“Judge Rickard, sir.”
“Ah, yes, I believe I have met him. Good fellow. Tell him to feel free to call on me at the castle if he has any questions. I shall be happy to attend the inquest, of course.” He patted the pocket of his jacket, then said, “Pardon me. I was out hunting when I received word of the crime, and I haven’t any cards on me. Just tell the judge it is Lord Rawdon at Castle Cleyre, should he need me.”
“Yes, my lord.” The innkeeper bobbed a nod of respect, clearly overawed by Alec’s title and manner.
“But now I must take my guest back to the castle to recover from this harrowing event. I fear it has been a dread ful shock to her nerves.”
“Of course, my lord.”
Alec had the post chaise brought around, with fresh horses harnessed to it, and he whisked Damaris out to the vehicle and handed her up into it. For a moment Damaris feared that he was going to ride his stallion outside the carriage, but as she watched, Alec spoke to one of the ostlers, handed him a gold coin, and climbed up into the post chaise with her. With a flick
of his wrist, he closed the curtains on either side, then pulled Damaris into his lap, cradling her to his chest.
He bent his head to hers, pressing his lips against her forehead. “Sweet Lord, Damaris, I thought I had lost you.”
“Oh, Alec…” Tears began to flow from her eyes again, and she nestled deeper against him, clutching the lapels of his jacket with both her hands. “I was so scared. I could not believe it when you broke into the room!”
“That man was your—he was really Barrett Howard? I thought he was dead.”
“He was! I mean, I thought he was.” Damaris straightened up so that she could look into his face. “They told me he had died in a fire in an inn. I have believed him dead for the past eleven years. I nearly fainted when he walked up to me in the garden.”
“At the castle? He came to you at Cleyre?”
“Yes. At first I was stunned, but then it all made sense. It was he who sent those men after me.”
Alec’s eyes narrowed. “I should have known it was simply a man who desired you.”
Damaris let out a humorless laugh. “It wasn’t from desire, believe me. He apparently saw me at that ball at your house. He thought I was about to try to enter the
ton
, I think, and he was afraid I would recognize him and reveal who and what he really was. He was apparently engaged in the same sort of scheme he used when I met him, trying to deceive some heiress into marrying him. It would have been a disaster for him if I told everyone he was already married to me. The silly part
was that I never even saw him. His secret would have been safe if he had just left me alone.”
“But why did you go off with him? Why did you not stay in the house when you came back inside? Why did you write me that letter?”
Damaris saw the flash of pain in his eyes, quickly shuttered, and she let out a low cry. “Oh, Alec!” She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned in to kiss him. “I did not want to hurt you, I swear it!”
She kissed his lips again, and he reached up to hold her head in place, sinking his mouth into hers possessively. It was a long time before they broke apart, and when they did so, their color was up and their breathing uneven. Alec closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers.
“Don’t ever leave me that way again,” he murmured. “I was nearly wild.”
“I’m sorry.” Tears choked her throat. “I did not want to. He threatened you.”
He raised his head, the old familiar look of arrogance, now so dear to her, settling on his features. “You thought I could not handle him? That he would get the best of me?”
“I thought he would shoot you,” Damaris retorted bluntly. “He said that if I did not go with him right then and there, he would seek a bill of divorce, and he would accuse you as the man with whom I had committed adultery. He would drag your name through the mud. And it would not be just you who suffered, you know that. Your entire family would be caught up in the scandal. All because of me! Because I was
so foolish as to have married that blackguard! The only way I could stave him off was to go with him. I had to get him away from there, from you. I was afraid of what your temper might lead you to do.”
“I would have done exactly what I did. He was a dead man either way.”
“I didn’t want you to kill a man for me. I did not want to be the cause of your having his blood on your hands.”
“My dear girl.” Alec’s voice was tinged with faint amusement, and he picked up her hand and brought her fingers to his lips. “Did you really think it would cause me any regret to have ended that snake’s existence?”
Damaris glanced at him. “I don’t know. It seems it should.”
“He hurt you,” he said simply. “He deceived you; he took you from me; he was about to rape you. There is no way I would let him live.”
“I suppose I should not feel happy about that, but I do. I did not doubt that you could overcome him in a fair fight. But he was carrying a loaded pistol, and he said that if you came after us, he would shoot you. Any man can fall if taken by surprise and at a distance. I could not take that chance.”
“And so you wrote me that note.”
“Yes.” Tears sprang into her eyes again. “I am so sorry to have hurt you. I did not think, after that, that you would come for me.”
“I will always come for you.”
Damaris snuggled into him, feeling, finally, safe and warm. The rocking of the carriage lulled her, and she closed her eyes, drifting into sleep, secure in his arms.
D
amaris awakened when the carriage
rolled to a stop in front of Castle Cleyre. Damaris sat up drowsily as Alec set her aside and climbed down from the carriage. Damaris followed him, looking up at the great stone edifice of the castle, its windows glowing warm and bright against the darkness. To her surprise, instead of giving her his hand to step down from the carriage, Alec reached in and swooped her up in his arms, carrying her up the steps to the door.
“Alec!” she protested, smiling. “Whatever are you doing? I am not an invalid.”
“Humor me.” He carried her inside, and she thought he would surely set her down there, but instead he started up the wide sweep of staircase.
She caught a glimpse of Lady Genevieve and Sir Myles popping out of the drawing room door and staring up the stairs after them, eyes wide with curiosity. Damaris closed her eyes again and put her head on his shoulder, grateful not to have to face any questions from Alec’s sister. Genevieve had
never been friendly toward her, and Damaris suspected that the woman thoroughly disliked her now.
When he reached her room, Alec set Damaris down carefully on the bed, ringing for a maid to bring a tray of food and brandy as well.
“Alec…” Damaris laughed, sitting up and leaning back against the massive headboard. “I am fine. Truly. ’Tis very nice of you to cosset me, but not necessary.”
“You have been through an ordeal that would send a large number of ladies into hysterics.”
“Ah, but I am not a lady.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.” He turned bright, fierce eyes on her. “You are the finest lady I know.” He ran his knuckles down her cheek. “Now, you eat up and drink your tot of brandy like a good patient.”
The butler himself carried in the small silver tray containing brandy and two glasses. He was followed a moment later by Alec’s aunt, who hugged Damaris and exclaimed over her, though she seemed rather vague as to what had actually happened to her. She also insisted on laying one of her own crocheted throws over Damaris’s legs, positive that whatever ailed her could be combated by heat. It was all Damaris could do to persuade her not to have more logs added to the fire. They were soon joined by Myles, offering jests and pleasantries, as well as by Lady Genevieve, who was, unsurprisingly, more reserved in her greetings.
Finally, Alec herded everyone out of the room, then came back to stand by the bed. “Would you like to be by yourself?”
“No.” Damaris reached out to take his hand. “I would rather you stay, if you don’t mind.”
“Hardly.” He sat down on the side of the bed. “Though my grandmother would have hysterics about my being alone with you in your chamber. The fact that I am sitting on your bed would probably render her speechless.”
“’Tis not the first time you have been with me here,” Damaris said softly, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand.
A light sparked in his eyes. “Vixen,” he said affectionately. “You tempt me, knowing I cannot stay.”
“You need not stay. You could return.”
She felt his skin flare with heat under her fingers, and he lifted her hand to press a kiss to her palm. “You have no idea how much I want to. But I dare not. It was different when it was only Aunt Willa; she sleeps like the dead and would never whisper a word of sanction even if she saw me entering your room. But it’s a different matter now that Genevieve and Myles are here.”
“You worry they will gossip?”
“Lord, no. But…” He looked down at her hand, interlocking their fingers. “I want no hint of stain on your name.”
Alec cleared his throat and looked away. He was clearly reluctant to discuss the matter, so Damaris changed the subject.
“How did you find us so quickly?” she asked. “I mean, how did you know which way he had taken?”
“Genevieve told me.” When Damaris glanced at him, surprised, he went on. “She thought there was something odd
about it all, so she watched you leave. She saw the two of you get into the post chaise and saw which direction it turned on the road. After that, it was easy enough to follow.”
His words surprised Damaris. She would have guessed that Alec’s icy sister would have been happy to have seen the last of her, not help him find Damaris. However, it hardly seemed polite to say that she thought Genevieve thoroughly disapproved of her. She was silent for a moment, picking at the covers, then asked another question that had been tugging at the back of her mind.
“Do you mean to pretend that Barrett is unknown to us?”
Alec shrugged. “I saw no reason to admit any connection, especially since it turned out so fortunately that he was passing himself off as someone else.”
“It seems wrong to let him be buried under a false name. His mother… someone… may wonder the rest of their days what happened to him.”
“Are you certain that Barrett Howard was his name?” Alec asked.
“No. It probably was not. Like Stanley, it is the name of an aristocratic family, and I imagine that he assumed it, too, to aid in passing himself off as some outlying member of that clan. You are right: I have no idea who he really was.”
“You thought he died years ago. I presume that everyone else who knew him by that name thought the same.”
Damaris nodded. “The trustees of my inheritance certainly believed him dead. They were as relieved as I.” Her
lips curled in contempt. “That is the reason he wanted me to come with him.”
“What was?”
“The terms of the inheritance my father left me. At first, his aim was to smuggle me out of the country long enough for him to marry the heiress he had been dangling after. But he remembered that I would come into my inheritance in another couple of years, and he decided it would be better to be my husband again so that he could get his hands on my money. He said… he said if I was difficult, he would get a child on me and then do away with me and be the guardian of the money my baby would inherit.”
Alec’s eyelids drooped a little, covering the fierceness that leapt into them, and he said in that deceptively mild tone she had become familiar with, “I am sorry that I killed him so quickly.”
She squeezed his hand. “I did not want you to have to kill him, but I am grateful that you did. That is why I took your knife, you know. I thought I would get him far from you, and then I would slip the knife between his ribs.”
“Ah, my bloodthirsty girl. I am so proud of you.”
“Well, I could not. I mean, not in cold blood. I stabbed him when he attacked me, but it didn’t do much damage.”
“I know. I saw the blood on it when I picked it up off the floor.” He raised her hand to his lips again. “I was proud of you.”
There was a noise at the door as the maid came in with the tray of food, and Alec popped to his feet. He stayed with
Damaris while she ate, but after she finished, her eyes began to droop, and Alec rose, bowing over her hand.
“You need to sleep. I shall go.” He bent and kissed her lightly on the lips, but Damaris curled her arm around his neck, and his kiss deepened. It was with some effort that at last he pulled away. His voice was hoarse as he said, “Sleep well.”
Perversely, once the maid had returned and solicitously helped her dress for bed, Damaris found that she was no longer sleepy. She lay down and spent a long time staring at the pattern of the tester above her head. Then she slipped out of bed and sat down in the chair by the window, watching the moonlight on the outer walls of the castle.
She missed Alec. How, she wondered, had she managed to get into such a state after only two weeks of being with him? She wanted to lie beside him. Well, the truth was that she wanted much more than that, but aside from the sweet, deep ache that yearned for the temptation and surcease that only he could bring, she missed lying in bed with Alec at night, feeling his warm body curled against her back. She missed the kiss he pressed upon her shoulder before he would slide into sleep, and she missed waking up in the dark hours before dawn, feeling the hard urgency of his desire as he, too, awakened.