The Earl Claims a Bride (35 page)

“Fault you? They expect you to do it and so do I. We agreed to the rule ‘No mercy.’”

“I never did like to follow the rules.”

“Go ahead. You say you are not a coward. Prove it. You say you’re not a cheat. Then prove it and don’t let me cheat death again. Kill me. Kill me!”

For a split second Harrison was tempted to do just that. Maxwell wasn’t yelling empty words. The soldier wanted to die, and he wanted Harrison to see that it happened. The distaste of that rose like bile in Harrison’s throat. He reached up and ripped the patch off his eye and slung it away.

“There are at least a dozen men here who will swear you came at me with your fists in this duel,” Harrison said quietly. “I accepted your challenge, defended myself, and won.” Harrison let go of the man and roughly shoved him away.

“Coward,” Maxwell said with a swollen lip. “The rules of the duel said to the death.”

Harrison staggered to his feet and stared down at the sweaty, bloody man. “We’ve already established what I think of rules. If you want to die, find someone else to do your dirty work for you. I don’t have the stomach for it. This duel is finished.”

He started toward his carriage. The door pushed open and Angelina sprang from the cab and ran toward him. He caught her up in his arms and held her gently against his dirty, damp shirt.

“Your lip is cut and you’re bleeding,” she said, placing her open palm against his cheek.

He could have told her his hands, jaw, and ribs were hurting like hell, too, but all he said was, “I’m fine.”

“I’m so thankful you weren’t seriously hurt.” She glanced over at Maxwell, who still lay on the ground. “That neither of you was. That there were no swords used.”

Harrison looked into her eyes. Her compassion for the soldier was still there. He knew it always would be and Harrison didn’t mind. That was who she was. He loved her for it and had no doubt of her love for him. “Do you want to go to him?” Harrison asked.

Without hesitating or bothering to look at the captain, she said, “No. He must find peace with what happened to him, but I can’t help him do that.”

All Harrison’s pain ebbed away. He circled her with his arm and started to walk toward their coach when he heard the sound of a carriage racing and bumping over the rough ground. He turned to see the coach barreling toward them at breakneck speed. Four guards on horses flanked each side of it. The carriage stopped near them and Mr. Hopscotch stumbled out the door, almost falling in his haste.

“Stop the duel! Stop the duel!” He ran to the center of the clearing and looked around. The onlookers stared at him as if he were demented. He saw Maxwell still lying on the ground, and then spotted Harrison by his carriage.

“You’re late,” Harrison said. “It’s over.”

Hopscotch ran his open palms down the front of his coat as if he were wiping something off them. “Yes, I see that now. But all seems well.”

“It is. You can tell the Prince that he can stop sending you with guards. My dueling days are over, Mr. Hopscotch. Miss Rule and I are getting married as soon as the banns are posted.”

Harrison looked down at Angelina. “You do accept, don’t you?”

She smiled. “It is with great pleasure that I accept, my lord. But what is this about the guards?”

“It’s a long story, my love and if fate continues to smile on me, I should have about fifty years to tell you about it. Let’s go prepare for our wedding”

Epilogue

I know no ways to mince it in love but directly to say “I love you.”

Henry V
5.2.125–26

Something disrupted Harrison’s sleep. His eyes fluttered open to bright sunlight splintering into his bedchamber from a slit between the two drapery panels. He felt warmth beside him. He smiled. It was Angelina’s rounded bottom snuggled against his hip. It must have been her movement that roused him.

What a nice way to wake up.

It was their first morning at Thornwick since becoming husband and wife. The house was a long way from being finished but Angelina was just as eager as he was to return and oversee the rebuilding.

He turned his head and saw her long tangled hair spread across her pillow. Moving slowly so he wouldn’t wake her, he eased away from her just enough so he could look at her. The color of her skin was beautiful. Her back was straight and her shoulders softly rounded. His gaze drifted to the indention of her small waist, on to the flare of her womanly hip, down the smooth plane of her thigh, and all the way to her shapely legs entwined with the sheet. She was as lovely from the back as she was from the front.

Harrison knew how lucky he was to have such a passionate wife. She was also honorable and loyal to a fault. Those weren’t the only things he admired about her. She was a nurturer, too. In the years to come, she would know how to manage their unruly sons and how to counsel their innocent daughters.

He could have easily lost Angelina to the captain. And almost had. Harrison meant it when he told her he didn’t harbor any ill feelings concerning the captain and his challenge to the duel. Hell, Harrison might have tried the same if he’d lost Angelina. But he wouldn’t be so generous if Maxwell made any further attempts to continue his grudge. Harrison had meant it when he said their fight was finished.

An odd sound caught his attention. He couldn’t place what it was but it sounded like it was in the room with him. He listened intently for a moment, but all was quiet again. He reached over and tenderly kissed the back of Angelina’s shoulder. He breathed in the warmth of her scent. It was heavenly woman. They had been up late and he didn’t want to disturb her, but his body was telling him to stop the nonsense of letting her sleep and pull her into his arms and awaken her with kisses.

The sound came again. Was that the
grrr
of a dog? And was that a gnawing sound? He slowly rose in the bed and sat up. He glanced around the room. Clothing, shoes, and stockings were strewn about the floor, but he saw nothing amiss. He was about to lie back down when he heard a dog growling. This time he was sure. There was a dog in the room, but which one and how the hell had it gotten into his bedchamber?

Harrison spotted his trousers on the floor beside the bed. He reached down, picked them up, and slid his legs into them, pulling them up his hips as he eased off the bed. Angelina stirred but didn’t wake.

With quiet steps he walked around the foot of the bed to the other side and saw Mr. Pete with his front paws forward, his hind end up in the air, chewing the devil out of the toe of one of Harrison’s boots.

With no thought for his slumbering wife and in a voice loud enough to unsettle the dead, he exclaimed, “You little cur!”

Harrison dove to grab the boot out of the beagle’s mouth but the little dog was quicker and dragged it just out of his reach as Harrison hit the floor on his knees and skidded. He stretched to grab it but Mr. Pete snarled and pulled it back just far enough that Harrison missed it again.

“Harrison, what’s wrong?” Angelina said. “What’s going on?”

“Your little mongrel is using my boot for a bone,” he said, reaching for the third time and grabbing hold of the heel. Mr. Pete growled, shook his head, and sank his teeth farther into the leather. Harrison pulled and the beagle gave a valiant effort to hold on but his small jaws were no match for Harrison’s strength. Finally he had to let go of his new boot bone.

Harrison rose to his feet. Mr. Pete barked up at him several times, as if to say,
Give it back and let’s play again
.

Harrison examined the boot. The once shiny toe was scratched, skinned, and chewed. The little devil’s teeth had made holes and frayed the softer leather at the top. The boot was beyond repair.

“I’m so sorry, Harrison. Is it ruined?”

He glanced over at his startled wife. She was wiping her sleepy eyes with one hand and pulling the sheet under her chin with the other.

“No,” he lied. “It’s fine.”

“I don’t know how Mr. Pete got above stairs and into our bedchamber. Maybe one of the servants accidentally let him out of the storage room while we were having dinner last night. I’ll take him back down immediately.”

Harrison dropped the boot to the floor. He heard Mr. Pete grab it and drag it away. “You’ll do no such thing.” He walked over, put his hands on each side of her face, and smiled down at her. “It’s just a pair of old boots. And good morning, Lady Thornwick. You are looking especially gorgeous this morning. Maybe that’s because we are finally home.”

She looked up at him with a questioning expression. “You’re not angry at Mr. Pete?”

Well?

“Why should I be?” he said with a smile. “I have others.”

“I know men can become very fond of their boots. I hope it wasn’t your favorite pair.”

Harrison searched her beautiful blue eyes and remembered something Bray had said to him months ago:
I like Louisa’s sisters, but even if I didn’t, I’d put up with them because Louisa is worth it.

That’s the way he felt about Angelina’s dogs. He liked her dogs, but even if he didn’t, he’d tolerate them for her.

“I’m certain. From this day forward there will be a new tradition at Thornwick. Dogs will be allowed to run free in the house.”

She smiled and laughed and wound her arms around his waist as she hugged him to her, placing her cheek against his bare abdomen. “Even I have limitations about how much freedom the dogs have in the house, and the first rule of order is that they don’t belong above stairs. We must have our space and they must have theirs.”

Harrison liked that idea. He cupped her head to him. “In that case, I’ll leave all the rules to you.”

“Now that is very generous of you, my lord,” she said with a laugh. “No reason for you to start making or following rules this late in life, is there?”

He reached down and kissed the top of her head. “You are the only rule I want.”

She looked up at him with her beautiful blue eyes. “Thank you for understanding. Mr. Pete is still young and has not been properly trained yet. I love you even more than I thought possible for being understanding about my pets and my father. Thank you for paying off the rest of his debts.”

He grinned and crawled into the bed with her, pulling her into his arms as he joined her.

“I should have paid them all, but for your craftiness. You will keep your promise to never sell another fan or painting, right?”

“I will, my lord. Besides, I’ll be too busy helping you restore the Thornwick paintings that were damaged in the fire. And hopefully, my father will be too busy helping you replenish the library to even think about gambling for a long time to come.”

“A very long time.” Harrison kissed her lips and looked lovingly into her eyes. “You are the perfect mistress for Thornwick, Angelina. My father and my brothers would be pleased.”

Her eyes watered. “I don’t think you could have said anything that would have pleased me more.”

“It’s true. You will help me restore my family’s legacy with strong sons and beautiful daughters.”

“Should we start working on trying to get those sons right now, my love?” she asked as she rolled him onto his back and straddled his hips.

“Please do, my love,” Harrison said and thrilled to his wife’s touch.

Author’s Notes

Dear Readers,

I hope you have enjoyed the second book of my
Heirs’ Club of Scoundrels
trilogy. With Harrison and Angelina’s story, it was fun to explore the feelings and emotions a young lady might experience as she grows up and discovers that the heartthrob of her youth is not the man she loves enough to want to spend the rest of her life with.

During the Regency, the possibility of being thrown in debtors’ prison for not paying what you owed was very real. There were several debtors’ prisons located throughout England. Though no prison was pleasant, some debtors’ prisons allowed the inmates the freedom to receive visitors and to continue conducting their businesses.

Dueling has been around almost since the beginning of time. Queen Elizabeth I officially made it a crime in 1577 but that didn’t stop the practice and hardly even slowed the countless duels fought each year, which numbered in the thousands throughout Europe. There are many recorded cases where gentlemen were prosecuted for attempted murder or for the murder of an opponent while dueling. Generally, though, authorities and the courts were sympathetic to the principles and code of honor.

By 1840 there was a dramatic decline in dueling. Some historians think this was in large part because of a growing middle class, anti-dueling campaigns, and intellectual trends against violence.

The addition of the Prince Regent weighing in on Lord Thornwick’s dueling and the threat of prison was written entirely for entertainment and has no historical basis in fact.

If you missed the first book in the Heirs’ Club trilogy,
The Duke in My Bed
, you can get a copy at your favorite bookstore or online e-retailer. Watch for
Wedding Night with the Earl
in March 2016.

I love to hear from readers. Please visit my website at
ameliagrey.com
, like me at
facebook.com/AmeliaGrey Books
, or email me at [email protected].

Happy reading!

Amelia

Read on for an excerpt from
Amelia Grey
’s next book

WEDDING NIGHT WITH THE EARL

—coming soon from St. Martin’s Paperbacks!

“Would you like to try?” the earl asked.

To dance?

Katherine hedged. “That’s two questions.”

“You asked two,” he reminded her.

She had. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know that London’s ton had nicknamed him “the beast.” Swallowing her concern, she said, “All right, no. Wait. I mean yes, of course, yes, I’d like to try, but isn’t it very obvious why I can’t?”

There was a glow of something in his eyes that she hadn’t seen in them before. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like anticipation or perhaps hope.