Remembering for the thousandth time the tale she had not yet told him of the sheriff’s visit, Aubree kept her face averted. Perhaps now was the time.
Fortunately, a carriage rolled up the drive as she watched, and her thoughts found another direction. The large and handsomely appointed barouche had no no coat of arms on the door. Who could possibly be visiting this lonely outpost without word of warning? Guiltily remembering the stacks of unopened letters below, Aubree followed the carriage’s progress with curiosity.
“There are times, my lord, when I am quite prepared to believe it is your head and not your leg that is crippled, but we will leave that matter for another day,” she said. “Who do you know who owns a splendid barouche with four matched grays and yellow livery?”
“I have some friends in Exeter whose servants wear yellow. I cannot remember their traveling equipment, but I should think it would be in London at this time of year. Can you not see the occupant?”
“I can now.” Aubree raised her eyebrows at the flurry of activity in the courtyard. The carriage had not pulled into the grand drive at the front, but pulled familiarly up the side entrance that the family frequented.
“Whoever it is is making quite an entrance. There are a dozen footmen bowing and scraping, and the driver is ordering Jamie about as if he owned the place. How odd. The passenger seems to be female and traveling quite alone. I do not recognize her.”
“Traveling alone with a dozen footmen?” Austin asked sardonically. “That is an incongruous statement.”
“Footmen don’t count,” Aubree insisted. “A lady should be escorted by her father or husband or accompanied by a companion. She is quite regal, for all that. How eagerly she scans these windows! Heath, you do not have another wife you have not told me about, do you?” Aubree asked, only half-jestingly. The woman did, indeed, appear to act like she owned the place.
“My God, Aubree! What would I do with two of you?” he protested. “This regal lady, does she have hair darker than mine? Above average tall?”
Aubree nodded, fascinated despite herself as the lady impatiently waited for the footman to announce her. The woman’s near-black hair was styled in a complicated stack of curls that did not resemble the artful Greek simplicity of fashionable London. Despite her regal posture and expensive traveling equipage, the woman wore a full gown with a low waistline that had been outmoded for years.
“Who is she?” Aubree demanded as Austin groaned at her silent agreement with his description.
“My sister.”
Aubree stared aghast at this beautiful, self-assured woman, then dived for her wardrobe. “I cannot go down like this! Look at me! I am wearing my old housedress and my apron is all smudged and my hair. . .
Austin chortled. “Shall I pretend you are the housemaid instead of a duke’s daughter? I thought I played the part of secretary very well for your friends.”
Aubree sent him a scathing look and did not deign to answer. She scrubbed her face and rearranged the pins in her hair to capture straggling curls. She threw off her apron and gazed in dismay at the drab muslin she had donned for her housekeeping chores. She could not meet her sister-in-law wearing these rags. Whatever would she think!
The clatter of shoes on the stairs warned of Joan’s approach. Aubree wailed her distress and began struggling with the row of buttons at her back.
“Come here, I will do them,” Heath said soothingly, with a trace of laughter.
Aubree dropped to the bed and his nimble fingers made quick work of the fastenings. She jumped up to answer Joan’s rap, told the maid she would soon be down, closed the door, and unselfconsciously stepped out of the day dress.
Heath watched his wife’s chemise-clad figure with admiration as she darted to the wardrobe and removed a pale-yellow muslin. The short waist emphasized her high bosom and the cap sleeves revealed shapely golden arms. Within minutes, she had transformed herself from housemaid to lady. It was a performance he would not have missed for all the gold in England.
“You do realize, once Emily learns her husband is here, she won’t notice if you are wearing a cow suit?” he warned her laughingly.
“First impressions matter,” Aubree insisted. She threw him a linen shirt. “Garb yourself. She will wish to see your worthless hide, too, I should imagine.”
“Then I should ungarb myself, if hide is all she wishes to see.” Heath chuckled as Aubree threatened to send his hairbrush to him in the same manner. He stripped off the old nightshirt she had made him wear for decency, and reached for the clean shirt.
Unnerved by the sight of that bronzed, muscular torso emerging from folds of cotton, Aubree lay the brush on the washstand beside him and headed for the door. While he was her patient, she could deal practically with his nudity. Like this, when he talked to her as husband to wife, she became very conscious of his masculinity. She did not need to be any more flustered than she was.
By the time Aubree entered the drawing room to welcome her guest, she had composed herself. Smiling cordially, she held out her hand, and greeted her lovely visitor by name.
“Oh, my, you must be Lady Aubree!” Emily Adams gazed at her with admiration. “Austin said you were attractive, but he never said you were a diamond of the first water. And so young! You must tell me how you did it. I thought my brother had determined to be a crusty old bachelor. I have been terrified of meeting you. Where is he? Is he well?”
Aubree’s smile warmed. “He is recovering from an accident and cannot come down to meet you. I will take you to him when you are ready. One of the maids is on the way to the Dower House to notify your mother of your arrival. If I had known of your coming, I would have prepared a chamber for you. Your room will need some freshening. Have you trunks?”
Emily shook her head impatiently. “I left everything in Exeter. I did not know what sort of reception to expect here. Take me to Austin. I very much want to know what he has heard of Adrian. He has not answered any of my letters lately. If Adrian is to be brought here, I wanted to be waiting when he arrived. Do you know anything of it?” she asked anxiously.
Aubree had hoped to give their guest a moment’s respite before plunging into the news, but that had been foolish. If Austin had been the fevered man upstairs, she would want to know immediately.
“Adrian is here,” she answered gently. At Emily’s excited leap of joy, Aubree touched her arm and warned, “He is very ill. He does not recognize anyone. I believe John is with him now. Would you prefer to rest before I take you to see him? Your journey has been such a long one. . .”
“Now. Take me to him now,” the woman demanded, though tears rimmed her eyes.
“Of course.” Aubree led the way to Adrian’s room.
John had been warned in advance and had managed to cover the invalid’s disfigured back with a linen sheet. Still, Emily gasped in horror at the emaciated man lying so pale against the sheets. John had trimmed and washed the patient’s matted, filthy hair and beard, but the result still did not resemble the handsome sailor he must once have been.
“Oh, my word,” Emily whispered as she dropped to her knees beside the bed and stroked her husband’s fevered brow.
Emily’s perfume permeated the close air of the shuttered room. Aubree did not recognize the scent, but the man in the bed evidently did, even in his fevered dreams. He moaned and stirred and her name whispered past dry lips.
Aubree could scarcely control her own tears as Emily wept beside the bed. She beckoned to John and they left the room, closing the door on the private scene inside.
Chapter 25
Heath gazed at his sister with sympathy. She had washed the tears from her face and combed her hair, but her eyes were still swollen and shadowed, and she curled in the high-backed chair like a lost little girl. The beautiful, dynamic lady who had arrived earlier had been reduced to a weeping child.
He loved his sister, but he could not help comparing her emotional state to Aubree’s cool determination in the face of adversity. Aubr
ee might weep and rail and curse the fates, but it never took her long to recover and face the situation. He could imagine, however, Adrian preferring a woman who would turn helplessly to him in times of trouble. For himself, he preferred Aubree’s stubborn independence.
“It will take time, Emily, but Adrian is one of the most courageous men I know. He will recover now that you are here, I am certain of it,” he soothed. “Where are the children? Did you not bring them with you?”
“Of course I brought them,” Emily replied a trifle tartly. “I left them in Exeter with the Travers’ nanny.”
“Oh, but you must bring them here,” Aubree interrupted excitedly. “Adrian will want them here when he wakes, I’m certain. It might even help him to wake. I’ll admit, the accommodations are not grand, but. . ”
Emily looked warily optimistic. “You would not mind? I hate to intrude, I know you and Austin are only recently wed and this dreadful barn of a place is impossible to manage, but I will help in any way I can. It would be like coming home to me, and I am certain the children will be thrilled. Austin and I used to have the grandest adventures. . .”
Heath frowned. “The old wing has been barred off, Emily. It’s become much too dangerous. Whatever you do, don’t tell the children about our ‘adventures’ there. We were lucky we didn’t kill ourselves.”
“Austin, I declare! You’re getting old. But I suppose you’re right. There is plenty enough mischief for the rascals without sending them in there.” Apparently cheered by the prospect, Emily left the room with a more confident tread than she had arrived.
Heath turned an inquiring eye to his remarkably quiet young wife. “In addition to my sister and ill brother-in-law, you would add two young children to your list of tasks?”
She looked shocked. “You would leave them elsewhere? You are a callous man, milord. Besides, I shall enjoy their company.”
“It will be the first time I have seen them, and I will admit I am eager for their arrival, but I will not be the one chasing them down the hallway. Perhaps we ought to borrow the Travers’ nanny?” Austin tried to gauge what went on behind his wife’s lovely face, but she revealed nothing of her thoughts with her reply.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You scarcely need my care any longer, and Emily will attend Adrian. Your mother and I will enjoy having the children to amuse us.”
Before he could question further, Aubree stood up and swept from the room.
The children made Atwood Abbey a home again. Aged three and two, they could not go far without supervision and were thus constantly underfoot, but Aubree would have it no other way. She smiled in satisfaction as they romped with Lady and piled on the bed to demand that Heath read them a story. He was good with them, and it relieved some of the tedium of his long confinement. But Aubree knew it was only a temporary respite.
There were no more demanding letters from her father, but she realized it was only a matter of time before the duke enforced his commands. If she could believe Heath would fight to keep her at the abbey, she would not be so worried, but she knew him well enough by now to know he would take her father’s side. He had intended to send her away from the first. She suspected he only waited until his ship returned or he was well enough to carry out his commands, or both. She doubted if he had communicated his desire for an annulment to her father, and she wondered how the duke would react to that. After Dr. Jennings’ report, he might even agree without a fight. It did not sound at all promising.
However, Aubree’s birthday passed without notice, and her spirits lifted. There were legal letters to Heath she felt certain were in regard to her inheritance, but she knew better than to remind him of the subject. They joined the stack of things to be done when he recovered.
The sheriff had apparently been embarrassed into staying away, and Aubree stopped worrying about passing on the information about Blanche. Heath would certainly have an alibi for that night. Perhaps the sheriff had already learned of it and would not return.
Adrian’s condition rapidly improved with the arrival of his family, as Heath had predicted. By the first week of October, he was not only awake, but consuming everything the kitchen prepared.
He greeted Aubree cheerfully as she carried in his two youngsters for a kiss before sending them off to bed.
“You’ll have them spoiled rotten, milady. Their nanny won’t take them back, and we’ll have to leave them here with you.” Adrian laughed as the mischievous duo screamed their approval of this prospect.
“You are more than welcome to do so. This place will be empty without them.” Aubree caught the smallest one as she tried to climb onto her father’s still-painful back.
Adrian claimed his daughter and held her as he tickled her belly. “I should not think it will be empty for long. Austin never struck me as one shy of fatherhood.”
Aubree hid her blush by removing the Adrian’s heir from the bedpost and propping him on her hip. “Heath is more interested in increasing his herd than starting a brood. This accident has been a severe setback.” She scooped up the second child and turned to leave, but the note in Adrian’s voice halted her.
“Lady Aubree, I do not mean to pry, but is all well with Austin? There is no chance he will yet lose his leg? Or perhaps the estate? I know he has been in precarious finances, but surely all that is over. Yet I feel there is something I have not been told.”
Aubree hesitated, sensing this man was much more than friend. As Heath had done for him, so Adrian would do for Heath. But there was nothing she could tell him, really. Only time could return wealth and reputation, and time was something she did not have.
“His leg heals and should be better than before,” she reassured him. “I know little of the estate, but I cannot think him in danger of losing it. He does have some friends, and they would all gladly help should there be the least danger of the abbey lands being lost. There is truly nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“Perhaps you’re right.” But Adrian did not seem certain as he let her go.
Aubree went to bed that night dissatisfied with her own inability to put an end to their problems. If she could persuade Heath to accept his fate as a husband, then the income from her inheritance would easily solve the estate’s financial difficulties. But he was much too proud to accept that. And she wasn’t certain she would be happy if he did take her on those terms. She wanted him to want her for herself, not for her money.
Which solved nothing. She lay awake long after the man beside her began to breathe evenly. Out of loneliness, she curled closer to his warmth, wishing to feel his arms around her once more. But of course, that was impossible. Just for Heath to turn on his side involved excruciating pain, though naturally he tormented himself with this maneuver whenever he thought her not around. Aubree smiled at his perverse stubbornness, and gradually she found sleep in her husband’s closeness.
Dawn brought the nip of fall to the unheated chamber, and Heath shifted closer to the source of heat warming his bed. It did not take long for him to wake to the tickling of golden tresses and the discovery of rounded buttocks rubbing against his hip. The sheer silk separating her flesh from his was an impediment he desired removed. Without another thought, he eased the silken gown upward until his fingers came in contact with warm flesh. Smiling triumphantly, he gave the gown another tug until it lay in a bundle about Aubree’s waist, and his hand could explore at will.
Aubree stirred in her sleep, and Heath hastened to tug a blanket over her hips. He turned on his side, easing his injured leg into a comfortable position as he found his wife well within reach. With satisfaction, he circled her waist and brought her closer, igniting fires between them.
As the flames spread, Aubree squirmed delectably against him. Encouraged, Heath allowed his hand to travel higher, sliding beneath the hampering silk to sample the full softness of her womanly curves. Aubree moaned and pressed against him where he wanted her most.
He could take her like this, he realized, and she would not be ab
le to stop him. He ached to do so, and someday he intended to have the right to follow his impulse, but that someday was not here. What he wanted now was her consent. He wanted that more than he wanted relief for his loins.
He kissed her ear and manipulated a rising nipple into a tempting peak. Aubree moaned and leaned against him before waking sufficiently to discover her indelicate position.
Her eyes flew open to find her husband leaning over her, blue eyes dark with desire as his hand caressed her to readiness. Momentary panic dissolved as she discovered the hollow gaping within her, waiting to be filled. She leaned further into his embrace, and he pressed her back into the pillows, his lips seeking the approval of hers.
Aubree drank of his excitement and rejoiced in the life he brought to her body. For the first time in weeks, she felt fully alive, and she turned hungrily to meet his caresses. She could feel the thrust of his manhood between her thighs, but did not know how to bring him closer.
“Austin, this is madness,” she whispered. “Your leg. . .”
He tore his lips from devouring her earlobe and smiled wickedly. “If my leg is all that concerns you, that can easily be remedied.”
With a strength that caught Aubree by surprise, he rolled to his back and carried her with him. She found herself curled upon his chest and flat belly in a most abandoned manner, and she ducked her head in embarrassment, hiding beneath a fall of thick tresses as she buried her face against his shoulder.
“Austin, what. . .”
But before she could even form her question, he caught her lips with his and silenced her. As she drowned in the exquisite pleasure of his kiss, he lifted her hips and showed her what he desired.
Though shy at first, Aubree understood, and the sensations he aroused took command. Her gasp of surprise as he took possession of her was soon followed by cries of pleasure as she learned his rhythm and realized this time there would be no pain.
Laughing and crying as he carried her on the tide of his passion, Aubree understood what it meant to be a woman. Their need had been denied too long, and as Heath exploded deep inside her, Aubree wept at the power she wielded and he controlled. She collapsed against him, the salt of her tears mingling with the perspiration beaded on his chest.
Indigo Moon Page 24
