Margo Maguire - His Lady Fair

There would be another night. A full night, hours and hours together, when her stamina would be reduced neither by pain nor by an inconvenient draught of valerian to ease it.

He wanted her fully awake when she succumbed to him.

Morning dawned, bright and sunny.

Maria lay quietly in her bed and listened to the bird-song outside her window. All else was quiet at Kirkham.

Except for the thundering of her heart. She did not know what had come over her during the night when she had nearly allowed Lord Kirkham to bed her. Nor did she understand why he had stopped his seduction.

She was grateful that Nicholas’s advances had not progressed too far while she was under the influence of the drug she’d drunk earlier in the evening. Yet his departure from her chamber had caused a terrible longing that persisted through her dreams and even upon awakening this morning.

She’d never experienced anything like what he’d shown her last night. Never an inkling of what a man’s touch could do.

But not just any man, Ria suspected. Only the hands and lips of Nicholas Hawken would ever have the power to excite her that way.

She shivered with the chill of morning and glanced about her room. This was how it would be to arise in her own chamber at Rockbury, she thought, in a deliberate attempt to remove Lord Nicholas Hawken from her mind.

With sunlight bursting through the windows, a soft bed with adequate quilts—mayhap even a curtain—to ensure ample warmth, and fresh rushes on the floor, she would have more than she’d ever known in her life. Peace. Comfort. Contentment. A place—a home—where she belonged.

She drew her knees to her chest, pulled the soft quilts up around her shoulders and thought about leaving Castle Kirkham. She was torn between her need to get to Rockbury and her desire to stay and explore the possibilities with Lord Kirkham.

What were his intentions toward her? Surely they were honorable, for he believed her to be a noblewoman. No man in Nicholas Hawken’s position would seduce a woman of gentle birth. And Lord Kirkham believed she was “Lady Maria.”

Ria told herself she truly was Lady Maria. She did not know if she would ever become accustomed to hearing herself addressed as Maria, or Lady Maria. ’Twas doubtful.

She considered telling Lord Kirkham of her quest for Rockbury, then decided against it. She was not sure of anything regarding her inheritance, and did not want to be embarrassed if it turned out she was wrong. She could not tell Nicholas she was the daughter of a duchess and heir to Rockbury until she verified the truth of the matter. Better to remain quiet until then.

Still, there was the matter of this attraction that blazed between them. How would a noblewoman act in these circumstances?

Ria thought about the many times young men had visited Alderton, and how her cousin Cecilia had behaved in their presence. Cecilia had spent several seasons at court in London, and was quite adept at managing all her young suitors.

Ria wondered if she could be as brazen and flirtatious, yet modest and demure as Cecilia was. Surely Cecilia would have known how to deal with Lord Kirkham when he’d arrived in her room last night.

“Oh! My lady!” a pert young voice said quietly. “’Tis early…I didn’t expect you to be awake yet!”

’Twas one of the young maids from the previous night. She turned and picked up a basin of steaming water she’d set behind her, then entered the room, closing the door behind her.

The prospect of hot water was appealing, and Ria slipped her legs out from the warmth of the quilts. She had decided nothing about her actions today, but much depended on the condition of her ankle. If it was well enough to travel, she would go.

If not, then another day or so at Kirkham would not harm her.

All was quiet in Kirkham’s stables. None of the grooms were about as yet, and Nicholas enjoyed the serenity of the morning. All too soon his guests would be up and about, searching for new and ever more wicked diversions, even as they suffered the effects of the previous night’s festivities.

Nick paced the length of the low building until he reached the last stall, where Lady Maria’s mount had been stabled for the night. Unlatching the gate, he stepped in with the aging mare and looked her over, though his attention was not fully on the horse.

Instead, he could only think of the hour he’d spent after his encounter with Maria during the night, tossing about in his bed, deliberately restraining himself from returning to join the lady in hers. He hadn’t been so stirred by a woman in…well, in quite some time. Perhaps never.

And he did not know why.

’Twas not any one feature that made Lady Maria so enticing, though she intrigued him as no woman had managed to do before. Nay, he could not quite determine what made her so attractive to him.

Perhaps it was her injury that made him feel so protective, so possessive. After all, he’d been the one responsible for her fall from this sorry nag.

Nicholas ran one hand down the horse’s forehead to its muzzle, then glanced at the teeth. He wondered how far Maria intended to travel on this ancient beast.

More than that, he wondered how he had allowed his attention to become so sidetracked by Lady Maria that he’d spent no time at all considering the Duke of Sterlyng and his treachery against England.

Nicholas barely knew John Burton. The man was of his father’s generation, and his friends were older noblemen. As far as Nicholas knew, Sterlyng had never expressed any wild tendencies in his youth, as so many well-born young men often did. The duke had been in the service of Henry of Lancaster when Henry had taken the throne from King Richard, and had been a loyal Lancastrian ever since.

To Nick’s knowledge, the man had no family, but was entirely dedicated to the service of England.

Was it possible he’d gone traitor?

If he had, Nicholas would prove it. Then he would personally see to the man’s execution.

Typically, Henric Tournay had seen to all the details for the day’s hunt. There was nothing left for Nicholas to do but ruminate over the letter he’d received on his arrival at Kirkham, regarding Sterlyng’s alleged treason.

Thinking of the methods he would employ in his investigation of Sterlyng, Nick took a leisurely stroll back to the keep and circled ’round toward the garden in back, where he and Edmund used to play as children.

The gardeners had done their work well, for the flower beds were raked out, and there were new, young shoots just beginning to poke through the winter-ravaged ground. ’Twas difficult for Nicholas to understand how anything could grow after the past winter, which had been uncharacteristically harsh, but he supposed that was life. It always seemed to renew itself.

He followed the footpath through the squat fruit trees with their gnarled branches covered with early buds, and headed for the secret part of the garden where he and Edmund used to hide from their tutor. Though not quite a maze, it was a winding path, and the deeper one followed it into the garden, the farther away from the world it seemed.

He had nearly reached the low wall where the vines grew thick when he heard a low, feminine voice speaking.

“Come down, you fierce little beast!”

Vaguely, Nicholas recalled similar words being spoken to him years before.

He grinned and walked on, following the cooing voice, and stopped when he rounded a set of tall evergreens. Lady Maria stood on her toes, trying to coax a kitten out of the crotch of a tree.

Regrettably, she was quite properly dressed this morning, in a deep blue velvet gown with long, flowing sleeves and a high neckline that would have pleased a nun. Her head was covered, as well, though her golden tresses were partially visible through the headpiece and veil.