A Knight to Dare: (The Valiant Love Regency Romance) (A Historical Romance Book)

by Deborah Wilson

  Going forward with her search for her mother, she'd learned what she could about the land from Leo, but he’d confessed, “I lived here but not really. Oliver got to know the locals. I was too busy trying to find a way out. And then I found it.” He didn’t elaborate on just how he got out.

  As they’d stared at one another over their cards last evening, she’d been aware that the conversation made him uncomfortable even though he fought to hide it.

  She knew what uncomfortable felt like, looked like. She was the epitome of awkward.

  Aside from the questions, she’d kept her conversations to a minimal, too afraid to upset anyone and far too concerned with the number of men who were risking their lives for her.

  She turned as Noel entered the drawing-room. He moved to stand by her and stared out the window.

  Her earring sat in his right ear. The ear itself was red, but she thought it would heal very well.

  She wondered what Remy would say about it. Noel didn’t seem to care. He wore it with pride, and Vita actually liked the look on him.

  With looks quite close to his uncle’s and those same dark features, he looked like a buccaneer.

  “Are you going to the party?” Noel asked.

  Vita looked down at the invitation on the table. The first day she’d arrived, Oliver had had a visitor, his grandmother Lady Serveck. She was an older woman who was very fond of her grandsons and tried to convince the entire house to attend a gathering she was giving. Her property bordered Oliver’s, which was the only reason he was giving her the option to attend.

  “I don’t know,” Vita answered. While she wanted answers to her mother’s whereabouts, she was concerned that moving from Oliver’s home would only cause more death and injury to his men. It was a very complicated situation.

  The party was that very evening.

  “Perhaps, if your uncle returns in time, I’ll consider it.” He, more than the others, made her feel safe.

  “Have you heard anything?” Noel asked her.

  She shook her head. He was worried about his uncle, but he didn’t say so.

  They were close in age, Vita realized. He was sixteen, which made him only four years younger than her, yet if all went well, she’d become his aunt.

  It was an honor she’d never thought to have. Her brother had died long before the role was even a concept in her mind.

  “Would you take tea with me?” she asked him.

  He nodded and moved to occupy the chair on the other side of the table.

  With his cup in hand, he asked, “Do you care for my uncle?” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  She smiled, nonetheless. “I do. Very much.”

  His cup rested on the table. He felt the handle between his fingers and turned it this way and that. “He’s done things,” Noel said. “He’s done bad things.” He looked up and then straightened and looked embarrassed. “Not that he isn’t a good man. He’s the best man who ever walked the Earth.”

  Vita smiled. “I know he’s a good man. He’s taking care of you. He protected me.” A thought came to mind. “Just as you protected me.”

  Noel looked up. “You think I could be good like him, too?”

  Her eyes widened. “I swear, I look at you and I see much of your uncle. Yes, I think you very well could be. It was heroic what you did for me. The man had a gun. You’re a hero, Noel.”

  “I’ve done bad things,” he countered.

  “We all have.”

  He leaned forward and then leaned back again and adjusted himself in his seat. His eyes moved away. “I mean… I’ve done really bad things.” He swallowed. “I’ve… hurt people and not like that man a few days ago. Innocent people.”

  ∫ ∫ ∫

  2 6

  * * *

  Vita wondered why, out of everyone in the world, Noel had decided to speak to her about this. He didn’t strike her as the sort to express himself often.

  Perhaps, it was their closeness in age or the fact that she was a woman.

  Perhaps, it was the fact that he now wore her small golden hoop.

  There were so many reasons. She didn’t know where to start, so she left it alone and focused on him.

  She put down her cup and placed her hands on either side of her seat. “It bothers you that you hurt innocent people, doesn’t it?”

  He nodded.

  “That is good,” she said. “I always felt like really bad people never cared either way. If it upsets you, do something about it.”

  “Like?” He frowned in frustration. “What can I do?”

  “Make it right.” She prayed he wasn’t responsible for anyone’s death. That would be quite hard to make right.

  He sighed as if exhausted by the suggestion. “That could take years.”

  She shrugged and picked up her cup. “Well, if you really don’t care—”

  “I do.”

  “Then make it right,” she said.

  He looked annoyed by her answer but eventually nodded. “All right. I’ll make it right.”

  She smiled. “Excellent. You’ve just become one of the best men to ever walk the Earth in my mind.”

  He smiled. Blushed. “I’ve not done anything to earn such a place.”

  “You’ve made a worthy vow. Now keep it and just… take it one day at a time. It’s all we can do, I suppose.”

  His gaze fell away, but he nodded, and she could tell he was deep in thought.

  “Can I ask you a question?” she asked.

  He lifted his black eyes. “What?”

  She couldn’t let it go. “Why’d you come to me with these questions?”

  A heavy brow rose. “Because you’re pretty.”

  “Oh.” She felt her cheeks heat and cleared her throat. “Well. Thank you.”

  He chuckled. “Chess?”

  “Yes, please. Anything to keep me from worrying about your uncle.”

  “You’re worried?”

  “Yes! He said he would be following us, and it’s been days.” What did he mean. was she worried? Had he not noticed the way she seemed glued to the window that faced the only entry into the hills?”

  “I hadn’t noticed,” he told her, and it was then she noticed the teasing gleam in his eyes.

  She gasped and then laughed. She couldn’t help how she felt about Remy. If she’d managed to gain more information after he’d left, she would have searched harder for him. Further even. Instead, she’d been met with a dead-end at Lord Dunst’s home.

  It took a moment to realize her want of Remy was the same as her want of her mother. With very little facts, she’d gone looking for both.

  “He’ll be here soon,” Noel said.

  “He’d better,” she murmured to herself. Then she glanced at Noel, who was chuckling as he moved to set up the chess table behind her. She laughed again and covered her face. Her emotions made her feel like a boat without an oar. Stuck with an everlasting storm of anger and frustration, and all of it rooted in the fact that Remy had yet to come to her.

  What if she lost him, too?

  She wouldn’t think that way. He was a soldier. He was strong.

  But anything could happen...

  Anger was better than fear. “If your uncle isn’t back by morning, I swear I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Her shoulders fell, and she thought about all the terrible things she could do to Remy to ensure he knew the sort of torment she’d gone through.

  It was only then she realized that the voice that had posed the question was deeper than before.

  She turned, excepting to see Noel.

  But it was not Noel.

  Her heart raced. “Remy.”

  His black eyes glittered with mischief. “You were saying, my lady?”

  She knocked over the chair as she got up.

  He caught it.

  Then she tripped.

  Remy caught her as well. His big arms engulfed her. His smile was brilliant.

  She sta
red because it was all she could do.

  “Don’t stop on my account,” he told her. “Finish that threat. I’m desperate to hear the end of it.”

  Vita couldn’t think. Her mind was blank except for one resounding thought.

  He was alive.

  He was here.

  He was holding her.

  And all these things were very good.

  She touched his face.

  His expression sobered. “What’s the matter?”

  How could he tell that something was wrong? There were moments Vita couldn’t even tell. Or rather, there were truths she wouldn’t admit to herself, things she’d buried deep inside and refused to dwell on.

  Yet they remained.

  She glanced around the room. Noel was gone.

  She looked at him. “I didn’t think you were coming.”

  He adjusted her in his arms as his brows fell. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “People just don’t come back for me.” Her lips began to tremble, and she pressed them closed. A weight fell on her heart, but she tried to smile through it. “You’re here. That is good.”

  “No.” He stepped back and took her hand. “Don’t hide your feelings from me just because you think it is not what I want to hear.” He led her over to a couch and then set her down beside him. “Tell me why you feel this way.”

  She shrugged. “My mother is gone. My brother is gone.” She’d been left only with memories. Their absence was a scar that would never heal. Her father had spoken callously about her mother and her betrayal, yet if Holly had betrayed him, then Holly had betrayed her as well, hadn’t she?

  “Your mother ran off years ago, right?” he asked.

  She stiffened her shoulders. Her mother was not guilty in her eyes. “That is what I’ve been told. How did you know that?”

  “It’s common knowledge, is it not?”

  She thought about it and nodded. “I suppose. It is hard to hide the truth about one’s wife, I suppose.”

  “It must have hurt,” he said. “Knowing she left you as she did.” He cradled her hand in his. “And your brother… do you know what happened to him?”

  She shook her head. “My father never said. I heard whispers…” She turned to the chessboard and thought about Noel. “I heard he died in a fight, but I don’t think that’s true. John wasn’t a fighter. He was rather passive, actually.”

  Remy frowned. “You remember so much for such a young age.”

  She smiled. “Memories are all I have. They have been all I’ve had for years. You don’t make very many good ones when you’re always being told to sit in a corner, stay still, and don’t speak. In the quiet, I thought of John and my mother often.” It was likely why she was obsessed with her mother.

  As she’d told him days ago, she hadn’t begun to live until she met Remy. Now she had new memories, fresh memories that made her glow from the inside out.

  “Were you not close to your father?” he asked.

  She nodded. “He spent time with me, yes. In the beginning, he complained often about my mother. Then later, it was forbidden for me to even mention her name. Around the time I turned sixteen, he seemed to move on, but he never stopped believing she’d left him.”

  “Well, isn’t that what happened?”

  She was spared an answer when Leo and… Oliver came into the room. It was hard for Vita to recognize Lord Venmont at first.

  He’d grown a short beard since she’d last seen him. Now, he looked absolutely nothing like a marquess.

  Leo said, “I sent a message to Oliver last evening after receiving your missive. He’s been tending to things closer to the house.”

  Once Vita managed to pull her eyes from the marquess, what Leo had said struck her.

  He’d received a missive from Remy.

  And she hadn’t?

  Remy let her hand go, and she noted that his gaze became more focused. Stern even. “Vita, we need to talk.”

  “About?” She tried to think of what she’d done. She often did something, but she’d not been as clumsy recently.

  “Your visit to Lord Dunst,” Remy said. “Much has happened since you left. We’re still trying to piece everything together, but I believe you might be able to help us further.”

  “Lord Dunst? What does he have to do with anything?” She looked at Leo and Oliver. They were watching her closely as well. “What’s going on?”

  ∫ ∫ ∫

  2 7

  * * *

  If Remy had had the choice, this conversation would have been delayed. He’d been anxious to see Vita and then once he’d seen her, he’d needed to touch her.

  He’d wanted to do other things, but then they’d began to talk about her family, and he’d been given a glimpse into the dark shadows she kept well hidden within herself.

  He’d wanted to learn more about her before officially asking to marry her. It was what a career in the military and a life in constant war had taught him, to be strategic and to overanalyze the details. There were secrets in the details and if one took a moment to think, they could be seen.

  But in his heart, he knew the courtship to only be a formality. After all, he wasn’t allowing her to court anyone else or to accept calls from other men. Even if she weren’t in danger, Remy would have marked his territory thoroughly, ensuring that all men knew she was his.

  She’d been frightened that he wouldn’t return.

  It would take time, but he planned to make certain she never felt that way again.

  Only death would keep him back.

  Another hour alone, and perhaps he could have made progress on that front.

  But as it stood, there were more important things to discuss.

  While away these last five days, Remy had been able to step back and search the secrets of Vita’s problem.

  His findings were not good.

  Something terrible approached.

  Something that may involve Oliver and Leo as well.

  It definitely involved Van Dero.

  Even now, Remy smelled the pungent stench of the coming war brewing in England, and Vita was in the middle of it.

  It made him ill just to think about it.

  No one was safe anymore.

  He’d been corresponding with Leo daily, and he’d been writing to the duke.

  Van Dero had almost demanded that Vita be returned to London for further questioning, but Remy had urged against it.

  She was the key, and she was in danger.

  As he’d ridden into Oliver’s domain, he’d taken note of the safety precautions. One had to stay on the road, out and in the open if they wished to make it to his house. Otherwise, he’d fall prey to a trap.

  Oliver had inherited his father’s suspicions even if he didn’t wish to admit it outright.

  It was paying off well at the moment.

  Vita’s expression grew more worried. It was the last thing Remy wanted, so he spoke calmly. “I spoke to Mr. Reid.”

  “Who?” she asked.

  He retook her hand, trying to calm her. “Mr. Reid is the man who tried to steal you.”

  Understanding lit her features. “All right. What did he say?”

  “Very little at first. As suspected, reinforcements came and tried to take him from the jail.” Thankfully, his warning to the mayor had paid off. The men from the town had worked together, not allowing Remy to see Mr. Reid until the judge’s arrival.

  Sentencing had been swift.

  At the word of an earl and Oliver’s letter explaining what had happened, there had been no reason to call for more witnesses.

  The first day Remy had spoken to Mr. Reid, he’d stuck to his silence.

  That had only lasted for an hour.

  Remy abhorred torture. He’d almost called for Lord Sirius, a close friend to the duke who enjoyed making bad men regret their sins, but Remy had done it himself.

  “Reid said you saw something you weren’t supposed to see at Lord Dunst’s home,” Remy said. “H
e doesn’t even know what it is, but he was paid to get the information out of you.”

  Vita frowned. “Lord Dunst? I saw nothing while I was there. Is he the one who’s been after me?”

  Remy nodded. “He drew attention to your house in London because he wanted you to flee the city. That way, he could get to you before you said anything to Van Dero.”

  “But I have nothing to say.” She stood.

  “You must have seen something,” Remy said. “Think.”

  She started to pace and shook her head. “I saw him. He was…” She shivered with displeasure. “I think he believed I was there for other reasons. He’d been expecting someone. There was a chessboard. He’d started a game with someone and covered it a little after my arrival.”

  “He was likely waiting for a lightskirt,” Leo said. “We pieced that together when you first told us the story.”

  Oliver took a seat in a wingback chair. “Hadn’t thought it mattered at the time,” he brooded. “We hadn’t even thought her visit to Dunst mattered. He waited a whole week before he attacked.”

  “I honestly thought I offended someone at a party,” Vita said. “You’re sure it’s Dunst?”

  “Can you recall what you saw?” Remy asked.

  She shrugged. “His house was dark. I couldn’t see where I was going until the butler allowed it. He held what appeared to be the only lantern in the house.”

  “Odd,” Oliver said.

  “Unless he had much to hide,” Leo countered.

  “I assumed it was himself he was hiding,” Vita said. “He was missing an eye. The lids were sewn shut.” She looked at Remy. “Mr. Reid could be lying.”

  “I don’t think he is,” Leo said. “A letter from Van Dero was enlightening.” He gave Remy a meaningful look but said nothing else about the letter. It was something they’d have to discuss when Vita wasn’t around, it seemed. When he spoke again, it was to Vita. “It’s Lord Dunst.”

  “He claimed you threatened him on Van Dero’s behalf,” Remy stated.

  “Threatened him?” She gasped. “Me? He thought I threatened him?”

  Oliver sighed. “Why didn’t I see it before? You did threaten him when you invoked Van Dero’s name and shared the rumor that Dunst was an enemy. He thought you were saying Van Dero knew and would be coming after him. He thought it the whole reason for the visit.”