Christmas With a Scoundrel

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Doing her best to still her runaway thoughts, Aria forced herself to pay attention to what the man was saying. It was then she noticed the small, leather-bound book he held in his rather large hands. Very nice-looking hands, she hated to admit.

  “Your journal has been extremely informative about a great many things.” Dr. Longford held up the book for a long moment before placing it on a nearby table. “Though I have a feeling that I would rather hear the story of how you came to be in my stables from your lips rather than your journal. Words can be so dry at times, don’t you think?” He gave her some odd sort of half-smile, likely attempting to put her at ease.

  Was the man mad? Was he joking? Surely not!

  “What story?” she croaked, her body frozen in fear as she clutched at the covers. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  He gave her a speaking look, a dark light in his eyes. “Come now, pet. Surely you remember at least parts of what has transpired between us?”

  If he was hoping to put her at ease, it didn’t work. “Am I…have you…have we…that is to say…” Aria stumbled over her words, but then, she was naked! And in a bed! What else was she to think?

  Longford held up his hand, a small smile teasing his lips. “I can see my attempts at humor have fallen flat, but then I am not a man given to teasing. Rest assured, my lady, that you are as innocent now as when you arrived at my doorstep.” He made no comment about not being certain exactly how innocent she truly was, but the implication hung in the air between them. “You were, however, quite ill, and I, as a physician, oversaw your care. You were half frozen the other night when we found you. You nearly died.”

  “The other night?” Now Aria was truly confused though she was also relieved to learn this man had not taken advantage of her. Nor was he likely working for her cousin. “How many days have passed since my arrival?”

  “Five.” Longford looked a little too pleased with himself as he imparted that information. “It was my stable hand, Owen, who found you. He believed you to be a young boy.”

  “That was the general idea,” Aria mumbled under her breath.

  Dr. Longford must have had excellent hearing because he smiled fully then. “You did not fool me, my lady. A physician knows a human body well, not to mention the differences between a male and a female.”

  Aria felt her face flame at his implication. “How fortunate for me then.”

  Once more, the humor faded from him and the doctor regarded her through dark, shadowed eyes. Aria felt as if she might prefer his bad attempts at humor instead of this eerie quiet. They were far less unnerving than his penetrating gaze that made her feel as if he could see all of her closely guarded secrets with ease.

  Finally, the man continued as if that moment had not passed between them. “I can see you are a bit flummoxed. That is understandable. How about this? Why don’t I tell you what has happened since you arrived, and then you can tell me how you came to be here? Does that suit?”

  Actually, it didn’t, but Aria was aware that she was in no position to argue against him. Well, not unless she wanted him to see her naked, though she had a sinking suspicion that he already had. Likely many times.

  “Very well,” she nodded as regally as she could. “It is best to start at the beginning, isn’t it?”

  For some reason, that comment made him smile even wider, his humor returning. Did this man find everything humorous? “Yes. It is.”

  Settling himself back into his chair, Dr. Longford crossed one leg over his thigh and Aria could not help but steal a glance at the marvelous way his muscles moved. No, she should not be thinking about such things. She had bigger issues to deal with. Yet she had noticed. She was still female, after all. She was also not dead, something else that came as a bit of a surprise to her.

  When he was finally settled, Dr. Longford began his portion of the tale. “Six nights ago, at the height of a rather nasty snowstorm, my stable boy, Owen, came rushing to find me, telling me that there was an intruder sleeping in my stables. Of course, as a proper estate owner these days, I went to investigate.”

  “And you were not a proper estate owner before?” Aria asked, unable to help herself, even though she was aware she should mind her tongue. She had no wish to anger this man and yet, she also felt a curious need to provoke him for some reason.

  That comment made the doctor’s eyes glint with something that she thought might have been true humor, though she also suspected she might have been mistaken. “No. My name, as I said earlier, is Dr. Michael Xavier Longford, aged thirty. I am the bastard son of a cast-out Italian countess named Isabella Cortez de Rossi and her English physician of a lover who was already married to another when he took my mother to his bed. Catholic in faith, I was raised in Italy until I was fifteen when she passed away and my father came to retrieve me, my half-brother Nathaniel in tow. I didn’t know either of them existed until that day, so imagine my surprise when the came to fetch me.”

  “And so here you are,” Aria offered when the man paused in his tale. Gads, she really did need to start minding her tongue! And yet…Dr. Longford did not seem particularly bothered by her insolence. If anything, he seemed to enjoy her lack of restraint.

  He shrugged casually and brushed at his shirt. “And yet here I am, as you say. After coming to England to meet my family, such as they are, I returned to Italy several years later to study medicine and then for some cork-brained reason came back to England where I served in the army as a field physician. As you can see by my face, I saw some fighting but came out only a little worse for the wear.”

  “The scars give your face character.” Aria had no idea where those words had come from. Perhaps too much laudanum? Or something else? There had to be a reason she could not keep her wits about her.

  Longford snorted. “You are too kind, my lady, though I am also aware that I am not completely unpleasant for the ladies to gaze upon. That is not my being vain, mind you, but rather realistic. And practical.”

  “You own a mirror,” Aria countered a bit archly. “You must know that you are handsome by any measure of the word.”

  He cleared his throat as if embarrassed, surprising her a bit. “Anyway, back to my tale, then. After the war, I returned here and became of service to both the Home Office and the Bloody Duke of Candlewood where I made a fair amount of coin, much more than a lowly physician could have ever hoped. So much so that I was able to purchase this home in a rather indirect fashion from a destitute duke who loved faro a little too much and lost this lovely abode to that same Bloody Duke who was only too happy for me to take this magnificent pile off of his already over-burdened hands.”

  “And not done much with the place since.” Deciding there was little she could say to annoy him, Aria spoke her mind as she looked around the room, taking in the faded and peeling wallpaper, along with the threadbare furnishings. The room was not dirty but it was old and worn.

  The doctor waved a hand dismissively. “I only purchased this place but a year or so ago and improvements take time, pet. Also, as I am certain you have guessed, I am not a duke. Nor do I have a duchess, even if I did hold the title. Thus, these rooms are rather low on my priority list.”

  Nodding, Aria felt bad for her snappishness and her loose tongue. That was not like her. “I understand. Forgive me. I am a bit out of sorts.”

  Longford shrugged, seemingly unaffected. “Not to worry. I am aware of the state of my home, but there were many unexpected expenditures to make as well, for I seem to have acquired land tenants along with this home and all of the problems that come with them, but I shall manage. I am also now content to breed racing horses for the peerage and live a quiet life.” He snorted. “That was until six nights ago when an injured young woman pretending to be a boy made herself at home in my stables and nearly died in the process.”

  “You carried me inside.” A dim, hazy memory floated to the surface of Aria’s mind.

  For a long moment, the man said nothing. Then he nodded,
his easy demeanor returning. “I did.” He gave her another half smile. “For what it is worth, pet, I never believed you were a boy for a moment. That disguise of yours was truly lacking.”

  “The robbers believed I was a boy,” she grumbled, not wanting to meet his laughing gaze, though she eventually did anyway.

  “Ah, yes. Your journey to Bath.” Longford’s eyes rolled upward towards the ceiling, letting her knew what he thought of her plan to escape to her aunt’s home. “I read all about most of your adventures. Though now that I am finished with my tale of arrival here at Thornfield Grange, I should like to hear a bit more from you on how you came to be here.”

  Aria burrowed back down beneath the covers, wishing she would disappear just then. “What is there to say? You read my journal. You know what I am about. I was born and raised on a sugar plantation in the West Indies. My parents passed in a carriage accident and my cousin is the new viscount. He either wants me as his mistress or committed to Bedlam. Either way, he would have that sugar plantation for himself and all of the coin that comes along with it. He would also like my dowry and all of the lands associated with that as well. So rather than be ill-used or locked up like the madwoman I am not, I ran away.” She narrowed her eyes, refusing to back down. “Admittedly, my plan had some flaws, but I was not counting on the weather to take such a foul turn.”

  “No one can count on English weather,” Longford offered a bit too cheerfully. “It is truly abysmal. Far worse than anything I knew in Italy. And subject to change on a whim.”

  Once more, Aria’s hand opened and closed, seemingly of its own volition, her fingertips brushing over her bare flesh. Reminding her again that she lay naked beneath these covers. And that this man had likely made her that way. Suddenly, the idea that this man had undressed her for whatever reason made her almost unreasonably angry.

  “And was it a whim when you undressed me, Dr. Longford?” Aria asked, a bit of ice in her tone, though she was more frightened than angry, she supposed. What if he had taken advantage of her? She would never know the difference if he had given her laudanum.

  He said he hadn’t but how could she be certain? She couldn’t.

  Rising abruptly as if she had slapped him, the physician stalked over to the side of the bed and towered over her, making her quiver though she did her best to pretend she wasn’t completely terrified. “No, Lady Aria, it was no whim when I stripped you naked so that you might live. In fact, I struggled with the best way to save your life for quite some time and that hesitation nearly cost you your life. The wound on your leg was easily treatable with some scrubbing, brandy, honey, and a clean bandage. But the chill of your body? That was another matter entirely and one that was easily remedied, save for the foolish dictates of propriety.” He nearly growled at her as he spoke.

  “Thank you?” she asked, but the doctor rushed on as if he had not heard her. Perhaps he hadn’t.

  “However, I assumed that long-term, you would wish to live and decided on a course of action to save your life by wrapping your freezing, dying body with my own much warmer and healthier one. I can see that I was mistaken in my belief that you wished to live, a hint of scandal be damned. Though I did save your life and for that, my lady, I shall not apologize!”

  Angrily he turned away from her and Aria would have gone to him had she been able. However, in addition to being unclothed, she was not at all certain that her still-weak legs would support her.

  For some reason, tears sprang to her eyes when she thought of this man being angry with her. She didn’t want that. She wanted him to look at her with teasing, laughing eyes as he had earlier.

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Longford, if I gave you the impression that I am not grateful to you for saving my life. I am grateful. Truly.” She poked a hand out from beneath the covers, doing her best not to notice the nearly-visible bones. “But please look at all of this from my perspective. I awake alone in a strange place, uncertain as to how I have come to be here. I ran away from the only home I knew rather than become my cousin’s mistress. I am also quite unclothed and still a little brain-addled. Can you not see how this might appear to me?”

  With a sigh, the man turned back toward her, the fire gone from his eyes. “It is I who should apologize, Lady Arabella. Forgive me. Please.”

  “Call me, Lady Aria. I should like it ever so much if you would,” she interjected. He had offered her an olive branch of peace and now she leaped at the chance to claim it. “Better yet, simply call me Aria.” She swallowed hard and extended one bare arm toward him, still horrified at how thin she appeared. “After all, you have both saved my life and seen me naked. I think we are well beyond formalities, don’t you?”

  Then she smiled at him and prayed that he would forgive her sharp tongue. Her father had always told her it would lead her to nothing but trouble some day.

  The doctor seemed to hesitate for a moment before he reached out and clasped her hand with his own. The touch of his skin against hers set Aria aflame but she did her best to hide her body’s reaction. She was two and twenty, hardly some schoolroom miss, and unless she missed her guess, a great deal more of this man’s bare flesh had been pressed against hers not so long ago. Now was not the time to be missish over bare hands of all things!

  “Agreed. Aria.” He seemed to stumble a bit over her name. “And you may call me Michael, for as you say, though you may not remember it, we have both seen far more of each other than any two unwed people ought.” Then he sobered. “Still, it could not be helped. Please believe me when I say that I had no wish to ruin you. I still don’t. However, you were freezing to death and there was no fire in the world hot enough to warm you. I acted as I did in a purely medical capacity, I assure you.”

  However, the heated look in his eyes as he clearly remembered being skin to skin with Aria betrayed him. He had enjoyed holding her. He had enjoyed being naked with her. Until recently, Aria had never given much thought to the physical that went on between a man and a woman and to the pleasures of the marriage bed.

  Aria had, of course, assumed that she would marry one day and had been searching for a husband, but the physical part of marriage? Until Felton had arrived at her door spouting off about making her his mistress, she hadn’t felt even the smallest flicker of physical desire for any man.

  Now, with a single touch, his man set her body aflame. It was also evident that he was attracted to her as well, even in her admittedly sorry state. It was rather curious and a notion to be set aside and examined later. When she was alone. Now? Well, now it was time to deal with the man standing before her, one who clearly wished for absolution for his actions, even though they had saved her life.

  “I am certain you did. Michael.” Aria stumbled over his Christian name a bit. “I did not mean to imply otherwise and I am exceedingly grateful that you saved my life.” She knew she should be cross with him for the liberties he had taken, but she could not work up the moral outrage that Society would dictate was required of her. Instead, she was extremely thankful. “But you do know that I am a wanted woman?” She pulled her arm back beneath the covers. “Not by the law but by my cousin. If you have read my journal, then you know that he is seeking me and will not stop until he finds me.”

  “I do know and it is not a concern.” She was surprised when Michael did not seem bothered in the least. “I am a military man and I have dealt with men like Lord Felton Bowels before. He does not frighten me.”

  “Well, he frightens me.” Once more, the words slipped out before Aria could stop them.

  Sinking down onto the bed beside her, Michael offered her an awkward pat on the shoulder. It was likely a far cry from the rather intimate contact they had shared earlier – even if she didn’t remember a moment of it. “Aria, I admit that these are rather peculiar circumstances we find ourselves in. However, despite the specter of impropriety that lurks about this arrangement, please be assured that I will not take advantage of you. Nor will I allow you to come to harm. I am not certain what the
solution to this problem is just yet or if there is even a problem beyond the obvious of you being here unchaperoned after running away from your wretched cousin, may he rot in Hell. However, for the moment, you are safe here with me and your cousin cannot touch you within these walls. You have no need to fear him.”

  But perhaps I should fear you, a voice in Aria’s head whispered. Perhaps I should fear what you make me feel in so short of a time. Why I am not embarrassed by what you have done to save my life. Why I am almost eager for what comes next. Why I want so very badly for you to touch me again – this time when I am awake.

  Yet Aria said none of that. Instead, she nodded in the rather pragmatic way her father had taught her growing up back on their sugar plantation. “Very well, Michael. I both trust and believe you.”

  “Why?” he asked, seemingly puzzled for the first time. “Why do you trust a man you do not know over one that you do know? Do not misunderstand. I am flattered. I am simply puzzled as to why that is the case.”

  Aria cast her eyes aside for the moment before finally meeting Michael’s gaze. “If my cousin were here, I have no doubt that my innocence would be gone. He would have had five days to do with me as he wished, since I was obviously not conscious of my surroundings or of what was being done to me. You, on the other hand, had those same five days at your disposal, and I am somehow confident that all you did during that time was save my life.”

  Michael bowed his head and she felt strangely touched by the gesture. “Then I am honored, Aria, that you place so much trust in me. I will not let you down.” Then he leaned forward and kissed her forehead, sending waves of desire suddenly spiraling through her.

  He hadn’t meant the gesture in a sexual manner. She knew he hadn’t. And yet, Aria felt her limbs grow languid with want and desire, eager for more. This was likely why young ladies were kept away from men as long as they were. One chaste kiss and women all but lost their minds! Really, she ought to know better.