From the opposite side of the room, Maggie let out a moan of pain and began to cry. Lucas motioned one of the agents toward her, who bound her hands before taking her out.
Willowby looked at Oscar. “You never intended to let him go.”
“No,” Oscar admitted as she held Imogen closer. “I wouldn’t have shot you either. I hope you know that.”
“I think I do,” Willowby said. “And your quick thinking saved the day.”
Oscar got up and pulled Imogen to her feet as he did so. He looked at the still form of the once Earl of Roddenbury with a shake of his head. “Will this end the threat to Imogen?”
“Roddenbury had lackeys, not partners,” Barber said with a frown. “It shouldn’t be too hard to break them up and bring whomever is left to justice.”
Willowby nodded. “I agree. And since you can’t name any of them, Imogen, there would be no reason for them to pursue you. You are safe.”
She pivoted into Oscar’s chest with a great cry of relief that warmed him to his very toes. She had always had such a good attitude, despite all that had happened, but when her fear bled away, her expression was even brighter and more beautiful than it had ever been.
“And the women?” she asked. “The ones he talked about?”
Diana cocked her head. “He said there was a place they were kept before they were sent off to their next destination in the chain. If you listen closely, you can hear Miss Monroe screeching as she’s put in a carriage for transport. I believe she’s confessing everything. We’ll send agents to wherever those women are as soon as possible. I promise you we’ll help them and determine the fates of any others.”
“Louisa,” Oscar whispered, and it was like a dagger to his heart. “There was a woman named Louisa Tucker. She’s…dead…I’ve heard she’s dead. But I need to know the rest. I need to know what happened and when. If there is a body that can be recovered for a proper burial.”
He thought of her, the woman who had loved him. Who he had loved but refused to admit he could. If he had been able to give her what he was giving Imogen now…he might have saved her life. But now, at least, he could honor it.
Imogen took his hand in both of hers and he looked down into her upturned face. There was no jealousy there, no hesitation. Only her loving support. Only her understanding. Only everything he ever wanted for the rest of his days.
Willowby stepped forward and placed a hand on Oscar’s forearm. He nodded. “I will make a special effort to determine her fate and recover whatever I can for you. We owe you that and much more. Both of you.”
Oscar cleared his throat. “Thank you.” He shifted. Perhaps one day this kind of vulnerability wouldn’t make him hesitate, but one step at a time. “Then may we go?”
“You may,” Diana said with a smile for Imogen. “We’ll likely need to speak more and you may both need to present your stories to our superior, but for now you are free to go back to your lives.”
“Then that’s all,” Imogen whispered.
“Not all,” Oscar said, and gave a glance toward the others. “But the rest is between you and me. I’m taking you home.”
They said their farewells, then Oscar took her hand and drew her from the room, out to his carriage and back toward the life he hoped to build, as long as he could manage to show her what that future looked like. And he found, despite knowing her love for him and pulsing with love for her, that he was nervous he would somehow destroy it all regardless of his good intentions.
Chapter 25
Imogen sank into the settee before the fire in Oscar’s bedchamber, warming her cold hands at the flames as she kept an eye on the door. After their return to his home, he had sent her up here to wait while he took care of a few things. What those were, she didn’t know.
Nor did she know what the future would look like now that the threat had passed.
Oscar loved her. She knew that was true and that it didn’t hinge on some heightened emotion like the fear that had hung over them for weeks. But that didn’t mean their future was without hurdles. He’d never spoken of what they would mean to each other tomorrow or in ten years or in fifty.
She knew better now than to make assumptions.
So her hands shook as he stepped into the room and looked at her with all that dark intent and bubbling passion and, yes, love. He crossed the room to her and his mouth was on hers, passionate and claiming. She lifted into him, never resisting as he swept her up and carried her to his bed. He laid her on the pillows, his weight pushing her down, his mouth tracing words of love on hers. She surrendered to the passion, clinging to him.
If this was what they had, she would take it for as long as he offered it.
But to her surprise, he didn’t strip her clothing off or take her. Instead, he eventually rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbow as he looked down in her face.
“My lovely, lovely Imogen,” he whispered before he leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “What would you like to do for the rest of your life?”
She smiled at this lightness she’d never seen in him before. But then she shook her head. “I don’t really…know. I’ve never had a protector before.”
His brow wrinkled. “A protector? Is that what you think I want?”
She shrugged. “I know you love me, but we never talked about anything else.”
He sat up straighter and stared down at her. “I want to marry you, Imogen.”
When he said the words her heart soared and she gasped out his name into the quiet.
“I want to make you mine, I want to share my name and my life with you. If you’ll have me.”
She reached up to touch his face, loving the nervousness around his lips, the worry in his eyes. This meant something to him, just as it meant something to her.
“I would have you today and for the rest of my life,” she said, and then pulled him into her arms. “Yes, I will marry you, Oscar.”
He broke into a wide smile, the widest, brightest, most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. He kissed her and for a long while she just surrendered to him. He to her. But at last he broke away from her.
“Things will change now, you know,” he said.
She sighed. “I suppose they will have to. We’re no longer going to be living in our bubble. You’ll have your business to repair, and I have a feeling your siblings will no longer accept the barriers you’ve put up between you.”
He pinched his lips. “My business will recover, of that I’m sure. I don’t worry about that. As for my family…” He trailed off.
“Yes?” she said, holding back her own opinions, at least for now, to allow him to process his own.
“I put up walls between myself and them,” he said softly. “Built a life where I didn’t have to acknowledge their existence. But in the last few days, since Aurora dragged them back into my life to help you, I have…appreciated their assistance. That they would do so much for you.”
“Without Selina’s husband or Nicholas’s influence, I don’t think we would have been able to resolve this so quickly,” Imogen said carefully.
“No,” he said. He rested his head back on the pillows, the moments ticking away on the clock. “Walls have not served me well, I don’t think,” he said at last. “If I’ve learned anything since you careened into my life, it is that. I learned to build them to protect myself, but all I did in the end was cut myself off from possibilities. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
She smiled. This remarkable man was so capable of seeing his own flaws. Of admitting them and finding a way to change. To be better. She hadn’t known many people in her life so filled with such awareness.
No wonder she adored him.
And she wanted to help. Because they would be married and his happiness would be the joy of her life. “Then perhaps we can take some of those walls down together,” she said. “Welcome in your family.”
When he caught his breath, she grabbed for his hand. “Slowly,” she said. “Perhaps even one
at a time. Start with Nicholas, as he will be with Aurora, I’m certain of it.”
“He’s a good man,” Oscar admitted. “And I would be proud to call him my—my brother.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and she saw how much that idea meant to him. He had been so alone through so much in his life, by chance and by choice. But now…now he was ready for more. For her. For them. For everything.
She touched his face and he opened his eyes and looked down at her. She traced his lips with her fingertips. “I will be at your side, your protector and your champion, every step of the way.”
He nodded. “I will count on your to help me slay my dragons then, fair lady. And I’ll slay yours.”
“That is a bargain.” She snuggled into his chest and he began to run a hand over her hair.
After a few moments he cleared his throat. “You know that wasn’t what I meant when I said things would change.”
She jerked her head up. “Then what did you mean if not us getting married and then living happily ever after, slaying dragons and perhaps expanding our family to include your siblings?”
He narrowed his gaze and the light there went dark. Dangerous. Her body twitched with response. There was the beast. He wasn’t gone, and she welcomed him back as he tugged her a little tighter against her.
“I meant here…in our bedroom,” he said, his voice suddenly low and rough.
She laughed despite the charged air around them. “I don’t think I want what we do in the bedroom to change.”
“Of course you do,” he said, and his smile fluttered at the edge of his lips no matter how he tried to loom and intimidate and challenge. “You’d get bored if I simply made sweet love to you. All tender and gentle like the last time.”
“I liked tender and gentle,” she whispered.
He nodded. “So did I, despite fighting you every moment that it happened. And sometimes I will be very tender and gentle with you, Imogen. Sometimes I will just hold you and touch you and tell you I love you with every thrust until we wash away on it.”
“But sometimes you won’t,” she urged as she slid a hand beneath his jacket and hissed at the body heat trapped beneath. She wanted that heat. Now.
“Sometimes I’ll hold you down and force you to orgasm over and over until you’re pleading with me to make the pleasure stop.”
She wiggled against him. “That sounds fun.”
He growled in response. “And sometimes…sometimes I’ll spank that arse of yours raw for being such a very naughty girl and then I’ll be gentle and loving.”
She smiled even as her body responded to all his wicked promises. “Good,” she whispered. “I’m here for all of it, Oscar. For all of you. For all of us. If I haven’t made it perfectly clear, I’m here forever.”
His eyes held her and she saw his faith in her, his love for her, his desire for her. Then he caught her hand and dragged her over his lap, flipping up her skirts and tugging down her drawers to reveal her bare backside. He rested a hand there, the caress before the sting.
“Good,” he said. “Then let us begin.”
Epilogue
Three weeks later
“And so you just…ran off to Gretna Green?” Aurora said with a laugh as Imogen stood beside her in the very fine parlor of the Duke of Roseford. Oscar’s brother had insisted in arranging this family gathering the moment she and Oscar had returned from their extended and very passionate honeymoon.
She’d had to be just as passionate to convince her husband to accept the invitation. Bargains had been made, promises collected. But he’d come to the party, as agreed.
Now she looked across the room at Oscar. He stood with Selina, Nicholas and Roseford, along with their other brother, Morgan. Oscar didn’t look entirely comfortable, but nor did he look upset. He was trying. So were they.
Imogen was completely certain one day they would all find their way. That one day this kind, if sometimes wild, group of siblings would one day be close as they should have been growing up. And it would be all the better for them all.
The only ones missing from the gathering were Joanna and Will, who had joined them in Gretna Green to witness their madcap nuptials and surprised them by staying for their own. They were still locked away together in Scotland, and Oscar couldn’t have been happier. The only father he’d ever had was now that in truth.
“Imogen?” Aurora said, squeezing her arm.
“I’m sorry. Once I start looking at him, I have a hard time focusing on anything else,” she admitted with a blush.
Aurora sighed and followed her gaze to her Nicholas, who she would marry within days. “I know the feeling. I can’t wait to be Nicholas’s bride after all this time apart.”
“Somehow we seem to have both found our happiness, despite a very bad beginning,” Imogen said. “I’m so happy for you. For me.”
Aurora wrapped an arm around her. “As am I. I would never wish on you what happened. But it created a path that led us both to love, and saved half a dozen women from Roddenbury’s wicked schemes.”
“Hearing how many were rescued and returned to their families or safe places to recover was satisfying. And retrieving records about the fate of the rest…at least it may some closure to their loved ones,” Imogen agreed.
Oscar had found out the final fate of Louisa a few days before. Remains had been buried properly. She was mourned by them both, and she would be for many years to come. That didn’t threaten Imogen’s happiness with her husband—it only deepened her love for him.
Oscar had pulled away from his siblings and was moving toward her now. His dark eyes snagged hers, and she pushed the sadness away and shivered with delight that this man was hers. All hers. Forever.
He reached them with a nod for Aurora. “Might I steal the bride?”
“You already did,” Aurora said with a giggle. “But I will forgive you as long as you keep that smile on her face.”
“I intend to try,” Oscar said as he took Imogen’s arm, and guided her out of the parlor and onto the terrace.
It was early evening and the bright pinks and purples of sunset cascaded over them both. He caught her hands and smiled at her.
Her heart melted. “Oh yes, please I love to see that.”
“See what?” he asked.
“That smile,” she clarified. “I live for it.”
He broke into a wider grin that could have split his cheeks. “Give me everything I want, my love—and that is you and always you—and I’ll smile for you all day, every day.”
“For the rest of our lives?” she asked.
He leaned down to kiss her.
“For the rest of our lives.”
Enjoy an Excerpt of Mismatched Under the Mistletoe
Available November 10, 2020
* * *
Lady Emily Rutledge took the hand her groom offered her and stepped down from her carriage on the walkway. She shook her head and looked up the stairway toward the front door. Outside, a footman swept the afternoon’s dusting of snow away from the walkway and she paused.
“Good afternoon, Arthur!”
The footman looked up from his work and gave her a smile. “Good afternoon, my lady. Almost finished here.”
She nodded. “I see that.”
“And how was the shopping?”
Emily laughed as she lifted the two satchels in her hands and motioned to the carriage, which was being unloaded as they spoke. “Productive. Thank you.”
“Mr. Cavendish is here,” the young man said.
Emily pursed her lips. Cav was always late to every appointment except the ones he took with her. It was a joke between them now, but on days like today she wished he hadn’t changed that bad habit for her. “Oh, I know. I’m so late. Good afternoon, Arthur!”
As she scurried up the freshly swept steps, she heard the footman laughing after her. “Good afternoon, my lady.”
She burst into the foyer to find her butler, Cringle, already waiting for her. She smiled as she handed o
ver her packages, then her gloves, scarf and coat in rapid succession.
“Should these go in the gift room, my lady?” he asked, indicated the bags.
“Yes, those two and the ones outside.” She gave him a conspiratorial look. “How long has Cav been waiting?”
“Mr. Cavendish has been in the parlor for a bit over a half an hour, my lady.” He tilted his head.
She smothered another laugh. “Oh, I shall be railed upon for sure. Thank you, Cringle.”
He nodded as he moved away to the room upstairs that Emily had long ago set aside for gifts and wrapping. She kept it well-stocked with items all year round, but never was it so packed as the weeks leading up to Christmas, when Emily filled it to capacity with gifts for her relatives, friends and servants. Just the thought of it now filled her with giddy anticipation of the reactions of those she cared about when they opened her perfect gift for them.
She threw open the parlor door to find Cav sitting on a settee beside the roaring fire. In the fraction of a moment it took for him to rise to his feet in greeting, a wash of emotion hit Emily in the chest. It had been five years since her husband died of a sudden fever, followed by both her parents.
Five years of heartbreak and mourning and loneliness. She had only truly begun to feel herself again in the last twelve months. But seeing Cav always brought Andrew back to her mind. Cav had been his best friend, after all.
He had become hers, too. When loss had become a constant companion, so had Cav.
She shook those thoughts aside as Cav got to his feet. He was a handsome man. Tall, broad shouldered, with dark blond curls that always looked just a bit mussed. Like he’d run his hands through it. Like someone else had done the same. Certainly plenty of someone else’s had. The man had a certain reputation with the ladies.
“Emily,” he said with a teasing arch of his brow and a quick flick of his head toward the clock on the mantel.
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