Reese's Bride

“I didn’t ask you—I asked the boy.”

Jared’s face reddened, and her heart went out to him. Lady Tavistock’s brittle voice softened. “I bet you like horses, don’t you?”

Jared looked up at her, caught her smile, and his shyness seemed to fall away. “I love horses. Lord Reese has the most beautiful horse out in the stable. Her name is Starlight and she has a star on her forehead and she is going to have a baby.”

Elizabeth could hardly believe her ears. Jared never said that much and certainly not to a stranger.

“Is that so?” the dowager said. “Maybe we’ll have time tomorrow to go out there and you can show me Lord Reese’s horse.”

“He has a lot of them,” Jared went on. “He has a big red stallion. He can really run fast.”

Lady Tavistock flicked Elizabeth a glance. “You’re a good boy, Jared.” Little more was said until Jared finished his cakes and fruit punch and asked to be excused. Lady Tavistock gave him permission. When he had left the room, Elizabeth looked over to see tears in the old woman’s eyes.

“I thought you heartless for hurting my nephew the way you did. Now I find you truly despicable.”

The color drained from Elizabeth’s face.

“Do you ever intend to tell him?”

Elizabeth couldn’t quite catch her breath. “I don’t … I don’t know what you mean.”

“You know exactly what I mean. The boy is my nephew’s son. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on him.”

Her heart thundered. “You’re … you’re mistaken.”

“How old is he?”

She wanted to lie. She could say Jared was six. He was small for his age; she was certain Reese thought he was younger than he was.

“How old?” the countess demanded.

“Seven …” Her voice trembled as the word whispered out.

“I knew it.”

She only shook her head. “H-he isn’t Reese’s son. He looks nothing at all like Reese.”

“Not in a way everyone would notice. His features are softer, his hair more brown than black. The thing is, except for the color of his eyes, Jared is the spitting image of Reese’s father when he was a boy.”

A buzzing started in her ears. Her throat felt too tight to swallow. She had kept the secret for so many years. Had planned to keep it forever.

“I think our tea is finished,” the old woman said, rising from her chair.

Elizabeth rose, as well, her knees trembling beneath her full skirts. “What … what do you intend to do?”

The dowager cast her a drilling glance. “For the moment, nothing.” She started forward, stopped and turned. “But I warn you, the time will come. When it does, I shall do whatever is best for my nephew and his son.”

Elizabeth just stood there. For an instant her vision narrowed to almost black and she thought she might actually faint.

She steeled herself. The old woman knew. If she told Reese, Elizabeth could deny it and perhaps Reese would believe her.

One thing was clear. She had to stay at Briarwood at least a little longer. She needed time to think things through, decide what action to take. She needed to pull herself together before she faced the dowager again.

Fear crept through her. The truth would have to be told. The old woman knew her secret. Elizabeth could no longer keep silent. The old woman could destroy Jared’s life and Elizabeth’s own.

Sooner or later, she would have to tell Reese.

But dear God, not now. The room spun again and she made her way over to the sofa and sat down. Reese hated her already. She couldn’t bear the way he would look at her once he knew the true depth of her betrayal.

Somehow she had to convince the old woman to give her time to formulate some sort of plan, time to find the courage to speak to Reese.

Somehow she had to find a way.

He shouldn’t have kissed her. He had damned well known better. But he couldn’t have guessed the way it would feel to hold her again, to have her respond to him in the exact same manner she had all those years ago.

As if she belonged to him. As if she loved him still.

Reese swore foully. He had never known the extent of her cunning until now. She cared nothing for him, likely never had. She was using him, nothing more. She needed his protection. And though he had already given her that, he couldn’t help wondering how far she would be willing to go in order to keep it.

Crossing the room without his cane, more determined than ever to stretch and retrain the muscles that had been injured and inactive for so long, he yanked on the bellpull, summoning Timothy Daniels to help him dress for supper.

At least the evening should prove interesting, if more than a little taxing. Elizabeth and his aunt had taken tea together that afternoon. He would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation.

At least the ice had been broken. Perhaps supper would be a tolerable affair.

Dressed in black for the evening, Reese grabbed his cane and made his way past Timothy, who held open the bedroom door. He was the first to arrive in the anteroom leading into the formal dining room, where a table seating twelve had been set for three and a fire blazed in the huge, open hearth along the wall.

His aunt was the first to arrive, decked out in sapphire-blue silk, a strand of diamonds at her throat, looking every inch the dowager countess she was.

The old woman paused in front of him. “My, you do look handsome, even without that scarlet uniform the women so favored.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Aunt Aggie.” She frowned at the use of the name but he knew that secretly she was pleased. “You’re looking beautiful, as always.”

She waved her hand at the flattery. “Just like your father and brothers, you are. Full of the devil when it comes to the ladies.”

He laughed. He had forgotten how good she was at making him laugh.

Elizabeth arrived a few minutes later, gowned in crisp black taffeta, a circle of black pearls at her throat. Only a glimpse of her pale breasts showed above the modest neckline.

Reese thought how much he hated her in black.

“I hope I’m not late,” she said, her gaze going to the grandfather clock in the corner, returning to him then quickly darting away. Faint color rose in her cheeks and he knew she was thinking of those moments in the music room.

“You’re here just in time,” Reese said. “Shall we go in?”

Elizabeth cast a glance at his aunt, who drilled her with a glare down the length of her short, powdered nose. He offered Aunt Aggie his arm and she rested her small gloved hand on the sleeve of his coat for the short walk into the dining room.

He seated both women, his leg holding up amazingly well, then sat down in the high-back chair at the head of the table.

The first course was served, a nice hot rice and plover soup.

“So, what did you think of Lady Aldridge’s son?” he asked, hoping to ease some of the tension in the room and begin a semblance of conversation. The women’s eyes shot to each other across the table.

“He’s too shy,” Aunt Aggie said sharply. “Needs a man’s influence to give him some gumption.”

Elizabeth’s hand shook as she lifted her soup spoon, but she made no reply.

Reese fixed his gaze on her face. “Perhaps one day Lady Aldridge will remarry.”

She lowered the spoon back into her bowl. “That is never going to happen. One husband was more than enough.”

Aunt Aggie’s silver eyebrows shot up. “Is that so? Then you must have loved him greatly.”

Elizabeth’s pretty lips thinned. “Loved him? Marriage is one step away from bondage and I will never allow myself to be put in that position again.”

Aunt Aggie eyed her shrewdly. Very carefully, she wiped her mouth on the linen napkin.

“I see,” she said, and Reese couldn’t help wondering what exactly it was the old woman did see. One thing he knew, his aunt had an uncanny ability where people were concerned. In a single brief conversation, she understood more about a person than anyone he had ever met.

The meal progressed a little easier after that. During dessert, egg custard with a delicious raspberry sauce, he mentioned to his aunt that his best friend, Travis Greer, had stopped by for a visit and that he would be writing for the London Times.

“I only met him a couple of times,” Aunt Aggie said. “Before his dreadful injury, of course. Always seemed a nice enough sort.”

“He’s become a very good friend,” Reese said, not mentioning the man had once saved his life. The war wasn’t one of his favorite topics.

“He was very nice to Jared,” Elizabeth added, doing her best to hold up her end of the conversation.

“The boy craves a man’s attention. Any fool can see that.”

Elizabeth looked into her dessert bowl as if there were something of interest in the bottom. Reese gave her credit. Clearly, Aunt Aggie was at her irascible best. As soon as dessert was over, Reese led the ladies into the drawing room for an after-dinner drink and both of them seemed relieved.

“How about a sherry, Aunt Aggie?”

“Not tonight. I believe I’ll go on up to bed. Where is that strapping young man who helped me before?”

Timothy, of course, appeared right on cue. “May I be of assistance, my lady?” He had adopted his formal demeanor and Reese almost smiled.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Daniels.”

“Good night, my lady,” Elizabeth said softly, and received a brusque “good night” in return. Timothy led the dowager out of the drawing room toward the staircase, leaving Reese alone with Elizabeth, an occurrence he hadn’t expected.

Reese thought of the kiss they had shared in the drawing room and couldn’t help wondering what the balance of the evening might bring.

Seven

Seated on the sofa across from Reese, Elizabeth nervously sipped a glass of sherry. She still hadn’t figured out how she had wound up alone with Reese. During supper, she had mentioned the possibility of leaving Briarwood, but the dowager had staunched the notion with a warning glance.

If she left without telling Reese the truth about Jared, she was certain Lady Tavistock would see it done immediately.

She had to stay. At least for the moment.

Oddly, the decision stirred a feeling of relief.

“Another sherry?” Reese asked, and she realized she had drained her glass entirely.

“Thank you, no. I believe it is past time I retired upstairs.” She rose from her place on the rose velvet sofa, set the empty glass down on the table beside it.

“You seemed to have reached some sort of truce with my aunt,” Reese said, rising and setting his own empty glass on the table.

Hardly. Currently the old woman had Elizabeth entirely under her thumb, but of course she couldn’t say that. “Perhaps she has decided to keep an open mind. In time, perhaps she will see there are two sides to every story.”

Elizabeth prayed it was so. She intended to speak to the dowager on the morrow, try to explain what had happened all of those years ago.

Reese’s fierce blue gaze bored into her. “Are there two sides, Elizabeth?”

He was asking her to explain. She doubted he would understand. She didn’t entirely understand herself.

“My father refused to let us marry, Reese. He insisted I marry the earl.”

“Funny, I seem to remember you saying that you would gain his approval and you would marry me.”

She tried not to flinch beneath his cold regard. “We were never officially engaged. In time, I thought my father would give us his blessing. He refused. After you were gone, it wasn’t so easy to fight him. I wasn’t as strong as I am now.”

And I was pregnant and frightened and only eighteen. But she could hardly say that.

“And there was Aldridge,” he said darkly, “right there knocking on your door. Writing you poetry, always solicitous, always full of flattery.”

“He was nothing at all what he seemed. He fooled my father completely. At first he even fooled me.”

“Still, you are a countess, your son an earl.”

She looked down at her empty glass, wishing she had more sherry, wishing she had let him pour her some more. “I am wealthy in my own right. My father left his fortune to me. It is returned to me now that Aldridge is dead.”

“Lucky for you.” He had moved closer, she realized, and now stood right behind her. She could feel his warm breath on the nape of her neck. “Have you thought about what happened in the music room?”

She swallowed. She could scarcely get those moments out of her head. Slowly, she turned to face him. “I’ve thought about it. I’ve never been kissed in that way.”

He frowned. “Surely Aldridge proved a satisfactory lover.”

Her stomach rolled. She couldn’t bear to think of the nights Edmund had pressed himself on her. “Please, I would rather not discuss my late husband.”

His hands came to rest at her waist. “You’re right, of course. I would rather discuss what might be arranged between the two of us.” She stiffened as he bent toward her, pressed his lips against the side of her neck. Gooseflesh raced over her skin and her heart set up a clatter.

“What … what are you doing?”

“I am kissing you, Elizabeth.” And then he did, his mouth claiming hers as if he had every right. He took her with abandon, a deep, drugging, possessive kiss that should have frightened her but instead left her light-headed and yearning.

The kiss deepened, grew more fierce. His tongue was hot and slick over hers and he tasted of the brandy he had been drinking. She couldn’t think, could barely stay on her feet. Her hands slid up the lapels of his black dinner jacket and she clung to him, breathed him in.

“You wanted me before, Elizabeth,” he whispered against her ear. “Apparently, you still do. And believe me, I want you.”

He held her so closely she could feel his powerful erection pressing against her. She should have been repulsed but she wasn’t. His body was lean and fit, his chest wide and hard, and the feel of his arms around her made her knees feel weak.

She forced herself to pull away. “You don’t … don’t even like me.”

He shrugged those broad shoulders. “Like has little to do with desire.” He leaned toward her, bent his dark head and kissed the place below her ear, and her stomach quivered.

“It’s obvious the attraction between us remains,” he went on. “You’re a widow. We could please each other, Elizabeth.”

She moved a little away, desperate to save herself. He didn’t like her, but he desired her. He was a man, after all, no different from any other. “I’m not … not interested in some illicit affair. I have a son to consider. And I refuse to be the victim of another man’s lust.”

One of his sleek black eyebrows went up. “That’s all there was? Edmund and his lust?”

Tears burned behind her eyes. She blinked them away before he could see. “I don’t want to think about it. Please, Reese …”

At the sound of his name and the plea in her voice, he straightened. He studied her a moment and she wished she knew what he was thinking.

“All right, if that is the way you want it. Just remember, the offer remains open. Think about it, Elizabeth. I can give you the pleasure he couldn’t.”

She only shook her head. She enjoyed Reese’s kisses, the featherlight touches that made her feel like the woman she had once been, but the thought of making love was utterly unbearable.

“I—I’ll be leaving here soon,” she said. “I haven’t got the arrangements entirely worked out, but I’m certain I’ll be able to see it done very shortly.”

Reese said nothing.

Elizabeth moistened her lips. “Good night, my lord.” His blue eyes darkened for an instant, before she turned away. Elizabeth hurried out of the drawing room, headed upstairs. She couldn’t wait to reach her bedroom.

And she couldn’t understand why Reese’s offer made the blood pump so furiously through her veins.

Reese paced the floor of his bedroom. The scene in the withdrawing room had been completely unplanned. But sometime during the course of the evening, watching Elizabeth beneath the glow of the candles, admiring the gleam of her raven hair, the pale smoothness of her skin, the subtle rise and fall of her breasts, desire had begun to burn inside him, along with the notion of having her in his bed.

He kept thinking of the kisses they had shared, remembering the way she had responded. He wanted her and apparently she wanted him.

He owed her nothing.

If he wanted her, why shouldn’t he have her?

Discovering how little she knew of passion made his desire for her even greater. Clearly, Edmund Holloway had been an inept lover. The sort of husband who took his pleasure and gave nothing in return. As Reese looked back on the kiss in the music room, he had sensed an innocence he hadn’t expected. It was there in her untutored kisses tonight.

He could teach her, give her the pleasure she had missed in the course of her marriage. And in doing so, relieve his need for a woman, unsatisfied since his arrival at Briarwood.

In a way, taking Elizabeth as his temporary mistress would be gaining an odd sort of revenge. He didn’t love her. Not anymore. But he desired her. More, perhaps, because he’d had her only once and had never gotten his fill.

He wanted her and she wanted him and only Elizabeth’s conscience stood in the way.

A hard smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Considering the ease with which she had jilted him for another man, whatever minor amount of conscience she possessed shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Shrugging out of his coat, Reese tossed it onto the bed. His leg throbbed as he walked over to the bellpull to summon Timothy and began to plan his strategy. He’d been an officer in the army. He knew how to mount a campaign.

With very little effort, Reese believed, he would have Elizabeth Holloway in his bed.

Elizabeth sent a note to Lady Tavistock, requesting a meeting at her earliest convenience. The dowager’s reply suggested they meet in the garden at two o’clock that afternoon.

Elizabeth paced nervously back and forth across her bedroom, wishing the time would pass. At one o’clock, she summoned Gilda to help her change into a walking dress and coif her dark hair. The chambermaid acting as her temporary ladies’ maid was tall and thin, with very curly blond hair. The girl didn’t know much about a lady’s toilette, but she was willing to do whatever Elizabeth asked.

Gilda opened the door of the armoire. “Which one, milady?”

Elizabeth bit her lip. Several days ago, she had sent Gilda to Aldridge Park with instructions to get Sophie’s help in packing more of Elizabeth’s clothes. Once she reached London, she would send for Sophie, who had been her maid for years. Until then, she needed a few more things to wear than she had been able to carry in the satchel with which she had escaped.

She studied the gowns in the armoire. All of them were black, of course, but at least the styles were different.

“Perhaps the one with the pagoda sleeves.” She shook her head. “No, I think the silk and crepe with the bodice that buttons up the front would be less formal.”

The girl laid the gown out on the bed, walked over and tightened Elizabeth’s stays, which had been loosened while she rested after lunch. Gilda helped her into the several layers of black petticoats that held out her full skirts, then helped her fasten the black silk buttons on the front of the gown.

Elizabeth turned toward the mirror. She wasn’t as pale as she had been when she had arrived, but it didn’t really matter. She hated the way she looked in black.

One more bad mark against Edmund for dying and forcing her into mourning.

One good mark that he was finally gone from her life.

She sat down in front of the dresser and Gilda worked to smooth her heavy curls into a tight chignon at the nape of her neck. Satisfied she looked proper enough to face Reese’s aunt, she rose and started for the door.

“Thank you, Gilda. I shall not need you until an hour or so before supper.” At which time, she would put on a different black shroud, one that at least allowed a portion of her bosom to show and displayed a bit of femininity.

She tried not to wonder if Reese would look at her as he had last night after supper. She could still feel the heat of his gaze as it settled on the hint of cleavage between her full breasts. She had never been slender, not even as a girl, but after birthing Jared, her bosom was fuller, her hips more curvy. Reese seemed not to mind.

The thought made her skin feel moist and a trickle of warmth slid into her stomach. She had to stop thinking of him, she told herself as she made her way down the staircase, had to stop thinking what it might be like to let him kiss her again, hold her in his arms.

Instead, she focused on her meeting with the dowager countess. Her greatest concern was her son. She had to find a way to protect him.

Elizabeth crossed the brick terrace and descended the few steps into the garden, which was heavily overgrown. The entire house needed a good thorough cleaning and overall polish. But Reese was a bachelor, and caring for the charming old manor house was a task only a woman could see fully accomplished.

For the next ten minutes, she wandered the gravel pathways, her slippers crunching on a colorful array of fallen leaves. Another set of footsteps sounded on the path behind her, slower, more hesitant, and she knew the dowager countess had arrived.

Elizabeth turned to see the old woman in a gown of apricot silk warmed by a light, matching pelisse moving slowly along the path, leaning heavily on her cane. Without thinking she hurried to help her.

“Why don’t we sit right here?” she suggested, easing the old woman down on a wrought iron bench.

“Thank you,” Lady Tavistock said stiffly.

“I appreciate your seeing me.” Elizabeth took a seat on the opposite end of the bench. The air was crisp and cool but not cold, the wind not more than a whisper.

“It would seem we have a good deal to discuss.”

“Yes …”

“I rarely make mistakes in judgment, you know. And yet I made one with you. I knew my nephew was in love with you. There was a time I believed you were deeply in love with him. I was wrong. If you had loved him, you never would have hurt him the way you did.”

Elizabeth’s heart clenched. How could she possibly explain? “I understand the way you feel, my lady. You think I abandoned Reese and married Aldridge for his money and title. It wasn’t so. I loved Reese. I wanted to marry him more than anything in the world.”

She stared at her lap, the sun beating down on the heavy black folds of her skirt. She looked up at the dowager countess. “Then I found out I was going to have a baby.” She swallowed against the memory. “I was terrified. When my father found out, he was beyond furious.”

“I remember your father had a temper. I never thought he would hurt you.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that. He never struck me. He simply … my father ruled me. Mother was dead. I did whatever my father commanded. I can’t remember a time I ever disobeyed his wishes.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell Reese about the child?”

Even now the memory was painful. “Father forbade me to have any further contact with Reese. He said he had dishonored me and he was never to come near me again. I wasn’t as strong as I am now. I wasn’t able to fight him. I did what he told me to do.”

The older woman looked at her askance. “And Aldridge’s charm played no part in your decision.”

“Not his charm, no. Perhaps the safety he offered in giving my unborn child his name. He was older, more settled, and he was there, not off somewhere adventuring. The decision itself was never truly mine. I married Aldridge, as my father insisted. And I regretted it every day of my life.”

The countess leaned back against the iron bench. Beneath her shrewd regard, Elizabeth fought not to squirm.

“My nephew says you came here because you feared for yourself and your child, but perhaps you had a different motive.”