Sophie snuggled into place, as he’d known she would. He could feel the steady beat of her heart, the rise and fall of her breathing. “That’s it. Now take in some deep breaths. I’m here. I won’t leave you, and no one will ever harm you again as long as I live.”
She twisted around and placed her fingers over his lips. “Don’t say that. I can’t ask you to abandon the men in your squadron. I know how much they mean to you.”
Then she frowned, and a tiny wrinkle appeared in the center of her forehead, the same wrinkle he’d grown accustomed to seeing every time she bent to serious concentration. Like when she labored over a scrap of paper, creating her latest hard-wrought couplet of poetry. No other woman had ever done anything to make him want her as much as that tiny wrinkle made him want Sophie. Made him want to touch her, hold her. She’d become a part of his soul that the distance across far seas couldn’t erase.
“You’ve become the only person who matters. What good is honor if I cannot protect the woman I love?”
The smile his declaration elicited from Sophie made the release of all he’d denied himself worth whatever it would cost him later.
He covered her lips with his. His tongue brushed the soft swell of her lower lip before he nibbled his way to the pink curve of her ear. She gave a small sigh. When her mouth parted, he came back to her lips and deepened the kiss until she turned in his lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck where she clung like a ship-wrecked sailor. Her head nestled just below his collarbone as if she’d been made to fit there.
When her breasts pressed into his chest, he jerked out of the embrace and stood as if burned by hot cannon metal.
Sir Thomas leaned far forward in the saddle, urging Lundy onward. “Only a few more lengths,” he whispered. He pulled closer to the masked horseman who had brushed up against Sophie earlier and followed him through a tight turn off the road into a dense, wooded close.
They blasted into a small clearing in the midst of the close, and Thomas used his whip to push the other man to the ground. He followed, rolling over and over in the clearing, until both men burst into laughter.
“Rummy, you devil. There for a minute I thought you were going to lead us on a real chase and give me the slip.”
“Never, Tommy, never.” Viscount Rumsford crawled over to his friend and laid the palm of his hand against Sir Thomas’s cheek. They stood and secured both horses in the clearing before slipping into the deep woods.
“Do you think either of them suspects?” Rumsford slapped the dust from his hat before following Sir Thomas to a hidden lean-to next to a massive chestnut tree.
“I think not. Those two are too much in love to notice much of anything. They see what they expect to see.”
“I always suspected Royal Navy chaps were a bit dense. Men in the regiment know when they want a woman and don’t let the winds of society push them away. Young Bellingham doesn’t even know he’s in love with Miss Brancelli.”
“I know, but I’ve been considering an alternative if he doesn’t soon come up to scratch.” Sir Thomas moved a door of strands of ivy leaves woven through a frame of branches and then pulled it in behind them. “You’ll have to give me your considered opinion.”
Sophie’s endless worries about the man she would have to marry, or how she would support herself if she could not land a proper “gentleman,” all of those niggling problems faded. Those worries were as insignificant as sparrows in a field compared to what she’d done to Arnaud. All the yearning she’d tried to hide, all of her secrets had been destroyed by a few stolen touches and kisses.
Now they stood apart, the cold air a sharp contrast to the burning of her lips that had been sealed to his just moments before.
Even as she’d given over to his insistent caresses, a small voice in her mind had refused to be stilled. If he hadn’t pulled away from her, she would have been the cause of a good man abandoning all he believed in.
“Arnaud, I’m so sorry…”
He caught her hands in his and kissed her fingertips. “Please, no regrets. I love you, Sophia Brancelli, but you deserve better than the only life I can offer. I apologize for losing control. I promise it will not happen again. I’ve had to watch you being courted by other men for so long, I’m afraid I finally could take no more.”
“I understand the Royal Navy is your life, but other naval officers marry and have families. Why not you?”
“I promise you I will talk to Lord Howick. We will decide what’s best for you. My ship is still being refitted at the yard in Portsmouth. There’s plenty of time for you to make a more suitable match. I will abide by Howick’s judgment.”
Sophie’s chest tightened. She felt as though he’d shoved a sharp knife beneath her ribs and twisted the blade. Arnaud’s words made no sense. How could he turn away love, the one thing that made life worth living? And he and Lord Howick were going to decide what was best for her?Jupiter.
Even Arnaud had ceased to understand why he wanted to push Sophie away. Of course, the memory of how hard it had been to grow up without a father after his own had disappeared at sea might have something to do with his resolve.
He hated to admit what he knew he had to do next. His mother had suffered as much if not more than he had. She’d spent years trying to find out what had happened to her husband and his father, Captain John Bellingham. She would know. And he hoped she could set aside her yearning for a grandchild long enough to help him make sense of the mess he now found himself in.
At the first sight of Sir Thomas’s cream-stoned manor peeking through the end of the long tree-lined lane, dread stuck in Sophie’s throat like a dry biscuit she couldn’t swallow. Returning to the house party looking like a thoroughly kissed woman would be embarrassing, but they had no choice. Everyone would know. She could feel a tell-tale blush rising already from the heat of her cheeks. Arnaud, riding next to her, looked as though he was about to face a firing squad.
Two grooms stood in the stable yard waiting to take over their mounts. They brought steps and helped Sophie down while Arnaud dismounted. Sophie and Arnaud walked back to the house in an easy, mutual silence. Lady Howick stood in the doorway, smiling and watching their progress.
“Did you enjoy your morning ride?”
Sophie was torn. Should she alarm the older woman about another near thing, or not?
Arnaud solved the dilemma. “We had a bit of trouble in the park, but Sophie is fine. I need to talk with Lord Howick and Sir Thomas as soon as possible. Do you know where they might be?”
