Romance: Detective Romance: A Vicious Affair (Victorian Regency Intrigue 19th England Romance) (Historical Mystery Detective Romance) (92 page)

     “Breakfast is served,” Thomas announced with a grin, seating himself on the edge of her bed and setting the tray before her. “Enjoy.”

     Amy did just that seconds later, digging deep into her succulent morning feast as she pinned her host with inquisitive eyes.

     “Delicious!” she praised him, adding as she inclined her head sharp in his direction, “I simply must ask though, who occupied this room before I did?”

     Thomas shrugged.

     “No one to speak of, Ma’am,” he told her. “Truth be told it was never slept in before last night.”

     Amy nodded.

     “So you as a Texas rancher tend to prefer lace comforters and floral print café curtains?” she queried, accompanying her words with a long hard look that brought a loud guffaw from deep in Thomas’ throat.

     “Not at all, Ma’am,” he admitted, adding with a soft smile, “You see, my parents were the original settlers who claimed this land, about 15 years ago. Their home still stands, just up the dirt road.” He paused here, adding in a sentimental tone, “My dad always insisted that his home be decorated in the style of a ranch house—with a lot of browns and blacks, with rawhides hung up all over the home and statues of bulls and horses on every available surface. So when I built my own ranch house, I set aside one room just for my mother—a place where she could come, write the poetry that she loved to pen, and just stare out the window at the Texas moon.”

     Amy smiled.

     “Well that was kind of you, Thomas,” she praised him, adding as she took another hearty bite of her steaming hot pancakes, “Are your folks still alive?”

     Thomas shook his head.

     “My dad has been gone for six years, my mother for three. I miss them so much,” he revealed, adding as a telltale veil of tears brimmed forth from his aquiline eyes, “I’m sorry, Ma’am. I know a cowboy ain’t supposed to cry.”

     Amy said nothing, just wrapped her arms around his muscled shoulders and pulled him closer to her; telltale tears escaping her own eyes as the two tilted their foreheads together and their hands clenched between them.

     “Do not even dream of apologizing to me,” Amy insisted, adding as she ran a comforting hand through the silken lengths of his thick, golden hair, “I reckon that, at this point, we both need a good ol’ cry.”

     The couple said nothing for several moments, just leaned into one another as their hands remained clenched and their tears fell free between them.

     A wave of warmth coursed free through Amy’s being as she tilted her chin upward; smiling soft and tender as her doting host wiped the tears from the surface of her fair skinned cheeks.

     This smile broadened moments later, as a warm eyed Thomas tilted her delicate chin in his hand and covered her mouth with his.

     Touching her lips with a whisper soft kiss, Thomas massaged her mouth with his in a tender advance that nonetheless resounded with a certain, unmistakable passion.

     Kissing him in kind return, Amy plied his lips with tender affection as the two drew closer, her senses lulled and her worries forgotten as they lost themselves in a peaceful—if passionate—reverie.

     The feeling fled them all too soon.

     “God almighty,” the rancher swore softly, breaking their kiss as he jumped from Amy’s bed and made fast tracks toward the door. “What am I doing, taking dreadful advantage of an expectant woman like this?”

     Amy shook her head.

     “No Thomas,” she countered, adding as she made a broad gesture between them, “I wanted you to kiss me.”

     Yet he was gone.

     “Criminy,” Amy exhaled, adding as she lay back in her bed with a frustrated sigh, “Why can’t anything in my life go smooth? Just one thing? Lord, I guess it’s simply too much to ask.”

*****

     He hated himself.

     For the first time in a life guided by the concepts of civility and nobility, and overseen always by the Biblical verses his mother had taught him as a child, Thomas Wyatt felt shame and self-loathing; alien emotions that plagued his heart and addled his troubled soul.

     Standing in the midst of a fragrant rose patch that needed his attention, Thomas nonetheless picked at the soil beneath him with a weary, lethargic hoe; his face downturned below the brim of his hat as his mouth turned downward in a woebegone frown.

     “What foul demon possessed me just now? Why did I have to go and take advantage of a proper, innocent lady?” he paused here, adding with a slight shrug, “OK, well perhaps she’s not so innocent, considering the fact that she’s in the family way—but she is without a doubt a proper widow woman still in love with her husband, God rest his soul. I betrayed the both of them when I kissed Miss Amy; the woman who I promised to treat with the upmost propriety and respect. And I also betrayed her unborn child, kissing its mother weeks before its birth.”

     Throwing aside the hoe with a frustrated growl, Thomas sighed as his shoulders sank with the weight of his culpable guilt.

     “Devil take me!” he bellowed, balling his fists beside him as he added, “I deserve the punishment. Or if God does see fit to grant me another chance, then please send me some sort of a sign—some message that I am not as foul and sinful as I perceive myself to be on this day.”

     “Shut yer pitiful mouth and get to work, oh Sultan of Self Pity. Now!”

     His head shooting upward, Thomas pursed his lips in a show of keen curiosity as his desperate summons was met by the sound of a distinctly feminine voice.

     “Well now Ma always did theorize that God was a woman,” he mumbled, casting a wide eyed curious glance in the direction of the sky. “Guess she was right.”

     “Indeed she was, and don’t you forget it Cowboy.”

     Thomas jumped, this time recognizing the delicate Southern lilt of his guest at the ranch.

     He smiled in spite of himself at the sight of a scowling Amy, now dressed in a basic denim work dress with her arms folded firmly in front of her.

     “Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” she admonished him, adding as she walked towards him with purposeful steps and retrieved the fallen hoe, “We have work to do.”

     Soon the pair stood side by side in the center of the rose patch, tending Thomas’ prized crop as he continued to steal cautious looks in Amy’s direction.

     “Are you sure you feel like working the fields, Ma’am?” he asked her, inclining his head in her direction as he tended his own corner of the patch. “Wouldn’t you rather head back to the ranch house?”

     Tossing aside her hoe with a frustrated sigh, Amy planted her hands on her hips and looked her concerned host straight in the eyes.

     “We see here before us a garden filled with flowers,” she told him, making a broad flourish across the land before him as she added with arched eyebrows, “I am not one of them. I’m a strong and sturdy farmwoman, Thomas. I actually like to work. You don’t need to worry about overworking me, as I shall always let you know when and if I need to take a rest.” She paused here, adding with a slight smile in his direction, “You also don’t need to worry about kissing me either. I like to kiss as well—especially when the individual doing the kissing just happens to be you.”

     Thomas exhaled, gracing her with a boyish grin as he considered these words.

     “I’m so relieved to hear those words, Amy,” he revealed, adding as he retrieved his hoe and offered her another that lay at the corner of the garden, “And believe me, I’m well aware that you’re not a shrinking violet. You are a woman strong in your convictions,” he paused here, adding as he regarded her with inquiring eyes, “And according to what you said yesterday, you are darned and determined to love only one man for the remainder of your days.”

     Amy bit her lip.

     “Well Thomas, until the moment we met, I didn’t rightly think that I could ever love anyone else,” she revealed, adding as she shuffled her feet beneath her, “At one point, though, I may have said the same thing about Vance. I was always independent as a gal, and I had no earthly designs on life as a wife and mother.”

     Thomas nodded.

     “So what did catch your interest?” he asked her, listening intently as the two of them set to work at the center of the field.

     Amy shrugged.

     “I always earned pretty high marks back at the old school house, so I figured I might make a good school teacher,” she revealed, adding in a lower tone, “but then Vance swept into my life, just like a Texas tornado. Between romance and marriage and babies, I do believe I kind of forgot who I was. My husband became my world—and until yesterday, I think I just kind of lost myself.” She paused here, adding as she raised a finger for emphasis, “Now don’t misunderstand. I did adore my husband….”

     “…but he’s gone,” Thomas completed, saying the words he knew she couldn’t. “And you, a young, talented and beautiful woman, stays behind.”

     Setting aside his hoe, Thomas turned in full to face her as he fixed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

     “You’re still alive, Amy, and you have your whole life ahead of you,” he reminded her as he massaged his agile fingers into the muscles of her slight, work weary shoulder. “And I’d be honored if you chose to spend even a small part of that life with me.”

     Covering his hand with hers, Amy graced him with a beneficent smile as she affirmed, “I would like to, Thomas.” She paused here, adding as she rested her hand on her bulging stomach, “First, though, I have to get this baby into the world. This little one has to be my first priority.”

     Thomas grinned.

     “And once you do, my darling, I would love to court you properly,” he proposed, leaning forward as he graced her cheek with whispery soft lips.

     Letting loose an uncharacteristic giggle, Amy wrapped her arms tight around Thomas’ muscular shoulders and leaned for just a moment against his tall sculpted frame; relishing the feeling as he drew her body to his in a warm, loving hug.

     “It might be a little difficult to take me about in my current condition and convince folks that you’re courting me properly,” she observed, adding as she graced her host with a nudge of gentle affection, “They might believe that you and I were up to an entirely different brand of reapin’ and sowin, if you catch my drift.”

     Thomas’ eyes flew wide open as he considered these suggestive words. Then he started laughing. Hard.

     “You’re one of a kind, Amy,” he praised her, gracing her with an affirming squeeze and a warm kiss on the forehead. “And I do mean that in the best possible way.”

     Amy let out a rain of tinkling laughter that flew free on the breezes above them.

     “Why thank you kindly, Thomas,” she returned, adding as she glanced sideways in his direction, “I think.”

     The couple continued on much in this light, animated fashion for the next few weeks; working side by side amongst their beloved roses by day and retiring to their comfortable ranch house in the evening.

     Amy marveled at the way that Thomas insisted on preparing every meal by her side; and she simply had to admit that, though she’d never breathe a word of this notion to him, Thomas’ culinary skills exceeded her own.

     “What is the meaning of this?” she asked him one day, talking between bites of a succulent Texas steak that he had prepared for dinner. “My dear departed husband, God rest his soul, didn’t even know the difference between a ladle and a lentil.”

     Thomas laughed.

     “I do love your way with words,” he praised her.

     More than willing to share her own gift—one that involved a love of reading, teaching and learning—Amy read to Thomas each night by the fire, reciting classics such as Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” to “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo and explaining their deeper meanings and contexts to a fascinated Thomas.

     “I cannot thank you enough, Ma’am, for introducing me to all of these wonderful books,” he told her one evening, clutching her hands between them in front of a raging fire, “Oh, I did my share of reading in school, to be sure, and Ma read me her poetry; but we never did peruse the classics. And I love the way that you interpret each story, coming up with so many bright ideas about each and every one of them.” He paused here, adding as he leaned forward to erase all distance between them, “You’re a whole new world, my lovely—one I long to explore.”

     Amy froze, setting her beloved copy of “Pride and Prejudice” aside as she discovered a gentleman even more handsome and captivating than her beloved Mr. Darcy—and, she had to admit, far warmer and kinder.

     “And did I mention more handsome?” she mused now, admiring the way that Thomas’ carved, bronzed face shone radiant in the light of the fire—along with the long silken mane of golden hair that likened him to an angel.

     With very good reason, she figured.

     She did not resist as he covered her lips with his, his full soft lips massaging hers in the sweetest of kisses.

     For a moment the couple lingered close, their lips smacking together as their arms clasped between them and he drew her closer to him.