His Michaelmas Mistress (20 page)

He had his pistol cocked.

Damnation. He didn’t like the man, but Freddie sure as hell wasn’t going to let someone shoot him in the back. Only cowards shot someone in the back. He raised his own pistol, and aimed.

Julia’s eyes widened, and she screamed, just as he discharged his pistol.

Julia couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t fathom what had just happened. Freddie wouldn’t have killed Charles, would he? No…he wasn’t that sort of a man. She turned around, and relief swept through her, as she noticed that it was one of the members of the poaching gang that had been shot.

“I think…I think I might require clean drawers,” Tobias jested.

“I think my whole life passed before my eyes…even the bits filled with French,” Charles joked.

Julia quickened her pace, and threw herself into Freddie’s arms. “Thank God, you came,” she said, clinging to him. He tightened his hold on her, and drank in her heavenly scent. He wanted to take her away from all of the danger that still lurked around them, but he knew he couldn’t leave, until he had rid the estate of all of the blackguards.

“Mr. Browne discovered them, and they killed him, Freddie,” Julia rushed out. “They are a poaching gang from London, and it seems that Mr. Hargreaves works with them as well.”

“Are all of the servants working for them?” he asked.

“I cannot say. But one of the maids risked her life to come and warn Ruby and me. We used the hidden tunnels inside of the house to access the Billiards Room, as that was where they had tied up Tobias and Charles.”

“And why were they there?”

“They…they thought that they thought could talk to you man to man, or at least Charles did. I don’t think Tobias had anything to do with it.”

“Indeed, I did not. I am not an idiot,” Tobias said. “I only came with Charles in an effort to see the fool didn’t get himself killed. I suppose I believed I could appeal to your better nature and beseech you not to beat Charles black and blue for his impudence. I can see that you and Julia are fated to be together and whether Charles wants to believe it or not…he has to let you go, Julia.”

“I know. I know I have to let her go,” Charles said, his voice rough. “I…” his eyes darkened, and he raised his pistol toward Freddie, and was about to shoot the man that was about to shoot Freddie, when Micah got him. “How the hell many of them are there?” Charles demanded.

“I don’t know,” Freddie said, through clenched teeth. “But I need you to take them to where Mr. Lovett and my father are waiting. They are up by the Gatekeeper’s House.”

“Aye, we can do that,” Tobias said. “Are you and your mates able to deal with what is left here?”

“Oh, it will be great fun,” Freddie said. “Keep her safe.” He kissed Julia lightly on the lips. “Go with them, Julia, and I will see you shortly.”

“Don’t do anything rash, Freddie. I want you to come back to me.”

“No matter what happens, Julia, I will always find my way back to you.”

She smiled, and squeezed his hand before she let Tobias, Ruby and Charles lead her away. “Take my pistol,” she said.

“Thank you, my lady. You will always be mistress of my heart, Julia.”

“Aye, I know,” she said, smiling.

As they walked toward the Gatekeeper’s House, something tickled the back of her neck. She didn’t know why, but she felt as if she needed Freddie again. Pulling her skirt up, she heard Ruby inhale deeply.

“What are you doing, Julia?” Ruby asked.

“I feel strange. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something isn’t quite right, Ruby. Just trust me, and everyone get ready to fight.”

She pulled the dagger Freddie had given her out of the holster on her leg, and as they came stepped out of the thicket of trees, what she saw made her blood curdle. Her uncle lay prone on the ground, and Freddie’s father was trying to help him. It looked as if her Uncle Edward had been shot.

Julia stilled the scream that welled in her throat, and as they approached, the men that had hurt her uncle, turned. Tobias and Charles shot, as did Ruby. They all hit their targets, save for Ruby. The man she’d missed still had his pistol aimed in their direction. Julia threw her dagger, and got the man right in his side. He let out a scream, and his pistol discharged, but his aim had been off, and he missed.

“It is all in the wrist,” she muttered, racing to drop onto her knees by her uncle’s side.

“Not to worry,” Edward rasped. “Fortunately, I’ve merely been winged.” Alfie went over to Edward, and gave him an affectionate lick on his face.

She ripped off part of her petticoat, and wrapped it around his wound. “You need Lewis,” she said.

“Aye, Julia, I believe you might be right,” he smiled wanly at her.

“He pushed me out of the way,” the Duke said. “The man has courage I haven’t seen before.”

“That is my Uncle Edward for you. He has a heart of gold. Do you think you men can get him up and inside of the carriage?”

“I think we can manage,” Tobias said, assisting the Duke in getting Edward to his feet, and leading him over to the carriage.

Julia wanted it all to be over.

She needed to see Freddie again.

The nightmare was over.

Julia had Freddie back, and the members of the poaching gang had been handed over to the local Yeomanry, and they were taking them onward to New Bridewell. They sunk their ship by shooting one of the local magistrates, and Freddie didn’t think that Edward would let them off with a slap on the wrists.

Edward told him that Enoch Smith had been sent to Australia with his wife, and Freddie wouldn’t have to see them ever again. And he was deeply thankful for that. As for the poaching gang, he hoped they would be sentenced to hang, once they stood trial, as they were guilty of much more than just poaching. They had killed a man, hurt others, and had threatened some of his household staff.

Freddie sat with Julia in Castleton Court, and he didn’t want to leave her to go back home to Wilton Park. He wanted to hold her in his arms forever. She had mentioned that they summon the vicar and marry straightaway, but he didn’t want too rushed of an affair. He wanted their wedding to be special, and he wanted it to be a day unto itself, not marred by any sort of drama.

“The thing is,” Julia sighed. “We would have walked straight into those blackguards’ clutches, if the maid hadn’t warned us.”

“Aye…what was her name? I should reward her greatly for her assistance,” Freddie said.

“She said her name was Millie,” Julia said softly.

“Millie?” Freddie felt a sinking in his gut. “We had no one hired as a maid that went by that name, Julia.”

He had known a Millie in his life, but it couldn’t be her, could it?

Julia gave him a blank stare. “Well, of course we did. We must have done. She said her name was Millie…she…”

“Was she about your height with dark blond hair and warm brown eyes?”

“Yes,” she said slowly.

His father walked into the Red Saloon. “Did someone mention Millie?”

“Aye, we were talking about the maid who helped Julia and Ruby. But it cannot be. I…but then, after my experience with Lewis, and a few of the unexplainable happenings I saw during the Wars…” Freddie looked as if he had seen a ghost.

“What is it?” Julia asked. “You have me quite at a loss, Freddie.”

“Millie was my mother’s name,” Freddie said softly. “She matched the description I gave you, and she…she was a maid in her life before London, wasn’t she?”

“And she believed in ghosts,” the Duke said. “She used to say that she’d come back and haunt me someday. She said that love never dies. I never thought…” he cleared his throat nervously. “Well, we Scots have always believed in ghosts. My ancestral homes have a few of them rattling about.”

Julia sighed. “Some claim to have seen a few long dead Lovetts here at Castleton Court. As a boy, Richard would tell Mama that a lady dressed in blue haunted his bedchamber. He said he didn’t mind, as she would tell him stories, and told him to call her Grandmother.”

“I…” Freddie felt a little unsettled. “I hope my mother has found some rest now.”

His father sighed. “I am sure she has. She came and helped Julia when she needed it most.”

“Aye, Lewis’s mother helped Iris, too. I suppose…I suppose a mother’s love never dies,” Freddie mused.

“Indeed not,” the Duke said. “Of course you were blessed to have a loving mother. I am not so certain that my own dear Mama would return from the grave to watch over those I love. I’m not even certain she loved me. She looked at her children as possessions, and having fulfilled her duty. Both my father and mother acted that way. They were cold as parents went, and I’m glad that you had a more from your mother, Freddie.”

“I didn’t have her for long, and I hate that I can only barely remember her. I can’t even see her face anymore. All I can remember is the colour of her hair, and her eyes, and sometimes, sometimes, I remember her soft voice. And I recall her touch. It was gentle, and loving. If only she’d lived longer,” he sighed.

“She seemed full of life when I saw her,” Julia said. “She was a lovely woman, Freddie. I think you were very blessed to have her in your life. Ruby won’t believe it when I tell her. She said that she vanished into thin air, and I didn’t believe her. I shall have to give her my profuse apology tomorrow.”

“Shall you be my Michaelmas Mistress?” Freddie asked. “And by that I mean, will you marry me the day after tomorrow?”

“If the Vicar is free…I wouldn’t have it any other way. We can stay here long enough to go to Aunt Alice and Uncle Edward’s Michaelmas Ball, and then we can away for our honeymoon. I don’t want to put off becoming your wife any longer, Freddie.”

“Ah, seeing true love like yours does my heart good. Julia, you are certainly the only woman for Freddie. I am overjoyed that you have gotten your happily ever after. It’s denied to so many, so never ever forget how lucky you are, and I thank God that your first attempt at marrying each other didn’t go off without a hitch.

“If you two hadn’t been mentioned in The Times, I never would have found you, Son. It might have been seen as a curse by both of you, but to me, having Charles come in and ruin your day was the best thing to ever happen to me. You are blessed beyond compare, lad.”

“I was blessed the first day I met Julia. I shall never forget that day, or how she believed she would scare the men who wanted to assault her and Rose off with her umbrella.”

“I had little choice in the matter. I just couldn’t stand idly by, could I?”

“I know you couldn’t, darling,” Freddie said, pulling her close. “And I love how brave you are, and how bloody protective you are of your family.”

“And besides, I distracted them long enough for you and Tiny to arrive and save the day.”

“Of course you did,” he said softly.

His father cleared his throat. “I think…I think I shall go and see if Richard is up for a game of cards…or Billiards…” He got up and left the Saloon.

“I think you should go home now, Freddie. There is something dangerous in your eyes,” Julia said, sighing.

“Maybe I should have let you have your own way and married you today. Maybe I should have fetched the Vicar as you wanted.”

“Well, it is too late for you to think about that now. He is no doubt ensconced in his bed, sleeping away the night.”

“Aye, probably with his wife snuggled beside him.”

“Or not. Not all married couples share the same bed, Freddie.”

“We shall,” Freddie said firmly.

“I don’t think there would be any hope of me keeping you out of our bed, once we are married.”

“You have that right,” he growled, leaning in to nuzzle her ear.

“Freddie!” she gasped, pushing against his chest. “You have to leave, now! Go home and take your father with you. We shall have tomorrow to rest up, and then the next morning, I shall become your wife.”

“You promise?” he asked. He couldn’t help but feel a little uncertain about the whole thing. He wouldn’t actually believe it until he had the ring on her finger.

“I promise. Nothing is going to ruin our day this time around. Charles has come to grips with the fact that he shall never have me. He will have to pick someone else to lay his affections on…it shan’t be hard for him to find a woman to love him. He is not a difficult man to love.”

“He isn’t, is he?” A spark of jealousy flared through him.

“He is nothing like you, Freddie. Very few men are like you, now that I think of it. You are in a class of your own, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He was about to lean in for another kiss, when her mother walked into the Saloon, and let out one prolonged and loud exasperated sigh.

“I appreciate how you rescued my daughter today, Lord Knightwick. Alas, you are not yet her husband. I pray you will release her, and return to your own house.”

Reluctantly, he let her go and stood up. “I should probably take my leave…before well, before I lose my head. You’re quite certain you are all right, Julia?”

“Of course I am. We Lovett Girls have to get used to being right smack dab in the middle of all of the excitement. It seems we are rather unable to avoid it, no matter how hard we try. There is nothing else but to remain calm, and clear headed about it all.”

“And this time, son, when she’s about to become your wife, don’t leave her in the church,” Beatrice advised.

“Are we going to have a church wedding? I thought with the special license, we’d marry here or at Lark Hall…” Julia said.

“Or…if the church is free, we could try our hand at having a church wedding again,” Freddie proposed. “That is what you always wanted, Julia.”

She smiled, but he could see her flinch. “I…I suppose we could,” she said at last.

“If you think that it is jinxed…”

“No…I don’t believe in that sort of stuff. I always had my heart set on being married in St. Michaels, and you are quite right, we can if we want to, as long as the Vicar isn’t performing another ceremony when we want to be wed.”

“Splendid. I shall let the rest of the family know come tomorrow. Now, then, off with you, sir,” Beatrice said.

Leaning down, Freddie kissed her lightly on the cheek, and said, “Sleep well, my love.”

He walked away from her, and fought everything inside of him that told him to say to hell with it, scoop her up, and take her back with him to Wilton Park.

He wouldn’t have a good night’s rest until she was in his arms.