Once and Always (15 page)

“She’ll have the weight of your influence behind her too, and that is considerable,” Collingwood pointed out.

“Not,” Jason disagreed dryly, “when it conies to trying to establish a young woman’s reputation as a virtuous innocent.”

“True.” Robert chuckled.

“In any event, Victoria has met only the Kirby women as samples of the English aristocracy. I thought your wife might give her a better impression. In fact, I suggested she view Caroline as a good example of acceptable manners and behavior—”

Robert Collingwood threw back his head and burst out laughing. “Did you indeed? Then you’d better hope Lady Victoria doesn’t follow your advice. Caroline’s manners are exquisite—exquisite enough to fool even you, I gather, into believing she’s a model of propriety—but I’m constantly bailing her out of scrapes. I’ve never known a more willful young woman in my life,” he finished, but his words were threaded with tenderness.

“In that case, Victoria and Caroline should get on famously,” Jason said dryly.

“You’re taking quite an interest in her,” Robert said, eyeing him closely.

“Only as a reluctant guardian.”

Outside the study door, Victoria straightened the skirts of her apple green muslin gown, knocked softly and then went in. Jason was seated behind his desk in a high-backed, leather-upholstered chair, talking to a man in his early thirties. When they saw her, both men stopped talking and arose in precise, if accidental, unison—a simple movement that seemed to emphasize the similarities between them. Like Jason, the earl was tall and handsome and athletically built, but his hair was sandy and his eyes were a warm brown. He had that same aura of calm authority Jason had, but he was less frightening. Humor lurked in his eyes and his smile was friendly rather than sardonic. Still, he did not look like a man one would wish to have as an enemy.

“Forgive me for staring,” Victoria said softly when Jason had finished making the introductions. “But when I first saw you standing together, I thought I saw a similarity between you.”

“I’m certain you meant that as a compliment, my lady,” Robert Collingwood said, grinning.

“No,” Jason joked, “she didn’t.”

Victoria thought frantically for some suitable reply and could find none, but she was spared further embarrassment by the earl, who shot an indignant look at Jason and said, “What possible answer can Miss Seaton make to that?”

Victoria didn’t hear Jason’s reply because her attention was diverted by another occupant of the room—an adorable little boy of about three who was standing beside the earl, staring at her in mute fascination, a forgotten sailboat clutched in his sturdy arms. With his curly, sandy hair and brown eyes, he was a miniature replica of his father, right down to the identical tan riding breeches, brown leather boots, and tan jacket he was wearing. Utterly captivated, Victoria smiled at him. “I don’t believe anyone has introduced us ...” she hinted.

“Forgive me,” the earl said with smiling gravity. “Lady Victoria, permit me to make known to you my son, John.”

The little boy put his boat down on the chair behind him and executed a solemn, adorable bow. Victoria responded by sinking into a deep curtsy, which startled a childish giggle from him. Then he pointed a chubby finger at her hair and glanced at his father. “Red?” he uttered with childish delight.

“Yes,” Robert agreed.

The child beamed. “Pretty,” he whispered, which wrung a laugh from his father.

“John, you are entirely too young to try your hand at charming the ladies,” said Collingwood.

“Oh, but I’m not a lady,” Victoria said, her heart going out to the enchanting little boy. Jauntily she told him, “
I
am a sailor!” He looked so dubious that Victoria added, “Oh, but I am—and a prodigiously good one, too. My Mend Andrew and I used to build boats and sail them all the time with the rest of the children—although our boats weren’t nearly as grand as yours. Shall we take yours down to the creek?”

He nodded and Victoria looked to his father for permission. “I’ll take excellent care of him,” she promised. “And the ship, of course.”

When the earl consented, John put his hand in Victoria’s and they trooped out of the study.

“She obviously likes children,” Robert observed as the two adventurers left.

“She’s scarcely more than a child herself,” Jason said dismissively.

The earl turned his head and glanced at the alluring young woman walking through the foyer. Returning his gaze to Jason’s, he lifted his brows in amused contradiction, but he said nothing.

Victoria spent the better part of an hour sitting on a blanket on the bank of the creek that carved a picturesque path through the sweeping front lawns. Sun bathed her face and warmed her limbs as she sat beside John inventing stories about pirates and storms that supposedly plagued her ship during the crossing from America. John listened, enraptured, clutching the long length of fishing line Victoria had got from Northrup and attached to the ship. When he grew bored with the tame sailing afforded his small vessel here in the shallows, she took the line from him and they walked along, Victoria guiding the vessel downstream to where the creek became very deep and raced beneath a wide, graceful stone bridge, its waters churned by a fallen tree. “Here,” she said, handing him the fishing line again. “Don’t let go, or we’ll run aground on that snarled tree down there.”

“I won’t,” he promised, smiling as his three-masted ship bobbed and dipped in the swirling water.

Victoria wandered down the steep bank and was happily gathering a bouquet of the pink, blue, and white wild flowers that carpeted the incline when John shrieked and went bounding awkwardly after the line that had obviously pulled free of his grasp. “Stay there!” she called urgently, and ran to him.

Trying manfully not to cry, he pointed to the little ship, which was now gliding straight into the limbs of the fallen tree beneath the bridge. “It’s gone,” he whispered chokily as two tears welled in his brown eyes. “Uncle George made it for me. He’ll be sad.”

Victoria bit her lip, hesitating. Although the water was obviously deep and running fast here, she and Andrew had both rescued their own ships from the far more perilous river where they had always sailed them. She raised her head and scanned the steep bank, making certain they were downhill, well out of sight of the house and everyone in it; then she made her decision.

“It’s not gone, it’s just run aground on a reef,” she said lightly, hugging him. “I’ll get it.” She was already stripping off her sandals, stockings, and the new green muslin gown Jason had provided for her. “Sit here,” she said, “and I’ll get it.”

Clad only in her chemise and light petticoat, Victoria waded into the creek until the bottom fell away beneath her feet, then struck out with long, expert strokes for the far end of the tree. Beneath the bridge the water was icy and deep as it tumbled and churned around the branches, but she had no trouble locating the little craft. She had considerable trouble, however, freeing the strong fishing line from the branches. She dove under twice, to the delighted glee of little John, who had apparently never seen anyone swim or dive before. Despite the cold water and her sodden petticoats, the swim was invigorating, and Victoria reveled in the freedom of it. “I’ll get the ship loose this time,” she called to John, waving. Watching to make certain the child wasn’t going to try to come in after her, she yelled, “Stay right there, I don’t need any help.”

He nodded obediently and Victoria dove under, tracing the line with her cold fingers beneath the tree, feeling for the place where it had wrapped itself around a submerged limb, working her way toward the opposite end.

“Northrup said he saw them walking toward the bridge about—” Jason stopped abruptly as the word “help” drifted to them.

Both men broke into a run, racing at an angle across the lawn toward the distant bridge. Sliding and skidding, they scrambled down the steep, flower-covered bank toward John. Robert Collingwood caught his son by the shoulders, his voice rough with alarm. “Where is she?”

“Under the bridge,” the little boy replied, grinning. “Under the tree, getting Uncle George’s boat for me.”

“Oh, Christ! That little fool—” Jason gasped, already stripping off his jacket and running toward the water. Suddenly a laughing, red-haired mermaid broke the surface in a high, showy arc. “I have it, John!” she called, her streaming hair covering her eyes.

“Good!” yelled John, clapping.

Jason skidded to a stop, his mindless terror giving way to black fury as he watched her blithely swimming toward the bank with long, graceful strokes, the little sailboat trailing far behind in her wake. With his booted feet planted wide apart and a thunderous expression on his face, he waited impatiently for his prey to swim into reach.

Robert Collingwood sent a sympathetic look at his furious friend and took his son’s hand. “Come with me to the house, John,” he ordered firmly. “I believe Lord Fielding has something he wishes to say to Miss Victoria.”

“Thank you?” the little boy predicted.

“No,” he said wryly. “Not ‘thank you.’ ”

Victoria waded backward out of the water, reeling in the little boat as she walked, talking to an absent John. “See, I told you I could rescue the—” Her back collided with an immovable object at the same instant that hands like vices clamped on her arms and spun her around, snapping her head back.

“You little fool!” Jason snarled furiously. “You stupid little fool, you could have drowned!”

“No—no, I wasn’t in any danger,” Victoria gasped, frightened by the enraged glitter in his green eyes. “I’m an excellent swimmer, you see, and—”

“So is the groom who nearly drowned there last year!” he said in a terrible voice.

“Well, breaking my arms isn’t going to help,” she said, but her futile efforts to free herself only made his grip tighten painfully. Victoria’s chest rose and fell in agitation, but she tried desperately to appeal to his reason. “I know I’ve frightened you, and I’m sorry, but I wasn’t in any danger. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong? And you aren’t in any danger?” he repeated ominously, his eyes dropping to her bosom as it heaved with her fearful breaths. Victoria suddenly realized she was dripping wet and scantily clad, soaking his shirt where her breasts touched him. “Suppose someone other than me were standing on this bank watching you—what do you think would happen?”

Victoria swallowed and wet her lips, remembering the time she had strolled into the house long after dark, and discovered that her father had organized a search party to comb the woods for her. First he had reacted with joy. Afterward, she had not been able to sit down with comfort for two days. “I—I don’t know what would happen,” she answered him, trying to brazen it out. “I suppose whoever it was would hand me my clothes and—”

Jason’s gaze dropped to her moistened lips, then slid lower, following the line of her throat down to the tantalizing mounds of flesh exposed to his view above her clinging wet chemise. With her head thrown back, they quivered and thrust forward invitingly, emphasizing the undeniable fact that she was an alluring woman and not the child he had tried to convince himself she was. “This is what would happen!” he snapped suddenly, and his mouth crushed hers in a fierce, brutal kiss that was meant to punish and humiliate her.

Victoria squirmed silently against him, trying to break his hold and to drag her mouth away from the fierce possession of his lips. Her struggle only seemed to make him angrier, and the kiss more painful. “Please,” she gasped tearfully against his mouth. “I’m sorry I frightened you—”

Slowly his hands loosened their grip, and then he lifted his head and stared down into her frightened eyes. Automatically, Victoria crossed her arms over her breasts, her hair spilling over her shoulders like a sheet of wet rubies overlaid with a sheen of gold, her sapphire eyes wide with fear and contrition. “Please,” she whispered, her voice shaking with both emotions as she tried to maintain the truce that had existed between them for almost five days. “Don’t be angry. I’m sorry I frightened you. I’ve been swimming since I was a child, but I shouldn’t have done it today, I know that now.”

Her straightforward, ungrudging admission caught Jason completely off guard. Every feminine ploy in existence had been used on him since he’d made his fortune and gained his title, but without success; Victoria’s candor, combined with her beautiful, upturned face and the sensation of her alluring body pressing against him, acted on him like a powerful aphrodisiac. Desire surged through him, heating his blood, sending it singing through his veins, forcing his hands to pull her closer.

Victoria saw something primitive and terrifying flare in his eyes as his hands tightened on her arms. She jerked back, a scream rising in her throat, but his lips covered hers, stifling her voice with a demanding insistence that stunned her into immobility. Like an alarmed rabbit captured in a painless trap, she struggled until she felt his hands stroke soothingly up and down her spine and shoulders, while his lips moved on hers with inflaming expertise.

Dizzily, she slid her hands up his chest, trying to cling for support to the very object that was destroying her balance. This innocent action triggered an instant reaction from Jason. His arms tightened around her and he deepened the kiss, his lips moving on hers with hungry ardor, insistently shaping and fitting her lips to his own. Lost in a haze of nameless yearnings, Victoria leaned up on her toes, responding to the forceful pressure of his arms. He groaned as she molded her body against his, and his parted lips crushed hers, sliding insistently back and forth, urging hers to part; the moment they did, his tongue slid between them, plunging into the soft recesses of her mouth.

Victoria tore her mouth free, horrified by what he was doing, and pushed against him with all her strength. “Don’t!” she cried.

He let her go so abruptly that she staggered back a step; then he drew a long, audible breath, holding it for an abnormally long time. Tearing her hostile gaze from Jason’s chest, she glared at him, fully expecting him to lay the blame for this entirely unseemly kiss at her door. “I suppose this was my fault, too,” she said angrily. “No doubt you’ll say I was asking for such treatment!” His mobile mouth twisted into a grim smile and Victoria had the fleeting impression that he was struggling for composure.