Chapter Six #3
“Copper!” Jansen thumped the roof, not about to pass up a chance for some private time with his angel. “Transfer Miss Aurelia to Ambrose’s carriage. I feel certain he needs assistance. Once again, my brother has overindulged.”
“Right away, sir.” Both carriages halted in tandem as if driven by the same man.
“Behave yourself, brother,” Aurelia told him before patting Joy’s hand. “All will be well, my future sister. Jansen won’t allow any harm to come to you.”
“I know,” Joy said with a sigh. “I just wish he didn’t have to. I am more worried about my family and Freddie.”
“Take the long way to Broadmere House, Copper,” Jansen called out to his driver once he’d seen Aurelia safely ensconced in his brother’s carriage.
“The long way?” Joy eyed him as if she were about to refuse.
“I thought a longer ride might give us time to think of a plan. I swear my intentions are not nefarious.”
“Well, drat you, then.”
He laughed and pulled her back into his arms, unable to resist her wit or her enticing softness. Closing his mouth over hers, he reveled in her taste as she opened her sumptuous lips to his and pressed even closer. She hungered for him as much as he hungered for her.
“My darling,” he whispered against her mouth. “Would that we were already married.”
She pushed out of his arms with a heavy sigh, making him regret saying something so stupid. “If we were already married, then I would also be the ruin of you. At least this way, with us merely engaged, I have only succeeded in somewhat tarnishing your reputation. Do you wish to break it off?”
“Heavens no, and don’t ever ask that again! My reputation can go to the devil. All I need is you as my wife.”
She eyed him as if she felt sorry for him. “What makes two people fall in love? What makes them click like pieces of a puzzle snapping together?” She slowly shook her head. “I am so thankful you came into my life, but I regret this mess I have unceremoniously dumped into your lap.”
He eased her close once more and stroked her cheek with the back of his finger. “Perhaps our love is fated? Destiny, even? Who knows? All I know for certain is that after that first moment I saw you, I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“Did you try?” She sounded somewhat insulted.
“What would you say if I said I did?”
“That you are a poor judge of the tenacity of the Abarough sisters.”
“Ahh…but you were not as entranced with me as I am with you.” He kissed her again, nibbling his way across the seam of her mouth and groaning as she slid her hand up his chest.
“Perhaps I hid my entrancement better than you hid yours—and perhaps now, I feel sorry for this mess I’ve given you.”
He kissed her soundly once again, then forced himself to pull away and thumped the ceiling of the carriage. “Broadmere House, Copper.”
“Yessir.”
She stared at him as if he had just struck her. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No, my love, but if we are confined to this carriage for much longer, I will do something—and I am not referring to discovering the identity of the blackmailer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I do not wish our first time together—in the biblical sense—to be on a carriage seat while rolling down the road. Our first time should be, will be, special.”
While wetting her lips, she shifted with a deep breath, all the while keeping her gaze locked with his. “My sisters, the married ones, have…advised me on what to expect.”
He pondered that revelation, unsure if it was good or bad. “Indeed.”
She offered him a wicked grin. “Do not worry. Blessing, Fortuity, and Grace are all three madly in love with their husbands and described their marriage beds in glowing terms.”
“So might I take that to mean you look forward to our marriage bed?”
“I didn’t look forward to any marriage bed—until you kissed me. Once you showed me how lovely that could be…” She paused and pulled in another deep breath while fanning herself. “I am very much looking forward to it now.”
He groaned and shifted in the seat. This conversation was causing him extraordinary discomfort. “We really should get you home.” He craned his neck out the window, relieved to see the lights of Broadmere House not too far in the distance. “Ah…almost there.”
She laughed and gave him a coy toss of her head. “Are you in such a hurry to be relieved of my presence?”
“I am in a hurry for relief, my lady, but it would not do for me to describe that relief any further.”
“With another woman?” Her tone took on a murderous pitch. “If you ever bed—”
“I would never and will never, my lady. You are the only woman I will ever bed. I swear it now and will swear it again when we repeat our wedding vows.” Her jealousy inflamed him even further, a most dangerous development indeed.
“I love you, my angel, with a passion and a fury I have never felt before. Trust me, my love. I would never be unfaithful to you. No woman exists who could ever hope to lead me astray. You own me, body and soul, through eternity and beyond.”
“You are going to make me cry.”
“Happy tears, I hope.”
“Ecstatic tears, my future husband. Ecstatic because I never thought I would ever find a man like you.”
The carriage rolled to a stop before he could reply, and Copper opened the door and set the steps so Joy might disembark with ease. Jansen walked her to the door but was loath to let her go once they reached it.
“I do not wish to say good evening, my lady.” He cupped her cheek in his hand, losing himself in the deep blue of her eyes, made even darker with the emotions and shadows of the night. “But I must return to the ball and discover what I can.”
“Then I will see you tomorrow? To hear what you find out?”
“I swear it.”
She stood on tiptoe, gave him a quick kiss, then dashed inside before he could pull her into his arms for more.
“Ah, well, probably for the best.” He loped back to the carriage. “Back to the Burrastones’, Copper.”
“Yessir.”
Changing his mind, Jansen thumped the ceiling before the carriage took off, then hopped back out and climbed up onto the driver’s seat with the man.
“Sorry, old fellow. I’ve a few questions that you might be able to help with.
” He motioned at the road. “Continue to the Burrastones’. We can chat while you drive.”
“As you wish, sir.” Old Copper, loyal to the bone and a man of few words, barely flicked the reins, and the horses set off at a respectable trot. “How can I be helping you, then?”
“Someone chose to deliver some rather upsetting notes at the ball this evening. These notes were delivered to the addressees by a Burrastone footman. Did you happen to notice anything unusual outside the residence?”
Copper scrubbed a gnarled hand across his mouth. “Can’t say that I did, sir. All seemed quiet and normal enough. Didn’t notice no one behaving in any way out of the regular.”
That wasn’t what Jansen had hoped to hear, but granted, someone carrying notes in their pocket or reticule would not easily be spotted. “Well, with any luck, the footman can give me something more to go on.”
“Is our Miss Aurelia in danger?” Copper cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders. “I’ll be thrashing somebody’s arse for them if they’ve bothered our Miss Aurelia.”
Copper and his wife had always doted on Aurelia, treating her as if she were their own child rather than the daughter of their employer, while Jansen’s father still lived. When Jansen’s father, the senior Mr. Winterstone, passed, Jansen kept them on because he knew he could trust them.
“That miscreant with the notes upset our Aurelia,” Jansen said. “But fret not—I intend to make whomever it is pay.”
“I’ll be helping you with that, sir. Just give the word.”
“Thank you, Copper. I shall bear that in mind.”
They rolled up to the Burrastones’, and Jansen noted the festivities appeared to be winding down.
He’d best get a move on. Hopefully, the sender of the notes was still there—or at least the footman who had delivered the missives.
Since this was Lady Constance’s home, she would be the likeliest to point him in the direction of the servant who had handed out the letters.
He searched through the dwindling crowd, hoping she had not already retired to her private chambers.
Just as he was about to give up hope, he spotted her. “Lady Constance! Might I have a word?”
The look she gave him reminded him of a terrified animal trapped in a snare. Could she possibly be the blackmailer and had only sent herself a threatening note to conceal her part in this terrible plot?
“I would like to speak to your footman. The one who delivered the unusual post this evening.” He watched her closely, reading her as if they were caught up in a game of cards.
“That’s just it, Sir Jansen,” she whispered.
“I cannot find him, nor do I know him. Mama said she had brought on extra servants for the evening, which is nothing out of the ordinary. He must have been one she hired for tonight only, and if so, who knows if we can ever find him, because she brought on at least a dozen or so from several agencies across London. According to our permanent staff, the temporary hires have already left for the evening.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient?” Damn and blast. He should’ve chased the man down and questioned him before seeing Joy safely home, but he’d been so concerned for her safety and well-being that he’d not wished to leave her side.
Circling Lady Constance as if she were prey, he remained silent.
Sometimes, the weight of silence convinced even the worst of the worst to confess.
Tears streamed down her face. “I swear to you, Sir Jansen, I had nothing to do with this. Lady Joy and I might fuss and fight at times, but I would never attempt to ruin the Broadmere name—or hers. I spread the word about your engagement because I noticed her attraction to you. Never has she ever been that attracted to any man before, and I have known her for years and years. But I swear—I would never do something as horrid as blackmail and threaten to ruin the Duke of Broadmere’s sterling reputation. ”
Much to his dismay, he decided she was telling the truth.
Any lady of Polite Society who would stand there and sob, giving no care about tears dribbling down her cheeks and staining the silk of her yellow gown, was more than likely telling the truth.
“There, there, Lady Constance,” he said, in a half-hearted attempt at easing her distress.
“I shall ensure Lady Joy hears of your loyalty when next I speak with her.” He backed up a step, putting more distance between the two of them.
“I will catch this blackguard. Have no fear.”
“I do hope so.” She sniffed, swiping at her cheeks with her gloved hands. “Do excuse me. I am such a mess that I must retire.”
He bowed. “Good evening, my lady.”
“Good evening, Sir Jansen.”
No matter how many tears she shed, he still didn’t fully trust her, even though he had her to thank for his engagement to his angel. She bore watching, and watch her he would.