Mistress at Midnight (26 page)

‘When the weather is clearer it is possible to see the ocean from here,’ Hawk said as he pulled his horse to a stop on one of the grassy knolls. ‘We used to swim there in the high summer.’

‘You and your brother?’

‘My father had a boat made for us that resembled a small scow and we would race up and down the beach, pretending to be pirates.’

‘A good childhood, then?’

‘Aye, it was that, but not anywhere near long enough.’

Aurelia nodded her head and tipped her
face to the sun, enjoying the warmth and the freedom. ‘My mother left of her own accord. A sickness might have been easier to comprehend and recover from.’

‘Mrs Simpson told you of the way they died?’

‘I asked her.’

‘You would have liked them and they would have liked you.’

The compliment was so unexpected she could not help smiling, her horse whickering and fidgety as she pulled on the reins. ‘Your mama had fine taste in clothes,’ she finally said, indicating the dark blue velvet riding jacket and skirt that she wore.

‘She had fine taste in everything,’ he returned, grabbing the horse and ordering it still.

It obeyed instantly, but the jag of awareness that had simmered beneath this ride suddenly boiled over, the touch of his fingers against hers laying nonsense to normal rationale, the wind off the embankment lifting her hair. When his fist closed tighter she looked at him and saw on his face exactly what must have been on hers.

The grass was long and a small cliff sheltered them from the wind and from any unexpected
prying eyes. Looking around, she had a view all over the valley. Apart from scattered herds of cattle nothing human moved.

‘Here?’ Her question was whispered, barely audible.

‘Yes.’ Only that as he dismounted and tied his horse to a bush beside him. Helping her down, he did the same to hers.

‘Come.’ He did not take her hand, but waited to see that she followed and a moment later they arrived at an overhang where the grass was thicker—a bed amongst the sky, a thin sun struggling through into bands of warmth.

His hand came out to touch the velvet collar at her neck, high and tight, before falling down across her breasts and her stomach.

Then her skirt was flicked up, the breeze against her bottom, only a small layer of lawn to stop him.

He brought her before him facing out and came in from behind, the barrier gone in a single tug and she held her arms backwards, clinging to his solidness as he entered her without a word, the heavy push of him making her arch. Here above the world in the cradle of the wind and with no mind
for communion other than that of the body, Aurelia accepted what she had known since the moment of meeting Stephen Hawkhurst on the dusty track of Taylor’s Gap.

She had wanted him then and she wanted him now, the dampness of her sex asking for for ever and as he cried out and shuddered she knew a feeling that she had never known before: that of a true belonging.

He held her, his arms around her, still linked by flesh and hands, his voice low against her ear.

‘Thank you, my love.’

The tone in his words was such that she could believe that she was his love, not just a wife picked out from jeopardy and married on a whim. Closing her eyes, she savoured the moment, doubts whipped away by the pressure of his body, enveloping her, safety in the fervency of his need.

And then he stepped back, the link between them fallen, his seed spilling down the insides of her legs as he turned her and took her mouth, desperate and urgent, teeth against her lips biting down, the slight pain of sex as tumultuous as the soaring joyous clench of relief, the shared breath between them allowing only the taste of each other.
Ravaged. She hung on as he calmed and held still, head falling against the deep blue velvet of his mother’s jacket and her hair covering his face with red.

‘It seems I cannot have enough of you.’

‘Then it is good that we are married, my lord.’

‘You are not upset that we should couple here, outside?’

‘In the sun and the wind and above a thousand acres of Atherton land? Nay, it seems more than appropriate.’

He laughed, loud and long, the sound in the wind coming back as an echo, free and jubilant; a Stephen she had not met before, but the one Lillian had spoken of at Woodruff Abbey.

‘God, Aurelia. When I first met you at the Gap I should have dragged you back to Atherton immediately and never let you leave.’

‘You were about to leap off a cliff, if I recall it rightly, so perhaps you had other thoughts upon your mind.’

‘I hope I would not have jumped.’ His voice was lower, more serious. ‘But war had deadened everything until we kissed and then…’ He stopped.

‘Then what?’

‘You made me feel again.’

Smiling, she raised her hand to his cheek, softly running her fingers into the hair at his temple and watching the gold in his eyes warm to honey.

‘Like this?’ she asked, her thumb rubbing against his lower lip. ‘Or like this?’ she added, feeling the line of his neck as the muscles in his throat tensed.

‘Like it all, sweetheart.’ He seized her fingers and brought them to his lips, his tongue sliding across the skin, leaving trails of cold.

‘I love you, Stephen.’ In his eyes the flicker of wary green ran into gold, but as she turned to her horse and mounted she knew that it would not be long before he would tell her all the things she wanted to hear.

Aurelia had allowed him her body and her mind in a generous and easy gift of taking. Even now as they turned for home, he thought if he reached for her again and called a halt she would let him slide into the hidden warmth, nothing held back or bargained for. Swearing beneath his breath, he stopped himself from doing just that because on the
horizon rain clouds gathered and it was a long ride home.

She was a siren with a heart of gold and the mind of an academic. She was a woman whose ardour matched his and who was not averse to any sharing.

He wished it were night already, all duties to others fulfilled and ten long hours to satisfy himself only with his bride. Yesterday had only been a taste of what he could show her and she was a woman of bounteous charms. He could hardly wait for the moon to rise.

Shavvon was waiting for them on their return and he did not look happy. A group of three other men Stephen recognised leaned against a coach, the horses newly run and breathing hard.

‘You are early.’

‘Delsarte is dead.’

He heard Aurelia take in a breath and saw Alexander Shavvon glance over at her, the indifference in his eyes changing into something else entirely.

‘So this is Aurelia St Harlow?’

‘She is Lady Hawkhurst now.’

‘You have married her?’

‘Indeed.’

Hawk did not expect to hear a quick bark of laughter or to see approval in deep brown eyes.

‘To keep her safe?’

‘More than that.’

‘More?’

‘I love her.’ There, it was said into the open, the ease of it surprising. He felt Aurelia’s hand stiffen on his arm where she held it.

‘You realise that there will be a price to pay, Hawk, for such recklessness.’

Staying silent, he listened.

‘If you stay for the next two years in the British Service, I will consider any debt discharged.’

Stephen’s heart sank at the request. For so long now he had been trying to escape, but if such a duty would keep his wife safe then so be it. When he nodded Shavvon smiled, but Aurelia had stepped forwards, a heavy frown upon her brow.

‘No. I will not allow my husband to pay for my mistakes, Mr Shavvon. Instead I will offer you the chance of apprehending more of the same ilk of Delsarte and easily.’

‘How?’

‘My mother is surrounded by men who
would harm England, men who with only a little persuasion may be tempted to take up the position that has been left empty by the demise of Delsarte. With a small expenditure of energy we might catch them.’

‘We?’

‘Lord Hawkhurst and myself. They would not trust others and would fall through the cracks of anonymity should you try to do it another way.’

‘Go on, I am listening.’

‘After this one mission we will be free, Hawkhurst and I
.
My mama shall be relocated to a part of France she feels safe in and the matter of Kerslake’s confidence shall be closed.’

‘You have married a python, Hawk, and she suits you exactly.’

When Shavvon held out his hand, indicating a bargain, Stephen allowed the first glimmers of humour to surface.

Aurelia was a woman of the world and she had fought all and sundry for the rights and needs of her family, just as she was now fighting for him. The warmth of loyalty spread out from his heart into the extremes of his body and, for the first time since he could remember, he finally felt he belonged.

‘We are staying at the Red Boar in the village and will await you there. We could make for London early tomorrow.’

‘Very well.’

As the coach moved down the driveway Aurelia’s hand came down upon his arm.

‘Did you mean what you said to him, about loving me?’ Her eyes were full of hope.

‘I love you, sweetheart, and always have done since the very first kiss on Taylor’s Gap.’

Her hand came up to her mouth, the dimples in each cheek deep.

‘I thought you might say it back to me,’ he teased when he saw she was speechless.

‘I love you, Stephen, more than life itself.’

‘Then let us hope that the task you have set us to do is an easy one and we can be back in London before the week’s end.’

‘And then it will be finished, this rottenness?’

He lifted her in his arms, sun above them and the vista of Atherton all around. ‘Completely,’ he whispered as his mouth came down hard.

Epilogue

T
hey arrived back in England twelve days later having apprehended the riff-raff of Delsarte’s minions and dispatched them into the hands of the British Service. They had also taken Sylvienne to a village outside Paris, to be installed in a beautiful old farmhouse Hawk had procured.

Her mother had been full of praise for her new husband and kept whispering that this was exactly the sort of man she would have picked had she been young again. This reconfirmed for Aurelia that Sylvienne had always been an adventurer and the marriage to her academic and timid father had been doomed from the beginning. Their parting was not their daughter’s fault after all, and
even that small understanding released a guilt that Aurelia had been cursed with.

Braeburn House was quiet as they came up the front steps and she hoped that her father’s health had not failed and that the house had run smoothly in the weeks she had been gone. She had written before they had left for Paris, explaining everything, and Hawk had employed a man at the warehouse to deal with business there.

Leonora saw her first and her eyes rounded in delight.

‘Lia. Lia. We knew you were coming because Mr Shavvon had come to tell us, but so early…’ She threw herself at Aurelia, tears of joy running down her cheeks, but pulling back a little as she saw Stephen beside her.

‘Lord Hawkhurst. Welcome to our family.’ The words were shyly said and, looking up at her tall and beautiful husband, Aurelia could well see why. There was not one single part of him that looked ordinary.

‘Rodney will be here soon and Mr Beauchamp.’

‘Mr James Beauchamp? Why?’

‘He is not at all as we thought him, Lia,
and he has formed an attachment to Prudence which she heartily returns.’

Such news was so surprising Aurelia could hardly ask the next question. ‘How did you come upon him?’

‘Rodney brought him around.’

‘And Papa? How did he take to all this?’

‘He smiles at James as if he knows him. In a way he does, too, because from the drawings of Papa as a young man there is a family likeness.’

The shouts of Harriet and Prudence stopped speech as the twins rushed in. ‘We have been watching for you, Lia, from the bedroom.’ They curtsied to Lord Hawkhurst before gathering Aurelia to them and Harriet began to speak. ‘The warehouse has been run by Mr Steele since you have been gone and he comes in with news of the day each evening.’

‘A good choice, then? I should have known you would be able to find a stellar employee.’ Aurelia turned to her husband with a smile on her face.

‘He hired a nurse for Papa, too, Lia. A real nurse who has been using ways to get Papa to walk more and eat by himself. A doctor comes, too, each day, from the hospital.’

Later that night Aurelia and Stephen lay together in the Hawkhurst town house, rain against the windows.

‘Before you came into my life, everything was difficult.’ Aurelia’s finger ran across his chest drawing circles as she spoke. ‘I thought that I should never know this…this…’

‘Bliss?’ he supplied and smiled as she looked up at him. Tonight under the candles her eyes glowed with a quiet happiness and her hair lay across him, the silk binding their bodies together. ‘Perhaps there is some God-given rule that allows those who have gone through hell to find heaven afterwards?’

‘Your uncle Alfred certainly thinks so.’

‘I have never seen him as happy as I did at dinner tonight.’

‘When we return to Atherton it would be lovely if he could come with us. He does not enjoy the city and…he seems lonely here.’

Hawkhurst swallowed, a sudden thickness obstructing his throat.

‘I cannot imagine what would have happened to me if I hadn’t found you, Aurelia. You are the only person who has ever truly understood me.’

He rolled across her, enjoying the curves of her body, lifting her hand up to kiss the small ring on her third finger that he had procured for her in Paris.

‘This is for ever, my darling, and I promise I will always love you.’

‘For ever,’ she returned and then her lips came up against his own, sealing the bargain.

All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.