Ghost of Christmas Past (15 page)

“
How do you feel now?” He whispered, as one hand dropped to
the waist of his breeches.

Thea
opened her mouth to speak only to find her words captured by his
determined lips, which prevented her from speaking. She was left
with little choice but to lie and wait while he awkwardly removed
his clothing without letting her go.

“
Nothing about you could ever put me off you Thea. Nothing.
Remember that,” he growled huskily and set about proving it to
her.

CHAPTER NINE

The following
morning, Thea awoke to find herself alone. She glanced at the empty
bed beside her and sighed at the heavy disappointment that swept
through her. She wasn’t quite sure what to think about last night.
Rupert had been so attentive; so passionately caring that she had
been unable to deny him anything. She had wanted to preserve at
least some dignity with him but, in spite of her protests, she had
still woken some time during the night to find herself completely
bare to his gaze, lying beneath him while he had kissed each of her
scars in turn. There had been nowhere to hide and nothing she could
do to prevent him from seeing the physical evidence of the horrific
carriage accident, but she had seen no revulsion in the steady gaze
he had levelled on her. There had been nothing but calm acceptance
and a look of love that had made her want to cry.

Tears
beckoned now, only she couldn’t find the reason for them. Last
night had been more than she had ever dreamed possible but now
wasn’t quite sure what to think, what to do. Where was he now? What
was he doing? She glanced at the small table beside the bed but
there was no note.

Immediately her thoughts turned to his work with the Star
Elite. Was he in the house somewhere, keeping guard? While she was
glad that he was working to keep everyone safe she sent a prayer
heavenward for his safety. She couldn’t bear the thought of
anything happening to him and couldn’t help but wonder how he
managed to face such danger on a daily basis.

Her body
still hummed from his tender ministrations and she wished that he
was there now to assure her that he didn’t regret what they had
shared. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of their situation now
or what to expect from him. She could hardly place any expectations
upon him. Was their love making last night a resurrection of old
memories; a relationship that never really was? Or was it something
deeper such as a new beginning for both of them? In all honesty she
couldn’t say. He had certainly offered her nothing and she
definitely not asked him for anything.

Eventually hunger drove her from the bed. She was tempted to
ring the bell and enjoy the luxury of breakfast in bed, but had
endured more than enough of them while she had been ill. Now that
she was able to get up and about, that is exactly what she did and
she climbed out of bed and saw to her ablutions.

She was
a little disconcerted to find the breakfast room empty. Several
serving dishes sat on the dresser on the far wall and the heavenly
scent of bacon, eggs, freshly baked bread and pie hung heavily in
the air. When her stomach rumbled loudly she cast her worries aside
for the time being, and helped herself to a generous serving of
everything before she sat down to eat.

Later
that morning, Thea knocked on the door to her uncle’s room. His
call to enter was a little muffled but she was greatly relieved to
see him sitting upright in bed looking much brighter than he had
been yesterday. She pushed the door open a little wider and caught
sight of Rupert seated in a chair on the opposite side of the
bed.

“
I am sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” she said and
hesitated in the doorway.

“
You are not interrupting Thea,” John replied with a smile. He
patted the bed beside him. “Come on over here and join
us.”

Realising that she would have to face Rupert at some point
during the day, Thea left the doorway and slowly made her way
across the room. As she approached Rupert pushed to his feet and
moved around the bed toward her.

“
I take it that you are feeling better this morning?” She
asked her uncle. She tried hard to keep her face impassive but
couldn’t resist a sneaky peek at the man she had just spent a
rather spine tingling night with.

“
You aren’t interrupting, Thea,” Rupert replied with a smile.
“I am just asking your uncle if he is aware of anyone having any
ill feeling toward him, that’s all. I have just finished my turn on
watch and left Marcus to it. I have to go out to meet with my boss,
but I thought I would just pop in and check up on a few things
before I leave.”

Thea
nodded and studied her uncle closely. He was without doubt the
kindest, sweetest man Thea had ever met, aside from Rupert of
course. She couldn’t conceive of anyone having any ill regard
toward him and that opinion was reaffirmed by Rupert’s next
words.

“
It appears that your uncle was in the wrong place at the
wrong time.”

“
The bullet was meant for you,” she added quietly and turned
to look at him. She felt slightly awkward and unsure of how to
react to his presence. She didn’t want to be overly familiar with
him, not in front of her uncle at any rate, but couldn’t ignore the
fact that he had spent last night in her bed.

Rupert
seemed to have no qualms however and moved to stand so close beside
her that he put a large hand on her waist in a natural gesture of
affection that drew the attention of her uncle who thankfully,
chose not to mention it. “I am off to the War Office to meet with
my boss, but will be back later this afternoon,” he murmured
quietly to her. He turned to John. “There is no knocker on the door
so you should not have any visitors other than the doctor for the
time being.” He turned to Thea. “Until then, please be careful and
remember what I said about sitting in the window seats.”

Thea
nodded and felt slightly bereft at the thought that he wasn’t going
to be in the house with them.

“
What about you though?” She turned to study him and couldn’t
keep the worry off her face.

“
What do you mean?”

“
If the bullet was meant for you, aren’t you taking a horrible
risk by leaving the house? I mean, won’t you be safer staying
inside too?” It was on the tip of her tongue to demand that he not
leave the house, but she knew that she couldn’t. Besides, Rupert
wasn’t the kind of man to cower under anyone’s threat. Her
suspicions were proven correct when he smiled gently at her and
placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand.

“
Thank you for your worry about my welfare. It means a lot to
me that I should matter so much to you.”

“
Of course you do,” she burst out only to gasp when she
realised what she had revealed. His smile merely grew wider and he
seemed almost pleased with her outburst.

“
Please don’t worry about me Thea. It is what I do.” He
glanced from her to John before turning his attention back to her.
“There are several men watching the house and they will look after
me when I leave. Don’t worry, we are all perfectly
safe.”

“
Were they around last night?”

Rupert
knew what she was asking and gave her a warm look of intimacy that
made her blush. “Yes they were. They had the description of the
coach that passed the house the night that John was shot. My
colleagues will have followed it but I won’t know what they have
found until I go and meet with my boss.”

“
I am sorry. I am being a worry-wart. It is just that after
-”

“
I know,” Rupert murmured quietly. “I do understand. I will
tell you what they found out, I promise. Meantime, you can help us
by keeping yourself safe and finding plenty of things to do that
don’t require you going out of the house at all for the time
being.”

John
frowned a little at the shimmering tension that had started to grow
as soon as Thea had entered the room. Had they had a falling out?
He couldn’t quite make his mind up if it was angry tension or
anticipation but, if the studied way Rupert was watching her was
anything to go by, there were lingering issues between his niece
and Rupert that they needed to sort out. Rupert looked as though at
any moment he was going to throw Thea over his shoulder and drag
her back to his cave and, if the wary look on Thea’s face was
anything to go by, she knew and wasn’t quite sure whether to run
screaming or surrender.

John was
starting to feel like the odd one out. “I was just telling Rupert
that I am going to see if I can sit before the fire for a while
today. I have a new book that I purchased a few weeks ago and
should like to make a start on it.”

Thea
nodded and took the opportunity to try to break the hold Rupert had
on her. He seemed to have her in a trance that she couldn’t break
out of. She stepped back a little and sucked in a deep breath in an
attempt to steady her shaken world before her uncle’s declaration
registered on her senses.

With
Rupert due to go about his Star Elite duties, and her uncle reading
by the fire, what was she supposed to do to wile away the hours?
She had been given only a few scant hours to pack and had not
thought about anything more than bringing the essentials. She
hadn’t stopped to consider the frivolities like sewing, mending or
reading material. Now that she couldn’t leave the house, she
couldn’t shop, so what else could she do?

He
seemed to sense her disquiet and the reason for it. “I know that it
is going to be a little boring for the time being but, as soon as
we can identify the person reasonable and the reason why they shot
your uncle we can measure the level of risk to you and you may,” he
held a hand up, “- and I mean may, be able to go on a trip out
somewhere. Until then, avail yourself of your uncle’s library. If
there is anything you would like me to pick up for you while I am
out, I am happy to do so, otherwise I will take my leave and see
you both later.”

Thea
assured him that she didn’t need anything right at that moment and
watched him quietly leave the room. It seemed empty without him,
and she turned to her uncle with a frown.

It
wasn’t the morning after the night before that she had been
expecting but then she wasn’t entirely sure what she had been
expecting. She had at least anticipated waking up in her lover’s
arms, but then he had his work with the Star Elite to do. It would
be folly to leave everyone in the house at risk because he was busy
holding Thea in bed, and it was entirely selfish of her to expect
him to focus his attentions on her when there was a potential
killer on the loose.

“
I take it that you two have started to settle your
differences?” Her uncle’s voice broke into her thoughts and she
turned to look at him. It took a moment for her to absorb what he
had just said.

“
Differences? If we had any differences, yes,” Thea replied
with a sigh. “He seems so different to the person he was back
then.”

“
He will be, Thea. He has joined the army and been to war, and
it has made a man out of him. We have all changed, Thea. All of
us.”

“
You? How?”

John
sighed deeply and patted the side of the bed. When she perched on
the edge he carefully picked her hand up in his and studied the
fragile bones for several minutes while he gathered his
thoughts.

“
I played my part in keeping you two apart. Although it was
what you wanted at the time, I don’t mind admitting to you now that
from the very moment I agreed to prevent him from seeing you I have
often wondered if I made the right decision. Now that I have met
him again and seen the man he has turned into, a small part of me
cannot help but wonder whether it is better that things have turned
out as they have. I don’t know if you would have been all that
happy with the man he was back then.”

“
I know and completely agree. With Frances around, and the
marriage based on contracts, I think that we would have been doomed
from the start.”

“
I know, but if I hadn’t supported your desire never to see
him again after the accident, you would at least have been able to
talk and he wouldn’t have vanished off to war.”

“
I don’t see that talking would have solved anything after the
accident, uncle.” Thea tried to keep her voice calm but he had
touched on a nerve that was still very raw and she still struggled
to contain the wild surge of emotions that even thinking about that
difficult time always brought her. “There were too many people in
our relationship.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean that I believed that Rupert was in love with his
mistress, Barbara Penbury. Not only was everyone talking about it,
but I heard confirmation of it from him the night before the
wedding. I had decided not to go through with the wedding but, on
the morning itself, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
embarrassing him by leaving him standing at the altar, so found
myself on the way to the wedding even though I had no intention of
actually saying ‘I do’.”

“
Was that why you sent me the note? Did you not intend to go
through with it?” John demanded in a voice that was stronger than
he really felt. He shifted impatiently on the bed and fought to
keep the concern off his face. This was the first time they had
ever opened up the subject and he didn’t want to let the moment end
until they had matters out into the open.