Snowed in with a Rogue, page 52
He didn’t recognize the other smaller lady holding a child in her arms but by deduction he figured she must be Lady Rathbourne. Eliza now was taking the child in her arms, kissing his head as the boy pointed and smiled. And Nash was mesmerized by the tender look on Eliza’s face. He couldn’t stop watching and envisioning the day when Eliza would hold their son in her arms.
Interrupting the women’s reunion were three youths tearing down the stairs followed by an assortment of barking dogs.
“Brinsley showed us the stallion you rode. Did you really steal him out of the stables?” the youngest asked as a heavy yellow Lab jumped on Eliza’s skirts. Brinsley had ridden Ace to Rathbourne, needing a fresh mount who could handle his weight.
“Gus, behave yourself.” Another of the youths grabbed at his dog, who easily dodged being subdued.
Eliza bent to pet the dog who sat, enabling the baby to reach and burst into giggles when he touched the Lab’s broad head.
An older woman using a cane came to stand next to Nash, who felt uncertain in his role in this emotional reunion.
“Wessex, you brought her home safely. My nephew said you played the role of a hero.”
“Madam, you have an advantage. I’ve been remiss in not attending society since I missed your debut this past season.” Nash took the woman’s gnarled hands and pressed them to his lips.
The lady cackled. “What a rogue. Just like my Brinsley... Your eyes favor your mama’s. She was a gentle woman, and your father a devoted husband. Your father never recovered. Such a loss.”
Nash didn’t realize there were benefits in knowing the grand dames in society. She remembered his mother and father as a young couple. He’d never considered the extent of his father’s grief as a reason for his harshness. He searched for Eliza amongst her friends, trying to imagine what his life would be like if anything happened to Eliza now that she was already essential to him.
“You’ve asked her to marry you?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“And you’ll allow her horses.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make her happy.”
“Knowing your reputation, she’ll get in plenty of riding.”
Nash, who hadn’t blushed since his youth, felt heat on his face.
The lady cackled loudly causing everyone to turn.
“Aunt Mabel, you’ve met Lord Wessex.” Eliza handed the baby to Lady Rathbourne. The crowd all turned to look at him.
“Come here, gel, and give your Aunt Mabel a kiss and apologize for making me worry. It causes wrinkles.” The woman was wizened like a prune.
Eliza was grinning when she kissed Aunt Mabel on both cheeks. “I’m sorry for the worry I’ve caused you, Aunt Mabel.”
Aunt Mabel’s voice croaked. “None of that now. And you did a fine job of finding yourself a husband without me. We’ll have to devise a believable tale to present to society to explain Wessex’s immediate infatuation with you.”
“There is no need for a story. You do Miss Lyon an injustice. No man wouldn’t be infatuated after meeting her, my lady...” He paused since he still didn’t know her formal address.
“By that pretty speech, you may call me Aunt Mabel.” She poked him with her cane. “Now that you’re part of the family.”
Nash’s chest burned and skin heated with emotion. He had no family. He had been alone for so long. He looked up to catch Eliza’s gaze. Her eyes filled with tender love. He now had a family.
“And I’m to deliver the message that Lord Rathbourne and the men await you in the library to discuss the Crown’s business. They ride out soon to Margate.”
Pointing her cane to the entrance of the house, she said, “Eliza, take Wessex to the library by way of the morning room to say your goodbyes. I’ll herd everyone to the drawing room giving you time with this handsome rogue for whatever...”
And cheeky Aunt Mabel winked at Nash.
He now kissed Aunt Mabel on both cheeks in the same way. “Thank you, Aunt Mabel.”
And he took Eliza’s hand, wondering just how fast Aunt Mabel could organize a society wedding.
AS A SPECIAL GIFT, we now give you an excerpt of Jacki’s next release, A Holiday Code for Love
A Holiday Code for Love
The Code Breakers Series, Book 7
Jacki Delecki
Chapter 1
The Honorable Jack Bonnington gently steered his wife toward a narrow path in the woods. He had plans for a sensual detour before their meeting with Lord Cordelier Rathbourne, England’s Spymaster, who had summoned them for an urgent meeting.
Jack feared he might be sent away from his bride. He’d heard that things were amiss in Dover and Jack was most likely the candidate to assess the problem since he belonged to the Dover Battlement Committee charged with fortifying Dover in the event of an invasion of Napoleon’s troops stationed in Calais. He didn’t want to leave Abbie. Jack swallowed the acid taste of fear at the thought of losing Abbie. It was frightening how vital Abbie had become to him in the scant two months of their marriage. He had never before understood the power of obsession, never felt its ferocious pull until now.
“Jack, where are we going?” Abbie paused and looked up at him. Her bright eyes were the same color as her sky-blue pelisse.
Despite feasting on every luscious inch of Abbie this morning, he needed more. Alert to the meaning of his bride digging her heels into the damp path, Jack pulled Abbie into his arms. He knew how to change his stubborn wife’s mind.
He brushed his lips over hers before coaxing her to open his mouth. The taste of Abbie sent his nerves humming his favorite melody.
“Don’t you want to visit our “special place” this morning?” The forester’s hut deep into the woods had become Jack’s favorite place since that was where Abbie had innocently seduced him prior to their marriage. One of his Christmas presents to her was to rebuild the dilapidated, one-sided wooden hut into a secret hideaway for them from his rambunctious brothers and his father who lived with them.
He and Abbie had made great use of “their special place” during their summer treks between the Bonnington estate and Rathbourne estates in St. John’s Woods on the outskirts of London.
Never forgetting his terror when Abbie had been kidnapped, Jack daily escorted her to the Rathbourne estate. It was heavily guarded, but still... He wasn’t sure if he would ever again allow his wife to make the fifteen-minute walk with only Ford as her bodyguard. Her secret intelligence work put her at great risk.
“Jack, in case you haven’t noticed, its winter, and Lord Rathbourne is expecting us.” Abby said, interrupting his thoughts.
“Abbie, we have time.”
With the imminent arrival of relatives and friends for their Christmas house party, he would have to share Abbie with all the demands of the season before his likely departure for Dover—the rationale, as if he needed one—for this early winter morning rendezvous. He pulled her hard against him and kissed her desperately at the thought of not being able to protect from any threat while away. Their estates were heavily guarded but... The kiss heated instantly. Her tongue darted in and out to intertwine with his, deepening the sensations zooming through his body.
When Jack palmed her breasts through her pelisse, Abbie threw back her head in abandonment. The expanse of her pale tender neck was too tempting to resist. He raked his tongue up the soft column and swirled it across her sensitive earlobe, nipping it while fondling her breasts. Her nipples tightened through the heavy wool.
He tracked the patches of color moving across his wife’s cheeks and the little catches in her breath while he circled her tight nipples. His wife would soon be amenable to his plans. He longed for the summer months when he could pull Abbie’s gown down and taste. He hated her high-necked pelisse and dress obscuring her soft womanly flesh.
“Darling, let me take you to the hut. I want to make you happy again.”
Desire softened Abbie’s crystal blue eyes. “Jack, you’re incorrigible. You already made me happy this morning.”
Jack’s body hardened at the memory of her fingers digging into his shoulders as she screamed his name. “Oh wife, how soon you forget. I made you happy two times, but I like to make you ecstatic one more time. A round number three.”
With his hands underneath her pelisse, Jack reached to unbutton the back of Abbie’s dress.
“Three isn’t a round number.” He could easily distract Abbie, a mathematical genius, with any discussion of numbers even basic concepts. If he only could get her damn gown loosened.
“I can’t wait, Abbie. I need you now.” Jack pressed his hardness against her thigh, urgency tensing every muscle in his body, urging him to dive into Abbie’s sweet heat.
Abbie shuddered, sending a rush of warm breath against his. “I can’t, Jack. I must see Lord Kendal before our meeting with Lord Rathbourne. The new missive I’ve been translating has raised some interesting questions.”
“Kendal? Will Henrietta be there too?”
Abbie’s head jerked up. “Why in heavens are you asking if his sister will be there?”
“Because you shouldn’t be alone with a man.”
“Lord Kendal is your best friend, and is happily married, as you well know.” Abbie shook her head, her blond curls bouncing against the bandeau, causing Jack to itch to run his fingers through her silky hair.
“It could ruin your reputation.” Jack knew he was being ridiculous since Abbie had been working as a code breaker with Kendal for months, but that didn’t stop the irrational mix of fear and jealousy to have taken control, the heat of possessiveness whipping a frenzy in his gut.
Abbie stepped out of his embrace, her chin tilted in the air. “You worried about my reputation? Being alone with Lord Kendal is nothing. You should worry about the discovery of my work for the Intelligence office. If I were ever revealed as working for the government, I’d be ruined.”
Jack didn’t care about Abbie’s reputation. He feared for her safety.
“I’m very aware of your status as a spy and the danger it puts you in.” Jack was a hair-trigger away from demanding his wife stop her work. And how shallow of a man would he be to deprive his country of one of its best analytical brains... and deprive the woman he loved of the work that made her happy.
“It isn’t natural for a woman to be working so closely with a man.” His jealousy of his best friend, and the unfamiliar insecurity maddened him. He didn’t recognize the man he was becoming.
When he met Abbie, Jack had to abandon all his predetermined concepts that women weren’t capable of analytical reasoning. Abbie thrived on her work with Kendal and his sister, Henrietta, deciphering codes, and creating false codes to baffle the French. Her independent spirit and brilliant mind coupled with her unaffected warm nature had captivated him. He hadn’t been able to look away from Miss Abbie Lyon—to the extent he’d claimed her for his own.
“Jack Bonnington, I don’t like the implications of your statement that, as a woman, I can’t be trusted to work with a man without seducing him.” Abbie’s voice notched higher. “I believe that I’ve discovered a connection to the head of the French London spy ring. I need Lord Kendal to verify my conclusions.”
Jack leaned over his wife, trying to use his size to intimidate her.
“I trust you. It’s the men I don’t trust.” Jack kept up the irrational argument, despite being irritated with himself. How had this morning and his plans for carnal delight gone so badly? And why couldn’t he just shut up?
“Your logic is faulty.” Abbie punched her finger hard against his chest. As if her puny effort would have any effect. He lifted her hand and rained kisses on each of her fingers. Her stormy eyes filled with passion causing Jack to care about nothing except to revel in Abbie’s desire.
“What if Lord Rathbourne asked you to work with an attractive woman?”
“What?” Jack kissed Abbie’s palm enjoying her slight tremor as he rubbed her wrist against his rough morning stubble.
His “spy” assignment was to monitor the embezzling Lord Atwell. That a respected peer and head of the Dover Battlement Committee had been embezzling funds earmarked to pay for guns and cannons to defend against the French invasion still made Jack’s skin crawl. Atwell, under the threat of imprisonment for his treasonous acts, replaced Lieutenant Hyde, an English military engineer, who had been sending the strategic plans for protecting Dover to the French. Jack was now tasked to supervise the slimy Atwell in his forwarding of misinformation to the French—created by Abbie—on the plans for Dover’s defense.
Jack snorted. “My days are dealing with the disgusting, overweight and conceited Atwell. Not exactly dangerous work.”
“What are you doing is important. The plan to lull the French into believing Dover Castle is not receiving special reinforcements to thwart Napoleon’s invasion from the English Channel appears to be working according to the latest round of French messages we’ve intercepted.”
Jack was proud of his part in discovering a mole on the committee who had been conveying their building plans to the French. Now they were using Atwell as a mole so they could discover the rest of the French spy ring operating in England.
“Taking your premise that Lord Kendal or I won’t be able to control ourselves while working together, wouldn’t the same argument apply to you working with an attractive woman?”
Abbie could never stop in the middle of an argument—her logical brain wouldn’t allow it. She had to follow every thread to the correct deduction. And although Jack admired her abilities, he didn’t like her conclusion.
“Why would I want to seduce another woman when I have you in my bed?”
“Jack Bonnington, you’re trying to distract me.” Abbie stomped down the path. “And this is an important meeting.”
Jack followed close behind. “Your logic is faulty because you don’t understand the minds of men.”
Abbie threw her arms into the air. “I’m trying to understand. I know I lack your knowledge and experience of the opposite sex.”
He didn’t want Abbie to go down that wide and crooked path to Jack’s reputation as a rake.
“Ask any husband. Men don’t want their wives spending time with other men.” Jack appreciated how calm he sounded. “We’re territorial and jealous. Let’s ask Kendal if he’d like Gabby working with me every day.”
“Jack Bonnington, you are not going to embarrass me by asking Lord Kendal that. I can’t believe you would consider...” Abbie muttered under her breath “of all the idiotic...” as she marched down the path, away from Jack. “Not all husbands think like you do,” Abbie added over her shoulder. “Gabby spends time with her very handsome music teacher.”
Jack enjoyed the sway of his wife’s hips with her strident pace. Something else Abbie didn’t appreciate. Despite any situation, men didn’t stop admiring the form of their women. Wait. What had Abbie just said?
“You think Gabby’s music teacher is very handsome?”
Chapter 2
Regret washed over Jack as he tracked Abbie’s march down the long hallway for her meeting with Kendal. Being husband to an independent wife was not an easy task. He wished he had someone he could share this quandary of having a wife who was a spy. There was only Rathbourne...
Ladies of his acquaintance managed their households, dabbled in watercolors or studied music, but never courted danger. Not that he wished that life for Abbie. She’d be bored out of her brilliant mind.
The soldier/footman opened the door to Rathbourne’s study. Jack didn’t see himself discussing his personal life with his superior. As head of Intelligence, Rathbourne wasn’t the sort of chap who you would joke with or confide in.
Rathbourne sat behind his shiny mahogany desk, stacked with papers. Noting the dark circles under his superior’s eyes and the cup on his desk, it was clear that Rathbourne had worked through the night again. Kendal had shared that Rathbourne had been a fierce and relentless agent, saving many lives during the French mess when aristocrats lost their heads. Now, it seemed he never left his desk except to travel to London.
“Come in, Bonnington. Your wife is meeting with Kendal?” Rathbourne’s cool and inscrutable inspection was always the same.
Jack considered raising the difficultly that his next assignment would cause by separating him from Abbie. However, he never shirked his responsibilities and for the heroic man behind the desk, Jack would do whatever he was asked.
“I’m to understand your sister Amelia and Lord Brinsley’s Aunt Mabel are establishing Abbie’s place in society with her first Christmas house party.”
In the process of seating himself in his usual chair across from Rathbourne, Jack looked over at Rathbourne with surprise, knowing his superior wasn’t in the least interested in society or parties.
“They’ve already taken over the estate, creating total havoc. As if the estate weren’t chaotic enough with my brothers tumbling into disaster on a daily basis. Why I agreed to allow Amelia and Aunt Mabel to host a house party to support Abbie’s reputation is mind-boggling.” Actually, it wasn’t, Jack had to admit. He would do anything for Abbie.
“It was my idea.”
Jack stared at Rathbourne. The man did nothing without a purpose. “Why would you care about establishing Abbie in society?”
“To protect her cover, it is important to keep up her appearance as a happily married wife taking her place in society.”
“Abbie is a happily married woman.” Jack paused, recalling Abbie’s disappointment this morning with his ridiculous insinuations. It was hard for a man to concede that he behaved like a jackass. All the same, since meeting Abbie, Jack had been getting a lot of practice. And once this meeting was over, he’d apologize to Abbie again.
“I know how important Abbie’s work is...” Jack admired Abbie’s ability to decipher French codes, but her work had also almost gotten her killed. And what had she said earlier about finding a connection to the French spy ring? If she had found a connection, it could put her in more danger? Jack’s heart punched against his chest in aggressive jabs.
