Julian breathed deeply of her scent, a faint touch of lavender and beautiful, clean skin. His whole body tightened with need for her. He had missed her in his bed, had even had some trouble getting to sleep because she was not curled up in his arms. It was probably a weakness but he could not make himself care.
“We can slip away soon,” he said and brushed a kiss over the hollow by her ear.
Chloe felt herself blush, which she thought was foolish. They had been lovers for weeks before this and had only spent a few nights apart. However, this would be their first time as husband and wife. There would be no concern about being caught together or remembering to get back to the right bed before any of the servants saw them. The only concern she had was that the moment she and Julian left the room, everyone would know what they were going to do.
“And just where are we to slip away to?”
“Well, there is a suite of rooms in the back that has been cleaned. It is to be our bower. A very nice bower it is, too. Food will be brought to the little sitting room while we are all cozy in our bed and a bath will be waiting for you if you want one.”
“I do not think we can slip away quietly or unnoticed.”
“It is all family here, Chloe. And with my mother and Lady Mildred here, there will be none of those risqué remarks people like to hurl at a newly wedded couple.”
“I hope you are right.”
He was not right, and Chloe had to laugh, for two of the worst offenders were his mother and his aunt. They were careful in what they said because their daughters were in the room but the men, Chloe, and Julian knew just what they were saying. Still laughing about it and Julian’s discomfort, which still tinted his cheeks a very nice rose, Chloe broke free of his hold and skipped into their suite.
“It is lovely, Julian,” she said as she peered into the bedchambers on either side of the large sitting room. Huge windows looked out onto the garden. She caught a quick glimpse of it before Julian closed the curtains.
“And very private, away from the rest of the family and the kitchens.” He grinned as he slid his arms around her waist. “Not so far that the food will be cold by the time it reaches us, however. We will go on a proper wedding journey when Arthur is caught. But for now, we can pretend this is our little cottage by the sea.”
“Not by the sea,” she said and kissed him under the chin. “The lakes.”
“Even better. I admit that I prefer the lakes, and I have a small property there that I believe you will love.”
She almost told him that she would love any place as long as he was with her, but she hastily bit the words back. Chloe did not want to make him feel uncomfortable or pushed into a corner. It was going to be difficult because her love for him seemed to fill every corner of her heart, but she had to go slowly.
“Now let me see if I can get you out of all this finery.”
It did not take him long and Chloe pushed aside the small pinch of jealousy she felt as she considered where he had gained his experience in removing a woman’s clothing. He was a man of thirty who had been married before, she sternly reminded herself. Men struggled to get as much experience as they could from the moment their voice grew lower and a few spindly hairs appeared on their chests. Her randy brothers had proved that often enough.
As he nudged her toward the bed, he stripped her down to her shift and undid her hair. Chloe was busy herself, stripping him of his coat, waistcoat, and shirt. She was just about to undo his trousers when he gently pushed her down onto the bed. Throwing aside all modesty, she sprawled on her back and watched him shed the last of his clothes.
Julian Kenwood was a well-built man, she decided. He was gloriously male from his broad shoulders right down to his long, narrow feet and every lovely taut, muscular inch in between. Her gaze settled on his manhood, erect and growing larger right before her eyes.
She suddenly thought of the way he had used his mouth and tongue so intimately on her, on how it made her crazed, and she sat up. Reaching out, she wrapped her hand around his erection and stroked him very gently. He groaned softly and clutched at her shoulders. Taking that as a sign of approval, she leaned forward and kissed the broad tip that glistened slightly.
“Chloe,” he said in a choked voice, “are you sure you want to do that?”
“You do not like it?” she asked and then slowly ran her tongue along his length, knowing by the way he shuddered that he liked it very much.
“Women do not like to do it.” Julian was astonished that he could still talk, as his blood was running so hot it should have boiled his brain.
“Well, let us just see if I am one of those women.”
She used his reactions to learn what he liked as she made love to him with her mouth. His obvious pleasure fed her own until she thought she would have to drag him onto the bed and leap on him. She took him into her mouth and gently sucked and his whole body rocked toward her, so she did it again. A moment later she found herself flat on her back and watched her shift go sailing out over the room.
“I cannot wait,” he growled and reached down to test her readiness with his fingers.
Finding her hot and wet nearly had him spilling his seed on her belly. He bent down to kiss her even as he thrust inside her. Chloe cried out his name and wrapped her slender, strong legs around his waist. The last clear thought he had was that he had finally found the adventurous lover he had always wanted.
Some wonderful person had put a bowl of water and several cloths right on a table next to the bed, Julian noticed, so that he did not even have to try to walk after he finally rolled his weak and sated body off his new wife. He had to smile when Chloe barely twitched as he cleaned her off and then himself. He blindly tossed the used cloth in the direction of the table, reached for a flatteringly limp Chloe, and pulled her into his arms. He decided he really liked the way she curled up against him, kissed his chest, and then idly rubbed her cheek against it before settling down.
He was married again and he actually felt happy. Then he recalled what he had found that morning and he sighed. Chloe proved yet again how well she sensed his moods by lightly stroking his chest.
“We found the pit,” he said abruptly and was not surprised when she hugged him and kissed his chin. “Five men were in it. Well, four men and one who was barely a man. All killed because they knew too much and were honorable men who would tell me, or because Beatrice wanted them and they did not succumb to her charms.”
Chloe lifted herself just enough to brush her mouth over his. “It is not your fault,” she said.
“I am their lord. I should have been watching out for them. I left her here time and time again to manage things while I was off playing lord of the manor at the House of Lords.”
“Where you are expected to go from time to time. And every man leaves his wife to manage his home when he has to go to work. Julian, no one, no matter how suspicious their nature, would ever have thought such things were being done while he was away.”
“But I found out the truth about my uncle and my wife and I just left.”
“You found out they were betraying you. That does not suggest that they were murdering people and throwing them into an unmarked grave. It took you a long time to accept that they were trying to kill you. Nay, Julian, this was not your fault. We have buried one of those beasts and soon we will bury the other. That is what you must do now that you have learned the depths of their depravity. You find justice.”
She could see him struggling to heed what she said and understood how hard it was for him to do so. His feeling of responsibility for the people of Colinsmoor ran deep and it would be a while before he could break free of a guilt he did not deserve to suffer. But, she thought, at least he had listened to her.
“You need to stop thinking about it.” She slid her hand down his stomach and stroked his manhood, feeling it immediately rise up to welcome her touch.
“That certainly might help to clear my head,” he said, and ran his hands down her back until he
could gently squeeze her backside.
“Well, is that not what a wife is for? To clear the troubled thoughts from her husband’s head? To soothe his worries?”
“Do you expect me to argue with you when you are doing exactly what I want?”
Chloe laughed and kissed him. She knew the guilt he felt would return, but she hoped it would lessen with time and thought. For now she would do her best to keep him so dazed with passion that he forgot his own name. That was what wedding nights were for.
Chapter 17
“Fools. Look at them down there smiling at each other and acting as if all is right with the world.” Arthur slipped around the tree so that he could get a better look at the small group gathered in the graveyard by the chapel. “Told you we should have buried those bodies better and deeper, Beatrice. They have gone and buried them in Kenwood land. Right near you, which I have to admit is a clever twist. They are burying that girl whose babe you took now. From what little I could learn, she was the new countess’s sister. Made a mistake there.”
Arthur thought about his dead lover and sighed. He missed her from time to time, which amazed him. She had made so many mistakes, ruined all his plans, and he had enjoyed watching her dance at the end of that rope, yet he still found himself talking to her. One of those puzzles of life, he decided, and growled softly when he saw Julian put his arm around his new wife.
How dare he marry again so soon after burying Beatrice. She must be stomping around in hell right now demanding some sort of punishment for him. If she was still alive he would not have been able to take a bride, and the fact that now he could must make dear Beatrice livid. That was something he would do for her, Arthur decided. He had money now that he had sold all of Beatrice’s jewels. Not as much as he would have had had the fool woman not left the Kenwood jewels in the safe in the manor, but enough to hire a gang of thieves and cutthroats. They would help him end his brother’s line for once and for all.
He straightened and glared down at his wife as she joined the group in the churchyard. Traitorous bitch. She would pay, too. Hiding with the enemy, consorting with them, could not be forgiven. All he had ever asked of the stupid woman was that she give him a son, and she had failed him three times. He would make sure she saw those failures die first, right before her eyes. He wanted her to grieve as he had each time she had pushed yet another cursed daughter out of her useless womb.
They had all failed him, cheated him, and destroyed him. His plans had been perfect and they had thwarted him at every turn. No more. He might not gain the prize he had once sought, but he was a man who could adjust. Now he just wanted them all to pay for his losses. Let the cursed earldom go to some far-flung cousin or, even better, to the crown.
Arthur rubbed at the pain in his head and decided he needed a drink. Drink was the other thing that eased the constant pain. He did not like how it made him act, but it would do until he had rid himself of all the sources of his pain. Slipping back down the hill away from the graveyard and his family of traitors, Arthur made his way to his horse. It was time to go back to the inn, have a few drinks and a meal.
Then, when the pain was eased, he would gather his men and make plans. All he had to do was divert a few of the men guarding Colinsmoor and he and his men could easily get inside the manor. The bastards he was paying to fight for him could loot the place to their heart’s content while he took care of all those interfering women. Then he would help himself to the real treasures at Colinsmoor and slip away. With a full purse and a little luck he would be able to avoid Simone’s people and start a new life.
“Thank you so much for this, Julian,” Chloe said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks with one of the embroidered handkerchiefs Phillipa had given her as a wedding present.
Suddenly she smiled for she realized that, skilled though Phillipa was, there was no way she could have embroidered Chloe’s new initials on a dozen lovely handkerchiefs in the few days allowed before the wedding. Sneaky Lady Evelyn, she thought. The woman had plotted and planned to get her and Julian together from the beginning.
“I am pleased it makes you happy,” he said, “although you still appear to be crying.”
“Happy tears. You have a mother and two sisters, Julian. You must understand what they are.” She laughed when he sighed, and decided she would not tell him how his mother and sisters had plotted to get him married. “This is right. This is where Laurel would want to be, her and her baby, not in the crypt.”
“Outdoors, under the sky.”
“Exactly. And Henry, too.”
She looked at the three headstones and sighed with a mixture of grief and happiness. Her sister and her men were all together again. The smooth little marker for the unknown child whose bones they had used was also there and she knew that her sister would love that child, too. She prayed their spirits had found each other wherever they were.
Chloe suddenly tensed. She felt as though two wasps were stinging her right between her shoulder blades. Turning around, she looked behind her but could see nothing.
“Something wrong?” Julian looked in the direction she seemed to be searching in but saw nothing.
“Just an odd feeling. As if something hot was poking me in the back. I just wondered if someone was watching us.”
“Good or bad watching.”
After considering that for a moment, she said, “Bad. That would explain why it felt as wasps were stinging me.” She looked all over the hillside again. “I see no one, however.”
“I could send some men out to search the area.” Julian had quickly learned to respect Chloe’s instincts and decided he would send a few men out to search anyway.
“There is no one there, Julian.”
Chloe turned back to the graves and stepped closer. She lightly traced her sister’s name with her fingers and said a silent farewell. Then she turned back to Julian, grasped his hand, and tugged him after the others who were already heading back to the house. Someday she would tell Anthony the story of Laurel and his birth, when he was old enough to understand and not be frightened by it. She deserved to be remembered by the child she had helped to save. She would also send her brothers a letter to tell them who she had married and where their other sister was buried. Chloe felt certain that they would wish to visit Laurel’s grave and, she hoped, her as well.
“It is not worth troubling anyone. I see no one and you see no one. So I must have imagined it or whoever was looking is now gone.”
She was not surprised when he very nicely slipped away once they were back inside the house. Chloe knew he was going to go and look. It would make him feel better and she supposed it was the wise thing to do. The fact that he heeded her warnings, trusted in her instincts was such a gift, she would not complain if he was a little overprotective.
“You happy now, Mama?” asked Anthony as he skipped up to her.
Chloe could not stop the smile that lifted her lips if she tried. Hearing Anthony call her Mama was music to her ears. It had never felt uncomfortable, had felt right from the first moment he said the word. Finally she could claim the child openly as her heart had claimed him three years ago.
“I was happy before, Anthony,” she said. “Those were happy tears.” She laughed when he made a face very similar to his father’s. “Do you want to walk in the garden?”
“Can I bring my ball?”
“Of course, but do not expect me to be as good at playing ball as your father or your uncle. I have long skirts that make it hard for me to run about.”
“Tuck ’em up like Lady Mildy and Granmere do.”
“I just might do that,” she said as she took him by the hand and started toward the garden, idly trying to imagine the two older women with their skirts rucked up playing ball with a little boy.
“Someone was here, m’lord,” said Jake, who was revealing some real skills as a tracker. “Do ye think it was your uncle?”
Although the question was asked in a calm voice, Julian caught the flash of fear in t
he man’s eyes. He could not blame Jake for fearing Arthur. His uncle was certainly a man to fear, especially now. No one could easily judge what a madman might do. That was what made them so very hard to catch.
He looked up at the wind-contorted tree at the top of the small hill and frowned. Someone had stood there and watched them gather in the graveyard. It was what Chloe had said she had felt that made that seem ominous. So did the fact that whoever it was had done his best to remain hidden and hide his tracks as he left. Who else could it have been but Arthur or some hireling of his? The stealth of the whole matter was what troubled him. That and the fact that if it had been Arthur, the man had come far too close to his family without being seen.
The question was, why was the man still lingering around Colinsmoor? Why was he even still in the country? It did not make sense and that disturbed Julian. Arthur was a smart man with a lot of cunning, who knew how to commit all manner of crimes yet not get caught or banished. To stay at the scene of so many of his crimes did not seem smart or cunning.
“It could be, but we cannot know for certain unless we can track him back to wherever he came from,” Julian said.
“Damnation, I thought he was gone for good.”
“So did I, Jake. So did I. Let us take another look round just to be sure.”
It was late when Julian finally returned home. He rushed up the stairs and hurried to prepare for dinner. It was a little disappointing not to find Chloe waiting in their bedchamber for him, but he knew she was spending as much time with his mother as possible. Julian did not think Chloe needed any lessons in how to be a proper countess, but if it made her feel more confident in who she was now, he had no objections.
When he reached the salon where everyone waited to be called into dinner he had to grin. With two older women, one newly married woman, three young women in the process of looking for a husband, and two that were old enough to join them for dinner but too young for an introduction to real society, family meals had become a raucous affair. Leo sat in a chair set near the fireplace and just smiled. If the man could endure this with such calm, Julian suspected he was ice under fire. He made his way toward Leo thinking that the man ought to know what should be done about the mysterious watcher.
If He’s Wicked Page 23
