Wild Lord Taggart

by Tammy Jo Burns

  “Sir, I must speak wi’ ye,” a man’s voice interrupted him.

  Reese looked up and saw Moses standing in front of him. It was difficult to read the expression on the man’s face. Concern, definitely. Anger, perhaps. Fear, without a doubt. “What is it, Moses?”

  “Not here,” the man said, turned, and walked off, forcing Reese to follow him.

  There was no question as to whether or not he should follow him or not, if for no other reason than mere curiosity. He jogged until he caught up to the other man, and then he matched him stride for stride. When they were clear of the others, Reese spoke up. “What’s going on, Moses?”

  “I’m sorry for the girl, but I can’t risk my family, no matter what Granny Mabel says.”

  “Girl? Granny Mabel? What in bloody hell are you talking about, man?”

  “This,” Moses said, after having reached his small house. He pushed open the door, and held out his hand for Reese to enter ahead of him.

  Reese gave the man a curious look then stepped around him. He gazed around the small room, trying to decipher what exactly it was he was supposed to be seeing. His eyes adjusted to the dimness and that’s when he saw her. Lying on the bed, being tended to by Ada, was the woman who’d infiltrated his thoughts the majority of the day.

  “What is this all about?” Reese asked.

  “Ask her. I don’t want t’ know nothin’ ‘bout this,” Moses left the tiny house, and the people inside, behind.

  Reese studied Circe for a long moment. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked Ada.

  “Scared,” the woman answered.

  “I will be fine,” Circe said, pushing herself up, and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “Thank you for your help, but I cannot endanger your family.” She went to stand, but her legs gave out and she felt herself falling to the ground.

  Chapter 20

  “I’ve got you,” Reese whispered against her ear before she slumped completely to the floor.

  For some reason she felt protected, as if everything would be all right. She chastised herself for feeling that way about Reese Taggart.

  “Thank you for helping me,” Circe said to the woman.

  “Anything for Granny Mabel.”

  “I have to leave here,” she told Reese.

  “Let’s get you home,” he said, helping her walk outside, and carrying her bag.

  “No, I can’t go back there. I can’t.” She struggled against his hold. She felt herself wrapped up tightly in his arms, unable to break free. “Let me go! I have to leave! I have to go home!”

  “Would you make up your mind? Do you want to go back to your uncle’s house or not?”

  “You do not understand! I want to go back to England!” she wailed, pushing at him in an attempt to free herself. She must have caught him off guard enough because she found herself free of his grip and racing across open land. Circe was running in a blind panic. She thought she heard her name being called but kept moving just the same. The sound of heavy footsteps could be heard crashing behind her. “Stay away from me!” She felt firm arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground. “Let me go!” She pushed at the arms locked around her and kicked at the man’s legs.

  “Stop it, Circe,” Reese’s voice was firm and authoritative, not his usual playfulness.

  “Let me down,” she ordered.

  “No,” he argued.

  “Yes.” She continued to fight him and push against him. “I have to leave.”

  “Not until you calm down and tell me what’s going on.”

  “No, I can’t endanger anyone else. Let go of me, Reese,” she growled, pushing at him to try and dislodge herself once more.

  “That does it,” he said. “I’m taking you to my house.”

  “Wha—” Before she knew what was happening, she was flipped upside down, and his shoulder forced the air out of her lungs.

  “Let…me…go,” she gasped and beat him as he strode away from the little cottage.

  “If you keep spanking my arse like that, I’ll have to return the favor,” he threatened wickedly.

  She suddenly stopped, not wanting to encourage him in that particular area. “Put me down please.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’ll run and I don’t feel like chasing you again, or,” he drew out the word before continuing, “you’ll collapse and I’m tired of picking you up.”

  “Then put…me…down.”

  “I have you right where I want you, so you might as well just settle down.”

  “I can…not…even…take…a full…breath,” she managed to say with every bounce of his stride.

  “You should’ve thought about that before you kept trying to fight me.”

  “Reese,” she pleaded, drawing out his name.

  “Bloody hell, woman,” he said and swatted her on her buttocks.

  “What…was that…for?” she demanded.

  “I just want you to be quiet.”

  “But Reese—”

  “Not one word.”

  His voice sounded odd to her ears, so she decided perhaps she should do as he asked. She wiggled trying to find a way to keep his shoulder from digging into her ribs.

  “Be still,” he growled.

  “Do you…want me…to be…a rag…doll?”

  “That would be preferable at this point.”

  She remained mute the rest of the trip. They entered a room and her world tilted once more.

  “Sissy!” Tally shrieked excitedly. She rushed to her friend, threw herself against Circe’s legs, and wrapped her arms tightly around them. The little girl had long since given up trying to wrap her little tongue around the ‘R’ planted in the middle of Circe’s name, and thus had taken up calling her Sissy.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Ruth asked. Her spoon frozen in the pot where she had been stirring something only moments earlier. A whimper came from a large basket that served as the baby’s bed. “A boy brought a bag, and then dashed back out.”

  “Ask her,” he pointed to Circe. “I was summoned to Moses’ house to find her there, being tended to by his wife,” Reese responded.

  “You make me sound like I am a disease of some sort,” she said, rubbing her sore ribs, happy that she could take a full breath once more.

  “Just tell us what’s going on,” he said. “Why were you at Moses’? Why were you being tended to? Why can’t you go back to your uncle’s house? Why do you want to return to England?”

  “It is better, safer, if you not know.” Circe sat down on the bench lining the table on one side. She palmed her forehead, her elbows braced on the table, and muttered, “I am so very tired. This was all a mistake. I should have just stayed in England.”

  Reese looked at Ruth who made a motion that he should approach Circe. He walked over to the bench and straddled it. He rubbed Circe’s back soothingly. “Tell me what’s going on,” he said. “Let me help you.”

  “Can you help me?” she asked with a choked laugh. She looked up at him, her vision blurry from the tears. “If you get involved you will end up like Samson.”

  “Samson? What’s he got to do with this?” he asked stiffly. He didn’t like hearing her talk of other men.

  “She killed him, or had him killed. Same difference. Just like Uncle Robert.”

  “Circe, you have to talk to me,” he said. Reese cupped her jaw and rubbed her cheek with his thumb, forcing her to look at him.

  “I’m going to go feed the baby. Come along, Tally,” Ruth said.

  “But I wanna stay wiv Sissy.”

  “You can visit her later. Reese wants to talk to her right now.”

  “Be nice to her, Weese,” the young girl said.

  “Always, my little princess,” he said.

  Tally patted Circe before following after her mother and brother.

  “Now, tell me what’s happened.”

  “That…that…woman is…is…pure evil,” Circe managed to say, anger making it difficult for
her to find the words she wanted to use.

  “What did Dorothea do? I’m assuming that is who you are talking about.”

  “Yes. Uncle Robert drafted a will that signed everything over to her.”

  “Somehow I doubt your uncle had very much to do with that. Even so, it is their land and house.”

  “True, but she believes it has given her the right to control everything and everyone, including me. She also thinks it has given her the right to hand me over to Lord Erickson!”

  “Pardon me?”

  “You heard me.”

  “She’s going to marry you off to that…that…”

  “I never said marry, Reese.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  “Do not say that, not even jokingly,” Circe shuddered.

  “I will not allow him to have you. I will protect you.”

  “She will come after you. I have this feeling. From the moment I introduced the two of you in Bridgetown I knew she had an interest in you.”

  “But I don’t have an interest in her.”

  “It does not matter. Samson did not want her either. He wanted Bree, but he is dead now because of Dorothea. Now, you are in danger. It will not take her long to figure out I have come here. She will be looking for me. That man that works alongside you was right to be fearful for his family. If Dorothea believes he had anything to do with my escape, they will pay. So will Ruth, the children, and even you. I refuse to be responsible for anyone else losing their life because of me. I would not be able to live with myself. I do not know how I will as it is.”

  “Dorothea can’t do anything to us.”

  “She can, Reese. Do not underestimate her. I have enough lives on my conscience. Please, help me find a way to get back to England.”

  “Do you really want to return to England?”

  “I—” she whispered.

  “What if I told you there was another way?”

  “What?” she asked warily.

  “We could marry.” The words hung in the air between them.

  “Have you not heard anything I have said?”

  “She will not be able to send you to Erickson if we’re married.”

  “Reese, no, I—”

  “I know you think that I’m a rakehell. Hell, all of England feels that way. I have a scar on my arse from where an angry husband shot me.”

  “You what?!”

  He ignored her and continued, “I tried to steal my brother’s wife from him. I’m more sinner than saint, but like I told you before, I can’t stop thinking about you, and that’s the truth.”

  “Reese, I’m a murderer,” she blurted.

  “What?” He watched her stand and pace the kitchen nervously. “Circe, what are you talking about?”

  “I had words with Dorothea and afterwards she lost her babe. In turn, Uncle Robert was so upset with her condition that I…I caused—”

  “Circe, you didn’t cause anything,” he said as he, too, stood. Reese approached her, pulled her against him, and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

  “I did, Reese, I did. I caused the lives of two people. I cannot even blame Dorothea for hating me and wanting to get me out of her sight.

  “Dammit, listen to me.” He grabbed her upper arms and shook her. He waited until her eyes, still full of tears, warily met his. “Your uncle was murdered and I would be suspect of her losing a child. Did you not just say she was capable of murdering a man?” he asked, referring to Samson.

  “What did you say about Uncle Robert?” she asked, shock lacing her voice.

  “Robert Hayhurst was strangled. I don’t know who actually did the deed, but I have a feeling I know who was behind it.”

  “Dorothea?”

  “That’s my guess.”

  “Even more reason for me to leave.”

  “I didn’t take you for a runner,” Reese said, letting her go.

  “Surely you jest. I ran from England, remember?”

  “Very well. How do you expect to get back to England?”

  “I suppose I will have to book passage on a ship. I probably have enough money in that bag for a fare.”

  “Your father was a friend of the last captain, and bribed the man to allow you aboard his ship. So tell me, how are you going to book passage without being seen by someone who will report back to Dorothea?”

  “Will you help me?”

  “You’re willing to put my life in danger in that manner, but not marry me?”

  “Reese, I—”

  “Yes?”

  “I…”

  “Marry me, Circe.”

  “You really do not want to get married. Especially not to me. Look at me.”

  “I am.”

  “Reese, be serious.”

  “I have never been more serious in my life.”

  “Reese, I look nothing like the women you get involved with. I am frumpy and plump and—”

  “You are beautiful and curvaceous in all the right places,” he said softly, huskily. “Besides, we are great friends and I’ve decided that perhaps that is what all my other relationships lacked and that’s why they failed. I’ve never had a female friend before you.”

  “Stop this and be serious.”

  “I am.”

  “I have no experience in the boudoir. You will laugh at my ineptitude. I believe you said virgins were overrated,” she said, recalling one of their long ago conversations.

  “I am more excited by your innocence than anything in my life up to this point. Imagine all I get to teach you. And the thought of no other man but me touching you does something to me that I can’t explain.”

  “Why me? Is it just because you need to slake your lust and I happen to be convenient?”

  “No. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, trying to figure out the best way to approach you. Then I was going to ask your uncle for his permission to court you in lieu of your father not being here.”

  “On the ship you wanted nothing to do with matrimony. What has changed your mind?” she demanded, refusing to give in to him.

  “O’Connor and Ruth, and perhaps my brother and his new wife before I left England. Seeing what all Duncan was willing to go through for Penelope.”

  “But Sean and Ruth? Why them?” she asked curiously.

  “I’ve lived in their pocket since coming to Barbados. I’ve been able to see their relationship inside and out. My family has always had wonderful relationships, well except for Duncan before Penelope came along. I took their relationships for granted. Even so, they are not like O’Connor and Ruth. Seeing this couple and the way they rely on each other makes me long for something like that. They remind me of how my parents were.”

  “Should you not wait for someone to love? It sounds as if that is what your parents had. I know that is what Sean and Ruth have.”

  “I thought I was in love once and found out it was all a lie. I like you. I’m attracted to you physically. I also like the fact that you aren’t afraid to tell me what you think, even in regard to myself. I know you’ve told me from the very beginning that I wasn’t the type of man you were looking for, mainly because at the time I wasn’t prepared to marry anyone, but that’s changed.”

  “Has it?”

  “Yes, it has. I find I want to marry, but only if that person is you. I have discovered that you are my best friend. I feel like I can talk to you more readily than I can Carson Matthews, and we’ve shared a lot over the years. I feel different with you,” he said realizing how lame it sounded even to him.

  “That is a fine declaration for now, but what if another woman comes along? What if you find yourself attracted to her? What if you come to resent me because you are locked in a loveless marriage?”

  “We are talking about a hypothetical woman.”

  “Humor me.” She stood before him, her arms crossed.

  “If this woman comes along, I will tell her that I am a married man that adheres to his vows until death do us part.”

  “And then
you will try to find a way to see the end of me.”

  “Never say that,” Reese growled, sounding quite agitated of the thought of her untimely death. “I pray, even if you don’t marry me, that you live a long, full life.”

  “Now you are mocking me.”

  “Never. My family takes their vows seriously. If we marry, we will stay married and neither of us will have dalliances no matter how unhappy we might be.”

  “You say that, but as I recall, you dallied with your brother’s first wife.”

  “I was young and stupid. I confused love with lust, and I will never make that mistake again. I almost ruined both my brother’s life and mine, and I unknowingly aided in the deaths of three women. I will have to live with that marring my soul for the rest of my life. Never again will I risk that.”

  Her arms dropped to her side and she cocked her head. “You are serious.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “What do you propose we do?”

  “Are you saying you are willing to marry me?”

  “You did not promise love.”

  “I’m sorry, Circe, but I can’t give you that. I can promise to care for you and protect you. I will be your best friend.”

  She was quiet for a moment, studying him before she spoke. “I would like to talk to a ship captain and see if there is any way at all that I can leave for England first and foremost.”

  “That is a reasonable request. What if the captain tells you he can’t take you to England in a reasonable time?”

  “I don’t want to put anyone in danger, Reese. Even if what you say is true about Uncle Robert having been murdered, I still hold myself accountable to some degree.”

  “You let me worry about Dorothea.”

  She took another moment and studied him, really studied him. She could see the eagerness and hopefulness in his eyes. This is not how I thought my life would turn out when I hatched this plan all those months ago. Funny how that happens when fate steps in, she thought to herself.

  “Circe, what will it be?” Reese asked sounding as anxious as he looked.

  She found she could not fight him, or herself, any longer. Because as much as she might deny it to Reese, he had not been far from her thoughts either. No, he did not love her, but she trusted him, as insane as that sounded, and she thought she could live with a deep friendship. It was more than what most couples had. Her decision made she said, “Yes, Reese, I will marry you, if I cannot book passage back to England.”