by Wendy Vella
He lowered her fingers from his arm and slipped them through his, swinging their hands as they walked. It was such a sweet, intimate gesture that it warmed her.
“I have heard nothing bad about the man. He has a good reputation and is fair, and I believe he will make Lucy an excellent husband. I have engaged him in conversation several times recently and liked what I heard. So yes, I believe you did the right thing.”
She thought about that for a moment as around them the cool night air ruffled leaves and swayed flowers. “I wanted to have Mr. Whitty investigate him, but if Lucy had found out, it would not have been pleasant.”
“Now, why does that not surprise me?”
“You may laugh, but I am sure you were no different with Claire.”
He was silent for a moment, then said, “I made many mistakes with her, and would not have you repeat them with Lucy.”
“I’m sorry for reminding you.”
“Don’t be.” He swung her hand. “It was a lesson I needed to learn, and now we are the best of friends.”
Patience let him lead her back up the steps and into the ballroom, then into his arms for the next dance. As they twirled around the floor, she realized that he was now part of her, because she had willingly told him what Mr. Whitty had uncovered, and had then asked his advice regarding Mr. Stanhope.
It seemed she was no longer the person she had once been, and she had the smiling devil holding her to thank for that.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Mathew took her driving through the park the day following the ball. It was warm, and the rains had long since dispersed into blue, cloudless skies and golden sunshine. Lifting her face, Patience let the sun warm her cheeks.
“Mr. Whitty sent me word this morning that he has nothing to report, but will keep searching.”
“Relax today, love. Your family are safe, so enjoy a drive in the sunshine with the man you have loved forever.” He released the reins briefly to pat her hand.
“I wish I hadn’t told you that.” She glared at him. Dressed in a deep green jacket, white necktie and shirt, he was every inch the handsome nobleman.
“Yet you did, and I thank you for it.”
The look in his eyes made her catch her breath.
“Besides,” she said as she brushed a nonexistent speck from the skirts of her dress, “I have explained it is a flaw.”
“You can’t take it back, Patience, so stop trying.”
She huffed a bit but said nothing further.
“I want us to marry at Cloverlea.”
She had loved his estate, and held many dear memories of it in her heart. “I would like that very much, and I’m sure our families will also.”
“Excellent. How about the end of next week? Shall we say Saturday?”
“So soon?” Patience lifted a hand to acknowledge Lord and Lady Sutton as they entered the park.
“How long did you want to wait?” His voice was polite as he nodded to passing carriages.
“It’s not that I want to wait, Mathew. I just am not good with things that happen suddenly.”
“You’ve loved me forever, so surely it is not sudden. And didn’t you tell me you never wanted us to be apart again?”
She snapped her teeth together and then ground them, which made him laugh.
“I got it wrong. I no longer love you, and in fact it’s fair to say I now dislike you intensely.”
“Lying Lilly was known to all for her long-winded tales that bore no truth,” Mathew drawled.
“However, Silly Billy was the real problem as he taunted and teased, which made Lilly feel unease, forcing her to stretch the truth.”
“Are we getting better, do you think? I’m sure some of that actually rhymed.”
“I am getting better. You, however, are still terrible.”
“Would it be wrong if I drove my curricle under those trees, then slowly unbuttoned your dress and ravished you?”
“Mathew!” Patience looked about to see if anyone was within hearing distance. Beside her Mathew looked composed and calm, but inside she was filled with desire.
“I especially like that little sound you make when I run my tongue down the slope of your breast.”
“Stop it at once!” Patience placed her hand on his arm and pinched him hard.
“Ouch,” he said dutifully, then he pulled the carriage to one side. “Come. We shall walk. You obviously need the exercise to lighten your mood.”
She let him lift her down, then took his arm, and they were soon strolling.
“We will leave London in five days for Cloverlea. Mother is there already. She chose to stay and visit friends and make plans for the wedding.”
“I so look forward to seeing it again, as I am sure Charlie and Lucy will.”
“And being my wife?”
“Well, yes, there is that, but with you comes Cloverlea and I have to say that is a great incentive,” Patience said, keeping her face expressionless. She loved verbally sparring with him. Loved that he gave her as good as she gave him. He showed no sign of treating her gently, and she wanted nothing less.
“You would marry me were I living in a mud hut with only a few pennies to my name,” he said. “Simply because you can’t live without me, my sweet Miss Allender.”
“Percy Price had an ego the size of a melon. It was said by his uncle Ned that if the boy did not learn humility, there dawned a life that was long and lonely.”
“That didn’t rhyme.”
“I had to think fast,” Patience said. “And said and Ned rhymed.”
It happened so quickly, she had no time to brace herself. One minute they were strolling down a path laughing, and the next, she was pressed against a tree with a tall, handsome nobleman kissing her. She didn’t resist; instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on.
“You, Patience Allender, are a mouthy wench,” Mathew said after he’d thoroughly kissed her.
“Me?” Patience batted her lashes. “It is you who continually teases me into retaliation.”
They both heard the sound behind him, but it was Mathew who turned.
“Down!”
Seconds after his roar, she was face down on the ground with a mouthful of leaves and her fiancé’s heavy body pressed down on her.
“Don’t move. Someone just fired an arrow at us.”
“Get behind that tree and stay there,” Mathew hissed as he regained his feel. He started running through the trees, away from the path they had just left.
His heart was thumping, his head filled with a red mist of anger as he moved. Someone had tried to kill them—the arrow had lodged just inches above his head. Patience could have been hurt, and he would not allow that, could not allow it.
Seconds later he burst out of the trees and looked around. This was one of the paths that was not as frequently populated as some of the others. He walked left, scanning the area, then right, doing the same, but saw nothing suspicious. What was he looking for? Was it Winton’s half-brother who had fired that arrow, or had it been an accident? But how could it be an accident when they had been hidden in the trees? No, someone had fired at him deliberately, and he felt frustrated that he had no idea what the man who had been trying to kill them looked like.
“Did you see anyone?”
He turned to see Patience standing at the edge of the trees. His chest hurt as he looked at her. Her green dress was dirtied, her hair had come free from the bonnet, and the need inside him to protect her was so strong it nearly choked him.
“I told you to stay behind that tree.”
“Yes, but I’ve never been very good at following orders.”
There was absolutely no reason why he should laugh, yet he did, a great bark of laughter that he could not halt.
“Perhaps in situations such as this, you could try to in the future,” he said after it had passed.
She titled her head to one side, then the other. “I am not promising anything.”
He went to her then and held her close. Her ar
ms wrapped around his back and held him tight, and he could feel the fear she was fighting to hide.
“Do you think it could be Brantley’s half-brother who fired that arrow at us?”
“I should imagine that is as good a guess as any. But it is hard to say. Could it have been an accident? Unlikely,” Mathew said. “We were out of sight, so whoever fired that arrow had to have followed us.”
She was quiet for a while, then said, “I don’t want to be scared anymore, Mathew.”
“I know, love, and I don’t want to be scared for you anymore.”
“But that arrow would have hit you, not me. And if it was him, my other cousin, why is he bothering to go after you and I, when surely it is Charlie he wants?”
He had known she would leap to that conclusion sooner rather than later. “Because with you out of the way, your brother has only Lucy protecting him.”
“They would murder that many people to get to Charlie?”
“Murdering one person or two—I doubt it matters to him. We need to get back to the carriage, but before we do I want to retrieve that arrow.”
She held his hand tight, and he hated the fear that he felt in her grip.
The arrow was lodged in the bark; he pulled it free, then they silently made their way back to the carriage, where he lifted her into the seat and then joined her. He then directed the horses out of the park.
“Will you move back in with me now?”
“No, because we are going in a few days to your estate, and I don’t want to move my family twice. Perhaps we can have the three men back to watch over us until then?”
“They’ve been watching you since the Lindhurst ball, Patience.”
“I hadn’t realized. Thank you.”
It was testament to her fear that she didn’t take him to task for putting his men there without her knowledge.
He pulled up outside her house minutes later, and after handing the reins to a servant he jumped down and went to her side. When he raised his arms, she lowered herself into them.
“You mean a great deal to me, Patience. I want nothing to happen to you.” Mathew held her against him. “I want us to live to an old age, and create plenty of hideous poetry with which to torment our children. I will keep both you and your family safe, my love. Never fear.”
He kissed her, then escorted her inside. Once he was in his curricle again, he headed for Mr. Whitty’s. He needed to have a chat with the man regarding exactly what he knew, then he would assist Mr. Whitty in hiring more people to help him investigate, because no one was taking Patience from him…no one.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mathew watched the love of his life walk into the breakfast parlor at Cloverlea the morning after they had arrived. The families had journeyed down together and to everyone’s relief they had arrived without incident.
He’d gone to her room while everyone was sleeping last night and carried her back to his. After he removed the nightdress from her beautiful body, they had then proceeded to make sweet, passionate love, with her teasing him, and him caressing her, until neither could take any more. Then he had sunk deep inside her wet heat. It had been slow and gentle, and had touched his soul. They had then slept in each other’s arms, as they would every day from now on, for the rest of their lives, Mathew vowed.
She attempted to smother a yawn as she smiled to the room at large. Wearing a simple apple blossom day dress with her hair secured by a matching ribbon, she looked beautiful and sweet, and she was his.
“Good morning.” She acknowledged the butler, and Mathew was sure the man blushed.
He’d awakened Patience before dawn and managed to wrestle her back into her nightdress—with little help from her, as she was a sound sleeper—then carried her back to her room. But returning to the bed he had slept in alone for years had not settled him, and he’d lain awake thinking of her and how he could keep her and her brother safe.
“Good morning, my love,” Mathew said now, regaining his feet as she reached the table. Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on her cheek.
“Good morning.” She sat in the chair he held out for her, to the right of his own.
“You look ravished—oops, of course I mean ravishing this morning, sweetheart.”
“Stop that,” she hissed, her gaze shooting down the table to see if anyone had overheard his words.
“What?” he questioned, all innocence.
“Tea, Miss Allender?”
Patience nodded to the maid. “Yes, please.”
“I hope your sleep was undisturbed, my sweet. For my part I did not get a restful night. It seems something crept beneath my sheets.” Mathew loved teasing her, especially since she usually made him pay.
“Mathew, cease now!” Her cheeks were flushed.
“Imagine my surprise this morning when my nephew joined me and found…”
Mortified, Patience closed her eyes.
“Lilly, Mother’s cat, beneath my sheets.”
“I…will…kill…you,” she said slowly, trying to hide the smile that made her eyes sparkle.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too,” she snapped before presenting him with her back as she started conversing with Claire.
All that fire was his. Every day he would wake with her in his arms, and he could not wait.
The day was spent organizing things, as tomorrow their guests would start to arrive for the wedding and Cloverlea would be full. He saw Patience only briefly. His mother had her doing and seeing many things, as she would be mistress here soon.
Late afternoon found him outside searching for his betrothed, who he was told had decided she needed some fresh air. Cloverlea was at its best with the afternoon sun resting on it, burnishing it in a soft, golden glow. The gardens were exquisite, filled with colorful beds of flowers and mature, leafy trees, the rolling lawns leading down to endless green pastures.
He found her walking toward the lake and lengthened his stride to catch her. She was wearing no bonnet or gloves and was plucking leaves as she walked, crushing them in her hand, releasing their fresh scent into the air.
“I would much rather that if you were to leave the house, you did so with an escort, Patience.”
She heaved a deep sigh before facing him. “I was in no danger. The house was always in my sight, and furthermore, if you care to look right you will see two gardeners weeding that bed.”
He didn’t follow the direction her finger indicated. His gaze remained on her face. “I will take no more risks, love. I need you to understand that.”
Patience reached up and stroked the length of his jaw. “Of course I understand.”
Why do I not believe her? Mathew thought as he lowered his head, unable to resist the lure of her lips.
“You, woman, were obviously placed on God’s earth to torment me.”
“And you, my lord, are far too used to having your own way.”
“Something tells me that reign is over. Now come. I have something I want to show you.”
He led her down a hill away from the house, through the trees and out onto the small raised platform he’d had built out over the lake in memory of his brother. Here they were hidden from everyone, just the two of them, alone for the first time that day.
“I had this built the year following Anthony’s death.” Mathew leaned on the railing, looking at the cool, clear water. He felt closest to Anthony here. The pain inside him had eased to a warm memory now, but that memory was stronger here than anywhere else. Behind him, Patience explored the platform as he stared out over the water. “My brother loved this lake. He would row for hours on it, or just lie in the bottom of the boat, letting it drift aimlessly while he stared at the sky,” he said slowly as he allowed the memories he had shut away for so long resurface. “‘This is where I belong,’ he once told me, and I envied him that.”
“Why did you envy him that when you belonged here too?” She came to stand beside him, her arm slipping through the one he had
braced on the railing.
“Because I didn’t really feel tethered to anything until now.” She didn’t speak, just laid her head on his shoulder as he went on, “I loved it here, but Claire and Mother had each other after Anthony passed and I felt as if I did not belong. It was no one’s fault but my own, but I felt it nonetheless.”
“And now?”
The wind rippled the surface of Anthony’s lake. “And now that I have you, I finally feel like I am complete, and that no matter where I go, that feeling will stay as long as you are near.”
“Will you stop doing that, please?” Patience sniffed loudly.
Turning, he rested his back on the railing and held her against him. “Doing what?”
“Saying things like that to turn me into one of those women who weeps all over the place.”
He smiled, then simply held her for a while as they cherished their closeness here in his brother’s special place.
“I can feel him here,” Patience said. “He approves of your choice of wife.”
“Imagine my relief,” Mathew drawled. However, he knew his brother would indeed approve, as Anthony had loved Patience too.
“A sight to warm the coldest heart.”
Mathew stood upright, taking Patience with him as he looked into the cold face of Brantley Winston, who had walked from the trees to stand at the edge of the platform. In one hand he held a pistol.
“It takes a brave or foolish man to enter this property alone, Winston,” Mathew said. “I have men everywhere who will run at a shout from me.”
Brantley’s smile was a mere twitch of his lips. “I’m not alone, Belmont. I have my brother with me, and I can fire off a shot into your betrothed before anyone reaches us.”
“Good afternoon, Lord Belmont, my dear Miss Allender.”
Mathew heard the hiss of Patience’s breath as they turned to look at Dundrill as he walked out of the trees toward them.
“I see your taste in clothing has not improved, Cousin,” Patience said, sounding calm, although her body was stiff at his side. Seeing Dundrill had shocked her, and Mathew realized her agile mind had leapt to the conclusion he had: that Dundrill was her cousin.
