Chelynne (29 page)

“What makes you so sure?”

“God’s blood, Chad! It’s plain the lass isn’t wily enough to go unattended to the ‘Change! You can’t make me believe you’re fool enough to suspect her of conspiring in something as dishonest as that! She simply isn’t experienced enough. She’s simple and candid and young...oh, so young. And I would have to be totally blind not to see that love you she does...and deeply.”

“She hasn’t seen seventeen summers, John. What would she know of love?”

“Ahhh,” John recalled with a smile. “I knew love in my seventeenth year that burned in my loins so strong I fairly lost my mind! A washwoman’s daughter, that—”

Chad laughed uproariously. “And even that was not the first love. Your reputation has preceded you.”

“No, but as good as the first.” He looked down at his lap and then turned serious eyes to Chad. “I knew a maid as young as Her Ladyship. She ached with love for a man she was denied. She could stay him no longer and took her to him, nurturing his seed and bringing it to life. Young and simple she was, but no one could doubt her love. I saw it there myself, lighting in her eyes. Of course she was round and clumsy when I first laid eyes on her. I’ve always regretted that I couldn’t behold her in all her radiance, when love first touched her, before she was swollen with babe.” He paused and then said meaningfully, “Never did you doubt the possibility that she could love...totally.”

Chad’s expression turned hard and impassive. Even after this long it was a memory he couldn’t bear easily. Many were the nights he tossed and turned and felt the burning ache in his throat. Tears stung his eyes and he turned his back on his friend. He couldn’t think again of what he had so briefly possessed and so quickly lost.

“So, you’ve had your troubles, friend. Well, that is the one, and probably the only, difference between us. I manage my problems and your problems manage you.”

Chad whirled around and faced John. “What would you know of it, John?”

John raised a brow. “Losing something one loves?” He shrugged. “You know everything of me, Chad. Do you honestly have to ask?”

“It’s a matter I will handle on my own and without your advice,” Chad returned angrily.

“That is a fact I have been aware of for a very long time. Your hate is a most awesome thing, my lord. I hope to God it isn’t your ruin.”

“You act as if hate is alien to you!”

John smiled. “Your point. You’ve turned me around appropriately. And as to business, it’s been grand, my lord. One day I’ll be glad to give you a warm bed. Maybe one as fine as this.” John stretched and rubbed his back with his good hand, muttering, “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to bear the luxury again.”

“Will that slow you up much?” Chad asked, indicating the injured arm.

“It’s nothing much.”

The quarrel was forgotten. John was the only person alive who could speak honestly to Chad and not pay for it. The friendship was so secure that neither had doubt of the other’s loyalty.

“We’ll find the means, John. I’ll do my part.”

“Did you see Bess?”

“Aye, that’s done. She’ll act as go-between and hire couriers when it’s necessary. How long will you be gone?”

“I have no idea,” he said wearily. “This first turn against the devil should be the easiest one, but I’ll accept your good wishes just the same.”

“Go with God. I’ll be waiting to hear.”

“Chad, go to your countess. I think she’s needing some comfort. She was really in trouble.”

“Aye, and not the first. I’m of the mind she needs her skirts thrown up and her backside warmed. The little minx. God, but she’s a package of mischief.”

“Your burdens are many, my lord,” John laughed.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Chad muttered as he started away.

“Guard your back,” John called after him. “And remember, Your Lordship. There’s no enemy more difficult to best than one so eager to submit.”

Chad walked the distance to his wife’s rooms. He opened the door without knocking and entered. There she sat, immersed to the shoulders in her tub, her women fluttering around the room.

Chelynne threw a look over her shoulder to take note of his entry and then, totally disregarding him, went back to her washing. She hoped she looked angry. She didn’t have to be very well known to him for that much to be obvious. She refused the slightest embarrassment at being put-upon during her bath and there was certainly no light greeting for her husband.

Chad smiled lazily and went to sit on the stool by the tub. “Good morning, madam,” he greeted her, splashing his fingers lightly in the water. “Did you sleep well?”

Hesitantly she looked at him. Smiling. That damned lopsided smile he used when he wished to intimidate her. “As well as you did, my lord.”

He gestured to Stella and waved her away with his hand. She hesitated, flushed, and under his determined stare, left the room. Tanya simply turned white and fled, still unable to give the slightest consideration to what intimacies might exist between man and wife.

Chad turned his attention back to Chelynne, and saw agitation showing vividly on her little face. “So, we have a guest.”

“We do. Have you seen him?”

“I have.”

It was bound for a staring contest, neither giving in to the other. He was chafed by her courage and she was more than irritated by his nonchalance. Finally she took up her cloth to lather. “Well, I do hope you’ve extended your gratitude. He did me a gallant service.”

“He dragged you out of the hands of thieves, I’m told. In the middle of the night on

Prior Street

.”

“It seems you have the story, my lord.”

Chad ground his teeth. “Would you mind telling me what the hell you were doing there?”

She looked up at him with open defiance in her eyes. “Have we reached a point in our marriage where we exchange secrets, my lord?”

“Chelynne, I’ve no desire to go around with you. Now what were you doing at the Gold Frog?”

She pursed her lips. “Why, it was business, my lord.”

“Business of what nature?”

She laughed insolently. “Oh, just small matters that trouble me. I’m afraid I must see them done before I can go about the business of enjoying my family.” She dipped low into the water to rinse her shoulders. She looked up at him innocently, noticing his anger was steadily building. She smiled sweetly. “Would you hand me my towel, my lord?”

Chad kept his seat, determined to browbeat her with that icy stare. She simply rose from the tub. “Very well, I’ll get it myself.”

Chad’s eyes widened in surprise. There she stood, not a foot from him, naked and in spellbinding beauty. Her ivory skin glistened with the moisture and her stance was relaxed. His eyes roved over the whole of her, over a shapely breast, down the smooth flat belly, his gaze gently caressing a delicately shaped thigh. She stepped from the tub and pulled her towel around her, shielding her nakedness from any further scrutiny. She seemed perfectly confident but the display was a rather shattering experience for both of them.

He cleared his throat. “I am responsible for you, madam. You are making matters most difficult for me with your reckless behavior. I don’t want to have to suffer any more discomfort from your antics. Is that clearly understood?”

A soft ripple of laughter came from behind him. He turned to see one shapely leg outstretched from the slit in her dressing gown as she pulled on her stocking. She tied the garter, crossed her legs, and leaned back on the bed. “Discomfort? Why, my lord, I am scarcely worth your discomfort. There is no duel for my honor and you have not been chastised for your lack of escort. Indeed, I carefully considered all your warnings and have violated nothing.”

“Chelynne, you’re pushing me—”

“Why, were you worried for my welfare, perhaps?” she asked with mocking smile and teasing tone.

“You could have been killed!” he boomed.

Her smile faded and she took on a serious expression. “But as you can see,” she said very softly, “I am quite well.”

“Madam, you must use better sense than you have. Was it simple curiosity that took you to the Gold Frog? What were your intentions?”

With honest dignity she spoke, not flinching or trembling at all. “I was curious, my lord. I was interested in your meeting. That is truly what it was.”

“It was business and I was gone by the time you had arrived. Now, are your curiosities stilled?”

She laughed a little and replied, “Oh yes, my lord. As much as they can be.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“I know you were with a woman, Chadwick. I waited for you after our guest was cared for and sleeping. I waited the night through in your room. Whatever business you had took a very long night. You are only now returning from it.”

“And so you have decided my circumstance.”

“Oh, why do you pretend with me? Why don’t you just tell me truly that you cannot be bothered with me? If you have another preference, why not just free yourself now and spare us both any more trouble?”

“Do you wish to leave?”

“I wish to know what part I am to play in your life! Am I to go on like this, acting out the part of a proper wife...void of escort? Am I to sit in blessed eternal exile while you amuse yourself with your whore? Well, my lord, what?”

“I have business, madam. When that business is stable, I can give consideration to coddling your whims. As to now, just keep yourself out of trouble or I shall be forced to take action.”

She flounced back down on the bed and took up her other stocking, drawing it on with haste, jerking and tugging at it. “Good,” she returned saucily. “I’m most eager to see you in action.”

“You pestilent little wench,” he said with a laugh. “You’re mighty full of yourself this morning. You lead me to think I should keep you under lock and key to save London from your antics.”

She tied the garter with a jerk, muttering, “Oh, go to hell.” Her head snapped up in surprise at her own wicked tongue and she stole a hasty look at Chad only to see him striding toward her with quick, even steps. He reached for her and she gave a gasp, trying to skitter away from him. His size, speed and strength were no match for hers. She was lifted off her feet and found herself lying across his lap. Her dressing gown was yanked up and her little rump bared. “No, no, I’m sorry! No, please!”

It was not heard. What was heard was the loud resounding thwack that came from his hand making contact with her flesh. She shrieked in pain. “If I have to beat the part of countess into you, you will learn,” he cried. Another loud smack and shriek sounded. “If you can’t use sense above a child’s, then you shall be treated like a child!” Another loud smack and shrill cry. He stopped momentarily and listened to her panting apologies and smiled. He released her, and she stumbled to her feet and hurried across the room.

From the opposite wall she faced him, a look of surprised anger on her face as she rubbed the feeling back into her abused posterior. “I warn you, my lord. My endurance has a limit and that limit draws near. I will not be used at this rate!”

“Very well, madam. I have no use for a woman without endurance and for a weak-willed one even less. Good day.”

He turned and left the room. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it, paused, and reflected with a smile. Then a crashing of glass against that portal startled him out of his complacency. But still he smiled broadly, shaking his head with amusement. Soft, low laughter came from somewhere down the long dark hall. Chad heard a couple of steps and then the hidden man came into sight. John Bollering smiled.

“I had no idea you were serious,” he teased.

Chad raised a hand and studied it. It was red and still throbbed from the blistering spanking he had just delivered. “I wasn’t.”

“It’s a piece of business should’ve been done last night.”

Another screech and the crashing of glass rended the silence. Both men shook with silent laughter. What hellfire she was.

“The countess is not happy,” John whispered.

“Nor am I,” Chad returned. He listened as the temper tantrum melted into sobs within his wife’s bedroom. “But I feel a damn sight better than I did.” He shook his head wearily. “I’ve come to think it’s easier to break a horse than temper such a spitfire.”

“Indeed?” John asked. “If you’re thinking to try to break her, you’re a bigger fool than I took you for.”

CHAPTER TEN

Filth in London was as constant as nature. The heavy rains that came in the late of the year ran with muck and slime into the gutters and streets, producing a stench that was almost more than the nose could bear. Those who were forced out pressed pomanders close to their faces to protect their senses from the insult. Those same ones emptied their slops from second-story windows with the rest of London.

There was one man in the city who walked briskly every day regardless of weather or smell. Charles Stuart was a man of great energy, thriving on little sleep, great amounts of exercise, and more ribald diversion than most human bodies could bear. Whether his fast pace was a necessity in avoiding petitioners, fleeing the nauseous odors or making haste to an appointment was always a mystery, but his courtiers hurried along to keep up while silently cursing their sovereign’s enthusiastic gait.