Authors: Claudy Conn
She wasn’t going to be able to stop him. She could see that he had made up his mind. It was written all over his face, in the set of his jaw and the stance he had taken. She reached for his sleeves and tore at them fretfully, “He is a sneaky creep and won’t come at you fairly. You can’t play by the rules with him, Hunter!”
He laughed, “Are ye worried for me, love?”
She threw her arms around him, “What do you think?”
JACOB PACED IN his library. He looked around. This room had been redecorated by his father. It had the look of a man’s room; it had the feel of his Cressly heritage even in the woodwork that held all the ancient books and texts.
What would his father think if he knew?
He turned at the sound of approaching footsteps and smiled, “Hunter, I was just wondering where you might be.”
“I will get right to the point, Jacob…
do sit
,” Hunter said without preamble.
Jacob sat and waited, his eyes widening, as Hunter relayed the information he believed his young host should know.
Jacob, did in fact, interject with questions, and exclamations of ‘blackguard, scoundrel, and bloody hell. After Hunter was done, he rested his hands on his bent knees and released a slow whistle. “So, that is why Jerry has always been so mysterious.”
“Hmmm. The waters have gotten too murky for Swit to wade through and I don’t believe he was ever comfortable in the
spy
business,” Hunter said thoughtfully as he moved to the large bay window overlooking a stretch of green lawns, his hands clasped at his back.
“And Bellingham?” Jacob brought his lordship’s head around. “What will you do?”
“I have already done it. The results were disastrous. I had sent word to the Home Office, and I am afraid Bellingham did not wish to face what he had done. I am telling you all this, because I have just received a message that Bellingham has committed suicide.”
“Suicide!” Jacob stood up, his face drawn in shock. He shook his head, “Then I suppose that puts an end to it?”
“I don’t think so, Jacob. That is why you must know all the details. I am a guest in your home, and you have a right to know what I am involved in.”
“Yes, of course, and tell me how may I help?”
“By staying away from David Horwich. He is a dangerous and unscrupulous man and will be more so, as I mean to use him badly.”
“Use him? How so?”
“I have a plan, and forgive me, even I am not certain just how I will execute it. I still have to play it out in my mind, but I have Sidmouth’s blessings in the matter. Rest assured, I am not a rogue out for sport. The Home Office is behind my efforts.”
“I am behind you as well, anything you need, you have but to say the word,” Jacob offered staunchly.
“I shall, aye, then lad, I shall,” his lordship gave him a warm smile.
Shyly, Jacob hemmed a moment before he blurted out, “I am honored that you chose to confide in me.”
Hunter inclined his head, but before he could respond, Jacob hurriedly added, as he stopped his sudden pacing, “I have something I would like to tell you, as well.”
“Oh?” his lordship eyed him.
Sir Jacob felt a wave of heat reach his neck. “I have applied to the squire for Exerilla’s hand and he has accepted my offer to court her.”
Lord Hunter MacTorry burst out laughing, and then said, “No, ye haven’t, Jacob say ye haven’t! Why on earth would ye do such a thing, when ye are not in love with her and she is not in love with ye?”
“I believe I can make her comfortable. I can give her a certain degree of freedom and by doing that, make her happy. Besides once we are engaged, then that cad will not be able to try and force himself on her the way he has been doing. She doesn’t complain, but one only has to have eyes to see what is going on there. I had stopped by yesterday just moments after they had arrived home from the little jaunt she and Mrs. Horwich had taken and found David harassing her. He is a devil, Hunter. When she accepts my suit, she won’t be bothered with him any longer.” Jacob said looking away.
“Ye delude yerself, lad. David is not about to allow her to get engaged to ye and ye are forgetting that this lass won’t marry ye just to save herself from discomfort.”
“I think you overstep yourself, Hunter,” Jacob said again unable to meet his eye.
“I am not offering ye insult Jacob. I am only telling ye, that I think I have the lass’s measure and I doona think she will do anything but follow her heart. As we both know that means she won’t marry without love.”
“Some marriages of convenience work out very well. Love can develop out of affection and friendship,” Jacob offered.
Hunter scoffed and a low growl edged his words, “Affection, friendship, do ye think that is what this lass needs? No, laddie!. Exerilla was meant for more.”
“I think I can give her what she needs,” Jacob would not give up, he had promised Lucas.
His lordship suddenly clamed up. He eyed Jacob and waved it off, “Do what ye must, lad.”
Jacob sighed. Do what he must? Was it ever so simple?
* * *
The purpling ocean owns the coming sun.
But ere he break—a deed is to be done.
Lord Byron
EXERILLA WAS OUT for a walk, but not just any walk. It wasn’t for exercise or fresh air. She was hoping she might bump into Lord Blue Eyes, because the sorry truth was she was hopelessly in love. In love with someone she could never have. She was in love with a man from another time.
She was a mess.
Hunter had not stopped by for a morning visit and the afternoon seemed to be on its way out with no sign of him. She gave up hope that he was coming and decided to go out and about. She thought that she might see him on his way to or from Cressly Towers.
What was he doing? Why hadn’t he been to see her?
Sir Jacob had stopped by for a short morning visit and she had been unable to illicit any information about her Hunter. Instead, she had been shocked by Sir Jacob’s announcement that he had been given permission to court her.
They were friends and she was sure he had no romantic inclination toward her at all. He just suddenly decided to court her. It made no sense whatsoever and so she told him.
He said, “Exerilla, it is because we are friends that I think this will work. I would like to have a wife and carry on the name. You need to get out of this house and have one of your own. Without a dowry, well…even here in Dover, your expectations, well…” he had allowed his voice to trail off.
She had laughed and thrown her arms around him and told him, “You are a wonderful, kind hearted dear boy, but that is not enough. You should be with someone who loves you and I can’t be that person. I also think I should be with someone who I love and loves me. I’m holding out for that.”
It was ridiculous. Even if she wasn’t about to hop a train to the future a few months down the road, she would never contemplate marriage with someone she didn’t love.
He had hemmed and hawed and came at her for a while with some nonsense about being comfortable together. She finally made him see it just wouldn’t work for her and that she wasn’t going to be cajoled, or sweet-talked into such a marriage.
It was sad to think about. A young woman, stuck in the situation she was in, with little or no prospects. No way out and she might have to marry for convenience, get a life of her own, and to have children just to get away from someone like Horwich. She had an out, but she didn’t want to take it.
Jacob hadn’t taken offense at her refusal, and even said he would try and stop by on the morrow.
As she walked, daydreaming took over and she sighed contemplating the uncertain future.
All at once, she was aware of seagulls flying with a sudden rush. She listened as she stood perfectly still.
She was on a wooded bridle path and one that was the shortcut to Cressly Towers. She heard the unmistakable sound of one horses’ hooves pounding a well-worn dirt path. It was being ridden not so very far behind her, unseen because of the bend in the trail.
She turned, and felt a wave of dread as the horse and rider appeared.
David Horwich.
He was off his horse and striding hard toward her so fast that she blinked and then coughed at the dust his hard ride had created.
When she saw his fixated eyes, Exerilla had a sudden urge to call on her wand and stop him dead in his tracks.
What he needed was a good lesson. She would be leaving, but he would remain and no doubt terrify and stalk some other poor woman.
“Exerilla,” he said as he approached. “My father just told me. I can scarcely credit it. Sir Jacob has offered for —to court you?”
She waved this off. “Not that it is any of your business, but yes, he has.”
“You will not
accept his offer,” David said and his eyes looked wild with frenzy.
X wondered if he was unhinged. “No? Why not?”
“Because you are going to marry me, and soon!” he said as he grabbed her and brought her in hard against his chest.
Before she could stop him, he pressed her into his embrace and his lips came down roughly on hers.
She pushed at him. When this proved ineffectual, she balled her fists and pounded at his chest as she threw her head to one side and demanded, “Get off! Get off!” she shouted thinking he had truly lost his mind. It was time to use her wand. It would be a calling card sent directly to her father.
Use your brains, Xie girl,
she told herself.
“You are mine,” he said with a low throttled growl. “I can have you now and prove it. I can throw you to the ground right now and take you, over and over again. I will ruin you for any other man.”
“Try it and before you have a chance to touch me, I will tear off your balls with one hand, and stuff them down your gullet!” Exerilla threatened.
He stopped, momentarily taken aback surprised by her language. “
What are you?
Where did you learn to talk like that…like…?”
“Like a harlot!” She cut him off. “Isn’t that what you said I am?” She sneered at him.
He reached for her as she stepped backwards and X nearly called for her wand in that moment. There was the sound of horses, she thought as she looked past him.
David spun around, but though Exerilla strained to see, she couldn’t see anyone coming down the trail. No doubt they hadn’t come round the bend yet.
She folded her arms across her middle and with one raised brow told him, “You better ride off and leave me be, or I shall tell whoever is coming that you are a scoundrel and that you tried to rape me.”
He gasped as he was evidently shocked. “Rape you? I mean to offer you my name, you stupid tart! Now we’ll just have to see if I do so. First, all you will get is my cock.”
“Creep! If you try forcing me into anything, we’ll see how it ends!” she snapped right back at him, enraged more than frightened. She didn’t want to use her wand. She couldn’t chance it, but if she had to she would.
The sound of horses drew closer. He cursed before he hurriedly moved off and flipped the reins back over his horse’s neck while mounted the gelding. He pointed his animal toward the woods in the direction of the main pike, but he looked back as he moved off and with narrowed eyes as he hissed, “This does not end here, Miss High and Mighty bitch!”
She watched him ride off and realized she was shaking.
Her entire body was in a convulsion of tremors. She hadn’t been frightened, but she had been angry. She never liked losing control. Her mother had often warned her, she was a white witch with her father’s darkness. Her temper stemmed from his DNA. If she lost it, she could hurt someone. She always tried to keep it corralled.
She brought herself back under control as she walked down the trail as she wondered who the riders had been and where they had gone off to.
She walked some distance when she noticed a small creek so she cut into the thicker part of the woods to the water’s edge. She wanted to splash some of the cool fresh water on her face, when something made her stop and stand very still.
Not far away, she heard male voices. She amped up her witch’s volume and heard.
“Beloved boy, you know I must leave,” a stranger’s voice spoke sweetly.
“Not yet, stay Lucas. I’ve done what you asked,” Sir Jacob said pleadingly.
“
What the hell,”
Exerilla thought as she continued to eavesdrop unashamedly. She knew what she stumbled upon. She absolutely knew and it all began clicking together in her mind. She still felt the element of surprise.
“
I cannot
. People will wonder what it is I am doing in Dover. I have no real business here and no other acquaintances. In fact, I bumped into that Scotsman of yours earlier today. He is a downy one, not easily fooled. If he sees us together…
he will know.”
“You could be visiting me, what is odd about that?” Jacob offered softly. “We are friends and you are stopping by.”
“Yes. that is precisely what I told him, but if he sees us together…for any length of time
he will know.”
“I don’t care,” Jacob said.
“Ah,
but I do
. I enjoy my life, my status, and my friends. I don’t want that to change. I am not on a mission. I am simply trying to get through this life I was dealt. I mean to do so tolerably well. Don’t make demands of this sort, for I will give you up as much as I don’t wish to. I will protect the life I have chosen.”
“Do you not love me, Lucas?”
“I adore you, but remember this I love
my way of life
more,” Lucas answered.
A long silence followed, in which Exerilla was pretty sure just what they were doing. It was time to turn back and head for home. This was turning out to be one hell of an afternoon.
She never saw that coming. Here was the reason why Jacob had been courting her. It made sense. This was a time when men were still in the closet about their sexuality and forced to take desperate measures. She had always had a live and let live attitude, but this really opened her eyes. As she contemplated life in her time, she was happy she wouldn’t have to live in this era.
Suddenly, she received a jolt of sensation as right before her eyes the airwaves parted.
It happened, before she could stop it, before she knew what was going on, and before she could scream!