you.”
Josephine wished she could just say, ‘Drat it, yes, I will marry you.’ She was so almost there but… She needed to sit and think very carefully about every little thing. Preferably when she was not under pressure. To marry was the opposite of all she had ever intended. A decision that would change everything. She smiled at David and hoped he could see how much she appreciated him and all he was doing for her. “So, what is the plan?”
David held his hands in the air. “Don’t ask me, love. I’m as much at his mercy as you are, probably more. I have no doubt he will remind me of it forever more.”
“Of course, how else will I ever be one up on you?” James chuckled and sobered rapidly. “Now to get back to the point. The most feasible story we could concoct on the way over, Josephine, is that you and Lyddie decided to ride out once the storm abated, to get some fresh air. It had, you both agreed, been very stuffy. You very properly took Will and Bert with you because everyone else was busy. Lady Foster gave her permission, as your parents had not at that point showed their faces.”
Josephine shrugged. “If the sky fell in, they would think, ‘Ah, well, it has nothing to do with us’, and ignore it.”
“Their loss,” David commented, and she flashed him a swift grin.
“My hero.”
“Oh yes.”
“Meanwhile,” James continued, “once you two have stopped all the billing and cooing and return to the here and now, I shall continue.”
The Viscount Meets his Match: A Regency Romance Page 21