So did Maura. When the most unpleasant scent hit her nose, she covered her face and said, “I think it would look something like that, but since I’ve yet to find it, I don’t believe it exists.”
“You better hope it is. I’ve not lived in the shadows these last thirteen years to not find it.”
She remained silent after that. Albion had never been violent with her until this night, but she could feel his rage pouring over her with great heat.
They made a few turns and had drawn near the house when Albion said, “I’m sorry it had to be you, Maura.” His voice was soft. His arm about her waist tightened, pulled her back toward him in an intimate fashion. She stiffened as he went on. “I never wanted to hurt you. You’ve no idea how much it pained me. I saw the way you wept for me.”
Her own rage returned fully, and she said nothing. Still, she remained his only audience.
“Had things been different, do you think you’d have accepted my suit?” He placed the blade at her throat as they crossed the road. The street was too dark for anyone to see what he was about. “Don’t shout. I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice was at her ear.
She obeyed and then they were cutting a path through a park and Maura recognized the back of the Lawrence home in the distance.
He removed the blade and said, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes,” she said, speaking the truth. “Had things been different…” She’d loved Albion as a child. It wasn’t the great love she felt for Julius, not by any means, but it had been the adoration of a young girl for an older boy. Albion had been kind to her, allowing her to play with him and his brother.
“You were always beautiful.” His hand came to rest on her shoulder. “Even more so now.”
Maura took deep breaths to hold back the bile she felt ready to rise. He had been her friend and he’d betrayed her in the worst way. He’d played tricks on her mind, almost damaging her beyond repair. She’d gone through years of torture because of him. She loathed him now, she realized. Still, she said nothing as Albion rested his chin on her shoulder for the remainder of the journey.
* * *
chapter 53
* * *
He showed her how he’d managed to get into the Lawrence House all those times before. The servants’ entrance was empty, since the Spinsters didn’t employ anything more than a cook. All the women who lived inside saw to their own personal needs.
With the blade at her back and a promise to cut any woman who woke to find him, he led her down to the basement and into the room that had once been Maura’s greatest joy. Like her father, she loved to explore and the day she’d found the Valdeston/Lawrence treasure had been one of her greatest.
She’d been disappointed to find neither the Spinsters nor the Brotherhood in the house. There’d been no one to apprehend Albion and so once they’d made it to the basement, she knew she was trapped. He closed the door behind him and led her down the flight of steps she’d walked many times before.
He lit lamps illuminating rugs, carvings of both wood and stone, gilded chairs, tables, ancient books, and so much more. Maura had spent every moment she could documenting her finds. Lorena had sold many of the pieces, but she and Francis had decided that some things were simply too precious to let go. There was so much history in this room.
Maura had found it all behind the wall with the fireplace, which apparently moved.
“Where is it?” Albion asked, turning around with the lamp high above his head. Then he looked at her and it was the first time tonight that she got a good look at him. The blond looked strange on him, she’d always thought, but his brown eyes, straight nose, and pointed jaw were the same. She wished he was ugly, but in fact, he was not. The ugly lived inside him.
“I don’t know where it is,” she told him. “It’s not here.”
“It has to be.” He turned away from her to search the far corner and Maura took a step back. Then another. She turned and raced up the stairs. She could barely see beyond her tears. Her hand reached the door handle, but she was jerked back by her hair. A stabbing sensation went through her body at the pull of the strands and she let out a yell before she could stop herself.
Albion stopped her from tumbling down the steps. He turned her, still by her golden locks, and pinned her to the wall. “Try that again and I’ll leave your corpse down here to rot.”
She wept silently, her head throbbing where he still held her. She held up her hands. “I w-won’t do it again.”
His brown eyes had no emotion at the sight of her tears and fear. He tightened his hold on her hair and took her back down the stairs. “Find the statue or you won’t enjoy what I do next.”
Maura knew that whether she found the statue or not, Albion would hurt her.
She’d just resigned herself of that when she heard a sharp cry and then her hair was released.
She turned around to find Julius struggling with Albion for the blade. She rejoiced when Julius won and then turned it on Albion.
“Go upstairs,” Julius told her, his gaze still on a frightened Albion.
Maura moved and then stopped. “Why?”
Julius glanced at her. “I don’t want you to see what I’ll do to him.”
Cold slipped through her bones. She didn’t bother asking him what he would do. She knew. “No, Julius. We will see that justice is done. Don’t do this.”
Julius’s voice sounded as though it belonged to some large creature. “You’re my wife! He hurt you!”
Maura went to him and grabbed his free arm. “Please, my love. Don’t do this.” Though she thought Albion deserved severe punishment, she didn’t want Julius to be the one to serve it to him.
He looked at her. “Maura go upstairs.”
She tried to think of something to say, something she could do to convince him that this was a bad idea, but the sight of something silver in the light caught her eyes. She turned and moved without thought.
* * *
Julius wasn’t sure of what he’d seen until Albion pulled his blade from Maura and stared down at his offending hand as though he’d never seen it before. There was blood on his blade. His wife’s blood.
It seemed to take everyone a moment to realize what he’d done, the action happening slowly in his mind.
When next a blade was lifted, it was Julius’s and when he brought it down he took Albion with it. Albion’s surprise grew to fear as he reached for his throat, his own blade forgotten as he struggled to close the throat that now flowed with his own blood. It came out of mouth then, and he opened and closed his lips a few times.
Julius didn’t need to see the rest. He turned to Maura then and panicked when he saw blood at her side. He moved her arm in search of the wound and found the cut to actually be on the arm itself.
“I’m all right,” she whispered, placing the arm back against her chest, trying to stop its flow by pushing it against herself. She winced in pain, her eyes glittering with it. “I’m all right.” She held his eyes as though she could force him to believe her words. She was the one bleeding and still, she worried for him.
Tears poured down her face as she continued her attempts at consoling him.
Julius took off his jacket and then his shirt. Ripping the sleeve, he took her arm and tied it around her wound.
“It’s not the w-worst thing that could have happened,” she went on, as though he didn’t already know it, as though his mind hadn’t already played just what the worse fate would have been.
He could have lost the wife he’d barely had for a week. That would have been a tragedy.
She choked and sniffed. “I’m sure Taygete could s-stitch me right up. It will be fine. I—”
“Enough!” He couldn’t take her goodness anymore. He couldn’t bear it. She was so sweet that he wondered if there’d been enough left for anyone else in the world.
She went silent, yet her eyes still held sympathy for him.
For him, as though he’d been the one in any dan
ger.
He shook his head and then gathered her into his arms, holding her on the side away from her injured arm. He was up the stairs before he spoke. “Why didn’t you just listen when I told you to go upstairs?”
“I didn’t want you to kill Albion.”
“Well, he’s still dead and now you’re injured.”
The house was awake. The women came out in night rails, those who were being helped by the Spinsters, women who’d run from situations that had been worse than death.
“Don’t go in the basement,” he commanded. They knew him. He’d assisted at the Home in the past, but truly he’d only been there for Maura. He’d craved her even then and now that she was his, he craved her more.
One of the women opened the door and Julius stepped outside.
“Are we going to Francis’s home?” Her voice had returned to something close to conversational and he didn’t know if that was a sign that she was no longer in pain or if she was simply hiding it from him.
They made it to Francis’s moments later, the door opening by the attentive butler.
The voices of the Spinsters could be heard in the drawing room and Julius went there.
“You can put me down,” Maura said. “My legs haven’t been cut.”
He ignored her and received silence when the Spinsters caught sight of Maura, her pale dress stained with blood. “This is what happens when you act recklessly!” His voice thundered through the room. “She could have been killed.”
Lorena stood with tears in her eyes. “Oh, Maura. I... ” She stepped forward.
Julius took a step back and held Maura away. “None of you are allowed anywhere near my wife ever again.”
They gasped.
“Julius!” Maura shouted.
He ignored her again. “You almost got her killed. I’ll not give you a second chance.” Then he turned to Taygete. “If you would be so kind, I need your assistance.”
“I’ll go get my bag.” Taygete hastily departed from the room and Julius started up the stairs, taking the long halls and another staircase before he reached the room that was his. He’d have been worried that Taygete would get lost along the way if Hugh’s room wasn’t just across from his.
Julius shouldered through his bedchamber and settled Maura on the sheets. She looked paler than before.
Her lashes fluttered, but not in a flirtatious way. She seemed tired. “Julius, you can’t keep me from my friends.”
“They’re heathens.” He settled down next to her on the bed and took her hand while he wondered where Taygete could be. “You’re not safe with them.”
She shook her head. “No one told me to... leave the… carriage.” She closed her eyes.
Taygete came in and moved toward the injury. The sleeve was soaked as was the front of Maura’s chest. It made fear rush through Julius’s veins, but Taygete didn’t pause. She unwrapped Maura’s arm and immediately got to work.
Julius watched and held Maura’s hand on her uninjured arm as she moaned through the pain. He was almost thankful that she was moaning at all. Moans meant she was alive. The cut was deep, Taygete said, as she placed her stitches.
There was the rush of footsteps at the door and Julius turned to find most of his friends.
“Out,” Taygete told them. She didn’t enjoy onlookers while she was with a patient. Only those who were necessary could remain.
The men nodded at Julius and left, and he was reminded of the last time he watched Taygete stitch someone on his behalf. His cousin Lorenzo had been shot while trying to save Julius. Now Maura had done it, the foolish woman.
He looked at her and found her eyes to be on him, every stitch a fresh batch of pain. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” he said roughly. “Never try to save me again.”
“I won’t be able to help myself,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes. Lifting her hand, he kissed her knuckles. “Maura, please. I… don’t enjoy seeing you hurt.”
“I know. It’s why you married me.”
When he opened his eyes, he found tears in hers. He’d hurt her when she’d confessed her feelings. He’d known he would. He didn’t want love. He didn’t want to love her. But… “It was always inevitable, wasn’t it?” He could no longer deny what he felt, what he’d been feeling since the moment the Spinsters returned to Francis’s house and announced that Maura had chased after a man on the street.
Fear had forced him to accept what he’d tried not to.
She seemed confused for a moment and then cautious. “What was inevitable?”
“Done.” Taygete stood. She’d wrapped the wound and looked at Maura. “Don’t do anything with that arm for a few weeks.” She turned to Julius and gave him care instructions before she left, closing the door behind herself.
“Julius,” Maura called. “You can’t cut me off from the Spinsters. They are my friends.”
“The Spinsters Society is nothing more than a pack of menace.”
Maura smiled. “And I’m one of them.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You’re different.” His hands stroked her hair. “You’re my wife.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “I’m tired. Can we bicker in the morning?”
For a moment, after seeing her injury, he’d wondered if they’d ever get the chance to bicker again. He kissed her head. “Yes. We’ll fight in the morning, but first I must clean you.” He removed her clothes gently and then washed her down before pulling a night rail over her head.
Maura’s voice was very sleepy as she said, “You managed to strip me without ravaging me. Am I losing my touch already?”
He chuckled and kissed her mouth soundly. “It is yet another thing I plan to do in the morning.”
She touched his cheek, lifting her good arm, and opened her mouth.
He cut her off. “I love you.”
Maura’s eyes widened. “You do?”
He nodded. “I’m… not used to this, Maura.” He couldn’t help but feel the anxiety that came with the thought of love.
She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, brow, and hair. It was comforting, warm. He could feel the love she poured into every brush of her lips, even before she said it. “I love you.” It weighed heavy on him.
“Is there… something I can do to ensure you always do?” He was serious.
Maura shook her head and smiled. “Just be yourself, Julius. That’s how you’ve managed to have my heart all these years.”
He wanted to gather her in his arm and bury his face in her throat but was too afraid to hurt her arm. So, instead, he kissed her once more and said, “I fear you’ll never have anything close to normal with me.”
“That’s all right. Our love is special.” She closed her eyes. “Extraordinary, like you.” She was asleep a moment later.
He blew out the lamps and kept his distance as he moved to the other side of the bed, yet even with the distance, he felt more bound to her than ever before.
* * *
epilogue
* * *
Five Years Later
Maura barely allowed the butler to open the door before she stepped outside. She’d seen the carriages approaching and hadn’t been able to keep herself inside Darvess House to wait and greet her friends formally. Besides, when the Spinsters and Men of Nashwood got together, nothing was ever formal.
Lorena jumped from the carriage and ran into Maura’s arms. The cousins crashed into one another and there was much hopping and jumping as they clung to one another. Lorena pulled away. “I was so distraught when you didn’t come to London for the Season, but when Julius told us why you stayed…” She looked up and around the Darvess property. She’d never been here before, so she couldn’t tell the differences Maura had made.
It had taken Maura months to clear the house and transform it into something new, something that wouldn’t remind Julius of his past and the tragedy that had taken place there. She’d poured her heart into every room, changing it at its most elemental levels
, tearing down walls, changing floors, and placing windows to the outdoors where there had previously been none, all to make Julius more comfortable.
He’d been back a fortnight and so far, seemed at peace, but she was still worried, still hoping that one day the past would leave him forever.
Francis and Genie came out of the house behind her. Francis had come to design the new interior while Genie had kept Maura company. They hugged Lorena and greeted Emmett as he came out of the carriage along with the baby he held in his arms. John was the newest addition to the Starr family and one that Maura had yet to meet. She took the five-month-old into her arms and her belly flipped at the sight of him up close. He had his father’s black hair and gray eyes, but the smile that greeted Maura was all Lorena.
Their other children, the young Lord Owen and Lady Constance, both bounded out of the carriage and started to run through the yard. Emmett looked on and seemed prepared to tell them to behave, but then he smiled and turned back to Francis until the other carriage doors were opened.
Maura kept John in her arms as she greeted Sophia and Morris, Hugh and Taygete, Frank and Diana, and the rest of the couples who would be filling their home for the next few weeks, all there in an effort to help Julius adjust to the place he’d grown up in.
She kissed cheeks, laughed, and cooed over newborns while the children who could run chased after Lorena’s brood.
She’d just breathed in little John’s warm baby scent when Anthony came up to her and kissed her cheek.
“Is he here?”
“Yes. He’s with Lorenzo.” Lorenzo had come with Julius two weeks ago. She smiled at Anthony. “Thank you for coming.” Lord Anthony, Lord Allen. Prince Garrett, Lorenzo, and Levander Cross had all been invited and attended every function the Brotherhood of Spinsters had invited them to for the last five years. The only one to never showed was Bancroft, since he still wished to keep his distance from his sister in the public eye, but he wrote heartfelt rejections, if one could consider a rejection heartfelt.
Maura’s Special Spinster’s Society (The Spinster’s Society) (A Regency Romance Book) Page 20
