Lord Somerton's Heir (36 page)

Sebastian rolled off her and lay beside her, one arm flung across his forehead. Isabel curled up against him, resting her head in the comfortable circle of his other arm. She dared not speak, dare not spoil the moment of exquisite closeness with another human being. He brought his free arm down and stroked her hair.

She’d nursed him when he’d been ill and she thought she knew the hard, muscular planes of his body but she had never imagined that he could be so alive. She bent her head and touched his golden flesh with her lips, tracing the line from his neck to his naval, tasting the residual saltiness.

His chest rose and fell as he sighed, his own fingers stroking her neck. For a moment, she had a memory of Freddy and stiffened. Sebastian sensed her disquiet and stopped, looking at her with a frown creasing his brow.

‘Isabel?’

She shook her head. Freddy had gone, swallowed up by the sea or halfway to Holland. He could never touch her again. This man — this dear, honourable man — was the love of her life, and she would surrender herself to him without hesitation.

She smiled at him. ‘Nothing.’

‘I meant what I said the night of the ball. I love you, Isabel. What I didn’t get a chance to do was to ask you to marry me.’

‘You were going to ask me to marry you?’ Isabel sat up.

‘Yes. What would you have said?’

She looked at him and slowly shook her head. ‘I don’t know what I would have said. That night already seems like a lifetime ago. The world has changed for us, Sebastian. What I might or might not have done a few days ago means nothing now.’ She rolled over and ran her fingers across his forehead, twisting the locks of dark brown hair that fell across his forehead. ‘I only know that when I thought you were dead, Freddy could have killed me and I would not have cared.’

He cupped her face in his hand. ‘Say it, Isabel.’

She knew what he wanted to hear. The words she had never spoken in her life.

‘I love you, Sebastian Alder.’

A slow smile caught the corners of his mouth. ‘Was that so very hard?’

She shook her head. ‘Not for you.’

His finger strayed down her throat and he pulled her down on top of him.

‘You smell of the sea,’ he whispered. ‘This will be how I will always remember you: my sea nymph.’

‘Hardly,’ she laughed. ‘I nearly died out there.’

‘But you didn’t. Now kiss me, sea nymph.’

A weak grey daylight broke fitfully over the little fishing village. Sebastian opened his eyes and looked out through the dusty window at the lowering sky and then down at the naked woman in his arms. They had both been so tired that they had hardly shifted their position all night. He kissed the top of her head and she stirred, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

He rolled over, pulling her with him. He loved the way she fitted so well into the curve of his body, as if she had always belonged there. His hand cupped her breast and she murmured something unintelligible, her nipple hardening to his touch as his own body responded.

He slipped his hand between her legs, feeling her warm and welcoming body as he fingers sought to pleasure her even as she pleasured him. They moved together, reaching climax simultaneously in a burst of passion that drew a cry from her throat, almost immediately stifled as she turned her face into the bolster, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

‘We don’t want to alarm our hostess,’ she gasped, coming up for air.

Sebastian sighed with pleasure, drawing her body against him without withdrawing from her.

‘Let’s stay here forever,’ he said.

‘Take up fishing and live the life of a peasant?’ Isabel suggested.

‘Nothing wrong with living simply. I was always very happy in Little Benning.’

‘I was happy in Little Benning too,’ Isabel agreed.

He stroked her cheek. ‘Unfortunately for us, my darling girl, that is fantasy. The reality is that I have responsibilities now that extend beyond just keeping my brother and sister clothed and fed. I now have tenants and servants who rely on me.’

She rolled over, her face so close to his that their foreheads touched. ‘You are a fine Lord Somerton, Sebastian.’

‘And you are already a fine Lady Somerton.’

She smiled. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I am asking you again to marry me, Isabel. You didn’t give me an answer last night.’

She touched his face and smiled. ‘Yes.’

His heart swelled and he buried his face in her hair, overcome with the emotion that flooded him. She twisted beneath him, finding his face, and he kissed her with such passion that he thought he would lose himself in her, but any thought of making love again was interrupted by a gentle knock on the door.

‘Hope I haven’t woken you,’ Mother Shipton’s voice called from the far side, ‘but I’ve got some breakfast set for ye and your clothes are dry. I’ll just leave ‘em outside the door here. Come down when you’re ready.’

Sebastian rolled on to his back and groaned. ‘I suppose the day must be faced.’

Beside him, Isabel mirrored his position, turning her head to look up at the beams of the ceiling. ‘This has been our own little world, Sebastian. Will our normal world be the same?’

He swung his legs out of the bed and sat up, looking down at her slender body, half concealed by the bedclothes. The nasty bruises on the delicate flesh looked so much worse in the daylight and his anger rose at the thought of Freddy and the damage he could have wrought — had already wrought.

‘Nothing will ever be the same again, my dearest, and that is a good thing,’ he whispered, stooping to kiss her.

Dressed and tidied as best they could manage in their salt encrusted clothes, Sebastian and Isabel ate a simple breakfast of bread, cheese and small beer. Sebastian hadn’t shaved in two days and, although Isabel had tied her hair back, long salt-stiffened wisps escaped around her face.

She pulled a face, trying to tidy the curls away. ‘It needs to be washed in fresh water,’ she said.

Sebastian thought she had never looked so beautiful.

He glanced out of the window. ‘It will be some hours before the coach reaches us, Lady Somerton. Would you care for a walk along the beach?’

Isabel agreed and they stepped out into the cool day. He wrapped his arm around her and together they walked down through the dunes to the scene of the drama of the previous day.

The rain had cleared and the sea had withdrawn far into the Wash, leaving a broad expanse of sand. The little fisher boats were back, listing on the sand and waiting for the next high tide. Sebastian stopped on the side of the creek to ask about the boat that Freddy had commissioned to take him to France.

The man he enquired of scratched his beard and looked out at the boats on the creek bed.

‘Not back yet,’ he said.

Sebastian turned back to look at Isabel. There was no need for words. The grim look on Isabel’s face was reflected in his own. Freddy had escaped.

‘There’s no justice,’ Isabel whispered, slipping her hand into his, ‘but he’s gone. Nothing more we can do.’

Sebastian squeezed her hand, his heart overflowing with love for her…her courage and her stoicism.

Hand in hand, they walked along the shore. Out of sight of the village, Sebastian pulled Isabel down beside him on the sand. They sat side-by-side, looking out to sea.

‘Did you find Fanny?’ Isabel asked.

Sebastian nodded. ‘She was feeling a little sorry for herself but she should live.’

‘I wish I could feel some pity for Fanny, but I don’t,’ Isabel said.

Sebastian gathered her hand in his and kissed her fingers.

‘You can’t force yourself to feel an emotion, Isabel, but if you can’t feel pity, at least forgive her.’

‘I hear your stepfather in those words, Sebastian,’ she said.

‘Possibly.’

‘Did you forgive the murderers of Inez?’

Sebastian picked up a piece of driftwood and began drawing patterns in the damp sand while he considered the answer.

‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘If I hadn’t forgiven them, the hatred would have consumed me.’ He looked up at the sky and added, ‘Mind you, I killed them first.’

‘Sebastian!’ Isabel pushed him and he fell back on the sand, pulling her with him.

He rolled over until he was on top of her and kissed her. She put her hands around his head, pulling his face down towards her, and they kissed long and hard, exploring each other in a different way to their passionate lovemaking.

When they were spent, they lay side by side on the sand, looking up at the clouds scudding across the sky.

‘Freddy told me that he used to work in…in…a place that serviced the needs of gentlemen. He had been procured at the age of sixteen,’ Isabel said.

‘A molly house?’ Sebastian said, as the snippets of Freddy’s life fell into place.

Isabel nodded and related what Freddy had told her of his early life and the reason for the blackmail. When she had done so, she shuddered. ‘I almost felt sorry for him. A young man with the responsibility for a much younger sister has few options.’

‘There were other ways he could have made a living,’ Sebastian pointed out. ‘He chose his path because it was an easy assurance of quick money and provided ample opportunity for adding to the purse through other means, like blackmail.’

‘I was so naive. It never occurred to me that Anthony might have been inclined to men. I just thought he didn’t know what to do with me.’

‘Did he tell you why he killed Anthony?’ Sebastian asked.

‘He told me it was money. Anthony found the letters he had been using for the blackmail and refused to pay him.’

Sebastian put his hands behind his head. ‘My stepfather once told me that there are four reasons men kill: love, hate, self-defence and money. It may be true Freddy had been blackmailing Anthony and that the money had dried up, but there was more to it than that. Anthony loved you and Freddy wanted what he couldn’t have.’

‘Anthony was in love with me?’ Isabel gave an unladylike snort of derision.

Sebastian nodded. ‘I’ve been told that by Freddy and Georgiana Kendall.’

Isabel looked away and her shoulders tensed as if she was trying to control her emotions. ‘It seems I was wrong about Anthony. He gave every impression that he despised me!’

Sebastian laid a hand on her shoulder, turning her to look at him. He brushed the tears from her eyes.

‘Don’t blame yourself, Isabel. I don’t think Anthony knew how to show love.’

‘He was so different when William was born. For a little while I thought that we had reached an amicable relationship. That’s when I gave him the saddle. But after William died, he just turned on me. How is that love?’

‘I am guessing, but I think William’s death made Anthony realize how important you were in his life. Not just as the begetter of his heirs, but as a partner. He just didn’t know how to show it.’

Isabel sighed. ‘I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with Freddy.’

Sebastian thought of the innocent child and Freddy’s confession of the heinous crime he had committed. That was something Isabel need never know but, even as the thought crossed his mind, she propped herself up on one elbow and leaned over. As she stroked his face, she looked into his eyes. He had accused her of having a face like a book, but he could see in the concern on his face that his own visage reflected that grim knowledge.

‘Is there something you want to tell me about Freddy?’ She asked.

He shook his head. ‘No.’ But even to his own ear his tone was too clipped.

To prevent her from interrogating him further, he silenced her questions with his lips.

‘Poor Anthony.’ Isabel settled herself into the curve of his arm, her head resting against his shoulder. ‘I wish I could tell him how sorry I am to have been so wrong about him.’

Sebastian kissed the mahogany-coloured hair, tasting the salt on his lips.

He thought about Anthony. He didn’t understand what it was to desire another man, but he knew what it was to love and to lose the person you loved. Was that what drove Freddy? Had he loved Anthony?

Sebastian pushed his thoughts of Freddy and Anthony away and drew Isabel even closer. He had been given another chance at love and he was determined he would not lose this person or let the dark past shadow their future happiness.

‘Alder! Put that woman down!’

He heard his name on the wind and sat up to see two figures coming up the beach toward them. Isabel also sat up, her face pink with embarrassment. She tried to secure her wayward hair but even Sebastian could see it needed a good wash and a comb. Nothing she could do would make her look anything less than a bedraggled sea nymph, and he loved her more for it.

They struggled to their feet as Harry and Matt reached them. The younger man looked deathly pale and his arm was in a sling. Another figure, her blue dress flapping in the wind as she struggled to hold her bonnet, came running up the beach behind the men.

Connie threw herself not at Sebastian, but Isabel.

‘I am so glad you are all right. I feared the worst when I heard that monster had taken you! Did he hurt you?’

Isabel returned the girl’s warm embrace. ‘No, he didn’t hurt me. Just a few bruises.’

Connie turned to Sebastian, standing on tiptoes to give him a warm, sisterly kiss.

‘I thought I told you to wait in the coach,’ Matt chided.

Connie turned and gave her brother a hard stare.

Sebastian laughed. ‘Surely you didn’t entertain the notion your sister would listen to a word you say, Matt.’ He drew them both towards him, folding them in his arms. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see you both, and you, Harry. What news?’

Harry shook his head. ‘Bennet has seen Miss Lynch lodged with a widow in Hazlemere and her leg has been set.’ He glanced at Matt. ‘We did stop on the way and found Miss Lynch in a distressed state, as you can imagine. Is there any news of her brother?’

Sebastian shook his head. ‘In the absence of a body, we can only assume he made good his escape.’

‘With all my jewellery. Enough to set himself up in some style,’ Isabel observed. ‘I think Fanny may well have seen the last of her brother.’

Harry patted his coat. ‘We found a box full of Somerton silver and expensive trinkets in the ruined coach. I have a signed statement from Miss Lynch giving her account of matters as she knows them and exonerating you, Alder, of any responsibility towards her.’