Prince Charming

Hunter nodded. “How many times did you say you fired?”

“Three times,” she answered. “There wasn’t a kick, Hunter. I didn’t have to adjust my aim at all. It’s a vast improvement over the older models. You must try it sometime.”

Hunter handed the weapon to Lucas. “It’s lighter,” he remarked.

“Is it loaded?” Lucas asked.

Hunter grinned. “After yesterday’s adventure, I would imagine it is.”

“I cleaned it last night and reloaded this morning,” she told her husband. She wanted him to know she took good care of her possessions.

Then she tried to take her gun back. Lucas wouldn’t give it to her. “You don’t need this,” he remarked.

Hunter was smiling again. Something was up all right, but Lucas was too weary to figure it out. Only one fact was registering in his mind. His friend hadn’t smiled this much in all the time he’d known him.

“Weren’t you listening?” Hunter asked.

“Guess not,” Lucas replied.

“She needs the gun.”

“This isn’t the gun you had in Boston,” Lucas remarked, for he’d only just realized the subtle differences in the weapons. “This is brand-new. Where’d you get it?”

“Weren’t you paying attention to what I was telling Hunter?”

“No.”

She let out a sigh. Her poor husband was so tired, he was having trouble concentrating. “You need to get some sleep, Mr. Ross. Give me my gun back. I got it at a gun shop, of course. Heavens, I’m going to be late for the train’s arrival if I don’t hurry.”

“You still have plenty of time,” Lucas told her. It suddenly occurred to him that she was back to calling him Mr. Ross again. He scowled and turned his attention back to the shiny Colt he held in his hand.

“It’s nice,” he remarked. “Why’d you buy it?”

“It was a gift.”

“Why?” Lucas asked.

“Why what?” Taylor replied.

He held onto his patience. “Why was it a gift?”

She didn’t care for his tone of voice. It was snappish. She didn’t care for the way he was scrutinizing her either. He reminded her of a barrister trying to prove a hidden motive. Taylor’s spine stiffened in reaction. She was his wife, not a defendant. The flash of irritation was short-lived however. Then she felt guilty because she was certain she was overreacting. Lucas looked dead on his feet. She should be giving him her sympathy.

Because he didn’t appear to be in a very amiable mood, she decided not to go into detail about the near robbery. It might upset him. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “It isn’t important,” she announced. “My, you look tuckered out. Why don’t I go and turn the bed down for you?”

He might have been exhausted, but he was still as quick as ever. He grabbed hold of her arm before she could take a single step away from him.

“Why was it a gift?” he asked again.

She let out a sigh. “The owner was . . . appreciative.”

“Why?”

The set of his jaw told her he wasn’t going to give up until he had all his answers.

“There was a small, inconsequential altercation in the store and just a hint of a possibility of a robbery,” she said with a shrug. “That’s all.”

“Elwin and Wilburn.”

Hunter interjected the names. He was grinning like a naked bandit bathing in gold coins.

“Couldn’t you tell I wasn’t going to go into detail with Mr. Ross?” she asked Hunter. She added a frown so he’d know she was displeased with him.

He didn’t seem to mind. He winked at her. “Are you going to make me sorry I told you what happened?” she asked. She didn’t give him time to answer. She shook her head at him and said, “You’re supposed to be loyal to me, sir.”

“I am?” Hunter asked.

She nodded. She waved her hand in Lucas’s direction. “I’m his wife, after all.”

“Who in thunder are Wellen and Elburn?” Lucas asked the question in a surly, someone-better-answer-me voice.

“They’re Elwin and Wilburn.” Hunter took great delight in correcting his friend’s pronunciation.

“Start explaining, Taylor.”

“You might become irritated.”

She was a little late with that concern. Lucas was already looking angry.

“They’re the men who followed Taylor from the train station yesterday. She told me she prayed for a miracle. God gave her one.”

“Oh?” Lucas asked, his voice suspiciously soft.

Hunter couldn’t wait to explain. “A gun shop.”

Lucas nodded. “I see.”

“Your eyelid’s twitching,” Hunter said.

Lucas ignored his friend. He turned his attention to his wife. She was giving him a sweet smile and trying to act as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

“And?” he prodded.

“There really isn’t anything more to tell,” she replied.

Hunter didn’t agree. He ended up telling Lucas the entire story.

Just as Taylor suspected, Lucas didn’t take it all in stride. His grip on her arm started stinging. She pinched him to make him let up on his hold. By the time his had-to-tell-it-all friend finished giving him every last detail, Lucas’s jaw was clenched tight, and there was a noticeable tick in his left eyelid.

It mesmerized her.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?”

She knew that question was coming. “If you weren’t so tired, you would realize I used my wits to get out of a worrisome situation. You would be praising me, sir.”

The tick intensified. Yes, he should have complimented her. He didn’t though. He dragged her over to the settee, forced her to sit down, and then towered over her while he tried to scare the hell out of her.

He didn’t raise his voice, and that made his lecture all the worse in her opinion. In great, vivid detail he told her what could have happened to her. He painted a godawful picture. Her face turned as white as snow by the time he was finished listing all the horrors she might have had to endure . . . before they killed her.

Lucas had her dead and buried on a remote country road, and when he at last finished with his ungentlemanly terror tactics, he made her admit she’d done several foolish things. “You never should have gone alone.”

“No, I shouldn’t have,” she readily agreed. Her head was bowed low.

He thought she was being contrite and maybe even a little submissive. He was immediately suspicious. In all their time together, he’d noticed how headstrong she was and how stubborn. But submissive? Never.

Fatigue made his anger over her foolishness more intense. He knew he was overreacting. He didn’t care. The thought of Taylor in such danger made him furious and all because it scared the hell out of him. If anything ever happened to her, he didn’t know what he would do.

“I made a promise to your grandmother to keep you safe until you got settled . . . where in thunder are you going to get settled? Are you going to take your nieces to their father’s relatives? You weren’t thinking of taking them back to England, were you? No, of course you weren’t. What about Boston?”

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. The action made him want to throttle her. And then kiss her. He shook his head.

“I’m not a saint,” he muttered.

Taylor didn’t look at him when she agreed. “No, you certainly aren’t a saint, sir.”

“How long am I . . .”

He didn’t finish his question.

“Stuck with me?” she asked, her voice as whisper soft as his had been when he started the question.

No, that wasn’t what he was going to ask her, but thankfully he’d stopped himself before he blurted out the rest. He’d wanted to know exactly how long he was supposed to keep his hands off her. Pretending to be a eunuch around her was taking its toll. He wasn’t made of stone. Didn’t she understand that?

Lucas let out a sigh. Of

course she didn’t understand. She was quite astute about most things, but when it came to the marriage bed, she was as innocent as a . . . virgin, just like she was supposed to be.

What was the matter with him? He was trying to make her understand she couldn’t just run here and there without protection, and right smack in the middle of his speech on the merits of using caution, his mind turned to thoughts of what it would be like to bed her. Lucas was thoroughly disgusted with himself.

The tension inside the room grew until it was almost unbearable. Hunter had already gone into the second bedroom so Taylor and Lucas could have the privacy they needed. Lucas suddenly wished there was a crowd of people in the suite with them. The questions rambling around in his head, one on top of another and another and another, kept demanding answers. He suddenly felt like a barracuda he’d watched once, fighting against the hook. He’d stood next to a fisherman on the pier and seen how the weathered old man had patiently worked the fish. He’d given him plenty of line, let the barracuda fight until exhaustion finally overtook him, and then the old man had calmly reeled him in.

Lucas pushed the memory away. He kept his gaze firmly directed on his wife. He couldn’t see her face, for her head was bowed so low he thought her chin must be touching her chest. God, she looked dejected. He assumed he’d injured her feelings, and hell, what was he going to do about that?

She suddenly straightened her spine and looked up at him. One glance told him he’d been wrong in concluding he’d hurt her feelings. There weren’t any tears in her eyes. There was fire. She didn’t look like she wanted to weep. Quite the opposite. She looked like she wanted to kill him.

He was at first startled by the notice, then incredibly relieved. Oh, how she pleased him. He felt like laughing and couldn’t give a reason why. The woman was making him crazy. Those wonderful, beguiling blue eyes of hers captured his full attention. And his heart.

They stared at each other a long, silent moment. She was trying to collect her thoughts so that she would sound reasonable when she spoke to him.

He was using the time to come to grips with the truth. He expected to be hit by lightning. He wasn’t. He didn’t blanch or stagger to his knees, and all because the realization wasn’t gruesome or horrifying after all. It was in fact quite liberating.

He could feel himself being reeled in. The questions were gone, the answer had been there all along. He realized that now. He’d just been too stubborn and mule headed to recognize all the signs.

He was a man in love with his wife.

Taylor had succeeded in getting her anger under control until her insensitive clod of a husband smiled at her. He’d just asked her the most appalling question and then had the gall to grin over it.

“I’ll be happy to answer your question,” she announced in a voice that shook with anger. “You’re stuck with me until you find my babies. It’s that simple. Find them, and then you can leave.”

She suddenly bounded to her feet. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Go where the wind blows you, Mr. Ross, if that is your inclination.”

Hunter stood in the doorway watching Taylor. Since she wasn’t paying any attention to him, he thought it safe to smile. He wanted to laugh. Lord, she was in a lather and she was about the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. He wondered if Lucas knew how fortunate he was to have married her. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was also spirited. Hunter found it an appealing combination.

He didn’t want to interrupt, but he’d noticed the lateness in the hour and thought he’d offer to go to the train station to collect her friend. He guessed he’d have to wait until Mrs. Ross was finished giving Mr. Ross hell before he could find out if she wanted him to go on the errand or not.

Taylor kept her attention on her husband. She was determined to make him understand how she felt and why. Her mind raced from one argument to another.

“What either one of us wants isn’t the least important,” she began. “Both of us must put the children first. Every adult should,” she added in a whisper.

Then she remembered an incident from her past she thought would best explain her position.

“I saw a woman strike a boy across his face. It was at the annual fair held on my grandmother’s estates. The woman used her fist and the blow lifted the lad off the ground. He landed in the mud. It was a miracle his neck wasn’t broken.”

Lucas didn’t show any reaction to the remembrance. He waited to hear the rest of the story.

“Quite a few people witnessed the act of cruelty, but none of them did anything about it. He was just twelve years old. Someone should have come to his rescue. She was cruel and malicious.”

“You did something though, didn’t you?”

“I certainly did. The woman was employed by my grandmother. I made her promise not to strike the boy again. I threatened to ask Madam to fire her if she ever raised her hand against him again.”

“How old were you?”

“Ten.”

“You were awfully young to . . .”

“My age isn’t important to this story,” she interrupted. “The woman told me the boy was a distant relation she’d been forced to take in and feed. She didn’t want him and she certainly didn’t love him. I made certain the boy was taken out of harm’s way. That was all that mattered to me.”

“How did you accomplish that?”

“I took him home with me.”

He smiled. Of course she took him home with her. He couldn’t imagine Taylor doing anything less, even at the tender age of ten.

“I would like to meet him someday,” Lucas remarked.

“You already have, Mr. Ross. Thomas took over the arrangements for our wedding. He made certain there weren’t any problems. He did a fine job.”

Lucas remembered the young man. “He was your grandmother’s butler.”

“Yes. Mr. Ross, the only reason I shared the incident with you was to help you understand that it doesn’t matter if you’re inconvenienced or taxed or even stuck with me as you so eloquently stated. You and I, and Hunter, too, all have the same responsibility. It is our obligation, indeed our sacred duty, to protect the innocent from harm. I can’t take the babies home and keep them safe until you find them.

“I’ve already given you my word I’ll find them. Are you now suggesting I might abandon you?”

She could tell he was getting angry. She didn’t care. “You did ask me how long you were going to be stuck with me,” she reminded him.

“No,” he corrected. “You assumed that was what I was going to ask. Don’t jump to conclusions. They’re usually wrong.”

He moved forward until he was standing just on the other side of the table facing her. “And don’t ever tell me what I may or may not do. We aren’t at odds over the issue of the children. I recognize my responsibility and so does Hunter. Do we look like we’re going to bolt?”

She shook her head. “You really weren’t going to ask me how long you were stuck with me?”

“No.”

She felt like a fool. She was mortified by her own conduct. She could feel herself blushing. Lord help her, she’d lectured him, insulted him as well, and simply telling him she was sorry wouldn’t be adequate.

“I’ll pay you,” she blurted out.

“What did you say?” He was certain he hadn’t heard correctly. She wouldn’t deliberately insult him again by suggesting he would take money for doing what she had just pointed out was his sacred duty.

“I’ll give you anything you want,” she explained in a rush.

She added a nod to let him know she was sincere.

The tick was back in his eyelid. Her offer obviously hadn’t pleased him. She was bewildered. “I meant no offense, sir. I was simply being practical. I know you’ll find the babies with or without compensation. Honestly, there isn’t any reason to get huffy.”

“Huffy?” He choked on the word.

“Oh, how like a man to get riled up over a practical matter.” She waved her ha

nd in the air. “Forget I made the offer.”

“Too late,” he told her.

She let out a sigh. She’d hurt his pride, she realized, and it was up to her to repair the damage. The problem was simple; the answer eluded her, however. She didn’t know how to soothe him.

Mr. Ross seemed to take exception to everything she said. She was going to tell him she believed he was a bit high-strung when he turned her attention.

“I’ll take you up on your offer.”

Taylor wasn’t the only one surprised by his turnabout. Hunter raised an eyebrow in reaction. He was astonished.

“You will?” she asked.

“Yes, I will,” he agreed. “You did say I could have anything I wanted, isn’t that right?”

“Yes.” She hurried to add, “After we’ve found the babies.”

“Of course.”

He gave her a wide smile and then turned to look at Hunter. “Do you want to go with me to the train station? We could get something to eat on our way back.”

Hunter checked the time before answering. “The meeting’s set for six,” he reminded his friend.

“We’ll be back by then.”

Lucas started for the door. Taylor skirted her way around the table and chased after him. She grabbed hold of his arm and asked him to stop.

“Do you know what you want?” she asked.

“Yes. I know exactly what I want.”

Hunter opened the door and walked out into the corridor. Lucas tried to follow him. Taylor grabbed hold of him again.

“For heaven’s sake,” she began. “If you know what you want, kindly tell me.”

He turned around to look at her. He wanted to see her expression when he enlightened her.

“I want”—he leaned down and kissed her hard—“a wedding night.”

13

Love sought is good, but giv’n unsought is better.

—William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

He rendered her speechless. He was out the door and halfway down the corridor by the time she recovered her wits. Then she went running across the room, almost ripped the door off its hinges when she opened it, and called after him.