Regency High Society Vol 3: Beloved Virago / Lord Trenchard's Choice / The Unruly Chaperon / Colonel Ancroft's Love

If this was meant to appease her it fell far short of the mark, for she had already learned of this earlier from her hostess during dinner. All the same, Katherine was fair-minded enough to appreciate fully his reasons for not wishing her to accompany them. She could not have been of any use whatsoever, whereas Josephine had proved of immeasurable help. Furthermore, if there still happened to be those out scouring the countryside in search of them, and there was every reason to suppose that there might be, Daniel wouldn’t have wished to put his good friend’s life in jeopardy by being seen in their joint company. And neither would Katherine herself, come to that!

Amazingly enough Katherine couldn’t help but feel a deal of respect for a woman who had suffered so much and yet had managed to withstand all the cruel blows life had dealt her. Despite the fact that the means by which Josephine was attempting to build a new life for herself, whereby one day she would be able to enjoy a comfortable and quiet existence in a modest house overlooking the Seine, could not but appal any virtuous young female with the least sensibility, Katherine couldn’t find it within herself to condemn the woman for making use of the experience which she had been forced to acquire during her turbulent marriage.

Nevertheless, she retained a deal of resentment towards the being who had seen fit to place her in the hands of a brothel-keeper, no matter how certain he had been that the greatest care would be taken of her. Surely he must have known her every feeling must be outraged? Or was it, perhaps, that he had considered her so naïve, such a ninnyhammer, that she would never suspect for a moment that she had been lodged in a house of ill repute?

Perversely, this very real possibility annoyed her more than all the rest, and she began to pace the room, striving to control her rising ire, and resist the very great temptation to hurl the hairbrush still clasped in her hand in the general direction of his head.

Daniel, watching her closely, was not slow to note the tense set of the perfectly proportioned, slender frame, nor the dangerous glint in those gorgeous eyes, before she had turned away to begin her angry pacing. Understandably, she was deeply offended, and not just mildly resentful too at being brought to such a place. But what other choice had been open to him?

Had she but known it, he had suffered the gravest misgivings, and even though his friend had assured him that every care would be taken, and Katherine would be safely placed in that totally private part of the building, where only Josephine’s closest friends were ever invited to enter, he hadn’t known one moment’s peace throughout the entire time he had been away.

‘Oh, come now, Kate, be fair,’ he urged, in a voice clearly laced with exasperation. He was tired after the many tasks he had been obliged to perform that day. He had not eaten a morsel since breakfast, and if the truth were known he was not in the best possible humour himself. ‘It isn’t like you to be missish. Do you think I would have brought you to this place if I’d any other choice? I couldn’t take you to one of the inns, and risk your being noticed. That hair of yours is an absolute bane on occasions. But at least I’ve managed to overcome that particular problem for the remainder of our travels. I had the forethought to acquire a hat.’

No response was forthcoming, and he began to grasp at straws. ‘Look on the bright side, sweetheart. Your situation could be a devil of a lot worse.’

This pronouncement was sufficient to stop Katherine in her tracks. She swung round to look directly at him, wondering whether she had misheard or he had taken complete leave of his senses.

‘Worse …? Worse!’ she echoed, regarding him in a mixture of outrage and disbelief. ‘How in the name of heaven, you blockhead, could my situation possibly be any worse? Behind me lurks Napoleon, no doubt amassing an army as we speak. Awaiting me across the Channel is a traitorous wretch bent on putting a period to my very existence. And I’m stuck here in a Normandy brothel with the … with the most notorious rake ever to hail from the county of Dorsetshire!’ She raised her eyes ceilingwards, as though seeking divine guidance there. ‘Ye gods! How the deuce could my situation possibly be any worse?’

The grasp Daniel had managed to maintain over his mounting exasperation finally snapped. ‘You damnable little virago!’ he growled back at her, raising clenched fists to the whitewashed plasterwork above his own head. ‘I’ll teach you to maintain a guard on that viperous tongue of yours if it’s the last thing I do!’

Only by the execution of some swift, side-stepping footwork did Katherine neatly avoid the long-fingered hand reaching out to grasp her arm. Daniel proved equally nimble in avoiding the hairbrush that she could no longer resist hurling in his direction a moment later, and which went harmlessly sailing past his left ear to hit the wall, narrowly missing the window. His growling threat of immediate reprisals sounded frighteningly sincere, for all that Katherine could clearly detect a slight tremor in his voice, though whether from laughter or anger she would have been hard pressed to say. And she wasn’t about to wait around to find out either!

The room which only minutes before had seemed wonderfully spacious appeared to have shrunk alarmingly, with the Major looming large and threatening within its walls. Her only means of escape was the door and she didn’t waste a precious moment in making a beeline for it. She was within a yard or two of grasping the handle, when her toes became entwined in the hem of the negligee, and only the strong muscular arm that snared her waist saved her from falling. The next moment she was lifted quite off her feet, and before she could so much as cry out in protest, she had been tossed carelessly down on the four-poster bed.

The two hundred pounds of solid bone and muscle that were swiftly lying half on top of her, not to mention the one strong hand effortlessly holding both her wrists captive above her head, made any attempt at escape rather futile. Torn between indignation and amusement, she stared up into dark eyes brightened by a gleam that was no less predatory than the grin which hovered about that shapely mouth only inches above her own.

‘Let me go at once, you great ox!’ she demanded, nowhere near ready to admit defeat, nor reticent to continue doing battle with the only weapon left to her.

‘Certainly, when you’ve apologised for your appalling behaviour,’ he responded, with all the smug satisfaction of someone who knew he had the upper hand.

‘My behaviour …?’ Incredulity succeeded in stilling her tongue for all of five seconds. ‘Fagh! That’s rich, coming from you!’

One dark brow quirked. ‘Are you going to apologise, young lady?’

‘Never!’ she avowed, stubborn to the last.

‘I was hoping that would be your answer,’ he surprised her by announcing before lowering his head, and masterfully preventing the unflattering string of epithets rising in her throat from passing her lips.

The instant his mouth touched hers, Katherine’s defences crumpled, and she found surrender far too sweetly satisfying even to contemplate a resumption of hostilities. Something lurking somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain was desperately striving to peal out a warning, but the chime was too indistinct and too swiftly silenced by the demands of a body aroused by that wholly masculine and intensely special touch.

Not one inch of her skin seemed immune to the wealth of sensations prickling through her as he removed his mouth from hers to trail his lips down the length of her neck to explore the hollows at the base of her throat. The instant the grasp about her wrists slackened, she raised her arms and wrapped them about him, eager to acquaint herself with the contours of a strong back and powerful shoulders. The guttural sound that instantly followed was no less satisfying than the demands of the mouth which once again captured hers, or the hand which stole beneath her to hold her so fast against him that her breasts both ached and tingled with pleasure at the hard contact with the large expanse of chest for those few brief seconds before he repeated an action which was rapidly becoming all too frustrating. Releasing her abruptly, Daniel once again proved that he could move with amazing agility for a man of his powerful build and was on his feet within seconds, leaving Katherine, bereft and bewildered, to stare up at him. He returned her gaze for a few moments, his expression wooden, devoid of emotion except perhaps for a trace of what might have been regret, then he swung round on his heels and headed across to the door.

‘I’ll leave you now to get some sleep.’ His voice sounded so coolly matter of fact that he might have been addressing a complete stranger, not the person with whom he had just shared an all too brief but exquisitely intimate episode. ‘There’s no need for you to rise early. We do not need to leave here until mid-morning.’

Determined not to give way to tears that could serve no useful purpose, Katherine waited until, without so much as a backward glance or a gentle word of farewell, he strode from the room. Then she lay and stared at the canopy above her head, at a complete loss to understand why he should have called a halt to an occurrence that innate feminine wisdom assured her he had been enjoying every bit as much as she had herself. Yes, he had done so before, she reminded herself, on two quite separate occasions. Somehow, though, this time had been different. For all his threat of reprisals, he had been gentle from the first, swiftly extracting a response that—God forgive her!—was all too swift in coming.

Ashamed though she was to admit to it, she could no longer deny that when in Daniel’s arms self-restraint and morality were all too easily forgotten, swept aside by a rapidly increasing yearning demanding fulfilment. Just the touch of his hand had the power to affect her like no other man’s had done before. But so it had been from the very first, on that bitterly cold January day, when they had collided with each other in the doorway of that inn and he had prevented her from falling.

How strange that she should recall the incident now; recall too that his touch had put her forcibly in mind of her father’s reassuring, protective hold. Yet there had been nothing paternal in the hands which had caressed her so gently not so very long ago, and honesty prompted her to admit that she was glad of it.

Drawing her eyes away from the lace-edged canopy, she glanced about the tastefully decorated chamber, clearly recalling its owner’s parting words after they had dined together. ‘You may rest easy tonight, petite. This part of the house is entirely private. Be assured too that, although the bed you sleep in is indeed mine, no man has yet been invited to share it with me.’

Although Josephine might have spoken no less than the truth, Katherine was brutally aware that one might well have been sharing it this night if Daniel hadn’t possessed the strength to call a halt before their mutual passion had taken them to a point beyond which there was no turning back.

For her sake, and most especially for his, it must never occur again, she thought determinedly, little realising that below, in the room which functioned as both dining and sitting-room, Daniel’s feelings on the matter were vastly contrasting and that he was equally determined that it should.

His appetite having deserted him, he had managed to consume very little of the delicious supper the housekeeper had kindly brought to him, and he rose from the table, taking both bottle and glass over to a comfortable chair.

Scant compensation, he mused wryly, studying the bottle for a moment before refilling his glass. All the same, it would need to suffice for the present, though there were times, he was forced to admit, when he wished he might forget that he was born a gentleman. And never more so than tonight!

Yet, deep down he knew he had done the right thing, the only honourable thing, he reflected, leaning back against the soft fabric of the chair. No, he could never have reconciled it with his conscience if he had taken advantage of the situation in which they now found themselves. For all that she could match his passion with her own, she was a highly moral young woman. Furthermore she trusted him. How could he betray that trust, even though he now felt quite certain that she wasn’t indifferent to him? When he did make her his own, and he would eventually, it would be on their wedding night and in his own bed, not in a room in a Normandy bawdy house. To have done so would have been to cheapen what he felt for her, and take cruel advantage of her vulnerability, not to mention her innocence.

No, there was not a doubt left in his mind now. Although at the beginning of this venture he might possibly have experienced no more than the desire to take her to his bed, that had swiftly changed. Katherine was the woman with whom he wished to spend the rest of his life. They were so right for each other in every way—almost kindred spirits. But first there was still that one huge barrier which needed to be demolished: somehow he must find a way to rid her of those foolish notions that she had allowed herself to believe in an attempt to protect herself from future hurt. He could not have her fretting unnecessarily, believing the worst every time he might be delayed in returning home, as most assuredly she would, unless he eradicated those fears completely and forced her to face the truth. Now was certainly not the time to make the attempt. Once they were safely back in England, once this foolish escapade was behind them, he would storm the citadel of her fears. In the meantime he must continue to maintain that control over his desires and emotions, which during the past couple of days he had succeeded in doing reasonably well, even though it had meant for the most part attempting to ignore her very existence.

‘Ah, mon cher!’

Josephine, smiling at him from the doorway, effectively brought his musings to an end, and he even managed to return her smile, as she settled herself on the floor at his feet.

‘I shall keep you company for a little moment. You have been up to see Mademoiselle Katherine and have assured yourself that she is well, no?’

Katherine’s welfare had been the first thing about which he had enquired on his return to the house. ‘Yes,’ he muttered, as memory stirred. ‘And all I received for my pains was a hairbrush thrown at my head. Damnable little termagant!’

Josephine’s gurgle of laughter was infectious, and Daniel found it impossible not to smile too. ‘Ah, yes, your Katherine certainly does not lack spirit.’

He stared down for a moment into the large brown eyes twinkling up at him, before transferring his gaze to the contents of his glass. ‘What makes you suppose that she is my Katherine?’

Full lips curled into a knowing smile. ‘If she is not already, then I suspect that it is your intention to make her so. And I am very happy for you, mon cher, even if it does mean that I have lost you.’

The small hand resting lightly on his knee did little to ease his frustrations, and brought vividly to mind a very satisfying interlude they had enjoyed the previous year. ‘What makes you suppose that you have lost me?’ The husky timbre of his voice betrayed clearly enough his mounting desire. ‘Katherine as yet has no right to place demands upon me.’

‘Her affection and her trust give her the right, my friend,’ Josephine countered, before rising to her feet. ‘I think you know that I could happily lie with you again. But I shall not. Even a woman in my profession has her pride. I have never yet shared my bed with a man who has left it regretting that he had been there.’

Daniel regarded her in silence for a moment above the rim of his glass. ‘And what makes you suppose that I would?’

‘Perhaps you would not until you had to face your Katherine again, and saw the hurt in her eyes, for she would know. She is no fool. Unless I am very much mistaken, she already suspects that you and I have found pleasure in each other, but she did not know you then. But she cares for you now. Do not hurt her needlessly. It would be better by far for you to face her with a clear conscience in the morning, so I shall place temptation out of reach.’

With a rueful smile curling his lips, Daniel watched her leave. ‘You’re a damnably astute woman, Josephine Carre,’ he murmured, before returning his attention to the only solace he would receive that night, and finishing off the wine.

Chapter Eleven

‘What the hell do you suppose you’re doing?’

Katherine, who had been about to make the first judicious snip, almost jumped out of her skin, and was granted only sufficient time to recover from the shock of Daniel’s unexpected presence in the room before the scissors were snatched from her fingers.

She had chosen to partake of breakfast in the bedchamber in an attempt to delay the inevitable encounter with him for as long as possible, and had spent no little time pondering over what his attitude towards her might be this morning. She had half-expected him to distance himself, as he had done before, only speaking when it was absolutely necessary, and then in a voice which bordered on the icily polite. At the very least she had anticipated a little reserve in his manner, and yet he was behaving just as though nothing untoward had occurred between them, adopting the same high-handed approach which had not infrequently irked her during their short but highly eventful association. Somehow, though, it made facing him again after the events of last night so very much easier, so she swiftly decided to follow his lead by revealing her own faint annoyance at his imperious attitude.

‘Well, I certainly wasn’t about to lop off an ear,’ she responded with thinly veiled sarcasm, while having no difficulty whatsoever in returning his angry gaze through the dressing-table mirror. ‘And hasn’t anyone ever told you that it is extremely rude to enter a lady’s bedchamber without knocking first? Also that it is most impolite to snatch.

‘I don’t know why you are glowering at me like a bear with a sore head,’ she went on when she quite failed to win an apology. ‘You informed me that I was to adopt the role of your nephew. It might have escaped your notice, but boys don’t generally wear their hair halfway down their backs.’

If anything his expression darkened. ‘I cannot imagine why you are so out-of-all-reason cross,’ she continued, taking little heed of the angry sparkle in his dark eyes. ‘I thought you would be pleased that I was willing to sacrifice my hair for the role. After all, you dislike it intensely.’

This did at last manage to elicit a response. ‘I’d like to know from where you gleaned that piece of utter nonsense,’ he retorted, placing the scissors well out of harm’s way and then reaching for the hairbrush. ‘Your hair must rate as possibly the most beautiful I’ve ever seen,’ he astounded her by admitting, before making use of the hairbrush and sweeping the rich auburn locks gently back from her face, and securing them at the nape of her neck with a length of ribbon.

It was the total sincerity in his voice that astonished Katherine as much as anything else, and in an attempt to hide her confusion she proffered a mild joke. ‘You missed your vocation in life, Major Ross. You would have made an excellent lady’s maid.’

‘Any more remarks like that, young woman, and I shall apply this hairbrush none too gently to quite a different part of your anatomy,’ he threatened, with a swift return to his former domineering manner. ‘Which would be no more than you deserve, after hurling the wretched thing at me last night.’

Evidently he was not in the least reticent to allude to the incident, but Katherine wasn’t so certain whether the memory of those more tender moments was one that he found difficult to forget, or simply did not wish to do so, for his expression was quite unreadable as he handed her the hat that he had acquired to complete her disguise.

‘Yes, very neat,’ he approved, after watching her secure her hair beneath the rim, and scrutinising her overall appearance. ‘Providing no one looks at you too closely, you’d pass for a lad. Now, if you’re ready, we’d best be on our way. Josephine has kindly put her carriage at our disposal. But first, she wishes to make her farewells.’

They discovered both the carriage and its owner awaiting them in the courtyard at the front of the house. None of them chose to linger long over the leave-taking, although Katherine did promise, before finally clambering into the carriage, to visit Paris again when Josephine had acquired her house overlooking the Seine.

‘You sounded as if you genuinely meant that,’ Daniel remarked as he made himself comfortable in the seat opposite, and they commenced the last stage of their journey through France.

‘I did,’ she assured him. ‘Although I might not wholeheartedly approve of the way Madame Carre earns a living, I cannot help but admire her spirit and determination. What she was forced to endure during her marriage would have destroyed a lesser woman.’

‘Possibly,’ he agreed.

‘Furthermore, it does not necessarily follow that, just because she runs a bawdy house, she need participate in any of the activities that take place beneath its roof. In fact, I gained the distinct impression last night that she spends most of her evenings entertaining guests in the card-room, though I do not suppose for a moment that she would refuse to be—er—private with a gentleman if he should appeal to her.’

Thankful now that he had spent the night alone on the couch, Daniel was able to return that penetrating turquoise-eyed gaze. No, Katherine was certainly no fool, he mused. She possibly did suspect that he and Josephine had enjoyed a closer relationship at one time. But that had taken place in the past, long before he had met her. How he conducted himself from now on was all that need concern her.

Katherine was not slow to note his look of smug satisfaction. ‘Why are you smiling? Have I a smudge on my nose?’

‘No, but it might be better if you had. You make a damnable pretty boy, my darling,’ he informed her before, much to her intense surprise, he leaned back against the squabs and closed his eyes.

‘Heavens above! Surely you don’t propose to sleep?’

The indignant tone brought a further smile to his lips. ‘You might have enjoyed a good night’s repose. But I most certainly did not. I spent the whole night with my legs dangling over the end of that confounded chaise-longue in the parlour. And damnably uncomfortable it was too!’

Katherine hurriedly turned her head away to stare out of the window, thereby concealing an expression of unbridled satisfaction. It ought not to matter a whit to her where he had spent the night, but it did, and she couldn’t deny the intense pleasure it gave her knowing that he had spent the night alone.

By the time Madame Carre’s coachman had set them down in the centre of a small habitation on the coast, and they had visited several of the inns in a vain attempt to find the man who was supposed to be taking them across the Channel, Katherine’s feelings towards Daniel were far less charitable. He had been highly critical over her behaviour from the moment she had stepped down from the carriage and she was fast coming to the end of her tether.

‘I have not got a mincing walk. I’ll have you know that I have frequently been complimented on the elegance of my carriage. And I do not simper like an idiot, either!’

‘But you’re speaking in English again, you infuriating little baggage!’ he snapped, grasping her elbow, thereby forcing her to halt in the middle of the street. ‘Go and await me on the quayside! And here …’ delving into his pocket he handed her a few coins ‘ … go buy yourself a pasty from the street hawker we just passed. If anyone should attempt to hold you in conversation you can start munching it, then with any luck they won’t take too much notice of your deplorable accent.’

Satisfying herself with casting him a dagger-look, Katherine did as bidden, buying a pie before settling herself on the wall by the quay. Although the afternoon was dry and reasonably sunny, there was a stiff breeze coming off the sea, and it wasn’t too long before she began to feel decidedly chilled. The rough woollen cloak he had purchased for her was nowhere near as warm as the totally feminine, fur-lined garment she had been forced to leave behind at Josephine’s house.