by Emily Ward
“What is it?” Xavier looked up at him. “Decided that it’s too dangerous for your delicate sensibilities?”
“My sensibilities aren’t delicate.” Liam felt his hackles raise up at the accusation. It bothered him in ways that he couldn’t explain.
Xavier just laughed at his discomfort. “Of course not. After all, you’re a good man, just trying to have a little fun. Think you may have gotten in a little too deep, aren’t you?”
Liam shook his head. “I’m being pushed to marry Eleanor; don’t you think it’s best not to go after her family?”
“Oh, I think that makes her the perfect target. After all, aren’t you in enough trouble? I wouldn’t want your blushing bride to find out where those crates were coming from, after all.”
Liam saw it then. The threat that was laid down on him. “She’s not a part of this.”
“She became a part of this when she decided to interfere.” Xavier was so matter-of-fact about it and Liam could feel like his heart had just been stabbed. He wanted nothing more than to stab the man that was threatening her. Xavier must have noticed it. “Oh. I see it now. You want to protect the girl.”
“She’s just a woman.”
“Your mouth says that. But your face tells me something else.”
Liam briefly wondered if his smirk looked like that. If it did it was no wonder Eleanor looked like she wanted to slap him half of the time. “I don’t need any more trouble in my personal affairs from this.”
“You’ll do what you need to do.”
“She saved everyone from getting thrown in jail. Shouldn’t that be enough to leave her alone?” Liam tried to find some way to keep this from happening, he couldn’t believe what he was being told and he knew that the arguments made him seem weak. But he knew that he had to save Eleanor. After all, she deserved better than this life that he was going to drag her into.
“Are you saying that I should hire her? What use would I have for you then?” Xavier was laughing even harder now.
“This is extortion.”
“Of course, it is.” The man wasn’t even going to deny it. He had Liam on the ropes. “It’s clear to see you fancy the girl. After all, we’ve seen how you looked at her before. And now she’s yours. Don’t you think that means you owe me a few more favors.”
“You didn’t make this happen. I don’t owe you for it.”
“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go home and think about it? You can come back in two days and tell me what decision you’ve made.”
Liam knew when he was being dismissed and this was one of those times. Xavier would have his way one way or the other. He was stuck.
As he left, he couldn’t help but picture the tears in Eleanor’s eyes when her family was robbed. They didn’t have the kind of money that would help them easily recover from that kind of setback. They weren’t wealthy, but they were still an important part of several circles thanks to the connections her father had made.
He hung his head as he slipped down the empty streets towards his home. He could only hope that no one had noticed anything off about what he had just done, or if they did they would attribute it to the shame of the situation he had found himself in with the woman that he was now promised to marry and soon. It was the first time in his life he truly felt like he was trapped. It was a feeling that he didn’t like.
It would be a lie to say that this woman hadn’t gotten to him. He had felt the pain in his chest when the threat against her had been leveled. The woman deserved much better than that. She deserved a better life than the one that he could offer her as his bride.
“I need a plan.” He whispered to himself as he made his way back onto his family estate and up to his rooms. The woman would get a better life, somehow. He just had to figure out how to get out of this mess. If there was anything that Liam was good at, it was getting himself out of messes.
Safely ensconced in his room he could start planning his escape and a way to keep Eleanor safe from being robbed before he could end up married to her.
Chapter 8
Eleanor had a lot on her mind. She found herself struggling to get to sleep long into the morning. When it finally became time to get out of bed, she struggled to get her body moving. Liam had been on her mind for hours. She could have sworn that she had seen him several times when she had peeked out of her window.
She forced herself to ignore her window as she dressed that morning. It wouldn’t do any good to see him out of the corner of her eye as she got ready for the day. This man had occupied too many of her days. And he would occupy many more of her days from now on. It hurt her to realize that her life had been taken out from under her.
But if she was honest. She wasn’t angry at Liam for saving them from worse consequences. She was angry at her brother for getting into such deep trouble. It was his fault. Had she not had to save him none of this would have happened.
She hadn’t seen much of her brother since this had happened. And the moments they had spent in the same room had been him hiding in the corner and avoiding her eyes. She picked out a green dress as she mused. She always liked the way the dress matched her eyes and she could use to put on something that made her feel more confident.
It was a small trick she used to get through days that would prove to be difficult. She had plans with Liam. They were going to discuss certain things about going forward. The wedding was already being arranged and the two of them were tasked with getting to know each other later. She didn’t know if she liked that idea or not. Liam wasn’t the type of man that she really ever pictured spending so much time near. This was a man that was known to skirt the edges of society, but it wasn’t in the same way she was known. She was not a criminal; she just didn’t like spending time in social settings where she would be expected to behave in certain ways.
She hated keeping her mouth closed. She hated being demure and tame. And she hated the fact that she was expected to act as if it was all so perfect to be a twittering idiot. She had been educated, taught wrong from right. She knew a lot of things that she could never discuss in public gatherings. And the night before she had discussed many of those things with Liam.
It had been refreshing for her to have someone so willing to listen. And he had listened intently. The man was intelligent, he held one of those intellects that seemed wasted in their day to day lives. His clever tongue was a true match to her own. And she knew that she loved it.
“Love.” She paused once her dress was on. She wondered on that word. Could she learn to love him? Could she develop the kind of deep feelings that a marriage should have? She didn’t know, not really. There was no way to really know this early. All she could do was ponder at the feelings that were taking over her emotional state.
She sighed again and finished dressing, but the knock on the window came just as she finished.
She jumped a little before rushing over to the window. “Liam!” She opened the window and helped him in off of the ladder he had found to get up to the second floor. “What are you doing here?”
“I need you to help me with something.” He admitted as he stood on the floor of her room.
“You’re not supposed to be here.” She frowned at him.
“I know. I know.” Liam nodded. “I’ll keep this short so you don’t get into any more trouble on my account.”
“I doubt it could get much worse, but you need to leave. We can talk tonight.” She tried to shoo him out of the window. “You can’t be seen here.”
“Shh. Look. I’m in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Eleanor forgot about all of the scandals that would happen if he was caught alone in her room.
“Enough that I’m going to need your help. And I’ll need you to keep it secret.”
“Is that why you snuck into here?”
“I can’t explain that much, but you need to know that there are some lines I won’t cross and some people tried to cross those lines.”
“Am I in danger?” S
he shivered slightly even though the air in the room was warm.
His arms instinctively wrapped around her, an attempt to keep her warm. She looked in his eyes a little surprised. “No. Nobody is going to hurt you. I swear it.”
She could read the steel in his eyes. He really meant what he was saying. He was planning to protect her, but she didn’t know what he was protecting her from. She thought about asking but decided that she probably didn’t want to know when they were in the midst of it. “What do you need me to do?”
“I just need you to drop something off somewhere.”
“What and where?”
Liam held up an envelope. “I can’t go to the constable, but you can. You can visit Amelia and drop this off with her father.”
“What’s in the envelope?”
“Enough to get us both out of trouble.” He held her hand after stepping back and pulling his hands away. She vaguely wondered if he had felt the same heat that she had with him that close to her.
“Why?” She was still bewildered.
“Trust me that it needs to be done. I don’t have a lot of time to explain every dirty detail. I just need you to trust me.” Liam frowned slightly. “I hate the thought of bringing you into this.”
“But I’m already in this, aren’t I?”
“By just showing up at the warehouse, you’re neck deep in this, and I’m going to get us out of this, but I need you to help.”
“Why can’t you do this on your own? This is all your fault.”
“Because I can’t, but they’re not watching you.”
“Not watching me? Not yet at least.”
He pulled her close to him. “Not if they think that we’re lovers.”
“We’re not lovers.” She reminded him in a breathless voice.
He leaned in close to her lips. “And I consider that a great loss.”
It caught her off guard. She didn’t know how to respond to that. He had just blatantly declared feelings that she didn’t know how to process. She hadn’t known him that well before they had gotten into this mess before. He was someone that she avoided. Someone who was nothing but trouble. But here he was asking her to help him get out of a mess so that they could start a life together that meant something. Maybe she had misjudged this man.
Her lips moved closer to him, brushing against him. He pulled her closer, reacting immediately to her touch. She could feel the tautness of his body responding to hers. Her breath started to shallow and her eyes closed as she felt his strong arms run up and down her sides once again. She knew that this was it. When it came to this man she had no self-control.
The kiss was intense, he pulled her closer and her hands started to run over his chest as all thoughts ran out of her head. It was all gone. Instead, it was just the feel of his skin on hers. She wanted to get the clothes out of the way, it was the only thing that she could think of. She started to work on his shirt until he held a hand up and stopped her. “We don’t have time for this. As much as I would love to.”
She pulled away, her face flushed and her breath ragged from the way that he had pulled her into the lust that he seemed to carry with him every day. It was an aura that she should never have gotten to close to. And now she was, and it was making her mind muddled at the thought of being near him again. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I would love nothing more than to take you to bed this minute, Eleanor, but I need you to do something for me first.”
“Oh. I see.” She shook her head to gather her senses. “You need me to take something somewhere then?” It was in that instant that she knew that she was going to say yes to what he was asking. Whatever it was, it was worth it, just to spend more time close to him.
“It’s very simple. I can’t tell you exactly what’s in there, but what I can say is that if you can deliver that, it will help us start our lives a little more securely.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “But why can’t you tell me?”
He sighed. “I may have been dabbling on the wrong side of the law. Not because I needed to, but because it was amusing and entertaining.”
“I heard about that.” She frowned slightly. “Your reputation proceeded you.”
“Well, I may have found myself a little deeper than I assumed I would ever get.”
“And now you have to get out of it.” Eleanor sighed and sat down heavily on the bed. “And you need my help to do it.”
He knelt at her feet. “I cannot express how saddened I am to drag you into this.
“Then why don’t you go speak to him?” She looked down at him as he took her hand. “Why can’t you handle this on your own?”
“Because I can’t be seen speaking to a constable, but you have a reason to go there. Please. I know we’re going to be starting a life together. And I know that it’s all my fault. I just want to fix the errors of my past before you find yourself in a marriage with a man that is in the midst of trouble.”
She nodded slowly, squeezing his hand. “Fine. I can do it.”
“I can’t thank you enough.” He stood and picked her up into his arms. She yelped a bit then held on tight as he spun her around. “I plan to fix my mistakes anyway I know how. I want you to know that. I got you into this mess, and I have every intention of getting you out.”
She couldn’t help but laugh a little bit as she was swung through the air. She responded in a way that surprised even her, by planting a soft kiss on his cheek. He paused and stood her on her feet, leaning in to deepen the kiss as he tucked the papers into her bodice.
If there existed a worse time for the maid to open the door, that would have been it. But that’s what happened. The pair was pulled out of their shared reverie by the clatter of a tray onto the ground. “Miss Eleanor!”
She pulled away faster than she ever had. “Agatha!”
Liam was standing there in shock as the maid spoke again. “I’ll get your father. He’ll handle this rogue.” The maid darted off.
“She thinks that you’ve come to take advantage of me.” Eleanor tried to push Liam towards the window. “It’s time for you to leave before you can’t.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t believe this happened again.”
“I’ll have a good reason to speak to the constable now. I’ll get the note to him.” She assured him as he made his way out of the window. “You have to go. My father can’t catch you here.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to ask my father to take me to speak to Amelia because I was so upset about you sneaking into my room.” She explained breathlessly. “And then I’ll get the message to her father. Just go.”
He climbed out the window in a rush and slipped quickly into the rose garden in the back as Eleanor turned to face the door. She had a lot to handle now, especially with them being caught together again.
She took a deep breath and slowly prepared her lie. What mattered was getting this letter delivered in secret. She knew that once this all came to light, everything would clear up, and she would end up with the credit for saving this man that she was coming to feel deeply about.
The thought of him was turning her gut into a field of tweeting birds, playful and happy and making her insides turn in on themselves. Could she actually be falling in love?
Chapter 9
Liam paced up and down his study. Eleanor hadn’t sent word about how things had gone, and he knew that he was going to have to give the girl a chance. But it didn’t mean that he wouldn't worry. “I hope this worked.” He wrung his hands as he made his way through his study, not paying attention to anything in there. The place had belonged to his father before the older Lord Francis had passed away.
“Liam calm down.” He was talking to himself, muttering in hopes that everything was going to turn out. But he knew that story books never turned out true enough.
Now it was all on him, and he was required to take care of his family’s estate and care for his mother at the same time. The older woman was a matriarch,
but she very much wasn’t the type of person to stay quiet in her room while her son was consistently making what she considered mistakes. While she didn’t hold the lands anymore, it was clear to almost everyone that she was in charge.
Before this moment he had actually liked it that way. He could wander through life doing whatever he wanted to do with it, and he knew that his mother would take care of it all.
He groaned, his thoughts running away from him once again. He had to focus. “Take a seat. You need to get some paperwork done. The wedding may be coming sooner than you expected or you may be signing your life away.” He rubbed his face as he paced himself through the self-talk.
He went to sit at his desk. There had to be something that he could do to distract him from the worries on his mind. It didn’t work and he went back to pacing within a few minutes.
This continued for hours, and late into the night before he could finally sleep.
It wasn’t until afternoon the next day that she arrived. The waiting by this point had caused him to wear a trail into the carpet in the small office he used to manage his family’s affairs. He saw her carriage pulling into his courtyard and rushed out of the room and down the stairs.
Opening the door, he discovered that the woman wasn’t alone. She was with her father. The man was clearly angry. “What was the meaning of this?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I never meant to drag your daughter through any trouble. She deserves much better.” Liam sighed softly. He knew that he deserved this anger. He had made many mistakes. He had made countless mistakes and he had hurt Eleanor. The thought of that caused pain to form in his chest. He wanted to protect her.
“You’re absolutely right.” Sir Cole was practically spitting with rage. “You’ve damaged our family’s reputation beyond belief. I’ve already had words with my daughter, but this is going to be fixed and quickly.” Liam had heard rumors about the kind of anger this man could carry, but never before had he been willing to speak about it.
