“They were very small hairbrushes! They couldn’t possibly have done any damage more than perhaps a slight bruise or two, although I do concede that if you were not wearing your spectacles, and if the handle was to have lodged in your eye, it might have put it out.”
“—as you swore to the Lord Almighty that you never, ever wanted to see me again.”
She closed her eyes for a second. How could she have been so stupid? Why had she flown off the hook at him like that? She of all people had no right to be angry at him for having concealed from her something about his past. “ ‘Never, ever’ might have been a slight exaggeration—”
“Plum.”
Her gaze dropped to her hands clasped before her as she refused to look at him, too embarrassed to bear seeing the condemnation in his eyes. She truly was a coward. “I’m sorry, Harry. I thought I could do this, but I’m obviously too—”
“Plum, look at me.”
Slowly, with reluctance her gaze rose to meet his. Her throat tightened and several odd, butterfly-like things set up fluttering in her stomach. He was smiling at her, smiling a wonderful smile, not with just his lips, but with his eyes too. He took her hands, then bent to kiss the backs of each. Her hands glowed warm under the touch.
“You had every right to be angry with me. I don’t blame you at all for ejecting me from your room. I just hope that now that you know the worst, you’ll consent to remain my wife. I admit that it’s not a particularly good deal on your part, but I would like you to stay. Lord knows the servants could use a mistress — they never seem to know how to do their jobs, or even what their jobs are. And the children are wild, not bad-tempered, just wild. They need you as well.”
Plum smiled at the earnest, hopeful look in his eyes and tightened her fingers around his. “And you, my lord? What do you need?”
“A friend,” he said, his voice suddenly husky as he drew her closer to him. “A companion. A lover.” She was against his chest, her hands sliding up the fine green cloth of his jacket, his muscles bunching as he pulled her tight against him. His lips teased hers, nipping at her lower lip, tasting the corners of her mouth, pressing little butterfly kisses along the length of her lips until her head swam. Harry’s voice was rough, thick with desire as he said, just before he accepted the invitation offered by her parted lips, “A wife.”
Plum, thinking wicked thoughts about using Harry’s desk in a manner she did not doubt would surprise him, prepared to surrender to his worshipful mouth when another, closer crash shook the windows behind Harry.
“Damnation,” he snarled as he pulled his lips from hers. “Temple!”
Reminding herself that she was now the children’s mother, and thus the likely person to investigate household accidents, she reluctantly pulled herself from Harry’s arms. “I should probably see what’s amiss.”
“No, you stay. Temple, what’s going on out there? Why can’t I have a single moment of solitude? Is it too much to ask for a man to read his letters in peace and quiet?”
“No, sir,” Temple replied, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. “It would appear that a bull, sadly lacking in the tail department, has made its way into the hall. I will see to it that it is removed immediately.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll do it,” Plum said, giving him a smile. “After all, I’m mistress here now. If anyone is responsible for removing livestock from the house, I suppose it is me.” She turned back to Harry, suddenly shy despite the fact that a few moments before she was entertaining his tongue in a most intimate manner. “Will I see you later?”
He gave her a heated look that left no confusion over just how much she’d see of him later, then kissed her hands again. “You’re an angel, Plum, the answer to my prayers. I leave the children in your capable hands, confident that you will restore peace and sanity to my house. You are exactly what we need. I will see you at luncheon…no, blast, I won’t either. I had a letter this morning that I must attend to…er…business. You will forgive me?”
He cupped her jaw, pulling her closer. Plum knew if she got within kissing distance of him, she would wrestle him to the floor and have her way with him, so she slipped backward and gave him what she hoped was a dazzling smile (but feared was more a lustful leer). “Yes, certainly. Dinner, then. I will see you for dinner…and after.”
His eyes blazed hot, hot enough to leave her whole body flushed and aching for him. He swallowed twice and nodded. She blew him a little kiss, then scampered from the room when he looked like he was going to lunge toward her. Temple, who had been politely gazing at a picture on the wall, held the door open for her. She whisked through his room, filled with hope and desire and happiness.
“Temple — you don’t mind if I call you that? Thank you — Temple, I have a very good feeling.” Plum opened the door to the passage. A medium-sized bull thundered past the door, followed by two large dogs, a pheasant, and the twins. “Today marks the beginning of a new life for all of us.”
McTavish raced by, dragging the carcass of a rat tied to a string.
“I will deal with everything life throws my way, and I will conquer it.”
“God help you, my lady,” Temple said. “I believe you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
The salamander scampered over her foot, and ran out the door.
Plum sighed. “I fear you’re right.”
CHAPTER Six
Harry fought a short battle with his body, which desperately wanted to scoop Plum up in his arms and carry her off to his bedroom, where he would apply himself to keeping her in a state of absolute pleasure for as long as his strength held out, but he reminded himself — particularly those errant parts of his body that were at that moment straining against his clothing — that he was not an animal, he was a gentleman, and gentlemen did not act as if they were stallions around a mare in heat.
It was touch-and-go there for a few minutes as to whether he would throw his honor to the wind and go straight to stallionhood, but in the end, his better nature won out. He willed his arousal to think of something unpleasant like stagnant cesspools and bloated corpses, then sat back down to consider the letter he’d received an hour before.
“Temple!”
His secretary came before the echoes had died down.
“You bellowed, sir?”
“Yes, I did. I want your advice.”
Temple allowed a surprised expression to dance across his face. “You want my advice?”
“Yes. Sit down, this is going to take some explaining. Some time just before I married Beatrice I was brought up on charges of treason. I believe I mentioned it to you?”
“Yes, sir, you did.” Temple’s lips thinned. “The charges were false, and you were released.”
Harry leaned back in his chair, propping his feet up on the corner of his desk. “Of course they were false, I was working for the Home Office at the time, under direct command of the prime minister. I was the bait used to catch whoever was using the Home Office to stir up insurrection and anarchy.”
Temple said nothing, but his eyes glowed with the light of admiration and excitement. “I assume that you found the person?”
“Yes, I did. I was almost hung in the process, but all that got sorted out once I determined that the mastermind behind the plot to overthrow the government was none other than the head of the HO, Sir William Stanford.”
“But…he was your employer, was he not?” Temple asked.
Harry nodded. “He was. I worked for him for years, never guessing that he was using his own position to feed information to anarchists.”
“Good Lord!” Temple’s face was a picture of captivation. “What happened to Sir William? Were the anarchists captured? And how did you end up in prison for treason?”