To Please A Lady (The Seduction Series) (36 page)

“What is it?” Alex asked. “What’s wrong?”

The man knew him too well. They might not have shared much at Lady Lavender’s but they had spent years together. James glanced
at a passing couple, out for a stroll, envying them. “Ellie will be granted a divorce if and when Lord Beckett is brought to justice.”

Patience clasped her hands together in glee, looking very much like the young romantic she was. “But that’s wonderful!”

James forced himself to smile. “Yes. She’s free.”

Patience frowned, not missing the strain to his voice. Alex merely watched him with those all-knowing eyes. How could he explain? They had gone through so much to help him escape, and they would assume he was throwing it away.

“Patience, wait on the steps, will you?” Alex said.

She nodded and moved reluctantly across the garden, toward the inn. James gritted his teeth, in no mood to hear whatever it was Alex had to say.

“But you aren’t, are you?”

“What?” James snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not what?”

“You’re not free because even though she is gone, dead, Ophelia still has control over you. It’s why you’re so bloody angry.”

“Don’t be an arse, Alex.” James’s gaze snapped back. “Ellie and I have merely decided that perhaps we shouldn’t be together.”

“Nonsense!” he growled. “You think I don’t know exactly what you’re going through? You think I don’t know that your worries keep you up at night? You think to save her reputation, don’t you?”

James flushed, his hands curling as he resisted the urge to shove the man aside. “She’s better off without me, surely you know that.”

Alex grabbed him by the collar and jerked him closer. “No, I don’t. I do know that Grace and I are both incredibly content and happy with each other. Happier than I could have ever imagined, probably happier than I deserve. And I know that you are much better with Eleanor, and she with you.”

James jerked away from his hold. “They know! All of England knows that Eleanor has been to Lady Lavender’s. They know she cheated on her husband!”

His face softened some as understanding dawned. “Perhaps it’s best.”

“How can you say that?”

“Whether she is with you or not, Eleanor will be shunned because of her divorce. At least with you she has a chance at love and happiness! This is your chance, do not throw it away. Not only will you be ruining your life, but hers as well.”

James swallowed hard as Alex’s words hit him. The fight went out, fading into nothingness. He didn’t want to struggle anymore. He didn’t want to merely be. He wanted a life with Ellie. “I’m an idiot.”

Alex shrugged, grinning. “Yes, you are. But I’ve had my own idiotic moments, although I will deny I ever said that.”

“She hates me.”

He rested his hand on James’s shoulder. “She’s protecting herself. She’s been beaten down her entire life and she could not let you hurt her as well. She did what she learned to do years ago… survive. The very same thing we learned as young lads. Listen, James, we have only a few chances in life to truly be happy. Take your chance and let Ellie take hers. Don’t steal that from her.”

He was right. James glanced hungrily at the large inn. How could he be so damn stupid? He wasn’t just destroying his own chance, but Ellie’s as well. Without response, James spun around and started toward the inn. He could only pray that she would forgive him. He swept past Patience and into the common room.

“Back again?” the innkeeper called out warily from behind the table he was cleaning.

“Is she still here?”

“Yer wife?”

James nodded, his heart hammering madly. He needed to see her, to hold her, to tell her he’d never walk out again. They had a chance, damn it all, and they were going to take it.

“Aye, she is, but with another visitor.”

James froze. “Visitor?”

“A man, just came in through the back a moment ago. Asked if I could help him but he ignored me.”

“Shite.” James bolted toward the steps.

“Don’t want any trouble,” the innkeeper called out. “Ye break anything, you pay for it!”

James took the steps three at a time, icy fear like a snowstorm pounding through his veins. If anything happened to her, it would be his fault. He tried the door but found it locked. James pounded his fists on the wooden panel. “Ellie?”

No response.

A shiver of unease whispered over his skin. He stepped back, and with all his strength, he rushed toward the door, hitting it with his shoulder. The wood cracked, the hinges splintering. James kicked the door wide. Ellie stood in the center of the room, her husband behind her, a knife at her throat.

James froze, even as he saw red, and had to resist the urge to tear the man’s head form his body. “You want to hurt someone, hurt me, you bastard.”

“Oh, I will,” Lord Beckett seethed. “You have ruined my life, you’ve destroyed my future, and I will not leave this earth without destroying yours as well.”

Vengeance. They’d been surrounded by those wanting vengeance, people out to destroy them, for years. He was tired of it. “We can all have a life,” James said, lowering his arms. “If you don’t do this, you can still have a life. We all can.”

“Humiliated?” the man cried out, tightening his arm around Ellie. She pressed her lips together and he could tell she was trying very hard not to whimper. “How can I have a life when I’ll be shunned? Laughed at? Even if I get away with murdering that bitch, I have no life now. It’s over!”

This was his fault; he never should have left her unprotected. “You’ll live your life based on what other people think?”

“I have no choice!” he growled. “You wouldn’t understand.”

James had the sickening feeling the man was too far gone. Perhaps Gideon had been right and killing someone changed a person completely.

“Drop the knife,” Alex demanded from behind James. “Or I’ll shoot you, and I have to warn you I’m a crack shot.”

“You think I care?” Lord Beckett shifted, moving Ellie directly in front of him, and pressed the knife to her neck so hard that a spot of brilliant red pierced her pale skin.

The sight of her blood sent his anger raging. James felt hot, and he had to resist the urge to rush toward her. If Alex was going to act, he better do so quickly.

“I’m going to die anyway, and she, at least, is going with me.” Lord Beckett moved the knife to her chest. Ellie’s gaze met James’s, and in that split second he saw her good-bye.

“No!” James burst forward. With one hand he tore Ellie from the man, shoving her away while hitting her husband with his body. They fell to their knees with a thud that shook the room. Ellie was safe, she had to be safe.

It was as they hit floor that he felt the sharp point of the knife. The blade slid into his body, piercing the skin, the muscle, hitting bone and stopping. Lord Beckett shifted back and tore the knife from James. The sharp sting gave way to numbness. His legs went out and he slid to the ground, his back hitting the hard floor. The ceiling overhead spun, and shouts became muffled cries. James could feel the warmth of his own blood pooling on the floor beneath him.

“No!” Ellie screamed.

Lord Beckett lifted the knife, looming over James, his face twisted into an angry scowl. He wasn’t done after all. James knew he had to move… had to save his own life, but couldn’t seem to make his body obey. Hell, he was going to die. Alex stepped over the threshold, pistol raised. A sudden blast rang through the room. Lord Beckett’s eyes went wide as red spread
across the white linen covering his shoulder. Ellie’s husband hit the ground hard.

Ellie was suddenly pressing a blanket to James’s wound, tears trailing down her pale cheeks. “You’ll be all right. I know you will.” She gave him a wobbly smile that warmed his cold body.

Trembling, he reached out, grasping on to her hands. “Let’s have a life together, Ellie. Will you?”

“Of course.” Her lower lip shook as tears shimmered in her beautiful eyes. “I want nothing more, James.”

He pressed her hands to his chest. “We can be happy together, can’t we?”

“Yes. Yes, we can.” She leaned down and pressed her lips to his. The scent of roses swept around him, drowning out the aroma of blood and death. “We will.”

It was enough. With her beautiful words in his ears, and the picture of him and Ellie together forever in his mind, James gave in to temptation and closed his eyes.

Chapter 20

“Almost there,” Eleanor said softly, her gaze fastened to the window.

She knew she looked ridiculous with her nose practically pressed to the glass but was determined to see the cottage the moment the house came into view. She was eager to relive her childhood with James and to show him the peace she had experienced those years ago.

“You’re sure you don’t want to stay in London to see Lord Beckett hang? I bleedin’ hell wouldn’t mind.”

She shook her head. “No. He holds no interest.” She glanced shyly at James. “Is it wrong that I feel sorry for his family?”

He drew his knuckles down the side of her face. “Not at all. Just shows what I knew all along… that you’ve got a heart bigger than anyone.”

Ellie grinned. She wanted to share everything with him… the man she loved. She wanted nothing to do with her former world. They would have a new life, whatever it may be, but she knew without a doubt they would be happy here. For the past two weeks, while they were getting things settled in London, they had
lain in bed at night sharing their dreams and hopes. She could hardly believe they were finally seeing those dreams fulfilled.

James reached out, resting his hand on hers, a comforting touch. He knew how much this moment meant to her. It was the one place where, as a child, she’d found comfort. The home of the one woman who had been on her side even after her marriage. Aunt Jeanie would have helped her if she hadn’t died so early on. Then again, she supposed she was helping her even now… from the heavens.

“Every summer,” she said, “I visited here. Mostly to get out of my mother’s hair. But I didn’t care. Aunt Jeanie was wonderful. So very warm and caring, open and kind.”

“So that’s where you get it?”

She grinned. “For those brief moments I didn’t have to worry about what was proper. We’d wade in the creek, climb trees…”

“No,” he whispered with feigned horror.

“Indeed.” She winked up at him.

“I think I’d like to see you with your hair down, in this said creek.”

“A picnic by the creek… is that how we’ll spend our days?”

He shrugged as much as his injury would allow. “Why not?”

She took in a deep breath; the giddy happiness had not fled in the past two weeks. “We’re free.”

“Yes.”

She continually had to remind herself that Lord Beckett could no longer harm her. Although James was free as well, she knew it would take some time before they would be able to release their pasts and accept their newfound fate. “Free to do whatever we please.”

“You’re sure,” he said, his voice husky with emotion. “You’re sure you can handle the stigma of marrying a whore?”

She rested her hand upon the side of his face. “You’re not a whore. You’re a man who did what he thought best for his family.”

He brushed a kiss across her lips. “And I love you for believing that.”

She lay her head upon his shoulder and looked out the window once more. When the familiar stone fence came into view, her heart leapt into her throat. Perhaps the place wasn’t in complete disrepair, if the fence was still standing. The elm trees gave way and there it was… a lovely redbrick home that had been in her mother’s family for generations.

“Rose Cottage,” she whispered.

A home. A true home. A true beginning. James took her hand in his and the mere warmth of his palm was most welcome. If only they had family to share this moment. Fanny had taken a position closer to her parents and Arabella still refused to leave the church.

“I’m sorry your sister wouldn’t come with us.”

He shrugged. “Not all people are as forgiving as you.”

He pretended indifference, but she knew better. Eleanor had to resist the urge to hold him. “This is our new beginning,” she whispered. “Our future.”

He gave a quick nod, swallowing hard. “I swear I will do my best to make you happy.”

“If there is one thing I have learned it is that no one can make anyone happy. It’s up to me, isn’t it?”

He smiled gently at her. “Still, I’ll try.”

“I will be happy. How can I not with everything I’ve been given? It was worth it, James, all the pain I went through was worth it for this. I choose to believe that we can have a life. I choose to believe in happily ever afters.”

He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “You choose to believe in me, and that’s more than I could ever ask for.”

The carriage slowed. Her excitement was almost palpable, a tingling awareness of life, of a future. Her chance at a marriage, a true marriage. A true family. “The gardens are treated and the house looks in good shape. Mr. and Mrs. Swann have done well.”

The driver open the door. James’s side was healing nicely, but as he jumped outside she noticed the slight grimace. When she
thought about how close they’d come… she felt utterly ill. Ellie stepped from the carriage, her foot hitting the familiar gravel path. Slowly, she tilted her head back and merely studied the place. The familiarity of the building produced a combination of sweet memories and excitement for a future. For a brief moment she felt ten once more, and the happiness and hope that went with being a child swept over her.

“It’s home,” she whispered.

The same brilliant white door, the red and pink roses climbing up the stone. The same foxglove and hollyhock wavering upon the warm breeze. The same species of butterflies and songbirds fluttering through the garden. Everything was exactly as it had been. Even the glass in the windows sparkled and shone.

“It’s home.” She knelt and picked a rose, breathing in the familiar scent. “Home.” Eleanor surged to her feet and spun around. On either side of the estate, flower gardens still grew. She could imagine the apple trees in the back and couldn’t wait to make her aunt’s infamous pie.

She turned, her skirts flaring wide, and faced James. He’d been so quiet since their arrival. Perhaps the building wasn’t to his liking. Perhaps the town they’d passed some fifteen minutes ago was too small. “What say you, James? Can you think of this place as home?”