Stroke of Midnight (31 page)

“Then you may start with why your mother ran away. Or shall I be reduced to seeking a garbled version of events from Lady Josephine?” Seeing his closed expression, Laura softened her tone. “Won’t you please tell me, Alex? I’m your wife. I should know about your past.”

Grimacing, he sat stiffly against the pillows, crooking up one leg and resting his arm on his knee. He looked distinctly ill at ease, and she knew it had nothing to do with his nakedness. Alex was comfortable in his own skin—but his childhood memories put him on edge.

He glanced away into the shadows of the bedchamber. He rubbed his brow as if searching for an excuse not to talk. Then he scowled at her, took a deep breath, and blew it out in a huff. “If you insist upon knowing, my mother
did
leave my father. It happened when I was thirteen years old. I arrived home on summer holiday from Eton only to discover that she was gone.”

“Oh, Alex … I’m so sorry. Had your father been cruel to her? Was she fleeing for her life?”

He released a harsh laugh. “For her life? Hardly. She ran off with another man.”

Expecting an indictment of the old earl, Laura stared at Alex in shock. “Another man!”

“Yes,” he said, his eyes chilly. “My mother had always had affairs for as far back as I can remember. And my father was always threatening to divorce her. But he never did.”

He went on in an emotionless voice to describe the noisy quarrels between his parents, and the picture that emerged sickened Laura. She wanted to comfort him, but he appeared lost in memory and she feared that any interruption might silence him. So she clutched the pillow and just listened as he depicted a fickle mother who would lavish gifts on him and his older sister, then ignore them for months on end while she conducted her illicit dalliances. He also spoke of a harsh father who tried vainly to curb his wife’s excesses and stop her endless flirtations.

Laura had been prepared to despise the old earl. It had been a vile act of brutality for him to knock Alex’s puppy down the stairs. However, now she could see that
both
parents had been at fault. Blanche had known that her husband didn’t like pets yet she had given one to Alex anyway. She had habitually provoked her husband with her own irresponsible behavior.

And Alex had been caught in the middle of it all.

What was it Lady Josephine had said about his parents?
It was quite shocking the way the two of them would scream at each other! I daresay poor Alexander witnessed far too many quarrels in his time …

Laura wanted to weep for the vulnerable boy who had been denied a happy, carefree childhood. At a lull in his narrative, she asked softly, “What happened … after your mother ran off?”

He flicked a glance at Laura. “My father went chasing after her and her lover, of course. But he never caught them. They’d had too much of a head start to Dover, where they purchased passage to the Continent.” He paused, his face grim. “As fate would have it, the ship went down in a storm. My mother—and her lover—drowned.”

Tears sprang to Laura’s eyes. Not for his mother, but for Alex, whose view of marriage had been tainted by the foibles of his parents. Was it any surprise that he would marry for lust instead of love?

His gaze focused beyond her, he went on. “Somehow, my father was able to cover up the scandal. He put forth a story that she’d been traveling to Italy on a holiday. I doubt that anyone in society really believed it, but they went along out of respect for his rank.”

“What about her lover?” Laura murmured. “Surely
his
death would have raised eyebrows. For a gentleman and a lady to be on board the same ship—”

“I never said he was a gentleman. He’d been employed at a gaming hell on the fringes of society.” His mouth twisted. “Yes, the Countess of Copley threw away her life, her husband, her family, to elope with a common knave.”

His bleak, bitter expression tore at her heart. No wonder he’d kept a part of himself distant. The source of his possessiveness of her became clear, too. She could see just how raw a nerve she’d touched by requiring that he purchase a house for her as a condition of bearing his heir. He feared that she, too, would run off and leave him.

Given the circumstance of his mother’s abandonment, Laura found it amazing that Alex had signed the legal document at all. Surely his doing so must indicate that he had deep feelings for her …

Abandoning the pillow, she scooted across the bed and slid her arms around his neck. “Oh, darling. I wish I could erase all of those memories and replace them with happy ones.”

He gripped her waist, his eyes intense on her. Then he shifted his gaze away, as if to maintain an aura of detachment. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s over with and done.”

But it wasn’t over, she knew. The past had shaped him, made him guarded and cold whenever anyone attempted to probe too deeply into his emotions. It had given him that ironic outlook with which he viewed the world. And it explained why he found it difficult to trust anyone enough to open his heart.

Laura cupped his cheek, tracing the scar she’d inflicted all those years ago. He hadn’t believed her judgment in regard to her own father, either. Because he had never known honor in a parent.

She turned his face back toward her. “Your past will always be a part of you, though you mustn’t let it rule you. And may I add that I adore the fine man you’ve become.”

A cool smile lifted one corner of his mouth. He untied the cord of the dressing gown, and his hand delved inside to touch her intimately. “You adore what I do to you.”

Laura drew a shaky breath under the onrush of desire. She caught his wrist to halt the delightful caress. “Yes, you’re absolutely right. But it’s more than that. And pray don’t distract me when I’m trying to tell you something important.”

His finger performed a lazy swirl that had her gasping. “Nothing could be more important than this.”

“One thing is.
Love
.” His hand stilled and his dark eyes fixed on her. Now that she had captured his full attention, she leaned closer and murmured against his lips, “I love you, Alex. That’s what is truly important. I love you with all my heart and soul.”

The aloofness vanished from his eyes. In its place, a deep river of emotion flowed there, stark and needy. She caught only a glimpse of it before he pulled her into his lap and subjected her to a deep, ravenous kiss. He pushed the dressing gown from her shoulders, stroking her silken skin all over as if learning her curves for the first time.

Love, she discovered, enhanced the richness of desire. With caresses and whispered words, she let Alex know just how much he meant to her. Straddling his lap, she took him deeply into her body, gazing into his eyes as she became one flesh with him. The sheer pleasure of moving with him in perfect accord made her moan. Under a flood of irresistible sensations, their passion flourished until it became too much to bear, and they clung to each other during the exhilarating plummet into bliss.

Lying against him afterward, her head tucked in the crook of his shoulder, Laura came to an awareness that Alex had never returned her words of love. How she longed to hear such an ardent declaration from him. And yet … she could
feel
his devotion in the tenderness of his touch. At the moment, his fingers reached beneath the curtain of her unbound hair to gently massage the nape of her neck. He pressed a soft kiss to her brow, his breath warm against her skin.

A rush of happiness brought a wistful smile to her lips. If he couldn’t avow love for her, then she must be content with him exactly as he was. But perhaps someday he might … if only she could convince him to lower the wall around his heart.

Tilting her head to look up at him, she idly traced the hard line of his jaw. “I hope you know you’ve been terribly unfair to me.”

“Have I? How is that?”

“You’ve collected your reward. Yet I never did finish my sketch of you.”

He chuckled deep in his chest. “Just as well, darling. I can’t imagine what you were planning to do with it, anyway.”

Laura ran an admiring hand over the muscles of his shoulders and down his arm. “Oh, it’s merely a preliminary drawing. I thought I might paint a larger version in oils and hang it over the mantel in the drawing room.”

He drew back to stare at her. A thunderous frown crossed his features; then the storm cleared as he noticed Laura’s impish smile. Grinning, he gave a light slap to her bare bottom. “Wicked jade. You had me fooled there for a moment.”

“Well, I ought to do it,” she declared, “if only to thumb my nose at those who consider me beyond the pale. After all, I
am
the notorious Laura Falkner.”

A sober expression descended over his face, and he caught hold of her shoulders. “You’re my countess. By God, society
will
accept you.”

The fervency of his avowal thrilled her. But she was pragmatic enough to face reality. The upper crust might invite her into their homes out of respect for his rank. But they would still view her with disdain.

And when she exposed Lord Haversham as the real thief? Laura felt skeptical that revealing the truth about the theft of the Blue Moon diamond would alter their prejudice against her. Some might even blame her for causing the downfall of a venerated member of their ranks.

She stroked his cheek. “It doesn’t matter so long as I have you. If a few snooty people refuse to acknowledge me, then so be it.”

“But it matters to
me
.” A shrewd look entering his eyes, he added, “And it’s time that you and I entered the lion’s den together.”

Chapter 26

Carrying a basket of cut roses, Laura left the garden and went into the coolness of the house. She had spent an enjoyable morning out in the sunshine chatting with the gardener, a leathery old man with an encyclopedic knowledge of rose hybrids. She had clipped a generous sampling of her favorites. As she headed toward the front of the house, her mind was full of poetic names like Damask and Provence and Gallica. She intended to use her fragrant bounty to fill the cloisonné vase beneath the stairs.

The sound of male voices echoed down the long corridor with its arched ceiling. Her heart leaped, and she increased her pace toward the entrance hall, her soft leather slippers tapping on the marble floor. Had Alex returned? The prospect brought a smile to her lips.

He had been assigned an official role in Queen Victoria’s coronation ceremony on the morrow. A last-minute meeting at Westminster Abbey had required his presence this morning. It was one of the few times they’d been separated in the three weeks since their wedding.

She hurried in anticipation of his kiss on her cheek, his arm around her waist, the tenderness in his dark brown eyes. Their marriage had been an idyll beyond compare. By day, they’d visited art galleries and museums, shopped on Bond Street and visited the zoo, often taking Lady Josephine with them. By night, they attended the theater, dinner parties, and balls in honor of the upcoming coronation. Though she’d assured him it wasn’t necessary, he’d stayed close at her side to guard against anyone who might dare to scorn her.

His campaign to restore Laura’s reputation had resulted in considerable success, despite her doubts to the contrary. He also had persuaded Lady Milford to host a small reception to celebrate their nuptials. It had been the most sought-after invitation of the pre-coronation events. Only the cream of society had been present, and the gathering had proven to be a victory against the naysayers. Even Lord Oliver, her father’s former friend, had been civil toward Laura, though she had detected a lingering judgmental stiffness in his manner.

All in all, though, the ton had begun to accept her. There had been a significant decline in the derisive looks and sly innuendos. It had made her appreciate the scope of Lady Milford’s influence.

Laura could only marvel at the twist of fate that had caused her to hide in her ladyship’s coach all those weeks ago. If not for that chance encounter, she would never have had the opportunity to renew her relationship with Alex. She would never have realized that his inability to believe in her father’s exemplary character stemmed from Alex’s own youth, when he had learned only cynicism and mistrust. Alone and lonely, she would have gone on despising him, never knowing the bliss of being his wife. And she would never have learned the joys of love.

A brief pang touched her heart. Of course, Alex had never spoken of love. He remained as reticent as ever in regard to voicing his innermost feelings. At times, he even reverted to coolness if she probed too deeply into his emotions.

Yet she could see his affection for her in his warm smile, could hear it in his teasing banter. And she could
feel
it in the soul-stirring ecstasy of his lovemaking. Every night had been paradise, an intense euphoria of physical closeness. Her dearest hope was that eventually, her love for him would heal the wounds of his childhood and grant him the ability to acknowledge that he felt more for her than mere lust.

Laura vowed to see that he did. She intended to love him so much that he would
have
to love her back.

Her footsteps quick and light, she emerged from the corridor into the entrance hall. The basket bumped against her hip as she made her way across the pale marble floor. Hearing voices in the library, she hurried there, only to stop short to avoid a near-collision with the footman as he walked out of the doorway.

She steadied the basket to keep the roses from spilling. “Do pardon me, Gerald. Has the earl returned home, then?”

The young man bowed. “Nay, my lady. Lord Haversham has arrived to see you.”

Haversham!

The news pierced her bubble of contentment. On the day Haversham had been due back in London, nearly a fortnight ago, he hadn’t returned from the country. Alex had escorted her to the house in Berkeley Square, only to hear from the jowly butler that his lordship had elected to remain in Lincolnshire for another week or two. Since the marquess undoubtedly would be back for the coronation, Alex had promised they would make another attempt this afternoon.