One for the Rogue

by Manda Collins

  “If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?” Gemma asked, genuinely wondering. “You might have sent us on our way.”

  “Because I needed to hear the whole blasted story from my godfather’s perspective,” he said with a shrug. “He never would tell it to me. I think because he suspected I would resent him for his weakness in the matter. Which he was perfectly correct about. But being faced with Lady Celeste’s chosen collector, he couldn’t resist.”

  “You really hold him in no affection at all?” Gemma asked.

  “Why should I?” he asked sullenly. “He might have taken me under his wing when I showed an interest in geology, but instead he claimed it was too painful for him because it reminded him of her. Simpering fool.”

  She’d been standing the whole while they spoke and suddenly, she felt a tremor run through her as the cold wind hit her.

  “Oh sit down, you foolish child,” Paley said as he saw her wobble. Before she could brace herself, he placed a hand on her shoulder and shoved her into a sitting position. The rocks were hard on her bottom and back, but Gemma didn’t make a sound.

  He was shuffling back up to where he’d been digging when Gemma saw movement at the other side of the little crescent of shoreline.

  As she watched, Cam crept soundlessly across the rocks. He held a finger to his lips, indicating that she should keep quiet and she clenched her teeth so that she wouldn’t cry out her relief at seeing him.

  Some sixth sense, or perhaps some sound of boots on stone, alerted Lord Paley to his presence, however, because he turned suddenly.

  On seeing who was creeping up on them, he stood up and opened his arms wide.

  “Oh look, it’s the debaucher of innocents come to rescue his false bride,” he said with a sneer. “Do come closer so that I may greet you properly, Lord Cameron.”

  And to Gemma’s horror, she saw that in one of those outstretched hands Lord Paley held a pistol.

  Chapter 26

  As soon as Cam stepped through the door leading to the beachhead, he saw that the light he’d glimpsed from his window was a lamp. The next thing he noted, and what made his heart leap into his throat, was Lord Paley, shoving Gemma, her hands tied behind her back toward the sloping chalk cliff where she’d found the fossil they knew now was the Beauchamp Lizard.

  Not wanting to alert the other man to his presence, he waited while Gemma questioned him about his role in Sir Everard’s murder. He wasn’t sure if she was stalling until someone came to save her, or if she simply sought to understand the man’s motive.

  Either way, he used the time to his advantage, searching for and finding a large enough stone to cause the other man damage if Cam were to strike him with it. He clutched it in his hand while Paley continued to talk, until he saw him shove Gemma to the ground. And he knew he had to act.

  As quietly as he could, he walked across the rocks toward the far side of the shore, and when Gemma saw him, he indicated that she should remain silent. She gave a slight nod, and he continued.

  But something must have warned Paley because he turned around, and to Cam’s horror, when he rose to his feet he was holding a pistol in one hand. A pistol he aimed at Gemma.

  “Oh look, it’s the debaucher of innocents come to rescue his false bride,” Paley said with a sneer. “Do come closer so that I may greet you properly, Lord Cameron.”

  “Don’t hurt her, Paley,” Cam said, suddenly wishing he’d gone back for Benedick’s help when he saw Paley had Gemma. “If you hurt someone, make it me. Don’t hurt her. You haven’t harmed a lady yet. Don’t start now.”

  “How would you know?” Paley scoffed. “Just because I murdered Sir Everard, that doesn’t mean he was the extent of my criminal career. Not all of us are bound to some outdated code of honor where women are concerned. I had hoped you were one of us, but then you fell prey to this hussy’s charms. It will never cease to amaze me that otherwise intelligent men so often find themselves tied up in knots over something that can be had for a few bob on the nearest street corner.”

  “Either I’m an innocent or a hussy, Lord Paley,” Gemma said boldly. “Make up your mind. I cannot be both.”

  Cam bit back a curse at her taunt. She was going to get herself killed.

  “She’s not worth it, Paley,” he shouted, desperate to take the man’s attention off Gemma and onto himself. “Don’t waste your shot.”

  But Paley had already turned to face his prisoner. “You are bold for someone on the other end of a pistol, Miss Hastings,” he said coldly.

  “Because I have more courage in my little finger than you ever will, you murderer,” Gemma shouted. “If you were any sort of collector you wouldn’t have to steal to get what you wanted. In fact, you would have—”

  To Cam’s horror, Paley made a growling sound and raised his hand to fire.

  Even as he watched, Cam ran as fast as he could toward the other man and a shot rang out in the night, followed closely by another.

  By the time he reached where Gemma and Paley struggled on the ground, he found them both covered in blood.

  Furious, he pulled Paley off her and raised his fist to punch the man, but somehow Gemma’s voice penetrated the red fog of his anger.

  “Cam! Cam! He’s hit already.”

  And to his shock he realized that Paley was indeed the one who was bleeding.

  He turned to Gemma. “Are you hit as well?” he asked as he shoved the other man to the side. “I heard two shots.”

  “No, I’m not hit,” she said with a shake of her head. “But I don’t know who fired the other shot.”

  “That was me, I’m afraid,” said a voice from the stairs leading from the top of the cliffs to the beach.

  They looked up to see Maximillian Pearson coming toward them, followed close behind by Serena.

  Not waiting to greet the man, Cam turned Gemma so that he could remove the ropes binding her hands.

  Mindless of the blood on her gown, he pulled her to him.

  “I thought you’d be killed, you stubborn girl,” he said as he held her against him with trembling arms. “What were you thinking to taunt him like that?”

  “I was thinking that I very much wanted him not to shoot you,” she said against his shoulder. “What were you thinking?”

  “Perhaps you can carry on this conversation indoors?” Serena asked from where she stood beside Pearson. “We’ll need to make room for the footmen to remove Lord Paley into the house.”

  “Of course,” Cam said, then much to Gemma’s chagrin if her squeal was to be believed, he swung her into his arms and carried her toward the door leading to the tunnel into Beauchamp House.

  * * *

  Though her bath from earlier was cold by now, Gemma washed quickly in the water and changed into a clean gown before she made her way to the drawing room, where she found Serena, Mr. Pearson, and Cam.

  The latter two were sipping brandy, and when Serena offered her a cup of tea, Gemma declined it and turned to the sideboard to pour herself a bit of brandy too.

  Not caring about the propriety of it—on a night like this she would do what she pleased—Gemma took a seat beside Cam and curled up against his side, welcoming his arm around her shoulders.

  “Lord Paley is being seen to by Dr. Holmes upstairs,” Serena said without commenting on her charge’s boldness. “I’ve sent for Mr. Northman as well so that he may hear the full story of Lord Paley’s misdeeds.”

  “I must confess, Lady Serena,” said Pearson with a frown, “I blame some of this on myself. If I hadn’t been so unwilling to speak about what I knew about the Beauchamp Lizard, I feel sure that Paley wouldn’t have felt it necessary to kill Sir Everard over it.”

  “What did you know, sir?” Gemma asked, curious now whether, as Lord Crutchley had told them, Pearson had been there the day Lady Celeste found the fossilized skull.

  “I was here the day Lady Celeste found it,” he said with a pained expression. “I was … infatuated, I suppose is the word … and I was w
atching her. I saw her unearth it, with Lord Crutchley by her side. I saw more as well—”

  He broke off and Gemma knew he was speaking of the intimacy he’d also seen that day.

  “I decided, and I’m not proud of it, but I decided to steal the fossil from her.” Pearson shook his head. “If I couldn’t have her, I would have that damned fossil she was so proud of.”

  “So it was your theft attempt that made her decide to hide it?” Gemma asked.

  “Yes,” he said with a look of shame. “I did many things I’m not proud of. Then, as well as now.”

  “How did you come to be here tonight?” Cam asked. He was grateful for the man’s shot that saved Gemma, but wondered why he’d been here at all.

  “I received a note from Lord Crutchley,” he said with a bemused look. “I hadn’t thought of the man in decades. Not since those days when I was so taken with your aunt, Lady Serena. But he was concerned that his godson might be about to do something foolish. He spoke specifically of danger to you, Lady Cameron.”

  He turned to Gemma and Cam. “Felicitations on your marriage, by the way.”

  Gemma didn’t have the heart to tell him that she and Cam weren’t married just yet, so she simply said, “Thank you,” and Cam echoed her.

  There was an awkward silence before Serena leapt into the breach with her usual social aplomb. “Why don’t you tell them what happened when you received Lord Crutchley’s note,” she said kindly.

  As if surprised to find her still there, Pearson nodded. “I set out for Beauchamp House at once. I had found Paley to be interested to the point of obsession about the Beauchamp Lizard over the course of the gathering at Pearson Close. And when Sir Everard turned up dead, after boasting about having found it, I had a suspicion that Paley might have been involved.”

  He took a deep breath. “I should have said or done something, but you must understand. Tonight is the first time I’ve left my estate in decades.”

  Recognizing true contrition when she saw it, Gemma placed her hand over his. “And I am so grateful for it. I have no doubt you saved my life tonight, sir.”

  His cheeks colored and he looked at the floor. “Thank you, Lady Cameron.”

  The drawing room door opened then to admit Sophia and Benedick.

  Unmindful of the others, Sophia hurried to her sister’s side and knelt beside her. “Are you trying to give me an apoplexy?” she asked, taking Gemma’s hands in hers.

  Ben, meanwhile introduced himself to Pearson and said, “We had word from Serena that my services might be needed here tonight. Little did I realize that when we ate luncheon with Paley and his godfather he’d attempt to murder Cam and Gemma later in the evening.”

  “If you ask me,” Gemma said with a scowl, “Lord Paley doesn’t deserve last rites. He’s already murdered one person and intended to murder me and Cam as well.”

  “But that’s the thing about the lord’s forgiveness, Gemma,” her brother-in-law told her gently. “It’s there for everyone. Even the murderers among us.”

  He came forward and kissed her on the cheek, though to take the sting out of his words. “I’m glad you’re unharmed.”

  As she watched, he placed a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “And you, as well. I would have spent the rest of my days regretting it if our quarrel in the carriage were my last words to you.”

  Cam moved to clasp his brother’s hand in his. “But it wasn’t. So you’d better go say some holy things over Paley before he dies of his wounds.”

  The brothers exchanged grins and Gemma knew that whatever animosity had been between them was healed now.

  When Benedick was gone, Pearson stood. “I will be off then,” he said, clearly a little uncomfortable with the family scene before him.

  He was interrupted, however, by the appearance of Squire Northman in the doorway. “I think not, Pearson, if you were here when Lord Paley was shot.”

  Realizing that they had a long night ahead of them, Gemma turned to Serena. “I think I will have that cup of tea after all.”

  Chapter 27

  When Cam finally slipped into Gemma’s bedchamber some two hours later, he was bone tired. But he’d been almost constitutionally incapable of returning to the vicarage with his brother and sister-in-law. After almost losing Gemma to a madman’s shot, he had to hold her in his arms or he’d never get a moment’s rest.

  She’d gone up a half hour before and when he shut the door behind him, he saw that she had left a lamp burning on the bedside table.

  Despite that, she was fast asleep, her hair glinting around her like a halo as she lay curled beneath the blankets.

  As quickly and quietly as he could, Cam shucked off his boots and coats and stripped down to his smallclothes before slipping beneath the covers with her.

  She murmured something as he pulled her warm body against him, but didn’t wake up. And for the first time since they’d left the inn that morning, he relaxed and breathed in the violet scent of her, then fell fast asleep.

  When he came awake again the first rays of light were peeking through the narrow gap between the curtains, and a warm mouth was working its way down his neck.

  “Who is this intoxicating creature?” he asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

  “You’re dreaming,” she said, crawling up his body to kiss him on the mouth. “I’m a mere figment of your imagination, Lord Cameron.”

  “If that’s the case then I don’t know what I will tell my intended,” he said, sliding his hands down to cup her bottom. “Because I fear she’s a very jealous lady. She won’t like your being here with me at all. In fact, I think you’d better go, imaginary lady.”

  “And what if I told you she wouldn’t mind?” Gemma took his lower lip in her teeth, and Cam felt himself harden against her.

  “Would she not?” he asked, moving his hands to grasp the fabric of her nightdress and slide it up her body. “I don’t think you know her as well as I do.”

  She shifted to let him remove the gown completely, and sighed against him as her bare breasts brushed against his chest. “I think I do,” she said, moving her hips to tease herself against his hardness. “She likes this very much, I think.”

  “Does she now?” Cam asked, grasping her hips and moving her so that he was right where she wanted him.

  Gemma breathed out a sigh of pure pleasure before shifting to brace her hands on his chest. Then in one fluid motion, she sat up, seating him fully inside of her.

  Cam looked up at her, naked and glorious as she sat impaled on him. He moved one hand to cup her breast, while the other guided her hip as she began to move. There were no more words, then, only sensation as she experimented, finally finding a rhythm that they both found pleasing. And he watched her for as long as he could, her eyes closed and her mouth wide with ecstasy as she rode him to completion.

  When he felt her quiver around him, Cam held her tight, and flipped them so that he was on top and let himself go, taking her, claiming her, loving her with his body as he whispered words of love against her neck until he felt himself fly over the edge into bliss.

  He came to himself again with the soft stroking of her fingers in his hair. He’d collapsed on top of her, he realized with a start, before he began to roll to the side.

  “Don’t you dare move, Cameron Lisle,” she said, clasping him to her with her ankles locked around him. “You’re perfect just where you are.”

  “I don’t want to crush you,” he protested, moving a little so that he could see her face.

  She moved her hand to brush an errant lock of hair from his face. “I like it. You may be sure that if I ever find you are doing something I dislike, I will tell you.”

  He laughed. “I suppose that’s right.”

  “Now,” she said firmly, “lay your head back down so that I can stroke you.”

  “Your hair,” she said in response to his raised brow.

  Laughing again, he laid his head on her breast while she continued to toy with his hair.

>   “We’ll have to marry soon,” she said conversationally. “If only so that we don’t have to sneak around in order to do what we just did,”

  “There’s also the small detail that we’ve already passed ourselves off as a married couple,” he said wryly. Though he too would like to marry so that they could enjoy one another without fear of being caught.

  “But there is one thing we haven’t talked about,” she said thoughtfully. “The matter of where we will live.”

  “We haven’t discussed it, of course,” Cam said, moving so that he was lying beside her where he might see her face. “But I do have a tidy little manor house just down the coast on the other side of Brighton.”

  She frowned. “Do you, indeed?”

  “You didn’t think I’d wed you without having something to offer you besides a collection of fossils, did you?”

  Her expression was sheepish. “Well, I had thought since it was so sudden—” she began.

  “Gemma,” he said with a shake of his head. “Did you really believe I had nothing more to my name than fossils? That I wished to marry you so that I might lay claim to Beauchamp House?”

  He wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or amused.

  “Not to get Beauchamp House, no,” she corrected him, sitting up with her back against the ornately carved headboard. “But if it were necessary, I would not have objected to our living here. I am the last of the heiresses after all, so…”

  “But we’ve a full month before the year ends,” he reminded her, kissing the end of her nose. “So, last or not, you too will be wed before the first year is up. You’ll all have to share joint ownership.”

  “About that,” she said with a look of embarrassment. “What if we waited until after the first of the year to marry?”