Eight for Losing, One for Loving (Wicked Sons #9)

Chapter 11

Mr Knight,

I need some advice concerning a business venture, which I believe may interest you. I would be grateful if you could find the time to call on me at home next week to discuss the matter in more detail.

Might I request you arrive in the guise of a morning caller, however, and not a man of business? Whilst I have means of my own and no requirement for my father’s permission, he would not approve of my scheme, and I prefer to keep the details from him. A mutual friend has vouched for your discretion and trustworthiness. I pray you do not let me down.

―Excerpt of a letter from The Lady Belinda Madox-Brown to Mr Felix Knight (son of Mr Gabriel and Lady Helena Knight).

25 th June 1850, Mud Pightle, Wrestlingworth, the Bedfordshire-Cambridgeshire border.

Vi wiped her eyes and gave her nose a good blow, wishing she had not made quite such a scene, but really, seeing the man she loved held at gunpoint, and then being hit on the head, was rather provoking. In the circumstances, she did not think she had behaved so very unreasonably. The man she loved . The words repeated in her head with a sense of inevitability. Well, it wasn’t like she could pretend otherwise, not any longer. She loved Leo Hunt, heaven help her, and she did not know what to do about it.

“Feeling better?” Leo asked cautiously, looking down at her.

There was concern in his eyes, and a look that suggested he believed she would pick up the log and attack him with it if he said the wrong thing. Sighing, Vi nodded.

“Yes, thank you. I can get up now.”

Leo frowned, touching a gentle finger to her forehead, just beside the bruise. “How is your head?”

“Throbbing. But nothing a good night’s sleep won’t repair,” she added in resignation, knowing she had lost her one and only chance to spend the night with Leo without becoming his wife.

He would never make love to her in this sorry state, and she really did not feel like it in any case. She was tired and dirty, and her head was pounding so hard she just wanted to sleep. In the morning, he would insist on taking her home, and in doing whatever was necessary to protect her reputation. She had no idea what damage had been done, but if there was the slightest hint of gossip, he would insist on marrying her, and Mama and Papa would agree. The thought of the scenes she must endure when she refused him was enough to depress her spirits thoroughly and make her feel utterly exhausted.

“Did Mick capture Burt and Edgar?” she asked, preferring to keep her mind from such dismaying topics for as long as possible.

“Is that the big fellow?” Reverend Harbottle asked, taking off his spectacles and rubbing them clean. “I believe he has Edgar in hand, yes. Burt, I think, may have absconded.”

“No, he ain’t.”

Vi looked around at the familiar voice as Jenny walked in, pushing a wretched looking Burt ahead of her. One eye was swelling shut and he looked thoroughly miserable.

“Silly sod thought he’d try to pinch Mick’s cart. I thought otherwise,” Jenny said with a grin. “Not like he’s got anywhere to go.”

“I’ll be transported,” Burt said glumly, shaking his head.

“Nah, I don’t reckon so,” Jenny said briskly. “Can’t speak for that disgusting brother of yours, but if you promise to behave yourself, me and Mick will speak up for you.”

Burt’s eyes went round. “You mean it, Jenny?”

“Maybe,” Jenny shrugged. “Depends how helpful you are in sorting this mess out, eh?”

“I’ll be helpful!” Burt exclaimed, immediately setting to, picking up furniture and tidying up.

Jenny met Vi’s gaze before she turned to Leo. “Burt’s harmless,” she said quietly. “His brother has always bullied him, but there’s no wickedness in him. If you think you could see your way to keeping him out of all this, sir? I know I have no right to ask it of you, but—”

“We shall certainly discuss it,” Vi said, for Leo’s face had darkened and he did not look like a man willing to give any quarter. “But perhaps in the morning. If Mick could help Mr Huntington and the reverend to get Pembury here and Edgar and Burt somewhere secure for the night?”

“There’s the pub cellar, we can use that I reckon if Reverend Harbottle confirms the story to Mrs Caruthers. Leave it to me,” Jenny said, and took herself out again, calling over her shoulder. “Burt, come and help me.”

Burt put down the broken chair he’d been holding and hurried out after her.

“Help me up, Leo,” Vi said, shifting on his lap.

Leo did so, but before she could take a step, he swung her up into his arms, making her gasp. “Leo, there’s no need! I’m perfectly—”

“Hush,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “You are not taking a step or moving so much as an inch away from me. I want you where I can see you, where I know you are safe. The least I can do is get you back home in one piece.”

There was a tone to his voice that she had not heard before, and Vi wondered at it.

“I’m quite all right, really.”

“Oh, yes, just caught up in the middle of a fight in a disgusting hovel with criminals and guns and—”

“Oh, don’t take a pet now,” Vi said, shaking her head at him. “Pembury is our footman, for heaven’s sake. He’s obviously been planning this since that incident when Mau savaged him. That’s unfortunate, but it’s hardly your fault the man’s a villain. You tried your best to keep me at the inn, didn’t you? I was the one who came after you, you did not bring me along.”

“No, but I wanted to, damn me for a scoundrel. I hated leaving you behind, and when I think of what might have happened—” Leo closed his mouth with a snap, but his voice had sounded a little odd, shaken.

“You did?” Vi asked in surprise. “You wanted me to come with you?”

“I always want you with me, Vi. Have you really not understood that yet?” he said in frustration. “The trouble is that you were right all along. You ought not to be in company with me. I… I’m a magnet for trouble, just as you always said I was.”

Vi considered this as Leo carried her back to the dogcart and settled her on the seat. Mick and Burt had hauled a struggling Pembury into the back of Mick’s cart between them, and Mick had carried Edgar, the man slung over one shoulder like a sack of coal, apparently still unconscious, which was probably just as well.

“Mau?”

Leo called anxiously and Vi smiled as a dark shape slid sinuously from the black shadow of the woods and wound itself in and out of Leo’s ankles.

“Come on, Mau,” Leo said, climbing in and patting his lap. Mau looked at the pony and cart with an expression that suggested such means of transport was beneath his touch but deigned to join them. When Harbottle got up too, it was a snug fit, but soon they were on their way back to the inn. Every rut in the road made Vi close her eyes against the throbbing in her head and she was more than relieved when they made it out of the wretched little lane and onto the main road.

“I’ll drop you both back at the inn and then take myself off home, Mr Hunt,” Harbottle said cheerfully. “Goodness, what an exciting evening it has been! I’ve not enjoyed myself so much in years.”

“I’m glad we’ve entertained you, sir,” Leo said, but Vi heard the concern in his voice as he glanced over at Harbottle. “Perhaps if you would be so good to receive me, sir, you might allow me to call on you in the morning. I believe there are… things we need to discuss.”

Harbottle slanted a look at Leo before returning his attention to the road. “Perhaps, sir. Perhaps there are, at that.”

Vi wondered what he meant by that but was too tired to consider it further. The sight of the inn ahead was a tremendous relief, and it took every scrap of energy remaining to climb down from the cart and make her way back to their room. Leo would have carried her, but she did not want to give any further cause for gossip. As it was, the reverend had to take some time placating his sister, Mrs Caruthers, and assuring her that all was well, that their cat would not cause havoc or make a mess in her best room, and her guests were perfectly respectable. He had a twinkle in his eyes as he bade them both a good night, however, that made Vi wonder.

Leo had asked Mrs Caruthers to fetch a doctor but Vi had persuaded him that the morning would be soon enough, and a good night’s sleep was the best thing for her. Unhappy but resigned, Leo agreed, providing the doctor came first thing. This arranged, he helped her upstairs.

Leo unlocked the door and pushed it open but, before Vi could take a step, he picked her up and carried her inside. Mau shot in ahead of them, as keen as they were for his bed.

“Hush,” Leo said, when she might have protested, so she hushed, and allowed him to strip off her bonnet and gloves, her gown and her corset, standing placidly as he made quick work of strings and buttons and fastenings.

Plenty of practise, she thought morosely, wishing tonight had been different. He had promised her more pleasure than she had ever dreamed of, and now it would be worse than before, knowing that he could have made her feel such wondrous things and she would never know. Unless she married him.

She could marry him.

The image of Pembury holding a gun on Leo flashed behind her eyes and she shuddered, her heart squeezing in her chest, such terror filling her as she considered what might have happened. Leo might have been killed. If anything happened to him, she did not know how she would survive it, but how much worse if he was her beloved husband, father of her children, rather than merely a very dear friend?

Leo didn’t bother lighting the lamps, for which she was grateful. Instead, he moved her this way and that until she stood in her shift, guiding her to the bed and drawing back the blankets, helping her in and pulling the covers back up. She allowed it all placidly, too tired to protest his treating her like a child. In truth, it was rather soothing to be cared for, not to have to think, but to leave it all to him. She felt Mau jump onto the bed and curl up by her feet.

“Look after her, Mau,” Leo said, stroking the cat’s head before he moved away and sat down in the chair by the fireplace with a muffled groan.

Vi waited hopefully, but he didn’t move.

“Leo?”

“Yes, love?”

“What are you doing?” she asked, peering into the darkness to see if she could make him out.

“I’ll sleep in the chair, Vi. You need your rest, and I don’t want to disturb you.”

Vi swallowed, gathering her nerve. “B-But I don’t want you to sleep in the chair.”

There was a brief silence.

“What do you want?”

“Come to bed.”

Vi listened intently, straining her ears for any sound of movement.

“If I come to bed, will you go to sleep?” he asked her, a slightly strained note in his voice.

“Yes.”

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

She relaxed as she heard him get to his feet and then the muffled sounds of him moving in the darkness, taking off his boots and undressing. Vi held her breath until she felt the mattress dip as Leo got in.

The moment he was settled she wriggled over to his side, cuddled against him.

“Vi… you promised,” he said, the warning clear that he would leave if she tried anything.

“Just hold me, Leo,” Vi asked, not having to try too hard to sound vulnerable and a bit pathetic. “Please?”

“All right, love. Come here.”

He gathered her more securely and Vi lay her head on his chest, feeling the coarse hair tickling her cheek and hearing the reassuring thud of his heartbeat. Oh, that was better, much better. The warmth of his body enveloped her, easing away the stress of the past hours and Vi relaxed in his embrace, allowing herself to tumble into sleep, secure in his arms.

Leo lay still in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling. Vi’s slender form was a delicious weight against him, her hair a tumble of curls over his chest. Tenderness and longing filled his heart, an ache of need and desire and regret so intense it felt like a knife lodged there.

She would never marry him now, and he could hardly blame her. How could he keep asking her to trust him, to allow him to prove how much he had changed after tonight’s debacle? He should never have brought her with him in the first place, but how could he have left her behind when she wanted to come?

Her warm breath fluttered over his skin, and she shifted in her sleep, her hand straying from his chest to settle lower down over his belly. Leo closed his eyes, trying not to imagine her hand drifting lower still, touching him, wanting him.

She did want him. He knew that much, at least. But plenty of women had wanted him. He was blessed with a handsome face and form, which had meant he had never had to try to make people like him, or women desire him. Vi was different. He’d had to work for her good opinion, which was never given easily, if at all. If Vi had approved of something he’d said or done, it felt like it was worth something, like he was worth more than the sum of his parts.

For as long as he could remember, he’d been driven to do things: to travel, to seek adventure, to prove he was the fastest, the strongest, the best at whatever challenge was set before him. With Vi, that all seemed to go away. For all that they sparred and bickered and wound each other up, all he really wanted with Vi was to make her happy, to make them both happy, to find a way of living their lives together that would suit them. A home they could share, the opportunity to show Vi people and places she could not experience as an unmarried woman… perhaps children, if they were so blessed. But if it was just the two of them, he really didn’t think he would mind, providing she did not. They could always adopt; she had been adopted, after all. It wasn’t as if there weren’t enough children in the world in need of a loving family.

All of that seemed moot now, however. The only thing he had needed to prove to her was that he was a good man, one she could rely upon, and he knew he had failed at that. Hopefully Harbottle would hold his tongue about their unmarried status. He was certainly the most unconventional reverend Leo had ever come across. Leo had half expected the man to tell his sister everything, and knew she would have turned them out without a moment’s hesitation, but he had not done so. Perhaps he expected Leo to marry Vi, something he’d do in a heartbeat if only the reverend could talk her into it. He considered suggesting Harbottle speak to Vi, but then he rejected the idea. The thought of her needing a man of God to guilt her into accepting his proposal made him feel sick. If Vi wanted him, she would have him, if she did not… well, then she did not, and he would simply have to live with that.

It was not a happy thought.

Gloomy, his body sore from the fight and all on edge with unfulfilled desire as Vi’s lovely frame pressed close to his. Leo sighed and resigned himself to a sleepless night.