The Rake and the Recluse REDUX (a time travel romance) (74 page)

He stood and moved to the door, hoping she would be all right alone in this room. Because there was no way he could stay here with her and not hate himself the next day.

Perry didn’t sleep a wink that night; instead, his ear was practically pressed to the wall for fear she would have night terrors. She didn’t, by the grace of God, and he was dressed and prepared to travel on at first light. He met his men in the stable yard as they were hooking up the landau.

“This simply will not do.” He looked to Kerrigan. “We need to take the train. Traveling with Lilly simply will not work.”

“I believe the line from London is finished through Carlisle, the next train should depart in the morning. We can take the train from there. I’ll send a wire to prepare a private coach and make arrangements for the team and carriage.”

Perry nodded and turned back to the inn to find Lilly at the window of her room, gazing down from above like an angel wrapped in white. “I’ll go— Eh, I’ll go get our charge prepared to travel.”

“Milord—”

Perry turned and put his hands up. “What? Tell me how this is to be handled. I am managing by a thread.”

“Milord. I only meant to say we shall be ready to quit the inn at half past.”

Perry’s mind emptied. He blinked, attempting to restart his thoughts to no avail.

“Milord. Half past.”

He shook his head and pivoted toward the inn.

Lilly met him at the door, smoothing her gloves over her knuckles, the drab woolen traveling dress she’d worn yesterday like a curtain in front of their previous ease. “Milord, how can I help?”

“You are my guest, you are not my servant. My men can handle the arrangements. We will travel on to Carlisle where we will take the train to London. We will arrive late tonight if the train leaves on time. “

She nodded and took up her bag.

Perry handed her up to the carriage. “The next train won’t leave Carlisle until the morning, so we will spend the day in the country, staying the night and leaving early tomorrow.”

She didn’t respond as he took the seat across from her. The carriage swayed as his men boarded. When it lurched, he leaned down to take her foot. She pulled away and he gave her a warning glance.

“Trust me,” was all he said, from the approximate vicinity of her knees. His skin warmed where he held her. He ran his fingers down her leg, then grasped her ankle when she tried to pull back, lifting her leg up across to his knees. Removing her ankle boot, he massaged her foot. She jerked, but he held fast. “There is more to intimacy than the sexual act,” he murmured. “There is more to learn, beyond how to be with a man in a state of undress. Anyone can learn that easily.”

She watched his long fingers wrap around the bridge of her foot, massaging, working, tensing, relaxing. She had never been touched in such a manner. She slowly loosened into his hold, concentrating on the feel of his hands on her.

She finally leaned back into the squabs and looked out the window, settling in for the ride to the station.

The rest of their journey would be completed by rail, and the prospect of a train ride excited her. As per His Grace’s plans, the final leg of the rail line replacement was underway and would be complete within the next two weeks, before his house party. It was all the talk back at Eildon.

She took a deep breath and felt him replace her boot, fastening the hooks then carefully setting it on the floor. He reached for the other. She watched him move, willed herself to sit peacefully, but her nerves jumped nonetheless and her foot jerked. She shook her head and closed her eyes when he looked up to her with a half smile, holding her foot solidly to prevent her kicking him in the jaw.

He wrapped his warm hands around her leg through her skirts, chasing the tremors away as he stroked. She breathed deeply and slowly. Concentrating on the pressure from his hold, the sweep of her skirts against her over-sensitized calf, the lulling sway of the carriage, the bright warm sun through the wide curtains in the box. She closed her eyes and gave her senses rein.

The fact that she fell asleep easily under his ministrations confirmed that she had not slept the night before, just as he hadn’t, thereby explaining the lack of night terrors he was sure she suffered. He pulled her across the carriage, tucking her against his side and pulling her legs across his. He studied her features, how the tension slowly softened. The carriage rolled along, avoiding the large ruts from the previous night’s storm. Occasionally her features would strain and he would caress her hand, carefully releasing the tension, allowing her deeper sleep.

How am I to survive this?

They pulled through a gate into a high meadow to break their journey and take lunch. Perry jumped down from the landau and lowered Lilly to her feet, then pulled a rug from the boot, taking it and the basket of repast to a nearby great oak. He spread the rug as his men saw to the horses and set to their own feast at the back of the carriage.

Satisfied, Perry looked over to Lilly, who seemed torn between joining his men and staying where she was. Perry grunted. How could it be she had nary a thought for joining him after all they had shared?

“Lilly, you cannot possibly feast with my men. You will have to suffice with my company for luncheon. I do beg your pardon for not having separate arrangements for you. I should have considered your position. The men will not think on it, for there is no other choice,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

She walked slowly to his side, then knelt on the opposite edge of the rug. He hadn’t fully realized how difficult their separation of status would be, or how it might pain her to cross those boundaries.

“Please take as you will, there is enough for an army here,” he said, pushing the basket toward her. “Are you enjoying the journey as yet?”

“Very much, milord. I haven’t ever been this far south, of course, never more south than Roxleighshire, really.”

He watched her take a stem of grapes, savoring each one, then poured her a glass of sweet wine. “Tell me of your family.”

“You know Meggie, my sister. There’s Keegan and Patrick, my brothers, and of course Ma and Pa. Just us six there. But the people in Kelso are terribly close, as we all take care of each other. Well, we have to, since we’re so far from the rest. I mean, not so far as London, mayhap, but we prefer to be afar, ye see.”

“It must be something in the water up in the north country, as my brother tends to that same affliction.”

“His Grace must be the most wonderful man there is up north, milord. He sees to us all without complaint. We’re ever so distant from the seat, but still he takes care of us as need be. I hear tell of many a landowner that has no countenance for support to the lands not directly in his grasp.”

“He is quite dedicated to his entailments, of which Kelso is undoubtedly one, regardless of its removal from the seat of the dukedom. His Grace sees no difference in status between the entailments of the dukedom and the entailments of his earldoms and viscountcies. That, in truth, is what makes him possibly the greatest duke in Britain.” He paused, sipping his wine. “Of course, I do carry a partiality,” he added with a grin.

Lilly giggled, and the sweet sound of her laughter broadened his smile. He let it drift over his skin like silk and cast it to memory, pledging himself to force the sweet notes from her as often as he was able.

“Milord.” The word was tense and he knew what was next.

“Lilly, do not.”

“Please, sir, you do not know how difficult it is for me to even ask this of you. A viscount, for heaven’s sake! I’m nobody, and you’re a viscount. I shouldn’t even be speaking with you, much less…” Her voice trailed off. “This cannot be too much to ask, your reputation—”

He rubbed his eyes. “Is not based on the ruination of innocents.”

“I’m no innocent.”

“But you are, in every sense of the word save one. You are. We cannot be together. It would not be right.”

She shook her head. “Have you ever wondered about the aristocracy? How God chooses one man to be born a duke and the next in a gutter?”

“I cannot say as how I had ever thought on this until I met you.”

“And now?”

“Now I wonder how I could have been so fortunate. Touched by God to be a leader among men, and what have I done with that as yet?”

“You served in the Royal Navy, milord. You served Queen and Country.”

“Then returned only to serve myself.” His jaw clenched and he twisted away from her.

His coachman, Gardner, walked up to gather the basket. “Milord, ‘tis time we got on,” he said, startling Lilly to her feet with a squeal.

Perry stood and caught her as she swooned, dismissing his man with a wave. “Lilly, sweet Lilly,” he said, smiling gently as he bundled her back down to the rug with him.