His Michaelmas Mistress
By Marly Mathews
A Regency Holiday Romance
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 2015 by Marly Mathews
www.marlymathews.com
Cover Design by Melody Simmons from Ebookindiecovers
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All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
To my Readers,
His Michaelmas Mistress starts off right where His Scandalous Lady left off. It is a morning in September and it is Lady Julia’s wedding day. Her fiancée, Lord Charles Tempest has returned from the grave, and he has just objected to Lady Julia marrying Freddie ‘Mouse’ Merriweather, Baron Axbridge.
I hope all of my readers enjoy Lady Julia’s romance, as she is a favourite character of mine, and was first introduced in His Summer Rose.
Mouse is a lovable giant who is a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and was first introduced in His Beltane Bride.
Enjoy, and thank you for reading my books!
~Marly
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Other Regency Romances by Marly Mathews
Chapter One
The course of true love never did run smooth
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare
Wiltshire, England, 1823
Castleton Village
Lady Julia Lovett listened to her friends and family talking around her. She kept her eyes firmly shut. She couldn’t think of a thing to say when she finally opened her eyes and everyone believed she had recovered from her fainting fit. Indeed, the shock of seeing Charles objecting to her marriage had nearly done her in, and she had recovered rather quickly. Despite that, she still felt quite weakened. Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest, she feared that Freddie could hear it. Panic swelled within her, and she tried desperately to quell it.
Freddie was holding her ever so tenderly, and her heart ached for him. This was her wedding day. This was her day, and yet, suddenly now, it wasn’t. The ghost that she’d finally lain to rest had come back from the grave.
What was she going to do?
Her dear Charles was standing in the church waiting for her to regain her senses, and rush to him and tell him that she loved him, and yet—she couldn’t do it. One part of her would always love him, and then again, a large part of her loved Freddie. She had loved him so much that she had agreed to marry him, and now, now her hopes were dashed, and her life as she knew it, was in utter shambles.
She had changed a lot in the last few months, and what she did next would either make or break her as a woman. Should she continue to cling to a memory, and throw herself back into Charles’s arms, or should she go with the man who wasn’t a stranger to her, and who worshiped the ground she walked on?
Freddie adored her, and she adored him. That hadn’t changed. She couldn’t imagine not becoming his wife.
She let out a moan, and opened her eyes. Freddie stared tenderly down at her. For such a strong man who was never at a loss for words, he had been rendered completely speechless by this sudden turn of events.
“She has come round,” Lewis said.
She looked up at everyone who stood around her. Her mother looked as if she could take on a whole army if need be, she was in such a riled state.
“Freddie, I think I shall need your assistance to get back onto my feet,” Julia whispered.
His strength was something she could always count on. He looked tempted to sweep her up into his arms, and steal her away from the church, and part of her desperately wanted him to, though they were not yet married.
With his help, she stood up, wobbled a bit, and sank against him. His scent comforted her. He always smelled of sandalwood, and verbena, and it was a scent she now associated with Freddie.
Her eyes gravitated once more to Charles…her lost love. The man she had mourned for more than ten long years. He had changed a great deal. Despite the greying of his hair, and the lines on his face, he still seemed to be the same man.
However could he look so old?
He would only be his early thirties, but he seemed much older. He looked weathered. He looked worn out. The years he had been gone, hadn’t been easy on him that was quite apparent.
Charles deserved her loyalty. He deserved her love, so why wasn’t she rushing down the aisle to throw herself into his waiting arms?
Haltingly, Charles walked up the aisle to meet her. She could see him eyeing the wedding guests warily. He knew he was in a place that didn’t welcome him. Even the vicar, who should have been benign, eyed him as if he was a fox in the henhouse.
Freddie grasped her hand tightly, and she clung to him just as desperately. If only the rest of the wold could melt away, and leave the two of them alone. If only Charles had never returned. If only she hadn’t loved Freddie so recklessly and so completely since their romance became quite passionate in Somersetshire. If only.
Why couldn’t Charles have come back two months ago? Why hadn’t he returned to her when her heart wasn’t already taken by another?
“My God, you haven’t changed a bit, Julia. You are still a diamond of the first water.” Charles sounded the same, even if he looked a little different.
She couldn’t speak. For the first time in her life, she was tongue-tied. Dash it all, she had to summon the courage to continue. Somehow, she had to soldier on, and survive this day. It was supposed to be the happiest day of her life—and it was turning out to be quite the reverse.
“Is it really you?” she asked finally, her words barely audible.
“Aye. Although I didn’t know I was really me until a few months ago. It seems I had a frightful case of amnesia.”
Amnesia.
That is why he had been lost to her for many years.
“Where were you?” she asked softly.
He sighed. “I was in France…I…I had been taken in by a family who thought I was their own long lost son. It all sounds rather ridiculous now when I tell the story but that is what they believed. It seems I looked exactly like him. They were dear souls…”
“You are English, mate. How could a frog family think you were their son?” Freddie finally broke his silence. He sounded quite perturbed, and she honestly couldn’t blame him. While Freddie spoke, Charles continued to stare at her in a way that made her feel as if he
looked straight into her soul.
“I…uh…well, you see, my mother is French…and it seems when I was believed to be dead on the battlefield, someone…well they stripped me down to nothing, and I suppose I had conked my head rather badly, and when I finally woke up after days and days, I was speaking French, not English. My memory returned after I struck my head again. I awoke from that dreamlike state I had been in with all of my memories restored, and all I knew was that I had to hasten back to England.”
“That sounds like a bag of moonshine,” her mother said, snorting indelicately.
“I…I agree, Lady Tisbury. It does sound like utter tosh, doesn’t it? My family found me a bitter pill to swallow. They didn’t believe I was their Charles either. I…I had a difficult time convincing Papa, and my brothers weren’t any easier to persuade. My Mama accepted me back readily. I have never seen her so happy. Papa hasn’t changed a bit, neither has Ian. They are both still libertines of the worst sort.
“It is a good thing your wedding is the talk of the ton, Julia, or else, I wouldn’t have known about it, either. I have been so woefully cut off from our world for such a long time. I…I knew I couldn’t let you marry the Baron without knowing that I was still alive. I thought…I had rather hoped that you still felt tenderly toward me. And as you see, I almost didn’t make it in time.”
“Pity you hadn’t been riding an old nag,” Beatrice said, sighing.
Julia’s world was spinning again. She inhaled deeply, and attempted to steady herself. Her world was turning inside out, and upside down.
How could Fate be so damn cruel?
“I mourned you for over ten years, Charles. I held you in my heart, and I closed my heart off to anyone else because the pain was so great, and here you stand. I can’t quite believe it,” she said breathlessly.
“Believe it, my darling.”
His endearing words burned her ears, and made her want to weep. She couldn’t listen to it any longer. Hearing him call her his darling had been the last straw. She didn’t even know if she was his darling anymore. Where did her loyalties lie? She felt deeply for Freddie, but her heart was breaking, as she remembered how much she’d loved Charles.
“I need…I need to…I can’t…I can’t stay here any longer. I must…I need to away.” She stumbled over her words.
Not being able to properly express herself had never happened to her before. This day was turning into a living nightmare, and she wanted out of it. She didn’t know if she could marry Freddie now, and she couldn’t reconcile with Charles either. Her heart was tattered, and her soul was weary.
“You can retreat to the vestry if you wish, Lady Julia,” the Vicar said.
“I would like that. Thank you, Vicar. Freddie, please, come with me,” she said, tugging him toward the vestry.
She opened the door, and Freddie closed it softly behind him. She heard the Vicar talking and then, moments later, the guests were singing psalms’.
“I…I think we should continue with the ceremony,” she said.
She felt desperate.
Was she doing the right thing? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she had made a commitment. She had given Freddie her word that she would marry him, and she wasn’t a woman to go back on her word. Once she made up her mind, she stuck to it!
“I don’t think that would be a wise idea,” he said softly. “You’re pulled in all directions right now, Julia. And to me, you look like you’re at the end of your rope. You are definitely not in the right frame of mind.”
“No, you are wrong. I have made up my mind. I shall be your wife, Frederick Merriweather.”
He turned away from her and walked back to the door.
“You can’t abandon me, Freddie. Not like this. Not on our wedding day. People will talk.”
“They will talk no matter what we do next,” he said softly.
“Freddie, we are expected to return to that altar and exchange our vows.”
She would do it.
God help her, she would do it. No matter how conflicted she felt at the moment, and no matter how much she wanted to know more about Charles and his time spent in France, her life was with Freddie, and she knew that deep in her heart.
They had made plans for so many things. They had even bought an estate, and had decorated it to her taste. She had even set up a nursery, and now…to think that it would all be snatched away…she couldn’t do it. She waited on bated breath while she watched the tenseness in his shoulders relax until they were quite slumped. He looked defeated. This was quite unlike him. He wasn’t one to surrender…so why the bloody hell was he doing it now?
With everyone else, Frederick ‘Mouse’ Merriweather, Baron Axbridge, never held back a thing. He spoke his mind, and usually stepped on a few toes while doing just that. But with her—with her, he was tender, gentle, and sweet. He chose his words wisely, and showed her a part of himself, she doubted anyone else had ever seen.
Barrel chested and built like a bloody God, he had the looks to match. They seemed like an odd match, but in reality, they were a match made in heaven…or at least, they had been a match made in heaven.
“Do you still love him?” he asked softly, his voice throaty with emotion. She felt her heart plummet.
Her response wouldn’t be to his liking.
“I don’t know.”
It was true.
She didn’t know how she felt about Charles. There was one thing she did know, she loved Freddie. She loved him desperately.
“And yet...” He turned back to regard her. “And yet, you would marry me without knowing that you loved me, and only me?”
“I…I gave you my promise, and I never go back on my word, Freddie.”
“Ah…I understand. You don’t want to be in breach of promise, is that it?”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, her voice breaking.
He gave her a soft smile. “You can’t possibly hurt me. I am built like a bloody bear.”
“Not physically, Freddie. I meant I didn’t want to hurt you…to hurt your feelings. I didn’t want to break your heart.”
“My heart broke the moment that blackguard said he objected, and you screamed and fainted. My world was snatched away in that instant. My dreams were crushed, and nothing can salvage them now.”
She threw herself into his arms, and he held her for a moment.
“We shall be married,” she said desperately, pressing herself against him. She wanted him to hold her in his arms forever. She felt so safe cocooned in his embrace.
“Not today, dearest heart. I won’t have only part of you. I want all of you, Julia.”
“You have all of me. I have been intimate with you, Freddie. Far more so than I ever was with Charles.”
“And you enjoyed every bit of it,” he said solemnly.
“Aye, I did…but…well, my reputation would be tarnished, if anyone should ever find out what we did.”
He looked down at her sadly. “I won’t tell a soul,” he said, kissing her on the tip of her nose. He gave her one last longing look, and she drowned in his piercingly blue eyes.
When he was elated, they were a beautiful lavender blue. When he was sad, they become more of a lavender grey and when he was angry, they went a hardened bluey grey shade. So beautiful.
He sighed heavily, and released her.
She remained silent, while hot tears streamed down her face.
“Freddie, don’t do this…please don’t leave me.”
“It’s the only way. I shall be at Wilton Park, if you ever have need of me, and I wish you all of the happiness in the world, Julia. I pray you are happy in your life as Lord Charles’s wife, and if he ever treats you ill…I shall kill him.” His words held a finality to them that made her shiver.
She believed him.
He wasn’t one to throw around careless insults. He was deadly serious. And it both frightened and exhilarated her.
She wanted to rage at him, but she didn’t have the heart. How could
she possibly keep him from doing something he didn’t want to do?
He quietly left the room and suddenly—she was a bride without her bridegroom.
After about five minutes, she heard tentative knocking on the door. It quietly opened and her mother, her Aunt Alice, and two of her cousins, Rose and Iris, crept into the room. From the sounds of it, the singing had stopped. Everyone was probably as stunned as she.
“He has left me, Mama,” she whispered. She wasn’t one to flinch and yet, right now, her world crumbled around her, and she didn’t know how to keep going. How would she survive this latest blow?
“Aye, I know, my little lambkin.”
Her mother hadn’t used that endearment for a long time. She probably hadn’t called her that since she was a child.
“Is there anything we can do, Julia?” Alice asked softly.
“Yes, Mama, is right. Do you want us to fetch your anything, dear?” Rose asked.
“I am ever so sorry, Julia,” Iris said. “You deserved all of the joy this world could bring you.”
They surrounded her, and instead of feeling smothered, she appreciated their outpouring of love.
“What shall I do?” Julia asked hoarsely.
“You shall do what all of the women in our family have always done. You shall keep a stiff upper lip. We can’t have you going to pieces out there where so many can see you,” her mother said. “Now, here, dear, dry your tears, and we shall march out there whilst keeping our heads high, and then, we shall go back to Castleton Court.”
Beatrice handed her a handkerchief, and Julia took it with a grateful smile.
“This room is awfully cluttered,” Beatrice said disdainfully, “and it could do with a good dusting. Come now, Julia. Let us go home,” she said, helping her to stand up.
She didn’t want to go home.
She wanted Freddie.
She allowed them to lead her out of the vestry, and once her eyes clapped upon Charles again, she felt a swell of panic rushing through her. She couldn’t stay here, and she didn’t want to go back to Castleton Court, and she didn’t feel like being surrounded by all of her cousins back at Lark Hall. Lark Hall was usually her sanctuary, but not today.
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