A Very Merry Viscount

by Jane Charles

  The waltz had only confirmed that they were perfect for one another. There was not one moment of awkwardness as she followed and flowed with him as if they were one being. If the waltz could be so perfect, then intimacy would be beyond his imagination. Never had the desire been so strong to hold a woman, kiss her and take her away to his chamber where he might divest her of all clothing and be truly intimate. He wanted to kiss her everywhere and let his fingers slide along her silky skin, listen to her bated breaths each time he gave her pleasure and wondered if she’d cry out his name as they joined.

  Yes, a walk outside in the cold air was something he definitely needed because if he didn’t get this thoughts under control, everyone in attendance would know exactly what was on his mind.

  As they returned to the ballroom, Andrew asked a servant to retrieve Lady Tabitha’s cloak. As lovely as her gown was, and as beautiful as she’d been in the moonlight with the snow and castle as a backdrop, he did not wish for her to become chilled.

  “My mother expects me to attend her in the morning,” Tabitha stated as they waited.

  “Does this mean we will not ride?” His heart sank. He’d come to look forward to their early morning visits.

  “It is our family tradition to attend church, and being at Danby Castle is no exception.”

  “Perhaps when you return?” If Danby needed her to be ready for the hunt, then they must ride at one point tomorrow or she’d be too skittish. Tabitha hadn’t even taken a jump yet, though he wasn’t certain any would be required.

  “That will depend on if I can get away from her,” Tabitha explained. “With the guests and feasting, I’m not certain it will be possible.”

  At least she was as disappointed as he was.

  “If I can manage it, I’ll be certain to let you know.”

  And with that one statement, Andrew knew that he’d not be hiding in his chamber, but in the common rooms, and most likely, whichever one Tabitha happened to inhabit. And if she managed to escape to the stables, so would he.

  “Your cloak, Lady Tabitha,” a maid announced as she came forward.

  “Thank you,” Tabitha murmured as Andrew took it and assist her in putting it on before offering his arm. “Shall we adjourn outside?”

  Her smile was bright. “Yes, please.”

  Chapter 19

  Was there anything more romantic than walking in a snow-covered garden beneath the moonlight with Andrew?

  Tabitha nearly sighed.

  What made it even better was that nobody else was out here.

  “’Tis beautiful,” Andrew murmured.

  Tabitha looked up at what seemed like millions of diamonds sparkling against the dark sky.

  “Yes, it is.” She glanced at her companion but Andrew wasn’t looking at the sky. Instead he was focused on her and Tabitha’s pulse gave a little skip.

  “It’s been an honor to come to know ye, Tabitha.” His blue eyes stared into hers.

  She would like to claim that the honor was all hers, but her feelings were so much deeper, so much a part of her being that she might be quite empty, a shell of herself, when they parted. Oh, why did they have to part at all? “I looked for you,” she confessed.

  “When? Where?” His questions were of a curious nature, not so much a demand.

  “In London.” Then she turned to face him. “After I saw you ride, you were the reason I returned, hopeful to catch a glimpse of you again.”

  Andrew lifted her hand and placed a kiss against the inside of her wrist. “And, I looked for ye.”

  Oh, she had hoped it was true.

  “I waited to catch sigh of you at a ball, or the theatre, or any manner of entertainment, but you never appeared.” She glanced away. “I was beginning to believe you were a ghost or a figment of my imagination.”

  He chuckled. “Do you believe in ghosts, Tabitha?”

  That is what he wished to know after she’d made such a confession?

  “Well, do you?”

  “Why, yes. Don’t you?”

  He linked her arm with his and moved further into the gardens. “Have ye ever encountered one? Seen one perhaps?”

  “I don’t believe so.”

  “Yet, ye still believe in them.” He chuckled again as if the idea was ridiculous and Tabitha didn’t like this turn in the conversation. She’d made a confession and he was asking about ghosts!

  “Just because I cannot see something doesn’t mean it does not exist,” she defended.

  “What if I were to tell you that I know someone who can actually see ghosts.”

  Tabitha’s eyes widened and she stared up at him. “Are you teasing me?”

  “Oh, I wish I were.” Andrew shook his head. “My brother sees ghosts.”

  Tabitha wasn’t certain if she should be awed or frightened. “All the time?”

  “If one is present, Patrick will see it.”

  “Goodness, such a frightening way to live.”

  “That is why Patrick was grateful that I received the summons instead himself. Since the Danby Castle is so old, he assumed it would be filled to the brim with them.”

  Tabitha chuckled. “I don’t believe there are any here.” She glanced back. “Do you think Danby would allow any to remain? No doubt he’d order them to move on.”

  “’Tis a sight I’d like ta see.” Andrew matched her laughter. “Danby with his cane, threatening ghosts to do his bidding.”

  Tears came to Tabitha’s eyes as she laughed harder at the image in her mind. “And threatening to marry them off to unsuitable spirits so they were destined to be miserable for all of eternity if they didn’t vacate posthaste.”

  “They probably ran off the minute he became the duke or their spirits left their body.”

  “If I were a ghost, I most certainly would,” Tabitha agreed.

  As she glanced into Andrew’s eyes, their laughter died. Oh, she’d hoped he had brought her out to kiss her again, but that didn’t appear to be his intention at all. Then she noted something else. Not that she hadn’t noticed before, but it’s something she hadn’t thought about unless they were with others. “Why do you do that?”

  His light eyebrows drew together over his blue eyes.

  “Your manner of speech,” Tabitha clarified. “When you are with the horses, in the stable and with me, you’re very much the Irish gentleman with your ye, tis, yerself, himself and lass. But I hear none of that with anyone else.”

  Andrew simply blinked at her.

  “At the ball, when speaking with my brother, you sounded like every other English gentleman.”

  “I don’t wish to offend and try to guard my Irish tongue when with others.” He glanced down as if ashamed. “I had not realized I’d slipped so often.”

  “Slipped?” she asked in confusion. “By not hiding who you are?”

  Andrew looked her in the eye. “Surely you understand the English think themselves better than the Irish. As I wish to be taken seriously, I must eliminate all evidence of my heritage when in English society.”

  This time it was her turn to blink. “You would be thought less of a gentleman?” Is that what he was saying?

  “Beneath them.” His blue eyes looked deeply into Tabitha’s. “Beneath you.”

  “Of all the ridiculous…” Oh, she didn’t even have the words for the idiotic notions of people sometimes.

  “You know how the English feel about the Irish,” he whispered.

  At that, Tabitha rolled her eyes. “I prefer it when you speak as you are.” Not that she’d admit that his words and inflections warmed her as a cup of chocolate on a cold morning. In fact, every part of Andrew warmed her to her toes.

  “Yer blushing, Lass,” he whispered. And Tabitha’s face burned hotter.

  “I rather like it when you call me lass, and I adore your Irish lilt.”

  Andrew laughed. “You might be the only one.”

  “Then the rest of them are fools.” Tabitha argued. “And what is wrong with being Irish? And how dreary
the world would be if we were all alike.”

  “On that, we are in complete agreement, but while I am at Danby Castle, I will continue to speak as all other English gentlemen.”

  “Oh bother, who cares about them?”

  “I do,” Andrew said a moment later in all seriousness.

  “And I am sorry for that and I dearly hope nobody has treated you poorly.”

  “I assure you, all have been kind.”

  Sometimes she just didn’t understand people. Why did it matter where a person was from if they had kindness in their heart and warmth in their soul?

  Tabitha just might be the only English woman who didn’t give a fig about him being Irish, which made it all the more difficult not to pursue her.

  “Ye might be the only one that feels as ye do. Even yer mother preferred you to be matched to Lymington.” Just saying the gentleman’s name caused irritation.

  “Oh, I assure you that it has nothing to do with Lymington.”

  Though not titled, Lymington was still wealthy, landed and English.

  “If your grand stables were located where Lymington resides, Mother would have been doing everything in her power to see that you were matched to one of her daughters.” Then she frowned. “However, she’d never approve because you’ll inherit and return to Ireland, which she could not tolerate,” Tabitha continued. “She’d not have her daughters live so far from her.”

  As her words sank in, Andrew focused on Tabitha. “Are you saying your mother’s preference for the husbands is determined solely on the location of their estate?”

  “Home,” she corrected. “Mother doesn’t care if it’s a tenant farmer’s cottage or a grand castle such as Danby, as long as that home is in York.”

  Tenant’s cottage? Certainly she wasn’t serious. Tabitha was the daughter of an Earl. Her brother now held that title, and despite what the dowager wanted, Kinley would never allow his sister to marry so far beneath her.

  “Ask Peter,” Tabitha insisted. “If given a choice, my mother would choose a local tenant farmer over a duke living somewhere else in England.”

  “I assume you are not of the same mind, or was it simply Lymington you objected to?” He wanted to know if Tabitha desired to be as close to her family as her mother wished her to be. Not that it should matter since Tabitha would never be his, but for tonight, and the magic of Christmas, Andrew was allowing himself to perhaps dream that nothing stood in the way of having the woman he was falling in love with.

  “I do not wish to remain in York my entire life, and even if I were to settle there, I’d still long to visit other places. There is an amazing world outside of the few corners I’ve been allowed to visit.”

  Unfortunately, he was not in a position to travel, but perhaps Tabitha would be content visiting Ireland and Scotland.

  “My older sister is now in Barbados. She sailed as a traveling companion to Lady Whitley, and will remain with my brother, Samuel, until she returns with Nathaniel in February.”

  There was a wistfulness to Tabitha’s tone as if she wished it were her and not her sister.

  “I was irritated and jealous when Danby chose Hannah over me for the adventure, but no longer.”

  “Why is that,” Andrew asked out of curiosity.

  A shy smile came to her lips as she looked up at him. “Because had I gone to Barbados, I might not have ever actually met you, and continued to search for you in London come spring.”

  Her words warmed him to the core. “I am equally as grateful that Danby chose Lady Hannah over you.”

  Her green eyes met his, darkening with questions, or perhaps desire, and Andrew pulled her close, unwilling to fight the desire to kiss her again. As he bent toward her, Tabitha tilted her face so that her lips could meet his and snaked her arms around this shoulders as if to keep him in place so that he could not draw away.

  The minute their lips touched, desire ignited within, as it always did, and he was overcome with a powerful need to have her close, as close as any two people could be. Unfortunately, her cloak created too thick of a barrier for Andrew to fully enjoy her body pressed against his, which was probably for the best. It had been difficult enough to concentrate on the waltz when she wore such a delicate ball gown. Had he been able to hold her like this, without winter clothing in the way, he’d be able to caress every curve.

  Though ill-advised, Andrew slipped his hands within the folds of her cloak so that his hands could skim her narrow back from her hips to her shoulders, pulling her closer until she was against him. Her breasts pressed against his chest and her belly against his desire.

  Danby, and quite possibly, Storm may shoot him on the spot for taking such liberties if they were caught, but at that moment, Andrew didn’t care. The woman he loved was in his arms and it might be the last time he’d ever have this opportunity.

  Further, Tabitha offered no objection and pressed against him as much as he pulled her close, her fingers in his hair, holding him to her as she allowed him to deepen the kiss, matching her passion with his. Thank God they were standing in the gardens and that it was the middle of winter, or he might give in further and carry her somewhere private where the wo of them could fully enjoy the passion they shared. But, they weren’t in a private setting and anyone could come upon that at any moment, just as Lady Deborah had done earlier.

  With those thoughts, Andrew pulled away. He had no wish to defend himself against Danby or any one of Tabitha’s relatives. She might not care that he was Irish, but most certainly everyone else held a different opinion.

  As he broke the kiss, Tabitha looked up at him and sighed, a satisfied smile upon her lips. Oh, if only he could fully satisfy her in a way that only a man can satisfy a woman, but it would never come to be.

  “We should probably return inside,” he finally said.

  “If we must.” At least she sounded as disappointed as he did. “Though I wish we could remain here and not be bothered with others.”

  He chuckled. “I’ve never been much for balls and usually prefer horses and warm stables to a crowded ballroom.”

  “Right now I’d prefer the stables as well,” she sighed, then smiled. “It was silly of me to let my fear overcome something that I’d loved my entire life. As a child and before the accident, a day didn’t go by that I wasn’t riding or with the horses. Thank you for returning that to me. For helping me regain something so precious that I’d lost.”

  Andrew linked her arm with his. “It has been my pleasure, and I do mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

  “It’s a shame that we won’t be able to ride tomorrow.”

  “There is always the day after,” Andrew assured her and then remembered the hunt. He should tell her. He owed it to Tabitha to warn her of what Danby had planned. Yet, if Danby learned, Andrew might lose the estate.

  As the decision of telling her and withholding the information churned in his mind another thought occurred to him—what if she let herself worry about it from now until then. She might talk herself right out of riding and he’d be back at the beginning. Though the idea of remaining at Danby castle and working with her longer was not a deterrent, Andrew knew that it would be best for Tabitha if she wasn’t left with time to think about the hunt. He vowed to be by her side every moment that they rode.

  Chapter 20

  Christmas Day, though festive, had been a disappointment. Tabitha had such hope for spending further time with Andrew as the family and guests came together to celebrate with continuous entertainments and gatherings but it was as if the world stood between them. So often she’d seen Andrew nod toward her and begin to cross the room intent on her direction only to be interrupted by someone who wished to speak with him. When she was free and wished to go to him, someone interrupted her progress with a question or conversation. It became quite irritating and by the time the Christmas pudding was set aflame, she was quite done with her family.

  Her final opportunity to speak to Andrew had come when the gentlemen joined t
he ladies following their port, except the chant she’d overheard took precedence in her mind. There was to be a hunt tomorrow?

  Of course! Danby always held a fox hunt the day after Christmas, yet Tabitha had quite forgotten. Given that was all anyone would speak of, and because it was growing late, she had retired to her room. As the sun rose, she woke as was her habit but had half a mind to remain there the rest of the morning. She couldn’t ride with Andrew today because too many others would be out since the hunt was to take place immediately following breakfast. Though, she supposed she and Andrew could ride before, since they usually met before anyone else was up. But, did she wish to be caught out and about with Andrew as the others came to retrieve their horses?

  Yet, if Andrew were going to enjoy the hunt, which Tabitha was certain he would, then he’d not wish to take Epona out when she’d get her exercise later.

  Tabitha bit the corner of her lip as she tried to decide what to do when there was a light tapping at her door.

  Who the blazes wished to see her so early. Most of the castle should still be asleep as they usually were when she left her chamber at this time.

  Scrambling out of bed, Tabitha grabbed her wrapper and rushed to the door. On the other side stood a maid who was holding a large box.

  Tabitha opened the door wider and let her in.

  “This is from His Grace,” she bobbed a curtsey. “The note is from Lord Straffan.”

  Tabitha took the note and the box, staring at them in confusion. The maid bobbed another curtsey and left Tabitha alone. After closing the door, she placed the box upon the bed then reached for the note from Andrew.

  Tabitha,

  I have complete faith that you will shine as the morning sun and capture the attention of all that view you. Please, do not fear what is to come and I promise to be by your side for the duration of the hunt.