Chapter Five
The pub was alive with chatter and laughter. Noah ignored the celebration and watched Sophie give Siobhan a weary smile and begin the climb to the upper floor.
He would likely spend the rest of his life watching her hips sway as she walked away from him.
“Sir? I must thank you.”
Noah recognized the young man from earlier that Eddie had refused to let participate in the rescue. “For what?”
“Nancy says you rescued her from the fog.” The young man led him to the table near the fire where Nancy was waiting, a tankard in front of her next to a hearty bowl of stew.
Noah’s stomach rumbled as he sat. “You were waiting for Nancy?”
The young man nodded as he took the seat beside her. “I was about to set out alone. She’s not good with directions in the daylight, so I could imagine her wandering about in the dark. She’s lucky it was you.”
The two were obvious in the wish to continue their tale, but Noah wanted little else but to see that Sophie was safe and well.
“Baron Thorpe hired me as a lady’s maid for his daughter, Jilly,” Nancy said. “They own a big house out on the moor, but she goes into London a few times each year for shopping and parties and such.”
“But the man’s a lecher,” the lad said.
“Thomas.” Nancy looked around them to make sure no one heard. “You say that too loudly and people will get the wrong idea about me.”
“I don’t care who knows that you had to lock your bedroom door and sleep with the poker in your hand to keep him away from you,” Thomas said. “I had to get her out of there.”
Noah sighed. He was stuck in this now. “Of course you did. What are your plans?”
“We’re off to London as soon as it’s light enough for the train to travel,” Thomas said.
Noah’s head began to ache. Having rescued Nancy from one lecher, he couldn’t leave her with another. He beckoned for Siobhan to join them.
“I have a second room upstairs,” he said to the woman. “Would you show Nancy to it?”
“See here—” Thomas rose from his chair.
Noah put up his hand. “Thomas and I will sleep down here.” Where I can keep an eye on him.
“That’s awfully good of you.” Siobhan nodded to Nancy and smiled. “This way.”
Once he and Thomas were alone, Noah faced the lad. “Do you have lodgings arranged in London?”
Thomas nodded. “My cousin is a farrier for a stable near the Green Park. He says they can use a groom. I’ve served Lord Stape as an under-groom for the past three years. Time to move up a bit.”
“And Nancy?”
“She can find a position there,” Thomas said over the rim of his tankard. “Stay clear of the likes of Thorpe. She might not be a lady’s maid right off, but she’ll be well looked after.”
“And where will you live?” Noah asked.
“My cousin has rooms in Marylebone. I’ll be there.”
“Come see me in a week with particulars. Bring Nancy.” Noah handed him his business card. “If I find that you’ve led her into something untoward—”
“Ain’t nothing like that, sir.” Thomas’s eyes widened. “Nancy’s a sweet girl, but she’s got a head full of fluff. Always has. I just want to make sure she gets a better start than her father gave her when he handed her over to Thorpe.” He stared at the card. “We’ll call within a week, Mr. Carver.”
Noah nodded and stood. He caught Siobhan on her way to the kitchen. The celebration wasn’t slowing, and he was exhausted. “May I sleep in the stable? Perhaps take a bowl of stew with me?”
The good lady blinked up at him, a smile curving her lips. “Your missus asked for two bowls upstairs.”
Missus? Noah’s heart stuttered. “She, er, she did?”
The woman nodded. “Said to tell you she’d taken the room at the end of the hall, away from most of the noise, so you two could get a good rest.”
Noah nodded his thanks and climbed the stairs, counting as his feet touched each of them. His pulse thundered in his ears, drowning out all sensible thoughts. Sophie had spun a lie so they could share a room.
Perhaps she was more unnerved by the men’s attention than he’d thought. Or perhaps it was spending most of the night alone in the dark, watching Dumfries try to die.
Whatever it was, it would be practical. And he would not ruin it by making romantic assumptions. He would not walk in and kiss her silly.
Noah paused in front of the door and shot his cuffs before straightening the lapels of his limp, damp coat. He tugged his collar and fastened the buttons until his shirt was strangling him.
He was raking his fingers through his hair when Sophie opened the door.
“Hello,” she said as she stepped aside, using the door as a shield.
The bath was near the fire, keeping the water warm, and her clothes were drying over the back of a chair. She had even moved the coat rack nearer the warmth to try to save his greatcoat.
Two bowls of stew sat on the table, with cheese and bread besides. One had been scraped clean. The other was still steaming.
“I hope you don’t mind.” Her words ran together as she spoke. “I just couldn’t imagine your not having a hot meal and a soft place to sleep.”
“Mm-hmm.” The ends of her hair were wet from her bath, and her skin was still pink from scrubbing.
“And you needn’t worry about sharing a bed.”
He wasn’t taking the bed and letting her sleep on the floor. He took off his coat and hung it near the fire, preparing to argue with her. “Sophie—”
“It will be fine. We’re both exhausted, and it’s only for a few hours. We’ll just stay on our own sides.”
How could he sleep with her in reach?
“I would never risk our friendship if I thought I couldn’t do this, Noah.” She moved away from him, to the fire, as though she couldn’t get warm enough. “And I know you’re gentleman enough to remain true to…your lady.”
That shift was damn near see-through when she stood like that. He couldn’t see everything, but the shape of her made him ache.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to read your letter, but I was trying to put your notes away without ruining everything else, and it fell open.”
Letter. Sophie had read his letter. Noah blushed until his ears grew hotter than the coals in the hearth.
“You read my letter?” He wrote her every day and never gave her any of them.
She was never supposed to see them. He’d written one on the train this morning and creased it so sharply he’d almost ripped the paper. “It fell open?”
“I might have unfolded it.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Twice.”
“And you say you have no curiosity.” He walked toward her, navigating the obstacles between them.
“It emerged at exactly the wrong time.” She swallowed hard, her throat flexing with the effort. “I think it’s grand that you’ve found someone. And I know it’s strange, but it will make it easier for us to just sleep.”
She sounded like she was about to cry. She never cried in front of him. It gave Noah more than a little hope.
“I have found someone,” he whispered as he drew near enough to look into her deep brown eyes. “You.”
Sophie blinked up at him, tears on her lashes and at the corners of her eyes. “Noah, don’t be—”
Daft. He knew it before she said it. And he was. But so, he thought, was she. They had been for far too long.
“That letter was to you.”
*
“What?” Sophie asked, not trusting her ears, which had taken far too long to warm.
His wide smile crinkled the corners of his eyes, and she considered—briefly—that she had died on the moor. That perhaps Dumfries had shot her dead.
“I love you, Sophie.” He brushed his lips to hers. “I have since the moment I met you.”
He tasted lovely. Still, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him away. “You can’t.”
“Why not?” he asked, his eyes narrow.
“Because I’ve chopped off my hair.”
His finger traced her jaw. “You tuck it behind your ear when you think.” He swept along that sensitive arch, making it impossible not to melt.
Almost. “And I wear trousers.”
“Which need to be more tailored, if I’m honest.” He curved his hand to her waist, and his fingers rested on her hip. “Though you might never get out of the stable.”
The barriers she had placed between them were crumbling, threatening to crush her. It was difficult to breathe and think at the same time. “I have calluses.”
“And I don’t.” He pulled away enough for her to see the hurt in his eyes.
“I have been formally educated, and you haven’t.
My family has never had to fight for anything, while yours has built a living from nothing.
” He squeezed her fingers. “I will fight for us, Sophie. Will you? Do you not want to?”
She wanted that more than anything in her life. She would give up everything to have him, which was terrifying in its own right. “What if you change your mind?” She wouldn’t survive that.
“And what if you do?” he asked, his voice quiet.
Even though he was still touching her, the distance between them threatened to grow. Sophie drew a deep breath. She was going to have to be brave.
“I have loved you for so long it’s like breathing,” she said as she tightened her hold and pulled him closer. Her heart pummeled her ribs. “Every time you touch me, I want more.”
He curved his hand around her shoulder and slid it down her arm. “Show me.”
Sophie closed her eyes and focused on the warmth of his hand through the cotton of her borrowed nightdress, how he traced her curves and teased her fingers. He cradled her breast in his palm, and his thumb tormented her nipple through fabric.
And, when his lips touched her neck, it was a relief to fall into his arms and give in to what she wanted with a sigh.
Noah’s groan heated her skin as his tongue slithered up her neck until his breath pooled in her in her ear. “I don’t want to be a gentleman with you, Sophie. Please.”
“Oh thank God.” She turned into him and met his open-mouthed kiss with one of her own, whimpering as their tongues tangled. He tasted of mint and ale and smelled of fog and sweat, but his hands were gentle as he pushed the nightdress from her shoulders.
Sophie had no time to think about being naked in front of a man who wasn’t. Noah lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed, where the sheets were cool against her hot skin.
“Dear Lord, you’re more beautiful than I imagined,” he breathed as he stared down at her. “I don’t know where to start.”
“I want to see you like this,” she said, heat spreading over her.
Noah started with his boots, which thudded heavily to the floor, then the buttons on his shirt. He only got halfway down the placket before clawing it over his head and dropping it to the floor.
Sophie had known his shoulders were broad and his chest was wide, and she could see his thick wrists even when he was clothed—but she wasn’t prepared for the muscles beneath his skin or the hair that matted his chest and covered his arms. She rolled to her knees and faced him, watched him as she ran her fingers over his body and felt him tremble.
“You’re making it impossible for me to finish,” he muttered against her mouth as he kissed her. “So you’re going to have to help.”
He dragged her hands over his tight stomach until they reached the buttons on his trousers. Sophie eased back enough to see what she was doing and hissed as Noah grasped her nipple between his finger and thumb.
“Turnabout and all that.” His chuckle was pure sin.
Sophie pushed her fingers past his waistband to help undo the buttons and gasped as hot, hard flesh bumped her fingers, demanding to be free. Her insides clenched in wicked anticipation.
The last button gave, and Noah pushed his trousers open. His manhood popped free, large and erect, and her mouth went dry. She knew enough about sex to know where that was supposed to go, and it looked impossible.
Noah took her hand and curled it around his shaft, showed her what he liked, and growled his approval when she began to explore on her own, finding soft places and teasing him until he was thrusting against her hand.
He joined her on the bed, pushing her back to the mattress. “Not yet.”
Sophie was about to ask why, when he put his hands on her breasts so his fingers could trace her nipples.
When they drifted to her stomach, his mouth claimed first one breast and then the other.
His hands went lower, and his mouth followed.
His hum of pleasure made her close her eyes and smile as she widened her legs.
“Look at me, Sophie.”
She did as he asked, and felt his fingers brush her sex. Then one long, fine finger slid inside and curved against her, stroking her.
The heat that flushed over her had nothing to do with embarrassment, and it doubled when Noah added a second finger, increasing the pleasure until it was unbearable. Sophie grabbed his wrist in a silent plea to stop.
But, when he did, she was bereft. “Noah?”
“Trust me, sweetheart.”
He returned to the earlier rhythm, but brushed his thumb over a sensitive place that had her arching against him as her eyes slammed shut.
Everything inside her ached for something that was just over the horizon, and her body surged to meet it without her commanding it to do so. The shivering release left her weak.
And, true to the pattern, Noah replaced his fingers with his mouth, pushing his tongue inside her as his whiskers scraped her thighs.
The bright spot on the horizon returned again, larger this time, rushing toward her, and Sophie tangled her fingers in his dark curls as her heels scraped the sheets.
Screaming and shaking, she shattered into pieces.
His body covered hers as he kissed her nose and waited. Sophie pried one eye open and laughed when she saw his wide smile. “You look awfully proud of yourself.”
“I’m about to be.” Noah hooked his elbow under one of her knees and lifted it high as he slid into her, filling her to the point of panic and then giving her more.
He withdrew fully, leaving her empty and wanting, and then returned, again and again, kissing her on each return, relishing her welcome until she was rising to meet each thrust, wrapping her legs around him to keep him from leaving again.
His forehead fell to hers, and it was impossible to tell where his hair stopped and hers started, where his body separated from hers.
“I love you, Noah.”
“God yes.” He pushed deep and held her close as he spilled inside her, pumping his hips beneath her hands. Sophie followed close behind, shuddering to completion.
Noah rolled to the side and pulled her with him. “Thank you, darling.”
She raised to one elbow and met his gaze, waggled her eyebrows. “My pleasure.”
His laughter shook the bed.
After a moment, he stood and took her hand. “Come bathe with me.”
Sophie couldn’t resist, but she did have one worry. “You haven’t eaten yet.”
He looked over his shoulder. “I’m about to have the woman I love naked and happy in a bathtub. The last thing on my mind is stew.”