The Unexpected Wife

by Caroline Warfield

  A movement, almost imperceptible, alerted him that she began to awaken. He kissed her hair and felt her return a kiss against his shoulder. “Morning?” she asked.

  “Yes. The first of many like this,” he replied, causing her to go up on one elbow and smile at him.

  She closed her eyes and took a long breath before opening them again to peer at him. He loved the way she seemed to see his deepest thoughts and desires. “What now?” she asked.

  “More?” he suggested hopefully, moving his burgeoning body against hers.

  “Yes, oh yes, but I meant after. Shall we go home or linger in India.”

  He lay back, wondering what had engaged the unrelenting machine that was her brain the morning after their wedding. “I hadn’t given it any thought,” he said dryly. “I had other things in mind.” Still on her elbow, her hair slipped down over one bare shoulder, distracting him, but he tried to listen, genuinely curious about her complicated thought processes.

  “We could stay in India for a while,” she said. He waited for more. “Our report is too late to stop the conflict.”

  “Very true,” he said, tweaking one lock of hair.

  “Tea may be the answer in the end.”

  “Tea?” He rose, impatient, forcing her to lay back flat and looming over her for a kiss.

  She responded in kind, but all too soon she went on. “We should visit Assam and see about this Indian tea. We might undermine—”

  He pushed her idea to the back of his mind. There would be time to think about it later. He kissed her again and let his eager hands roam.

  She tipped her head back to give him access to the tender spot where her neck met her shoulder. “Besides . . .”

  That penetrated his lust. He pulled up on an elbow. “Besides what?”

  “Presenting them with a grandchild would squash any objections my parents might make, don’t you think?” She grinned up at him.

  He smiled back and lowered his head. “I am happy to oblige your plan, my love,” he murmured against her skin.

  Epilogue

  The Earl of Chadbourn and the Duke of Sudbury saw their wives to bed, promising to join them shortly.

  Andrew McGuffin had arrived at Sudbury House that morning, complaining of shore duty and carrying a collection of fascinating journals the duke put aside for study. He also brought a report to Her Majesty the queen and news that filled the duke and duchess with so much joy they hastened to share it with their friends. Even now it called for one more glass of the earl’s fine whisky, gleaned from his sources in Scotland. The two men drank with the contentment of those who have arranged the world to their own satisfaction.

  “India, though, Richard. You would think they would come on home in easy stages,” the earl said at last.

  “I suspect, Will, my first grandson will be born in India,” the duke answered. He waved the letter that had arrived with McGuffin that morning.

  “They didn’t say that,” Will responded.

  “They didn’t have to. She says they wanted to see Thorn settled in a business venture—this tea plantation business—but I suspect there is more. They probably think presenting us with a grandchild will smooth over any parental disapproval.”

  Will snorted. “As if there is any. He’s perfect for her, and you know it.” He mulled the duke’s supposition for a few minutes. “You may be right, though. Charles wouldn’t waste time.” After another moment, he gave his lifelong friend a sly smile. “Could be a granddaughter, though.”

  The duke choked on his drink. Will grinned. It wasn’t often he could get Richard to lower the façade he showed the world.

  Soon the duke doubled over with laughter. “A girl! Oh God, I hope so. It would serve Charles right.”

  He sobered eventually, and they sipped in companionable silence.

  “What do you think about the tea business?” Will asked eventually.

  “She thinks it may grow well in Assam, in the mountains in the north of India. She thinks we should bypass the whole mess in China. They plan to leave Thorn in charge. Good idea, that. He needs purpose.”

  Will eyed his lifelong friend with sympathy. “I hope so, Richard. Perhaps some success will make a difference.”

  “She wrote that he’s building riverboats for transport.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with a duke’s heir building with his own hands.”

  “If it gives him peace, I applaud it. It won’t prepare him for the duties that will fall to him, though,” Richard replied grimly.

  “Time enough for that later. For tonight, we have happy news.”

  “We do indeed,” Zambak’s father answered.

  They drank in silent camaraderie for a long time, until Richard remembered something else.

  “Did I mention that she included a note for my nephew Archie about the tea?” the duke asked.

  “The botanist? Archimedes Mallet? Isn’t he still at Cambridge?”

  “Yes, but one suspects not for long, what with his brother unearthing Egypt. Can’t let him have all the adventure, I suspect,” Richard said.

  Will grinned and sat back in his chair. “Those boys do seem ready to seek their fortune.”

  “Boys?” Richard raised a ducal eyebrow. “Tell that to your Emma.”

  Will Landrum, Earl of Chadbourn, choked on his whisky and vowed to have a word with his wife.

  Historical Note

  On September 4, 1839, ships under the command of Charles Elliot opened fire on Chinese war junks attempting to prevent them from supplying the floating community from Kowloon, now part of Hong Kong. It was at best a skirmish, but it represented the opening fight of the First Opium War.

  Charles Elliot and Lin Zexu are historical figures. I have done my best to keep their actions in 1838 and 1839 as accurate as possible in the context of the story, which is, after all, fiction. Timing of events, however, may be compressed by weeks or months. I moved the letter to Queen Victoria, for example, from fall to spring 1839. Scenes of their interactions with my fictional characters are, of course, entirely my creation. The Elliots, to my knowledge, did not host a duke’s daughter while in Macao, nor did Lin Zexu ever confront a foreign woman.

  Jarratt, Oliver, and other merchants are fictional characters loosely based on actual China traders of the era. I leave it to my readers’ research to determine which ones influenced me, if they have an interest. There is one small exception. James Innes is real, and he actually was expelled from Canton and Macao in December 1838.

  Lin did indeed write an open letter to Queen Victoria and request assistance of the American missionary, Doctor Peter Parker, with the English. My fictional Doctor Peters is, you might guess, based loosely on Parker, an ophthalmologist who ran a clinic at Zion’s Corner (not Quarter). Lin also sought the missionaries’ advice about what we now call withdrawal. Parker founded an ophthalmic hospital in Canton that still exists; it is now the Canton Pok Tsai Hospital.

  A word about language: I have chosen to use names common in the English language newspapers of the era rather than the modern names for places. Thus, Canton and not Guangzhou, for example. I chose Macao over Macau for the same reason. Words related to drug addiction gave me greater problems. The word “drug” generally applied to herbal substances and not to narcotics until the late 1800s. “Narcotic” did exist but was not in general use. “Addiction” referred to a compulsion but did not have the narrow meaning we now ascribe to it. “Withdrawal” as it relates to drug use is a 20th-century term. If my construction seems clumsy to a reader in places as a result, I apologize.

  Whole libraries have been written and causes debated for the war that followed Charles and Zambak’s departure from Macao. Those books drone on about “opening China,” “free trade,” and “extraterritoriality.” In the end, however, one bit of justice
emerges. The First Opium War and the second one that followed it retain at least in name what really fueled the conflict, opium—the desire of China to free its people from the drug’s curse and the drive of the merchants to grow rich by forcing it on them. It was a time eerily like our own. After all, it was only business.

  Acknowledgments

  No book comes to fruition by efforts of an author alone. This one owes an enormous debt to the readers of the previous two books in the series. Their comments, questions, and affection for Charles helped me craft his story.

  Any polish the final version displays owes much to my beta readers: Jude Knight and Sherry Ewing, who also patiently listened to my woes and let me bounce ideas off them; Dee Deacon Foster, who gave me Mrs. Josie; and particularly to Cathy Rackowski, whose insight into the emotional dynamic of addiction on the sufferer and family helped more than I can repay.

  Finally, my eternal gratitude goes to Debby Gilbert and the good people at Soul Mate Publishing, especially to Tamus Bairen, the best editor a writer could hope for.

  Also from Soul Mate Publishing

  and Caroline Warfield:

  DANGEROUS WORKS

  A little Greek is one thing; the art of love is another. Only one man has ever tried to teach Lady Georgiana Hayden both. She learned very young to keep her heart safe. She learned to keep loneliness at bay through work. If it takes a scandalous affair to teach her what she needs to complete her work, she will risk it. If the man in question chooses not to teach her, she will use any means at her disposal to change his mind. She is determined to give voice to the ancient women whose poetry has long been neglected.

  Some scars cut deeper than others. Major Andrew Mallet returns to Cambridge a battle-scarred hero. He dared to love Georgiana once and suffered swift retribution from her powerful family. The encounter cost him eleven years of his life. Determined to avoid her, he seeks work to heal his soul and make his scholarly father proud. The work she offers risks his career, his peace of mind, and (worst of all) his heart. Can he protect himself from a woman who almost destroyed him? Does he want to?

  Even poetry is dangerous when you partner with the love of your life. In Regency, Cambridge, it can lead a lady quickly past improper to positively scandalous.

  Available now on Amazon: DANGEROUS WORKS

  DANGEROUS SECRETS

  When a little brown wren of an Englishwoman bursts into Jamie Heyworth's private Hell and asks for help he mistakes her for the black crow of death. Why not? He fled to Rome and sits in despair with nothing left to sell and no reason to get up in the morning. Behind him lie disgrace, shame, and secrets he is desperate to keep.

  Nora Haley comes to Rome at the bidding of her dying brother who has an unexpected legacy. Never in her sunniest dreams did Nora expect Robert to leave her a treasure, a tiny black-eyed niece with curly hair and warm hugs. Nora will do anything to keep her, even hire a shabby, drunken major as an interpreter.

  Jamie can't let Nora know the secrets he has hidden from everyone, even his closest friends. Nora can't trust any man who drinks. She had enough of that in her marriage. Either one, however, will dare anything for the little imp that keeps them together, even enter a sham marriage to protect her.

  And don't miss Dangerous Works, where Jamie first appeared.

  Available now on Amazon: DANGEROUS SECRETS

  DANGEROUS WEAKNESS

  If women were as easily managed as the affairs of state—or the recalcitrant Ottoman Empire—Richard Hayden, Marquess of Glenaire, would be a happier man. As it was, the creatures—one woman in particular—made hash of his well-laid plans and bedeviled him on all sides.

  Lily Thornton came home from Saint Petersburg in pursuit of marriage. She wants a husband and a partner, not an overbearing, managing man. She may be “the least likely candidate to be Marchioness of Glenaire,” but her problems are her own to fix, even if those problems include both a Russian villain and an interfering Ottoman official.

  Given enough facts, Richard can fix anything. But protecting that impossible woman is proving almost as hard as protecting his heart, especially when Lily’s problems bring her dangerously close to an Ottoman revolution. As Lily’s personal problems entangle with Richard’s professional ones, and she pits her will against his, he chases her across the pirate-infested Mediterranean. Will she discover surrender isn’t defeat? That it might even have its own sweet reward.

  Available now on Amazon: DANGEROUS WEAKNESS

  THE RENEGADE WIFE

  The Renegade Wife kicks off the new Children of the Empire series, companion stories to award-winning author Caroline Warfield's Dangerous series. Raised with all the privilege of the English aristocracy, forged on the edges of the British Empire, men and woman of the early Victorian age seek their own destiny and make their mark on history. The Renegade Wife is the story of healing and a journey home, of choices and the freedom to make them, set in 1832 in Upper Canada and in England.

  Two hearts betrayed by love…

  Desperate and afraid, Meggy Blair will do whatever it takes to protect her children. She’d hoped to find sanctuary from her abusive husband with her Ojibwa grandmother, but can’t locate her. When her children fall ill, she finds shelter in an isolated cabin in Upper Canada. But when the owner unexpectedly returns, he’s furious to find squatters disrupting his self-imposed solitude.

  Reclusive businessman Rand Wheatly had good reason to put an ocean between himself and the family that deceived him. He just wants the intrusive woman gone, but it isn’t long before Meggy and the children start breaking down the defensive walls he’s built. But their fragile interlude is shattered when Meggy’s husband appears to claim his children, threatening to have Rand jailed.

  The only way for Meggy to protect Rand is to leave him. But when her husband takes her and the children to England, Meggy discovers he’s far more than an abuser; what he’s involved in endangers all their lives. To rescue the woman who has stolen his heart, Rand must follow her and do what he swore he’d never do: reconcile with his aristocratic family and finally uncover the truth behind all the lies. But time is running out for them all.

  Available now on Amazon: THE RENEGADE WIFE

  THE RELUCTANT WIFE

  Captain Fred Wheatly’s comfortable life on the fringes of Bengal comes crashing down around him when his mistress dies, leaving him with two children he never expected to have to raise. When he chooses justice over army regulations, he’s forced to resign his position, leaving him with no way to support his unexpected family. He’s already had enough failures in his life. The last thing he needs is an attractive, interfering woman bedeviling his steps, reminding him of his duties.

  All widowed Clare Armbruster needs is her brother’s signature on a legal document to be free of her past. After a failed marriage, and still mourning the loss of a child, she’s had it up to her ears with the great lout of a captain who can’t figure out what to do with his daughters and the assumptions she doesn’t know how to take care of herself and what she needs is a husband. If only the frightened little girls didn’t need her help so badly.

  Clare has made mistakes in the past. Can she trust Fred now? Can she trust herself? Captain Wheatly doesn’t need his aristocratic family; they’ve certainly never needed him. But with no more military career and two half-caste daughters to support, Fred must turn once more—as a failure—to the family he failed so often in the past. Can two hearts rise above past failures to forge a future together?

  Available now on Amazon: THE RELUCTANT WIFE

 

 

 
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