Amanda Scott (51 page)

“Did you ever think I might have killed him?”

“Not for a minute. But I’m afraid I used the fear Robert ignited (fanned by my own vexation with you) as sufficient cause to go back to Scotland. I pretended to take Oliver’s advice, but in fact I know now that I was driven as much by greed as any of Yarborne’s other dupes. Even when I thought the whole notion was no more than a prankish attempt of Oliver’s to throw us together, I wanted to discover if you still wanted the prize you had won in Newmarket, or would be willing to let it get away.”

“Do you know the answer now?”

She looked into his eyes. “Yes, I do.”

“I told you once that I hold what is mine, Melissa.” She understood his meaning. “I know you did not come after an errant wife just to keep her, Nicholas.”

Reaching out to touch her cheek, he said, “And I think perhaps you were not glad to see your husband merely because he rescued you from a difficult situation.”

Pressing her cheek against his warm hand, she smiled. “Robert held me captive overnight, sir, but I got away from him. I daresay I would have managed to get away from them again in time. It was only chance, after all, that no inn servant had come along. When I realized, belatedly, that if I could explain that I was your wife—”

“Yes, perhaps you would like to explain why you did not do that at once.”

She shook her head. “It is of no use to discuss each step I took, sir, any more than it is helpful to discuss the cards that ought to have been played in a hand of piquet. I own, however, that I would like to know how you found me. I suppose you must have seen the signs, but you can’t have come after me until long after dark, so how did you?”

“You may recall that more than one was attached to the wall of an inn. Inns and inn yards are lighted at night. I’ve not the least doubt Robert meant to remove those signs long before my appearance on the Great North Road. They expected I would drive hard for the Border, and I might have done just that, had I been alone. When Oliver saw the first sign, I also suspected that he had devised the scheme, but he soon convinced me I was wrong. After that, we watched closely for more signs. I don’t suppose we saw them all. Certainly, we saw none between Baldock and Royston.”

“I-I suppose you’d like to know how it is that Robert Yarborne knew enough about me—about us, I mean—to be sure such a ruse would work,” Melissa said, looking at his waistcoat.

“I know that much,” Nick said. “Oliver told me. There were indications even before we left London that you had been maneuvered into leaving. That’s why Father and Oliver came with me. Oliver will not make the mistake of discussing our private affairs with his friends again, I promise you.”

She looked up then. “I hope you were not too harsh with him, sir. I ought not to have talked to him about such things in the first place.”

“Why did you? No, don’t tell me,” he added, pulling her close. “You are right about debating a hand that’s been played. Do you still wonder about my feelings?”

A little shyly, she said, “I think I have known for some time that you cared for me more than you would say. You are something of a fraud, you know.” When he frowned, she chuckled and said, “You pretend not to care about Oliver, you see, but I could tell just by the way you treat him that you do. Your actions do say a good deal, Nicholas, but I own I did wish I could hear you say the words.”

“You should have told me more plainly then.”

“But they lose much of their force if one has to request them. Besides, Papa was always spouting words. He would tell me how much he loved me just before, or just after, he did dreadful things. Once I realized that your feelings were much more sincerely expressed, I didn’t miss the words so much anymore.”

He grimaced ruefully. “Sweetheart, I wish I had put up those damned signs, but I didn’t even know all I felt, myself, until Oliver told me you might have left London. Even then I didn’t realize the depth of my feelings until I realized that you had fallen into some sort of trap. I hope we can do better in the future.”

“We will.”

Silence fell between them, but when Melissa looked at him, his expression was so understanding that she moved into his arms again and hugged him, saying, “I don’t think Papa will be very much missed, Nicholas, and I never thought I’d be grateful to him for anything, but I am.”

“I am, too,” he said. “I’ll admit, sweetheart, when I realized how much money you had cost me in that damned auction, I thought I must have had windmills in my head, but I won a much bigger prize than I knew. I’ll be forever indebted to him for that. Being more a man of action than of words, I’ll show you how much.” He kissed her then, and since the kiss led to other forms of expressing his feelings, it was rather more than half an hour before they rejoined Ulcombe and Oliver in the yard.

August, Penthorpe House, Scotland

W
ATCHING GENTLE WAVES LAP
against the shore, Melissa paid little heed to the twins’ squeals of laughter as they chased each other through the gardens behind her. Cries from a flock of gulls dipping and darting over the bright blue waters of the Firth punctuated the children’s laughter, and from time to time she heard masculine chuckles from the terrace, where Susan was supervising arrangements for an alfresco supper with the assistance of Charley and Lady Ophelia, and the more dubious aid of Viscount Penthorpe, Nicholas, Oliver, and Rockland.

Not a cloud stirred in the cerulean sky. Not a leaf rustled in the chestnut tree above her. Smiling at the bickering, greedy birds, she watched sunlight dance on the Firth, savoring the happiness she heard in the children’s voices, and the peace she felt within herself. How much her life had changed in a few short months.

A stirring in the air warned her just as a childish voice shrieked, “Melissa, look out!” Before she could defend herself, she was swept off her feet from behind and caught up in her husband’s embrace.

“Nick, put me down at once,” she commanded, striving to keep the bubbling laughter from her voice. “Such behavior before the children is most unseemly, sir.”

“Is it?” His face was near hers and the look in his eyes revealed his intent the instant before he kissed her. When she responded with a passion that matched his, forgetting the others for long, blissful moments, Nick’s eyes began to twinkle, but when he raised his head, he made no move to put her down. Instead, he said, “What are you doing over here all by yourself, love?”

“Just thinking,” she said, avoiding his gaze, not wanting to spoil the moment by mentioning past unpleasantness.

He waited patiently, pointedly, saying not a word.

At last, she said, “If you must know, I was thinking about the last time I stood here, for this is where I was when Papa abducted me, and though I know we are agreed that everything came out well in the end—”

“Without Seacourt’s assistance, we might never have met.”

“Fiddlesticks, Great-Aunt Ophelia had invited me to London several times, offering to sponsor my come-out.”

“You’d never have met me at Almack’s, and even if we had met normally, sweetheart, do you think anything would have come of it?”

“You would have been smitten by my beauty and my pretty manners, sir. Can you deny it?”

“Easily.” He chuckled. “You were a meek mouse then, and I was a callous tiger. I won’t say I’d have eaten you alive, for I’m honest enough to admit I’d scarcely have noted your existence had it not been forced upon me to do so.”

“No one forced you,” she said indignantly. “Now, put me down.”

“Have you told the others yet?”

“Told us what?” Charley demanded.

So intent had they been upon their conversation that neither had heard her approach. Giving Nick a speaking look and a tiny shake of her head, Melissa said, “Charley, you know better than to steal up behind someone like that. You startled us.”

Charley looked from one to the other, her expression showing that she recognized diversionary tactics when she met them. She said, “It is of no use expecting me to feel guilty when we all saw Nick sneak up and sweep you off your feet.”

“Did you have a purpose in interrupting us?” Nick asked. “Because if you don’t, I’d like a few more minutes alone with my wife.”

“I daresay you would,” Charley said, “but Aunt Susan said to fetch you. The servants are bringing out the food.” She paused, then added with a grin, “Actually, she asked Oliver to fetch you, but he’s busy teaching the twins how to fuzz cards and detect weighted dice, and so—”

“The devil he is,” Nick exclaimed, turning to look toward the terrace, where Oliver could be seen talking with the children. “If he thinks he’s going to teach those scamps any such thing, he’ll soon learn his mistake,” he said, putting Melissa down.

“He says he’s learned his lesson,” Charley said innocently, “so I should think you’d be glad to see him preparing the children to deal with any Captain Sharps they might meet when they grow up.”

“Do you?” Nick looked severe, but Melissa chuckled.

“She is just trying to get a rise out of you. Don’t leap so swiftly to her bait.”

Still frowning, Nick looked around and said, “Where the devil is Rockland? I thought you had taken on the task of entertaining him—or as you so tactlessly put it, of keeping him from taking advantage of the maids at Penthorpe House.”

Charley sniffed. “Just because he wormed his way into coming with us by convincing Aunt Ophelia that she would dislike travel less if she had a gentleman escort is no cause for me to pay him heed. As a matter of fact, I mean to borrow some uphills and downhills from Oliver, to teach Rockland a lesson.”

Before Nick could join battle with her outspoken cousin, Melissa said, “Should we not join the others? None of us wants to have to explain to Aunt Ophelia why we are dawdling here when food is about to be served.”

“Perfectly true,” Charley agreed with a laugh, “but we’re too late already. Hello, Aunt Ophelia.”

The old lady strode briskly toward them on the garden path, swinging her cane to lop off dead flower heads whenever she spied one.

“You’ve taken an age,” she said sharply. “Charlotte, did you not tell them they are beginning to serve?”

When she turned back toward the terrace, Nick, grinning broadly, moved to place a steadying hand under her elbow. She looked up as if she would decline assistance but said only, “I suppose you are feeling mighty proud of yourself.”

“Am I?”

She looked at Melissa and back at him. “Well, you ought to be, but if you don’t mean to tell anyone else, I daresay I know better than most how to hold my tongue.”

Wondering how she had divined their secret, Melissa glanced at Charley, but that young woman’s gaze had shifted to the terrace. Following her look, Melissa saw that Rockland had waved away the footman and was holding a chair for Susan. When he had seated her, he took his own seat beside her.

Charley muttered, “Taking a great deal on himself, is he not, but it is always the same with men. They think only of themselves, never of anyone else.”

“I cannot agree, Charley,” Melissa said, smiling at her husband. “Nicholas has given me little cause to complain of any lack.”

“Little indeed,” Lady Ophelia murmured, “and with such excellent results.”

“Aunt Ophelia, please,” Melissa begged.

But this time Charley had not missed the exchange. With dawning awareness she looked at Melissa, then at Nick. “You don’t mean—That is,” she added, flushing, “are you—Well, what I mean to say is—”

“Get a move on, you lot,” Oliver called. “Rockland has already taken his seat and will next devour all the food,”

“So we see,” Lady Ophelia said testily. “Here, Susan, I’ve brought them.” She glared at Rockland, stepped forward, and prodded him with her cane. “Have you no manners, young man? Despite all their other faults, gentlemen usually stand up when ladies approach them.”

Rockland leapt to his feet and bowed, but his eyes were twinkling. Pointedly ignoring Charley, he smiled at Lady Ophelia and said, “My attention was momentarily diverted, and I regret that I did not immediately perceive your arrival.”

“Poppycock.”

He bowed more deeply.

Charley said abruptly to the company at large, “Nick and Melissa have something of a delicate nature to say to us.”

It was not the way Melissa had imagined telling her family, but recognizing that her cousin had received provocation, and seeing delighted expectation radiate from Susan’s face, she said, “Charley has stolen our thunder, but I can see that you all have guessed our news. We’re going to have a baby.”

The meal turned into a celebration, and afterwards, going upstairs with Nick, she tucked her hand into his arm and said, “They are all pleased, I think.”

“Not as pleased as we are, but I’d like to have throttled that cousin of yours. Now she’s down there, cheating Rockland with those damned dice Oliver gave her, and after the way Rockland’s been tormenting her, I couldn’t even bring myself to tell him.”

Melissa chuckled. “As I told you before, sir, you are a fraud. You are always saying you won’t lift a finger to help anyone, but I daresay if the truth were known, you even contribute vast quantities of money to your father’s charities.

Now you won’t even cry rope on Charley, although she says she means to take Rockland for every penny he brought to Scotland so he will have to walk back to London.”

“Well, I
can’t
betray her. My own brother is the one who corrupted her morals. What your cousin wants, sweetheart, is a man capable of taming her.”

“That’s what Rockland thinks he’s doing,” Melissa said, laughing, “but he won’t succeed. The man who could doesn’t exist. I can’t imagine that Charley will ever find one to suit her, and I own I’ve never seen one who would. All the men I meet these days seem quite ordinary and insignificant now that you no longer look so large to me.”

He grinned at her. “What do you say to measuring me again right now, my love, to see if I can’t still overwhelm you with my impressive size?”

Laughing, she linked her arm more tightly with his, and they retired to their bedchamber.