Lord of Mischief
Page 24
When he teased her to the point she now knew so well, Eve pushed him back onto his heels. “Your lady commands you take her to bed and show her how good you really are at serving her.”
He needed no further instruction.
Chapter Forty-Four
The following morning, Eve and Freddie slept late. They made love a second time in the early hours before the dawn, after which Freddie wrapped his arms and legs around her and held her close.
A hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and kippers replenished the energy levels that Freddie’s lustful attentions to her body had depleted. Eve sat with a cup of coffee in her hand and looked at him over the rim.
“So, what do you intend to do about the blackguards who kidnapped me? I am surprised you didn’t ride to find the local militia once we got here,” she asked.
Freddie looked up from his breakfast. “The nearest militia post is a good twenty miles away. I reasoned by the time I managed to get there, find someone who would listen to my story, and have them return with me, it would be too late. I am sure once we return to London, we shall gain a better understanding of who exactly had you kidnapped,” he replied.
“So how was it that you found me?”
He put down his knife and fork and cleared his throat. Eve sensed something was off by the way he wouldn’t meet her gaze. “They left a note,” he finally replied.
She was about to question him further when the innkeeper arrived at their table.
“Begging your pardon, sir, but I have not been able to find a small carriage for your use. The only thing I have is a cart. If you wish to take that, you could change it over for something more suitable at the next major town,” he said.
Freddie wiped his lips with his napkin and got to his feet. “Excuse me, my love, I must go and attend to the matter of our transport. If you would finish your breakfast and then gather anything you have in our room, I shall meet you out at the stables shortly.”
He followed the innkeeper out the door, leaving Eve to ponder his sudden evasive manner.
She went back upstairs and made herself ready to leave. She wrapped her cloak around herself ready for the long journey home.
The inn was situated at the front of the yard, with the stables at the rear. As she stepped out, Eve saw the various carriages and travel coaches of the other guests who were staying at the inn. She was walking slowly toward the stables when she passed by a carriage that nearly made her heart stop.
It was a black carriage, like hundreds of others that travelled the roads of England, but it was the man who was seated up on the driver’s seat which had her hastening her steps.
She rounded the corner and was relieved to see Freddie talking to the innkeeper. She kept her stride even as she walked, resisting the urge to run to him. Will had taught his siblings never to show when they had uncovered a secret—it gave too much power away.
The innkeeper’s son was busy loading a small trunk into the back of the cart to which Freddie’s horse had been harnessed. She ignored their odd mode of transport, her mind solely focused on her need to speak to Freddie.
To warn him.
As soon as she reached his side, she took a hold of his arm, and pulled him in close. “The men who took me are here! I saw the man who grabbed me at your house on top of a black carriage in the front yard,” she said.
Freddie frowned. He looked to where the carriages were lined up in the front yard.
“Which one?”
She followed his gaze, then shook her head.
“It’s the third or fourth as you go back around the corner. You can’t see it from here. Thank god. It means they cannot see us.”
He told a hold of the reins of the cart and spoke to his horse. He ran his fingers up and down its forehead. “I know it’s a small cart and it is beneath you, but beggars cannot be choosers.”
With a loud huff, Eve grabbed hold of Freddie’s arm. He was taking the situation far too lightly for her liking. “What are you going to do about them? If the militia are as far away as you say they are, then what is to stop them from assailing us on the road and taking both of us captive?”
Her words seem to have the desired effect. Freddie stopped tending to his horse and turned to her. “This is what we are going to do. We are going to get in the cart. You are going to cover yourself with your cloak and we are going to pray to the heavens they don’t get a good look at us,” he replied.
Without further ado, Freddie put his hands around Eve’s waist and lifted her into the passenger seat of the cart. He climbed up beside her and gave the whip a crack.
Eve put the hood of her cloak up and covered her head. As they passed by the row of carriages, she turned her head away from them. Freddie gave a crack of the small whip, and the horse picked up the pace.
He turned the horse’s head to the north as soon as they cleared the inn. A mile or so outside the village, he turned to her. “You can take your hood off now. We are well out onto the road, you can relax” he said.
Eve threw back the hood and glared at him. When he refused to meet her gaze, she gave him a hard thump on the arm. “Relax, are you mad? What is to stop them from coming after us? I am sure that they must know who we are, and this cart is not exactly built for speed. What are we going to do?” she asked.
Freddie pulled the horse and cart over to the side of the road. He jumped down and tied the horse to a nearby tree.
A fuming Eve sat in the cart, arms folded.
He rounded to her side of the cart and put up his hands. She refused to take them. When he began to laugh, she wished she could beat him with her fists.
“They are not coming after us. I promise you that,” he said.
“And how can you tell? Can you read the minds of evil men? What is to stop Osmont Firebrace from coming around that bend and shooting us both on sight?” she angrily replied.
“Because the men with the carriage are taking it back to London. I only hired them and the carriage for the week. Any longer and I shall lose my deposit on the carriage. The horse I rented for a few weeks longer.” Freddie held her gaze. “Oh, and as for Osmont Firebrace, he was arrested long before anyone else, held along with several other men at a secret location outside of London. The rest of the members of the Bachelor Board assumed they fled the country and tried to follow. The men in the Tower of London were caught trying to seek passage onboard ships bound for Ireland.”
A slow burning anger began to grow in Eve’s brain as her mind processed what he had said.
“Now, would you like to come down from the cart so we can talk this out?” he said.
Eve clenched her fists, silently wishing she had a knife or a gun hidden somewhere in her skirts. She batted away his offered hand and jumped down from the cart.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she spun round and landed a well-thrown punch in the middle of Freddie’s chest. “You bastard! You bloody bastard! You had me kidnapped!” she roared. He had set the whole thing up.
She walked away, the roar of anger in her ears making her deaf to his words. For two days she had feared for her life, all the while desperate with worry as to what had happened to Freddie. Two days during which he had followed the carriage, until deciding on the opportune time to rescue her.
Freddie followed her. Once she reached a field of flat, green grass, she gathered pace.
“Stop. Stop.”
She whirled round as he took a firm hold of her cloak. “How could you? How could you do that to me? Do you have any idea how frightened I was?” she bellowed.
The laughter was gone from his face. In its place was a hard seriousness she had never seen before.
“Yes, I know you were frightened. I told you not to come to the house, knowing full well you would ignore my words of caution. Why did I do it? I did it to make you understand.”
“What? What do I need to understand?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “The whole time I have known you, you have been furiously pushing boundaries. You constantly chase the
thrill of scandal and danger. You lust after it. I gave you exactly what you wanted. I took your virginity while you were bent over a kitchen table, which is as about as scandalous as it gets with an unwed woman of your social standing. Then I showed you real danger by having you kidnapped. I gave you exactly what you wanted, Eve,” he replied. He let go of her cloak and did not follow her as she walked farther into the field.
Once far enough away from him, she sat down on the grass. The view back toward the cart was very much like the one on the road from Rosemount Abbey, where she had sat and raged over his cruel heartbreak. This time it was Freddie, not her mother, who was standing in the middle of the field wondering what an angry Eve would do next.
She pulled at a blade of grass and sat rolling it between her fingers. When Freddie moved closer and sat beside her, she ignored him.
It hurt to know he had caused her pain once more. That he had seen through her game of continually upping the ante with more and more scandalous behavior.
What hurt most of all was that he was right.
She had a taste for danger. Even now she was forced to accept the passion that had heated her blood the previous night with him, had been a result of having been abducted. In his arms she had exalted in the knowledge she had cheated certain death. Sex with him in their bed at the inn had been soul-changing.
“I hate you,” she said.
“I hate you, too. I also hated lying to you, but I did it to make you see sense and stop blindly chasing danger. I don’t regret it. You have to ask yourself, what if this hadn’t been a fake kidnapping? You have to learn to trust that I am here to keep you safe, but in that you have a role to play.”
She reached out and took a hold of his hand. It was a gentle hold, offering unspoken forgiveness. He had beaten her at her own game. It was time she conceded.
“Now what is to happen?” she asked.
If he had planned her kidnapping so well, then he would have other plans no doubt. She was still mad as hell at him, but true to nature, she was keen to know what else he had in mind.
He got to his feet and stood in front of her. Her heart began to thump in her chest as he went down on bended knee. “Evelyn Saunders, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want us to forge a life together being respectable members of society, while at the same time allowing us to privately indulge in all that sets our blood on fire. Will you do me the greatest honor, and agree to be my wife?”
She had to hand it to him. He had a gift for the unexpected. A marriage proposal in a field in the middle of nowhere was not something she had considered. It, of course, was scandalous. He had not asked her father’s permission. They were not on any formal footing when it came to courting. They were well and truly outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior in the eyes of the ton.
It was perfect.
“Yes.”
He reached inside his coat pocket and took out a small box. Sitting beside her, he took a hold of her hand and slipped a ring on her finger.
Eve clasped her hands together and stared at the ring. She had seen her mother wear it many times. It had once belonged to Marie Alexandre, Eve’s French grandmother. Freddie could only have got it from one place. Her parents knew where she was and with whom. They had given their blessing.
“Oh, Freddie.”
He put his arms around her and held her against him.
“You didn’t think I would put your family through hell just to perform an elaborate proposal and elopement, did you?” he said.
Through the sheen of her tears she looked at the ring shining on her finger. Her grandmother had lost her husband during the French Revolution and she had braved a dangerous escape to safety in England.
“Your father thought this should come to you. His mother was a brave woman and while she faced dangers far greater than I hope you ever will, he thinks your heart is as bold as hers was,” he said.
“I am humble and proud to be its new owner. If I could have ever chosen a ring for myself, it is this one. Thank you,” she said.
Their lips met, sealing their agreement. The encounter soon became more heated and she felt Freddie’s fingers begin to work on the lace of her gown.
“Here?” she murmured.
“Yes, here. I am going to make love to you in the middle of a field, and you are going to take me deep and beg for me to ride you hard. We know who we are, Eve, and nothing will change that,” he replied.
His words had her biting down on her bottom lip with anticipation. When he kissed her neck, she knew she was powerless against his need to worship her body once more.
She looked up at the placement of the sun. He followed her gaze, then chuckled softly.
“I turned the horse to the north as we left the inn. Two days from now, we will cross the border into Scotland. What better way to seal a scandalous relationship than by getting married over the anvil at Gretna Green? You and I will be the cautionary tale of the season for all the good mothers to tell their daughters.”
Eve slipped the knot on her cloak loose and let it fall behind her onto the grass. She lay down and greeted Freddie with a sultry smile as he rose over her. “Come to me, my lord. Show me how much mischief you can make.”
*
The End
Epilogue
LONDON 1818
“Welcome to all our friends and family today. It’s with great pleasure that we open the second of the Rosemount Bakery shops this morning.”
Freddie smiled as a ripple of applause went through the gathered crowd.
“A year ago, who would have thought that an experiment in trying to provide gainful employment for the young members of the parish of St. John’s would be such a resounding success. I am truly humbled by the support the people of London have given us.”
“Could we please get on with the ribbon cutting ceremony, my back is killing me,” chimed in Eve.
He chuckled.
“It would appear that my good lady wife would like to get the formalities over and done with.”
He looked to where a heavily pregnant Eve was standing, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, and gave her a friendly wave. She beckoned him to join her.
Reaching her side, he gave her a bow.
“Let’s get the ribbon cut, then you can put your feet up,” he said.
Eve huffed.
“I haven’t seen my feet for weeks, what I need is for this baby to hurry up and be born. Three weeks overdue is scandalous.”
He took hold of her hand and their gazes met. Eve’s eyes shone with love and happiness. “Well considering the scandalous behavior of its parents is that any surprise?” he said, and leant in to kiss her.
Sasha Cottman
Thank you for reading this book! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did in writing it.
Sasha xxx
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For a full list of books by Sasha Cottman
https://www.sashacottman.com/books/
The Duke of Strathmore Series
London Lords Series
The Duke of Strathmore Series
Book 1: Letter from a Rake
Book 2: An Unsuitable Match
Book 3: The Duke’s Daughter
Book 4: A Scottish Duke for Christmas (novella)
Book 5: My Gentleman Spy
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An Italian Count for Christmas
COMING SOON
An Italian Count for Christmas
LONDON LORDS SERIES
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Count Nico de Luca has been blessed with wealth, power, and a seductive Italian body. Though women lust after him, the one thing Nico has never been able to possess is the love of a woman.
After his intended bride jilts him to marry another, Nico decides that he will stick to matters of business and leave love to other fool
s.
Arriving in London to inspect his investments, he is invited to stay for Christmas as the guest of one of his tenants, a poor young widow, Isabelle Collins.
In Isabelle, Nico discovers a rare beauty, and as much as he fights temptation, he soon loses his heart to her.
Left in reduced circumstances by her blackguard of a late husband, Isabelle is in no hurry to hand her heart over to yet another self-assured male, especially one who has no intention of remaining in England.
But Nico is persuasive and nights of passion spent in his arms soon have Isabelle questioning the sort of future she wants. Can she risk giving up her country and home on the chance of finding love again?
When Nico discovers the shocking truth of how Isabelle’s husband died, he realizes that he will have to risk everything he has to win Isabelle’s heart and finally break his love curse.
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