A Sister's Secret (49 page)

‘Sir, your impudence is breathtaking,’ she said. ‘I am to consider employing your trollop? Oh, sir, I vow you of all things conscienceless. I have found you out, discovered your perfidy, and the first thing you do is beg me to take up your fallen baggage. I am lost for words, sir, lost.’

‘Ah,’ said the captain, and coughed again. ‘I ain’t noticed it,’ he said.

Caroline could hardly contain her swamping tide of recharged spirit. There he was, standing before her, his expression that of a man being entirely reasonable. Oh, that she had denied herself this exultant confrontation until now.

‘You are shifting about, sir,’ she said. ‘You may have no shame, but you are surely not such a coward that you can’t face your deserved death bravely. But I declare myself un-vindictive. I am returning home to Charleston at the end of this month.’

‘Only over my dead body,’ said the captain.

‘Sir?’

‘You ain’t going,’ he said.

‘This conversation is over,’ said Caroline.

‘It ain’t properly begun yet. Beg to suggest, Your Ladyship, that you stop playing games.’

‘Games?’ Her head came up.

‘It’s affecting my well-being,’ said the captain.

A breeze came drifting from the Downs and lightly kissed the leafy trees. Caroline stood still, yielding nothing. The captain was poised, however, to cut off her probable, darting flight.

‘Your well-being, sir, is not my concern. I am selling Great Wivenden—’

‘No, you ain’t,’ he said.

‘Captain Burnside, there is a suspicion in my mind that you’re threatening me.’

‘Quite right,’ said the captain, ‘I am. Declare yourself permanently attached to Great Wivenden, or take the consequences.’

‘Declare those consequences, sir.’

‘Abduction, confinement, and bread and water. Sammy is presently at Pond Cottage, with your coach. Unless, marm, you come to your senses, I shall carry you there, bundle you aboard, and get Sammy to drive us to a place where I shall lock you up and feed you bread and water, which won’t necessarily be the least of it.’

‘Lock me up?’ Caroline could scarcely restrain her joy. No woman could have failed to perceive what lay behind this outrageous threat. He loved her. Not for him the timid words of a faint-hearted swain, but the calculating and uncompromising approach that carried the implication of a fate worse than death. A fate worse than death? At his hands? Oh, joy. He did love her. But she would not give in, never, until he told her so. ‘Am I dreaming?’ she asked. ‘Am I among phantoms and fantasies? Abduct me? Lock me up and feed me bread and water?’

‘Which my estimable mother always prescribed as the most salutary cure for the sulks of rebellious boys and pettish girls.’

‘Pettish girls? Pettish girls?’

‘Alas, Lady Caroline, that you should have come to girlish sulks, you who adorned Lady Chesterfield’s ball like a magnificent goddess,’ said the unblinking captain.

‘Oh, that disgraceful tongue of yours will bring you to a miserable end, Captain Burnside,’ she said, ‘and your ridiculous threats will avail you nothing. Sammy and my coach indeed – fiddlesticks, sir, fiddlesticks. You could never make a confederate of Sammy. He would never go against me.’

‘He is under the impression, Your Ladyship, that you and I are to elope.’

Caroline was further entranced. Oh, the audacious villain. ‘Elope? With you? I should leave Sammy in no doubt that you were engaged in forceful abduction, for I should fight you tooth and nail. You deceived me, lied to me, mocked me, humiliated me and made a fool of me. Have you no thought of what that did to me?’

‘Your Most Precious and Endearing Ladyship,’ said Captain Burnside, ‘what do you think it did to me, loving you hopelessly as I did from the moment I first saw you?’

He had said it at last. It took all breath from her. Dizzy rapture overtook her. Henceforward, the confrontation could only offer unparalleled delight. But all she could say for the moment was, ‘Hopelessly, Captain Burnside?’

His expression became wry. ‘I ain’t supposing you’ve any great regard for me,’ he said, ‘but all the same I’ll not stand aside and let you go back to America.’

‘So,’ she breathed, ‘you would abduct me, imprison me and starve me until I let you have your dreadful way with me? Why, you would never even get me into the coach, for I should make it plain to Sammy that you were attempting brutal abduction, no less.’

‘Unfortunately, marm,’ he said smoothly, ‘Sammy won’t be there, nor the coach. One plays a hopeful hand to see
what it will achieve, and when it don’t bring forth the right results, one plays the ace. The ace is Pond Cottage. I shall carry you there, muffling all your cries for help, and keep you captive until you give up your unacceptable notion of running off to America. America won’t do, Your Ladyship, and it ain’t going to do.’

Caroline’s eyes were luminous with bliss. Joy upon joy, he was no sooner shorn of one bluff than another sprang from his facile tongue. Oh, what a divinely talkative marriage they would have.

‘Why, you disgraceful braggart,’ she said, ‘I am no weak and wailing woman, or an incapable one. I should escape the cottage with ease.’

‘I should discourage that by removing your clothes,’ said Captain Burnside, as straight of face as she was scornful of smile.

‘Removing my clothes?’

‘Ah – most of them,’ he said.

Caroline was almost delirious with inner laughter. ‘Sir, I declare you unspeakable,’ she said.

‘All is fair, marm, in love and war,’ he said.

‘Your villainy is breathtaking, sir, your love utterly suspect,’ she declared. ‘Do you think I would let you remove a single stitch of my clothing, or allow you to carry me all the way to Pond Cottage with my screams muffled?’

‘I consider you a bearable armful, Lady Caroline, and the walk ain’t beyond me, nor the muffling of your tantrums.’

‘
Tantrums?
’ Caroline felt that every leaf of every tree was laughing. ‘Is it a tantrum, sir, to fight for my honour? Show me how you will muffle me. There, you have given me threats, I now give you a challenge. Show me, sir, that you are as good as your vaunted boasts.’

‘H’m,’ said Captain Burnside.

‘Don’t shift about, sir, but show me. Yes, show me precisely how you will carry me and muffle me.’

‘Very well, Your Ladyship,’ he said, and swept her up into his arms, much to her delight. Carrying her, he began to walk, bearing her through the trees. She did not kick, nor did she scream.

‘I am, as you see, free to cry for help,’ she said, settling herself blissfully and comfortably in his arms, her hands locked around his neck. ‘So, will you come to the muffling? How is that to be done?’

‘Alas, there is only one way,’ said the captain. ‘This way.’ And he kissed her. His lips were firm and determined, making their claim and taking possession of hers, and hers broke apart. The summer breeze brought the lightest of whispers as the surging tide of love engulfed Caroline. In his arms, she drowned in warm seas of ecstasy. He carried her from the wood into the golden sunlight, and still she was muffled, each kiss more prolonged. She sighed when at last he freed her mouth. He said nothing, but he stopped, his expression that of a man not now entirely sure of himself. The responsive ardour of her mouth had bemused him.

‘Pray continue,’ said Caroline, her voice a little throaty.

‘No, I shall set you down here, having shown you how it will be done,’ he said, and he set her down.

‘Continue,’ said Caroline, her warm body breathing close to his. ‘Take me up again. You have not shown me all you intend to do to me. Continue, therefore, and when we reach Pond Cottage, show me how you will go about undressing me.’

‘Ah, I think not,’ he said.

‘I think yes,’ said Caroline, eyes loving him.

‘Why?’ he asked, wanting her.

‘Why? Why?’ Caroline laughed in rich joy. ‘Because you are my most audacious and adorable villain, because I am your willing Caroline and your sweet pleasure, and because I love you, love you, love you. Oh, dearest, dearest Charles, you will be true to me, won’t you?’

Captain Burnside, not ignorant of the reputation Lord Clarence Percival had earned for himself, said, ‘What kind of a true man would any man be if, having been gifted with the love of such a beautiful and endearing woman as you, he could not be faithful to her?’

‘Oh, how glad I am to know you aren’t going to end up on Tyburn Tree,’ said Caroline, ‘and how very glad I am that you love me. I really don’t mind going on to Pond Cottage.’

‘For what purpose, Your Ladyship?’ he smiled.

‘Darling, to fight for my honour, of course,’ said Caroline. ‘I have a dreadful feeling I shall lose, for you are a man of such singular accomplishments and I such a weak and helpless woman … Dearest, what are you laughing at?’

Captain Burnside was laughing indeed. Richly. She saw the delight he had in her, she saw the love he had for her, and she knew that this time she had made no mistake.

I am at my beginning.

Mary Jane Staples was born, bred and educated in Walworth, and is the author of many bestselling novels including the ever-popular cockney sagas featuring the Adams family.

The Adams Books

DOWN LAMBETH WAY

OUR EMILY

KING OF CAMBERWELL

ON MOTHER BROWN
’
S DOORSTEP

A FAMILY AFFAIR

MISSING PERSON

PRIDE OF WALWORTH

ECHOES OF YESTERDAY

THE YOUNG ONES

THE CAMBERWELL RAID

THE LAST SUMMER

THE FAMILY AT WAR

FIRE OVER LONDON

CHURCHILL
’
S PEOPLE

BRIGHT DAY, DARK NIGHT

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY

THE WAY AHEAD

YEAR OF VICTORY

THE HOMECOMING

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

APPOINTMENT AT THE PALACE

CHANGING TIMES

SPREADING WINGS

FAMILY FORTUNES

A GIRL NEXT DOOR

UPS AND DOWNS

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

A SIGN OF THE TIMES

THE SOLDIER
’
S GIRL

Other titles in order of publication

TWO FOR THREE FARTHINGS

THE LODGER

RISING SUMMER

THE PEARLY QUEEN

SERGEANT JOE

THE TRAP

THE GHOST OF WHITECHAPEL

ESCAPE TO LONDON

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

A WARTIME MARRIAGE

KATERINA
’
S SECRET

THE SUMMER DAY IS DONE

THE LONGEST WINTER

NATASHA
’
S DREAM

NURSE ANNA
’
S WAR

LOVE FOR A SOLDIER

published by Corgi Books, and available as ebooks

TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS
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A SISTER’S SECRET
A CORGI BOOK: 9780552169400
Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781448168118

First published in Great Britain in 1988 by
Severn House Publishers Ltd as
The Professional Gentleman
under the name Robert Tyler Stevens
Bantam Press Library edition published as
A Sister’s Secret
2013
Corgi edition published as
A Sister’s Secret
2013

Copyright © Robert Tyler Stevens 1988

Mary Jane Staples has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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