“You fear your mother might do something to Rothermere while he’s confined to your country house and under her care?”
“My mother has no intention of caring for Felix Rothermere or the injury I inflicted,” Alex admitted.
“But she told the footman to send for her personal physician.”
“She’ll send for her physician,” he said. “For the tincture of opium she’ll need to manage Rothermere while he’s there.”
Liana had never had occasion to use medicine made from the tincture of opium, but she knew the dangers of taking too much too often. “You’re worried that she might be tempted to give him a bigger dose than his injury requires?”
“I’m praying my mother will exhibit the good sense she’s always exhibited and not take advantage of fact that she has unfettered access to the man she’s despised for the past thirteen years.”
“Rothermere might be your mother’s greatest enemy, but I don’t believe your mother would ever stoop to murdering him.” Liana’s voice was firm. “And neither do you.”
“She won’t see it as murder,” Alex said. “She’ll see it as righting a wrong.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “Two wrongs. She’ll see it as righting the wrong done to Father and to Felicity.”
“Who is Felicity?” Liana asked. “You’ve mentioned her twice and your mother mentioned her at St. Bartholomew’s.”
Alex opened his mouth to speak, but no words emerged.
“Is she someone I would know if I had memorized my Debrett’s the way I was expected to do?”
Alex straightened on his seat and blew out a breath. “She was someone you would have liked. Someone who would have liked you. Very much.” He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. “I apologize for spoiling our wedding day with my grim concerns.”
“You haven’t spoiled our wedding day, my lord. You created it. And it was glorious.” Her eyes sparkled at the memory. “It was the most beautiful wedding I could imagine. Colin and Gillian could not have provided me with a better one than you and your mother and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did. You have nothing for which to apologize. Gracious! I was married by the Archduke of Canterbury. A bishop and his wife hosted our wedding breakfast. A duchess not only attended my wedding, she was my matron of honor and became my friend.” She shivered in delight. “Members of Parliament attended it.”
“Odious members,” he reminded her.
“Nevertheless…” She dismissed his reminder of Lord Lancaster. “Everything that happened once you burst into St. Bartholomew’s was like a fairy tale, Alex. I still can’t believe it!”
Liana’s face was alight with excitement, her eyes sparkling with genuine delight. Seeing it, Alex wanted to puff out his chest in pride. He hadn’t wanted to get married, but he had to admit that it was one of his finest moments. And he couldn’t regret it. “Believe it, Liana.”
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it?” That dreamlike quality was back in her voice.
“It was,” he agreed. “But the most beautiful thing about it was you.”
His soft comment gave her pause. She studied the expression on Alex’s face and realized he meant what he’d said. “I think that’s the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me,” she whispered, her voice quavering with emotion.
“The folks around you have been very remiss,” he said. “Or very blind.” He smoothed a stray strand of hair off her forehead.
She gave him a self-conscious smile, then glanced down at her lap.
“You’re very beautiful, my lady.”
She met his gaze. “If that’s true, my lord, you are the first man to think it. I am generally considered to be a sensible girl, not a beautiful one.”
“As you said, my lady, I have exceptional taste and the ability to recognize beauty when I see it.” He caressed her cheek. “And lucky for me that so many of my peers have no idea of the true worth of quiet splendor such as yours.”
“And today, I became the luckiest girl in the world because you made me your marchioness.” Liana beamed at him.
It seemed that there was hope for their honeymoon after all.
Chapter Fifteen
“What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.”
–William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
They changed teams of horses twice more during the journey.
“Wake up, Liana.”
She opened her eyes to find herself curled upon the seat, covered by a warm lap robe, her arm, in its sling, cradled against her chest, and using Alex’s thigh for her pillow. She stretched like a bird with a crippled wing, then looked up at him and smiled. “You’re still here.”
He nodded. “I am.”
“That’s nice,” she said, a dreamy look on her face.
“You think so?”
“I like that you’re really here and not just in my dreams.”
Alex was genuinely surprised and pleased. He hadn’t given more than a passing thought to little Liana McElreath in the months since he’d danced with her at Lady Harralson’s ball. But she’d dreamed of him. Apparently more than once. “You’ve dreamt of me?”
“Lots of times. In my dreams you always…”
“Always what?”
Alex recognized the moment Liana came fully awake and realized she was confiding secrets. “I’m not usually so rude as to fall asleep when others are present.” She firmed her lips and that starchy, prim and proper tone reappeared in her voice. “I can’t imagine what came over me…”
“I imagine it was exhaustion,” he replied dryly.
“I used you as my pillow,” she whispered, mortified by the thought. “Twice in one day.”
“I can’t think of a better way to pass the time than to be your pillow, Lady Courtland,” he replied gallantly.
The look in his smoldering eyes sent warmth coursing through her. Liana blushed. “I should get off you.”
“We can stay here a bit longer,” he told her. “You needn’t move on my account.”
“Oh, but I should.” She said what any young lady in her position should say, but Liana wasn’t quite ready to move. She was warm, comfortable and safe. For the first time in a very long time. “I’m sure it can’t be proper for me to sprawl all over you in my sleep.”
“We’re alone, my lady. There’s no one here to monitor our behavior but us.”
She forced herself to face him. “It’s just that I’m unaccustomed to the luxury of having so much room to myself.”
“Oh?” Alex was intrigued. His coach was big and comfortable, but hardly roomy when compared to a bedchamber. But then he remembered climbing through Liana’s bedroom window and discovering the narrow four-poster occupied by Liana and her sister Caroline.
“At home, it’s always chilly in our bedchamber and Caroline always sleeps right up next to me to stay warm,” she explained.
Alex shifted in his seat. “I can see why she would want to do that.” He had spent the past four hours quite warm and increasingly uncomfortable from having her head pillowed on this thigh. At having her face precariously close to the hard part of his anatomy each time she turned or moved in her sleep. He’d become so overheated and hard that walking across the yard to the inn in his skintight breeches was going to present a problem.
Blithely unaware of the effect she was having on him, Liana continued her explanation for her uncharacteristic behavior. “I wake up every morning on the edge of the bed while Caroline has nearly the whole of it. I never get to stretch out and luxuriate beneath the covers.” She couldn’t sit up with her arm confined to its sling, so Alex slipped his arm around her back and levered her into a sitting position, then waited patiently while her pain subsided and she managed to regain her bearing.
“Better?”
Liana nodded. “Did I sleep long?”
“A while,” he admitted.
“It feels as if we’re slowing down.” She peeked through the narrow gap in the window curtains. “Have we reached the Abbey?”
&nbs
p; “We’ve still a way to go before we reach the Abbey,” Alex told her. “We’re approaching the second coaching inn. I thought you might require a break and something to eat. You barely touched your breakfast.”
“A break would be nice.” She managed to smother her yawn, but there was nothing she could do to hide the insistent growling of her stomach.
Alex opened the door and helped Liana to her feet and out of the coach, steadying her as she made her way down the steps Schuyler, the footman, had unfolded. Liana stepped onto the hard-packed earth of the center yard of the coaching inn and stood watching the activity as the stable boys sprang into action, unsaddling the near horse before unhooking the team of four tired horses. One of the hostlers led the tired team into the stable where they would be curried, fed and watered while another boy brought the fresh team to the coach, maneuvered them into the braces and began saddling the near horse and fastening the harnesses.
She was so engrossed in the process Liana didn’t realize Alex had exited the vehicle until he placed his hand on her shoulder. “Shall we?”
“Yes.”
Alex shortened his strides to match hers as he escorted her across the coaching yard toward the stone and timbered establishment known as The Macefield Tavern from the time of Edward I. The wooden sign above the doorway showed a knight’s mace on a field of blood red.
Opening the thick wooden door, Alex glanced around before ushering Liana inside.
The interior of the tavern was not as large or as well lit as the more modern White Horse Inn. It was small and dark and as the proprietor explained after rushing forward to greet them, unable to offer private accommodations—even for a marchioness—having only a taproom and kitchen below and a common room above stairs.
The sound of heavy snoring resonated throughout the inn from the common room where guests lined the floor, sleeping two and three to a straw pallet. The taproom offered the best choice for privacy. The hour was late. The bar was closed and the taproom was empty. Alex paid the proprietor for two pewter tankards and a jug of his best cider for Liana and a mug of rum for himself. He offered extra coin for a screen to shield the far corner of the room, a chamber pot, and a basin of water for Liana’s use, then stood sipping his rum outside the door of the taproom to ensure no one accidentally intruded on her.
When she was done tending to her private needs and had refreshed herself, Alex walked her back to the coach. After instructing Schuyler to watch over her, Alex retired to the privy to take care of his own needs.
He returned to the coach long enough to present Liana with the jug of cider and a pewter tankard, along with a wicker hamper filled with bread, cheese, fruit, nuts, sweet meats and wedding cake.
Liana opened the hamper. “Where did you get this?”
“From the boot at the back of the coach. Lady Manwaring packed it for our journey.” Alex watched as she spread a cloth over the upholstered velvet seat and began unpacking the bread and cheese, delighted to find it was already sliced. “She thought of everything.” Liana found a tin containing an assortment of sweet meats in the hamper. Opening the lid, she selected a sugarplum, popped it into her mouth, closed her eyes and savored the candy, moaning her pleasure.
Alex was forced to bite back a groan of his own.
Reaching back into the hamper, she pulled out the opened tin and offered it to Alex. “Would you like one?”
He shook his head. “None for me.”
Liana looked up at him, a frown marring her brow. “You don’t want a taste?”
He wanted a taste of her. He wanted a taste of her so badly he ached with the need to take it. He wanted one so badly he was fighting the urge to tumble her back on the seat and feast on her—her mouth, her neck, the cleft of her bosom, the rosy tips of her breasts, and the soft skin of her abdomen that led to the entrance to paradise.
She was his wife. He had the right to intimate knowledge of her. But exercising his conjugal rights could ruin everything he’d worked so hard to achieve over the last few years and the friendships he’d made—especially the friendship with her brother.
Liana didn’t know about all that. She was an innocent and if she was to remain an innocent, Alex couldn’t risk remaining in the coach with her any longer than he had to. But he didn’t have to disappoint her by refusing the sweet she offered. “One taste would be nice.” Reaching into the tin, he selected a piece of candy and bit into it. “Delicious.”
“Aren’t they?” She chose another piece, polished it off in two bites, and politely offered him another.
Alex held up his hand. The chocolate was delicious, but it was only candy. It wasn’t Liana and it didn’t begin to assuage the hunger he was feeling.
Liana placed the lid on the tin and returned it to the hamper. “Mustn’t spoil our supper.”
“Your supper,” he corrected.
“There’s more than enough for the two of us,” she told him.
“Maybe later.”
“You must be hungry,” Liana protested. “You didn’t touch your breakfast, either. And I don’t want to eat if you aren’t going to.” Reaching for the loaf of bread, she wrapped it in the bread towel so she could return it to the hamper.
“There’s no reason for you to go hungry because Ralston needs me to ride postilion for this part of our journey.” He gave her the most apologetic look he could muster. “With Hiller riding ahead, there’s no one else to do it and the next section of road can be tricky this time of year.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He had sent Hiller ahead to warn the staff at the Abbey and the next portion of the trip could be tricky. The road wasn’t as much of a challenge as the possibility of highwaymen, which was why he’d employed a guard to ride postilion in the first place. But there was no reason to worry Liana.
She did her best to hide her disappointment. “What about Schuyler? Why can’t he do it?”
“Schuyler is a footman, my lady. He’s not an equestrian. He doesn’t ride.”
“And you do.”
“Of course I do, my lady. I’m a titled gentleman. Learning to ride was part of my education. Riding well is part of my heritage.”
“Then, of course, you must do it.” Liana managed a half-hearted smile. “When one has a noble heritage and is the beneficiary of an excellent education, one should use it.”
“You’ll be safe in the coach,” he assured her. “Schuyler will be right outside. If you need anything, rap on the ceiling with my cane and he’ll see to it.” Alex lifted his cane from its holder beside the door and placed it on the seat beside her.
He was leaving her alone in the coach on her wedding night and there was nothing she could do about it. “Alex, before you go…”
“Yes?”
Liana blushed. She’d been about to suggest that he kiss her again, but the idea suddenly seemed too bold and forward. Especially when her new husband seemed more eager to leave than he was to stay. She’d thought he liked kissing her, but perhaps that was wishful thinking on her part. Maybe he hadn’t enjoyed kissing her as much as she’d enjoyed kissing him.
“Is there something else you wanted?”
“Be careful.”
“I always am, my lady.”
“Careful and modest,” she teased.
“I am that, too, my lady.” He collected his hat and oilskin coat, gave her a slight bow, opened the door, and alighted from the coach. “Good evening, Lady Courtland.”
Chapter Sixteen
“One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.”
—French Proverb
Alex spent nearly two hours on horseback before he saw the lights shining from the windows and recognized the roofline of the Abbey rising before him like the answer to a prayer. He had passed the majority of the ride cursing himself for his lack of discipline and his stupidity as the rain grew colder and heavier. He was as protected from the elements as it was possible to be, but the damp cold still sent a chill through him. Alex clamped his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering and ca
lled himself ten kinds of a fool for leaving a comfortable coach and a lovely traveling companion to ride postilion on the back of a horse in miserable weather.
A lovely traveling companion? Alex shook his head, slinging raindrops into the night air. What was he thinking? He hadn't left a lovely traveling companion alone in his luxuriously appointed coach. He'd left his bride alone in the coach on her wedding night because he’d made a promise to himself and to her that he would not seek his husbandly rights in a coach on the post road during the long trip to the Abbey.
Alex snorted in disbelief. If she’d simply been a lovely traveling companion, he would be happily ensconced in the coach tumbling her in every manner he could. All the way to Greneleafe Abbey. As he’d done with lovely female companions of lesser social statuses on several memorable occasions.
But Liana was different. She wasn’t like the other women with whom he’d shared a long journey in a coach and a pillow upon arrival. He couldn’t pass the time in the same manner. No matter how much he ached with the need to do so. Which was why he was sitting atop a carriage horse in the freezing rain—tired, cold, wet, hungry, and almost home.
Alex halted the near horse, signaling for Ralston to brake the vehicle as he did so, then dismounted, shook the rain from his hat and coat and hurried back to the coach. Schuyler opened the door and pulled down the steps for him before returning to his station at the back of the vehicle.
His first look inside almost sent Alex back into the cold night. Liana’s emerald green wedding dress lay neatly folded on the backward facing seat beside the hamper of food Lady Manwaring had packed for them. Her shoes were neatly aligned on the floor. Liana sat propped against the wall of the coach of the forward facing seat fast asleep, the lap robe pulled up to her chin. The quandary he’d spent two hours in the rain trying to avoid sat before him—wearing less clothing than before. He sucked in a breath and wished his resolve could be as firm as other parts of him were during that moment.
A Bachelor Still Page 15
