To Have and to Hold (29 page)

Tipping her head
back she gasped and moaned as her body rocked to his rhythmic penetration.
 
Hands braced for support, she stared unseeing
out of the window as her body shook to the thrusts of her husband.
 
Pleasure built low in her abdomen as his
thrusts deepened. The only sounds within the room being the soft moans and deep
sighs of the lovers and the gentle slapping of flesh as they drove their bodies
towards completion.
 

“God Isobel, you
unman me,” Dominic murmured, tightening his hold on her hips to hold her steady
as he increased his thrusts.
 
It stirred
his blood to see her thus, legs spread before him, head tossed back, her breasts
swaying with each thrust of his shaft.
 
She was oblivious to the mirror beside them, which gave him a clear view
from the side and front of her he otherwise wouldn’t have.
  
He watched as his fingers captured one dusky
nipple to tweak and tease a gasp out of her.
 
On the windowsill, her hands were balled into fists as the inevitable
tension heightened.
 
Already the
tightening in his balls warned him of his own release.

Easing a hand
down between her legs, his fingers sought and found the small nub of flesh
nestled deep within her folds.
 
Her small
scream of pleasure was immediately followed by the rhythmic tightening of her
sheath around him as she reached her climax.
 
He groaned loudly and with one, two, three more thrusts deep into her,
he tightened his hold on her hips to keep her still as he released his seed
deep within her with a husky groan.
  

Moments later,
with the door unlocked, Dominic drew her down beside him upon the chaise,
settling her against his chest with a deep sigh, pleased when she snuggled trustingly
against him.
 
At last now she had colour
in her cheeks and the dark shadows of fear had gone from her eyes, he mused
eyeing her carefully with no small measure of satisfaction.
 

“Peter is
leaving tomorrow to meet Hubert.”
 
Dominic murmured after a few seconds of companionable and replete
silence.
 

“Good.”
 
Isobel murmured softly, recounting carefully
every word exchanged in the gardens.
 
Suddenly it didn’t seem too difficult to confide in him.
   

“The last time
he beat me, I didn’t think I should survive.
 
His beatings worsened with each day that passed.
 
He would always be drunk.
 
When he got drunk, he got nasty.
 
He would always send his henchman to fetch me
where he would rant on and on about how stupid I was, how nobody but his friend
would want me.
 
He would then look for
anything, any reason to strike the first blow.
 
At first, he would hit me once or twice.
 
The more often it happened; the blows became more and more.
 
Bruises upon bruises until I thought I should
die.
 
The best I could do was curl up in
a ball and wait for him to grow bored.
 
Kitty used to attend me but towards the end she wasn’t allowed.
 
Once or twice I had to crawl back to my room,
with Rupert laughing as he watched me from the bottom of the stairs.
 
I daren’t stop lest he started beating me
again.”

She was aware
Dominic had gone very still beside her but couldn’t bring
herself
to meet his eyes, she felt so shamed.
 
“I
think the worst thing was that I knew nobody would be coming to rescue me.
 
You were supposedly wed to another, and busy
with your nursery.
 
Peter was dead and
Elspeth was terrified of challenging him lest he had her committed to an
asylum.
 
There was nobody else.”
 
Her voice dropped to a whisper as the memory
of those hateful days battered her senses.

“You will never
be alone again.”
 
Dominic murmured
stroking her hair softly with trembling fingers as he carefully blinked away
the moisture from his eyes at the mental vision of her curled up, terrified
upon the floor flooded his mind.
 
He
would deal with that thought, and the stark emotions that came with it,
later.
 
“You now have in-laws, two new
brothers and hundreds of aunts and uncles, cousins and assorted great-aunts,
grandparents.”
 
He announced softly.

Isobel rolled
her eyes and shook her head.
 

“No I am
serious!”
 
Dominic protested.
 
“There are hundreds of them.”
 
He settled back upon the cushions unwilling
to show her just how deeply her revelations distressed him.
 
“If you ever need anything ever again, there
will be more help than you will be able to cope with, I can assure you.”

Isobel smiled
ruefully. “I have never had that many family members before.”
 
She stared into the fireplace absently, not
sure if she liked the idea of so many unfamiliar names and faces.

“You will have a
lifetime with this lot, I can assure you.”
 
Dominic kissed her brow before drawing her head up until she was looking
at him.
 

“There is one
good thing to come out of your meeting Rupert today.”
 
Dominic murmured and tut-tutted when Isobel
immediately looked towards the window.
 
“No, not that.
 
Well, not just
that.”
 
He amended ruefully.
 
“You have faced your demon head-on.
 
Was it as bad as you feared?”

Isobel
considered his question for a moment, now she had had some time to calm
herself, “No, indeed it wasn’t.”
 
She
thought back to the altercation as a kind of peace settled within her.
 
She looked at Dominic.
 
“I felt rather brave.
 
Even going so far as to say things I knew
would anger him.”

“Oh, undoubtedly
he would be angry enough to have found you and not be able to touch you.
 
Any defiance you showed him would make him
apoplectic with a rage, and he cannot do anything about that.
 
He cannot beat you again.
 
He knows he will face certain death if he
tries.
 
Indeed he has been thoroughly
thwarted and knows he cannot use you to clear his debts with anyone.”

“My value has
diminished by marrying you.”
 
Isobel
murmured thinking once more how proud she had felt informing Rupert of her
matrimonial status.

“Your value to
him, most likely as DeLisle cannot act on any arrangement now as your legal
guardian has arranged for the special license, and the wedding was held by our
local Vicar.
 
The papers are filed, the
marriage consummated.
 
There can be no legal
challenge to the legality of our being wed.”

With each of his
words Isobel felt more and more at peace until the effects of the morning began
to take effect, and she began to fall asleep.
 
She roused only briefly when Dominic moved to stand, snuggling under the
blanket he tenderly tucked around her.
 

“
Dom’nic
?”
 
She
murmured fighting the sleep that was pulling her under.
 

“Rest my love.
The search party have returned and I need to speak to them.
 
Get some sleep now.
 
You are perfectly safe.”
 
She felt a tender kiss upon her brow seconds
before she slipped into slumber.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Sometime during
the night Isobel awoke beside her snoring husband yet found herself unable to
settle back down.
 
Something about her
earlier encounter with Rupert was bothering her yet she couldn’t quite place
what it was.
 
She lay in quiet
contemplation as she relived their discussion.
 
It was easier to do lying within the warmth of the bed with her
husband’s arms wrapped tightly around her.
  

It was some time
before she realised that if Rupert knew about her marriage to Dominic, why had
he bothered to seek her out?
 
He must
know she was under the protection of her husband and now had no saleable value
to anyone.
 
Marriage to Dominic had taken
her firmly out of Rupert and DeLisle’s reach, so why didn’t they lose interest
in her?
 
Why go to the time and trouble
to wrestle through the undergrowth to wait for her and confront her so daringly
so close to Dominic?
 
He was a bully yes,
of that she had no doubt but he was also fully aware that Dominic, Peter and
Dominic’s family were now protecting her and together posed a formidable
opponent that he certainly wouldn’t be able to overcome.

What Isobel did
know with certainty, was that Rupert would not be giving up.
 
For her part, she couldn’t bear to remain
indoors while Dominic, and his associates did their work.
 
She most definitely would not be hiding away
for the rest of her life.
 
Somehow she
had to find the inner strength to face Rupert down herself.
 

To banish Rupert
from their lives completely the confrontation when it happened needed to be
between Isobel and Rupert, not Rupert and Dominic.
 
She became aware sometime later that Dominic
was awake and watching her.
 

“I think I might
know why Rupert is so determined to retain me.”
 
Isobel murmured softly.
 
Dominic
lay very still.
 
“One hundred thousand
pounds.”

“Pardon?”
 
Dominic raised a querying brow.

“One
hundred thousand pounds.”
 
She knew he didn’t understand, so elaborated.
 
“Grandmama on my mother’s side was somewhat
unconventional, to say the least.
 
She
believed women should have some independence and so left me her fortune.
 
Nobody was aware at the time that she had
amassed such a huge amount but apparently although she remained in her
childhood home, her second husband was quite significantly wealthy.
 
As they had no children between them, he left
his fortune to her.
 
Highly unusual I
know”, Isobel hastened to add as she eyed Dominic’s look of astonishment.
 
“But apparently she already had wealth from
her first husband.
 
Upon her demise, the
estate and effects were passed on to my father, and then Peter.
 
However, her monies were all handed over to
me.
 
There is a clause in the trust
allowing nobody access to my fortune even when I married.
 
Even then, I am not able to access it until I
reach five and twenty”.
 
Isobel didn’t
add that the clause also stated that the monies were only released to her
husband or Peter if she wasn’t married, when she died.

“Do you have a
will?”
 
Dominic’s voice was slightly
choked as he stared at her, still struggling to absorb the latest news.

“Yes I do.”
 
Isobel knew that if anything happened to her,
Dominic would be a significantly richer man.
 

“Can you access
the funds now?”
 
Dominic murmured
hoarsely.

“No, not yet,
but in two more weeks I can. It will be automatically turned over to me when I
reach five and twenty,” Isobel murmured.
 
“Do we need it?”
 
She raised a
brow as she eyed his shock.

“God
no!
 
I can keep
you in the manner to which you have become accustomed.
 
The estates were run well while I was
away.
 
You must of course spend the money
however you wish when you get it.”
 
After
several minutes of thoughtful silence he continued.
 
“You must remember that if you can access the
money whenever you want to, you can also access it should Rupert be in a better
position to make you.”