Unmistakable Rogue

by Annette Blair

  Lord it was warm in here.

  What was wrong with her?

  She was beginning to believe she really did have the proclivity of a wanton. Worse, she was beginning to be glad. She was pretty sure she would be willing to accept the certainty of hell just for a minute in Reed’s arms, here in this bed. She ached to know where his kisses would lead. She only wished she understood for what she ached.

  When she finally heard movement in his room, her heart beat so fast, she feared a whisper would make her scream. When he pushed her door open, quiet as he was, she thought her heart would jump from her chest.

  She was as surprised as him when she sprang from the bed with a yelp and stood at attention.

  He stood framed in the door for a long beat, examining her nightgown with interest, regarding the buttons at her collar with ... speculation?

  Mortified at her reaction, Chastity wanted to melt from sight. What a fool she must seem. ‘Twas a wonder he did not laugh.

  “Get into bed, Chastity.”

  His words purled heat and shivers through her body, made her warm and pliant, cool and needy. How in heaven’s name could she be hot and cold at the same time?

  Lord, she was going to faint.

  Fortunately, or unfortunately, she remained standing. “Where is Bekah?”

  He smiled. “Sleeping. I put her in my bed for a few minutes, so we could talk.” His eyes were darker and deeper, more intense than she remembered.

  “Oh.”

  As if her yearning called to him, he walked slowly toward her. When he stepped before her, he reached for her top button, slowly, perhaps to see if she would stop him. She did not. He undid all four buttons and examined her, as if waiting for her to speak.

  Nothing in life had prepared her for this moment. She had no wellspring from which to draw a response to his questioning look. Yet at this moment, she would not trade her life with another’s. That shocked her. Never had she been content to be her.

  This man changed her. She could spend forever with him and be happy. Could she?

  As though she floated above the room and looked down at them, Chastity knew with sudden and clear certainty that she loved Reed Gilbride with all her heart.

  He placed his hands at her waist and stepped near enough for her to inhale his scent, earth and man, fresh and clean. Intoxicating. Where the tips of her breasts touched his chest, hot prickles burst and traveled to the most ludicrous places. Body to body they stood, touching even at her core and she turned molten. His body fit well against her own, their contours flowing toward and away from each other, as if they were made for each other.

  Did he sense it too?

  Life, the wonder of it, new and fresh, filled her with a physical thrumming. Within her, yes, but without as well. She stepped the merest bit closer. “I missed you.”

  Reed groaned, swooped, and opened his mouth over hers, his kiss deep and hard, almost desperate. His hands flowed upward, from her waist to the sides of her breasts.

  Aching for more, she placed her arms around his neck, giving him easier access to herself. Now he almost ... almost cupped her breasts, yet his hands remained beneath them, as if not daring to move closer.

  Lord if he did not touch her soon, she would perish.

  Reveling in the freedom to do so, she stroked the hair at his nape. His mouth opened again, as did hers. He became her teacher, she his eager pupil.

  One of them moaned as Reed grasped her bottom to pull her tight against him. She sought more with the movement of her hips.

  Reed swore and stepped away, far enough to separate their bodies, but close enough to rest his brow against hers. He clasped her hands tight in his at their sides and took several long, deep breaths. Then he stepped away and urged her into her bed.

  Much as she wanted to pull him down beside her, her bravado failed.

  He tugged the covers to her chin and tucked the blanket around her feet, her legs, her waist, slowly, gently, against the sides of her breasts. His thumb stroked farther, but not far enough.

  He bent lower, until his lips hovered just above hers, calling silently, begging. “Once more,” he said, and kissed her again. Long and slow. Wild, yet serene. Exhilarating and comforting. “I’ll get Bekah,” he said before he left.

  Reed Gilbride made her yearn and he made her content. And he made her want to scream.

  “Sleep well,” he whispered a while later, after he placed Bekah beside her. And she wanted to call him back, but she did not. It was going to be a long night. She could not possibly sleep after what had just happened between them.

  The light of a gray English morning finally beckoned. Chastity opened her eyes and stretched languorously. She had experienced a sweet, dream-filled sleep wherein the possibility that she could give and receive love seemed real.

  A sense of teetering on the brink hummed in the air and infused her with anticipation as she rose. For the first time, her life might come about as she directed it, rather than as a consequence or act of another. As someone who came into this world as the result of another’s mistake, she had dreamed for years of a new beginning, and here it sat, waiting.

  She hummed as she dressed, remembering the night before. As she left her room, neither the children, themselves, nor their usual raucous greetings were to be heard. Reed must have started them on their chores outdoors or, at the least, promised dire consequences should they speak above a whisper.

  As she went by his room, she could not help gazing about. His door was open, his bed neat, and the room empty.

  Trepidation filled her. Had he left? For good, this time? Was last night’s kiss a good-bye? Without thought, she ran down the stairs, coming up short at the bottom.

  There Reed stood, at the open front door, affixing two shiny hinges into place.

  Even at this hour, light threw shadows across the foyer. Here gray, there bright, a mirror of her emotions.

  “Running from another fire?” he asked. His rogue’s smile, his winking dimple, could undo her firmest resolve not to be charmed, and she found herself cross at the notion. “No,” she said. “I slept too long. I need to prepare breakfast.”

  She waited with less unease than anticipation as he approached. “Chastity, we have to talk.”

  “You’re not leaving, again, are you?” She hated herself for asking. Her emotions, where he was concerned, frightened her. Was love always so? But daylight brought sense. Chastity Somers and Reed Gilbride had no future. He would never want the children and she would not venture forth without them, even into a life with the man she loved.

  He touched her cheek. “I will not go unless I am certain you no longer need me. I still have much to teach you.” He seemed to wince.

  “And your heritage to prove.”

  Relief softened his features. “And my heritage to prove. Would I be here if I were not on a quest? More to the point, how would you be doing, if I had not come along? Be grateful for small favors.”

  “I’d hardly call your presence a favor,” she said, stung by his reminder of her incompetence. She had forgotten that he could be more knave than savior sometimes.

  “Oddly enough, I have moments, fleeting though they be, of considering this interlude as something of a favor granted. Would that you could, also.”

  Lord, and what did he mean by that? Certainly he felt no boon to be among them. “Where are the children?”

  “I need to speak to you about them.”

  His gravity shot fear through her. “Where are they? She turned toward the kitchen in panic. “What have you done to them?”

  “Only what they deserve.” He took her arm gently. “They have got to get over this pilfering business.”

  “What’s missing now?”

  “Everything.”

  Chastity laughed. “Reed Gilbride. Did they, or did they not, take something?”

  “There is not one morsel of food in this house—no butter, nor the bread I saw cooling when I returned last evening. No meat. Nothing. In the barn, Le
onardo has been milked, but I can find no milk.”

  “The children have more than enough to eat, now. They cannot possibly be hungry.”

  Reed acknowledged the truth of her words with a nod. “I found Matt scampering up the ladder into the shed loft with a full bucket of milk. Mark, Luke and Bekah were hard on his heels with everything else. Most of the food they pilfered has already spoiled. They have been stealing it and letting it turn, wasting supplies. Chastity, they cannot—” He regarded her, wondering if he should continue.

  She nodded for him to go on.

  He shrugged in resignation. “They are being punished.”

  “No!” Chastity remembered the workhouse, the sound of leather striking flesh, the smell of festering sores, fever, death. “If you hurt my babies, Reed Gilbride, I will strap you myself, until—”

  She was in his arms. He was shushing her, kissing her tears. “Sweetheart, shh, they’re all right. God, what have you seen to warrant—”

  “In the workhouse, Reed. I saw—”

  He kissed her brow, pulled back to gaze into her eyes. “You were saving them.”

  He hugged her, again, when she nodded.

  “Now, I understand.” He gave her his debilitating smile and took her hand. “Let us confront the looters. If you do not agree with their punishment, you may thrash me.

  “I may anyway, for scaring me like that.”

  The children sat at the kitchen table, food piled in each of their plates. Rebekah looked startled when she saw Reed, and she took a quick gulp of milk. Mark sat back, arms folded mutinously, plate full. Matt, head in hands, looking pale, a half-eaten cookie in his hand that Chastity had not baked. Luke was stuffing himself with four-day-old oatcakes.

  “The bandits,” Reed said. “In my opinion, if they steal food, they should eat it. I have told them not to move from the table until they consume every bit of what they took.” He looked from one child to the next. “All of it.” He let that sink in for a minute.

  “You’ll no doubt come to the conclusion that you’ve taken more than you need,” he said at Chastity’s nod to continue. “With no food in the house, Chastity and I might have gone hungry. Was it your intent to harm us?” He held up his hand when she made to interrupt, revealing that he intended his exaggeration. Please, he begged silently, go along with me.

  Chastity hesitated and sighed, letting him know she would, at least for a while.

  He turned back to the children. “If so, you’ve done right in hoarding food, because if we starve, we shall no longer be able to provide for you. Sooner or later, your own food would run out, though, and without us to provide more, you too would starve.”

  Bekah began to sob. It was all Chastity could do, not to stoop down and pick her up. There was not an ounce of guile in Bekah, though she was fiercely loyal to her brothers, and would commit any crime they suggested.

  Luke stopped enjoying his oat-cakes. Reed had made the right impression, there. Mark lowered his arms, and for Mark that was a concession. Matt paled the more. Whether he understood the repercussions, or realized she would not rescue them this time, she could not tell.

  She started to issue a protest, but Reed pulled her aside. “They said they found those cookies this morning, but I’m concerned they stole them, elsewhere.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “I tossed the food that spoiled, though I made them take a whiff, so they would understand that they deprived us all.

  “Oh Reed.”

  “If they’re ever hungry, again, they should remember what they wasted.” He raised his voice. “Come along, Chastity, so they can finish eating breakfast. If they do not make haste, they will not be done in time for lunch.”

  Rebekah set up a wail. “That will not work,” Reed said ruffling her hair. Then he took Chastity by the arm and led her from the kitchen.

  “They are going to be sick,” she said as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “I will not let it go that far. You can rescue them in a little while. If you had not come down, I would have gone to get you for that purpose.”

  They were both remembering last night, she thought, wondering what might have happened, if he had come to her room this morning.

  Reed cleared his throat. “I think their punishment fit the crime. I needed to balance their fear of being hungry against a sad waste of food. And they need to learn a proper respect for our hard work in providing for them. They have to learn to trust that we will provide.”

  He acted as if they, together, would keep the children. “I was prepared to argue with you on this,” she said, “though I suppose you are right, but I am worried about them.”

  “They’ll be fine,” Reed promised, just before Mark’s frantic shout.

  Chastity arrived in time to see Matt toss up his just desserts all over Reed’s trousers and boots.

  Luke laughed, Bekah stopped wailing, and Mark cracked a smile.

  The victim of his own punishment fits the crime scheme, Reed cursed his unknown antecedents and children in general.

  Chastity pulled his shirt from his soiled pants while he kicked off his boots and undid the placket on his offensive trousers, which landed at his feet at the same moment a sudden throat-clearing startled them.

  Reed looked up and Chastity whipped about.

  “Ah, excuse me, Chastity. I, ah, seem to have arrived at an inconvenient time.”

  “Mr. Sennett!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Chastity could not help note that the children, for once, had been struck silent, not unlike Mr. Sennett.

  Reed pulled up his pants on the instant, all of them trying to ignore the foul stench.

  Above reproach at all times—Mr. Sennett’s warning on the day he gave her Sunnyledge—on a trial basis—echoed in her head as she realized that she had been caught with a red-faced man, pants around his ankles, in front of the children.

  She stepped forward. “Mr. Sennett, please do not suppose that this kind of thing happens every day ... except when Reed was ill, and—”

  Reed’s look warned her to stop. Now.

  Afraid her home might already be lost, Chastity raised her chin. “How pleased I am to see you, Mr. Sennett.” Keeping her smile, she cleared her throat. “Mr. Gilbride is our new caretaker. Mr. Gilbride, Mr. Sennett is the solicitor who gave me the use of Sunnyledge.” Had she sufficiently conveyed the man’s importance?

  Reed reached for something to wipe his hands, barely stopped his pants from falling, again, and bowed. “Your servant, Sennett.”

  Mr. Sennett grimaced, or stifled a smile, cleared his throat, and returned Reed’s greeting in kind.

  Chastity thought she might cry. What must her benefactor think of her disastrous stewardship? Sick children, unclothed retainers, chaos. If she did not lose Sunnyledge after this morning’s work, she never would.

  Sennett narrowed his eyes upon Reed. “We’ve met.”

  Reed nodded. “I apologize for not accepting your suppositions regarding my heritage, but I felt compelled to come and find out for myself.”

  Mr. Sennett nodded at Reed and turned to her. “Is he a good caretaker at least?”

  Chastity cursed her blush. “He has already fixed the front door, and the stairs, purchased a cow, and planted a garden.”

  Mr. Sennett nodded thoughtfully.

  Chastity told Mark to open the door to air the room and sent Matt and Reed to change their clothes. Then she ushered Mr. Sennett to a small salon. She introduced him to Luke, Mark and Bekah. “I’ll let these three entertain you while I make certain Matt is all right.”

  After warning them with a raised brow, Chastity was reasonably certain the children would not rob and assault Mr. Sennett in the light of day. Still, she felt compelled to accomplish her tasks with due haste.

  After guiding the conversation to safe ground, namely her accomplishments since arriving, Chastity reluctantly left her charges with the man who held their fate in his hands, and prayed that all would go well.

&nbs
p; * * *

  The Vindicator cursed. Only one of the children ate her cookies, and so little as to make no difference. But worse than that, she feared that Sennett would banish her puppet.

  The solicitor seemed none too pleased to find Reed Gilbride in residence. How could she pit Edward’s sons against each other, if they did not remain at Sunnyledge?

  After the woman they called Kitty finished cleaning the kitchen, and left, finally, the vindicator slipped from the scullery dumbwaiter and made her clandestine way through the house toward the room adjacent to the salon, where she could hear them talking.

  * * *

  After changing his clothes, Reed came downstairs wondering if his quest for his heritage would end before his search ever began. ‘Twas clear Sennett did not appreciate his presence. How much power did the man wield?

  Since his untimely arrival, Reed experienced a disquieting notion that change would soon be wrought; he only wished he knew how it would affect Chastity and the children.

  He shook his head at that. Fancy him being more worried about them.

  When Chastity stepped into the hall, tea tray in hand, a fierce need to keep her safe came over Reed, but safe from whom? Himself or Sennett? Yes, or anyone who would harm her, except, protecting Chastity was not his place. He did, however, take her arm as they approached a moment that could amount to their doom.

  Childish chatter and Sennett’s laughter escalated, as they got nearer. “Leaving Sennett with the rascals might have been dangerous,” Reed said beneath his breath. “I hope he carries no food about him.”

  Chastity gave him a grimace.

  Reed chuckled. “Sorry, just trying to lighten—”

  “He threatened to eat Zeke,” Mark said, clear as day, stopping Reed and Chastity dead.

  “But he bought us a cow,” Matt added. “For milk.”

  “Leonardo,” Luke added. “Reed taught Kitty how to milk it, and she screamed when she tried, and squirted herself in the face.” Luke giggled and Sennett laughed.

  “Reed’s nice,” Luke added. “He gives Chastity a bath every night.”