Time in which to make a decision.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The morning trip into Thorney village was a pleasant one. Eve sat quietly in the carriage while her mother and Lady Rosemount discussed suitable menus for a wedding breakfast. Lady Rosemount was all for a large spread of various roast meats, while Adelaide gently pushed for dainty hors d’oeuvre such as Will and Hattie had served guests at their wedding.
Eve frowned as the conversation continued. Freddie had not yet asked her to marry him. It was encouraging, however, that everyone else considered the deal all but sealed. From Freddie’s look of hunger when he caught sight of her at Rosemount Abbey a little while earlier, Eve sensed it wouldn’t take much to push him into proposing.
When they finally returned to the abbey, it was late afternoon. Eve was itching to get inside and hunt down Freddie. Another semi-formal dinner had been agreed upon by the two mothers for the evening and if she played her cards right, it might be a night for champagne and toasts to the newly engaged couple.
“Have you seen Master Frederick?” she enquired of one of the household footmen.
“Yes, Miss Saunders. I believe he is working in the stables. He has been there most of the day cleaning out the stalls,” he replied.
Freddie had never struck her as someone who would be working in the stables, but if that was where he was, then she would seek him out.
The stables were in a long stone building situated some way from the main house. Lord Rosemount had an extensive stud of horses both within the stables and in the nearby fields. His breeding program was well known throughout the ton and his horses came with both an expensive price tag and a long waiting list for prospective buyers.
Her father owned several horses which had been bred at Rosemount Abbey, and he was at pains to make sure his investments were properly looked after by his stable staff. Francis had been working hard to put together enough funds to buy his own Rosemount horse.
Eve walked inside the stables and immediately felt the stillness in the air. The horses were all in their stalls. The only sound to be heard was the soft crunch of hay being chewed. There were no stable hands to be seen.
She walked the length of the stables looking for Freddie. She was about to give up and go back to the house in search of him when she came across an empty stall.
Seated on the floor was her quarry.
“There you are. I was beginning to think you had returned to the main house and I had missed you,” she said.
Freddie looked up and smiled. He patted the straw next to him.
“Come sit with me. The staff have finished for the day. It’s all clean and dry straw; I was just having a rest before I went back to the house. I shall need a bath after this afternoon’s exertions,” he said.
Eve happily plopped down beside him. “I have missed you. I thought when Mama and I came away to the country you and I would get time together, but it’s actually harder here than when we are in London.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean. I was going to grab you this morning and drag you into a room for a thorough kissing, but my mother and Adelaide had already got a hold of you. This visit has been frustrating to say the least.”
She leant over to him and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. When she went to pull away, he grabbed a hold of her head and drew her back to him. “All the stable hands have finished up for the day and gone back to their cottages. You and I are the only ones here,” he said.
When their lips met a second time, Freddie gave her no quarter. He took her mouth with a kiss that had her praying it would never end. Their tongues tangled in a sensual dance. She groaned, knowing it would make him hard.
“Eve,” he murmured.
She had been waiting for this opportunity. To show him she was serious about moving matters to their logical conclusion.
“I’m not leaving here until you and I have lain together. The announcement of our betrothal would only then be a mere formality. My mother could send word to my family with the morning mail carriage. I have already penned a note to Caroline, I just need to date and seal it,” said Eve.
With her intent made clear, Eve put her thoughts into action. Her hand slid down and rested on his crotch. She exalted in feeling how hard his manhood had become. She gave a gentle squeeze and was rewarded as Freddie deepened the kiss.
The buttons on the front of his trousers were an easy task for her nimble fingers. With the placket of his trousers open, she slid a hand inside and took a hold of him. She began to stroke him slowly.
“Oh god, Eve, you know how to tease a man,” he said through gritted teeth.
Eve rose onto her knees and bent down before him. She had heard enough talk amongst her married friends to know the basics of pleasuring a man with her mouth. Hopefully she had a good enough understanding.
“Tell me if I am doing it wrong,” she said.
“Just bow down and take the tip of it in your mouth. Then take as much of it as you can and slide it in and out. Mind you don’t use your teeth,” he instructed.
With his cock in her mouth, she ministered slow, long strokes of him. The salty taste of his essence sat on her tongue.
Freddie lay back and his fingers speared into her hair as she continued to pleasure him. The tension in his breathing gave her all the encouragement she needed. From his soft gasps and groans she knew the moment when the rhythm was just right.
She would have continued to the inevitable conclusion, but Freddie whispered, “Stop.”
Lifting her head, she saw the glaze of passion in his eyes. His face was flushed. He pulled her to him and took her lips once more.
Now it was his turn to play with laces and buttons. Eve’s breasts were soon released from the confines of her gown and chemise. The cool early evening air made her nipples hard.
She whimpered as Freddie took them between his fingertips and gave them a gentle twist. He lowered his head and took the nipple of her right breast into his mouth. He suckled. Gently at first, then harder. His hand slid up her skirt, and she opened her legs wider as he slipped his thumb inside her heat.
“Oh, Freddie. That feels so good,” she whispered.
As he stroked her wet passage, she reached out and took a hold of his hard member a second time. The air in the stall grew heated. The only sounds in the stables were the soft groans from the two lovers and the occasional swish of a horse’s tail.
Eve rolled over onto her back and lifted her skirts. Her womanhood was completely naked to his gaze. She was his for the taking.
“Eve,” he murmured.
He sat back on his haunches, and for the first time she sensed he was hesitant to come to her. She nodded. This was a major moment. Once he had taken her, there would be no going back. They would be forever bound together.
“It’s alright. I am ready,” she said.
A look passed over his face, which gave her pause. Was he unsure? She held her breath, only releasing it when he finally nodded. They were going to finally become one.
He pulled his trousers down, freeing his erection. Eve licked her lips. Her whole body ached for him.
He straddled her and kissed her once more. She put her heart and soul into the kiss. This was the moment. Her maidenhead was about to become his prize, but this would be her victory.
She tried to take hold of his manhood once more, but Freddie inexplicably pushed her hand away. He pulled back from her and his head dropped.
Their faces were close. She searched his gaze, desperate for answers.
“I am ready. Make me yours,” she urged.
He closed his eyes and stilled over her. His breathing began to slow. “I can’t do this.”
A cold dagger of disappointment pierced her heart. She did her best to push the pain away. For all his reckless behavior in London, at the very moment they should be making love, Freddie had decided to be a gentleman.
“It’s alright. I want to give myself to you now. I don’t want to wait until the wedding,” she s
aid.
He rolled off her. She watched in stunned silence as he got to his feet and began to button up the front of his trousers. He offered her his hand, but Eve refused it. “Are you really going to tell me you are that much of a prude you will wait until our wedding day to take my virginity?” The anger of rejection was edged on her words.
He puffed out his cheeks. “There is not going to be a wedding. I don’t want you. The game was fun while it lasted, but I never signed up for marrying you. You only set your sights on me to annoy your sister. You don’t really love me.”
He wouldn’t meet her gaze and turned his head away as Eve began to cry.
“You should get dressed as soon as possible and return to the house,” he said.
And with that he was gone, leaving Eve still in a state of undress on the pile of straw. She closed her eyes as her world crumbled around her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Freddie woke with a stiff crook in his neck. He was lying under a tree in the woods that abutted the Rosemount estate. Just how long he had been there he could not be certain. From the way his head protested furiously at his first attempt to sit up, it had to have been for a number of hours.
After leaving Eve alone and rejected in the stables he had gone back to the house and helped himself to a full bottle of his father’s best whisky. With coat and whisky bottle in hand, he had headed out into the night with the sole intention of drinking himself into oblivion.
In the early morning light, the full force of his elephant sized hangover weighed heavily on him. He dragged himself to his feet, brushing leaves from his coat. The rest of his clothes were damp from the early morning dew.
“Time to face the music,” he muttered.
He would have to spend the rest of the time Eve and her mother were in residence at the abbey trying to avoid them. As he trudged back across the fields, empty whisky bottle in hand, he prayed their visit would be cut short. The thought of having to see Eve’s crestfallen face once more filled him with dread.
“I am not a coward, I did what I had to,” he muttered. The words of Osmont Firebrace’s letter were his only source of comfort.
As he rounded the corner of the house, he came upon his parents, Thomas, and Cecily standing out the front. They all turned to him.
Cecily and Thomas exchanged a few words, and she walked back inside. Lady Rosemount followed closely behind. The look his mother gave him as she passed him by would have frozen the sea.
“Morning,” he said. The nonchalant air with which he attempted to deliver his words fell flat on delivery.
Thomas marched over to him and fixed him with an angry stare. “So, the fox has finally decided to come skulking out of his hole. You are a bloody disgrace,” he said.
Freddie didn’t answer, unsure as to what Eve had told his family about the events of the previous evening. He was certain she would not have mentioned their sexual activities in the stables, but he also knew it would take far less than that for his father to demand he marry Eve.
“What has she said?” he asked. His nauseous stomach was not helping the situation. If he had not encountered his family, he would be throwing up the remains of the whisky still in his stomach into a nearby bush.
“Eve didn’t say anything. She went to her room last night, and a short while later Adelaide Saunders spoke to Mama and said that they were leaving at first light. The only thing we can be certain of is you have jilted her,” replied Thomas.
“How could you do that? You obviously gave the girl all the signs you intended to offer for her and then turned coward at the end. It seems to me you have no sense of honor or decency in your body. What sort of a son have I raised, I ask you?” asked Lord Rosemount.
Freddie’s muddled mind listened to their outpour of anger, and he held the requisite contrite face. Inside, however, his mind was filled with thoughts of burning ambition.
Eve and Adelaide Saunders were gone. He wouldn’t have to face them. This was an unexpected turn for the good. A day or so of his family being angry with him would see things set to right. He would apologize to his parents, explain it away as him being not ready for the commitment of marriage, and then head back to London with all due haste to secure his seat on the Bachelor Board.
Once he had established himself among the wealthy and powerful members of the board, his family would understand. They would accept he had had to make sacrifices in order to be a success. It was just unfortunate Eve’s heart had been one of them.
In his mind he had done the honorable thing by not ruining her, and in time she would thank him.
Thomas loudly cleared his throat, rousing Freddie from his dreams of grandeur.
“Eve Saunders was a delightful breath of fresh air. She is intelligent, well-read, and would have made the perfect wife for you. But no, you had to go and make a mess of things. I tell you, if our father was not standing right here, I would knock you to the ground,” said Thomas.
Lord Rosemount sniffed in obvious agreed disgust. “Don’t let that stop you. It’s taking all my self-control not to throw the first punch. Frederick, you have caused heartbreak to that poor girl and brought shame on your family. Your mother is utterly disgusted with you.”
Thomas and Lord Rosemount both headed into the house, leaving Freddie standing alone, words of rebuke ringing in his ears.
By mid-afternoon, the situation had become intolerable. Every female member of his family he encountered constantly had tears on her face, while every male greeted him with stony silence.
The niggling thought he had treated Eve terribly sparked in his brain. As much as he tried to push the thought away, it refused to budge, and by the end of the afternoon it had taken root. He consoled his growing guilt with the unmistakable fact the damage was done. There was nothing he could do to assuage Eve’s broken heart. She was on the road back to London, his heartless words likely still ringing in her ears.
He pulled the letter from Osmont Firebrace out once more and read it. He had played the final challenge and succeeded. Victory, however, was cold and hollow. He could only pray that in the years to come power and riches would dull the pain of destroying a young woman’s heart.
“It had to be done.”
He toyed with the notion of downing another of his father’s bottles of whisky or even moving on to brandy. His parched throat and dry lips convinced him otherwise. His body would not thank him for another night of sleeping rough in the cold, damp woods.
Finally deciding he was wasting his time remaining at home, he asked the head stableman to take him into Peterborough. He packed a small travel bag and left a cursory farewell note on the dining room table for his parents to discover. He then took his leave of Rosemount Abbey and once he was in Peterborough, he caught the evening coach back to London.
The coach was only half full, which enabled him to settle down in one corner and get comfortable. Fatigue and the remains of his hangover soon caught up with him and he fell asleep.
Sleep did not bring rest or comfort to his mind, and his dreams were filled with tears and black clouds. The constant memory of Eve’s look of heartbroken despair as he pushed away from her sat constantly in the middle of his nightmare.
Winning his seat on the Bachelor Board had come at a terrible price.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eve managed to hold herself together for the first few hours. After Freddie had thrown her over, she had slowly dressed and fixed her hair somewhat. Then she wandered the grounds of Rosemount Abbey in stunned silence for an hour or so before finally making her way back to the main house.
She cried off the invitation to dine with the Rosemount family that evening, claiming a severe headache.
It was only as she lay in her bed that the tears finally came. Nothing in her life had ever come close to the deep body-shaking sobs that held her in their grip for hours.
Her mother came and sat beside her. She didn’t need to ask what was wrong. Adelaide spoke with Lady Rosemount in the late hours a
nd it was agreed that it was best she and Eve leave for London the next morning.
It was with a heavy heart that Eve climbed aboard the coach. The Rosemount family, except the still-missing Freddie, had gathered stony-faced in the courtyard. A soft thank you and goodbye was the best Eve could manage in her current state.
After travelling through Peterborough, they joined the Great North Road, turning south toward London. Adelaide offered for them to overnight at one of the coaching inns en route, but Eve asked they simply change horses and continue on.
She slept a little in the travel coach but refused all offers of food. Her mind was a constant whirl of questions and what-ifs. All her plans had been shattered to a thousand pieces. The Freddie she thought she knew was most certainly not the man who had told her he didn’t want her.
The inside of the carriage began to feel increasingly hot and cramped. The palms of her hands became sweaty and her breathing labored. Inside she was screaming.
“Mama, please stop the carriage. I must get out,” she pleaded.
Adelaide immediately got to her feet and rapped on the roof just below where the coachman was sitting. The coach slowed and pulled over to the side of the road.
Eve flung open the door and, gathering her skirts, leapt down onto the roadside. She made for a nearby empty field.
She made a few steps into a run but found she had not the energy for it. Instead, with head bowed and shoulders slumped, she slowly walked the field, heading farther and farther away from the coach.
When she finally stopped and turned around, she was a long way from the road. Sinking to her knees, she sucked in a great lungful of air before letting out a loud howl of heartbroken despair.
No one had ever told her that a broken heart came with physical pain. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to hug the ache from her heart. Wave after wave of hopelessness crashed over her.
Lord of Mischief Page 11
