Proper Scoundrel (25 page)

“I adore you,” he said as he all but collapsed atop her, nuzzling her ear even as he closed his eyes. “Though I think you near killed me with lust.” He sighed in contentment. “I can’t think of a better way to go.”

Jade heard his weak chuckle as she curled into him and snuggled her nose into the hollow of his neck, settling her leg near that delicious man place, all soft and at rest now.

She drifted to sleep and dreamed of a world where no danger threatened and life’s secret burdens would never tear them apart. “I don’t think the gunman was aiming at Jade,” Garrett repeated as Marcus paced. “I believe he was trying to break one of the fine ceramic tubes of gunpowder with a bullet so it would explode on impact and ignite the rest.”

Marcus turned on him. “How many tubes?”

“They found shards enough for a great deal of damage, including several unexploded tubes. We didn’t have one explosion but a series of them.”

“How can that be? I stayed with the railroad cars from the minute they arrived. No one could have planted gunpowder tubes while I was there.”

“Then somebody planted plenty before you and the train arrived. Perhaps someone who works for us?”

“What? A disgruntled employee just happens to try and destroy us at the same time Jade is trying to do the same?” Marcus scoffed and ran a hand through his hair. “There are so many loose ends, Garr. I thought I knew who’d want Jade dead, that once we had that first gunman, we had the greedy cousin, but the locals identified the man I chased to ground. He’s still locked up and he isn’t Giles Dudley.”

“Which doesn’t rule out the cousin, Marc.”

“I suppose not. Guess I’m not thinking straight.”

“Look,” Garrett said. “I know you’re worried about Jade, but you’ve got to pull yourself together. And get some rest, you look like hell. What did you do, pace all night?”

Marcus actually felt heat scuttle up his neck.

Garrett’s eyes narrowed in confusion for a blink then he grinned.

Marcus rolled his eyes. “Actually, I had a revelation last night.”

“One usually does in such circumstances.”

“I meant at the site.”

Garrett cleared his throat. “Of course.”

“No, really. Whoever did this knows railroading well enough to know that however scarce and expensive the wood for ties, the rails are worth thrice as much.”

Garrett shrugged. “Anyone might learn of it, but I should think it most apparent to us and the owners of the foundry.”

“And whoever oversees invoicing and payments there.”

Jade appreciated the hot bath Marcus had delivered to her room after he left, and odd as it seemed after last night, she appreciated the privacy to enjoy it, her mind filled with him, his scent and texture, the feel of his lips on hers, on her breasts and elsewhere, which warmed her even now.

She needed to come to terms with this new aspect of their relationship. To examine this feeling that she would never be the same Jade Smithfield who only met Marcus Fitzalan for the first time three short months ago. The Jade who, despite her determination not to relinquish her self to him, felt renewed and exhilarated for the physical process that she feared had done just that.

Yet with all her doubts, she couldn’t help revel in the memory of the night just passed, wanting nothing more than to soak her pleasantly aching muscles for hours of sweet contemplation.

Her door’s squeal as it opened put period to that on the instant. “Jade?”

“Emily. What’s the matter, Sweetheart? You look sad.” Emily approached the tub hesitantly, her tiny little Mucks waddling faithfully behind, and once she got there, Em’s face fell even further, until her lips began to quiver. “Emmy wants Mummy.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Jade got right out of the tub, slipped into her dressing gown and lifted Emily in her arms to cuddle her. What could she say? She couldn’t pretend Catherine might still come back. Emily deserved better than false hope. But the truth felt so ... brutal.

She kissed Em’s brow. “Emmy, you know Mummy would have come back to you, if she could have, don’t you?”

Emily nodded, her look so trusting, it frightened Jade as much as Marcus’s gentleness did.

“Papa didn’t bring her,” Emmy said, shaking her head.

“Papa? Do you mean Marcus? You expected Marcus to bring your Mummy back?”

Emily nodded.

“You know him better than I do,” Jade said. “He wanted very much to bring Mummy back for you.” No wonder Em’s sadness today, if Marcus had been her last hope of getting Catherine back.

Jade looked into Em’s big cornflower blue eyes. “He loves you, you know? Papa does.”

Emily nodded again. “Where’s Mummy?”

Jade tucked a couple of Emily’s ringlets behind her ear, remembering how Marcus doing that to her had made her feel cared for and protected. She carried Em to the window to look upon the rare beauty of a sunny day, and pointed toward the sky. “Remember, Emily, when we were looking up at the clouds the other day? How beautiful they looked all white and fluffy bright? Well, your Mummy is up there in heaven. She’s ... an angel now ... watching over you from one of those beautiful clouds.”

Emily’s eyes slowly filled until a tear hovered and slipped off her lash. Then, as slowly, another, while she regarded Jade, as if her life depended upon Jade’s every breath.

She seemed too young to understand death, or she should be, but she’d grown up where beatings and hunger were part of life, where a child likely encountered death often enough to understand the finality of it.

Jade blinked, feeling the weight of responsibility, seeking divine guidance for Emily’s sake, and wishing Marcus were here.

“Sweetheart.” Jade tugged on a flaxen ringlet adorning the tiny brow and had to clear her throat before she could go on. “I know you’ll always love your Mummy in a very special way, deep in here, in your heart, the same way she will always love you.”

Emily barely nodded, almost as if she were holding her breath.

Jade was sick inside, so afraid of doing this wrong. “Emmy, you know how Mucks had a doggie Mummy once, but you’re her new Mummy now, and you love her?”

Em’s nod became more certain.

“Good. You want to keep Mucks safe, don’t you, and warm and happy, and give her good food and lots of hugs and kisses so she’ll grow up strong and happy?”

Another affirmative nod, and a softening of that pale little face.

“Well, I want to take care of you the same way you take care of Mucks. I want you to be my little girl now, my very own, because, you see, Sweetheart, I love you too.”

Emily released a great shuddering breath and her tears fell more quickly as she threw her arms around Jade and began to cry in earnest, until she sobbed so hard, Jade could hardly breathe for the pain in her heart.

Mucks took to howling, crying along with Em, and she pulled away and looked down, her pup’s sadness of more concern than her own.

“Here, Sweetheart,” Jade said. “Let me put you on my bed and bring Mucks up here with us, shall I?”

Once she had her pup, Emily curled in a ball holding Mucks close, and Jade stretched out behind them, pulling them both, pup and child, into her embrace, and Em’s sobs diminished to an occasional hiccup.

“I love you, Emmy.”

“Can Mummy hear me?” Emily asked without turning toward Jade.

“Yes, Darling. And when you laugh, it pleases her very much, because she loves you. So you must try to be happy, even though you miss her. If you are, she’ll be very content in heaven.”

“Emmy loves M ... Mummy. Love ... you t ... too.”

Some time passed before Jade felt Em relax, and longer still before her breathing calmed, turned peaceful, and Em slept.

Marcus’s heart hit the side of his chest with a thud when he found them asleep on Jade’s bed, looking like mother and child ... and pup. A family.

His family.

His.

By the tear tracks on both faces, it looked as if something momentous had taken place.

The minute Lacey told him that Emily had asked for her mother this morning, he’d come looking for her. He could just imagine what must have transpired.

He sat on the edge of the bed and twisted one of Emily’s golden curls around his finger and she opened her eyes. “Hi Emmybug. You all right?”

Emily peeked behind her and saw Jade still asleep. She put a finger to her lips. “Shh. Mama’s sleeping.”

Jade opened her eyes at that and regarded him. She must have told Emily about her mother, a task he didn’t envy. Now Jade was Mama and he was Papa, except that Jade thought their becoming a family was impossible, and Lord how he prayed she was wrong.

Seeing Jade and Em like this filled Marcus with hope. “We can do it,” he said, not imagining how, but wanting desperately to make it happen.

Jade kissed Emily’s nose. “Want to take Papa and Mucks for a walk while I get dressed?” She rose from the bed, giving Marcus a tantalizing glimpse of the woman beneath the damp dressing gown.

“First, the three of us can move your things into the bedroom next door, my little Kitten,” Jade said, “so I can hear you, if you need me during the night. Then perhaps we can have a picnic on the beach?”

With the resilience and trust of a child, Emily nodded and handed Mucks into Marcus’s keeping, while she scrambled from the bed. “Come Papa,” she said taking his hand, and filling him with pride.

Marcus cupped Jade’s cheek, his love for her more consuming than the physical. It actually rose to a spiritual plane, a place he’d never been, nor aspired to be, but a gift he accepted as a blessing.

“We can do it,” he repeated, before he left. We have to, he thought.

There must be a way.

Ten minutes later, looking fresh as springtime, Jade descended the stairs into the foyer and sat beside them on the bottom step. “Ready for—” Mucks began barking, as ferocious as any half-pound mite on short legs, and loped for the front door.

Before Marcus reached it, the door opened and it hit the wall with a reverberating crash. Two men pushed their way inside, both older, one unkempt, in need of a wash and full of bravado, which proved some ale must actually have missed his coat and slid down his gullet.

The second man was dressed a great deal better. A dandy. “I want my wife,” he demanded. “Who’s in charge here?”

Emily came for the growling Mucks, and Marcus swept them into his arms. Jade positioned herself beside them.

The dishevelled man turned to his cohort. “She ain’t y’wife till y’pay me for’er.” He nodded at Marcus. “We come for me daughter.”

Marcus handed Emily to Jade. “I’ll take care of this. Take Em out of here.”

Jade shook her head, refusing to budge, of course. “This is my house and these women are my responsibility,” she said, frustrating, but not surprising, Marcus.

Several people apparently heard Mucks barking and the crash that followed, so a crowd had gathered. Garrett wheeled his chair around the corner and stopped ahead of the rest. “What’s going on, Marc? Is everything all right?”

“This ‘gentlemen,’” Marcus stressed. “Wishes to claim his daughter, who is this man’s intended, I believe.”

“Right’y’are guv’nr.”

“Who exactly are you looking for?” Marcus asked them.

“Me girl’s Abby Parg’ter.”

“Abigail’s your daughter,” Garrett said. “Impossible.”

“No, Garrett.” Abigail stood trembling on the stairs watching him. “Not impossible at all. I am his daughter.”

“And soon to be my wife,” the dandy shouted in such a way as to order Abigail to remember it.

Abigail straightened her spine. “Now that’s impossible.” She returned her gaze to her sire. “I won’t be sold.”

Her father pulled a pistol from his waistcoat and aimed it at her, catching Marcus completely off guard, but not enough to keep him from stepping in front of Jade and Emily to protect them.