by Laura Martin
‘What did he want?’ Alex asked.
‘I don’t know. He just appeared.’
Carefully, as if she were made of delicate silk, Alex led her to the bed and sat her down, positioning himself beside her and taking her hand. He didn’t seem to be aware of her state of undress, but the concern in his eyes made her heart leap. Behind the wall he had erected to shield his heart from any further pain was a caring and loving man. She loved how he had stayed to check she was safe instead of chasing after the intruder as many men would. He recognised the comfort she got from his presence and quietly gave her exactly what she needed in that moment. It was hard not to find herself falling for him, just a little.
‘You’re safe now,’ he reassured her. ‘No one will hurt you.’
‘Stay with me,’ Lina whispered as she closed her eyes and laid her head on Alex’s shoulder.
‘I’m not going anywhere.’
* * *
It was funny how something could be pure torture and pure bliss all at the same time, Alex mused. The light was just starting to filter through the gap in the curtains, heralding the start of another beautiful summer’s day. Alex hadn’t slept all night after Lina had alerted him to the intruder in her bedroom, then asked him to stay with her. For a while they had just sat in silence, Alex’s arm draped around her shoulders, her head resting in the crook of his elbow. Their positioning was too close and there was an intimacy between them as they sat propped together on the bed, but Alex could see nothing was further from Lina’s mind than seduction.
It was just him who found the warmth from her skin and the gentle, sleepy movements of her body against his almost too much to bear.
‘Good morning,’ Alex murmured as Lina opened her eyes and looked up at him with a sleepy smile.
The fact that she did not leap to her feet and start spouting some nonsense about the impropriety of them spending the night together highlighted the difference between Lina and most women of his acquaintance. Lina could acknowledge nothing scandalous had happened between them and for her that was enough.
‘I’m sorry I fell asleep on you.’
‘I didn’t mind.’ To his surprise Alex found it was the truth. He hadn’t slept at all, his muscles were stiff and his arms aching from holding Lina upright all night, but he realised he wouldn’t swap a good night’s sleep for the time he had spent with Lina.
Careful, he told himself. Georgina was right, nothing of substance could happen between him and Lina. It would be better not to let the desire he felt deep inside creep up to the surface. Even worse was the tenderness he was experiencing as he watched Lina stretch and wake up. Desire was one thing, but a deeper connection was an entirely other matter, one that he needed to shut down immediately. Already in the past few days he had caught himself smiling whenever Lina came into a room, seeking her out to ask her opinion on something he had just read or saying something controversial to prolong a conversation and hear the passion in her voice as she spoke. Every day he found out something new about her that he admired: her inquisitive nature, her ability to laugh at herself, her shrewd understanding of how far she could delve into the details of his past. Right now he didn’t want to contemplate the time when the wager was over and Lina would leave his house and his life for good.
‘I’ve been thinking about the intruder,’ Alex said, trying to steer himself on to a safer subject. He noticed how Lina dropped her gaze and scrunched her hands into the bedsheets as he brought up the subject of the mysterious intruder. ‘It seems strange he was in this part of the house and not downstairs, where most of the valuables are kept. Are you sure he didn’t say anything to you?’
Last night he hadn’t pushed her too hard with questions—he’d seen she was upset and reasoned she wouldn’t have much information to give anyway, but in the long hours he’d spent mulling over the events of the night before, he had realised that a few things didn’t make sense.
Lina shook her head. ‘He just appeared from the shadows and rushed at me. I had just taken my comb from my hair so I stabbed at him with that and screamed. That’s when he dived for the window.’
It was exactly the same story, exactly the same words she’d used as the night before.
‘And you didn’t recognise him?’
Again Lina glanced away as she shook her head and fiddled with the sheets. There was something she wasn’t telling him, but he couldn’t work out what.
He could interrogate her, but what would be the point? Whoever it was had made his escape and pressing Lina for information she did not want to give would just jeopardise his relationship with her. He’d find out eventually what had happened. It was just a case of letting the dust settle before he asked the more probing questions.
‘I will tell the servants to be vigilant and ensure there is always someone downstairs, even at night.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I’ll leave you to rise and see you at breakfast. It is Georgina’s last morning with us, she’s leaving at midday to return home.’
‘I will join you downstairs shortly,’ Lina said.
Alex glanced back as he reached the door. She looked so small and forlorn sitting on the bed, hugging her knees, that he had the urge to return and sweep her into his arms, but reason won and instead he walked out of the room and closed the door firmly behind him.
Chapter Twelve
‘Do you have to leave?’ Lina asked, hugging the other woman tightly.
‘I wish I didn’t, but I need to return home before we travel to London for the Season. Alex will look after you and I shall be seeing you in a few weeks.’
‘It’s been a pleasure,’ Alex said, kissing his sister on her cheeks, ‘and an ordeal of course.’
‘Pish-posh. You’ve barely noticed I’m here. You spent more time with those horses of yours than with me.’
Despite her words Georgina hugged her brother tightly and Lina could see the tears in her eyes as she pulled away.
They walked out to the waiting carriage, and as Alex helped his sister up, Lina saw her bend down and whisper something in his ear. She was too far away to hear all Georgina said, but she did hear the last words.
Be careful.
A knot formed in Lina’s stomach. Surely they couldn’t know the truth about the intruder last night, or the awful bargain she had made with Uncle Tom that would have her betraying Alex when Tom called in the debt?
‘Goodbye,’ Georgina called as the carriage lurched away, waving from the window.
‘Peace at last,’ Alex said with a grin.
‘You’ll miss her.’
‘Don’t ever tell her that.’
‘What are we going to work on today?’ Lina asked as they strolled back into the house.
‘How to avoid scandal in the ballroom. We only have a month until the first ball of the Season, and to win the wager there can be no hint of scandal surrounding you.’
Smiling, she rolled her eyes. ‘My behaviour last night was not scandalous.’
‘It could have been. If Mr Gillingham had suggested walking a little farther from the crowds, would you?’
Lina considered the question. Strolling arm in arm with a gentleman did not seem scandalous to her, even if you were alone. The problem only came if the gentleman in question tried to force something that she did not want, but Lina had years of experience extricating herself from those sorts of scenarios. In her world, a woman was expected to keep faithful to her husband, but there wasn’t this need to be completely separate from the opposite sex until marriage. Lina had often been left alone with the men of her acquaintance and nothing was thought of it.
‘If nothing happens between a woman and a man when they are alone together, why is it an issue?’ she asked.
‘You only have the couple’s word that nothing happened.’
‘Suspicious lot, aren’t you?’
‘If you are brought up with these rules, they don’t seem so ridiculous.’
‘I don’t understand why you wouldn’t
want to spend some time alone with someone if you are considering spending the rest of your life with them.’
‘Marriage between members of the ton is a very peculiar affair,’ Alex said, staring off into the distance. ‘You have to remember that most of the time love or affection doesn’t factor in a match. Marriages are about social elevation, money and connections.’
‘I can’t imagine spending my life with someone I didn’t at least care for a little.’
A relationship had never been very high on Lina’s list of priorities. None of the men she travelled with were remotely interesting to her, and after seeing her mother’s heartbreak at the hands of her father Lina was wary of giving away so much of herself. Quickly she glanced at Alex. She couldn’t deny the attraction she felt for him and he was a man she could see herself falling for, but even the idea was ridiculous. Men like Alex did not do anything more than dally with women like her. Any other notion was pure fantasy and Lina knew she had to abandon it before she got carried away.
Alex shrugged. ‘I suppose it depends what you want out of a marriage. Many married couples live completely separate lives, sometimes even in separate houses. They do their duty, produce the heirs, then carry on as they did before they were married.’
‘That wasn’t how it was for you and Victoria,’ Lina said quietly.
‘No.’ There was a long pause and after a while Lina thought he would say nothing more. ‘I cared for Victoria and look where that got me. Maybe there is something to marrying for mutual benefit, not love.’
Lina felt her heart sink at his words. Alex was a kind man, a good man, he deserved a future filled with happiness and she could not see how a loveless marriage could make anyone happy.
She opened her mouth to protest, to try to argue a case for love matches, but Alex had already left her, stalking off through the house into his study and closing the door firmly after him, their lesson for the day apparently forgotten.
Lina prowled through the downstairs rooms, trying to find something to occupy herself with. Eventually she settled into one of the comfortable leather armchairs in the library, a stack of books by her side. She opened the first and tried to concentrate on the words, but found she was reading each sentence two or three times and it still wasn’t going in.
‘Silly man,’ she murmured to herself. Alex might think he was unaffected by the sudden appearance of his ex-fiancée, but his reactions suggested otherwise. He had loved Victoria very much, that was apparent, and Georgina had confirmed that he’d been devastated when his fiancée had called off the wedding and left to marry his best friend. No one could go through such heartbreak and be completely unmoved the next time they saw the woman they used to love, not even someone as strong as Alex.
She also hated the way he was talking about marriage, about the benefits of taking love out of the equation. Lina might only have known Alex for a few weeks, but she could see such a union would only make him unhappy. Seeing the sag in his shoulders and frown on his face made her want to shake him, to grab him by the arms and shout and scream that just because he had been hurt once didn’t mean he couldn’t love again.
‘A happy man is a reasonable man,’ Lina said out loud, one of her mother’s phrases popping into her head. If she could distract him from his worries, take him out and cheer him up, then he would be in a better frame of mind to be challenged on his views of marriage. There was a chance she could just plant the seed that one day he might be ready to love again, because she couldn’t bear the thought of him being unhappy for ever.
Slowly she replaced the book on the top of the pile and stood, gazing out over the beautiful gardens illuminated by brilliant sunshine. August was almost over, but every day the weather seemed more glorious than the last. Perhaps she could provide the distraction Alex needed and get to spend the day out in the fresh air rather than cooped up learning how not to disgrace herself in the ballroom.
Before she could change her mind, Lina hurried out of the library and downstairs to the kitchens. It was like a maze underneath the house, corridors running for what seemed like miles in different directions, nooks and crannies filled with mops and buckets and assorted cleaning equipment. Lina had ventured downstairs a couple of times, but had received a cold reception from most of the staff. She knew her encounter with the butler on her first day at Whitemore House would have been exaggerated and retold many times until she was a rude gypsy criminal, out to con and deceive their beloved master.
With her head held high and her expression flinty, Lina entered the huge kitchen. The cook and a solitary kitchen maid were kneading dough, whilst Jim, the young lad who did the odd jobs around the house, was lugging bags of flour from one side of the big room to the other. For the size of the house Alex had relatively few servants, but Georgina had explained that he rarely entertained and as such only needed the bare minimum for himself and his infrequent guests.
‘Can I help you, Miss Lock?’ the cook asked, after eyeing Lina suspiciously for a few seconds.
‘I would like a picnic packed for this afternoon. Lord Whitemore and myself are going for a ride out and will not be back for the midday meal.’
‘This is the first I’ve heard of it.’
Lina smiled sweetly. ‘I’m sure it is, we only decided a few minutes ago.’
‘What about the beef I’ve got in for lunch?’ the cook asked stubbornly.
‘I could put it back in the cold storage, Mrs Witherly,’ the eager, young kitchen maid suggested.
The cook uttered a noise that was halfway between a sigh and a growl.
‘I’ve got this dough to see to,’ the cook said, kneading the floury lump with her reddened fists. ‘And now you want me to make up a picnic, as well?’
‘I’m happy to do it, Mrs Witherly,’ the kitchen maid said, flashing Lina a conspiratorial smile.
‘No, you’ve got your work to see to.’
‘Lord Whitemore will be disappointed,’ Lina said, turning as if to leave. The cook and other senior staff might dislike her, but they were devoted to their young master and never wanted to disappoint or inconvenience him.
‘I suppose I could put together a few cold cuts and some bread,’ Mrs Witherly said slowly.
‘Thank you.’
Before the cook could change her mind, Lina left the kitchen and hurried back upstairs. Now came the difficult part—persuading Alex that they could take time away from practising polite conversation and forms of address to go on a ride to lift his spirits.
* * *
With a groan Alex stretched his neck from side to side, feeling the crack at the extremes of movement and the wonderful release that came afterwards. The pile of papers in front of him hadn’t seemed to have diminished at all and for once he couldn’t concentrate on the intricacies of running the large estate. He also had Mr Tobias Tomlinson visiting tomorrow to discuss which horses to enter into which races over the coming year and to go over the jockeys he had hired. Tomlinson was a talented horseman and was better at picking out a winning racehorse than anyone else Alex knew. He worked solely for Alex and together they made a formidable partnership in the horseracing world. Normally he would be excited by the prospect of planning out the racing calendar, but this morning he couldn’t get the discussion with Lina about marriage from his head.
He knew he was likely never to marry. He’d gone down that path before and it had led to heartbreak and destruction. If he did ever decide to find a wife, it would not be a love match. Desire and a little affection were fine feelings for a mistress, but they were not enough to base such a momentous decision on.
Still, he felt unsettled by the conversation. Once he had been so idealistic. He’d been determined not to follow his peers into loveless marriages, certain that there was more to life than seeking a wife with the largest dowry. This loss of innocence pained him.
‘Can I come in?’ Lina asked. She moved so quietly sometimes that he was surprised to see her holding the door half-open.
‘I’ve got
some papers to finish dealing with,’ Alex said. It was true, although he doubted he would make any useful decisions whilst he was in this mood.
‘I’m sorry if I said something to upset you earlier. Sometimes I speak before I think through what I’m saying. Raul always tells me I need a filter as the words come out of my mouth.’
‘Nothing to apologise for,’ Alex said.
‘Good.’
Far from retreating from the room, as had been Alex’s intention when he’d given his curt reply, Lina almost skipped over to his desk, skirted around the large wooden piece of furniture and perched on the edge just a foot away from him.
‘I have a request,’ she said, her eyes shining.
He waited for her to proceed, feeling his mood lifting a little already. It was difficult to stay gloomy with Lina grinning at him.
‘I have been working very hard these last two and a half weeks,’ she said, pausing as if daring him to contradict her. ‘So much so that I was able to attend a country dance and not cause a scandal.’
Alex felt the smile dance on his lips and quickly fought to maintain his sober expression. ‘That is true,’ he conceded.
‘As a reward, I thought we might take those lovely horses of yours out for a ride.’
Alex glanced out of the window. It was beautifully sunny, the sort of day that was made for riding through the countryside, not sitting in a stuffy study.
‘I do have rather a lot of work to do.’
‘It’ll be waiting for you when we return.’
‘Aunt Lucy should be arriving this evening, there are things that I need to prepare for her stay.’
‘Delegate. You’re good at that.’
‘We need to ensure you are ready for the ball in London.’
‘That’s weeks away and I’ll work doubly hard tomorrow. Give me this one afternoon.’
‘It is a lovely day,’ Alex said and was rewarded by Lina launching herself at him.
‘Be ready to leave in half an hour,’ she instructed. ‘I will sort out everything else.’
