The Offer (33 page)

Sabrina knew she should be embarrassed to the toes of her slippers that two people were watching this very strange confrontation between them, but oddly, she wasn't. But she didn't know what was in Phillip's head. She'd never known. She looked at him helplessly, her hands splayed in front of her. “You know that I love you. I'll promise that to anyone who wants to listen to me. But I'm not the one who wants mistresses, Phillip.”

“A lover for you, Sabrina? No, never. Forget it. Not in this lifetime.”

“But you know that was always only in your own mind. I told you that lovemaking was utterly miserable, that no woman could possible enjoy herself doing that. It was unpleasant, it was—” She stopped. Phillip was flushed, two spots of color high on his cheekbones.

Rohan choked on his apple Charlotte. Susannah thumped him on his back. He sucked in enough breath to blurt out, “Phillip, I don't believe this. You? You left your wife unsatisfied? You were so rotten that she doesn't want anything more to do with you? Good God, you never told me this! This may be insurmountable. I don't know if I should encourage her to take you back if you can't do things right. It's a repellent thought. It's unacceptable.”

“Now, just calm yourself and think back for a moment. I believed the same thing she did, Rohan,” Susannah said with alarming candor. “It was Charlotte—no, not the apple Charlotte—who kept talking about her precious Rohan, how he could make a toad sing with pleasure if he but put his mind to it, his mind and all the skills his dear papa saw to it he learned from his own mistresses beginning when Rohan was only fourteen years old.”

“That's quite enough, Susannah. The fact is that you were quickly disabused of your silly beliefs. All I needed was a very short time in our bed to change your mind, don't you remember? Not more than two minutes or so, very little so.”

Sabrina said, “And then it was all right? You truly enjoyed this, Susannah?”

“Yes, I truly did. I truly do.”

“But Phillip did this to me three times, all in one night, one after the other. It wasn't very nice at all, but because I loved him, I endured. What else can a woman do when she loves a man but endure?”

“Exactly right,” Phillip said.

“Phillip, what the hell happened?”

He looked at his boyhood friend and said simply, “I was a blockhead. She wouldn't accept my expertise, but I should have known that it would take more than simple expertise. But I won't ever be a blockhead again.” He was no longer flushed. He took two steps toward his wife. “No, don't retreat from me, Sabrina. Do you swear before these witnesses that you love me?”

“I swear.”

“Good. Now I swear that I love you as well. Actually I probably love you more. My love for you has been simmering, like a damned stew, for a very long time. It's grown stronger and stronger, it just took me
longer to realize what it was and to admit it. It's still boiling over a steady flame. I daresay that flame won't ever go out.”

“That makes no sense at all. You'll just keep boiling? You won't boil away?”

“Never. I also swear to you that tonight, just after we can politely leave our guests, you and I are going to enjoy ourselves, immensely. Will you trust me on this?”

She didn't say a word, just stared at him.

“Trust him,” Susannah said. “Yes, you should trust him. A man and a woman together, it can be glorious, Sabrina. Life is so very uncertain, so unwieldy sometimes, that coming together with a man you truly love can make sense of everything, make everything very clear to you. It can make problems disappear. It can make annoyances, burdens, much lighter.”

Rohan said, “If you agree to trust him, Sabrina, to give him another chance, then I'll give him the gift Susannah and I brought him from Mountvale Hall. Your trust would turn the tide, I should say. I would believe him worthy of the gift then. It would prove that commitment wasn't abhorrent to him. It would prove that he's become a steady man.”

“Do you know,” Sabrina said slowly, looking at each of them in turn, “this is quite the oddest thing that has ever happened to me. Phillip, you invited them here because you were afraid I wouldn't listen to you?”

“I felt I needed character witnesses.”

“Will you tell him you trust him, Sabrina?” Susannah said, sitting forward.

Sabrina said slowly, “I believe that now I'm going to go find Charlotte beneath the Moorish arches. I want her to give me some lessons in how to make the best use of my eyes.”

Phillip groaned. “I will be undone by your mother, Rohan.”

“Think of my mother as another character witness, Phillip,” Rohan said, grabbed a delicate mulberry cream cake in the shape of a cat, gave his wife a beatific smile, and rolled his eyes.

 

His mouth was on her belly, nibbling as he would on one of Cook's lemon spice cakes, then smoothing where he'd nipped with his tongue. It tickled and she giggled. Much of her nervousness fell away when he looked up at her, and smiled widely. “That's a wonderful sound. It warms me to my, er, never mind what. Just relax, Sabrina. Remember now, you trust me.”

“Yes,” she said when his mouth was on hers. Since he'd kissed her until she was nearly out of her mind, it didn't take long for her to scream, arch off the bed, and fling her hair into her eyes. “Phillip!”

He pushed her and pushed her, then drew back, calming her, slowing down his rhythm, until she was drawing heaving breaths, and again, he smiled. Her pleasure was beautiful to him. It warmed him to his toes. “Now,” he said and came over her, and very gently, very slowly, he came into her. She raised her hips, her hands stroking down his back. “Oh yes, I like that,” she said and bit his shoulder. “I'm glad Charlotte told me to trust you. Oh, goodness, Phillip, this is very strange. It feels like nothing any person could possibly imagine. Can we do it again after we finish it this time?”

He groaned, threw back his head, and let himself take his release. It was rending and powerful and he was nearly dead with the pleasure of it.

“Yes,” he said five minutes later when he was finally able to speak again. “Yes, in a few more minutes, we'll do it again.”

Between kisses, she said, “The candlelight is too dim for me to practice my eye lessons on you.”

“Trust me again, Sabrina. You don't need any lessons.”

Her hand stroked down his back, over his flanks. “All right,” he said, and brought her over on top of him. He grinned up at her. “What do you say, wife? Do you want to be the one in control?”

“I don't understand.”

When she did, she very much enjoyed herself. As did Phillip. When she was sprawled atop him, her face against his neck, breathing hard, she said, “Did I ride you well?”

“Oh yes, you did. I also like the way you bite me. It's almost like my sweet old mare, she bites my shoulder, then smiles at me.”

“That's ridiculous, a mare smile?”

“Yes, I found her moldering in a stable in Scotland last summer when Rohan and Susannah and I were there. She nipped me and smiled at me. I sent for her, as I promised her I would do. She's been with me since last October. She neighs whenever I come near.”

“I met her. She didn't seem to like me at all. She didn't try to bite me.”

“I will try to talk her into accepting you.”

“Phillip, I'm glad I trusted you. That is really very nice, all those things you do.”

“Would you like to learn things to do to me?”

She came up on her elbows, her hair tumbling down on either side of her face, forming a curtain around their faces. Her eyes were sparkling. “Yes, oh, please. What?”

“Tomorrow. Tonight, now that I've pleasured you twice, I feel free to tell you that if you ever run away from me again, I'll strangle you and throw your body into the River Ledlow. It's an ugly muddy excuse for
a river, but you'll deserve it. Do you swear you'll not run out on me again?”

“I swear. Shall I also swear not to throw things at you?”

He thought about that for a moment. “No, I'm learning how to move quickly. It'll keep me on my toes, else I'll get a plate or a lemon tart in my face.” He became suddenly serious again. He eased her onto her back, and came up on his elbow to look down at her. “You're beautiful, Sabrina. You must accustom yourself to hearing that from me. But you want to know something else? You're the woman God fashioned just for me. You're precious. You mean more to me than the crenelated tower you and I will build together. I love you and I will love you until I cock up my toes. Will you accept my word? Will you accept me?”

She raised her hand to lightly stroke her fingers over his cheek. “I will thank God each night for bringing Trevor into the world.”

“Trevor? What's this about?”

“If it weren't for Trevor, I wouldn't have met you. Well, if I had eventually met you in London, I doubt you would have given me a second glance.”

Phillip didn't agree with her at all, but he smiled down at her, kissed her yet again, and said, “We will drink to Trevor on the morrow then. Can I pound the bastard into the ground again?”

“Perhaps, in the future. But we'll do it together.”

Together, he thought. He'd never been part of a together before. It felt quite nice. He fell asleep with Sabrina pressed against him, the memory of her featherlight kisses on his chest deep in his dreams.

He jerked bolt upright in bed. He was wide awake. It was the middle of the night.

“Phillip? What's the matter? Are you all right? Do you want me to trust you some more? I'd like that.”

“Yes, I would too, but now I want my gift that Rohan promised me. Do you know what it is? I forgot all about it. He said he'd give it to me if I pleased you.”

“I'll tell him you pleased me. You'll get your gift.”

“I want a silly grin on your face when you tell him,” he said, getting out of bed. “The sillier the grin the more likely it is he'll believe you.”

“It's the middle of the night.”

“Yes, so it is, but Rohan deserves to be awakened. He should have given me my gift on speculation. He should have given me my gift because he knew I wouldn't let you down again.”

The floor was icy beneath his bare feet. He grabbed his dressing gown and pulled it on. He fastened the belt tightly. “I want my gift now. What room are he and Susannah in?”

“The Blue Damson Room. Phillip, wait for me!”

Three minutes later, after a sharp knock on the door of the Blue Damson Room, Rohan awoke to see a candle shining toward him and Susannah. Something was wrong. Oh, God, what had happened? Wait, it was Phillip. What was going on? Sabrina was standing right behind him.

“Phillip, what's going on? What are you and Sabrina doing in our bedchamber in the middle of the night? Susannah, no, love, it's all right. It's just Phillip and Sabrina. Doubtless they'll tell us why they're here at this particular moment in time.”

“I want my gift, Rohan. You said you brought me a gift.”

“Oh, that,” Rohan said and yawned. He straightened in the bed and scratched his belly. “Susannah,
Phillip wakes us up in the middle of the night to get his gift. Should we give it to him?”

Susannah looked at him, then at Sabrina. “He pleased you?”

“Oh yes, please give him his gift now.”

“If I haven't squashed her,” Rohan said. “Where is she?”

“It's true,” Phillip nearly shouted, running to the bed. “You brought me a racing kitten! I've wanted a racing cat since I was a little boy, but the Harker brothers never deemed me worthy of one. They always said I wasn't responsible enough, that a true racer always needed commitment, just what they always said about you, Rohan, and they finally gave you Gilly's son. Now I've got my own racing kitten to train and to teach.” He quickly set the candle down on the night stand, turned and hauled Sabrina up against him. He picked her up and whirled her around. “A racing kitten, Sabrina. Finally!”

“Let me find her, Phillip. Ah, here she is.” Susannah pulled a boneless kitten, still asleep, from beneath the covers. “She's just nine weeks old. The Harker brothers say she's ready to begin training. They've sent instructions. I wrote them down for you. You're to swear to keep them confidential. You know how the Harker brothers are. Now, here she is.”

Phillip reverently took the tiny kitten from Susannah's hands. It was black and white, soft as Sabrina's skin just behind her knees. It opened its eyes and looked up at him, gold eyes unblinking. Phillip gently rubbed his finger beneath the kitten's chin. “She's wonderful. What shall we name her, Sabrina?”

Sabrina took the kitten and cuddled her against her breast. “Nothing sentimental. A racing cat doesn't want to sound sentimental, no one would take her
seriously. Let's give her a grand name, one that calls forth great feats. Let's name her Olympia.”

“Oh yes,” Phillip said, taking the kitten back. He kissed the small face, smoothed back the whiskers. “Olympia. That has a ring to it, doesn't it? I'm already thinking of great feats. When we visit your grandfather in a couple of weeks, we'll take Olympia with us. Your grandfather has an interest in racing cats. He knew all about the Mountvale trainers, about the cat races at the McCaultry Racetrack.”