A Warriner to Protect Her

by Virginia Heath

  She sensed his gaze and her eyes fluttered open and stared down at him. Jack had never witnessed anything so utterly perfect as Letty was right then. His heart stuttered and his breath caught, and his body throbbed with need. He should stop now. That was the gentlemanly thing to do. Slowly he sat back on his heels and sucked in calming breaths.

  He watched, slightly unnerved, as Letty’s small hands reached out to touch him. She traced his hardness reverently, her fingertips so gentle that Jack had to clench his teeth to stop crying out. Now would be the perfect time to rise from the bed and leave her, because if he stayed a moment longer his resolve would evaporate. He should leave her a virgin. That was the right thing to do. But against his wishes, his hand closed around hers, showing her how to hold him, and from then on he was lost. When he could stand the exquisite torture no more, he lay down beside her again and, like the trusting angel she was, she opened her arms in invitation.

  Her lovely body was still trembling when he positioned himself between her legs and the happy, pleasure-filled smile she gave him, and the way her arms looped languidly around his neck let him know she welcomed this part of the act, too. Emotion clogged his throat. This beautiful, perfect, angel wanted him.

  Jack Warriner.

  What had he ever done to deserve such a gift?

  ‘I love you, Letty.’ The words tumbled out before he could claw them back. Her kiss-swollen lips parted and he just knew she was going to say the same words back. But he wanted them to be real, not uttered in the heat of the moment when her passions were inflamed. Jack placed his fingers gently on her mouth. ‘Not now, Letty. Tell me in a month or two, when all the danger is over. If you still mean it.’

  She sighed and kissed him deeply instead, pushing her hips against his in encouragement. He kissed her back, the tip of his arousal nudging her entrance, and then, with painful, tender slowness, pushed inside.

  Her tight heat encased him. Jack’s body urgently wanted to move, but he held back. He stopped when he met the barrier of her maidenhead. Only then did he break the kiss to stare down into her face. He did not need to tell her he did not wish to hurt her. She understood. Her hand came up to cup his cheek and she shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Just do it. I trust you to make it right.’

  So he did. He pushed past the barrier swiftly, burying himself deep inside her and then stopped dead, feeling like a savage brute for causing her pain. It was Letty’s hips which moved first, undulating against his, enticing him to continue and driving him mad with need.

  When he moved, he intended to do so slowly, but it was Letty who spurred him on. She met his tentative thrusts eagerly, staring deep into his eyes, a beautiful, contented smile on her face. When she wrapped her legs around him and he saw her eyes flutter closed in pleasure, he quite forgot his oath to go slowly. The faster he moved, the deeper he plunged, the more Letty moaned her enjoyment. When her hands came down to grab his buttocks and he felt her pull them roughly, urgently towards her body, he gave up trying to fight it and let the desire take him. To his relief, she cried out first and her body pulsed around the entire length of him, and Jack finally lost his head and joined her, crying out her name in exultation as he pulled out and spilled himself beside her, protecting her even in the heat of the moment.

  Knowing she had made good on her promise.

  She had ruined him for all other women. He would never be able to look at another one again because no one else was Letty and he belonged to her.

  * * *

  They slept for a few hours before Jack could not resist the urge to make love to her again. Slower this time, because he knew it might well be for the very last time. When they next awoke it was already dark and way past the time they should have started on the road. He was tempted to ask her to stay until the morning, but knew what they had come to do could not be put off. If they made good time tonight, they would still see London in the morning and, as much as he feared what returning her home might do to them, it was long past time they banished the threat from her uncle and the Earl of Bainbridge from her life. Once that was dealt with, fate, no doubt, would have its rightful say and all Jack could do was hope and pray that, for once, it might take pity on him.

  * * *

  Jack lifted her on to the saddle carefully, his expression rueful. ‘Are you sore, sweetheart?’

  She was, a little bit, but it was a pleasant sort of soreness which reminded her of what they had done. The very last thing she wanted was to make him feel guilty for it. ‘Not really. I quite like how it feels.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have woken you and—’

  ‘Don’t you dare apologise for our second time together. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.’

  A smile played at the corners of his mouth as he hoisted himself on his own horse. ‘It was rather spectacular.’

  An understatement.

  Intimacies with Jack Warriner were yet another revelation and not something Letty had any intention of giving up while he waited for the dust to settle and he decided they were meant to be together. Why was he so determined to be stubborn? What did she have to do to prove her feelings for him were as real as his were for her?

  ‘It’s insulting, you know.’ Letty hadn’t meant to think out loud, but decided not to be sorry for the sudden outburst.

  ‘What is?’

  ‘Your ridiculous insistence that I do not know my own mind.’

  ‘You have been through such a terrible ordeal...’

  Letty rolled her eyes in irritation. ‘Oh, please! Not that speech again. It’s becoming very tiresome. To be frank, Jack, I really haven’t been through a terrible ordeal at all. Yes, I have had a few terrifying moments in the last month, I am not denying that, but overall, it has been a very positive experience.’

  ‘The devil it has!’ It was his turn to appear agitated now. ‘Being kidnapped has been a positive experience?’

  They turned their horses into a narrower section of the road, riding side by side while they bickered. ‘Yes, it has. I have really enjoyed living at Markham Manor. I liked being part of the family and learning new things.’

  ‘Like how to clean nooks and crannies and do laundry?’ He was staring at her as if she had gone quite mad.

  ‘Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. It made me appreciate my life more. I got a great sense of achievement from doing those chores and it made me happy to know I was helping you and your brothers.’

  ‘So you do admit you are grateful to me, then?’

  She was going to kill him. He was determined to twist her words to justify his own fears about them. ‘Of course I am grateful. You saved me, sheltered me and took care of me. Who wouldn’t be grateful? But that is not the reason why I gave myself to you. I was not that grateful, I can assure you. I was merely trying to explain why the past month has not been the dreadful ordeal you seem to think it was and you are determined to find reasons why I couldn’t possibly love you, when I know quite well that I do love you. And a few weeks of contemplation in London is not going to change that.’

  He pulled up his horse smartly and appeared to be quite annoyed with this statement.

  ‘I’ve told you not to say anything like that until you are certain.’

  But she could see the hope shining in his troubled blue eyes despite his words. If he hadn’t been so much taller and broader than she was, and if they had not both been sat astride horses on the Great North Road, Letty would have grabbed him by those splendid shoulders and tried to shake some sense into him. Denied that satisfaction, words would have to do.

  ‘I am certain, you stubborn fool! I have never been more certain of anything in my entire life.

  ‘I.

  ‘Love.

  ‘You.

  ‘There! I said it again. And I’m not addled, or suffering from misguided gratefulness or blinded by lust to the detrimen
t of all else. It is you who is uncertain, Jack. And rather insultingly, you are uncertain of me!’

  He went to interrupt, but she didn’t give him the chance.

  ‘You’re convinced that after a few weeks, I will grow to resent you, like your selfish mother did your father and grow melancholy and perhaps fade away. What evidence do you have to support such a preposterous notion? I am not like her, Jack. I am not some silly, spoiled, weak-willed woman who cannot cope without the finer things in life. I can bake bread, for goodness sake, and round up sheep and thwart kidnappers all on my own. I am not now, nor will I ever be, the sort of woman who feels sorry for herself or throws herself into a river.’

  When he opened his mouth once more to refute her, she gave him her parting salvo. Something, apparently, he had thus far not considered.

  ‘You think my life with you will be hard. You believe I will be shunned and ostracised by society. If I am, it will be a blessing. I loathe society. I am sick and tired of pretending to be Violet and feeling lonely. But that aside, I think you are missing one very pertinent detail. I am the Tea Heiress. I have far too much money for anyone to shun me, and, in case it has not crossed your stubborn, proud, obstinate mind, when you marry me—and you will marry me, Jack Warriner, because we love each other to bits—you are going to be obscenely wealthy, too!’

  Neither of them saw the four armed men at the side of the road waiting for them until it was too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Two precarious hours left...

  ‘Hello, Violet. Did you miss me?’

  The Earl of Bainbridge’s face was suddenly illuminated when he struck a match. Jack glimpsed the yellowed whites of his eyes and the pistol in his gnarled hand before the match spluttered and died. Jack did his best to shield Letty with his body while he scanned the dark road for a way to escape. Dense tangled bushes flanked both sides of the road, too high for their horses to jump without momentum and too thick to be able to charge through. As he considered galloping back towards Baldock, a dark carriage rolled out behind them, blocking the road completely. Another man climbed out, the same sort of age as Bainbridge and clutching another pistol which he aimed directly at them.

  ‘Uncle William. Have you come to do your own dirty work this time?’ Letty glared at him defiantly, her delicate chin lifted and her fine eyes colder than Jack had ever seen them.

  ‘You should have married Bainbridge, Violet. If you had, then we could have avoided all of this nastiness.’

  ‘My father entrusted you with my safekeeping. He would be turning in his grave to know how you have betrayed me!’

  ‘Perhaps if your father had distributed some of his wealth to me, then I would not have had to resort to this. But I did.’

  Layton stepped out of the shadows, his white, jagged scar more apparent in the moonlight. Jack heard the click as he cocked the hammer of his pistol and pointed it menacingly at Letty. ‘Get down from those horses.’

  The cold calm delivery sent a chill down Jack’s spine. Resisting the urge to pull his own pistol from his belt, he put his hands in the air.

  ‘Do as he says, Letty.’

  On foot, if he could distract Layton, there might be a way of slipping Letty behind the bushes so she could escape.

  Unfortunately, as soon as her feet touched the ground, Letty decided to go on the attack. She made to lunge towards her uncle, but Jack caught her and shielded as much of her straining body as he could with his own. Being restrained did nothing to stop her resolve.

  ‘Do you seriously think I will allow you to drag me to Gretna Green again and force me to marry that man?’

  Her uncle frowned, his own temper dangerously close to the surface. ‘I’m afraid that option is now closed, Violet, thanks to your intrepid escape. It will be easier all around if Bainbridge just kills you.’

  ‘Are you too cowardly to do it yourself?’ Good grief, now she was baiting the man. Jack shot her a warning look, hoping she would back down. Could she not see that while he was holding her back, he was unable to facilitate her escape?

  Being Letty, of course she ignored him.

  ‘Here I am, Uncle. Look me in the eyes and then put a bullet between them.’

  ‘I have no taste for murder, Violet.’

  ‘Yet you sold me off to a murderer quite happily! Does that alleviate your warped conscience in some way?’ She gave a scornful laugh.

  ‘I did what I had to. Now that I think about it, we should have done that from the outset. There was never any need for you to actually marry Bainbridge in the first place because, with you dead, all of your fortune automatically comes to me. But I wanted the deed done far away from London. There are too many curious onlookers there, all so keen to know the next thrilling instalment in the life of the charmed Violet Dunston.’

  Jack saw Letty’s eyes widen in terror a split second before he felt the cold press of a steel barrel against his temple.

  ‘Step away from the lady, Mr Warriner.’ Layton’s voice was laced with malice. ‘Or should that be your lordship... The people of Retford were very eager to tell us all about your family. A bad lot, by all accounts, cheats, thieves, debauchers—earls who would do anything to line their empty pockets with gold. It works in our favour.’

  The bottom of Jack’s gut sunk to his knees as he experienced a strange premonition of what they had planned. Whatever crime would be committed here tonight, the Warriners would be blamed for. ‘Aren’t you forgetting one thing? There are four of us. Or I am to commit your atrocities alone?’

  Jack saw the moment realisation dawned in Letty’s wide green eyes. So did the Earl of Bainbridge. His dry cackle of amusement was the only sound in the still, dark night. ‘You picked a fine family to align yourself with, Violet. They have such a bad reputation I doubt anyone will question their guilt or their hand in your murder. Once the true horror of how they kidnapped you, demanded a huge ransom from your dear uncle, then tried to renege on the deal at the exchange by demanding even more money is known, no one will question it... Fortunately, your uncle had the wherewithal to come with armed men. Shots were fired. Your degenerate Earl was killed—and you, dear Violet, were accidentally caught in the crossfire. It will all be very tragic. Very fitting. One last, splendid story for the newspapers. We will arrange your funeral for the day his wastrel brothers are rounded up and hanged.’

  Her eyes darted between Jack, the pistol at his head and the other men, the panic in her eyes clear to see. Eventually, they settled on Bainbridge, pleading.

  ‘None of this is Jack’s fault. I will do whatever you want—just let him go.’

  She was trying to save him? Jack’s temper surged forth. Of all the stupid, misguided, dangerous, selfless things to offer. If they got out of this alive, he might just kill her himself. But Letty wasn’t anywhere near finished making sacrifices. Like a lioness protecting her cub, she placed her body in front of his. Jack heard the hammer of another pistol cock.

  ‘Take that gun away from his head.’

  When, miraculously, Layton complied and Jack stepped away, he saw Letty had her gun pressed hard into the man’s belly. She turned her head slightly, never taking her eyes off Layton and whispered, ‘Run, Jack!’

  Oh, for goodness sake! This was getting ridiculous. As if he would leave her? As if he could? He loved her, for pity’s sake. When you loved someone you didn’t abandon them. You tried to save them—

  Just as she was trying her level best to save his sorry skin by sacrificing hers, he realised. A lioness to match his lion. There were certainly better ways to be confronted with the full extent of his utter, blind stupidity. Perhaps he wouldn’t kill her after all. He would marry her instead—but first he had to find a way to get them out of here.

  Before Jack could react, both Bainbridge and her traitorous uncle raised their own weapons and aimed them directly
at him.

  ‘What do you hope to achieve, Violet? You are outnumbered. Once your shot is spent, you will still have to watch him die.’ The Earl walked towards him purposefully, his gun arm outstretched and his jaw set firm.

  Despite Letty’s brave façade, the impending threat made her waver. She tossed her pistol on the ground. ‘Please! Don’t hurt him. I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you willingly and then you will have all my money, just don’t harm Jack.’

  For the second time, a pistol was pressed against Jack’s head, except this time he experienced the utter devastation which comes from defeat. She loved him and he loved her, yet now they were both doomed to die. Fate always had the last laugh at the Warriners in the end. Well, if he was about to die, he would do so bravely. Jack stood proudly, squared his shoulders and stared at Letty. Better her face was the last he saw...

  But the blasted woman suddenly darted out of Layton’s grasp and ran like a banshee towards the carriage.

  ‘Take me to Gretna Green! Marry me to Bainbridge... I won’t tell a soul.’ Frantic sobs made her voice catch. ‘Just leave Jack alone!’

  It was her uncle who stalked towards her and grabbed her arm roughly. He tried to drag her back towards Jack, but she fought him, wrestling out of the confines of his arms and pushing him back against the door of the carriage. A sharp cutlass suddenly appeared out of the darkened window of the carriage and pressed against her uncle’s neck.

  Then came Jamie’s calm but incredibly menacing voice.

  ‘As I see it, Bainbridge, this whole sordid plot relies on this snake inheriting all of Letty’s fortune. Once I kill him, even if you do kill her, all of that lovely money goes directly to the Crown, which leaves you with precisely nothing. Unless, of course, you can breathe some life into what will be left of his sorry carcase when I am finished with him.’