Читать книгу Tall, Dark... Collection - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 55

Jane arched mocking brows as she stared down the length of the dining table at her host. ‘Do I take it that your interview with Lady Arabella did not go well this afternoon, Your Grace?’ There had been no opportunity for Jane to speak to him since his conversation with his sister, although she had seen him in conversation with the butler earlier, when she’d returned from her walk outside.

Still, her observation concerning his sister was a fairly accurate one to have made, considering the two of them were seated alone at the table in what Jenkins had informed Jane was ‘the family dining room’. Lady Arabella, and the Duke’s aunt, Lady Hammond, had both sent down their apologies.

That Jane and the Duke were seated at either end of a table that could have seated twelve only added to the feeling of distance that had been stretching further and further between the two of them since their arrival at Mulberry Hall earlier today.

The Duke looked as immaculate as ever tonight, in black evening clothes and snowy white linen, but the impeccable formality of his dress only made Jane more aware of the inadequacy of the muslin gown she had worn on the day she’d left Markham Park, which was all she had to change into for dinner.

‘My conversation with Arabella, as you so rightly guess, Jane, did not go well,’ the Duke confirmed impatiently. ‘Were you ever such a contrary miss, Jane?’ he added with languid weariness.

Jane was very aware, even if the Duke was not, of the presence of the stiffly unreadable demeanour of Jenkins, as he quietly attended them by removing their empty fish plates from the table. She was also aware that this was definitely not one of those occasions when they were ‘not in the presence of others’—which meant that the Duke was being far too familiar with a woman he had supposedly engaged as companion to his young sister. Especially as that sister had not even had the good manners to join them!

‘Such behaviour would have been seen as self-indulgence, Your Grace,’ she answered him, somewhat distantly.

‘I suppose that it would,’ Hawk acknowledged ruefully, and he realised how ridiculous had been his question after the way in which Jane had been treated by her guardians. At the same time he could see, from Jane’s awkward glance in Jenkins’ direction, that she was not happy conducting this conversation in front of his butler.

‘That will be all, thank you, Jenkins.’ He dismissed the elderly man once the roast beef and vegetables had been served to them. ‘I will ring for you when we are in need of you again.’

If the butler saw anything unusual about this turn of events he did not show it by so much as a flicker of an eyebrow as he bowed formally before leaving the room.

Hawk sighed. ‘The unfortunate situation developing between Arabella and myself has shown me how little experience I have in dealing with the capriciousness of young ladies, Jane.’

‘You surprise me, Your Grace.’

Hawk could not fail to notice the mocking glint in her eyes. ‘Young ladies that are related to me, Jane!’

‘Of course, Your Grace.’ She nodded coolly. ‘But if that truly is the case, perhaps the answer might be to forget that Lady Arabella is related to you…?’

Hawk had far from forgotten Jane’s disappearance outside earlier this evening. Or the fact that she had returned to the house while he was in the process of questioning Jenkins as to whether or not he knew of her whereabouts—which he had not. No, Hawk certainly had not forgotten. He was simply awaiting the appropriate moment in which to introduce the subject…

He shook his head now. ‘I am not sure that I understand you, Jane. Arabella may not like me very much at this moment, but there is no doubting the fact that she is my sister!’

‘Assuredly not, Your Grace,’ Jane answered dryly.

He raised dark brows. ‘Now, why do I sense some sort of rebuke in that remark, Jane…?’

‘I have no idea, Your Grace,’ she came back innocently. ‘But from what I have observed of Lady Arabella I believe that at the age of eighteen she wishes to be treated as an adult rather than as a child. As a child in need of a companion, for instance…’

Hawk’s mouth tightened at the rebuke. ‘Arabella is still a child, Jane, and at the moment she is behaving like a spoilt, wilful one.’

‘Was it a child who received several marriage proposals only weeks ago? Was it for a child that you would have approved of her accepting one of those marriage proposals?’

‘You insult me if you think I would have been happy for her to accept a proposal of marriage just for the sake of it, Jane,’ Hawk defended coldly.

‘The nature of any marriage proposal and the suitability of the man involved are both irrelevant to this conversation, Your Grace,’ Jane reasoned softly. ‘What is pertinant is that you cannot expect Lady Arabella to receive proposals of marriage one day and be treated like a child again the next. Moreover, a child who is to be told what she may or may not do, and when she may do it.’

Hawk drew in a sharp breath as he bit back his icy retort. A part of him knew that he had invited Jane’s criticism by confiding in her in this way, and another part of him was surprised that he had done so…

In the years since he had assumed his role as head of the St Claire family, Hawk had expected his siblings to respect his wishes. That he did not appear to have achieved this as well as he might have wanted had been brought home to him not once but twice in recent weeks. First in Sebastian’s absolute refusal to contemplate the idea of any marriage—let alone one suggested by Hawk—and yet again today by Arabella’s stubbornness when it came to acceding to any of his demands.

He did not, however, appreciate having Jane, of all people, point out these failings to him! He looked down his nose at her. ‘I refuse to believe I have ever been guilty of such arrogance with any of my siblings, Jane.’

‘Really?’ She gave an acknowledging inclination of her head. ‘Then I must assume it is only where “nuisances who disrupt your peaceful existence” are concerned…?’

Hawk picked up his glass of claret and took a much-needed drink, his gaze narrowing as he looked down the length of the highly polished table at the woman who had disrupted his peaceful existence from the moment they had first met.

Jane was looking particularly lovely this evening. Her gleaming red hair was arranged in an abundance of ringlets upon her crown, with several enticing tendrils brushing her nape and brow, her creamy throat was once again bare of any adornment—possibly because Jane had no jewellery with which to adorn it?—and the simple cut of her gown succeeding only in emphasising the curvaceous perfection of her body.

A warmly seductive body that Hawk could not deny he was totally aware of. ‘I believe you malign me in saying I have ever told you what you may do, Jane.’ His voice was harsh.

Her mouth thinned. ‘Only what I may not do, sir!’

‘You are referring, I presume, to the fact that I refused to allow you to run off to London in a reckless manner?’

‘I am referring, Your Grace, to the fact that at two and twenty I am perfectly old enough to make my own decisions!’ Her eyes glittered warningly.

It was a warning Hawk had no intention of heeding. ‘Even if those decisions are wrong?’

‘Even then!’

He eyed her consideringly. ‘Tell me, Jane, did you accompany the Sulbys when they came to London for the Season?’

‘I did…yes,’ she answered, almost warily.

‘And did you meet someone whilst you were there? A young man, perhaps?’ He frowned. ‘Maybe that is why you are so set on returning there? In order that you might seek him out…?’

Jane gave him a pitying look. ‘I met no one whilst in London, Your Grace. My only excursions during that time were to the shops, and then simply so that I might carry Olivia’s purchases for her!’

Once again Hawk was reminded that Jane had been more servant than ward in the Sulby household. Her presence at the Sulbys’ dining table two nights ago had been the exception rather than the rule.

He sipped his wine. ‘Where did you go earlier this evening, Jane, when you decided to go outside?’

Jane stiffened. ‘I trust I am at liberty to walk in the grounds, at least, Your Grace?’

She was being overly defensive, Jane knew. Probably because she had not simply gone for a walk in the grounds of Mulberry Hall earlier, but had in fact made her way deliberately to the stables, with the intention of enquiring of one of the grooms exactly how far it was—and how long it would take—to get to her true destination of Somerset!

Which she had done—and in such a way, Jane hoped, that she had not aroused the groom’s suspicions as to the true purpose of her enquiries.

Although that might not be the case if the Duke of Stourbridge were to question the other man!

‘Did I say otherwise?’ the Duke prompted softly now.

‘You implied it!’ she snapped agitatedly.

Hawk looked at her wordlessly for several long seconds as the anger inside him grew. This situation, with both a wilfully defiant Arabella and a stubbornly determined Jane, was not only trying his impatience in the extreme, it was becoming unendurable!

‘Do you find my concern for you so unacceptable, then, Jane?’ The icy softness of his tone was in no way indicative of his inner frustration at this situation.

‘Yes!’

Hawk drew in a sharp breath before rising to his feet. ‘Then I must give you leave to put yourself in the path of danger at any time you so choose! Just so long as you accept that I will no longer be in a position to save you from your own reckless folly!’ He picked up the decanter of brandy and a glass from the dresser before turning sharply on his heel to stride forcefully towards the door, very much aware that if he did not leave now he would resort to either kissing her or spanking her!

‘Hawk…?’

He would not—could not—allow himself to be deterred from his resolve, his immediate need to get as far away from Jane as was possible. Neither by the uncertainty to be heard in her tone nor the fact that she had at last once again called him by his first name. He was very aware that if he did not leave this room now—right now!—he was definitely going to do something Jane would find even more unacceptable than the arrogance she complained of so bitterly.

He paused only long enough in the doorway to turn and inform her, ‘I have forgotten to tell you of the dinner party my sister has arranged for three evenings hence, Jane.’ his mouth twisted derisively as he added, ‘The same sister with whom, according to you, I have the seemingly annoying habit of saying what she may do and when she may do it!’

Jane swallowed convulsively, never having seen the Duke in quite such a towering rage as this, and knowing, although Arabella had obviously caused him some irritation earlier, that it was she who had provoked this chilling anger.

She moistened dry lips. ‘I—’

‘I will inform that same sister,’ the Duke continued icily, ‘that you are in need of a new gown for the evening. And I implore you, Jane, do not say another word to contradict me!’ The fierceness of his warning came through gritted teeth.

‘But—’

‘Will you not, just for once in our acquaintance, accept that I am doing this for your comfort rather than my own?’ His mouth had thinned ominously.

Her chin rose determinedly. ‘That is the argument of all dictators, I believe.’

Hawk’s gaze flared, and then glittered coldly. ‘One day, Jane—one day you will go too far!’ he finally managed to grind out. ‘And I give you fair warning that on that day you will discover exactly what I am capable of!’

He turned and left the room before he could no longer control the urge he had to commence teaching Jane that lesson forthwith.

Leaving Jane with the uncomfortable knowledge that her plans to make her way to Somerset at the first opportunity, would probably arrive rather sooner than the Duke could ever have imagined…

‘Is it the horses you are so fond of visiting, Jane, or do you have some other reason for haunting my stables in this way…?’

Jane gave a guilty start at the sound of the Duke’s voice behind her, turning so sharply to face him that her slippered foot lost its purchase on the thick layer of straw that covered the floor, causing her to lose her balance completely.

She barely had time to register how handsome the Duke looked in his work clothes—a tight-fitting brown jacket and thigh-hugging breeches above highly polished brown boots—before the world tilted on its axis and she toppled over backwards.

Luckily the stall she was in had been cleaned earlier that morning and laid with fresh straw, and this sweet-smelling mattress cushioned Jane’s fall. She lay sprawled on her back, slightly winded, as she stared up at the dumbfounded Duke of Stourbridge.

He did not stay dumb for long, however. ‘Are you making me an invitation, Jane? Or is it that you suddenly felt a need to lie down?’ He moved farther into the confines of the stall to look down at her, heavy lids lowered to shield the expression in his eyes.

So giving Jane no idea whether the Duke was just being his normally mocking self, or if he actually meant her to take his first question seriously…

Considering the impatient manner in which he had deserted the dinner table the previous evening, Jane decided that he was being his normal mocking self!

Her own eyes glittered with impatience as she sat up. ‘I would not have lost my balance at all if you had not crept up behind me in that sly fashion!’she said waspishly.

‘Please do not get up, Jane,’ Hawk drawled derisively as she began to do so. ‘After the dampness of the dune which we once shared, the stables are a much cosier place for us to converse,’ he assured her dryly, before dropping down onto the clean straw at her side.

Hawk grimaced inwardly, knowing that if any of his grooms had seen him do so they would probably seriously question the Duke of Stourbridge’s state of mind. And quite rightly so!

‘Converse, Your Grace?’ Jane echoed guardedly, as she made a show of picking stalks of straw from the sleeve of her gown.

Several more tufts had attached themselves endearingly in the brightness of her hair, but Hawk decided that now was perhaps not the right time to point them out to her. Nor, indeed, to attempt to remove them himself…

He was aware that, apart from the slight movement and snorting of a horse in one of the other stalls, the stables were very private and quiet at this time of day, his grooms having moved on to other chores about the estate after completing the exercising of the horses and the cleaning of the stalls earlier this morning.

Meaning that he and Jane were completely alone here, with little chance of interruption.

He felt a reawakening of the same desire to take Jane in his arms and kiss her that he had known the previous evening. A desire Hawk had resisted yesterday evening by leaving her so abruptly but which he was not sure he would be able to a second time…!

Perhaps, in the circumstances, it had been unwise on his part to suggest they remain here.

He would not have sought her out at all had Jenkins not informed him that, ‘Miss Smith left the house half an hour since and walked in the direction of the stables.’ It transpired from his groom that she had already done so yesterday, instantly arousing Hawk’s curiosity as to why it was she had felt the need to visit his stables twice in as many days.

Unfortunately, as he looked now at a slightly dishevelled Jane, her face flushed, the soft pout of her lips slightly parted, Hawk knew that it was no longer just his curiosity that was aroused.

‘Your Grace…?’

He frowned down at her darkly. ‘Jane…?’

She looked at him quizzically. ‘You said you wished to talk to me.’

‘Did I?’ Hawk blinked, but the movement did absolutely nothing to dispel the tempting vision of Jane’s moistly parted lips.

Jane felt a frisson of alarm course through her as she saw the direction of the Duke’s gaze, quickly followed by a wave of heated awareness as that gaze moved down to the creamy swell of her breasts above her simply styled muslin gown.

She could hear him breathing now, feel the softness of that breath move over her skin as he suddenly seemed much nearer. Had he moved? She had not been aware that he had, and yet he was definitely much closer than he had been a moment ago.

Jane stared up at him in mesmerised fascination, held in thrall by the deepening gold of his eyes as he moved even closer, her lids dropping, lips parting, as he raised one of his hands to cup her cheek. The soft pad of his thumb caressed those parted lips with an eroticism that made her gasp as she raised her lids to look up at him with darkened green eyes.

He stared long and hard into those emerald depths before he groaned achingly, ‘Dear God, Jane…!’ His mouth claimed hers, his arms moving about her as he drew her close against the hard strength of his body.

His gloriously male body that only days ago Jane so clearly remembered viewing in all its almost naked glory. Inexperienced as she was, she had still been able to appreciate the broadness of his shoulders and chest, the stomach muscles clearly defined, his hips lean and powerful…!

And those firm lips—lips that could so often be thinned in disapproval or quirked in mocking humour—now moved against hers searchingly, devouring, causing Jane’s pulse to leap wildly and heat to course wantonly throughout her whole body as she arched closer against him in urgent need.

He should never have been tempted into kissing her, Hawk admonished himself impatiently, even as he began to press Jane back onto the warm cushion of straw. But the warmth of her body, her own enticing perfume, both acted as a heady temptation it was impossible for him to resist.

He lay half across her as he deepened the kiss, knowing by the way Jane’s body arched against his, by the fact of her hands now beneath his jacket as she restlessly caressed the length of his back through the thin material of his shirt, that Jane was as aroused as he was—even if her inexperience gave her no idea how to deal with that arousal.

Neither did Hawk know quite where this was taking them. He was aware only of the need he had to touch her, to taste her. His lips left hers to travel the length of the arched column of her throat, down to the creamy swell of her breasts, his fingers dealing deftly, quickly, with the buttons of her gown as he lowered the material to reveal pouting breasts covered only by the thin material of her chemise.

His fascinated gaze fastened on the rosy hardness of her nipples, clearly visible through that material, and lightly caressing fingers moved across those aroused tips, causing Jane to gasp before arching her back in breathless supplication.

It was too much. Jane was too much tempation for Hawk to be able to deny her. His glittering gaze briefly held hers before he lowered his head to draw one of those rosy tips into the heated cavern of his mouth, his tongue rasping across the already aroused nipple as he suckled her deeper into his moist warmth—harder, fiercer. He heard her groans of pleasure and felt her fingers curl convulsively into the hardness of his back, nails scraping as she held him tightly against her.

Hawk’s hand moved to cup her other breast, and he felt it swell beneath his touch, her nipple a tight bud as he ran the pad of his thumb across it in the same rhythm with which he suckled its twin.

His thighs were rigid with arousal, with the need to claim her fully, to slide into the heat that awaited him inside her before giving them both the release they craved.

He should stop now—should pull away from her before that need overwhelmed them both. But he was powerless to resist as he felt Jane’s hands unfastening the buttons of his waistcoat and shirt to push the material aside. She sought to touch his naked flesh, her hands echoing his own caress, and his groan was one of aching defeat as her tiny fingers touched his own hardened nubs.

No woman had ever touched Hawk so innocently, so erotically before. Jane’s lack of experience in physical intimacy gave her no boundaries, no set of rules to follow, and her fingers touched, caressed, her nails gently raking his hardness, causing his thighs to pulse wildly as he grew more swollen still, his arousal almost painful.

He wanted her. Now. Here amongst the sweet-smelling straw. He was filled with such an urgent need for posession, that his senses were fully awakened by the pleasure-ache of her caresses, the sweet, drugging sensation of her womanly perfume.

Jane had known herself lost to reason, to caution, at Hawk’s first touch, and she was totally unable to deny him now, as she felt his hand move from her breast to push the material of her gown up to her waist. He caressed the length of her leg from her knee to the aching heat that had pooled between her thighs. Her hips arched invitingly against him as he placed that hand against her most intimate place, cupping, pressing, those caressing fingers igniting a pleasure that Jane could never have imagined even in the nightly dreams she had of this man.

She gasped, falling back weakly against the straw, as Hawk’s lips, mouth and tongue continued to minister to her aching breast and his fingers began to stroke against her. Her head moved restlessly from side to side as she felt the pressure building inside her, her legs parting in heady expectation as the heat between her thighs became hot and urgent.

‘I told him that, no, I hadn’t seen the Duke out and about at all this morning. How about you, Tom? Have you seen him anywhere on the estate?’

Reality, like the icy shock of a bucket of cold water, penetrated Hawk’s desire-befuddled brain the moment he heard the voice of his head groom talking of ‘the Duke’. He raised his head sharply. The look of dazed shock on Jane’s face as she stared up at him told him that she was also aware they were no longer alone.

Hawk’s gaze darkened as he stared down at her—as he acknowledged the rumpled dishevelment of her gown, its skirt pushed up almost to her thighs, its bodice unbuttoned. Her chemise was clinging damply to her breasts, their nipples still hard and aroused from the ministrations of his lips, tongue and hands.

He gave a low groan of self-disgust as he fell back onto the straw beside her to stare up at the wooden ceiling above.

Dear God! Seconds ago, before this timely interruption, he knew his intention had been to make love to Jane fully. To take her here in the stables as if she were some willing serving wench, enjoying a tumble with her wealthy patron. As if he were some untried youth unable to keep his arousal in his breeches.

Forget his employees questioning his state of mind—Hawk now questioned it himself!

‘Hawk—’

‘Silence, Jane!’ he hissed fiercely, even as he moved to place his fingers against her lips. His head tilted as he listened intently and waited to see if his head groom and Tom, one of the grooms Hawk had brought with him from London, would venture farther into the stables in their search for him.

‘Nah. We’d see ’im if he was in ’ere,’Tom dismissed. ‘Better go an’ tell Mr Jenkins that we don’t know where ’e is neither.’

The sound of their boots retreating could clearly be heard before the stable door closed noisily behind them.

Hawk’s breath left him in a shaky sigh of relief as he heard their departure. But nevertheless he continued to keep his hand gently over Jane’s lips for several more seconds, just in case either Jack or Tom should change their minds and decide to give the stables a more thorough search for him.

At the same time he was aware that his precaution was not being taken entirely so that Jane should not do or say anything that would reveal their whereabouts. No, the fierce accusation in those green eyes as she stared up at him from behind that restraining hand was enough to warn Hawk that when Jane did next speak it was likely to blister his eardrums!

Deservedly so.

Damn it—not only was Jane a young lady without experience of physical intimacy, but the reason she was here at Mulberry Park at all was in order that he might protect her from such unwanted attentions.

He slowly removed his hand before standing up and moving as far away from her as was possible in the confines of the stall. ‘This was a mistake, Jane. A regrettable mistake.’ He ran an agitated hand through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘I should not—’

‘No, you most certainly should not!’ Jane acknowledged breathlessly as she scrambled hastily to her feet, her gaping gown clutched in front of her.

She stared across at him for several seconds before turning suddenly on her heel and running from the stables.

And him…