Her Lord and Protector (formerly titled On Silent Wings) (29 page)

Stephen
sat up with a
great, sobbing sigh, and rested his head against Alex’s leg. For a time they
remained this way while Alex gave the boy gentle pats on his shoulder.

Finally,
Stephen
raised his head.
“I need to go home now. My brother is hungry. And there are sheep to tend to.”

“The babe is being
cared for, as are the sheep. You will stay with me until we can figure out what
to do. Are you ready? Lady Elizabeth is quite worried for you.”

“I am ready.”
Stephen
stood and faced
Alex with a resolute set of his skinny shoulders, his dark eyes bright and determined
through their tears.

Here was a
glimpse of the man
Stephen
would
become, Alex thought as he led him down the stairs of the battlement. A boy
like that would make any father proud.

But
Stephen
had no father.
Alex glanced over his shoulder and caught the trembling of
Stephen
’s lips, and
without further consideration decided that he would serve that role.

How easily his
heart had opened for someone who needed him. Katherine had done that. He would
never be the same without her.

****

Stubborn man.
Did he not know she wanted to go home? From the sight of Millie standing at her
door, long-faced and wet-eyed, Katherine guessed he didn’t.

“Oh, m’lady.”
Millie stepped into the room and dropped her bags. “Ye’ve had a terrible experience.
I wish I could’ve stayed with ye at that awful brothel. How do ye fare?”

“I am fine.
Millie, catch the driver before he leaves. He can take us home.”

“But he’s goin’
back t’Drayton Castle, not yer new home. Lord Drayton told me to tell ye that
the lawyer will be by this evenin’ with men to take your trunks. The house is
just down the street.”

Katherine
clamped her hands to her hips. “If that man thinks—oh, never mind. Go catch the
coachman, Millie.
’
Tis Drayton
Castle we are returning to. Home.”

She caught the
smile on the maid’s face before Millie darted from the room.

In the carriage,
Katherine saw the ragged girl again with her hands out to passersby. Crying.
Begging.

And not two
doors down in front of her brothel, scrutinizing the waif, stood Patsy Eberly.

Katherine leaped
up and pounded her fist on the ceiling of the carriage. “Driver! Halt!”

****

“My lord? She has
come home.”

Alex thought the
voice to be part of his dream, and didn’t respond.

“Alex? Wake up,
lad. Lady Drayton has come back.”

This was no
dream. Alex’s eyes flew open. “She is here?”

Sam’s narrowed
his eyes. “Yes, just now. She is on her way up to see you. And she does not
look happy.”

Alex was only
able to throw a sheet across his naked hips when Katherine swept into his bedchamber
and stopped. Silent words were passed, questions without answers, confusion and
hurt and yearning.

“Are you well?”
she asked after a moment, glancing at the bandage on his shoulder. Her gaze
then traveled down his torso.

“Better,” he
replied with long-practiced impassivity. “Did your new home not suit?”

“I do not want a
new home,” she said.

“Ah. Then where
will you live?”

Katherine’s eyes
slid to the new water pitcher on the wash table near the door. Alex didn’t have
to hear her words to know what she was thinking.

“Have you come
home, then?”

“Is that...all
right?”

Alex spoke
through the sudden roughness in his throat. “If you will have me.”

“I will have
none but you.” She rushed into his waiting arms. Sam slipped from the bedchamber.

Alex lay her
down and held her against him, loving that she was his wife, loving her. Her
soft lips responded to his with passion, and only his wound kept him from his
impatient need to make love to her.

He touched the
bruises on her neck. “Who did this to you? I will kill him.”

“’Twas your fever.
You didn’t know me and thought I meant you harm.”

“
I
did
this?” He held her tighter and ignored the resulting ache in his shoulder.
“Katherine. I am sorry. I cannot remember much after we got to the inn. Only
the pain....”

She drew back
and put a finger to his lips. “I know. I know.”

He kissed her,
his tongue hard and vigorous in her mouth, his hand unlacing the string of her
bodice to cup her breast. “I want you.”

“But you are
wounded.”

“Not where it
counts.”

With a sensuous
smile, Katherine sat up and lifted the sheet. “I’d say not.”

Minutes later,
naked, she straddled herself over him. She began doing things with her mouth to
his neck and chest that charged him with desire.

“Oh, love,” Alex
growled. With his good arm he guided her body over his mouth, inch by smooth,
lavender-scented inch, until he had stroked and kissed and tasted all of her.
Her face was slack with desire when he finally positioned her over his hips.

She hesitated.
“What do I do?” Then, she seemed to understand, and slowly took him inside her.

“Yes,” he
breathed.

“This feels...so
good.” Katherine closed her eyes and began to move, finding her own rhythm. She
shifted her hips to take him in deeper.

Alex couldn’t
answer her. He gripped her hips, helpless to do anything but let her do what
she wanted. She rode him, eyes half closed, leaning forward to cover his mouth
with wet, languid kisses. She pulled back and increased her speed, and he
gritted his teeth and fought to keep his control.

He delighted in
her fervent moans, watched her face tighten with intensity, her breaths come
faster and faster, until she reared back and cried out his name.

Alex released
himself with a shout.

With soft gasps
she slumped beside him. “So good,” she murmured.

“Pleasuring you
is what’s good,” he said, kissing her soft earlobe.

He covered both
of them with the quarterpane and then hugged her to him for a time. He didn’t
want to leave his cloud of serenity after their lovemaking, but finally said,
“We need to talk.”

She stiffened in
his arms, then sighed. “Yes. About your mistake.”

“I didn’t send
you to the brothel, Katherine.”

“Who did?”

“Agnes.”

Katherine lifted
her head, sleepy sensuality replaced by wide-eyed astonishment. “Agnes!”

“She told my
coachman to take you there instead of the inn. My orders, she said.”

Katherine bolted
to a sitting position, grabbed one of the pillows, and squeezed it between her
hands. “Oh, that vixen. Wait until I see her.” Then, she peered at Alex. “Why
did you tell her to talk to the coachman instead of doing it yourself?”

Alex brushed his
fingers through her tousled hair. “She offered to help.”

“I am sure she
did.” Katherine’s brown eyes held the fire that he now knew well, but to hear
her livid voice added a new depth to her. “She wished to help me right out of
your life. She is in love with you, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I have never
encouraged her. I blame myself for what happened. You could have been hurt.”

Katherine
touched a light hand to his bandage. “And you could have been killed.”

“That woman will
never enter this house again.” Alex clenched his fist, then released it. “Mary
seemed to like her, so I let her come as often as she wished. She saw Mary jump
from her window.”

“
Agnes
was with her?” Katherine stared at him.

“Yes. I had gone
out to the corridor so that Mary might calm down. ’Twas not a good move.”

Katherine’s lips
were warm and soft on his cheek. “The windows remind you of your guilt, so you
keep them covered.”

“Foolish of me,
I know.”

“No. We all have
our demons. Put me in a closet and shut the door, and I will show you mine.”

Alex palmed her
cheek and kissed her. “I love you.”

Her face
brightened with a moist-eyed smile. “Oh, Alex. How I have longed to hear you
say that.”

“Then I will say
it again. I love you. You are the most amazing woman I have ever met.”

Her head
lowered. “But can you forget? Will you always look upon me and see what my father
did?”

He placed a
finger under her chin and lifted it. “I will always look upon you, yes. And listen
to your charming voice.”

“My father was a
spy. A murderer.”

He lost himself
in her eyes. “Yes. But he made you. And for that, I forgive him.”

Katherine placed
tender kisses on his cheeks, his brows, his lips. “I love you, dear Alex. My husband.”

And suddenly,
the last iron piece masking Alex’s heart melted away. All he could do for a
moment was struggle to maintain his emotions and not succumb to womanly tears.
Needing something to drive away the lump in his throat, he took one of her rosy
nipples and played it between his fingers. “We will speak of the past no more,
especially in our bedchamber,” he said.

Katherine,
gasping her words, studied the room. “Our bedchamber. Yes. I like the dark
green colors, and the big chairs on the thick rug. ’Tis cozy in here, like a
hideaway.” She trailed her hand down his chest and stomach, paused teasingly,
and then went lower.

A throaty groan
escaped Alex’s lips.

“And this bed is
quite large,” she continued as if she were not stroking him into oblivion.
“Will we be spending much time on it, do you think?”

“We’ll bolt
ourselves to it,” Alex replied with a growl, and captured her lips with his.

“I am
considering what to do with Stephen and baby Jason,” Alex said the next morning
during breakfast. “Clara has a sister, a poor farmer’s wife, in Sheffield, but Stephen
tells me she already has seven children.”

Katherine toyed
with her spoon. “Perhaps Stephen and Jason could live here.”

Elizabeth’s
expression, bleak over Clara’s death, brightened.

Alex set down
his cup. “I’d like that.”

“As would I. And
they would have a better chance at life,” Katherine said, trying not to spout
everything that was on her mind. Her newfound voice had caused her to want to
talk incessantly, just to glean the satisfaction of immediate response.
Instead, she turned to Elizabeth. “What do you think?”

“I believe they
would be happy here,” Elizabeth said with a secretive glance toward Katherine.
“I have always liked Stephen.”

Both women
smiled at Alex.

“All right,” he
said. “‘Twill be nice to hear the voices of children in these halls.”

“Alex, there is
one more thing,” Katherine said. “When we were in town, I saw an orphan girl on
the street. She was starving.”

Alex’s
expression remained impassive as he wiped his mouth with a cloth. “It happens.”
Yet his brow creased slightly.

“Well,” she said
with a glance at a smiling Sam and Millie at the sideboard, “I wonder how we
can help her.”

“How?” Alex
fixed his gaze on her. “Don’t you mean ‘when’?”

Katherine
feigned a baffled shrug. “I do not know what I mean. Do you have any ideas?”

Alex went still,
his eyes piercing blue in their awareness. “She is an orphan, you say?”

Katherine held
his gaze, trying to keep her face from revealing her secret. “We’d have to
check, of course.”

Alex raised one
brow. “When did she arrive?”

Katherine smiled
at being found out. “She came home with me yesterday. She is in my old
bedchamber, and I have given her freedom to select her own colors and decor. She
will only be here until we can find other housing, unless...unless....”

The corners of
Alex’s mouth curved up. He looked from Katherine to Elizabeth, and then to the
servants, who busied themselves with pouring more coffee and taking up plates.
Eventually his admiring gaze rested again on Katherine.

“You, who wanted
no children because you feel you do not deserve them, have just gained two sons
and a daughter. Have you forgiven yourself as well, then?”

“Yes,” she said,
and reached for his hand. “I will be a good mother to them.”

“You will be a
fine mother, my love.” He pushed back from the table and stood with a dramatic
sigh. “My lonely castle,” he muttered good-naturedly, “shall eventually be
overrun by little feet. But they had better stay out of my tidy study.” He bent
down and kissed his wife.

****

“Isn’t he
wonderful?” gushed Elizabeth several days later as they sat in the parlor. She
smiled down at Lord Wiltshire’s rose-scented letter in her hand.