A Bright Particular Star (44 page)

A
practical
man, he
was staggered by
force and depth
of
his feel
ings
.
He
could only marvel
at and be humbled by
the way th
i
s quiet, graceful woman
affected him
.
None
of his previous relationships
had
lasted longer
than a few months.
T
hey had provided physical
release but nothing more
and as time went on
he
had begun to
think he was incapable of love.
H
is way of life made it
almost impossible anyway,
but he thought perh
aps there was also a flaw in him
that meant he could never truly love
.

Meeting
Olivia
had
brought about a momentous change
.
He had known from the first that this
was different.
She
was different.
He admired and
desired her, but there was
infinitely
more
to the way he felt than tha
t
.
He
had tried to
define it
and still he
found it impossible
to
articulate
everything
she meant to him
.
How could
he explain why one woman
—
this
woman
—
had ripped the heart from his chest, never to let it go?
All he knew was s
he was
a
beacon of
beauty and kindne
ss
in a cruel, unforgiving wor
ld
,
the
irresistible
light
that
now
guided him out of
the filthiest hellhole
s
,
the seediest
gaming dens
and
endless
tight corners
.
She touched his soul and he
loved her more than life itself.

For weeks
he had dreamed about
her.
He
dreamed
of loving
her
in a thousand
different
ways
, o
f
cherish
ing
her
, of spending a lifetime c
ompensating for all the
slights and cruel barbs she
received
at the hands of thos
e who should have cared for her.
He wanted to give
her all the things
she had been denied
and see her grow under the warmth of
love
.

He imagined
seeing
her
drowsy
smile
when she
a
woke beside him
,
her laughter
as
they walked
together
in soft autumn
rain
,
shared
glances over dinner
and
the caress in
her
eyes
after they had made love
under a starlit sky.

Yet
h
is
dreams
delighted and tormented him in equal measure
because
the
re were reasons why they
could never become
re
ality, and acknowledging this
was more painfu
l than
a rapier thrust to his
flesh
.

Mellow and sweet, her voice reached him.

“
F
ind her, Luc.
I will be waiting here
when you
get back, but promise me one thing.
”

He pulled her
close
again
.
“
Anything in my power,
”
he said
thickly
.

Her reply was muffled in his coat.
“
Make sure you
do
come back.
”

Luc
groaned.
T
he
impassioned sound
reverberated
in his chest
and he
rested
his
chin
against
her
hair, whispering
in a husky
voice
,
“
Beelzebub
and
all his hellhounds
couldn
’t
keep me away
.
”

As his m
outh covered hers again, her arms stole
around his
neck
and her head tipped back naturally
.
This time
th
e
ir
kiss had
a
desperate
edge
.
It
was
as
if
now the dam restraining
their
feelings had been breached
, a rip
tide of
need
swept
them along.
Her lips parted and
the tip of his tongue slid
into her mouth in silken exploration.
Luc
plundered
the warmth she offered
up
, consuming
her with a hungry
ardour that
left him
shaken
.
He
knew he should
go
, but
h
is blood
still burned
. U
nwilling
to
let
the
se precious
moment
s
end too abruptly
, his mouth slid over her throat and
along her jaw,
finding
the
soft,
sensitive
hollow below her ear
.

When s
he
sighed with
pleasure
, it
was
almost his
undoing.
At
last,
w
i
th a supreme effort of will,
he eased her
from him
. Her gaze locked with his in a moment of searing wonder before
he turned
and stro
de out
.

****

P
erry
had
still
not
broached the
delicate matter concerning
Olivia.
Instead he
had
droned on about
everything else: the we
ather, the fashions, the
sights, his gaming successes and
the
people he had met
.

Sophie
turned to
look
out of the window
of the hackney
,
her chin
propped
in her hand.
Bored and o
nly
hal
f-listening to his anecdotes
, she
grew
increasingly
irritated and
wished
he would get to the point
.

To her surprise
she saw they were not travelling along Oxford Street, but through a different
area.
The
scenery passing outside the carriage window
was unfamiliar.
Sophie
sat up, instantly
alert
.
She did not kn
ow London
well,
but
it was obvious
even to her
inexperienced eyes
that
t
he
y were not heading toward
Mayfair.
The
crowds
and the buildings were growing
sparser
and she didn
’t
recognise any
of the
passing
landmarks
.

“
Where ar
e we going?
”
she demanded
,
a frown tugging at her brow
.
“T
his is n
ot the usual way
.
”

Perry, seated next to her, leaned
against the swabs with his
a
rms
folded
across his chest and
legs stretched out
,
his body
swaying
with the movement of the coach
.
“
No.
I thought you might enjo
y some refreshment at a
little inn I know on the outskirts of town.
”

S
he
swung
around
to face him
.
“
But y
ou pr
omised to talk to me about Olivia
on the way
back
.
”

“
I did not.
You assumed I meant dis
cussing it in the carriage, but
I merely said it was a good opportunity to
discuss the matter privately
,
h
ence our detour
.
”

“
What
?
”
Wrath blaze
d in Sophie
’s
eyes.
“D
on
’t
quibbl
e! Y
ou have deliberately
misled me!
H
ow dare you
?
”

“D
ear me,
”
he drawled
.
“
Why
you
are
behavi
ng in this ridiculous
fashion?
As I recall
,
y
ou chose to come
and
if you enact a scene when all I have
in mind
is
conversation
over tea and cake
you will look stupid
.
You can
return to Bro
ok
Street anytime you wish
when
you have heard what I have to say.
”
He glanced outside
.
“
Ah
look,
w
e have
almost
reached our destination.
”

His
supercilious manner
made Sophie want to slap him
.
H
ad
she
suspected
he i
ntended to travel out of
London, she would never have
agreed to come
,
whatever inducements
he had offered.
She felt
a
fool
, but s
he c
ould have staked her life that he had not been
lying about Olivia
,
even if he
had misled her about their destination
.

But why?
For
what purpose?

T
his was no
abduction
.
Their progress was
too sedate and Perry
’s
mood
too
relaxed
.
Besides
, they
could not go much
farther
in the
hackney
.

A
s
they
trundled past
a charming
green surrounded by neat houses and tall elms and were set down outside a
large old country hostelry
,
her brow
furrowed
.
S
he
began to wonder if
,
after all
,
he harboured nothing more sinister than
a desire to
speak to her
in
comfortable surroundings
.

T
o her relief,
t
he location
was not an isolated one
.
The
inn
courtyard
thronged with
people and a variety of coaches, while
the sign above them
bore the name
“T
he Angel”
.
Given the
short
time
they had
been travelling
,
they must
indeed
still be
on the outskirts of the city
.
It seemed he
was telling the truth about that at least.

She
caught her lower lip between her teeth.
She hated to admit it, but
he
was right
.
M
aking a scene
now
would be p
ointless
because there
was nothing she could
accuse him of.
B
r
inging her
to take
afternoon
tea
without asking first
was a typically arrogant action, but it was
not an iniquitous
one
.

She must
stay calm an
d pretend to humour him.
Only then could she hope
to
see wh
at he was
about.
And
,
if he did harbour any
notion
of carryi
ng her off
against her will
,
she would
create
a scene wort
hy of attention and
beg
one
of the
other
travellers
to take her home
. T
here wasn
’t
enough
money in her reticule to pay for a return journey
.
R
elieved to have formed a plan of sorts, she glanced
at Perry as he strolled inside to seek out
the
landlord
. A
lthough she was not afraid, she
felt
vulnerable
. N
otwithstanding Perry
’s
deceit
and the fact he had
exploited
her affection for Olivia
, she
had fallen into anoth
er scrape, one which
at the very least it might be
awkward
to extricate herself from
.

This
bitter
reflection, and the
bustling
inn
so reminiscent of another on the Bath Road,
sent a
familiar longing
spiralling
through her
.
Recollections filled her mind…Theo
’s
dark, smiling eyes, his laugh, the way he had held her…

She missed him
so much t
he
year
ning was like a physical pain and
she
wondered
again
where he was and
what he was doi
ng
.
Th
e hours
she had spent with him
had been the hap
piest of her life
and
she wished
she could tell him
so, just once.
But it was not to be
.
This time he was not going
to rescue her from
the consequences of
her
folly.

Perry ushered her into a
private parlour where
a maid was
laying out refreshments.
While the
girl
put
out plates and cutlery in
the
pleasant, sun-lit
room
which overlooked the
courtyard
of the inn
,
Sophie
removed her bonnet.
Putting
it
on a
side
table
, she
sat down
in one of the
spindle back
chair
s
and
, keeping a wary eye on
Perry’s
movements,
tried to ready herself for whatever was to come.

“T
his is a pleasant way to s
pend an afternoon,
”
began
her companion
, sitting down.

“
Is it too much to ask that
you
get to the point, Perry
?
”
she said.
“
You have
gone to a deal of
trouble
to bring me
here and
I can
’t
see
why
.
What is this place?
”

“T
he Angel at Islington Green.
”

She looked up quickly.
“
Isl
ington
!
That is
to the north of London, isn
’t
it?
”

“
About a mile from Hicks Hall
, at
th
e start of the Great North Road.
”

Sh
e paused, her gaze fixed on his face
.
“
And s
hould I see any significance in that?
”

Perry did not answer at onc
e.
He waited for the servant to scurry o
ut and
to Sophie
’s
consternation, got up to lock
the door and slipped
the key in
to
his pocket.
Then, ranging himself
once again
in the
chair
opposite Sophie
, h
e
made a steeple from his fingers
and tapped
them against his lips
in a thoughtful fashion
.
“T
here might be.
You see,
you have ups
et my plans and it
will not do
.
”

“
I’m
not going to
apologise for leaving Ludstone,
”
said Sophie,
trying to
calm her jangling
nerves
, which had increased with his turning the key in the lock
.
“
I
t was the best thing I have ever done.
”