A Dangerous Courtship (27 page)

Authors: Lindsay Randall

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General

BOOK: A Dangerous Courtship

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But Veronica wasn't listening to Sidney's empty reassurances. She had eyes only for Julian—so transformed, but wholly, uniquely his own true self.

How selfish she'd been, she realized. She'd been living in London, but had not even bothered to involve herself with the news of a flaming house on the nearby Hanover Square... fire that had taken Julian's family from him.

With a strangled gasp Veronica pulled away from Sidney and Lady Jersey, pushing her way through the throng to Julian.

"Oh, Julian,
my lord,"
she whispered, her heart in her eyes as she gazed up at him. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you not tell my your true identity... about the fire and—"

"Shh," he murmured, holding her back when she would have thrown herself into his arms, bowing to her politely instead. "Do not mar this moment, my lady." He lifted his head, nodding to a few people, smiling at some others.

The musicians struck a waltz.

Julian looked into Veronica's eyes. "Will you honor me with this dance?"

Her heart turned over. "You must know I... I would honor you with anything," she whispered, her body thrilling when he took her gloved hand in his and led her to middle of the dance floor, then fashioned one strong arm about her waist.

He swept her magnificently into the dance, smiling down at her, pulling her closer by slow degrees. "I have waited a long, long time to hold you like this, in such a grand ballroom."

Veronica blushed. "I-I had thought you to be nothing more than a lowly riverkeep... or worse." But she suddenly wrinkled her nose, hating that she'd said the words. "No, not that," she murmured. "I never, ever thought you to be lowly. You... you were always ever true, especially when you first met me."

He swept them in a perfect half circle, inclining his head slightly. "Even when I told you that you were my 'hope and need answered?' You were that, my lovely lady. You still are, and will remain so until the day I die, I pray."

"Oh, Julian," Veronica murmured. "I-I waited for you to send word to me this long afternoon and evening, but you did not I... I had feared something horrid happened. That you went to Rathbone—"

"I did not need to," he interrupted, smiling still even as she faltered over a step.

"No?" Veronica murmured.

"No. I've an eyewitness whom I led to the authorities—one able to implicate not only Lord Rathbone but also another man with the explosion at Eve House."

"Who?" she whispered, moving more comfortably into his embrace, loving the feel of his arm about her.

"A Mr. Bartholomew Swann."

Veronica stumbled. "Oh," she gasped. "Swann!
He
was Lily's secret. Heavens, but they are even now headed for Gretna Green! I-I had just been about to go after them when you appeared, and well, I-I've clearly lost my head."

"Say no more," Julian replied, dancing her to the side of the room, then taking her hand in his and leading her past the throng of people and out the front doors of the manse.

To Veronica's surprise, Shelton was there, with the Earl of Wrothram's Town carriage. He gave her a bow followed by a heartfelt grin. "My lady," he murmured, "glad I am to see you made amends with his lordship here."

Veronica glanced at Julian.
"He knew?"
she whispered.

"Only after I'd left you in the library and knew I should be going after Rathbone concerning my father's diamond." To Shelton, Julian said, as he lifted Veronica up and into the carriage, "Spring 'em, my man! We've a mission to accomplish! Head for the North Road."

"Aye," said Shelton, doing as he was asked. "But what type of mission, my lord?"

"Saving Lady Lily from being taken to Gretna Green."

"Oh," said Shelton, hunkering down and focusing on his task. "That be reason enough, my lord, to be sure!"

Veronica was thrust back against the squabs, Julian catching her. "Should I have insisted you stay at the Mountford's, my lady?" he asked.

"No. Never that, Julian, er,
my lord.
I would have followed you anyway."

He grinned. "The name is Julian,," he murmured, just before capturing her mouth with his.

"Aye, my lord Julian," Veronica said against his mouth that was now doing the most pleasurable things to hers. "I shall endeavor to remember that."

"See that you do," he growled.

Miles later, Shelton brought their carriage up alongside Swann's. He took his blunderbuss up from the floor, aiming it at the driver. "Pull it over, man, or you'll wish you had."

Swann's driver immediately relented.

Julian, body tight as a bow string as they'd come upon the man's conveyance, quickly jumped to the ground, then closed the distance and yanked open the door. "B'God, Swann, step out here and meet your unlucky fate head on!"

Bartholomew Swann, a quaking mass of limbs in the face of Julian's intensity, climbed down to the road. "It—it was but a lark, Eve. You must understand that!" he cried. "I-I'd met you in Africa, saw that diamond, and I-I wanted it as my own. I never intended for things to turn ugly. I swear! Just wanted to shake you up with a blast, divert your attention, then have my men go inside and get the thing. How I was to know so much could go so wrong?"

"Save your sorry excuses for the hanging judge," Julian muttered. And then, with all the force he could muster, Julian drew his fist back and sent it sailing into Swann's face.

The man crumpled to the road, out cold.

"Oh!"
Lady Lily cried, finally poking her head out the door.

Veronica watched as Julian looked up at her sister. "I-I am sorry, Lady Lily, Swann is... is not the man for you, I fear."

Lily surprised both Veronica and Julian by jumping down out of the carriage, stepping gingerly past Swann's body, and then saying, "How right you are, my good sir. What a
bother
he proved to be! And to think I'd thought to
elope
with him. Ronnie," she called, finally spying her sister, "you and Mr. Julian must never,
ever,
allow me to house such fantasies again. Do you hear?"

Veronica glanced at Julian, her heart in her eyes, and a smile upon her lips. "Agreed, Lily," she said to her beautiful sister. "You can rest assured Julian and I will never let something like this happen again. Now get in this carriage, dear sister of mine, and let us get back to Town."

"With pleasure," said Lily, sending Julian one of her bright, disarming smiles.

He grinned, then looked at Veronica. "Once you marry me, my darling, Lily will come live with us, yes? I'll see that she has the proper husband."

Veronica smiled back. "I shall trust her virtue to no one but you, my guard."

Julian laughed, and then, turning serious, dragged Swann upright by the collar. "As for
you,
it is straight to the authorities."

* * *

Veronica stood nervously amid the foggy gardens of Wrothram House. Her time on the road with Julian, Lily, and Swann had taken place hours ago. After that, Shelton had deposited her and Lily back at the house. Then he had driven off with Julian and Swann.

What was taking so long? she wondered for the hundredth time. Shelton had returned an hour ago, telling her Julian would meet her in the gardens. That was it. That was all.

She paced a few steps, on edge, then turned and paced back the way she'd come.

From inside the house she heard the sounds of Simms greeting her tyrant of a father. The earl had returned home.

Veronica closed her eyes, terrified of what her father would do once he'd learned she'd not only gone to Yorkshire and returned home with a bedraggled guard, but had gone with Lily to a soiree from which Lily had been abducted and taken north to Gretna Green—and by a man who'd had a hand in murdering a family, no less!

Veronica opened her eyes, trembling in the cool, late-night air of the garden. She heard a sound, turned, and then saw Julian come into view by the back way, from the mews.

"My lord," she murmured.

"Julian," he corrected her.

"H-how did it go?" she asked.

He gazed at her deeply, drinking in the sight of her. "Unpleasantly, of course. Swann and his cohorts will be tried. As for Rathbone..." He shrugged. "I cannot say. The man has more than a few powerful men in his pocket. My guess is he will walk clean and free of anything."

"Oh, Julian," she murmured. "I-I am so sorry. About your family... your loss of hearing... and the many months you were forced to live at Fountains, alone, with no one to turn to."

"I am feeling better now, Veronica." He moved forward, closing the distance between them, then capturing her in a tight, heated embrace. "I am better because of you, my sweet. You taught me how to love again, and you showed me that there is a life for me yet to be lived."

Veronica tipped her face up to his. "I... I taught you all of that?"

"Aye," he murmured.

"Odd," she whispered, pressing her face against his shirtfront, her fingers curling into the fabric of his coat. "I-I'd never known love until I met you, Julian. You presented yourself as some dangerous stranger, courting me, plaguing me... and all along you were exactly what I'd needed."

"And what was that, Veronica?"

"A man to love until my dying day and beyond." She glanced up at him. "I
do
love you, Julian. I loved you when I thought you were some nefarious miscreant, and later I loved you as my guard."

He held her tightly. "I'm glad," he murmured. He kissed the top of her head, then tipped her face up and kissed her fully on the mouth, his lips slanting over her own, claiming her for all time. "Marry me," he murmured against her mouth. "Marry me and be my countess, the mother of our children, the warm, sweet body in my bed every night and every morning. Oh, Veronica, my sweet, say you'll be mine for all time...."

"Yes,"
she whispered.
"Forever yours. Always."

Veronica's knees weakened beneath his delicious onslaught of kisses, her mouth opening fully. She clung to him, holding tight, knowing, no matter what, they would always be together.

Simms banged open the doors leading to the garden, announcing loudly that her father was now in residence and wished an audience with his daughters.

Veronica stiffened, and then, when Julian deepened another kiss, she sighed, deciding at that moment Simms could go to the devil, and she kissed her husband-to-be, not even terrified by her father's arrival.

"My lady,"
the butler called in imperious tones.

"Later, Simms," Julian growled, turning Veronica about and pressing her deeper into the shadows of the foggy garden.

Veronica smiled against Julian's mouth, knowing he would protect her... would
always
protect her, and would always be true.

"My father will be furious, my lord," she murmured.

"You are to call me Julian," he reminded her, pulling her even closer, "and you are to let me deal with this father of yours. Need I remind you I am the seventh Earl of Eve?" he murmured, pausing to produce from one pocket the Eve Diamond. He pressed it against Veronica's throat. "I shall fasten a chain of the finest links for you to wear this about your neck."

"No. Julian. It—it was a gift for your father."

He brushed away her worries. "And my father shall look down from his place in heaven and see that my beautiful wife wears it now. He will be pleased. And we shall pass this diamond along to our firstborn... and he—or she—will carry with them our love as well as the love of my father, mother, and dear sister. It will be so, Veronica. Say it will."

Veronica nodded, her heart overflowing. "It will, Julian.
It will be just as you say."

And she knew that what she said was the truth. At long last, Veronica had found true love.

The End