Lady Lissa's Liaison (28 page)

Lissa realized that this moment between the men had nothing to do with her really, and everything to do with the age-old animosity between Gabriel and Langford. She looked at Harry, caught up in Langford's arms, and knew the boy was afraid. And with good reason. Until now, Langford had never had total hold of him.

"Let him go," Lissa begged.

But Langford's crazed attention was centered solely on Gabriel now. "I've always hated you, Wylde. Even when we were at University together... I hated that your family name back then was more revered than my own, that the coffers you were destined to inherit were far deeper than the ones I would one day claim. I loathed that you could ride better, shoot better, and were more in demand with the ladies."

"Is that why you wooed Jenny?" Gabriel asked.

"Partly. Mostly, actually. I'd thought, at first, that her father was a very rich man. But then I learned of the man's sickness with gambling. The family was near ruin.
That
was the reason they were so eager to marry off their only child, the light of their eyes. And you, ever the gallant, were stupidly willing to erase their debts and marry their daughter."

Gabriel's jaw clenched. "Jenny was indeed the brightest spot in their lives."

"Yes, and you'd have married the lightskirt whether she was rich or penniless, true to you or not. You were ever the white knight where your precious Jenny was concerned."

"She was my close friend," Gabriel said. "My dearest friend."

"Ah, but she wasn't true to you, not in the end. With but a few pretty phrases and small gifts, I soon had her looking fully my way—and I
did
have my way with her, Wylde, many times. That first time with her, I was very surprised to find that you
hadn't
partaken of what she was so willing to give."

Gabriel looked as though he would like to snap Langford's neck in half with his bare hands. "She was in love with you, Langford. She thought you loved her as well and would marry her. She believed in your lies."

"Not so worldly was she, our Jenny? Though a man would have been hard-pressed to think otherwise when she was flirting with him..."

"Jenny was a lady, Langford," Gabriel said very lowly. "Never say otherwise. The very temperament that led her father every night to the gaming tables was the same that drew Jenny to men like you. I believe it was something she inherited from him, a restlessness she knew not how to control. Damn you for taking advantage of her one weakness."

"There you go again," sneered Langford, "ever charging to Jenny's rescue. I am amazed you would do so in front of yet another lady, one you have followed too closely these past many days." Langford nodded toward Lissa. "Is not the likeness amazing, Wylde? I thought the same when I first met her." Langford turned his attention to Lissa. "Forgive me, my lady. You must be totally confused by our conversation about a woman long dead."

"I am not confused at all," Lissa said. "In fact, a good many things are becoming quite clear to me."

"Do you know you could be Jenny's twin?" Langford asked. "You've her fair coloring, her eye color... even the way you smile is reminiscent of her."

"Is that why you sought my hand?" Lissa asked. "Because I reminded you of someone you treated most shabbily?"

"It was not
me
who left the lady alone at the altar, to cry in the face of all her guests," Langford said violently. " 'Twas Wylde who did the deed!"

"Only because Jenny asked that I extricate her from her promise of marriage with me," Gabriel said. "She came to me the night before what was to have been our wedding day. She told me she'd fallen in love with another man... and that she was carrying his seed. But she knew her parents wanted her to marry me, that she would break their hearts if they thought she'd turned her back on their desires for her and their chance to settle all their many debts.... So she asked me,
as her dearest friend,
to try and help extricate her from the web she'd created. I told her I would do what I must to see that her good name was not tarnished, would offer her a way out so that she could go to her lover and eventually marry him instead. I had no idea that
you
were that man, Langford. Not then."

"Ah, so you played the noble savior, leaving your love alone at the altar, and allowing Society to believe you were a beast of a man. How you must have rued that decision when Jenny's
loving
parents soon sent her away, to the north of England."

"Damn you, Langford, they sent her away because of what you caused to grow within her, and you know it! You know, too, that she wrote endless letters to you, begging for you to come and claim her and to be with her on the day that drew ever nearer. And when that day came, and her parents fostered out the very creation of her love for you, you
still
did not go to her. And so she cut her own wrists rather than live without you and the shame you thrust upon her. You've her blood on your hands, Langford, not me."

Lissa looked at Gabriel, her heart in her eyes. So
this
was the true tale behind all the rumors about him...
this
was how he'd earned the label of the Heartless Lord Wylde. No wonder he'd become a recluse, wanting nothing more to do with people who thought him a friend. And Harry...
Harry was the product of Jenny's love for Langford!
Harry was the child Jenny had borne and then her parents fostered out. Doubtless, Gabriel had gone in search of the infant, had found him, then brought him to live alongside the Dove.

Lissa felt a wave of strong, pure emotion wash over her. How very true and pure and good Gabriel was—and to think she'd doubted him at times. Never, ever would she doubt him again!

She whipped her attention to Langford. "Let the boy go," she said, her voice holding a warning tone. "Do it.
Now."

"Not just yet, I'm afraid. I need a safe exit back to my carriage. His presence will assure me of that."

"You are beneath contempt, Langford."

"And you, my lady, are a perfect fool for choosing Wylde and his brat over me. We could have had a beautiful future together. With your fortune and my energies, our life together could have been very sweet indeed."

"Do not think you will step one foot out of this lodge with my son," Gabriel said.

Harry cried out as Langford savagely yanked him upward in an even tighter hold.

"Move!"
Langford yelled to Gabriel. "Or else."

Gabriel moved to one side of the doorway, having no other choice. "I'll get you free, son," he promised as Langford moved past them.

Harry gulped, then smiled nervously.

Langford gripped the boy tighter. "Do not assume to overtake me, Wylde. If you do, I'll make the boy pay for your foolishness."

As Langford was talking, he was also moving to the doorway. Lissa saw Harry send her a wink over Langford's shoulder, trying to tell her with that small sign that he had not run out of ideas. As soon as Langford got to the doorway, Harry wriggled in the man's tight hold, managed to set himself sideways, then flung out both his arms and his legs to the side. His small hands grabbed hold of the door jamb on one side, his toes finding a sturdy latch at the other side. "Hook him, Papa!" Harry shouted.

Gabriel lifted his angling pole, then sent a perfect cast directly at the back of Langford's head. His huge hook—the very same he'd used to catch Lissa's trout the night before—sank into the skin at the back of Langford's head. Gabriel expertly lifted his angling rod, setting the hook deep.

Langford let out a howl, instinctively letting the boy go and reaching to snatch the offensive hook from his head.

Harry managed to right himself as he fell, landed on his rump, then scooted to his feet, dashing back, directly into Lissa's open arms.

"Oh, Harry," she cried, enfolding him in a warm hug.

"I'm okay, Lisha. Truly."

Gabriel, seeing his son safely with Lissa, wound in his line as he walked toward Langford. He pushed the man out of the lodge, not caring that a yelping Langford stumbled down onto the flagstones.

"Get it out!" Langford begged. "You've pierced my brain, I swear! I'll go to the constable about this, do you hear?"

"I hope you do," Gabriel growled. "In fact, I'll lead you there, with my line. How's that sound? Or perhaps I'll just make fish feed of you, dumping you into the Dove to be gone forever."

"Please," Langford wailed. He dropped to his knees beside the wildflowers outside the stoop, yanking at the offensive hook, but the more he tugged at it, the deeper it embedded itself in his skull. "
Take it out,
" he begged again, more pathetically this time.

"Can't," said Gabriel. "You'll need a surgeon to do the deed. That's the interesting thing about a fish hook, Langford. You have to push it in deeper before you can pull it out. They're troublesome things, these hooks are. And the one I stuck in you is mighty big; sturdy and well-made, too. My guess is it will have to be cut out."

Langford let out a long wail. "Damn you, Wylde!" he cried. "Can you have no pity on me? You've obviously won the lady's heart, and you've that baggage of a boy to boot. Just cut your line and let me go."

Gabriel walked around Langford, then knelt in front of him. "Only on a few conditions," he said, glaring into the man's face that was contorted with pain.

"Anything!" cried Langford, becoming a quivering mass.

"That you leave this shire and never show your face to me again."

"Yes! I'll do it now. This day. I swear it! Just let me go."

"I'm not finished yet, Langford. Should I ever hear of you pursuing another female for reasons other than love, God's truth I will hunt you down and make you pay for what you did to Jenny. I've blunt enough and the daring to do it, Langford, you know I do."

"Yes, yes, I know. I believe you. Just cut me free. I'll never return to Derbyshire. I swear it. And I—I am sorry about Jenny. I am. Whether you believe it or not, I never wanted her to do what she did."

"Save your breath, Langford. I don't want to hear you utter her name. And I never, ever want you anywhere near Lissa or my son again. Mark my words. The vows I make, I keep—and I vow now that you will rue the day should you ever attempt to harm my son or my future wife."

Langford swallowed convulsively, nodding, his eyes wide with fear. "I hear you. I believe you. Go. Go back inside with the lady and your boy, just please let me be."

Gabriel got to his feet. He drew out his pocket knife, cut the line with a final act, then pushed Langford away from him.

Langford scrambled to his feet, the hook still impaled in his head, and then he ran fast into the woods, heading for his carriage and a hasty flight away from the man he knew he could never best.

Wylde watched him go, then went inside the lodge.

Lissa was sitting on the bench of the worktable, Harry on her lap. She was talking quietly with the boy, soothing away any of the fears still within him.

"Is he gone?" she asked.

"For good," he answered. "I believe the two of us finally came to an understanding. He will never bother you or Harry again. In fact, I do believe he'll never dare to return to our shire."

Lissa glanced up at Gabriel.
"Our
shire?"

Gabriel nodded. "You heard me a right." Looking at her, he felt his heart turn over. "What a beautiful sight," he murmured, "to see my son in the arms of the woman I hope will soon become his mother and my wife."

Lissa caught her bottom lip between her teeth... and then she smiled, tears gathering in her eyes. "Do you mean that, Gabriel?"

"Aye," he said softly, sincerely. "With all my heart and soul."

Lissa visibly trembled, then glanced down at Harry. "What do you think of that idea, Harry? Would you like your papa and you and me to become a family?"

Harry straightened, then threw his arms about her neck. "Oh, yesh, Lisha!" he said, thoroughly slurring all of his
S
's.

Lissa laughed and hugged him in return. "Then I guess it shall be a pact between the three of us. But I must warn you, Harry—and Gabriel, you, too—that a pact made near the Dove lasts a lifetime. My father once told me so. Like the river, these pacts are strong and deep and ever flowing. Indeed, they are never ending."

Gabriel came around the bench, straddled the thing by throwing one leg over it, then settled down beside Lissa and his son, his thighs pressing against Lissa's body. " 'Tis the kind of pact I know best," he murmured, placing a kiss on her temple, then smoothing one hand over her hair that had been whipped about by her mad carriage ride and even madder dash to the lodge.

He then ran his hand along his son's cheek, smiling at the boy. "What's your opinion, Harry? Should we welcome Lissa into our family, move her things across the Dove—or mayhap move
our
things across the river?"

"I don't care what we move or where," said Harry. "I just want Lisha for my mama and for the three of us to be happy."

Gabriel laughed.

Lissa laughed, too.

Gabriel suddenly nuzzled his face against hers. "You had something to say to me, my sweet, some matter of import to discuss?"

"So you
did
come here to meet me," she said.

"Aye, that I did. I would walk to the ends of the world for you, Lissa, and beyond. Never doubt that."