That Perfect Someone (26 page)

Chapter Forty-three

J
ULIA MUST HAVE YAWNED
three times on the way back upstairs. She didn’t really know how she was going to manage this, fighting sleep, fighting her attraction to Richard—weren’t the two incompatible? She sighed in frustration and tried to think of another way to convince the earl they were sharing a bed, without actually doing so, but as tired as she was, she couldn’t think clearly, or she wouldn’t be walking down the corridor to Richard’s room again.

At his door he paused and nodded behind him toward the earl’s door. “While I’d wager that the contract is in the study, the joke would be on us if father has set guards there just to make us
think
it’s there.”

She had to disagree. “While that could have occurred to him, I highly doubt he’d bother.”

“When I could knock out a guard, take what we’re after, and be gone? I have a feeling that Olaf was on his way up here to guard my father’s room. And he’d be more difficult to knock out than one of the footman. This is the perfect opportunity to search his room just to be sure. Charles said he only goes out like this a few times a week, so he isn’t likely to be out of the house again while we’re here.”

Unless they were still there next week, Julia thought with dread. “By all means, check it now.”

He did, but then said, “Locked.”

Before she could express her frustration, he grinned at her and fiddled with the lock for a moment. Then he grabbed the lamp on the hallway table and swung the door open. Julia went straight to the window on the side wall and opened it so she could listen for the coach. She wasn’t about to let Milton catch them in his room because they had no warning of his return until he was walking down the hall.

She kept glancing behind her to keep track of Richard’s progress as he picked open the locked drawers on Milton’s bureau. The tools he was using worked nearly as fast as a key! She would have to thank James Malory when this was over. When Richard and the lamp moved into the wardrobe, she knew he was almost done, with only the secret closet still to be unlocked.

She was starting to close the window when she heard Richard say in surprise, “Son of a bitch.”

He’d found it?! She rushed into the clothes room and over to the open door inside it, then halted in her tracks.

“Oh, my” was all she could think to say and even said it again. “Oh, my.”

The long, narrow room was lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves. Cluttering every shelf were vases and urns in all shapes and sizes, some quite odd-looking, but most of them beautiful.

“These aren’t ordinary pieces you’d use to decorate your house,” she said in awe. “The smaller ones appear to be made of real gemstones, not colored glass. And look at this one.” She picked up one that was nearly the size of her hand. “As I thought, this has the weight of pure gold, not painted metal.”

“I don’t understand it. He lets his debts pile up while he keeps this fortune locked away up here?”

Julia didn’t understand it either. “Well, they’re probably locked away because they’re so valuable. Every one of these can actually be considered a work of art. I would have said they must be family heirlooms—”

“That he never shared with the family?”

“I recognize this one,” Julia said, inspecting the gold vase more closely. “I almost bought it myself. It was in one of the more expensive import shops on Bond Street. But I’m not so frivolous to waste thousands of pounds on a vase just because it’s supposedly one of a kind and thus considered priceless. That’s something my mother would have done. So while some of these could be heirlooms your ancestors acquired over the years, not all of them are.”

Richard had been looking inside every vase to make sure nothing was hidden inside them. Finished, he handed her the lamp and pushed her out of the room so he could relock it. In quick order, he got them safely back to his own room.

Tossing the packet of tools into his traveling chest, he mused, “No matter the why or how of it, he’s still got a fortune in there, yet he’s been obsessed with
your
fortune? It makes no sense.”

“Your father isn’t an ordinary man by any means. Nothing he does makes sense. Consider his horrid treatment of his own sons? And him holding on to a hope for nine bloody years that you’d come happily home to do your duty? And his ‘grandfather’ persona, which is everything you could hope for in a grandpapa? But at least when we leave here, I’m not going to feel guilty now about pulling the work crews out before they’re done, not with all the wealth he possesses in that collection of vases and urns. I’ve become rather fond of your nephew already, so I was starting to feel bad about leaving him here in this rotting old place.”

Richard chuckled at her. “It’s not rotting. The foundation is solid. Can’t deny it doesn’t need a lot of work, though, but children don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. And Charles has his own money, so you needn’t worry that Mathew will ever lack for anything.”

“That does relieve my mind, thank you.”

He came over to her and pushed her toward the bed. Her heart skipped a beat, until he said, “You might as well take a nap, as tired as you are. I’ll wake you when Father’s coach pulls up. Oh, and, Jewels, might as well get comfy, too. If for some odd reason he doesn’t come home tonight, I’ll let you sleep the night through.”

“I can’t reach my buttons,” she said with a yawn.

“Was that an invitation?”

“What?”

He chuckled. “Never mind, you’re nearly asleep on your feet, aren’t you? Let me help you.”

She knew she should be paying attention. He was undressing her. She didn’t want to miss that or what might happen afterward. But she’d expended her last bit of energy on her nervousness in the earl’s room, and she had none left now. She even started to nod off once, Richard was so gentle in removing her dress, her shoes and stockings, and pulling the blanket over her scanty underclothes when he was done.

Then she felt the kiss on her brow and heard him whisper, “Sweet dreams, love.”

How’d he know she was going to dream about him?

Chapter Forty-four

H
E’S HOME. D’YOU NEED
help waking up?”

Julia didn’t remember falling asleep, remembered nothing after her head touched the pillow. But her eyes opened now as she felt Richard’s warm breath on her cheek, her neck. His lips were even warmer. He was kissing her awake. She wasn’t going to answer him to let him know it had worked. Her belly was already fluttering with excitement. She wasn’t experiencing any frustration now, no indeed. But she soon had to revise that thought when she realized he was
only
trying to wake her.

The moment he sensed her awareness he said, “We should bounce the bed. With no carpet on the floor, it will make quite a racket.”

Imagining that, she couldn’t help laughing. “That implies quite a bit of exertion. I happen to know you have more finesse than that.”

“Do you?” he said, his voice turning husky.

She realized she must have provoked some carnal thoughts in him with that compliment because his mouth moved over hers and he was kissing her deeply now. But they were too quiet, only emitting a soft groan, a labored breath now and then. This wasn’t for his father’s benefit at all, she realized. This was him wanting her, and that brought forth her own passions with quick abandon.

So easily, she forgot why they were doing this. She wrapped her arms around him, enjoying the feel of his warm skin under her hands. He’d removed his shirt in preparation for the morning demonstration for the maid again, but she didn’t care why. She loved the feel of his body, the wide stretch of his chest, muscles rippling under her fingertips. In the past, she’d always hated his strength, even held it against him, but she laughed at herself for those childish notions when she was so thrilled now by his big, muscular body.

He leaned over her, his tongue delving for another deep kiss as he slipped a hand beneath the loose top of her chemise, pulling it down low enough to expose both of her breasts. He cupped one in his large hand, then the other. When he tore his mouth away from hers to capture one of those breasts in it with such scalding heat, she arched forward, her head thrown back.

His arms slipped under her back, holding her in that position for a few tantalizing minutes before his mouth moved up to her neck, then her ear, causing gooseflesh to spread over her shoulders. Little nibbles followed, spreading the exciting sensations further. Shiver after shiver joined in, while his mouth traveled down her arm, his tongue licking at her pulse points, then he actually took one of her fingers into his mouth and sucked on it. It was so oddly erotic, her breath caught.

With a last kiss to the center of her palm, he leaned over her again, pressing his chest against her breasts, kissing her deeply as he slipped his hand under her drawers to raise her temperature even higher. It worked, too well!

Too many clothes were still in the way! She knew he could change that quickly enough, so she tried to control her impatience, but it was almost impossible. God, she wanted him so much, deep inside her, taking her to those magical heights of pleasure again.

But he came to his senses! God, not again! Yet he dropped his forehead to her chest and groaned, “This better work this time, because there’s no way in hell I can do this again and
not
make love to you.”

She started to tell him that she felt the same way, that he didn’t need to restrain himself, when the door burst open. They’d been so involved with each other they hadn’t heard the earl coming down the corridor. He walked into Richard’s bedroom with three men crowding in behind him, two of them holding lamps high so the entire room was lit. Startled, Julia had leaned up, and now she froze in shock, all color draining from her face.

Richard shot out of bed instantly, tossed the covers up over her half-naked body, then stood there furiously, facing his father. Richard looked as angry as he’d been downstairs when he’d confronted a man big enough to tear him apart. This was the reckless, unpredictable side of Richard, and she was actually more afraid of what he might do than of what his father was up to.

Milton didn’t leave them wondering for long. Much too congenially he said, “I didn’t really expect this to play out this way, but just in case it did, I brought our parish pastor along.”

Knowing exactly what that meant, Julia began to panic, but Richard didn’t acknowledge the danger they were in. “What for?” he demanded.

Milton smiled, exuding triumph. “You’ve compromised her. You aren’t going to try to deny it, are you? After you’ve already admitted it and when I’m standing here seeing the proof of it along with these good witnesses, who will, of course, also bear witness to your wedding—tonight.”

Richard said nothing, but his fists clenched. Julia found her voice and quickly pointed out, “This isn’t legal when the banns—”

“—are irrelevant when I have a special license that doesn’t require the posting of banns,” Milton cut her off. “I’ve had it for nine bloody years.”

She was beginning to see there was no way out of this. Here she was lying in bed next to the man she’d been betrothed to since childhood, and it wasn’t just the earl who had caught her in this compromising position. A pastor was present, too. But she knew Richard was going to refuse to go through with the marriage, and then what? Would they both be shipped off to Australia this time?

“Why are you doing this when we’re planning to be married at a proper wedding ceremony?” she asked frantically.

“You can still have your grand wedding, m’dear. This is merely
my
insurance.”

“No, this is you forcing the issue and putting a tawdry stain on it,” Richard said furiously.

Milton tsked. “It’s nothing of the sort. If you love her as you say, you should be delighted to marry her sooner.” But then Milton added with a knowing sneer, “Or were you not really intending to marry at all?”

Richard didn’t answer. Julia said quickly, “If you had a license and were going to force a wedding, why didn’t you just send for me when you had Richard before, instead of putting him on that convict ship?”

Milton flushed angrily at her mentioning that in front of the pastor and the other men, but he said quickly, “Would you have come for a wedding? No, you would have sent someone to verify that Richard was back and agreeable, and finding out that he was still against it, you would have run in the opposite direction, wouldn’t you? Can you deny it, when a week later you came to tell me that nothing had changed between the two of you so you weren’t getting married? No,
he
needed to be willing before you’d come to the altar, and he wasn’t—yet.”

She noticed it only made Richard angrier to hear Milton’s previous motives spelled out, but she insisted, “That isn’t true. I never said I wouldn’t marry him if he was here to be married. Whether he was agreeable or not, I would have honored that contract.”

Milton waved his hand impatiently, dismissing her words. “I don’t believe you. But since you’ve both had such an amazing change of heart and claim to love each other now, it doesn’t matter, does it? Enough talk. Please rise and prepare to take your vows.”

The silence was suddenly deafening. Richard didn’t even try to conceal his rage, it was in his posture, in every line of his face, pouring from his eyes, and the tension in the room grew apace. He wasn’t going to let his father win this long-standing battle. He simply wasn’t going to answer, and that was answer enough. Julia held her breath, waiting for Milton’s reaction, unable to think of anything else to say that might prevent or delay what was going to happen.

Richard finally spat out, “I knew it was a mistake to come here,” and Julia braced herself for the violence that was sure to follow that remark. But then she stared at him incredulously when he added, “Hurry up, Pastor. My bride has been embarrassed enough.”