Читать книгу Regency High Society Vol 3: Beloved Virago / Lord Trenchard's Choice / The Unruly Chaperon / Colonel Ancroft's Love - Elizabeth Rolls, Anne Ashley - Страница 14

It wasn’t until later that night, as she sat once again before the dressing-table mirror, absently pulling the brush through her hair, that Katherine began to appreciate for perhaps the very first time the effect her experiences in France were having on her: changing her attitude to a great extent; forcing her finally to face the fact that, when eventually she did arrive back in England, she simply couldn’t pick up the threads and continue that humdrum existence she had been leading in recent months, if she wished to bring even a modicum of contentment back into her life.

She might have been prompted by the purest of motives to agree to this venture. Yet she couldn’t deny that she had seized upon the opportunity offered to sever those ties placed upon her by Bath society and its petty restrictions. What eluded her completely was why she had lacked the courage, the self-confidence to do so long before now.

Oh yes, when her aunt had been alive there had been some excuse for remaining in that once very fashionable watering place. Sharp-tongued and frequently contrary her great-aunt Augusta had undoubtedly been, but from the very first she had proved to be excellent company, and they had rubbed along together wonderfully well. Since the elderly lady’s demise the previous year, however, the atmosphere in the Camden Street house had been for the most part sombre, alleviated only by those battles of will in which she and Bridie occasionally indulged.

Katherine shook her head, at a complete loss to understand why she had allowed herself to live such a repetitive, boring existence all these months, where all she had seemed to do was make and receive calls from the same circle of people. What on earth had happened to the spirited girl who had ridden at that next-to-nothing pace across the Irish countryside with her father, whose days had been filled from dawn till dusk with excitement and laughter? Oh, she was still there somewhere, hidden beneath that mantle of good manners and respectability which she had been forced to don in order to be accepted into the fringes of the polite world. How she longed to toss the restricting covering aside and just be herself again!

But had she not succeeded in doing precisely that in recent days? a tiny voice queried. Had she not, in fact, begun to reveal glimpses of that occasionally volatile and intrepid Anglo-Irish girl some time before embarking on this trip to France?

The second question, filtering through her mind hard on the heels of the first, induced Katherine to pause in her task of brushing her hair and to stare intently at her reflection, seeing not her own image in the glass but a scene in a crowded salon where she had confronted a tall, broad-shouldered ex-army Major, whose Rifleman-green uniform had set him quite apart from every other gentleman in the room. Dear God in heaven! Was it possible that she had him to thank for helping her to break through that repressive shroud of ladylike respectability? Or had Major Daniel Ross alone been responsible, without her having been aware of it, for slowly peeling away those layers of conformity and reserve to reveal increasing glimpses of the Katherine Fairchild O’Malley of yore?

A knock on the door interrupted these disquieting reflections. Assuming it must be the housekeeper returning her freshly laundered garments ready for the morning, Katherine didn’t hesitate to bid enter, and was mildly disconcerted to discover none other than the subject of her former disturbing thoughts purposefully entering, with a pile of clothes held firmly in his large, shapely hands.

The niggling resentment at his behaviour, his almost total neglect throughout the entire day, swiftly surfaced, instantly restoring her composure. She rose to her feet, so determined to air her grievances that she never gave a thought to her less than respectable state of dress.

Daniel, on the other hand, was instantly aware that the borrowed raiment left little to the imagination, and it took a monumental effort to draw his eyes away from the clear outlines of perfect feminine curves and oh, so enticing shadows to inform her that he had brought her attire for the morning.

Momentarily forgetting her pique, Katherine cast a brief glance at the neat pile of unfamiliar garments which he had placed on the chair by the bed. ‘Those are not mine. Am I not to wear my own clothes?’

‘No.’ An expression of rueful amusement flickered over his features. ‘I acquired these garments especially for you, on account of the fact that tomorrow you are to take on a new role—that of my nephew.’

‘Really?’ Although the smile she cast him could not have been sweeter, it didn’t quite disguise the return of the dangerous glint in her eyes. ‘Well, let us hope you display a deal more consideration towards your nephew than you did the sister you abandoned in this—this disreputable establishment!’

He held her disdainful gaze levelly, not too pleased himself to discover that she was no longer ignorant of the nature of her surroundings. ‘Who told you?’ he demanded abruptly.

‘No one told me,’ she admitted, incurably truthful. ‘I discovered it for myself.’

‘You mean you went wandering about the place, you infuriating girl!’ Hands on hips, he regarded her much as an irate father might an erring child. ‘I cannot take my eyes off you even for five minutes without you getting into—’

‘Had it been only five minutes,’ she interrupted, her voice no less censorious than his own, ‘I might possibly have remained ignorant of the fact that you, you unconscionable wretch, had abandoned me in a house of ill repute!’

‘Damn it, you little shrew, I did not abandon you!’ Sighing, he ran impatient fingers through his hair, clear evidence of a troubled mind. ‘I discovered from Josephine, shortly after we arrived here, it’s strongly rumoured that Louis XVIII has fled and Napoleon is now back in the capital. If it’s true, then I very much fear our country will once again be at war, so it’s imperative we get back to England as swiftly as possible. Josephine very kindly agreed to accompany me to the coast, where she made contact with a friend of hers who subsequently agreed to take us back across the Channel tomorrow.’

If this was meant to appease her it fell far short of the mark, for she had already learned of this earlier from her hostess during dinner. All the same, Katherine was fair-minded enough to appreciate fully his reasons for not wishing her to accompany them. She could not have been of any use whatsoever, whereas Josephine had proved of immeasurable help. Furthermore, if there still happened to be those out scouring the countryside in search of them, and there was every reason to suppose that there might be, Daniel wouldn’t have wished to put his good friend’s life in jeopardy by being seen in their joint company. And neither would Katherine herself, come to that!

Amazingly enough Katherine couldn’t help but feel a deal of respect for a woman who had suffered so much and yet had managed to withstand all the cruel blows life had dealt her. Despite the fact that the means by which Josephine was attempting to build a new life for herself, whereby one day she would be able to enjoy a comfortable and quiet existence in a modest house overlooking the Seine, could not but appal any virtuous young female with the least sensibility, Katherine couldn’t find it within herself to condemn the woman for making use of the experience which she had been forced to acquire during her turbulent marriage.

Nevertheless, she retained a deal of resentment towards the being who had seen fit to place her in the hands of a brothel-keeper, no matter how certain he had been that the greatest care would be taken of her. Surely he must have known her every feeling must be outraged? Or was it, perhaps, that he had considered her so naïve, such a ninnyhammer, that she would never suspect for a moment that she had been lodged in a house of ill repute?

Perversely, this very real possibility annoyed her more than all the rest, and she began to pace the room, striving to control her rising ire, and resist the very great temptation to hurl the hairbrush still clasped in her hand in the general direction of his head.

Daniel, watching her closely, was not slow to note the tense set of the perfectly proportioned, slender frame, nor the dangerous glint in those gorgeous eyes, before she had turned away to begin her angry pacing. Understandably, she was deeply offended, and not just mildly resentful too at being brought to such a place. But what other choice had been open to him?

Had she but known it, he had suffered the gravest misgivings, and even though his friend had assured him that every care would be taken, and Katherine would be safely placed in that totally private part of the building, where only Josephine’s closest friends were ever invited to enter, he hadn’t known one moment’s peace throughout the entire time he had been away.

‘Oh, come now, Kate, be fair,’ he urged, in a voice clearly laced with exasperation. He was tired after the many tasks he had been obliged to perform that day. He had not eaten a morsel since breakfast, and if the truth were known he was not in the best possible humour himself. ‘It isn’t like you to be missish. Do you think I would have brought you to this place if I’d any other choice? I couldn’t take you to one of the inns, and risk your being noticed. That hair of yours is an absolute bane on occasions. But at least I’ve managed to overcome that particular problem for the remainder of our travels. I had the forethought to acquire a hat.’

No response was forthcoming, and he began to grasp at straws. ‘Look on the bright side, sweetheart. Your situation could be a devil of a lot worse.’

This pronouncement was sufficient to stop Katherine in her tracks. She swung round to look directly at him, wondering whether she had misheard or he had taken complete leave of his senses.

‘Worse …? Worse!’ she echoed, regarding him in a mixture of outrage and disbelief. ‘How in the name of heaven, you blockhead, could my situation possibly be any worse? Behind me lurks Napoleon, no doubt amassing an army as we speak. Awaiting me across the Channel is a traitorous wretch bent on putting a period to my very existence. And I’m stuck here in a Normandy brothel with the … with the most notorious rake ever to hail from the county of Dorsetshire!’ She raised her eyes ceilingwards, as though seeking divine guidance there. ‘Ye gods! How the deuce could my situation possibly be any worse?’

The grasp Daniel had managed to maintain over his mounting exasperation finally snapped. ‘You damnable little virago!’ he growled back at her, raising clenched fists to the whitewashed plasterwork above his own head. ‘I’ll teach you to maintain a guard on that viperous tongue of yours if it’s the last thing I do!’

Only by the execution of some swift, side-stepping footwork did Katherine neatly avoid the long-fingered hand reaching out to grasp her arm. Daniel proved equally nimble in avoiding the hairbrush that she could no longer resist hurling in his direction a moment later, and which went harmlessly sailing past his left ear to hit the wall, narrowly missing the window. His growling threat of immediate reprisals sounded frighteningly sincere, for all that Katherine could clearly detect a slight tremor in his voice, though whether from laughter or anger she would have been hard pressed to say. And she wasn’t about to wait around to find out either!

The room which only minutes before had seemed wonderfully spacious appeared to have shrunk alarmingly, with the Major looming large and threatening within its walls. Her only means of escape was the door and she didn’t waste a precious moment in making a beeline for it. She was within a yard or two of grasping the handle, when her toes became entwined in the hem of the negligee, and only the strong muscular arm that snared her waist saved her from falling. The next moment she was lifted quite off her feet, and before she could so much as cry out in protest, she had been tossed carelessly down on the four-poster bed.

The two hundred pounds of solid bone and muscle that were swiftly lying half on top of her, not to mention the one strong hand effortlessly holding both her wrists captive above her head, made any attempt at escape rather futile. Torn between indignation and amusement, she stared up into dark eyes brightened by a gleam that was no less predatory than the grin which hovered about that shapely mouth only inches above her own.

‘Let me go at once, you great ox!’ she demanded, nowhere near ready to admit defeat, nor reticent to continue doing battle with the only weapon left to her.

‘Certainly, when you’ve apologised for your appalling behaviour,’ he responded, with all the smug satisfaction of someone who knew he had the upper hand.

‘My behaviour …?’ Incredulity succeeded in stilling her tongue for all of five seconds. ‘Fagh! That’s rich, coming from you!’

One dark brow quirked. ‘Are you going to apologise, young lady?’

‘Never!’ she avowed, stubborn to the last.

‘I was hoping that would be your answer,’ he surprised her by announcing before lowering his head, and masterfully preventing the unflattering string of epithets rising in her throat from passing her lips.

The instant his mouth touched hers, Katherine’s defences crumpled, and she found surrender far too sweetly satisfying even to contemplate a resumption of hostilities. Something lurking somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain was desperately striving to peal out a warning, but the chime was too indistinct and too swiftly silenced by the demands of a body aroused by that wholly masculine and intensely special touch.

Not one inch of her skin seemed immune to the wealth of sensations prickling through her as he removed his mouth from hers to trail his lips down the length of her neck to explore the hollows at the base of her throat. The instant the grasp about her wrists slackened, she raised her arms and wrapped them about him, eager to acquaint herself with the contours of a strong back and powerful shoulders. The guttural sound that instantly followed was no less satisfying than the demands of the mouth which once again captured hers, or the hand which stole beneath her to hold her so fast against him that her breasts both ached and tingled with pleasure at the hard contact with the large expanse of chest for those few brief seconds before he repeated an action which was rapidly becoming all too frustrating. Releasing her abruptly, Daniel once again proved that he could move with amazing agility for a man of his powerful build and was on his feet within seconds, leaving Katherine, bereft and bewildered, to stare up at him. He returned her gaze for a few moments, his expression wooden, devoid of emotion except perhaps for a trace of what might have been regret, then he swung round on his heels and headed across to the door.

‘I’ll leave you now to get some sleep.’ His voice sounded so coolly matter of fact that he might have been addressing a complete stranger, not the person with whom he had just shared an all too brief but exquisitely intimate episode. ‘There’s no need for you to rise early. We do not need to leave here until mid-morning.’

Determined not to give way to tears that could serve no useful purpose, Katherine waited until, without so much as a backward glance or a gentle word of farewell, he strode from the room. Then she lay and stared at the canopy above her head, at a complete loss to understand why he should have called a halt to an occurrence that innate feminine wisdom assured her he had been enjoying every bit as much as she had herself. Yes, he had done so before, she reminded herself, on two quite separate occasions. Somehow, though, this time had been different. For all his threat of reprisals, he had been gentle from the first, swiftly extracting a response that—God forgive her!—was all too swift in coming.

Ashamed though she was to admit to it, she could no longer deny that when in Daniel’s arms self-restraint and morality were all too easily forgotten, swept aside by a rapidly increasing yearning demanding fulfilment. Just the touch of his hand had the power to affect her like no other man’s had done before. But so it had been from the very first, on that bitterly cold January day, when they had collided with each other in the doorway of that inn and he had prevented her from falling.

How strange that she should recall the incident now; recall too that his touch had put her forcibly in mind of her father’s reassuring, protective hold. Yet there had been nothing paternal in the hands which had caressed her so gently not so very long ago, and honesty prompted her to admit that she was glad of it.

Drawing her eyes away from the lace-edged canopy, she glanced about the tastefully decorated chamber, clearly recalling its owner’s parting words after they had dined together. ‘You may rest easy tonight, petite. This part of the house is entirely private. Be assured too that, although the bed you sleep in is indeed mine, no man has yet been invited to share it with me.’

Although Josephine might have spoken no less than the truth, Katherine was brutally aware that one might well have been sharing it this night if Daniel hadn’t possessed the strength to call a halt before their mutual passion had taken them to a point beyond which there was no turning back.

For her sake, and most especially for his, it must never occur again, she thought determinedly, little realising that below, in the room which functioned as both dining and sitting-room, Daniel’s feelings on the matter were vastly contrasting and that he was equally determined that it should.

His appetite having deserted him, he had managed to consume very little of the delicious supper the housekeeper had kindly brought to him, and he rose from the table, taking both bottle and glass over to a comfortable chair.

Scant compensation, he mused wryly, studying the bottle for a moment before refilling his glass. All the same, it would need to suffice for the present, though there were times, he was forced to admit, when he wished he might forget that he was born a gentleman. And never more so than tonight!

Yet, deep down he knew he had done the right thing, the only honourable thing, he reflected, leaning back against the soft fabric of the chair. No, he could never have reconciled it with his conscience if he had taken advantage of the situation in which they now found themselves. For all that she could match his passion with her own, she was a highly moral young woman. Furthermore she trusted him. How could he betray that trust, even though he now felt quite certain that she wasn’t indifferent to him? When he did make her his own, and he would eventually, it would be on their wedding night and in his own bed, not in a room in a Normandy bawdy house. To have done so would have been to cheapen what he felt for her, and take cruel advantage of her vulnerability, not to mention her innocence.

No, there was not a doubt left in his mind now. Although at the beginning of this venture he might possibly have experienced no more than the desire to take her to his bed, that had swiftly changed. Katherine was the woman with whom he wished to spend the rest of his life. They were so right for each other in every way—almost kindred spirits. But first there was still that one huge barrier which needed to be demolished: somehow he must find a way to rid her of those foolish notions that she had allowed herself to believe in an attempt to protect herself from future hurt. He could not have her fretting unnecessarily, believing the worst every time he might be delayed in returning home, as most assuredly she would, unless he eradicated those fears completely and forced her to face the truth. Now was certainly not the time to make the attempt. Once they were safely back in England, once this foolish escapade was behind them, he would storm the citadel of her fears. In the meantime he must continue to maintain that control over his desires and emotions, which during the past couple of days he had succeeded in doing reasonably well, even though it had meant for the most part attempting to ignore her very existence.

‘Ah, mon cher!’

Josephine, smiling at him from the doorway, effectively brought his musings to an end, and he even managed to return her smile, as she settled herself on the floor at his feet.

‘I shall keep you company for a little moment. You have been up to see Mademoiselle Katherine and have assured yourself that she is well, no?’

Katherine’s welfare had been the first thing about which he had enquired on his return to the house. ‘Yes,’ he muttered, as memory stirred. ‘And all I received for my pains was a hairbrush thrown at my head. Damnable little termagant!’

Josephine’s gurgle of laughter was infectious, and Daniel found it impossible not to smile too. ‘Ah, yes, your Katherine certainly does not lack spirit.’

He stared down for a moment into the large brown eyes twinkling up at him, before transferring his gaze to the contents of his glass. ‘What makes you suppose that she is my Katherine?’

Full lips curled into a knowing smile. ‘If she is not already, then I suspect that it is your intention to make her so. And I am very happy for you, mon cher, even if it does mean that I have lost you.’

The small hand resting lightly on his knee did little to ease his frustrations, and brought vividly to mind a very satisfying interlude they had enjoyed the previous year. ‘What makes you suppose that you have lost me?’ The husky timbre of his voice betrayed clearly enough his mounting desire. ‘Katherine as yet has no right to place demands upon me.’

‘Her affection and her trust give her the right, my friend,’ Josephine countered, before rising to her feet. ‘I think you know that I could happily lie with you again. But I shall not. Even a woman in my profession has her pride. I have never yet shared my bed with a man who has left it regretting that he had been there.’

Daniel regarded her in silence for a moment above the rim of his glass. ‘And what makes you suppose that I would?’

‘Perhaps you would not until you had to face your Katherine again, and saw the hurt in her eyes, for she would know. She is no fool. Unless I am very much mistaken, she already suspects that you and I have found pleasure in each other, but she did not know you then. But she cares for you now. Do not hurt her needlessly. It would be better by far for you to face her with a clear conscience in the morning, so I shall place temptation out of reach.’

With a rueful smile curling his lips, Daniel watched her leave. ‘You’re a damnably astute woman, Josephine Carre,’ he murmured, before returning his attention to the only solace he would receive that night, and finishing off the wine.