Lord Rogue

by Patricia Rice

  “And what did you expect to find in a saloon? Pussycats?”

  Before Becky could protest even more, Travis interrupted. “That’s enough, Rebecca. Bring me my coffee and don’t let me hear you speaking to Miss Alicia in that manner again, or I’ll turn you over my knee and whip you until you’re black and blue.”

  Startled, Becky leapt from the stool to the stove.

  “Now, will someone tell me what the argument is about, or shall I guess? Would Lady Letitia have aught to do with it?”

  Alicia ignored his irony, but Mrs. Clayton and Becky erupted in rapid-fire explanations until Travis held up his hands for peace.

  “Alicia is a grown woman and entitled to live as she wishes. Besides, this is closer to the school than her father’s. Perhaps if you just stayed with your father when school’s not in session, he will be happy.”

  Alicia threw him a grateful look. “Now that you have solved that dilemma, Solomon, whose side will you take on the subject of marriage? They have quite decided on taking me to New Orleans in the spring, so I might find an eligible suitor. Shall you cut me in half and send part with them and keep the other here?”

  An unholy gleam lit black eyes as Travis contemplated this proposition. “Which half would you leave here?” he inquired with a wicked leer.

  Alicia threw her napkin in his face and rose from the table. “I think I shall go and run off with one of New Orleans’s infamous pirates. I understand Lafitte is quite good-looking.”

  Before she could stalk from the room, Travis caught her by the arm and lifted her chin. “I’ll be your pirate. Will the assembly Saturday night do in place of New Orleans for now?”

  In her present mood she would have turned him down out of sheer spite, but the uncertainty and eagerness in his tone made Alicia hold her sharp tongue. Travis was always so abominably self-assured, but he had been listening to her after all. The mention of her father and marriage had given him cause for concern. As it ought, she thought rebelliously. If her father ever found out about them, he would most likely have them both hung.

  Alicia nodded agreement to Travis’s plea. “I will be there.”

  “I will come for you,” Travis amended.

  That should upset a few applicants for her hand, Alicia decided—arriving on the arm of the one man in town she had been denied. It should be amusing.

  And even more so when they left together. She wondered how Travis meant to arrange that.

  Chapter 19

  On the night of the assembly, Travis assisted Alicia into the small two-seated carriage and adjusted the fur lap robe around her. Alicia buried her hands deep inside the ermine muff that matched the trim of her pelisse, and watched Travis as he checked the horses, rubbed their noses, and loped around the carriage to the other side.

  Throwing a cautious glance to the house visible behind the crosshatching of bare tree branches, Travis bent a warm, quick kiss to Alicia’s cold lips. “You make a beautiful snow maiden.”

  The snow had returned, leaving a thin covering over yards and rutted roads, turning them into white carpets for the ghostly coverings of evergreens and graceful tree limbs. Lights from the houses they passed only highlighted the pale grays and brown, and made shadows of solidity.

  Alicia gazed out upon the scene and wondered why Philadelphia had never seemed so beautiful after a snow. Absorbing the warmth from the man beside her, she glanced to his angular profile. The break in his once perfect nose seemed more pronounced from this side, but the hard planes of his jaw sloping down from high cheekbones spoke of a strength and determination she might never match. He felt her gaze and glanced down at her.

  “You are not having second thoughts, are you?”

  “I gave up thinking for Lent,” she replied airily.

  Uncertain how to take that, Travis turned his attention back to the horses. “You are not worried about your father then?”

  “I have not heard from him all week. I do not know if that means Letitia has spoken to him or not. Perhaps he means to forget I exist.”

  Travis heard the hint of bitterness and shook his head. “I will assure you he has not forgotten. He may be peeved, but he knows what you’re doing.”

  Alicia sent him a startled look. “How do you know?”

  Travis set his lips in a thin line. “Because I told him. I will not let you bear the blame when it is reported we appeared publicly together. There is no point in hiding what the whole town will soon know.”

  “You told him! And he gave his permission?” Alicia’s heart skipped a fast beat until she heard the irony in Travis’s reply.

  “He informed me his daughter did not belong at public assemblies and that he preferred she be escorted only by men who have met his approval and then only under proper chaperonage. He was not particularly pleased when I told him I did not seek his permission but only sought to inform him.”

  “That was foolish. He is not a man to offend, Travis.”

  “I did not offend him. He was not pleased, but he was understanding. He’s a rational man and knows he cannot expect to take over your life after so many years. He thanked me for being honest and promised not to interfere in this evening’s entertainment if this is what you wished. I suspect there may be opposition if you persist in your obviously mad infatuation with the likes of me, but you may rest assured that tonight is permissible.”

  Laughter gurgled from inside the bundle of furs. “You are a conceited popinjay, Mr. Travis. I affect no infatuation for the likes of you, but merely desire to ruin myself forever by appearing in your company.”

  “Then I shall most certainly give you satisfaction, Miss Stanford.” Alicia blushed furiously at the suggestiveness of his tone as the carriage drew up before the assembly rooms.

  Flinging a coin to a waiting boy to mind the horses, Travis strode around the carriage and lifted Alicia from her seat. She gasped as his hands encompassed her waist, and at the ease with which he lifted her to the ground.

  Travis held her there a minute, gazing into her eyes. “You are the only one who can prevent me from making you mine, and I intend to dispel any objections you may raise. Stand forewarned, Blue Eyes.”

  Alicia had no doubt that he meant what he said. She could tell from the intensity of his black gaze that his desire was not likely to dissipate under any pressure from her father. She wasn’t even certain her own objections would stand in his way very long. For the first time she realized she had set out on a course from which there was no turning back. The man she had chosen for lover had all the instincts of a wild animal and the same fierce possessiveness.

  A band tightened around Alicia’s chest, constricting her breathing. Travis slid one hand caressingly to her breast, the gesture hidden beneath the folds of her pelisse. His knowing fingers found the hard crest beneath the thickness of velvet and played it persuasively until Alicia swayed into his hands.

  Just that one touch excited rivers of fire and left only molten lava in their place. Satisfied he had made his point, Travis trailed his hand upward to her cheek, then took her hand and escorted her toward the assembly room. Alicia clung to the strength of his arm and wished they could be alone.

  They doffed their outerwear in the lobby, and his gaze swept approvingly over the wine-colored velvet of her gown. It was not one of her fashionable pieces, but a simple gown cinched in firmly at the waist, the neckline filled by a gauze so fine it revealed the valley between her breasts. It was a gown that warned to look but not touch—except she knew he meant to divest her of it shortly.

  As Travis escorted her into the crowded ballroom. She noticed how the soft green wool of his coat fit him like a second skin and the shoulders needed no padding. The long tail of the coat outlined narrow hips and muscular thighs, and the waist- length front emphasized the leanness of his flat stomach and the tailored fit of his biscuit-colored buckskin trousers. Everything about him emphasized his virile masculinity, and Alicia felt a sudden panic at the realization of what it might mean to be possessed by
this man.

  Their arrival in the ballroom caused a stir. Whispers rippled around the room, while more immediate acquaintances hurried to greet them.

  Everyone knew Alicia as a schoolteacher, and she had the opportunity to meet the parents of many of her students, although many cast looks of dismay from her fashionable attire to their old-fashioned dresses. Travis too did not quite fit in. The overabundance of males in town provided an assortment of well-dressed gentlemen, but they appeared to pale in comparison to his dramatic coloring. And by all rights, an Indian keelboatman shouldn’t even be in polite society.

  That they walked in two worlds caused whispers, but the ease with which they mingled erased any tension. Society of any kind was welcome, and though gossips squirreled away fascinating tidbits, the new arrivals made themselves at home.

  Too at home, Travis grumbled later as he watched the rich wine of Alicia’s gown dance by in the arms of one man after another. Sapphire eyes laughed and sparkled as he had not seen them do before, and he felt a twinge of jealousy. He returned his attention to his own partner. Although he fully intended to make Alicia his wife, he did not intend for her to disturb his life in any other way.

  That thought lasted only long enough for Sam Howard to discover Alicia’s presence and dance her off in a spirited quadrille that involved much laughing and swinging about. They made an attractive couple, Sam with his polished, blond good looks, and Alicia with her willowy, ladylike grace. Telling himself he sought only to keep what he had worked so hard to gain, Travis abandoned his conversation with one of the local horse breeders and set out to retrieve his partner at the dance’s end.

  Sam did not relinquish his prize willingly, but Alicia scarcely seemed to notice as she literally danced from Sam into Travis’s waiting arms. Noting the less than laughing look in Travis’s eyes, she grinned.

  “I am having a wo-o-onderful time.” She drew the word out with delight. “Sam says he might persuade the orchestra to play a waltz.”

  Out here, under the eyes of an audience, Travis could not draw her into his arms, and she knew it. She also knew he wanted to and tormented him with it. It occurred to Travis that by awakening Alicia’s passions, he was unleashing an unknown quantity. The woman he had courted and wooed had been beaten down by circumstances and fate, and had turned to him in desperation. Now that she was regaining her spirit and confidence, she could as easily dance from his grasp as she had Howard’s just a moment before.

  In the past he had found flaws in every woman he had met. This one had flaws he could gallop a horse through, but she was perfect for him.

  “The waltz is mine, Miss Stanford,” Travis drawled.

  Alicia grinned impudently. “So be it, then.”

  She gave Sam a sweet smile. “You may tell the orchestra Mr. Travis would like a waltz. I myself would prefer a lemonade.” With that nonsensical statement she swept off, leaving both men to stare at each other ruefully.

  Sam ran his hand through his blond locks and shrugged. “These Eastern women take some getting used to.”

  Travis suppressed an urge to laugh. There wasn’t another man in this room who could saddle Alicia once she took a notion to take the bit in her teeth and run. Only her father could claim any command over her, and that was an illusory claim at best. Excitement raced through Travis’s veins at the challenge.

  Alicia was well aware of his purposeful approach, and her heart skipped a little faster. Her boldness had shaken him, she could tell, but it hadn’t discouraged him as it had Sam and dozens of her other suitors. She didn’t think her tendency to say what she willed would discourage Travis. She wasn’t certain anything would discourage Travis. And that thought excited her more than any other.

  He caught her elbow and guided her toward the stairs leading to the ladies’ powder room. “Go powder your nose or whatever ladies do up there,” he commanded. “Just be prepared to fall into my arms when you come back down.”

  Alicia gazed at him in astonishment. “I could do no such thing.”

  Travis crooked one eyebrow. “You could if you tripped.”

  “Trip . . .” Her voice wandered off as she read the sheer devilment in his eyes. “I would look a graceless ninny.”

  “Which we both know you are not. Does it matter what others think if it gives me excuse to take you home early?”

  His suggestion sent a shiver down her spine. “Which home did you have in mind?”

  “Mine, but let others think what they will. There are a few matters we have left undone, and I would see them completed to our mutual satisfaction.”

  Alicia gave him a speculative look, but obediently lifted her skirts and climbed the stairs. She could say no at any point; he would not force her. The knowledge that the choice was hers eliminated any irritation at his assumption that she would say yes. He couldn’t be certain; he just made it uncannily easy to go along with him.

  The sight of Travis’s long, elegant frame lounging against the newel post as she came down decided the matter. She very much wanted to be caught up in the strength of those arms. It seemed all her life she had been standing on her own. It would be lovely to let someone else take care of her for just a little while.

  With as much grace as she could muster, she tripped on the last few steps and gave a small cry—and fell directly into Travis’s capable arms.

  The women behind her clustered and clucked anxiously as Travis lowered Alicia into one of the chairs along the wall. Alicia protested and tried to stand and sat abruptly down again. Someone cried they would fetch a physician, while others recommended hot packs and someone else began a long recital of what had worked for their grandmother when her leg had “swole up like a turnip.” Alicia’s grimace as she looked at Travis was not one of pain.

  Dr. Farrar hurried to the rescue. “It is just a small sprain, sir. It is really not worth your attention. Mr. Travis has been kind enough to offer me a ride home. I promise I shall be quite fit in the morning.”

  The young doctor smiled at her reluctance to have her ankle examined. “A sprain can be very discomforting, Miss Stanford. Perhaps you would prefer it if I accompanied you home?”

  That was more than Travis could tolerate. Even the damned physician was making eyes over her. He knelt beside the chair and boldly took her ankle in his hand, expertly twisting it side to side. A few of the ladies gave shocked gasps, and Alicia barely maintained her dignity at this manhandling, but when Travis stood, everyone awaited his verdict.

  “I don’t believe it’s serious, Bernard. I’ll take her home and she can soak it, and if it’s still sore in the morning, she can send for you.”

  The doctor nodded and bowed over Alicia’s hand. Between them they assisted her to her feet. Someone went for their coats and the carriage. Within minutes they were settled behind the horses, cantering down the snow-filled street toward Travis’s rooms.

  Travis sent the proud tilt of Alicia’s chin a worried look. “I went too far?”

  “You went too far,” she agreed. “I do not like making a public spectacle of myself.”

  “But you make such a pretty spectacle.” Travis transferred both reins to his left hand and slid the right around her waist. “It gave everyone something exciting to talk about, so no one will even think twice about us leaving so early together. We have as long as we like.”

  She had consented to his madness and could not fault him, but she still had an uneasy feeling about this deception. Perhaps Travis was accustomed to this kind of deviousness, but she was not. It worried her to be less than honest.

  “What if we’re caught? What if my father speaks to Mrs. Clayton and they both discover I was in neither place?”

  “I think the likelihood is small, but I will take you to either of them at any time you wish. Just give me a little time, Alicia. Everything worth having is worth taking a risk for.”

  If he could take away the nightmare, replace it with the promises she felt in his words, in his touch, in his looks, it would be worth every ris
k taken. But one.

  Worriedly she gave Travis a half-glance. Although he seemed to be concentrating on his horses, his grip on her tightened, and she knew he waited for her response.

  “That is easy for you to say, but you are not a woman. What happens if I should bear your child?”

  Reluctantly Travis withdrew his arm to steer the carriage into an alleyway behind Main Street where the horses would be stabled. “Would you dislike that very much?” he asked.

  Alicia sent him a surprised glance, then considered the question. It was one she had avoided, but logic demanded that she consider it.

  “I would like to have children, but I could not live through what happened to me another time.”

  “Don’t let it worry you tonight. I will protect you.”

  The heat of his gaze rippled through her, and suddenly everything was all right. It was as if the snow stopped and the sun came out. Tentatively Alicia touched his gloved hand.

  Travis seized her fingers and rewarded her with a grin of exuberant joy. In a leap he was on the ground and swinging her from the seat, leaving the horses to be tended by the stable lads.

  Alicia squealed in surprise as Travis carried her toward the back entrance of a large building. She did not even inquire where he took her. She slid her hands behind his neck and buried her face against his broad shoulder.

  Soon she would know what it meant to be loved.

  Chapter 20

  Travis carried Alicia in the back entrance and up a stairway to an upstairs room he called home. The keelboat offered a retreat, but here was the hub of his many and varied interests.

  The large chamber reflected his Spartan lifestyle. A simple quilt covered a frame bed of a size necessary for a man of his height. A broad desk with numerous drawers dwarfed one corner. But his companion’s attention was drawn to the shelves of assorted carved creatures.

  Travis discarded his coats and watched as Alicia admired the products of his idle hours. He was half ashamed that these were all he had to show for these last years he had spent escaping the two lives he could not live. But Alicia’s awe as she lovingly ran her fingers over the detailed wingspan of a golden eagle restored some small part of his self-respect.