She thought for a second to ignore her lady’s maid. Instead she got rid of the thought and responded.
“Yes, Elsa. What is the matter?” Rose answered.
“I know it is the middle of the night, but will you please come with me?” Elsa asked meekly.
She was about to lash out at her for such a request but held herself. This was a particularly unique request, one she’d never gotten before from her lady’s maid.
“Is there any particular reason why you are asking me to follow you?” she asked cautiously.
“I want to show you something, My Lady. Please!” Elsa pleaded.
Rose remained silent for a bit before deciding to get up and get dressed. She couldn’t fall asleep, so she thought it best to follow her lady’s maid and see what the matter was about.
As she dressed, she remembered the letter she had hurriedly rushed off to the Marquess through Elsa.
She’d never been with a man before and yet her mind and body continued to yearn for the Marquess.
Of course, she was never going to admit this to him or anyone else for that matter, but her fantasies were going to consume her sooner or later.
As it stood, if the Marquess ever knew how much her body craved him, he could have his way with her without encountering any resistance.
Enough of the vile thoughts, Rose. The man hasn’t even answered your letters yet. Stop fantasizing on things that might never come to pass.
She finished dressing and turned to face Elsa.
“Where to?” she asked, in mock disgust.
Elsa simply turned and headed for the door while she followed.
The house was dead quiet at this time of the night, so they literally had to creep their way through in order to stay as silent as possible.
All the while Rose followed, she never paused to think where Elsa was taking her. Her mind remained focused on the Marquess.
Even though it was looking like she was going to have to let him go, and marry her betrothed, she knew she would come to love no other man the way she’d fallen in love with him. The worst part was she couldn’t explain why this had happened.
She seemed bound to a fate of unhappiness and loneliness. As they descended the stairs and landed in the dinning section, memories of this morning began to flood her mind, causing her eyes to sting with tears.
The worst part of it all was that after the debacle at breakfast, no member of her family had tried to check up on her. Not even Lady Somerholm.
There had been no surprises there, though. She’d always been closer to her father. He would have been the one to check on her if the story had been different and he wasn’t the one responsible for her anger.
They had simply gone about their business while she stewed in her sorrow. Only Elsa had been by her side the whole time. And when she had hurriedly drafted the letter to the Marquess, it was the same Elsa who had ensured it got to him.
She blinked hard at the tears to stop them from falling. Soon, they were out of the house and headed in the direction of the garden.
Whatever Elsa wanted to show her must have been very important, as her lady’s maid quickened the pace now that they were out of the house.
In a short moment, they had arrived at the garden. Elsa suddenly stopped walking, causing Rose to almost slam into her.
“What in God’s name…” her voice trailed off as she saw who had made Elsa stop walking.
Up ahead, the Marquess of Walsrock was standing in the clearing and looking at her.
She gasped.
There was a man standing next to him whose face she couldn’t recognize. On cue, both the man and Elsa began walking away, leaving them behind.
A few moments passed as she remained in shock.
My goodness!
All her fantasies from a moment ago, came rushing back. Her eyes roved all over him until they came to settle on his lips.
A gasp escaped her lips.
It wasn’t until a smile formed on the curve of his lips that she knew she wasn’t dreaming.
She immediately bolted into a sprint, directly at him. The tears she’d tried to blink away earlier, returned in full force. In a few short strides, she slammed into his chest and began to sob.
His arms came around her, nestling her safely in his arms as she cried.
“I missed you,” she stammered in-between tears and into his chest.
Her voice was muffled as a result of his chest, so she lifted her head to repeat what she said.
As soon as her head came up from his chest and her eyes connected with his, he bent over and kissed her.
The kiss was soft and sensual, sending her heart up in flutters. The longer it lingered, the weaker her knees grew. Soon she was leaning into him to keep from falling.
A sound she did not recognize escaped her lips as her insides began to grow warm with desire. She felt a throbbing between her legs which matched the beat of her racing heart and she gasped again. As he deepened the kiss, the warmth she felt continued to increase until she could barely contain herself.
She’d imagined this moment a thousand times and still nothing could have prepared her for the feelings currently coursing through her body.
The kiss ended as it had begun, suddenly. Her eyes fluttered open to see Lord Walsrock staring down at her.
“Good evening,” she stammered, at a loss for what to say.
He laughed softly and the sound made her insides churn with pleasure.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he corrected. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.” With that, he brought his head down again and claimed another kiss from her lips.
By the time the second kiss had ended, all doubt on what the future held for them had cleared from her mind. She knew for a fact that this man was in love with her, just as much as she was in love with him.
“I missed you too, My Lord,” she stuttered again.
“Kenneth. My name is Kenneth,” he said as he brought his right hand to wipe at the tears that had pooled on her face.
“Rose. Call me Rose,” she said, struggling to sniff back the tears.
He embraced her for a while that seemed to stretch into eternity and put her at peace. Suddenly, she wasn’t anxious any longer with her head resting on his chest.
“Where have you been?” she finally managed to speak.
“On the other side of your father’s manor, waiting for you,” he joked, causing her to chuckle.
“Please do not stay on that side of the manor when we need you on this side,” she teased.
“So Lord Somerholm can train his hunting musket on me?”
They both laughed again in each other’s arms and the feeling was good.
“Remind me. Your lady’s maid deserves a huge reward in appreciation from me.”
“As does your valet. The miracle they pulled to get my letters to you is still something I can’t fathom.”
“Oh! So you are not aware that they did more? They orchestrated this meeting as well,” Kenneth said.
“What?” she exclaimed softly, as her head came up to look at Kenneth.
He simply winked at her, pulled her head back to his chest, and began to rock her gently from side to side.
“What are we going to do?” she said after a few minutes.
“For now, I do not know,” Kenneth responded. “The only thing that comes to mind is eloping with you and…”
“Really?” she cut him off mid-sentence as her head came up again. “When do we leave?” she asked excitedly.
“Hold on, now. We can’t just leave like that. There are a lot of things that need to be taken care of first,” he chuckled at her excitement.
“Well, how long will it take to handle these said things?”
He laughed again.
“Don’t worry, Rose. I will think of a way that will not involve us ruining your reputation.”
The sound of her name coming from his lips had butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“I don’t care about the
reputation. All I want is you,” she responded in frustration.
“And you have me. I am not going anywhere,” he responded soothingly and cradled her head once more. “I apologize for leaving you before. I just couldn’t deal with the fact that you were betrothed and didn’t tell me.”
“No, Kenneth. It was my fault. I’m sorry I couldn’t find the courage to tell you. Now I know that would have been better than letting you find out by yourself,” she confessed.
He cradled her head again. They stayed that way and continued sashaying from side to side long into the night, till their servants came to get them. Apparently, Leonard and Elsa had planned to keep them out for just an hour before sneaking them back to their respective houses.
With the hour up, they said their goodbyes and separated, not before agreeing to restore the official communication channels that existed between them. With Rose unable to leave the grounds of the house, it was the only way they could continue talking and Kenneth was more than happy to reinstate their correspondence.
She watched him leave and disappear into the hedge, before turning to face Elsa.
“Thank you,” she said, as she hugged her lady’s maid.
“You are welcome, My Lady,” Elsa said awkwardly, before they both retreated back into the house.
Sleep came swiftly as soon as she got into bed and next thing she knew, Elsa was waking her up, telling her that Lord Rockgonie had come to see her.
“What?” She yawned and stretched.
“Lord Rockgonie has come to see you, My Lady,” Elsa repeated.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“It is noonday, My Lady.”
She grumbled and slammed her face back into bed. After the night she’d had with Kenneth and the sweet dreams that had followed after, the last thing she wanted to do was spend time with a man that reminded her of the hopelessness of her situation.
“Tell him I do not want to see him,” she said into the bed.
“My Lady!” Elsa exclaimed.
“Yes. In fact, tell him that I said he should stop coming to call on me,” she continued.
Elsa said nothing but simply waited for her rage to pass. Finally, she spoke.
“My Lady, I do not think we should do anything that would anger your father further. You already have correspondence restored with the Marquess. May I suggest we keep up with answering Lord Rockgonie so nothing will affect our correspondence with Lord Walsrock?”
There was wisdom in what Elsa had said.
“Fine! Tell him I’ll be down in a bit as I need to get ready. Next time he should send a message ahead or else I will not attend to him.”
“Yes, My Lady,” Elsa nodded even though Rose knew her lady’s maid would never deliver the last part of her message.
She went about preparations, Elsa coming back to join her, and was out in under one hour.
“Lady Rose!” Lord Rockgonie said
“Lord Rockgonie,” she responded.
Her father was nowhere in sight and neither was her mother. Lord Rockgonie had waited all by himself while she got ready. Maybe that was the reason why she hadn’t gotten a sweet compliment as she had last time.
“Shall we?” he said, without wasting a moment.
It seemed to her on this occasion that it was he who wanted to be done with his call on her as quickly as possible, even more than she.
“Is everything all right, My Lord?” she asked.
“Everything is fine, My Lady,” he responded with indifference.
She kept quiet till they had gotten to the garden before she spoke again.
“My Lord, what seems to be the matter? Are you displeased with me in any way?” she asked, even though she didn’t care much for his answer.
He paused walking, turned to look at Rose, and spoke.
“I do not want to marry you, My Lady.”
Rose could have sworn she left her sense of hearing back in her chambers. She almost choked on her breath as her eyes grew wide.
“I beg your pardon,” she asked in confusion.
“I do not want to marry you, My Lady. But I’m afraid I have no other choice but to marry you.”
For the first time, Rose actually saw the distress in his eyes and her heart went out to him. Still, she treaded with caution.
“After our last conversation where you had let slip about some irregularities, I went home and confronted my father,” Lord Rockgonie said. “It was obvious we had both been lied to by our fathers about this pending marriage. They had set us up together against our wishes and I wanted to hear him tell me why.”
Rose simply continued to stare.
“Why he rejected my choices of a bride and lied to me about you. So I confronted him. His response was that if I did not marry you, he will disown me and I will lose everything.”
“Well, it seems you are backed into a corner, My Lord. So why don’t you want to marry me and ensure you do not get disowned?” she asked in as innocent a voice as she could muster, even though her insides were already flipping in excitement.
“Because I am in love with another. I am sorry if I’m hurting you,” he said simply, his voice laden with sincerity.
He must have confused the smile on her face with her going mad because he began to apologize profusely.
This is no ruse after all. Lord Rockgonie is in the same predicament as I am.
“It is all right, My Lord. I am not hurt in the least bit. So what are we going to do?” she asked, hoping he had a solution that was going to free them both from bondage.
“I do not know.” His response deflated her.
Here we both are, unable to marry the people we love. And to worsen matters, we can do nothing about it.
“Well, there has to be something?” she asked, trying to spur him on to finding a solution.
“Nothing. Nothing that doesn’t involve tarnishing our reputations.” He sighed.
“But we can’t just let our father’s get away with this, now can we?” Rose queried.
“It is beginning to seem to me like they will. I thought we had all the time in the world to play to their whims and desires while I came up with a plan.”
“What changed?”
“My father summoned me and told me we are to be wedded in three months. I haven’t even begun to form a plan and I have three months to create, plan, and execute one?” he asked exasperatedly.
She let the moment of silence linger for a bit before she spoke.
“I am sorry, My Lord. That was my fault,” she confessed.
“What do you mean? You didn’t meet my father.”
“Well, I too, am in love with someone else. In an argument at breakfast yesterday, I told my father that was who I was going to marry. He got very angry and barred me from leaving this house. He also asked my mother to begin preparations for me to be wedded in three months at the latest. So you see, it is my fault because that is where the summons and pressure came from.”
She looked at him, expecting him to react in anger.
“You are in love with someone else?” he asked instead.
“Yes.”
“So why are we stuck trying to figure this out on our own when we can all figure this out together?” Lord Rockgonie chuckled.
“Well, I could ask him to help. Only that I cannot reach him, seeing as I’m barred from leaving this house,” she lied. She didn’t know how much she wanted to reveal yet, seeing as he hadn’t revealed so much himself.
“Well, we can handle that,” he responded.
“How?” she asked expectantly.
“We can get you out of the house to see him. Lady Christie’s ball is in a week. I will ask your father if you can accompany me so we can get you out of the house.”
“All right. And what am I supposed to do once I get out?”
“Find your lover and tell him we need his help,” Lord Rockgonie said.
Chapter Sixteen
Kenneth was in an excited mood as he drove his curricle down to La
dy Christie’s birthday party.
This was probably the first time in his life he had been this excited to attend a ball. The reason lay in the fact that he was going to see Rose again.
It had been a week since their midnight garden adventure. They had continued corresponding as promised, which had not only helped to keep them abreast of information in each other’s lives, but had also helped to grow their love.
A Ravishing Lady For The Rebellious Marquess (Steamy Historical Regency Romance) Page 13
