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

Chapter 18

Dearest Leo,

I had a letter from Mama this morning. Congratulations, brother dear! I am in alt and so happy you finally won your lady. Bainbridge is crowing, naturally, for he puts it all down to his advice. I warn you if you have a son, he fully expects it to be named in his honour.

I beg you will come and see us as soon as you may. I promise we shall give you a private wing and keep our brats from your hair for at least half the time you are here. I so long to spend some time with my new sister. I know Vi, of course, but not as well as I should like, and I would love to get to know her better. Much love to you both, Leo, if you are half as happy as I am with my darling Bainbridge, you will have a wonderful life indeed.

―Excerpt of a letter from The Most Hon’ble Arabella Grenville, The Marchioness of Bainbridge, to her brother, Mr Leo Hunt. (children of Alice and Nathaniel Hunt).

28 th June 1850, Fairhaven, Tadlow, Cambridgeshire.

“Mind, darling,” Leo said, lifting a branch from the overgrown path so Vi could duck under it. Thankfully, the warm weather had dried the ground since the downpour, or the long grass would have soaked them. As it was, it made the going somewhat tricky with Vi’s voluminous skirts. Still, she was determined to see the house, so see it they would.

Eventually, the path ended at a gate and Leo forced it open, wincing as the hinges shrieked in complaint.

“Oh, Leo!”

Leo looked up at Vi’s exclamation, following her gaze towards the building in the middle distance.

The house glowed in the sunlight, the mellow golden stone warm and the many windows glinting. It was a Jacobean style manor house and Leo only had to glance at Vi to know she had fallen irrevocably in love. He could not blame her, for whilst he saw the roof was in a state of disrepair and there was ivy scrambling up the walls in all directions, the setting was idyllic and the house so romantically beautiful it would have been a crime to turn his back on it.

He turned to stare at Vi, who was standing with her hands pressed to her heart, her eyes alight with a look of such excitement that his own heart gave a hard thud in sympathy.

“Well, love, what do you think?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

She turned to him, her lovely face full of hope. “I never saw anything so lovely in all my days,” she breathed.

“It’s a good deal smaller than Trevick Castle,” he pointed out in amusement.

“Oh, fiddle. As if I care for that. Trevick is splendid but I don’t have the slightest desire for such an enormous property.”

“I am relieved to hear it,” Leo said amiably, earning himself a look of exasperation from Vi.

“Don’t tease, Leo. You know I do not care a button for such grand properties, only… only I do love this house. I—” Vi bit her lip, her expression becoming serious. “I suppose it would take a vast sum of money to restore it, though.”

“Oh, vast indeed,” Leo said, trying his best not to smile.

Vi nodded sadly. “It would be a great investment, not only of money but of time.”

“It would,” he agreed.

She sighed, and then gave a squeal as Leo swept her up into his arms. “Darling idiot,” he said fondly. “Did you never think to enquire as to your husband’s finances?”

“Of course not,” she said indignantly. “My dowry is a generous one, I know, so I did not fear for our future, but I married you because… because I love you, Leo. Not for any other reason.”

Leo’s face softened, and he set her carefully down before pulling her into his embrace. “I love you too, Vi, and if this house is what you want, then you shall have it.” He put a finger to her mouth to silence any protests. “For your information, love, I’m the major shareholder in the Sons of Hades, which is actually becoming a profitable club at last. Surprising as we only began it as a lark. More importantly, I also have a hand in Hunters,” he added, naming the famously exclusive club his father had run for decades.

“Oh,” Vi said, her eyes widening. “I knew about your club, naturally, but I suppose I never stopped to consider you had a hand in Hunters. It’s profitable then, your share?”

Leo laughed and kissed her nose. “Obscenely,” he said, with no little pride. “And I shall throw a good deal of it at this house and make it the home of your dreams, if that would please you, Vi?”

“It would please me greatly to live in this beautiful place with you, Leo, so long as it pleases you too.”

“It does,” he said solemnly. “And so do you. Come along, wife. Let us explore a little closer.”

They spent a good hour investigating the grounds and peering in through dirty windows. To Leo’s relief, the house seemed solid and in much better repair than he’d feared at first glance. No doubt there were disasters enough waiting to be unearthed, but he did not think it would take too long to bring it back to its former glory.

“Oh, Leo, look! Come here!”

Leo had been trying to make out if the plaster was falling off the ceiling in what appeared to be a formal salon, but he turned to see Vi disappearing through a small door in a walled part of the garden. Smiling, he followed her.

The intoxicating scent of roses enveloped him as he entered, and Leo gasped when he discovered what Vi had seen. It was a small square garden, intimate, with climbing roses scrambling madly up walls and over arches. A large fountain sat in the centre, dry and filled with debris now, but he could imagine the sound of the water falling, the sun sparkling upon it. There were benches on three sides around the fountain, but on the fourth was a small patch of green.

“It’s a chamomile lawn,” Vi said, bending to touch her hands to the little white flowers, rubbing them gently and raising her fingers to her nose to inhale the sweet, green scent. “A bit overgrown, but it’s still here.”

Leo walked over and shrugged off his coat, laying it on the springy green surface and sitting down. He held out his hand to her. “Join me?”

Vi did as he asked, settling herself on his coat.

“I can almost see the fountain, hear the water falling,” she said with a sigh, echoing his earlier thoughts.

Leo nodded. “It’s beautiful,” he said, turning to look at her. “I want to live here with you, Vi.”

The smile that dawned upon her beautiful face was as lovely as a sunrise and filled his heart with such emotion he wondered how his chest could contain it. Thank God she was his and thank the Reverend Harbottle for doing whatever he had done to change her mind. Leo could not imagine his life without her in it now, or what he might have done if she had not married him.

“Yes, please,” she said softly.

Leo reached for her and pulled her into his arms. “I want everything, Vi. I want it all. Now, and for every day to follow. I want to make you happy, to live here with you, to take you abroad and to places you’ve never been, places that will shock and surprise you and change the way you think about the world. I want every day, every hour, every moment with you, love.”

Vi blinked, her eyes rather too bright. “Is that all?” she said, sounding somewhat breathless.

“No,” Leo said gravely, easing her down to lie upon his coat. He stared down at her, happiness a warm weight in his chest. “Not even close,” he whispered, before pressing his lips to hers.

She reached up, arms coiling around his neck while he kissed her tenderly and then with growing passion as his hands slid over her slender curves. She was pliant beneath him, all eager willingness and Leo thought his heart might burst with an intoxicating mixture of love and desire. His hand closed over her breast and squeezed, but suddenly Vi shoved at him.

Startled, Leo moved back at once, wondering what he’d done wrong, only to find Vi pushing him down. Watching, open-mouthed, Leo regarded his new wife with fascinated awe as she hitched up her skirts and petticoats, giving him a splendid view of her stocking clad legs, before she climbed over him, straddling his hips.

“Vi!” he croaked, certain he meant to say something other than that but whatever it had been disappeared from his brain as she settled her weight upon him. His arousal twitched in anticipation as the warmth of her pressed firmly against him.

She shifted back, and he regretted the loss of contact until he saw her elegant fingers undoing the buttons on his trousers.

“Oh God,” he murmured, before adding silently, thank you, thank you, thank you God.

Leo watched the intent expression on his wife’s face as she released him from the confines of his trousers and small clothes and stroked. He swallowed a groan, throwing an arm over his eyes and praying for deliverance as she tortured him with slow, decadent strokes from her slender hands. When she finally moved back into place, easing him inside her body, where he was welcomed into her lush, feminine heat, Leo was ready to lose his mind.

“Love you,” he managed, his voice hoarse with a combination of desperation and adoration as he thrust into her.

Vi’s soft laughter tickled his ear as she bent down to kiss him. “Love you too,” she whispered, and they spent a good deal of time proving the words to each other, as the scent of the chamomile lawn and the rich perfume of the roses blended on the warm air of a perfect summer’s afternoon.