Lady of Charade

by St. Clair, Ellie

  “Can anyone help? My daughter needs someone to see to her—she is coughing something violent!”

  David sighed and looked at her with a shrug, and Sarah, unable to ever let anyone by without her help, gave him one quick kiss before rushing below to see what she could do to offer her assistance.

  Chapter Thirty

  “My wife and I would like a room for the night, please, sir,” David said to the man behind the counter, who provided the two of them with the room key as he sent them up to the second floor.

  “It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” he asked Sarah with a wink once the man was out of sight, and she smiled at him.

  “So it does.”

  He stopped suddenly, turning toward her. It was difficult for David to focus when all he wanted to do was lean down and kiss those plush pink lips that were calling to him. He shifted his gaze to the freckles scattered over her nose and cheeks, but that didn’t help, as then his desire changed to wanting to trail his lips over each of them, as though he could connect them with his touch, but then he shook himself out of his reverie. There was something important he first had to say to her.

  “I never asked you.”

  “Asked me what?”

  “To marry me,” he said incredulously, immediately frustrated with himself, for he was doing this all wrong.

  “To marry you?” she asked, her eyebrows raised. “I had thought that was implied.”

  “Well, yes, but my—” He lifted a hand to his forehead, feeling like a daft idiot. “I cannot believe you nearly let me get away with it.”

  “I assumed you would remember eventually,” she said with a laugh, but then he took her hand and led her up the stairs determinately. The moment the door was shut behind them, he turned back toward her, his face now very serious as he took her hands in his.

  “Sarah,” he said intently. “My Sarah. Would you do me the honor of being my wife? They say it is for better or for worse, and I must admit that chances are it’s going to get very much the worse over the next little bit, once we meet with my father. I may have no money, no way of supporting you, but I shall find a way, I promise you of that. You only have to trust me. With all of that being said, will you still marry me?”

  “Of course,” she said, raising her cool hands to cup his cheeks. “You know I will.”

  “I suppose you’d like to wait until your friends are there,” he grumbled, and she laughed.

  “Yes, I would,” she replied. “Just as you should wait for your family.”

  “I’m not sure about that.”

  “Whatever happens with them, David, we should start this the right way, by inviting them to be with us as we celebrate our happiness. Maybe then they will see that that’s what truly matters.”

  “Perhaps,” he said, though she could tell he didn’t believe her in the least.

  “Your family… I realize they may not always be what you would wish them to be,” she said softly. “But they are still your family. Though I have come to realize lately that family is what you make of it—sometimes they are by blood, sometimes they are of your own choosing.”

  She looked up at him now, her eyes wide. “My goodness, I just remembered the letters I sent. By the time I am home, my friends will think that I am halfway across the ocean.”

  “Then what a pleasant surprise it will be for them to find that you are still on English soil,” he said with a wink. “Or you could write them again before we leave. If you would ever like to return to America to visit, Sarah, I would be glad to go with you. It would be interesting, I think, to see how people live over there.”

  She raised her eyebrows at him, and he could tell she wanted to laugh at the thought of him in America.

  “What?” he asked, pretending to be offended.

  “It is hard to imagine a man such as yourself in the rustic cabin where I grew up.”

  “Yet you saw me often enough sleeping on the bare floor of lodgings far from where I was raised, and now in an inn near the Plymouth docks. I am a man of many disguises, my soon-to-be Mrs. Redmond.”

  He said the words in jest, for it was how they had entered this inn, but now that he said them, he had to admit just how much he enjoyed hearing the words roll off of his tongue.

  “I like that—Mrs. Redmond,” she said, echoing his thoughts, and he drew her closer to him once more.

  “As do I.”

  This time when his arms came around her, they did not remain on her back, but rather drifted down, cupping her buttocks and pressing her against him. He would never forget the feeling of being with her, inside of her, and he desperately longed to do so again.

  But she was still so sweet, so innocent, that he didn’t want to rush this. No, he should take it slowly, showing her all of the love that she deserved to feel.

  He brushed a hand over her hair, slowly removing the pins one at a time, relishing the process as the smooth silky strands cascaded over his fingers. She sighed into the crook of his neck, her breath causing tremors to shimmer down his spine. He found the end of the ribbon that tied her dress together at the bottom of her back, and it took but a few moments for him to release it. He was, at the moment, quite grateful for the fact that she had to ensure her dresses were easy enough to fasten and unfasten that she could do so herself.

  As the sleeves of her dress began to slip off of her shoulders, Sarah lifted her hands to David’s jacket, releasing his arms from it, before it slid to the floor. As her dress began to pool around her waist, David boosted Sarah up so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed, and she widened her legs so that he was standing between them. He grinned at her forwardness as she tugged him toward her and began to unfasten the fall of his breeches. He tried to step back out of her grasp, for he was sure that if she touched him he would come apart, and he had far more work to do.

  “Please?” she asked, looking up at him, and David knew that whenever she looked at him with those warm brown eyes, there was nothing he would ever be able to deny her. He nodded, swallowed hard, and willed himself to maintain control. The moment he was free, his breeches falling down, he made quick work of the remainder of her dress, her stays, and her chemise, before she was sitting in front of him exactly how he wanted her—but she wasn’t about to let him have only what he so desired.

  No, Sarah now rose so that she was kneeling on the bed, and divested him of his waistcoat and linen shirt. David could have helped her—it certainly would have gone much faster if he did—but he far preferred watching her do the work.

  As much as he had enjoyed what was before his eyes, however, when they were finally both free and he pulled her to him, he knew there would never be anything in his life that felt as good as her skin upon his. She was warm, pliant, and her fingertips were light as they ran up the planes of his back, coming over his shoulders and onto his chest.

  David allowed his eyes to take in all of her that was illuminated by the glow of the candlelight. Her skin was so soft, dotted in the same beautiful freckles that covered her nose. She was curved in all of the right places, her breasts, her hips, her waist all fitting so perfectly into his hands.

  “I think you were made just for me,” he said, hearing the desperation in his voice, which emerged as just more than a whisper.

  Her lips turned up ever so slightly in response as she tilted her head and gave a little shrug in agreement before raising her face to his, and he took her offered lips, tasting, teasing, loving as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close.

  Unlike any other encounter he had ever had, David thought he could simply kiss Sarah forever and be perfectly happy. Of course, he longed for her, but in the same breath if faced with a choice, he would spend the rest of his days holding her in his arms with his lips upon hers as opposed to doing anything else with any other woman.

  She, however, was interested in continuing what they had started—and David wasn’t one to argue. Sarah broke their kiss, inching back on the bed until she neared the headboard. David c
rawled toward her on his hands and knees until he was covering her body. At first, she was giggling, but then her expression turned serious once he approached her. She reached up to cup his face in her hands, bringing him back to her once more before he began to make his way south, along her collarbone to her breasts, where he paid attention to first one and then the other. She arched up off the bed toward him, but as much as David yearned to find where he belonged, he first wanted to show her just how good this could be.

  He traveled her body with his lips, kissing her, caressing her in places he knew she hadn’t been aware could be the slightest bit erotic.

  “What are you doing to me?” she groaned, and he grinned, having accomplished his goal. Catching his expression, she glared at him, but then he inched his fingers toward her center, stroked her, and she moaned.

  “Are you ready now?” he murmured.

  “I was ready the moment we walked into this room.”

  David chuckled as he found her entrance, slowly sliding inside of her, surprised all over again at how perfectly the two of them fit together. Even their movements seemed to be more in sync than he ever could have imagined.

  “Sarah,” he groaned as they moved as one, and, in but a few moments, came together in such resounding perfection he wasn’t sure that they would ever again be able to match it.

  But they would certainly try.

  “I love you,” he whispered, the words both foreign as well as so completely right.

  “And I love you,” she returned, a smile on her face, which he returned.

  Had anyone told David a month ago that he would be found in such a position, content with the thought of spending the rest of his life with one woman, and only one woman, he would have laughed at their joke. But now that he knew what it was like to have found the one who could make such a thing possible, he realized how idiotic he must have sounded to Berkley and Clarence when he was suggesting to them that perhaps committing to one woman was not the wisest choice.

  As he and Sarah lay there blissfully together, however, David’s mind began to turn from this moment between the two of them to what was to come. For the truth was, he had only ever been responsible for himself before. Now, he would have a wife to support, and the likelihood was that he would no longer have access to any funds from his father. So what was he to do? David had a fine education, of course, but not really in anything particularly useful. The only occupation that even slightly appealed to him was perhaps that of a barrister, but first, he would require more education—education that he could no longer afford.

  “Of what are you thinking?” Sarah asked softly, and he kissed her on the head.

  “Nothing, love,” he said. “Go to sleep.”

  “You’re worried,” she said, as perceptive as ever, and he held her close to him. “What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Tell me—please?”

  He sighed. He’d never be able to hide anything from her, he realized, but he supposed he was all right with that.

  “I’m only thinking of our future. I know, in my heart, that anything is possible for the two of us together and yet… I’ve never had to actually support myself before, and the thought of not being able to provide for you nearly rips me in two. I need to find a way to make a living—I’m just not quite sure how to do so as of yet.”

  “I’ve always provided for myself, as a healer. I can do the same for the two of us. You can help me, I’m sure—it would be useful to have a man who could move people around, set broken bones,” she said, and he knew she was trying to be helpful, but the thought of assisting his wife in her practice didn’t quite sit right with him. He had no issue with her continuing to treat others, but he couldn’t allow her to provide for him—it simply wasn’t done.

  “We’ll figure something out,” he said to reassure her, kissing her on the head. “I’m sure of it.”

  She nodded and drifted into sleep, but David’s mind continued to race. His words had been a bit of a lie—for he really had no idea what was in store.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Sarah could have stayed in bed with David in the Plymouth Inn for days. Not only would there be people who would be worried about them, however—they were also living on limited funds. Thankfully, Lady Alexander had been more than generous with her offering, but they now had to pay for the two of them to travel back to London—and support them along the way.

  “Are you ready for the journey home, love?” he asked.

  Sarah looked him over, remembering how green he had become on the ship to Plymouth. He was putting on a brave face, but it was him she was most worried about.

  “I am ready for anything,” she said, taking his hand. “But are you?”

  “Well, I would far prefer to be riding my own horse, that is for certain,” he said, a pained expression upon his face. “But, of course, I will brave it. I do not suppose you could come up with a remedy for me?”

  Sarah nodded.

  “I absolutely can do so, but I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about my herbal concoction.”

  “I trust you.”

  “Very well, then,” she said, reopening her small bag, happy that she had used the precious space for most of her herbs rather than dresses she hadn’t thought she would wear again—although she was now remaining in England with hardly a wardrobe to call her own.

  She mixed him a drink, and despite the face he made at his first sip, he managed to gulp it down quickly before passing it back to her.

  “The stagecoach it is, then,” he said, looking sick already, though she wasn’t sure if it was from the thought of the journey or just how fast he had finished his drink.

  “At least you can ride up top,” she said, biting her lip. “I do hate being stuck inside for hours on end.”

  “It will be quick,” he said and then they looked at one another with some conviction that yes, they could get through this—together. “We will likely have much more to face once we return to London and our perspective fathers.”

  “Yes, that is of what I was thinking,” she said. “But even if we receive nothing from them, and are turned away…” she shrugged. “We will be fine.”

  “We will,” he said, though even in the light of day, she could tell his worries hadn’t dissipated. Sarah could admit that she too felt, of course, a slight bit of unease at all that awaited them. The anxiety of meeting her own father remained, but the outcome of that meeting no longer had as great of a bearing on her future as it one did. For now she had David, and a life ahead of her that she knew would be full of love, no matter what her father or his parents had to say about it.

  Of course, much more would actually be affected by the reaction of his own parents. For their lives would be greatly changed if his father decided to no longer provide him any support. Sarah had a bit more faith than David, however. While she questioned whether or not they could ever accept a woman like her, a woman born out of wedlock to a nobleman and a healer from a village, she had faith that they wouldn’t completely abandon their own son, despite the decision he made.

  And if they did, well, they would determine a way forward together. Of that, she was sure.

  David clutched Sarah’s hand, and she hoped she could impart the same strength to him as he did to her.

  *

  Sarah sat nervously on the sofa, tapping her slipper upon the floor as she waited for her father to arrive. Her father. She could hardly believe the words. David had sent the promised note to the Earl of Torrington the moment they had arrived in London, and she had been shocked when the man had responded immediately with the words that he was looking forward to meeting her.

  She could hardly believe it. In fact, she had wondered if it was too good to be true, if she should be worried that something was amiss. David assured her, however, that Torrington, while a man who had certainly made mistakes, as many had, was still a “decent fellow.” And that would have to be enough for her.

  Sarah had been staying at Phoebe’s Lo
ndon home while Phoebe and her family were at their estate for the summer. She had decided to write to her friends before leaving Plymouth, so they would be aware of her current situation. She explained all that had happened in as few words as she could, though it had still taken quite a bit of her coin to purchase the pages that had been required to tell her story.

  Phoebe had immediately offered her home once more, for which Sarah was grateful, as her rooms had not been held for her. She had told the landlord she was leaving, and it didn’t make sense to find anywhere else to stay, for she and David hoped to marry as soon as possible. She had felt rather awkward arriving at Phoebe’s home with none of the family about, but the servants had been gracious and Sarah had appreciated their welcome.

  David told her he would love nothing more than for her to stay with him, but women were not allowed at the Albany. Besides that, despite the fact that they had basically breached every aspect of propriety there could be, that seemed a line that she shouldn’t cross. When he had been at her own lodging, no one had made the association between her as Miss Jones, the woman who attended societal events and the healer who lived within. Besides, most of the noble classes didn’t spend much time frequenting Cheapside anyway, apart from visits to various establishments, such as the one David had patronized the very night he had been deposited upon Sarah’s doorstep.

  But people were aware that David was the son of Lord Redmond, and it would be quite obvious if there was a woman staying within.

  The Earl had not wanted to meet within his own home, where his wife would be aware and present, and so they would meet at the home of Phoebe and Lord Berkley. Phoebe had urged Sarah to avail herself of her wardrobe—as well as her staff—and though Sarah had been hesitant, she had taken up Phoebe’s offer today, wanting to appear at her very best. She knew it was slightly silly, for her appearance wasn’t likely to change anything, but when she had opened Phoebe’s wardrobe and saw the beautiful blue gown at the front of it flowing down from where it hung, she couldn’t help herself. It was a slight bit too long, but Sarah didn’t think anyone would notice.