Light to Valhalla (49 page)

Alex looked up to her and
smiled,
eyes soft like blue skies in spring time
.
“Now, I’m satisfied.
”
He pressed a kiss to
her collarbone and rested his head on her chest again
.
“I can hear your heartbeat,” he whispered, tapping his fingers
against her shoulder in time with the
lub
dub,
lub
dub
thudding against her ribcage
.
“It’s like music.”

The coach rattled to a halt, jarring them from the tender moment
.

“
Oh, no.
”
Charley
froze
.
“We’re home.”

Alex shot away from her and lifted the corner of the
curtain
.
“Damn.
”
His hands shot to his trouser fastenings
.

Charley too leapt to action, yanking her s
tockings up and her s
kirts down
to her ankles
.

“Don’t forget your hair,”
Alex said, an amused
twinkle
l
ighting his eye.

“Oh, no, how bad is it?”

He pursed his lips,
fighting obvious convulsions of laughter
.
“Not that bad.”

She
reached back, the tangled mass sto
od a good six inches off the back
of her head in a right rat’s nest
.

Sheer horror must have shown plain as day on her face because Alex burst out laughing
.

“It’s not funny,” she hissed, searching the seat for a few errant pins
.
“Everyone will know what we were doing out here.”

“Let them talk
.
They’re already talking.
”
Alex leaned forward, narrowing his eyes, teasing
.
“Let them all know I’ve just thoroughly ravaged my wife in the back of a carriage
.
”
He gave her a quick kiss
and may have deepened th
e exchange but the door swung open
.

Charley flushed and followed Alex’s lead into the house.

“Run and wait for me upstairs,” he whispered into her ea
r
.
“I’ll be right up and we’ll… you know…
talk
.”

“Alright.
”
She smiled, glancing coyly over her shoulder
.
“Feeling less satisfied yet?”

He tossed her a thoroughly rakish grin and smacked her backside playfully
.
“Run for those stairs
or I’ll ravish you again in the entryway.”

Charley giggled and
raced
for the stairs eager for him to follow
and continue what they’d started in the carriage.

Once in her room she reached for her hairbrush, giggled, and decided there would be no point to fixing her hair as Alex would only come muss it again
.
She flopped across the bed
, waiting fo
r her husband and debated
whether or not to shed her gown when
a curious thought entered her mind…
I
f not for a clandestine tryst, just what had Alex been doing at Veronica’s house?

The door
creaked
open, admitting Alex, hair still boyishly tousled after their scandalous coach ride
.
“There you are,” Charley rose on an elbow and smiled, beckoning him forward
.

Framed in the doorway he stared back at her with soft eyes and a loving expression to match
.
He rested a shoulder against the doorjamb.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Just enjoying the view,” he teased, twinkling eyes dancing over her reclined figure
.

Charley flushed.

He shoved away from the wall and swung the door closed behind him
.
Slowly he advanced on her
.
“When
I first saw you at
Chrisington
House
I thought was hallucinating.
”

Charley sat on the bed, crossing her legs and gave
an impish smile.

Alex chuckled, the sound deep and rich
.
He removed his jacket and threw
it over the back of a chair
.
“So you’re w
illing to fight for me, eh?”

“I’m willing to fight for us,” she replied seriously.

He nodded s
lowly, expression soft and filled with vulnerability
, and stopped to stand over her
.
For a long moment he gazed down at
her
.
“Charley…” he hesitated, voice laden with uncertainty.

Her confidence faltered, suddenly fearful of what he might say
.
Had
something happened with Veronica?  “What’s the matter?”

“What you said outside of
Christington
House,
about our marriage being over…  Were you even going to tell me before you left?”

Confused by the sudden change
, she narrowed her eyes
.
“Tell you what?  Alex, I don’t understand.”

“You’re pregnant.”

Sixteen

C
harley gasped, shocked
.
How had
Alex
know
n
?
  She hadn’t told a soul
of her new
found state
.
Well…
aside from the doctor
.
She hadn’t even written her mother yet.

“Alex,
of course I was going to tell you
, but this is all
very new
.
I was afraid of adding more stress
to your life
before I was absolutely sure
.
”
She scooted to the edge of the bed, grasped his hand and pulled him down beside her
.
The mattress caved beneath his weight, the
bed ropes creaking cozily
.
“And do you really think I would have made such a public fool of myself by traipsing over to Veronica’s house if I actually intended to leave
.
I spoke in anger
.
Nothing more.”

Relief filtered over his handsome features
.
“Good
.
I don’t know what I’d do without you.
”
He lifted a knee up into the bed, turn
ing to face her, and brushed a few stray loops of
hair back over her shoulder
.
“
It’s just that
I didn’t even know Bernadette was pregnant
.
She never told me about Jack
.
I could have been there for him, been a real father, but I never had the chance.”

Charley’s heart
wrenched
as she realized for first time just how hurt Alex had been when Jack arrived on their doorstep
.
She’d been too lost in her own pain to recognize the level of betrayal Alex must feel toward his former lover
.

“I never want to live through anything like that again,” he finished, the
obvious
love he felt for his son
raw at the surface of
his eyes
.

What a man
, she mused, to
unfailingly
accept responsibility
and
moreover to take the boy in with open
arms
.
“Alex, I am not
some
demimonde
out to lay an unborn child on the suitor with the highest purse.
”
She rose up on her knees, taking his face in her hands
.
“How I’ve misjudged you,” she murmured, gazing deep into his eyes
.
“You are a truly good man.”

A wry smirk rolled up the corners of his mouth
.
“
So you keep telling me
.
Maybe one day I’ll start to believe you.
”
He paused, a mischievous gleam lighting his eye
.
“What exactly
were
you planning to do once you found me at Veronica’s house?
”

She blushed, sheepishly averting her gaze
.
“I hadn’t really thought that far ahead, but I suppose I would have bloodied Veronica’s nose and dragged you home by the ear.”

Hearty laughter rumbled from deep in his chest
.
“She’d certainly have deserved it.”

“I agree!
The way she chases after you is positively shameless.”

He quirked a wry brow
.
“I know.”

“I still don’t understand why you were at
Chrisington
House
in the first place.”

He shifted back slightly
, looking her dead in the eye
.
“I was confronting
Veronica
about the fact that she wrote the letters from Mrs. Barcelona in regard to Jack.
”

Charley’s jaw dropp
ed
.
Stunned
.
Better… she believed him
.
To the depths of her soul she knew he spoke the truth
.
“
S
h
-she wrote those letters?”

“Yes
.
I went
to
Chrisington
House
to
question her motives and
find out
how she came to know about the boy’s questionable parenthood
.
”
An ironic laugh escaped him
.
“
In short, Charley,
I went there to
prove my innocence to you
.”

“Your innocence…” Charley massaged her temples
.
“I don’t understand
,
h
ow could you know
she wrote those letters
?
  How can
you be certain?
”

Alex
stood and
paced
about the room, lapsing into
an animated
tale of his efforts
.
“I
t’s been weeks tracking all this down, but I
took signed letters
that
I’ve received from Bernadette and Veronica
over
the years and had a professional analyze the handwriting against the letters about Jack
.
There is no question about it, Veronica penned the letters
.
You’re welcome to speak with Mr. Peterson
.
I met him while he was attached to the war department.”

She nodded
amazed by this wealth of information
.
If Veronica had been orchestrating the scandal with Jack, Alex most definitely wasn’t having an affair with her
.
“That was very clever of you
.
So… is Jack not your son?
”
The prospect was wholly d
evastating
.
Charley ha
d grown extremely attached to the boy over the last weeks
.
Who
couldn’t love such a sweet, trusting child?
“Oh, I believe he is
.
Look at the boy
.
The resemblance i
s undeniable
.
Veronica merely capitalized on suspicions and rumors that just so happen to be true
.
But it doesn’t matter
.
He is ours now.
”

Charley smiled
.
Ours
.
She liked the sound of that
.
The fact Alex thought of them parenting Jack together… as a family… healed her broken heart
in no small measure
.
“Why didn’t you tell me of this sooner?  It would have saved so much fighting.”

Alex flopped onto the bed, washing both hands over his face
.
“Because I’m a fool
.
I should have told you everything long ago, but I had some grand illusion of
uncovering all the players
and proving my faithfulness to you in some dramatic
reveal
.
I wanted to find irrefutable evidence that she is responsible for the scandal ripping apart our lives
.
I wanted to
shock you… the ton… my mother.
”

So many misunderstandings, each reading too much, or, too little, as the case may be, into the other’s actions
.
The absurdity of it all
.
From now on she would speak what was on her mind and be honest with her husband
.
Communication was
key
to a good marriage
.
Charley pursed her lips to keep a chuckle at bay
.

“What is it?”

“You’ve never
had much flare for
the dramatic.”

“Ah, my lady, but you’ve never seen me in battle.
”
Alex slipped both arms around her and leaned back on the bed, pulling her with him
so that she lay acro
ss his torso, head rested against his chest… she relished the steady
thud-thud, thud-thud
of his beating heart
.

“What would you say to
spending
the Christmas season in Scotland?
” he asked, running his knuckles
up and down the length of her spine
.
“
Escape the gossip and scandal for a while
.
Reclaim our lives.
”

“
Dover Lodge
?
”
Sweet memories of the
medieval
Scottish castle
swept through her mind
.
Complete with aged gray stones, a moat, and high rising towers the country estate had always lived in the back of her mind as a dream home
.

“
Yes
,
and if you’re happy there
I thought we could
stay until the baby comes.”

Excitement
blossomed within her, spreading happiness through her veins like warm honey
.
“Do you mean it?
”
She lifted her head and grinned
.
“Don’t make promises you don’t intend to keep because if you take me to
Dover Lodge
I may never leave.”

Alex laughed heartily
.
“
So be it
.
”
He touched a light kiss to her lips
.
“We’ll leave
at
the end of the week.”

“Excellent.
”
Charley flew upward
.
“I’ll have to start packing up the household immediately, and—”

“Not so fast, wife.
”
Alex looped a burly arm about her waist and flipped her back onto the mattress
, covering her w
ith the toned heat of his body
.
“I
didn’t give you leave just yet.
”
A wandering hand dipped beneath her shift, giving her thigh an enticing squeeze
.
“I can
think of
a much better way to
pass
the afternoon
than packing
.”

Eyes dancing over his fa
ce, she giggled
with delight
.
“Do enlighten me, my lord.”

A roguish grin split his handsome face
.

“Better yet…
”
She caught his face between her hands, drawing him in for a smoldering
kiss
.
“
Let me enlighten you
.”

*
             
*
             
*

“This had better be damned important,” Sidney growled
, hurling the wadded missive
demanding his presence at
Chrisington
House
at Veronica’s feet
.
“I warned you about us having as little contact as possible
.
We can’t have Alex getting wise to
the fact we’re working together.
”

Veronica speared
Sid
with an icy glare
.
“
Alex
knows I wrote the letters about Mrs. Barcelona’s son.”

The wind
s
of anger fell swiftly from his sails
.
“
Christ,” Sid hissed
, clenching a fist
.
“
How?
  What did you tell him?
”

“
Nothing
.
I denied everything, but a
n expert in analyzing handwriting from the war department
confirmed
I wrote those letters
.
Alex is planning to take the evidence to the magistrate
.
We’ll be ruined, Sidney
.
Ruined.”