But this was different. This was the son of the woman he come to care about. And the boy was fighting for his right to the life for which he’d been born.
Wait. Had the word “love” actually popped into his thoughts of the beguiling Milady Amazon? He shook his head hard to clear his thoughts. Must be time to get back to the ship. He was hallucinating.
Richard spoke close to the boy’s ear. “Cook was making ginger biscuits when we left. They’re probably out of the oven by now.” Richard knew he’d said the right thing when Nicholas wiggled out of his arms and raced off toward the steep trail up the bluff. Was he bribing Nicholas with sweets when he should instead be more stern? Richard shook his head hard and joined the boy and dogs charging up the path to the lodge.
Harriet had thoughtthe letter to her cousin would have been the difficult one to write, but she’d dashed that off in a few minutes. She felt a bit cowardly about avoiding the issue of not having settled her pending engagement, but no matter. She would figure out a way to smooth out that annoyance. Somehow. A footman had taken her letter for the duke to the stables where one of the young groomsmen would enjoy a fast ride through the countryside to her cousin’s estate.
She relegated a second sheet of paper to her pile designated for re-use. Who knew explaining to an old friend why she’d need to stash an inconvenient Royal Marine at his cottage could be so difficult? She settled on a direct approach and began again:
“Dear Captain Thorne,”
She pressed the end of the pen holder against her bottom lip and stared a few moments out the window. That’s when she heard Nicholas shout at one of the dogs apparently trying to snatch a biscuit.
She decided to finish the request as simply as possible.
“My cousin will arrive soon. If you could possibly provide Lieutenant Bourne a temporary place to re-gather his strength before returning to his ship, I should be eternally grateful.”
Your faithful friend & neighbor, etc.,
Harriet, Marchioness of Blandford”
She hastily folded the sheet of paper, sealed it with a bit of heated wax, and passed the letter to a footman she encountered on her way to the lower level kitchen.
The sight that greeted her in front of the kitchen fire took her by surprise. Nicholas sat close to Lieutenant Bourne on a bench in front of the fireplace while they shared a plate of biscuits. Whenever Fleur or Max leaned too close to the plate, the lieutenant would give them a look and a point of his finger, and they’d return to their beds.
After a long sip of cold milk, Nicholas leaned close to his mentor and asked, “W-would you show me how you do that? They never listen to me.”
Richard, er Lieutenant Bourne, gave a deep laugh. She loved to hear him laugh like that, like a man who had a deep, sensual appreciation of the good things in life. “Of course they don’t listen to you. You shout at them over and over. You must give them a command only once. And they must know that if do not obey, there will be consequences.”
“L-like what?” The boy’s eyes were wide.
Harriet sucked in a breath. She could not be certain, perhaps her hopes were getting ahead of her. But she believed Nicholas was already stuttering less.
“Like this.” He reached into a deep pocket within his overcoat now drying on a rack near the fireplace from the soaking he’d suffered in the ocean spray. When he opened his hand to show Nicholas, there were two small chunks of apple.
Both dogs were immediately at his side. When he gave them a stern look again, they sat, waiting expectantly, never taking their eyes from his face. He popped a chunk of apple into each dog’s now open mouth and then gave them a silent signal and pointed toward their beds. Fleur lingered a second longer than Max, but capitulated at another stern look.
“You never hit them with a stick?”
“Heavens no. Horses, dogs, children, and marines. They always respond better to rewards, if nothing more than a kind word or look.”
“But how do you teach marines to fight with nothing but rewards?”
“A marine fights for his God…his King…his country, but most of all, his honor and the honor of his fellow Marines.”
At that moment, the lieutenant looked up and their eyes met. At that moment, she knew. She might turn away this inconvenient marine, but her heart was never going to let him go. How in Hera’s name had she ever let that happen?
Richard feltas though he’d taken a punch to the gut. Lady Blandford had caught him in the act of teaching her son something that was clearly none of his business. However, the look he saw in her direct, green gaze tore into a somewhat lower part of his body. He felt as though she’d opened a window into her heart. What he saw there was raw need. She’d lost her husband in a horrific way at Waterloo. She’d combed the Belgian killing fields to find what was left of Lord Blandford. And she’d been alone ever since.
For the last five years she’d been beset by responsibilities no woman should have to shoulder. There was no mistaking what he saw in her eyes. He was unnerved to think of what she must be seeing in his. He wanted this woman in a way he’d never wanted another. He wanted to claim her as his own. He wanted to make love to her in a way that would mark her as his forever. When he came home from the sea, he wanted to see her waiting for him in his doorway.
An immediate flood of reasons why that could never happen had the effect of cooling the raging need she’d sparked. Every time he looked at her, every time they were close enough that he could touch her, he kept circling back to his commanding officer’s warning. She was not one of the many willing women he’d encountered in his travels with the Royal Navy.
Another thought struck him hard, like a stray sniper’s round. Why had Captain Bellingham encouraged him to stay on under the widow Blandford’s roof? Surely he knew how impossible the situation would be. He was fairly certain his captain and old friend suspected how smitten he’d become with the lady. But the captain had made one thing clear: He trusted, noexpected, Richard to do the right thing. Whatever the hell that might be, he had no clue.
“Lieutenant Bourne…” There was a question in her voice. “Could you join me for tea in the family sitting room? We have some things to discuss.”
When Nicholas looked up from petting the dogs, there was an expectant look on his face, but his mother crushed his hopes. “You will have your tea in the kitchen with Cook and Thomas, by the fire.”
