Magic in the Stars (38 page)

The horses whickered and stamped nervously. Laughing as
maniacally as she could, Aster took a handful of gunpowder from the pouch and
scattered it in the direction of the torches below. Her father—with his love of
fireworks—had used this prank on more than one occasion.

The powder hit the flames and popped. In a dramatic stage
voice, Jacques began chanting what sounded very much like . . .
toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron
bubble.
Trying not to laugh,
Aster
pointed her pitchfork at the men and cursed in more incomprehensible Latin,
flinging another handful of gunpowder.

The torches theatrically popped and flared, and terrified,
the intruders leapt for their horses. The gentleman in the tall hat led the
way.

“Call me a witch, will you?” she cackled after their
retreating backs.

***

Theo sat astride his horse, William beside him, holding
off what appeared to be several dozen angry farmers bearing torches. He didn’t
recognize the blackened faces of the ringleaders shouting strident war cries
about injustice.

He had a rifle and knew how to use it. He didn’t want to.
These could be his neighbors and tenants. They almost certainly had families.
But his workers would lose their employment if the manufactory burned. They had
families to feed. He was torn.

“I can sic the hounds on them,” William suggested dubiously.

“They have pitchforks. I don’t want dumb animals hurt any
more than dumb people,” Theo replied. His sarcasm seeped through.

“You sit up there in your fancy Hall, eating feasts, while
our families starve!” shouted one of the soot-coated leaders.

Theo felt a chill of unease.

Aster had said both the manufactory and the
Hall
were in danger. Surely, they
wouldn’t . . . ? He glanced over his shoulder to his home
standing like a rock in the distance. He couldn’t see more than the tower crenellations.

Her predictions were absurd . . . except when
they weren’t.

The Hall could withstand armies.

His family couldn’t. His
family
.
Aster. The twins. Duncan. All helpless. While he was down here guarding a
damned building. If Aster was right . . .

Aster had been right about everything else.

Fighting back a wave of terror, Theo gathered up his reins.
Superstition or not, he had to believe her. “Shoot anyone who carries a torch
anywhere near the manufactory. The Hall is in danger. I have to go back.”

He kicked his gelding into a gallop, slowing only to order
Browne and his tenants to divide in half—half to William and half to the Hall.
If he lost buildings because he’d believed Aster’s prediction instead of the
danger right before his eyes, so be it. He’d rather take that chance than risk
losing his family.

Theo was pretty certain his heart stopped beating as he rode
over the hill to see the gas torches flare on at the Hall.

He damned well stopped breathing when he saw the lone figure
on the stable roof—
Aster
. He’d
recognize her even if she’d been wrapped up as a mummy. He would kill her—if
she didn’t kill him first. What the devil was she about, flinging a cloak and
pitchfork and shouting like a bedlamite? He scanned the yard, looking for an
enemy.

His heart
did
stop
when he saw the last fleeing horseman turn and aim a shotgun at the roof. The
explosion of gunfire rattled the yard.

Aster screamed and slid down the far side, out of sight.

Panicking, unable to emit a sound, Theo kicked his lathered
horse into a gallop. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think until he’d reached
Aster. He traversed the final distance into the yard at breakneck speed. Heart
and head frozen, he could only act. Dropping from the saddle, Theo raced around
the stable, steps behind Jacques, who was shouting frantically.

He would kill Jacques another day. The huddled mound of
cloak and legs sprawled on a stack of newly-delivered hay was all Theo could
see now. His vocal chords and lungs returned. “
Aster!”
His frantic cry rang against the cobbles as he dropped into
the hay and lifted her limp form into his arms.

“Mmpf
” was his
only reply as she wiped at her face.

Oh, God, she was alive. He still couldn’t breathe. Every
muscle in his body had tightened into knots.

“You’ve killed me dead,” he muttered into her hair. “Tell me
you’re alive. If anything happened to you, it would just be easier if I died
now while my heart’s stopped working. Aster, for the love of all that’s holy,
tell me you’re alive
!”

“Straw,” she murmured, brushing at the cloak. “Mouth.”

“Fetch water,” Theo shouted at Jacques, who was dancing
around helplessly. “Tell the others to go after the mongrels in the lane.”

A month ago, he would have been racing after the bloody
bastards, whip in hand, with no thought to anything but his fury—because his
anger would have been more important than all else. But now—all that mattered
to him was in his arms. He wasn’t going anywhere until he knew his fairy
general would hold and kiss him again.

He hugged her closer, trying to determine if she was hurt,
but she merely snuggled against him and wiped her face on his waistcoat. He
wanted to weep but didn’t know how. “You could have broken your bloody neck!
Don’t ever do that to me again. I mean it, I can’t bear it. If what I’m feeling
now is love, it’s excruciating. I can’t live through this agony another time,”
he whispered, before Jacques could return.

She squirmed and kissed the skin above the opening of his
shirt. “Love hurts,” she murmured insensibly. “It’s so very painful when you
want to be with someone and can’t. I didn’t want to love anyone ever again.”

Theo gulped air and tried to steady his breathing by
covering her face with kisses. When she didn’t wince, he had to hope she wasn’t
injured too badly. “It damn well hurts when I’m with you and see you do insane
things like that!”

She sighed and turned her head so her mouth met his. Theo
sank into the kiss, needing the reassurance before he shook sense into her.

She placed a hand on his chest and pushed away to gasp for
air. “I didn’t run away,” she said proudly. “I
stopped
the danger I saw in my charts.”

“I’m not certain that’s a better solution. I was coming to
do it,” he grumbled, reaching for the water Jacques handed him.

“I’ve sent Browne and the others down the lane. I didn’t
know she would climb on the roof!” his brother said hurriedly. “Honest! We were
just scaring them off.”

“Go away.” Theo waved at him. “Go tell Dunc what’s happening
before he tumbles down the stairs trying to find out.”

Jacques ran off and Aster struggled to sit up, but Theo
wouldn’t let her. He fed her water and rocked her in his arms and tried to come
down out of the boughs she’d sent him into.

“You came back because of my prediction?” she asked in
disbelief.

“I couldn’t take a chance of losing you,” he said again,
because it bore repeating. He was still coming to grips with the realization,
and he needed to say the words to make them real. “You nearly yanked my heart
and soul out of my body just now. If I lose you, who will help me keep this
place whole? Unless you want to kill me, you have to vow that you’ll never risk
your life like that again!”

“Can’t,” she said with a cough after swallowing the water
too fast. “Even childbirth is dangerous.”

He took the flask away from her and pounded her on the back
as she coughed. “In your case, even drinking is dangerous. You’re a walking,
talking thundercloud. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

She sat up and kissed his cheek. “I love you too. Now will
you take me to the bathing room?”

She
loved
him. As
he loved her. It was a wondrous—unutterably terrifying—realization.

Aster allowed Theo to haul her from the haystack. With the
wind knocked out of her from the terrifying fall—then from Theo’s almost-declaration
of love—she was pretty shaky.

Had he really returned to the Hall because he
believed
her prediction?

She clung to his neck as he lifted her. She pressed kisses
on his bristled jaw and let his muttered curses and threats flow right over
her. She was his
heart and soul
! No
one had ever said such a wonderful thing to her. Her own foolish heart pounded
a timpani in response. She had never expected love, and she closed her eyes and
soaked up the bliss.

She would never have dragged that admission out of him had
she not risked her silly neck and dared to confront danger. She’d interpreted
her chart correctly—Uranus made her good at abrupt changes! Like declaring and
accepting love . . .

She was still shivering from being shot at, but her love for
Theo spilled over to warm her. She had not dared admit love, but when she’d
offered him her Malcolm vows, she’d already been head-over-heels. It had been
foolish of her to deny the obvious—so she would stop being foolish right now
while she still had the power to speak.

“I love you,” she murmured again in a break in his aggrieved
tirade. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

Theo carried her in the side door, kicked it shut, and
kissed her fiercely—then lifted his head and glared at her again. “You terrify
me. You always terrify me. I wasn’t meant to take care of others.”

She nibbled his neck. “That’s just plain silly. Just because
you never have before doesn’t mean you aren’t capable. You’ll learn. And you
can put me down now, honest. I’m not broken, just shaken.”

“I don’t think I can let you go,” he admitted. “What if you
decide to fly off the roof? Slide down banisters? How am I going to live should
you leave me? It’s too perplexing, so I’m keeping you right here where you
can’t escape.”

“I don’t think that will work very well,” she said with
amusement. “Perhaps you could just take me to the bathing room. Hot water helps,
and I can’t go far from there. You need to see who the intruders were. I know
Montfort was one, but I didn’t recognize the others. And they talked about
someone who wasn’t there, someone who caused Duncan’s accident. You really need
to stop the marauders before they grow bold enough to do worse. And what about
your manufactory?”

His arms tightened around her, and his lips formed a grim
line. “I will kill Montfort tomorrow. Browne can tie up the others and let them
rot in the fields until daylight. I don’t give a damn what William is doing to
the rioters. I want to look the villain who shot at you in the eye before I lop
off his head. Besides, I have just this minute vowed to put you first, before
any and all head lopping.”

She laughed a little against his shoulder. “You are starting
to sound like Ashford. There will be no head lopping, please. But perhaps you
should join me in the bath, then, and re-direct your hostility. You promised
we’d share and we haven’t.”

Theo’s grip loosened, and his mouth formed a softer line as
he gazed down on her. She was learning to re-direct her action-oriented husband,
she thought. His heated look took the chill from her bones without need of hot
water.

“That’s the best method to prevent beheading that I’ve ever
heard. We need to find a woman for Dunc so he can try that solution.” He kissed
her hard and carried her up the stairs in the direction of their suite and the
bathing room.

***

Holding a telescope, Hartley ran up when Theo and Aster
reached the upper corridor. “William has routed the rioters! The hounds are
chasing the leaders back to London, and the tenants are racing after the rest
with pitchforks.”

“Excellent.” Theo didn’t halt. “Now watch to see what
happens to the ones in the lane.”

Hartley cheerfully ran off, leaving Theo to carry his mad
bride to the tub.

He lit all the lamps and admired her naked, in the water and
out. Hot water did nothing to reduce his need as he joined her.

After making soul-satisfying love to his witchy wife in the
tub, reassuring himself that she wasn’t broken, Theo settled Aster in his arms
and thought he’d melt and become one with the water. His beautiful bride was a
creative and eager lover. He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her, but he
was more than ever determined to keep her for a hundred years.

She’d predicted disaster, and they’d averted it. How was
that possible?

She was nibbling his neck, and he was debating whether they
could just mindlessly spend the night in the bath when he heard a scratch on
the door.

“Do we have to answer it?” he murmured. Aster’s wet breast was
pressed into his chest, creating erotic sensations, and her bottom was
positioned precisely where he needed her. “And why are they scratching instead
of pounding and shouting?”

“Because I am a very good teacher.” When she pushed at his
arms, he reluctantly released her, and she stood up.

Admiring rivulets of water running from his wife’s exquisite
curves, Theo watched in amazement as she pulled a rope—and a . . .
drapery
? . . . cut off
the bath from the door.

“Enter,” she called, sinking back into the tub facing him.

Theo scowled at the curtain, as if it was at fault for the
intrusion.

“His lordship requests your presence, my lord,” a female
voice said. “They have captured the . . .” The maid hesitated
over the message. “The
miscreants
, I
believe he said.”

“Thank you, Molly. Have Mr. Ledbetter lay out Lord Theo’s
clothes, will you? My robe will be enough.”

Aster dragged her toe down Theo’s chest while they waited
for the door to close again. He caught her foot and nibbled the predatory toe,
then rubbed her feet until she groaned helplessly.

“Mr. Ledbetter?” he inquired while she leaned back and
hummed with pleasure.

“Mr. Browne recommended him, said he was batman for a
captain during the war. He’s a bit rough for London ways, but I thought he
might learn something from Jones and be more suitable for your equally crude
habits.”