Luke was sorely disappointed. He’d wanted a ride that would unclutter his mind, so he could think clearly, but such a ride did not exist in London. Not even in the park. There were too many people. Too much noise. What he wouldn’t give for the wide-open range right now, where he could just ride.
Like he’d done for years.
This was different, though. He wasn’t looking for his next adventure, he was running from the one he was in the midst of living. There was no denying that.
He knew why, too.
Aislinn.
Something had happened inside him when he’d seen that ring on her finger. His ring. The ring he’d purchased just for her. It was ridiculous to compare her to a cow, even for him, but the feeling inside him was the same one he’d felt the first time he’d seen his brand, the C Bar H brand, on a cow.
He’d owned other things in his life, but that first cow he’d branded as his own had struck a chord in him. He’d known at that very moment that he’d found exactly what he’d always been looking for his entire life. He’d been proud of that.
He sure as hell had never been looking for a wife, so feeling that same thing for Aislinn was beyond ridiculous.
Sure, he cared about her.
Had since he’d seen her puffy, teary-eyed face on the road. Hearing how Percy had sent a slip of girl out into the world, with nothing more than the clothes on her back had angered him. But he’d already been mad at Percy by that time.
He should probably be mad at Percy over this, too, but he was reasonable enough to admit that Percy hadn’t forced him to marry Aislinn. He’d done that all on his own. Even though he still didn’t know why Percy had wanted guardianship over her, that hadn’t made or broken the deal. He’d already cared about her by then, cared what happened to her.
She wasn’t the first person that he’d cared about. Besides family, there was Raf. Hell, he’d even cared about the dance hall gals he’d pulled out of the river. Hadn’t wanted to see them drown. He’d cared about that little lost boy, too.
Aislinn was different, though. Right from the start, he’d wanted more than just to save her. He’d told himself it was because he needed help. Needed a partner. Fact was, he’d wanted to keep her safe.
There was another truth he had to face. He’d agreed to marry her partly because he didn’t like the idea of her marrying anyone else. He just couldn’t admit that. Not even to himself. Hell, his own selfishness had created a mess.
More truth rained down on him, concerning how self-serving he’d been for years. He’d been glad that he was born last, so he wasn’t obligated to do anything except what he wanted to do. Even the plan he’d come up with while travelling back to England, to find someone to take care of Fern and Ivy while he returned to America, had been selfish.
He needed to grow up, face the facts. His years of being foolish, selfish, were over. He’d had his fun; it was time to settle down and accept the lifelong commitments that were now his burden to bear.
Damn it, he’d be proud to bear those burdens. Proud to fulfil Rowland’s wishes, and God willing, if he gave her enough time to get used to it, maybe one day, Aislinn would be proud to be his wife.
‘Imagine that. I don’t see you for years, and now it’s twice in the same day.’
Luke looked up, saw Michael Cunningham reining in the coal-black horse approaching.
Pulling up a grin for his friend, Luke said, ‘Must be your lucky day.’
‘Hope so. I’m on my way to the club. Join me?’ Michael lifted a dark brow. He had a long face, with a straight nose and deep-sunk eyes, which only looked deeper with his brow raised. ‘I won’t be there but a couple of hours. Promised I’d be home before the dinner hour. You know what married life is like. Keep the wife happy, and she’ll keep you happy.’
Although Luke knew full well that didn’t begin to compare to his marriage, he figured there was a good amount of truth to it. The other truth was that he wasn’t ready to face Aislinn. Yet. She’d ended up married to him through no fault of her own, and he had to remember that. ‘Thanks for the invite,’ he told Michael as he turned his horse around, so they were heading in the same direction. ‘Sounds good to me.’
‘Excellent.’ Michael nudged his horse forward. ‘The men there are going to be glad to meet you. The Duke—’ Michael shook his head. ‘Your brother Rowland talked you up higher than the hills. Made you into some sort of fable. Even read parts of your letters aloud.’
Luke chuckled. His brother had been proud of those letters. ‘He wrote me about you, too. Told me he went to your wedding.’
‘He was there, and I know I already said it, but I’m sorry about his death. He was a good man, and is missed by many.’
‘He was,’ Luke agreed.
‘You’ll see plenty of faces that you remember,’ Michael said as he nudged his horse into a trot. ‘I guarantee it!’
Luke took the challenge of a race and urged the thoroughbred into a run.
Minutes later, he waited for Michael to dismount and tie up his horse next to the thoroughbred, before they strolled through the door of the gentlemen’s club. Luke scanned the area filled with tables, tall wingback chairs, and men. Nearly every one of them had a cigar between their fingers, and a heavy haze of smoke hung below the ceiling.
Their entrance had gone relatively unnoticed, until Michael stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a sharp whistle.
‘Hear ye, hear ye,’ Michael shouted good-naturedly. ‘The long-lost Carlisle brother has retuned and has agreed to grant us his presence.’
To Luke’s surprise, laughter and applause erupted. Good thing he hadn’t had his heart set on playing cards, because that didn’t happen. The next few hours were spent catching up with names and faces, though they all looked older than he remembered, as well as meeting new ones. He joined in on a couple of toasts in Rowland’s memory and heard some outlandish renditions of the letters he’d written. He also accepted congratulations on the marriage proclamation that had been printed in the paper that morning. Some questioned if his wife had sailed from America with him, while others jokingly declared that she had to be the one he left behind, his true reason for returning.
His response, that they’d have to see for themselves that her beauty compared to no other on either continent, made the men laugh and elbow each other as if he jested. He knew that was the solemn truth. Aislinn’s beauty was incomparable.
When Michael proclaimed that it was time he leave, Luke agreed. Once they finally made it out the door, for every table had stopped them to say a few parting words, both he and Michael jogged to their waiting horses.
Their parting gestures were simple, quick waves, because Michael didn’t want to be late for dinner, and Luke was ready to be home. Ready to see Aislinn.
She was in the front sitting room, along with Fern and Ivy, playing a counting game on the table in front of the sofa. The girls quickly rose as he entered the room and raced towards him.
‘I apologise,’ he said. ‘I do hope I haven’t kept dinner waiting too long.’
‘No, not at all,’ Aislinn said. ‘I requested the final preparations wait until your arrival.’
Her transformation from governess to lady had not only happened overnight, it had been flawless on her part. Another validation of her underlying courage and aptitude. She should be proud of herself. He was proud of her, proud to call her his wife, as he had done for the past several hours. But that didn’t change the fact that he’d pulled her into a life she hadn’t wanted.
He’d been there and knew how that felt.
Meeting her gaze directly, he gave her an appreciative nod that wasn’t related to delaying dinner. ‘Thank you.’ Then he knelt down, and scooped up both girls.
‘I rode Half-Pint again,’ Ivy said. ‘By myself.’
‘You did?’ he asked, while carrying them across the room.
She nodded with great pride.
‘So did I,’ Fern said. ‘Aislinn walked beside us and Mr Moore led Half-Pint.’
‘When can I ride your horse?’ Ivy asked.
Surprised, yet catching the smile on Aislinn’s face, he said, ‘Well, I’m sure we could arrange that soon.’
‘How soon?’ Ivy asked.
‘Perhaps tomorrow,’ he answered, happy to see that she was speaking up for herself, rather than following in her sister’s footsteps.
‘Time to put away your game,’ Aislinn said, rising to her feet.
He set the girls on the floor, and as they hurried to collect the pieces off the table and put them in a basket, he moved closer to Aislinn.
‘I believe you found something that Ivy adores.’ Her head tilted slightly as she added, ‘Horses.’
‘It appears so.’ He touched the side of her face with one knuckle, thinking to himself that he’d found something that he adored, too.
She looked at him quizzically.
The want to kiss her was damn near overwhelming. He dropped his hand. ‘I’ll go change my jacket. I smell like cigar smoke.’
A smile formed as she nodded. ‘Yes, you do.’
‘I met up with some old friends,’ he said, heading towards the door. ‘I’ll tell you about it later.’
Besides changing his coat, Luke washed his hands and face, and also added a quick splash of cologne, before he headed back downstairs, just in time for the dinner announcement.
As they had at the noon meal, Fern and Ivy and their conversations enhanced the meal with a glow of enjoyment. After they finished dessert, a rich chocolate cake that the girls had gobbled up as if they hadn’t eaten anything else, they retired to the drawing room, where he taught the girls how to play checkers. They were quick learners and were soon playing a game between them.
‘I can’t believe you haven’t taught them to play checkers,’ he said to Aislinn.
A pink blush covered her cheeks. ‘I didn’t know how to play.’
‘You didn’t?’
Aislinn’s breath stuck in her throat. Luke was looking up at her with such astonishment in his eyes that she should have laughed. Would have, if she’d been able to breathe. He was so handsome, and the way he was sitting on the floor with Fern and Ivy, the checkerboard set out on the short table in front of them, was so endearing.
He’d been so patient in explaining the game and showing them how to play, that her heart felt as if it had swelled inside her chest. Swelled with something strong and powerful.
He laid a hand on her knee. ‘You can’t be serious. Everyone knows how to play checkers.’
She forced air to enter through her nose and let it out slowly. ‘I never learned.’
‘They didn’t have games at the orphanage?’
‘Yes, they had some, but I was too old for games when I arrived.’
‘Too old? You were only seven.’
She was surprised that he remembered that. ‘Which was old enough to look after the younger children.’
He frowned. ‘You’ve been taking care of children your entire life?’
‘Yes, but it’s what I love to do.’ That was the honest truth. The other truth was that the touch of his hand on her knee was sending a swirling warmth throughout her system. Her mind was aflutter with thoughts, and she couldn’t have moved if the house was on fire as he slowly rose off the floor and sat down on the sofa beside her.
She couldn’t say what was in his eyes, because she didn’t recognise what was there, but it caused her breath to lodge in the back of her throat again.
He took a hold of her hand, his touch tender yet firm, and stared at her for what felt like an endless amount of time.
‘You’re good at it, too,’ he said quietly. ‘Taking care of children. Very good at it.’
Then, before she knew what was happening, he learned forward and placed a kiss upon her forehead. A kiss so gentle and tender that she grew light-headed enough to swoon.
The woodsy, manly scent of his cologne, and the way his fingers wrapped around hers a bit tighter, added to the already heady sensation encompassing her.
‘But,’ he said quietly, ‘if that’s all you’ve ever done, how do you know there’s not something you’d love just as much?’
‘I just do,’ she whispered, before she completely lost her senses, as well as her ability to speak. Her mind had suddenly become focused on one thing. His lips. How it would feel to be kissed by him. Really kissed. On the lips.
His eyes were looking at her lips, and that alone was making them tingle. It was making her heart race, too. When he licked his lips, such a crazy flip happened inside her stomach that she had to bite down on her bottom lip to hold in a gasp.
Aislinn wasn’t sure what she heard, perhaps one of the girls did something, or made a sound of some kind, but it was enough to make her turn to the table and suck in a deep breath, hoping to settle her insides.
‘Forgive me, but I have a bath ready for the girls.’
Aislinn heard Claire’s voice, but it was yet another moment before she could respond. By then, Luke had already reacted.
‘Off you two go,’ he told the girls, while gathering the black and red chips into a pile. ‘We’ll be up to say good night after you’re spanking clean.’
‘What’s spanking clean?’ Ivy asked.
‘He means sparkling clean,’ Aislinn said, giving Luke a quick glance.
‘That is exactly what I mean,’ he said. ‘Sparkling clean. I’ll pick up the game. Off you go.’
The girls agreed to that and hurried towards Claire.
Once they were out of sight, Luke stretched his arms over his head, with his fingers threaded together.
She heard his knuckles pop and looked his way.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
‘Ready for what?’
‘To learn how to play checkers.’
She shook her head. ‘I already know.’
‘You said you didn’t.’
‘I didn’t, until you taught the girls.’
‘Oh, no. You don’t learn by watching, you learn by doing.’ He slid off the sofa and onto the floor. ‘Red or black?’
‘Red,’ she said, tucking her dress tight beneath her so she could slide off the sofa to sit on the floor beside him.
He won the first two games, but by the third one, after listening to his suggestions, she’d caught on to the strategy and won. Although she did wonder if he let her win.
‘You said you saw some old friends today,’ she said while they both set their chips on the back squares again.
‘I did. I ran into Michael Cunningham again, and he was on the way to a gentlemen’s club. I went along and saw people I’d completely forgotten about. Rowland frequented the club regularly and had read excerpts of my letters there.’
‘He had?’ A feather of hope tickled her insides. ‘More than just the beginnings?’
‘Yep.’
More than one feather tickled her, turning hope into excitement. ‘So other people know the truth. The entire truth?’
‘They do. Any member of the courts who visited that club, and there are several, would know the truth.’
She laid a hand atop one of his. ‘That’s wonderful.’
‘Yes, it is.’ He clasped a hold of her hand, then pushed up off the floor and sat on the sofa, tugging her hand so she would join him.
She did so.
He still had a hold of her hand, and softly kissed the back of it, an action that once again played havoc with her insides, although she was getting used to it and was finding it to be pleasurable.
‘They had also read the announcement in today’s newspaper about our marriage,’ he said. ‘And I’m afraid that we now have a somewhat lengthy list of invitations to a variety of social events.’
Her stomach dipped. ‘I’m sorry.’
Frowning, he asked, ‘Sorry for what?’
‘The list of invitations. I know you don’t like social events.’
He looked at her for a moment before his grin grew. ‘Perhaps that was because I never went to any with the right person. That makes a difference you know. The right person can make all the difference in the world.’
She nodded, because that was true, but the way he said it made her wonder if he’d only said that to make her feel better, if he truly still didn’t like social events.
He gave her hand a squeeze, then released it and stretched his arms across the back of the sofa as he leaned back. ‘I wish that I could have been a mouse in the corner when Percy learned about our marriage.’
She leaned back against the sofa, too, as a real sense of dread washed over her. ‘Do you think he already knows?’
His arm behind her dipped down around her and his hand grasped her shoulder, tugging her up against his side. ‘Probably. Whoever he has on the inside at the courts would have read the announcement in the paper today and sent him a message. I expect him to arrive in London within a day or two.’
Although she probably shouldn’t, she liked the comfort of being next to him, the feeling that she wasn’t alone in all of this. ‘What are we going to do about that?’
‘Live. We’ll attend the events just as Mr Watson suggested, but other than that, we’ve done all we can do. It’s up to the courts now.’
A pit formed in her stomach.
He rubbed her upper arm. ‘Mr Watson has requested that only complete letters be used as evidence. After today, when I confirmed what Rowland had read to patrons at the club, even if Percy alters the letters to make them look complete, others will already know the entire truth.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘I am.’ He leaned his head towards hers, until their temples touched. ‘Now that we are married, Percy doesn’t have a leg to stand on.’