Fortune Knocks Once (5 page)

With eyes round and wide, she gazed up at him and slowly and solemnly nodded her head. “I w-w-want children,” she replied in a quiet voice.

 “Ah, you do, do you?” he said softly as he gently raised his hand to brush a stray strand of her hair away from her face, which caused her to flinch violently away from him and scurry to the other side of the room.

Damn! She is skittish as a newborn colt, he thought morosely. How in the world would he bed her if she panicked when he just touched her? And just touched her hair, not even one of the delicious naughty bits of flesh he would want to touch and caress and kiss during a night of wild love making.

He sighed dejectedly. Evidently there would be no wild love making, no nights of grand passion in this marriage.

His shoulders slumped and a feeling of gloom crept over him. He gazed at the slight, frail girl standing across the room from him, staring at him with anxiety and longing in the huge eyes that dominated her thin weary face. She was dirty, wrinkled and wearing clothes his servants would throw out.

He turned away from her to gaze out of the window, wishing he had a bottle of decent French brandy, not the swill they served in this place. But there was to be none of that either it seemed. His shoulders sagged and he suddenly felt so tired that all he wanted was to retire at once to the bed in the other room. But first he had to deal with her.

“Let’s take this very slowly, shall we?” he asked her as he turned around and faced her, speaking in the tone one would use to calm a frightened animal. She nodded quickly. “You don’t talk much do you?” he said in a tone that indicated he didn’t really expect a response.

“Unpleasant as this place is we can spend tonight trying to rest. I promise I will not force myself on you. We won’t even attempt the wedding night business until you can enjoy it with me. Does that meet with your approval?” Ormonde spoke quietly, dropping his head to look into her downcast eyes.

“But you must trust me, can you do that?” As she nodded her head he moved closer to her and took her hand. “I will touch you, but only when you allow it. Do we understand each other?” he continued, soothing with his voice and stroking with his fingers.

As she nodded her head, a knock at the door signaled the arrival of dinner. The sight and smell of the food instantly diverted both of them and they quickly sat down at the table. As it was served, Ormonde kept up a constant monologue of witty conversation about London life and people as they ate a surprisingly adequate repast of country bread, stew, several types of cheese, and ale, of which Ormonde consumed the lion’s share.

After that the bath arrived in the form of an enormous tub carried up by two men with arms the size of small lambs and a quick succession of young girls bearing hot water until it was filled.

“I will leave you in privacy to enjoy your bath but then you must join me in the bedroom.” He said gently. He frowned slightly and looked around. “You have no nightclothes, do you?”

Not waiting for an answer, he went into the other room and came back with a white linen shirt from his own valise. “Put this on after your bath. You won’t want to wear those dirty clothes of yours and I can’t imagine you would be comfortable joining me in the altogether, would you?” He chuckled to himself at the thought.

A mortifying blush swept across her neck and face, from the humiliation of the truth of his statement and from resentment at his effrontery in saying it to her.

He’s making sport of me. He finds me ridiculous.

She snatched the shirt from his hand and murmured a barely audible “thank you”. Then she braced her shoulders and turned away from him so he wouldn’t see the impact of his words, facing the tub of warm water waiting for her.

And of course, I am ridiculous. Forced to wed a man who only wants my money… would never have taken me without it…not me…never me.

She stood still and silent waiting for him to leave the room, too tired and humiliated to ask for help or respond further to his subtle sarcasm. After hurriedly undressing and bathing quickly, she put on the soft white shirt which enveloped her neck to knees and tiptoed into the other room to find him lying across the bed.

“Come here,” he said, patting the bed. “We’ll just sleep. We are both exhausted. Tomorrow we leave for my estate in Ireland and everything can wait until we get there,” he said wearily.

After she had lain down beside him and he extinguished the candle, they both turned on their sides away from each other, taking care not to touch and fell instantly asleep.

~~~

He lay on his side in the lumpy uncomfortable bed, slowly and gradually regaining consciousness to the sounds of the busy inn and small surrounding village. Sunlight streamed in the grimy window hitting him across the face.

But with a sharp jerk of awareness he realized his new wife was curled up in the bed like a kitten, facing away from him, the shirt she had worn for bedclothes wrapped around her waist, with her smooth, slim, naked derriere tucked against his groin. In his sleep, his body, like a sunflower following the path of the sun, had turned and cupped the enticing bottom and was now responding to it to an alarming degree considering his promise to her last night.

He slid up to a sitting position to get a better view of her face to see if she was awake. Convinced she was still sleeping, he found himself watching her, noticing the feminine features of her small face and the porcelain quality of her skin. She’s really quite pretty when you can actually see her face and it isn’t frozen in fear, he thought, smiling as he remembered the last few days with her.

Charlotte slowly came awake, cautiously lying very still until her consciousness caught up with her surroundings. She realized that Colin was already awake and watching her. She listened carefully for any clue to his mood.

What is he thinking right now? Does he like what he sees? What will he expect from me now?

Realizing that she was now awake, he jumped from the bed, quickly turning away from her to hide the evidence of his growing arousal and gave a gruff good morning. “I imagine we should get moving quickly,” Colin barked, annoyed that she had caught him watching her and that he seemed unable to control the lust surging through his loins.

He donned his trousers, then turned and stared at her. Now lying on her back she was watching his every movement, her brown eyes fixed on his. Her mahogany brown hair was tousled around her face glinting in the sunshine, her eyes still half closed in sleep, and her delicate mouth relaxed and slightly open.

His shirt was falling over one delicate white shoulder and exposing to view the rounded tops of her bosom. Her slim shapely legs curled in the bed covers and were uncovered up to her thighs. He abruptly looked away from the enticing view in irritation. She looks ready for me to jump back in beside her, he thought. But last night I made a promise to her. The least I can do is keep it.

Through her half closed eyes, she looked at him intently, drinking in his long, strong face with the high forehead and black hair, rumpled and pushed back. He had a perpetual half-smile countenance, with his dark eyes slightly tilted at the corners, his mouth cocked up and his cheek creased, but only on one side.

He is so wonderful! Oh, how can I be a proper wife to such a handsome man with my Defect? And a nobleman! Will we ever be happy together?

Colin waited for her to say something and when she didn’t he started moving again. “I’ll arrange for some breakfast,” he grumbled. “Although it looks to be closer to dinner time.”

Dressed only in his pants, he rooted around on the floor for his shirt as she meekly asked, “Why d-d-d-did you m-marry m-me?”

He straightened up and turned to face her. “You know exactly why, don’t make me say it; we needn’t make it uglier than it is,” he replied.

“N-no, I m-mean, you thought it was a j-joke,” she said so softly he could barely hear her.

“You want the whole story right now?” he asked annoyed at the interruption to his escape from the room. After she nodded, he looked at her for a few seconds, gave a large sigh, then sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Well, after you left that night I went out and made inquiries,” he began, and as he talked he swung his long legs up onto the bed beside her and leaned his back and shoulders against the headboard.

“I asked at several clubs and sad to say, several hellholes, about you and your uncle. I happened upon George Stanton, three sheets to the wind as luck would have it, and found him very willing to regale me with tales of both of you.”

Colin slid a little closer to her.

“He talked to me for a long time about your isolation, how your uncle doesn’t provide for you properly, how your father left you with a very significant fortune. He explained your uncle’s resolve to keep you unmarried so he could remain in control of your inheritance and spend the rest of his days drinking and gaming it away.”

While he was talking, Colin took her hand in his and slowly began caressing her hand, rubbing each finger slowly and softly, then moving up her arm to her shoulder, and back down again, over and over.

It’s almost like he is petting a poor pathetic creature he found on the street. He rescued me just like the cat he picked up in front of my house.

He seemed unaware of his actions, unconscious that he was touching her and although this soothed her jittery nerves and put her at ease, it was also strangely annoying.

He isn’t attracted to me in the slightest - as he revealed when he so willingly delayed the pleasures of the marriage bed last night. Humph! I didn’t even have to ask twice for that. He was eager to escape.

Yet despite her irritation and misgivings, his slow, massaging ministrations were working magic. Before long she was basking in a rush of warmth throughout her body from his tender caresses and she responded to it by relaxing and slowly easing closer to him.

As he spoke of the things he had learned about her, leaving out all the meanest gossip and innuendo about her painful stuttering, he continued to touch and caress her softly.

As she slowly relaxed, he eased down to lay beside her and she gradually turned her head and body toward him. He shifted his body and eased her under his arm so that her face was resting on his chest, inches from his face, her hip tucked into his and their legs touching.

She had never been held in so intimate a position and her breath caught sharply as her face burned a bright blushing red.

“It’s alright, he said. “Just a bit of a cuddle, nothing more. Before we get on the road again, let’s talk and make friends, what do you say?”

“Th-th-that would be n-nice,” she answered.

“Tell me a bit about yourself. You’re a young little thing, aren’t you? How old are you?” he prodded her.

So in a quiet whispering voice, she haltingly told him about bits and pieces of her life such as it had been since her parents’ deaths. As she did, he nuzzled her soft, tousled hair, breathing in the faint smell of lilac soap, caressed the fingers of one hand and delivered small kisses about her head and ear.

When he pressed a gentle kiss to the curve at the base of her neck, she shuddered slightly and instinctively moaned aloud. “Like that do you?” he chuckled softly.