Punish Me With Roses - a Victorian Historical Romance (26 page)

But she was a happy captive.

"I love you, Victoria."

"I love
you
, Alexander." It was more than she ever could have wished for herself. With such a man on her side--such a man pledging to protect her--she felt safe. She never had to worry again. She'd never be lonely.

Tears streaked down her face and onto his strong shoulder. He pulled her head from the warm crevice beneath her chin and kissed her again, tasting the salty wetness. She squeezed him as hard as she could and mentally swore to take care of him always.

They never had the impressive confrontation they'd all been expecting.

In the morning, both Charles and Michael Trevelyn were gone. Dr. Fabian Mallory had done his job faster than could have been expected and returned an hour before dawn to arrest the two men. He wasn't alone. It turned out to be a simple matter to convince the authorities that the senior Trevelyn's had been at fault. Victoria, who'd only left Blackmoore out of fear and mourning, had been given the bottle of brandy by Charles. The liquor had been poisoned, and the lady of the house had only served it. Unknowingly.

"But I'm confused, Alex. What happened to Hugh?" Victoria asked, her doe eyes full of wonder.

He looked around the large dining room, finding his own wonder in how much he liked the ancestral place. "Mark killed him. He wasn't poisoned at all. Rather, he was hit over the head with a blunt object."

"And Mark..."

"Took his celebratory drink from the wrong bottle." He laughed. "Appropriate, is it not? He was planning to share the fortune he inherited with the man who helped him acquire it. My father had gotten him the job, gotten him the poison--which he probably thought Mark would recognize immediately--and even devised the little scheme of sending me fake letters to frame you for his eventual deeds. Mark deserved whatever he got in the end."

Both of their plates were empty and so he pushed away from the table. She did the same. He was amazed how every move she made was so graceful, so…Victoria.

She was beautiful, the woman he loved.

"I can't believe how much this entire experience has changed me," she said, leading the way into the main hall.

"It has changed me too."

"Hmmm...do you think so?" she replied with a mischievous smile.

He chased her the last few feet into the hall, sending her into a fit of giggles.

She became serious again. "Even my investigation into Fiona was more than a way to pass the time. It taught me a few things about myself. Just like her, I was always running away from everything. But it didn't get her anywhere in the end, did it?" Slowly, she started to laugh again. "But I can't promise that I won't love you the way she loved my uncle. That was one of things she certainly did right."

An obviously pregnant woman came into the hall from one of the side rooms. "I heard a commotion. Is anything wrong?"

"Everything's perfect, Betsy," Victoria said with glee, moving closer to Alex in the yawning, empty hall.

Betsy nodded with a smile that lit her entire face, then left them alone once again.

"Your maid is with child," Alex said bluntly, after she'd gone.

"I know." Victoria looked at the maid's retreating form. "I know that you probably don't agree with employing such a woman, but Hugh--"

"Victoria," he whispered, kissing her now silent lips. "Perhaps the child will make a good playmate for Jack."

"Mary's son? You mean all of us living here together?"

He nodded. He'd decided that there was an easy way to prove to his sister that he loved her and wanted to reconcile. She'd told him that his words meant nothing, so he would
show
her by asking her to make her home with him and Victoria. If Rafe and John could do it, so could they.

"Oh, you really have changed!" she exclaimed, her cheeks flushed.

He looked at her with need and realized that his arms were unappealingly empty without her. He rectified the situation immediately and she snuggled her soft head into his neck. "Yes, I suppose I have changed, darling, but only if you promise to
never
run away from me again."

Her eyes were glossy, wet orbs that spoke volumes of her love for him. "That's a promise I can keep."

About the Author

Canadian-born Juliet Moore is an author who grew up in Miami Beach, Florida reading Victoria Holt novels. She studied writing at UCLA under the tutelage of award-winning author Caroline Leavitt. She has always had a love for history, especially that of the Victorian era. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband and their two children, a four year old boy and 8 month old girl. Juliet spends her days writing, endeavoring to both make her children proud and create escapist fiction that appeals to the romantic in us all.

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THE QUEEN OF DIAMONDS

Coming February 2012

Eight years later, Cate meets Marcus Watson, the third son of middle class parents. Just like Cate, Marcus yearns for a better life and when she receives the gift of a diamond from her estranged parents, they decide to marry and use the diamond to fund their own dig in Kimberley, South Africa. Only Cate doesn't realize that once in the diamond fields, Marcus' ambition will turn to greed or that she'll be reunited with Hunter when her husband mysteriously disappears. When Cate finds herself torn between a forbidden love for Hunter and loyalty to Marcus, she wishes she'd never seen the diamond that brought her such misery.