Chapter 20 #2
Torn by fears and hopes, Chastity wrapped a fur cape about herself and escaped the last-minute preparations to walk on the West Terrace and watch the setting sun gild the Abbey.
Then Cyn came to stand by her side. She should have left and sought the safety of company, but she found she could not flee him now, so close to the end.
She shivered, not with cold. “I feel something building.”
“The excitement of the ball.” His voice alone was enough to melt her.
“No,” she said. “Everyone’s wound tight.” Then she thought of clockmakers and wanted, with shattering intensity, to be safe in her beloved’s arms. She turned to him. “Do you think my father will come, Cyn?”
“If Rothgar sent the correct message.” His eyes told her his desires matched hers. Exceeded them.
“What message could that be?”
“I don’t know, but Rothgar will have found it.” He smiled suddenly at her. “What will you be wearing tonight?”
“A domino and mask.”
“As will everyone. Give me a hint.”
She made herself stay silent.
“No matter,” he said softly. “If I don’t find you, Chloe, I don’t deserve you.” He took her hand, and that use of their private name dissolved her ability to resist.
As they strolled along the terrace, Chastity’s heart and soul became focused on the contact with his elegant swordsman’s hand. She twined her fingers with his. “Why didn’t you tell me you fenced so well?”
He slid her a glance, his fingers responding to her play. “It’s hardly the sort of thing one drops into conversation. ‘By the way, I happen to have a gift for duello.” ’
“Happen to have?” she echoed. “A great deal of work goes into a skill such as yours.”
His thumb caressed her hand. “I enjoy it. I often have trouble finding an opponent who will test me, but in Canada I took a French prisoner who was my equal. He honed my skills.”
She stopped and faced him. “You dueled with a prisoner?”
He raised her hand between them, still twined with his, and kissed it lingeringly. “For practice only, my heart.”
Chastity shivered under the sensual power this man had over her. How could she survive without him?
“It’s rapidly becoming an ornamental art, anyway,” he said quite calmly, though his eyes were not calm at all. “It’s true, as Rothgar said, that it’s useful to be skilled, so some bully-boy can’t steal your life over nothing, but if death is required, a pistol is more certain.”
Death. No, please don’t talk of death.
He rubbed her knuckles softly against his lips.
Chastity swayed with the need to be protected, and to protect him from all hurt. “Why do men always end up fighting?” she protested faintly.
His teeth rasped against her skin, the rough edge of danger sending a jolt of hot desire through her. “Men sometimes do other things,” he reminded her softly.
“Cyn, don’t,” she whispered, but weakly. If he wanted her here, now, on the cold stones, she was his.
He caught his breath and collected himself. “Perhaps I should teach you swordplay,” he said lightly, “in case you go masquerading again.”
“I pray I never again have the need.”
“Did you find no pleasure in it at all?” There seemed to be meaning behind the question.
“A little,” she confessed. “I enjoyed the excitement, but not the deceptions. And certainly not the shame . . .” She turned her hands so she held his. “I enjoyed having a friend, though, a friend called Cyn.”
Like shifting clouds, his expression changed from the darkness of leashed desire to the heavy darkness of regret. “Until I spoiled it by seducing you.”
Chastity blushed. “I wouldn’t call it spoiling . . .”
“Wouldn’t you?”
She closed her eyes. Why did he always push for truth? “Things change, Cyn. It would be perfect if only we could marry . . .”
“We will marry,” he said roughly. “I take back my word. I will never surrender you to any other man.” His hands slid beneath her cloak to hold her tight against him.
“I can’t live without you, Chastity. These last few days have taught me that.
But it’s not your body I need most. If you wish, we will live as brother and sister all our days. ”
“Why on earth would I wish that . . . ?” she asked, her hips moving against his with a will of their own. But then a sound alerted her and brought back reality and all her fears. “I hear a coach!”
She pulled away, but his hold did not slacken. “Peace, love. It could be anyone.”
She shook her head. “It won’t be a guest, not this early, Cyn. It could be Father.” Pure fear had every nerve trembling.
He took her hands in a firm grip. “You are free of him. He will never hurt you again.” As she steadied, he kept one of her hands and led her toward the house. “Come along, love. If it is the devil himself, let us face him bravely.”
They entered the marble hall to hear Henry Vernham’s drawling voice demanding his ward.
Cyn hissed between his teeth and surged forward. Chastity chased after him to stop him killing the man who had ruined her, but Rothgar was there before him.
“Ah, Vernham. Your ward?” he said, placing himself effortlessly between Cyn and his target. “You mean young Sir William. You doubtless want to assure yourself of his safety, but you would hardly wish to remove him from his mother’s care when he is still at the breast.”
Vernham glared around uneasily at a gathering of Mallorens. Brand and Elf had followed Rothgar into the hall, and now Bryght emerged from the library. No doubt Vernham sensed malice, but he would be unaware that they knew anything of him other than that he was the baby’s guardian.
He took a pinch of snuff. “Lady Vernham is welcome to accompany her child.”
“But Verity is now Lady Verity Frazer, and her husband’s wishes must be taken into account.
Now, sir,” said Rothgar with a bucolic bonhomie that would terrify anyone who knew him, “take some refreshment. If you are come in response to my note, you know we have an entertainment planned for tonight. You must stay.”
Despite his protests, Vernham was drawn into the Tapestry Room and seated with a dish of tea in his hands. “I demand to see my ward!” he snapped, then he saw Chastity. He blanched.
She smiled at him.
She had never seen eyes bulge before, but now she did.
“But of course you must see your ward,” said Rothgar, and sent for Verity and the baby.
By the time they arrived, accompanied by a hard-eyed Major Frazer, Vernham was on his feet, uneasily eyeing his company. He gave the babe scarcely a glance. “Good, then you will come with me now.”
“Of course I won’t,” said Verity firmly. “And you will not take William, Henry. You will have to petition the courts, which I believe can take a very long time.”
Vernham’s narrow eyes flickered about the room. All the Mallorens were smiling, even Cyn, but Henry didn’t seem to find that comforting, which proved Verity correct when she had described him as a shrewd man.
“I suppose that is true,” he said with an attempt at an easy manner.
“Nothing I can do, really, at this point if the youngster is all right. I must not take any more of your time. I apologize if I have distressed you, Verity, but I was extremely anxious about you. It was not kind of you to leave no message, no indication of where you had gone.”
“But I was running away from you, sir,” said Verity simply.
He was thrown off balance. “Why, for God’s sake?”
Nathaniel stepped in at that point, to prevent an annoyed Verity from saying too much.
“Her reasons may have been misguided, Vernham, but we must all rejoice that everything has turned out so well. I intend to apply to be the child’s guardian, which I am sure you must see to be proper, and thus administer the property. ”
Vernham flashed him a look of pure hate, but smiled.
“I will contest, as you must expect. I am sure the courts will uphold my brother’s will.
” He drew on his gloves, still glancing uneasily around, as if expecting to be prevented from leaving.
“Which reminds me,” he added with strained casualness.
“A document is missing, Lady Verity, one which my brother had in safekeeping. Did you by any chance take it with you? It is a codicil to the will, I believe, and should be delivered to the solicitors.”
Chastity held her breath and worked hard at not giving anything away.
“Oh, that,” said Verity vaguely. “Yes, I did take it for safekeeping. I wonder where I put it. I believe it must be in one of my pockets.”
Chastity could almost see Henry Vernham gnashing his teeth behind his smile. The trouble was that she could also see the amusement in Verity’s eyes. At any moment she would give the game away by giggling. She never had been able to carry a lie.
“Do you think you could look?” asked Vernham tightly.
A distraction came in the shape of Fort, who burst into the room. “They said . . . It is you. I have a score to settle with you, you wretched cur!”
He had Vernham by the throat, and it took three Mallorens to get him off. At least one Malloren was not being philanthropic. “You’ll have to wait in line, Thornhill,” said Cyn. “He’s mine.”
“You’ll have to fight me for it,” snarled Fort.
Cyn just raised a brow, and Fort cursed.
Vernham held his hands to his bruised throat. “I offered to marry the slut!”
Fort knocked him out.
“How crude,” murmured Rothgar. He rang a bell. A footman came in and was ordered to take away the unconscious gentleman and care for him.
When Vernham had been removed, Rothgar said, “I confess, though, that I was a little perplexed as to how to prevail upon him to stay in this lion’s den. You would all persist in licking your chops over him. My felicitations, Thornhill.”
“Felicitations be damned,” said Fort. “I want to gut him.”
“Later,” said Rothgar. “First I want a confrontation between him and Walgrave, preferably before witnesses.”