Chapter Twenty-one

 

It was less than ideal to ride through the pitch black of night to Gretna Green and Phillip held her close in the rattling confines of the carriage for two hours before he decided that they’d gone far enough.

He signaled the driver to stop at the next decent inn.

“Are you sure, Phillip?” Raven asked.

He smiled. “We’ll get there soon enough and since in this instance, we have no angry guardian to elude but instead are going happily of our own accord—I don’t see why we can’t stop and get a decent night’s sleep.”

Raven cheered instantly. “I would like to be fresh for our wedding and not a bruised and travel weary harridan.”

He laughed. “Well, when you say it like that, we should have stopped in the village six miles ago!”

She rewarded him with a kiss to his cheek and a playful nip at his earlobe. “Be kind, husband-to-be!”

“I shall do my best to please you, wife-to-be.”

The carriage stopped soon enough and the lovers alighted at a small humble establishment set at a crossroad. Raven waited at the carriage and helped point out which small valise to take inside while Phillip went ahead of her and paid the innkeeper for the best room he had available.

As they wearily climbed the stairs, Phillip held her hand with one arm protectively out to keep her steady. The innkeeper pointed at the door at the end of the hall. “It’s there. Here’s a tray with some libations for you and your missus. If you need anything else, just call down the stairs.”

Phillip awkwardly took the tray and Raven smiled as the man abandoned them to their own devices. “He was…very gracious.”

Phillip laughed. “Nothing but the best for you, my love!”

“Come, let’s see what your coin has bought us for the night.” Raven pushed open the door and sighed happily. It was a simple room but clean and not as drafty as she’d feared. For several minutes, they quietly tended to the comforts of the room, lighting the candles and seeing to a fire, airing out the bedding and pouring the wine.

Raven loved the domestic magic of knowing that each gesture was a hint of what it would be in the years to come. She would learn the way he liked all things and strive to please him. Or at least, make an effort when I can…for surely no wife has ever managed to make her husband smile at all of life’s turns. I’ll attempt it and earn this happiness that is threatening to make me cry.

“Wine, my love?” Phillip held out a ceramic cup to her.

She wrinkled her nose. “I would rather not.”

“I expected your refusal.” He set the cup down. “But here, come sit with me and let me give you something long overdue.”

“Is it a kiss?” she asked eagerly.

Phillip laughed. “Here. Look for yourself.”

He waited until she was sitting next to him on the settee by the fire and then held out a small black leather box.

She took it shyly, opening it to reveal a ring of gold inlaid with pale blue topaz and diamonds. “Oh! It’s lovely!”

“The stones reminded me of your eyes,” he confessed. “I wanted to give it to you after I’d talked to the earl but…we didn’t exactly make it until tomorrow as planned, did we?”

“Nothing went quite as I’d planned, Phillip.”

He nodded. “I know. But I want you to see this as a sign, my darling, that all will be well. Even if you and I tend to back into our joy by accident and happenstance, it doesn’t mean that we lack intention.”

“A proper engagement ring,” she whispered.

“Because we are about to be properly married, Miss Wells.”

“Yes!” Raven’s eyes shone with unshed tears and he placed the ring on her hand where it fit perfectly by design. “I cannot believe that it is possible to be this happy and still manage to breathe!”

“Perhaps we’ll get used to it,” he said and then leaned over to kiss her cheek. “I only wish we weren’t the only ones to know this bliss.” He sighed. “I hope poor Lady Morley finds some measure of safety.”

“I am certain she has.”

“How can you be? He left in his carriage and with two outriders only minutes after she was discovered missing. I think in this instance, your optimism has to accept the inevitable. He will have her in hand long before sunrise.”

She smiled. “Hardly. I knew she couldn’t outpace him on a muddy road. What a ridiculous proposition!”

“Then…how could she have eluded him?”

“You are assuming she left just after the play.”

“Didn’t she?”

Raven was glowing with her mischievous triumph. “No! I had her things loaded into the Carlton’s carriage and Lady Morley and Mrs. Lindstrom were hiding inside the coach with the curtains drawn. It wasn’t until the Carltons left that I knew they were properly away, and Lord Morley would never think to search that neighboring estate. Not in time,” she added. “Mrs. Carlton’s tears were quite convincing, were they not?”

“H-how? The Carltons were in on it? Truly?”

“Mrs. Carlton was. But she knew her husband well enough to know that the instant he was informed of the truth, he would happily become our accomplice. Lady Morley and her maid will hide at the squire’s for a few days and then make their way to Belgium where Millicent has relatives.”

“What truth?”

“Lord Morley was cruelly beating his wife and she feared for her life.”

“My God! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was sworn to keep her secret and she was terrified that your male loyalty to her husband or aversion to her illegal escape would betray our plans.”

“I would never have done that!”

Raven reached up to smooth out the anger on his face. “Phillip. It wasn’t my secret to give away and no reflection of my trust in you. It was Millicent’s nightmare and I know you respect her courage for ending it.”

He sighed. “Yes. But enough of that now. I cannot think of the worst. Not tonight.” He stood and lifted her up into his arms to carry her cradled against his chest, striding toward the room’s narrow bed.

Raven giggled as they landed on the surprisingly soft feather mattress. “I look forward to sleeping in your arms.”

He laughed at the lack of room that ensured an intimate night. “It seems you’ll have to.”

Triumph made them both bold. They undressed each other in a slow dance, relishing the new balance between them. They had each toyed with their power over the other, conquering or surrendering in turn, but now it was as if they had nothing to prove. And it was the most heady and freeing sensation of all.

The candles were extinguished until it was firelight alone that cast the room in shifting shadows and warmed them.

“Surprise me, Raven. Rule me.”

“As you wish.”

His dare spurred her on as she pushed him back onto the bed. Then with one mischievous look at Phillip, she knew that he would deny her nothing. Raven knelt over him, thighs spread on either side of his head, her sex at the ready for his kisses. He gripped her hips and lifted her up to set his mouth against her. She was in control but it was Phillip’s tongue that set the pace. She danced in a gypsy’s gyrating turn atop him, touching her own breasts, lifting them for him, reveling in the wicked thrill of it.

Shifting up, she turned as an even naughtier idea came to her. With his tongue darting up inside of her and teasing her clit, she seized his cock in both of her hands and lowered her mouth over it, sucking and stroking him. Her imagination took hold as she imagined that he was already inside of her, that his beautiful flesh was sheathed and resheathed in the grip of her muscles.

She came and lost her rhythm, crying out as a spasm of ecstasy robbed her of grace. By the time she came back to her senses, she could only look at him apologetically, for there was no evidence that she’d achieved more than her own satisfaction.

But instead he rewarded her.

He sorted them out to cover her with his body, parting her thighs, delving into the throbbing flesh between her legs with his fingers and when she arched her back to come again, he plowed into her against the bedding, rocking his stone hard flesh up into the yielding channel of molten fire that fit him perfectly.

As if she’d been made for him, carved from ether and prayers by a benevolent power and Phillip drank it in. He made love to Raven until their strength was spent and they could give no more.

As the fire died in the hearth, they lay chest to chest and nose to nose, whispering of their hopes and dreams for the years to come. Phillip sighed and his last thought before sleep claimed him was of pure satisfaction.

Won. I won.