An Enchanted Christmas Collection : Regency Romance

by Wendy Vella

  “I heard he sleeps in his uniform.”

  “Very unlikely, as the sword would be extremely uncomfortable, surely, and what of the hat?”

  The boys snuffled out a laugh. Unlike his nephews and nieces who laughed loud and free, these two were more subdued.

  Gabe felt it then. Guilt, that he had so much and they so little. He wondered if this was what prompted Maddie to do what she had.

  “I want to meet him,” one of the boys said. Like the rest of the children in this room, he was thin-faced, large-eyed, and grubby. “Maddie says if we learn well, maybe one day we will.”

  Gabe doubted that but didn’t speak the words. “Very likely,” he lied.

  Deciding that he needed to inspect this place Madeline was clearly spending time in, he left the children to their letters and, without looking her way, slipped out the door.

  Once a family of prosperous Huguenots had lived here, he was sure. So much had changed over the years, and now the grand house was cold and empty.

  He found beds in a room, and a table and chairs. Every other room on the lower floor was empty.

  What the hell are you doing in this place, Madeline Spencer?

  Chapter Five

  Maddie finished the lesson, and still Gabriel had not returned. Making sure everyone had food, she had James stoke the fire.

  “Another story, please, Penny. I shall return shortly.”

  Her maid nodded, and she left the room to look for the large, dark lord. She doubted he’d left the building, no matter how much she wished it was so.

  She had at least told him how she felt now, as he had her. It surprised her that Gabriel believed she had changed so much from the girl he’d known. She’d fooled everyone, just as her mother wanted her to. She and her mother had struck a bargain when she entered society. She behaved in public, and her mother would allow her some freedom, as long as she didn’t get into trouble.

  Until she’d visited Spoke House, she’d kept to her part of the bargain.

  Was she wrong about Gabriel? Could some of the boy she’d once known be in there somewhere? He'd certainly been gentle with Hetty and the boys.

  Taking the stairs down, she found him wandering through the deserted rooms. Ignoring the small jolt she received looking at him, Maddie approached.

  “Why are you still here?”

  “Why were you in Lord Haswell’s study looking at the Deed of Sale for this property, Madeline?”

  So, he had found what she’d been looking for that night.

  He was tapping his hat idly against one large thigh, for all appearances mildly curious. Maddie knew better; Gabriel had an inquiring mind and not much escaped him. He was also fiercely determined. If he wanted answers, he would ensure he got them.

  Folding her arms once more, she refused to answer him. He smiled and simply looked at her. That was something they’d always had in common. Stubbornness.

  His overcoat was black and hung open, revealing a jacket of deep green. His collar was a crisp white, and his breeches the same. The man was ridiculously handsome. Miss Little had said he should be painted or immortalized in ivory. Maddie had wanted to throw up.

  His eyes were unusual, a blue so pale they were piercing in their intensity when focused on you… as they were now. Maddie had never seen another with that color. She’d loved to look at them when she was a silly, naïve young girl. She’d spent nights dreaming about them one day looking at her with longing and love.

  They were now narrowed and cool.

  “I have nowhere to be, Maddie, and can stand here or follow you around all day if need be.”

  “This is my business, not yours.”

  “As you have already said. However, I want to make it my business. Perhaps I could ask Lord Haswell?”

  “You wouldn’t!” That would be a catastrophe.

  “Then tell me what I want to know.” He stood there comfortable with the knowledge he held all the power. A man of title and substance. A man who did not rely on anyone for his survival. A man she’d once called friend.

  “I don’t understand why you care!” Frustrated, Maddie only just refrained from stomping her foot.

  He didn’t speak, just looked at her in that steady way he had. Her father had the same look. Maddie had never been able to perfect it because she couldn’t stay quiet or still for that long.

  “All right!” His smile had her wanting to hurl something at him, but nothing was at hand. “I offer these children a place to come. I help teach them to read and write, and when they cannot go home, they stay here. They come and go, some don’t return, and I don’t ask where they have gone for fear they are dead. But this house is for the children no one but me cares about.” Her voice rose as emotion took over. She was passionate about these children, and she would not let him stop her doing what she did.

  “Does your family know?”

  She ignored his question.

  “Lord Haswell intends to sell the house to another, and they will turn this place in to a brothel,” she said instead.

  She’d surprised him, she knew, as his eyes widened. It was the only reaction he made. Again, unlike her; she would have at least gasped.

  Maddie’s family was always trying to get her to think before she spoke or acted. But as she’d told them, she did that most evenings, she couldn’t be expected to continue doing so during the day also.

  “I doubt a brothel in Spitalfields—”

  “Are you calling me a liar?”

  “Is there any chance I could finish what I am saying, Madeline?”

  She fell silent.

  “Would be a popular choice, but it would depend on the type of brothel and what it offers.”

  “I don’t care about that! I want him to stop his plans to sell. We pay him a decent rent—”

  “We?”

  “Now who is interrupting.”

  He snapped his teeth together.

  “He is just being greedy and has no need to sell it but will not discuss the matter with us. I cannot approach him because I am a woman, and therefore supposedly without sense or the ability to discuss such things.”

  “Well, to be fair, the woman you are in society vastly differs from the one before me today. In fact, appearances suggested to me you were without sense,” he said in a reasonable tone that had her wanting to slap him. “However, it seems you are still the old Maddie, if a little different on the outside.”

  “I am not without sense!”

  “I said you appeared to be without sense. Please note the difference.”

  “Don’t you dare use that bloody sanctimonious tone with me, Gabriel.”

  “How is it you manage to keep all that fire hidden from society? The simpering and gushing must be extremely taxing on you, the woman who can’t let a person finish a conversation without voicing her opinion. You must spend most evenings gnashing your teeth in frustration at some of the foolish conversations going on around you.”

  “We are all hiding in some way, Gabriel, even you. And I recite Greek mythology when things get too taxing. It calms me.”

  He barked out a laugh.

  Maddie dug her feet into her practical black boots as he walked closer, stopping a mere handful of inches away.

  “How do you know Haswell is not in need of money, Maddie? Perhaps that is why he is selling.”

  “I just do.”

  “Which tells me nothing, so please continue.”

  “Don’t use that tone on me!”

  A black brow rose. “Tone? I merely asked a question.”

  Which she did not want to answer, so she changed the subject and took a different route to get him to stop prying and leave the building. The flattery one.

  “Thank you for helping my children. It was very kind of you, Gabriel.” She even forced a smile onto her face.

  “I am not a monster, Maddie. I have family members who are children. Surprisingly, I can even spend time with them and enjoy myself. Even more surprising is they seem to like my company.
I would have hoped you realized I was capable of such behavior.”

  “As I would have hoped you knew me better.”

  His sigh was loud.

  “Tell me how you became involved in this, Maddie, please?”

  Maddie thought through her options. They were extremely limited. He knew about Spoke House now and could make things extremely difficult for her and the residents if he chose to tell anyone what he had learned. Her hands were tied, and it seemed she had no choice but to tell him the truth.

  “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to keep this information to yourself.”

  “Continue,” he said in a tone that had her hackles rising.

  “I am not a member of your staff; pray do not treat me like one.”

  His smile was small. “You really haven’t changed much, have you? The mouthy little baggage who used to torment me just has a polished veneer now and has learned to act like the perfect lady in front of her peers.”

  Choosing to ignore that comment, Maddie continued with her story.

  “I stumbled across Hetty shivering outside a shop one afternoon not long after I’d arrived in London. She told me she was lost. I asked where she lived, and she directed me here. This was the place she stayed when she could not go home.”

  “Hetty is the sightless girl?”

  “Yes. When I got her back here, I came inside. The place was a mess. The door broken, no furniture, and little to keep her warm. There were three children here that day, living here in terrible conditions.”

  Maddie remembered how she’d felt seeing the misery, especially considering she lived in such luxury.

  “I found out who owned the building and offered some money to rent it. Then I helped make it comfortable for those that needed a place to stay. The other children started arriving a week later.”

  “Your aunt May left you money upon her death, if I remember correctly. Are you using that to fund this?”

  She nodded. “I contacted my father’s man of affairs—”

  “Mr. Thompson,” Gabriel said. “I remember him.”

  “Yes, but actually it’s the younger Mr. Thompson, his son, who looks after my money. He is a liberal-thinking man, and it was he who found out who the owner of this building was. He also negotiated the rent.”

  He watched her silently.

  “Have I shocked you, Gabriel? Imagine a young woman my age having money of her own and the ability to do as she wishes with it.”

  “You have no idea what I am thinking, Maddie. I am of course surprised, as you are not who I thought you were, and this is not something I would have thought, or wanted, you to be involved in.”

  “But I am,” she said firmly.

  “And is Mr. Thompson also the one who found out Lord Haswell does not need the money?”

  Maddie nodded.

  “Returning to my earlier question. Does your family know?”

  She shook her head.

  “Your father would lock you up and throw away the key, and Verity would take to her bed for weeks.”

  She nodded.

  “Where do they think you go?”

  “I am an exceedingly good liar, which I’m sure you remember.”

  “I do. Tell me, Maddie. What were you hoping to achieve by stealing the deed to this place?”

  Maddie wasn’t really sure how to answer that, as she’d simply reacted, which was a fault of hers. But she had no wish to tell him that.

  “You did have a plan, I hope? Or were you acting without thinking, which from memory was a particular failing of yours.”

  “Of course I knew what I was doing,” Maddie lied.

  He balanced his weight on one leg, which told her he wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  “Well, let’s hear it then.”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything. I just want you to leave and tell no one about what you’ve learned today. Surely that is not too much to ask. After all, like I have already stated, we are merely acquaintances now and mean nothing to each other.” Saying the words made her chest hurt.

  He didn’t speak, simply looked at her again. It was starting to get irritating.

  “Well?”

  “You still don’t like silence very much, do you, Maddie?”

  She loathed it. It made her uncomfortable, especially if she was in the presence of someone like this man.

  “I don’t know what you are thinking,” Maddie said.

  “And that makes you uncomfortable?”

  “Very much, as the fate of this place could very well be in your hands now.”

  “That is very dramatic of you, but I take your meaning. For now, you may rest easy. I have no wish to toss your people out on the street or alert Lord Haswell to your nefarious activities.”

  Maddie exhaled loudly. “But what of my family? Will you keep my secret from them also?”

  “I will… for now. And I do like you, Maddie, I just didn’t understand how you could have changed so much.”

  “It is the same for me, Gabriel.”

  “The last thing I would like to say on the matter of this house is that you will not come here alone again.”

  Chapter Six

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Gabe thought she may explode if the color filling her face was any indication.

  “I saw that man who walked out when you entered, Maddie. He looked dangerous. This is not a place for a young, innocent woman who cannot defend herself.”

  “I can defend myself!”

  He rushed her, wrapping his arms around her, and holding her close.

  “Oh really, how?”

  She lifted a knee, and Gabe only just managed to twist so the blow landed beside his groin. She stomped on his foot next, then jabbed him in the gut. Winded, he released her.

  “Satisfied?”

  As he was attempting to breathe, it would take him a moment to answer that question. But he would, in detail.

  “Also, I have this.”

  Straightening, he felt the color leach from his face as she pointed a small pistol at him.

  “God’s blood, are you mad!” Gabe wrenched the pistol from her fingers. “Where did you get this?”

  “I purchased it. Now give it back!”

  “May the Lord preserve me from brainless twits,” he muttered, pocketing the pistol. “Do you even know how it works? Have you fired it?”

  Her head tilted slightly.

  “I thought not. I will teach you, but until then you are not carrying it.”

  “That’s all right, I have a knife.”

  Gabe watched, horrified, as she turned and lifted her skirts. When she turned back, she held a knife with a wicked-looking little blade.

  “Give me that!”

  “No!” She backed away. Lifted her skirts, attempting to replace it.

  He grabbed her from behind and reached for her hand to remove it. His gloveless fingers ran up the stockinged skin of one thigh and froze.

  “R-release me.” Her words were shaky.

  He did, backing away.

  “You cannot walk about with knives and guns, Maddie.”

  Gabe attempted to regain his composure. He’d touched her thigh, nothing more, and the reaction had sent heat through his entire body. His hand felt like it was on fire.

  “I-I can if they protect me. James told me how to use the knife, and it was he who taught me how to defend myself.”

  He was pleased to see she was at least a little breathless, because he was seriously unsettled.

  “James?” Gabe did not like the jealousy that bolted through him at the thought of another man getting close to her.

  “The footman who accompanies me.”

  “You haven’t changed at all from that headstrong, reckless hellion you were, have you?”

  “I am not reckless, but I will acknowledge the other two descriptions proudly.”

  He wouldn’t laugh at the defiant tilt of her chin, but he wanted to. Why did he feel lighter inside just knowing she was still his Maddi
e?

  His Maddie?

  It was strange, Gabe thought, how intriguing he suddenly found his old friend. Before she’d created mild annoyance inside him, easily dismissed when he left her presence, but now... well, now she was something entirely different. He’d always thought her beautiful, but now she was that and also so much more.

  “What you are doing is admirable, Maddie, even if it is foolish.”

  “It is not foolish.” Anger lit her eyes, and he wondered again how she’d hidden all that fire from everyone. Most evenings some fool made him angry at least twice.

  “You should not have tried to steal that title deed for this property.”

  “I did what I thought was right and will continue to do so.”

  “It wasn’t right, it was reckless. And I meant what I said about coming here, Maddie. You will not do so alone again.” Gabe cut off her words. He needed her to understand this. Just the thought of her here with a single footman and maid made his blood run cold.

  “I bloody well will.”

  “Don’t use that language.”

  “Go away, then you won’t have to hear it.”

  If he grabbed her and shook hard, no one would fault him. Instead he tried to speak calmly and rationally.

  “Had anything happened to you, your family would have had no idea where you were.”

  “I have my maid and footman with me.”

  “Yes, we’ve established that already, but as they do exactly what you say they are not going to question you when you do something foolish.”

  She did not lower her eyes or look guilty, but he was quite sure he was right. Gabe doubted she was above bribing her staff to achieve what she wanted.

  “I’ve deduced that you attempted to steal that document from Lord Haswell to stall any sale he may have?”

  “It seemed like a good idea.”

  “It would not have stalled him for long.”

  “I had to at least try.”

  “Maddie, I’m not sure this is a fight you will win—unless you can buy the building yourself?”

  “I cannot afford that.”

  “Then find another place for your children,” Gabe said. “Surely there are any number of empty buildings about London.”

  She gave him a look that suggested he was a simpleton. He didn’t like it.