His Dark Enchantress (Books We Love Regency Romance) (30 page)

Emmaline waited, sensing
how much the story still pained him. He sighed again and moved from his chair to sit on the floor beside the tub. He leant his head back and rolled it wearily from side to side against the hard edge.

“Styles
didn’t just seduce her, he corrupted her utterly and completely,” he said quietly. “He let it be known how willing she had been, how expert in bed she was, almost as expert as the most high class courtesan. He also let slip that she had born a child when she was sixteen.”

“Do you think your sister knew that?”

“Caroline admitted to having heard a rumour but, after meeting Lucinda, could not allow herself to believe it.”

“What happened to Lucinda?”

Lucius was at first silent, then sighed. “Her family removed her to a lunatic asylum. They couldn’t deal with her excesses, you see.”

“And then you hardened your heart.”

Something between a snort and a bark of laughter erupted from Lucius’ lips.

“That is one way of putting it,” he said. “I was determined to not love again. I did not want the pain of it.”

“Until you met me.”

Lucius got to his feet.

“But you are my dark enchantress,” he whispered and dropped a kiss on her head.

The shiver of delicious anticipation it kindled ran right to her toes.

“Oh, Lucius,” she whispered. “I do believe you have unleashed a monster. What would I do without you?”

Lucius watched her face for a moment
, drank in the soft curves of her cheeks and the outline of her lips, then knelt beside the tub and took her hand.

“You would do this.”

The still warm water rose a little higher as Lucius guided her hand to lie on her lower belly and encouraged her fingers to explore that exquisite peak between her thighs. He put a little pressure on her fingers, moved them under his, watched as her eyes closed and her eyelashes fluttered as gently as butterflies on her cheeks, watched her tension begin to build.

He moved his hand and watched as she moved hers, knew from the way her teeth caught her lower lip that
she was close to climaxing. He heard her first gasp of delight and felt a stirring of his own pleasure at the expression on her face, swallowed hard and clenched his muscles to prevent it growing further.

The water
rose and fell against the sides of the tub as she rocked with gentle motion until she cried out as one strong ripple after another flowed through her.

Lucius
continued to watch her, wanted her, knew he would do anything for her. The smile that lightened her face softened her lips and rounded her cheeks and, when she opened her eyes, they sparkled with an inner satisfaction and a new knowing.

She reached a wet hand up to his face, slid her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down.

“I love you,” she whispered and kissed him.

***

The following days were the happiest Emmaline had ever known. Other than Juliana, she did not have a wide circle of friends, only acquaintances. But Lucius, she soon discovered, was a friend as well as husband and lover and conversed with her on as many subjects and levels as had her father. The laughter in her eyes and the bloom in her cheeks did not go unnoticed.

“She’s getting used to it,” Mrs. Swift remarked to the housekeeper. “You mark my words, Mrs. Hammond, it won’t be long before it’s not only my oven what has a bun in it.”

Mrs. Hammond, secretly agreeing, pretended shock. Lady Emmaline had certainly been a surprise and a delight to them all with her understanding and unaffected manners.

That she preferred to be in the stables or out visiting tenants with his Lordship in no way deterred her from her intention to learn all she could about Avondale Park.

The house keeper’s little office was their meeting point each morning and Mrs. Hammond found her pupil not only eager and willing to learn but intelligent too. She answered the many questions that were put to her with sound logic that Emmaline found easy to process.

Of all the rooms th
e house keeper had shown her, Emmaline’s favourite was the Peacock Room. With its velvet drapes of deep turquoise at the windows and the canopy around the bed a swath of blue and green silk and satin, Emmaline found the room quite delightful but it was the large painting of a peacock hung over the fireplace that caught her attention.

“My father used to tell me stories of the Greek gods and goddesses,” she said, standing in front of the hearth and gazing up at the painting. “The goddess Hera’s watchman, Argos, had a hundred eyes and slept with half of them open. One night Hermes tricked Argos into closing all of them and killed him. The peacock was Hera’s favourite bird so she put some of Argos’ eyes in its tail.”

“I don’t hold with those nasty heathens.” Mrs. Hammond, unimpressed with Emmaline’s story, shuddered as she picked up a tasselled cushion from the sofa and plumped it up.

“I’m going to claim this room for my own.” Emmaline
twirled in circles on the richly patterned carpet which reflected the iridescent colours of the bird’s plumage.

“I’m sure his Lordship won’t have any objections,” Mrs. Hammond replied, unable to resist smiling at her
protégé’s obvious pleasure.

“Of course he won’t,” Emmaline said with confidence. “He has his office and library to retreat to and I shall come here when I wish to read or otherwise be quiet.”

Their business for the day finished, Emmaline went directly to the stables where she groomed Sadie, the mare she had brought with her from Baymoor, and chatted with Noble and Tockington, who had now long recovered from his crack on the head. He had complimented her on her needlework and shown her with pride the very faint scar that was all he had to show for the incident.

Her intention was to ride in the park that afternoon, but
a chance remark from Tockington changed her mind and she rushed back to the house to find Lucius.

He was in the library with Edward and looked up at her hurried entrance.

“This cannot be my wife,” he said in mock dismay, taking in the scarf tied over her head and the piece of straw strewn sacking about her waist.

Emmaline looked down at her make-shift apron.

“Rather this than a dirty skirt,” she said. “I’m sorry to intrude, Lucius, but I have to ask you if I may buy a pig.”

“A pig?” Lucius sat bolt upright in his chair in disbelief.
Edward did his best to hide the grin that split his face at his employer’s shock, but his best was not good enough and he spluttered into silence under Lucius’ withering glare.

“Yes, but it’s not just any pig,” Emmaline insisted. “
Mr. Tockington was telling me someone in the village is selling a Gloucester Old Spot. Although I have never yet seen one, I know they are famously practical and I think Mr. Collett at the home farm would very much appreciate it.”

Lucius shook with laughter. “God forbid that my wife should wish to purchase anything as mundane as a bonnet. Go and buy your pig, Emmaline, and have the bills sent to Edward but please do not go abroad looking like an orphan.”

“But of course not,” she responded with a toss of her head. “I shall select an appropriate gown from my new wardrobe for I intend to visit Miss Jarvey at the school and deliver some preserves to Mrs. Jenkins.”

As she left she hesitated,
but turned to him witha smile on her face and blew him a kiss.

Lucius’ laughter rolled around the room and Edward, having been in his employ for ten years, could not remember a time when there had been so much in joy in him.

With Emmaline gone to the village, Lucius took a gun and two of his spaniels and set out across the park for a far covert where he hoped to flush out a brace of pheasant.

The September afternoon basked under a clear blue sky. The gentlest of breezes occasionally buffeted his face and ruffled his hair, and all was as perfect as it could be. He traipsed through the fields, clambered over walls and fences that he would be jumping over once the hunting season started, got his feet wet in the trout stream that ran close to the southern boundary of the Park
and the Beamish estate, and returned home well satisfied.

He cut through the stable yard after leaving the dogs in the kennels and noticed the carriage house door ajar. Curious, he pulled it open.

The place where the gig should have been was still empty.

Puzzled, he closed the door
and checked Sadie’s stable. It was also empty. He looked up at the stable yard clock. It was gone five.

Panic gripped his heart, almost stilled his breathing
.

He charged up the stairs to the grooms’ quarters, two at a time bellowing for Noble who met him at the door.

“What time did her ladyship leave, Noble, and who accompanied her?” he barked.

“She left a little after noon, my Lord, and insisted she drive herself.”

“Did she indeed?” Lucius seethed inwardly but paused for a moment, holding his temper. “And you let her go alone? Where were your wits? Saddle a hunter, Noble, I’ll go to Nettleford across country.”

As soon as the horse was ready, Lucius set off at a steady gallop across the park, scattering the herds of fallow deer and sheep that grazed there.

Damn her! The pig was one thing, but driving off without a groom? Who did she think she was to drive herself unaccompanied? And how could Noble have been so foolish as to let her go alone?

He steadied the horse for a post and rail fence, soared over it and picked up the pace across the next field. A gate and two hedges later he was pounding along the road into the village where he pulled up abruptly and dismounted outside the inn.

“Jackson!” he roared as he pushed into the taproom.

The landlord had already heard him and sent a boy to take the horse and now met him in the corridor.

“What’s amiss milord?”

“Have you seen her Ladyship?” Lucius demanded.

“Put the gig up here while she did some visiting, left about mid-afternoon.”

“Then where the devil is she?” Fear replaced the panic in Lucius’ heart and he cursed himself for not having asked
the whereabouts of those she planned to visit. “Do you know who was selling a pig?”

“That would be Tom Thresher,” Jackson told him. “His place is just outside Nettleford, past the church. But I know her Ladyship made an arrangement with him, for he came in here for a, er, well a celebratory beverage and told everyone.”

“Everyone?” Lucius looked around the empty room.

“There were a few locals in, like usual, and a couple of horse copers that stayed for a couple of days.”

“Horse copers?” Lucius caught the words.

“Well, that’s what they called themselves, but I don’t rightly know about that.” Jackson rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“Said they were from the Midlands looking for good hunters, but the prads they rode were pretty poor sorts, and the few they was leading not much better. And they didn’t sound right, neither.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, milord, the one gentleman sounded more like a Londoner. The other didn’t talk much, but he were the one as carried the coin.”

“Do you know if they purchased any stock hereabouts?”

Jackson shrugged. “Not as I know of.” He frowned. “I don’t rightly remember them asking for directions anywhere, even though they was out and about every day. Kept themselves pretty much to themselves, but they was quiet and paid their way.”

“When did they leave?”

There was silence for a moment.

“This afternoon, milord,” Jackson said warily, not liking the murderous look he saw on the other man’s face. “Not long after her Ladyship, now I come to think of it.”

“I need to see their rooms.” Lucius demanded, harbouring a wild hope they might have left behind some indication of where they were going.

“This way, milord.”

Jackson took him upstairs and showed him the rooms off the landing. Plain beds, a chair, a dresser and wardrobe were the only furnishings in each room. They were clean and bare, awaiting their next occupants but, as he turned, a flash of light caught Lucius’ eye.

He stooped, ran his hand across the boards beside the dresser.

What had he seen?

Prodding
the rag rug at the foot of the bed he jumped as his finger connected with something sharp. He dug into the fabric and teased out a pin, a pin with a diamond head.

He had seen it before, he was sure.
Holding it up to the light the diamond gleamed as he twirled the pin in his fingers. Dammit. Where had he seen it?

His face froze as he remembered
Rosemary Darnley’s dinner party.

He thought
of the mismatched guests, remembered Captain Kellen and Mr. Hooper whose damning evidence discredited Emmaline. Frowning, he remembered that Kellen caught him just as he was about to leave.

Pushing
aside his fear for Emmaline he concentrated on what Kellen told him.