Light to Valhalla (30 page)

“He swore he didn’t know
.
”
Alex shrugged
.
“I
believed him
.”

“That’s it?  That’s all you know.”

“Yes, well, those are the important facts.”

Exasperated she rolled her eyes
to the ceiling
.
“Men,” she uttered the word as an expletive.

“Pardon?
”
Alex turned from his task of loosening the shutter nails
austere brow raised in question
.

“Why do men insist upon keeping women in the dark when it comes to all matters of importance?  And do not tell me your intention
is to protect my delicate sensi
bilities because I can assu
re you, sir, that my sensibilities are far sturdier than you give me credit for.”

Amusement tugged playfully at the corners of his mouth and his eyes danced
.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those women who thrives on tales of murder and mayhem.”

             
Charley laughed
, sashaying forward, joining him at the window
.
“Murder, mayhem, larceny, revenge
.
I thrive on
gruesome
details
.
I tell you, Alex, with all the gossip I hear in London I could write a novel to rival the darkest tales ever published.”

             
“Is that so?
”
Alex
slipped his hands around a board
and yanked
it free with sheer brute force
.
“Why don’t you do it?”

“Perhaps I will.
”
She smiled
.
Few men encouraged their wives in endeavors such as writing
.

Alex removed another board and
pried open the
ancient
wooden shutters
.
T
ogether they peered out over the snowy Grayson lawn
.

“
I say.
”
Charley
shielded her eyes against the
intense reflection of the sun on the snow. “Is that a carriage coming up the drive?”

Alex followed he
r pointed finger
.
“Sweet Jesus
,” he muttered
beside her
.
“It’s my mother.”

Nine

The red and gold seal emblazoned
up
on the
door
of the dazzling carriage undoubtedly belonged to the house of
Coverstone
.
Alex’s
soaring
heart plummeted
.
H
e
could think
of nothing more det
rimental
to the
tenuous
ground gained in his
marriage than the presen
ce of
his
mother
.
Roses withered as she walked past
.
He’d swear to it
.
“
She must have left
Coverstone
House
the minut
e the dispatch rider arrived.”

Soft slender fingers twined through his
.
Alex glanced down at Charley, w
armed by her touch
.
Disconcerting that… the warmth…
he wasn’t used to it, and
it
brought about emotions he’
d not dealt with
in a very long time
.

“I don’t want to see her,”
Charley
whispered
.
“Is there somewhere we can go?”

Alex wanted nothing more than time alone with his wife
.
“I have an idea.
”
He
grasped her hand
more tightly
and tugged
her
toward the
loft ladder
.
“Does your father still maintain a hunting cottage at the western edge of the property?”

Charley shrugged, an adorably bewildered expression adoring her face
.
“As far as I know he does.”

“Good
.
Let’s go there
for a while.
”
Alex
released her, and descended the graying ladder
.
He wa
ited for Charley to follow suit,
threw a harried
glance over his shoulder
, slipped an arm about her waist
and dra
g
ged
her bodily toward the barn
’s back entrance
.
“We can avoid Mother for a f
ew hours
.
”

“Won’t everyone worry if we can’t be found?  Especially after
what happened
the
other day
?
”

Alex stopped a few feet from the door and glanced down
.
Excitement sparkled in her eyes, rekindling a bit of their old f
riendship
.
“Groom!
”
He hailed a passing stable
boy.

“Yes, milord?
”
The young man strode forward, bowing his head respectfully.

“Tell anyone who asks after Lady
Coverstone
and
I
that we’ve gone for a ride into town.
”
He grasped the lad’s hand and pressed a few coins into his hand.

Eyes wide, the
groom
glanced at the gold pieces in his
palm
and nodded
furtively
.
“Certainly, milord.”

“Good
man
.
Now let’s get ou
t
of here.”

“You need a coat,”
Charley
protested
.
Sh
e darted into a tack room and e
merged with a battered wool coat
.
“
Here
.
Take this.
”

“Charley, I’ll be fine.”

“Precisely.
”
S
he flashed a benign smile and held out the coat
.
“Once you’re wearing this coat.”

“Oh, very well.
”
He took the shoddy garment and slung it over his shoulders
.
Half the buttons were missing but the jacket was warm
.
Alex grasped his wife’s arm and half drug her through the back doors.

Untouched snow crunched beneath their feet, stretching on in
a
blanket of perfection as far as the eye could see
.
Sunlight
glanced off the smooth surface as though a million sparkling diamonds covered the earth, sparkling with blinding brilliance
.
Eac
h breath pulled cool, invigorating
air
into his lungs
and
for the first time in a long time Alex felt glad
.
Glad to have found a moment’s peace
.
Glad to be sharing this beautiful moment with
Charley,
his wife
…
his friend
.

Beside him Charley giggled
.
He glanced down, noting the pink brilliance of her wind kissed cheeks
.
“Why couldn’t I have thought of this earlier,”
she murmured, with a soft sigh.

“Pardon
?”

“
Oh, nothing.
”
She
fluttered
her hand
dismissively
, a tiny, secret smile touching her lips
.
“It’s just that I
thought of the perfect thing to say
back to you
.”

Back to me?
 
Confused, Alex shook his head
.
“Oh?  Then do, pray tell, enlighten me.”

“Earlier when you told me I’m a terrible Marchioness
—”

“I don’t think that is quite what I
said
.”

“Yes, I know, I’m paraphrasing, but
at the time I could not think of a single witty thing to say in return, and
just now I thought of the perfect retort.
”
She released a beleaguered sigh
.

Alex couldn’t help but smile
.
He’d found himself in the same predicament a time or two him
self—especially in the army—caught off guard another man hands down a scathing insult, usually to the amusement of a slew of other soldiers, and the perfect comeback comes to mind hours later
.
“And?” he prodded.

Charley
fixed her gaze straight ahead
,
the
crinkles around her mouth and eyes
betraying obvious
amusement
.
“I should have replied that if stuffiness is the
measure of a peer
’s capability you will make an apt marquis.”

Alex snorted
.
“
I say, my dear
…
Are you calling me stuffy?
”

She grinned, that
delectable lone dimple winking from the corner of her
equally appealing
mouth
.
Her eyes rolled to the sky, a
playful
finger
tapping her jaw
.
“Perhaps not so much stuffy as
brooding.”

“Stuffy
and
brooding?
”
Alex shook his head
, bemused
.
“I’ll show you stuffy.
”
He turned suddenly, catching her off guard, and scooped her up in his arms
, tossing her over
a broad
shoulder
like a sack of potatoes
.

Charley
’s musical laugh pierced the crisp air
.
“Stop!
  Alex, what are you doing?”

“Would a stuffy old lord
do
this
?”
he teased, marching
into the field
toward a deep snow drift
.
Funny, but for the first time in years he felt… young.

“
Alex, no,” she exclaimed
.
“P
ut me down!”

“Not to worry, love, I’ll put you down.”

“Don’t y
ou dare throw me into that snow
bank
.
I forbid it.”

The high mound of powder
loomed
.
With relish Alex
pulled her
back over his shoulder, prepared to dump her into the fluffy cloud
.

“No!
”
Slender arms
wound
around his neck, holding on for dear life
.
Loops of
strawberry
curls
, fallen loose from her upsweep, floated around her head, tickling his face
.

“Oh, no you don’t
,”
he said determinedly
.
“You’re not getting out of your snow bath that easily.
”
He
slid
both hands around her waist
, attempting to disentangle
her
from around his torso
.
In response
Charley
wrapped
her legs around his waist
.
Dear God, but she
fit
.
Caught off guard by the sudden
provocative
position
,
Alex
stumbled
and
they
tumbled
in a flurry of limbs,
laughing
,
into the
fluffy blanket of snow
.

“
Ah!  The snow is
so
cold.
”
Charley
squirmed beneath him
and Alex’s entire body tightened
.

Every curve and swell of her vi
vacious body molded perfectly
to his like missing pieces of a puzzle
.
He knew the strangest sense
of having found
the very thing he’d been looking for
.

“I think
a pound
of snow is running down my back,
”
Charley
giggled, oblivious to his distress.

“Then I’ll have to warm you up later.
”
Alex
lifted his face from the sweet curve of her neck and
stilled
, taking in the
bewitching glow of her lovely face
.
Wind kissed cheeks glowed a healthy
pink
while
,
v
ibrant and full of life, her eyes
sparkled in the bright afternoon sun
.
His gaze dropped to her lips
.
Ever so slightly oversized and heart shaped, her lips were actually pink
.
Not pale peach or only slightly darker than the flesh of her face… 
Charley
’s lips could tempt the gods, and yet those plump petals were his and his alone
.
Should Zeus descend from the heavens and demand a sample
,
Alex
would be within his
husbandly rights to wish him to hell—or more appropriately, Hades
.
“
Y
ou’re breathtaking,” he murmured
.

Her
eyes widened impossibly, those tantalizing lips parting
jus
t enough for Alex to glimpse
white teeth
.
He
lea
ned in
, brushing her lips, prepared to deepen the exchange, but unwilling to frighten her as he had last night—

Cold shocked his system, slithering
from the base of his neck down his spine
.
Snow
.
Charley
must have dropped it down his back
.
“You little minx.
”
Not that he didn’t deserve it
.
He rolled off of her
.