Love's Patient Fury (The Deverell Series Book 3) (30 page)

Indy’s eyes opened and the way he looked at her made her blush. It surprised her because after a year in Varian’s bed nothing should have the power to make her blush. Perhaps it was just the overwhelming emotion between them at this moment. Indy was lying on his side, watching her feed his sister with his great black eyes that so looked like his father’s, awareness that he loved her in both of them.

Merry had learned from Varian the saving power of normalcy, equanimity in a dreadful circumstance, and jumped on it to save her now. Watching Kat’s little hands flutter against her breast, she asked quietly, “Why are you dressed like this? Your braid is gone.  It is an improvement, though I did like the braid, but you look very well and very handsome. Why are you in Cornwall?”

“I have been traveling across England over a month now.” Arching a brow.  “Getting a feel for land legs. Somehow Rensdale just isn’t important to me. I am interested in finding answers. So I have been looking for answers, Merry. Looking for answers about me. About
him
. Tom took the ship out a month ago without me. He is returning and will meet me in Falmouth. Then I think I will go to America. Look for answers there for what I remember about my mother. Just like I found answers here, seeing you and seeing...” The boy laughed. Merry liked it that he could laugh frequently now. She wished Varian could hear it. It would do his heart so much good. “What the devil did you name my sister?”

“Katherine,” Merry supplied and then grinning, “but no one calls her that. We all call her Kat. Not a very noble name for such a daughter of noble birth. My father hates it. You can see him wince whenever he says it.  Can you guess whose force of will that was?”

Indy smiled. “My sister is very beautiful. It does not matter what you call her. She looks like her mother, thank God. I can’t imagine what the Deverell looks would bear on a little a girl. She’d be terrifying the servants by the age of three.”

He stood up then, brushing the dirt from his clothes and offered a hand to Merry, helping her with gentle care to her feet.

“Tell my father that for a man of such caution he is being extremely reckless right now. He should leave with you both, very soon. I have had a man following me. I am not sure who or why. I only just managed to lose him two days ago. They are getting closer, Merry, if they have found me. It is not safe for him here. You must make him leave England. It is foolish beyond measure he has stayed in your family’s house so long.”

Merry nodded. Varian was making arrangements today for them to leave. The decision was finally reached a week ago, since she was well enough to travel and Kat was a little older, which was better for a journey at sea.

Merry tilted her head, her bright doe eyes sparkling at him. “Perhaps you will be able to reconcile with your father in Virginia. America is the land of new beginnings and new lives. I have had a whim to live there since I was little older than Kat so that is where our next adventure begins.”

Indy had both her shoulders in his hands and his face was a breath away from hers. “Kiss me goodbye, Merry. I am not going to visit again. I wanted to see my sister and see for myself that you are well. Kiss me once, so I will have the answer to the last of my questions about you.”

And before Merry could reply, the boy was kissing her. Not like a cousin, not like her husband’s son, but with a sweet and gentle skill that shocked her with its seductive tenderness. There was a feather light stroking of his thumbs just beneath her eyes, a softly erotic play of mouth capturing  just her lower lip, a caress and then gone.

She was too breathless to be angry when he released her. Her face a wash of color, because as chaste as the kiss had been, it was packed with explicitness.

Indy traced a fingertip down one burning slope of a cheek. “That is an expression I will remember for a century. It’s little wonder I consider at times what could have been. Thank you for not slapping me. I won’t do it ever again. But some things you can only find answers to if you do them. I have my answer and we are all as we should be. As wonderful as you feel against my lips, I feel him there between us, just as I always did from the beginning.”

Merry didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. Indy brushed the tiny ebony curls on his sister’s head and then placed a light kiss there. “Goodbye to you too, Little One.” The way he said that made Merry tremble. Indy brought her hand to his lips. “Be well, Merry. If you are happy, then both the Deverell men will be happy as well.”

She watched Indy leave, waiting for him to disappear before climbing the path to the house. Balancing Kat in one arm, she struggled with a single hand to refasten the buttons she hadn’t closed yet from having nursed.  She would have gone directly to the house, but Uncle Andrew standing on the path stopped her. He had been there long enough to have formed some unpleasant speculations about whatever he’d witness between her and Indy.

He confirmed them with his words, when he offered her his hand to help her manage the incline of the hill. “Who was that man, Merry? Why were you meeting a young man here? And why were you kissing him?”

Merry did a quick and cautious study of Uncle Andrew’s face, trying to assess his thoughts. Unsure, she decided to laugh. “What are you imagining? I didn’t meet anyone. He was there. He was handsome. I kissed him.”

“Damn it, Merry, the last thing you want is to infuriate a man like Varian Deverell. Do you know so little about your husband, you would risk such a dangerous thing where he might see it?”

Uncle Andrew’s fear over Varian’s reaction was real, and it told her she did not have to worry. He didn’t suspect who the boy was. Hopefully that meant it wasn’t one of Warton’s men following Indy.

Merry lifted a brow and met her Uncle’s gaze directly. “I am in love with my husband, Uncle Andrew, he is the center of myself. I could kiss a man in front of him and his speculation would not be as unkind as yours. Would you like to tell Varian of this, Uncle Andrew, or shall I? I have no secrets from my husband. Not a one. He has no secrets from me.”

Merry went ahead of him on the path and quickly disappeared into the house.

~~~

Varian found Merry lying on the floor in the drawing room, baby Kat balanced on a pillow in front of her, wide awake and making a comical expression that reminded him of his beautiful young wife. Merry was dressed in a simple gown, grubby feet, grubby hands and slightly grubby daughter.

Hearing Varian’s laughter, Merry turned her head to see those black eyes warmed with his humor.

“What have I done to make you look at me that way?” Merry asked. There was a pleasant breathlessness to her voice that told him she liked it when he looked at her this way.

“You try one’s notions of a duchess at times, Little One, but you are perfection for me. What the devil were you and Kat doing today?”

Merry sat up, settling Kat to lay on her stomach on the blanket. She pulled her loose long curls back over her shoulder, tying them in a knot. She could feel Uncle Andrew watching them and then she made a decision how to deal with him.

Merry smiled impishly. Loud enough so they all could hear, she said, “I went with Kat to get air and sun and listen to the channel. Your daughter loves the shores. She was quiet for nearly two hours, if you can imagine that. Your daughter made a new friend. A very handsome young nobleman, quite obviously of very good birth. He just appeared out of nowhere. Very charming, too. He laughed and he smiled and admired Kat. I did not think such a serious face could do any of that. But he did. I was quite taken away with him and I fear that I favored him with a kiss before he left. He asked to kiss me once and I allowed him to. I was taken away with that, as well. A gentle and tender kiss. As though he were raised by a gentle and tender man. Uncle Andrew was quite shocked by my brazen behavior, but the boy was very handsome and I have a weakness for handsome men. So I thought perhaps I should tell you this in front of Uncle Andrew so he will not worry about your reaction to your wife’s scandalous actions of the day. But that’s how I spent my afternoon. Playing with your daughter and kissing a young nobleman. How did you spend your day, you insufferable man.”

Merry could tell Varian understood every word as she spoke them, though nothing altered on his smooth face. The only indication of any change in him was the gentle squeeze of his fingers holding her hand.

Appearing merely amused, as though this was nothing more than Merry whimsy, he said, “You better not run away with a handsome young nobleman or I will be devastated.” Then the voice of drama, “Did you enjoy the kiss, my dear. Did the boy kiss you well? It must be a refreshing change for you. A young man.”

Merry laughed and then sighed as though giving it thought. “It was full of all sorts of rich emotion one may not suspect such a young man to have. I am sure it must cause him pain and explains many things in his life.”

An arched brow. “Ah. It’s difficult to often be certain what is in the heart of boy.”

Merry put a hand on Varian cheek. “Not when you are kissed by one, you insufferable man. Such a meager exchange, a single kiss and yet so revealing.” She lifted her mouth to her husband and gave him a very thorough and loving kiss.  “And sometimes not meager at all. Sometimes all revealing.” Merry smiled. “You have not told me of your day yet, Varian.”

“My day was not quite as spectacular,” Varian said quietly. “But thank you for sharing with me yours, Little One.”

“We have no secrets between us, Varian. We share everything. That is why we love so completely.”

Merry sprang up from the ground with the smooth quickness of a cat. That thought made Varian smile as he followed her with loving eyes. He watched his wife scoop up their daughter and give her to Rhea.

The Merricks watched them. They were too polite to say anything and well used to being shocked by the two of them, but they were clearly taken aback by this. Their confusion over it was genuine. Even Andrew’s. It was good that it was genuine. Less speculation about the boy. So Indy had been here, and he wanted to kiss his wife. But he did not want to see his father.

“Will you see that Netta bathes Kat, Mama,” Merry asked. “Tell her I won’t be long.” She slipped her hand into Varian’s. “I wish to walk out of doors and watch the sun set with my husband.”

Once they were outside, Merry curled against Varian’s chest while they walked. She touched a light kiss to his arm, running her cheek along it before she whispered, “I am sorry I put you through that in front of them but we were foolish enough to have been seen. Uncle Andrew had some rather vile thoughts about me and was remarkably concerned about your reaction. Indy is looking extremely well.  He has been traveling England for a month now. But he is leaving for America with Tom when your ship returns to Falmouth. He is over his need for vengeance against Rensdale. It has freed him I think. He looked very handsome. Braid gone, dressed like a nobleman. He must be over six feet. I could not believe the change, all of it, inside and out.  He was laughing and smiling, Varian. It was remarkable. I wish you could have seen him. It would have done your heart good to see Indy so well.”

Varian was quiet, but Merry could feel his emotions churning inside him. “He is still unwilling to see me, then? Is that why you did not come to the house for me?”

Merry kissed his arm. “He won’t see you, Varian, but it has less to do with you than it does with me. Indy is in love with me. It bothers him. For many reasons, not the least of which is that I am his father’s wife. Did you know he was in love with me? How long has this been a problem between you two?”

Varian laughed. “How could I not know Indy was in love with you, Little One? Of course I knew. What manner of man wouldn’t fall in love with you?”

Merry’s eyes sparkled. “Mr. Craven. But he does not like lunatics. Lunatics are the fancy of the Deverell men. Give the boy time. He will come to peace with this in time.”

“I wouldn’t be certain on Craven, Little One.”  He gave her an affectionate kiss on her nose.  Then, less calm, he asked, “Why did you kiss him, Merry? What was that about?”

Merry’s eyes began to sparkle. “Are you jealous, you insufferable man? Ah, how flattering. And how foolish.  Are you imagining I would want any man to touch me as you do? He surprised me with it, Varian. I would have never allowed it, but I am glad he kissed me. It gave him answers he needed. It told him I love you.”

“Was that all to your meeting with boy? Was there anything else?”

“He told me that you are being very reckless,” Merry said. “He said that he has been followed. That he only managed to lose the man two days ago. That’s another reason why I indulged Uncle Andrew and his unflattering assumptions. I don’t think it’s one of Warton’s men. Uncle Andrew had no idea who Indy was and was very worried that you would harm me in fit of pique for having been foolish enough to kiss a man where you might see it. It was sincere, his worry and his reaction to what he witnessed. If Uncle Andrew would knew who Indy was , he would never have let me know he saw us together. He doesn’t know about Indy. I am certain of that. Who do you suspect it is watching the boy, Varian?”

“I don’t know, Little One. But I think I should find out. I am going to leave in the morning. I will be back as soon I discover who is following my son. I shouldn’t be gone more than a fortnight. I have made arrangements, Merry, for us to sail from Falmouth to America. My ship, the
Eagle
, will be ready to leave Falmouth in a fortnight.  I would prefer not to have to go to now. But I can’t afford not to learn what other problems might follow us from England.”

Merry stared up at those handsome facial muscles carefully arranged not to instill worry and instantly began to worry. Varian could strip every nuance of emotion from his voice and face. He could do nothing to shield the currents of himself that ran in her soul.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Merry rolled onto her side, lightly brushed her cheek into the lingering warmth of Varian’s pillow and let her eyes slowly drift open. An hour ago Varian had rolled her over in their bed and made love to her sleepy body. The all-consuming tenderness of his passion and the worshiping lightness of his had brought tears to her eyes. Later, as she laid in his arms, folded against his chest, she had wept. She had fallen back to sleep, feeling fragile and loved, her limbs tied in lover’s knots around him.