by Matilda Hart
But there had been no way for him to know what Robert had planned, as he had spoken to no one, and had met with Lavinia in a town removed from both Tillygrove and Northbury. They had fled to Gretna Green and hurried back to allow Lavinia to return to her home without raising any suspicions that might have occurred had she returned late. As it was, she had disappeared, forcing her parents to put out a bulletin asking for anyone who had any sight of her to send them word.
He sighed. He was tired, and frustrated by the lack of answers, and now this new worry that his father may have had something to do with the events only served to disquiet him further. He would never rest until he knew now what his father had known. Lavinia had no idea of the upheaval she had caused in his heart as he pondered the notion that his father had had others hurt the woman he loved, and had lied to him about her death, in order to keep them apart. And he could not find it in himself to tell her of his fears.
She was happy in her relationship with her own parents, and he envied her the love and support that they gave her. It was unconditional. They trusted her to know her heart, and they forgave her when she got it wrong. That had never been his experience, and although he knew his father had cared about his future, he also knew that he had been a hard man, pompous and arrogant to a fault, with very little use for the common man. Robert himself had learned to care for the needs of others at his mother’s knee, before she had met her untimely death of pneumonia.
“Have I upset you, my Lord?”
Lavinia’s voice broke into his unhappy musings, and he looked down at her, marveling at how well she was already reading him. It had been like this before she had disappeared, and the new evidence that he was not wrong, that she was indeed his wife, pleased him enormously.
“No, my love, you have not.”
He kissed her, and reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips.
“You suddenly went silent,” she said. “I wondered if it was something that I said.”
“I am not upset with you. Rather I am proud of you for being so logical and intelligent. You have given me much to ponder.”
She smiled at his words, and reached with her other hand to stroke his cheek.
“Do you miss your father?” she asked. “I know that I would, if mine were to die.”
“My father and I did not have quite the same relationship with each other as you have with yours,” he admitted sadly. “But I do miss him. His death was unexpected.”
“When we have children, I know that you will be a good father to them. A father like mine is to me.”
She reached up to kiss his cheek, and Robert’s felt his heart swell within him. She may not remember loving him before, but if she was thinking about having children with him, then she must be feeling something now. He drew her into his arms, and hugged her, grateful for every scrap of feeling that passed between them. He loved her now more than he had before, because he knew first hand how terrible her loss had been, when he had thought that he would never agains see her face, or hear her voice. he dropped a kiss on the top of her head, and rested his cheek there, content to let her warmth flow over him. The carriage was cold, and he loved being able to keep her warm in this way.
Two more days passed without further word, and Robert began to feel the weight of uncertainty, and to despair of ever finding anything that might help to solve the mystery. On the fifth morning of his stay, when he had begun to feel that he had more than overstayed his welcome, he received a missive at breakfast requesting his attendance at a hearing to be conducted at noon. This time, he insisted that Lavinia stay at home with her mother, and hurried to the village. He went to the offices of the local constabulary, as instructed, and once indoors, he was invited to sit in on their questioning of a man suspected in the disappearance of a young woman some eighteen months ago.
“Your Grace, this is Henry Talbot. Henry here has been accused of violating and killing a number of young women around the neighborhood, one of whom has not been seen for eighteen months. We believe that she was the woman falsely identified as your wife, sir.”
“Why am I here?” Robert asked impatiently. This was all well and good for the police, but it had little to do with his own concerns.
“Henry has some information that I think you will want to hear,” the constable said. “Go ahead, Henry, tell the Duke what you know.”
Chapter 9 — Return to Sandcross Abbey
Lavinia sat next to her parents, waiting for the story that Robert had to tell them. He had returned to Sandcross Abbey, leaving Lavinia behind, enjoining her to spend some time with her family while he concluded his investigations. Upon their arrival, he had seen them comfortably settled, and after dinner had invited them to meet him in the sitting room, as he had much to tell them. His demeanor was brooding and withdrawn. She had never seen him like that in the short time she had known him, and it was clear to her that he was highly agitated. He had offered them each a glass of sherry, but had refrained from taking one himself. Now he stood by the hearth, his face a mask, his hands behind his back.
“I wanted to tell you what I have discovered since my return to Sandcross Abbey a week ago,” he began. “It will not, perhaps, be as distressing to you as it has been to me, but it is only right that you should know it all, since it so closely affects what happened to Lavinia.”
He paused and glanced at her, and then looked at her parents and continued.
“Before I left your home, you will recall that I visited the local constabulary at their invitation. I heard a story that horrified me, and led me on a search that finally unearthed the whole terrible tale.”
He paused again, as if to gather his thoughts, or to decide where next to go, and then he continued.
“My father was a proud man, and unwilling to bend once he had set his mind upon a course of action. He had decided that it was high time that I marry and produce a grandchild, and he began to suggest women to me whom he considered worthy of my title and my name. I was never interested, and we argued about it. He never ceased in his advice, and set my aunt upon me. she introduced me to a number of suitable young women, each of whom had been given to expect attentions from me that they never received.”
He looked at Lavinia then, and she saw his whole heart in his gaze, before he resumed his story.
“I refused to marry any of the women being paraded before me, much to my father’s dismay. When I saw Lavinia in Tillygrove at the fair, I fell in love with her bright smile, her charm, and her kindness to the children. I wanted to know this beauty who captivated everyone around her. And when I met her, I was lost to her. I told my father that I had found the one I would marry, but when I told him who it was, he voiced his disapproval in n no uncertain terms. I ignored his displeasure, which grew daily, and his and wooed Lavinia. I did not, however, ignore his threats to put a stop to it before I made a fool of myself. I explained to Lavinia that I had no wish to lose her, and would gladly meet her family after we were married, because I feared my father would try to intervene.
“I knew it was not the best plan, but it was all I could devise on the spur of the moment. Upon our return from Gretna Green, you know what happened as we were on our way to see you. The young woman whose body they showed me had been missing for weeks from her home, killed by the man who told me the last part of the tale.
“He and a couple of his mates were hired to waylay our carriage, to kidnap Lavinia, and to render me unconscious long enough for them to take her away. I was then to be sent into service in the army, and Lavinia would disappear from my life. When I regained consciousness and asked after her, I was to be told that she had been killed, and provided with irrefutable evidence. In that way, I would not bother to visit her parents, as you did not already know about me, and I would be free again for the women my family wanted me to court.”
“Who made this plan, Your Grace?” Mr. Aston asked, a frown marring his features.
Robert sighed heavily. “My father did,” he said, and hung his head.
>
Lavinia gasped. Now she understood the reason for his retreat into himself. His own father had betrayed him.
“But how did he know about us?” she asked.
“He had me followed,” he replied.
No one spoke for a while after that stunning revelation. Lavinia did not know what her parents were thinking, but she could well imagine what Robert was, and she felt great sympathy for him in that moment. The one person he had thought he could trust the most had betrayed him, and endangered not only his life, but the life of another. She recalled how he had told her that his relationship with his father was not like the one she had with her Papa, and now she saw how truthful he had been.
“I cannot apologize enough to you all for the terrible injustice that my family has done to yours,” he said at last, keeping his gaze fixed on her father. “I will do everything in my power to make amends for this grievous wrong.”
He walked towards the door, and just before he opened it, he added, speaking to Lavinia this time,
“I imagine that you will need some time alone with your parents to discuss what you will do about our marriage. In light of these developments, I will understand if you cannot continue as my wife.”
He walked quickly out of the room then, leaving them to stare in confusion after his retreating back.
“What does he mean, Papa?” she asked, turning tearful eyes to her father’s face. “Does he mean that he no longer wishes to remain married to me?”
Her mother pulled her close and hugged her, trying to soothe her.
“No, my dear. Quite the opposite,” her father said, a smile creasing his cheeks. “He means that you may no longer wish to remain married to him, because of his father’s actions against you.”
Lavinia raised startled eyes to his face. “Why on Earth would I wish that?”
“It is reasonable to suppose that you might think him as treacherous as his parent, and not wish to expose yourself to the prospect of being hurt again. Or, he might think that you would wish to punish him for his sire’s misconduct.” Her father’s voice was calm, soothing her ruffled nerves.
“He does not appear to be happy at the prospect of losing you, my my dear,” her mother added. “It has been clear to us that he loves you dearly, but he is an honorable man, and he will not force you to remain with him out of a sense of duty.”
“It is more than duty that I feel for him, Mama,” she said. “I believe I love him.”
“And have you told him this?” her mother inquired, raising a brow at her.
Lavinia blushed. “No...I have not yet found the courage to do so, though I am sure he knows it.”
“And how would he, unless you told him?” her father butted in. “Husbands are not mind readers, my dear, no more than fathers are.”
Lavinia chose to ignore her father’s question. She would not discuss her intimate relations with her husband with anyone, especially now when it seemed that she was in danger of losing him if she made the wrong decision.
“Do you wish to remain his wife, Lavinia?” her father asked. “No one, least of all the Duke, will force your hand. The decision is yours.”
“Of course I do, Papa!” she exclaimed.
“Then I should be sure to tell him so, my dear.”
He rose to his feet, and pulled his wife up with him. “Your mother and I must retire for the night. It has been a long day, and we must be up early for the drive back home.”
He kissed Lavinia as he passed her, as did her mother, and she sat there for a long moment before she rose and went to find her husband. He was in his study, and he barely looked at her when she walked in.
“My parents have retired for the night,” she said, “and I think I shall follow them. Goodnight.”
He looked as though he wanted to ask her what she had decided, but he did not do so. Instead, he murmured a quiet goodnight and watched her leave. Upstairs, she went into the bedchamber that was hers, dismissed her lady’s maid -- she could not think how she was ever to get used to having one! -- and undressed quickly, stripping down to her naked flesh. Donning the thin silk pelisse, she walked through the connecting door to her husband’s rooms, and settled herself beneath the coverlets, leaving the pelisse draped across the foot of the bed. She would wait for him, and hope that he would understand her decision when he discovered her in his bed. She was ready to claim her husband at last.
Chapter 10 — Happy Ever After
A third whisky did nothing to dispel the gloom that had settled over Robert after his wife had told him goodnight. She had said nothing of her decision one way or the other, and he supposed she was right to exact some punishment from him for what had been done to her. There was nothing he could do to make her want him, to make her love him as fiercely as he did her, to make her stay married to him. He had given her the choice, and he would abide by whatever decision she made. He decided against a fourth drink, and went upstairs to bed. If all else failed, he could sit by the fire and brood.
There was no sound from her bedchamber when he walked by, and he imagined her in it, fast asleep, her arms cradling her cheeks. He sighed heavily as he closed the door to his chamber and began to strip, dropping his cl0thing on the chair beside the bed. Climbing in beneath the heavy covers, he bumped into a warm body, and his heart sped up. His Lavinia was in his bed, and he reached for her, encountering bare flesh. He groaned in anticipation as he smoothed his palm over her breasts.
“Were you cold in your own bed, wife?” he asked, stroking her warm flesh.
“I did not stay to test the temperature, husband,” she replied, a smile in her voice. “I preferred to warm myself with your fire.”
Robert inhaled deeply, and then did it again to calm his racing pulse.
“I admit that I have a larger flame here,” he said, “and I am happy to share my warmth with you.”
She turned beneath his hand and faced him, drawing her hand down his hard jaw.
“Would you have let me go home with my parents in the morning, my Lord?” she asked.
He could tell that she needed to hear from him again how he felt about her, and he supposed that she needed the assurance of his love to help her decide. Though he supposed, as she was choosing to sleep in his bed, and not her own, that she had already made her decision. Still, he wanted to be absolutely certain of her love and desire for him, and her wish to remain his. So he gave her the words she needed to hear.
“I have loved you from the first moment that we met, Lavinia, and even when I thought that you were dead, I have never stopped loving you. But I would have let you go, if that would have made you happy. Even if it broke my heart.”
He reached down to kiss her softly on the lips and whispered, “And what of you, my love? How do you feel about all this?”
She moved until she straddled him, her body lining up sensually with his own, and Robert closed his eyes against the pleasure that was threatening to swamp him.
“How does it look like I feel, my Lord?” she said playfully. She leaned down to kiss him, and her breasts teased his chest hairs.
“It looks marvelous from here,” he replied, gazing at her breasts and smiling.
She pinched his arm lightly and laughed. “I believe I shall stay, if only to keep myself warm in your fire.”
Robert laughed. He enjoyed her flirting, and when she slid her body over his erect hardness, he released a heavy breath, glad that apparently she had learned a thing or two from being married to someone else. He liked the feel of her on his belly and thighs, and he could feel her growing wetter as she teased them both with her movements.
“I wish to hear the words from you, my love,” he said, moving with her, and causing her to gasp in pleasure. “Tell me how you feel about being Lavinia St. Clair, Duchess of Monsey.”
She leaned down again, brushed his lips with hers, and said, “Since I have been reliably informed that husbands are not mind readers, I freely admit that I love you, husband. And I choose to stay here at Sandcross Abb
ey, with you.”
He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her in for a ravenous kiss, exploring her mouth thoroughly, while he used his other arm to urge her to keep riding his erection the way she was doing. He loved the slick glide of it between the lips of her sex, and he made sure to bump her clitoris with the head of his cock at each downward slide she made. Her moans were ratcheting up his own need for her, and soon he was pressing his aching flesh into her, moving beneath her with powerful strokes that drove him up to the hilt inside her. He used his hands to help guide her ride, slamming her bottom against his thighs again and again as he drove them both over the edge. He squeezed her hips as he drove into her, not stopping until she collapsed onto his chest, panting madly.
