The skyline disappeared as a scraping noise, a shout and a guffaw indicated Caleb and Reuben’s arrival.
“Now then, m’lord, let’s be sorting you.” Caleb’s gruff, deep voice echoed around the overhang. “Get you back in a trice now, me and Reuben will.” He pulled David to his feet as if he weighed no more than a child. “Right then. You hold on to Will for a sec until me and Reub get us arms right.”
David did as he was told, amused to see how Caleb—usually quiet, apart from his booming voice—took charge, and the others meekly followed his instructions..
“Now you let us sort it all. Don’t try and help acos I’ll be betting you’ll make it worse, not better, begging your pardon, m’lord. No offense meant.”
David laughed. “None taken. You tell me and, if it’s in my power, I’ll do it.” He watched as Caleb and Reuben linked arms as if they’d done it every day, and moved behind him as Will still held him upright.
“Now if Will moves to one side and yes, that’s it. Let us do the work.”
David had the strange sensation of being swung off his feet and onto the crossed arms of Caleb and Reuben. He put a hand onto each shoulder to steady himself. “I’ve helped with something like this a few times,” he remarked. “But never been the recipient.”
“First time for everything,” James said as the procession of men began its way across the uneven ground. “My first time for wading in a bog. My boots will never be the same again. My valet will squawk and hand in his notice, and my reputation be sullied as badly as my boots.”
Pools of water were everywhere. Tussocks of grass appeared like tiny islands, boulders like cliff faces. The noise of squelching feet was loud in the still air, along with the odd muttered curse as someone went knee-deep into mucky water. David laughed. “You’re having a great time, admit it.”
“Well, not great, but it’s a lot better than being chased by eager debs.”
David nodded as his thoughts turned to Josephine. What on earth would she think? He grabbed on to Caleb’s shoulder as, with a grunt, that man lurched over a wet, rocky area and almost lost his balance.
“Bugger it, that were close.” Caleb righted himself and the procession began to make its way steadily up a winding sheep track. “This ’un’s the tricky bit. Just hang on and let us do work.”
David couldn’t have done anything else.
He tightened his grip as Reuben grunted and began to walk, crab-like, up the steep sides of the valley. Not as vertical here as the dragon, but still difficult enough to have his carriers sweating before long. Behind them, the rest of the man followed in grim silence. David almost held his breath, conscious that any move from him could unbalance the other two.
Once his foot glanced off a rock and he bit his lip to hold back a yelp. Several stones rumbled down the slope as they were dislodged by one man or another.
It wasn’t a pleasant half-hour.
He’d bet every one of them was grateful to climb over the lip of the gorge and see the gig and several horses tethered close by.
“That’s the worst,” James gasped as Caleb and Reuben lowered David carefully onto the back of the gig. “Just to jolt you home now.” As he was one of the best carriage drivers David knew, any jolt would be unpremeditated and unavoidable.
“Jolt on.” David turned to the rest of the men. “Thank you all. Now, let’s get home, get dried and get fed, eh?”
* * * *
The sun was setting behind the house and the grayness of the day changed to inky black with only the stars and a sickle moon to relieve its darkness. A few clouds scudded across, the remnants of the earlier storm. Josephine hardly noticed them. David and the others were still not back. She’d been restless all afternoon, as she’d done her best to keep out of her parents’ way as they’d packed up, ready to leave, and tried not to show how worried she was about everything else. Every time one of her parents spied her, the scowls and dark looks she was given were enough to make anyone annoyed, and Josephine was no different. Each time she was asked tersely if she had come to her senses.
Each time she replied that her senses were as they always were. Eventually, with a muttered “Ungrateful child,” her papa had reiterated her mama’s earlier words, and said that he washed his hands of her and that her goods and belongings would be forwarded. He’d added, “And I no longer have a daughter.”
To which Josephine had retorted, unrepentant, “It seems I never had a papa,” and left him gobbling like a turkey as she took refuge in the kitchen, where the chef gave her a pastry and told her not to mind selfish men and their unpleasant ways.
Gaia hadn’t left her side, and after almost tripping over them for the umpteenth time, Lady F. shooed her out of the house saying she’d have dinner brought down to her if her parents hadn’t gone by then. It seemed they were determined to depart, even if only to the nearest suitable—in her mama’s eyes—inn.
Now the die was cast, it couldn’t come too soon.
As Josephine sat in the summerhouse, her chin in her cupped hands, she contemplated how, over the past few days, her ideas on life, love and marriage had changed. How her parents would crow if they knew. Which was why she had been determined not to say anything to them. Unrepentant and unbowed, she intended to see how things went. See if David was still of a like mind, and determined on marriage. If so she could well become the person she had, it seemed, never realized she wanted to be.
A wife.
Strange but exhilarating.
Why him she didn’t have a clue. Why after all this time she had decided on something she had thought she abhorred she also had no idea. But it was exciting, to say the least.
If…
If they did both want the same things. If… Such a little word with a big meaning.
“I do trust him,” she said out loud. “He is what he says he is.” She sighed. “Oh, David, where are you?”
“Here. Limping, on crutches, but here.”
She looked up and gasped. Immaculate clothes, perfectly brushed hair, two crutches and with an expression of apprehension on his face, David stood in the doorway.
“Oh God, I thought you were dead.” Josephine sobbed and ran across the summerhouse. Deep in thought, she hadn’t known he was there until he’d spoken. “How did you find me?”
“My omnipotent godmama. Who says to tell you the coast is clear, your parents have left, and you are welcome to stay as long as you would like. I suspect you have a story to tell me there. Later.” There was an almighty clatter as David dropped the walking sticks he held and missed Gaia by inches. “Daft dog. No, I cannot bend down to pet you.”
Gaia woofed and went back to sit on Josephine’s cloak that somehow the pup had managed to pull to the floor.
“Much later,” Josephine agreed as she drank in the sight of him. Exhausted, with hollow cheeks and a bruised and battered look, he was, she accepted, all she ever needed or wanted for a partner. A warm, happy and relieved sense of utter contentment rolled through her.
Mine. Mine forever.
“I’m just so grateful you are alive and almost in one piece,” she said and gulped back a sob. “I thought you might get killed. Drowned or fall down that damned cliff.”
“Not that easy to kill a rake, you know. We lead charmed lives.”
“What about ex-rakes?”
“Even harder, for we have something we want to live for. Or I hope so.” He was silent for a moment. Then he took the three steps to stand in front of her and gather her close. “My love, do not cry. I’m here.” He brushed her hair back from her face. She had dark shadows under her eyes, her expression was troubled, and he had never loved anyone more than her.
David inhaled deeply and buried his face in her hair as she rested her head on his jacket. Her scent, as ever, surrounded him and filled his senses. The rightness, the feeling of coming home and of being where he not only wanted but needed to be encompassed him.
Please let her be mine, and me hers.
“I tho
ught I’d lost the chance to tell you I want to be your wife,” she said, her voice muffled by his cravat. “I do, you know. I want to be yours.”
The words were music to his ears, but he had to be certain.
“Are you positive, love? Do you promise me you’ve thought long and hard, and no one has tried to influence you?”
Josephine looked up at him with a tear-streaked face. “Except for you? No one. Whilst you were in the gorge and I was here, worrying, I had plenty of time to think about you, me, us, our lives and our future.” She took a deep breath and her bosom swelled and tantalized him. His hands itched to undo the buttons of her pretty day dress, slowly slip the ribbons of her chemise loose, lower the top and feast.
Maybe soon.
“I decided I’ve been letting my past affect my future. I am not my mama and you are certainly not my papa. We are people with minds of our own.”
She was silent for a moment, and as David waited for her to continue, he gave in to temptation and stroked her back in gentle circles, then let his digits drift lower to cup the gorgeous roundness of her bottom. She wriggled slightly and he stilled the movement.
“No, don’t stop. I like it. It makes me feel cherished and wanted.” Josephine sighed. “I saw you with the boys, I heard you stick up for me, I recognized your compassion. Do I love you? I honestly do not know. I’ve never really been loved, so how would I recognize it? Can you love someone in such a short time? I have no idea, but the idea of us parting, of me never being close to you again and watching you marry someone else, fills me with dread and sorrow. Is it enough?”
David kissed her forehead then her mouth. Her hands slipped around his waist and tightened.
“Could it be?” she asked anxiously.
“It is for me, love. I have all the same symptoms. I cannot imagine life without you. I want us to grow old together. If we are blessed, then to have children.” He smiled. “We know how not to bring them up, so to give them all the love and attention they deserve will be easy. The hard bit will be not to spoil them.”
Josephine put her hands under his jacket and stroked his back over his shirt. Just where the scars of his childhood criss-crossed his skin. The scars that no longer bothered him.
“As you said, the one thing we can both take from our childhoods is what should not be done,” she said slowly. “It can help us now to discover what is right and what is wrong. To guide us along the complicated path of life.”
“Exactly. No one knows what the future will bring. All we can do is strive to do the best we can. Do we do it together?” He waited, conscious that his heartbeat had sped up, and that the rest of his life hung in the next few moments. “I can’t get down on one knee unless you want to witness me as a pathetic heap of misery when I try to stand.”
“I’ll take it as read, then, shall I?” she said softly. “And just listen with all my heart.”
“Then, Josephine Bowie, will you marry me, be my wife and perhaps, God willing, the mother of our children? I can’t promise you all will be easy—in fact, I’d say it is more than likely to be the opposite. My father will have a fit when he eventually finds out who bought all his land. He will do his best to show me in a bad light.”
“Let him try. I won’t let him speak about my husband, my hero, my beloved, in any foul-mouthed way. Ah…” She looked up at him, her face alive with laughter.
“Ah?”
“It seems my mind knew what I hesitated to say. You are all of those things, or I hope soon will be. So, to answer your question, I would be honored to be your wife and the mother of our children. You’ve given me something I never thought I would have. Love.”
Epilogue
“Chicken pox,” the doctor said cheerfully. “Not too bad. I’ll leave some lotion and wish you luck.”
Not too bad? Josephine looked at the two spotty children in her arms and groaned under her breath. Both were flushed, breathing heavily and grizzling. Thoroughly unhappy. At least they had their parents to comfort them. Not like it had been for her. That thought no longer had the power to hurt her. The thought of what her children now had to endure did.
Gaia took one look at her, sniffed the twins and hid under the sofa.
“Thank you.” Josephine decided she would be polite to the doctor, even if it killed her. Wishing her luck was not very helpful.
Why now? They were due to depart for town the following day on one of their infrequent but necessary visits.
“There’s a lot of it about.” The doctor answered her unspoken question as he repacked his bag. “No doubt one of the staff carried it here. Not quite an epidemic, but enough cases to keep me busy. I’ll call back in a day or so to see how they are getting on, and won’t be surprised to see several more victims.”
“I’ll see you out.” David opened the nursery door and ushered the man from the room. He was back within a few minutes.
“Where do we have all our commitments listed?” he asked as he took one toddler from Josephine. “There, sweetness, Papa will promise not to ask Mama to sing to you. If I sit down and you and I get comfortable, Mama can pass your sister to me as well, and she can go and get the delicious syrup Cook has made for you both.” He sat on a large comfortable sofa, rolled his eyes at Josephine and mimed vomiting. Gaia scrambled out from her hiding hole and wriggled onto the settee.
Josephine bit her lip as she passed David Twin Two, and somehow kept a straight face. Three years wed and he could still make her giggle with unexpected statements and silly facial expressions. “I’ll go and do that now. And wine for Papa?”
“And Mama, and maybe some tempting nibbles for us all. I have news. Big news.”
“News? Good or bad?”
David did a very dramatic raise of his eyebrows. The twins giggled.
One of the twins patted his cheek. “Silly papa.”
“Me?” David said in a loud exaggerated manner. “Never, ’tis your mama who must wait and curb her impatience.”
Josephine shook her head in amusement. “No nibbles until you tell me.”
He sighed, very theatrically. “A low blow.”
“Of course. You taught me well.” She blew him a kiss. “But you wouldn’t have me any other way.”
“Of course not. I love you as you are.”
“And I you.” Josephine enjoyed the way their girls giggled and echoed, “Love you.” “But you can’t leave me in suspense, not after such a dramatic statement. Big news. Is it good, bad or indifferent?”
“I imagine that would depend on from where you view it.”
He paused and she shook her fist in a mock threatening manner.
“David Suddards. Enough. Tell me.” She sobered. “Seriously, is it bad news?”
“No, not really. Well, not for us at any rate. It seems my papa has discovered who now owns all the un-entailed lands. It appears that information came out at the last country dance. The one we missed because we went to godmama’s for her birthday. Apparently, in the middle of the evening, Lady Duggan over at Fowdlers, she who is a crony of my mama’s, asked if he’d met up with me now we were neighbors and wasn’t it a good idea to make sure the estate was all together, or some such thing. She’d heard from someone, no idea who, that the land had been sold. And I suspect my mama must have confided in her about the estrangement at some point. Lady Duggan, I suspect, has never been overfond of my father, so there was a little malicious glee involved. Evidently, he gobbled a bit, this is third- or fourth-hand I believe, so accuracy is not guaranteed, said he hadn’t seen me lately—very true thank goodness—and marched off.”
“Ha, I love it. Anything else?”
“According to Jacobs, our new man of business, he accosted him the next day. My father accosted Jacobs, not the other way round, and tried to say that I had acquired the land through stealth and foul means. That it was unethical and he intended to sort things out. What things were not specified.”
Josephine glowered. “The cad. He can’t cause trouble, can he?”
/> David laughed. “No, he cannot. Jacobs gave him chapter and verse. By the time he’d finished, I believe Father was red in the face and not in a good temper. Because, of course, he’d thought he could bully Jacobs and that is not possible. Plus, there were no underhand dealings so the only person who came out of it in a bad light would be Father. And, to cap it all, it is now all round the district that I had to buy my own lands to ensure the estate prospered. He’s not a happy man.”
“Good.” Josephine thumped the table and one of the twins jumped and let out a startled squeal. “Sorry, my pet. But that man.”
“Is no one to worry about. We both have rotten parents and these two”—David looked at the twins—”these are their loss.”
Josephine smiled. “True.”
“Now that’s over, nibbles, please. Hungry, aren’t we, girls?”
Josephine shook her head in mock sorrow. “Why am I not surprised, even though you have only just had breakfast?”
David looked from one spot-covered daughter to the other. “We need to keep our strength up, don’t we?”
Amelia nodded. “Custard.”
“Yes, custard,” her twin, Louisa, echoed. “Cook makes such good custard.”
“And custard,” Josephine agreed. “As fast as I can.”
“Bring the appointments diary back with you,” he called as she reached the door.
She stopped and turned around to stare at him. “Why?”
“So I can ask Jacobs to write and cancel anything we’ve committed to. The girls will need a lot of attention over the coming days. They would hate town in this state and so would we. Here, at least we can both keep them occupied during their waking hours.” He winked. “And occupy each other whilst they sleep and others keep watch for us.”
Josephine rolled her eyes and smirked before she walked back to him, to kiss the only part of him easily reached. His ear.
“I don’t know if I’ve told you lately, but I love you,” she said quietly, sincerely. “Not just for this, but for everything.”
The Viscount Meets his Match: A Regency Romance Page 24