Trials of Artemis (30 page)

"Sabre,"
Jack said warningly.

Sabre
danced away from the increasingly irritated Jack, grinning smugly as she spoke,
"She has said, and I quote, 'he is a horrible, despicable man and I
wouldn't marry him if he were the last man on earth.' And now here she
is."

"If
I may ask," Gideon interjected, "why were you even discussing
marriage to Lord Lucifer?"

Sabre
laughed. "Unlike our stodgy friend here, George and I were convinced that
you must be quite dashing to have led my brothers astray. And obviously you are
if you have also enthralled said stodgy friend."

"Sabre!"
Jack protested again.

"Well,"
Sabre shrugged. "As the Bard would say, ‘All's well that ends well’."

"I
prefer the Greek perspective," Jack said. “Thucydides wrote, ’Hatred is
short lived but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of
the future remains forever unforgotten’."

Sabre
rolled her eyes at Gideon. "She'll be like this all day if we don't
distract her with swordplay."

"No,”
he said. “Absolutely no swords during the pregnancy."

Sabre
squealed again. "Is that what you were fighting about?"

"And
she needs sleep," Gideon added.

Sabre
pulled Jack's face down closer to her own. "You do look tired,
Jackie."

Jack
sighed. "I missed you, Sabre."

"And
I missed you, too, Jack. Go get some sleep and we can have a nice tea when you
get up."

"The
servants need-"

"I'll
take care of the servants," Sabre said. "Your earl will make sure
they don't argue with me."

"And
Gideon needs to let the doctor look at his head wound."

"Duly
noted. Anything else you need, countess?"

"No..."

"Then
let your earl take you upstairs and I'll start by sorting out why the front
door was open with no servants in the hall." Sabre leaned in towards
Gideon and poked him in the chest. "No funny stuff. She needs sleep. And
you need to see the doctor before I track you down to find out why you
haven't." Then she whisked herself back out into the hall.

Gideon
wrapped his arms around Jack and buried his nose in her hair.
"She's...interesting."

"I
believe I warned you."

"Weren't
we arguing about something?"

"Undoubtedly,
but I'm too tired right now to continue."

"I
love you, Jacqueline."

"Oh,"
she said in surprise.

He
straightened and looked into her eyes. "That was easier to say that I
expected. I love you. The idea of you being hurt scares me more than anything
that could happen to me."

Jack
could feel tears gathering in her eyes. "Oh Giddy, that's how I feel about
you."

He
kissed her hand. "I guess we need to avoid any more confrontations with
smugglers so that it isn't an issue. Come, I'm supposed to put you in bed
before that pushy little friend of yours comes back."

"Tiny
Wellington."

"Indeed.
If the war starts again I'll recommend you both for duty."

"Why
Giddy, I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"So
in lieu of poetry you would prefer a military service recommendation?"

"And
arrows instead of flowers."

"I
have married the strangest woman."

"Strangest?
No. You obviously haven't met George yet."

"There
should be a reward for this, you know."

"For
what?"

"Marrying
into the Haberdashers. If I'd known I was going to get all three of you then I
might have been more reticent."

Jack
chuckled. "Lord Lucifer, you didn't read the fine print of our
contract?"

"I'm
never going to live that nickname down, am I?"

"And
the Haberdashers won't ever let me live down that I married you."

“No,
the Lady Sabrina doesn’t seem the forgiving type.”

“Oh,
you have no idea. And George is worse.”

“My
headstrong, impulsive countess is the most forgiving of the three?”

“Indeed.
Think of all the things I’ve forgiven you for.”

“Sassy
minx.”

“Giddy,”
she said, sobering, “there is one more thing I want to say.”

“Another
startling announcement?” he teased, wrapping his arms around her again. “Should
I sit down first?”

“I
asked Justin to send me your voting records.”

“I
know.”

She
leaned back to look up at him in surprise. “You know?”

“Your
Mr. Miller is quite clever. Before I left London he handed me a packet, saying
it was the records you had asked for. Thus he hedged his bets that I wouldn’t
directly ask him about it and make him choose which of us to betray. Yet by
passing it through my hands he left the decision to me on whether I opened it
before I gave it to you.”

“And
you did!”

“And
I did. I have the right, you know.”

Jack
took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to rail at him over his high-handed
behavior, she recognized an opportunity. She hoped she wasn’t too tired to
capitalize on it. “Yes,” she said. “You have the right. What’s mine is yours.
I’m yours.”

He
nuzzled her throat. “And I couldn’t be more pleased.”

“You
said the idea of my being hurt scared you. It surprises me, as such, that you
don’t support women’s rights on my behalf.”

He
drew back and frowned down at her. “This again? Already? You have my name, my
protection. You know I would deny you nothing it is within my power to give
you.”

“What
if you had already fallen in love with me but events had forced me to marry
another man?” she implored. “A cruel man. One given to beating me when I didn’t
behave as he thought I should.”

She
saw his jaw harden and he backed another step away from her. “I wouldn’t have
allowed it.”

“Not
everything is within your control, Gideon. What if we hadn’t saved you today
and my next husband was a cruel man?”

His
expression had turned formidable. “Why would you need another husband?”

“Because
I have nothing! I own nothing! If our child is a daughter, she and I would be
at the whim of your heir, a cousin of yours that I’ve never met. Is that the
life you want for me? For your daughter? To have to depend on the very good
fortune of finding a kind man?”

Gideon
found that he indeed did need to sit as Jacqueline barraged him with images he
didn’t want to consider. In his time he had seen cruel men. Most likely had a
better understanding of them than she did. The idea of her having to submit to
such a man, to be abused until she was only a shadow of her impulsive, fiery
self… And the idea of a daughter suffering such abuse, having no father to
protect her as she should. The pain of the thought was beyond bearing.

He
sat rubbing his temples and realized that Jack has stopped speaking. Alarmed that
something might be wrong he looked up at her again but she still stood there, watching
him with a worried expression.

“What?”
he asked.

“Your
head is hurting you. Perhaps you should see the doctor now?”

He
snorted a laugh and let his hands drop away. “I think I could take two or three
cudgels to the head easier than arguing with you.”

“I…”
She let the statement trail off, apparently at a loss on how to respond.

Gideon
stared at the carpet between his feet for a few moments and found himself
resolved. He clasped his hands together. “I’ll ask Quince if he wants to
co-sponsor a bill.”

She
was silent for a long moment. “Oh Gideon, are you sure?”

He
looked up at her again. “Yes, I’m sure,” he said.

She
still looked worried but a smile tugged at her lips. “Be careful how you tell
him. The surprise might cause him an apoplexy.”

Gideon
chuckled, feeling more relaxed. “Where will the fun be if I cannot devil him at
least a little bit?” He rose and offered Jack his arm. “Now I’d best get you
into bed before the tiny Wellington realizes you are still up and about. Do you
still want to see my voting record? That reading is sure to put you to sleep.”

“Of
course I want to read it. How else am I to know how to respond when someone
asks me a politically charged question?”

He
picked up a rather large packet of papers from his desk and handed them to her.
“That would be simple. Just ask yourself ‘what is the absolutely correct thing
to do?’ and the answer will naturally lead you to my opinion on the matter.”

She
laughed almost all the way up the steps and then tapped him on the arm with the
packet. “Do you know what else I’d like to know?”

“I’m
sure you have an exhaustive list.”

“Who
sold our story to the newspaper? I’ve gone over and over it in my mind and I
think the most logical suspect is Lady Wynders.”

“I’m
fairly certain it was Lady Spencer.”

“What
makes you say that?”

“She
was asking after our marriage plans the night before it was published.”

“You
saw her that night?”

“Don’t
sound so jealous. It was in the card room at the Yancey ball.”

“Libraries,
card rooms,” she teased. “You’re icorrigible.”

He
trapped her against the wall and kissed her throat. “Sitting rooms, even.”

“Which
reminds me,” she said, looking at the pretty blue and gold room, “we really
should send for the decorators.”

He
straightened again. “There’s no need. It doesn’t remind me of my mother now,
just of you.” He looked around the room before returning his gaze to her. “That
was another life. Unless there was something else you wanted?”

“No,
I fear that if I toured all the grand houses of England that this is the one
room I would want for my own.”

“Well,”
he said with a lopsided grin, “how clever of me to already have it here.”

Jack
stroked his cheeks, worrying over the dark circles of fatigue beneath his eyes.
“I suppose when we get back to London I shall have to invite Lady Spencer to
tea.”

He
frowned. “Why?”

“To
thank her. Or perhaps I should let Sabre do it. She would undoubtedly bill it
the ‘Jack isn’t always right’ tea.”

Gideon
chuckled. “It doesn’t seem to bother you when she points out your errors.”

“She
wouldn’t be that way if I were wrong more often.”

“Perhaps
I’m starting to see her point.”

“Gideon,”
she admonished. “As my husband you are supposed to support me in all things.”

“Whatever
gave you that idea? I did, however, write to my investment manager to ask why
it had taken him three months to arrive at a recommendation on the Jones-Berry
Mine that my wife was able to make after reading one article.”

Jack
drew back and tried to divine whether he was teasing her. “Are you saying…?”

“That
I’m the Wolfe in Wolfe-Telford? Indeed.”

“W.T.
is Wolfe-Telford? You and the duke have a company together?”

“Yes.
Or rather I should say that you and I have an investment company with the duke.
Perhaps I’ll let you manage fifty pounds of it.”

“Don’t
be ridiculous. I’ll start with no less than a thousand pounds.”

“At
last, feminine materialism has reared its ugly head.”

“Pish!
I could find more blunt by going through your pockets.” She smiled. “But I warn
you now that I plan to practice risky speculation with it and will probably
lose it all.”

“Somehow
I doubt that.”

Her
heart blossomed at the simple confidence in his statement. “Gideon?”

“Yes,
darling?”

“I
do believe you love me.”

He
laughed. “As I’ve said.”

She
wrapped her arms around him and snuggled into his chest. She hadn’t wanted to
marry at all, much less would she have chosen the man known to her as Lord
Lucifer. Yet here they were. They still had challenges to face, but they were
in love and she had hope. As Aristotle had written, hope was a waking dream. “Thank
you, Giddy,” she said. “Thank you for not being who I thought you were.”

“How
could I be without horns and a tail?”

“Giddy,
I’m trying to be serious.”

He
chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “So am I. And thank you for not being
who I thought you were.”

“You
thought all women were empty-headed shrews. It wasn’t a difficult conception to
challenge.”

“Be
that as it may, it’s time for you to get some rest now.”

“And
you to see the doctor.”