Captured Love (8 page)

He’d built an appetite up with his wife again this
morning. He’d discovered at least one thing he never expected from marriage,
that he liked to sleep beside a woman, just as much as he enjoyed making love
to her. Tonight he might simply tell Meredith to always sleep in his bed.

“But, Rupert, I’ve something important to tell you.”

“Very well, I will send the servants out while I eat.”

She did not look happy to wait, yet it would only be
moments.

Just as they seated themselves, the door knocker
struck.

Rowena immediately stood, and her eyes spun to Rupert.

What
now?

“Will you ask Lord Morton to receive me?” Kendrick’s
baritone voice echoed in the large hall, reaching through the open door of the
breakfast room. Rupert looked at his sister as she looked at him.

“His Lordship is at home, sir. Let me show you to the library,
you may wait there.”

“If I must...” Kendrick’s voice rang with impatience.

Rupert put his finger to his lips when he saw Rowena was
about to speak.

They heard footsteps, and then a door opened across
the hall. “I shall fetch his lordship, sir.” The door closed, and in a few
moments, the butler was at the door of the breakfast room.

“Lord Kendrick, my Lord –”

“Yes, I know, Owens, we heard. Leave us alone now, and
shut the door. I’ll be there in a while.”

Once he’d gone, Rupert looked at Rowena. “Well? I
suppose you knew he was coming. Why is he back?”

She blushed. “I wished to tell you —”

“That you spent an afternoon with him yesterday, I
know. Meredith told me, as she should have done. She is my wife, Rowena; you
should not ask her to keep secrets from me, and do not disparage her for telling
me.”

His thoughts turned to the woman he’d left sleeping in
the room above them. She’d been warm and soft. He wished he’d not risen.

“Rupert, do not judge Lord Kendrick so ill, just because
he is older than me. I... He has come to ask for my hand again.”

“Has he?”

“I have said I shall accept him.”

Rupert felt cold. “
Why?
”

“Because I like
him, Rupert.”

“Liking is a poor foundation for a marriage.”

“No, like is a good foundation. I do not seek more
than that. I will be happy. I like his children, too, and...” Her words dried, but
then they began again. “I can give them the childhood I wished for...”

His brow furrowed. “You must want more for yourself; something
like Edward and Ellen
have
... I’d not thought I wished
for it, Rowena, but I am....” He felt himself flush. “I’ve discovered it with
Meredith, Rowena, and I would not be without it, now.”
It?
Love... Was that what
it
was? Had he fallen in love with
Meredith? If he had, he’d only known it just now as he’d spoken.

Rowena came to take his hands. “Then I’m glad for you,
Rupert. But I do not look for that. There is no one I’ve met, other than Lord
Kendrick, who I think I would be happy with, and happiness is enough for me.
Say yes to him, please.”

Rupert didn’t know how to answer. She’d obviously
thought about her response. It was not a whim. “You’re sure? He’s not coerced
you in any way?”

“No. He’s been kind, he cares, and he can make me
laugh. I know I was scared of him at first, but now I do not know why.”

Rupert smiled, remembering looking into her eyes a
dozen years ago, when she’d been a small child.

If this is what she wished
...
“Very well, I will accept him, but you must come and speak with him in front of
me, and let me see how you are together.”

She nodded,
then
hugged him.

~

Once the settlement was agreed, Rupert left Rowena and
Kendrick alone, leaving the library door ajar. He did not know what to think of
this. Rowena seemed happy, and her happiness was what he wished for. He’d heard
nothing bad of Kendrick, and yet it simply did not feel right. He looked for
Meredith.

She was not in the breakfast room.

“Has Lady Morton already eaten, Owens?” he asked in
the hall, glancing toward the stairs and wondering if she was still in bed.

“My Lady has gone out, sir.”

“Out?”

“Yes, sir, a few
moments ago, and in a hurry.”

Rupert’s brow furrowed.
“In the
carriage?”

“No, sir, Lady Morton received a letter and then left
on foot a few moments later.”

“Did she say where she was going?”

“No, my lord.”

Why had she gone out? He felt desolate to think she
would go without a word to him. And then he felt ridiculous; how utterly
foolish to make a fuss over his wife going out during the day.

He stood in the hall, not knowing which way to turn. Normally
by now he would be preparing to go out himself, yet he did not wish to leave.
He wanted to see Meredith and discuss his concerns over Rowena.

He’d not eaten yet, he remembered. He decided to do
that. Then, when Kendrick left, he could ask Rowena if she knew where Meredith
may have gone. Meredith should not have walked out alone. If he knew where she’d
gone, he could find her and at least accompany her home.

But Rowena did not know.

“She has no other friends, Rupert,” Rowena said half an
hour later. “I can think of nowhere she might have gone. The other girls always
tease her about being my charity case. No one else likes her. People have only
ever suffered her presence because of her father’s money-making scheme in
America. Their parents have invested with him. No one would even let her
through the door, if it weren’t for the fact they had a financial agreement
with her father. She is considered a necessary evil. Did you not know?”

No, he had not known. “Is that why she clung to you so
much?”

Rowena smiled. “I thought you knew. I thought that was
why you disliked her, too.”

“I disliked her because I thought she was using your
friendship.”

“Only as
friendship, Rupert.
She
was not even using me to get to you. Not as you think. I doubted her at first,
after what happened. But she was not. ”

“I do not think she was anymore either, Rowena. But if
she has no one to call upon, then where has she gone?”

Rowena shrugged.
“To her father’s?”

He would go there. “Thank you. Are you going up to
tell Mama about Kendrick?”

She nodded.

“Then tell her I’ll speak to her later.”

Rowena kissed him before she left the room. Rupert sent
a footman for his hat. He felt strange today, and guilty.

He put his gloves on, and took his hat, and was just
about to turn to leave, when the doorknocker struck again.

Owens looked at Rupert.

“Open it,” Rupert said quietly.

He was surprised, though, when Meredith and her father
came through the door. “Meredith? I was coming to find you...”

“I —”

“May I speak with you in private, Morton?” Her father
gave Meredith no chance to answer. Rupert did not give the man his
attention,
instead he continued looking at Meredith. She was
excessively pale, and she looked afraid. In fact, she looked just the same as when
she’d arrived with her father at the church. Divine gripped Meredith’s arm, too,
just as he’d done at the church.

Rupert wondered what her life had been like before
she’d married him. He suspected she’d been as unhappy at home as he’d been in
his childhood, except of course he’d had Rowena. Rowena was much younger, yet
she’d been a reason to endure. He supposed Meredith’s reason to endure had been
knowing one day she would marry... No wonder she had chosen to avoid
Perrigrew
at any cost — even to the point she would press a
man who had shown nothing but disgust for her.

He looked at her father, and remembered Divine had
asked to speak to him.
“Of course.”
Rupert nodded, gathering
his wits and wondering what this was all about. He handed his hat back to the
footman, and watched Divine pass his over, too.

They left Meredith in the hall and walked into the
library.

“As my daughter’s husband, you have a responsibility
to me, Morton...” Divine began. He went on to explain that his partner,
Perrigrew
, had taken the money others in the
ton
had invested in a diamond mine in
America. There had been no diamond mine apparently, and now there was no money
either. The mine had been a figment of
Perrigrew’s
imagination. Divine was desperate. He wished Rupert to bail him out.

Rupert listened with growing horror. He did not have
the funds to save Divine from such a mess. “I cannot,
Divine
.
If it was a lesser sum, I could help, but not when it so much.”

“You would leave me to be thrown into a debtor’s jail
then?” The man moved a pace forward.

“Divine, I cannot help you. I do not have that much to
give you. All I may offer you is a smaller sum to go abroad. That is all you
can do now.”

The man blanched but it was the only way. Divine
nodded. “Then it will do, and I must have it now, before word spreads.”

When Rupert signed the bank note, he knew this would create
horror and bitterness among the
ton
;
and with her father gone, it would be directed at Meredith. Yet, he gave the
money to Divine, gladly. He knew the whole truth now. He felt as though he
finally saw all the colors which made up Meredith, not white, nor black, nor
gray. As he’d begun to see on the bank of the river yesterday, Meredith was a
beautiful rainbow within. Rupert thought of her vibrant amber hair, and her
blue eyes; it was only right then that she should have such bright internal color,
too.

Divine did not ask to take his leave of Meredith. Rupert
knew for certain, then, what he’d guessed less than an hour before; her father did
not love her. His own parents had warred with one another, but at least his
mother cared about him to some degree.

Rupert found Meredith in her chamber. She was alone,
sitting with her legs curled beneath her on the window seat. “Meredith?”

Her cheeks were tear-stained and her eyes full of sadness,
as she stood. “Do you hate me, once more? I did not know their deal was false. My
father wrote to me this morning and asked me to come. It’s a catastrophe, isn’t
it? Everyone will hate me more, and I will be an even greater embarrassment to
you. I promise I didn’t do what I did to gain your fortune, I’m sure it’s what
you think, but it’s not true, Rupert...”

No, he did not hate her. “Meredith.” He opened his
arms, and she came into them, embracing him. “I believe you,” he reassured, stroking
her hair. “I will not judge you by your father, darling. I love you and this cannot
change how I feel, Meredith.”

She pulled back, looking up at his face.

“I love you,” he repeated, answering the question he
saw in her eyes. He did, the feeling ran from his heart into his blood, but it
was even deeper, it was in his bones, she’d become a part of who he was.
 

“I love you, too.” Her eyes glowed, and he knew she
did.

“I’m very glad you had the sense to force me into
this, Meredith.” He kissed her. He was happy, and Rowena would be happy too.

Meredith kissed him back, her arms slipping about his
neck.

~

When Meredith attended Lady
Micham’s
ball that evening, she was so happy she felt as though her heart would burst
with joy.

They arrived fashionably late, and just in time for a
waltz, and as Lord Kendrick led Rowena away, Rupert asked Meredith to dance.
She looked into his hazel eyes, which shone as deep and as thick as honey, and
saw love.
He loved her! He’d said he
loved her!

As they danced he held her gaze the whole time, while
a slight smile curved his lips and creased the skin at the corners of his
beautiful eyes. There was no arrogance or anger within him anymore. It was as
though he’d been a closed bud that had now bloomed into life.

“I love you,” she whispered up at him as he turned
her.

His smile broke wider, parting his lips. “I love you,
too, Meredith. And thank heaven that you captured me...”

She laughed. She was going to make him happy for the
rest of his life. She vowed it to herself and to him. She would always love
him.

Illicit
Love

MARLOW INTRIGUES – BOOK 1

BY JANE LARK

2
^nd
Edition available from 3
^rd
October 2013

Trapped under the reign of a cruel keeper,
Ellen Harding longs to be free. Under his oppression, her soul and conscience
have died while her body lives on, fulfilling his dissolute desires. She is
empty – a vessel – deaf to the voice of morality and blind to shame.

When her eyes are drawn to a beautiful man
for no other reason than his looks, she imagines what it would be like to
escape her chains for a night by giving her body to him.

But Edward Marlow is kind and gentle when he
touches her, and her subconscious whispers this man could be her salvation. Yet
how can he help her when she has secrets which prevent her freedom?

Edward is restless, lonely, and a little
angry with his lot in life — it is his only excuse for being drawn to another
man’s mistress. The woman’s dark hair and pale eyes are striking, and he cannot
take his gaze off her while she watches him over the top of a fan with an
illicit intent in her eyes.

Once he’s known her, he cannot forget her,
and once he’s seen the evidence of her supposed benefactor’s brutality, he
wants to help her. But how can he when she will not run any more than she will
speak of her past?

When a desperate
Ellen finally relents and shocks Edward from his sleep, he doesn’t hesitate, he
helps her flee. He just doesn’t know he’s running headlong into the secrets of
her past.

Can love redeem a life of sin?