The Heart That Wins (Regency Spies Book 3) (22 page)

Sophia knelt down, so that they were level. Taking the hand that held hers, she kissed it and held it over her heart.

“I thought I had forfeited your love, but you have been steadfast. I have only lately understood my love for you and it is not what I thought at first.” She thought he grew paler, but she could not give him the reassurance he craved, not yet. “I went astray, but it was only by being lost that I could recognise the true path. You won’t have cause to doubt me again. Yes, I will marry you.”

His kiss was tender but his hands were adventurous. It did not take her long to realise that neither of them would be satisfied with this. His hand found its way beneath her skirts to her thigh.

The kiss became more intense and she discovered that he knew many more ways to please her than he had revealed last night. She gasped at one particular touch then he guided her hand and sighed when it touched him. She spread her fingers to see if it pleased him more and was rewarded with a soft moan. She was surprised that something so simple could give him so much pleasure.

He pulled away from her.

“Mary will miss us if we stay away much longer.”

“Mary will know we’re together.”

“No, I mean...”

“They know we were together last night. At least Edmund knows. He must have told Mary before we left. He was going to call you out.”

John became completely still.

“What would my chances have been?”

“A dead groom would be no use to anyone.”

“A live groom in those circumstances would have been less use.”

She was glad he understood the problem, but it was time he kissed her again.

“Am I presuming too much?” he asked, as he started to remove the fichu that covered her breasts.

“Not at all,” she said breathlessly, as the light material pulled against her nipples. “I thought we answered that question last night.”

He undressed himself first, stopping occasionally to claim a kiss or to remove her shoes and stockings, kissing her thighs and knees as he did so.

“You’re quite beautiful,” she said.

She trailed her hand down his chest, following it with kisses.  She was unsure what to do next, but thought that anything she did would please him. In this she was proved correct.

“It’s even better if you do this,” he said, putting his hand over hers and slowing its movement. “Don’t concentrate so hard.”

“I want to please you.”

“Oh, you do,” he said. He kissed her and she knew it was true. How wonderful his body was, that it provided so many opportunities for pleasure. “Now, though, it’s your turn.”

He undressed her slowly, touching and kissing every inch of her skin, until she thought she could bear it no more. Last night had been wonderful, but she understood now that John had rushed because he had been exhausted. Now that he could take his time she began to see how much more pleasure they could have together.

“Please,” she begged, as he kissed a spot at the back of her knee.

“I am yours to command, my love.”

He pulled back the covers of the bed and sat down on it, drawing her to him.

“I love you, Sophia. I give myself to you forever.”

Sophia bent and kissed him.

“My love and my husband.”

“Then come to me, wife, and we will be one.”

Afterwards they lay entwined together in the warmth of the late afternoon. Occasionally they would kiss or stroke each other. Sometimes they would talk about their plans for the future. Mostly, they were content to hold and be held.

Sophia was dozing when there was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” she called, aware enough to be grateful that John had not thought to answer.

“It’s me,” said Mary. “Edmund’s home and he wants to talk to John, but I can’t find him.”

Even through the door her tone was dry.

“I know where he is,” replied Sophia with a blush.

If Mary knew they were here, someone had seen them come in.

“Edmund’s bathing, but will be in his study.”

“I’ll take John to him.”

“Thank you.”

They gave her a few moments to get out of earshot.

“It will be better if we go together,” said Sophia.

“Do you think that will stop him killing me on the spot?”

“Yes.”

“Very well, my love. But if he should kill me, everything I have is yours.” At her smile, he said, “I’m serious. I made a will when I joined the army. Edmund has had it since I saw him in London before I went to Spain and I told him what was in it before you all left Paris.”

Sophia stroked his face and kissed him.

“Thank you. That was generous when you thought I didn’t love you.”

He was reluctant, but managed to get out of bed and wash himself and gather his clothes.

Sophia watched him all the time, marvelling at the way his body moved. She had thought everything about him was known to her, but it seemed this was not so. John the lover was not the same man as John her friend. Everything he did was to please her eye or her body and she was very pleased.

When it was her turn, she assumed that he watched her, a suspicion that was confirmed when she finished washing and found that he had not even started dressing. She was not as skilled at displaying herself for his enjoyment, but she knew no embarrassment as she washed herself and hummed a little tune.

“You should be dressed,” she said and brushed his chest with her fingertips as she passed.

When he made no move she added, “Keep telling yourself that Edmund will kill you, if he sees you in this state.”

“Why?”

She returned and wriggled her body against his.

“Because he will kill you if he sees you in this state.”

“He will sympathise with me,” he said, as he caught her around the waist and pulled her tight against him.

His kiss seemed to last forever, but she finally managed to get him into a fit state to leave the room.

Edmund looked up as they entered the study.

“I only wanted to see John.”

“We have news for you. We wanted to tell you together.”

John spoke before Sophia could. Edmund had every right to be angry; a young woman under his protection had been violated by a guest, who apparently had no intention of marrying her.

“Go on,” said Edmund.

“Sophia has agreed to be my wife. It was not the threat of a duel,” he added. “I always intended to propose after the battle. I was too tired last night and so glad to be alive and with Sophia, that... I forgot what was important and I didn’t propose to her.”

“No, John. You didn’t forget what was important. What was important was that you both survived the efforts of the French to kill you and that your love for one another has survived your own efforts to kill it.”

John was surprised. This was not the reaction he had expected.

“And yet you are angry. Does this mean you still intend to challenge John?”

Sophia asked the question that John was thinking. He was holding her round the waist and felt her move, as if to stand between him and Edmund. He tightened his grip and pulled her back; he would not allow her to be his shield.

“I do not intend to challenge John. I’m angry because there is already gossip. Sophia’s bed was not slept in last night and no maid was called to dress her this morning. You are neither of you discreet.”

John saw Sophia blush and knew she was thinking that they had not been discreet this afternoon either.

“There will be no more cause for gossip,” he said, knowing that Edmund would know what he meant, even if Sophia did not.

“Good,” said Edmund. “Then let me give you both my congratulations. We must get the banns posted at once.”

“Why the haste to get us married? Not that I object.”

“You can’t go back to England alone if you’re not married. Mary and I are going to Provence as soon as we can. There’s news of a relative of hers there.”

“Why are we going back to England?” asked Sophia. “Won’t John go back to Paris?”

“Ah,” said John, “I’m thinking about Parliament. Edmund’s right, you’re right, Mother’s right. I can’t solve the problem of these girls one at a time. He and my mother will support me.”

He would have seen this from the start if he had not been blinded by despair.

“But,” he added, “we cannot marry that quickly. I know Sophia doesn’t need it, but I should like her father’s consent.”

John’s esteem for Mr Arbuthnot was unreserved. He had brought up five daughters without his wife and, as far as John was concerned, he had done it very well. John had no intention of showing him any disrespect by marrying Sophia without his permission.

Edmund nodded.

“I thought that might be the case. I also thought you might want to marry Sophia quickly. I was wrong about that.”

He handed John the letter he had been holding. It was dated March of that year and was from Mr Arbuthnot giving his consent to a marriage between his beloved daughter Sophia and John Warren.

John showed it to Sophia, who laughed.

“So that was the important letter you had to get to England before we left Paris. You thought then that... but that means you knew all along that John’s reputation was a lie.”

“I knew it wasn’t completely true,” admitted Edmund.

“I told him not to tell you. You know why,” said John. “You think it’s over then, Edmund?”

He and Sophia could only go back to England if he were released from the army.

“I don’t know, not yet. If Bonaparte surrenders, then yes. He wouldn’t be allowed back to Elba again, nor anywhere else from where he might escape so easily. If he doesn’t surrender, I don’t know.”

“And what of the man who wanted to kill Sophia?  What did you do with him?” John asked as Edmund stared into the distance, apparently overcome by melancholy.

“I killed him.”

John had expected this and would have killed Joude himself, if he had thought that Edmund would not do so.

“Did he give you any information?”

“You mean did I torture him?”

Unaware that he did so, John nodded.

“He told me there would be no point.”

“You believed him?”

Edmund held up his left hand with its misshapen fingers.

“He made the mistake of torturing me, rather than kill me. I told him nothing and he gave me time to think about my eventual fate. I escaped. I could not allow him to do the same.”

“What did you do with the body? I assume it’s not still in the Duke of Richmond’s cellar.”

Sophia and Edmund exchanged a look. John would have said that they were amused, if the subject had not been so serious.

“I had my pick of nearby battlefields,” said Edmund wearily. “Even someone without my experience and imagination... Well, it wasn’t something I had to think about.”

“But there had been no battle then. You didn’t know where they would be.”

“All I had to do was go south until I started finding bodies, but I had to go where the fighting had been, not where it was.” He paused. “It was quite dreadful trying to avoid the fighting. I ended up in Quatre Bras. I left him there, stripped naked, like so many of the other bodies. They had been looted already. I didn’t want him to be identified and I left him with the defenders. I thought he would appreciate the irony.”

He shook his head and would say no more.

The quiet knock at her bedroom door did not surprise Sophia; it set her heart racing. She moved to the door.

“John, what are you doing here?”

She hoped her blush told him exactly what she thought he was doing there.

Like her he was dressed only in a nightgown.

“Saving you the bother of coming to me.”

She could not deny that that had been her intention.

He came into her room and closed the door behind him.

“Better I should be found in your room than you in mine.”

He kissed her then, a sweet kiss of promise.

When he released her, he sat on the bed and indicated that she should take the chair. Reluctantly she complied. She doubted he meant to go back on his promise to marry her, but she suspected they would not be spending the night as she had hoped.

“I want you to know that I have no intention of proving Edmund wrong for trusting me,” he said.

“Ah. I see you have become very proper.”

“No, just discreet.”

“Then you mean..?”

Sophia’s disappointment turned to joy at the thought of discovering more of the pleasures available to them.

“If you will permit it.”

“Yet you sit there and I sit here”

Sophia rose.

“There are things we must discuss, my love. There’s much to be done before I can leave the army. I’m told to expect new orders tomorrow.”