The Secret Desires of a Governess (30 page)

ball.

“I didn’t mean to cause a scene,” Abigail said once they settled themselves in the carriage.

“Think nothing of it,” Asbury replied.

The elder sister spoke for the first time. “Abby matters to me more than the people back in that stuffy room.” She pointedly looked at Elliott. “We haven’t had the pleasure of meeting.”

He bowed his head. “Elliott Wright, Earl of Brendall.”

“The Archbishop of Canterbury,” Asbury said as they alighted on the steps to his town house, “is a family friend.

He’ll provide a special license so you can marry tomorrow.

We’ll visit him at first light.”

Elliott inclined his head. “I thank you for your assistance in this.”

Asbury’s only response was, “I’ll take you up to your room now.”

Jacob came into the foyer then. “Father?” His attention quickly turned to Abigail and with a bright smile on his face he ran toward her and hugged her around the waist.

“You didn’t say good- bye.”

Abigail smoothed her hand over his head. “I wanted to.

Your father was just going to tell me everything that happened since I left. It’s late, though. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

Jacob loosened his hold and looked up at her. “Father said to wait up for him. Said he’d bring you back home with us. We even have a full new staff helping at the castle.”

“That is exciting. But it’s certainly too late to travel to-night. We’re to be married in the morning. How would you feel if we stayed a few days in London before heading home?”

“Do I still have to do my lessons?”

Abigail laughed. “We’ll discuss it tomorrow.” She nodded toward her sister. “This is Emma, my oldest sister.

Do you mind going with her up to your room for the night? She’ll show you the way.”

“Are you still going to be here in the morning?”

“Yes. I’m not going anywhere. We’ll want you at the wedding.”

Jacob looked to his father. Elliott nodded and Jacob followed the other woman up the stairs.

“Richard,” Abigail said. “I’ll show Elliott to his room.”

“If you’re sure.” He seemed hesitant to leave them alone. Was it for propriety’s sake?

“I am,” she replied.

Asbury left with his wife.

When they were alone, Elliott walked toward her and pulled her into his arms. “I shouldn’t have let you leave. I thought it would be better for you to start your life again.

I didn’t realize so many things. I was such a fool. You were right. A scared fool. Scared to take a chance . . .”

“Shh. I just want you to hold me close for a while. I’ve missed you more than words can ever express.”

So he held her. When they broke apart, Abigail stepped up on her toes and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

“Will you sleep in my bed to night?”

“Every night from this day forward.”

She took his hand and led him to her private bedchamber.

When the door was locked behind him, he tossed down his coat and sat on a bench at the end of her bed to remove his boots.

She came and knelt in front of him to take over the task. “You shouldn’t be kneeling on the floor,” he said.

“I want to do this for you.” She tilted her head up and looked at him. Fresh tears filled her eyes.

“Why are you crying, Abigail?” He pulled her off the floor and sat her in his lap.

“I can’t seem to help it anymore. I cry when I’m happy. I cry when I’m sad. I cry all the time and I really hate it.”

He placed his hand over her belly. The smallest of bumps had formed there. “I think it’s to do with the baby.

How is this possible?”

“I don’t know. I thank God every day for it, though.”

“I will too.” His hand brushed over the mound beneath her dress.

“Maybe it was better for us to part for a short time?”

“It’s my fault. I’ll not leave you again, Abigail. I refuse to.”

Abby released the buttons on Elliott’s shirt. She wanted nothing more than to snuggle up to his warm body. She had felt so cold and alone without him by her side at night.

She listened as the story unfolded.

“Bethesda had been sent away from the castle when she threatened my father’s life. It seemed my father had been forcing himself on her Martha for some years. From the time she arrived until she was with child. Bethesda wanted my mother to claim the child as her own. My father wouldn’t allow it, of course. So he sent Bethesda away, made Martha stay so no harm would come to the bastard growing in her belly.”

“Lydia?”

“Yes. My half sister. The information was always there right in front of me, and I didn’t put two and two together.

What an idiot I’ve been.”

“Your sister. What’s happened to her?”

“Nothing. She is living at Brendall Castle, digesting the information like the rest of us. Thomas is still there.

He’s sent for his sons from his previous marriage to come on as help. I’ve hired someone from the local village to look after the house.”

“I pity Martha.”

“Don’t,” Elliott said, standing her in front of him so he could remove her clothes. She helped him strip her down to her chemise. She wore no corset. Hadn’t been able to when her body ached and felt so tender.

“She was poisoned over the years from my father’s violence and abuse. My father had twisted a good woman into a conniving one. She wanted nothing more than to see my father’s line die. She preyed upon Madeline’s mind.

Helped her insecurities fester into madness. It seems Madeline didn’t kill herself in that fire.”

Abby cupped his face. “Elliott. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It saddens me to know I was blind to the happenings in my own home, but Madeline was never well. I might not have been able to save her. Now I have you.”

“What has happened to Martha and the old woman?”

“They were arrested and sent to Newcastle. Bethesda died a week later. Martha is still there, awaiting her trial.

She’ll not be freed. She’ll be charged with murder at the very least.”

She pulled the bedding farther down, scooted into her bed, and waited for Elliott to join her. He slipped out of his trousers. When he turned to her, he was in quite a state of arousal.

“What does this mean for us?”

He climbed into the bed with her.

“We’ll be married tomorrow. We can stay here a few days or even spend our Christmas here if that

is what you wish.”

“I love you, Elliott.”

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her.

“And I you.” Sliding his hand around to her stomach, he said, “I love this strong little fighter, too. You make me a complete man, Abigail. And there is nothing more a man could desire than holding the woman he loves in his arms, knowing she loves him equally.”

Epilogue

There yet the story does not end, for it has been told that a maiden of beauty and great kindness that could fi ll the beast’s broken heart ventured into the dragon’s guarded den . . .

—The Dragon of Brahmors

The weather had held up well today, considering they’d had rain for three days straight. The warm break was much needed. They all sat in the garden he’d started building last year. Where the old church used to be.

Most of the fallen rock had been removed; the damaged walls, too. Some remained to offer climbing space for the roses Abigail looked after with great care, and the other walls remaining still had ivy and fern thriving on them.

A dozen graves lay in the small plot off the old vestibule. Some of the slabs had had to be replaced, and the grass was trimmed there now. Any fallen debris from the fire had been removed, and Madeline’s grave had a small tree growing behind it. Abigail had insisted on giving both Elliott and his son a nice shady spot for them to sit while they remembered her.

“Elliott,” Abigail called, frantic. “Oh, my, look at her.

Look at Isabella.”

Sitting up where he lounged, Elliott watched his wife with his daughter. They were celebrating her first birthday. Jacob knelt on the grassy lawn a dozen or so steps away, holding his hands out, beckoning his sister to walk to him.

Abigail stood not a foot behind Isabella, arms spread behind her in case she fell.

“That’s my girl, Bella,” Elliott said. He distracted her halfway from reaching her brother. She stopped in her already unsteady tracks and sat heavily on her rump, throwing her hands up and down in excitement.

“Elliott,” Abigail admonished, “you weren’t supposed to divert her attention from the goal!”

No reproof laced his wife’s sweet voice, though her hands rested on either hip as she laughed at him. She laughed a lot. Brought laughter back into his home. God, he could never remember being surrounded by so much laughter and happiness as he was now.

She was still his Abigail. Working hard with Jacob on his reading and writing. He loved her more for that. Even more that she tried to help him with his letters. He still didn’t understand them and was frustrated by that fact.

Abigail, though, didn’t seem to mind his ineptitude where reading and writing were concerned. She remained ever loving. She had more patience for him than he had for himself.

“Sit and eat with me,” he called out.

Abigail plunked Isabella in front of him and knelt next to Jacob over the picnic fare set before them. They both set up the plates of food. Abigail for him, Jacob for his baby sister.

Elliott had been surprised and delighted that Jacob had taken to being a big brother so well. He adored his sister, just as he adored Abigail, no longer his governess but his stepmother and still his ever- patient teacher. He was ten now. Growing fast. And he’d be going off to school in only two years.

On occasion, Elliott had heard him call Abigail “Mum.”

Yet another thing to put a smile on his face.

“When did you say your sisters would arrive?”

They’d were going to stay with them for the summer.

Lydia would be coming to visit, too. She’d married the doctor in the spring. Their wedding had been small but nice. He’d given his sister a dowry that would last two lifetimes over.

“This week. Emma wrote that she’d been very ill these past months and motion of any sort made it worse. She’ll be over her sickness soon, I hope.”

“You’ve been surprisingly well this time around,” Elliott said. He’d been waiting days— though it felt like weeks— for her to say something, to tell him and Jacob her news. Their news.

“How did . . .”

He only raised his brow. How could he not tell when the first indication had been the increased swelling of her breasts? He’d noticed that change to her body weeks ago.

Had delighted in it. He hoped her bottom would round out like it had the last time. She really did have the prettiest backside.

Abigail brought his plate over and settled beside him, kissing him on the tip of his nose then his lips. “It’s too soon. But now that you mention it . . . we should be having another baby early spring.”

The announcement made Elliott feel rather queer. Like he’d just received the best news he could possibly receive.

He was teasing and enjoying his wife’s company one moment and fighting sudden arousal in the next.

“Jacob, take your sister up to the house for her nap.”

Jacob screwed up his face, gave a huff, and carried Isabella up to the house.

When the boy was out of sight, Elliott took the plate from Abigail’s hands set it off to the side. “You should have told me this sooner,” he said.

He pressed her down to the blanket and leaned over her. “I think we need to attend business in our bedchamber immediately.”

“Elliott!” She pushed at his shoulder with a laugh.

“You’ve just sent your son off so you could seduce me?”

“Oh, yes. And seduce is probably too mild a word.”

His hand reached under her skirts and slid up her leg till he was at the apex of her thighs.

He parted the material and felt the slickness of her desire there and groaned. His finger parted the lips of her sex, his thumb toying with the bud of her sex. She panted beneath him. Her hand clutched to his arm through all her skirts as she held him tight to her body.

He knew she was going to come when she bit her lip and her thighs tightened around his arm. He kissed her to swallow her cries of passion.

When her pelvis stilled and she let out a sigh, he lifted his mouth from hers.

“Seems I’m not the only one to be aroused by the occasion.”

“You are wicked.”

“I think that’s what you like most about me, darling wife.”

He really couldn’t help himself. He wanted her with a desperation that quite stole his sanity. He released the ties on his trousers and hitched her skirts up to settle himself between her pretty thighs.

“You can’t,” she objected. “What if someone should see us?”

“They won’t. I need you now.”

And now he had her.