Goddess of the Hunt (43 page)

“Why do you think I’m here? The minute I got your letter, I ordered the carriage. If you’re miserable enough that you want to come home, you can come with me now. You don’t have to wait until Toby’s wedding.” He glanced down at her briefly before directing his cold stare back at Jeremy.

Lucy cringed. She’d forgotten she’d sent him that letter, the day Jeremy left for London. Of all the times for her brother’s protective instincts to surface. “Henry, I’m not miserable.”

“But your letter said … Why else would you want to come home?”

“To help Marianne, of course.”

“Marianne?” Henry blinked. His green eyes went from blazing to puzzled. “Why would you need to help Marianne?”

“With her confinement, you dolt!” Henry blinked again. Lucy turned to him, putting her hands on her brother’s shoulders. “She’s increasing again. You mean she hasn’t told you?”

“No, she hasn’t.” He turned and looked at the ceiling, dragging a hand through his hair. “Damn it, no one ever tells me anything.”

“Congratulations,” Jeremy offered weakly.

Henry shot him a look. He turned back to Lucy. “So you’re saying you don’t want to come home?”

Lucy shook her head. “I’m happy here.” She felt Jeremy step up to stand behind her. He placed his hand on the small of her back, and she leaned against it.

“Are you certain?” Henry asked, eyeing her with suspicion.

“Because it looks as though you’ve been to hell and back.” He cast a wary glance at Jeremy. “Maybe you’re just afraid to tell me in front of him. Maybe we should discuss this alone.”

Lucy laughed. “Afraid? Me? Henry it’s been only a matter of weeks.

You can’t have forgotten me so thoroughly as to think that.”

“I haven’t forgotten how much you dislike him, either. Nor the way he compromised you, the blackguard.” He shouted over her shoulder at Jeremy. “I should have called you out then. I should have shot you dead.”

The two men lunged at one another again, and again Lucy forced them apart, arms outstretched. “Stop this, both of you! You’re behaving like children.”

But they weren’t children, these two seething idiots whose chests struggled against her palms. They were men. The two men Lucy loved most in the world, and the two people who would do anything loved most in the world, and the two people who would do anything for her. They cared for her, but they cared for each other, too. And Lucy sensed that she could hold them together as much as she’d pushed them apart.

“Listen to yourselves,” she said, looking back and forth between her husband and her brother. “The two of you have known each other since you were boys. You’ve been the best of friends for ages. Like brothers, really.” She let her arms fall back to her sides. “Well, now you’re brothers in truth.”

Lucy turned to her brother. “Henry, I will always love Waltham Manor.” She glanced at Jeremy. “I suspect we all will. We had a kind of family there every autumn. None of us wanted it to end. I think …

no, I
know
that’s why I was so desperate to stop Toby from getting married. That’s why Jeremy kept coming back, year after year, even though he detests hunting. And that’s probably why you never sent me to school or to Town, and why you kept putting off my debut.” A shadow of guilt crossed her brother’s face. She placed her hand on his arm. “It’s all right. I didn’t want to leave you, either. You’re my brother, and I’ll always love you. But Jeremy is my husband now, and my home is with him.”

“Just because you married him doesn’t mean you have to live here,”

Henry said. “I won’t permit you to stay here suffering, just to satisfy his pride.” He shot another glare at Jeremy.

Lucy grabbed the lapels of her brother’s coat and shook him until his gaze dropped to hers. “Henry, stop it! You’re being ridiculous.”

She spoke slowly, enunciating every word. “I
want
to be here. I am not suffering. Not in the least.”

He opened his mouth to object, but she silenced him with another shake. “For God’s sake, Henry! We’re madly in love, can’t you see?

”

”

“Madly in love?” Henry snorted. “Impossible. I don’t believe it.”

She released his coat with a growl of frustration.

Jeremy moved behind her, his chest pressing against her back, his strong hands resting on her shoulders. “Henry,” he said. “Believe it.”

Henry’s forehead smoothed. His steeled jaw went slack. He inhaled sharply, as though he might speak, but then released the breath in a bewildered sigh.

Just then, the door burst open behind them. All three wheeled about to see a grizzled man in homespun garments enter, leading a scrawny boy by his ear.

Not just any scrawny boy. Lucy gasped. “Albert!”

“Caught him nosing around near the traps, the little mongrel.” The man, whom Lucy presumed to be the gamekeeper, twisted the boy’s ear. Albert winced and stomped down on the gamekeeper’s toe.

“Filthy vermin,” the gamekeeper spat, wrenching the boy’s ear harder. “A good whipping will beat that out of you. Or perhaps you’d prefer a few years of hard labor with your father?” The gamekeeper turned his attention to Jeremy. “Well, my lord? What shall I do with the cur?”

Lucy grabbed Jeremy’s arm. She opened her mouth to make an impassioned plea for the boy’s release, but his stern mien silenced her. He shook his head slightly in warning. “Trust me,” he said in a barely audible whisper.

She bit her lip and glanced over at Albert. The boy was watching her intently, waiting to see how she would react. She would never her intently, waiting to see how she would react. She would never convince him to trust Jeremy if she didn’t trust him herself. Sliding her grip from her husband’s sleeve to his hand, she interlaced her fingers with his. She cleared her throat, casting Albert a pointed look. “Yes, my lord.”

Jeremy gave her hand a brief squeeze before releasing it. He stepped toward the boy, pulling himself up to his formidable full height. Even in a tattered shirt and worn breeches, he still looked every bit the lord. Albert’s eyes flashed with fear and anger.

Jeremy addressed the gamekeeper. “Release him,” he ordered, in a tone that would brook no argument. The gamekeeper complied.

“There’s been a mistake,” Jeremy continued. “I meant to speak with you today, Tomkins, but it seems the youth’s enthusiasm has preempted my announcement. Andrews hired the boy as an apprentice gamekeeper. I believe we’ve discussed your need for additional help. The boy here will take over the traps.”

Tomkins looked as though he would object, but Jeremy silenced him with a look. He turned his gaze on the boy. “You weren’t to start yet,”

he said sternly. “You were to wait until Mr. Andrews introduced you to Mr. Tomkins properly. I gather you simply couldn’t wait?”

Albert looked to Lucy, bewilderment in his eyes. She swallowed the anxious lump in her throat and nodded encouragingly, silently willing him to accept this chance.
Yes, my lord
. She mouthed the words to him, adding the most persuasive look she could muster. Silence reigned for a long moment, and Lucy watched pride and confusion and hunger battling in Albert’s countenance.

Finally, the boy looked back up at Jeremy. “Yes, my lord.”

Jeremy gave him a slight nod. “You are dismissed, then. Tomkins will acquaint you with your duties tomorrow.”

acquaint you with your duties tomorrow.”

Albert looked back at Lucy, and she grinned her approval. She ducked her head and made a small motion with her hands.

The boy caught on. He was a quick one, after all. He bowed stiffly in Jeremy’s direction. “Yes, my lord.” He repeated the gesture in Lucy’s direction, with a bit more feeling. “My lady.” Lucy’s heart swelled. With a small parting smile, Albert fled the room eagerly. The gamekeeper moved to follow.

“Tomkins,” Jeremy called.

The gamekeeper halted.

Jeremy tilted his head toward Henry. “My guest, Mr. Waltham, has just arrived. He has expressed a desire to see your kennels.” He turned to Henry. “Tomkins has a new breed of harrier you’ll be interested to see. And when you’ve finished, we’ll join you for breakfast.”

Henry stood impassive.

Jeremy crossed back to Lucy. He took her hand from where it dangled at her side, kissed it tenderly, and tucked it into the crook of his elbow. “Believe it, Henry.”

Henry looked from his friend to his sister, shook himself, and shrugged. “No one tells me anything. All right, then.” He turned to the gamekeeper. “What’s this about harriers?”

Jeremy did not wait for the men to make their exit. He steered Lucy toward the staircase, leading her up the steps at a determined pace. The moment they turned the corner of the landing and the entrance hall disappeared from view, he hefted her into his arms without a word. He mounted the remaining stairs two at a time—an exertion that ought to have winded a man, but Lucy was the one becoming breathless.

He carried her into their sitting room, kicked the door shut, and then leaned against it, taking her mouth in a thorough kiss. Lucy threaded her fingers into his hair and kissed him back hungrily, suckling his tongue until she pulled a deep moan from his chest. He broke away, shifting her weight in his arms.

“I’ve waited weeks to have my wife in my bed,” he said, sweeping her into his bedchamber. “And I’ll be damned if I’ll wait a minute longer.” He dropped her into the center of the enormous mahogany bed and then straightened to peel off his shirt. He sat on the edge of the bed and tugged off his boots before setting to work on the fastenings of his breeches. Lucy rolled onto her side, looking on with unabashed enjoyment as he wrestled out of his remaining clothes.

He noted her amusement. “You could be doing the same, you know.

”

“What, and miss the show?” He pulled his smallclothes down over his hips and kicked them onto the floor. Lucy sighed. She reached out to trace the muscled slope of his thigh. “You are a beautiful man.”

She cast off Jeremy’s coat and what remained of the red silk dressing gown, tossing them onto the floor. She crept toward him on her knees to where he sat on the edge of the bed, sidling up behind him and brushing her breasts over his back. He pressed back against her, molding her body around his. He felt strong and warm.

Her hands skimmed over his powerful arms and snaked around to caress his chest. Settling her chin on his shoulder, she brushed a kiss against his ear. “Thank you,” she murmured. “For Albert.”

kiss against his ear. “Thank you,” she murmured. “For Albert.”

He snorted. “Don’t thank me for his sake. That was for you. I’d send the little reprobate off to jail without a thought.”

Lucy ran her tongue across the nape of his neck and up to his other ear. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“I would, if you asked it.” Turning, he slid out of her embrace and knelt on the floor before her. She sat back on her heels. Situated like this, they were the same height. They looked one another directly in the eye.

He braced his hands on either side of her, caging her with his body.

“I told you last night that I can’t live without you.”

She nodded. “I remember.” God, how could she forget?

“That was a lie.”

Lucy blinked. That hadn’t been exactly what she was expecting to hear.

His hands went to her shoulders. “I
can
live without you, and that’s the hell of it. For close to thirty years I’ve done it. And if you leave me, I’m certain I’ll continue a miserable existence for thirty more. So it’s not that I
can’t
live without you. It’s that I
won’t
. Whatever it takes to keep you here with me, I’ll do it. If I have to make stablehands of every last miscreant in the county, I will. Because …” He hesitated.

She swallowed the lump rising in her throat. “Because …?”

He slid his hands up to cup her face. Not gently, but with the full force of passion. His darkened gaze searched hers. “Lucy, I …” He brushed a thumb over her lips. “I don’t even know how to say it. The words don’t seem like enough.”

words don’t seem like enough.”

“They aren’t enough. But they’re a start.”

His grip tightened, bracing her so there was nowhere to look but at him. Nothing to see but his eyes, and nothing to hear but his voice.

“I love you.”

She reeled. The words—just the words, spoken rough and fierce

—unleashed that terrible flood within her. That powerful, all-consuming surge of emotion she now understood to be love. Lucy trembled with it, felt it welling up within her and threatening to overflow. She shut her eyes tight. She would
not
cry. He needed her to be strong.

Jeremy gave her head a little shake, and she opened her eyes again. “I love you,” he repeated, his voice husky with emotion. “Now and always. More than my own life. More than anything.”

Oh, dear. There it went. A big, round drop of love spilling over her eyelashes and trickling down her cheek.

He pressed his lips to her face, kissing it away.

Another tear fell, streaming down the other cheek. Lucy pressed both hands to her face, desperate to stop them. She couldn’t drive him away again, not now.

He pulled her hands down and grasped them tightly in his. “Please don’t hide from me.”

“Please don’t leave.” She choked back a sob. “I’m not a hysterical female, truly I’m not. I’m just”—
sniff
—“just—”

“I know,” he said, smiling gently. “I’m a bit overwhelmed myself. But I’m not going anywhere.
We
are not going anywhere. This is our I’m not going anywhere.
We
are not going anywhere. This is our home. It’s where we belong. We’re going to fill it with children, and light, and laughter. But Lucy,”—he reached up to brush a thumb over her lips—“your tears belong here, too. You’re safe with me.”

Oh, and now there was no stopping them. Tears fell from her eyes like a hot summer rain, streaking down both cheeks, sliding down the edge of her nose, running into the corners of her mouth. And he kissed them away, murmuring sweet words of love and heart-swelling oaths and her name. Over and over again, her name—so she knew the words were for her. So she believed it.

“Lucy.” He pressed his lips to her trembling eyelids. “I love you.”