Kissed by Starlight (38 page)

“Why didn’t you go? Why were you ever born, to be such a burden to me?”

“Mama....” Clarice stepped forward to pat her mother’s arm. “Why don’t you go to London? Or Bath? You’ve always wanted to go to Bath. A few weeks away from Hamdry will do you all the good in the world. You haven’t been the same since Papa died. Then all this upheaval. Yes, a little trip to refresh your mind is the very thing you need.”

“For God’s sake, don’t humor me!” Lady Stavely threw off her daughter’s arm with a violent motion. “You want me to go? Very well. I shall never come here again!”

She turned to leave. Ignoring her stricken daughter, she said to Felicia, “You have given me the means to go. I shall take everything you found — every stone, every ring. Try to raise your miserable brats on nothing.”

Catching the door with her hand, she slammed it shut behind her. The key turned and Felicia found herself once again locked in.

“I do so wish people would stop doing that,” she said under her breath. Then she began the task of comforting Clarice. “I’m sure she didn’t mean those things. She was angry. She’ll think the better of it. She truly does love you.”

Clarice shook her head. “She can’t take the treasure.”

“It doesn’t matter, Clarice. Are the servants still in the house?”

“Yes, some of them. Cook left. Your breakfast was made by the kitchen-maid.”

Giving the bellpull a sharp tug, Felicia said, “Promote her. She has an excellent way with an egg. But Clarice —”

“She can’t take the treasure. It belongs to Hamdry. After that Mr. Ashton plundered us, it’s all that does.”

The doorknob rattled. “Did you ring, Miss Starret?” Rose called.

“Yes, Rose. The door seems to be locked. Is the key there?”

“No, miss. I can’t zee it nowheres.”

“Is my mother out there, Rose?”

“No, your ladyship. She bustled by me not five minutes ago. On her way somewheres, I reckon.”

“See if you can release us, won’t you?”

“T’key to the nursery fits this lock. I’ll be bringin’ it.”

“Thank you, Rose. Oh, Rose? Did my mother carry anything with her?”

“Just her jewel case, my lady. Oh, and that Liza had a basket in her hands.”

“She wasted no time,” Clarice said in a low voice to Felicia. “Hurry, Rose, won’t you?”

“What will you do?”

“I don't know.” Clarice bit her lip. “Regardless of everything, she is my mother. I cannot let her go with only hard words between us. Besides, it is too late now. She should wait at least until the morning.”

Felicia put her arm about Clarice’s waist and offered her support while the maid found the proper key to let them out. The time seemed to go by very slowly. “What is taking so long?" Clarice asked.

A moment later, they heard the welcome scraping of the key in the lock. Rose stood there, somewhat flushed, and bobbed a curtsy. “Excuse me, Miss Starret, but a gentleman has called askin’ t’zee you.”

“I can’t see anyone just now.” She turned to Clarice. “Something about this nonsensical charge of your mother’s, no doubt.”

“Don’t worry about it. I shan’t accuse you of trying to steal a treasure no one knew anything about. Oh, what is it, Rose?” Clarice said impatiently.

“What am I to tell him, my lady? He’s very eager, miss, and oh, handsome!”

“Find Varley and have him put the man out. What good is it having a butler if he can’t throw someone out now and again?”

Felicia said, “Perhaps I’d better see him. What name did he give, Rose?”

“Oh, a funny one. What was it? You know, miss, he reminded me of that fly-by-night fellow as come here when William Beech went off on his own for ever zo long. Only this ‘un’s a gentleman. Was it Yard now? Or Flower?”

They walked along the upper landing together, the two young women shaking their heads as Rose ran through a list of names that were not quite right. The sisters were hardly listening, however.

“I shall have to institute a search for Mama. She’s so obstinate she could try to walk to town sooner than stay here another hour.”

“I’m sorry for this trouble.”

“It’s not your fault. It had to happen sooner or later. I could not live under her thumb for always. Now at least I have the chance to live as I like.”

Rose threw her hands up in the air suddenly. The two young ladies stared at her in surprise. “Gardner! I knew I’d snatch it off my tongue zooner ‘r later.”

“Blaic?”

He stood at the bottom of the staircase, looking up at her. Raindrops spangled his coat and hair. As she ran down the steps, he dropped his hat and threw his arms open wide. They closed about her with a firmness that laid to rest any doubts she had about his substance. She lifted her face to his, a thousand questions trembling on her lips. He kissed her passionately, answering them all.

Clarice and Rose stole away. Felicia only noted their going after a long time. His kiss took all her attention.

Before, even when he’d held her in his arms, she’d felt a distance between them, a gulf they could not bridge no matter how earnestly they each might wish they could. He was not a human being, and there was no escape from that essential fact. That had changed. She did not know how she knew, but it was as elemental a change as birth.

Felicia drew back to look up into his eyes. The faint lines that had always been there had deepened and his light hair had become subtly gray by the temples. “Blaic?’’

He smiled and the lines deepened. “Yes. It is I. Changed in every particular, except one. I love you.”

“But what of the Living Lands?”

“I could not stay there without you. I knew it when I stood in the midst of a crowd of my own People and felt utterly alone. Not even the hand of my father could change that.”

“Then you broke the curse?”

He grinned, and the expression brought back the rogue she loved almost as much as the man. “Not entirely. I still cannot sing without making the dogs howl. But the king agreed that loving you made me wise. Wise enough, at any road, to know where my happiness lies.”

“I know that too. My happiness lies wherever you do.”

Blaic lifted one of her hands to his lips. He kissed first the back, then, passionately, the palm. “I cannot now promise you forever....”

“We will have enough of forever to make me content.” Felicia threw her arms about him and gave him her lips in a promise no less binding than a marriage.

Three weeks later, after every search for Lady Stavely had long since been exhausted, William the Footman’s young brother led a somber party up onto the moor. Not far from a crumbled collection of black and weathered stone, a circle of dark green grass lay in high relief upon the hill. A sodden mass of black clothing had been dropped in a huddle just inside the green band.

Clarice hurried forward, but Blaic caught her by the shoulder. “Wait. I’ll do it.”

Clarice knelt as Blaic brought the things to her. “It’s all here. Her gown, her cap, even her petticoat and stockings. Even her shoes.”

“Wait for us down the hill, William. You, too,” Clarice added, with a half-smile for her former playmate.

“When Liza came back with the basket of jewels but without Mama, I knew something had to be amiss. But this is worse than I could have thought. What could have happened?”

Felicia answered because she knew Blaic could not bring himself to. “I think she must have done what you did once. Walked into the midst of a fairy revel. They don’t like that.”

“So they...killed her?”

“No,” Blaic said quickly. “No. I think they took her with them.”

“Why?”

He looked away from Clarice’s anxious eyes, up toward the rich blue sky beyond. “They might take her, if she asked them to. You said she overheard what Felicia told you about the Wilder World? I have heard the people here call it the Realms of Gold, or Tom Tiddler’s Ground, where gold and silver grows on the trees and can be picked up like leaves in the forest. Don’t you think your mother may have heard these tales?”

“I’m sure she must have. Liza knows them all.” Clarice turned slowly around to stare at the fairy ring. “You think she might have gone to find wealth there?”

“It’s possible. It is very rare but it’s happened before.”

“Will she come back?”

Blaic looked at Felicia behind Clarice’s back. Slowly, with sorrow in his eyes, he shook his head. Felicia hurried to the girl. “You’ll always have us. Blaic and I have decided that since Mrs. Danby’s sister is doing so well, we will continue with you at Hamdry until you come of age. Only if you wish us to, of course.”

Clarice caught her sister’s hand in both of her own. “You won’t want to be saddled with me. Not after you are married.”

Blaic walked up and slipped his arm about Felicia’s waist. “Not only do we require you to live with us, but my bride tells me that she refuses to go on any wedding trip on which you do not accompany us. I want to go to Greece again, but nothing will content her but Italy.”

“Greece? Italy? Oh, no, I couldn’t.” Her cheeks, for a moment so pale, brightened with excitement.

“You must,” Felicia said. “I have already engaged Melissa Bainbridge to come along as your companion. The sights there will do her drawing much good; I should not be surprised if she becomes a talented artist. I tell you, she raised the same objections. If you don’t come, she won’t either, and she would be cruelly disappointed.”

“I like Melissa. Very well, if you promise I shan’t intrude on your honeymoon.”

Blaic tilted his bride-to-be’s chin up and kissed her tenderly. Throwing up a hand to shade her eyes, Clarice exclaimed, “No demonstrations, please! I shall take your word for it.”

She cast her eyes again upon the pitiful bundle of clothes that seemed to be all that remained of Lady Stavely. “I shall miss her. Whatever her faults, she was my mother. I shall feel the want of her, I’m afraid.” Then she raised her eyes to her sister and future brother. “But at least I am not alone.”

As if uncomfortable at showing so much emotion, a moment later she’d run down the hill to join the two brothers. “She’s still just a girl,” Felicia said, leaning against Blaic, grateful as always for his solid warmth.

“She may be that, but she has already learned more about being human than I have.”

“You’ve only had a few weeks of it.”

“Yes, but I know enough to recognize a truth when I hear it. It is easier to bear mortality with someone else.”

He ran his hand down the side of her face and kissed her, pulling back just as she reached out to hold him. He turned away, bundling the sodden clothes into the basket they’d brought along. Suddenly he chuckled, as though at an errant thought. “I wonder how she and King Forgall will treat one another. She has many of the qualities of a queen, and he is not married.”

Felicia refused to be diverted. “Blaic...you have not...we have not....”

He took her by the arm and began walking down the hill. “And we shall not, until we are married. That much I have learned. What, shall we scandalize the town further? We are going to have quite enough to do in putting your reputation right as it is.”

“But I miss you,” she said, softly but urgently.

He stopped and looked her full in the eyes. The fires burning there stole her breath. “How do you imagine I’m feeling? Before I was not a mortal. Now I am and I want you with all the desire of a hundred men. But we are going to wait until we are married if it kills me — and it might.”

Everyone said it was a most peculiar wedding. The bride wore a blue silk dress that had obviously been through the mill. The groom wore a green coat and a covetous expression. Yet when they kissed for the first time as man and wife, not an eye on the church porch was dry. Much is forgiven a couple in love, and much was forgiven Felicia and Blaic Gardner, though that is not to say there was not many a strange tale told of them around Devon hearths for long days after.

The new-wedded couple were to leave that afternoon for Plymouth, where they’d spend several days before the bride’s sister and companion would join them for their sea voyage to Italy. This was also a wonder. No one had ever traveled so far from home with his wife. Grand Tours there had been, but those had been taken by young men with oats to sow.

As Blaic shut the bedroom door behind him, he said, “Sir Elswith presumed to give me some addresses in Venice and Rome. He said that by the time we arrived I should be ready for a change.”

“Addresses? Of tailors?”

“No, my love. Of bawdy houses.”

Sitting up in bed, Felicia said throatily, “I trust you told him that you had no need for such advice?”

Wrapped in his dark green dressing gown, he stood beside the bed holding a candlestick. Felicia blushed as his gaze passed over her nakedness, but she made no move to cover herself. When a dribble of hot wax landed on his hand, he started and set the candlestick down on the bedside table. Felicia noticed with a thrill of feminine pride that his hands trembled.

Thrusting aside the gauze curtains that shaded the bed, he reached for her. She went into his arms willingly, with a fierceness of need that matched his own. A small battle broke out, each determined to overwhelm the other with the unconditional essence of their desire.

The hot pull of his mouth on her breast, the heavy slide of his thigh between hers, the gentle heat of his hands drove Felicia beyond the boundaries of her nature. She found that she could be shameless as she asked — then demanded — more.

Her self-conciousness slipped away until she was all sensation, though vividly aware that it was Blaic kissing her, touching her, taking her to a place she’d only glimpsed when he’d loved her before. Now she could trust him completely, both giving and taking in a journey that had only just begun.

Exploiting the freedom that their marriage bestowed on her, Felicia wriggled out from beneath him just before he entered. She pushed him back onto the bed, gazing down at his beautiful masculinity. The change that had brought lines to his face had not affected his body. She ran her hands over his bulging arms and traced delicate patterns over the shivering muscles of his flat belly. She laughed, delighted and proud, when he groaned.

“Do you like this?’’ she asked as she glided one fingertip over his arousal.