Lady Rogue (26 page)

Dawn wasn't aware of the  leather-upholstered sette in the room until she felt it beneath her.  Without disrupting their embrace, Garrick slid slowly to it's padded softness with her cradled in his arms, rolling he
r over until they were lying side by side.  Sensually his mouth traveled from her mouth to her throat, across her chest to the soft flesh he had bared.  His tongue savored the peak lightly and Dawn felt every nerve she possessed quiver then tighten in response.  She found herself mimicking his caress as she explored the hard strength of his chest.  Her heart hammered frantically.  His heart answered in an echoing rhythm.

"I want you, Dawn Landon," he said at last, his eyes glazed with an expression she
had never seen before.  "You can't have any idea of what you do to me."  The words were spoken low, nearly in a growl as his hand caressed he breast.  His gaze hovered on the smooth golden flesh that he had exposed.  "Beautiful...."

Dawn watched the expressions that played across his face
, recognizing the passion so clearly revealed.  Even in her dreams he had never looked at her like this.  That look alone fired her blood and the thought occurred to her that she wanted him to go on touching her like this forever.  She wanted him to make love to her, to make her cry out in the night as she'd heard the others do in the Seven dials night after night.  Oh, no, she was not so naive that she didn't know what would happen now, and yet she'd never before wanted a man to possess her.  No matter what happened in the future, she would have this night to remember, and possibly many nights to come.  Therefore, she was surprised when he pulled away from her.

"What am I doing?"  Cold reason fled over him as he looked into her eyes.  She didn't understand.  She couldn't.  His body was one hard, long ache of desire, but he held himself away from her.  She was a lady.  "Tumbling you like some
Soho whore.  I'm sorry, Dawn."

She wasn't.  Moving towards him, she sought to have him hold her again, but  h
e pushed away.  "Garrick....."

He forced his eyes away from her tantalyzing breasts, fighting his urge to touch her. The expression on his face was a mixture of sensual longing and stern control.  "How could you understand?  You are not a man."  He kissed her nose lightly, then taking her hands, pulled her to her feet.  He spoke more to himself than to her.  "I don't know why you came here tonight
, but I am glad to see you.  However, I assure you I won't let my volatile emotions run away with me."  His hands touched her bodice, again but this time to rearrange it more modestly. 

"I...I was in the area and I remembered Mrs. Pembrooke mentioning where your office was.  I wanted to see you to thank you for being a very compassionate man.  That's all."
That was all she dare say for the moment. She blushed as she recalled the intimacy they had shared only a moment ago.

"To thank me with a kiss.  A most pleasant way to be about it.  Quite!  But I'm afraid I lost my head."  He felt the overwhelming need to protect her.  How ironic that it was from himself that he sought to defend her honor.  Reverently his finger traveled over her features, lingering on he mouth.  He longed to kiss her again but knew where that might lead.  "Well, I'm just shutting up shop.  Suppose I get my carriage and give you a ride home."  He quirked his brow. "There are some matters we need to attend to, such as what happened between us, or at least nearly did,  tonight."  He kissed her lightly on the cheek.  "Come......"  It was time that he spoke his mind.  Honestly and from the heart.

Chapter Thirty-Five                                         

It was late when Garrick at last arrived back at his town
house, a residence in which he spent very little time,  if truth were told.  Tonight he'd spent hours driving about London with Dawn at his side, just talking to her, enjoying the warmth of her presense beside him, and responding unguardedly to her natural charm.   He'd listened to her as she had talked about her family and childhood years, giving him a glimpse of her life to which he had never been privy  before.  She had obviously been very close with her father, had adored her mother and doted on her brother.  How tragic she was now all alone. 

Garrick thought of the way a smile lit her face when she talked about those she held so dear, yet she had been strangely guarded too when he had asked too many questions.  She had stumbled once or twice, putting her hand to her mouth as if holding back imprudent words. Undoubtedly the loss of her family had caused her so much pain that she dreaded talking about certain details.  He could understand.  Certainly there was much about his ea
rly years he was loath to discuss.  How as a child he had stumbled upon his mother and her lovers all too frequently; the loneliness and isolation he had suffered because of his mother's indifference.  Strange how he had thought the past was behind him, and yet just thinking about it brought pain again.  Memories he'd successfully buried now came flooding back.

Garrick had been seven years old when his love for his mother had turned to disgust.  It had been a summer's day and he had awakened from a nap and gone in search of his mother.  The bedroom door had been wide open
, and there on the bed had been two moaning figures, lost in their frantic movements.

"Mama
?"  His shrill voice had startled the occupants of the bed.

"Who is that snooping little brat
?"  Garrick had recognized the voice as belonging to a neighboring lord.

"Only my son.  An annoyance to be certain, except that his upcoming
birth snared my wedding ring."

"He'll tell what he saw.  I have no liking
for scandal.  My wife......."

"He won't say a thing if he doesn't want to have his nose cut off.  Do you hear me, Garrick?  If you mention this to anyone I
will get a knife and slice off your......"

"No!"  Turning from the door he had fled, but her threat had haunted him and kept him silent.  His fear had made him a party to her deception
, and for that he had never forgiven himself.  Coward!  That was what he had been, emboldening his mother to bring her lovers openly into the house again and again.  And though he had not understood then just what he had witnessed, it later became clear to him when as a young man he developed an interest in such things. A whore, that was what his mother was then and now and perhaps would always be.  From the day he realized what she was about, he had loathed  all women who so freely gave their bodies.  No, not freely really.  For a price, whatever that proved to be. 

But thank God for Dawn
!  She was as different from his mother's kind of woman as night from day.  Passionate, yes, for what man would want to make love to a frigid stick of clay
?  But with a heart filled only  with love for  me. 
She made him feel as if he were the only man in the world.   

"Marry me,
” he had said tonight. 

"What?" Her head, resting so comfortably on his
shoulder had turned abruptly.

"Marry me."  He had pulled her gently to him, resting her pliant softness against his strength.   "I love you, Dawn."  For the moment there had been no passion between them, only an all engulfing sensation of tenderness, a sweet promise of what awaited them if the
y molded their lives together.

"We're home, Sir."

"Yes, Vinnie, I can see that." Because it was one of the better neighborhoods, a gas light was placed at every tenth house.  Thus Garrick could see the walls of his townhouse as it came into view.  Garrick wondered why he had ever settled upon a place so large, three stories in all,  a rectangle structure without wings or courtyards, constructed of magenta-hued stone.  Now he was glad that he had chosen it.  It would make a good place to raise a family.             

Like every English house of consequence it had an ostentatiously  high fence, an iron stockaded enclosure and a doorway bridge.  The thick wooden door had a brass knocker.   Stepping down from the carriage
, he tried that door now and was surprised to find it unlocked. 

With a grumble he pushed the door open and entered. "I'll have to speak to Edward."  It was not unknown for houses to be b
urglarized, even in this area.

The small space between the street d
oor and the stairs was carpeted. Garrick called it a hall, though to his clients that word had a more grandiose meaning. Two mahogany chairs, potted plants,  polished brass wall sconces, statuettes of cupids aiming their bows, and  a painting or two  here and there decorated the foyer.  Visual evidence of his success.   Even so, it was a starkly lonely house, despite a staff of servants that included a scullery maid, a cook, a housekeeper, his coachman, Vinnie,  and  his valet.  Not a home, for that by his definition was a place one wanted to return to; but rather a place to take off his hat and shoes, to bathe, and to sleep.  Now perhaps it would be a place he longed to return to, with someone waiting for him here.

Pausing to light a lamp, he passed through the parlour with its tasteful array of matched Chippendale furniture and  pushed through the large folding doors to his den. He was surprised to find a fire already crackling  in  fireplace, but supposed Edward his valet had seen his carriage coming up the drive and thus had thought to take the chill from the room for his return.  So thinking he stepped into the room noticing immediately that he was not alone.
 

"Who the devil....?"
  A trespasser? No intruder--Oliver.  The dancing firelight shadowed the circles beneath his eyes, the hollows in his cheeks, his winsome grin.  His rowdy chuckle clearly told  Garrick that once again his friend was inebriated.  "Ollie, what are you doing here?"

"Why
,  I came to see you of course.  I returned to the office once or twice, but you most certainly were not there."  His words were slurred but intelligible.  "I've bounced about from here to there and everywhere in between, then decided if I remained here you'd have to return
eventually
.  Gad, where have you been?"

Garrick knew well of Oliver's resentment on the subject of Dawn Landon, but he said nevertheless, "I was riding around in my carriage with a most beautiful lady, the one of whom you v
oice such abject disapproval."

"
That
woman?"

"Yes,
that
woman."  He braced himself for Oliver's tirade.  He would have faced the devil himself for the woman he loved.  "I asked her to marry me tonight and she has accepted."  Closing his eyes, Garrick remembered that moment very well.  They had been enshrouded in a web of enchantment.  He had watched her intently as he'd asked the question and been rewarded by the soft glow in her eyes when she'd whispered "yes" without hesitation.

"You did
what
?"

"I asked her to marry me."

"You fool." Oliver was sitting with his feet propped up on a stool. Now he kicked that unfortunate three-legged object over.  "You besotted, blind fool.  She's  nothing but a scheming, conniving little bit of baggage."

"Ollie!"  Garrick's jaw ticked warningly.  "I will not allow you to say such things about my future bride." 
Clasping his arms behind his back, he paced before the fire.  "I can understand how you must feel because your Aunt chose to grant Dawn the share of fortune you thought should be yours. Had you offered your aunt more consideration, it would not have happened.  But to constantly malign another human being as you have been doing borders on....."

"I have pro
of!  That's why I came tonight."  Oliver was unsteady on his feet as he rose from the settee.  "I told you!  I told you!  Well, now I have it documented.  I don't know who your lovely paramour is, but she is not a Landon.  I wonder if she is even from Norfolk as she claims.  I have my doubts."

"Not a Landon." Only by the greatest of effort was Garrick able to maintain his temper.  "Don't ensnare yourself in lies just for revenge, O
llie.  It doesn't become you."

"I'm not lying as this affidavit will attest.  Sworn statements from the heads of the Landon households in
Norfolk.  Witnessed by a magistrate, I might add.  You see, I hired several men to scour the countryside from Norwich  to Thetford, Wisbech to Wickhampton.  Alas, the Landon's have been most unfortunate in their progeny."  As Garrick took a step closer he playfully held it just out of reach.  "Ah ha!  I thought you would be interested."  By the light of the fire he read the pertinent information.  "An outbreak of fever all but wiped out the Landons of Swaffham, leaving but one son."  He grinned at Oliver.  "He's now twelve years old."

"What
of the other Landons?"

"Alas,

The family living in Happisburgh has been proven to be involved in smuggling.  Our dear King George has taken revenge on them  all by sending them to Botany Bay!  Others of their blood have been hung.  Sons all!"  Cupping his hand to his mouth he whispered, "They say Hippisburgh is haunted by the ghosts of those who have swung.  A hideous ghost of a legless smuggler for one, whose head hangs backwards between his shoulders on a strip of skin from his neck.  Grisley, eh what?"

Garrick ignored the remark. "Perhaps Dawn has the stigm
a of illegitimacy to her name. If so, I don't care."  Certainly he himself had been sired before the marriage vows.

"Oh, Gar, you poor, poor fellow.  To be so ensnared.  You, who have always been such a brilliant gentleman.  Ah, well.....   It happens to the best of us, I suppose.  Illegitimacy?  Hardly.  She lied about who she is.
It can not be anything else."

"I won't believe that!"  Garrick cle
nched his jaw as he inquired, "The last family of Landons?"

"An old woman and man living  in Griston.  Childless.  When they die out they will take their name with them.  No
Dawn
Landon, Garrick old chum."

"There must be some explanation!" 

"Of course, and I know what it is."  Oliver sniggered behind his hand.  "She's a fraud.    Don't be a sore loser, Gar."

"Loser be damned!" 

"You wagered your carriage and now it's mine.  You lost.  She isn't who she said she is."

"I don't care what her name is.  In case you haven't he
ard, Ollie, Shakespeare said, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

The smile died from Oliver
's face.  He swore violently, "Bloody damn!  Somehow she managed to make a fool of my poor aunt and now she's making one of you as well."  As Garrick started to answer, Ollie held up his hand. "One other point.  Cambridge, the solicitor, tells me that no sooner had my aunt's will been read than your lady love began withdrawing large sums of money.  A small fortune which she bristled about when he asked her to explain.  And then tonight, I had her followed.  Where do you suppose she went?"

"She came to the office."  How could he ever forget?  Her kiss
had precipitated his proposal.

"But before that!"

Garrick shrugged.  "I have no idea."

"She came from
Soho
.  Soho of all places.  Hardly a spot for a quiet country girl.  She was seen going in and coming out of one of the shabbiest tenements about."

"I don't believe you, Ollie."

"Ask your own carriage driver.  Vinnie will tell you.  I paid him to follow her because I knew how stubborn you can be.  Vinnie has no reason to lie...."

Garrick paused before the fire, staring at the flickering flames. "I don't know what you are up to, but it won't work.  I love that girl and therefore I trust her.  I won't believe the worst of her when she is not here to defend herself. 
You're not being fair, Ollie."

"Then ask her to explain and watch her squirm.  She bilked my aunt out of her fortune
, and I intend to see her brought to justice for it." Oliver's eyes were slits of anger.  "I wouldn't even be surprised but what she poisoned the old girl.  The physician said that Auntie died because poison had spread throughout her body.  Indigestion?  Ha!"             

Anger coursed through Garrick's veins.  Putting up his fists he eyed Oliver squarely.  "Get out of my house, Ollie.  Get out, I say.
I don't want to hurt you but By God I will if you say another word."

"Get out?" Something in Garrick's expression warned him that if he didn't want a black eye he should leave. 
“All right, I will."  Picking up the damaging piece of paper, he scurried through the door.

Garrick was overcome by his emotions
, but later, when his  logical mind took over, he began to see things differently.  He'd asked Dawn Landon to marry him, but before he went through with the ceremony he had to do a bit of investigating on his own.