Chapter Nineteen #2
He nodded solemnly in affirmation, but the memory of his mother still remained and had not fully released him.
“She was so lovely. My mother was so lovely,” he said softly.
“My father claimed she was the most beautiful woman for a hundred miles around.” He paused before adding, “She was crying uncontrollably as she closed the door to the hidden passage when we were attacked. She had to know her fate and that of my father’s.
Her last words to me were a warning for me not to cry or come out of the hiding place until all the chaos had died away. I was afraid to open the small door.”
Navan could see it all as if it was happening again.
“I do not know how long I waited, but, eventually, the door was opened from the outside. It was Duncan and a dozen or more English soldiers. He reached for me and said that my mother had told him where to find me. I did not know she had passed until much later.”
Annalise was immediately kneeling at his side to catch his hands and to kiss them over and over as she cooed words of sympathy, but also of affection.
“Your mother loved you more than anything in her world. I now understand why Lady Klare grieves so deeply. Her ladyship, like you, lost a remarkable woman. She must have been so strong to do what she did.”
Navan stood and brought her up with him.
He splayed his hands about her waist, while the more masculine parts of his body reacted to her feminine strength and her genuine care for his person.
She wound her arms around his waist and plastered her body along his front.
Her breath shuddered against his chest. “What is going through that lovely head of yours?” he asked.
“I have been considering how much I wish we had different choices.” Her fingers wandered lazily up and down his spine, sending desire thrumming through him.
“The thought you could be returning to danger makes me crazy,” he admitted. “As I cannot be with you, I will send a note to Hartley to assign someone to keep you safe.”
Sadness marked her features when she looked up at him. “I despise that you have taken it upon yourself to protect me when you are already dealing with more than necessary. There is no real reason you should abandon everything for me.”
“There is this,” he declared as he bent to lift her into his arms. Did she truly not understand how much he required her in his life?
Setting her upon the bed, he caught her face between his hands to kiss her as he had wanted to kiss her all day.
Her lips parted, and Navan took full advantage of all she offered.
He was quite proud to know he had taught her to kiss him as he liked to be kissed.
Heat surrounded his tongue, inviting his desire to dance with hers.
He nipped at her bottom lip and then stroked it with his tongue. When he meant to pull away, she leaned forward to continue to kiss him.
As he eased her back to lie on the bed, his hand reached to claim the heaviness of her breast. “We have rushed everything, my lady,” he groaned as the fingers of his other hand tunneled into her hair.
He began to undress her—pulling laces free as she reached for the buttons along the fall of his breeches. Within a matter of minutes, they had divested themselves of all their clothes.
She reached for his manhood, and Navan did not know whether to thank God that his wife had been a quick study or curse the saints for how hard he was.
He moved over her, marveling at how perfectly their bodies fit together.
“You are the most remarkable woman on this earth,” he groaned as he slid inside of her.
No more words. No more complaints. No more broken promises.
Just her legs wrapped about him. A decadent need rocked them together until she cried out his name and arched into him.
With the power of his own release, he collapsed on top of her.
The perfection for which he had searched rested beneath him.
Now, if he could continue to hold onto it, he thought happiness might still be within his reach.
Navan had enjoyed his wife’s sweetness two more times before he had seen her onto the outgoing ship. Permitting her to leave was one of the most difficult tasks Navan had ever executed.
“We’ll see to her ladyship’s safety,” Mr. Manfried said with a smile.
“Lady Beaufort will see you paid once you arrive in London,” Navan instructed in a reminder that the Manfrieds would not see the full payment until Annalise reached Beaufort House in Mayfair, “but here is enough to cover inns and letting carriages and food and so forth. My lady is quite capable of seeing to her own care.”
“Excellent,” Manfried declared. “Hopefully your business is completed soon.”
Like her watch upon the ship taking her and Navan to Cork City, Annalise again had remained at the rail, watching first Cork City and then County Cork and, finally, Ireland disappear from view.
Her heart was breaking, for she had always promised herself, unlike her mother, she would never sail away from her husband, meekly following his orders, but just like Madelyn Dutton, she had performed in a similar manner.
“I apologize, Mama. I was unfairly critical,” she murmured to the open sea.
“My dear,” Mrs. Manfried said as she came up behind Annalise, “the captain says he expects a storm. He hopes to outrun it, but he wishes us to seek safety. Come away from the railing. I know you dearly miss Lord Beaufort, but Mr. Manfried and I promised to keep you from harm.”
Annalise wished to assure the woman that she was accustomed to climbing the netting and even hanging from the sails during the worst of storms, but she permitted the woman to lead her towards the relative safety of the few cabins available.
Keep Navan safe, God, her mind announced, and if one of us must suffer make it me.
Beaufort had not stayed in Cork. With Annalise gone, there was no reason for him to remain; the city had lost its appeal.
In fact, Ireland had lost its call to his soul.
Navan had never thought it possible, but he had tired of fighting for a country which did not regularly fight for itself.
“I simply wish to live out my days with my family on my land. I am weary of all this drama—all the fighting—all the manipulations—all the betrayal,” he whispered to the water as it rushed towards the riverbank.
“I want Annalise at my side. In my bed. Heavy with my children. I want the sacrifice of my parents not to be in vain.”
With a sigh of resignation, he silently promised, I mean to see my grandmother settled, even if she must be presented with a person who will oversee her care and another to manage my grandfather’s property.
I will set it all in order and then seek out someone to let the land until one of my sons may inherit it.
I have always attempted to care for Grandmam, but I wish for my own family.
I promise not to abandon Klare Fields, but I must not fail Annalise.
His mind set, Navan focused on what must be done when he returned to the manor, before whispering one more prayer for his wife’s speedy return to his side. “I am coming back to you, Annalise. Do not abandon what we have shared.”
Some forty and eight hours after leaving Cork City and her beloved Navan behind, Annalise and the Manfrieds took rooms at an inn in Bristol, England.
The following morning, they hired a coach and a driver to carry them to London.
Three days later, Mr. Manfried set her down before a grand-looking house, which she had only viewed once from the street when Lady Emma Orson had shown her all the homes of Lord Duncan’s sons.
At the time, Annalise held the hope of someday knowing Lord Navan Beaufort as her husband, but now, as she stepped down onto the bricked street, she was his wife.
Mr. Manfried led her to the door and used his fist to pound upon it, as the knocker had been removed.
Annalise was considering going around to the kitchen, but, finally, a proper servant cracked the door open only enough to expose his person. “Yes, sir?” the servant said in apparent irritation.
“Mr. Manfried,” the man announced with a bow. “Lord Beaufort has paid me and my wife to deliver Lady Beaufort to her home.”
The butler looked at Annalise and a slight frown formed on his features before he recaptured it. “We were not expecting Lady Beaufort.”
Annalise took control of the situation. “Your master is still in Ireland. He sent me ahead. He also asked me to give you his written orders and to show you his family ring.” She handed him a signed card from her husband and fished the ring from her reticule to present in her hand for the man to view it.
The butler eyed the ring and glanced at the signature on the card. “Naturally, my lady, come inside out of the chill.”
“Might someone claim my small trunk from the coach?” she instructed.
The man snapped his fingers and a footman darted past her to do her bidding.
Annalise slid Navan’s ring back into her purse.
From the smaller of the bags the footman carried inside, she drew out the tied sack of coins promised to Mr. Manfried.
“In my husband’s name, I thank you and your lady for your kindness. ”
Mr. Manfried took the bag and handed his card to her. “Mrs. Manfried and I would be pleased if you called upon us at our bookery.”
“I shall do my best once I am settled properly,” she told the man. Quickly, Mr. Manfried was gone, and she was alone in a strange house and surrounded by people who did not know her, nor did she know them. Her mind, however, announced, Back to the beginning.