CHAPTER 28
“You are very subdued, Eva. This journey is supposed to be fun for you, but you have been lost in your thoughts for long stretches, and are now again.”
Eva pulled herself out of her thoughts. She squeezed the hand of the man riding beside her in the coach. “I am sorry. I received a letter from Sarah right before you came by to get me.”
“Bad news?”
“Not really bad, although Sarah is beside herself. It appears Mr. Trenton has been calling frequently now that Rebecca is staying in Birmingham again.”
“The poet.”
“Yes. Worse, however, is that Mr. Mansfield has not been calling at all. Sarah is sure that Rebecca has ruined her chances there.”
“If she did not favor the man, you would not want her to marry him, would you? Life is long to be in a marriage one does not want.”
Very true. Eva could not fault that response. Besides, she would never want Rebecca to be one of those girls who finds herself merely tolerating the marriage bed. Not when she knew herself how wonderful that could be.
“But Mr. Trenton?” She sighed. “Am I too horrible for hoping my sister marries a man with at least a modest fortune and decent prospects?”
“She is young still. Eventually she will talk philosophy with Mr. Trenton, too, and that should end that flirtation.”
She laughed. The duke had told Gareth that upon his arrival in her home, he had found Wiggins close to tears, holding his head, while Rebecca lectured him. Wiggins had told Lance he would rather be sent to the hulls than spend one more minute listening to her.
“We are entering the town,” Gareth said, pointing out the window.
“Are you going to tell me which town it is now? Your secrecy has been peculiar.”
“It is Coventry. When we pass through the oldest section, you can imagine Lady Godiva riding slowly on her horse. Out of respect, everyone went inside and shuttered their windows, so her gesture on their behalf would not carry the humiliation her husband intended.”
The carriage took them to those lanes, then turned off onto another one with fine houses lining it.
It stopped in front of one that looked to be the sort that would house a prosperous merchant.
Three stories high and built of cleanly dressed white stone, it had a small garden in front surrounded by an iron fence and gate.
Gareth opened the carriage door and stepped out. “I want you to meet someone.”
She accepted his hand and joined him on the pavement. “Who?”
“My mother.”
She instinctively dug in her heels. “You might have warned me.”
“I might have, but I didn’t.”
She felt her hair, to make sure it had not been too ruined by an indiscretion that took place in the carriage an hour ago.
“Under the circumstances, you should not have been wicked. She is sure to know just looking at us.” She gave him an examination and found no evidence at all. “Fine. By looking at me.”
“Do not worry. A mother knows her son. If she guesses, she will blame me, not think badly of you.” He took her hand. “Come now. You will like her.”
They entered the house through a door held by a manservant.
A footman escorted them to a drawing room.
Upon their arrival, a woman looked up. No one had to say this was Gareth’s mother.
They looked much alike. She was not a pretty woman.
Perhaps not even beautiful in the usual way.
But her dark eyes and hair, and wide mouth and chiseled face created a memorable, striking visage that might make more predictable beauty appear shallow and boring.
Her eyebrows rose when she saw Eva. This visit was equally a surprise for her, it appeared.
“Mother, I would like you to meet Miss Russell, a neighbor of mine. Miss Russell, this is my mother, Mrs. Johnson.”
* * *
“She is not only a neighbor.” His mother stated that as soon as Eva left the drawing room.
On hearing the house had a good garden, she had asked to see it, after suffering through a pointed interview in which his mother asked about her family, her life, her education, and a number of other motherly questions.
“No.”
“You have never brought one of your lovers to meet me before.”
“No.”
His mother sipped the remnants of her tea. He waited.
“She has almost no fortune. Her family lands are much diminished, and what there is must be shared with that sister. She has been on the shelf for some years already, and while she is attractive, she is not a great beauty like some of the women you have known.”
Had the list of deficiencies come from anyone else, he would have responded harshly. She was only being a mother, however. He was just lucky that Eva did not have one who could point out what he lacked.
“She suits me.”
She laughed. “They have all suited you, for a while.”
“I think she will suit me for a long while. A very long while.”
She appeared a little dismayed.
“I came to tell you that the property is mine now. Lance withdrew the petition. The house is mine, and the property, as my father wanted.”
Her face lit with joy. “I never thought I would see this day. I am happy for you, and glad that Allen’s wishes have been respected.”
“It should be habitable by summer’s end. I would like you to visit Albany Lodge in the autumn, and see what I have made of it.”
She stilled. Her expression became unfathomable. “Albany Lodge?”
“I suppose I never told you. That is the name I gave it.”
“Your brothers do not mind?”
“It is not for them to mind or not. However, neither seemed shocked or unhappy about it.”
Her proud expression trembled. Her eyes filmed. He went over and sat beside her and took her hands in his.
She sniffed, and dabbed her eyes with her delicate handkerchief. “Thank you. I am honored, Gareth.” She composed herself, and gripped his hands. “That young woman. If you get her with child, you must do the right thing.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“You will have no excuse, and it will not do to have a whole line of bastards in the family.”
He laughed. “Yes, Mother.”
She smacked his shoulder. “Oh, stop that. I am glad you care about her. You would have never brought her here otherwise. Go to her now, and be on your way.”
He stood, then bent and kissed her head. “I will see you again soon.”
He was almost at the door when she spoke again. “Gareth, do you think there is any chance that you may in fact someday get her with child? That I may someday have a grandchild?”
He smiled, and went out to the garden.
* * *
“Ithink we should get married, Eva.”
Eva blinked, and looked down her body to where Gareth’s dark head nestled between her thighs. He did something that made her groan fill her garden.
“I— This is most—” She tried to speak through her astonishment and madness.
He did it again. She almost fainted. When her head cleared, she was clutching at grass, gasping for breath. “Stop that! We need to talk.”
“One moment. It would be rude to leave you like this.”
He didn’t, of course. He never did. With alarming efficiency he sent her crashing into a climax, then moved up to lie with her.
She took several minutes to collect herself, then held his head and looked in his eyes. “That may be the most unusual proposal a woman has ever received.”
“Thank you. I thought it inventive.”
“It will be hard to describe when friends ask for the particulars, however. Did he kneel, Eva? Did he wait for a glorious sunset? Actually, no, Sarah. He proposed while his tongue was making shocking explorations of my private parts.”
He pecked a kiss on her cheek. “At least you will never forget it.”
No. Never.
“I thought you did not believe in marriage except in the most practical ways. There is nothing about marrying me that will enhance your fortune, so this makes no sense.”
He ran the side of his finger along her jaw. “I have discovered that my views on the matter were ill considered. About marriage, and about love.”
“They were? About love too?”
“Definitely about love. As you might imagine, I am astonished to learn how wrong I was.”
“Just how wrong were you?”
He laughed. “You are not going to make this easy, are you?”
“After all your fine talk about it in the past, I want to hear a full recanting.”
“Not a recanting. A codicil. An addition.”
She waited.
“All that I said that day still is true, usually. However, if a person is very lucky, it is possible for him to feel a very special love for a woman. One that affects the pleasure in the best ways, and is bigger than it, or anything else centered on himself.”
Her throat burned. She pressed a kiss to his lips.
“And if that man is truly lucky,” he said. “That woman has the same love for him. Do you, Eva?”
She nodded. “Oh, yes. Yes, I do.”
“Then I want to know that you will be mine forever. I want us to marry.”
She did not know what to say. She had prepared no answer, since she had never expected to hear the question. “Were this only about love, I would agree with all my heart, Gareth. I have fallen desperately in love with you, despite my better judgment and even expecting it to cause me heartache.”
“There will be no heartache. I promise you that. I cannot blame you if you do not believe me, but I will never hurt you in any way.”
“After being bad for so long, do you really think you can stop?”
“I swear I will. I’ll still get to be bad with you, of course. You would not want me if I were too good.”
“If we are married, what we do would not be truly wicked anymore.”
He laughed, and tapped her nose with his fingertip. “You are adorable, and still at least half-ignorant. There is much we will do that you will still find very wicked, even if we are married.”
“There is?”
“We have barely begun to tap the variety of the pleasures you will know.”
She laughed, and kissed him. “I think you are trying to bribe me.”
“Think of it as negotiating the settlement.”
She climbed on top of him so she could embrace him closely, with her ear to his chest and her body molded to his.
“We are agreed then?” He held her closely. “I want you to know that I have found a way to allow you to still see your own plans through.”
She had been too happy to think about her plans and how marriage did not fit them. “I expect I will have to alter them a bit.”
“Not much. Rockport proposed I broker sales for him on the Continent, much as I have at times brokered art collections. If even half of what he said comes to pass, we will have all the servants you need. We can spend some time in London each year, so you can study your art too. Or you can have a house in Birmingham, and study with a master there.”
She rose up so she looked down on him. “You are going to take employment with Wesley?”
“Not really. I will be doing what I have always done for years now, however.”
“You do know that you do not have to marry me to have me, don’t you?”
He reached up and cupped her face with his hands.
“Have you already forgotten the most important part? I love you, Eva. I do not want you as a mistress. I want us to live together so I can have you whenever I like, and so we both have a place in the world and it is together.” He pressed her head down and kissed her.
“Say you will marry me, Eva. You have not yet. Not properly.”
She wiped the brimming tears from her eyes. “Yes, I will. Yes.”
He worked the buttons of his trousers. “Then open to me now, before I die from wanting you.”
She helped to free him from his garments, then rose up and lowered herself, taking him inside her. They neither moved for a while, but remained still in this first union of their life together. She savored each instant, so she would remember forever how she felt.
Then Gareth caressed down her back, and lower still until his fingers explored in a most shocking way. His eyes flashed naughty lights at her reaction.
She reached back and smacked his hand away, then rode him with joyful pleasure.