The Highwayman's Daughter (27 page)

‘Who would do such a thing?’ she asked him with stifled sob.

His heart clenched at the sight of her distress, and, taking her hands, he drew them to his chest, caressing her fingers as he did so. He was relieved when she didn’t pull away, and it touched him how his nearness seemed to comfort her. He intended to comfort her the rest of his life if she’d let him, and now that Rupert was gone, her secret was safe. Their secret.

‘Lord Heston, I should think,’ he replied. ‘He always had a bone to pick with your mother. But don’t worry, the man will get his comeuppance one day. Right now we need to talk. And just so you know – I’ve chased your horse away.’

‘Why?’

‘So you can’t run away from me again.’

With a wan smile she shrugged. ‘I’m finding it hard to run away altogether. I love this place. I was happy here.’

‘And I love you.’

He drew her closer to kiss her, but she pulled back, shaking her head.

‘No, Jack, we mustn’t. I beg you, don’t tempt me. I fear I might be your sister. We committed a terrible sin when we … when we made love.’ she added in a whisper.

‘And what has made you draw this conclusion?’ he asked, surprised.

‘Lord Heston.’ Cora shuddered visibly. ‘I showed him my mother’s ring as proof of my identity because I needed his help to free Ned. He told me it was likely given to her by your father – Geoffrey. His initial was on the ring.’

Jack shook his head. ‘He was wrong. Please let me explain, Cora. You’re not my sister.’

‘How can you know? If the earl is my father, how can we not be siblings?’

‘He’s not. Your father was the captain, as I always suspected.’

Cora stared at him, incredulous. ‘But why would Lord Heston claim this?’

‘Who knows? I’ve never liked the man and wouldn’t put it past him to try and cause mischief. Or perhaps he truly believes it to be the case. Either way, he is wrong.’ Jack held out his hand, and slowly, tentatively, she took it. ‘Come, let’s sit,’ he said and pulled her towards a large tree stump.

When he was certain Cora wasn’t about to leap up and disappear, Jack began his tale.

When he had finished, Cora stared at him dubiously. ‘But how can we be together if Lord Heston knows I’m his first wife’s child?’ she said.

Jack shrugged. ‘It’s unfortunate, but I don’t believe he’ll divulge our secret. He gains nothing by revealing he was cuckolded, or by attempting to discredit our family, especially as he’s hoping for his son to marry Alethea.’

‘But think of the gossip, if he does. The damage to your reputation, and your family’s. Society will shun you.’

‘Society is fickle. There would be gossip, yes, but it’d die down as soon as another scandal broke.’

Cora sighed. ‘But you must be aware that – regardless of my blood – I was reared differently to you. I’ll always be seen as a labourer’s daughter.’

‘I know, and we’ll announce it proudly while we hold our heads up high.’ Jack brought her hands to his lips and kissed each palm in turn.

Desire shot through Cora, and she felt her objections melting away. ‘And he was a highwayman too, in the past,’ she said fiercely, in a final attempt to get Jack to see sense. ‘If that comes out …’

‘Then that is whom I shall marry: the highwayman’s daughter.’

Sighing again, Cora leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. ‘It won’t be easy. There’ll be those who think they can take liberties with me because of my background.’

‘Then they’ll taste steel.’

She looked up and met his eyes, which glinted dangerously. Smiling, she said, ‘You can’t duel with every man who insults me.’

‘I’ve no intention of doing so. I should imagine my reputation with a rapier precedes me and I’d only have to duel one or two.’

‘And their wives?’

‘What do you care for women’s gossip? You’re not a timorous schoolgirl.’

‘Our children might,’ she whispered.

‘Our children will have everything they could ever dream of,’ said Jack forcefully.

‘They’ll be rich, to be sure.’

Holding her closer, Jack smoothed back a lock of her hair. ‘That’s not what I meant. They’ll have parents who’re devoted to them, and to each other. It’ll make them strong.’

Shaking her head, Cora withdrew from his embrace. ‘It’ll never work. I’m a murderess.’

‘Devil take it, woman!’ Jack laughed. ‘I love you and wish to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ll protect you as you protected me. You saved my life, and my cousin’s. Rupert had lost his mind and would have … well, let’s not talk about that now. Tell me how you found us.’

‘But, Jack—’

‘Just tell me,’ he insisted.

Cora pulled his fob watch out of her pocket and handed it to him. ‘I came to give you this.’

‘Is that all?’ His hand closed over the watch, still in Cora’s hand. Cora met his eyes and saw that it wasn’t true. ‘I recollect you stole something else from me that night,’ he continued.

‘Yes, your hair.’ Cora swallowed hard.

‘Oh I wasn’t referring to my queue: I was referring to my heart.’ He caressed her hand with his thumb. ‘The moment I saw you I was lost. Only I didn’t know it then. Say you will marry me? Whatever troubles we face, it can be nothing compared to a life without you.’

She met his eyes. Jack was right; they could brave whatever transpired, and they would do it together. His scent and the protection of his strong arms were so familiar that when she leaned back into his embrace it was as if she had finally come home. ‘Your heart?’ she teased. ‘Do I get to keep it?’

‘Of course.’ Holding her close, he kissed the top of her head. ‘But you’re obliged to take care of it and not sell it to some middleman.’

The clearing echoed with his laughter as Cora thumped him on the shoulder.

Edward John Blythe was born exactly seven months after the marriage between Miss Cora Mardell and Viscount Halliford, causing a flurry of gossip.

As she held her baby in her arms for the first time, however, Cora’s happiness was complete and she knew words couldn’t hurt her. There would always be wagging tongues wherever she went: she was a labourer, and her father had stood accused of highway robbery – although the magistrate never found any evidence to support Ned’s confession. All she could do was hold her head high, but the sense of completeness and belonging with Jack helped her weather the gossip. As Jack had said, the busybodies would eventually tire of the game.

Little Ned had his mother’s wild, black curls, his father’s eyes, and his cousin Alethea’s temperament. No one could be in any doubt about his lineage.

‘He’s so small,’ said Jack, who had come to sit on the bed as soon as the midwife would allow it. ‘Will he live?’

Cradling Ned with one arm, Cora reached up and stroked her husband’s worried face. It was never far from their minds that they had both lost siblings still in their infancy.

‘That’s not up to us, but we’ll protect him as best we can,’ she said. ‘Besides, look how heartily he suckles. I think he’s a fighter, this one.’

He met her eyes, and she saw humour behind the concern. ‘I suppose with you as his mother that was inevitable. I believe you can do anything, Cora. Let’s hope our son is the same.’

‘So can you, Jack, and I for one, hope he takes after you.’

When she was sufficiently recovered from the birth, Jack took her for a walk in the vast gardens of the estate. With Little Ned held safely drowsing against his shoulder, he held his arm around Cora as if he never intended to let go.

It was a fine spring evening, with a sky the colour of apricot and a light breeze. The majestic oak trees rustled their leaves as if greeting the young family. Sighing into her husband’s embrace, Cora thought it impossible to be any happier than she was at this very moment.

When Jack steered her in the direction of the family mausoleum, she sent him a questioning glance. ‘A strange place to take your wife for an evening stroll, don’t you think?’

Then she understood why. Among the ancient earls and countesses, a new plaque had been erected. Kneeling down with a lump in her throat, Cora ran her fingers over the carved relief of a masked man on horseback; then traced the names of the three people who had meant the world to her once: Ned Mardell, Sarah Duval Mardell, and her baby brother, Tom.

‘I’ve been meaning to do this for a while,’ Jack said, ‘and Father and Mother agreed, but I wanted it to be a surprise. The highwayman was my idea. I hope I did right.’

Eyes brimming with happy tears, Cora rose and hugged her husband and son close. Little Ned snuffled in his sleep but didn’t wake.

‘I thought you’d want to keep quiet about my lowly connections,’ she said.

Jack shook his head. ‘I owe your father a debt of gratitude. If he hadn’t taken you in and brought you up as his own, I would never have met you. I love you, my heart. Whatever you are, I’ll never be ashamed of it. I look forward to the rest of our lives together.’

‘And I love you,’ she whispered against his chest.

Henriette lives in London but grew up in Northern Denmark and moved to England after she graduated from the University of Copenhagen. She wrote her first book when she was ten, a tale of two orphan sisters running away to Egypt fortunately to be adopted by a perfect family they meet on the Orient Express.

Between that first literary exploit and now, she has worked in the Danish civil service, for a travel agent, a consultancy company, in banking, hospital administration, and for a county court before setting herself up as a freelance translator and linguist.

Expecting her first child and feeling bored, she picked up the pen again, and when a writer friend encouraged her to join the Romantic Novelists’ Association, she began to pursue her writing in earnest. Her debut
Up Close
won the New Talent Award in 2011 from the Festival of Romance and a Commended from the Yeovil Literary Prize. Her second novel,
The Elephant Girl
, was published in 2013 and her e-novella,
Blueprint for Love
, was also published that year.
The Highwayman’s Daughter
is Henriette’s third novel with Choc Lit.

www.twitter.com/henrigyland

www.henriettegyland.wordpress.com

From Henriette Gyland

Up Close

Too close for comfort …

When Dr Lia Thompson’s grandmother dies unexpectedly, Lia is horrified to have to leave her life in America and return to a cold and creaky house in Norfolk. But as events unfold, she can’t help feeling that there is more to her grandmother’s death than meets the eye.

Aidan Morrell is surprised to see Lia, his teenage crush, back in town. But Aidan’s accident when serving in the navy has scarred him in more ways than one, and he has other secrets which must stay hidden at all costs, even from Lia.

As Lia comes closer to uncovering the truth, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew. In a world of increasing danger, is Aidan someone she can trust?

Visit
www.choc-lit.com
for more details including the first two chapters and reviews.

Find out more and purchase in the kindle store (
Amazon UK
,
Amazon US
,
Amazon Australia
,
Amazon Canada
)

The Elephant Girl

Peek-a-boo I see you …

When five-year-old Helen Stephens witnesses her mother’s murder, her whole world comes crumbling down. Rejected by her extended family, Helen is handed over to child services and learns to trust no-one but herself. Twenty years later, her mother’s killer is let out of jail, and Helen swears vengeance.

Jason Moody runs a halfway house, desperate to distance himself from his father’s gangster dealings. But when Helen shows up on his doorstep, he decides to dig into her past, and risks upsetting some very dangerous people.

As Helen begins to question what really happened to her mother, Jason is determined to protect her. But Helen is getting too close to someone who’ll stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden …

Visit
www.choc-lit.com
for more details including the first two chapters and reviews.

Find out more and purchase in the kindle store (
Amazon UK
,
Amazon US
,
Amazon Australia
,
Amazon Canada
)