You are the prince in my dreams.
Time no longer seemed to matter.
All she saw was beauty and brightly shooting stars.
I love you. I love you. She could never say those words aloud. He’d think her foolish and she’d scare him away. Nor could she trust her own feelings yet, knowing full well that love didn’t simply blossom overnight.
He was the one to finally end the kiss and ease his lips from hers. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw that he wore a seductive grin. “Glad you liked it, Winnie.”
Was she that obvious? Of course, since she was still clinging to him and her body was in flames. She didn’t have to look at her reflection in the mirror to know that her eyes were green embers and filled with wonder. “Did you like it?”
He tweaked her chin. “I think you’ve had a very busy night and had better get some sleep now.”
She gasped. “You didn’t like it.”
“Did I say that? I don’t believe so.” He took her by the shoulders and gently turned her toward the sofa. “Get some rest. You may ask me again in the morning.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked when he started out of the room.
“Find some cold water. The coldest possible.”
“Why?”
He burst out laughing and once again refused to answer her question.
* * * *
As Winnie drifted awake the next morning, she had the memory of her first kiss foremost on her mind. Magical didn’t begin to describe it, but she also recalled that Captain Mariner hadn’t particularly liked it. What could she do? Insist that he kiss her again? Promise that she would do better next time?
Even now she felt every sensation, of his sweeping her into his arms when her own legs no longer seemed capable of supporting her, of his lips hot and possessive against hers, as though he were an explorer finding new territory and claiming it for his own. But there had been more to the kiss than his mere taking and claiming and satisfying his own need, for he’d opened his wary heart to give her something of himself in return.
At least, it had felt that way to her.
The cock’s first crow startled her, and as the annoying fowl continued to announce the new day to the entire village, she threw off her blanket and sat up. Rubbing her eyes, she blinked them open and glanced around. She was stretched on the sofa in the parlor, wrapped in one of the blankets from her bed.
She was alone.
Her first thought was that Captain Mariner and the nighttime visit from the Darkwells had been a bad dream, although the Captain Mariner part had been quite splendid. Just the rest of it had been awful. She would have believed it was all an illusion if not for the light scent of him, an appealing mix of honey and spice and warrior, lingering on the blanket.
And if not for the lingering tingle of her lips where his mouth had pressed on hers.
She grazed her finger lightly across the swell of her bottom lip and sighed. Oh, yes. A memorable kiss. The best any girl could wish for. “Captain?” she called out softly.
Sunlight streamed in through the open windows. Windows that are open and not shuttered. A gentle breeze wafted through the house. “Are you here? Have the wicked Darkwells gone for good?”
There was no response.
She glanced at her clothes and saw that she was no longer wearing her costume but had on a serviceable gown of pale blue muslin. Oh, yes. Captain Mariner had helped her into it during her passing queasiness. A hot blush stole into her cheeks at the memory of his big, confident hands on her body.
Her dancing slippers had been replaced by sturdy walking boots.
He’d helped her into those as well, her heart shooting into her throat when he’d taken her foot and placed it against his muscled thigh. Was this how it would be from now on? Her limbs melting and her mind turning to pudding every time she gazed at him? “You are attics-to-let, Winnie. Miss Allenby-Falk’s pies are to blame, no doubt.”
However, the more she tried to explain away her yearning for this stranger who had suddenly appeared in her life, the more convinced she was that he had forever captured her heart.
Ridiculous thoughts such as “the sun shines brighter and birds begin to chirp outside my window whenever he comes into view” crossed her mind. Winnie was about to call to Captain Mariner again when she heard noises in the kitchen—the clatter of pans and a woman humming one of the tunes the piper had been playing at yesterday’s fair.
“Ah, ye’re finally awake, Lady Winnie.” Mrs. Halloway cast her a pleasant smile before returning to the task of stirring up the fire in the kitchen hearth. “Made ye some biscuits. I think we all had a little too much merriment yesterday.” She rolled her strained brown eyes. “Mr. Halloway will need another day to recover. Imbibed too much ale last night. He claimed it was howling dogs that kept him awake, but I know it was the ale. I had too much as well.”
She popped the biscuits out of the oven and set them in a basket on the large wooden table in the center of the kitchen to cool. “Must have been the ale, for I thought I saw a naked man washing ’imself by the stream when I walked down there earlier to fetch water.”
Winnie gasped. “What did he look like?”
Mrs. Halloway gave her backside a light tap. “What sort of question is that for a proper young lady to ask?” Then she let out a chuckle. “No harm in telling ye, I suppose. Caused my heart to flutter, I will admit.”
She sighed and shook her head before continuing. “He was the sort of man one dreams of, not the scrawny sort we have in these parts. Hair the color of gold he ’ad, and there was a fire-breathing dragon painted on his shoulder with its tail wrapped around his arm like this.” She drew an imaginary circle around her upper arm and then burst into hearty laughter. “Ah, well. One can dream to be swept into the arms of a man like that.”
“Indeed, Mrs. Halloway.” Winnie cast her an impish grin, noting with relief that the glass from the broken window had been cleared away and there were no rocks littering the floor.
“Forgive me, Lady Winnie.” She followed Winnie’s gaze to the broken window. “We should have returned with ye. Looks like there were some mischief makers about last night.”
Winnie nodded. “They didn’t stay long. I came to no harm.” She didn’t wish to divulge more of what had happened, so she shook her head and changed the topic. “I like your dream. Mine wasn’t nearly as much fun as yours. Do you think the gentleman is still by the lake?”
Mrs. Halloway waved her hand over the biscuits to cool them. “I wouldn’t think so, dear. But who knows? Odd things have been happening lately, and to add to it, your aunts took themselves off so suddenly the other day you’d think they’d been summoned by mad King George ’imself.”
Winnie poked her head out the window, but the stream wasn’t visible through the blossoming foliage. “They’ll be back today. They must. My birthday is tomorrow and they’d never miss it.”
“Ah, yes. You’ll be all of twenty-one! I was just shy of eighteen when I married Mr. Halloway and had my second child on the way by the time I was your age.” She shook her head and smiled. “But birthday or no, ye shouldn’t have been left on yer own even for a day. Well, we’re ’ere to look after ye now.”
Winnie simply nodded and returned her smile.
Mrs. Halloway pursed her lips and tsked. “Where does the time go? I still remember when your godmothers brought ye here all those years ago, a little princess with no ’air and a set of lungs the like I’d never heard before. Was it truly—”
She broke off suddenly and trained her gaze out the window. “Well, look at that. There’s the gentleman I was tellin’ ye about.”
Winnie followed Mrs. Halloway’s gaze and spotted Captain Mariner standing beside the copse of trees, the entire handsome length of him. He still wore his warrior’s garb and looked nothing like a proper English gentleman. He was the man of her dreams, and it mattered little who or what he was, for she trusted him with her heart.
She tore out of
the house at a run.
“Good morning, Winnie.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to approach.
She was breathless by the time she reached his side and took a moment to catch herself. “I was afraid you’d gone away.”
“Not while you’re still in danger,” he said with a husky tenderness that set her heart aflutter. His words were as warm and inviting as honey melted over hot bread. Which reminded her that she was hungry and ought to have grabbed a biscuit before running out of the house.
She laughed lightly. “Mrs. Halloway caught you washing by the stream. I knew by her description that it had to be you. Would you like breakfast? It’s just biscuits this morning, but I might be able to convince her to cook up some eggs.”
“I’ve already had my breakfast. How did you sleep?” He turned to walk by the stream, and she realized it was so they wouldn’t be seen from the house.
She followed him, studying his back and wondering what that dragon portrait on his shoulder blade looked like. He would have to remove his shirt to show her, but she couldn’t possibly ask it of him despite her aching curiosity.
Then again, why not? She could brazenly ask him to take it off... and ask if she could touch it. And ask... she cleared her throat to rid herself of naughty thoughts. She was a lady, after all. “I tossed and turned most of the night. Every time I drifted off to sleep, the Darkwells and those dogs haunted my dreams.”
She cleared her throat again when he stopped and turned to face her, his own lack of sleep putting a seductive slant to his eyes that enhanced his considerable good looks. “Captain,” she said with a soft tremor to her voice, “you held me in your arms to soothe me. I could hear the steady beat of your heart against my ear. My heart was pounding like a farrier’s hammer. How did you manage to remain calm after those attacks?”
He shrugged. “One grows used to danger.”
“I’m sorry,” she said in a matter-of-fact manner, clasping her hands together to keep from touching him. “One should never be so beleaguered as to accept the bad in one’s life.” She felt a pang of sorrow and wanted to put her arms around him, but he didn’t seem the sort to accept sympathy and certainly never pity.
“Sometimes it can’t be helped.” He knelt beside the stream, watching the morning sun glisten across the small ripples of water.
She studied him as he seemed to disappear in thought and tried to imagine him in the clothes of a gentleman—buff breeches, silk vest and cravat, jacket of fine merino wool, and tall, brown leather boots. He’d look incredibly handsome no matter what he wore and would always carry himself with the pride of a warrior for it was etched into his being. “You gave Mrs. Halloway quite a show this morning,” she said, hoping to draw him out of his silence by tossing a small jest into the conversation.
He turned to her and merely arched an eyebrow.
Winnie settled close to him on a rock by the stream’s bed. “And put on quite a show for me last night. I refer to the comets-blazing-across-the-sky magical kiss you gave me last night.”
He ran a hand raggedly through his still damp hair, maintaining his silence for a moment longer before relenting with a curt nod. “I merely kissed you, Winnie. It was no more than that.”
“It was everything more.” Her heart, already pounding from excitement at his nearness, now shot into her throat. “At least, for me it was.”
There was a warmth to his blue eyes that hadn’t been there yesterday, but he made no further comment about it. Instead, he returned his gaze to the quiet stream, watching the glistening waters softly whoosh by with the current. “The Darkwells had you under their very noses for all these years and never caused you any trouble before. That’s what you said last night.”
She nodded.
“I need to talk to Lord and Lady Darkwell, find out what they’re up to. I think I must also speak to your cook and her husband.”
Winnie frowned. “You can’t think Mrs. Halloway or her husband have anything to do with this wickedness. They’re loyal family retainers and have been at Kingsley Hall since I was a babe. I won’t have you treating them as though they’re suspects.”
He held up his hands in surrender and nodded. “I’m sure they’re as loyal as you say. But they might have seen something or have some information that might help.”
“Oh, I suppose that makes sense.” Winnie let out a breath of relief. “I love them both, even though Mrs. Halloway can be an incorrigible snoop at times. She intends to keep her eye out for you. You made quite an impression on her while bathing in the stream in all your naked splendor.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Did you peek?”
“No, unfortunately I missed it. I was in the house and she was fetching water when—” She gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. She had missed his bathing, but it wasn’t unfortunate. “I didn’t mean it quite the way it came out.”
He cast her a grin that revealed he understood she’d meant exactly what she’d said. However, after a moment, his grin faded. “Will Mrs. Halloway remain with you today, or does she plan to return to the fair?”
“She and her husband will stay with me until my godmothers return. Why?”
“I’d like to talk to the Darkwells as soon as possible, but I dare not leave you alone. However, if others are with you, especially those you trust, then I can look into this mystery all the sooner. But you must promise to stay in the house and keep your guard up at all times. Keep those fire irons close at hand and don’t hesitate to use them.”
She frowned lightly. “Why can’t I investigate with you? You said you wouldn’t leave until—”
“I’m not leaving. Well, not for very long. It’s too dangerous to take you with me. I’ll return in a few hours.” He sighed and shook his head, and then his voice grew softer. “But it’s early yet. We have some time before I can knock at their door. How about letting me teach you to swim?”
His kiss had touched her heart and brought on sensations she’d never experienced before. Clinging to him in the water, wet skin to wet skin, made mindless by her lifelong fear of drowning and coupled with her desire for him, seemed a recipe for disaster. “I don’t think so.”
“I thought you trusted me.”
“I do. It’s just that you confuse me. I kissed you and I don’t even know your real name. Who are you? How did you come into my life?” She let out a ragged breath. “And how will I ever forget you once you leave?”
“Bloody hell, Winnie.” He had a stubborn look on his face. “Do you wish to learn to swim or don’t you?”
She found this tendency in him not to answer questions quite irritating, although he was perfect in every other way. No, not perfect. Goodness, she wasn’t even certain he was real. He wasn’t real. He was the prince in her dreams and he’d disappear along with the rise of tomorrow’s sun.
“Very well,” he said as she remained silent, his muscles tensing as he stretched his long, lean body on the grassy bank of the stream and intensified his gaze on the water. “I liked our kiss.”
“What?”
“Very much.”
She stared at him a long moment, watching as his jaw tensed. “What has it to do with swimming?”
“Nothing, I suppose. But you wanted to know what I thought of the kiss, and I couldn’t tell you last night because it frightened me more than those damn dogs.”
Her heart began to flutter in a rapid beat. So he’d been affected by it, too. Was he now concerned that she’d put too much meaning in his admission? She knew better than to do so. He would leave soon and she’d remain behind, for she was meant to lead a quiet life in the country and perhaps, if she was fortunate, marry an amiable gentleman of means. Just not Mr. Mortimer. But perhaps one who resembled Captain Mariner. No, that is asking too much.
She wanted to ask him more questions, but he avoided her gaze and peered beyond her. “I hear a carriage coming up the drive.”
“Oh, dear! Have the Darkwells returned?” She was almost relieved, for the
fear of actually getting into the water, even with him, overwhelmed her as much as it tempted her. Fear of the Darkwells was nothing to that of drowning.
WISH UPON A KISS
CHAPTER SIX
Ardaric rose and reached for Winnie’s hand to draw her up alongside him. “No, it’s your godmothers.”
“They’re home!” Winnie’s eyes were suddenly as bright as the shimmering stream waters. The sky was a spectacular blue, dotted with a few soft, white clouds, and Winnie’s hair was a ginger blaze in the sunlight, the loose curls about her ears and forehead blowing gently in the warm breeze.
“It appears so.” He tamped down his disappointment. He would give Winnie that swimming lesson another time. Too bad. The day was perfect, and he could think of nothing better than to be in the water, holding Winnie’s soft, wet body as she clung to him while learning to swim... only he knew it would lead to something more.
Something hot and wild and dangerous.
“I’m so glad they’re back.” She emitted a sincerely joyous sigh. “I missed them so much.”
He nodded. “Go on ahead. I’ll see what I can learn from the Darkwells and meet you back at Kingsley Hall later.”
Her eyes rounded in surprise. “Won’t you come with me to greet them? At least join us for breakfast?”
“As I said, I’ve already eaten.”
“Oh, you did say that. I had hoped... never mind.”
“But I’ll return soon. I promise, Winnie.” He grinned in response to the obvious disappointment in her voice.
She took his hand and gave it a little squeeze. “I’ll hold you to it. Please be careful. They’re villains and I don’t wish to see you hurt.”
He ran his knuckles along her cheek in a light caress, afraid to give her so much as an innocent kiss on her freckled nose, for he knew he’d be lost the moment his lips touched any part of her. “Stay out of trouble, Princess.”
“I will... I’ll try.” She tipped her chin up in defiance. “But don’t expect me to hold to it. I’ll come after the Darkwells and tear down their home, stone by stone, until there’s nothing left of them or it, if they dare put a scratch on you.”
Once Upon A Regency Page 30
