Tuppence (The Tipton Hollow 3)

“Damn,” Isaac whispered in disgust as a deep feeling of unease settled over him. He immediately checked the doors and windows to his study, but everything was still locked. “So how in the hell have you gotten in here?”

Before he left the room to question the staff, Isaac locked the weapon in the top drawer of his desk. He lingered long enough to check the paperwork on his desk but once he was sure that none of it had been moved, Isaac ambled thoughtfully out of the room. Once he had checked the gun cabinet beside the library, Isaac then went to the Estate Manager’s office to search the estate’s gun cabinet. Minutes later, with his concern growing by the second, Isaac started to return to the house.

He was about half-way across the lawn when the first loud boom blasted out of the trees lining the garden,

shattering his otherwise peaceful morning. He watched trance-like as the privet box hedge beside him exploded in a shower of twigs and leaves. It took his startled mind a few moments to realise that someone was shooting at him. When the second bullet was fired, Isaac barely had the time to throw himself onto the ground before the bullet tore through the privet beside him as well.

“Damn it,” he growled, but out in the middle of the lawn he had nowhere to hide. He cursed fluidly when another boom shattered the silence, and the grass mere inches from the toe of his boot flew into the air. The fourth bullet was considerably closer than the last. Isaac didn’t doubt that once the gunman had perfected his shot, he would be struck if he didn’t move. Shoving upright, Isaac jumped over the privet and raced for the house. Another loud blast boomed from the woods again.

“Sir!” Balders bellowed as he raced out if the stables together with several workers.

“Get inside! There is a gunman on the estate,” Isaac bellowed without stopping.

He cursed when an old oak tree beside the study window suddenly broke into a thousand tiny splinters when a bullet lodged deep inside its aged bark. While racing to safety, Isaac tried to think of a way of circling around the gunman so he could come up behind him but knew that the gunman already had the advantage. Without wanting to die today, the best Isaac could do was get inside, out of sight, and hope his men were able to catch the killer.

“I don’t doubt that is who you are,” Isaac gasped, lengthening his stride when the stonework beside the French doors of the study exploded into fine dust. Shoving roughly into the house, Isaac slammed the door closed and drew the shutters and then the curtains across the window for good measure. Rather than be lulled into a false sense of security, he didn’t remain in front of the doors, but raced around the room closing all the shutters and curtains.

“Isaac? What’s going on? Was that gunfire I heard?” Gertrude demanded from the doorway.

“Yes, mother. Someone is on the estate and was shooting at me. Stay away from the windows. Go and tell the staff to close the shutters but to stay away from the windows.” Isaac stalked across the room and raced up the main staircase. He ran through the hallways until he reached Tuppence’s bedroom. It didn’t occur to him to knock. He burst through the door and planted himself firmly in the middle of her room.

Tuppence cried out in alarm when the door was suddenly slammed back on its hinges and a wildly furious Isaac appeared before her. She took one look at his face and knew immediately that something was horribly wrong.

“What is it?” she gulped, clutching the clothing she was putting away to her chest as if to ward off evil. “What’s wrong?”

Isaac forced himself to calm down. He was physically shaking with the strength of his fear. Without saying a word, he slammed the door closed and crossed the room. Hauling her into his arms, Isaac held her for several long moments.

“What was that noise?” Tuppence whispered, unsure what she could do. She had never been in this situation before. No man had ever held her as if she were the most precious person in the world to him. Should she hold him back? “What’s going on?”

“There is a gunman on the estate. He was firing at me.”

Tuppence was horrified. “You? Are you all right? Did he hit you?” She tried to step away from him to see if he were hurt, but he wouldn’t release her. “Did you see who it was? Where was he?”

“In the trees,” Isaac whispered, more shaken than he could remember ever being in his life. “I didn’t see who it was.” Without stopping to think about what he was doing Isaac lowered his head to hers.

The first sweep of his lips against hers was so feather-light Tuppence wasn’t sure she had really felt them. They were gone in a moment, but soon returned to slide gently against hers once again. Each time the tender persuasion brushed against her lips, his possession became more persistent and lingered just a little longer until Isaac’s lips settled more fully over hers. The gentle pressure of lips against lips suddenly became commanding, controlling, compelled into ferocity by a desire which flared to life and consumed them both within seconds. Neither of them could resist the temptation the kiss placed before them. All they could do was cling to each other as if surviving a tumultuous storm neither could be sure they could survive. Senses were overwhelmed, doubts quashed. Nothing existed but the two of them, alone, together, in the solitude of her now silent bed chamber. The only sound that Tuppence could hear was the thundering of her own heartbeat, which hammered wildly in her ears in a heady rhythm that compelled the burgeoning desire into a heady rush toward satisfaction. She knew this was foolish but couldn’t stop her hands from sliding up the warmth of his wide chest, across the heavily muscled shoulders, to tangle in his soft hair. The slow slide of her fingers through the silken strands of his hair elicited a low moan of desire from him. It rumbled through her and struck something deep within her core, which then blossomed to life and in turn created a warmth that spread throughout every fibre of her being. That warmth, the heady temptation, consumed her, ravaged her common sense, and rendered her helpless to deny either of them this special moment.

Isaac was stunned by how quickly the flames of desire consumed him. He was shaken, yet compelled to experience more, to drag this moment out and make it last for as long as physically possible. Nothing could make him move away. He had wanted this for as long as he could remember. He had wanted Tuppence for as long as he had been an adult old enough to identify his own emotions. While he had planned their first kiss to be held in a more romantic location, in his dreams at least, for now he was just relieved that she was alive, and under his roof, safe, and his, and that he was alive and able to enjoy this special moment with her.

I am relieved that she is allowing this.

After today, he was never going to allow her to shy away from what he knew they could have again. A happy future was possible for them both despite their differing backgrounds, he knew it. The kiss confirmed it – in his mind at least. If only he could help her out of her current predicament, he knew that everything between them would be all right. It had to be because he really couldn’t contemplate life without her now.

“I won’t apologise for that,” Isaac murmured when he finally lifted his head.

It was the muted sounds of shouting coming from outside that had eventually compelled Isaac to tear his lips away from hers. Rather than put some distance between them, Isaac looked lovingly into the face of the woman he knew he adored. No woman had ever stirred him the way that Tuppence did, and that had been before he had kissed her. Now, Isaac wanted more kisses with her. He could never forget the way she looked now, half-lying in his arms with that lambent look in her eyes he doubted she knew was there. She was so wondrously tempting, everything he had ever wanted in life, that Isaac started to lower his head once again. It was only the noise of the men outside, and the sound of someone persistently hammering on the front door, that stopped him.

Lost for words, all Tuppence could do was stare up at him. She tried to push at his broad shoulders, but it was a feeble attempt at best. She couldn’t manage anything stronger because she felt weak, helpless amongst the onslaught of such heady passion. It was something she hadn’t believed she was capable of. Now that she knew she was, Tuppence wanted to experience more of it, but only with Isaac. Strangely, although she was new to affairs of the heart, Tuppence couldn’t envisage ever kissing any other man. It was Isaac or nobody.

“Isaac!” Gertrude’s panicked voice broke them apart.

“You had better go and see what’s wrong,” Tuppence murmured.

Isaac nodded, and forced himself to turn away from her. Before he met his mother in the hallway, though, Isaac threw one last warning look at Tuppence. “Stay in here where it is safe. Don’t come out until someone comes to fetch you.”

“Isaac!”

Trying hard to keep a hold of his impatience, Isaac slammed out of the bedroom and met his mother in the hallway. “What is it?”