by Laura Landon
Rainforth was coming toward her, as unbelievably handsome as ever. Her heart began a steady pounding in her chest and she cursed herself for reacting to him.
He didn’t call out a greeting, nor was there a smile on his face as he closed the distance between them. The expression he wore was more serious than she was used to seeing, his steel-gray eyes a deep silver. He had something on his mind, and if his stern countenance was an indication, it was of grave importance. Josie braced herself.
He stopped when he reached her, not a respectable distance away from her, but close enough that she could lift her hand and easily touch his face. Close enough that she could step into his embrace and rest her forehead against his chest. Close enough that she could smell leather and outdoors and the clean smell of the soap he’d washed with. She wadded the material of her skirt in her hands to keep from reaching out to him.
Neither of them spoke, but only studied each other as if something might have changed in the time since he’d left. Then, Josie realized she couldn’t allow herself to go down this path. “I told Banks I wasn’t receiving guests.”
“He told me. I ignored him.”
“I wrote you a letter, Lord Rainforth.”
“I threw it in the fire.”
“Don’t make this more difficult that it is. Please.”
“I wondered,” he said breathing in a deep breath that expanded his chest and flared his nostrils, “if I had exaggerated in my mind how I would feel when I saw you again.”
She swallowed. “Don’t. Please.”
“I hadn’t come close,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I thought my heart would simply pound inside my chest as if it were running a race while the blood thundered inside my head.”
“Don’t,” she whispered while her heart shattered inside her breast.
“And that happened,” he continued. “I just hadn’t counted on the weakness in my knees when I saw you or the trembling of my hands. Or the ache in my chest because I’d missed you so desperately.”
Josie tried to keep the tears from welling in her eyes. How could she keep from giving in to him when he laid his feelings out before her with such an open admission?
“I’ve missed you, Josie,” he said as he pulled her into his arms and brought his mouth down on hers.
He kissed her long and deep, giving her a taste of the emotion that overpowered them whenever they were close. She tried not to react, but lost the battle when he brought her closer to him. She’d dreamed of this. Dreamed of him holding her in his arms, of his lips pressed to hers, of his body surrounding hers. But she thought she’d only have her memories as comfort. Her heart gave a painful lurch. It would have been so much easier if he hadn’t returned.
She turned her face to the side and stepped out of his embrace. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said taking another step away from him. “Lady Clythebrook received a letter just this morning exalting your praises and relating stories of the affect you were having on London Society. I’m glad you were so overwhelmingly accepted. Was it as grand as you thought it would be?”
“Taking my place in Society was necessary for Charlie as well as any other children I might have. Nothing more.”
Josie felt a pang of something that resembled pain.
“Though I don’t understand why you’re surprised to see me back. Surely you knew I was coming.”
There was a frown on his face that Josie couldn’t bring herself to look at for long. “I knew you’d return eventually, but not so soon. Not until everything was settled in London.”
“Other than the business with Sam and McCormick, what other business did you think I had to settle?”
She searched for the right words. “Personal matters. You need to marry. Surely you realize that now more than ever. You need to provide an heir to secure the Rainforth properties, just like you intend for Charlie to inherit St. Stephen’s.”
He nodded but the look of skepticism did not leave his face. “I’m glad you understand how important it is for me to marry. I was afraid it would be difficult for you to give in on this.”
This was it, then. This was where he explained that even though he loved her, it was important that he take a bride from the “right” family. This was where he explained how important it was to marry a woman who already fit in with Society. She braced her shoulders and took a deep breath.
“You could have explained all this in a letter. There was no need to come to see me personally.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Something this important deserved to be said in person.”
She nodded. “And have you decided upon who it is you will marry? In a letter Lady Clythebrook received from Lady Sheffield, she says there is no small number of females ready to become the future Lady Rainforth.”
“Yes. I have the future Lady Rainforth in mind.”
Her heart twisted in her breast. She thought perhaps it had broken, but she would not allow herself to know for sure until she was away from him.
“You would approve of her, Josie.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“She will be the perfect mother for Charlie and the other children I intend to have.”
“I’m glad.”
“Are you?”
“Yes, of course. You deserve the best.”
Oh, she wanted to leave him. She couldn’t bear to hear him speak about children he would have with another woman. She couldn’t bear to think of him planting his seed inside someone else and having a child by someone else and raising a child with someone else when…
“I have decided I would like a large family. If my wife has no objections. I was raised alone and was always so envious of my friends with brothers and sisters. Does that sound selfish of me?”
She clenched her fist and pressed it to her breast. Yes, her heart was breaking. If she stayed here much longer she would disgrace herself by bursting into tears.
“No. That doesn’t sound selfish. Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve been out longer than I’d intended.”
She turned away from him and took two shaky steps toward the house.
“How soon will you marry me?”
His question stopped her. Josie slowly turned.
“I know the proper way is to go down on one knee before the woman you love and ask her to marry you. It is no more than you deserve and I’ll willingly do it that way if you want me to, but asking you if you will marry me demands a yes or no answer. I refuse to take the chance you might choose the wrong answer so I will ask you instead how soon you will marry me. That is not nearly so risky.”
He took a step toward her. “How soon will you marry me? Tomorrow? Or will you make me wait a day longer?”
The tears that filled Josie’s eyes spilled over her lashes and ran down her cheeks. “Oh, Ross. I… We…”
“Don’t tell me we can’t marry because I am a marquess. I can’t help that. I am a marquess by accident of birth. Our firstborn male will suffer the same fate and inherit a title he probably won’t want either. But he’ll have no choice.”
Josie swiped at her wet cheek. “I wasn’t talking about you. It’s me.”
“Surely you aren’t going to bring up the irrelevant fact that your father didn’t marry your mother?”
“Irrelevant? Do you think Society will let either one of us forget it?”
“And do what? Snub the wife of the man the Queen of England just declared a hero? Risk the ire of Her Highness over something as insignificant as a bloodline? Especially when the woman in question is the daughter of the Marquess of Brookfield.”
Josie’s heart skipped a beat. “How did you…?”
“Lady Clythebrook told me.” He closed the gap between them and clasped his hands around her upper arms. “But whether she had or not makes no difference.”
His hold on her made her feel safe. His nearness made her heart race in her breast. The love she saw in his eyes filled her heart wit
h unbounded ecstasy.
“I don’t care what Society thinks of you or of me. I only know I can’t spend the rest of my life without you. Or worse yet, spend it with some weak-brained, spoiled, debutante, whose pedigree is perfect. Hell, I barely survived the weeks I was away from you.”
Josie smiled through her tears.
He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “Don’t ask me to spend the rest of my life without you. I couldn’t do it.”
His voice had been low and the words raspy with emotion. A pressure tightened around her heart. “You don’t know what you’re asking. I’m not even sure who I really am. Foley is just the name my mother went by.”
He smiled. “You’re Josephine Foley. Foley was your mother’s maiden name.” He pulled a paper from his pocket. It was a special license. “I didn’t want to chance putting the wrong name on our marriage license so I went to your father. He offered to give you away if you would like. The choice is yours though.”
Josie looked at him in wide-eyed disbelief.
“You don’t have to decide right away,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “You have ten days.”
She jerked away. “Ten days?”
“Sam and Claire are making the arrangements right now. We will be married in London a week from this Saturday. All of Society will be there because I want them to know how proud I am to have you as my wife, and how happy we are together. When we return to St. Stephen’s, we’ll throw a party the magnitude of which the people of Clytheborough have never seen. It’ll be a celebration no one will forget.”
Tears ran freely now and she wiped them away with the handkerchief Ross handed her.
“I love you, Josie. More than I thought it was possible to ever love anyone.”
“And I love you. More than you can imagine.”
He took her in his arms and gently touched his lips to hers. “Do you know when I first knew I’d fallen in love with you?”
She shook her head.
“It wasn’t the first time I kissed you. I only suspected it then.”
She smiled.
“It was the second time I kissed you. That night beneath the stars and that damned jaded moon.”
“Well then, sir, your memory is founded upon a myth.”
“What? Impossible. I remember very clearly you called it a jaded moon.”
“Not true, my love, not true at all. I called it magical. It was you who called me jaded. And perhaps I was…just a bit. But you saved me. And that magical moon brought my miracle.”
She hugged him fiercely.
The Marquess of Rainforth tipped his head until their noses touched, and let out a long trembling breath. “As long as it’s shining down on you, it will only be magical. And it will be the only place I will ever want to be. Forever.”
He drew her into a kiss, and Josie knew she would have a whole lifetime of full moons and magic—right here in his arms.
About Laura
Laura Landon enjoyed ten years as a high school teacher and nine years making sundaes and malts in her very own ice cream shop, but once she penned her first novel, she closed up shop to spend every free minute writing. Now she enjoys creating her very own heroes and heroines, and making sure they find their happily ever after.
A vital member of her rural community, Laura directed the town’s Quasquicentennial, organized funding for an exercise center for the town, and serves on the hospital board.
Laura lives in the Midwest, surrounded by her family and friends. She has written nearly two dozen Victorian historicals, thirteen of which have been published by Prairie Muse Publishing and are selling worldwide in English, one in Japanese, and several in German. Two are Scottish historicals.
In October 2012, Laura experienced an amazing day when Amazon’s Montlake Romance published not one but three of her newest novels. Two of these have been optioned for publication in Russia and Turkey. Several are also available in German. To date Montlake has published seven of Laura’s Victorian historicals.
Always beautifully set and with a mysterious twist or bit of suspense, Laura’s books average over a million and a half pages a month read by her loyal readers.
Laura Landon is a Prairie Muse Platinum
Kindle Press and Amazon Montlake author
www.lauralandon.com
Also from Laura Landon
by Prairie Muse Publishing
SHATTERED DREAMS
WHEN LOVE IS ENOUGH
BROKEN PROMISE
A MATTER OF CHOICE
MORE THAN WILLING
NOT MINE TO GIVE
TANGLED: Boxed Set
LOVE UNBIDDEN
THE DARK DUKE
CAST IN SHADOWS
CAST IN RUIN
CAST IN ICE
From Laura Landon
by Montlake Romance
SILENT REVENGE
INTIMATE SURRENDER
INTIMATE DECEPTION
THE MOST TO LOSE
A RISK WORTH TAKING
BETRAYED BY YOUR KISS
RANSOMED JEWELS
From Kindle Press
THE SECRET ROSE
WHERE THE WOMAN BELONGS
novella
See all of Laura’s books at Amazon.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
JADED MOON
Ransomed Jewels Series Book Two
Copyright © 2016 by Laura Landon
First print edition
ISBN978-1-937216-69-6
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used in the context of another work of fiction without written permission of the author or Prairie Muse Publishing.
Contact [email protected]
www.prairiemuse.com
