The Highwayman (Rakes and Rogues of the Restoration Book 3) (38 page)

Perhaps it was those stories, perhaps it was the joke he’d made about a ghost haunting her room, but one night, about three weeks after learning of his death, her dream took a startling turn. First, his weight settled comfortably alongside her as he took her in his arms, then she felt his breath, warm against the nape of her neck. She opened her eyes. Her dustcoat was hanging where she left it, over a chair. Her wine glass, still half-full, was there beside her bed. She knew she had to be dreaming, but his heart beat slow and steady next to her own. Somehow, she was awake inside her dream.

Eyes tightly shut, fearful of breaking the spell, she turned toward him, reaching out a hand to fell his skin. It felt hot and smooth against her palm, and almost as if she were wiping steam from a mirror, his presence became more substantial with her touch. Her fingers wandered his chest, his waist, his hip, lightly caressing before moving on. Her lips followed after, planting a trail of hot kisses from his throat to his navel as her hands wandered further still. He groaned as her hand moved lower, stroking and squeezing him through his breeches. His hips thrust forward and she gripped him tighter, making him gasp as he strained against her hand.

“My sweet, Jack,” she whispered against his throat, “you always come when I need you most.”

He caught her wrist and stopped her, pulling her up against him so that she covered his length. She sighed against his mouth. She wanted to see him, to open her eyes and capture his gaze, but she feared that if she did so, if she questioned it…he would be gone.

He felt solid and alive in her arms. She didn’t know how that could be, and she didn’t care. She arched her back, thrusting her nipples forward. He nipped at her ear and nuzzled her neck, making her shiver her whole length as he cupped the underside of one plump breast. She gasped when his tongue rasped her peak. “Oh, Jack,” she moaned. “I have missed you so much.”

She pushed him onto his back and slid her leg across his, pinning his lower body to her bed. Her fingers curled around the back of his neck, sliding through his hair to pull him into a searing kiss. “I don’t know what this is, Jack, and I don’t care. You feel so real. I want to keep you right here. I don’t think I can ever let you go. If this is dreaming I never want to wake up.”

“You feel real to me too, Bella. At times you are the only thing that does.”

“Jack?” She opened her eyes and looked uncomprehending, straight into his warm ones. “
Jack?
You’re alive!”

He sat up and she threw her arms around him, laughing and crying, kissing and hitting him, all at the same time. “Thank God! They said you were dead. I love you! I hate you! How could you let me go on thinking such a thing? Why didn’t you come to me straight away? Have you no idea how I’ve suffered? I couldn’t eat. I could hardly sleep. It hurt, Jack. It hurt like nothing ever has before.”

He held her tight, rocking her back and forth, kissing her face and throat as he spoke. “I’m so sorry, love. I came to you as soon as I was able, but I
am
supposed to be dead. It was the only way I could think of to escape this mess. I take great risks being here now. If I am discovered it will put an end to the ruse and put you in danger for harboring me. I swear, riding back from Ferrybridge on the North Road I ran into every cursed person I’ve ever robbed or aided. Thank God the fools took me for a spirit––but Charles won’t.”

“
I
took you for a spirit! When the guard at the prison said you had died of the plague, I believed him. I actually felt my heart break.”

“You came to the prison?”

“Of course I did! I promised you I would, didn’t I? Did you doubt it? Did you expect me to abandon you? I wanted to rescue you, just as you have rescued me. I consulted a solicitor who bade me write the king. I tried to contact Will Butcher but he was nowhere to be found. Then I went to see you with Nate and Mary Tully, bringing gold to bribe a guard and a pistol to aid in your escape, only to be told that you were dead.” Despite her joy, she was perilously close to tears.

“Bella….” He gave her a warm hug. “There is no one on this earth I trust more than you, but I went to great effort to hide our association and keep you out of it as much as possible. I was certain you would come to the rescue as soon as you regained your senses and I wanted to be done with the thing before you could. To be honest, after seeing that accident and the shape you were in, I thought you would be in your bed recovering a while yet.”

“How did you manage to pull it all off? Your escape?”
And why did you not send me a message at least? From Will. From anyone
. Something stopped her from asking that question.

“I was very disheartened at first. I was worried about you and I could see no future for us. I thought often of my own words to you, that you deserved
better than a life of constant danger with a man who cheats the noose…. I considered that I ought to set you free.”

“Jack, that’s not at all what I meant when I reminded you.”

“Hush, love. He soothed her with kiss to her brow. “I can be a thick lad at times but I’m not such a fool as to ever let you go. Besides, I do tend to figure things out eventually. I’m here aren’t I?”

Something eased inside her and she laid her head against his chest. “Yes, you’re here. I’m sorry to interrupt. Go on with your story.”

He stroked her hair absently as he spoke. “They held me in close confinement, in a very small cell with fetters at wrist and leg, but I was still allowed visits. As you know, there are many who flock to the prisons seeking entertainment, particularly when they think a highwayman is gallows bound. I was thinking that it might be my turn at last when I hit upon the stratagem of faking my death.

“Will went to fetch Dr. Alderson, who gave it out that I was sick with fever and might easily infect the whole jail. He had me moved to better treat me, and over the course of a week, he painted me with the blue spots seen in those dying from the plague. After taking one of his foul concoctions I lay like the dead and was placed in a coffin and hurried out the door. Will says they ordered a jury to examine my body, but fearing contagion and seeing the spots, they looked from afar and soon left.

“It took me a few days to recover from the good doctor’s ministrations. He won’t admit it, but I suspect he nearly killed me while saving my life. I left for London as soon as I was able, and here you see me now. Risen from the dead like Lazarus, or a not so holy ghost.”

“I wished you were a ghost. I wanted you to come, ghost or no. I thought that I was dreaming you before and you didn’t say a word.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth. “I thought it was a very warm welcome you just gave me, and that you were as glad to see me as I was to see you.”

She laid her palm against his cheek. “I haven’t laughed or smiled since I thought I lost you. The world without you in it held no joy. I am so sorry, Jack––for the way we left things. You offered me yourself, and in all my life, I’ve never known a finer gift. I’m sorry I didn’t make certain that you knew I understood that.”

He took her hand and kissed it. “Don’t apologize to me. I was a stiff-necked fool. The excitement, the freedom, the wonder that I told you of, were thrills that had long since grown cold. I only ever feel them now when I’m with you. It’s you who brings this world to life, Bella. It’s you who makes it wonderful and a grand adventure. When I thought you dead at Hammond’s hand there was nothing in this world, including my soul, I wouldn’t have traded to get you back.

“I am sorry if I made you cry. But know that if I am your weakness, you are my strength. I have no home and no family, and now no place left among the living. I have spent my life moving from place to place, dancing on the edge of an abyss.”

“The leap into the dark.”

He nodded and stroked her hair. “I love you, Arabella. It is you who keeps me from falling. It is
you
who rescues me.”

“Oh Jack!” She hugged him fiercely, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I know I have no right to ask it, but if you will have me…you will be my country, my kin, and my only home.”

“Swift Nick, Gentleman Jack, John Nevison, Samuel Johnson, highwayman, gentleman, fugitive or ghost, I will have you any way I can.”

“Christ, Bella! What have I done to deserve you?”

His smile was dazzling. His voice, husky and warm, sent shivers along her spine. “You smiled and offered me your hand the first night we met. From that moment, I was lost. That smile was one of the things I’ve missed the most.”

Growling low in his throat, he spread his fingers though her hair and pulled her mouth to his in a kiss that devoured her. “I missed your mouth. I missed the way it tastes. I missed you.”

She whimpered as he pushed her back into the mattress, covering her body with his own. Whispering words of love and promise, he guided her hand to the bulge that strained against his breeches and they both scrambled to loosen his buttons, fingers brushing and working together until he sprang free. Painfully engorged, he settled between her thighs. She was hot and ready and she rose to meet him with a hunger as fierce as his own. Their cries echoed through the chamber as he drove into her again and again, taking her higher and higher until she was wild with want and need. Shuddering and shaking, raw with pleasure, they climbed together, rocking each other to thunderous blissful release.

When they sank back into each other, gasping for breath Arabella’s heart was singing. She couldn’t stop touching him, petting and squeezing him. Trapping his jaw between her hands, she kissed him firmly on the mouth. “Welcome home, Jack.”

~

Arabella awoke with Jack in her arms, his stubbled jaw rasping the smooth skin of her breast. The night, though dreamlike, was no dream. She smiled tenderly, brushing the hair back off his face. His eyes opened, their amber depths heated, and he pulled her into a luxuriant kiss. “Sweet…sweet, Bella. I feared that I had dreamt you.”

“And I feared that you’d be gone in the morning, like any proper highwayman or ghost.”

“So what are we to do now? Now that Gentleman Jack, Swift Nick and your cousin are all no more?”

“Oh God! Robert. Did I kill him, Jack? I would have, to save my life or yours, but I understand now what you meant when you said shooting a man was no easy thing.”

“Nor should it be, love. That way lies monsters and madness. But I promise you, you’ve done nothing to regret. The deed is mine to worry about, not yours, and it doesn’t plague my conscience at all. It was him or you and it had to be done. I’m more concerned about where we go from here.”

His words brought her tremendous relief. She felt no love for her cousin, but that last terrified look had held a wordless appeal. Perhaps, now he would cease to haunt her dreams.
None of us want to die, unloved and alone
.

“Bella?”

She looked up, startled.

“Are you all right?”

“What? Yes. Yes I’m fine. Better than fine. You are here, alive. Nothing else matters. Nothing else meant anything without you.”

“What are we to do next?”

“Why you must marry me of course. I intend to hold you to your word, but I can be flexible. Mrs. Nevison, Mrs. Nicks, or you could be Mr. Hamilton. I will take you with whatever name you please.”

“Could you really live as Mrs. Johnson, the village carpenter’s wife?”

“No, Jack, I couldn’t. Because that isn’t me, and it will never be you. You weren’t made to run an inn or ply a trade. The yen for adventure is part of who you are. I never wanted to change you. I just hoped that you might fulfill that need in other ways. Besides, I am no longer the person I was before I met you. I crave adventure too. We don’t have to hide here in England. We can travel. There is France, the New World, the Orient. After I attend to my mother’s estate we—”

They both jumped as someone knocked at the door. Jack reached for his sword but Arabella stayed his hand. “I will take care of it. It will be one of the servants.”

When she returned to him a few moments later, there was an odd look on her face and a letter in her hands. “It is from the king,” she said in a tone of wonder. “My solicitor suggested I write him. I had given up hope of hearing from him, and after the news of your death it didn’t seem to matter anymore.”

“What does he say, Bella?”

“I will read it to you.

‘My dear Lady Saye,

I have read your plea on behalf of John, William, Samuel, Nevison, (and whatever other names he chooses to use) also known as Swift Nick and Gentleman Jack. I note your insistence that the events in Nottingham were a result of wrongdoing on the part of one Robert Hammond, and an attempt at rescue on the part of Mr. Nevison. As Mr. Nevison’s gallantry is well known, I can believe your account to be true. Although this does not excuse his scoundrel’s tricks to thwart the terms of his pardon, I am mollified in part to hear that none of his illicit adventures were undertaken in the person of Swift Nick.

Sadly though, it appears that fate has moved faster than the King of England. One hears that Mr. Nevison has sickened and died. How unfortunate that such a remarkable rogue should succumb in such a mundane way. Take heart, madam, that you are not the only one who grieves. Those who cannot accept the sad demise of such a popular hero bring tales of his ghost, clinging to the hope, one assumes, that in some way he has managed to survive his own death.

If only that were true, and he chose to live an honest life and serve his king in Ireland rather than England, we would not feel compelled to seek him out or punish him. One hears that Lord Moncastle's Irish regiment is in dire need of a captain. My sincerest condolences to you, madam, whether the rascal be alive or dead.

Sincerely,

Charles Stuart

Their path was clear if they chose to follow it. Arabella held her hand out to Jack and with a joyful smile repeated the words he had spoken to her so many times before. “Will you come adventuring with me, Jack?”