Blackhaven Brides (Books 5–8)

by Lancaster, Mary

  But Alban’s men had their own strict way of doing things. So all he could do was sit and watch, staring into the darkness in the hope of seeing her boat ahead, or her figure climbing the path from Braithwaite Cove to the castle. He should have known when his whole being cried out against it, that leaving her was wrong. But she had had to physically go before he let himself even think that what seemed the honorable thing wasn’t necessarily a good thing. For Anna or for him.

  They had rowed about half way from the ship to Braithwaite Cove when he saw the bobbing shape on the water approaching them.

  “It’s the first boat,” one of the sailors said. “On its way back.”

  Louis scowled. To be returning so quickly, they must have left her to walk up to the castle alone. Of course, she had probably insisted and his Anna generally got her own way by one means or another. So did he.

  As the boats drew nearer, the sailors from each crew began to call to one another. Louis opened his mouth to shout his own questions, when he saw the small figure huddled among them.

  “Anna,” he whispered. He stood abruptly, rocking the small boat, and suddenly Anna was on her feet, too, waving madly.

  “Louis! I’m here, I’m coming with you!” she shouted.

  The crew of her boat tried to make her sit, but she was speaking to them urgently and refused. Louis shook off the man trying to yank him back on his own seat.

  “You’ll tip us all in the sea!” one of them yelled. “Oh, God’s teeth, what’s she doing, now?”

  Louis’s attention snapped back to the other boat, for as they came alongside, the men had to draw in their oars, and Anna was holding on to the side and climbing. Louis felt the blood drain from his face in fear. He threw himself to the side of his own boat, opening his mouth to tell her not to be an idiot. But one of her crew was already throwing a rope to him and he caught it and hauled. And Anna leapt.

  She won’t reach! Dropping the rope, he made a grab for her, just as her foot slipped and she began to fall. But he’d grasped her wrist, and her other hand clung to his and he pulled with all his strength until they both fell backward into the boat.

  The sailors swore as the boat rocked dangerously. But Louis knew they were safe. They had to be now. Somehow, he dragged her with him onto the seat.

  “You fool,” he uttered, crushing her to him, his hand tangled in her hair. The veil had vanished, no doubt into the sea. “What were you thinking? You could have drowned!”

  “I had to tell you,” she gasped, clinging to his wrist. “I’m coming with you, wherever you go.”

  He frowned, tilting her head back to stare down into her face. In the silver glow of the moon and the weaving lamp on the boat, she was bedraggled and smiling, and more beautiful than he had ever seen her. He said, “I was coming to tell you that I’m staying in England.”

  She laughed, her cold fingertips caressing his face, his lips with something very like wonder. “Well, we’re about half way between the ship and shore. Which will be more fun?”

  He searched her face, seeking his way. “England will be safer.”

  “For me. Not for you. Besides, safety isn’t fun.”

  He didn’t mean to smile, but his lips were curving of their own volition. “You’re just a little mad, you know.”

  “I know,” she whispered, and kissed him.

  Louis lifted one hand and pointed back toward The Albatross.

  *

  Talleyrand regarded them with a frown, but Anna thought he was more amused than annoyed. However, his gaze was speculative as it lingered on her.

  “As a couple, certainly, there may be more opportunities,” he said. “Opportunities that might not be open to a single man in Basel.”

  “I do not, however, work for you,” Anna pointed out.

  “I am sure you will find a way to pass information to your brother-in-law,” Talleyrand said dryly. “And do you know, I believe Lord Castlereagh himself may turn up in Basel before too long. At this stage, your country and ours has increasingly little difference in aims. Can we agree on the peace of Europe as our goal?”

  Anna nodded.

  “Then we may all look after our own countries as best we can within that greater goal. Do I have to bless you a third time before you go away and let me sleep?”

  “No,” Louis said. “Good night.”

  They made their way back to what was now their own cabin. They had nothing but the clothes they stood up in, but Anna had never been happier.

  “What of your family?” he asked.

  “I’ll write to them. They’ll understand,” Anna said optimistically. “They’re used to my mad starts. Even Serena. She loves my brother, after all.” The word love rolled off her tongue more easily now.

  She sighed with contentment, melting as he took her into his arms. “What changed your mind?” she asked at last. “Why did you come after me?”

  “For the same reason you came back. We are meant to be together. I would have come back for you as soon as I could, you know I would, but…it came to me, finally, that abandoning you here for however long might not make you happy.”

  She pressed her cheek to his. “It didn’t. It wouldn’t. That’s why I came back. I know you need me. You’re the only one who truly needs me as I need you.”

  His arms tightened. “You will drive me to distraction. I’ll worry and fret and probably shout, trying desperately to keep you out of danger. But we will have fun.”

  She laughed, already eager to face her new life in all its aspects. “I know. And I will go my own way and interfere in yours. But I trust you, Louis, and I’ll always love you.” Her smile lingering, she turned up her face and he kissed her mouth long and hungrily.

  “I know we’ll be happy,” he whispered against her lips. “Happier even than this.”

  And they were.

  The Wicked Gypsy

  Blackhaven Brides

  Book 8

  Mary Lancaster

  To Violetta Rand, who wanted gypsies!

  With much gratitude and appreciation.

  Chapter One

  Gervaise Conway, the Earl of Braithwaite, gazed down on the gypsy encampment. Despite the blistering cold of the January evening, there was something cozy and jolly about the gathering. He had granted the gypsy family use of the old cottage to sleep in, but they had flung up a couple of tents outside and built a fire nearby for cooking. It still burned, casting a warm glow over the scene.

  A young man played the fiddle, causing those seated about the fire to stamp their feet in time to the music. A few of the women, busy about tasks that took them in and out of the cottage, danced their way past the fire with laughter.

  Gervaise halted to watch them for a little. He, with his brother-in-law, Lord Tamar, was on his way home from a convivial evening spent with friends in Blackhaven, but he found the alien scene in the valley below strangely spellbinding.

  “Did you ever want to run away with gypsies, Tamar?” he asked.

  “God, yes. Did it once, too.”

  Gervaise spared him an amused glance. “Of course you did. What did you think of the experience?”

  Tamar shrugged. “They were kind enough to me. I think they always meant to take me back home, in expectation of a large present from my father…who hadn’t even noticed I was gone, and if he had, I imagine he’d have lacked both will and means to give them a reward! In any case, I found I’d only exchanged one set of rules for another, so I left them again and went home on my own.”

  Gervaise felt his brother-in-law’s curious gaze on his face but kept his own attention on a girl who danced past the fiddler with what seemed to be a mocking curtsey. She was well-wrapped up against the cold, her bulky garments at odds with her grace of movement.

  “Feeling the urge to escape your responsibilities at last?” Tamar suggested.

  “Is it so obvious?” Gervaise asked ruefully.

  “Staring with envy at freezing cold gypsies in mid-winter? It’s a big hint.”


  Gervaise shrugged impatiently, reluctant to lose his last sight of the girl, whose face he couldn’t even see, as she danced through the door into the cottage. There was nothing in it to add to her comfort, to anyone’s, just an empty shell.

  “It isn’t envy,” he insisted. “And I don’t truly dislike my responsibilities as you call them—”

  “You perform them very well,” Tamar interrupted. “You always have, by what I hear, and always with a light touch and perfect good nature. No one could blame you for tiring of it occasionally.”

  Gervaise sighed. “I’m not even tired of it,” he confided. “I just wish it meant something.”

  “Trust me, what you do means a great deal to many people.” Tamar sounded almost startled.

  Gervaise cast him a wry glance. “Perhaps. But what difference does any of it actually make? For all I work and struggle, what have I actually achieved, Tamar? Nothing,”

  Tamar blinked. “You’re not yet twenty-seven years old. You have several well-run, profitable estates with largely happy tenants. You’ve taken your seat in Parliament and spoken for reform. Your paper advocating changes in poor relief—”

  Gervaise laughed. “Which convinced absolutely no one, even among my own party. Especially after that cur Gardyn took it upon himself to pour scorn and derision upon it before he’d even read it!”

  “Is that what’s cast you down?”

  “I am not cast down,” Braithwaite insisted.

  “Seem pretty blue-devilled to me, though you’ve been hiding it well.”

  Gervaise drew in his breath. He had bottled this up for so long, it had to spill out at some point. Who better to hear it than the amiable brother-in-law he had once expected to despise?

  “I can’t understand men who deliberately destroy things—ideas, people, movements for good—just to make themselves look witty or strongminded or gain some fool’s approval for personal advancement. These people should not be making laws, deciding the fate of our country or those who live in it.”

  “I agree,” Tamar said at once. “Julius Gardyn and all his ilk are a waste of air. Let’s drink to that.” Tamar clapped him on the back and took the flask from his overcoat pocket. “Damn, it’s empty.”

  Gervaise laughed. “Well, let’s see if the gypsies will share.”

  Veering off the road to Braithwaite Castle, he made his way down the grassy hill into the little valley. Tamar, who rarely passed up a party of any kind, or a picturesque scene, went with him. If the gypsies did not at once notice their approach, the camp dogs quickly gave warning, growling as they got up from the fire and advanced menacingly on the newcomers.

  A middle-aged man and a younger one got up from their places by the fire. One spoke sharply to the dogs who subsided but stayed on guard.

  “Mr. Ezra Boswell?” Gervaise said easily.

  “And if I am?” came the suspicious, slightly insolent response.

  “Then I believe you spoke to my man earlier. I’m Braithwaite.”

  The man’s attitude changed at once. He even smiled ingratiatingly. “Ah! My lord, welcome to our humble camp. Accept our thanks for your kind generosity.”

  “Generosity?” Gervaise repeated with a faint, deprecating grimace. “The cottage is empty and disused. It is hardly a major sacrifice.”

  “Perhaps not to you, but it means a lot to my family to have shelter on this cold night. Especially for the child.” He snapped his finger and a girl—surely the graceful dancer—materialized by his side, a small, well-swaddled baby in her arms to show him.

  Gervaise, who knew nothing about infants, regarded it dubiously. “So this is the child to be baptized tomorrow?” he managed.

  “John Boswell,” the girl said lovingly. Gervaise lifted his gaze to her face and found that much more interesting. Perhaps it was the flickering glow from the firelight, but she seemed to him incredibly beautiful with her fine, almost delicate features and large, lustrous eyes. He imagined her skin was paler than that of most of her race, and her smile was both tender and humorous as she raised her eyes from the child to Braithwaite’s face. As though she recognized his disinterest in her beloved bundle.

  Lust caught him by surprise, catching at his breath and his sanity. A gypsy girl to warm his bed, just for this night of passion, and in the morning, she would be on her way, waving as happy a goodbye as he.

  The baby squawked, interrupting his foolish fantasy. A girl who had so recently given birth was unlikely to welcome anyone’s attention. And presumably her husband would have something to say about the matter.

  Gervaise laughed, which clearly startled the girl.

  Ezra Boswell cleared his throat. “My grandson.”

  “And a very fine boy he is,” Gervaise said hastily.

  “Take him to his mother,” Ezra commanded, and the girl at once turned toward the cottage. But she smiled at Braithwaite over her shoulder, and he couldn’t help smiling back. Stupidly, he was glad she was not the child’s mother.

  “My younger daughter,” Ezra said, following his gaze. “Beauty, ain’t she? And not just in the common way.”

  “You are a lucky man to have such a family,” Gervaise said hastily. “Is there anything you need?”

  “No, my lord, you have already been most generous. Is there anything you need?”

  Gervaise met his wily gaze coolly. “What did you have in mind?”

  Ezra shrugged. “Horses? Got some excellent fast thoroughbreds…though perhaps daylight would be a better time to look at ’em! Same for the baskets and household items my girls make. But we can play and dance for you, tell your fortune.”

  “Go on, Braithwaite,” Tamar encouraged. He stood well back, sketching the scene in his ubiquitous notebook. “Get your fortune told—it might cheer you up! And besides, I want to draw it.”

  Braithwaite curled his lip. “I have a better idea. I’ll sketch you having your fortune told.”

  Tamar emitted a crack of laughter. “What would be the point of that?

  “It might make me laugh.”

  “His lordship would like his fortune told,” Tamar told Ezra, strolling nearer while his pencil still darted over the page.

  “You won’t regret it, my lord,” Ezra assured him. “My daughter is very skilled, better even than her late and much-lamented mother, my wife.” He clapped his hands, issuing orders in his own tongue and two more young women—possibly more of Ezra’s daughters or his nieces—appeared, ushering Gervaise and Tamar to one of the tents.

  Gervaise shrugged and went along with it. He had nothing better to do, and his soul craved something new, something out of the ordinary. Not that he was in any danger of believing whatever nonsense he was told. He was a profound skeptic and enlightened scholar. He believed nothing without proof and was not easily bamboozled.

  The girls lit several lamps in the tent, allowing Gervaise to appreciate the hangings and cushion covers of velvet and silk. It smelled of sweet, exotic herbs, and was surprisingly warm. He sat on cushions on one side of the low table as the young women had invited him to do, while Tamar sprawled at the far end with his sketchbook open on his knee.

  The women poured wine into two silver goblets and then departed. Apparently neither of them would be telling Braithwaite’s fortune.

  Braithwaite picked up his goblet, admiring it before he drank. “Remind me why I’m here? So you can make an exotic painting?”

  “Of course. And it should be something quite out of the ordinary.” Tamar examined his own goblet. “Not poor people, are they?”

  Gervaise shrugged. “Probably tools of their trade. Like the silk cushions. It’s impressed you, hasn’t it?”

  “Well, something’s impressed you, too, or you wouldn’t be here.”

  “Curiosity,” Gervaise confessed, “as to what kind of drivel they’ll come out with.”

  At that moment, the tent flap lifted and a girl came in and sank onto the cushions opposite Gervaise. It was the graceful dancer, the girl who had shown him the baby. He regar
ded her with interest as she took off her cloak and woolen gloves and unwound the blanket-like garment from her head and shoulders, revealing long, smooth hair that hung loose. Unexpectedly, she was not dark but blonde…though not quite. A rather gorgeous reddish tinge added rarity to her beauty and struck a distant chord of memory in Gervaise. She wore a seductive, low-necked gown of dark blue velvet, an embroidered shawl about her shoulders that might have been to preserve her modesty or keep out the cold.

  Already very aware of her charms, he allowed his gaze to rest on her too long. She responded boldly, with a frank curiosity of her own. It entered his head that she had been sent to seduce him—and no doubt part him from a little more blunt. He didn’t mind that at all. Perhaps she read the fact in his heated eyes, for, to his surprise, a blush rose up over her neck and face, and she looked hastily away. Her fingers curled convulsively, twisting together before she withdrew them from the table.

  “Forgive me for staring,” Gervaise said, instantly sorry for her discomfort, although it intrigued him at the same time. “You remind me of someone, though that’s no excuse for rudeness.”

  She inclined her head, apparently accepting his apology, though she stole a quick glance at him as though to be sure before she allowed herself to relax once more.

  “My father tells me you would like your fortune told,” she said prosaically, her voice low and pleasant, despite its accent. “I’ll read what I can from your palm.”

  “Feel free,” he said skeptically, placing his hand on the table, palm upward.

  She did not look at it but glanced back at Tamar. “Are you happy for this gentleman to be present during the reading?” she asked unexpectedly.

  “I doubt we’d be able to eject him without a regiment of soldiers behind us. He’s an artist, fascinated by everything he sees here.”

  “I am,” Tamar confirmed, shifting position so that he could see the girl’s face as well as Braithwaite’s.