Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
“Y our Grace.”
Jasper nodded at the footman stationed in his foyer as he strode toward the door. Anticipation buzzed beneath his skin. He was eager to retrieve Maria and resume their search.
“The post arrived, Your Grace.” The footman held out a silver tray with a folded missive atop it.
“Again?” Jasper frowned, accepting the note. “Thank you.”
He recognized the slanted handwriting of the direction, and his pulse tripped. The magistrate . Had he news, at last? He tore the missive open and read.
Your Grace,
I saw Mr. Sinclair’s likeness in the newspaper this morning, and I confess I’m disappointed. I have already told you that we have evidence that the man is bound for the Americas aboard a merchant ship. Your interference in our search for Mr. Sinclair’s hired ruffians is unacceptable. I must insist that you publish a retraction in tomorrow’s paper, and halt your obstruction to justice immediately.
Sir Ludlow Vaughan
Magistrate
* * *
Despite the wobble in Maria’s stomach, she strode with affected confidence toward the parlour’s window. The still-fresh wound between her neck and shoulder gave a twinge as she reached to inspect the temporary locking fixture. Secure .
She sighed. The last time she had been in this room, she had been set upon by Francis. No doubt he was too intelligent to repeat his attack of the previous night, but whatever his method, she would be ready.
Muffled footsteps echoed down the corridor, and she wondered who it was. Harris and his men were already stationed belowstairs and in the gardens, many keeping out of sight. And it wasn’t Jasper, for his tread was familiar.
Jasper . Memories of their last moment of privacy filtered through her mind, and her heart hiccoughed. She wanted a true engagement with him. But how could she tell him, when her words had already failed her? She’d not even introduced him to her brother, for pity’s sake. To tell the man that she desired a devoted love match was too much to be borne.
Indeed, Jasper would likely jilt her once his cousin had been apprehended and hanged. And her heart would break.
Oh no . Her steps faltered as she strode through the dimly lit corridors of Jasper’s home. No, no, no! She could not have allowed herself to lower the walls she’d erected around her heart, and permitted him entrance.
And yet, there he was, secure in her heart with every beat. Jas-per, Jas-per .
“How are you faring?” Grace appeared at Maria’s side, drawing her into the empty dining room.
Maria’s heart gave a little thwump , but she offered her friend and superior a tremulous smile. “I’m well, Grace. Thank you.”
“A great deal has transpired in a short amount of time,” Grace noted. “I imagine it to be quite overwhelming.”
Maria’s chest squeezed, but she brushed the feeling aside. “Busy, yes. Though I imagine it is naught when compared to your previous life as a spy.”
“Oh pish .” Grace frowned. “I was veritably raised in that life, trained for years in a school designed specifically for Crown spies. You were trained for scarcely a month before you were plunged into a level of danger for which you were ill prepared. Despite the obvious challenges, you are doing an exemplary job.”
Warmth spread through Maria’s middle at the compliment. “Thank you.”
“I see the struggle in your eyes, dear.” Grace gave her a sad half-smile. “I would understand if you felt this position no longer suited you and chose to leave.”
Maria’s heart gave another thwump as she eyed Grace closely.
“I’ve no intention of leaving my position as a runner,” Maria assured her.
Grace’s smile broadened, turning genuine. “I thought not, but I needed you to know that you have my support regardless of what you choose to do. Not all assignments will be so all-consuming as this.
“Now,” she continued, giving Maria a swift wink and a pat on the arm. “Best get back to work.”
The woman swept from the room, leaving Maria to continue her task. She brushed a hand over her newly repaired maid’s costume, straightened her mobcap, then strode toward the external wall.
Snick . She secured the lock on the dining room window and moved on to the next.
“The morning room is secured,” Heather said from the doorway, before drawing close and linking their arms. “Are you well, Maria?”
A snorted laugh escaped her. “You are the second person to ask that question in the past quarter of an hour. Do I truly look so miserable?”
“Oh! Dearest, no?—”
“It is well, Heather.” Taking a deep breath, she rested her head upon her friend’s shoulder. “I’ve been better.”
“The others are securing rooms as well; we have some time. Talk to me.”
Maria sighed, and her heart gave a twinge. “I’m afraid.”
“You are worried that Jasper will not understand your devotion to Thomas, and that Thomas will not approve of the man that you love?”
“That is part of it, yes,” Maria whispered, nodding against Heather’s shoulder before stiffening her spine and turning to look at her friend.
“You’ve been half in love with Jasper for years, and now that you’ve had relations, it’s blossomed into?—”
“Hush!” Maria hissed, darting a glance toward the opened door before returning her stare to Heather. “How could you possibly know that we had…” She gestured wildly, hoping that she would not have to say it aloud.
“It was in the way that you looked at each other today. I must say, it’s about bloody time. The two of you have been dancing around it for some while.”
Maria put her hands to her suddenly hot cheeks, the nerves in her stomach taking flight. “Do you think that everyone noticed?”
Heather shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but a voice from the doorway halted her.
“The rooms on this floor are secure,” Jasper said, his gaze warm on Maria. “I’ve spoken to Harris as well; two of his men are on patrol belowstairs, and he and the remainder of the staff are in the gardens and mews.”
She cleared her throat, heat spreading across her chest. “Thank you.”
His look, while warm, didn’t appease her worries. What does he think of Thomas? He might even regret their connection. Her chest squeezed painfully. Would he jilt her after all? Damn, but that thought hurt far more than it ought.
* * *
Hours passed with excruciating sluggishness as they awaited any sign of Jasper’s infernal cousin. The bastard was taunting them with his sudden silence, no doubt deliberately wishing for them to grow increasingly discomfited by his absence.
Jasper and the Bow Street women had withdrawn to the drawing room, their weaponry close at hand as they waited. But hours had passed, and Jasper’s hope of apprehending his cousin that night was waning.
Despite occupying the same space, he’d not had the opportunity to draw Maria aside for another discussion.
His chest squeezed, and the knot in his stomach twisted deeper.
The notion that Maria thought their engagement to be anything but genuine was painful. And the probability that he had forced her… His heart fluttered with fear. It was not to be borne.
He flipped the page of the book in his hand, though he’d scarcely registered the previous one. Juliana had recommended the works of “Mr. Mystery” to him and, despite himself, he found the adventurous stories rather engaging.
The women’s whispered conversation drew his attention, and he glanced at them from overtop his spectacles. Maria sat between his sister and Miss Morgan, her features forbidding, and her grey eyes darkened as she spoke. She wore the maid’s costume that her brother had remarkably mended in time for the women’s “assignment” to begin.
Damn, but he needed to speak with her.
She must be worried for her brother . Jasper certainly would be, were their roles reversed. He?—
Thump-thunk . The sound from overhead echoed through the silent building, and Jasper surged to his feet, dropping the book to his seat.
As though in unspoken agreement, they darted through the corridors and up the two flights of stairs, searching through the rooms for the source of the sound. His pulse thrummed in his ears, his spine tingled with anticipation. And yet…there was nothing.
“Have you servants’ corridors or any hidden passages?” Miss Morgan asked hopefully.
Jasper shook his head, then adjusted the spectacles sitting on the bridge of his nose, as they made their way back to the drawing room. “I’m afraid not. I searched after the first letter that Francis had left for me.”
With his body still buzzing with unspent energy, he retrieved his book and resumed his seat in the drawing room. A part of Jasper wondered if he would ever face Francis in his home again, since they’d secured the one unlocked window. That could, truly, have been his cousin’s only entry point, and without his personal staff—and, presumably, the person aiding Francis—in residence, the man mightn’t have another chance.
He should have been pleased, and yet…he’d hoped they would capture the man that night.
Sometime later, Miss Huntsbury appeared at the rear servants’ entrance. “It is nearing dawn.”
Jasper nodded, having ushered the women to the servants’ hall, where they donned their capes, gloves, and bonnets at the agreed-upon time.
“The air is chilled out of doors,” he hedged. “Why do I not give you all a ride home in my carriage?”
Miss Huntsbury curtseyed. “I thank you, Your Grace, but I must refuse. I drove my phaeton.”
Miss Morgan gripped Juliana’s arm and smiled knowingly at him. “We shall ride with Grace, but if you would be so kind as to drive Maria, I’m certain that she would be ever so grateful.”
The friends exchanged glances that bewildered Jasper before they said their farewells, and the three women were gone.
He turned to Maria, the narrow space between them suddenly feeling infinitely smaller, and the air around them growing thick with meaning.
Her gaze caught his, and held.
“I’m sorry that the evening was uneventful,” she said softly. “I know that you must be hoping for Francis’ swift capture.”
“I imagine we all are. I cannot be sorry for the company, however.”
“Nor I.” She stepped closer. “But…I need to forget everything for a moment. Will you help me with that, Jasper?”
His pulse sped, and he whispered, “I will.”
The breath was sucked from his lungs as she dropped her satchel and outerwear to the floor and swept forward to capture his lips. Heat rushed through him in a wave of untamed lust, and he wrapped his arms around her, clutching at the fabric of her costume.
He’d wanted to speak with her about… what ? Hell, the arousing flicks of her tongue against his and the thrust of her mons against his straining cock had his entire body aching with the desire for her. The discussion will keep.
Maria threaded her fingers into his hair, rasping her nails gently against his scalp, and he groaned. Pulling back, she put just enough distance between them to work at unfastening the buttons of his waistcoat.
“The bedchamber,” he murmured against her lips, walking them backward through the diminutive foyer of the servants’ entrance.
With a light laugh, Maria palmed Jasper’s erection through his trousers and darted from the room. Jasper groaned as his cock throbbed. He raced after her.
Following her breathy pants and light laughter through the corridors and up the sets of stairs, they at last reached his bedchamber. Maria spun to face him, her chest heaving and a wicked grin on her lips.
Christ, but the woman was amazing.
With a snick of the lock, Jasper gave a predatory growl, and reached for her.
He caught her laugh with his mouth and she latched on to him, her fingers making swift work of his cravat and remaining waistcoat buttons. He, likewise, reached for the fastenings of her maid’s uniform and loosened them one by one with trembling fingers.
The room was deeply shadowed; the only light was that of the low-burning fire from the hearth that offered a scant orange hue. And yet even with the meagre light, Jasper saw every inch of skin revealed.
With another growl, he took her lips once more.
She moaned in return. “Take me, Jasper.”
“Yes,” he ground out.
Raw need thrummed through his veins, and he lifted her bodily and deposited her on the edge of his writing table. Her legs widened to accommodate him as he stepped between them. The head of his cock rubbed between her delicate folds, and Maria gasped, clutching at his shoulders.
“Now,” she breathed. “Please, Jasper.”
He leaned in to nuzzle and tongue the soft skin of her neck as he slid two fingers inside her.
“You’re ready for me, love,” he groaned.
Sliding out, he coated his impossibly hard cock with her essence to ease the way, and then he pressed into her.
Her lips sought his, and he greedily took them, tangling his tongue with hers as he thrust. He cupped and squeezed her arse, before guiding her legs higher on his hips to allow for deeper penetration.
She gasped into his mouth. The musky scent of their coupling hung in the air, driving his need higher. His climax was building fast, so he slid his hand between them, found the little cleft among her folds that he knew would give her the greatest pleasure, and circled it with his thumb.
Her breath stuttered, and a keening cry came from deep inside her as she clutched at his back and shoulders, urging him faster with the heels of her feet.
“Oh Jasper,” she moaned. “ Jasper! ”
The sounds of their slapping flesh, heavy breathing, and passionate grunts echoed through his bedchamber, driving him even further toward the edge.
“Come for me, love,” he urged.
He continued to swirl his thumb, then arched her over his arm and bent to take one of her pert nipples into his mouth in a hard suckle. And with that, her head fell back on a silent cry, her body tensing beneath his as her sweet flesh pulsed around him.
“ Fuck ,” he said gutturally.
With three more thrusts, he withdrew and spilled his seed in hot jets over her belly and inner thigh.
“My God, Maria,” he breathed into her neck.
He nuzzled her soft, warm skin and breathed in her fragrance of books and ink mixed with the musk of their sex. A shudder ran through him, spreading gooseflesh over his skin.
Being married to Maria would surely be the same, but better: having long discussions over the dining table, breakfasting together in his bright morning room, satisfying their every desire at all hours, kissing at their leisure, lying abed in each other’s arms, finishing inside her enveloping heat?—
The thought stilled him, and his discussion with Thomas came rushing back through his mind. He wanted that image of his future, but he was unsure if Maria felt the same. His heart gave a pang, and the realization hit him full in the chest: he was in love with Maria.