Seacrets (23 page)

Daniel forgot himself for a moment and began to respond to Mallory's advances. He let out a low moan in response.

              Maura, needing a closer look at what was taking place on the other side of that hedge, climbed atop the stone bench and peered over the top. She could see the top of Daniel's head, as well as hear what sounded like passionate heavy breathing. Maura leaned in a bit closer to the hedge, lost her balance and fell over the brush, landing right on top of Mallory. Both women were splayed out on the grassy ground. Maura, embarrassed, Mallory furious and Daniel dumfounded.

Maura's gown
was halfway up her waist as she struggled to her feet. She frantically brushed dry grass clippings from the front of her gown and straightened her bodice. She placed her hands to her hair in a feigned attempt to fix her disheveled coif, then grabbed hold of her skirts and pushed her way past the pair.

Daniel reached for her arm.

Maura shot him a look of hatred. Her eyes welled up with tears of  embarrassment and hurt. "Unhand me Captain Hargendon! I can see the reason you were late to the party." .

Mallory stood beside Daniel, hand upon his chest, brushing off the hedge leaves from his jacket. "Another happy customer, I see." Mallory grinned in her snide, uncaring manner.

Daniel grabbed Mallory's wrist and shoved her from him then slowly walked back into the house. Once inside, Daniel saw the swirling remnants of Maura’s skirts, as she disappeared up the staircase leading to the bedchambers.

Aiden stopped him in the foyer
. "Whoa brother, I wouldna go up there if I were you. Quinn has gone up to check on Maura. No doubt you had something ta do with all of the ruckus, eh?" Aiden laughed. "Oh brother you're never at a loss for entertainin' me. Why my life is down right borin' compared ta yours."

Daniel could tell his brother was quite inebriated. The telltale flushing of the face
, the slurred speech and the hugging...oh the hugging was the real give away.

"Tell me brother how on earth do ya get the women ta chase after ya like that? No. I just don't get it." He teased.

"Oh knock it off, Aiden. Did Quinn tell ya what Maura said after she came inta the house?" Daniel interrogated his brother.

"Oh I dunno, somethin' 'bout you was a scoundrel, a cad, a whoremaster. Ya know the usual." Aiden joked.

"She did not say that." Daniel said in his most unbelieving tone.

"You're right. She didn't. I made up the whoremaster part." Aiden laughed so hard he fell backwards onto the steps.
"Now brother you canna go up stairs until Quinn comes down and says it's alright with Maura. If she says no, then you'll have ta await the ‘morrow. Now, c'mon Danny. Let's you and me go get us a fine flask of scotch, eh? Whatever ya did, Maura will forgive ya. I never have seen any female stay mad at ya for too long." Aiden slapped his brother on the back and led him back into the drawing room.

Ӝ

Chapter Twenty

"Can ya believe the nerve o' that man?" Maura spat out, her hands clenched down at her sides, pacing wildly back and forth in her bed chamber.

"Slow down, Maura, and tell me what happened out there?" Quinn tried
to reason with Maura, without success.

"Why
, he was practically bedding that wench out in the open!" Maura continued to pace.

"Maura, come sit over on the bed and tell me all about it." Quinn
said in a soothing tone.

Maura
threw herself atop her bed, burying her face into the pillows. "Oh Quinn I am such a naive little twit. I foolishly thought Daniel was the one for me. That he truly had feelings for me." She sobbed into her pillow. "I, now, see he's like every other male, after only one thing. Get a woman ta trustin' them, acquire her honor then move onta the next.” She could hardly breathe for crying so hard.

"There, there luv, I'm sure there
’s a good explanation for what happened. Ya must've come upon somethin' ya are not understandin' proper." Quinn rubbed Maura's shoulders.

"No Quinny you should’ve seen them. They were all over each other in the shadows
,

a
ll whispers and heavy breathin'. Ugh...makes me sick ta my stomach just ta think about Daniel in the arms of another woman!” Maura sniffled then wiped her nose onto the handkerchief Quinn handed to her.

"And that be a good thing!" Quinn said with a wink and broad smile
.

"What?" I don't understand. How could that be a good thing?" Maura questioned her friend.

"Because that means ya are in love with the jackass." Quinn answered with a giggle.

"If ya were not in love with Danny
, it wouldna be hurtin' so bad. I mean ya wouldna care that he was with anyone in the shadows. Am I naught right?  I don't know what ya really came upon out in the garden but I'm sure Miss Mallory Gilmore was doin' most of the cozyin' up, if ya know what I'm talkin' about. That little witch is pure evil. I didna want ta invite her but Aiden does business with her Father and thought it would be a snub not ta invite he and his daughter. Aiden thought enough time had passed since their engagement ended, and that it would be fine. Oh stupid men. They know nothin' about a woman scorned."

"What do ya mean since their engagement ended?" Maura questioned her friend.

"You know, that Daniel was betrothed ta Mallory and was to marry her around the time you were attacked on the dock, all those months ago. You didn't know that?" Quinn said, embarrassed she had let Maura in on something she knew nothing about.

Maura was
having another one of her flash backs. She saw herself fingering a portrait of a young woman, then another flash and the memory was gone. Her temples were pounding.

"Maura, what is wrong? Are ya havin' another one of ya headaches? Can I get ya some headache powders?"

Maura was rubbing the sides of her head, again, as was the norm after one of her flashbacks. "No, Quinn, it will pass. Just give me a minute ta catch myself up. I was naught knowin’ Mallory was the woman he was ta marry. No doubt she still has feelin's for him."

“Don't ya go gettin' all soft on me
, now. Mallory knows just what she's doin'. Why, her evil little finger prints are all over this incident. If she knew Danny was in love with ya, she'd be even more troublesome than she's bein' tonight."

“
Then by rights I really have no claim ta him.” Maura conceded.

"Now you just hold on there missy,
if Daniel really wanted ta marry her he'd be married. He didna marry her because he loves you, Maura."

Maura
sat staring at her hands, wringing them, as she often did when she was nervous. "But how could he have known, the night I was shot, that he was in love with me? That just doesn't make any sense, Quinn."

"Look Maura, Aiden told me Daniel confided ta him he knew ya before he came upon ya on the dock, that night. He also told Aiden he brought ya over from Ireland on the Arabella
... that ya had been hidden for a time as a cabin boy and stowed aboard the ship. That's how ya came ta be in America." Quinn explained.

Maura sniffed and shook her head. "'
Tis too much for me ta take in, right now. Perhaps tomorrow in the light of day I can think on it more. I think I'll just turn in here tonight. Please make my excuses ta your guests. I just can't go back down there, Quinn."

After a few minutes passed, Quinn spoke to Maura. "Look Maura, ya canna just roll over and let them get the best of ya. Ya are too tough for that, now are ya not?" Quinn tried to rally Maura's fighting Irish spirit.
"I mean if 'twas me, why, I'd go right back down there, proud as a peacock and continue havin' a seditious time and I'd even flirt with a man or two ta make Danny pay for my hurt feelin's. What say ya ta that!"

Maura
dried her tears and began to feel her Irish spirit rising. "Ya are absolutely right, Quinn." Maura stood in front of the tall mirror and fixed herself. Her lips, she moistened, her cheeks she pinched just enough to make the color return to them, and then she affixed the bodice of her gown so her breasts were slightly exaggerated in their fullness.

"That's the spirit,
lass. Let him know what he almost had tonight and then threw away for a quick tryst with that tart."  Quinn was clearly exaggerating or effect. She knew there would not have been any other way she would have been able to get Maura to rejoin the party, otherwise.  She did not believe for one moment Daniel was intentionally having a tryst with Mallory. But she had to get Maura just angry enough to fight for him, and also to give Daniel a chance at making things right between them.

Maura descended the spiral staircase,
her head held high. She walked deliberately and slowly past the main ballroom area taking special notice that Daniel would see her pass and follow her out to the garden. As she neared the French archway, she sidled up to Thomas Turlington and requested him to join her in the garden so they might continue their earlier conversation. If she could get him to look into his mother's affairs she then might be able to regain her dowry and finally become independent of these men, once and for all. Besides, she thought with a devilish grin, this would really irritate Daniel to think of her with another man. She thought…
Why it would serve him right after what he put me through tonight. First the waiting and then the cavorting in the bushes.

…
"Thank you, Mr. Turlington for agreeing to finish our earlier conversation." Maura's voice cooed like a dove in an all together exaggerated manner, loud enough for Daniel to over hear her. Maura brazenly took Thomas’ arm and led him out to the garden. She made certain she turned to give Daniel a sweet smile and a snide glare of her eye.

Daniel was not at all jealous. He was quite savvy to the games of the opposite sex. He knew she wanted him to follow her. That she was, in fact, paying him back for his indiscretion of earlier. Even though he knew he had been set up by Mallory, he understood Maura's tender feelings were hurt and that she felt humiliated.
He conceded to let her have her way for now. He also knew she would soon be in over head with Turlington and she'd be only too glad to be rescued. He'd give Maura her due respect, but not until she was sufficiently scared and was then looking for him to come save her from her childish attempts to make him jealous. He chuckled a bit to himself. The fact of the matter was that if Turlington laid one inappropriate hand on her he would surely regret it.

Aiden
stumbled into his brother and slurred into his ear, "What the hell are ya doin', brother? Are ya just goin’ ta stand here and let that scoundrel paw all over Maura like that?" 

Daniel Braced his brother up with his massive palm and
motioned for Quinn to come retrieve her husband. "Maura is just tryin' ta make me jealous. God man don't ya know anything about women? They love the chase. Then when they feel they've made ya wait long enough then it's ok, in their minds, to give themselves to ya without guilt that their actin' the trollop."

Aiden was dumbfounded by his brother's callous nature. "You dog, you. How can ya treat such a sweet lass, as Maura that way." He drawled
over his brother's shoulder. "Why, that lass thinks ya hung the moon, she does."

Daniel stared
past his brother out to the garden. "I know Aiden, I know." Daniel sighed deep with the realization this slip of a girl had his heart in the palm of her hand and she didn't even know it.

"Here, Quinny, take ya husband and lay him down somewhere ta sleep off his drunkenness." He said as he passed him off to her care and then walk
ed toward the archway so as to keep a closer eye on Maura.

"Come on now, darlin'. Let us take ya upstairs ta sleep off ya time." Quinn smiled at her husband and began to help him mount the stairs.

When they entered their bed chamber, Aiden was instantly aroused. He grabbed his wife about the waist and turned her to face him. His voice somewhat slurred and slow, he told her how beautiful and desirable she still was to him. This made Quinn blush and then she laughed. She pushed him from her and he landed on his back in their bed. 

"You go ta sleep, husband. I'll be up later when all of our guests have gone." And then she turned to leave. But before she could get too far from her husband, he had her by her
delicate wrist and pulled her towards him, locking her into a tight embrace. "What are ya doin', man. Have ya gone mad? We've got guests in the house. This is improper." Quinn's eyes were wide with excitement.

Aiden clearly s
aw his wife was aroused with his show of force. He decided to go with it. "I know all about improper, wife." He would wait no longer to claim her mouth. His kiss was hard and demanding.

Her last coherent thought was,
this is damn excitin’!
She kissed him back with a force to rival his own. A wash of heat swept over her entire body.

In response to this rush of excitement, Aiden was immediately sober and determined to have his way.
He gently laid his wife back onto the bed, never breaking their kiss.