‘Couldn’t you tell how much you pleased me?’
She bit on her lower lip and nodded, though a little uncertainly.
‘And you will very soon become experienced,’ he promised her on a low growl. ‘And besides, it isn’t the same with you as it has been with any of the others. Because my emotions weren’t involved. It was just—’ he shrugged ‘—a sort of appetite that had to be met. The moment I’d finished with them, I left their beds. I have never wanted to hold a woman in my arms all night and just watch over her while she slept.’ He brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.
‘You just—’
He nodded. ‘Did the deed and left. I didn’t even want to speak to them again. But please don’t think of the others, Sarah. They were all before I met you. Just know that from now on there won’t, ever, be anyone but you.’
She subsided into the pillow, a frown pleating her brow.
‘No, there won’t. Because if I ever got so much as a whiff of you betraying me with another, I would...I would...’ She crossed her arms. ‘Well, I don’t know exactly what I’d do, but I most certainly wouldn’t turn a blind eye, the way Mama always did.’
‘Really?’ He grinned at her. ‘I must say I’m flattered by this display of jealousy. Even if it is slightly insulting of you to assume I might be so inconstant. Because it means you care.’ He sobered as it hit him again what a lucky dog he was. ‘You really care.’
‘Of course I care. Can’t you tell by the way I’m willing to be cut off from my family, and live in some foreign land while you command some revolutionary army? On your wages, too, once Justin cuts me off.’
‘Yes.’ His face fell. ‘Loving me is going to condemn you to a lifetime of penury and disgrace. I wouldn’t blame Colonel Randall if he reached for his pistols the moment I set foot in his room.’
‘Then take me with you. He won’t shoot you in front of me.’
‘No.’ His face set in harsh lines. ‘I’m not going to hide behind your skirts. Nor let him think for a moment I would do so.’ He bent and gave her a swift kiss.
And, having set his jaw with determination, strode from the room to face whatever punishment Colonel Randall decided to mete out.
* * *
It was awful, being alone in this room, knowing Tom was facing Justin’s wrath. Now she knew how he must have felt yesterday, when she’d been the one to go out. She lay in bed, for a while, imagining all the dozens of methods Justin could employ to part them. Though he couldn’t, legally, prevent them from marrying. She wasn’t under age.
She flung the covers aside in vexation. Tom might have worked himself into such a state that by the time she came home, he’d convinced himself she was going to leave him, but she was a Latymor. She would never, never, fail.
So she would just have to find something to do to keep her mind off Tom’s interview with Justin. Though what?
And then she thought of Mary Endacott. Probably breaking her heart somewhere, over Justin. Because it sounded as though, even after all she’d done for him, Justin had been perfectly beastly to her, or she wouldn’t have sounded so utterly defeated in that note she’d written. There wasn’t much she could do about Mary’s broken heart. Only Justin could fix that. But she could at least go and apologise to her, properly, for her part in it.
She rang for some hot water. Apologising probably wouldn’t do any good. Mary had never responded to any of her overtures of friendship even before the disaster that had been the Duchess of Richmond’s ball. But she wouldn’t feel right if she didn’t make the attempt to offer what comfort she could. And explain Gideon’s motives for stealing the sword that had become such an issue between Mary and Justin.
Besides, if she stayed in this room all morning, wringing her hands and worrying over what Justin was doing to Tom, she’d end up positively demented.
Chapter Seventeen
His collar was too tight. There was a smudge of dust on his left boot. His bandages made him look ridiculous.
Good God. For the first time in his life, Tom actually cared what the person about to give him a trimming thought of him.
‘You can go in now,’ said Robbins, more dour-faced than usual.
‘Well?’ Colonel Randall glared at him from a bank of snowy-white pillows. With eyes that were so very much like Sarah’s. ‘What have you to say for yourself?’
Where to start? He ought to be giving an account of his movements. Report that he was fit for duty.
‘I’m in love with your sister, sir,’ he blurted, his normal laconic attitude towards superior officers totally deserting him. ‘I’m aware you must think it a great piece of impertinence.’
Randall gave a low growl.
‘I suppose I’d better resign my commission.’
Randall’s eyes narrowed.
‘She’s already told me you intend to cut off her money,’ Tom explained. ‘So there’s no point in asking for your blessing, is there?’
‘None whatever.’
‘Even so, I do ask you for it. Oh, not for me. I know I don’t deserve it. I know I’m not fit to fasten her boots, let alone marry her. But, have you considered how unhappy it will make her, to be so entirely cut off from her family? She says she doesn’t care, but I’m not sure she fully understands what it would mean.’
‘There is an obvious solution. Give her up.’
Tom gave a wry smile. ‘Do you think I haven’t tried? She hunted me down and dragged me back when I tried to do the decent thing. She’s even said she’d rather be my mistress than live without me. Naturally, I couldn’t treat her so shabbily. No, I’m going to have to marry her, sir. With or without your blessing.’
Randall glowered at him in silence for so long that Tom could hear his heart pounding in his ears.
‘She says she needs me, sir,’ he added. ‘It’s because she’s lost Gideon, you don’t need to tell me that. She clung to the dog to start with. I suppose you might think I’ve taken its place in her affections. She certainly picked me up out of the mud the same way she rescued that flea-bitten cur. And you may not believe me, given my reputation—’ he could feel his cheeks heating ‘—but I would be as faithful to her as a hound.’
Randall snorted. ‘I’d warrant that the dog left her though, didn’t it, the moment Major Flint came on the scene?’
‘Well, yes, but the dog was always his, more than anyone else’s, wasn’t it? And I grant you that it wasn’t a very good comparison to make, except that, well, the dog may have spread its favours widely, when Major Flint wasn’t around, but in the end, it belonged only to him. The way I shall only belong to Sarah, for the rest of my life.’
‘You expect me to believe that Tom Cat Bartlett is suddenly going to reform? Because of my sister?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And you fully intend to elope with her if I refuse to grant my permission?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘And oblige her to live on your pay?’
‘She says she’s perfectly happy to do so, sir.’
‘She has no notion of what that means. Why, you couldn’t keep her in gowns for a month!’
‘She doesn’t care a rap for gowns. And if you knew her better, sir, you would know she would rather be out on horseback than being dragged from one modiste to another by her mother or her sister.’
‘It won’t hurt to acquire a wealthy wife, though, will it?’
‘It wouldn’t if I cared for money. Which you know I don’t. I’ve always contrived to live well within my means. And anyway, she won’t be wealthy, will she, not if she marries me. You have said so.’
Colonel Randall made another of those low, sort-of-growling noises.
But—was he imagining it, or had Randall’s frown turned a touch less angry, and a tad more thoughtful?
‘At le
ast you haven’t debts,’ he finally conceded. ‘Or a gambling addiction.’
‘Given the way my father ended, you should know why I abhor gaming of all sorts. Although,’ he added thoughtfully, ‘in one respect, I believe I am more like my father than I ever knew.’
‘Indeed?’
‘Yes, sir. It only occurred to me, on my way here, this morning. I know now why he ended so badly. It was because he loved my mother so deeply. When he lost her, nothing else mattered. Not his title, not his position, not even his own son. Without her, his entire life ceased to have meaning. For the first time, I can begin to contemplate what he felt like. For I would feel like that, too, should I ever lose Sarah. And so I regret to inform you, sir,’ he said, drawing himself to his full height and looking his commanding officer straight in the eye, ‘that nothing you can do, or say, will make me give her up.’
‘I suppose you had better marry her, then,’ said Randall.
‘What?’
‘I have not the energy to repeat myself,’ he said wearily. ‘I have thought of little else since she visited me yesterday.’ The line of his mouth softened into something almost resembling a rueful smile. ‘The women in my family are strong-willed. Stubborn. Once they get a notion in their heads there is no shaking it. If she’s set her heart on you, then have you she will, by hook or by crook. Heaven help you,’ he added with a shake of his head.
‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.’
‘Well, then, since you are to become my brother, you may as well be the first to know that I shall be leaving the army. It is past time that I returned to Chalfont and took up my duties there. All of them,’ he added, in a rather more determined tone. ‘Randall’s Rogues may be disbanded. But if they do continue, in whatever form, then I have complete confidence that I may trust them to either you or Major Flint.’
‘Sir!’ It struck him that it was particularly fitting that the next commanding officer would be either the half-brother or the brother-in-law of the man who’d originally formed the unit.
‘It will mean promotion, of course. Better pay.’
‘Sir!’ He couldn’t credit it. He’d come here expecting to get cashiered out of the regiment and instead he was looking at a possible promotion. How on earth would they work out which of them would land the job, though? Normally promotion would have gone to the officer with the most seniority. But it would be devilish hard to work out which of them that was, given the way the unit had been formed. Both had exchanged from other regiments. There was probably some clerk, somewhere, who had a formula for working out such things.
Not that he would object to serving under Flint, if it turned out he was the one who had seniority. On the contrary, he admired Flint for the way he’d worked his way up through the ranks. It took an exceptional man to do that.
‘Bartlett!’
‘Sir?’
‘Stop standing there like a stunned sheep and get out of my sight.’
He just about had the presence of mind to salute, before turning on his heels and leaving.
Sarah was going to be so pleased.
With a broad grin, he skipped down the stairs and out into the bright June sunshine.
* * *
‘Tom? It’s good news, isn’t it? I can see by your face.’
‘The best,’ he said, catching her up and swinging her right round.
‘Tom, you lunatic. Put me down this instant!’ Even though she was shrieking with laughter, so that he must know she didn’t mean it, he complied at once.
‘So, Justin gave us his blessing? I don’t believe it.’
‘He did more than that. He has given me command of the Rogues. At least—’
‘What? Is he going to go home, then? Oh!’ She clapped her hands to her cheeks. ‘It was Gideon’s last wish. Mama needs him, you see. And now that Bonaparte is trounced, I dare say he feels he can go back. And oh—’ she squealed ‘—they always hand out honours after such a decisive victory, don’t they? I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if you got something. A knighthood at the very least.’
He shook his head. ‘Only those already in favour get distinctions of that sort. And I won’t be in favour. My action, in seducing the sister of my commanding officer, will outweigh any credit I may have gained by whatever small part I played in the battle itself.’
‘Nobody will think that. We are going to be married. And once you become his brother-in-law, Justin is bound to put in a good word for you in all the right places. And before you say he is just an artillery officer, he is also an earl and has the ear of some very powerful people. He could even,’ she said on a burst of inspiration, ‘petition for your grandfather’s title to be restored to you.’
‘What if I don’t get any honours, though, Sarah? You have to face the possibility. Are you sure you will be content to follow the drum? The life of an army wife isn’t an easy one, you know.’
‘Oh, Tom, how can you say anything so absurd? I’ve felt more alive these last few days than I ever have done. More...me, if you know what I mean? At last, I feel as if my life has some value. Some meaning. I am going to be such a good wife to you. And just to prove it, I have been busy this morning, showing everyone that I am not a silly, frippery, fashionable ninny.’
‘And just how,’ he said with a grin, ‘did you do that?’
‘I volunteered to help in Mary’s hospital. What used to be her school is full to the rafters with wounded men. And Bertrand said I would be a valuable addition to the staff, only think of that!’
‘Bertrand?’ She thought he stiffened a little. His smile had certainly slipped.
‘Yes. The doctor who comes in every day to oversee Mary’s work. You need not worry about him. He’s in love with Mary. So even if Justin has made a complete mull of it at least she won’t be on her own for ever. But never mind them, Tom, the important thing is that this proves I can be a good officer’s wife. I will never, never fail you, Tom.’
‘You don’t need to go working in a hospital to prove anything, Sarah. I don’t want you to have to.’
‘But I want to. I felt so badly for all those poor injured men and wished I could do more for them. Well, now I can.’
He frowned and took a breath, as though about to say something she wasn’t going to like.
‘You aren’t going to be a disagreeable sort of husband, are you? Forbidding me to do things I want to do?’
‘No.’ He smiled. ‘I’m not going to forbid you to do anything. I want you to be happy. But I also want you to be safe. We are going to have to employ a maid for you. And probably some form of male servant to watch over you. I don’t like the thought of you wandering about on your own.’
She burst out laughing. ‘Oh, Tom, as if I haven’t been wandering all over Brussels this week without so much as a groom in attendance. My word, I never dreamt you could say anything so stuffy!’
‘It comes of having been a rake, I expect. I know how very bad men can be. So I want to protect you from all the others. I,’ he said, pulling her close, ‘am going to be the only rake who gets his hands on you from now on.’
‘Yes, Tom,’ she said demurely. And then ruined the effect by adding, with a twinkle, ‘You may put your hands wherever you like.’
* * * * *
Don’t miss the third story in the fabulous
BRIDES OF WATERLOO trilogy
A ROSE FOR MAJOR FLINT
by Louise Allen
Keep reading for an excerpt from WHISPERS AT COURT by Blythe Gifford.
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Chapter One
Smithfield, London—November 11, 1363
Mon Dieu, this island is cold.
Frigid English wind whipped Marc de Marcel’s hair from his forehead, then slithered beneath the chainmail circling his neck. He peered at the knights at the other end of the field, wondering which would be his opponent and which would face his fellow Frenchman.
Well, it mattered not. ‘One pass,’ he muttered, ‘and I’ll unhorse either one.’
‘The code of chivalry calls for three runs with the lance,’ Lord de Coucy said, ‘followed by three blows with the sword. Only then can a winner be declared.’
Marc sighed. It was a shame that jousts had become such tame affairs. He would have welcomed the opportunity to kill another goddam Anglais. ‘A waste of the horse’s strength. And mine.’
‘Best not offend someone when you are at their mercy, mon ami. Cooperation with our captors will make our time here much more tolerable.’
‘We are hostages. Nothing can make that tolerable.’
‘Ah, the ladies can.’ De Coucy nodded towards the stands. ‘They are très jolie.’
He glanced at them. Women stretched to King Edward’s right, near impossible to distinguish. The queen must be the one gowned in ermine-trimmed purple, but the rest were a blur of matching tan and violet.
Except for one. Her dark hair was graced with a gold circlet and she glared in his direction of the field with crossed arms and a frown. Even at this distance, he could read a loathing that matched his own, as if she despised them all.
A Mistress for Major Bartlett Page 24
