She wasn’t cold. She tingled from her scalp to her toes as he gently swept the cap from her head and loosed the pins from the hasty knot she’d fashioned, her hair tumbling down her back.
“Estelle…”
She saw the question burning in his eyes. Valentin stood so near without touching her, but she felt no hesitation as she took one of his hands and enmeshed her fingers with his, her love for him making her bold.
“We’ve only tonight, my dearest heart. Only tonight…”
As if her words had unleashed something visceral in him, primal, Valentin drew her into his arms to kiss her passionately, and then began to divest her of her borrowed clothing.
If she had thought she had dressed quickly back in her room, now he accomplished the task of undressing her so swiftly that he left her breathless, his hands caressing her all the while. Shivering at the sensations he evoked in her, she gasped when he swept her up once again and laid her naked upon the bed.
He took only a moment to kick off his boots and then he joined her, his fervent murmurings of love like heated whispers against her skin as he knelt beside her and began to kiss her everywhere.
The hollow of her neck, where Valentin pressed his lips to the nick that was nearly healed.
The curves of her breasts, his mouth moving to her nipples to tease them into aching nubs.
The sensitive inside of her thighs, the stirring warmth of his breath leaving her flushed and trembling.
Only then did he leave the bed to strip out of his own clothing…first his shirt, his upper chest covered with fine blond hair. Then his trousers, Estelle drawing in her breath as her eyes followed a trail of hair down his muscled abdomen to the darker blond curls where already, he stood hard and erect for her.
She’d never seen such a sensual sight and she could but stare in awe at his lean, masculine beauty limned in firelight.
She hadn’t even noticed the fireplace and the flickering flames when he’d carried her into the room, or the luxurious softness of the bedding until he lay down next to her and pulled her into his arms.
Skin against skin, his rougher than hers and so warm, Valentin capturing her mouth in a kiss unlike anything she’d known.
Her quickening breath melded with his, her arms flying around his neck as his tongue delved deeply to taste her, to claim her as a desperate urgency suddenly seized them both.
Did they really have tonight? Maybe it was only a few hours or even minutes before they were torn from each other’s arms forever—oh, God!
Crying out in wordless agony at the thought, Estelle heard Valentin’s answering moan as he shifted to blanket her with his body and pressed her deeper into the bed.
Instinctively she spread her legs beneath him, his knee driving her thighs even wider, his kiss so impassioned now it seemed their breathing had become one. She felt his weight pressing at the very heart of her, Estelle gasping against his mouth when he thrust inside her, a burst of pain almost instantly subsiding.
“Forgive me, my love…forgive me,” came his ragged plea, but Estelle only tightened her arms around him to draw him closer, deeper, arching her hips to meet his quickening thrusts.
As his whole body began to shake, she knew intuitively to wrap her legs around his hips, pressing her calves into his muscled buttocks when exultation overcame her.
For a sweet, blinding moment as Valentin stiffened against her, Estelle crying out in ecstasy, all sorrow fled from her mind and there was only love.
Spilling into her body in a gush of warmth that she prayed would bring them a child.
A breathless moment more and he collapsed against her, pulling her with him as he rolled onto his side.
Valentin enfolding her in his arms to hold her so tightly that she could but bury her face against his chest, slick with sweat, the racing of his heart beneath her splayed fingers gradually slowing…slowing.
She could not say when he loosened his hold to kiss the top of her head and tenderly stroke the curve of her shoulder, such exhaustion overwhelming her that she could not have fended off sleep if she tried.
Distantly she heard him murmuring her name, his lips grazing her brow as he pulled the covers over them…and then nothing as she surrendered to the sweetest sensation of peace that she’d ever known.
***
“My lord, you must wake her. It’s nearing dawn.”
Valentin opened his eyes with a start to find Robert, his face grave with concern, standing at the far corner of the bed.
“Oh, God.” Immediately Valentin glanced down at Estelle, still snuggled against him and sleeping peacefully, her curled hand tucked beneath her chin. Such fierce emotion gripped him, though he nodded at Robert.
“If you wish, I’ll escort her back to her room. It wouldn’t be wise if you—”
“Understood. Wait by the front doors, will you?”
Robert murmured his assent and left the room while Valentin sighed heavily, gazing down at the woman he loved more than life.
The woman who would leave him that morning…perhaps carrying his child.
Twice more they had consummated their love during the night, swiftly again when a shared hunger had awakened them both, and then the last with poignant tenderness. Holding her in his arms afterward, he had never felt more helpless to change a future that loomed so wretchedly in front of him.
So he felt now, too, wanting desperately to keep her with him forever and never let her go, but Robert was right.
If there was any chance to get her back to her room with no one the wiser, for her sake, now was the time. He could hear birds stirring outside with their morning calls, a nightingale, doves, a glance over his shoulder at the paned window telling him that the sky was lightening.
Steeling himself for what was to come, Valentin lowered his head to gently press his lips to Estelle’s. Almost at once she shifted against him, sighing so softly, so sweetly, and opened her eyes to gaze up at him.
Luminous brown eyes filled with such love and yet undeniable heartache as she smiled sadly. “Is it time?”
He nodded, his throat so tight he couldn’t speak. He thought she might ask him to hold her for a few moments more, but she seemed to have steeled herself just as he had done and moved to rise from bed. He started to sit up, too, but she turned and gently pressed him back down upon the pillows.
“No, Valentin. Stay here, please.”
Almost woodenly she rose and gathered up her clothes, turning her back to him as she hurriedly dressed while he drank in the sight of her for one last time.
He thought she might even leave the room without kissing him goodbye. Her eyes were wet when she slowly turned around to look at him, though she’d clearly bitten her lower lip so hard that it bled, to keep herself from crying.
“Valentin, I…” She didn’t finish, but flew around the bed so suddenly that he had scarcely sat up when she threw her arms around him.
He hugged her as fiercely, Valentin murmuring against her cheek, “Estelle, I will go with you to England. Without you, none of this will mean anything to me—”
“Your people love you, Valentin. They need you. I could never live with myself for taking you away from Bratavia!”
She turned her head to kiss him, but only briefly before she wrenched herself away from him and ran to the door.
Desperate to fling aside the covers and follow after her, somehow Valentin made himself stay even though he could hear her running all the way to the front doors.
He heard them open and close, then nothing.
Estelle was gone.
Chapter 13
“Estelle, are you sure you won’t eat anything? You had no breakfast. A bite of apple? A sliver of cheese?”
Estelle shook her head at Linette and went back to staring blindly out the carriage window.
The castle was long gone from her view now. Was it only a week since she’d arrived there brimming with such excitement to see Valentin again?
Her heartache so intense that she
found it difficult to breathe, let alone think of eating, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about the look on his face when she had left him with barely a kiss earlier that morning.
Yet if she had lingered any longer, she might have agreed that he leave his country, his people, and accompany her to Cornwall.
Why not be selfish to keep the man she loved more than life by her side? Would it have been so wrong? Valentin had wanted to come with her! She had seen it written all over his face and blazing in his eyes!
Estelle sighed, the sharp prick of her conscience answer enough that she could never have lived with herself, just as she’d told him. They were star-crossed lovers, destined to remain apart, her one consolation that she and Valentin had spent an impassioned night together that she would never forget.
She blushed even now so heatedly that she lowered her head and stared at the forest green skirt of her traveling gown so Adam and Linette wouldn’t notice. She still couldn’t believe she had made it back to her room without them discovering anything was amiss, Mattie curled up and sleeping peacefully beneath the covers.
Estelle had apologized profusely and told Mattie that she was forever in her debt, but the young woman had only smiled with genuine kindness and quickly changed back into her own clothing.
The only embarrassment had been the two guards at the front doors to Valentin’s private apartment, but she had ducked her head and passed by them with Robert steering her by the elbow. He had assured her as they made their way down the stairs that the men were sworn to loyal silence about Valentin’s private matters—yet she didn’t truly care anyway.
If the night she and Valentin had spent together made her a fallen woman, she would wear that badge unapologetically. In a few months’ time she would know for sure if she carried his child, but for now, it would be their treasured secret.
Again, she closed her eyes, remembering how the servants she, Linette, and Adam had passed in the castle as they made their way to the waiting carriages had looked upon her with pity. Even Madame Faucher, the head housekeeper who had packed them a basket of food for the journey and had accompanied them outside, had gripped Estelle’s hands warmly in goodbye, the older woman’s eyes welling.
Clearly, news of the terrible confrontation at the ball had flown through the castle staff and into town, and probably throughout Bratavia. As the carriages had rumbled through the streets, first Estelle’s and then the one carrying their servants and the royal representative Louis, who was escorting them back to Calais, townspeople had come out of their homes and shops to watch them pass by, many appearing angry.
She could not forget the emotional homage paid to Valentin on the day of his coronation, his people well aware of the horror he and his father had suffered at the hands of Henri Chevalier and his son, Gaston. Surely the citizens of Bratavia wanted nothing more than his happiness, thwarted now as the woman he had chosen for his wife was on her way to board a ship bound for England, never to return—oh, God.
Estelle shook her head sadly, trying as hard as she could not to burst into futile tears.
The only other people who had seen them off besides Madame Faucher had been the footmen waiting to assist them, though Estelle had sensed Valentin’s presence as surely as if he stood there, too.
She had wanted to glance up to see if he stood at a window watching their departure, but the thought of seeing the anguish in his eyes had been too much for her to bear.
Just as the incessant sound of clattering carriage wheels carrying her further away from the man she loved was too much to bear.
Had Princess Hortense already arrived to insist Valentin must choose a bride from among the three young women who had probably stood at the castle windows, too? Smiling and laughing and pointing at her—
“Estelle, you must try not to torment yourself so,” Linette pleaded with her as if reading her mind. Her sister glanced at her husband, Adam’s face as somber as Estelle had seen it, though he bore an air of helplessness, too.
And something else…the raw compassion in his eyes as he met Estelle’s gaze telling her that he knew full well where she had gone last night, and didn’t fault her for it.
Linette, either, her sister jumping up from her seat next to Adam to the opposite side of the carriage, where she enfolded Estelle in her arms.
“It will be all right, Estelle! Surely in time, everything will be all right.”
Estelle couldn’t speak, shaking her head against Linette’s shoulder.
How could anything ever be right again when her terrible dream from a few nights before had come true?
***
“My lord, is there anything I can bring you?”
Valentin didn’t answer Robert, but sat motionless in front of the cold fireplace in the drawing room.
Since yesterday, he had allowed no one to add more wood and stoke the fire and now nothing was left beneath the iron grate but dead ashes.
Which suited the desolation he felt perfectly.
Estelle had left the castle nearly a half hour ago, her departure the worst moment of his life.
And still the tall grandfather clock in the corner of the room continued to taunt him, each tick taking Estelle further away from him. God help him, how would life ever make sense again without her?
“If anyone comes by, Robert, tell them I wish not to be disturbed. That especially goes for Hortense.”
“I understand, my lord.” As if realizing there was nothing more he could say or do, Robert quietly excused himself and left the room.
Which suited Valentin perfectly, too.
He needed to be alone, the overwhelming impotence he felt melded with hopelessness close to choking him.
To think there was nothing he could have done to alter the hated course his half-sister had set him upon—nothing! He was surprised she hadn’t come knocking upon his door already to insist that he must select a bride at once. What could be keeping her? She had never been reluctant about pressing her demands before—
“My lord, forgive me, but you have a visitor.”
Hortense! Cursing under his breath, Valentin lunged from the chair to face Robert, who stood in the doorway. “I said I didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“I know, but the guards opened the doors before I could stop them. He’s waiting just outside.”
“He?” Startled that his visitor wasn’t his half-sister, Valentin strode toward the door. “A member of my privy council? I’ll tell him myself that I don’t wish to see anyone—”
“Please, Valentin, I must speak with you!” came a familiar voice as his brother-in-law, Edward Bertrand, pushed his way past Robert to enter the room. His bald pate as red as his face, the baron clearly had come in quite a hurry as he fought to catch his breath. “It’s of the utmost importance, you must hear me!”
Valentin had stopped short and stared at Edward, who pulled a handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket to mop his damp brow. He couldn’t remember a single occasion when his brother-in-law had come to his private apartment to discuss anything with him. Clearly the man was distressed, which made Valentin gesture to a nearby chair, but Edward shook his head.
“I saw Miss Easton’s carriage pass by my home, Valentin, I’m so sorry. So truly sorry! I have so much to answer for…so much for which I must ask your forgiveness.”
“So much to answer for?” Valentin demanded, though a niggling of intuition gripped him as Edward bowed his head as if in contrition.
“While you were imprisoned, I knew what was happening and I did nothing to help you! Hortense and I were already under house arrest. I feared our situation would only grow worse if I spoke up, and I’d lose everything, my wealth, my home—ah, God, forgive me, Valentin! So I stood by and said nothing, but no more. No more!”
Weeping now, his face flushed with anguish, Edward wrung the handkerchief while he rushed on. “I know of only one way to make amends and that’s to tell you all. Hortense paid that footman to spy upon you and Miss Easton. Bastion’s hi
s name. She’s given him refuge in our cellar until the search dies down—”
“I already suspected as much about Hortense,” Valentin broke in, stunned that the baron would so readily implicate his wife...but then again, perhaps he wasn’t so surprised. “I’ll send soldiers to apprehend Bastion so he can be questioned, though he’s committed no punishable crime.”
“Thank God it hadn’t yet come to that!”
Valentin went very still, staring intently at Edward. “What are you saying?”
“Hortense saw Miss Easton, too, from our dining room window—we had just sat down to breakfast. I’ve never seen her so elated. She got up at once and I sensed she was going to the cellar so I followed her. I stood at the top of the steps and heard her say to Bastion that she was finally rid of Miss Easton and there was no longer any need to take things further, and that he must leave town at once. I knew how much she disliked Miss Easton for interfering with her plans, but never that she intended to do her harm!”
Sickened by this revelation as Edward began to weep in earnest, babbling apologies, Valentin was already striding to the door. He needed to call for his soldiers to apprehend that footman before he could flee, as a witness against his half-sister! Yet Edward stumbled after him and grabbed his arm.
“Those two aren’t going anywhere, Valentin, I locked them in the cellar and told the servants not to dare open the door. But what I’ve told you isn’t all of it—”
“Dammit, man, what else could there be?” Valentin had spun around to roar so vehemently at Edward that he heard the front doors to his private apartment slam open and the sound of his guards’ boots running toward the drawing room. “Speak!”
Wide-eyed, Edward blurted, “Princess Ophelia’s family promised Hortense a huge sum in gold if their daughter became your bride, and so did the families of Lady Ingrid and Countess Alicia, though none of them know she made the same agreement with the others. It didn’t matter to her which one married you, only that it wasn’t Miss Easton. God forgive me, all the wealth I preserved by my cowardice wasn’t enough to satisfy her…”
My Fugitive Prince Page 10
