Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) (26 page)

“Is it safe?” he asked in concern, but his face was dark with passion. “I don’t want to hurt you or the baby… .”

“If you don’t, you’ll hurt me worse,” she told him, and kissed him with such fire that her intention was clear.

Rising above her, Tanner straddled her and inch by heart-stopping inch, he slid into her. Her breath caught in her throat and she exhaled on a wave of blinding passion. Her body responded instinctively to the rhythm of his strokes. They moved in unison, their bodies glowing like twin torches in the dark of night, flaring and straining for the ecstasy. Diana sensed that Tanner held his passion back, probably because he didn’t want to hurt her or the baby. But Diana wanted all of him, and she pushed her body into his, writhing against him, communicating as no words could how much she wanted him. It was then he lost control and gave her all she craved, pushing them both beyond the earthly bonds to spiral and merge with the universe.

“I think I finally got it right,” Diana said later.

Tanner kissed her. “You’ve got it down to an art.”

“I owe you so much, Tanner, much more than I can ever say to you or repay. You’ve taught me passion… .”

“Shh, Diana.” He placed his fingers on her mouth. “Whatever I’ve done for you, I’ve done out of love. I want you to remember how much I love you.”

Diana shifted her weight and moved behind him. Her fingers gently traced the scars on his back. “You suffered the sting of the whip because of Kingsley’s lie about me. I’m surprised you forgave me at all, but you did forgive me, even after you thought I had told Kingsley and Harlan that you tried to rape me. You never mentioned the incident to me because you loved me and didn’t want to bring me pain. But I wish you had told me. I would have understood so many things.” Her lips touched each scar, tenderly kissing every inch.

“Oh, God, Diana!” Tanner pulled her to him, and tears streaked his face. “I never wanted you to know about that. Who told you?”

“Your mother. She hates me, and I can’t blame her. You suffered because of me.” Diana held onto him tightly, knowing that this man truly loved her. “Don’t cry,” she crooned to him as if he were a small child. “Everything’s all right.”

Tanner framed her face in the palms of both his hands. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life making amends to you. There are so many wasted years…”

“Time is never wasted where love exists,” she whispered. “Our love wasn’t destined to happen years ago, but now it is. Think of the time we spent in preparation for this very moment. No matter what we both suffered in the past, we’re free to love now, to touch and kiss. We belong to one another, always and forever.”

“Forever,” he said and kissed her forehead.

“And soon we’ll have a daughter. So you see, our love was predestined.”

Tanner didn’t stifle the grin that rose to his mouth. His hand tenderly massaged her abdomen. “You seem certain we’re having a girl. If so, I’d say from the look of things, she’s going to be a
big
girl. Maybe she’ll be able to lend a hand in the fields when she’s older.”

“Oh, Tanner, you’re impossible!” Diana pretended outrage. “All women look like this when they’re expecting. Don’t they?”

“No,” he said and drew her back down upon the pillows, and fondled the spot between her thighs. “Not all expectant women look like you. If they did, their husbands wouldn’t get any work done but would spend all their time in bed making love to their wives.”

“That seems like a very pleasant way to pass the time,” Diana said, growing breathless and shaking anew with desire.

“Oh, it is,” Tanner agreed and kissed her until she could no longer speak.

~ ~ ~

Annabelle lounged on Marisa’s bed in the Delaune home, radiantly flushed after just having made love to Samuel. In fact, if the truth were known, she barely paid any attention to Samuel, who now puffed on a cheroot. He could be anyone as far as Annabelle was concerned. After she’d finished with the man who bedded her and made certain she’d received her own gratification, she wanted only to sleep for a while. But apparently that wasn’t to be the case tonight.

“I think we should discuss something,” Samuel began, grinding the cheroot on a porcelain tray that rested on the bedside table.

“Can’t it wait?” she asked testily. “I’m so utterly drained.”

Samuel didn’t hide his smirk. “You are a lusty piece who requires quite a ride before you tire, and that’s what I love about you.” He stroked her rounded derriere. Despite her protest of tiredness, Annabelle responded instantly. Samuel, however, got out of bed and pulled on a dressing robe. “I think you should know my plans.”

“What plans, Samuel?” Annabelle resolutely sat up and arranged herself against the pillows, pulling the sheet about her. There would be no more play tonight.

“In case you haven’t realized it, we’ve lost this war. Yorktown’s fall nearly three weeks ago is more or less the end. I expect that soon we’ll be packing it up and sailing for England. God knows I’ll be glad to return.”

This news was a bit startling to Annabelle, who’d been a spy for a number of years and couldn’t imagine what it would be like when the British were permanently gone. But unlike Samuel, she had no real desire to return to England. She’d had an unhappy life there, filled with too many things she’d rather forget. “I fail to see how any of this shall affect me. Certainly I’ll miss you, but I have a life here.”

Samuel gave a huge guffaw. “With Tanner Sheridan, I presume. Well, think again, old girl. If Sheridan wanted you at all, you would have been in his bed tonight and all those other nights, but instead you come sneaking over here. When are you going to accept what’s offered you instead of always reaching for the unattainable? Or is the allure in trying to have something you know you can’t?”

Sometimes Samuel amazed her. Of all the men she’d ever known, he was the only one who seemed to know what drove her. And she had to admit that he was a good lover, but he wasn’t wealthy. Why was it that all of the men she could have cared about never had money? Why did she constantly make the same mistakes over and over? Either she thought she loved a man she couldn’t have or she got rid of one she could have had only to realize too late that she’d erred. Like with Tanner.

“Maybe I enjoy reaching for the moon,” Annabelle confessed. “It’s so much farther away than a brass ring.”

“But, Annabelle, the moon is impossible to reach, unless you can sprout wings or somehow wish yourself there.” Samuel came and sat beside her and took her hand. “I love you. For the first time in my womanizing existence, I’ve fallen in love. You haven’t a clue what that means, I can tell you don’t. Well, I’ll tell you that over the years I’ve been a faithless cad, a man who’d have pulled up the skirts of any woman and had my way with her. I had convinced myself that I was such a handsome piece of work that any woman would fall willingly under my spell with little effort on my part. With you, I’ve tried harder than I thought possible to make you love me. Annabelle, I want to marry you.”

“Oh, Samuel, please, I’m going to cry if you keep this up. I don’t want to marry you. You’re too poor. Tanner is my last hope at getting what I want out of life. I can make him want me again, I can do it.”

Samuel stared at her a long time, and Annabelle began to fidget. Finally he sighed and handed her her dress. “You better leave now. My driver will take you back to the Sheridans.”

“But … but I’m not ready to go yet.”

“I want you to leave.”

“Samuel…”

“Go, Annabelle.”

Stiffening her shoulders, Annabelle got up and started to dress. She’d have cried if she hadn’t been so annoyed by Samuel’s highhanded treatment of her. What had gotten into him? If he loved her as he said he did, he shouldn’t behave so callously toward her. “Will I see you before you leave Charlestown?” she asked, though she wasn’t certain why she cared if she did or not.

“I doubt it.”

“Good bye then, Samuel.”

Annabelle headed for the door without looking back, expecting him to call out to her and forget all of this silliness. They’d spend the night together and everything would be forgotten. However, she didn’t hear a word. Departing the house with as much dignity as she could muster, Annabelle stepped in a huff into the carriage that waited outside the house.

The driver started off, the dark night enveloping the interior. No carriage lantern had been lighted. Annabelle found this oversight most baffling since Samuel’s driver was quite efficient, but she didn’t dwell upon it. Instead, Samuel’s marriage proposal and his departure weighed heavily upon her.

Suddenly a creaking noise drew her out of her reverie. The hair on the back of her lovely neck stood on end, for now Annabelle sensed a presence in the carriage. It was a man. She knew it. She smelled him, as one grown long accustomed to the male scent. And as far as scents went, this man needed a good washing. The stench was odious. Yet she also knew he didn’t want her body; he wanted something else. She could tell because he didn’t grab for her.

“I know there’s someone here,” she slowly said. “What do you want? Who are you?”

“The question isn’t so much what I want but what you want, Annabelle Hastings,” came the disembodied voice.

“And just what might that be, sir?”

They passed under a street lamp at that instant and Annabelle saw the bearded man, instantly taking in his ragged attire and the feral gleam shining in his greenish-brown eyes. She shuddered in revulsion, but she’d dealt with worse in her time. “Tanner Sheridan, my dear,” he answered. “Do exactly what I say and he’ll be yours. All yours.”

By the time Annabelle had heard out the man and had returned home to sleep in the room across from Tanner and Diana’s, she didn’t find the man in the carriage to be so revolting.

18

Diana thought they made an odd threesome: Tanner, Annabelle, and herself whenever they took their meals. She knew that if she demanded that Annabelle leave, Tanner would send the woman packing, but Diana didn’t say a word about the beautiful woman’s presence in her home. In fact, Tanner was the one who finally brought up the subject the day after Diana’s arrival. “I’ll tell her to go,” he proclaimed. “I’m certain Annabelle can make other arrangements. Sure of it. Samuel Farnsworth admitted to me that he’s in love with her and wants to marry her.”

“Poor Captain Farnsworth.” Diana woefully shook her head but she was smiling. “Annabelle is welcome here, Tanner, for as long as she wants to stay. There’s no need to put her out on my account.”

Diana recalled Tanner’s stunned silence. She was a bit stunned herself for her liberal attitude. But now as she swallowed a sip of her wine and sweetly smiled at Annabelle, who was regaling Tanner with gossip about acquaintances they had once shared in common, Diana knew she’d done the right thing by not forcing the hussy to leave. Annabelle was up to something, she just knew it, but what she couldn’t discern. The woman had been more than friendly to her, given the odd circumstances. Diana believed Tanner when he told her nothing had happened between them since New York, though Annabelle constantly made sly references to the contrary. Annabelle must realize that Tanner wanted to be rid of her; most of the time he just tolerated her or was indifferent. And she treated Diana so sweetly, always casting a ready smile in her direction, that Diana knew Annabelle was false. But what was she up to? This is what Diana aimed to discover.

When Tanner reached for a cheroot after dinner, Annabelle was at his elbow, ready to light it for him. “My, Annabelle, you are accommodating,” Tanner noted. “But I could have done that myself.”

“Oh, posh, Tanner, I just wish to be useful. I am a guest here and don’t want to wear out my welcome.” Annabelle glanced at Diana, who sat at the opposite end of the dining table. “And, may I say, Mrs. Sheridan, that you’ve made me feel so at home. Thank you so much.”

“You’re quite welcome, Miss Hastings.” A becoming smile fringed Diana’s mouth. “May I call you Annabelle? And you can call me Diana.”

Annabelle clapped her hands in glee, almost like a child. “I should like that!”

Confusion, and a touch of suspicion, clouded Tanner’s eyes, yet he said nothing. After the meal had ended he went into his study and the ladies retired to the parlor, where Cammie placed a silver tea service and dutifully poured both women a cup of the warm brew before leaving.

“Cammie is a most dutiful servant,” Annabelle noted as she sipped her tea.

“Yes, she keeps an eye on everything around here. Nothing escapes her notice.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Annabelle, and to prove how nothing gets past her, just this evening she told me that she discovered you in our bedroom after Tanner and I left for church this morning. I’d appreciate knowing what you wanted there.”

“I was looking for an earbob I’ve misplaced, and I thought it might have been in there. I’m sorry if I’ve overstepped my bounds, Diana.”

“Please don’t enter our bedroom again, Annabelle,” Diana said, her voice dripping with honey. “But if you’d like, I’ll have Cammie search the room for you.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. It wasn’t there.”

“I doubt it ever was.”

Annabelle’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you insinuating that I’m lying?”

“Yes.”

“I’m quite insulted that you feel that way.” Holding her hands up to her cheeks, Annabelle looked quite hurt and embarrassed. “I’d never do anything to upset you.”

“Yes, you would, but I haven’t figured out what sort of game you’re playing.” Diana placed her tea cup on the sofa table and appraised Annabelle with such open scrutiny that Annabelle squirmed. “I’m not a fool, and I’m not as stupid as you think I am. Whatever you’re about, I’m on to you, Annabelle. And don’t think for a moment that I wish to be your friend. Most certainly you don’t want to be mine. You want my husband, but you won’t have him, no matter this strange game. I’ll make certain of that.”

Annabelle’s pale blue eyes turned icy. “Quite sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Not all of the time, but where Tanner’s concerned, I am. Don’t expect me to step aside and let you become mistress of my home and my husband’s heart. I won’t. Also, you can’t. Tanner loves me. You missed your chance with him a long time ago.”

“Ah, he told you about us.”

“He did, but your past relationship doesn’t bother me. The past is done.”

Annabelle licked her lips and smiled. “Sometimes the past is very much alive,” she announced cryptically.

“Not in this case,” Diana said. “Now, do we understand one another?”

“We do.”

“Very good. I believe I’ll retire for the night. I need rest, and I advise you to do the same, and please, no wandering into our room by mistake in search of lost earbobs.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Annabelle retorted, pasting a fake smile on her face. When Diana left the room she cursed under her breath and went to the sideboard where she liberally laced her tea with brandy. She liked the way it slid smoothly down her throat. Only the best for Tanner, she decided, in his liquor
and
his wife. And there was no doubt in Annabelle’s mind that Diana Sheridan was of the highest caliber, a lady in the truest sense — something Annabelle would never be. This was why she hated her.

Why did men want to marry ladies? They made such a big to do about women who were good in bed, something she was quite proficient at, but when they wed, they married ladies. And if the lady happened to be a tigress beneath the sheets, so much the better. Apparently Tanner had married the perfect combination of lady and tigress. And it was plain to Annabelle that Diana would bare her claws in defense of Tanner.

“It’s not going to be as simple or as easy as I thought,” she whispered as she sat on the chair by the window. But Annabelle should have expected that. Nothing was ever easy for her. Years of struggle had hardened her to life’s misfortunes, but she’d assumed that trapping Tanner would be child’s play. It wasn’t, and not only because of his wife. Tanner wasn’t interested, making the game all the more impossible.

If that wasn’t enough, she also had to deal with that despicable Kingsley Sheridan. She heaved a huge sigh and got up to make her way to the dining room, where she took her cloak from the wall peg. Luckily, no one was about. Annabelle went outside, braving the cold wind that streaked past her face. Nearing the outside kitchen, she suddenly halted when Cammie appeared, followed by the large black man named Ezra. Their delighted laughter faded when they spotted her.

“Miss Hastings, you’re going for a walk in this freezing weather?” Cammie asked, her face a puzzled mask.

“Er, yes, Cammie, I am. I adore the cold.” Annabelle hated it but she grinned as if she loved it. “I won’t be long. I need to walk off that delicious meal you prepared.”

“Maybe Ezra should follow after you. There’s no telling what could happen to a lady out walking after dark.”

There was something in the way Cammie said
lady
that caused Annabelle to grimace. The nosy servant obviously didn’t think she deserved such a fine title. “I’ll be all right; don’t either one of you worry.”

And with that Annabelle whisked away, leaving the property by the back gate. She waited on the sidewalk behind the carriage house until she was convinced that Cammie and Ezra had entered the townhouse. Then she reentered the yard and gingerly sneaked into the door that led to the vacant upstairs room in the carriage house.

It didn’t surprise her that Kingsley was waiting for her. She found him standing near the door, looking as bedraggled as ever. Immediately he grabbed her wrist.

“Well, hand over my jewels. It took you long enough to find them.”

“Unhand me, you simpleton,” Annabelle insisted. “I don’t have your precious jewels.”

Kingsley’s face fell in disappointment. “Why not? You’re not planning to rob me, are you? I won’t stand for any duplicity,” he blustered. “If so, you’ll never have Tanner—”

“Shut up! I never got the chance to search for them. That nosy Cammie appeared and shooed me out of the room. Now Diana’s suspicious and she’s determined to discover why I was in her bedroom.”

“Stupid bitch!” Kingsley began pacing the small, empty, and extremely cold room like a caged tiger. Annabelle wasn’t certain who was the bitch — her, Diana, or Cammie, and she didn’t ask. Something disturbed her about Kingsley. He wasn’t right in the head, but she had to use him as he was using her. Without his help, Tanner would never belong to her. But first she had to find the jewels.           

“I did the best I could,” she offered by way of a defense.

“Then your best wasn’t good enough.” Abruptly he ended his pacing and pressed his body quite close to hers. “Maybe you need some inducement to hurry along. It’s been a while since I bedded a woman, and it shouldn’t take much to please a whore like you, Annabelle, either to get her fanny moving beneath me or to retrieve my property. The choice is yours.”

Annabelle sucked in her breath, appalled at the notion of being bedded by Kingsley Sheridan. Granted, she’d pleasured many, many men in her time, but none of them were insane … or as mean as this man. And Kingsley was cruel, she could tell that. How had Diana Sheridan lived with this beast for years as his wife? Annabelle wouldn’t have suffered his kisses or his touch for a day, and certainly never a raised hand, but then again, Diana had been his wife and a lady, and women in Diana’s position weren’t free to choose. Annabelle couldn’t help thinking that maybe being a lady wasn’t all it was thought to be.

Kingsley did frighten her. There was a maniacal quality in his eyes, something menacing in his tone of voice, but she refused to show her fear to him. Kingsley Sheridan wouldn’t get that satisfaction from her!

“You’re a disgusting toad of a man,” she found herself saying, drawing herself to her full height, which was rather tall for a woman. “I can’t imagine anything more disgusting than bedding you.”

“Why, you whore…”

“Oh, do be quiet with your name calling. I can think of some rather choice ones for you.”

“Really Well, I can think of some choice ways to make you suffer.”

Annabelle was truly scared now. Alone with this demented man, anything could happen to her and no one would hear her screams. She realized that Kingsley was desperate to have his jewels, and she was desperate to find them, but not at the expense of her own safety. “Touch me and you’ve lost your opportunity of ever getting the jewels,” she reminded him. “And you should know that Captain Farnsworth will gladly track you down if I’m harmed. I’ve written him a letter, which I placed in safekeeping with a friend to give to him if anything should happen to me. And you’re the prime suspect.”

Her lie plainly worried him. Kingsley backed off and threw himself into a corner, huddling like a small boy. “Just bring them to me soon. I want to be gone from here. I want to go home and take my wife with me.”

“I guarantee that you will, but you promised delivery of Tanner to me if I help you. And you promised he wouldn’t be harmed.”

“Certainly, dear Annabelle.” Annabelle didn’t like the sound of that, but she hastily retreated from the small room and rushed back inside the house, nearly bumping into Tanner at the door.   “Cammie told me you left earlier,” he said. “Did you enjoy your walk?”

He looked so warm and comforting, so very handsome as he stood there, that Annabelle did something totally unexpected, even for her. Genuine tears rolled down her cheeks and she threw herself against Tanner’s chest.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You’re shaking.”

“I’m just cold,” she replied, but she knew her trembling was more than a winter’s chill.

~ ~ ~

Kingsley sat huddled against the cold and cursed Annabelle threefold. The stupid wench had failed. He had hoped that he’d be in possession of the jewels he’d stolen from Diana’s jewelry box, the same jewels he’d taken when he left Briarhaven — or, to be more accurate, when his father had run him off. But like everything that had happened to him during these last agonizing months, he wasn’t surprised by the delay.

Before joining the army, he’d come to the townhouse and hidden the jewels behind the fireplace in the master bedroom. He figured that the war would soon end and that he could retrieve them later and sell them. However, the war dragged interminably on. He had joined David Richmond’s regiment in expectation of proving himself a hero, knowing that word of his valor would trickle back to his father and his wife. They’d realize how horribly they’d treated him, and both of them would get on their knees and beg him to return home. He might, and then again he might not, that’s what he’d have told them. But Kingsley realized almost immediately that he wasn’t cut out to be a hero. Fighting, especially hand-to-hand combat, frightened him. Dreams of being run through by a bayonet filled his nights, and the thought of capture, spending time in an enemy prison camp, caused him to break out in a cold sweat.