“I can’t believe I was so gullible.”
Colin brushed her lips in a tender kiss. “Holder was very good at what he did. He offered you romance and adventure and became what you wanted him to be. If you had wanted a scholar, he’d have been an Oxford don. If you had wanted a pirate, he’d have been the captain of a pirate ship. He was a confidence man who fooled a great many people. You made a mistake in trusting him, but he made a far greater one when he tempted fate by using my alias.” Colin kissed her again. “You were fated to be mine. Holder was a fool to leave you alone at the Blue Bottle Inn where I could find you. I promise I won’t make that mistake. I’ll never leave you alone.”
“You said there were three clerks,” Gillian whispered between kisses. “How did you know which one masqueraded as Colin Fox?”
“Holder was the only clerk with extraordinary blue eyes,” Colin told her. “He couldn’t hide his eyes and everyone remembered them. Once we began asking the right questions and piecing the puzzle together, it was simply a matter of deduction.” Colin squeezed his eyes shut. “The game was up as soon as your father called the meeting. Whoever needed the ships knew he would have to find another way to get them. Since Holder had tried to be rid of me once before, I let it be known that the real Colin Fox was on his trail. There I miscalculated. I thought he’d try to make his escape on one of your father’s ships, so I led him away from you and your parents and waited for him at the docks. I knew you were protected, because Griff and I had Bow Street post guards around Herrin House. I was sure he would come after me.” Colin tenderly pressed his lips against the bump on Gillian’s head once again. “But he went for you and ransom money instead. I’m sorry, my love.”
“You didn’t know about Lavery,” Gillian reminded him.
“No,” he agreed. “I didn’t know about Lavery.”
“I’m certainly glad we didn’t raise her salary,” Gillian said.
“Me, too,” Colin agreed. “And I can promise you there’ll be no more French lady’s maids in our household. Especially if they have brothers who elope with the daughters of the house, then hold them for ransom or blackmail their fathers.”
“It wasn’t about me at all,” Gillian said. “It was about money.”
“It was about helping Napoleon win the war,” Colin explained. “Everything they earned from blackmail and kidnapping went to finance French spies.”
Gillian shook her head. “I can’t believe I was foolish enough to think I was in love with him.” She leaned down and kissed her husband, her Galahad. “I didn’t know what love was until I met you.”
“If you hadn’t eloped with him, he would have kidnapped you, my love. The result would have been the same. He needed your father’s ships.”
“I could have made it a trifle more difficult,” she protested.
“And then you might have risked changing fate.” Colin kissed her thoroughly. “And you and I were fated to be together.”
“For all the good it does you.” She gave him a rueful smile. “In my present condition.”
Colin laughed. “You’d be surprised how at how inventive and creative I can be.”
“The only thing that surprises me about you is how much you love me.”
“How could I not,” he asked, “when all you’ve ever done is love me in return? I received your gift, my lady fair.” He reached beneath the pillow and pulled out Gillian’s cipher.
“And I received yours, my love.” She rolled over and propped herself on her elbow so she could look down at him.
Colin quirked an eyebrow at her. “And what was that?”
“A second chance.”
The End
* * *
Read Chapter One of Hardly a Husband
Hardly a Husband, Book 3 in the “Free Fellows League” Series
Coming August 4th 2015
Barely a Bride
Book 1 in the “Free Fellows League” Series
Available Now
Merely the Groom
Book 2 in the “Free Fellows League” Series
Available Now
Truly a Wife, Book 4 in the “Free Fellows League” Series
Coming August 4th 2015
And look for A Bachelor Still, the brand new book in the “Free Fellows League” Series Coming late August 2015!
About the Author
After arming herself with a degree in fine arts and experience in radio, television, and film, Rebecca Hagan Lee wrote her first novel Golden Chances. Since then, she’s published numerous bestselling and award-winning novels and three novellas.
She’s won a Waldenbooks Award, a Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award, several Romantic Times awards, been nominated for an RWA Rita Award and has been published in nine languages.
She currently lives in Georgia with her husband, her two beloved Quarter Horses, and a miniature schnauzer named after literary icon Harper Lee.
Visit Rebecca’s website http://www.rhaganlee.com
Join Rebecca on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/rebeccahaganleeauthor
Books by Rebecca Hagan Lee
Free Fellows League Series
Barely a Bride
Merely the Groom
Hardly a Husband
Truly a Wife
Mistresses of the Marquess Series
Once a Mistress
Always a Lady
Ever a Princess
A Hint of Heather
Borrowed Brides Series
Golden Chances
Harvest Moon
Something Borrowed
The Counterfeit Bride
Twice Blessed: A Borrowed Brides Novella
Hardly a Husband
Sneak Peek
What’s a gentleman to do when a lady demands that he seduce her?
Jarrod, fifth Marquess of Shepherdston, gets the shock of his life when childhood friend Sarah Eckersley shows up on his doorstep one rainy night with a tempting proposition. The daughter of the village rector, Sarah is desperate for money and has decided that becoming a courtesan is her only hope for saving her family. And she wants Jarrod to teach her the art of seduction.
As the leader of the Free Fellows League, Jarrod is wary of a marriage trap. He agrees only to help Sarah find a husband—but soon finds himself bristling at the thought of any other man touching her creamy skin or kissing her luscious lips.
He reluctantly offers Sarah a marriage of convenience, in which he will be hardly a husband—until his heart decides otherwise…
Chapter One
Village of Helford Green
Bedfordshire, England
May 1813
“Goodbye, Miss Eckersley. And you Lady Dunbridge.”
“Wait, please!” Sarah Eckersley stood with her aunt beside the front gate feverishly tugging on the drawstrings of her reticule as the Reverend Tinsley, his wife, and children bade them farewell.
The reverend pretended not to hear her as he waved good-bye, then shepherded his wife and children inside before resolutely closing the front door, shutting Sarah out.
“I forgot to give you the key…” Sarah withdrew the brass door key.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lady Dunbridge advised, fastening a leash on her little spaniel, Precious, as they walked to the front gate. “He may be a rector, but he doesn’t appear to know that charity begins at home.”
“We don’t need their charity,” Sarah said. “Nor do we need to be accused of stealing the front door key.” She took a step forward. “I should go give it to them.”
“After the way they treated you?” Sarah’s aunt was outraged. “After the way they shoved our belongings onto the front lawn? And tried to steal Precious? And Budgie. Hang it on the gate,” she suggested. “They’ll find it.”
Sarah hesitated. “Someone else might find it first.”
“So what?” Lady Dunbridge dismissed her niece’s concern. “It isn’t as if anyone in Helford Green locks their doors anyway. Unless a desperate highwayman or a gang of s
neak thieves finds its way here, you can be certain the reverend and his family will be safe. Callous, but safe.”
“I’ve never seen anyone get so angry so quickly,” Sarah said. “Certainly not a man of the cloth. I don’t know how you managed to calm him. He appeared almost pleasant by the time I arrived with Squire Perkins.”
“The only reason I was able to calm him was because I told him you would be returning with your father’s close friend the magistrate, who wouldn’t tolerate your mistreatment by anyone,” Lady Dunbridge explained, patiently waiting while Precious squatted beside the wrought-iron fence.
“His pleasant demeanor was merely an act for Squire Perkins’s benefit,” Sarah concluded.
“Precisely.”
“Then I don’t suppose it will matter if I do leave the front door key hanging on the front gate.” Ignoring a lifetime of her father’s sermons about the meek inheriting the earth and turning the other cheek, Sarah took a deep breath and hung the brass key on the center point of the wrought-iron gate. “Besides, what self-respecting thief would bother with a rectory when Shepherdston Hall is just down the way?”
“My point exactly,” Lady Dunbridge agreed.
The sleepy little village of Helford Green was three miles off the main road. Sarah had never heard of any type of crime in the community and she doubted the rectory would present much of a target for would-be thieves. Not when magnificent Shepherdston Hall sat between the village and the main road.
Sarah smiled for the first time since Reverend Tinsley and his family had arrived at the rectory without warning, entering the front door and descending like biblical locusts, where they immediately began laying claim to the things they wanted and casting aside everything they didn’t without regard to the rectory’s current residents.
Sarah had watched in horror as one of the Tinsley daughters shot past her. Precious, Aunt Etta’s little spaniel, began to bark as the little girl ran past her basket, through the parlor, and up the stairs where she headed for Sarah’s bedroom.
“Pippa, you mustn’t run up the stairs,” her mother had scolded.
But Pippa already had.
Sarah bounded up the stairs after her with the child’s mother close on her heels. They arrived just as the little girl announced, “This shall be my room,” and grabbed hold of Budgie’s cage, pulling it off the stand before exclaiming, “Oh, look, Mama, what a darling little bird! I believe I shall keep him and name him Admiral Nelson.”
Sarah hadn’t realized how ferocious she could be until she’d snatched the birdcage out of the child’s hand and held it out of reach. “I believe he already has a name and an owner. His name is Budgie and he belongs to me.”
“Does not,” the child insisted, reaching for the birdcage. “Mama says the land and the rectory and everything in it is ours. Admiral Nelson is mine!”
“Your mother is in error,” Sarah said firmly, meeting the mother’s gaze over the child’s head.
“Make her give me Admiral Nelson!” the child screeched at the top of her lungs. “He’s mine! I want him!”
“Ouch!” Sarah looked down to find that Pippa had sunk her teeth into the flesh of her arm.
“Now, Pippa…” the child’s mother soothed. “We mustn’t bite.”
Pippa paid her mother no heed. She was preparing another assault on Sarah’s arm when Sarah stopped her with a look and a promise. “Bite me again and I shall bite you back.” She grinned at Pippa. “And unlike you, I have all my teeth and they’re much bigger and stronger than yours.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Pippa retorted.
“Try me,” Sarah challenged.
“Now, Pippa, be a good girl and I’ll speak to the lady about the budgie.”
“Admiral Nelson!” Pippa wailed.
“Very well. Admiral Nelson.” Pippa’s mother patted her daughter on the head before turning her attention to Sarah. “You must be Miss Eckersley.”
“Yes,” Sarah acknowledged over Pippa’s screaming demands for Admiral Nelson. “I must be.”
“I’m Reverend Tinsley’s wife and this is our youngest daughter, Pippa.” Mrs. Tinsley introduced herself and her daughter, then added, “Pippa is high-spirited. But I’m sure she’ll quiet down if you’ll allow her to hold Admiral Nelson.”
Mrs. Tinsley was a rather thin woman of average height, with pale blonde hair, a longish face, and a poor complexion. Her only remarkable features were the dark blue color of her eyes and the long elegant fingers of the hand she extended toward the birdcage.
“No doubt, she would,” Sarah answered. “But then Budgie and I will start screaming.”
Mrs. Tinsley’s blue eyes shot daggers at Sarah as Sarah refused to relinquish Budgie’s cage. “Lord Dunbridge and Bishop Fulton warned us that you and Lord Dunbridge’s aunt by marriage might still be in residence.”
“Why shouldn’t we be in residence?” Sarah met the other woman’s furious gaze without flinching. “Since this is our home and neither Lord Dunbridge nor the bishop saw fit to warn us that you might be descending”—Sarah refrained from adding, like a scourge of locusts—“upon it.”
“Oh, but my dear Miss Eckersley, the bishop awarded my husband, Reverend Tinsley, with the Helford Green living a fortnight ago. We would have been here sooner, but it’s taken us that long to remove our things from our former vicarage in Bristol.”
“Bristol?” Sarah was surprised. “How is it that a vicar in Bristol succeeds to a rectory in Bedfordshire?”
“There’s a family connection, and of course, Bishop Fulton ordained the reverend.”
“Of course,” Sarah echoed.
“But that’s neither here nor there, since we’ve finally succeeded to an acceptable living. The village is perfectly charming and I’m sure I’ll have the rectory put to rights in no time at all.” She smiled at Sarah. “We’re moving in today.”
“There’s nothing in the rectory that needs putting to rights,” Sarah told her. “And I’m afraid you cannot move into the rectory until we move out and we have not moved out.”
Mrs. Tinsley glowered at Sarah. “The rectory and everything in it has been awarded to us. My husband is to be inducted to the living tomorrow. You, your aunt, and your personal possessions will be out this afternoon.”
Sarah straightened to her full height and glowered back. “While it’s true that the Helford Green rectory was once a collation to be presented by the bishops, that’s no longer the case. The Church sold the benefice to the Dunbridge family during my grandfather’s time. Lord Dunbridge is the patron of it and the magistrate guaranteed that my aunt and I would have thirty days from the date of notification of the awarding of the living to vacate. We’ve received no such notification.”
“The magistrate is the civil authority.” Reverend Tinsley entered Sarah’s already crowded bedchamber without consideration or permission and came to stand beside his wife and daughter. “The church and the rectory are houses of God and as such, they come under the province of divine law. Since civil authority on this matter binds neither the church, nor the bishop, nor me, we were not required to send notification. The magistrate erred in guaranteeing you thirty days’ notice.”
“Lord Dunbridge is bound by civil authority,” Sarah retorted. “He owns the living, but he cannot award it until the magistrate clears the way for him to do so.”
“He already has,” the reverend replied. “By temporarily ceding his ownership of it back to the Church in order that the bishop might present the living to me.”
“He can’t.”
“He did.” The reverend gave Sarah a beatific smile that suggested the Lord and his army of angels was on his side. “This parish is much too important to allow it to continue without a rector. Lord Dunbridge and the bishop sought to hurry things along by relieving the magistrate of his duty in this matter. The rectory is my home now and your moving has already begun.” He nodded toward the window.
Sarah glanced out it to find half a dozen workmen carrying cartons of
her father’s clothing and personal belongings out of the rectory and onto the lawn.
“I think it would be best if you and your aunt gather your possessions as quickly and as quietly as possible and depart for London before the afternoon slips away. I have a sermon to write and we’ve a great deal to accomplish today before we can see ourselves comfortably settled. You and Lady Dunbridge are impeding our progress. Besides, I’m sure you’ve no wish to be traveling the main road alone after dark.”
Sarah frowned. “Depart for London? Why should we depart for London?”
“Your betrothed is in London for the season.”
“My betrothed?”
“Yes, of course. Lord Dunbridge.” Reverend Tinsley smiled once again. “When he said that you and his aunt would be joining him, I assumed London was where he meant.”
Sarah was beginning to understand how Lord Dunbridge and the Reverend Tinsley had circumvented the magistrate’s authority. The magistrate would do his best to protect the unmarried daughter and sister-in-law of the Reverend Eckersley, but he would never question a viscount’s authority over his betrothed or his aunt by marriage. Reginald Blanchard, the current Lord Dunbridge, had lied to the magistrate and been rewarded with a means to an end. He wanted Sarah and his late uncle’s widow out of the rectory and at his mercy. “Lord Dunbridge told you he and I were betrothed?”
“Yes.” The clergyman frowned, seeming to experience misgivings about evicting her and her aunt for the first time since he’d arrived. “He assured me of it. He said you and your aunt—his aunt by marriage—would be residing with him during the London season and that you and he would be wed at the end of it. If I have mistaken what he told me, I shall be happy to offer you a position here.”
Merely the Groom Page 30
