A Viscount of Mystery

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Marcus knew the worst and he had not thrown her out into the night. After that, Caroline knew the rest of the story would be easy. Or easier than the last admission, anyway. "Two nights later, my uncle was killed in a duel, one fought over the forged document I had created. Norbert was the new Viscount Redwing and, weak and battered as he was, he refused to make me wed a man who would have only used me as a whore. One who had already forced himself upon me. Instead, my cousin sent for Dr. Hastings and Gibson, and sent me, along with Glenna, to London for safety while he stayed in Northumbria to try to attempt to set things to rights. Hastings accompanied Glenna and me while Gibson remained behind to treat Norbert for his injuries. After that, he left for Bath to see to you at Hastings' instructions."

  Caroline toyed with the faded quilt on the bed for a moment. "When I returned to London, I found my fortune gone, what little was left barely enough to reopen Turner-Carson House. The following day, an old friend came to see me, eager to not only spread gossip but to gather some about me as well. It did not take me long to figure out that she sold the gossip to a newspaper and was paid rather handsomely for it. I had no other means to support myself and it seemed like a way to do so while still keeping my many secrets. Thus, Lady X was born and I was soon able to restore, if not all of my fortune, then gather enough coin that I could support myself and those, like Glenna, who had come to rely upon me. The one thing I did not count on was you."

  "Me?" That gave Marcus pause. "How do I fit in? You wrote the Lady X columns to tease me back into society. I know you wanted to find me a wife. One that was not you. You made that point perfectly clear." He grinned at her then, wanting desperately to ease away her pain of those awful years. "What more is there, other than that the earlier love between us had not died?"

  "That was precisely it." She turned in his arms, seemingly eager now to make him understand, her earlier tears drying quickly. "I made it a point to avoid you when I first returned. During those long nights in Dunlin, thoughts of you were all that sustained me. I did not want you to see the fallen woman I had become." She reached out to cup his face tenderly. "Then you fell ill and I received word that you were dying. I went to visit you and prevailed upon Towson to allow me entrance. He was reluctant at first, but eventually I persuaded him."

  Reaching out so that she would not pull away from him, Marcus captured her hand with his and then drew her closer. "You could always charm the birds out of the trees, Caro. No man is a match for you."

  "I did not want any man. I only wanted you." She pressed her other hand to his chest and he thought he might die with need for her. "But you were dying. The day I was there, you had been bleed, a physician cutting your leg to 'bleed out' the fever. It was then that I knew I had to bring Dr. Hastings to your bedside as quickly as I could. I was about to seek out Towson when a commotion broke out. And then he was there. And I had to react."

  "Who?" All this time, Marcus had never remembered anything about those last few days at Cheltenham House before he had been sent to Bath to recover. "Who was there?"

  Caroline swallowed hard, the last secret between them about to fall away. "Ezekiel McTavish. He was masquerading as a physician. It was he who sliced your leg and had returned to finish the job of killing you - most likely for profit of some kind - when he learned that you were not dead. He informed me that he meant to cut your wrist, probably thinking that I would not understand the consequences. However, I knew from my time with both Hastings and Gibson that such a cut would kill you." She swiped at her eyes for she had begun to cry again. "You were so ill and weak, your body nothing more than skin and bones, that I knew even a small nick would have killed you in mere moments. I could not allow that to come to pass."

  "It was you." Marcus looked at her in wonder. "It was you who fought off McTavish. My family would never tell me what happened, only that someone caught my previous physician attempting to kill me. That was when they brought in Dr. Hastings."

  Forgetting that earlier in the day, she had run from this man, Caroline flung herself at Marcus, wrapping her arms around his neck, needing to feel his solid body beneath her fingertips. "I was going to bash the man's head in with a pitcher if he had come any closer to you. I was not about to let you die, not while I could prevent it."

  Something in Marcus' heart, something that for years had been hard and unyielding, cracked at her words. "Oh, my love."

  At his words, Caroline pulled back so that she might look Marcus in the eye. "I loved you too much to allow you to die, Marc. I still do. When you returned from Bath, I tried to convince myself that my feelings did not matter. All that mattered was your happiness, finding a wife with no scandal that might one day come back to destroy everything that you had worked to build. I should have kept my distance, but I could not. And now? Now you are to be saddled with a wife whose past could ruin everything."

  She was certain he would be angry as he finally saw the entire truth of the situation. She was certain he would ask her to leave and she would go. She did not want any more harm to befall this wonderful man, damaged as he was. She loved him too much. To her surprise, however, he pulled her closer, snuggling her against him tightly. "Then it is a good thing that not only do we have good friends like Rosemont and Enwright who will ensure that the truth never comes to light, but that I love you so very, very much that not a damn bit of what you have just told me matters."

  Then, to Caroline's surprise, Marcus pulled her up the length of his very hard, very solid body and kissed her as if his life depended up on it. Unable to help herself, she kissed him back.

  The kiss was powerful, unlike anything Caroline had ever felt before. In one instant, she was merely lying on the bed with Marcus and in the next, she felt as if she was being swept up in a tempest, tossed about like a toy boat on the Thames during a spring storm. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And she relished every moment of it.

  It was unlike every other kiss they had shared. Some of those had been mild, others heated, some designed to inflame her passions, but this one? This one was something more, something hot and dangerous and completely fraught with danger. She knew that if she gave in, there would be no going back. After this, she would belong to Marcus, body and soul.

  As if he sensed the same things, he pulled back and cupped her chin. "If you do not want this Caro, tell me now. Once we do this, you are mine. I know that this will not be the first time I have you, certainly, but that night at my home there was too much between us. Now, there is just you and I. No secrets. No lies. Just us."

  He might have meant it to be a warning, but Caroline took it as a challenge. "I want you, Marc. I have from that moment we waltzed at my come out. I thought all was lost, but no longer. Tonight, you are mine. Longer than merely this one night, actually. Forever and always." Then she surged forward to kiss him, pouring everything she felt, everything she had kept bottled up for so long into that one single kiss.

  She was both a little surprised and extremely grateful when Marcus responded by reaching down to pull her up the length of his body and begin fondling her breasts. She had never thought to feel this close to him again, certain that her secrets had cost her the man she loved. For a moment, she wondered if he was toying with her, but then she felt him begin to loosen the laces on her gown and knew that he was not.

  From there, clothes were shed, whether by her hand or his she did not know and did not care. All that she knew was that soon enough, she lay beside his naked body, basking in the feel of his heat against hers, the brush of his wiry leg hair against her smooth thigh, the slide of his muscular arm over her chest, the way the tips of his fingers toyed with her nipples.

  "I love you, Caro," he whispered as he kissed the side of her neck, and she shivered as he did so. "More than I had thought possible. I am sorry for what I said before. I do not know if I could ever truly stop loving you any more than I could stop the sun from rising in the sky each morning." He was not a poetic man, but for him it was as close to romance as he could
come.

  Caroline trailed her fingers over his body, feeling the dulled edges of long-ago scars, reminders of the man he had once been. Neither of them were the same people they had been as children, yet it did not seem to matter. They had found their way back to each other. That was the important thing.

  "I cannot remember a day that I did not love you, Marc," she replied, tracing the outline of his lips with her fingertips. "No matter where I was, you were never far from my heart." She had thought of him every day they had been apart, at least some small fraction of her day spent wondering where he was and who he was with.

  Then he was kissing her again and once more, she was lost to the sensations. She had no idea how long they lay together, touching, kissing and caressing. It might have been minutes or it might have been hours. She could not tell and did not care. All she knew was that when he pushed inside of her to claim her body once more, she felt complete and at peace.

  It was the first time in her life she had ever felt truly loved and cherished. And she adored every moment of it.

  Epilogue

  Sunlight filtered through the wide-open windows of one of the largest guest bedchambers that Seldon Park had to offer. Marcus had not planned on attending his friend's house party - even though part of the celebration was a wedding breakfast in his and Caroline's honor - but since Caroline was still feeling rather well, he had decided that it would be acceptable to attend, perhaps even to the end of the party. After all, given the way his wife had practically glowed with health the previous night as he made love to her, he doubted that their babe was in any danger if they stayed on a few more days.

  Looking over at his still-sleeping wife, Marcus could not believe how completely his life had changed in the last few weeks. Even now, it seemed like a story out of one of those Gothic novels that he had come to learn Caroline still loved.

  The morning after they had confessed their love for each other at The Stuck Pig, Marcus had hired a coach and four, taking Caroline to Gretna with all haste so that they might wed without any further delay. He wanted her to be his wife in all ways and he did not want to wait for the banns to be called or even to procure a special license. Even a small delay was too long in his opinion.

  Upon their return to town, there was some talk about them, as was to be expected, but not so much as he would have thought. That might have been because there was a new gossip columnist in town, one hell bent on replacing Lady X but lacking her finesse. It was all society could talk about, well, other than the Duke of Enwright's end-of-season masquerade. That had been a scandalous affair in its own right, and even now, with much of summer long behind them and the first hint of autumn touching the air, the events of that night were still on everyone's lips - including the people who had gathered at Seldon Park.

  Though, given the information Nicholas had imparted the night before - which also included rather explicit instructions for Marcus to stay away from the old summerhouse on the far side of the estate - there would be a good deal more for the ton to wag their tongues about if people discovered the truth about what had occurred at Enwright's affair.

  The part about the summerhouse was puzzling, however, but Marcus had eventually felt it prudent that he not know all of the details, having developed a rather bad feeling about the entire situation. However, Nicholas had also felt it important to mention that something was afoot there, especially since Marcus had developed a rather bad habit of absconding with his new wife and sneaking off for assignations in the most unlikely of places. When Marcus had mentioned his fondness for the summerhouse, his friend had thought it best to mention that it might be otherwise occupied, lest Marcus see something that he ought not.

  Not that it had stopped Marcus from sneaking off with Caroline. He could not help it if he desired his wife as much as she desired him. He had thought that nothing could match the need he had felt for her that night at The Stuck Pig. He had been wrong. That most perfect stretch of hours had only been the beginning of what he hoped would be a fire likely to consume him for the rest of his days.

  Since that moment, Marcus and Caroline had been inseparable, especially once Marcus discovered that she was in fact carrying his babe, much to his surprise. He suspected that the miracle had occurred that first night they had spent together, though given his wife's insatiable needs, he could have been wrong. No matter when the child had been conceived, however, one thing was for certain, Marcus could not love Caroline more than he did at this very moment. Then again, he had thought that several mornings ago and today he was certain he loved her more than he had then.

  "Enjoying watching me slumber, are you?" Caroline slowly opened one eye to gaze up at her husband.

  He should have been ashamed but he was far from it. "How long have you been awake?" Not that he cared that she had been feigning sleep, but really, she could have given them both more time to put to better use - such as allowing him to worship her body that was growing round with his child.

  "Long enough." She was still a bit impertinent and he was glad of it. The last thing he wanted to do was to change her. She was part Caroline, part Lady X, and part someone he had never known before - the woman who had endured much in Northumbria. He was now getting to know that part of her and, though difficult at times, he was happy she had finally allowed him to see all of her, even the damaged parts.

  God knew, the ton saw his damaged parts every bloody day of the week. Marcus was still often in an ill humor, but he was working on improving that as well.

  "You are not still brooding about last night are you?" she asked. "It was an accident, my love, and no harm was done."

  "It was not you who bumped into a table and sent trays of desserts crashing to the floor," he grumbled, but as she began to stroke his chest, she knew that he was quickly losing his anger. "We should have departed for Heatherton Abby as soon as it occurred. The last thing I want is to remind people of this blasted leg."

  The incident had been bad, but it had not been socially fatal. Caroline had made certain of it, as had their host. In fact, Nicholas had made a great joke of the incident, as had several others in their intimate circle. Thankfully, Marcus had taken the teasing in stride and by the time the dancing had begun, the entire incident was all but forgotten, save for a small smudge of pink frosting that stubbornly clung to the hem of Lady Ursula Saintwood's gown - not that anyone had been brave enough to inform her.

  "That would have caused more than a little talk and really, Nick handled it beautifully." Caroline slid her hand a little further up Marcus' bare chest. "I think the fact that another season has passed and Nicholas has not yet selected a bride of his own might be the bigger scandal that is brewing, at least according to what I heard yesterday while out with Lady Radcliffe and your sister. Not a table of overturned tea cakes."

  During the last few months, Caroline had become rather skilled at diffusing Marcus' anger. Though not nearly as hostile as he had been upon his return to town, he did on occasion, become enraged over the slightest of things, incidents that, in the past, he might well have joked about on his own.

  She had learned any number of ways to calm him, some more effective than others. The tactic she was using now, though not suitable for a public display, worked rather nicely when they were alone.

  "Oh really?" He asked the question but Caroline could tell that Marcus had lost interest in the previous thread of conversation, and most likely, had forgotten about the tea cakes as well. Instead, given the direction his eyes were straying, she though that perhaps her bare breasts had captured his attention instead. So much the better. She did so enjoy making love in the light.

  "Really." She smiled up at him for he had shifted his position to loom over her, caging her beneath his strong arms. "But first, I can think of something else I'd much rather discuss." Then she reached for the man she had promised to love and cherish until the end of her days. She knew that those vows were as true for her as they were for Marcus. His love for her was there each time she looked at
him, shining in his eyes and written in every line of his face.

  There had been a time when Caroline believed she would never know love, never have the pleasure of sharing her life with the man she had loved and desired since childhood. That she was now his wife was something of a miracle, one she dared not take for granted. And she would spend all of her remaining days making certain that Marcus felt that same love in return. Given how much they had already sacrificed for each other, she knew it could be no other way.

  Coming Soon

  Lady Diana Saintwood is fed up - with the men of London, a man who refuses to marry her, and most of all, her interfering, overbearing mother. As she faces what might very well be her last season in London, she is determined to live life to the fullest, or as much as a woman can when living in the restrictive world of high society. However, Diana is nothing if not clever and she wants at least a few moments of fun for herself before the ever-proper Duke of Hathaway, otherwise known as Lord Adam Reynolds, proposes - more out of a sense of duty than anything else. If he ever gets around to the actual proposal, that is.

  Laird Lachlan McKenna, the newly named Marquess of Hallstone, is in London for more than one reason. Saddled with a title he does not want, Lachlan is on a quest to right the wrongs his father has committed over the years before the disagreeable old man passes on and leaves his only son and heir nothing more than a bad reputation to go along with the crumbling castle deep in the Scottish Highlands that he calls home. If Lachlan should find a woman that captures his attention in the process, one who might make a suitable wife, so much the better. However, he isn't about to be overly picky. Any amenable young lady will do. When he meets Lady Diana Saintwood, however, Lachlan learns two things rather quickly. One, she is far from suitable wife material, and two, she has completely captured his heart with one dance.