The Devil's Necklace (20 page)

“Where did you get this?”

“Cook said a man came to the back door and asked her to see that you got it.”

Phoebe handed over the note, then hovered nearby, curious as to what might be in it.

“That will be all, Phoebe.”

Her curiosity unsatisfied, Phoebe’s mouth turned down. “Yes, my lady.”

Grace waited till her maid left the bedchamber, then opened the message. She recognized the writing from the other letters she had read and her insides tightened.

The paper trembled in her hand. As the authorities believed, her father remained yet in England. In the letter, he proclaimed his innocence and was working to prove it. And as Tory had warned, he was asking for her help.

Dear God.

Wherever her father had been these past months, it was clear he knew little of his daughter. Though he had some how learned of her marriage to a marquess, it was obvious he didn’t know that Ethan had once captained the
Sea Witch,
that her husband believed the viscount was the man responsible for his imprisonment and the loss of the men in his crew. He didn’t know Ethan was determined to see him hang.

And she didn’t think he knew that she was with child.

Oh, dear God!

If only Aunt Matilda were there. Her aunt could meet with the viscount, find out what he needed, try to help in some way. But according to recent letters, Lady Humphrey had been ill these past months and unable to travel. It was the reason she had not made the journey to London.

Grace could ask Victoria for help, of course, but she refused to put anyone else in danger.

And yet she also refused to abandon her father in his
time of need. He was innocent, he had said. Before his trial, she had read everything she could find about the case but nothing seemed conclusive. Throughout the proceedings, he had proclaimed his innocence, but the court had found him guilty and sentenced him to hang.

Grace had taken steps to see that didn’t happen.

Once again, she prayed she would find the courage to do what she had to do.

T
he London day dawned cold but clear. The wind blew leaves into the gutters and the people on the streets bundled themselves into heavy woolen coats. As the rented hackney carried Ethan home from the docks, the brisk London breeze seemed to sharpen his sense of anticipation.

For weeks he had thought of this day, imagined it a hundred times. Since he had sailed off on the
Sea Devil,
he had wanted nothing so much as to put the war behind him and return to his home.

Return to Grace.

He loved her, he now knew. The months of longing for her had made that clear, and yet the problems between them had not changed. He had vowed to bring her father to justice and now that he was back in the city, he was honor-bound to pursue that course. Still, he wouldn’t renew his search today.

Today he was going home and his thoughts turned in that direction as the hackney rolled up in front of his town house. Ethan paid the driver, descended the iron stairs and, for a moment, simply stood in front of his home,
gazing up at the three-story brick dwelling that represented all he wanted in life, all that had kept him going these past months at sea.

He climbed the front porch stairs and reached for the heavy brass knocker, but the door swung open before he could grasp the anchor-shaped knob.

“Lord Belford! What a marvelous surprise. Welcome home, milord.” Baines was smiling. It was a rare occurrence and Ethan found himself smiling in return.

“It’s good to be home, Baines.”

“We had no idea you were coming. Shall I inform her ladyship of your arrival?”

“Where is she?”

“In the green drawing room, sir.”

“Thank you, but I’ll tell her myself.” He started in that direction, making his way down the hall. He was nervous, his limp a bit more pronounced. When he reached the door to the drawing room, he paused in the opening, just stood there staring at the woman reading quietly on the sofa.

She looked more beautiful than he remembered, her skin porcelain smooth and glowing with a radiant light, her glorious auburn hair piled into soft curls that shined in the afternoon sunlight. It didn’t matter that she was huge with child. He thought her the loveliest woman he had ever seen.

He stood there a moment more, drinking in the sight of her, aching to go to her. But he wasn’t sure what to say, wasn’t even certain that she would be glad to see him. He prayed that she would, that she carried at least some of the feelings he felt for her, that somehow they could bridge the chasm that existed between them.

He was ready for that now, ready to set the past aside and go forward as she had once begged him to do.

She looked up at him then, and just for an instant their
eyes locked, hers a startled green that began to fill with tears. His chest constricted as a dozen emotions assailed him, all jumbled into something he was only beginning to understand.

“Hello, Grace.”

Grace sat there frozen. For several long moments, she simply could not move. For the past half hour, she had been sitting on the sofa, her back aching, her ribs feeling expanded beyond all possible limits. All the while, she had been thinking of Ethan, worrying where he was, if he were safe.

Now he was here as if he had somehow heard her thoughts and her heart felt as if it had stopped beating.

She blinked, trying to convince herself he was really there and the tears in her eyes spilled over onto her cheeks. A lump swelled in her throat as she pushed herself up off the sofa, her gaze locked on his face. He looked thinner, but no less handsome, in a freshly washed shirt and breeches, his hair still damp and a little too long. He exuded the same power and sensuality she remembered and thinking of her ungainly shape, for a moment, her courage faltered.

“Ethan…” She started forward again, waddling more than walking, her hands shaking, legs trembling beneath her skirt. His gaze slid down to her belly and she thought she might see disgust in his beautiful blue eyes. What she saw was something else entirely.

He took two long strides and gathered her into his arms, drew her as close as her belly would allow and pressed his cheek against hers. “Grace… God, I missed you. I missed you so much.”

Grace clung to him, her throat clogged with tears. “I missed you, too.” She felt his hold faintly tighten, sur
prised by the fine tremor that ran the length of his body. “I was afraid you might be dead.”

He swallowed, looked into her upturned face. “We were in Spain for a time. I couldn’t send word. I thought of you every day, every minute of every day. I missed you so damned much.”

She eased back a little and her hand came up to cradle his cheek. He looked different, changed in some way she couldn’t quite grasp.

He tilted his face into her palm. “Gracie…love.”

Grace fought back a sob and then leaned toward him, pressed her mouth to his. She wasn’t sure what he would do but he simply kissed her back, softly, tenderly as if she might shatter if he kissed her the way she wanted him to.

He drew a little away, allowed his light eyes to roam over her body. “Are you all right?”

Was she all right? Everything in the world was wrong, except that Ethan was home. She managed a trembly smile. “I am fat and ugly and miserable. And unbearably happy that I will soon be a mother.”

He trailed a finger along her cheek. “You are not ugly. You are more beautiful than I have ever seen you.”

Grace’s smile wobbled. “Something must have happened to your vision while you were at sea.”

He shook his head. “I mean it.”

She glanced away, her throat tight. “Your son will soon arrive and my body will return to normal.” She thought he might withdraw at the mention of the child. Instead, the edge of his mouth faintly curved.

“Perhaps the babe will be a girl.”

Grace stared up at him and shook her head. “It is going to be a boy. I am sure of it.”

His gaze softened. “Always so fierce.”

Grace went back into his arms. “I am so glad you are home.”

“I won’t leave again,” he said against her ear. “I promise you that.”

Her heart squeezed. Ethan wasn’t a man to break his word. He was home for good and he had missed her. Of all the homecomings she had imagined, this was not one of them.

Grace smiled. Ethan was home and she was so unbelievably happy.

Then she remembered the letter she had received from her father and the meeting she was determined to keep and her smile slid away, replaced by an icy foreboding in the pit of her stomach.

Ethan left his pregnant wife asleep upstairs in her room. God, it felt good to be home. The War Office had wanted him to accept another mission, but this time he had refused. The great victory at Trafalgar had given British naval forces command of the seas. It would result, Ethan believed, in Napoleon’s eventual downfall. He had done his duty. He had another duty now, one it was well past time he at tended.

As Ethan went into his study to begin the lengthy job of put ting his estates back in order, his mind remained on Grace and the future ahead of them. In the months that he had been gone, even during the battles his ship and crew had fought, Grace had never been far from his mind.

The moment he had seen her, round with his child, her face radiant with the glow of coming motherhood, he had known that he had been right. He was in love with her. He could no longer deny it.

He was in love with Grace, and yet the problems they faced had not changed. Her father was wanted for treason
and the vow he had made to see justice done would haunt him until that vow was fulfilled.

Even as he thought of the love he felt for Grace, Ethan was less certain of the future than he had ever been before.

Grace went into labor the following day. False labor, as it turned out, but Ethan had frantically summoned the physician as well as a midwife.

“It’s good you’re keeping a close eye on her,” Dr. McCauley, a friend of Ethan’s, had said. “But the babe won’t be coming today.”

As Grace listened to the two men speaking near her bed side, she silently prayed the child would wait at least a few more days. The meeting with her father was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. She had no idea how she was going to get out of the house without Ethan knowing, no notion how she would manage to get to the Rose Tavern and back home in her condition, but somehow she must.

In the meantime, she was feeling the effects of her pregnancy more and more. Her stomach burned if she ate too much. Her pelvis and ribs were sore, her back ached constantly and she visited the chamber pot what seemed every few minutes.

Standing in her upstairs sitting room late in the afternoon, she pressed her hands against her lower back, trying to ease the pain.

“Your back is hurting?”

A warm tremor went through her at the sound of Ethan’s voice. She turned and saw him standing in the open door way, tall and entirely too masculine. Since his return, he had taken command of the household as if it
were his ship, his first order being that at night the door remain open between their two rooms.

“What if your time comes?” he had said fiercely. “What if you need something in the middle of the night?”

She didn’t remind him that she had a maid to see to her needs. He had been gone so very long and she had missed him so much and now she was enjoying every minute of his attention.

“My back hurts,” she said with a rueful smile. “Along with everything else.”

“Come, lie down. I will give you a rub.”

She eyed him over her shoulder. A back rub sounded heavenly. “Are you certain?”

“You are too far along for us to make love. Let me do this for you.”

It had been so long since Ethan had made love to her she flushed at his casual remark. She could hardly be attractive to him now but soon the child would come and she would be her old self again. She prayed that he would want her the way he had before.

He crossed the room, his course determined. He set to work building up the fire to lessen the October chill, then helped her remove her clothing down to her chemise, helped her up on the mattress, then eased her onto her side.

Grace closed her eyes as his hands moved over her body, gently massaging her aching muscles, her calves, her legs, her feet. He didn’t touch her breasts, but she sensed that he would have liked to and they tingled as if he had.

She flushed as her glance caught the heavy bulge at the front of his breeches. “Surely you can’t feel desire for me.”

He smiled at her softly. “No? I admit, I never thought a woman heavy with child would appeal to me, but I discover, where my wife is concerned, my desire for her has not lessened.”

Warmth filtered through her. He had always been a virile man but this was completely unexpected. “Thank you.”

“For the back rub?”

“For making me feel like a woman.”

He began to pull the pins from her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders. “You are more woman than any I have ever known.” He unfolded a blanket and gently floated it over her. “Sleep for a while. I’ll have Phoebe wake you when it’s time for supper.”

Grace didn’t argue. As her time drew near, she was exhausted yet having a difficult time falling asleep. At night she lay awake, her body aching, needing the rest but unable to sleep. Tomorrow was the scheduled meeting with her father.

That worry alone was enough to keep her from her badly needed slumber.

Ethan lay awake though it was well past midnight. Since his return, he’d had very little sleep. So much had happened. So much had changed in the months he had been gone. He scarcely recognized the woman who had greeted him in the drawing room and yet, even in her ungainly state, he felt the longing, the same pull of attraction he had felt the first time he had seen her aboard the
Lady Anne.

As Grace lay abed in the other room, Ethan heard her stir and knew that she was awake. In the mornings, he had noticed the faint purple smudges beneath her eyes, the tight lines around her mouth. Tossing back the covers,
he grabbed his burgundy silk dressing robe off the foot of the bed, pulled it on and padded across the carpet through the open door between their rooms.

“Ethan…?” The sound of her voice reached him through the darkness. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“I was already awake. I noticed you’ve been having trouble sleeping.” He could see her lovely green eyes in faint rays of moonlight seeping in, her gaze as troubled as his own. “I thought perhaps…”

“Yes…?”

“I thought that I might be able to help.”

Several seconds passed. “The fire has gone out,” she said softly, “and it is cold in the room. Perhaps if you joined me, your warmth would help me fall asleep.” Grace drew back the covers.

After the long weeks of wanting her, sleeping with Grace and not being able to make love to her would be punishment of the very worst sort.

And utter bliss.

Tossing aside his dressing robe, he waited as she slid over, making a place for him in bed, then he climbed beneath the sheets, bare-chested, wearing only his smallclothes.

In a long white cotton night rail, she lay on her side, the protrusion of her belly out in front of her. Ethan set his hands gently on her shoulders and set to work rubbing her back, her buttocks and legs, hearing her soft sigh of plea sure. When he was satisfied with the job he had done, when his arousal became too painful, he curled himself around her, fitting them together spoon-fashion, holding her until she fell asleep.

As he lay beside her, he tried not to think of the appointment he had on the morrow, a meeting with Jonas McPhee. There was fresh news of the viscount.

Word was Harmon Jeffries was somewhere in the city.

Grace fretted all day, trying to decide which of the numerous plans she had formulated to escape the house—and Ethan’s watchful eye—might actually work.

Her best chance, she decided, would be to find a way to get Ethan to leave. She would travel to Covent Garden while he was away, leaving him a note should he return before she got back that she had gone to visit Victoria and baby Jeremy and would return to the house very shortly.