by Matilda Hart
Jane noticed her frown and said, “What’s wrong, Maddi? You’ve gone quite pale.”
Maddi schooled her features. “Nothing...I just thought I saw someone I know. But it wasn’t anyone I know.”
They were in town to buy cloth for a new dress for Jane, whose marriage was about to be announced. She and Donald Campbell had become engaged only the previous week, and their nuptials were planned to take place in a month’s time...just long enough for the dress to be made, if they could persuade the premier seamstress in town to take on the job for an additional fee. Secretly wishing that her own engagement to Drew would be announced at that time as well, Maddi now wondered if perhaps she was being premature. It had been almost a month since her arrival at Cumberland Castle, and two weeks since he first asked her father’s permission to address her, but she had only seen him once in those two weeks, and though his letters were more frequent, they had not been arriving daily, as she might have hoped that they would.
Scolding herself for being childish, Maddi focused on her cousin’s discussion with her mother about which style of dress Jane should wear, especially considering that it would become her new “best “ dress. Her cousin was to be a farmer’s wife now, though landowner had a better ring to it, Maddi supposed. And Donald was actually Sir Donald Campbell. So Jane would retain her title of Lady. These small things would be important for the daughter of an earl who was marrying below her station, but into a family of much wealth. Maddi wished her cousin every happiness, and prayed that the man she had chosen would be worthy of her love and devotion.
The women spent the afternoon in the dress shop, and when they emerged, they had decided upon a satin overdress embroidered at the scalloped hem in a floral pattern, over an under-robe trimmed in lace. Jane would wear a lace veil and her hair would be decorated with roses and orange blossoms. The dress would be ivory in color, so that Jane would be able to wear any number of matching shawls with it when the weather grew colder.
Maddi drowsed on the journey back to Cumberland Castle, but when the carriage stopped, she was jerked out of her doze. She followed her aunt and cousin into the welcome cool of the house, and announced that she would retire until dinner. Kicking off her shoes, she sank onto the comfortable chair and closed her eyes, too tired and troubled even to try to undress. Her lady’s maid had already laid out her attire for the evening meal, but for now, she could rest.
Drew’s family had been invited to dinner once again, and Maddi dreaded meeting the man she was now harboring doubts about. If the stranger in the High Street was Drew, her heart would be broken. She would not allow that to happen. Better to step away until things were clearer. She would ask him if he had been in town at teatime, and make her decision depending on his answer. At dinner, she tried to maintain a calm outward appearance, though she knew her cousin was casting her some concerned looks, especially when Drew arrived, and she moved away to stand by her father and mother.
Jane wandered over to sit beside her while they waited for dinner to be announced, and said,
“Maddi, have you and Drew had a falling out?”
“Of course, not!” Maddi replied too brightly. “Why would you think we had?”
“Well, you have not once made eye contact with him all evening, and every time he has made a move to approach you, you have flitted away like a butterfly. No wonder he is looking puzzled. He is as confused by your behavior as I am.”
Maddi struggled to control the color that threatened to suffuse her cheeks. “ I’m fine, and there is nothing wrong between us,” she repeated. “But thanks for letting me know that I am acting out of character. I must just be tired.”
She managed to make it through dinner without raising any eyebrows, conversing with Drew’s sister and her husband and answering all questions or comments made to her. After dinner, Jane pulled her away into the library and said,
“You stay right here. I will be back soon.” And when she returned, she had Drew with her. “Sit you both down now,” she said, all business. “No one leaves this room until you speak to each other and clear the air. Something is wrong, and even if you can both bear to live with the tension, I cannot!” Then she went to sit in the armchair by the window and left them the space to speak privately.
Drew began the conversation with a question. His voice was pained as he asked, “What have I done to offend you, Lady Madalene?”
His use of formal address to speak to her seemed somehow significant, and Maddi gasped in shock. She felt the weight of uncertainty grow upon her heart. Instead of answering his query, she asked one of her own. “Were you in the High Street today?”
She waited with bated breath for his reply, and when he answered her, she froze. “I was,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
Maddi forced herself to speak. “Were you on business there?” she wanted to know next.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. I was helping a friend.” His puzzled eyes took her in, and she could feel the questions that he had, but suddenly, she could not stay in the same room with him. He had not denied what she had seen with her own eyes. He had been with another woman, a ‘friend’, and her two children, and by the way in which he had held her and kissed her, the woman meant something to him. Maddi wanted to throw up.
“I beg your pardon, Your Grace,” she said, rising to her feet and forcing him to do the same. “I am suddenly taken ill. I must retire.” She moved hurriedly toward the door, hoping that she could keep her dinner down until she was well away from him. “Jane, please make my excuses to the assembled gathering. I feel rather unwell.”
Before either of them could utter a word or ask a question, she shot out of the library and was running up the stairs, tears streaming down her cheeks. She locked the door to her chambers, and threw herself across the bed. How could she have been so foolish? Drew had as much as admitted that she was not the only woman in his life. What was that other woman, his ‘friend’, to him? Was she more, than friend, and was he lying to Maddi about his status? What if the woman was his mistress, and the two children his?
Her head began to throb from the crying and the worry, and long after the household was asleep, she was still wide awake and no nearer to an answer. She stole from her room as silently as she could. A glass of wine would no doubt settle her, and help her to sleep. Her uncle kept the best tipple in his study, and so she went there first. If he had no wine, perhaps she would find sherry. If all else failed, she would stomach his nasty-tasting whisky. That was sure to do the job. The study door was open, but she did not think anything of it until she was already well inside the room,. Someone was already there, sitting in the armchair in front of her uncle’s desk. And by the scent that wafted to her, it was the last person she wished to meet.
She turned to run away again, but his voice stopped her. “You’re up very late, my Beauty. Could you not sleep?” He stood and turned to her as he spoke.
Maddi did not wish to stay to speak to him, but she didn’t know how to leave. So she said, “No. I thought a drink might help to settle me.”
“What would you like?” he asked.
“It’s all right,” she said, “I can help myself.” Then a thought occurred to her. “What are you still doing here? Is your whole family spending the night?” She knew the question was rude, but she felt defenseless against him, and her body was betraying her, wanting to sink into the warmth of his arms when she should be angry and disgusted with him.
“I was invited to spend the night, so I came prepared,” he told her.
“Why only you?” she asked, though she was very afraid that she knew the answer.
“I needed to speak to your father on a matter of some importance. It pertains to you.”
Maddi unlocked her knees and moved away, closer to the door. “I cannot think why you would need to speak to my father concerning me, Your Grace. Certainly your current circumstances would seem to negate the possibility of there ever being anything to discuss regarding me.”
She was p
roud of herself for managing to get that all out before she fell apart and had kept her voice clear of all trembling. But now she had to leave. She turned to go, but his hand on her arm was an unmovable vise, halting her where she stood. He turned her inexorably toward him and pulled her close, so close that she could feel the hardness of bis body beneath his clothes, and the beating of his heart. She tried to pull away again, but he refused to release her.
Chapter 10
“What have I done that has upset you so, my Beauty?” Drew asked, his voice hoarse. Madalene was moving against him in a most shocking manner, innocently arousing him beyond his ability to control his response. His body hardened more with every push against him, and his manhood lengthened behind his fall in a most uncomfortable way. If she didn’t stop wriggling soon, he would not be responsible for his actions.
But she was clearly very upset with him, and he wished he knew why. He supposed that it had something to do with his having been in town, but he could think of nothing that would make her so angry that she would deny the feelings that were still very strong between them. She pulled against his hold again, thrusting herself closer to the evidence of his desire for her, and he gave in and kissed her.
At first it was a hard kiss, meant to stop her from moving, but when she moaned and opened her mouth on a sigh of pleasure, he lost his control and took her tongue and her lips, and then he licked her down the column of her neck, and strolled his tongue across the swell of her bosom. Her moans grew more fevered, and she clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer, pushing herself against his body in a desperate need for his touch. She didn’t know what she was doing...it was all instinct with her. But he knew, and he had to end it before they went too far.
“Madalene,” he whispered, desperate to continue to the place he wanted to take her, but needing to remember where he was and who she was to him. “We must stop now, my love, or all will be lost.”
His words seemed to bring her back to her senses, and he watched as a wash of color rose from her chest until it flooded her face and neck. She backed away, pulling her arms from around him, and he let her go.
“You can have no idea how much I want to keep you in my arms, my love,” he said into the deepening silence, “but I cannot betray the trust that your father has placed in me where you are concerned.”
She laughed, but it was an ugly sound that he did not comprehend. “How honorable of you, Your Grace,” she said, her voice rich with sarcasm. “Does your ‘friend’ know that you have made advances to another woman while she yet remains in your life? And do your children know that their papa speaks pretty lies to unsuspecting virgins?”
Drew stood in shock as she spat the accusations at him, her rage almost palpable. He did not know what she meant by any of it, but she did not seem inclined to listen to reason. He deemed it best to wait until her anger cooled. His plan to ask her to marry him had to be shelved for the time being. Fortunately for him, her father had given his consent for them to wed. Now all he had to do was convince his bride-to-be that she wanted to be married to him as much as he wanted to be married to her. At this point, though, the chances of that happening appeared to be very slender.
“I wish that you would speak plainly to me, my lady,” he said. “Am I to understand that you are accusing me of being unfaithful to you and to another woman?”
She flounced away from him, and said, when she was at the door, “I’m sure you understand me perfectly well, Your Grace. And as you have not denied the evidence of my eyes, I would ask that you refrain from further correspondence with me, that you in fact avoid all contact with me from now on, and leave me alone.” She paused, and then added, “It is fortunate that this has come out now. It frees me to accept the attentions of another suitor who has asked to address me. Who knows? Perhaps I might still return to England affianced.”
She turned and walked away, leaving Drew with his mouth agape, his heart racing, his emotions in disarray. Had she been thinking of another while they had been together? Who had dared to approach her? Why would she have kissed him like she had if she were thinking about another man? Was she just getting back at him because she was angry with him? It wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility for her to have been approached by another suitor, and there was nothing to say she could not entertain more than one as she decided which she would choose. Still, the thought that his Beauty might actually have been thinking of someone else while she was with him enraged him. And more, it cut him to the quick.
Knowing that sleep was now impossible, Drew went to his rooms and considered his options. He could do nothing, and hope that everything would come out right in the end. But he was not the sort of man to wait for solutions to present themselves. He preferred to find them and apply them. So he needed to know what Madalene thought she had seen that made her think so ill of him. And he needed to verify her story of a second suitor. The one thing he could not do was tell anyone of her absurd accusations, or approach her until he had the answers to the puzzle.
In order to ease the tension between them, he left before breakfast the next morning, excusing his departure by claiming to have forgotten an early appointment, and once he was back at the Abbey, he put all thoughts of his private pain out of his mind and concentrated on Cailean, who was recovering nicely. A few days after his quarrel with Madalene he visited his friend, who had been moved from the hayloft to a guest bedchamber..
“Fiona wants to come and visit you,” he told him, “and I think it would be good for her to do so, as she worries about you.”
“How fares my sister and my niece and nephew?” his friend asked.
“They are well,” Drew told him. “And I think that I have found a ship at last that will take you all. The captain says that they will weigh anchor in a week, which means that you will need to rest as much as possible for the journey. I have made appear that you and she are husband and wife, to ease your way aboard, and to make it clear that Fiona is a lady and may not be used to entertain his men. But he will expect you to pull your weight, so you must try to build some strength before the journey. Percy will help with the packing and I have put it about that The Rogue has been mortally wounded and is not expected to survive his injuries.”
Cailean grinned at that news. “My, but you have been busy, my friend.” and then he sobered. “How will I ever repay you, my friend?”
“Build a home big enough to house me and my wife when we come over for a visit,” Drew said.
Cailean stared at him. “Your wife? You have married? A woman?”
Drew laughed. “Who else would I marry but a woman?” Then he too became serious as he added, “And no, I have not married her as yet. There has been a misunderstanding and she is angry with me.”
“What have you done, my friend?”
“I have done nothing, I swear,” Drew said, dragging his hands through his hair in exasperation.
“Yet she accuses me of having another woman and children!”
“How very odd!” Cailean said. “Might she have seen you with Fiona and drawn an erroneous conclusion?”
Drew looked at his friend, and his smile returned. “By God, I think you’ve got it, my friend!” He stood up excitedly. “On the evening of our quarrel, she asked me if I had been in the High Street that day, and I said I had. Then she asked me if I had been on business and I said of a sort. That was all she asked, but the next thing I knew, she was accusing me of fathering two children and having a mistress.”
“I don’t understand,” Cailean said. “What does one thing have to do with the other?”
“The day she saw me with a woman and two children, I was with Fiona. I had taken her to buy some cloth so she could make a few new pieces of clothing for the twins, and a new dress for herself. She must have seen me at some point in the day, and come to that conclusion. It isn’t hard to do, after all, since a man rarely goes out in public with a woman unless they are somehow connected.”
“She sounds v
ery young, Drew,” his friend commented,” if she did not even ask you for an explanation.
“She is young, and she is innocent of the ways of the world. But she knows enough to know how we can be perfidious. And if I am her first love, which I think I must be, then her fears are multiplied every time I am with someone who is not her. We have not known each other long, and I have been neglectful of her,” he admitted,” but only because I have been helping Fiona get her affairs in order, and arranging for your safe passage.”
Cailean sighed heavily. “I am so sorry, my friend, if I or my family have been the cause of your distress.”
“Don’t worry. Now that I have sorted out the misunderstanding, I can return to continue my pursuit. You will no doubt be hearing of my nuptials before another year has passed.” The weight that he had been carrying around for the last few days lifted as the solution came to him. Now he had to get her to see the truth and accept that she was mistaken, and to believe that he loved only her.
