Mistaken Identity (Saved By Desire 3) (18 page)

When the rain began to increase its pounding fury, Marcus swung her high into his arms and strode toward the house. Once inside, he kicked the door closed and locked it behind them before he strode up the stairs with her still in his arms.

“Ben?” He yelled.

Within seconds, Ben was at the bottom of the stairs. He gasped at the sight of Jess, but Marcus stopped him following them.

“Go and warm some milk for her. She is frozen. Keep an eye out of the window. There is someone lurking out there in a black cloak.”

“Have they hurt her?” Ben demanded with a dark scowl.

Marcus shook his head but couldn’t be sure until he had checked for himself. All sorts of things were running through his mind, but he forced his attention to staying calm. It was damned difficult, though. He had never stopped to think about just how much he needed Jess in his life. The mere prospect of her not being there had left him deeply tormented.

Inside what was now their bedroom, Marcus deposited her on her feet beside the bed. Yanking down the covers down, he began to undress her with brisk efficiency.

“Let’s get you warmed up,” he murmured even though she had yet to speak.

Jess didn’t protest when he hauled her sodden dress over her shoulders and stripped every ounce of clothing off her. She stood before him immodestly and clung to him when he tugged a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around her. When she continued to shiver, he chaffed her arms in an attempt to get some warmth back into them, but it was of little use.

“D-d-did you see them?” she asked, her eyes pleading him to confirm that someone had been following; that it hadn’t been her imagination running away with her.

“Yes, I saw the cloaked figure. I just didn’t see who it was,” Marcus replied. “Try not to worry about it. A lot of people are hurrying home in weather like this. I expect Ben will be back soon. Until then, let me light this fire. You get into bed. It’s important we get you warm.”

He left her standing beside the bed staring at him, and knelt down to light the fire. Once it was roaring away heartily, he turned toward her.

“I will be back in a minute,” he murmured.

Jess watched him go and wondered what he was doing. Still, just being at home and knowing he was there was enough to ease her fear. She had never realised before just how much she had come to rely on him. It disturbed her because she had always considered herself to be someone who could cope with life by herself. To think that she had so instinctively turned to Marcus told her just how essential his presence in her life was.

It is love.
She mulled that over.
It has to be. You have never felt like this about anyone else before. No man has ever attracted you like this.

“I love him,” she whispered aloud. “I really do love him.”

She was shocked, horrified, appalled, amazed, worried, delighted, and nervous. More importantly, she was completely at a loss to know what to do about it. Marcus had invited questions, so she knew more about him. Unfortunately, there were so many more things she needed to ask him now that she could interrogate him every evening for the next six months and still not know enough.

Lost in her thoughts, she huddled under the covers and waited for him to return.

Marcus stood to one side of the window and studied the woods beside the house for signs of anyone lurking within, but it was too dark to see anything. Frustration was rife because of his inability to go out and search for whoever had scared her. However, Jess needed him, and she came first. She was considerably more important than any idiot who chose to be outside in the middle of a thunder storm.

By the time he got back to the room with a steaming cup of milk, Jess was huddled beneath the covers on the bed, staring blankly at the wall.

“Are you alright?” He asked.

Rather than wait for her to take the cup off him, he put it on the floor where she could reach it. Rather than put her damp clothes in front of the fire to dry out, he yanked his shirt over his head. Then slid into bed beside her and hauled her into his arms.

“What are you doing?” she gasped as she snuggled against him.

“Holding you,” he said with a smile. “Don’t you know that in circumstances like this it is best if we share warmth?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” she whispered, inwardly thrilled.

The atmosphere within the room turned soft and intimate. Marcus didn’t bother to light a candle, even though the sky outside had turned almost black.

“I need to get dinner ready soon,” she whispered reluctantly.

“Not until you have warmed up a little,” Marcus assured her. “I am sure the guests will understand. Besides, there are a good few hours yet before they are due back. There is plenty of time.”

As a companionable silence settled over them, Jess fell for Marcus just that little bit deeper. He had, once again and without question, come to her rescue. At a time when she needed it the most, he gave her a shoulder to cry on and had protected her from physical threat.

“Can you tell me what happened?” He tucked the blankets around her while he waited for her to talk.

“I just got this strange feeling that I wasn’t alone,” Jess explained. “It was so strong that I took a good look around. He then left the woods and crossed the road.”

“Did he approach you?”

“No, but he made no attempt to hide either.” Jess began to feel a little foolish. “Now that I come to think about it, he looked sinister but didn’t do anything wrong. He was just there. It was me who fell into a fit of hysterics.”

Marcus stroked her cold hair away from her warm face.

“I know he was cloaked, Jess. I saw him. Did anything untoward happen while you were in town? Did anyone bump into you, or speak to you, or look at you strangely?”

“No,” Jess replied instinctively. “It was just an ordinary trip to the village. Nothing happened. I got what I needed, and made my way back home. I didn’t feel anything until I reached the road that runs past the house. Then I got that horrible awareness, and just knew someone was in the trees watching me.”

Marcus nodded. “I know what feeling you mean.”

I know it all too well,
Marcus mused silently.

“When you have to go back into town again, take Ben or me with you. Don’t go alone.” His order was clipped and discouraged argument.

“Who do you think it is?” she asked curiously.

“I don’t know. It could be the magistrate. Lloyd is looking for anything to use against anybody at the moment, but I don’t know why. I think he is feeling a little hopeless because this is a small village where hardly anything happens. If he can pin something on Ben, or you, then he will. But don’t let him frighten you. He didn’t accost you, or approach, so that is something positive. Whoever it was may just be trying to scare you, that’s all.”

“He chased me, Marcus,” she whispered, her anger rising now she was safe.

“I didn’t see that much,” he replied honestly. “It’s over now, so it is best to try to forget all about it. At some point, the locks on the doors need to be changed.”

“Oh, but we cannot afford that.” Her response was so instinctive that the words were out before she could stop them. She winced while she waited to see what his response would be. It was horrible to have him think she was destitute but, well, she was. There was no other way to put it.

“This is an expense that has to be met, Jess. The house is insecure without proper locks. Don’t put a spare key in the store room now either. Until the money can be found for the new locks, keep the doors locked and use the bolts on all of them. Use one of the side doors to get in and out of the house for now. I will arrange for the lock to be changed if I get the time.”

“How is your search of the guest’s rooms going?” She asked hastily.

She was eager to change the subject. Just thinking about door locks, and people getting into the house while she wasn’t there made her feel horribly vulnerable. Her home didn’t feel all that safe anymore.

Marcus told her what he had Ben and found.

“Can I see them?” she asked. Her face was alive with curiosity.

“Yes, but it will have to be tomorrow. It won’t be long before the lodgers return. I don’t want them to catch us red-handed as it were,” Marcus warned her.

Jess nodded. She was content now that she was back in his arms again, and wished she could stay there and shut the rest of the world out forever. If she didn’t move again for the next several days, she would be a happy person. As it was, she could positively feel Marcus struggling to contain the need to get up and do something.

“Thank you for coming to help me,” she said suddenly. “Oh! The shopping!”

Marcus grinned. “Ben is packing it away for you.”

Jess sat bolt upright in bed. “Ben’s in the house?” she whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

“Yes, but he does know what is going on, Jess. There is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“But – well,” Jess didn’t know what to say to him.

She could hardly remind him that they weren’t married. He could take that as a hint, and that was the last thing she wanted him to think.

“I know a good way of warming you up,” he murmured when he found himself plotting how to spend the next hour with her.

“What are you doing?” she whispered when he began to slide the sheet down.

She tried to grab it when it slid off the tips of her breasts, but he captured her hands and held them above her head.

“Checking to make sure you are warm enough,” Marcus murmured.

Confident that they were going to be left alone, Marcus began to blaze a trail of molten kisses down her slender neck. But he didn’t stop there. This feeling he had for Jess was something considerably deeper than affection, and far more intense than anything he had ever felt before. It went beyond the raw sensual desire. The desperate need to take, to plunder, to claim, and not allow her to leave until he had taken everything she could offer, and more, was too strong to ignore. Yes, he wanted her – with a desperation that he had yet to vanquish completely. He rather felt that he could spend the rest of his life with her, and it still wouldn’t be enough because this connection he felt toward her encompassed everything. His mind, body, and soul, belonged to her.

Practically all day, every day, she was there in the recesses of his mind. When he was at the lodgings, he was thinking about her, or seeking her out to engage her in conversation. When he was out and about, he often wondered what she was doing and if she was safe. Time dragged until he could see her again.

I love her
, he thought.

Before he could consider that more closely, Marcus moaned when Jess scraped her finger nails down his back.

“Jessica,” he growled.

When he looked down, she arched her back, silently pleading for more. Determined to see to her
every
need, he happily complied.

Jess felt terribly wanton as she rolled over in bed, and stretched languorously. The sheets felt soft against her naked skin and were wonderfully warm. Reaching an arm out, she touched the empty place beside her and frowned.

Earlier, Marcus had revealed a demanding, lustful side of her personality that had heightened the passion to almost desperation. In spite of this rather risqué waywardness, she didn’t regret her wanton demands. Indeed, she revelled in it, and Marcus’ loving reaction to it.

Her body was still thrumming from his sensual demand. It had been intoxicating. Now she felt as though she had a hangover; where everything was cloudy, and it was difficult to think about anything at all. Her mind just wouldn’t function properly, and she suspected it wouldn’t until she knew where he was, and why he had abandoned her.

Reluctantly, she left the bed, got dressed, and went in search of him.

She checked her old room, only to sigh when she found it empty. Making her way downstairs, she searched the downstairs rooms and finally came to a stop in the kitchen. The half-open scullery door warned her that wherever Marcus was, Ben was probably not far behind.

“Just what are you two up to?” she whispered with a shiver. If she was honest, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. What she could be sure of was that if Ben was with Marcus, he would be perfectly safe.

Quickly helping herself to a drink, she began to make her way back to her bedroom.

Her muted scream was loud in the night-time silence when she turned into the darkened corridor and heard a chilling voice coming from within the shadows.

“Well, well, well, the house is alive tonight,” Mr Gillespie drawled from the doorway of his bedroom.

“Oh, Mr Gillespie, I didn’t realise you were awake,” she gasped, willing her racing heart to settle.

“I am awake,” he mused wryly. “And so are you.”

He was indeed fully dressed, but there was something about him that was odd. Jess just couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She studied him. His eyes were cold and unwelcoming.

Her thoughts immediately turned to what had happened in the lane yesterday. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if it was him she had seen, but she didn’t want him to realise how scared she had been.

“I am sorry if I disturbed you. I just wanted something to drink,” Jess whispered. “Are you on your way out somewhere?”

She nodded to his clothing and watched Mr Gillespie looked down at himself.

“No, we are not,” he replied.

At that moment, Mr Ball and Mr Brammall appeared in the doorways of their rooms.

Suddenly, Jess knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that these men were sinister. Her gaze flew to Mr Gillespie, silently seeking reassurance, but the unrelenting hardness of his stare worried her.

You are in danger. Walk slowly toward the stairs and get out of here,
she thought desperately.

“What have you done with Marcus?”

“We haven’t seen him. I thought you were accommodating him tonight,” Mr Gillespie drawled with a sneer.

He ran his gaze down the length of her meaningfully, very much like Lloyd had done the other week. Like last time, Jess shuddered with revulsion.

“Where is he now?” Ball demanded having lost all trace of his previous shyness still.

“Who?” Jess was starting to suspect who ‘he’ was already, and it wasn’t Ben.

“Your lover. Where is Mr Cauldwell now?”

Mr Gillespie stepped into a shaft of moonlight and revealed the wicked looking gun he had aimed at her.

Jess’ gaze fell to it. She instinctively took a step back from it but then froze when he immediately cocked it.

“I will shoot you before you even reach the top step,” he promised in a voice full of evil menace.

“I don’t know where he is,” Jess said. “I have just been looking for him.”

“Ah, so he took advantage of you and then scarpered, did he? That doesn’t surprise me,” Ball snorted derisively.

Jess didn’t deign to answer and contented herself with throwing him a withering look.

“I think I know where he has gone,” Gillespie murmured suddenly.

Rather than explain, he nodded toward Mr Brammall, who immediately hurried down the stairs and slammed his way out of the front door without a backward look.

“Who are you?” Jess whispered, not altogether sure she wanted him to confirm he was the Sayers man Marcus was after.

“I am someone whose instructions you are going to follow. Don’t speak until you are told to; don’t ask questions because I won’t answer them, and don’t do anything foolish. If you behave, you may just live to see the dawn,” Mr Gillespie promised.

“Ladies first.” Mr Ball stepped forward and waved toward the stairs.

Jess swallowed, and did as she instructed. As she descended the stairs, she studied the distance between the bottom step and the door. She wished she had enough strength to at least try to get there. Unfortunately, her knees were shaking too badly and threatened to buckle beneath her as it was. There was no possibility of her attempting to run to try to get out of the house.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. Her throat was too choked for her words to be possibl with any volume, but Gillespie heard.

“He has something we want. Now, we have something he wants. I know all about your willingness to share his bed. He has a vested interest in you now. You will serve your purposes.”

“I am not serving you anything,” Jess snapped.

“I know. You do your best, I suppose, but this house is a joke. When I took a room here, I knew it would be dire, but it served our purposes. You have helped me with my work so effectively; I cannot ever thank you,” Gillespie mused.

“We want our goods back,” Ball snarled.

Jess stared him. “What could Marcus possibly have of yours?”

“Him, and those colleagues of his have been a barnacle in my side for a very long time,” Gillespie explained. “They will, however, be summarily dealt with now that we know who they are, and what they look like. It was a foolish mistake of ours to take lodgings with a relation of one of them, but we can correct that mistake.”

Jess opened her mouth to correct his misunderstanding but then closed it again with a snap. She could see no reason to give the man information about anything, especially Ben and Marcus.

Gillespie waved his gun toward the dining room.

She entered the room and dutifully sat on the chair Ball shoved out for her. No sooner had her bottom touched the hard wood than Jess’ arms were yanked behind her back and secured at the wrist.

“That hurts,” she whined. She winced as the coarse rope dug painfully into the tender flesh of her wrists.

“It isn’t supposed to be pleasant. It is tight enough to make sure you cannot get free,” Ball snapped.

“Be quiet,” Mr Gillespie warned.

To her surprise, Gillespie swung another chair around and sat directly in front of her. Thankfully, he put the gun on the table, but that didn’t help relax her because it was still within arms’ reach.

“Now, tell me everything you know about him. He isn’t your fiancé, is he?”

“He is my fiancé. He comes from a family as impoverished as mine, so if it is a ransom you are after you aren’t going to get it,” Jess declared firmly. “He doesn’t have much in the way of family either to pay a ransom for him, and neither do I.”

She felt proud of herself for having thwarted that particular scheme.

“Thank you for that, my dear. It is a relief to know that if we have to dispense with your services we can do so without fear that your lover will do something rash in the name of revenge.”

Jess gulped. The callousness in Gillespie’s eyes was nothing short of contemptuous. It was something she had never seen directed at herself before. She realised then that there was a very real possibility that she might not live until the morning.

“I am not the liar,” she whispered, “You are. You led me to believe you were a nice man, a reputable human being. You, sir, are nothing but a scoundrel and a wastrel. You should be behind bars.”

“You don’t know who we are,” Ball interrupted.

Gillespie lifted his hand to warn the man to shut up, and threw him a warning look.

“He won’t stay around here, you know,” Gillespie drawled. “I have seen plenty of men like him over the course of time. You are a pretty young woman, desirable even, to a certain kind of man. It is inevitable that a jack-the-lad, man about town like him would find you appealing, and seduce you. You, poor creature that you are, most probably soaked up the compliments and allowed him to bed you thinking he would offer for you. Once he is bored, though, he will move on. Men like him don’t offer marriage; especially to someone like you. He will take advantage of you - all in the name of his work, you understand? But, he will move on.”

“What happens between my fiancé and me is nothing to do with you,” she replied coldly. “It is clear that you know nothing about who Marcus is to be able to judge him in such a way. You should know how foolish it is to make assumptions based on how anybody looks. I mean look at me. I believed you were a reputable gentleman.”

Gillespie nodded his acknowledgement of his deception as to why he was in Smothey in the first place.

“Your man is from London. He will undoubtedly go there when he has finished with you. He won’t allow himself to get stuck in a backward place like this. It is nice, I suppose if you are a certain kind of person. To someone like him, it is far too quiet here. Why, he is four and thirty, if he is a day. It is odd that a man reaches his age without marrying, do you not think? Does he have a wife stashed away somewhere?” Mr Gillespie snorted with laughter and leaned toward her. “You had better hope not. If he isn’t at the house across the village, sticking his nose into things that don’t concern him, then he will be back at home with his wife by now. But he will be back here, just after dawn. Before you get up, of course, so he can be in his room where he is supposed to be, and turn up in time for breakfast just like everyone else does.”

“Just like the rest of you liars,” Jess snapped.

She saw Gillespie’s eyes harden and suspected that most of his comments were designed to upset her. They had no basis in truth. He was just trying to turn her against Marcus. But she knew the man whose bed she had shared for several nights now. Well, she knew him better than she had a few weeks ago. There were still things she needed to learn about him, but she knew, from personal experience, that he was a kind, protective, loving man who worked to rid the world of men like Gillespie, and his gang.

Because of how much help Marcus had given her while he had been in the house, she was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Gillespie was the liar; the charlatan. Marcus was, without a doubt, exactly what he claimed to be; a man of the law who worked for the War Office.

“I think all of you had better pack your bags and get out of this house. I don’t care what is going on between you and Marcus, but my brother and I are innocent in all of it. It is unfair to involve us. Marcus can go too; I shall tell him when he returns. I don’t know what is going on. I don’t care what is going on, but it is not going to go on in this house. Do you hear me?”

She knew that by the time she had finished talking she was shouting at him but didn’t care. Her wrists strained against the bindings as she tried to lean forward, but she couldn’t get them to loosen enough for her to slip her hand out. She had to sit there until Ben, or Marcus, walked right into the trap the men were setting about her as she spoke.

“We are going - in time. But, for the time being, Mr Ball here will be holding you for collateral. If your lover doesn’t give us our goods back then, I am afraid we are going to have to show him just what we do with people who defy us.”

“I have no idea what you are babbling on about, you silly man,” Jess snapped. “He isn’t here. I suggest that instead of sitting here threatening an innocent woman, you go out there and find him.”

She could only hope Marcus would be many, many miles away by now, with absolutely no intention of returning; for his safety, if nothing else. But she knew he wasn’t. He was out, most probably meeting with his colleague, trying to find out the true extent of Gillespie’s crimes.

Unfortunately, from her position in the room she couldn’t see the pathway to the front door. She had no way of seeing who was approaching the house to be able to warn Marcus before he entered. Ben, she knew, would enter through the back door, and would be vulnerable to attack as soon as he crossed the threshold.

“So, what do you plan to do now? You have me tied up better than a goose at Christmas. I cannot get away, and have no money to give you. Ben is out with his girlfriend in Retterton, and won’t be back before dawn. Marcus, whoever he is and whatever he has of yours that you want back, isn’t here. He is not likely to return either seeing as he has run off in the middle of the night and his things have gone.”

Gillespie went still and stared at her. He nodded to Ball, who quickly left the room.

Jess knew, from the sound of the booted footsteps on the stairs, that he had gone to check the room Marcus had used. Minutes later he appeared in the doorway.