The Lady Who Broke the Rules (23 page)

‘You love me?’

‘How could you doubt it?’

‘And you’ll marry me?’

‘Oh, Virgil, I thought you’d never ask!’

He kissed her so hard then that if she had not been leaning against the door she would have fallen. He kissed her desperately, clinging to her, murmuring her name, his hands feverish on her. He really had thought he’d lost her.

‘You would never have been too late,’ she whispered, kissing him back, pressing herself as close as she could against the delightfully hard, solid bulk of his body. ‘Never, never, never. I love you more.’

‘No, me more.’

‘No, me. More.’

They were laughing and kissing at the same time. A wild euphoria ripped through them, turning their laughter into passion. Kate reached behind her to turn the key in the lock, saying a quick apology to her brother for the use they were about to make of his private room.

‘We can’t,’ Virgil said as she rubbed herself quite blatantly against the length of his erection. ‘It would be wrong.’

‘All the more reason,’ Kate said, stroking him through the leather of his buckskins. ‘Think how outraged my aunt would be,’ she said, slipping down onto her knees before him and undoing the buttons of his falls.

‘We should wait. Until we are married. That’s what I planned. Oh, Kate…’

With a sigh of satisfaction, she freed him and wrapped her fingers around him. Silky and potent and hers. She tasted the tip of him, relishing the way it made him shudder, drawing a groan from deep inside him. She was hot. Wet. ‘I don’t want to wait,’ she said, slanting a mischievous look up at him before tasting him again. ‘I don’t think you
can
wait, my love. Doesn’t it add a certain something, knowing what my family would think? This isn’t wrong. It couldn’t be more right, could it?’

Virgil dropped down onto his knees beside her. ‘Nothing could be more right,’ he said, cupping her face. His kiss left her utterly certain. ‘Nothing could be more right than this,’ he said, tilting her back onto the floor and kissing her again.

‘And this.’ He pushed her skirts high, parting the legs of her lacy drawers. ‘Do you know, there is something about the curve of your knee which fascinates me. And here, the crease right here, where your bottom curves into your thigh. And here.’ He cupped her sex, gazing deep into her eyes as the pressure of his palm on the swollen core of her brought her to a frenzy.

‘And this.’ The tip of his shaft stroked over her, throwing her over the edge as he entered her. She pulsed around him, panting and clutching at him, urging him on, harder.

‘I love you, Kate,’ Virgil said, and he exploded, staying inside her, holding her, shuddering against her.

Kate wrapped her arms tight around him. Her hair streamed out across the ancient rug. The leg of a chair was sticking into her shoulder. There was a large cobweb suspended from the cornicing above her. ‘I love you, Virgil.’ She had never been happier.

Epilogue

H
is Grace the Duke of Rothermere was predictably outraged by his eldest daughter’s choice of husband. Having met Virgil just once, His Grace was completely unprepared for the astounding news that his wayward daughter had fallen in love and accepted a proposal from a man who, as far as he was concerned, barely existed. That the man was an American, albeit one of that country’s richest inhabitants, was bad enough. That he was a commoner, and ex-slave with a lineage which could be traced back precisely one generation and only on one side, made the marriage, as far as the duke was concerned, simply impossible.

He was incandescent. When it became clear that Virgil was not actually
asking
him for his daughter’s hand but telling him that he had already been accepted, consent was refused. When it was pointed out to His Grace by his outspoken daughter that his consent was not required, the duke informed her that she would be cut off without a penny.

‘My dowry was settled on me by my mother. You cannot actually deprive me of it,’ Kate said with satisfaction, having made a point of checking the matter with Giles.

‘As a matter of fact, we have no need of Kate’s dowry,’ her future husband said.

‘But it’s mine. I’m entitled to it. I can’t come to you with nothing.’

‘You are all I need.’

At this point, the duke’s daughter committed the ultimate sin of expressing her emotions in public by throwing her arms around her betrothed and kissing him. His Grace, realising nothing could be done to prevent the match, decided that nothing could make him accept it. Informing his daughter that he never wanted to lay eyes on her again, he sank onto his couch, closed his eyes and opened them only when his valet presented him with a glass of cognac and informed him that Lady Katherine and the American had gone.

Thus relieved of the duty of trying what she had always known would be a vain attempt to bring her father round, Kate set about happily making plans. Virgil, who had at first been inclined to consider using monetary measures to bring the duke on to their side, was persuaded by her complete and utter happiness not to do so. That her brother, sister and even her aunt seemed, respectively, reconciled, happy and inured to Kate’s choice was more than Virgil had bargained for.

Though he missed her desperately, he was persuaded that he could leave her to make arrangements for their wedding while he made his arrangements for their departure to America and finished his business in London with Josiah Wedgwood. The potter was so delighted with the news that such a unique couple had been introduced at his own dinner party that he promised to design them their very own dinner service.

Lady Katherine Mary Cecily Montague became Mrs Virgil Jackson on Christmas Eve. It was a private ceremony in the family chapel at Castonbury. The Reverend Seagrove officiated. The groom was represented, most irregularly as Aunt Wilhelmina pointed out, by the bride’s brother. This left the bride herself with no one to walk her up the aisle until she hit upon the idea of asking her aunt to give her away.

Mrs Landes-Fraser was torn. Never before had she heard of such a thing. But since it was a private ceremony, her niece pointed out, no one would ever know. And if they did, Aunt Wilhelmina should remember that this was the wedding of the Duke of Rothermere’s daughter. Where a Montague led, others would follow. Would not Aunt Wilhelmina wish to set a precedent all by herself?

Mrs Landes-Fraser was flattered.

Kate, existing in a bubble of happiness, pressed home her advantage. It was what her mother would have wanted, she said, disregarding without a qualm the fact that she barely knew her mother, and was fairly certain that she would have spent her eldest daughter’s wedding day in protest alongside her husband rather than in the church. But Aunt Wilhelmina was swayed. In honour of the occasion, she purchased a new turban in a particularly regal shade of puce and proudly walked her niece the short journey up the aisle, thus finally proving to Kate that her affection, though well-buried, was sincere.

All the more sincere, Phaedra, the only other person present, whispered later to her sister, since Aunt Wilhelmina had chosen to support Kate against the express wishes of their father, who was notable by his absence.

The church, which had been built and rebuilt by the Montague family on the same site since the thirteenth century, provided any number of Kate’s ancestors in the form of effigies and tombs, to make up for the absent duke. Kate, dressed in a vermillion gown cut quite inappropriately low across the bosom, didn’t care. There was only one person whose attendance was vital, and he was right there at her side, placing a gold wedding band on her finger. Reverend Seagrove said later that he had never heard a couple make their responses so firmly. Aunt Wilhelmina declared that the church must be in need of airing, for the dust had made her eyes positively stream.

Though the bridal couple wanted no formal party to celebrate their nuptials, Giles insisted that there was one tradition which could not be dispensed with. The Yule log had been hauled in that day, and sat in the fireplace in the huge marble hall. Monsieur André, the French chef, had produced a sugar cake which was an exact replica of Castonbury Park itself, in honour of the occasion. The entire Castonbury staff save His Grace’s faithful valet were there to greet Lady Kate and her husband. Most of them were very happy for her. Polly, who was joining her mistress in the New World, was nothing short of ecstatic.

To Kate fell the honour of lighting the fire with kindling formed from last year’s Yule log. To Virgil fell the task of proposing a toast to his new bride. Looking around at the sea of faces standing under the gilded domed ceiling in the cavernous and astoundingly beautiful hall, he caught her hand. ‘Are you sure you really want to leave all this behind?’

‘This is the old world, Virgil. I will miss it, but I can live without it. I can’t live without you.’

Every time he looked at her, he thought it wasn’t possible to love her more, and every time he looked at her again he realised it was. Virgil kissed his wife’s hand and raised his glass. ‘To Kate,’ he said, ‘who is all the world to me.’

* * * * *

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Read on to find out more about
Marguerite Kaye
and the

series…

Born and educated in Scotland,
Marguerite
Kaye
originally qualified as a lawyer but chose not to practise.
Instead, she carved out a career in IT and studied history part-time, gaining a
first-class honours and a Master’s degree. A few decades after winning a
children’s national poetry competition, she decided to pursue her lifelong
ambition to write and submitted her first historical romance to Mills &
Boon. They accepted it and she’s been writing ever since. You can contact
Marguerite through her website at:
www.margueritekaye.com

Previous novels by the same author:

THE WICKED LORD RASENBY
THE RAKE AND THE
HEIRESS
INNOCENT IN THE SHEIKH’S HAREM*
THE GOVERNESS AND THE
SHEIKH*
RAKE WITH A FROZEN HEART
OUTRAGEOUS CONFRESSIONS OF A LADY
DEBORAH

And in Harlequin
Historical
Undone!
eBooks:

THE CAPTAIN’S WICKED WAGER
THE HIGHLANDER AND THE SEA
SIREN
BITTEN BY DESIRE
TEMPTATION IS THE NIGHT
CLAIMED BY THE
WOLF PRINCE**
BOUND TO THE WOLF PRINCE**
THE HIGHLANDER AND THE WOLF
PRINCESS**
THE SHEIKH’S IMPETUOUS LOVE-SLAVE*
SPELLBOUND &
SEDUCED

*linked by character
**Legend of the Faol

Author Q&A

What is your heroine’s favourite childhood memory of Castonbury Park?

As children, Kate and her siblings used to escape to the island on the big lake. They kept a chest hidden in the undergrowth there, with kindling and blankets, and would often picnic together. Both Kate and her sister Phaedra are strong swimmers and as adults go to the island with their heroes, where those younger days are specifically recalled and the contents of the chest re-used for much more adult purposes!

Which stately home inspired Castonbury Park and why?

We chose Kedleston Hall for Castonbury (
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston-hall
.) This was for a number of reasons, but primarily because two of our group had visited it and so could give us some really great inside information about the layout of the place. We had a floor plan, pictures and a guidebook to work from, which was really important because the house and its grounds are vital characters in every book and we wanted to make sure that we were consistent. When we added things—such as an island into the lake, a fountain, a bath house under the fishing pavilion—we could be very clear, referring to the real house and where they were in relation to what we already knew, and when we were describing some of the key rooms—dining room, drawing room, marble hall—we could all be consistent.

Kedleston is simply beautiful. It’s designed by Robert Adam, so fits perfectly into the type of house a duke would have had built, with the kind of grandeur and extensive grounds such an influential and aristocratic family would have. The grounds were important, since we needed various trysting places out of the house so many of the relationships were scandalous, but we also wanted to have a village, a church, schools, an inn and shops, in order to give readers a whole world and a real sense of community, not just of the family.

The Dower House is taken from Luckington Court, which was used for the BBC production of
Pride and Prejudice.
(
http://www.luckingtoncourt.co.uk/index.html
)

Again, because this featured across several books, we wanted somewhere with a real reference point, but we also wanted a building which was a contrast to Castonbury Park and yet at the same time in a similar Palladian style.

In
The Lady Who Broke the Rules
I also feature Maer Hall, which at the time was home to Josiah Wedgwood—son of the famous potter and head of the Wedgwood Company in 1816.

Where did you get the inspiration for Kate and Virgil?

I wanted to come up with a relationship that was outrageously scandalous, in line with the theme of social change and upheaval which we agreed would run through Castonbury Park as a series, so a freed black slave seemed like a brilliant starting point. Obviously any man who could survive the horrors of slavery and succeed on his own terms as Virgil does would have to be unbelievably strong-willed and he’d also, it seemed to me, have to have a motivation for his relentless drive to succeed which was not simply material. Virgil, I decided, would be the type of man who’d want to help others have what he’d had to fight so hard to get. Yet at the same time I thought a man like that would surely have deep-seated issues, coming from such a traumatic background. And that led me to the idea that, while Virgil was freed, he was at the same time a slave to his past.

Which led me to Kate… To be the perfect match for Virgil, my heroine had to be a very strong-willed, independent woman, willing to stand up for her beliefs and to stand apart from a society which would completely disown her once she made her choice. So she had to be a woman who was already in a sense an ‘outsider’—or at least a rebel, a thinker and a woman with a social conscience too. Like Virgil, Kate is a righter of wrongs—a woman who sees imbalance and wants to correct it. And the reason Kate sees imbalance so clearly is that she too has suffered injustice and is using philanthropy to avoid dealing with some deep-seated personal issues. Both are still bound by the chains of her past.

What are you researching for your forthcoming novel?

Not for my current book, but I am reading up on the Crimean War at present and thinking about writing something which is set in and around the aftermath of this, when the social upheaval which began after the end of the Napoleonic Wars had really started to set in.

What would you most like to have been doing in Regency times?

I love to travel and I’d love to think that, despite the social and possibly financial constraints which the Regency would place on me, I would have boldly gone where no woman had gone before. I’d have been an intrepid explorer like Lady Hester Stanhope, who went off to Arabia and never came back and whom I researched for my Princes of the Desert series.