The earl came down the stairs, Lord and Lady Allyn in tow.
“Milton, Agnes,” their father said to the pair, “this is my younger son, Ryan.”
Ryan kissed Lady Allyn’s gloved hand after a polite murmur. Her face remained as tight as the knot of hair at her nape.
Ryan extended a hand to Lord Allyn. He refused to take it.
The man cast a withering glare at his older brother. “Another of your by-blows, George? Really, how indiscreet.”
“They’re twins, Milton. And if you cannot take a better tone with me, I will ask you to go to the country.”
Agnes stepped in. “Milton, they were children born under unfortunate circumstances. Where are your manners? “
-220-
The Lady and the Dragon
A red-faced Lord Allyn whirled on his wife. “Agnes! How dare you criticize me in front of others. Your meddling in private is already too much to bear.”
Lady Allyn cleared her throat uncomfortably, then addressed everyone. “I shall adjourn upstairs.”
After she whirled away and mounted the stairs, Lord Allyn was left standing among a crowd of enemies and quickly departed.
“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “I can leave for New Orleans as soon as I find a ship.”
“I’ll hear of no such thing,” Ashmont insisted. “You two are family as well.
Milton must accept that.”
* * *
The next morning, Christina lounged abed next to Drexell’s warmth. He placed an arm about her shoulder, the soft cloth of his shirt rubbing her sensitized skin, and drew her near.
“How are you this morning?” she asked, grinning.
“I feel abused. If we have too many nights like the last one, I daresay I won’t live to see thirty,” he teased.
She laughed, an unfettered curtain of peace enveloping her. “I hardly forced you.”
Drex peeked beneath the sheet at her bare body. “I beg to differ. At the very least, you compelled me.”
“You’re a wicked man.”
He nodded. “Married to the most deliciously wicked woman.”
“So when will I see you without that dratted shirt?”
He paused. “When we’re not in such a hurry to find the bed.”
As he gathered a giggling Christina against him, their lips met. She gave freely, reveling in the joy they shared.
“Thank you for helping me through the difficult first days of our marriage,”
she whispered. “Your patience and understanding was everything I needed.”
He peered down at her, his expression guarded. “My pleasure.”
-221-
Shelley Bradley
Christina frowned. “I resisted you, not I disliked you, but because you reminded me so much of him. I know you’re a much different man—”
The smile fell from his face. His expression turned grave in the span of a heartbeat.
“What is it? What troubles you, that I compared you to him?” She touched an apologetic hand to his. “I’m sorry.”
He rolled away and sat up, looking pensive.
“Drexell, please. What is wrong?”
Finally, he heaved a great sigh and faced her. “Remember when I suggested that the Black Dragon brought you back to England and gave you back to your grandfather for a good reason?”
“Yes, but I had no intention of bringing the man into our bed,” she insisted.
“I shall not again.”
He clasped her wrists. “That’s not possible. He’ll always be between us because—”
“No. He’s gone. I’ve put him out of my heart, and you helped me.”
Drex shook his head. “If you put him out of your heart, you put me out as well. I am—”
“You mustn’t say that! My feelings for you are different.”
Drex would like to have explored her feelings, but knew the time for truth had come. “Christina, listen. I am—”
A pounding on the portal drew their startled gazes.
“Drakethorne!” A deep voice on the other side of Drex’s door boomed. “Open this door and release my granddaughter.”
Christina gasped. “Grandfather? What are you doing here?”
“Come out to the hall this instant, girl!”
She leapt from bed, threw on her wrapper and flashed Drex a confused frown.
Drex sat motionless. He looked stricken…and terrified. What was going on?
“Christina, sweetheart, don’t go to him yet,” Drex entreated. “Listen to me.
I’m trying to tell you that—”
-222-
The Lady and the Dragon
“Come out, you criminal,” her grandfather bellowed. “Don’t fill her head with any more of your lies.”
She whirled to face Drex. “Lies?”
“Christina.” Drex scrambled to his feet and gripped her hands. “Please don’t open the door yet. I need to tell you—”
The door splintered open with a crash. Grandfather glared at Drex, blue eyes bulging red over his ruddy face. Behind him, four armed officers stood, guns drawn.
“You are under arrest.” Grandfather’s voice was a thin hiss.
Christina stared in confusion as her grandfather glared at Drex. Her husband returned the grim gaze. He didn’t look shocked in the least.
“What is this about?” she asked.
The old man snaked his stare toward her. “He’s guilty of smuggling, treason and murder. Not to mention duplicity.” His eyes narrowed as he trained his stare on Drex. “Is that not so?”
Drex didn’t deny the accusations.
She whirled to face her husband, fists clenched. Dread coated her stomach; confusion pounded in her chest, throbbing in her temples. “Tell him he’s mistaken. He is mistaken, is he not?”
Drex cast his gaze to the floor. “Christina—”
“Seize him,” her grandfather directed two of the soldiers. Silently, Drex allowed them to grab and bind his wrists together.
“This is mad,” she screeched. “Release him!”
“Release the Black Dragon?” her grandfather parried. “I think not.”
“The Black Dragon is dead. You said so yourself.”
“I thought so. This should prove us right. Men,” her grandfather prompted, nodding to his soldiers.
“Christina!” Drex called as one of the men grabbed the back of his shirt and jerked down.
A tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon covered her husband’s back, tail winding about his arm in a green coil. The searing red of its eyes throttled her with its gaze, mocking her trust. That tattoo could only belong to one man.
-223-
Shelley Bradley
The Black Dragon.
Shock chilled her. Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. Drex and the Black Dragon…the same man? No! But obviously yes. Why would he pretend to be an earl’s son and marry her? Why…?
Did it matter? She had trusted him as two different men. Heaven above! In both instances, Drex had spit in her face. He had deceived her. Again. Earned her trust and destroyed it. Again.
Shock waned, replaced by fury that breathed fire in her system. Blood roared in her ears.
Drexell wrenched free from the men and darted to her side. “Christina, sweetheart. This is not the way it appears. Let me explain …”
Christina slapped his face with all the power she could muster. “How dare you! How could you? Did you enjoy deceiving me twice? Did you laugh at me all the while?”
“No. I’m sorry. I can explain everything.” The two soldiers grabbed Drex’s arms. He struggled and stared at Christina, pleading in his desperate gaze. “I love you.”
She raised a pale brow, along with her chin, and fixed him with an icy glare. “This morning, I would have believed you. I’m thankful I know the truth about your lies now.”
Christina darted out of the hall, to her room. The sound of Drexell’s voice calling her name as the soldiers dragged him from the house rang in her head.
She covered her ears with trembling hands and made her way to her chamber.
She scarcely shut the door before bitter tears of fury and pain enveloped her, helping to foster a new hate for her Black Dragon husband—a hate she vowed would never die.
* * *
Drexell stood against the wall in the taproom at Newgate prison, trying to down the quart of ale for which he’d paid four pence. He shuddered as another draught slid down his throat, the slime seemingly contaminated with the