The Nightingale Legacy (23 page)

“You’re so bloody beautiful it wouldn’t matter if you crawled about with your head down.”

Bloody beautiful. She liked the sound of that. She gave him another dazzling, very big smile. “Really, you truly believe I’m beautiful?”

“Shut up, Caroline. Which mines are now yours besides Wheal Kitty?”

“Wheal Daffel and Wheal Bealle.”

“They’re both good producers. According to Rafael, Wheal Kitty is the highest producer hereabouts, and this Mr. Peetree is a man to be trusted.”

“That’s a nice surprise. I have yet to speak to Owen, but I did tell him to learn all he could and not act like an idiot arrogant owner.”

“He isn’t going to London. There’s no need.”

“How do you know that?”

“He visited his father this morning and they spoke for quite a while. After Mr. Ffalkes ceased his loudest recriminations, Owen learned that his father is in very deep financial difficulty. He needs money very badly and saw you as his only salvation, thus his relentless pursuit of you.”

“It’s lovely to be wanted for one’s money and not for oneself.”

“This is real life, Caroline. Don’t be a fool. Don’t try to make me think you’re at all cast down about Mr. Ffalkes’s
motives or that you’re even surprised.”

“Very well. So what are we going to do?” There, she thought, she’d said it.
We
, not just her alone. She waited, watching the encroaching waves come closer and closer. If North didn’t pay attention, his lovely boots would shortly be splashed and likely ruined. A seagull flew overhead, then finally landed on a black rock near Caroline. A peregrine falcon lazily tilted his wings toward the beach.

“I spoke to Mr. Ffalkes after Owen told me all that had passed between them.” North stared down at his feet, then held out his hand to her. “Time for us to retreat.”

She knew he didn’t want to touch her, rather he wanted to touch her too much, all because of this lust of his, but she just smiled, placed her hand in his, and let him tug her gently off the rock. They walked slowly back toward the dark shadows beneath the towering cliffs.

“And what did he say?”

“He said he would get you and he swore that the third try would see him succeed.”

She cursed, very colorfully and very loudly.

He stared at her, then threw back his head and laughed loud and deeply.

That laugh of his, it sounded wonderful. She said, “You’re not at all dour and brooding, North. That laugh was very nice. I’d like to hear it more.”

He was immediately silent, immediately frowning. “It shouldn’t have happened. If I continue to laugh I shall have to inform Marcus Wyndham that he can no longer call me menacing and dark and dangerous.”

“How very romantic. No, don’t tell him anything. Dark and dangerous, hmmm?”

“Now you sound like Marcus’s young cousins, Antonia and Fanny. They found me vastly romantic.”

“North, what will we do about Mr. Ffalkes?”

He drew a very deep breath. “I guess you’ll just have to marry someone.”

“Someone, North?”

“That’s right. Someone.”

“Not you?”

“I’m not available.”

She gave him a very long look, then sighed and smiled. She pulled away from him, back toward the path that led back up the cliff. She said over her shoulder, “Very well, I’ll marry Owen. That way, Mr. Ffalkes can have my money and I won’t have to worry about him shooting my husband so he can force me to marry him. Yes, Owen is the someone.”

“Owen! Have you lost what few wits God gave you? He’s a boy, he’s barely got down on his chin. Damnation, he’s barely got a chin. You would badger him to death within a week, Caroline. Already he’s now under your thumb. He would have escaped his father to end up with you, the biggest female tyrant I’ve ever met. What’s more, I like Owen. He doesn’t deserve it.”

“Well, then, how about Bennett Penrose? He has a chin. Indeed, he’s quite lovely on the outside. He’s three years older than you, so you can’t claim he’s a mere boy. He needs an heiress and I suppose I come close to being that. If Mr. Ffalkes were to shoot him to get me into widowhood, I shouldn’t feel so terrible about it. What do you think, North?”

“Damn you, Caroline.”

He strode to her, grabbed her upper arms, and shook her. She did absolutely nothing, just let him shake to his heart’s content. At last he seemed to have stopped dithering. He stopped abruptly and in the very next instant, suddenly wild and urgent, he was kissing her, crushing her against him. She knew then, more surely than she knew anything in her
entire life, that this man was the only one for her. Did that mean spiritual intermingling? Did this mean she would expect him to spout sentimental rot? She parted her lips and felt his warmth, tasted the sweet wine he’d had for lunch, felt his tongue lightly stroke hers.

At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds and they were bathed in fierce light. It felt odd, the heat of the sun overhead and the heat he was building deep inside her, beneath his hands, through her clothes.

This time she knew he wouldn’t stop. She also knew she wouldn’t stop him, not that she’d ever tried to stop him in the past. Come what may afterward, tomorrow, next week, she wanted this to happen. She wanted him and perhaps, just perhaps, he would sense the love she felt for him, the commitment she was offering to him.

Ah, she would give him laughter, surely there was nothing more seductive than laughter.

But he stopped cold, in the very next instant, dropped his arms from her, and stumbled back several steps.

“North?”

He looked at her as if he hated her. “Listen to me, Caroline, if I don’t stop now, I won’t. That’s the truth of it. Do you want me to take your virginity here on a wet beach?”

She looked him squarely in his face. “Yes,” she said. “I shouldn’t mind where you made love with me. I just wish you’d get a grip on yourself and do it, North.”

He stared at her and she could see he was trying to come up with more arguments, but it was obvious his own lust, his own full-blown need, was hampering his thinking. It was probably a good thing.

“Sand gets into everything,” he said at last. “I made love to Emily Trevedor on a beach when I was fifteen, and I itched in very embarrassing parts for a good week afterward.
Poor girl, I don’t know how she dealt with the miserable sand.”

Caroline laughed, she couldn’t help it. “Oh, North, you are so wonderful. I don’t care where you make love with me. I just want you so very much. I want you to teach me everything. I want you to show me how to please you and give you as much joy and excitement as you give to me.”

He frowned at her, but said with some humor, “If you gave me any more excitement, I’d explode.”

She cocked her head to one side in question.

“Men are excessively uncomplicated when it comes to sexual matters. Don’t look at me like that. All right, Caroline Derwent-Jones. Just what the hell am I going to do with you?”

Here I go, Mrs. Trebaw, she thought, no more dithering, and said, “Marry me.”

He plowed his fingers through his thick hair. He looked harassed. He looked distracted. “Damnation, I hadn’t thought to marry anytime soon. I’m only twenty-five years old, my birthday isn’t for four more months. I thought to marry when I was much older, say thirty-five or so, beget an heir and that would be that.”

“Begetting an heir would be nice, North, but I think there are other things as well that would bring you pleasure and contentment and joy. Perhaps you could consider me being with you, laughing with you, discussing things with you—”

“Fighting with me, doubtless.”

“Certainly. That’s all a part of life. I can’t believe I’d smash you under my female tyrant’s thumb like you seem to think I’d do to Owen.”

“Since when do you know so much about life?”

She was silent for just a moment. She didn’t look at him, just said quietly, “I was very much alone for a good many
years, and to be honest, I didn’t know much of anything. I knew there was more, but I didn’t know how to get it or even where to find it.” She drew a deep breath and looked at him straightly. “Now I have so much. Now I have you, and it’s wonderful to have someone to care about, someone to worry about, someone to trust. It’s still very new to me, and if I offend you, please forgive me, for I do it out of ignorance.

“I think I grew up quite magically that night Mr. Ffalkes tried to rape me. I didn’t learn all that much about life, but I did grow up. No, no, I’m not trying to get you to pity me, to soothe me. It’s not that at all, North. It’s just that I want to marry you. No other man, just you. I want to spend my life with you, no other man. I want very much to be with you forever. I’m a good sort, North, and I swear I’ll try my best not to disappoint you, or pry when you want to be private, or beg you for flattery or romance or anything like that. I swear never to be maudlin.”

He looked ready to stamp his boot into the sand. Instead, he plowed his fingers through his hair. “Why, for God’s sake? You see me as your best protection against Ffalkes? If so that’s nonsense. I’d kill the bugger before I married you for that reason.”

“Oh no. I think I want to experience this lust business of yours for the next fifty years of my life.” She walked to him then and was pleased when he didn’t back up anymore. She slipped her arms around his back and looked up at him. “I think you’re the most wonderful man in the world, North.”

He gave her a twisted smile. “What if I go off and brood on the moors with my hounds?”

“I’ll have Polgrain pack you a hearty lunch and wave good-bye to you. And when you come home, I’ll smile at you and kiss you and caress you until you forgot why ever
you wanted to go to the moors in the first place.”

“I’m used to being alone, Caroline, just as you were alone. The big difference was that I wanted to be alone. It’s not the same thing—being alone and lonely. I knew people, knew all about them, and I decided I preferred keeping to myself. I left Mount Hawke when I was sixteen, I told you that. I had no one when I left here, and even now the number of men who are my close friends are very few. I’m not good being with people, Caroline, particularly women, at least women who are ladies.”

“That isn’t true at all.” She went up on her tiptoes and kissed his mouth. “Why do you say you’re not good with women?” She kissed him again and again, light nipping kisses, kisses he’d taught her. “You’ve always been wonderful with me. You make me laugh, you make me want to touch you and hold you and kiss you until I dwindle away into an old woman.”

“I don’t understand that either,” he said, and began to return her kisses.

“You see,” she said, then lightly slipped her tongue between his lips. “You see,” she said again, her breath warm in his mouth, “I am the obvious woman for you. You should stop worrying about it, North. I am your fate. Take me because I most certainly want to be taken by you.”

“D
AMNATION,” HE SAID
, and fell to his knees in front of her. She stood stock-still, not understanding, just staring down at him.

“See if you can accept this, Caroline. If this shocks you to your little virgin toes, I’m sorry, but it’s what I have wanted.” Without another word, he pulled up her gown, her petticoats, her chemise. “Hold them up.” She did, still staring down at him, still not understanding. She was naked in front of him and he just looked at her for a long moment, at the white thighs, strong and supple, and upward to the tight swirl of curls as richly chestnut as the hair on her head, and he reached out his fingers to touch her. “Spread your legs.”

She gasped and spread her legs, balancing herself better. “Are you certain you want to do this, North? Look at me like this? It’s very embarrassing, you know. No one has ever looked at my waist before.”

“I’m not looking at your damned waist. I’m looking at where I’m going to caress you with my fingers and with my mouth. God, you’re beautiful.”

“North, but surely—”

His mouth touched her then as his fingers held her apart for him. Caroline froze, then, to her utter astonishment, she felt a tremor that shook her from her toes to her neck. Her knees buckled and she collapsed, her riding skirt and petticoats billowing out over him. She felt North’s hands on her
bottom as she landed on her back. He was over her then, on top of her, balanced above her on his elbows, looking down into her very dazed eyes.

“You’re lovely,” he said, and kissed her. Before she could clasp him around his back to keep him close, he was off her, standing there, staring down at her. Her skirts were up about her waist, her legs sprawled, and he smiled at her and held out his hand.

“I pictured you like this, your skirts all up about your chest and your belly naked. Yes, I pictured you very clearly. But let me tell you, Caroline, you’re more beautiful here, now, in your white flesh, than you were even in my very imaginative mind. I like the white stockings and the black riding boots. It adds mystery. It’s exotic. Come now, we’re going home.”

He pulled her up, then stood back, watching her straighten her clothes. Her hands were trembling and she was very, very silent.

“My God,” he said, and laughed. “You’re embarrassed. I’ve finally succeeded in getting you to close your mouth.”

He grunted then, doubling over slightly when she rammed her fist into his belly.

He just grinned, rubbed his stomach, and said, “We’ll wed next week, on Friday, all right? Will that give you sufficient time?”

She looked at him, saw the deviltry in his dark eyes, saw the amusement tugging at the corners of his beautiful mouth, and shook her head. “No, I would prefer Wednesday.”

“You’re a mouthy girl, Caroline, but it pleases me. We will compromise on Thursday. I have to find us a bishop, you know, and procure a license, since I don’t think you want to post any banns.”

“No, that takes a long time, doesn’t it?”

“Four weeks, three of them where the vicar reads out the
intent to marry in church. Too long, much too long. I want you in front of me naked so I can caress you again. Will you hold up your clothes for me again?”

“North!”

“It’s nice to outdo you verbally, Caroline. I used to be quite content to sit in brooding silence, listening to others go on and on and laugh and tell jests, but now, with you, I find I quite enjoy reducing you to blushes and groans and little squeaks when I manage to shock you.”