Blackthorne's Bride (30 page)

"What is this aversion to beds?" Jack asked, rolling her over, settling his weight comfortably on top of her.

She sighed, finding him even more difficult to resist than usual. Outside the bedclothes, the air was so cold, and inside, Jack was so wonderfully hot. She could have stayed wrapped around him all day ... if her cousins weren't due any moment.

"I don't have an aversion to beds," she said. "After all the time I've spent recently in carriages and on the ground, I rather appreciate beds."

"And I'd like to appreciate you in one," Jack said, smiling his wicked smile. His dark eyes were filled with desire for her, and it made her own blood heat. "Do you know that I've never had you in a bed?"

Maddie blinked. She hadn't realized. She and Jack had made love so many times now. How could they have never done so in a bed? What kind of wanton woman was she?

She smiled. Very wanton. Jack had always made her feel wild and uninhibited, and she loved that sense of freedom. If only he would stop trying to control her outside the bedroom.

She kissed his nose. "I promise to rectify the situation soon, but right now isn't the time. Catie and Josie will be here shortly." She pushed against Jack, but he didn't release his hold. Instead, he bent to her ear and whispered a very sinful alternative to her charity meeting.

Maddie blushed all the way to her toes, and if pressed, she would have admitted that she was very tempted by the suggestion. But she couldn't justify neglecting her work today. After all, today's meeting would not wait. And she had so much to do.

She just hoped she could concentrate. Jack and his creative diversions had a way of invading her thoughts at the most inopportune moments.

"Jack," she said regretfully, moving away from him. "I must go. We're starting plans for the fundraiser for His Royal Highness's Society for Invalid Veterans of Overseas Conflicts today."

Maddie rose from the bed, and Jack propped his head on a stack of pillows, watching her. "The Society for Invalid Overseas— What is this cause?"

"Why don't you come to our meeting and find out?"

He frowned. "I have a bear enclosure to design. The beast managed to break out of the last one."

She pulled on her dressing robe and brushed her hair back. "Is that what you do, locked in the library all day? I cannot imagine a bear enclosure takes that much thought. What are you really plotting?"

His face darkened for a moment, as though he were thinking of that very thing, and Maddie shivered. His grim expression worried her. She'd seen that expression on his face several times in the past two days, but each time she'd asked him about it, he'd said it was nothing.

She'd heard rumors about an altercation between Jack and Bleven at the prince's ball, but when she asked Jack, he told her not to worry, he wasn't going to allow anything to happen to her.

Apparently, he wasn't going to allow her to know anything either. Since their conversation about his mother, he'd been even more closed than usual. Maddie wanted to find a way to reach him, to assuage his guilt over his mother's death, but she didn't know how.

"Well," she said, walking to him now and kissing his forehead. "You're welcome to join us if you want."

Two hours later she prayed Jack wouldn't take her up on her offer. She could just imagine his reaction if he happened to glimpse the chaos reigning in the drawing room.

But it wasn't her fault! In fact, the more she thought about it, the chaos was his fault. If Jack wouldn't let her go to the needy, she had to bring them to her. It was that simple.

Though, had she the choice, she might have brought fewer.

When she told Laura Millingham, the society president, that she'd like to meet some of the invalid veterans of overseas conflicts, she hadn't expected Miss Millingham to respond quite so enthusiastically.

At present there were eight invalid veterans crowding in the drawing room. Even Maddie had to admit they were a motley bunch. A few resembled pirates more than decorated officers. Perhaps it was Captain Roberts's peg leg or First Lieutenant Finch's eye patch and gold hoop earrings, but something about the men made her pray that Jack stay ensconced in his library.

She had hoped to solicit the men's opinion on the decorations and food to be served at the fund-raiser, but the conversation had rapidly degenerated into a heated argument as to who had suffered more in the Colonial Wars.

"Ha! You think having a finger shot off is bad?" a Colonel Shivers shouted at a Lieutenant Beebe. "Try having your toes frozen off. Lost three of them. See here."

Maddie rubbed her temple as the bearded colonel removed his boot and wiggled the mutilated toes at the room as a whole. Poor Miss Milling-ham was white as a ghost.

The colonel swung the foot in Maddie's cousins' direction, and Catie shrunk back to avoid having the limb smack her in the face. "Oh, very, ah ... nice." She set her tea on the table and pushed it away.

Josie, seated beside her, craned her neck to get a better look. "Whoever the surgeon was, he did a good job sewing it up."

"What surgeon?" Colonel Shivers said. "By that time the Colonials had so overrun us, it were every man for himself. Why, I remember one time a friend of mine had the green rot on his—"

"Sir!" Maddie stood abruptly, jostling her own teacup and spilling the liquid. "I know all of us are fascinated by your campaigns under Cornwallis, but perhaps you could save a few stories for later. We wouldn't want you to have to repeat yourself."

The colonel chuckled. "Oh, no chance of that. I have a thousand stories, but of course some aren't suitable for ladies."

Maddie could only imagine what those might involve.

"In the meantime, we need to discuss"—she consulted her notes—"the refreshments."

Catie nodded at her eagerly. "Good idea. I have the list of possibilities we compiled right here."

Maddie took it and perused the selections. Be-hind her, the drawing room door opened, and Maddie stifled a frustrated groan. She finally had everyone's attention, and now the staff needed her. She'd told them she didn't wish to be disturbed. The servant—whoever it was—would simply have to wait.

"One moment," she said over her shoulder, not bothering to see which member of her staff had intruded. "I'll be with you shortly."

She turned back to her audience and noticed they were all sitting quite a bit straighter. Despite his peg leg, Captain Roberts had even risen from his chair. Maddie sighed. It must be Ridgeley behind her. He was the only intimidating member of the staff.

"Captain Roberts, do not worry about Ridgeley. Please sit and make yourself comfortable."

The captain opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Maddie shrugged. If he wanted to stand on one leg, she wouldn't argue. At least everyone had stopped quarreling. The room was silent.

She cleared her throat and was surprised when several veterans jumped.

"I was thinking that we might keep the refreshments simple—" she began.

"Maddie?" Josie interrupted. "You might—"

Maddie gave Josie a sharp look. "Just a moment, Lady Westman, let me finish."

"But—"

"We could serve tea, chocolate, and coffee."

The room as a whole gasped, and several other men rose, backing away from her.

Maddie raised her hands. "Very well. No coffee, then. What if we had punch instead?"

Several veterans began scrambling over one another, trying to get behind the chairs and couches farther away from her. Maddie, desperate, held up a hand. "Fine! No punch. We could have—"

Behind her she heard a distinctive grunting sound and turned on her heel to find Blackjack pushing his nose into her dress.

Maddie smiled. "Oh, this is what you were afraid of. I thought it was the coffee."

Without thinking, she reached down and patted the bear's wet nose, and the room erupted into pandemonium. Soldiers were rushing to get away from her and Blackjack, but all their canes and crutches had hooked together and Lieutenant Beebe fell over Colonel Shivers, knocking a lamp down in the process. Captain Roberts hopped on his peg leg, and another man, who did not seem to be an invalid and who Maddie speculated had joined the society only for the tea and biscuits, made loud gasping noises.

Meanwhile Miss Millingham, the society's fearless leader, was cowering in a corner, and Josie and Catie were laughing and shaking their heads. Maddie frowned at them.

"You needn't be afraid," she shouted, trying to calm everyone. "He probably escaped his enclosure again."

"Oh, I'm not afraid, ma'am," Lieutenant Beebe told her. "I just remembered an appointment."

Blackjack grunted.

"A pressing appointment!"

Someone threw open the door and Beebe and Roberts fought each other to be the first to exit.

"No fighting!" Maddie cried when a vase teetered on the edge of a table. "Please don't scare Blackjack."

Colonel Shivers hobbled past her. She hadn't realized a man missing so many toes could move that quickly. She caught his sleeve. "So coffee, then, Colonel, or punch?"

Suddenly, the door swung wide, and Maddie knew without looking who had arrived.

"What the devil is going on?"

* * * * *

Jack took a quick survey of the room. There were three old men trying desperately to escape; a lamp and two chairs were overturned; his wife's cousins were sitting on the couch, dissolved in a fit of giggles; and Maddie was pushing the bear behind her. No doubt trying to protect the beast.

From him.

Wise woman. He was in a mood to murder someone.

But it wasn't going to be the bear.

"Who the devil are all these men? Where the hell did they come from?"

Maddie frowned at him. "Don't talk to me like that in front of our guests."

"Guests?" Jack saw three men who looked like they'd just come in off a pirate ship. He'd be damned if one of them didn't have an eye patch and gold hoop earrings. What next? Would he be forced to walk the plank?

"Lord Blackthorne," Maddie said, "please calm down."

"Calm down?" How the hell was he supposed to calm down? His wife was driving him mad. First bears, then street urchins, now pirates, and ...

Jack frowned. Was that a woman hiding under the side table?

"I can see you're upset," Maddie was saying.

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She inclined her head. "Very well. I can see you're angry."

He advanced on her. "Oh, angry doesn't begin to describe what I'm feeling right now, madam."

"And that's your own fault," she told him, standing her ground, the bear now snuffling a potted fern.

"My
fault?"

"That's right. You won't let me leave the house, so I had no choice but to bring everyone here."

"Everyone?"

She nodded. "The veterans."

Jack paused, glanced at the remaining men. "You're veterans?"

"Sergeant Timms, my lord," one of the veterans said, doffing his ragged cap. "If you'll excuse me, there's a bear ..."

Jack sighed, moving out of the doorway so the remaining soldiers could escape. He wished he could do the same. "Who is that?" he asked, pointing to the woman cowering under the table.

Maddie bent down and peered under the table. "Oh, Miss Millingham! Lord Blackthorne, this is Miss Millingham, president of His Royal Highness's Society for Invalid Veterans of Overseas Conflicts."

"Of course it is. And I suppose she brought the, ah"—pirates—"veterans."

"I asked her to," Maddie said, instantly on the defensive. "I wanted to consult with the men on the decor and refreshments for the fund-raiser."

Grizzled veterans decorating a society fundraiser. Jack wanted to laugh.

But Maddie didn't look like she was laughing. In fact, her eyes looked decidedly watery.

Oh, bloody hell. He closed the remaining distance between them and pulled her into his arms. "Don't start crying."

"I can't help it," she blubbered. "I'm just working so hard on this fund-raiser, and nothing is going right."

From the corner of his eye Jack saw Maddie's cousins and Miss Millingham slip away. Blackjack lumbered after them. Jack held his wife tighter. "It will all work out, Maddie."

"But we still haven't made any decisions. Should I serve coffee or punch? And what about red and blue for the color scheme? And we don't even have a location. Josie is supposed to make some inquiries, but she'll probably forget."

"We can have the fund-raiser here. In the ballroom," Jack said.

Maddie arched her back and stared at him.

"I know it's a bit small," he conceded, "but—"

"No! Jack, I—" She sniffed. "Jack, do you really mean it?"

No, he didn't. He would rather shove a knife in his gut than allow a bunch of hoity-toity females and bedraggled pirates in his house to whisper and sip tea. But at least if the event was here, he'd have some control over his wife.

Some
was the operative word because, obviously, he had no control over her. All morning he'd been sitting in his library, imagining her upstairs, innocently sipping tea with her two cousins. In reality ... well, he didn't want to think about the reality. But if the fund-raiser were here, he could arrange extra security to keep Maddie safe.