Chapter Ten
S omerville held the parchment up to the sliver of moonlight shining through the bedroom window. He didn’t want to light a candle and awaken Sara. He needed to be alone with his thoughts and deal with the guilt consuming him. It’d been his intention to share his secrets before he made love to her. However, he had been powerless to deny the passion between them for a second longer after Sara tempted him with her innocent seduction.
His gaze drifted to the bed where Sara lay against the bedsheets with her arm flung above her head. The sheets wrapped around her curves in a tangled mess, barely covering her breasts. He fought to crawl next to her and wake her with his kisses. The hunger for his wife was all-consuming now that he’d savored her sweetness. However, he held back while he tried to understand the cryptic message that had been delivered to him during the ball.
A secret has been revealed.
What secret? And to whom? He had yet to understand this madness steeped in secrets. Ian feared if he informed Sara what he’d learned about her past, he would place her in danger. The secret of her birthright made her vulnerable to people who would harm her. He would do anything in his power to protect her. Even from the two souls who’d lost all privilege to Sara once they discarded her to protect themselves from judgment. She was an innocent who didn’t deserve the treatment dealt to her.
“Ian.”
Ian raised his head to see his wife had risen onto her elbows, the sheet dropping from her breasts. When she held out her hand for him to join her in their bed again, he stuffed the letter into the pocket of his robe and strode to her side. She reached out to tug at the belt on his robe, and he shook it off before wrapping Sara in his embrace. Her soft sigh as she melted against him pulled him under her spell. She had been an enchantress this evening and one he would no longer deny himself.
He lost himself in their kiss, forgetting the confusing message. Tomorrow, he would deal with the villain who cruelly tormented them. For now, he only wanted to love his wife.
The precious lady who held his heart.
SARA STRETCHED AS SHE awakened from her dream and winced at the tenderness between her thighs. Then she remembered it wasn’t a dream but a wonderful memory of Ian making love to her. She turned her head to find him, but the bed was empty except for a rose and a letter lying on his pillow. A smile of pure happiness graced her face at his thoughtful gesture. She lifted the rose and inhaled the flowery scent as she read his note.
Come join me for breakfast.
Sara tossed off the covers and jumped from the bed, eager to see her husband. Most would call her excitement shameless behavior for a lady of her standing. But she didn’t care as long as she spent time with Ian. She rushed around the bedchamber, getting ready in one of her new dresses and styling her hair down with the sides pinned back.
Sara paused and took a deep breath to slow her racing heart. She needed to calm down before she left their suite. How she behaved in privacy differed from how she must conduct herself under her peers’ and the servants’ observation. She refused to give them any reason to slander her character and bring shame to Ian.
That left her noticing the tangled bedsheets and their clothes strewn across the floor. Ian had forbidden any servants in their chamber unless requested. They were only to clean daily once Ian and Sara occupied themselves elsewhere. He did so at her request because she was unused to servants waiting on her when she had been one herself only recently. She must adapt to the hierarchy of her station. However, the current arrangements suited her for now. Once they returned to Scotland, she would accept her position as a duchess by following the routine deemed for her.
Sara hurried around the bed, tugging the sheets and blanket into place. She laid their clothes on the bed for the servants to take care of. In her hurry to prepare herself for Ian, she had dropped his letter. When she bent over to retrieve the parchment, she noticed another letter had slipped out of the pocket of Ian’s robe. It was the size of a calling card with only a message slashed across its surface.
A secret has been revealed.
She turned the card over, searching for any sign of who it might be from. But the other side was blank. Secret? Sara frowned at the confusing message. Had the villain struck again? If so, it differed from his usual letters filled with taunts and slanderous words. Since their wedding, the culprit had remained silent. Why hadn’t Ian shared this with her?
She bit her bottom lip with indecision. Should she leave the card and pretend she never saw it? Or should she take it with her when she met with her friends later? Sara didn’t want to risk Ian’s ire at stealing his personal business. But her curiosity about what the card could reveal prompted her to slide it inside the pocket of her dress. Her friends would know how to handle the card. Also, they had seen enough of the villain’s handwriting to decipher if it was from him. She had only ever received one letter and had since given it to Ian. While more letters had arrived, Ian was the intended victim to terrorize. Her husband never shared them with her in his effort to protect her.
While she found comfort in his protection, it left her vulnerable to the culprit’s vengeance. Her friends had also kept the truth of the culprit’s cruelty from her, assuming she was too na?ve to handle the truth. She must prove to those who loved her the strength she held to fight against the vengeance aimed at her.
Starting today.
Sara stepped out of their suite at the same moment a maid led Mairi from her bedchamber. Mairi dropped the maid’s hand and ran to Sara in a very unladylike manner. She fought to hold back her chuckle at the servant’s disapproving stare. Sara knelt and held her arms out for Mairi. When Mairi snuggled into her embrace, she forgot about the mysterious card.
“Did you dance at the ball, Momma?”
Sara’s smile brightened. “Yes. Your father twirled me around the ballroom floor. It was a magical evening.”
“I want to dance at a ball with Poppa.”
Sara laughed. “One day you shall. However, for now, would a visit to the park to play with your friends from Scotland please you?”
Mairi pouted. “We cannot. They are too far away.”
Sara tapped Mairi on the nose. “No. They have come to London to play with you.”
Mairi jumped up and down before grabbing Sara’s hand. “Hurry, Momma, we must eat breakfast so we can play in the park.”
Mairi tugged Sara to the breakfast room in her excitement. She would have to curb her enthusiasm once they returned to Scotland, or else she wouldn’t grow into a proper lady but a heathen. However, for now, she allowed the child the freedom to adjust to the changes in her life with Sara’s marriage to Ian. The girl emerged from her shell with the rambunctiousness of a child curious about everything. And she never wanted to repress Mairi’s need to discover new experiences.
Mairi rushed to Ian and crawled onto his lap. She held her hands against his cheeks to get his attention. “Did you hear, Poppa? All my friends came to play with me.”
Ian winked at Sara before focusing his attention on his daughter. “Yes, I heard. You have some very special friends.”
“I know.”
Ian laughed at her simple declaration and glanced at Sara to see her staring at them with a fond expression. When she met his gaze, her smile turned shy with a blush gracing her lovely cheeks. However, Ian was now well aware of the temptress she hid behind her innocent smile and couldn’t wait to discover more of Sara’s hidden desires.
He rose and rested Mairi on the chair next to him. Then he sauntered toward his wife, enjoying how her blush darkened from pink to red. He drew her into his arms, brushing a kiss across her lips.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Mmm,” Sara replied, swept away by how Ian dominated her senses.
Ian chuckled. “I will take that as very well.”
Sara pressed her head against his shoulder to hide her embarrassing reaction to his nearness. “You may.”
“Perhaps I can show you another bedtime ritual tonight you will enjoy, to help you sleep,” Ian murmured in her ear.
“Your Grace.”
“I warned you, my love, about calling me Your Grace .”
Sara gave him a warning glare that was anything but frightful.
“It only urges me to kiss the words from your lips to hear you sigh my name instead.”
Her tongue darted out to lick her lips in anticipation.
Ian groaned. “You are a walking temptation that causes me to lose myself in front of all those around us.”
Sara rose to her tiptoes and brushed a kiss across his cheek. “Then perhaps you should restrain yourself from your teasing.”
Ian chuckled at her impish reply as she moved away to sit on the other side of Mairi. While he would’ve preferred her to sit next to him, he realized his wife held more sensibility by keeping them apart. It only pleased him that Sara suffered from the same ailment. Unable to resist one another.
He rejoined the table and listened to his daughter’s excitement at seeing her friends soon. While he preferred for them to play in the townhome gardens, he refused to steal Mairi and Sara’s usual ritual from them. Their visits to the park in Scotland, where Sara had introduced Mairi to other children, had drawn his daughter out from the sorrow she’d suffered since her mother’s death. While Mairi was too young to hold memories of her mother, she experienced her loving presence every day of her life. Once Claudia died, the loss of her mother’s love impacted her greatly. Love Sara restored with her tender nature. Not as a replacement, but with its own string of memories.
Ian would provide protection while they enjoyed their visit. No one stood the chance of harming them. This would allow him to meet with Courtland, Lockhart, and Hepburn to discuss what he’d discovered about Sara from his investigation and the message he’d received the evening before and what their insight might be.
While Sara enjoyed his daughter’s animated conversation, he was the one to watch them with fondness. The Whethams had slept in, exhausted from attending the Darlington Ball. So it left them in an intimate family setting. In Scotland, Sara had refused to join them for meals and either ate with the other servants or in her bedchamber. He never got to watch his governess and daughter together as a family. It was a sight to behold. Nothing or no one would ever sever the bond between them.
Sara was his to protect.