Betrayed Countess (Books We Love Historical Romance) (36 page)

Bettina put her hands on his chest and levered herself away. “Everett, we cannot. I thought you understood my fears on this?”

He drew back from her, his eyes large and sad. “Indeed, as it must be. I am sorry. I bid you goodnight.” He rose and walked to his bedchamber, shutting the door. Bettina clutched the cushion beneath her, shivering in the now cold and empty room.

* * * *

“What are your exact plans once Hollis is located?” Bettina asked the next morning. Oleba had laid out bread, butter and jam from Fortnum & Mason on the small table. Bettina poured tea and tried to sound eager to diffuse the stilted atmosphere.

Everett looked away from her. He stood and gulped his tea, rattled down the cup, snatched up papers and rustled them into his briefcase. “Pete and I will formulate the details. We’ll have to discover his whereabouts, probably still in St. Giles, as I said, and grab him.”

“And what can I do to help?” She spread jam on her bread. “Who is Pete?”

He turned to her, his gaze peevish. “You will stay right here, where it’s safe. Pete is my informant. We’ll discuss this later.” Everett picked up his hat and strode out.

Bettina fumed when he didn’t return to take her to supper that evening. He meant to punish her for the previous night. She ate leftover bread and jam. The sweet dryness lumped in her stomach. Out the bowed window she glared at the man who lit the oil burning street lamps below. Ship’s lights bobbed on the river, but began to fade in the midst of more fog.

At eight o’clock Oleba helped Bettina undress for bed. The one ritual they’d established was the maid’s brushing of her long black hair, but tonight she didn’t enjoy it. Then Oleba put out the candles and retired upstairs. Too restless for sleep, Bettina laid in bed staring at the ceiling. She wasn't sure how long after that she heard the front door open. Facing the wall, she pulled the covers close around her head.

After a few minutes there was a soft rap on her door. It creaked open. “Bettina, please accept my humble apology.”

Her shoulders stiffened. She turned to see Everett framed in a light from the parlor.

“And you should apologize. Did you have an enjoyable supper?”

He lowered his head, one hand on her doorframe. “I worked the entire time downstairs.”

“And now you refuse to involve me in the search. I might as well return to Cornwall.” She sat up and shivered in the chilly room.

“I behaved very insensitively toward you. But it is frustrating, being here together.” He walked closer.

“Do you think I do not have these feelings, too?” Aware she wore only a flimsy cotton nightgown, Bettina shrank inside the garment, crossing her arms over her chest. Everett came and sat on her bed, and she swallowed hard.

“Bettina, I need your affection. I have gone so long without anything.” He rubbed her shoulders. His touch sent a quiver down to her toes. “I know you have concerns, but we’ll be together always. I will take care of you. We’ll get married as soon as we can. I’m aching for you. Don’t deny ourselves this pleasure.”

“We will always be together, yes, and one day marry
….” Bettina saw him opening up so fully to her, she had to believe this.

His arms surrounded her. He gently kissed her lips, cheeks and throat. Her body reacted, her need for him strong. Worries drifted away with his hot mouth on hers.

Everett picked her up and carried her to his bedchamber. He slipped her nightgown over her head, then his hands caressed along her naked body. Her skin tingled, raw nerves thrumming beneath the surface. She stretched out on the warming sheets.

He undressed and crawled in beside her, their heated skin in contact.

Bettina groaned when he kissed down her neck and explored her breasts with his lips.

“Tell me you love me, I need to hear it,” Everett whispered between kisses.

“I love you, completely….” She gasped and ran her fingers through his hair. His vulnerability made her more impassioned.

Everett trailed kisses across her stomach and along her inner thighs. He ran his tongue back up her body and once more crushed his mouth to hers as he stroked her with his fingers. This time, when he entered her, she was moist and ready, the brief pain quickly replaced with pleasure. Bettina arched against him, crying out to ease the throbbing that came from deep inside her, radiating outward. He gasped after several thrusts and shuddered above her.

Kissing her once more, Everett pulled from her. He hugged her against him, their skin moist with sweat.

“That was
… the greatest moment of my life,” she whispered into his musky shoulder. Her body still rippled with satisfaction.

“For me too, darling. I never knew it could be like this. I never before—”

“Shhh, do not say anymore.” She didn’t want comparison with Miriam, or to think about the consequences.

* * * *

Bettina gazed out the window as the early morning city sprang to life. Wagons and sledges rumbled along the street below. Peddlers shouted their wares, rang bells, and pushed heavily laden carts. The services they offered varied from second-hand clothing to knife grinding and the coalman to fuel your fire. Women called out in singsong voices, announcing hot spiced ginger drinks, new brooms and rug beaters. They shivered in threadbare shawls in the thick mist that swirled in off the water.

The sharpest noise came from the commotion on the wharves as men cursed when they loaded and unloaded barges. The brash tones of the fishmongers spewed over the Billingsgate fish market, where fishing boats brought their catch. Bettina saw the activity there, the area crowded with decrepit sheds and low booths.

As she sipped tea, clad in her dressing gown, Bettina couldn’t stop thinking about the previous night’s erotic pleasure. Though to preserve some propriety, she’d snuck back into her chamber before Oleba came down.

“Good morning.” Everett stepped up behind her and kissed the nape of her neck. He smelled fresh from his shave and a splash of his spicy cologne.

“You had better stop that, sir, or we will be right back in the bedroom.” She laughed and hopped up from her chair.

He squeezed her to him, lifting her off her feet, burying his face in her hair. “That’s a tempting idea. If I didn’t have business to wrap up downstairs.”

“Sit, please. I will fix you tea and toast.” But she didn’t get far without a long, passionate kiss. She felt flowing and supple, like a scarf draped around him. “You will never make it to the office. And I do not mind if you never leave here.”

That evening the two of them supped at the Lamb and Flag Inn in Covent Garden. The smell of mutton and smoke filled the air in the dimly lit room.

After two glasses of Madeira, Bettina thought of this shadow that lurked over them, preventing their smooth transition into matrimony. “Everett … why did you wed Miriam in the first place?”

“Are you trying to spoil my night?” He flashed a crooked smile and reached across the table to clasp her hand. “I never felt about her the way I feel about you, if that’s what worries you.”

“Then why did you marry? I would like to know, to understand your past. I shared the truth about my background with you, have I not?”

Everett sat back with a long-suffering sigh, though he still held her hand. “Our families had known each other for years. My mother thought Miriam and I would suit one another. She was very pretty. With pressure from both mothers, we fell into the agreement that someday we’d marry.

“When I returned from my travels after university, I decided it was time to settle down, and there were our mothers eager to plan a wedding. I hadn’t spent much time around Miriam since before university, but she seemed bright and accomplished. We married here in London. I wanted to live in Cornwall, on the family estate I’d inherit. It was the perfect place to raise children.” He stared down at their entwined fingers. “Miriam was bored and unhappy from the beginning. Her brightness was all on the surface. She loathed reading, embroidery, and gardening was beneath her. She’d only feigned those interests. Then she insisted I buy her a pianoforte. But after I did, she hardly bothered with it. Turned out she was more interested in the suave music teacher making his rounds of bored wives.”

Bettina remembered his adverse reaction when she’d asked him if he played.

“Her only true passion was the reflection in her looking glass and the number of men who fawned over her at London soirees. But my father’s health was failing. So I put aside my regrets over this creature I married to help him run his business and the estate. Barely two years later … my father died.” He shifted in the chair. “Mother was devastated. My parents had such a close, loving relationship—the marriage I’d hoped for. Mother couldn’t bear to stay, so fled to her sister’s in the Scillies, leaving everything to Clare and I—”

“You mentioned that before. What are Scillies?” Bettina wanted to interrupt. His stricken expression, even in the dim candlelight, upset her.

“They’re islands off the Cornish coast. Once we were alone at Bronnmargh, our misery intensified. The marriage was a sham with no foundation of love. Miriam seemed to lack any genuine capacity for affection.” Everett spoke in clipped tones, seemingly anxious to expel this information as if it were a poison inside him. “The estate began to fall apart—I sold off much of the land. My marriage was in ruins, but divorces were difficult, expensive. I threw myself into my work. I stayed away, longer and longer. I’m not proud of my behavior, my putting off the inevitable. Then she took up with Hollis, and … well, I told you what happened.”

“That was so horrid for you, all of it. I am sorry to bring it up.” Bettina pulled his hand to her face and kissed it. “I hope my love wipes away these memories.”

The lines on Everett’s forehead relaxed and he smiled. “I have faith that it can.”

“Is your mother still alive on these islands? You rarely talk of her,” Bettina said after the waiter cleared away the dishes. The candlelight flickered over the low beams above.

“I guess I’ve been bitter about too many things, even my mother. If she had stayed it would have made things easier … with Clare, and Frederick.”

“Did you ever think of sending Frederick to live with her?”

“No, I accepted responsibility to watch over the boy.” Everett released her hand, but placed his in a suggestive manner on her knee beneath the table. “You’re so full of questions tonight, my dear. Let’s—”

“Wait, I have one more.” Bettina gave him a sheepish look, but wanted to clear the air. “Why did you and Miriam never have children?”

Everett raised an eyebrow. He removed his hand. “If you must know, it seemed that Miriam couldn’t have children. Not that it bothered her in the least. Though I’ve always wanted a family, Miriam would not have been a caring mother.”

“All right, my curiosity is satisfied. We do not need to speak any more of it.” Bettina thought of the possibility she might have a base born child since she’d tossed her moral upbringing aside. She also realized her reputation was damaged just by living in the same apartment with Everett, no matter if they’d slept together or not.

She slid her glass across the table. He poured her more wine.

“When I met you, I never imagined things would turn out like this.” Everett drank from his own glass. His gaze softened. “But it has been a year full of surprises.”

Bettina sipped the rich beverage, then ran a finger over the glass rim. “What did you think of me that first time in your library?”

“Hmmm
… I noticed you had striking eyes and beautiful hair. Quite pretty, in your plain little dress. You carried yourself well. Not like the common stock of women I was used to seeing out there. And you certainly had no qualms about speaking your mind.” His voice brimmed with amusement.

“I never realized you noticed me
… in such a significant way.”

“It was difficult not to.” He smiled. “What did you think of me, dare I ask?”

“Now that is more complicated. I thought you handsome, but oh so aloof. Very … mysterious.” She laughed. “Not friendly to me … a cautious man.”

“And dangerous perhaps, after the rumors you heard?” He chuckled. “I suppose I was most of those things. Now I’m just a man in love, probably for the first time at just over thirty.”

Bettina reached over and touched his face. “I will make you forget your past.” Just as she had to forget her heritage because of the revolution.

Everett kissed her fingertips. “Let’s return to the apartment. We can discuss the details under the covers.”

When they walked upstairs on Thames Street, kissing fervently as they went, Bettina saw a note slipped half under the apartment door. She picked it up and handed it to Everett.

He opened it. His jaw stiffened. “It’s from my informant, Pete. He’s located Hollis.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I insist on accompanying you to meet this man, Pete.” Bettina settled her straw hat on her head and pulled on her cloak.

“I’d rather you didn’t. It isn’t in a decent part of town. If I had planned to take you, I’d have requested another place.” Everett’s tone softened at her third declaration of her intentions. “I did set up an interview with one of the French aristocrats here in London, to see if there’s any word on your mother. We’ll go and see him tomorrow. Why don’t you rest?”