Sherbrooke Twins (Sherbrooke Brides 8)

James stared down at her. He believed in the Virgin Bride, but he would never admit to his father that he did. He didn’t want to see his father’s look of amused contempt directed at him. He’d heard stories about how she’d appeared to his father, but still, the earl wouldn’t speak of the ghost without copious sneers and mockery.

He rubbed her back, ran his hands down her arms. “It’s all right now. That’s it. Now, tell me what the Virgin Bride told you.”

“I woke up, felt you next to me, and I was smiling. I was thinking about kissing your belly.” She reared back in his arms and made out his face in the moonlight. It seemed to her that suddenly James was too still, that he’d almost stopped breathing. “Are you all right, James?”

“No. Yes. Kissing my belly? No, no. I’ll get over it. Tell me more.”

“All right. After I kissed your belly then I thought about what else I could do to you-”

“Er, about the ghost, Corrie, start talking about her right now, or else I might be on my knees begging you to do what you were planning.”

“Really? Oh goodness, James-oh yes, the Virgin Bride. Well, I was awake and then I sort of drifted off. But I wasn’t asleep, I’m positive about that. Then she was there, beside the bed, and she was looking down at me. She looked all floaty, sort of wispy, but I could see that she was beautiful, with lots of long, pale hair. She didn’t speak, at least I don’t think she did, but it felt like she was speaking to me, in my mind. She said it was you, James, said you were in danger. She didn’t say anything at all about your father, just you. What is going on? Oh God, what are we going to do? We’re alone here. Do you have a gun?”

“Yes, I have a gun.” He added with barely a pause, “I will buy one for you as well, all right?”

That calmed her as nothing else he could have said. He knew her that well.

“All right, that’s good. What shall we do?”

“I think,” James said slowly, kissing her forehead, “that it’s time you and I went back home.”

“I’m afraid, James.”

“Yes, so am I. Now, can you put this out of your mind until morning?”

She was quiet for a good minute. Then she twisted in his arms and shoved him onto his back. She smiled down at him even as she began to push down the covers. “About your belly, James-”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

IT WAS MIDNIGHT, a time when James, in decent weather, could be found lying on his back on some close-by hillock, gazing up at the stars. But for Jason, midnight was the time to sleep. He awoke with the sun on most mornings, his head clear, full of energy, and ready to take on the world. He many times passed yawning servants in the corridors of Northcliffe.

Moonlight spilled through the windows since Jason refused to have the heavy draperies drawn. If it weren’t so very cold, near to freezing this night, the windows would have been open, cold air on his face, and a pile of blankets to his chin.

He was dreaming of his grandmother. In his dream, he saw her as a young girl. The thing was, though, she looked just like she did today, her face all mottled red with rage and disbelief because his mother had finally told the old woman her reign of terror was over. The only thing different was that his grandmother looked smaller, not different or older. Suddenly, she was yelling at another girl he suddenly saw hiding behind a chair. She threw a doll at the girl.

His dream suddenly changed. His grandmother became the marten he’d saved when he’d been a small boy, and the marten’s breath was warm on his face, its body heavy on his chest, down the length of his body as well and that was strange. He couldn’t breathe, there was something-

Jason woke up, no blurry mind, all of him there and alert, to find Judith lying on top of him, kissing his face.

His heart jumped; the girl he loved was actually here, in his bedchamber, sliding about on top of him, and it wasn’t a dream. He was able, barely, to keep his voice slow and easy. “Judith, you’ve turned me into a bucket of sentiment and lust, but when all is said and done, you shouldn’t be here in my bedchamber at midnight, doing what you’re doing, which is a great pity.”

She laughed, her warm breath fanning his mouth. Then she kissed him again, just a light, tentative kiss, because he knew she had no experience.

“Judith, why are you here?”

She didn’t laugh. He heard nervousness in her voice. “Jason, I came here because I want you. I want you more than you can begin to imagine. I want you more than I did just a minute ago. Don’t send me away. Please.”

Jason didn’t know how it happened, but his arms were around her back, tightening. She felt soft against him, and he knew that within moments he would be hard against her belly and surely that would scare her witless. He kissed her then, keeping his tongue in his own mouth.

She liked that. When he managed to pull himself free, he said with great urgency, “Judith, you shouldn’t be here, it isn’t right. I love you, I’ve told you that-”

She reared up a bit. Her face was shadowed, but he could see those dark eyes of hers clearly enough. “You’ve never told me you loved me. You’ve always played around the point. And then you’ve gone off to your mistress.”

“Very well, listen to me now. I love you. There, is that clear enough for you? Now, you must leave. I can’t accompany you back to your bedchamber because there is no doubt at all in my mind that someone utterly unexpected would magically appear in the corridor and see us.”

She laughed.

“No, listen to me. I’m perfectly serious. Something would wake them up, and they’d come out into the corridor to see us skulking back to your bedchamber. So go now, while I’m still able to let you leave me. You can count on the fact that I’m not off to see any mistress.”