

LORD JASPER'S ANGEL

by

Maggie Jagger

First published as Jasper's Angel, copyright Maggie Jagger July 2009

Smashwords Edition

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Chapter 1

Eleanor hid in the rose arbor to give her sister every opportunity to sin. She refused to chaperone the most annoying matchmakers in England. Giving them an opportunity to be wicked was the only way to stop them plotting to find her a husband, any husband at all. They had no conscience where she was concerned.

Juliet's voice drifted through the perfumed air from the shade of the wisteria bower. "All five of them?"

"You can't count Jasper," said Mr. Benedict. "He is as exclusive as the duke. Your sister won't appeal to either of them. We must pin our hopes on her attracting the rest of the Halyton Horde."

"If one of them falls in love with her and compromises her," Juliet whispered, thrilled at the idea, "she will have to marry him. They are all extremely handsome. Eleanor cannot complain. She must fall in love with one of them."

"Complain about marrying a Halyton? Should hope not, my love. Brothers of a duke, you know." Mr. Benedict lowered his voice to ask in worried tones, "Do you find them awfully good looking?"

"Not as handsome as you, Lancie."

Eleanor smothered laughter. How could he worry about his appearance? He was the most boyishly handsome man she had every met. His flowing blond hair framed a face of breathtaking beauty. If he'd never opened his mouth to speak, she might have loved him as ardently as Juliet. Young, silly men had never appealed to Eleanor, but her sister loved to be adored and wanted a man to have nothing in his head but the desire to please her.

Masculine moans and feminine sighs signaled the happy couple were too busy to notice her. Eleanor fled through the Benedict garden, determined to escape the Halyton brothers known far and wide as the Horde. She climbed the winding path toward to the great house, keeping her back to the tantalizing glimpse of the sea in the distance. As far as she was concerned, any man who compromised a woman without her consent deserved to be hanged.

She trod on the lawn to muffle her footsteps as she passed the wisteria bower.

"Your sister is not as lovely as you," rasped Mr. Benedict.

Eleanor hoped they forgot all propriety and gave in to their desires. She hoped they got caught anticipating their matrimonial delights.

What were they doing? She couldn't resist a quick glance, just to see if more witnesses were required.

"Oh, Lancie." Juliet stroked her fiancé's chest.

Eleanor had never touched a man's chest.

"I adore you, my love. I want us to be married, so badly. So very, very, very badly." Mr. Benedict lost all coherence.

"Me too, Lancie." Juliet held her fiancé's face between her hands to make him look at her. She said in a penetrating whisper, "Don't breathe a word to Eleanor about the Halyton Horde coming to visit."

How could they. Eleanor escaped from the garden. She had heard stories about the Halytons refusal to take no for an answer. Mr. Benedict's mother, a determined gossip, had confided that her sister, the dowager duchess, had been forced to marry the late duke. Their son was born six months after the wedding.

Half an hour later, Eleanor's mount fidgeted under her in the stable yard. The track up to the moor was bathed in sunlight, though high dark clouds loomed in the distance. Not that she cared, she was determined to go home. Foiling the trap laid for her was more important than being thought rude by the Benedict family.

Bad luck brought Mr. Benedict running up the path from the garden to stop her.

"Miss Tennant, where are you going?" He gasped for air. "Company is coming. You cannot go for a ride now."

"I am going home. Juliet will find a note on her pillow." Eleanor stared down at him from her vantage point on Grizelle's back. "You only want me here to meet your Halyton cousins."

"How can you make a fuss about being introduced to them?" He gave an airy wave of dismissal. "You'll find they won't stand on ceremony. There is no need to be shy."

"Mr. Benedict, let us have plain speaking between us. You want one of the Halyton Horde to compromise me. I overheard you say so to Juliet."

"Don't call 'em that, the duke doesn't like it," he warned. "You misunderstood. A Halyton only compromises the woman he loves and intends to marry. If it were otherwise, if they just went around compromising ladies, the duke would have their heads." He gave a pitying smile at her ignorance.

"Thank you for explaining it to me. It's so reassuring. I do hope they don't fall in love easily. Or does it not matter to them if the lady returns their affection?" Her sarcasm was lost on him.

He appraised her face and figure with a knowing air. Though her long skirt covered even her shoes, and her tailored riding jacket and shirt were perfectly respectable, she suddenly felt half naked, as if he could see through her clothes.

"I wouldn't have invited them if I didn't think you had a chance to attach one," said Mr. Benedict, when he managed to lift his gaze from her bosom. "You are quite out of the ordinary. Told Juliet so."

"Heavens. I'm sure she thanked you for it."

"I'm just trying to tell you, Miss Tennant, that if you'd be a little warmer, smiling might help, that you'd have a very good chance of marrying the brother of a duke. They are not the usual men you meet."

"Noblemen make horrible husbands. They are autocratic despots." She cut off his attempt to speak. "Do not argue with me, Mr. Benedict. Those are your mother's words, or did she quote her sister, the dowager Duchess of Lezarth?"

She admired the pink mounting in his cheeks, the way the breeze ruffled his hair, and his inability to give a coherent answer. The fool had but half a brain and that half was mad with passion for her sister.

"Instead of trying to find me a husband, Mr. Benedict, your time would be better spent convincing my father you have compromised Juliet, so he must allow you to marry."

He almost leaped in the air. "How can you suggest I do such a thing? I begin to think you a most unnatural female, Miss Tennant. And let me tell you, every unmarried lady of my acquaintance has begged me for the introduction I offer you."

"I decline it, sir. And may I add, I only suggested you give the appearance of having compromised my sister, I didn't suggest you do it. If you are so delicate in your sensibilities, why don't you dislike the idea of one of the Halytons forcing himself on me?"

He stared at her stupidly. The connection had never crossed his mind.

Eleanor gave her mare the gentlest of nudges. Grizelle surged forward.

Mr. Benedict grabbed for her bridle. Eleanor gave him a sharp tap with her crop to make him let go. He gave a start of surprise and a yelp of pain. She rode past him.

"You'll regret running away, Miss Tennant." he called to her back. "Juliet will never forgive you."

Her sister's reaction did not trouble Eleanor in the least. Being dangled like bait in front of the Halyton Horde troubled her exceedingly. Her ability to attract one of them was surely only a figment of Mr. Benedict's imagination, unless they were all short-sighted and traitors to their class.

Juliet's beauty caught every eye. When some of her sister's fickle suitors had attempted to change their allegiance, Eleanor had always found a lively discussion on the rights of women to be dissuasive.

The ride up to the moor handily reduced the mare's excess of energy. The wind grew stronger the higher they climbed, until the plume on her hat stroked her cheek.

Arguing with Mr. Benedict had heated her blood enough to make her welcome the cooling breeze. She had delighted in deliberately tormenting him and still thought he deserved every word, which made her not a lady. She hoped he'd not break his engagement to Juliet because of it.

A visit to her grandmother in Scotland might be in order. Grandmama thought men an abomination. It was the only place Eleanor would be safe from matchmakers, because her father's edict that his older daughter must marry first, was known to every household in the county. It made every social event an occasion for stares, whispers, and humiliation. As if she wore a sign on her person saying, 'Desperate. On The Shelf. Please Propose.'

Being unmarried didn't trouble her mind. Her body, however, gave embarrassing signs of interest in subjects not suitable, not safe.

She felt longings.

Longings a lady should never have.

Of needs and urges that disturbed her sleep and woke her from dreams about a subject she knew nothing of, to her dismay.

The wind picked up, bringing the dark clouds racing towards her. Rain sprinkled a warning as she reached the edge of the moor. Gorse and hawthorn fringed the gritstone outcroppings. The track meandered over the moor for miles.

At first, her path lay through a sea of low bilberry bushes.

Eleanor only had to go west until she saw the needle rock, to find her way home. The mare could find her stable through any weather and had, on occasion, gone home alone.

This part of the moor, although unfamiliar, held no terrors for rider or mount. The heather ran in patches along the drier bits. On either side of the track the grass was nibbled to a smooth bowling green nap by sheep, who moved only when her mare disputed the right of way with them.

Clouds lowered, bringing mist to cloak her.

Visibility was down to a few yards when Eleanor heard the thud of hooves. They were coming towards her. She moved off the path to hide near one of the gritstone boulders.

A man shouted, "He must have headed back."

She stroked Grizelle's ears to keep her quiet.

"Damn this weather," someone answered. "Never find anyone in this."

"Bet he's warming his arse while we search like bloody fools."

"Which way is back? I've lost all sense of direction."

"Follow me. I'm on the path."

"Jasper never wanted to meet that ugly female Lancelot is trying to marry off. Probably had to dose himself at the thought of it."

Wicked laughter greeted his insult to her looks.

She silently consigned the Halyton Horde to everlasting torment as they filed past her hiding place.

"I am going to flirt with the poor old thing. I mean, how ugly can she be?"

Groans and hoots served for an answer. It mingled with the sound of their mounts breathing heavily, as if they'd been ridden hard.

"Lancelot said she was sedate. He didn't say she was ugly."

"Damn him for inviting us."

"Do you think Jasper really couldn't bring himself to meet her?"

"Jasper? Talk to a respectable virgin? Not unless they were discussing her price."

Their laughter faded into the distance.

Sedate. It was worse than being thought ugly.

Eleanor regained the path with hatred in her heart for all Halytons. Grizelle trotted along, intent on her stable. The mist was no barrier to a mare who wanted to go home.

Did Lancelot Benedict expect her to attract one of those licentious, depraved noblemen? They were all careless sinners tainted by their rank.

Rain began to clear some of the mist. Cold water trickled down her neck.

Sedate.

Eleanor didn't expect a Halyton to show any interest in her at all. The idea of marrying one of them was laughable. The nobility lived by different rules and married within their own set, or to women of staggering fortune.

Sedate.

The rain cooled her cheeks.

Why not accuse her of being an old maid, of being left on the shelf? Just because she hid her desires, didn't mean a lazy afternoon on a warm languid summer day could not turn her thoughts to yearnings as hot as any rakehell's. Only the details were missing from her daydreams.

Sedate. She'd show them sedate, if she ever had one of them in her power. She'd scorn him, and refuse him, and tell him he was ugly. Debauched wretches, all of them.

The sky grew darker. Lightning flashed in the distance.

Blast them all.

Thunder rumbled nearer. The sky suddenly lit up, sending Grizelle into a fit of nerves.

With relief Eleanor recognized the needle rock marking the edge of the high lip of Bogs Bowl. Going around the rim added miles, going through it in this weather meant dismounting to lead her mare.

Lightning danced along the high ground and thunder blasted until her ears rang.

Eleanor dismounted at the edge and took off her riding jacket to tie the sleeves in a knot around the mare's neck. Her father's warning that iron attracted lightning, meant leaving behind as much as possible. The rain plastered her white shirt to her body with cold drops driven hard by the wind.

She unfastened the saddle and draped it over a tussock of grass, taking care not to let go of the makeshift halter. Grizelle's bridle was soon tucked under a stirrup.

The wind blew Eleanor's hat back from her head. It tugged painfully on her hat pin. She removed the pin with one hand to secure it better, only to see her hat sail off into Bogs Bowl.

"Damn." If the Halyton Horde could swear, so could she. She stabbed her silver hatpin into the collar of her shirt. Thunder and lightning roiled about her.

Grizelle sidled closer, treading on Eleanor's voluminous skirt. The laces tore and her skirt fell to the sodden ground. Her white shirt and petticoat made her feel like a ghost in the gloom cast by the thunder clouds. She struggled to retrieve her skirt from under Grizelle's hooves.

The mare shuffled nervously and trod heavily on her toes.

Eleanor urged Grizelle forward to free her foot. She hopped about near the edge only to have her remaining clothes blown skyward by the wind. When she could unclench her teeth, she cursed even harder, "Damn and blast it."

As if she'd conjured it with her words, a bolt of lightning struck the edge of Bogs Bowl. The peal of thunder almost knocked her off her feet.

In the following silence, a man's voice drifted up, drowsy and warm, "Angel, are you from heaven?"

Eleanor squinted over the lip of Bogs Bowl, through the rain and shadows. Her heart pounded in her breast.

She had found the missing Halyton rakehell. The dark-haired sinner who only spoke to a respectable virgin to discuss her price.
Chapter 2

Eleanor squinted through rain and shadows, her heart pounding in her breast. The man lay on his back, in a twisted grave between mounds of moorgrass lining the sides of the gully. His head was just below clapper bridge and his feet were mired in mud from the river. One of his arms was trapped beneath him, the other shielded his eyes against the rain.

The trickling streams from the moor ran into Bogs Bowl, where the rising river drowned everything caught in its path. Her father's warning to never leave the path in bad weather had to be ignored.

The man tried to move and succeeded only in flailing an arm onto the tussock beside him.

"I'm coming to help you. Don't try to stand up there." Eleanor led her mare down the path to tie her under the shelter of a hawthorn tree on the slope. She ducked under Grizelle's neck to slither down between the moorgrass tussocks until she reached the man. She held her hand out towards him, hoping she could just pull him out, and not go near the dangerous banks of the river.

A brilliant flash of lightning illuminated Bogs Bowl.

Perhaps the Halytons had justly earned their reputation for being a handsome family. His face had pleasant angles, his nose was long and rather elegant, if that could be said about a man. He lifted his head to stare at her. "Have you come for me?" His voice seemed odd to her. Surely his situation called for more emotion? He carried noble aloofness too far.

"Take my hand," she shouted as thunder pealed overhead.

The man said calmly, "One thunderbolt was enough to kill me, there's no need to tax yourself with another."

She couldn't reach his arm. Not that he wanted her to, for he moved it away as if he didn't want to be touched. At last, he asked, "Am I dead?" He used such a conversational tone that it would have warned her he was out of his wits, even if he had not repeated the question to Grizelle.

The mare disdained to answer.

Eleanor climbed the tussock nearest to him, to perch on it and really see him. The rain ran down her face. She wiped it away.

The man covered his eyes. "You are too beautiful, my angel. I beg you, don't leave me here in hell."

Eleanor bent over him. "I have come to help you. Do take my arm. I'll try to pull you up." She touched his hand.

He gripped her wrist. This close to him she realized the immensity of her task. She braced her feet and pulled with all her might. His shoulders never left their muddy resting place. The futile effort gained her a very sore wrist and little else. The man lay like an immovable gritstone outcropping.

"Let go. This is not going to work." Eleanor rubbed her wrist to encourage the blood to flow back to her hand. If she freed his feet, he might be able to help her. If she got trapped in the mud, she'd die with him.

Eleanor went back for Grizelle and her skirt, with thoughts of using the mare's strength to pull him free. Grizelle nudged Eleanor forward, knocking her off her feet, to pitch her over a tussock. She found herself face to face with the man, her bottom skyward with one hand still gripping the mare's makeshift halter.

Slowly, he lifted his head to kiss her lips. "Are you my angel?" he asked, his mouth moving against hers, tickling her as he spoke. The brush of surprisingly warm lips, the slight rasp of his chin, the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

"Heavens," she whispered. Her first kiss. Not anything to worry about. She was glad to find she was just as cold and miserable as before. She had not been driven into the pit of fiery lust that her grandmother assured her awaited all sinners.

Grizelle moved back. Eleanor found herself pulled to her feet.

Only one of the Halyton horde would think to kiss an angel. She lifted her face to the rain and wind, wishing she could deal lightning at will.

Grizelle made short work of rescuing the demented Halyton rakehell.

He sat on the mare's back and held fast to the makeshift halter as Eleanor limped beside him on sore toes. She held onto his boot to help keep him balanced. Her skirt lay over his shoulders to protect him from the rain and wind, but what was she going to do with him now?

The great houses, like the Benedicts home and the Duke of Lezarth's Halyton Court, lay closer to London on the eastern slope. Far too great a distance to take him there. The closest haven was her father's modest estate, across Bogs Bowl and down from the moor. She had only to follow the path to be home long before true darkness fell.

Her parents could not fault her for rescuing him, they'd probably be more concerned that she had returned home by herself across the moor in bad weather. Rather difficult to explain why she had fled from the Halyton Horde, with their unfortunate history of compromising women they wanted to marry. Even to herself it sounded silly. Everyone loved Juliet and no one ever fell in love with her. And then she'd have to introduce the leader of the Horde, Jasper Halyton. Out of his mind after being struck by lightning, or from a fall from his mount into Bogs Bowl. The lightning sounded better.

Thunder clouds raced away with the wind, leaving a drizzle of rain to finish washing the mud from them. Even in dry weather, Bogs Bowl quaked with peat moss bogs. Sheep wandered here and there, and woe betide any foolish traveler who mistook their tracks for the path.

The man shrugged her skirt from his shoulders. It fell to the ground.

Eleanor let go of him and hurried to retrieve her clothing. If he fell off, she doubted she could get him back on. It had taken lightning and threats of more to make him obey her and not wander off into Bogs Bowl in search of his home.

No. He must not remove his jacket. She ran to pick it up.

He started to unbutton his shirt, and the mare walked on despite having a half-naked man on her back.

Eleanor didn't dare shout at him in case he turned to see her and fell off. She ran to the mare, just in time to catch the shirt before it fell to the path. He was wearing nothing underneath it.

If she arrived home with both of them half-dressed, her father would insist she marry him. Not that a Halyton rake cared about society's rules. She'd be ruined, for saving his life.

She threw the clothes over Grizelle's rump. She'd find a way to then both when they were closer to her home.

He was naked to the waist and she really shouldn't look at him. She should faint or run away, but all she wanted to do was stare.

He was magnificent, with broad shoulders and a beautiful chest made of muscles with shadows and lines she wanted to trace with her fingers. He was so different from the female form, so beautiful, it almost made her forgive him for being one of the Halyton Horde. He looked like a Greek statue, only living and breathing.

Her cold, wet body warmed at the sight of him. She was a horrible person. The poor man was ill, out of his mind, and all she could do was gaze at his naked chest.

She had to get him clothed and down the long slope to her home. Quickly, before the heavy rain clouds glowering at the edge of Bogs Bowl made travel worse.

The mare walked on and Eleanor followed, determined not to look at him again.

He resembled one of those pictures Pru had shown her, only better. Even those images had warmed her.

She was like one of those wretched fallen women. Only her determination never to be tempted, never to allow any intimacy, because she dared not, kept her safe.

Her father's hunting box loomed out of the low cloud. She sighed with relief and eased her aching shoulders, glad for a moment's respite.

Suddenly, the heavens opened and rain poured down on them. It ran over his beautiful chest and made him shiver.

He leaned towards her to try to touch her. "Angel, am I dead?"

The mare sidled, sending the man sliding off. He brought the makeshift halter down with him, having enough of his wits not to let go. Eleanor's dark wool skirt landed on top of him as he lay on his side on the path. His shirt and jacket dropped into the mud at her feet.

Grizelle bent her head to shake herself free. She turned towards her stable in a determined manner.

A warm hand grasped Eleanor's ankle, preventing her from making an attempt to catch the mare. Rain drummed on her head. She could hear the river surging over the waterfall in the distance in its rush to leave Bogs Bowl.

He held her ankle tightly. "Don't go. I beg you.

She hoped he wouldn't leave busies on her.

Never mind the mare. Perhaps it was for the best. If William reported her mare's return without her, then surely a search party would set out before night truly fell. She had to get the Halyton rakehell dry and dressed before they were rescued.

Her home lay a winding mile beneath their location. It may as well have been on the moon.

"Let go. I command you," she said in her avenging angel voice. She had decided shouting was not angelic. His warm fingers slid from her ankle like a caress. How could he be so warm when she was so cold and wet she could scarcely feel her fingers? Cold rain soaked her, bouncing with splatters of mud from the path.

"Don't leave me, please." The man's hand rubbed the back of her knee under her petticoat.

She gave a squeak and a shiver. Knees were surprisingly sensitive.

"Can you stand up?" An angel would surely be expected to know his name, and not my lord him, but maybe she was wrong and this handsome stranger was not the missing Halyton.

He took her wrist and tried to rise, but she wasn't strong enough to pull him up.

He availed himself of her knee, which quivered under his touch. She grasped him by the elbow and pulled with all her might. His hands climbed her until he reached her waist.

Now was not the time to be ticklish. She fought an unequal battle to keep her senses under control. It was no use. When at last he towered above her and held on to her arms, she choked on her giggles. It helped take her mind off his chest. She looked up at his face. Eerily handsome, he stared back at her with such a gentle expression of worship on his face that she almost liked him.

"Amelia?" he asked.

"No, I am an angel, make no mistake." Amelia was the name of his half-sister, Mr. Benedict's cousin. She owned to some disappointment. For a moment she'd thought of keeping him, if his adoration of her lasted and if no one knew who he was.

The door to the lodge opened on well-oiled hinges. Eleanor put the key back in its hiding place under the flowerpot on the windowsill. Any of the farm workers were welcome to take shelter in what was little more than a cottage with two rooms, when they were caught on the moor in bad weather.

The door slammed open, blown by the wind. The shutters were closed inside. Eleanor didn't want to go in alone. Even a rake out of his mind was better company than the dark. A stupid fear. She held the door wide and they both tried to go through at the same time. In the crush, he accidentally trod on the same toes Grizelle had mangled.

"Ouch," she cried. The pain took her mind off the darkness. "Ow. Ow. Ow."

"Forgive me," he said, again and again. His voice, husky and intimate, caressed her, until she managed to control her cries of pain.

The man's manners were impeccable, given the circumstances. She hopped across the slate floor to the window.

The wind slammed the door shut.

Eleanor opened the shutters to let enough light into the room for her to see him.

"Jasper?" She wanted to know if he really was the missing Halyton rakehell, not some poor traveler lost on the moor. Amelia was a common enough name.

"Yes, my angel?" He struggled to remove his boots, not straying from the door, not daring to enter with them on. He managed to get them off and advanced on stocking-clad feet towards her.

"Stay there," she commanded, giddy at the sight of him, and afraid of what he might do. It didn't take her long to light the lamp on the mantelpiece above the hearth. The golden glow gave an air of civilization to her father's retreat. Next to the fireplace stood an old chest holding coal and kindling. At least she could light a fire. Two long benches were angled to catch the warmth in front of the hearth.

She lit a candle and placed it on the windowsill. She could see her reflection in the glass. Her white petticoat and shirt were pasted to her body. The wind had loosened her hair and whipped it into a wild tangle.

Lord Jasper, a tall shape in the shadows, moved closer to watch her every move.

She muttered to herself, "Beauty and the Beast."

"Not a beast," he said sadly. "Never meant to be a bad. Forgive me."

"You are both, Jasper. If only your character matched your face, but I know it doesn't." An angel wouldn't approve of his wicked morals, nor pretend ignorance.

He didn't argue with her. She combed her fingers through her hair in an effort to tame it.

She was alone with the most notorious Halyton rakehell of all. How lucky for her, he feared her. As he should. But if anyone found out she'd been alone with him, she'd have to marry him. The problem was going to be not letting anyone find out.

"I want to go home," he said.

"Not yet." Eleanor tried to take his arm to lead him to a bench.

He resisted her tugs. It was impossible to force him to stay with her. He was infinitely stronger.

"Must go home," he said. "Now." He fumbled with the latch at the door.

If he wandered into Bogs Bowl that would be the death of him. She blocked his way. He stepped on her injured toes. "Ouch," she cried. "Ouch."

"Forgive me, I can't hear the music." He moved away from her with a remorseful sigh.

She followed, steering him with a low series of "ouches" towards one of the benches. It was long and wide enough to function as a makeshift bed. She removed the long cushion so he wouldn't get it wet.

"Sit down, Lord Jasper."

"No. Not lord." He looked at the hearth. "Is it hell's gate?"

"No, it's just a fireplace. Sit down, Jasper."

"Don't leave me, please." He wrapped his arms around her in a disturbing embrace.

Eleanor tried to keep herself from being plastered against him.

He stumbled and slid onto the old wooden seat.

Before she could move, he grasped her petticoat on either side of her thighs and twisted the wet cloth around his hands. For the first time she was afraid she'd not be able to control him.

"Jasper, don't."

He looked up at her. A long, sensitive, purely masculine face, not boyishly beautiful like Mr. Benedict, but far more dangerous to her. How could she feel such an attraction to this man? Not that it was mandatory for a rake to be attractive to women, being wealthy was sufficient. To be a rakehell supposed a certain willingness and ability to pay for his pleasures. She had to make clear to him she was not one of his playthings.

His eyes closed. He murmured under his breath, "Too beautiful, hurts to look at you." He bent his head to rest his forehead in the vicinity of her heart.

Eleanor stroked his hair. It seemed to be what an angel might do under the circumstances. The dark waves curved round her fingers in wet silken strands.

"What's your name?" His breath warmed her.

"My name is Avenging Angel. You must obey me. Let go, Jasper," she commanded. "I want to light a fire so you can be warm."

He turned his head from side to side to indicate his dissent. The movement stirred strange things inside her. She caught her breath. How was she going to make him let go? He wasn't doing anything to give her an excuse to say ouch.

"Lightning hurts, don't make me strike you again," she warned.

He released her with a shudder. Eleanor patted his shoulder and went to lay a fire in the hearth. The kindling crackled at the touch of a match lit from the candle. She collected their sopping clothes.

The kitchen was very dark. The wind moaned and whistled on its way to scour Bogs Bowl. She propped open the door between the rooms and hurried to light the kitchen fire. It was already heaped with peat. Eleanor's father did not approve of his coal being used, so the farm workers cut their own fuel from the bog. She wrung out the wet clothes and hung them to dry in front of the hearth.

Now she must go back into the salon to remove the rest of his clothes. She shivered at the thought of it. What if she couldn't control him when he was naked? What if he were such a rakehell that he'd risk a lightning bolt to ravish her? Being naked was surely nothing new for a rake? Women must undress him often.

If that was how things were done.

Nakedness must be part of this day's work or they'd both catch a chill. Her teeth chattered. It was not her fault if she had to see him naked. Her heartbeat changed its rhythm whenever he touched her. Now it beat faster at the thought of undressing him. Not that she intended to look at all the details of his body. When he recovered they'd surely meet at her sister's wedding. Eleanor doubted her ability to keep her countenance if she'd seen his details.

The light from the salon suddenly dimmed. Why couldn't he stay where he was placed? It unnerved her to have him following her.

Naked.

He had taken off the rest of his clothes and stood naked watching her.

Eleanor stared at him. His long lean body was sculpted by light at the sides, leaving the rest of him in shadow. Outlined in gold, with broad shoulders, narrow hips, and long legs, he was like the naked statues Pru had shown her.

She was too cold to blush.

The kitchen fire flared up to illuminate the room.

So that was how a man was made.
Chapter 3

Eleanor could not look away from him.

"Don't leave me," Jasper pleaded. He took a step towards her. "Is this heaven? May I enter?"

"Not yet. Stay there." Unsure of what to do, Eleanor tried to keep her eyes on his face. She couldn't do it. Curiosity fought with her better judgment. At last, she realized she couldn't leave him like that forever, while she stared at him. She rummaged in the box seat near the fire and brought out a pile of old red blankets. "You must wear one of these." She held it spread out to keep most of him hidden. Panic tamed her wicked urges.

He let her wrap the blanket around his waist but wouldn't hold on to it. She struggled to keep him covered. He turned with her and trapped her against the door frame. Frightened, she dared not move, not knowing what might inflame him. His adoring stare and strange worshipful expression gave her the courage to stare him down, in a haughty angelic manner.

He let her lead him back to the coal fire with her holding the blanket to keep it from falling from his hips.

"Do sit down, Jasper." She couldn't keep him by the fire.

"I want to go home." He set off for the door. "Take me home, I beg you."

Eleanor held on to his blanket like a terrier. "I promise to take you home when our clothes are dry."

"We don't need clothes."

He trod on her injured foot.

"Ouch. Don't do that or I shall have to smite you again. Do you want that? Do you?" Her words ended in a clatter of chattering teeth. She hopped on one foot, but she dared not let go of the blanket.

He stopped. "I can't hear the music. Amelia, is that you?" He looked down at her. "No." He smiled tenderly, as if he loved her.

Her heart gave a jump at the sight.

He murmured, "My angel," and held her by the shoulders. "Don't leave me."

Eleanor shivered. His hands were much warmer than they should be. She freed one hand to touch his chest. His muscles moved under warm, dry skin. She ran her hand lightly up to stroke his broad shoulders. How could he be so warm and dry? Maybe the lightning strike had not only injured his brain, maybe it also made him burn with fever.

He held her wet shirt at the neck. "Take it off. Do angels catch cold?"

"We dissolve if we are out too long in the rain. I can't take you home till it stops." She tugged her shirt free. "Listen, you can hear the raindrops hitting the slates on the roof. Come back to the fire, Jasper. It's too cold near the door." She tried to lead him towards the hearth. In her haste, his blanket fell to the ground.

Eleanor kept her gaze as high as she could. Men really were different from women. Gilded by the lamp, his elegant nose and the facets of his face made him rival Juliet's fiancé in beauty. His broad shoulders fascinated her— she dared not look any lower. Impossible to bend down in front of him to retrieve the blanket.

If she saw his details that close, she'd never be able to look him in the eye again.

He stepped over the blanket and walked back to the fire with her, only to stumble over the long cushion on the floor in front of the hearth.

"Lie down, Jasper." Eleanor closed her eyes, it was the only way not to look at him. A strong arm around her waist tried to pull her down to the floor with him. She gave a shriek. "Let go."

He released her with reluctance to kneel at her feet, a broad-shouldered, dark-haired, naked, scary temptation.

Eleanor limped back to pick up his blanket. She draped it around his shoulders to hide all of him from her gaze. She went to the windows and closed the shutters against prying eyes. If anyone looked in, she was ruined.

She checked the door to make sure it was securely latched, then put a chair in front of it to warn her if anyone entered. For a moment she considered going to get the key, but locking herself in with a rake would surely seal her fate if anyone found out. Grizelle was long in her stable. Either no one had noticed or they were searching the roads around the moors. Who would believe her foolish enough to have crossed high ground in a thunderstorm?

He shrugged the blanket from his shoulders and held it out to block the fire's warmth. Even his back was beautiful, his legs were strong, his hips and buttocks almost too slender compared to his broad shoulders. If she took care not to look too closely at his details, what right had a rakehell to complain if she admired his body? Rakes used and discarded women at will.

How strange men's bodies were. She made him lie on the cushion and covered him with the blanket. He objected and pushed it down to reveal his chest. Eleanor touched him there. He was very warm. She stroked his hair back from his forehead until he caught her hand and held it to cool his brow.

"Feels good," he whispered.

Good for him, but if she didn't get out of her wet clothes soon, she'd be the one ill. "Let go, Jasper. I need to go into the kitchen for a few minutes."

"What for?" He sounded so reasonable.

The answer fell out of her mouth before she had time to consider her words. "I need to take off my wet clothes."

"Let me help you."

"There is really no— " Drat the man. The buttons on her shirt popped open. Two of them flew off. She heard them bounce outside the circle of light cast by the lamp and the burning coals.

"Ouch." In a panic, Eleanor recoiled. She grabbed his wrists only to be awed by his strength. His hands slowly caressed her breasts through the cloth. Her strength was useless pitted against his wish to touch her. Half frozen, her body responded to his touch. Her breath came in a sob.

Even out of his mind, he responded to her cry of distress.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," he murmured. He carefully unfastened the last button between her breasts.

"Then promise me you'll lie still and let me go. For just a few moments," she added hastily when he gripped her upper arms to keep her with him, "Lest I catch a chill or dissolve in my wet clothes."

"No, don't vanish. I'll save you." The thought of her peril made him try to lift her shirt off over her head.

Muffled by the cloth, she cried, "Release me at once. I shall blast you to hell."

He let go of her shirt. Gentle strokes over her breasts made her ache in a place she always tried to ignore. Lowering her shirt trapped his hands on her body to make it all much worse. Not fear now, but wants and urges rose in her.

It took all her resolve to threaten him, remove his hands from her intoxicated body and escape to the kitchen.

She stripped off her wet clothes and wrapped a blanket about her, to cover her from breast to ankle. She secured it by tucking the ends under tightly. Another blanket over her shoulders made her feel more secure. She fastened it with her silver hat-pin.

Now she knew how a man was made. And now she knew the power a rake had over a woman.

She felt sinful. Wicked.

Not the least bit sedate.

For hours Jasper lay on the floor, cooled by his angel. Fevered illusions came and went. Every time he thought he'd awakened from a dream, he'd find his avenging angel asleep beside him, her head resting on his chest, her tangled hair spread out over his shoulder.

He stole a token from her, a shining magic wand. He scratched himself with the sharp point. It hurt. Things never hurt in dreams, did they? He couldn't remember. Certain she'd make him return it, he hid the glittering thing under the mattress. If she left him, he'd keep it to remind him of his angel.

Could he use it to summon her to his bed?

His angel made soft sounds and stroked her cool hands over his body.

When she fell asleep at last, he unwrapped her to adore her, to learn about her body. A search for her wings was futile, though he had seen them on the moor when she came for him. She must hide them when she didn't need to fly. He carefully explored her beautiful breasts until she stirred in his arms. He pretended to sleep when she woke with a gasp of fright.

He must never anger or frighten his angel. He loved her and needed her to save him from the demons lurking in the shadows. Sleeping with her was to float in heavenly clouds. Far above life, full of love for his angel.

Suddenly, Eleanor woke up. Was someone there?

She lifted her head from Jasper's chest to listen.

He slept on. The wet cloth on his forehead still cooled him. She had only dozed for a few minutes. The fire had long been extinguished because it made his fever worse. The room was lit only from the dawn seeping in through the edges of the shutters she'd closed against the night.

Someone rapped on the window.

Eleanor gave a muffled cry and scrambled to her feet. Her blankets fell to the floor. Her silver pin was missing. There was no time to search for it. She raced for the kitchen. She'd planned her course of action during the long night. The impossibility of leaving Jasper alone made meeting his rescuers or hers a certainty.

She pulled on her skirt and cursed the broken laces. A red blanket soon covered her shoulders like a country woman's cloak. She grabbed the rest of her clothes to roll them into a bundle. Like a hugely pregnant woman, she held her damp clothes in place over her belly and kept the blanket cloaked around her.

She heard a man shout at the door, in a voice she recognized. "He's in here. Come on." Heavy footsteps sounded in the other room.

The Halyton Horde opened the shutters in the other room. She'd have to rely on the men being partially blinded by coming from the daylight into the dimly lit kitchen.

"Be you here to rescue yon, laddie?" she called in the local dialect. "Bin off his head all night, he has. Struck by lightning in Bogs Bowl. I've had to clatter him a few times, just to keep him sweet. I'll stand no nonsense from any man."

She waited for an answer. It sounded as if they were gathered around Jasper. She gave a good imitation of Mrs. Lumm's laugh. "He's a right one, he is. Reckon, I'll be off then, got my children to look after."

A man put his head around the door. He politely removed his hat to show hair streaked with blond. He glanced at her swollen belly. No gentleman took any notice of a farm woman. "You found him in Bogs Bowl?" he asked.

"Aye. I did." Eleanor answered with a resounding laugh. "He's been right amusing 'as the lad. I'll leave him in your 'ands now. Got to get back to my bairns. Good day to you, sir."

"Stay, my good woman," he commanded. The murmur of voices from the other room drew him back to the doorway.

One of the men called out, "Veryan, do you by any chance have an angel in there?"

"Not unless you mean a ministering angel. A local woman has been looking after him."

Jasper's voice rose above the others. "You've frightened her off. Go away. Let go of me."

"Gads, he's burning with fever. Ver, get in here. We have to get him down from this blasted moor."

"What is your name and where do you live?" the man asked her. "The Duke of Lezarth will want to reward you for taking care of his brother."

Eleanor dropped a curtsy, "Mrs. Lumm of Lumm Farm, sir." If all went well Mrs. Lumm would get a generous reward from the Halyton family. Eleanor didn't dare risk them searching and asking questions, trying to find her.

He disappeared into the other room. In reply to an indistinct question, Lord Veryan said, "Your angel is big with child. Hush now. She told me she has to get back to her children."

Eleanor opened the kitchen door. The valley lay in sunshine, green and peaceful. She had to get down the hill before they organized themselves to leave.

She set off straight down the slope. Juliet and she had often raced their father home. The road meandered, the footpath went vertically down. She slid down the steepest bits on paths slick with clay.

A thicket marked the border between cultivated land and moorland. She disappeared into it as Mrs. Lumm and appeared on the other side in a damp riding habit with her hair twisted into a knot. She might not pass close inspection and she had to hold her skirt in place, but from a distance she could be out for an early stroll. She folded the red blanket and held it neatly draped over her arm as she walked home.

The old Elizabethan house was quiet, its small leaded windows still closed against last night's storm. The walled gardens and ancient beech trees might hide any number of servants out in the grounds, but there were no signs her parents were up.

She found the mare in the stable and her father's gig not in its usual bay. That was a stroke of luck. He had probably taken shelter from the storm at a neighbor's house and had not yet returned. From there, she could see the kitchen windows were open and the servants eating breakfast. The scent of frying bacon reminded her she was ravenous.

Eleanor slipped into her home by the ancient front door, just as she would do if nothing at all was wrong. She called to Mrs. Dean to make her some breakfast, and to Alice to fetch some hot water.

There were no frantic screams of relief at her presence.
Chapter 4

"Look. Oh, no. Don't look." Lancelot tried to cover Juliet's eyes with his hat. Her mount nipped his horse's neck for crowding near. "Lightning must have killed her. I'm so sorry, my love."

Juliet examined the mound on the tussock of moorgrass. The early morning sun cast long distorting shadows. "Silly man, it's only Eleanor's saddle. Papa always told us to dismount and leave it behind because iron attracts lightning." She looked over the edge of Bogs Bowl. "Follow me, Lancie. Be careful, the path is steep."

"I was never allowed to go this far as a boy. My mother scared the breath out of me with tales of being sucked down by the bog. Gives me the willies even now," he confessed, with a boyish laugh at his fears.

"Follow me. Eleanor and I played hide and seek here. The bog isn't so scary. I've been thigh deep in it many a time," said Juliet, to take his mind of his fear.

"Thigh?"

Men were so easy to distract.

Juliet scanned Bogs Bowl with a practiced eye. From the side she could see the largest green surface, which held at its edge a dark object with white feathers. "Don't panic, Lancie, that's my sister's hat over there."

She should have waited to tell him. He called to her to stop. Juliet reached the bridge over the river and crossed it before she looked back.

He followed her. "Dash it, you are so brave. From your nonchalant air, I must presume you don't think your sister is under her hat?"

"Of course not." She smiled at him. "You are so good to escort me instead of riding off with the Halytons. I do hope they found Lord Jasper. Wouldn't it be fun if Eleanor found him and he fell in love with her. Then they'd marry and so could we."

"My dear love, I cannot think that would be a happy match given her republican bent."

"She was only teasing, Lancie."

"Jasper isn't likely to fall in love with anyone. His brothers would laugh at the idea." Lancie peered rather nervously at every mound of moorgrass, as if he expected to find a corpse.

"There aren't any crows," said Juliet. "That means there are no bodies. Don't worry. Let's stop at my father's lodge, just in case either of them took shelter there. Maybe we can catch them kissing. Or doesn't Lord Jasper kiss? Does he not like women?"

"Like women? He keeps stables of 'em."

"How very wicked. Eleanor shall not marry a man like that, not even if we find them in each other's arms."

"He hasn't escaped matrimony all these years by being caught touching respectable women." Lancie looked shocked at the thought.

"Here we are. Help me down." She rewarded him with a kiss. "Hold my mount. I just want to make sure no one is inside. Look at all these tracks in the mud. The Halytons must have been here before us."

"Let me go with you." He trailed after her.

Juliet tried the door. It swung open. "I hope they didn't break the lock, my father will not be pleased. Look at all the mud on the floor."

Lancelot Benedict waited a scant minute cooling his heels till his beloved flew from the lodge.

"Help me mount, Lancie. I have to get home."

"What's the matter my love?"

"I cannot tell, it's so dreadful."

He held her in his arms. "There is nothing you cannot tell me."

"I think Eleanor has been ravished by the Halyton Horde. I found buttons from the shirt she wears with her riding habit and when I moved the cushion to replace it on the bench where it belongs, I found this hidden underneath it." She held out the hat pin. "My sister's, a gift from grandmama. She'd never forget it, or lose it, or leave it behind. Someone took it from her, tore the buttons from her clothes and I very much fear they ravished her."

"Jumping to conclusions, my love. I know 'em all. They are perfect gentlemen when with a lady. Your sister won't have a mark on her from a Halyton hand."

* * * *

Eleanor sank into the bath with a grateful sigh. It took several more minutes to get her sore toes into the hot water. Grizelle had done most of the damage. Jasper had done his share. She must stay out of his way, and remember to never call him by his name alone.

A ring of small bruises circled one of her knees and a thigh. Her arms were covered in bruises and the one on her wrist looked ugly. She must hide all of the marks.

Footsteps raced up the stairs. Juliet called out, "Eleanor?"

"I'm in here. Don't come in."

The door opened and slammed closed. Juliet appeared around the screen, holding up the skirt of her riding habit. She knelt beside the bathtub. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Fine. What's the matter?" Eleanor tried to look innocent.

"Did you get home safely? Really, you shouldn't have gone off alone like that." Juliet stared at Eleanor's knees.

"Are you admiring my bruises?" She laughed to make light of them. "The next time Mr. Benedict warns me of bad weather, I shall listen to him. I had to leave my saddle on the moor."

Her sister stared at her shoulders. Eleanor noticed there were a few blue marks there too.

"What happened to you?" Juliet asked, her eyes glazed with tears. "Was it very awful?"

Eleanor lifted one foot out of the water. "Grizelle trod on me. Look. Then I fell into Bogs Bowl." She shrugged. "I got bruised, nothing worse."

"I'm so glad you are safe. I was worried," said Juliet doubtfully. "Well, not as worried as Lancie, because I knew you had lots of time to reach home before the thunderstorm started."

"I never was so glad to be home in all my life. The weather was so bad that mama and papa stayed the night at the squire's. They returned just before the Halytons brought one of their brothers to the house." Eleanor tried to look as if she knew nothing more.

"Are they still here?" Juliet was busy looking for more bruises. "Your wrist and upper arms look awful."

Eleanor interrupted, "It's nothing. I'm not the injured one. Poor Lord Jasper is suffering in the guest bedroom. His brothers Richard and Veryan are staying to care for him."

Juliet stared at Eleanor's wrist. The bruises looked as if they had been done by fingers. "What's ails him?"

Eleanor hid it in the water. "He was struck by lightning on the moor. He thought mama was an angel, and she had to sit beside him and hold his hand for most of the morning, until the duke's physician arrived to dose him."

Juliet asked earnestly, "Are you in pain, Eleanor? You can tell me."

"Only my toes hurt." She rested her foot on the edge of the bath. "Lord Jasper wouldn't let go of his angel." Eleanor laughed. It was always more amusing when it happened to somebody else. "No one could make him let go."
Chapter 5

"Mrs. Lumm." Eleanor called as she rode up to the Lumm farmhouse. The yard was redolent with pig manure. A green wash seeped from the barn to tint the dark earth. The morning sun had given way to gray clouds.

"Good morning, Miss Tennant. What brings you 'ere?" Mrs. Lumm stood on the doorstep with an infant on one hip and a small child clinging to skirts that billowed over her great belly.

"I thought you might like a hint, so as to prepare yourself to be thanked," said Eleanor from Grizelle's back.

"Lud. Thanked by whom and for what? Do stop sucking your thumb, our Tom, or you'll suck it right off," cried Mrs. Lumm while her Tom replaced one thumb with the other.

"The Duke of Lezarth intends to thank you for saving his brother, Lord Jasper." Eleanor hoped the mention of a duke wouldn't throw Mrs. Lumm into a flutter. Lying to such an august personage was not to be attempted without a cool head and a very good reason.

"Nothing to do with me, Miss. I reckon a pretty purse be attached to a duke's thanks for saving one such as that, but it weren't me." It was said with some regret.

Mrs. Lumm's infant smiled to show two teeth.

Eleanor smiled back and waved to the baby. She paused as if to think. "The woman gave your name and said she lived here at Lumm Farm."

"Why ever would she do that?" Mrs. Lumm asked. "Everyone will think it was me."

"Perhaps she was up at my father's lodge to meet a man. Maybe her employers would dismiss her if they found out about it." Eleanor had thought it through. All she needed was Mrs. Lumm to go along with it.

"So she gave my name instead. She'll turn up fast enough if there's a reward, mark my words."

Eleanor played her ace. "But the woman knew about the reward. Lord Veryan said he told her about it, when he asked for her name and direction. How very odd. I can only think she meant you to have it."

"If it's your Alice, or Sally Postlenook, or my Peg, they'll be asking for it as soon as it's in my hand." Mrs. Lumm stroked little Tom's hair. "The money'd come in right handy.

Eleanor considered her words carefully, "If it was any of them, they'd surely have stayed to make sure they got the money. For all we know it was not someone from here."

"Then how'd she know my name?" Greed didn't seem to be one of Mrs. Lumm's faults, her brow creased in a frown without a hint of avarice on her face.

"She might have heard your name in the village. You are famous for your ham hocks." Eleanor willed Mrs. Lumm to be less honest.

"There were a woman 'ere, the day afore yesterday. A London whore, painted and perfumed, sniffing my yard as if it smelled of something besides good honest muck. She gave me a sixpence for giving 'er directions t' village. Do you think it could have been 'er?"

Eleanor took the idea and ran with it. "Perhaps she was there to meet Lord Jasper and doesn't want it known. The duke is determined to reward you, Mrs. Lumm. I cannot think a London harlot deserves the money more than you."

"I wonder how much the reward is? A few sovereigns do you think?"

"For saving the duke's brother? Tending him, stripping him to make sure he didn't die of a chill in his wet clothes? It's lucky the woman found the key to my father's lodge under the flowerpot on the windowsill. Lord Veryan said she ran off down the hill at dawn, wearing a red cloak over her great belly. She said she had to get back to her children." Eleanor hoped she had covered everything.

"I've got the belly, the cloak, and the children. Everyone'll think it was me. Gave my name she did. By the green lud." Mrs. Lumm peered up the lane. "Do you suppose that's the duke's carriage?"

A carriage drawn by four perfectly matched black horses made the turn from the road to rattle down the lane to Lumm Farm.

"I'd best be off." Eleanor tried not to look too hasty. She waved at the children. "I just stopped by to order two hams. My mother asks for them to be delivered today. Tell Eli there's shilling in it for him if he gets there soon."

"Right kind of you, Miss Tennant. Good day to you." She shouted into the farmhouse, "Peg. Come and get the tykes. A duke's coming to call."

Eleanor waited for the ducal carriage to enter the farmyard. The coachman wore black and gold, as did the groom and the two men clinging to the back. The only way out was back up the lane to the road. When at last the carriage rumbled across the yard, Eleanor found her way blocked by two dark-haired young men who trailed behind on horseback.

They deliberately denied her entrance to the lane to stare at her with Halyton blue eyes, like Jasper's. They slouched before her on their highbred mounts with all the inborn arrogance of the nobility. They didn't dress alike, one wore blue, the other green, but their faces were remarkably similar.

"Good morning, gentlemen." She tilted her head back to stare down her nose at them.

"Miss Tennant? You must be her, for you look remarkably like your mother. We called at your home this morning." The young man in blue smiled at her. "I am Edward Halyton, and this is my brother Nash."

Lord Nash Halyton, dressed in the green coat, casually nodded a greeting. He looked her over as if choosing whether to buy her or not, and edged his mount closer to say in a low voice, "Edward is the good twin, I'm the evil one. You can tell us apart by the scar Lezarth marked on my cheek." A slight pale scar not half an inch long flecked his high cheekbone. He smiled in a way that looked remarkably wicked for one so young and obviously trying for the effect.

Eleanor laughed in his face. "How very kind of you to warn me, Lord Nash. I'll be sure to mention it to my father, so he can bar you from the house."

He laughed, and acknowledged her hit with a hand on his heart. "May we escort you home, Miss Tennant?"

"Three Halytons in the house are more than enough. Good day to you, Lord Nash, Lord Edward." She nudged Grizelle up the lane.

"I bet you daren't say that to Lezarth, Miss Tennant," called the evil twin to her back.

A stern voice rang out in the farmyard. "Nash. Be silent until you can speak like a gentleman."

An eerie silence followed Eleanor's progress up the lane.

* * * *

Jasper opened his eyes. Someone was sitting beside him reading a book by candlelight. He heard the slow flutter of pages being turned. It took too much effort to turn his head to look. "Richard? You'll ruin your eyes. Light a lamp."

The book closed with a thud. "You're awake at last." A cool hand felt his forehead.

"Where am I?" Dark furniture crowded the small room. Jasper recognized none of it.

"You're in Martin Tennant's house. His younger daughter is engaged to Lancelot Benedict." Richard offered a small glass half full of dark liquid. "Your medicine is working, have some more."

Jasper swallowed the dose. "What happened?"

Richard moved his chair, being careful not to make noise on the wooden floor. He looked worried, with a crease between his eyes that only occurred at the worse of times. A slight shrug made light of whatever had happened. "You were probably struck by lightning on the moor. Not that you have a mark on you. Lezarth said to leave it at that."

There was no point in pretending innocence, though his voice rasped as he forced the question out, "Is she here?"

"If you're going to start rambling about your angel again, I shall give you another dose. You've been off your head since we found you." It was kindly said.

"Was I alone?" Jasper asked, torn between wanting to keep his angel to himself and knowing she couldn't possibly exist. And if she did, then he was the devil himself as far as she was concerned.

"Mrs. Lumm was taking care of you."

"Did you see her?" Jasper dared not ask if Mrs. Lumm had been found naked in his arms.

"No, she's a local farm woman big with child."

Jasper swore under his breath. "Hellfire." With a great belly. No, she was slender and had dark hair swept into a tangle by the wind. He'd combed it out with his fingers while she slept.

"Did you try to kiss her? Can't say I admire your taste in women." Richard laughed quietly. He did everything quietly.

"I don't remember," Jasper confessed. "Can't think. Are you sure there was no one else?"

"Yes."

"Was I naked?"

"Your clothes were drying by the fire in the kitchen. You were wrapped in blankets. All very proper."

"And Mrs. Lumm, where was she?"

"Good lord, Jasper. You were on the floor in one room and she was in the kitchen. If you are worried about us seeing any naked angels scampering around the place, I can assure you there were none."

"Is Lezarth here?"

"He didn't want to descend on the family. The house is not large and they aren't known to him. Tennant is rather stiff. I'm afraid our reputation has preceded us. Veryan is down making polite conversation, trying to demonstrate the family has at least one sensible member. Lezarth's at the village inn. He's not pleased about it. Went off muttering about hoping he won't catch lice there."

"Sorry to be so much trouble. Keep Lezarth away for as long as you can." He had to get his mind under control before he attempted to answer any of the duke's questions. The thought of what he might have done to his rescuer made him groan in mental anguish.

"That bad is it?" asked Richard.

"Worse." Jasper didn't dare voice the fear that he had ravished Mrs. Lumm.

Richard gave a snort of disbelief worthy of Amelia. "Did your angel have a great belly?"

"No." His angel wore white clothes that streamed out around her, and wings floating in heaven's breeze. He must have been completely out of his mind. He prayed she existed only in his insanity.

"You haven't done anything, Jasper." Richard patted his shoulder. "Nothing happened that you cannot remedy with a generous reward."

Richard didn't understand and Lezarth had better not find out, or he'd have a keeper for the rest of his days. He deserved a keeper. All those years of never being alone with a woman he had not bought. How carefully he had kept to that rule, and now, what had he done to poor Mrs. Lumm?

A door opened below them. The house filled with whispers and rustling sounds.

"What's that noise?" he asked in a low voice, hoping hell had not sent demons to take him where he belonged.

"Just the family retiring to bed," whispered Richard. "They have a small house. Miss Tennant and Miss Juliet have to troop by your door to get to their bedrooms."

Jasper listened intently. A quick light step, followed by someone walking slower with a limp. "That's her. She limps. Go to see who it is," he urged. "Damnation! I'd know her footsteps anywhere." His angel existed. A mortal woman who must damn him with every breath.

"Hush."

Jasper waited until a door closed in the distance. "Who is she?" he asked on a breath of air.

"The lady limping is Miss Tennant. And don't say you ravished her, Jasper. You'd ruin her. She has limped by your door several times today. It's no wonder you recognize her footsteps."

She was his angel. What had he done? If there'd been anything in his stomach, he'd have lost it there and then. "Describe her to me."

"Lovely. Edward and Nash are smitten. They are fighting over who will court her. Veryan regrets his engagement, and I worship silently at her feet. We can add your name to the list of her admirers after you meet her."

"Ask Lezarth to reward Mrs. Lumm for me." Would it all come out then, all his misdeeds, all that could happen when he was in the devil's grip?

"He met her yesterday, said Mrs. Lumm was the most hearty female he'd ever met. She gave not one hint of anything that had happened. Lezarth only asked if you'd been any trouble to her. She laughed and replied, _none at all_. So you see, there is nothing at all to worry about."

Nothing as far as Mrs. Lumm was concerned, because she might have been there in the morning, but she had not spent the night with him. Miss Tennant, on the other hand, was his angel.

"How does Miss Tennant treat Veryan and you, and anyone else from the family?"

Richard gave a low chuckle. "The lady met Edward and Nash at Lumm Farm. She gave as good as she got, you know how rude Nash can be. Gave it right back, haughty as can be. The pair of them have decided to worship and adore her, just to be annoying." He thought about what he was going to say next. "Veryan treats her too kindly, but in that distant way he has, so as not to give her any idea of him courting her. It is odd, though the whole family enjoys his stories about father, and lining up to be beaten by order of rank. Miss Tennant told us about rescuing a small boy from the eel pond, how he had an eel attached to every button on his coat when she fished him out. Oh, and Veryan told that old story about the peahen who fell in love with you when you were four years old, and you refused to go outside without an umbrella to fend off its advances."

"Did Miss Tennant find my peril amusing?"

"She made plans to borrow a peahen from the squire to introduce into your room, if you outstayed your welcome."

He could believe his angel wanted to be rid of him in the worst way. No doubt, she thought hanging too good for him. His angel had plotted with Mrs. Lumm to save herself, but what good would that do if Lezarth found out. Or if she were carrying his child?

How badly had he injured her?
Chapter 6

The salon wasn't safe. It contained a tall Halyton rakehell, pale and beautiful, with two of his handsome brothers. Eleanor had seen them from the window. The difficulty in pretending not to know Lord Jasper, made her delay the inevitable introduction. She kept seeing him naked in her mind and could only hope it wouldn't show on her face when they met at last.

Eleanor could not bear to think of what she had done to him. She shuddered and hoped he remembered none of their night together. Surely, no one would believe a lunatic even if he told everyone. His brothers had found him completely out of his mind. Even if they found out she'd saved him, wouldn't they feel sympathy and be grateful she'd stayed with him?

It was strange what emotions remained from that night. Fear of his strength increased as soon as she had fled. His broken mind could just have easily have thought her a demon. And then what might he have done to her? She had saved his life. But no one must know. Her greatest danger was from Juliet. Her sister was no fool, even though she acted like one with men.

Hiding in the garden to compose herself was cowardly but necessary. Eleanor retreated to her favorite chair under the old elm near the kitchen gardens. A book of sermons waited for her, boring and safe. Staring at the pages gave her time to think. She picked up her book and opened it at the most poorly reasoned sermon, in case her father asked her what she had been reading.

In the distance the door opened. The Halyton twins came out. Lord Jasper followed them and spoke a few words to each. Lancelot Benedict appeared, summoned by a gesture, and looking, even from this distance, agitated and unsure of how to respond to the command given him. Lord Jasper looked at her and took Mr. Benedict by the arm with an air of effortless authority.

Alarmed, she dropped her book and by the time she had retrieved it, the men were crossing the lawn.

Lord Jasper wore no coat, just a shirt open at the neck over light trousers. An invalid was allowed some license with his dress. Mr. Benedict looked overly formal in his dark jacket and buckskins. He flinched when Lord Jasper spoke to him. The words must have been very lordly for the young man marched off, the picture of offended dignity.

Eleanor didn't approve of lordly bullying. She had no use for dukes, those selfish tyrants who thought they owned England, and she'd even less use for a rakehell, no matter how attractive. She turned her attention to the book on her knee with a frosty air, in case he thought she welcomed his intrusion. And there was no reason to think of him as a lord. With an inward feeling of superiority, she divested him of his title, even if she must call him by it now and then to be polite.

"Miss Tennant, may I speak with you?"

Eleanor looked up. Jasper stood several feet away, gazing at the lawn as if he'd never seen grass before. His expression was guarded, his dark hair neatly swept back. Even the breeze feared to ruffle him.

Eleanor had no such qualms. If he had been _her_ Jasper, adoring and trusting, she could not have kept her countenance, but this stranger stirred no emotions in her.

"Good morning, you must be Lord Jasper. How do you do?" With dismay she saw his naked chest move under his shirt.

He placed a chair in the shade and sat down facing her, far too close. Tingles of desire woke suddenly, her body simmered in the cool air under the tree. Eleanor tried to get visions of him naked out of her head. She clasped her hands to banish the memory of touching him.

He stared at something beyond her.

Glad for an excuse to look away, Eleanor peered round the tree trunk to see Mr. Benedict watching them from the far side of the wall surrounding the kitchen gardens. She waved at him. He waved back and continued to spy on them.

"I heard you limping, Miss Tennant." Jasper claimed her attention with his strange comment. His cool expression of concern, lessened her body's response to him. There was no adoration in his eyes. How different he looked sane. The distance he put between them was not physical, his knees almost touched hers, it was lordly disdain hidden behind a mask of politeness. He looked older, at least thirty or more, a man who would never have deigned to notice her if they'd met at her sister's wedding. He asked politely, "How is your foot?"

Did he remember treading on her? "My mare trod on my toes." Eleanor turned a page of her book of sermons, uncomfortable that her knees were scant inches from his.

She glanced at his chest, which was barely covered by the thinnest of shirts. She couldn't resist looking at his face. Besides, it would seem odd if she didn't glance at him once or twice. Staring was rude. Not that she minded being rude, he just hadn't give her a reason.

Eleanor decided she had been hasty in judging him handsome. Not that his features lacked beauty. It was his air of cool restraint which gave his face a mask-like quality. She knew every line of his broad shoulders and could hardly take her gaze from that bit of him visible at the open neck of his flimsy attire.

He opened his hand and held it out. Her hat-pin and two buttons from her riding shirt lay on his palm. She reached towards him to take them. The slight grazing of her fingertips over his skin she found oddly disturbing. An expression of hauteur appeared on his face.

It pleased her to know he didn't relish her touch. If he'd approached her still thinking her an angel, his voice husky with love, she might have lost her good sense. But meeting him like this made her never want to see him again. It pleased her that on meeting him again, she had not fallen into the fiery pit of lust.

"Can we talk about what happened, Eleanor?" He phrased his question in a rational tone, but she knew he was going to be difficult. A sudden feeling of dread made her shiver. How much did he remember? Her life, her future, was in his hands. He could destroy her with any garbled tale he chose to tell the world. And even worse would be the truth.

"It's not necessary, Jasper. I beg your pardon, Lord Jasper." It irked her to stumble over his name. She matched his expression and tone. "If you could remember to call me, Miss Tennant, we'd get on much better. It's also best if you don't argue with me about anything." Eleanor didn't know what she was talking about. She finished in a rush, striving to keep visions of him naked out of her head, wanting to remind him to be grateful for saving him. "You have only to count yourself fortunate you survived unharmed and unhurt."

He grew paler at her words. "Did you?" he asked.

Did she, what? The question puzzled her until she remembered, with a guilty start, what she had done. Surely he didn't remember? She had only done it when he was asleep. Did he mean to berate her for it? Did a rakehell dare to presume to take her to task for touching him, for cooling him with her hands? How very mean-spirited of him.

"No," she said with dignity. "I did not."

"Good God." His hand trembled as he covered his eyes. He gained control over himself to say in an awful voice, "Then we must marry. Forgive me, Miss Tennant, when I am ill I cannot tell right from wrong."

"Wait a moment. What are you talking about?"

"I just asked you if you had survived intact, or as you so delicately put it, unharmed and unhurt. You said, you did not." A muscle flexed in his jaw. He looked as if he had just been sentenced to death.

"Oh. That is not at all what I meant. Let me reassure you, nothing happened." Why was he still looking as if he'd murdered someone? She rushed on in a breathless, idiotic voice, "I did nothing and you are blameless."

"Then why did you say 'I did not'?"

"Because you were accusing me." Eleanor babbled on, "So, I said I did not do whatever it was you were accusing me of doing." She didn't sound convincing to her own ears.

"I startled the truth out of you. Now you're trying to lie to me. Are you in need of a doctor?" he asked in a low voice.

"No!" She couldn't stand his low tones, they made strange feelings swirl about her body.

"There is no need to shout at me, Miss Tennant," he said quietly.

"Take my advice, accept what you are told." Eleanor rushed into her covering story quickly to reassure him she had no wish or need for his protection from the world. She said in a warning voice, "Mrs. Lumm is a recent widow with six children and another on the way. She is deserving of your charity. Reward her for saving you and let us have done with the subject, Lord Jasper, for both our sakes."

"Very well, I'll reward your widow, if you'll admit you rescued me."

"Between ourselves?" Eleanor asked slowly, determined to speak calmly. He was only a man and just because she had seen his details was no reason to emote all over the place and lose her dignity.

He nodded. "Between us."

"Then I admit it was me. I detest lies." Eleanor felt she should apologize for many things, but she dared not mention them unless he did.

The urge passed.

The gentleman opposite her studied the pattern on her dress with a dejected air.

"Lord Jasper," she said kindly, "what is the matter? You are perfectly safe from me. I don't aspire to trap you into marriage."

"Nevertheless, we must marry." He met her gaze and smiled, in a way gracious and yet somehow ghastly. "How can I resist marrying my angel?"

"Do you think that is a just reward for saving your life?" She was pleased to see his mournful smile fade.

"I'm sorry. Marriage is necessary," he said.

"That is not what I asked, sir. Do you consider yourself to be the reward due me for all the trouble I took to save your life?" It calmed her to fence with him. She even managed to raise her eyebrows and look down her nose at him.

"Not at all. I am aware a lady used ill would not welcome marriage to her ravisher, but marriage is the answer. Forgive me, Miss Tennant, you shall not have to suffer me again, I promise you." He looked so upset at the prospect of marriage to her that she almost felt sorry for him.

"Of all the most ridiculous schemes. Yours must be a figment of your troubled brain. Let me tell you, I was not used ill, as you call it. Let me make it even clearer to you. I saved your life, and you were a perfect gentleman even out of your senses." Eleanor carefully didn't confess to anything likely to have her denounced as a wicked woman.

Her reassuring words fell on deaf ears. His strained expression told her he didn't believe her. It made his silence worse.

She smiled at him as if he were a fool. "Marrying you is out of the question." She rattled on in an amused voice, "Next you'll be asking me where my wings are. Be warned, I am not an angel, nor likely to agree to this mad scheme." She shook her head. "Marry a Halyton? Not only a Halyton, but the worst one of them all. A sad reward, wouldn't you agree?"

"How would you know me for the worst of my brothers, if I had not demonstrated it to you?" He studied her face, waiting for her reaction to his words.

"Your reputation precedes you, but don't worry, actually, I think the evil twin is much worse. His manners are not those of a gentleman. He boasts he is evil, then watches with glee to see the effect of his words. Does insanity run in the family?" She laughed at the expression of dismay on his face, which rather spoiled the effect of her words on him.

He had the nerve to laugh with her. A pleasant sound. His smile grew true. He sat back in his chair, more relaxed than he had been since the start of their conversation. More devastatingly handsome, though she managed to ignore her body's fascination for him.

She was getting used to seeing the muscles of his chest move under his shirt. The warm breeze ruffled his dark hair, which framed a face she'd dreamed about last night. But she recognized he was only the man of her dreams when he was out if his mind. Sane, he was a Halyton, a rakehell who bought harlots for his pleasure, and who never talked to respectable women except to discuss their price.

He said with a wry smile, "Let me admit I am a sad reward for so gallant a lady, Miss Tennant. There are, however, three reasons why we must marry."

"A hat-pin and two buttons are not good reasons." Eleanor had them back. He had no proof she'd been with him.

"I had not counted them."

"Now you intrigue me, Lord Jasper. Pray tell, what are your three reasons?"

"If you'd give me your hand?" He held out his own.

"I've already declined to do so. Asking again makes me think you are not well, or hard of hearing." She smiled at him as if she thought him an idiot. It always infuriated men.

"I ask for your hand to demonstrate the first reason only," he replied, taking no notice of her smile.

"In that case, as I am agog with curiosity. Here." She held out her arm. If she showed fear of his touch, it would only convince him he was right.

He didn't touch her hand, just untied the bow at the end of her sleeve then slid the cloth higher. An unsightly bruise discolored her wrist. He gently placed his hand over the marks. "They fit my grip. I did this to you."

She shook him off. "That bruise and many more. You climbed me to get to your feet, Lord Jasper. I was so cold that I didn't feel the strength of your hold or know you'd leave me bruised. It's still no reason to marry you. If you'd be so kind as to fasten the bow again." She held out her arm, more to show him he didn't frighten her than the need to have it fastened. If he hadn't taken his time to do the task, her arm would not have shaken under his touch.

Not that he noticed. He fastened the bow slowly, fumbling with the knot. She gave him time to compose himself.

"And the other two reasons? I warn you, bruises do not count. I told my parents I fell into Bogs Bowl when Grizelle trod on me. Bruises do not signify."

"They count for me." He rubbed an unsteady hand over his forehead. "The second reason is I remember you lying next to me on the floor. Your head was on my chest."

Heavens! He remembered far too much. Eleanor said quickly, "A mere figment of your fevered imagination."

"No, it wasn't, Miss Tennant. There is not a man alive who, finding you unraveling in his arms, could resist the temptation of your charms. I thought I held an angel, or a sprite, or a fairy princess. I knew not what you were, only that I intended to keep you next to me for eternity. I stole your hat-pin, thought it a magic wand, because I didn't want you to conjure any more thunderbolts–"

Eleanor interrupted him, "This is your reality?" She could feel color mounting in her cheeks though she willed it not to.

"No, Miss Tennant, let me explain. I took your hat-pin and scratched myself with it, to see if I dreamed or not. It hurt, so I hid your pin under the mattress. I bear the scratch here." He pointed to his chest.

"No one knows about it. Do see sense." Did he remember her touching him? Her color deepened.

Jasper sighed. He'd rather be in his grave than have injured her, but he knew he had done enough to make her try to fight him off. He had held her naked in his arms, and not of her own free will. He had not bought her and warned her never to deny him. She was his victim, no matter how hard she tried to convince him nothing had happened that night.

Her spirited defense touched him. Her cries of pain echoed in his guilty mind. Not once or twice but all through that night she had cried out. Sometimes they were just whispers in his ears. He'd thought them erotic sounds.

He must have ravished her repeatedly. She fought now to keep him at bay. Her arm had trembled when he'd touched her wrist. She tried to hide the shiver in her voice. When he hinted at things he knew he must have done to her, she blushed and disclaimed.

"Lord Jasper, you look unwell. Tell me the third reason so we may put an end to this conversation."

"One always saves the worst for last. It could be many things. I might say you must marry me because you may be carrying my child, but as you deny I touched you–"

"Then you have no third reason? Other than the ridiculous?"

Still she challenged him.

Surely that was proof enough he had used her ill. What other woman would not have leapt at his offer? Unless she hoped to attach Lezarth? No, he could not believe his angel schemed to marry a Halyton. Her distress at the idea was real enough. If she married any of his brothers, she'd have to meet him. As it was, she preferred not to look at him. How could he blame her?

He asked gently, "Is it ridiculous to believe a gentleman must marry the lady he compromises?" Compromise, such a polite word for rape. He was not fit to touch her, or speak to her.

"You have not. You did nothing wrong. You were a perfect gentleman even when not in your right mind."

He smiled at her to keep the pretense of civility between them. She had a freckle on the lower curve of her left breast. He had touched it and tasted it. The memory of his angel naked must last him a lifetime.

Miss Tennant did not smile back. "I must admit," she said, "I liked you better noddy-headed."

After he married her, he intended to help her live as free from his presence as possible. "To be liked when insane. How flattering, Miss Tennant."

If she was discreet, he'd not make her submit to even the gentlest of restraints. His one hope was that she was with child. His child. He'd never trust himself to be alone with her again. "But that is not the third reason we must marry."

"Do tell me what it is, or you will learn I am inclined to violence when annoyed." Her fingers tapped on the book on her knee.

"It might be that Lancelot Benedict is threatening me with a duel," he said.

"He knows nothing. Oh dear, Juliet saw my bruises." The lady twisted in her seat to see Lancelot Benedict still watching him. "Drat the man."

"Your sister also found your hat-pin and buttons up in the lodge. Are you persuaded to marry me now?" he asked in the most non-threatening way he could manage.

"Even Juliet would never ask me to marry a man she thinks has forced himself on me. Not even to marry me off so she can wed Mr. Benedict. His character I am unsure of, but I think if I stand firm and it is pointed out to him that he will ruin me if he causes a scandal, then he will submit to good sense and my sister's guidance in this."

"So I thought, though I offered to kill him if he spoke your name in public linked with mine. Very well thought out, Miss Tennant, but that is not the third reason." She looked remarkably pretty when agitated. He knew she'd have no idea of the immensity of reason three. No reason why she should fear it. No idea that it meant the unjust reward for saving him was their immediate marriage.

"Tell me reason three this instant."

"Lezarth knows."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"I am perfectly willing to share my views on the nobility with him, if he tries to bully me." She sounded relieved, as if Lezarth was no threat to her.

"He won't try to bully you, he'll go after me and your father." He kept his expression noncommittal. Any other woman and he'd have been down on one knee swearing eternal devotion or any other damn silly nonsense she'd swallow to get her to agree. Miss Tennant was far too intelligent to fall for any of it. Far too frightened of him, though she hid it well.

"Then why should that be the third reason? The worst reason? If the Duke of Lezarth refuses to bully me, you cannot expect me to marry you." She gave him a haughty look, followed by her Avenging Angel smile.

He half expected her wings to sprout and a thunderbolt to smite him dead.

The devil in him deserved no less. That she dared joke about it, to hide her fear, filled him with admiration and pity.

"Poor Lezarth. Please don't try to bully him. Agree to a betrothal, my angel, I beg you." That's all he needed, Lezarth upset, trying to fix the mess he'd created.

He saw her give one delightful shudder, then she laughed at him. "I am not your angel and never will be."

"The only hope we have of escaping wedlock is if you agree to an engagement. After a few months, when it is obvious to Lezarth that you do not bear my child and, sadly, that you detest me—you can cry off." Lies, all lies. Miss Tennant just didn't know him well enough to recognize them as such. He had ruined her. Whether she carried his child or not, he had to marry her. Lezarth had decreed it for all his brothers. There was no escape, especially for him.

"Lord Jasper, if I am fated to be engaged for a short interval to a Halyton of dubious morals, then I insist on choosing my poison. Lord Nash will do nicely. Think how relieved my parents will be when I jilt him."

Fortune had favored him with an angel of mercy who was both intelligent and witty. "The entire _ton_ would applaud your decision, if Lezarth allowed Nash to participate in your scheme. Alas, he will forbid it."

"How annoying. I must warn you, I am very curious to find out how he intends to persuade me to marry you. If he is the gentleman in the blue coat, I am about to find out." Miss Tennant rose to her feet, prepared to do battle.
Chapter 7

The Duke of Lezarth walked towards Eleanor looking like any other country gentleman. His likeness to his brothers was obvious, though he was much thinner. He looked a generation older than Lord Jasper, with rigid dignity in his bearing and his expression, though Eleanor knew there were but two years between them.

He strode towards her with all the dignity of a king. Eleanor felt some qualms of fear, but prepared to do battle for her freedom.

Jasper moved to stand by her side. "Gently, Eleanor, you'll gain nothing by open rebellion. The duke has powers you cannot fathom, over all of us."

A cry rang out followed by a sobbing scream.

The duke jumped and turned. Someone hit him as he stood off balance. The dignified noble duke fell to the ground, pushed by a distraught very young woman shaking with hysterical sobs. She was tall and gangly, with the Halyton dark hair and long nose that didn't quite fit her face.

"I won't stay behind." She caught sight of Jasper. Her voice quavered, "Jasper, I thought you'd died." She hesitated to get by the prone duke, who was growling in an odd musical way as he sought to regain his feet.

Eleanor bit back a giggle.

Jasper whispered to her, "Don't laugh. Lezarth will take it for hysterics." He called to his sister, "Amelia. I'm fine as you can see. Apologize to Lezarth and help him up."

"No. I hate him. He didn't want me to see you." She ran into Jasper's embrace. Tears made the rest of her words unintelligible.

Eleanor retreated to her mother's walled garden to muffle her laughter and hide it from the duke. It was inappropriate and sprang more from her fear than her sense of humor. Let Lord Jasper Halyton deal with his family in private.

She noticed that Mr. Benedict no longer kept watch over her, though the trampled fronds of asparagus, long past its edible youth, showed where he'd stood guard.

A tall form appeared at the gate. Lord Veryan bowed. "We are ready to escort you to Halyton Court, Miss Tennant. Your sister has organized everything for you." He offered her his arm. Lord Richard appeared by his side, with a look of sympathy on his face.

Eleanor wondered what they'd do if she refused to go with them. Her father must have given permission. How could he deny a duke? She might precipitate the very scandal she was trying to avoid, if she made a fuss and refused to go. The only way to escape the fate of marrying a notorious rakehell was to take the battle to the great house and the noble Halyton family. To convince them all they were safe from her.

As soon as Jasper recovered his wits and realized she didn't want or expect him to marry her, he'd soon see reason and find a way to prevent it. She had listened with interest to the tales of how he'd championed his brothers when they were young. There was no reason to suppose he didn't still wield great influence over the duke.

Her parents waved from the door. They didn't come out to speak to her. Eleanor could see her father's restraining hand on her mother's arm. One outburst of emotion could ruin them all.

Eleanor waved gaily and limped over the lawn to kiss her parents, and to convince them there was nothing wrong. "If Lord Jasper mistakes me for an angel, I'll send for you, Mama." She kissed their cheeks. "Don't let him shake your hand, Papa, he might never let go." Her father blew his nose in large kerchief, unable to answer.

Mama tilted her head and laughed. She whispered, "Send word when you want to come home. I shall come to fetch you myself."

Eleanor feigned delight at the invitation to Halyton Court and plotted all the way there how to be the guest least likely to be invited to stay.

* * * *

The dowager Duchess of Lezarth giggled on her sofa with Juliet, as if they were two girls together. Their blond hair matched, the duchess's attractive laughter flowed effortlessly from perfect pink lips. Her voice, a whispery confection, was friendly and gracious. But her face, with its eyes huge above high cheek bones and a fine pointed chin, made even Juliet seem unpolished by comparison.

Eleanor had not been offered a seat. A quick glance around showed there were no chairs at all in the airy room adorned with so many silver mirrors it resembled a fairy maze, with ingenious depths that fooled the eye and lured the unwary visitor to walk into the glass. Halyton Court was immense. It meandered for what seemed like half a mile before wandering off into distant wings.

Amelia had confided she was sixteen and if she learned how to behave in public without embarrassing her mother, she was going to make her debut next season. Not that she cared. Marriage was a trap, and she wanted nothing to do with it. Not unless she fell in love, but with handsome brothers she was immune to male beauty. And she acknowledged she was no beauty herself, though Jasper had promised her that she'd grow into her nose, it hadn't happened yet.

She darted about the room running errands for her mother, to fetch an album, or the sketches of Greece, or a fan. When not busy, she fidgeted behind the duchess's sofa next to an older lady, Mrs. Muire, who waited in weary attendance and looked as if she had a headache.

Lancelot Benedict stood in front of his aunt and joined in the conversation. The Halyton men were all in attendance, except for Jasper, who had been banished to recuperate from the journey.

A sudden silence, made Eleanor look around in surprise. They were all staring at her.

The duchess said kindly in her feathery voice, "Miss Tennant, you did not hear me. You must go to change. We cannot allow you to wear long sleeves on such a warm night. It's bad enough you have dark hair and you don't have your sister's beauty, but at least wear something more fashionable. We've got plans for you." The duchess smiled as if about to reveal a treat. "Yes, you must not be allowed to stand in the way of my dear Lancelot's happiness. We must find you a husband."

Eleanor curtsied. "Thank you, Your Grace, but I have yet to answer the last man who proposed to me. Please don't trouble yourself to find me another."

Juliet's mouth fell open. The men reacted with disbelieving murmurs, not wanting to call her a liar to her face.

"Why didn't you agree to marry him?" asked the duchess.

"I worried we didn't suit." By her tone of voice Eleanor did not invite further questions. She was not going to be forced to marry anyone. Besides, the gentleman had probably forgotten he had proposed, it was so long ago. If only she'd remembered him earlier. But ancient suitors were soon forgotten, and it was only on the way to Halyton Court, when she had seen his church, that Eleanor had suddenly thought of using him to escape, if she was pressured to marry.

"Not suit? Who is this man?" demanded the duchess.

"No one you know, Your Grace. He proposed in haste and I am letting him repent at leisure." Eleanor curtsied to lessen the insult of not answering.

"Don't be impertinent, Miss Tennant," snapped the duchess. "I asked for his name."

"I must decline to give it. If Your Grace will excuse me." Eleanor curtsied again. She went to change her dress, leaving the duchess with a wrathful expression on her lovely face.

Eleanor had no intention of marrying a man as old as her father. She disliked men who leapt to propose and had left him dangling without an answer to punish him for it. If her ancient suitor insisted he had asked first, would the Duke of Lezarth announce her ruined state to him, to force him to concede defeat. Was she willing to take that risk? She sighed with annoyance at her cowardice.

Juliet followed her to their bedchamber. "How could you be so rude, Eleanor? It's not even true. You can't lie to the duchess. If you don't treat her with respect, she'll tell her sister not to let Lancie marry me. The duchess can break our engagement. Promise me you won't do anything to irritate her. Poor Lancie is trying to calm her. If she interferes, I shall die."

"Then you must help me find a way to avoid marriage. Let me tell you now, I have no reason to marry Lord Jasper and I won't do it."

Juliet's eyes brimmed with tears. "You must, Eleanor, or you'll be ruined."

"Stop crying and help me find a dress. Why are you upset? You wanted one of the Horde to compromise me."

"To kiss you. I wanted one of them to kiss and show you how nice it is. I thought you'd fall in love with him and want to get married."

"You are as foolish as Lancelot Benedict." Eleanor discarded one dress after another another. "Why didn't you pack ones with short sleeves?"

"Wear one of mine. You can't disobey the duchess. Please. You must take the light silk shawl." Juliet fussed around her to help her dress. "Your bruises have grown. Was it very awful?" Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Don't be ridiculous. Nothing happened and if you are trying to make me wed, instead of helping me escape this marriage, I shall never forgive you." Eleanor draped a shawl over her arms and went to look in the glass. Half of her bosom showed in her sister's dress. It looked fashionable, something her father never allowed.

Her bruises were hardly visible through the thin material of the shawl. "Dry your tears. I'll end this mock engagement after you marry Mr. Benedict. Papa can't insist I marry first, if a duke's brother says he won't be rushed to the altar."

"Drape the shawl to hide your wrist." Juliet helped to arrange it. "The neckline suits you. And it isn't even as low as Prudence wore her dresses. I wonder if we shall ever find out what happened to the family. Lancie said, after her father went bankrupt they moved to London."

"The duchess and her daughter don't wear low necklines. I look a sight." If her bosom annoyed the duchess, no one could blame her for it.

"They don't have anything to show off," Juliet whispered with a giggle. "At least you have it, why not flaunt it. Not that you should do so in front of Lord Jasper. The duke said he must be kept quiet until he has recovered from the lightning bolt."

"Lord Jasper is not attracted to me," protested Eleanor.

"Oh, I don't know," said Juliet. "He watched our carriage go first with the saddest expression on his face."

Eleanor conceded, "A man might have reason to look sad, if he consorts with whores, prefers to buy his pleasures, and thinks marrying me is only slightly better than death by hanging."
Chapter 8

Eleanor sat next to the duke at dinner. The honor might have overwhelmed her if he'd actually spoken to her, instead of muttering to himself while he made musical humming sounds under his breath, in search of an elusive note. The small dining room, chosen for its intimacy, glittered with crystal chandeliers. The pendants wafted lazily in the puff of air from the windows. Caught by the low sun, they threw tiny rainbows over everyone.

An unseen orchestra played Mozart. The music drifted over the dining room from the gallery at one end, leaving room for conversation to rise above it. There were no other guests, only the family and various relatives. The duke's rather elderly estate steward, looked like a Halyton. The duchess's uncle, a handsome old gentleman, applied himself to his dinner with noisy relish. Two older ladies stared kindly and dared say nothing. They kept a wary eye on Lezarth.

On Eleanor's right, Lord Richard talked of books and the library at Halyton Court. "Do you care to read, Miss Tennant?"

"Yes, but I don't often get the opportunity. May I choose a book?" asked Eleanor.

The duke suddenly sprang to life. He said in a cool voice, "Ladies are not allowed in the library, Miss Tennant. Richard will bring a suitable book to you, if you wish." He asked in an interested tone, "Do you sing?"

Eleanor barely glanced at him. "No, I don't sing. Do you?" She knew a bully when she saw one, even without Jasper's warning about him.

The duke did not reply.

Eleanor heard Juliet's choke of fear from the far end of the table. Did Juliet really expect her to be polite to the duke as well as the dowager duchess? He was fair game, as was every male member of the Halyton family.

Richard gave a low note of warning in his throat. Did all the Halytons growl or hum instead of speak? She raised a haughty eyebrow at him to show she'd heard and disdained his hint.

There was an uneasy silence while everyone applied themselves to their heaping plates of beef. The twins, looking remarkably alike in dark coats, were seated at the opposite side of the table from her. They both gave a little shrug as if to say, take no notice.

"What do you like to read, Miss Tennant," asked Lord Richard. "I saw you with Fordyce's sermons, did you enjoy it?"

"Sermons are the only books my father allows in the house."

The duke warned, "If Tennant decrees you can read only sermons, then you are limited to that choice here."

Eleanor answered with a simpering smile, "Your Grace is too kind. I don't know how to thank you."

The musical humming began again, accompanied by flourishes of the duke's knife as he pretended to conduct an invisible orchestra.

She whispered to Lord Richard. "I did read part of a novel at a friend's house. The family moved away and I never found out what happened in the end. Have you read _Pride and Prejudice_?"

He smiled and asked, "What do you hope happened, Miss Tennant?"

"Does Elizabeth marry Mr. Wickham? Is the wicked Mr. Darcy punished?"

He answered with laughter in his voice, "No. She marries him."

"That can't be. Mr. Darcy needed only a title to make him the very image of an arrogant noble lord." She ignored the noble lord sitting next to her and the strange noises he made.

The door opened behind the duchess to admit a footman.

Eleanor glanced over, her eye caught by the movement.

Jasper stared at her from the hallway as if he thought her some strange creature dropped from the sky. Eleanor's heart skipped a beat. He looked at her as he had that night together, when she had awoken to find him raised on one elbow staring down at her, as if he truly believed her an angel. Her heart had raced then, with excitement at the expression on his face, and with fear of her body's warm response to his gaze alone.

Eleanor looked away.

The door swung closed.

Eleanor froze in her seat. She could not marry Jasper. A glimpse of him and her body responded in the most inappropriate ways. He should have no such effect on her—not when he was sane. She couldn't bear it. She was going to have to talk to him soon, to remind herself how much he hated the thought of marrying her.

The great house mocked her, a lowly intruder. Surrounded by noble lords, she felt their discomfort and their pity. They all thought she had been ravished, an ill-used woman. It was mortifying. Only the duchess gabbled on heedlessly to Juliet about suitors for her dark plain sister.

Eleanor turned to the duke. "Your Grace, how is Lord Jasper? Has he recovered?" In a casual voice, she asked, "Is someone with him?" That sounded so much better than, had his insane brother escaped to lay in wait for her.

The duke put down his knife. "You may call me Lezarth or duke, Miss Tennant. Jasper is not well. He is attended by his physician and won't be allowed out of his rooms unless escorted." He said kindly, "You have nothing to fear."

Eleanor had just seen Lord Jasper dressed to go out. Could that expression be his rakish face and not his insane face. Perhaps she had confused them.

The duke swallowed a mouthful of roast beef. "He must rest and not be disturbed. My brother must be kept quiet. He is not allowed visitors." He eyed her nervously as if expecting her to argue with him.

What a bad liar he was. Eleanor shrugged, she didn't care where Jasper had gone with his escort. She only hoped he had someone with him.

The shrug dislodged her shawl. It fell from her shoulders with a silken slide to reveal her bruised arms and half-naked bosom.

The old gentleman seated next to the twins gave a hoot of delight. "The lady is all eyes and bosom. Look alert lads or you'll miss them. Peaches they are, ripe peaches."

The duchess said sharply, "Uncle George, do be quiet."

"All bosom and eyes. Pretty gal. I love bosoms." The old man would have stood, but Lord Nash had a grip on his arm.

Eleanor felt as if she were naked. All eyes turned to look at her bosom. She tried to raise the shawl and found it had slithered to the floor beside her chair. A footman came immediately to her rescue. but she had to wait with every eye upon her bosom while he retrieved it for her.

The duke growled a warning in a cold voice, "Stop looking at Miss Tennant."

She saw him staring at her bosom, even as he warned the others not to look at her.

The shawl fell over her shoulders. "Thank you," she said.

A familiar voice whispered on a breath of air, "My pleasure, Miss Tennant."

Now was not the time to exchange greetings with one of Mrs. Lumm's numerous nephews, but Eleanor suddenly felt she had a friend in the room.

The duchess peered at Eleanor from the end of the long polished table. "You are quite a fat girl, aren't you, Miss Tennant." The duchess gave a shudder. "Take away her plate. Give her only a boiled potato soaked in vinegar." She wagged a finger at Eleanor. "That should slim you down. Byron swore by it. I shall soon have you slender like my daughter."

"There is no need to trouble yourself, Your Grace," protested Eleanor. Her plate disappeared, to be replaced moments later by an acidic mess.

The duchess stared at Eleanor's arms through her light shawl. "Do you not wash, Miss Tennant?" She turned to Juliet. "Is your sister dirty?"

Juliet stuttered her reply, "M-my sister is bruised, Your Grace. She fell off her mare." After a moment's hesitation she rushed on, "Eleanor truly isn't fat. It's just that her ... that she...."

"It's no surprise your fat sister cannot find a husband, but I am sure I can find a suitable one for her, so that dear Lancelot can marry his lovely choice." The duchess mused in silence for a moment. "What about Wigglesworth? He is quite as fat as she is and he should marry, before that wart on his chin gets any bigger."

Lord Nash gave a burst of laughter. "I beg you, Miss Tennant, consider a convent before marrying him. He has but one topic of conversation—or do you enjoy breeding spaniels?"

The duke joined the conversation with a forced smile. "Miss Tennant does not need help finding a husband."

Nash said slyly, with a mocking leer at her bosom, "Jasper was quite taken with Miss Tennant. He didn't think her fat at all. Most men wouldn't, I'm sure."

Eleanor returned the smile. She simpered and pouted and batted her eyelashes at him. "Oh, you are so very handsome, Lord Nash. I swear you are the handsomest of your brothers. Your beauty quite takes my breath away."

That wiped the leer from young Nash's face. He glanced nervously at the duke, who played his cutlery, lost in his music.

"Jasper?" cried the duchess. "Jasper finds her attractive? Don't say so. There is no hope there, even if Nash thinks it amusing to tease the fat girl."

The duke dropped his knife with a clatter.

The duchess ran on, "What a dark girl. Not at all like her lovely sister, who is so obliging. My nephew has taste and chose the best, the prettiest of them."

"Ma'am," said Lezarth, in an awful voice, "Jasper thinks Miss Tennant a welcome addition to the family, as do I."

The duchess gave a trembling laugh of surprise. "For which one of you?"

"For himself," Lezarth intoned, as if pronouncing his brother's death.

"What!" shrieked the duchess. "He has no intention of marrying. You must not raise expectations in poor Miss Tennant's fat bosom."

Lezarth said coldly, "You will not speak of her bosom." He glanced around the table. "None of you will. Miss Tennant has agreed to marry Jasper. They are engaged."

The duchess struggled to stand. A footman rushed over to pull back her chair. "She has trapped him. How did you do it, Miss? He swore he'd never marry. That hussy has trapped him." The duchess pointed an angry finger at Eleanor. "That sly creature. Catching him to deprive my children of his fortune and any hope in this cruel world."

"Silence!" Lezarth thundered. "Jasper has been accepted."

The duchess picked up her plate and flung it at the duke. It crashed against the silver epergne between them, scattering the remains of a lobster salad on the table. "My children are ruined. They'll never inherit Jasper's fortune. They will be penniless waifs reduced to begging by the wayside." The duchess broke into sobs, the only sound rising above the music.

She wiped her tears away to sneer, "If he marries that schemer, God help me, I will make her pay for it. Not one moment of peace shall you have in this house, Miss Tennant. And as for marrying her sister, Lancelot, you shall not do it. I forbid the match!" The duchess ran towards the doors.

Veryan rose to follow her. "Mother, please don't."

Amelia burst into tears. Veryan took her hand to lead her away. They hurried after their mother.

Lancelot Benedict rose to follow his aunt, dismay written on his countenance. He gestured helplessly to Juliet with a cry of grief.

Eleanor tried to catch her sister's eye before she began to cry. It was no use. "Juliet." she called. "Go with Mr. Benedict. Throw me to the lions."

With a sob, Juliet rushed off after her Lancelot.

Eleanor took a moment to calm herself, while the duke ordered the table cleared in a calm manner. Perhaps he was used to mayhem at the dinner table. The others chatted among themselves, with sly glances at her.

She handed her reeking plate to a footman to get rid of the noxious smell. Colin Lumm took it from her and looked as sympathetic as a footman could. It took a few more moments before she rose to her feet. Just how far would the duke go to keep her at Halyton Court now the dowager duchess had all but banned her from the place.

All the men rose with Eleanor, but none of them knew what to do. The duchess's uncle smiled and leered at her in an unsettling way. The older Halyton females regarded her with sympathy, but the dared not speak to her, preferring to keep a wary eye on Lezarth.

Colin Lumm pulled her chair away from the table so she could move. Eleanor said formally to the duke. "Please forgive me for distressing the duchess."

The duke raised an eyebrow. Eleanor waited to give him a chance to say something, to realize that she couldn't stay, but the coward just stared down at her from his lofty height.

She gave a disdainful shrug, careful to keep her shawl from falling from her shoulders. "As the duchess is no longer willing to have me in her home, I must return to my parents. If you'd please send for a carriage."

His expression grew cooler. He shook his head.

"Miss Tennant, you shall not return to your father's house until your bridal visit."

Gasps came from the older ladies. A jerk of Lezarth's head and they fled for the door.

The duke turned on her as if she were the sinner.

Eleanor said quietly, "I shall wait outside as I am no longer welcome here." She'd rather live in Bedlam than at Halyton Court, but she found herself reluctant to challenge the duke. "The only way I can remain here is for the duchess to invite me to stay. I shall wait outside."

Eleanor walked to the sideboards, pretending calm, while the Horde offered advice to the duke in heated whispers. Only Richard urged she be allowed to go home. The others hushed him by calling him an idiot. She helped herself to a plate of hot house fruit and a fragrant bowl of pink froth with the scent of strawberries and brandy.

Under a table, she spied a brass wine cooler. "Colin, please bring a bottle of champagne and a glass." She loved champagne and had not had many opportunities to drink it. Colin winked at her as he aided her.

The duke ordered the duchess's companion, Mrs. Muire, to be brought down from her room to play chaperone. Eleanor marched back to him. She waved her laden hands at him. "I beg you won't disturb Mrs. Muire. I shall be perfectly comfortable on the terrace until the carriage arrives. You can tell Lord Jasper, when he returns, that I decline to marry him."

The old man gave a hoot of laughter. "Has Jasper had her then? From the bruises on her, she put up quite a fight. A hundred pounds says he'll have her eating from his hand by the wedding day."

"Silence!" roared the duke. "You may go, George, and you will dine in your room and confine yourself to the grounds until I can forget your rudeness to my guest."

Rudeness. If the old man told that tale, she'd be ruined. Anger roiled inside her. It took her a few moments to control the expression on her face. Lezarth backed nervously away from her. "Send for Jasper."

The pink froth slopped over her hand. If she hadn't wanted to eat it, she'd have flung it at his head. Instead, she said in a cool voice, "I believe he is out fornicating. Pray don't disturb him for me.

The duke quelled all the noise in the room with a severe look about him. "Go to your room, Miss Tennant." He could not have looked fiercer if he faced a rabid dog.

Eleanor changed her tactics. "Oh please don't make me. The duchess doesn't want me here." She made her chin tremble as if she were going to weep. "I want to go home to my mother. I beg you, let me go home. The duchess doesn't want me here. I have to go home."

Nash winked at her, not the least taken in by her acting.

Only Richard responded to her distress. "Dear Miss Tennant, do come into the rose parlor. I'll bring you _Pride and Prejudice_ to read. Would you like some tea?"

Did Lord Richard think tea was a temptation when Colin was holding a bottle of champagne for her? "No, I must wait outside. If you'd be so kind as to escort me, Lord Richard." She headed for the door.

It did not open. Two footmen barred her from opening it herself.

Eleanor dropped the plate on the floor. It bounced on the thick carpet scattering nectarines, plums and grapes. The footmen scrambled to pick them up. Eleanor opened the door with her free hand and Colin followed her, just as he had when he had been three years old to her seven and she'd rescued him from drowning in her father's eel pond.

The evening air was soft and warm. The sun had set, leaving only a rosy glow on the horizon.

Eleanor walked up and down the long terrace alone for what seemed like hours. The moon illuminated the park to make it an eerie landscape with the lake glimmering silver, broken only by the dark shadow of the bridge looming out of the trees. Far in the distance a fox howled.

She was glad Juliet had not returned to share her exile.

The air cooled and the shadows deepened. She ate the pink froth slowly for something to do. The duke had granted permission for her to wait outside, not for his carriage, but for Jasper to return. She was free only because he granted her the right to walk upon the terrace watched by two footmen, and chaperoned by the housekeeper. That august personage had quickly delegated her task to two housemaids, who waited with interest for the next act to begin.

It made her feel like a prisoner. A lowly prisoner after the housekeeper had gone. She sipped her champagne. The bottle held surprisingly little. She felt no difference and drank it only for something to do. The novelty of a bubbling drink soon faded. How long would it take for servants' gossip to taint her? For whispers to ruin any chance she had of finding a husband?

Eleanor shivered and went to look at the lake from the edge of the terrace. The rustling of night creatures whispered up from the lake with the lapping water. A faint sound of barking came from the kennels behind the great house. Her shawl slipped down to her elbows. Eleanor spread it out to untangle it.

Someone watched her from the bridge. A dark shape of a man, looking towards her, his face pale in the moonlight. She froze in her awkward position, until, with a flurry of activity, she positioned the shawl on her shoulders to cover as much of her as she could.

He could only be Jasper. All the other Halyton males had come to the door to enquire if she'd come in, with the exception of Nash who watched from a window. The only one missing was Jasper.

Another shape drifted over the bridge towards him, a ghostly woman. He turned when she touched his shoulder. She curtsied to him. He kissed her hand. The woman merged into his shadow.

Did Jasper keep his mistress in the grounds of Halyton Court? Surely not. Not with his sister Amelia living there with the duchess. He couldn't be more plainly what he was, unless the word _rake_ was burned on his forehead.

He had left his sickbed to go to his mistress, while his supposed fiancée dined alone with his family. No doubt they all thought him sane enough, they were nobles and did whatever they liked, when they liked.

Her blood warmed with wrath. To live under the rule of a man who cared for nothing but his own pleasure, a man who had sworn not to marry, with nothing between them but his feelings of guilt, horrified her. Heaven preserve her from that fate. To live at Halyton Court with the duchess who hated her—it was not to be endured. And would not be, not while she had breath left in her body to fight it.

Eleanor hiccupped and lost her train of thought. The mistress had disappeared with Jasper while she'd been distracted.

Drat the man. He had seen her, she was sure of it. Now he'd fled back with his mistress, after one glance, leaving her to pace like an idiot with no means of escape.

Eleanor placed her champagne glass on the terrace wall. One of the maids rushed over to take it away before she could call for another bottle. Drat them all.

The sound of footsteps echoed towards her. A man striding down the path skirting the lake, getting nearer and nearer. Eleanor leaned over the edge to see better. The champagne made her head swim, but it gave her some courage. There'd be no cowering in a cold corner of the terrace, she meant to fight for her life.

The wicked rake appeared by the stairs. Handsome, arrogant, and nothing noble about him except his title. With nothing to recommend him as a husband. Nothing stopped her shivers at the look on his face as he stared up at her.

She wrapped her shawl tightly over her bosom, then realized it emphasized what she intended to hide. She fumbled with it only to lose it over the parapet. He caught it with one casual hand.

Eleanor rushed to the steps to retrieve it. She couldn't face him with a half-naked shivering bosom.

The maids ran after her to stop her. "Eeh, Miss. You can't go down there. Not after drinking all that. You'll fall for sure and then the duke will have our heads. Let one of them lazy footmen get it."

The other one whispered, "He's a good one is Lord Jasper. There's no use running away." She gave an embarrassed cough. "If I could just ask you not to call our Colin by his name, you might get him dismissed."

Eleanor turned to look at the little maid still holding one of her arms. "Jemma? Is that you?"

"Aye, Miss Tennant, and that's my sister Mary. Thought you hadn't recognized us, not having seen us since we went into service." The maid gave the wrist she was holding a squeeze. "Lord Jasper." She curtsied with her sister. Eleanor was born down with them and brought back up faster than she liked.

They pushed her forward.

Jasper looked cool and calm. His beauty had no appeal to her, his eyes were fine and fringed with dark lashes. His mouth must have kissed his whore for hours, but it showed no signs of fatigue. The handsome planes of his face were still handsome, though he looked a little tired and less than pleased to see her. She stifled a hiccup.

"Miss Tennant?" He waited for her to speak, while he held her shawl in both hands so it didn't trail on the stone floor.

She gave him a disdainful look and shook her head. The terrace spun before her eyes. She staggered a little until it stilled. "I am the Avenging Angel, or have you forgotten?"

"Are you going to conjure a thunderbolt, my angel?" he asked, with a hint of humor in his voice.

"Not your angel." She hiccupped. Too late to realize now the champagne had delayed effects. "Not anyone's angel," she said, in case it wasn't clear to him.

"What are you doing outside?"

She held out her hand for the shawl. "They threw me out of the house, shouted at me, denied me food." He approached her. She backed away. Up close, he towered over her. She was disconcerted at feeling a frisson of fear at his nearness. Why should she feel fear now? It made no sense, not when she had fallen asleep on his naked chest and felt safe in his arms.

"I see they didn't deny you drink. Does Lezarth know you are in this condition?" Slowly, he raised his hands to lift the shawl over her head, to drape it over her shoulders.

She answered sweetly, "I told him you were out fornicating with your mistress."

The maids gave a cry of horror.

But Eleanor wanted the truth between them. She had no wish to pretend to look the other way. She wanted rid of this horrid, handsome rake and his horrible family in the worst way.

He waved the maids into the house. She hiccupped steadily as he backed her up against the wall.

Inches away from her, he said, "It is usual for a man to formally end any other relationship before taking a wife." His hands stopped the shawl from slipping from her shoulders. Warmth glowed inside her at his touch.

She brushed his hands away. "Lord Jasper, there is no need to end anything, I assure you. I don't mind at all. Have her and welcome. Just persuade the duke to let me go home." She tried to slip sideways, but her feet stayed trapped between his shoes with the unfortunate consequence that her body went without them.

He held her up, trapped between the wall and him. Her stomach leaped about in a most disquieting way. It tangled with her heart and twitched to a hasty beat.

"What happened, Eleanor?" His control never faltered. His cool demeanor with its look of slight amusement, irritated her.

"The duchess found out about us, my rakehell. Let us not mince words. She thinks me a sly creature unworthy to be her guest. I am thrown out."

Lezarth's voice rang from the doorway. "Release her, Jasper. Are you out of your senses?"

Lord Jasper turned to his brother with an easy smile. "Miss Tennant has a small difficulty standing upright due to drowning her sorrows in champagne, if I'm not mistaken."

With his arm around her waist, he tried to draw her to the door.

Eleanor clung to the parapet with all her might. "Let go. I am waiting here for a carriage, or a cart and donkey, just bring something so I can go home."

"Lezarth," called Jasper, "Would you ask Richard to come out to keep Miss Tennant company, while I go to speak to the duchess?"

"Don't bother," she called to the duke. "Send for a carriage!" Teeth chattering from cold, she hugged herself to keep warm.

Lord Jasper shrugged out of his coat to drape it over her shoulders. He held it closed over her bosom. Did the sight offend him? No doubt he'd had enough of bosoms to last him until tomorrow.

Eleanor hoped she shivered from the cold and not his touch. It made her hiccups worse.

The horrid rake left with a sigh that sounded very much like regret. He was probably sorry that he could not send for a carriage. His coat was scented with a perfume she found to be familiar. She'd a flask of it at home. A gift from Prudence, in happier times.

Lord Richard came out to stand by her side. He began a long complicated explanation of the plot of _Pride and Prejudice_. Eleanor could understand none of it and barely heard him over the thudding of hiccups in her ears.

"Will you take a cup of tea, Miss Tennant?" he asked kindly. "You must be hungry and cold, perhaps some cake or cheese and fruit?"

She allowed him to order them and ate standing by the edge of the terrace looking at the lake. Her tea cooled before she had time to drink it.

Richard paced the long stone terrace with her. Back and forth she went, deeper and deeper in thought as the champagne wore off. She knew she trembled on the edge of disaster. One gentle puff of air and she'd tumble to her doom. How would she explain arriving home alone in the middle of the night.

A woman's voice wailed in the hallway.

The duchess tottered out between Jasper and Lord Veryan. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "My dear, forgive me. How you must have suffered. Let me comfort you and welcome you, another poor lonely soul fettered in this gilded cage."
Chapter 9

Eleanor knelt beside the duchess's bed in a bid to halt the lady's sobs. "Please, don't tell me anymore. It is too upsetting for you." Nor did Eleanor want to hear more gruesome details about the late duke's courtship. She had long ago stopped denying anything to the duchess, who refused to believe her.

The duchess cried out, "The brute gave me no choice, or I'd have chosen to wed my dear Archie." She gave a sympathetic sniff. "You poor dear. Not that Jasper would ever have done that wicked deed to you if he'd been in his right mind. No, my Archie's only sin was to boast of our engagement. It sent the duke mad. He told me he was so in love with me he had to have me. It was all lies. Men don't love—they lust and then they get bored."

"Do they not grow into love of family after the children are born, Your Grace?" asked Eleanor. Her knees ached and she was feeling ill due to a champagne headache.

"Love. He didn't love my children. He thought them a nuisance and told me they'd have none of his fortune. He accused Archie of being Veryan's father. The very thought. A rector for heaven's sake, a good, kind, handsome man, not the least bit lustful in his attentions."

"A rector, Your Grace?" Eleanor prepared to be humbled. "Does he live nearby?" She hoped he'd died long ago, and the first name and profession were only coincidences.

"Archibald Winthrop, Rector of St. George in the Woad. If you chance to meet him, tell him ... no, what use is it." The duchess sniffed mournfully. "After my husband died, poor Archie tried to visit me and Lezarth threw him out. Told him never to return. I am trapped here. Do you know, they allow me to go to London only for one month during the season. I go with an escort of Halyton males and return with them. Then they all go back to their pleasures, except for Jasper. Not that he is always here, but he isn't in London, which is a comfort to me."

"Amelia is very fond of him, isn't she?" asked Eleanor, glad to change the subject. Every man she'd ever met was in love with someone else. They loved Juliet, or they loved the duchess, or they loved whores.

"He has been like a father to her. I told Jasper I'd not talk to you about it, but I am sure you will find it a great relief that you won't have to submit to him again. He has no intention, I assure you, of ever sharing your bed. You see, my dear, unless you were unlucky enough to be with child from that night on the moor, you won't ever have to endure childbirth."

Shock at the duchess's words brought Eleanor to her feet. Drat the man. The insult seared her. He did not mean to ever touch her. He meant her to be a childless burden hung around his neck. With a mental shake she told herself she never intended to marry him in the first place, but it wounded her pride. No doubt, he'd not think the same way if it was Juliet he had to marry.

The duchess dabbed at her pretty little nose. "I must look a sight." She gave a watery smile. "You are overcome with relief, aren't you?"

"But I don't intend to marry Lord Jasper," protested Eleanor. "Nothing happened that night, and I have no wish to marry him. If he tries to force me to marry him, I shall resist."

"Resist all you like," said the duchess. "If Lezarth decrees it, so be it."

"How did the late duke make you say your vows?"

"Loaded down with jewels, I was. Laden. My dress was so heavy, I couldn't run. All my family there, thinking what a fine match I had made. And though I'd sworn to Archie I'd resist, I couldn't. I was already increasing, I wasn't strong enough to stop him. And the duke threatened to put off the wedding until I had a great belly, just to humiliate me." Tears rolled down the duchess's cheeks. "Don't think you will get any sympathy from Lezarth, he is just like his father, cruelty itself. Why can't I go to live in the dower house? Why must I live under his autocratic rule for the rest of my life? Why must I never see my Archie again?"

"I see no reason at all, Your Grace." Eleanor's fate at Halyton Court was clearly spelled out.

"You are a good gal. You may call me duchess."

"Thank you, duchess. I do hope you see Reverend Winthrop again in the not too distant future."

"Sweet gal. Read me a few pages of the book over there. The one near the commode. There is a bookmark at the spot." She waited for Eleanor to retrieve it. "Stand at the bottom of the bed, I don't want to crick my neck to see you."

Eleanor peered at the pages. "It is awfully dark in here, I cannot make out the words."

"Bring one of the candles closer to you. I can't abide a lamp when I am trying to sleep. You may slip away quietly when I drop off, and I do hope you don't fall asleep on your feet like Maria Muire does. Most inconvenient."

When dawn lit the sky, Eleanor left the duchess sleeping

Her legs ached from standing for so long. She found her way to the bedchamber she shared with Juliet. The great house was quiet. Not a soul stirred.

Her sister slept peacefully on.

Eleanor picked up the looking glass. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked ghastly. But a proposal was a proposal and deserved to be answered. It was a lowering thought that the only man who had proposed to her, had only done so after Juliet became engaged to Mr. Benedict six months ago.

Archibald Winthrop had wanted to use his engagement to her to meet the duchess again. Eleanor intended to give him an opportunity, but first she had to get out of the grounds and follow the road back to the village to find the rector, who boasted his church lay in the shadow of the walls of Halyton Court. He had not mentioned he was banned from visiting and had been denied entrance by Lezarth himself.

The servants were awake. They were surprised to see her in their midst after she had taken the servants stairs down to the service area. The doors to the duchess's wing were locked at night and had not yet been unlocked.

She twirled her parasol and pretended to be lost. In no time at all she was strolling down the drive towards the gates.

* * * *

Jasper rose to his feet with his brothers, when Amelia entered the breakfast room. "Why didn't you bring our guests, sleepy head," he asked. "It's almost ten."

His brothers went back to their newspapers and their plates. Lezarth's dog groaned in disgust, disappointed his master had not entered to give him his bacon.

Amelia filled her plate. Her appetite was not under the watchful eye of the duchess at breakfast. "Juliet is sleeping, I didn't want to disturb her. If you are waiting in the hope of meeting Miss Tennant, I can only tell you she has gone for a walk."

"Sit next to me." He pulled a chair out for her. "Miss Tennant didn't get to bed until dawn, if I am not mistaken. She still must be sleeping and it's Miss Juliet who has gone for a walk."

"Silly, I can tell the difference ... unless your Eleanor has dyed her hair blonde. Won't Aunt Muire be happy to have someone else read mama to sleep?"

"You had better not call her my Eleanor, she might snap at you."

"Do you love her, Jasper? Everyone is whispering about it, and Miss Tennant doesn't look as if she loves you? You aren't forcing her, are you? Or has she trapped you?"

"If the lady had trapped me, wouldn't she be happy about it?" He smiled to persuade her of his good intentions, and lied. "I think she is nervous of Lezarth."

Amelia studied him carefully, with more warmth than Miss Tennant's disdainful gaze. "Did you propose while you were out of your mind?"

"Miss Tennant told me she likes me like that." He enjoyed her laughter. It was difficult to pretend love, with Miss Tennant making clear to everyone in the house how much she loathed him.

"But if she isn't smitten with you, what will you do?" Amelia asked earnestly.

"Persuade her I am worthy?" Except he wasn't worthy. Half of him believed an angel lived in the house, and the other half wanted to wake up from the nightmare.

"Worthy!" Amelia gave a scornful snort. "How are you going to persuade her to love you? How are you going to do it?" she asked.

"I hope to make her more comfortable here. Will you help me?" The lurid tales, recounted upstairs in the duchess's bedroom last night, worried him. After a warning from Lancelot Benedict about Miss Tennant fleeing from situations she thought perilous, he had taken every precaution to keep her safely at Halyton Court.

It was strange to think she had fled from the Benedicts' home to avoid meeting the Horde. By trying to cross the moor to escape meeting his brothers, she'd been there to save his life.

"Excuse me, Amelia." He rose and kissed her on the cheek. "I have to see if our guest is lost."

"Jasper, I think you should kiss her." Amelia gave him an encouraging nod. "Miss Tennant might like it and fall in love with you."

"I'm not brave enough." He gave a mock shudder.

Veryan called out, "I wish I dared."

Nash looked up with a smirk. "Do it for you, if you like?" He stumbled to his feet. "Where is my angel?" Suddenly, he gave a gasp of awe and a directed a look of humble adoration towards Amelia. "My angel." He pulled back her chair to get room to lift her in his arms and carry her clumsily around the room. "My angel, not Lezarth's, not Horde's, mine."

"Try that with Miss Tennant," called Edward. "I'd pay to see it. She thinks you the handsomest of us all." He batted his eyelids and simpered at his twin.

Nash returned a laughing Amelia to her chair.

She ruffled his hair. "Even I know Miss Tennant was only teasing you. If she doesn't love Jasper, she certainly couldn't love you."

"I am hurt and offended." Nash stole her bacon and fed it to the dog. "Shall I get you some more, my angel?"

"No, idiot, you let Hector lick your fingers."

The duke's voice came from the doorway. "We do not call each other names. Jasper, I want to talk to you after breakfast."

Everyone rose to their feet. Amelia curtsied and whispered to Jasper, "I'll see if Miss Tennant is upstairs. Maybe she fell asleep in a chair somewhere."

Jasper didn't doubt Nash's portrayal of his lunacy. But he knew Miss Tennant had not found it as entertaining, or as benign, as his family. What a fool, babbling about his angel. Loving and adoring. Perhaps she had laughed, until she'd refused him. What had he done? A few scattered memories prevailed, on the floor with her nestled close to him, her hands cooling him. But most of all, her cries of pain.

Richard raised his head from his newspaper to say quietly, "If Miss Tennant heard that old tale about father from the duchess, she'll run for her life. Shall we get the dogs out? We could pretend we are taking them for a run."

Jasper answered before the duke could reply, "I have men watching the grounds, Miss Tennant is not allowed to leave the gardens without one of us. She must still be in the house.

Nash grinned over at him, "Our guest has teeth and claws, I wonder why there isn't a mark on you?"

"Nash!" shouted the duke, rising to the bait as he always did. "Leave the room or eat in silence."

Nash sprawled in his chair to pick up his newspaper.

"It is odd, though," remarked Richard. "Miss Tennant seems not the least bit afraid of anyone here. Not even you, Lezarth."

Amelia returned to the breakfast room. She shook her head. She had not found their missing guest.

Lezarth looked pleased to see her. "The subject of conversation for breakfast is the rainbow. Amelia, you may begin."

There were grunts of approval from the Horde. They all knew Amelia adored rainbows and were prepared to listen with at least the semblance of attention. Lezarth never allowed idle gossip to spoil his breakfast. By choosing his topic to please only Amelia, he got silence from the Horde.

Jasper excused himself. Where was Eleanor Tennant?

* * * *

Eleanor allowed Reverend Archibald Winthrop to drive her back to Halyton Court in his curricle. He had spent an hour changing his clothes while she strolled about his garden, which led into the ruined grounds of a monastery. The rectory, an immense ancient pile, had been a surprise. It was larger than the late medieval church next door. Archibald, as he pressed her to call him, was proud of the ancient stained glass windows. He was sure some of the glass pieces dated back to the Roman occupation of Britain.

He had not pressed her to answer his proposal of marriage, and he looked a little nervous of her. His tight new coat was the height of fashion, and his careful combing forward of his hair to hide its receding hair-line made her smile. He was a gentleman of fashion and means, cautious now as they approached the gates of Halyton Court. His nervous talk ended entirely at the closed gates.

The gatekeeper hurried out to greet them.

"Begging your pardon, Reverend, you know I am forbidden to let you in." The gatekeeper clutched his cap to his chest. "The gates is locked by orders of the duke himself."

Eleanor gave him a cheerful smile. "Oh, but you must let us in. Why we are practically engaged. Aren't we, Archie, dear?"

The look of shock on Archie's face was a joy to behold.

"Can't let him in without the duke's permission, or Lord Jasper's." The gatekeeper turned to call to a footman skulking in the bushes nearby. "The lady is here, no use searching for her now. Go and tell His Grace and ask him what I should do."

The man loped towards the great house.

Colin Lumm hurried across the lawn. "Where have you been, Miss Tennant? The house is in an uproar. Half the staff are out searching for you and the duke is talking of dredging the lake." He clapped the gatekeeper on the shoulder. "I'd open the gate, if I was you. She's not allowed out without one of the family."

The gatekeeper shrugged him off. "The Reverend is not allowed in. Never has been, never will. I'm not taking responsibility for it."

"We are sorry to cause so much trouble, aren't we Archie, dearest?" Eleanor patted the Reverend Winthrop's trembling hands. "We shall just have to go back to the rectory."

"No, don't do that," said Colin quickly. "I'll open the gate for you." He unlatched it and waved them in. The gatekeeper put up a token resistance. Colin elbowed him out the way. "Get away, you old fool. We can always throw him out later."

Eleanor entered the house with her arm firmly linked with Archibald's. He trembled, but her firm grip steadied him. She was followed by Colin Lumm, who had insisted on mounting behind the curricle to accompany them. Eleanor ignored all his dire warnings about not crossing the duke.

The Horde froze when she entered the amber salon to find them deep in conversation, only Jasper was missing. Amelia sat with Mrs. Muire, who was comfortable only because the duchess was not there.

"Good morning, Mrs. Muire. I am happy to see you are recovered," said Eleanor, breaking all rules of precedence by speaking first and ignoring the wrathful Duke of Lezarth. "Would you do me a great favor and tell the duchess that my dear friend, Reverend Winthrop, is here with me?"

Mrs. Muire glanced over at the duke, who granted permission with a nod of his head. He did not invite either of his guests to sit.

The long minutes spent waiting for the duchess were filled with discussions of the weather. Richard joined in with good sense. Nash and Edward managed a word or two mingled with sly laughter, after she frowned at them to remind them of their manners.

The duchess entered the room with haste, in a frothy morning dress with a blush on her cheeks. "It is true? Archie, is that you?"

Eleanor let him go to his love. He tottered over to the duchess and held out his hands as if pleading for help.

Lezarth spoke formally, "I thank you for returning Miss Tennant to us, Winthrop. After you have taken leave of the duchess, permit me to escort you out."

"Not yet, I beg you, Lezarth." Eleanor simpered near the duke as if overcome with emotion. He hastily stepped away.

Eleanor followed him. He was remarkably easy to frighten. "I haven't yet answered dear Archibald's proposal of marriage."

"Get Jasper," called the duke to no one in particular. "I want him here, now."

Eleanor said sweetly, "I do feel obliged to answer dear Archibald's proposal, after he has waited for so long. He has been kindness itself not to pressure me into a hasty marriage. It's so horrid to be rushed."

She knew the exact instant Jasper entered the room, and not just from the duke's hiss of relief. All thought of breakfast vanished. Her senses readied her to do battle with him. She wanted to fight him and smite him, and after she had vanquished him, she'd bite him.

Bite him hard.

She just wasn't sure where.

This sudden urge to war had come from depths within her that she didn't care to own. Perhaps from her humiliation in knowing he was the second man to offer marriage, who had no interest at all in actually marrying her. And worse, one who intended never to share her bed. A rake who cared only for his whores.

She gathered her wits and watched him greet Archibald as if they saw each other every day. The rector relaxed, and at Jasper's invitation, he escorted the duchess to a sofa and sat with her. Refreshment was offered in a friendly manner.

"Lord Jasper," said Eleanor, "I hope you won't be too disappointed but when I remembered, quite suddenly, that dear Archibald lived close by, I just had to go tell him my decision."

"Not at all, my dear Miss Tennant, I just hope Winthrop won't hold a grudge when he presides at our wedding." He shook hands with the rector to seal their pact.

Eleanor flashed him a warning. "But I haven't refused dear Archie, yet, so I am not free to accept your proposal. I must be a flighty rattle to manage to almost engage myself to two gentlemen." She heard the duke hum and could see him pace out of the corner of her eye. If the rake wanted to get out of marrying her, he had only to let her be engaged to Archibald to free himself from any obligation to her.

"What is she saying, Archie," asked the duchess. "Did you offer for the fat gal?"

"You will have to forgive me, Winthrop," said Jasper in a kind voice, all effortless authority linked with good manners. "I have no intention of letting my delightful angel marry you." He turned to Eleanor and bent his head to whisper in her ear. "No escape there, but a good try. I must speak with you." He turned to the duke, "Lezarth, will you excuse us?"

The duke shook his head.

Her wicked rake ignored his ducal brother. "You must be famished, or are you in need of another bottle of champagne to ease your sorrows?"

The gilded dining room he led her to was big enough to feed a hundred. Footmen stood blank-faced at the doors.

"I need food and tea to support me in my humiliation." She slid her hand away from his arm. She could banter with him, do battle with him, but she didn't want to be touched by him. "I'd hoped my attractions were not so thin, or so fat, as to render me bereft of hope, but alas, the wretched man spared me not a glance after the duchess arrived." She sighed as if lovelorn. "Why didn't you concede defeat? He did ask first. It was an easy way out for you. I can't keep delivering fiancés to your doorstep, if you are not going to make use of them."

He smiled, not the least bit amused.

Servants hurried in to set one end of the long table. They must have been waiting for her because dish after dish arrived.

Jasper sat next to her. "You are very clever to have given the duchess something else to think about and tweaked Lezarth's nose in the process. Am I to expect more, or have you exhausted your plotting?"

Eleanor sipped her tea before answering. She was tempted to throw it at him. If he hadn't been a rake, determined never to touch her, and known to be the worst of the lot, she might, just might, have been tempted to marry him. Her body was interested in the idea and her gaze wanted to wander all over him, which was why she kept looking at her plate or at the view of the grand cascade through the long windows.

"Plotting not to marry you is natural to me, though I see no need to give plots much thought. You and I have only to quarrel in a few weeks time, when all the fuss had died down, and then we are both free."

He didn't look pleased at the thought. "Did you tell Winthrop you were engaged to me?"

"No, I thought it best not to link my name with yours, as you are so very wicked. Besides, our engagement is a figment of your imagination."

That gave him pause. It almost wiped the careful air of polite geniality from his face.

"Eleanor— "

She snapped at him, "You have not earned the right to call me by my name."

He leaned back in his chair. "When I saw you from the bridge you gave me a shock."

"Why? Had you forgotten I existed?" Whores probably made men forget many things.

"I thought I was hallucinating and my angel had come to claim me."

The thought had obviously not thrilled him.

He placed a finger lightly on her lips. "We are Jasper and Eleanor, engaged to be married. If you resist, then you give credence to the rumors that I have injured you. Pretend for a month or two, Eleanor, please. For your own sake."

Her face flamed at his touch. The footmen were watching, she was sure. Did he have no shame? What a silly question— a rake had no shame.

She pushed his hand away.

He had no right to affect her so.

"You will not touch me or be private with me. Remember, I am not yours, I am merely pretending." She watched for his reaction. Did she truly expect him to be disappointed? Why was she hurt that this man, who bought his pleasures and had no interest in bedding her, looked relieved.

She held his forearm down on the table between the marmalade and her teacup. In a fierce whisper she asked him, "If we married, would you want to have children with me?"

The muscles under her fingers clenched. His answer came after a pause. "No."

"And if I wanted children?" She let go of him.

He stood up and said, with a regretful sigh, "No."

"Thank you for making it clear, dear Jasper." Eleanor smiled up at him to keep him off guard. With a sweep of her arm, she cleared the table of dishes, cloth, and cutlery. Most of it landed on the horrid fornicating rake's feet.

Fornicator with everyone but her. She should have kept a knife to stab him.

Two footmen lunged towards them. Two others opened the double doors to reveal the physician, who hurried in.

Jasper said calmly, "Miss Tennant pulled the cloth off by accident. There is nothing wrong."

The footmen stopped in mid-stride. They were dismissed with a nod. The physician lingered to observe his patient.

Eleanor said fiercely. "I shall never marry you, Lord Jasper Halyton. Remember that while we pretend to be in love."
Chapter 10

"Marry her, so you can keep her under control." The duke peered from the window of his library at the party taking tea at the foot of the grand cascade. "Look at that fool. What are we to do with him?"

Jasper fed Lezarth suggestions and hoped he'd take them for his own. "We do nothing with him. Winthrop can visit here to keep the duchess happy. Isn't that what you want

Lezarth raised his eyebrows. "I do?"

"After Amelia marries, you have no reason to keep the duchess here against her will." Jasper didn't approve of holding anyone against their will, unless it was for punishment or the protection of innocents.

"She was going to run off and marry that fool," cried the duke. "Veryan and Amelia had to grow up here, it was the least I could do for them. Don't change the subject. Marry Miss Tennant and tame her, now."

"Don't you think it better to allow Miss Tennant to recover her nerves for a few weeks?"

"No. Women always fall at your feet. Get on with making her fall in love with you."

"Alas, she has warned me off in no uncertain terms. Eleanor has more sense than to feel attraction for a man who has left her bruised and worse. I've not forgotten all the cries of pain, Lezarth. Don't ask me to force her to the altar unwillingly. How on earth are you going to get her to say yes?"

"The same way father got the duchess to agree."

"You mean you hope she is bearing my child? God forbid."

"I meant, if we invite her parents and fill the church, she'd be too embarrassed to say no."

"Eleanor wants nothing to do with me. I know I must marry her, just give me a few weeks to court her."

"She doesn't look as if she is afraid of you." Lezarth eyed him thoughtfully. "Uncle George is right, she is all eyes and bosom, a most attractive lady. Pity she has to marry you, the duchess will drive her mad."

"Not if the duchess marries her Archie."

"The duchess won't give up her status, not even for Winthrop," said the duke. "Females don't go from Halyton Court to the rectory of St George in the Woad. None of them choose the lesser road. And even if she did, I'd still pity your bride. Is it really not safe for her to be with you?"

"No. I feel attracted to her every time I am with her. I feel as if I am half mad— I have never felt that way with any other woman. Two minutes with Eleanor, and I am in desperate need of another dose of medication."

"She is beguiling. I feel her charm, too," confessed Lezarth.

"I tell myself she is minor gentry, not knowledgeable of the world, not the larger world, due to her restricted upbringing. Yet half of me feels as if I have been bewitched by her. I believe, in some irrational part of my soul, that she is an angel. It's all I can do not to strip her to look for her wings."

"You are just suffering the lingering effects of being hit by lightning." Lezarth opened the window to let the breeze cool the library. "You have long outgrown your tendency to lose your mind every time you raise a fever," he said, with more hopefulness than truth. "But never be alone with your bride, Jasper, you cannot risk her life."

* * * *

"Swim in a plunge pool? I'd love to," said Eleanor. "Shall I get Juliet?"

"Your sister went for a stroll round the lake with Lancelot to watch the sunset. They are so annoying." Amelia gave a mocking sigh and cried out, "Oh Lancie. Oh Juliet." Her lurid groans of passion echoed in the hall. "How do you stand it?"

"I try not to listen," confessed Eleanor. She admired the portraits in the gallery.

"That is father. Rather handsome, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is handsome." Eleanor admired the portrait painter's skill in capturing the essence of a man who had no morals.

"Veryan looks the most like father, except he has mother's blond hair." Amelia chatted happily on, "This is where the males in my family have their bedrooms, except Lezarth, his is in the center. The water is going to be very cold. It's been newly filled in case Jasper needs it."

Eleanor asked in a casual way, "Does he need it often?"

"No, you mustn't think him an invalid. I have never known him to be ill, or suffer much if he does get some slight thing we all catch."

Amelia led the way up a long windowless corridor lit by lamps. "It always feels like midnight here. There used to be windows at the ends, but father made extra rooms instead. Too many expensive sons, he used to say."

"Was he glad when you were born?" asked Eleanor.

"Mama told me he said girls were worse than boys, as the men can get positions with the government, but girls need dowries. Quite disgusted, he was. But he liked me well enough when I had grown enough to follow him around and plague him."

She opened a door to reveal a staircase winding down. "They had to remove the floors all the way to the foundation of the house. Lezarth had it done when he became the duke. Be careful on the stairs."

Eleanor peered over the railing. "It's huge, like a giant's bathtub." Light filtered down from a roof lantern. She looked up to see the sky through the panes of glass.

"It's safe," said Amelia. "Let's get in before anyone finds out we are here. We can wear our shifts."

A mosaic of Neptune was inlaid in the floor. A statue of a half-naked woman stared languidly across the chamber, while water trickled into the pool from the pitcher she held. The sound echoed softly to create a watery music, as if they were in a secret grotto instead of in the middle of Halyton Court.

"Are we allowed to use it, Amelia?" Not that Eleanor had any intention of obeying the duke's rules, not when she wanted to try to swim.

"Yes and no. Jasper always says yes, but I must have someone with me. Lezarth always say no, because he always worries."

"How deep is the pool?" Eleanor knelt to swish a hand in the cool water.

"It's not so deep," said Amelia. "Jasper taught me to swim here in the first year it was built. We had to wait for Lezarth to go to London. I was eight and had to stand on tiptoe."

"I've always wanted to learn how to swim. Is it very difficult?"

"Terribly. After you are married, Jasper can teach you." Amelia led the way around the pool to an alcove under the stairs. "We can leave our clothes here."

Amelia turned so Eleanor could help her undress.

"What if someone comes in?" Eleanor did not want to be seen half-naked in the pool by the Halyton Horde.

"No one will. I've locked the door and it can only be opened from the inside, unless they take the hinges off. I walked in on Lezarth once and there has been a lock on the door ever since." She giggled naughtily at the thought and helped Eleanor undress. "Men swim naked, you know. He was terribly embarrassed. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about and thought he was wearing breeches, because Jasper always did. I jumped in with him and he dared not climb out." Amelia pinned her hair up. "Come on. But I warn you the water is very cold."

Eleanor sat on the edge and dipped her feet in the water. It wasn't as cold as the eel pond in winter. It felt like the moorland streams, clean and cool. She slid in, and gave a gasp. Her shift floated about her, transparent in the water.

She watched Amelia swim about. It didn't look difficult, but when Amelia turned over to float on her back and lay there supported by the water, Eleanor was amazed. "How do you do that?"

There was no answer from Amelia. Eleanor tried to run over to her through the water. It hindered her as if she were trying to wade through a mire in Bogs Bowl. "Amelia!" she called.

The girl splashed, spluttered, and stood up. "Did you say something? One can't hear very well with one's ears in the water."

"How do you float?" Eleanor leaned forward to see if the water could support her. "Now I'm worried you are a witch." She coughed and reached for the side of the pool.

"Jasper says women float really well, and we are all witches destined to bewitch men. He says the silliest things. It's true though that if you can float, you can swim. I can't hold you up if you can't float, so you'd better not try it till Jasper is with you. Richard sinks like a stone and the twins are always trying to drown one another. Not that I have ever seen them in the pool, of course. We went to swim in the sea once and they all swam in their breeches. Mama would have forbidden it but Reverend Winthrop was preaching at the Malmsbury church. Pity, he had an epidemic cold and cancelled, she was so disappointed."

"I've always wanted to go to the sea shore, but papa suffers from gout and can't travel."

"Then why doesn't your mother take you and your sister?"

"My father cannot be parted from her. We lead very quiet lives." Eleanor tried to swim by keeping one foot on the bottom of the pool. Any attempt to lift both ended with her sinking below the surface.

Amelia shivered and declared it was time to go. To their dismay there was only one towel. "Don't worry, Eleanor, I'll just go and get more. Why don't you go back into the pool, before you get chilled waiting all wet."

Amelia disappeared up the stairs and Eleanor went back into the pool. She was determined to find out if she floated. Taking a deep breath she lay back in the water and spread her arms. Her feet lifted and before she could worry about drowning she was floating on her back staring up at the roof lantern.

Amelia hurried along the corridor towards Nash and Edward. "Quick, go and get him. I've left her in there. This is so romantic. Do you suppose he'll kiss her?"

* * * *

"You are looking warm, Jasper. Are you feeling ill?" asked Edward.

The duchess looked up at her intruding stepson, "Don't interrupt. Jasper and I are discussing trust funds for my children."

Jasper rose to his feet. He bowed over the duchess's hand and kissed her cheek. "I'll have the papers drafted, ma'am, then we can go over them together."

He allowed himself to be led away, not because he thought himself in any danger, but he found an hour's conversation with his stepmother the limit of his endurance.

A glance at the clock told him he'd been talking for three hours. It wasn't possible. Had he dozed off. He couldn't have found enough to say on the topic to last three hours.

The duchess was calm and pleased. He'd done nothing wrong.

The loss of time made him want to plunge into cold water and stay there, quiet and remote from them all. Fear of it happening again gave him nightmares.

From the depth of the hall, Nash wandered by with his arms outstretched and a dazed look, as if he were half asleep. "My angel, not yours ... where are you my angel? Lost my angel ... my angel, not yours...."

Edward gave his twin a shove out of the way. "You forgot to remove all your clothes."

Nash gave a wicked laugh. "I'm pretending to be naked. Where is my angel? Take me home. I want to go home."

Had he wandered around naked in front of Miss Tennant? He must have. The least of his sins— no wonder she hated him. And she'd been brave enough to tell him she preferred him insane. If only it was true.

Edward opened the door to the plunge pool. "I'll make sure no one disturbs you."

Jasper closed the door. They were plotting something. Edward always played the innocent, because no one would trust Nash.

Jasper hoped they got over their need to tease him soon. If they did it in front of Miss Tennant, he'd have to stop them. He doubted she'd enjoy being reminded of what must have been a terrifying experience. Let them play their tricks on Amelia instead, she enjoyed taking her revenge.

Jasper threw his coat on the floor. He sat on the bench to take off his shoes. The sound of a splash came from the pool. His angel floated in the pool on her back in a transparent garment that hid none of her charms. He shut his eyes to disentangle his mind.

Fear that he had conjured her from a fit of insanity made him cautious. Was she real? His heart roared to life.

No. Miss Tennant floated with her arms outstretched. His family was playing a trick on them both. She opened her eyes when she sensed someone looking at her. With a splash and flurry of beating arms she disappeared under the water and didn't surface.

He jumped in to save her.

She was on her feet before he reached her, a look of dismay on her face. "What are you doing here?"

As he moved towards her, she backed away. She was afraid of him.

He stopped. How would she react if she thought him insane? He had to know if she'd lied, when she said she liked him better out of his mind. The urge to test her grew. Not that he believed her for an instant.

He approached her carefully with adoration writ on his face. Not difficult given his mind's inability to think of her as a mortal being. He kept his voice low and worshipful, "I am looking for my angel."

Her fear vanished, though she frowned a warning at him. "I shall hit you with a thunderbolt, if you don't behave yourself." She met his gaze, half challenge, half temptation. He read amusement in her expression. If he amused the lady by appearing insane, he'd be happy to oblige her.

"Why did you leave me?" he asked mournfully.

"Others needed my help. You had your brothers to aid you."

He stepped closer, she had the sense to retreat. "I wanted you with me."

Her shoulders rested against the edge of the pool. Not as brave now. Her voice wavered, "You cannot own an angel, no matter how much you want to."

Then she did a very foolish thing. She tried to lift herself out of the water by stretching her arms out along the edge and hitching herself up by the elbows. He waited until she hung suspended, unable to move. At his eye level, her wet chemise revealed her beautiful breasts, with peaked nipples, and so gloriously rounded it took all his control not to hold them and feel their weight.

When her arms began to shake from the effort, he held her waist to gently pull her towards him. She let go with a squeak to grab his shoulders. More than half of him knew her to be his angel and goaded him to never let her go. His body reacted with heat despite the cold water.

He let her slide down to stand in front of him. She shivered in his arms. A reaction to being held by a man who had forced her and left her bruised and worse. Yet his angel was still guarding him when dawn and rescue arrived. Careful and fearful enough to give a false name and act like farm woman.

His angel patted his shoulder. He remembered her patting him, stroking him in the lodge on the moor. The comfort of her touch made him sigh. If he hadn't been pretending to be insane, he'd have quelled it. He pulled her against his body.

"My angel." No, she was Eleanor Tennant. Even sane, he struggled with the concept.

His angel gave a sad sound, as if he were a puppy or a kitten. She looked up at him with pity. A sad mistake. How could he resist kissing her? She met him halfway. He tried to be gentle and clumsy at the same time. Her body pressed against his. He held her imprisoned in his arms while his mind ranged in wicked ways. How much had he taken that night? How much had she been forced to give?

It was the sane side of him, the one convinced he must marry the woman he'd ravished, who spoke. "Must marry. How can I live without you?" He kissed her lips and her throat on a path to her luscious, almost naked, bosom. He had only to undo the ribbon to taste her. If she allowed it now, he must have seduced her that night when out of his mind.

Miss Tennant tilted her head back, abandoned to the sensation of his mouth on her neck. She gave a sudden jolt of fear and squeaked in his arms. She twisted away from him, until he had to release her or hurt her.

He let her go.

She gazed upwards. Her voice came in whispery breaths, "There are faces peering down at us from the roof."

The faces disappeared as she fled for the side of the pool.

To Eleanor's relief, he helped her out of the water. She was almost naked, her shift transparent. He helped her into his coat. "Don't let see. My angel, not theirs."

She raced up the stairs.

He followed her. "Don't be afraid."

Feet pounded down the corridor. Lezarth's voice called from the other side of the door. "Jasper, let me in."

Eleanor unlocked the door and rushed through it with the madman behind her. "Get away or I shall conjure lightning," she warned him.

Jasper tripped over her feet.

They fell together. She tried to hide the most vulnerable parts of her under his coat while warding him off, which gave him an unfortunate advantage. He grasped both her wrists to hold them in one hand and held his coat closed over her breasts with the other.

Her demented rake said, "Don't be afraid, Lezarth. I have her hands. She cannot hit you with a thunderbolt while I hold her." He sounded pleased with himself.

Instead of freeing her, the duke knelt down beside them. "Let her go. It's cruel to hold an angel by force."

Eleanor gave a shiver. Jasper pulled her into an embrace, which luckily hid most of her against his chest.

His fingers lightly caressed her shoulder blades. "I want to see her unfurl her wings."

Eleanor gave a growl. "Then you will wait for eternity. Angels cannot unfurl their wings while being touched by mortal man."

She squirmed, she couldn't help it. "Stop it."

The twins stood behind Lezarth. Nash whispered, "What do you want us to do?"

The duke replied, "Nothing while he holds her, we cannot risk an injury."

"My angel, not yours Lezarth. Never yours."

Shoulder blades were amazingly sensitive.

He pleaded, "Show me your wings and I'll let you go. I promise."

"I cannot while you touch me." Eleanor wished she were a dratted angel. "Let go of me and I shall show you how I unfurl my wings."

He let go, reluctantly.

Eleanor rose cautiously, keeping his coat fastened across her breasts and hoping it draped low enough to hide even more embarrassing places.

She let Lezarth edge between them. Trying to stop her voice from shivering, she warned. "I must remove the taint of mortal man from my skin. Close your eyes, all of you, while I bathe in blue lightning. It blinds all mortals who see it."

A squeak of relief escaped when she was hidden behind the duke. "Really, Jasper, you disappoint me. When I tell you to release me, I mean immediately, not at your leisure. The next time you hold me against my will, I shall strike you with a thunderbolt." She gave him her avenging angel frown, from the other side of Lezarth, by standing on her tiptoes.

One of the twins laughed under his breath.

They were all rakes without morals. Eleanor wished she truly had the power to conjure lightning bolts. She stalked down the corridor. "Behave yourself, Jasper, and do as Lezarth bids you." She gave a last warning, "If you don't, I shall kill the duke, and your good and evil brothers. Remember, I am an avenging angel."

She muttered to herself, "Just like living in Bedlam. Heaven preserve me ... who tries to seduce an angel? I ask you...." Her hips gave an involuntary quiver. Low laughter told her they still watched her.

Men.

Lewd and degenerate family.

She held her head high and fled for the duchess's wing.

Jasper watched her go. She was magnificent. He worshipped every word from her lips, every sign of her intellect and her courage. He bent his head and waited for Lezarth to dismiss his brothers. Miss Tennant was his angel, as close to heaven as he could hope to reach.

"They've gone to fetch your physician," said Lezarth. "Get up and stop play-acting. This is a sign of your precarious mental state. I am beginning to think Miss Tennant is driving you mad when you are sane."

"I had to know."

"And what did you learn? She is brave, virtuous, and has sympathy for you when she thinks you out of your mind."

"I believe she did manage to hold me at bay that night. Even in my senses, I half believe she can conjure lightning. She didn't fear me, Lezarth." Relief flooded him, making his limbs weak as tension drained from him. "If Miss Tennant is not carrying my child, we must let her go."

"If you don't marry her, not only will the night on the moor soon be open knowledge, but all your history will be dragged into the open." He paused to let his words sink in. "Too many people know. I don't care if she carries your child or not, you must marry her."
Chapter 11

Eleanor poured tea into delicate floral dishes. It was the only time she had been allowed to sit down since breakfast. Her wounded toes disliked standing in attendance. If she had to listen to the duchess and Archie flirting for the rest of the day, she might have to plead a headache and flee. The tea table was placed near the watery steps of the grand cascade, where the constant noise gave respite from their sighs and whispers.

At least she had not been up half the night reading the duchess to sleep. Not after she'd hinted that lovers often met in their dreams and had yawned every five minutes to make her companionship less attractive. As a last resort, she had dropped the heavy book on the duchess's toes with numerous cries of apology.

Eleanor didn't want the duchess angry enough to forbid Lancelot Benedict to marry Juliet. What right had any of them to force their will upon others of lower rank.

She had not seen Jasper since last night. The Halyton Horde watched her without their leader. Edward and Nash teased Amelia as she delivered cups of tea to them. Richard read a book within listening distance of the happy couple, but so deep in the pages he'd not have noticed if they'd climbed naked up the Cascade.

Whenever Eleanor moved, one of the twins watched her. She didn't know how they decided which one of them was on duty. What she wanted most was to walk alone for miles, sore toes be damned. She needed to think, not stand behind two people who were surely past the age of indiscretion, nor did she want to serve tea for endless hours. But she had promised not to endanger Juliet's happiness by annoying the duchess, and she meant to keep her word.

The time she had spent behind the duchess's chair, while the two old lovers talked for hours, had almost killed her with boredom. The duchess was so pleased she had triumphed over Eleanor that she delighted in making her dance attendance on them. Eleanor had feigned trouble holding the parasol and had actually managed to clip Archibald with it once or twice. It served him right for proposing to her when he loved the duchess.

Eleanor sipped her tea, and was joined by Lord Veryan, giving Edward and Nash time to chase Amelia up the stairs to the top of the cascade. Her shrieks of delight almost drowned out the noise of the water.

The duchess called to her, "Miss Tennant, I need you to fan me."

Eleanor went to pick up the fan and proceeded to wave it vigorously. The duchess's blond curls streamed out in the breeze. It only made her look younger and lovelier.

"Slowly." The duchess smiled at Archibald. "Companions are like servants, they have to be trained. Such a nuisance." The folded fan dipped and twirled in the duchess's hair. She gave a distressed shriek.

"Oh no!" cried Eleanor. "Can you untangle it, Reverend Winthrop."

With trembling hands Archibald did as he was told, and the duchess forgot to reprimand her. They spent many happy minutes entwined together, before Eleanor took up her thankless task of fanning them again.

Amelia called to Juliet and Mr. Benedict on their return from a stroll around the lake.

The arrival of Mr. Benedict's parents was welcomed by everyone, especially the duchess, who couldn't wait to show off her Archie. Mrs. Benedict, the duchess's sister, invited the young couple, and anyone else who cared to accompany them, to view a house they were thinking of buying for their son.

Soon everyone rushed away to change and order horses. Veryan and Amelia were going to ride. Juliet and Lancelot would go in the carriage with his parents. Eleanor waved the fan and her sister away, with the promise of being told all about it as soon as she got back. Nash and Edward hurried to make their escape.

"My dear," said Archibald, "don't you think Miss Tennant might go with them. It seems a shame when all the young ones are going?"

The duchess looked around.

She saw straight away, as Eleanor hoped she would, the opportunity to be alone with the rector. "You may go with them, Eleanor. You really should chaperone Amelia. Ride with her, you have my permission."

By the time Eleanor had changed into her riding habit the stables were deserted, but she could see the party heading towards the gates. She found a groom hiding in the tack room.

"Could you saddle a mount for me?" she asked.

He touched his forelock. "Sorry, Miss Tennant, I can't do it. Duke's orders. You are not allowed to have a mount and I am to tell him if you try to insist." He reddened under his tan and had the good grace to look guilty. "Sorry, miss, you are not allowed to ride."

She nodded to him and pretended it didn't matter. Her throat was too tight with anger to speak. No sooner had she left the stables, than Nash and Edward followed her with two lolloping hounds, all drooping ears and long noses. The dogs sniffed her and rushed off into the gardens. Eleanor walked quickly away from them along the path towards the home wood.

Edward watched her go and stopped his brother from following too quickly. "Veryan has more sense than we do. He should have been the one left guarding her."

"Veryan can't do it alone. Do you think she'll make a dash for freedom?" asked Nash, only half joking.

"Be serious. Jasper is always right where women are concerned. Just because Miss Tennant is being brave about it, doesn't mean we should treat her as less injured or less in need of our help." Edward kept his eye on the lady's progress. "She must have fought him to get those bruises and she is fending him off verbally every time she speaks to him."

"How are we to help her? Jasper has to marry her. Lezarth would never risk it being known Jasper goes off his head on occasion." He whistled for the dogs. "Amelia won't make a good match if everyone thinks insanity runs in the family."

"We've never seen him insane, other than when we found him on the moor. It can't happen often. Gives me the shudders to think of her being forced to marry. When she thinks no one is looking at her, she looks like we did when we waited for a whipping— defiant and plotting madly for a way out of it." Edward set off in pursuit. "Let's help Jasper persuade her we're worth knowing."

"As long as you promise she won't fall in love with me," said Nash.

"She dared say that to you in front of Lezarth. He almost laughed out loud. You know that look he gets when he is trying not to laugh, as if he'd swallowed his tongue and is trying not to cough it up."

"If Miss Tennant has to stand behind the duchess's sofa for the rest of her life, I think murder will be done— and who can blame her."

"Miss Tennant," called Edward. "Care to sit under the gazebo and have us fan you while you drink champagne? We can smuggle a bottle out."

Not even that offer tempted her to talk to them. She limped into the woods and left them to follow her, while the dogs got a scolding from the birds.

"Oh dear, it's bad, Edward," sobbed Nash in mock sympathy. "You had better lend Miss Tennant your kerchief before she blubbers like Lezarth's brats."

"Not the brave Miss Tennant," said Edward. "She doesn't weep just because she's our prisoner. Shall we lock her in the tower?"

Eleanor was diverted enough to say, "You don't have a tower."

Nash took her arm. "Then we'll lock you in the nursery with two tiny females who scream and laugh like out of tune penny-whistles. A fate worse than death to a Halyton."

"Ladies like brats." Edward gave a crow of laughter. "Let's lock her in the wine cellar."

Eleanor sniffed disdainfully. "Lord Edward, aren't you supposed to be the good twin? Or do you think I'd enjoy it?"

He nudged Nash out the way to take his place. "If you tell us what you'd like to do, we'll try to make it happen. Damn the duke and Jasper. And don't _lord_ us, Eleanor, we are going to be family. Unless you can escape your fate, then we'd be honored to be your friend."

"Shall we murder the duchess for you?" asked Nash.

Eleanor shook her head. "Not now that I know how it feels to be a prisoner. I can't like her, but I can feel sympathy for her plight. She's trapped in a golden cage."

The path joined a cart track lined with trees, allowing the sun to filter through and cast a golden green light over them. A rabbit fled for its burrow with the dogs howling in pursuit.

Nash threw a stick at them and missed. "If the duchess had her way, Amelia would have no back teeth to chew with. The woman is an empty-headed nuisance, but you still have to wait on her. Even duchesses wait on the Queen."

"I'd feel the same if I were a duchess sent to wait on the Queen. To be at someone's beck and call, to have no authority to fix and do and organize, to have no home of one's own. No house, just a room. No husband, just a man I must obey. No companionship— I don't ask to be loved." She shivered and finished in a rush, "It's a terrible fate to me."

"Why can't you have a house of your own?" Nash whistled for the dogs. "Edward, let's show Miss Tennant Jasper's house. We'll tell her how rich he is— even the duchess doesn't know. Jasper could bankroll Amelia and Veryan for eternity and never deplete his funds. He inherited our maternal grandfather's fortune. Jasper is as rich as Croesus."

Edward pulled her away from the track to a stile in the hedge. "He's generous, that's why we don't murder him to inherit his money." He climbed the stile and offered her his hand. "This way, Miss Tennant, and prepare to be amazed. Your future home is a veritable mansion."

"No, it's not." Nash climbed the stile with the dogs hindering him in their haste not to be left behind. "Don't get your hopes up, Eleanor. You don't mind if we call you that, I hope. The house is much smaller than Halyton Court and perhaps it is a trifle damp in some of the rooms. But only because no one lives there, just a few staff. Jasper keeps rooms there for when he needs to escape the duchess."

"But the duke says I must live with the duchess." Eleanor followed them onto a path through a meadow skirting the lower slope of the moor. "Lezarth will never let me live there." She simply had to escape before the cage door closed on her forever.

"Do you know who is lord here, my dear Eleanor? said Edward. "It is not Lezarth most of the time. He lives in London and Jasper runs both estates. His word is law here except for those brief summer months when Lezarth is in residence. If you want Lezarth to agree to something, just get Jasper to ask him for you. Lezarth does what Jasper tells him to do."

"I'd lay odds Lezarth never gave an order for you not to have a mount. Jasper did it in his name." Nash winked in a knowing manner and laughed at the expression on her face.

"Of all the monstrous cruel liars," Eleanor spluttered. "Did he tell the duke to warn me he'd never share my bed or give me children? Did he tell him to say I was to live with the duchess and keep away from him?" She gave a scornful laugh at their shocked faces. "I hate him. I hate you all." She raced down the hillside away from them.

They called for their dogs and wisely waited for her to calm down before they followed her. She wanted to rage and shout. She wanted to be free to live her life. She wanted a home of her own and a husband to love. A good man, a kind man, not a man who thought her a nuisance, a plague, a useless thing— his unwanted female.

Her steps slowed. Some of it was her fault. Her guilty blush, her incoherent stammering when they'd first met had convinced Lord Jasper he'd ravished her. And her bruises didn't help her case. If only she could confess and tell him what had really happened. Even now she couldn't believe what she'd done, or how she'd managed to do it.

Her face burned at the thought. If she told him, he's scorn her, tell his brothers and ruin her. She couldn't bear the shame of anyone knowing she was wicked to her core. Wicked and sinful. Without shame and not the least bit sedate.

If only she'd been sedate. Her body's unfortunate reaction to him, her knowledge of him, couldn't be thrown off like a dirty garment. She had to live with the stain of her guilt forever.

Her only consolation was the thought he might go permanently insane, through no fault of hers, so she could threaten him with thunderbolts for the rest of his life. And stroke him and soothe him and take care of him. He was so different when off his head, so adoring, so sweet-tempered. Not controlling and cruel, not hiding behind the duke's authority to keep her prisoner, like the duchess.

Eleanor stopped on the path. Was Jasper the one forcing her to marry him, not the duke?

One of the dogs dashed up to her and barked. She ducked behind a holly bush to hide from Edward and Nash. The two young men disappeared into a thicket, leaving her free to make her escape.

With what? She had not a penny to her name. She'd never make it home on foot before they caught her. Her father could not withstand the duke. And behind the duke stood Jasper, sure of his guilt, directing all the players in the scene.

A streak of smoke from a chimney caught her eye. Was it Jasper's house?

She was suddenly thirsty. She'd help herself to a drink from the pump in the yard.

The gardens were surrounded by a shrubbery. The cottage was pretty and well kept. A family home, not a monument like Halyton Court. Roses perfumed the air. She wandered the path to smell the flowers.

The windows were open, curtained with some gauzy material that glittered in the sunlight. It looked expensive and frivolous. Was this modest cottage Jasper's house?

She could live here, if she had to. She crept closer to the windows in the hope of seeing the interior. A woman's voice drifted through the open window, languorous and sultry.

"Oh, I cannot, I cannot. It's so very wicked."

A man groaned his answer.

It was Jasper. The lying rake. He swore he'd finished with his mistress, yet here he was indulging himself in wickedness. Fury swept over her. It rose from her aching toes to surround her vitals with the need to lash out.

The woman screamed, a high musical note of pain that repeated down a scale and up it. The man panted in an ever quickening pace.

"Jasper! Jasper!" the woman cried in piercing tones.

The only sound the man uttered was a low rumble as if he hushed her.

Eleanor ran back to the pump. She filled a leather bucket. Water sloshed over her feet as she raced back to the house with it.

The door was unlocked.

She entered and made for the room on the right.

Two figures, their legs entwined, he with his back to her, the female hidden under him, froze when she slammed the door open.

His buttocks clenched. He stopped moving. She could clearly see some of his details.

"Fornicators." Eleanor shouted. "Liar. Enjoy your whore and never trouble me again." She threw the bucket of water at them and followed it with the bucket itself.

The cold water hit Jasper full in the back. The bucket bounced off his head to hit the floor with a thud. He twisted around to look at her.

"Miss Tennant!" shouted an infuriated Duke of Lezarth. "Get out of here this instant."

It wasn't Jasper. What had she done.

Eleanor fled and was halfway up the garden path when she saw the twins heading towards her with their dogs.

She turned round and almost ran into the duke, who had marched outside to kill her, wearing only a sheet to hide his indelicate parts. His chest was not as attractive as Jasper's, she noticed, not that it mattered at all. She fled towards the side of the cottage.

Now she had seen two chests and an assortment of other details. Her knowledge of men was broadening in the worst way.

"Nash! Edward!" shouted the duke, "What in hell's name are you doing here? Go after Miss Tennant. Take her back to Halyton Court and see she doesn't leave it again. Lock her up. She is to speak to no one."

Eleanor's republican sympathies deepened. She contemplated revolution and Dr. Guillotine's invention and thought the French had the right idea. She was making for the stables in hope of finding a mount when the kitchen door opened and she was dragged into the house with someone's hand over her mouth to stop her from crying out.
Chapter 12

Jasper arrived at the cottage to hear the duke shouting to Nash and Edward, who were skulking about among the trees at the edge of the garden. "Disappeared? She can't have just vanished. Set the hounds after her."

"The dogs think she is inside the house," shouted Nash.

"She was there," growled the duke from the shrubbery. "Keep looking."

Good God. What had Lezarth done? Couldn't he be trusted to behave with restraint?

The duke saw him and hurried closer, with a sheet draped around him like a toga. "Jasper. There is only one place Miss Tennant can be. I very much fear she is in there." He pointed to the cottage. "Someone has locked the doors and it can only be that damned woman. She threw a bucket of water at us. My clothes are inside."

"What happened?" Jasper waited for the duke to gather his wits.

Lezarth covered his eyes and gave a deep sigh. "Your Miss Tennant saw me. I have been seen by an innocent making love. I appreciated the cold water as much as I appreciated being called by your name in the height of passion. Your angel heard Prudence crying out as if she were being murdered."

"I warned you she'd do that." Jasper led his brother back to the house.

"You were right. Pru has a beautiful voice. She sings like a siren." Lezarth tried the door. It was locked. "Get one of them to open the door. Miss Tennant will have to be married soon or this tale will go all over the country. If you have not the courage for it, I shall have to do it."

Jasper took a key from his pocket. "I'll escort Miss Tennant back." He did not allow any emotion to show. Calming Lezarth, meant he must quell any reaction to the news Eleanor Tennant had managed to embarrass the duke into offering for her.

"Bring her to my study straight away. She has seen me. I won't give her time to tell her sister. It's one step from her to Lancelot Benedict and the world. And it is rather a shame Miss Tennant can't take precedence over the duchess. I need a wife, Jasper. I can't stand the furtive nature of all this." He waved a hand wildly about him. "She has spirit and a sense of honor that encourages me to trust her."

His angel married to the duke, and left alone for months on end in the vastness of Halyton Court, was the stuff of nightmares. Eleanor, Duchess of Lezarth. A better fate than being Lady Jasper Halyton, with a husband who dared not touch her, unless she agreed to act the whore for him— and never deny him.

"If she marries me," said Lezarth, "her children will inherit. If she takes a lover and gives you bastards, they'd inherit everything if I have no sons." Lezarth hurried inside to find his clothes neatly folded on a chair. "Besides, the woman has seen me fornicating and she must not be allowed to ridicule me."

* * * *

Prudence Merryweather reclined in her bath and gave a naughty smile. "Don't worry, I can't answer the door when I am bathing, it's perfectly safe. Let him knock."

Eleanor perched on a low stool to talk. "Why are you here, Pru? What happened to you?"

"Alas, alack, as Shakespeare would say, my poor father went bankrupt. He has gone to the Americas in the hope of saving his business there. My mother and I were left with nothing. Everything was taken in payment of his debts. I had to earn a living for us somehow."

"Surely not by selling yourself?" Eleanor could scarcely believe her friend was here.

"You have never been poor, Eleanor. Poor is frightening and squalid. If I'd been clever like you, I'd have gone to be a drudge in someone's house to teach their children. I thought I'd sing for my supper, but my voice is not powerful enough. When I auditioned at the opera house, Mrs. Gillie introduced herself and invited me to call on her." Pru lathered a sponge with scented soap. "Such a kind woman, so generous, so helpful."

"Not if she helped you to sell yourself. I think it wrong of you, Pru."

"Mrs. Gillie employs genteel women, like me, to teach her girls how to talk, walk, speak and sing like ladies. She paid me well and never asked me to prostitute myself."

"How can you even say that word. And here you are, Pru. I saw what you were doing." Eleanor blushed and shuddered at the thought.

Pru laughed at her. "Gentlemen go to Mrs. Gillie's house to meet ladies, or females who act like ladies. They go for the concerts, the plays, the dancing. There is something for every taste."

"And then she sells her faux ladies to the highest bidder. Don't tell me more. What does your poor mother think?"

"You must visit her when you are next in town. We lost the house, but Jasper bought me another, smaller but perfectly respectable. Mother lives there now. She is happy to have a roof over her head."

"Are you happy doing this?"

"Yes. Don't look so shocked. I'd rather live in comfort than be at some bad-tempered old lady's beck and call, miserable, without coal for a fire in winter, scorned by the servants and paid a pittance. Jasper was generous. A two-year contract for two thousand pounds. The house is already mine. I get an allowance for clothes and I travel with him, or I would have done if he didn't have to marry you."

"Don't let me interfere with your happiness, I have no intention of marrying your rake." Eleanor gave a careless shrug to hide the little shudders from her nerves.

"Jasper intends to marry you," said Pru. "Besides, he has paid my contract and introduced me to the duke. Eleanor, in two years I shall have an independent fortune as well as owning a home of my own. The duke is sure to be generous. He gave me a diamond necklace and has promised me five thousand pounds for agreeing to let him take Jasper's place. I'd have begged him to have me, but Jasper said to be aloof and let Lezarth persuade me."

Pru sank lower into the water. "You must do whatever Jasper tells you to do,. Obey him and everything will be fair sailing." She rested her head of the rim. "I shall be wealthy. With no man in my life to gamble my fortune away on the 'Change."

"I almost envy you."

"You. Eleanor, you are going to marry Jasper. He is my ideal, if it wasn't for...." Pru stopped, she looked over at Eleanor. "A word of warning in your ear. Don't breathe a word I told you or Jasper might find out. I'd not like to make an enemy of him. Promise me you won't tell him?"

"I promise," said Eleanor. "What is your warning?"

"There is a clause in the contract, if I break it, my money is halved. I had to promise not to fall in love with him."

Eleanor heard footsteps climbing the stairs.

Pru froze and stared brazenly at the door to the dressing room. With a wisp of breath, she mouthed, "Remember, I told you nothing."

Jasper appeared in the doorway.

Eleanor leaped to her feet to block his view of Pru naked. The thought that he had examined at his leisure all her friend had to offer, didn't make her ready to let him think she condoned such behavior.

"Come, Eleanor." A simple command she was loathe to obey. "Please, come with me."

"Very well, but only if the duke has gone. I can never face him again. Not after seeing him naked, ready to murder me." She was no fool. Lezarth had to send her home now. Surely he would send her home rather than think of what she had seen every time they met. Men did not look their best from such an angle.

"Lezarth has gone back to Halyton Court." Jasper spoke with studied calmness. To control his own emotions or hers, she didn't know. "Come with me now, Eleanor." He spoke not one word to Pru, who made not a single splash in her bath.

Eleanor walked towards him. He took her by the arm, not unkindly but with a grip that compelled her to stop shielding Pru.

He looked down at Pru. "You did not meet Eleanor and you do not know one another. Pru, you went to bathe and locked the door accidentally. Eleanor, I found you hiding in the stables."

He pulled her gently to face him. "Eleanor, I know Pru will listen to me, but what of you? If you tell Lezarth you know Pru and spoke to her, there is no telling what he might do. Do I have your agreement to my version of events?"

Eleanor nodded. She had no wish to put Pru's fortune in jeopardy, not when she had risked it to help her. "I agree."

"Come." He led her down the stairs and out a door closest to the stables. "We are in luck. Lezarth sent the servants away for the afternoon." He opened the tack room door and went to the stalls.

Eleanor followed. "Should I tread in some manure?" She deliberately stepped in the dirty straw. She sprinkled some oats from a barrel down her back and tucked clean straw into the neck of her dress. "How do I look?"

He took her hands. The intent look on his face made goose bumps rise on her arms. "You look angelic, astonishingly beautiful, far too good for me."

She freed her hands, glad he didn't try to hold her by force. "Flattery will get you nowhere, for I know I am too good for you."

The drive back to Halyton Court went far too fast. They took Edward with them and left Nash to walk back with the dogs. Both men lightly commented that they had searched the stables and not found her. Edward plucked straw from her hair when he could spare a hand from holding on at the back of the phaeton. He had declined to share the seat lest he squash her.

Luckily, he could do nothing about her shoes. She smelled as though she had spent the afternoon mucking out the stables, not listening to how a fallen woman was rewarded for her favors. Two thousand pounds. A fortune, indeed. At fifty pounds a year, it would take 40 years to earn that amount.

Could Eleanor truly fault Pru, or dismiss her friend as lost to the world? After two short years, who knew or cared how the money was earned? Pru had a home of her own and money to run it. She could take in boarders or rent it for the season. Pru would be free.

They entered Halyton Court by the front door. Eleanor tried to slink away to the duchess's wing.

"No, Eleanor, the duke begs an interview with you." Jasper held open a door leading to the duke's rooms. "He is waiting for you in his study."

Drat the man. Whatever the duke wanted, she didn't want to hear it. "I won't see him alone."

"Lezarth wants to talk to you." Jasper wore his cold, mask-like face. He probably thought the duke was going to kill her and rid him of an inconvenient female. A foolish thought, everyone knew she was there, but she still didn't want to face him alone.

She was sure to be raked over the coals. A wave of rebellion rushed over her. She was not the one caught fornicating. He was the sinner, and if she hadn't found Jasper and saved his life, she'd not be a sinner at all.

"I won't go in there." What if the dratted duke has not finished his fornication and wanted to finish with her, to punish her?

"You must." His cool air of command irritated her nerves.

There were no footmen about, though they usually littered the great house. She asked, "Will you wait outside?" When he hesitated, she glared at him. "Remember, I saved your life."

"Yes, I will wait for you." He looked unhappy about it.

"What use are you? You are loyal to him. You'd not interfere if he kills me." She grabbed his wrist to stop him from opening the door. "Is he noddy-headed?"

"Poor Miss Tennant," he said in sympathetic tones. "Do you feel as if you are caught between two zanies?" He ignored her grasping fingers. He could have been a statue for all the effect she had on him.

"You don't count. I prefer you that way. It's the duke I don't like at all."

"Go in and listen to him," he urged. "Lezarth won't touch you."

"How can you know that? I interrupted him ... his ... it." Eleanor gave up trying to describe the act. Her mind recoiled at the dangling round parts. "Has he sent the footmen away, so he can murder me in private?"

He lost his air of calm control to give an amused smile. "If it came to a fight, you'd win— he has no science at all."

The smile did strange things to her insides. She let go of his wrist. "Wait outside. Promise."

A warm finger brushed her cheek. "I promise to assist you, if it costs me my life."

"If you break your word, I'll have you tied to the tallest tree in the park, with a horseshoe necklace round your neck, during a thunderstorm." She gave him a haughty look. "There is more than one way to conjure lightning."

The rake laughed under his breath. "I promise, Eleanor."

She raised her chin. "I'm ready."

"There is no need to make war unless he fires the first salvo."

"I intend to fire first." She clenched her fists ready to strike, if the duke got within range.

"Listen to me. It will be to your advantage to hear him out before firing. You can take aim while he talks." Jasper opened the door.

"Miss Tennant is here, Lezarth. I found her hiding in the stables." A firm hand in the middle of her back propelled her into the room.

The door closed behind her.
Chapter 13

The duke rose to his feet. He removed his spectacles and placed them with precision on a pile of books. Eleanor remained by the door, standing on the polished wood surrounding a pale cream and green carpet bigger than her entire house.

The windows showed a view of the gardens with a distant purple haze of moorland in the distance. Bookcases covered the walls. Ammunition, if she had need of it. If she had to pelt him with books and shriek to save herself, she intended to do it.

His voice was quiet, his tone apologetic, "My dear Miss Tennant, I must offer my most humble apologies for what you suffered today. The sight ... the act ... the unfortunate event that frightened you into fleeing ... my unfortunate reaction to the shock."

The duke paused to wipe his brow. "I am sorry if I frightened you. I should not have shouted at you. A gentleman must never injure an innocent by...." The duke gave a great sigh. "Miss Tennant, I offer you my hand in marriage, if you'd be so good as to accept me."

That he was making fun of her crossed her mind, except he looked upset at the thought of marrying her.

She smothered nervous laughter. Two Halytons had proposed to her and they'd both worn the same expression of distaste. Drat them both.

It would serve him right if she accepted him. She'd be a duchess, live in luxury, and have to let the duke make love to her. Eleanor thought of his clenching buttocks, of Pru calling out for Jasper. Was he hurting her? Was it passion or only pain? To have to share the duke's bed, bear his children, live in this enormous house and run none of it, own none of it. Just be some kind of upper servant he used when he felt like it, and abused and neglected the rest of the time.

The queen might want her to dance attendance at court. Eleanor had no wish to murder the queen, but she'd heard the lady's temper drove her daughters to distraction, until they had begged the Prince Regent to save them.

Eleanor gave a shudder. She'd rather live with her grandmother in Scotland.

"No, thank you," she said.

He stared at her as if she'd suddenly grown two heads. "I asked you to marry me," he said slowly, enunciating every word.

"I know," she replied. "I decline. Thank you for offering."

His eyebrows shot up with comical haste.

Before nervous laughter could betray her, Eleanor struggled to open the door.

"Stay. I did not give you permission to leave." The duke waved her to a seat. "Sit down. There is no need to run away. I shall stay over here."

He perched on the windowsill.

Eleanor sat on the chair nearest the door.

"You shall have a thousand pounds a month pin money. If you gamble it away, don't come to me for more. Your bills for clothing and charities, your essential expenses, will be paid from your pin money. If you run into debt, it will be managed for you. The house is not your concern, though you will live here. You give orders only for your wing and only through Jasper. Ask him if you want to make changes."

"Very generous, Lezarth, but I still decline." The duke intended to leave her with Jasper as her keeper. Jasper. The man he thought had ravished her. How did that help her? How would that make her life easier to bear? To live with his details known to her.

"You will live in London for two months of the Season," said the duke. "Perhaps more, if you don't displease me by your behavior there."

"No, I thank you." She had only to maintain her reputation to be able to live with her grandmother in Scotland or if she had to earn her living, she'd be a teacher, under an assumed name.

"What more can you want?" he asked.

"I am not negotiating for more." Eleanor didn't enjoy his expression of disbelief. "I see no reason why you should want to marry me, other than to keep me from talking about what I have seen. I assure you this is the last time I shall mention it, I just want to say I have forgotten it." She couldn't suppress a shudder.

"I don't believe you. Tell me what you want."

"Gladly. I want a home of my own, a husband I can love, who loves me. If I cannot have love then I must have friendship, loyalty and compassion. Lezarth, you can't offer me any of those. Not even the first, the easiest, a home of my own."

"Are you in love with Jasper?" he asked with suspicion.

She should have saved her breath, from his lofty position he understood nothing of what she needed to be happy.

"No, I detest all of you." She gave a simpering smile. How dare he think she was such a simpleton. Love a rake? Not she.

"Then let me make your choice clear, Miss Tennant. I ask you to choose between us. You will marry one of us in three days time. Think carefully, you can be a duchess and take precedence over everyone here except me, or you can be Jasper's wife and the duchess's companion."

He was really very clever. Eleanor paused to give him the impression she was thinking about it. "What of your other brothers, Lezarth, may I chose to marry one of them?"

He leapt to his feet to clutch the back of the chair by his desk.

She'd struck a blow she hoped was mortal.

"Whom do you choose?" he asked in ghastly tones.

Eleanor gave a dainty half shrug and pouted like her sister. "You can't expect me to decide now, let me think about it."

He strode around the desk towards her. "His name must be on the special license. Choose now, Miss Tennant."

She rose to her feet, unsure of the duke's temper. For a moment she regretted toying with him. Self-preservation made her rise, before he reached her. She held her chair out in front of her to ward him off.

"Do you really fear me?" he asked.

Eleanor poked the chair legs at him instead of answering. She knew all about the method the Dukes of Lezarth used to claim their brides. "Keep back."

"Put it down and go, Miss Tennant. I have my answer. You will marry Jasper." He bowed curtly and muttered under his breath. "They always love Jasper. Damn me, if I know how he does it." In a stern voice, he commanded, "You will go to your room and wait there until you are called to your wedding."

"I want my sister to share my wedding day. Juliet and Mr. Benedict must marry then, or I shall not do it." Eleanor waited until he nodded. Once Juliet was safely wed to the man she loved, Eleanor intended to make every Halyton rue the day they'd met her.

She fled the study. It had taken both her shaky hands to open the door. She closed it after her and held it shut.

A shadow moved across the wall. Jasper stood waiting to be her jailer. He didn't care if she married the duke or him. It made no difference to the role he played. Jailer for life. He was going to feel her teeth very soon.

He blocked her escape. She poked at his chest to get him to move out of the way. It felt good under her fingers. His chest invited her to linger there. She poked him a little higher, then a little lower.

The rakehell caught the tips of her fingers to stop her. He said gently with so much sympathy in his voice, she'd have wept on his chest if she wasn't so furious, "You really are an angel, aren't you? What have I done to you? I should burn in hell for eternity."

She pulled her hand away. "You did nothing. Nothing." She resisted the urge to tell him everything. "I am sent to my room to wait for the wedding." Now the danger of being ravished by the Duke of Lezarth was over, tears were a blink away from spilling down her cheeks.

"If only those were tears of joy." He tilted her chin so he could see her face. "Do I offer my best wishes for your future happiness?" At least he managed to look sad, not relieved. His manners were perfect.

"Certainly." Eleanor limited herself to a one-word answer. It was all she could manage without breaking down. She refused to weep on him.

"Don't marry him if you can't love him, Eleanor. He has had one disastrous marriage. Don't marry him unless you intend to try to find happiness with him."

She sniffed and gave a nasty leer. "Happiness?"

He gave her his handkerchief. "Let's go somewhere we can talk."

She blew her nose and let him lead her away from the duke's study. The urge to strike a blow for freedom, for vengeance against all who conspired to marry her, or force her to marry, made her simmer with rage.

They met Richard coming out of the library with a book in his hand. "Miss Tennant, how fortunate. I have _Pride and Prejudice_ for you."

Eleanor took the proffered book. She opened it to the last few pages and ripped them out one by one.

Richard stared at her aghast.

"Elizabeth doesn't deserve that awful, arrogant, nasty Mr. Darcy. There and there." She ripped out some more pages and flung them on the floor with the book. "I've set her free to marry a man worthy of her."

She marched away.

The rake lengthened his stride to keep pace with her. A touch on her elbow directed her towards the duchess's wing.

Eleanor slowed when she recognized the gallery leading to the hall. She glanced up at him. "I'd rather live in Bedlam. He'll be sorry."

Jasper gave a sad, half smile. "Did you accept Lezarth just to torment him for the rest of his life?"

"Yes, it was simply too tempting to resist." She slowed to a walk. "If I married you, could I live in your house, not here?"

"No." Never there, she'd not be safe, not when he knew where she was, alone and unprotected. "I must live here and you must live with Lezarth." He hesitated. "He'll give you children, Eleanor." He hated the thought. "You will live in the duchess's wing until Lezarth finds he cannot live without you. Soon, you'll visit here only in the summer."

She blurted out, "A fate worse than death." She tried not to think of the duke naked.

He said softly, "I am sorry if you think so."

"Why don't you marry Pru?" she asked, to annoy him. Let him find out he was her bridegroom and be surprised.

He took her arm to stop her from walking on. "Never mention her name here. I offered the lady a contract. She accepted and has no complaints."

"Then you sold her to your brother."

"I gave her a house and paid her contract in full. There was no need for her take on Lezarth. That touching scene you witnessed on the bridge was her begging me for the introduction. Not many women refuse a duke— they have so much to offer."

"I wish I had the same chance she had. Why don't you offer me a contract?"

"Why do you want one?"

"Because she had the right to refuse it." Eleanor pulled away.

"Don't run off. Lezarth will be generous, just don't make him miserable because you hate me."

She turned to face him so fast he almost walked into her. "Don't tell me what to do. I hate you both."

"Now you are going to be a duchess, is it a just reward for saving my life, my angel?" His hand stroked between her shoulder blades.

She pushed him away. She knew her traitorous body wanted to lean into him, to feel his body pressed against hers, and she was not going to allow it to indulge its misbegotten fantasies.

She ran across the hall.

If she couldn't attract Archibald Winthrop's interest, then she'd never get this mad rake to love her. She'd be like the unhappy duchess— a prisoner for the rest of her life.

Colin Lumm opened the door to the duchess's wing with a look of sympathy on his face.

Eleanor entered with thoughts of clenching buttocks, marriage and duty, Jasper and Lezarth. She intended to plot her revenge and their humiliation in the days leading up to the wedding.

The door closed behind her. She deliberately knocked over a beautiful vase filled with blossoms. It smashed with a satisfying noise.

Not the least bit sedate.
Chapter 14

Jasper entered Lezarth's study. "Miss Tennant is in the duchess's wing. Was it necessary to forbid her to go out? Don't we have enough people who can watch her?"

The duke didn't answer, he stared out the window.

Jasper asked, "What happened?"

Lezarth gave a hurt shrug. "She refused me."

His angel had refused to marry Lezarth.

Jasper felt as if her wings beat inside his chest. She'd refused to be a duchess. His soul rejoiced, his angel was not tainted by worldly considerations.

"When is the ceremony?" he asked.

Strange, how elated he felt.

"In three days. Have the duchess invite enough to fill St George's. Make sure the Tennant family is here only on the day. They are not to see her until she enters the church on my arm."

"Shouldn't her father give her away?" Not that it mattered. Miss Tennant meant to blast him with a thunderbolt in front of the altar.

"He suffers from the gout," said Lezarth. "Do you really think he'll dispute the honor with me?"

"No. Perhaps a private ceremony would be better. What if she refuses to marry me?" Jasper wasn't afraid of the humiliation. Gossip was spreading through the servants, from house to house. Enough lies and guesses to taint her forever.

"Refuse you? She is in love with you. Heaven only knows why."

"Did she tell you that, Lezarth?" asked Jasper, knowing it was impossible. Unless she loved him when he was out of his mind.

"Miss Tennant didn't have to tell me— she refused to marry me. Asked me if she could have her pick of my brothers."

"That hardly says she wants to marry me."

"No? Do you really think she wants to marry Nash? I've seen her flirting with him to discomfort him. Thought she was worth marrying just for that. And the way she brought Archibald Winthrop here, not the least afraid of any of us. Ready to tweak our noses and laugh at us. I have to admit the duchess hasn't been half so annoying, now she spends all her time with her Archie." Lezarth invited him to sit with a wave of his hand. "Miss Tennant is amusing, clever and kind. She'd make a notable duchess, but I could not persuade her of it."

"She doesn't deserve me. We both know it."

"Every time your angel looked at me, I could see her shudder at the thought of my naked backside. She probably thinks I was murdering Pru. Explain it, when you get the chance." He sank into his chair with a doleful air. "Why do they all prefer you to me?"

"Miss Tennant thinks I am easier to jilt."

Lezarth gave half a laugh. "You know how to excite her, I saw you do it. Nash and Edward are probably stroking shoulder blades now and hoping for the same effect." He said sternly, "You cannot be alone with her, Jasper. Marry her and get her to agree, or tell her to beware."

"A difficult task. Eleanor will ask, why. I can't explain without disclosing the truth. Do you think the truth will help persuade her, Lezarth?"

"You must tell her why in a gentle way," said Lezarth. "Don't tell her the whole truth."

"We should let her go free. Quell all the gossip we can, and help her find the kind of husband she wants." Jasper was weary of arguing. How could he explain what he had done all those years ago when he'd been in the devil's grip.

"Impossible!" snapped the duke. "Lancelot Benedict was here complaining about how long it was taking for you to marry her. He is stupid enough to publicly challenge you to a duel."

Jasper didn't want to hear it. In the end, it would all come out. The whole sordid story. "Set her free, Lezarth. I can persuade Lancelot it is not worth his while to pursue me."

The duke leaned towards him. "If you have another attack, you will search for your angel. Who would protect her from you? Here, there are people to protect her."

"I am not a monster. It happened once. Once." Fear slid down his back. He offered his life to keep his angel safe, "I consent to be treated, before I marry her. Pretend I have a brain fever."

"Treat you. Not unless it happens again. The treatment nearly killed you. All you need to do is-"

"Hellfire!" interrupted Jasper. "Don't ask me to make her fall in love with me— she only likes me insane. If I'd kissed her as myself, she'd have throttled me."

"They always fall in love with you."

"Your wife did not love me. She only wanted to make you jealous."

"I am not a complete idiot, Jasper. Your angel is not immune to you." He gave a heartfelt sigh. "She is lovely. As Uncle George says all eyes and bosom. She quite takes my breath away. You know, she does look like an angel should."

Jasper changed the subject before it drove him mad. "Miss Juliet is supposed to be the beauty of the family."

Lezarth waved a dismissive hand. "A piece of pretty fluff. Lancelot is welcome to her."

"I'm sure he's glad you think so." Jasper poured two glasses of brandy. "If I must marry, I'd like to take Eleanor traveling, away from Halyton Court. Amelia told me she has never seen the sea. I thought I'd take her first to the house near Lyme."

His brother suddenly became the duke again. "I cannot allow it. What if you have another attack?"

Jasper forced himself to speak casually, "I shall take my physician with me, as I always do when I travel, and I'd take all the usual precautions. There'd be no sharing of bedchambers. Lancelot can bring Miss Juliet, so Eleanor won't feel isolated with me." He drummed his fingers on Lezarth's desk. "If you fear so much for her safety, then you must set her free."

"Get a special license for Lancelot. Your angel refuses to marry without her sister. It will look strange if you don't take a wedding trip. That is the only reason I agree to it. Scandal must be avoided at all cost. Richard and the twins go with you, in case you have an attack. I'd rather they were with you. Veryan stays here to look after his mother and Amelia."

"As you wish, Lezarth. If I may just remind you, I'd not had an attack in years. And I've not had one since that night on the moor."

Lezarth didn't listen. "The only reason I allow you a honeymoon trip is to give you time to get her under your control."

"Can angels be controlled?" A honeymoon from hell, with a bride he dared not touch. "If it happens again, I'll come down with something infectious and have to be taken home to be quarantined."

"Don't tell her the whole truth. She must never find out about the first time," warned Lezarth. "That attack lasted for a year, on and off. We just didn't tell you, after you'd recovered, how many times you'd been off your head. You kept trying to go after Mrs. Hardcastle. Father had to lock you up to stop you."

* * * *

Eleanor allowed them to dress her in bridal attire of pale blue silk. She carried her mother's gift, a bouquet of flowers from the garden, but she had not been allowed to see her parents. She knew why and despised every inmate at the great house, with the sole exception of Amelia.

The duke went with her to St. George in the Woad, with Amelia, a subdued bridesmaid not daring to speak, just darting glances from one to the other. Juliet perched stunned next to her. They had broken the news of Juliet's nuptials to her only yesterday evening. As if it mattered not at all if her sister had any warning.

They behaved like tyrants. But then, Juliet was in love. She sat in a happy trance clutching her flowers.

The church was filled with relatives of the noble Halyton family. They rose as one when Eleanor entered on the duke's arm.

In a strange flurry, her mother interrupted the procession to embrace her. Something was pressed into Eleanor's hand.

She hid it in her bouquet beneath the circling leaves while her mother kissed her and fussed. Her father limped the few steps to reclaim his wife. "Leave her, Mrs. Tennant, she is no longer ours. We can't keep the duke waiting."

Eleanor reached the front and promptly fainted at Jasper's feet. No amount of coaxing persuaded her to come to, until the physician wafted some noxious substance under her nose. She'd no need to simulate tears— they coursed down her cheeks from the awful smell.

"No. No." She wept and clung to the duke's sleeve, before clutching Jasper's cravat. "I can't be first. I won't be first."

"Do you want Miss Juliet to marry first?" the wicked rake asked, as if he cared. He was all tender sensibilities on the surface and underneath he was so mired in guilt, he had no pity left for her.

She watched Juliet marry Lancelot from the first pew, imprisoned between the duke and Jasper. Richard was best man. Nothing unseemly happened. Two people very much in love said their vows with heartfelt tremors in their voices, with love and devotion, meaning every word.

Eleanor gave a sigh of relief. She had not ruined Juliet's chance for happiness. The duchess could not forbid the match. They were married.

Eleanor clutched Jasper's hand in triumph. "I am so happy for them."

"It's our turn. Can you be happy for us, Eleanor?"

"In truth, I feel very sad for you. Has humiliation ever killed a man?" she asked.

He gave a low laugh. "Am I about to find out, my angel?"

"Only time will tell." She let him lead her towards Archibald Winthrop, resplendent in robes embroidered in gold and silver.

She gave the rector a wintry smile.

When he got to the vows, Eleanor said as loudly as she could in her avenging angel voice, "I have changed my mind. Forgive me, Jasper, we would not suit."

Before she could dart away, Lezarth, grabbed her arm. "We shall retire to the vestry until you have calmed your nerves."

The duchess rose to her feet. "I forbid you to bully her. God help her, you wicked man." She smacked Veryan when he tried to restrain her. "Let go. You are just like your father."

"Ma'am, don't distress yourself." The mad rake wore his innocent face. "Miss Tennant is going to the vestry with me."

He pried Lezarth's hand from Eleanor's arm. "Let go of her, Lezarth. Miss Tennant just has cold feet. Who can blame her? Come, my dear." He held out his arm.

Eleanor darted past him and ran up the aisle towards the doors.

Lezarth bellowed, "Lock the doors. Guard them."

Nash and Edward blocked her way. She rushed sideways to run down the aisle towards the baptismal font, still clutching her flowers and the note from her mother.

An open door down the apse offered a safe refuge. She scrambled into the room and slammed the door shut.

Drat the man. Her reluctant bridegroom was waiting behind the door.

Jasper shot the bolt. "What now, Eleanor? Do you realize you are totally ruined, if you don't leave this church married to me?"

"I'd rather be ruined than marry you." She put the desk between them, afraid he'd try to catch her. She took the note and threw her bouquet at him.

He caught it to place it on the desk. "Sensible female. How are you going to escape? Climb out the window?" He offered her a chair to stand on, and even opened the window.

It was only a short drop to the lawn outside. Eleanor scrambled out.

To her dismay, he joined her on the grass and helped her up. He watched while she hid the note from her mother in the bosom of her dress.

"Where to now?" he asked.

"Go away. I am trying to escape from you." Annoying man. She ran across the lawn.

He followed with long strides, easily keeping pace with her. "Admit you have no chance to escape, my angel, unless I help you." He sounded so reasonable she was sorely tempted to hit him.

"How can you help me to escape from you, if you are with me? I don't want anything to do with you— and I am not your angel." She glared at him. "Are you out of your mind? Get away from me."

"Listen. They are trying the door. Lezarth will send someone round to look in the window."

She ran for her life. He followed at her heels.

"Let's steal your parent's gig." He chivvied her round till they were on the other side of the hedge.

"Stop telling me what to do." She let him boost her into the seat. "Go away."

There was Colin Lumm, waiting for her behind the monument to Lezarth's duchess. She carefully did not betray him by glancing his way again.

Jasper retrieved the reins. "No, you shall not have them." The gig rocked under his weight as he climbed in. "I'll drive. Where are we going? Command me, I am here to do your bidding."

"Your house," she ordered, in a voice loud enough to heard by Colin in the graveyard. "They'll never think to find me there."

Inside the church, the vestry door opened.

Nash beckoned. "Lezarth. Jasper asks if you'd mind if they married in the vestry. Miss Tennant has been overcome with nerves."
Chapter 15

Pru's mother led Eleanor into the modest parlor of her London home. A plump, matronly woman was already seated, sipping tea from a fine china dish.

Colin Lumm had been left in the kitchen with a large pork pie and a tankard of ale, pleased with his triumph over a lord.

Poor Jasper had suffered his second humiliation of the day, when she'd escaped from his old Jacobean warren of a house to meet Colin at the gates.

Mrs. Merryweather introduced Eleanor to her other guest. "Mrs. Gillie, this is a friend of Pru's, Miss Eleanor Tennant. Eleanor, how fortunate you called just when Mrs. Gillie came to tell me Pru's had a promotion. Fancy that."

Eleanor wondered just how Mrs. Gillie was going to explain Pru's promotion to duke's mistress. She shook hands and was obliged to sit on the sofa next to the procuress.

When Pru's mother went for another cup and saucer, Mrs. Gillie said, "If you will forgive an old lady for meddling, my dear. Pru sent me a note explaining what had happened. If you need my help, I'll do my best to assist you."

At Eleanor's shocked look, Mrs. Gillie smiled. "Now don't take offense, Miss Tennant. I help every female who needs it and not in the way you think. I've been friendless on the streets of London in my youth and very frightening it is. I employ teachers for my young ladies. Pru taught singing."

Mrs. Gillie raised her voice to include Pru's mother in the conversation. "What a beautiful voice, Mrs. Merryweather. I was just telling Miss Tennant what a lovely voice your daughter has. Goodness, now she is singing for a duke. What a prestigious promotion, to be sure. But we must not boast about it, no indeed. It's just temporary. We will have to wait a few weeks to see how it goes."

"Yes, Mrs. Gillie, it is kind of you to call to tell me," said Mrs. Merryweather. "What a coincidence that you should both be here at the same time. Now where did I put that teaspoon? Goodness, I forgot to get one from the kitchen." She got up and wandered away still talking to herself. "So kind of them to call. What would Mr. Merryweather say? Right kind, he'd say. Right kind of them to remember me."

Mrs. Gillie lost no time in turning to Eleanor. "No one has ever left my house to take a job she didn't agree to take, and gladly. I have a reputation to keep for selecting the right man for my girls, and the right girl for the man. There is no goings on in my house, Eleanor, none at all. The men come to hear a concert or a poetry reading. The girls dress up like people in the poems or they sing opera in costume. Lovely costumes we have. Nothing too scanty, nothing a lady wouldn't wear. Can you sing?"

"No, I am not looking for employment," said Eleanor firmly. "I am just waiting here until it is time to go."

"Pity. No one has ever taken one of my girls out of my house by force."

"Tomorrow morning, I take the mail coach to visit relatives in Cornwall," Eleanor lied with a smile on her face.

The old lady laughed under her breath. "You'll never get there, my dear. I heard you jilted Jasper, and the duke is furious. I don't know how you got here, but I'd lay odds the Halyton Horde is racing after you. There is no knowing what they'll do when they find you." She cocked her head to listen for a knock on the door.

Eleanor said dryly, "They are not here yet."

"The mail coach and stage coach are the first places they'll look. You are so distinctive, if you don't mind me saying so. Such lovely eyes and a figure to match. Quite fetching. Your deportment is exquisite, and your voice is refined with a dash of something that must drive men to _madness_."

"What did you say?" Eleanor recoiled from the woman.

"Oh, there are no secrets from me, my dear. I know everything and tell nothing, that's the secret to my success." Mrs. Gillie nodded with every indication of wisdom. "Mark my words, they'll be here soon. Some of the Horde will have searched your home for you, others will be here, sent by Pru if she is clever."

"If she is a traitor to our friendship," snapped Eleanor.

"Be fair, my dear, she gave you a place to run to, and my name, I have no doubt. She sent me a note to look for you here, to help you. Isn't that a mark of friendship? If she must now throw her lot in with Lezarth and tell him where you are, it's only self-preservation. It is never wise to make an enemy of a duke, especially not one you want things from. I expect Pru will retire with a fortune in short order. A very clever gal."

Eleanor tried not to let the warning about the Horde chasing after her make her witless. "Why do they care enough to stop me? Jasper is glad to be rid of me."

"You have a choice to make, Eleanor. You can stay here to be caught, with no say in what they do to you— if I were you, I'd hope to be caught by Lord Jasper rather than by the duke— or you can come with me to my school for young ladies, where you will be employed as a teacher." Mrs. Gillie smiled kindly as she offered Eleanor a home in a brothel. "No one leaves my school without their consent and a signed contract. You'd be safe there. Or you can wander the streets of London, an outcast with no one to call a friend. By dawn you will likely be floating in the Thames, or up for auction in a brothel. The highest bidder will take your virginity and the rest will watch for a fee."

"You are trying to frighten me."

"To warn you, my dear. What I say is the truth. London is a dangerous city for pretty girls out after dark without an escort."

"Then I shall stay here and trust my luck with Jasper."

"Unless it is Lezarth who arrives first? Shall we wait and see? Even Lord Jasper cannot disobey the duke. No Halyton would dare take you from my house, my dear. Not even Lezarth himself."
Chapter 16

Juliet clung to her husband's arm in the noisy bustle of a busy posting inn. Lamps illuminated the dusk and attracted fluttering moths. "Why do we have to stay here for our first night together? Eleanor cannot afford the fare, even if she wanted to go to Scotland. It is far more likely she is hiding at Mrs. Lumm's or the Squire's house."

"Hush, my love. We must pretend they are married. Edward and Nash are to discreetly search the coaches, pretending they are looking for a friend. You have to be your sister's chaperone, if they find her."

"Come inside with me, Lancie. We have not had a moment alone since we were married." Juliet blinked away tears.

"We shall go in to dine as soon as the stage coach arrives. There, there, my own wife." He gave a groan of happiness and squeezed her fingers. "How sweet those words are.

"Do you suppose she is safe somewhere? I am so worried about her." Juliet sniffed mournfully. "Mama did not believe the duke when he said Eleanor was married in the vestry. Even the glimpse of Jasper going off with his bride, didn't convince her. It was the first time I saw her quarrel with papa.

A horn blasted through the night air. The coach rumbled through the narrow opening. Lancie gave her hand a squeeze. "Stay here, my love, I must go to help."

Juliet watched Nash search the coach after the passengers had alighted to seek relief for aching limbs and empty stomachs. Eleanor wasn't among them or hiding inside. No, she'd have more sense, unless her sister was so scared she wasn't thinking.

Juliet sniffed into her handkerchief.

Lancie returned with the Halyton brothers.

Nash leered at her before offering his arm to escort her inside. "Your sister is not there. We wait here tonight and check the morning coaches from London. If she is not on one of them, we are to continue up the Great North Road in easy stages, in case she's trying to drive there in your father's gig."

Juliet did not relish sharing the evening of her wedding day with the Halyton Horde and their strange sense of humor.

Hours later she lay in bed and waited for her husband to come to her. Supper had been a nightmare of jokes she didn't understand from Nash and Edward. They were both wicked. They had sent her to bed hours ago with the promise of delivering her husband to her, after they had drunk a toast to him.

There was a great fumbling with the lock.

Lancie opened the door to stumble into the room.

"Hush, must lock the door," He whispered to himself as he locked, relocked and jiggled the door handle. "Don't wake her."

"I am awake." The brandy fumes told her where he was in the darkness. "Are you awfully drunk?"

"Not awfully, just a trifle. Where are you?"

"In bed. Do come join me, I've been so lonely without you."

"Where is the bed?"

A scraping sound followed by an oath told her he had found a chair.

"I'm here, Lancie. I'm over here."

He edged towards her. "I love you so very much. Very, very much." He fell upon the bed, which gave a loud squeak of protest. "Very, very, much." He crawled up the mattress towards her with the bed squeaking under him.

Someone knocked on the wall next to them. Nash's voice called out, "Keep it down in there, I'm trying to sleep."

"Oh no, Lancie," whispered Juliet, "they are in the next room listening. Whatever are we going to do?"

Only the sound of snoring answered her.

* * * *

Eleanor received the message from the boot-boy. She gave him a shilling to thank him and to keep it private, just between them.

Mrs. Gillie's large house had very little frontage, and very few callers. A prettily decorated private area and a lane at the back, were convenient for visitors. An ivy covered portico screened the door, which no man had entered in the time she had been there.

A smart carriage halted outside. It bore no markings, and the coachman didn't wear Lezarth's colors. The horses steamed in the cool morning air. A male visitor stepped down. Jasper. She felt a frisson of fear and an even larger wish to do battle. The days of waiting had done nothing to ease her mind.

Mrs. Gillie's voice called a greeting. Jasper's voice answered, cool and clipped, with nothing of his usual pretense of control and good manners. A bell rang and all the interior doors closed.

Eleanor was not surprised, the rules were strict. No one spoke to a man without an invitation from Mrs. Gillie. Many of the women were quite nervous, unsuited for the life they had chosen. More than three-quarters of them were teachers. Far more teachers than pupils.

A strange way to run a brothel.

She closed the door into the hallway.

Jasper let Mrs. Gillie lead him into her office.

"Do sit down, my lord." She shut the door. "Quite a beauty, isn't she? Not more than fine at first glance. Not showy. A spirited lady with such speaking eyes."

"Haunting," he said dryly. "Miss Tennant must leave with me, tomorrow at the latest. If not, I'll invade the place and take her off by force."

"My lord— " protested Mrs. Gillie.

He interrupted, "It's far too dangerous for her to be here. I must remove her for her own good."

She smiled at him to placate him. "The good news is, your lady's temper has cooled. Three days was long enough to convince her she dislikes being homeless. If you negotiate a contract with her— "

"A contract? Mrs. Gillie, she belongs to me. The whole world thinks we are on a honeymoon tour. I must make this right, and to do that I must be with her."

"Most unpleasant for you, I'm sure," said Mrs. Gillie. She made comforting sounds. "Dreadful for you." She shook her head. "Awful."

"Glad I amuse you." He could see the humor in his predicament. The one woman he needed to be with, was the one he most emphatically didn't want to be near. He'd avoided her, as he avoided all women in society. After proposing to her, he'd never met her of his own free will. He'd approached because he must, carefully hidden behind a cool mask, not wanting to encourage the reckless hope that rose in him at the sound of her voice.

"My lord, you have a problem. So do I, Miss Tennant has been promised a safe haven." She gave him a determined look. "I can't ask her to trust you and submit to you. There is no amount of money that'd tempt her to do it. She'd not sign that kind of a contract, but that doesn't mean she cannot be tempted with the right offer. Let me get her in to tell you what she wants."

He blocked her way to the door. "I feel obsessed. I have never felt this way before, not even when...."

"When it happened the first time?"

"Yes. I had barely noticed her. Afterwards, I only wished myself dead, thought myself not worthy to live."

"Lord Jasper, you are perfectly safe with my girls. I've had more broken hearts where you are concerned than any other man. Except perhaps Lezarth, and then they only want to be a duke's mistress."

Her attempt to console him only made him more determined to rescue Miss Tennant. "I warn you, I cannot leave her here. Did you manage to keep the newspapers from her?"

"Not a peep of news in this house since Eleanor arrived. Now, my lord, I have a simple answer for you, you've heard it before, I say it to all gentlemen who wish to take a lady from my house. Negotiate a contract."

"I have offered house, fortune, and freedom from my presence. What more can I offer?"

"Let's get her in to tell us what you must offer to tempt her to go with you. And if I may suggest, my lord, that you allow me to ask you a question or two? All you have to do is answer truthfully."

"Hellfire!" The truth was not his friend. He nodded his agreement. If it all went wrong, he'd kidnap his angel and take her off by force.

Mrs. Gillie went to call Miss Tennant to the bargaining table.

Jasper stared out of the rain-streaked window. It was hopeless. Yet still he held Lezarth back by false promises, by lies and deceit.

Miss Tennant entered the room. A chair scraped on the polished wood floor. Mrs. Gillie sat beside her, as she always did when negotiating. He stood near the window, unwilling to move nearer.

"Well," said Mrs. Gillie, "here we are together at last."

His angel gave a disdainful sniff. "I have no wish to be together. What do you want, Lord Jasper?"

Mrs. Gillie held up a hand to stop him from answering. "As usual, I shall start the contract negotiations. Lord Jasper wants to take you from my house as he feels it is ruinous to your reputation. Miss Tennant wishes to stay because she thinks she is already ruined in the eyes of society. Lord Jasper agrees and wants to right this by marriage. Isn't that so?" she asked.

He nodded his agreement.

His angel answered, "I have no wish to marry him."

Mrs. Gillie waited to make sure that was all the answer vouchsafed them. "A good start, Miss Tennant. You have refused the first offer, but you must always counter his offer with one of your own. Say what you want from him."

"But I don't want anything from him, except for him to leave me alone." Eleanor looked puzzled. "I refuse to negotiate a contract with him."

"Then let me ask Lord Jasper a question for you." Mrs. Gillie gave him a warning glance. "My lord, if Miss Tennant had been one of my girls and you'd met her here, would you have offered her a contract?"

"No." The word was out of his mouth before his mind had time to think.

Eleanor grabbed the ink pot to hurl at him.

Quickly, Mrs. Gillie took it from her. "Never throw things with liquid in them, my dear. The object goes and the liquid stays to drench the thrower." With a calm air, she asked him, "Why not, my lord? Why did you say _no_?"

He approached his angel. She refused to look at him. Her body shivered and her breathing was much too fast. "Eleanor, I'd never have offered you a contract. You are far too dangerous to my peace of mind." She looked at him to see if he joked. He let her read the truth on his face.

"My dear," said Mrs. Gillie, "tell him what you really want. What is your heart's desire? What can Lord Jasper give you, or do for you, to make you happy?"

"He can stop trying to force me to marry him." His angel took a shaky breath. "My heart's desire is to go to Scotland to live with my grandmother."

Jasper stood up. "I offer ten thousand pounds a year, a home of your own, marriage and freedom from me."

His angel reacted as if he'd struck her. "Never."

Mrs. Gillie said in her cheerful way, "Miss Tennant, are we forgetting the rules? Tell us what you want that has nothing to do with Lord Jasper. Tell us what you wanted before you met him. What was your heart's desire?"

His angel took a shuddering breath. "Children, a happy hearth, companionship and love."

"A charming, if ordinary, heart's desire," said Mrs. Gillie. "As I see it, Lord Jasper has offered you everything but the children, companionship and love."

"He is incapable of offering them."

Mrs. Gillie laughed. "Surely you don't think him incapable of fathering children?"

His angel glared at them both with a heat on her cheeks from the indelicate subject. "I am incapable of accepting that particular gift unless companionship and love are also offered. Tell me, Lord Jasper, would you welcome my adoration?" She simpered at him to mock him.

He said truthfully, "I adore you."

"That leaves only companionship and children," said Mrs. Gillie.

Eleanor itched to slap him. If he turned into an adoring rake, she never be able to resist him. Her body was doing the most embarrassing things at the sight of him. Her imagination stripped him of his clothes and urged her to accept him.

The rakehell said in a low voice, "Miss Tennant, could you submit to me and give your body into my keeping without the right of denial? If I agree to give you children, will you marry me and never refuse me your body?"

"How soon you get to children. The short answer is no, my lord. The long answer is, I think you are an awful rake whom all women should avoid like the plague."

"And?" said Mrs. Gillie sharply. "And your offer is?"

Eleanor said in scathing tones, "He can escort me to Scotland, deliver me to my grandmother, say goodbye and take himself away." She raised her eyebrows in imitation of Lezarth in a ducal mood.

Jasper held out his hand. "Done. I agree to abide by the contract."

Eleanor leapt to her feet. Damn and blast him. She had given him what he wanted. All his pleas of _give me your body_ were meant to frighten her away. "You can't agree."

"Yes, he can," said Mrs. Gillie. She reached over to shake his hand. "Miss Tennant, you get to go to Scotland and he gets rid of you. A good bargain if ever there was one. May God bless you with fairer skies than this for the journey. Shall we say you'll both be ready to go tomorrow?"
Chapter 17

Eleanor rumbled up Lumm Lane on a farm cart. Not the new one Mrs. Lumm had purchased with the duke's reward money, the old rickety one holding a load of hay and a barrel of oats to feed the horse on the journey. As Colin pointed out, they could also sleep in the cart if they ran out of places to stop when they neared the border.

She wrapped the red cloak around her and tightened the ribbons on Mrs. Lumm's old bonnet. It hid her face entirely unless viewed from the front. Not even her mother would recognize her dressed like this.

If only Scotland wasn't such a long way off.

"Colin, when we get some distance from here, I'll change and go the rest of the way on the stage. The duke will be furious if he finds out you helped me."

"Aye, that he will, if we are found out. Don't you worry though, I'm not risking my job. The way I see it, my aunt needs me to help her run the farm until her boys are bigger. I gave notice, Miss Tennant, and with that excuse no one's going to be suspicious."

"Couldn't Mrs. Lumm hire a man to help her? I'm sorry, for surely you'd rather work at Halyton Court than at Lumm Farm."

"Nay, it were all right for a year or so, just to see how the nobs live. I've a bit put by now and must think to the future. My father was a jobber and ruddler, but I think modern farm management is more in my line. I learned a lot from the way Lord Jasper runs the land under his control. Right up to date, he is. You should see the size of his cows and pigs, not to mention the increased yield he gets from his fields."

Eleanor had some difficulty seeing the noble rake concerning himself with anything but pleasure. "Does he manage the land himself?"

"Aye, he sees to it all himself. There's an old estate steward who is concerned with legal matters. You just saw Lord Jasper on holiday, as it were. The family gathers for a month before they are off shooting and haring all over the country visiting their friends. Now the lads are grown, there's no one living at Halyton Court but the duchess and her daughter, with Jasper here and there running the estates. Sometimes he disappears for a week or two, but he always comes back to see how they're doing."

They lurched round the bend in the road beneath the moor. "There's rumors about Jasper, not that I've ever seen him ill, but a doctor is always with him and he's always dosing himself with some tonic. I think he's had a touch of malaria. It's common enough in some parts of the country. They say he suffers from a fever now and then. No one really knows for sure."

"What are the rumors, Colin?"

"Nothing recent, I've never seen him off his head. I don't believe a word of it and I won't repeat it to you, Miss Tennant. I'll not sully your ears with the story."

Eleanor didn't try to convince him to confide in her. Jasper thought he'd attacked her. He must have attacked women before. She wondered what would have happened that night in her father's shooting lodge, if he hadn't thought her capable of conjuring thunderbolts to punish him. If he'd tried to ravish her, she could not have stopped him by force. His strength had frightened her. But what raving lunatic, what ravisher of maidens, stopped to apologize whenever he heard _ouch_?

They skirted the moor until they had to climb the track to take the road to his uncle's farm on the northern edge. Eleanor got down with her rescuer to lighten the load.

He led the horse up the slope. "Come on, lazy beggar," he coaxed. "Show some life or it'll be the knacker's yard for thee. Let's hope the rain stays off the top, or we'll all have something to complain about."

She climbed the path not caring if it rained, she was on her way to freedom. The wind lifted her bonnet to tug at its ribbons. Her red cloak blew out behind her at the edge of Bogs Bowl. Across the bog, a soft white cloud hugged the ground to swallow everything in its path.

A dark figure rode out of the mist.

Eleanor saw him urge his mount forward towards the clapper bridge. She didn't wait to see more.

"Colin!" she called, "Lord Jasper is in Bogs Bowl. Quick, help me up. Is the turn off to your uncle's farm close by?"

He reached down a hand to pull her up to sit next to him. "Three miles. We can't outrun him, not in a cart. Not even if we had a racehorse in the traces. Let's hope the fog gives us a hand. You'd better hide in the back under the straw."

She scrambled over the seat and scurried into her hiding place in the straw. Colin leaned over to pile loose straw on top of her.

Why had she looked over the edge. Foolish, foolish female.

She listened, straining to hear over the creaking cart and the clomping of plodding hooves.

After long minutes, Colin whispered, "He must have gone racing off, thinking you'd run towards your parents' home. There's no sign of him."

Eleanor sat up to brush the straw away. "I can't breathe covered up like that."

"Aye, I could hear you," he said with a laugh. "Don't think you'd pass for a sick lamb or a pig afraid for its life. You'd best sit next to me and brazen it out, for you are fooling no one hiding under there."

She took his hand to climb into the seat. "Eeh, our Colin," she said in Mrs. Lumm's rich tones, "I'm right sorry I made a muck of hiding."

He laughed, "That's more like it. Talk like that with those clothes and none would suspect you weren't farm stock born and bred."

The moor stretched in front of them, an endless sea of green waves and brown troughs. The mist engulfed them from behind with fingers of cloud, which wafted about in the breeze. Sometimes, they could see for a few yards and then it closed around them until they could see nothing at all.

"We'll soon be off the top," said Colin. "Old Ned can find his way, never fear."

"I like it the mist," confessed Eleanor. "I always have. It's like fairy rain, soft and light."

"Aye, this is what clouds are made of, right enough."

They both heard the sound of galloping hooves at the same instant. Of a madman racing towards them in the mist at breakneck speed.

Colin rose to shout, "Hold. Hold. There's a cart on the track, you damn fool."

Jasper rode his lunging wild-eyed mount to her side of the cart. Its lathered neck showed how hard it had been ridden. His dark clothes were sodden with mist

"What in hell's name do you think you are doing, Colin Lumm? And you, Miss Tennant, are you mad?" He looked like an apparition from the underworld with angry eyes and a wild, ruthless expression.

"No, I reserve insanity for you," she said primly. How dare he chase after her, as if he owned her. "Go away and leave me alone. I am going to Scotland my own way, without your escort. Do you want to know why?"

"Stand up," he ordered.

"Go to hell." Eleanor clenched her fists. She'd strike him, if she must.

"Colin Lumm, take this cart back to Lumm Farm. If you speak a word of this, I'll have your head."

"What!" Eleanor rose to her feet to hit him. "How dare you threaten Colin— he is trying to help me."

Jasper reached out to lift her onto his mount. Satan sidled under the extra weight, and protested when she struggled to be free. Eleanor ended up lying over his thighs, held tight with a hand on her back.

Off he raced with his angel cursing him and trying to scratch him through his buckskins. She was right, he'd gone insane the moment he'd found out she'd fled. He'd taken off with none of his usual precautions, hunted her by instinct, trusting he'd find her on the moor, and there she'd been at the far edge of Bogs Bowl with a cloak like massive wings spread out in the wind.

He felt half demented. What a fool to take off without a flask of medicine with him. Gallons of it were in the carriage, along with clothes for the journey and his physician, and one of Mrs. Gillie's young teachers to play chaperone and maid.

When he had far outstripped Colin Lumm's ability to catch him, he slowed to get his bearings.

Where the hell were they?

Eleanor glared at him when he sat her on his knee the right way up. There was going to be hell to pay for this.

She struggled to be free. Jasper helped her to dismount. He followed her to grab her before she could run off into the mist, where he'd lose her forever.

"Let go of me," she said in a low threatening voice.

"Only if you walk sensibly on the track with me." He held her wrist by force and doubted his ability to release her.

"I am walking. Let go."

"Do you promise not to run into the mist?"

"Yes, because I'm not stupid and know better than you that we are very close to the edge."

He let go with great reluctance. "If you wish to ride, I'll lead you," he offered.

"Exactly where will you lead me, Jasper? I've already been to a brothel. I've been to your house. I've paid a visit to your mistress. I've almost suffocated under a load of straw. There are many things I've done, either with you or because of you. What treat do you have in store for me now?" She rubbed her wrist and kept her eyes on the track beneath her feet.

"I cannot allow you to go to Scotland in a cart," he said, as if the damned cart mattered.

"If I had no objections, I see no reason why you should," she said haughtily. "Besides, I didn't run away, I left you a note."

"My angel, you denied me the journey with you." It was closer to the truth than he liked to admit.

She gave an unladylike snort of derisive laughter. "Much you care. You can celebrate your freedom by buying a new whore from Mrs. Gillie."

"We have to go back, Eleanor. I have no medicine with me. When I found out you'd gone, I took off without thought of anything but you."

"Go and get your medicine. I shall walk back to Lumm Farm and try to persuade Colin to escort me to Scotland."

"You are not going to Scotland with him." Never, not while he had breath in his body.

"Then you must escort me. We have a bargain. I go to Scotland— you get rid of me."

"Those are Mrs. Gillie's words. I never wanted rid of you." He wanted the length of the journey to seduce her and persuade her to be his wife. But without his physic and his outriders, he dared not go anywhere with her. The worst was, now, he had to tell her.

"Liar," sneered his angel. "You had sworn to the duchess you'd never marry. You told me I could never live with you."

He stepped in front of her to stop her. "I meant, I had no right to ask you to risk living with me. Eleanor, I am a dangerous man, especially so where you are concerned. If I lose my reason in your presence, not all your protests or threats would stop me. If you managed to hold me off, and I sincerely hope you did, there is no way you could stop me now."

She glared at him. "I'd smite you with a thunderbolt. I'm not afraid of you."

"But now I know you're not an angel. You got away with that once, because we met in the middle of a thunderstorm and I had never seen you before." He saw her think about his words. The truth of them worried her.

His angel considered her position, trapped on the moor with him.

"Get out of my way." She poked him hard on the chest.

He caught her finger. "Don't run off, Eleanor, I shall only chase you. And I cannot risk getting overheated. Promise?"

His angel nodded warily.

They walked on side by side, with his mount plodding behind them snorting and recovering from the hard ride. The wind blew the mist away to reveal the gritstone boulders marking the edge.

"Are you ready to return?" he asked.

"Return to what?" Her voice was subdued, as if she'd lost all her spirit. "Don't make me marry you, Jasper. This is bad enough, but it's a life sentence if we marry. I know I can't go home. Take me to Scotland, it's the only place I can live and still have a chance for happiness."

"If you'd waited, I would have taken you. I'd everything prepared for the journey. My physician has by now reported my absence to Lezarth." There was only one thing left to offer her. He said it quickly, before his courage deserted him, "I've always feared having a keeper for the rest of my days, but I'll submit to it to keep you safe. Marry me and you need never fear me again."

She pressed a taut finger against his chest, not to hurt him, to stop him with a single touch. His heart was hammering in his chest with rebellion at what he had offered. Could his angel feel it?

She stared at the end of her finger and then deliberately placed her hand flat on his chest. "Talk Lezarth out of forcing us to marry. They say you can persuade him of anything."

His angel removed her hand.

Against his will, he moved closer to her.

She walked on, and said, "I'm sure you can eventually talk him into allowing you the usual freedom you enjoy."

"Not if I have escorted you all the way to Scotland and ravished you again and again on the journey. I'll be lucky if I don't end up chained to a wall in the dower house." He deserved to be chained for trying to frighten her into returning with him.

They walked on into rays of sunlight beaming through the scattered clouds.

His angel stopped to admire the view. She suddenly laughed. What woman laughed after all he had told her? Did she have no sense of the danger he posed to her?

"Colin and I could rescue you from the dower house. We'd take you to Mrs. Gillie and chain you there. Think how happy you'd be."

"Vixen. She'd make me listen to poetry. Would you rescue me from that?"

"Poetry is a small price to pay for all those women thinking you romantic. One of them will fall in love with you and free you. Then you'd live happily ever after with her."

"Eleanor, be serious. I am offering to live imprisoned to keep you safe." He gave an involuntary shudder at the thought.

She shook her head. "Halyton Court is a prison to me. I won't go back there."

"Then let the prison be mine and mine alone." Endless time, with Lezarth ordering treatment, until descent into hell was preferable.

"How can the prison be only yours?" she asked. "And don't think I'm not tempted to have you locked up."

"Marry me, live in my house. We'll tell Lezarth we have settled it between us. The story will be that I lived with you there until a brain fever left me incompetent. I am moved by his orders to the dower house at Halyton Court, with keepers to stop my ravings from disturbing you in your delicate state."

His angel looked up at him with a curious expression when she realized he had offered to give her a child. "I'm sure you won't need keepers to keep you there," she said. "You have never shown any interest in my company."

He was glad she hadn't dismissed the notion out of hand. "How many times do I have to tell you that you are not safe with me? This strange obsession engulfs me, where half of me knows very well you are not an angel and the other half wants to make love to my angel and never let you go." He gave a mock groan and was pleased to see her answering smile. He said lightly, "If you want children, Eleanor, they must be mine."

"Tempting as your offer is, and I do know how very generous it is, I cannot accept it."

Damn, he should never have mentioned children. The idea had sent his brain reeling. His blood heated. He wanted to run his hands under her cloak to stroke her back and make her squirm against him. But she'd only let him do it if she thought him insane. Could he pretend all the way to Scotland? Hellfire. He dared not risk her life on the journey.

Had the damp from the mist set off a chill to take his reason? Impossible, the doctor had dosed him twice before they had reached Mrs. Gillie's house. It had taken an enormous bribe to keep Lezarth from being notified before the journey began.

Look at what he had done.

Kidnapped her.

He made no effort to hide the strain in his voice, "Marry me, Eleanor, it's the only way to keep you safe from me."

She gave him a scornful glance. "You can try to convince me on the way."

"Eleanor, I do believe I didn't ravish you. Somehow you held me off, bruised but not broken." He watched her turn her face away with a closed expression. "Yes, Eleanor, if that is the truth, if it was more than me thinking you an angel, don't dare tell me how you managed it, for you will lose the trick of it forever."

She raised her chin to give him a disdainful look. "I am not afraid of you."

He hoped she spoke the truth, but after all he had told her, he doubted it.

His angel said, "But I admit, Lezarth's anger frightens me. Another reason to flee the country. Shall we go back and borrow Colin's cart?" she asked. "Or are you too noble to ride in it?"

Her question made him laugh. How could she tease him after all he had told her? He abandoned all hope of doing the right thing and yielded to her temptation. "Far too noble, my angel. We shall travel by yacht, you can't cart me about the country. My friend, Grantley, will take us there. My guess is the Horde is laying in wait for us on the Great North Road. Let's head south and go by sea."

"I've always wanted to see the sea." She gave a happy skip and looked as young as Amelia. "Oh, my clothes are in the cart. We have to go back to get them."

"There is no going back. I'll buy you whatever you need for the journey."

His angel marched down the steep path ahead of him with a disdainful sniff.

How could she be worried about accepting clothes from him. "Grantley's wife can lend you what you need tonight." He tried another topic to distract her. "A word of warning, she is very jealous. Don't fall in love with her husband."

"Is he a terrible flirt?" When the path turned, she looked at him, waiting for his answer.

"Grantley proposed to countless females, always taking care they were hopelessly beyond his touch, in the hope of kissing them."

Jasper enjoyed his angel's disgusted reaction.

"Men were always doing that to Juliet. Did he get trapped?" she asked.

"Yes, she fell in love and her parents didn't have the sense to stop it."

* * * *

Eleanor wriggled on Satan's back as she tried to get a better view. "What a beautiful house. Do let me down. Are we near the sea?"

"Take my hand."

She grasped it and he helped her to the ground. She'd lost all the blood to her lower limbs from riding in an awkward position.

Grantley's house was modern, with more windows and less wall than she had ever seen. The lower doors opened onto a long terrace overlooking a landscaped park, without an old-fashioned flowerbed in sight.

Jasper dismounted to offer her his arm.

She stumbled along beside him, clinging to him for support, which she hoped wasn't too inflaming for him. "I've been thinking. No, don't walk so fast, my feet have fallen asleep." Eleanor stopped to admire the long shadows cast by stately trees dotted about the grounds. "I've decided to enjoy the journey. Sorry if that offends your sense of being dangerous. Perhaps you'd prefer me to quake and shiver, but I want to enjoy myself. I have never been anywhere, and after I get to Scotland I doubt I shall be allowed to travel again."

"Enjoy as much as you can of life." He stopped suddenly to say in a low warning voice, "Grantley approaches. Gird your loins."

A man of middle height with brown hair and slender build ran towards them. As he neared, he shouted, "Unhand her, you bastard! By the Gods! If you have harmed her I shall murder you myself."

Were all his friends as strange as Jasper? Eleanor let go of him so he could defend himself. She took Satan's reins and limped away, only to be astonished to see the lunatic change direction to follow her.

"My love, forgive me," he called. "It'll never happen again, I swear it."

"You are forgiven. What did you do?" she asked, out of curiosity over his odd behavior.

Grantley stopped to stare at her from the distance of two or three yards. "Oh dear," he said, "I thought you were my wife in disguise. Roughly the same shape, same size." He berated Jasper, "What have you done with her, you fiend from hell?"

Jasper threw his cloak over Satan's saddle. "Might ask you the same question, Grantley. How did you manage to lose her and where has she gone?"

"Hah!" scoffed the gentleman. "As if you don't know. She's gone to be with you. Left me a note saying so."

"Why didn't you write to tell me, you idiot," asked Jasper.

Eleanor wondered why Grantley was supposed to have such a reputation for persuading women to love him.

Jasper was twice as handsome, even if they were both lunatics.

"I did," protested Grantley. "Isn't that why you are here? Why didn't you bring her back?"

"No female in her right mind is going to arrive at Halyton Court without an invitation, while Lezarth is in residence." Jasper grasped his friend's shoulder. "Your wife is not there, pull yourself together." He led Grantley over to introduce him.

Eleanor held her ground. She gave them both her avenging angel stare.

Grantley whispered, "Is this lovely being, Pru? Not exactly been generous with clothing, have you? Or did you seduce some innocent farm beauty on the way here?"

"No, I reserve that behavior for you," said Jasper. "This is my fiancée, Miss Eleanor Tennant, in disguise. We are eloping to Scotland and beg your assistance."

Grantley reacted as if stung. "Eloping. Are you mad? Marriage is a viper's nest, Jasper. Take her home before it's too late." He shook her hand. "No offence meant. I'm sure you are as delightful a female as my wife used to be."

"Thank you," Eleanor replied. "I am sure you are just as bad a husband as Jasper would be."

Grantley stared at her for a long moment. His eyes were an indistinct color, his features not remarkable, but when he smiled at her, it transformed him. For a brief moment she felt as though he caressed her. He gave a comical leer. "Run away with me instead. Jasper has no idea how to treat a lady."

"Neither do you," she pointed out. "Your wife has run away from you,"

Jasper led his offended friend away. "Tell me what happened. I'm sure Sophie meant you to find her. Did she go to her parents?"

"No, and I can't tell them she is missing. Not too fond of me, least said the better." His next words were hidden by the noise from gulls screaming overhead. "I ask you— all the servants off for a holiday. I've no one looking after me, no cook, no chambermaids, no footmen, only a couple of ancient gardeners, and two lads with old John in the stables."

Eleanor searched for a rock or something to stand on, to help her climb onto Satan's high back.

She heard Grantley say, "Where is your beloved going? Is she trying to steal your mount?"

"Eleanor," called Jasper. "What do you think you are doing? Run at your peril."

"Hush. You're frightening him." Sure enough the horse sidled. She had to scramble up like a novice. "I am going to see the sea. I might even swim in it."

"You don't need Satan. He can't manage the path down to the sand." Jasper helped her dismount. "Stay here, the sun is setting. I'll take you tomorrow," he promised.

"No, I might not survive the night." The gulls cried a chorus of woe. "I want to see it now. Mr. Grantley, which direction is the coast?"

The infamous Grantley refused to say. "Not survive the night?" he berated Jasper. "Don't tell me you've told her? Not exactly been silver-tongued with your fiancée, have you? Go and comfort her at once. Better yet, take her to see the damned water if that is what she wants." He muttered reproachfully, "Not survive the night? Goodness. What have you told her?"
Chapter 18

Eleanor tied the hem of her petticoat round her waist, letting it drape almost to her knees. She doubted half-naked legs were going to send a rake into fits of passion he couldn't control. She glanced over at him to see him wrestling with his boots.

She didn't mind his company, not when the setting sun rippled over the vast expanse of sea like a painting. She left her shoes and coarse stockings in a neat pile. covered by her frock, and ran to feel the sea at her feet for the first time in her life.

The water rushed forward in a low, curving wave she could hear, until it foamed and slithered backwards, to rustle in its retreat like a silk petticoat.

A wave swirled around her ankles. It didn't feel cold like water from a well. It tickled and fizzed like champagne.

She waded deeper. "Jasper, it isn't cold at all." The low sun reflected off the water to dazzle her. A wave higher than the rest made her squeak and hold her petticoat higher.

Jasper splashed towards her in rolled up buckskins. He quite took her mind from the sunset, which gilded his elegant nose and handsome face, and as for his chest, she dared not even look there lest she forget herself as she had that night on the moor.

"Don't get wet," she called. "Stand on the sand and tell me how to swim. I might not get another chance."

He stepped over a wave to take her hand. "It's not possible to teach you from the shore. Are you sure about this? Isn't it rather late in the day for a swimming lesson?"

Something twisted around her ankle. Eleanor gave a squeak and kicked out. "What's that?"

"Seaweed." A wave rose higher than the others to splash them in its rush to the shore. "We shouldn't do this. Or do you hope to escape, while I am raving about my angel?"

"Don't tell me sea water makes you insane." She gave a hurried shrug. "I don't care. I'm not going to stop enjoying myself to worry about you." She led him deeper, until her petticoat floated in the water.

He picked her up as if she weighed nothing. She put her arms round his neck and let his hand touch her thigh. Not that he noticed.

He waded deeper. "First, you must get wet. This is going to feel cold," he warned, and sank to his shoulders.

Eleanor swallowed some seawater. "It tastes awful." She was glad the setting sun hid her semi-naked state. "You are supposed to be watching from the shore." She glanced up at him and hoped the water cooled her lust.

Here she was in his arms and he was not trying to kiss her. No, he only did that when insane. His chest, now under the water, was still a naked temptation. If she had to touch it now and then, to keep from drowning, it was not her fault.

"Don't look at me." she ordered.

"Why can't I look at you?" The rake raised her to the surface in his arms. "I know exactly what you look like naked. I remember from our night on the moor."

Her body, clad in almost nothing, didn't tempt him. She tried not to feel disappointed.

He looked only at her face. "Lie back. Let the water hold you."

Eleanor stared up at the sky to admire the few clouds drifting by tinted by the sunset, and denied herself the sight of Jasper's chest. She felt the waves lift her gently up as they rolled under her. "What if Grantley sees me like this?"

"I'll wade to the shore and wrap his head in my coat," he offered. "Tip your head back, keep it level with your body. I'm going to let go. Prove to me you are a witch, not an angel."

She lay back with his arms supporting her. "You aren't going to find this inflaming, are you?"

He held her at the surface and didn't answer her question "Spread out your arms."

She managed to brush his chest while obeying. Not that it moved him.

She bobbed up and down with the waves. His hand vanished and she floated, easily riding the waves like a boat. Eleanor lifted her head to see and quickly sank in a flurry of arms and legs.

He caught her and just for a moment held her to his chest. "Spread your arms out, head back to look at the sky. Take a deep breath and hold it."

For long seconds she floated without support. His hands skimmed beneath her, ready to save her. The sun sank into the sea and lit only the western sky.

Eleanor struggled to her feet to face him. The lapping water caressed her. "Thank you for teaching me to float." She gave a watery curtsy— an excuse to look at his chest without him noticing. The dark sea felt warmer than the air, but the darkness scared her. Each low wave slid like shadows between them.

She waded for the shore.

He kept pace with her. "Don't be afraid, Eleanor. You'll spend the night in a room locked with a key, alone."

"Who will have the key?" Let him think she was afraid of him, not of the dark.

"You'll lock yourself in. I'd no more trust Grantley with it than I'd trust myself." He put his arm round her waist to walk with her to the shore. "You can borrow some of Sophia's clothes. She can't have taken them all with her, unless she hired a hundred carriages."

A safe subject to make her feel less afraid. But then he'd had lots of practice reassuring virgins of many things. The cooling air on her wet body made her tingle. He brought her to where she'd left her clothes.

"Why did she leave him?" Eleanor asked, hurt he had not even tried to kiss her.

He picked up his shirt, shook the sand off it, and returned to dry her. "Caught him kissing her maid." He gave a rueful shrug, while he dried her arms. They were surprisingly sensitive.

"Not very discreet," she said, trying to pretend she was not shivering at his touch. "Did he want to be caught?"

"You are far too clever, my angel." He dabbed his shirt over her back to blot the water away.

She forgot what she'd said that was so clever.

He knelt in the sand to stroke his shirt over her legs. Legs were worse than arms. The backs of her knees, her thighs. A cool hand stroked her inner thigh. She gave a squeak. He stopped drying her. Drat the man.

"Did you really disappoint Mrs. Grantley, Jasper?" she asked. "Did she want to marry you?"

"Sophia was my mother's godchild. She's the only woman I ever met, before you, who didn't want to marry Lezarth." He twisted her petticoat to wring the water out. "Said she'd never forgive him for calling her an obnoxious, red-haired ignoramus. I always wondered if she'd have married him, if he'd asked her."

Her petticoat lifted higher and higher. Seawater dripped noisily to the sand.

An inch away from disaster, Eleanor asked in a shaky voice, "When did you decide never to marry?"

The rake forgot about exposing her. It was as if she had turned off his rakish self, and in its place was a man who only wanted to dress her, as quickly as he could. Her frock was on before he answered. "My father decided it for me. Told me I was a monster, not fit to associate with women of any class."

"Tell me what happened, Jasper. It is just as frightening not knowing as it would be to know. You can't have done worse than I imagine."

The silence lengthened between them. At last he said, "I was seventeen years old, off my head with a fever. I raped one of the chambermaids, beat her badly. She went to my father, as she was right to do. When I recovered my senses, I was locked in the dower house. I was there for three years, might have rotted there but my father died and Lezarth freed me."

"How awful." Eleanor shuddered at the thought of what he had done and how he'd been punished. "What happened to the chambermaid?"

"Pregnant. Married one of the footmen. They moved to Yorkshire and she bore a son. I send money, an allowance, and pay for his schooling."

"Have you met him?"

"I tried. The only reply I ever got from her was a distressed plea to leave them alone. She said if I ever tried to contact the boy, she'd run away with him to the colonies to keep him safe from me."

* * * *

Juliet pouted and cuddled closer to her husband. "Don't listen to them, Lancie. What do they know?"

"Hush," he whispered back. "They are in the rooms on either side of this one." He blew out the candle by the bed. "Lezarth sent word by Richard to expect the worst. No one will tell me what that means."

The bed creaked as he rose up on one elbow to kiss her.

From the adjoining wall they heard an exasperated cry from one of the twins. "Leave her alone. How can you be so cruel, Lancelot."

Juliet held fast to Lancie's nightshirt. "Don't listen." she whispered urgently. "I love you. Hold me, hold me tight and never let me go. Make me yours, my husband, take me now."

"Hush, they'll hear. Maybe later. Can't think of it now, my love. If only your sister hadn't run off with Jasper. If she wanted to be with him, why not marry him? Do you think they are really eloping to Scotland?"

"I have no sympathy for Eleanor. I've seen the way she looked at Lord Jasper when she thought him occupied. She is doing this to torment me and so are you." She turned to sob into her pillow.

Through the wall, Lancelot listened to the brothers plot, catching only a word here and there. They feared violence. He wasn't surprised— Miss Tennant had an alarming tendency to strike her victims without warning. He still bore a mark on his hand from her riding crop.

* * * *

Eleanor unlocked the door to her bedchamber and ventured out in search of breakfast. In front of the door lay a mattress and blanket with Jasper's boots standing sentry. Had he slept the night in the hallway outside her door? She'd heard nothing after falling into a deep sleep, the first true night of rest she'd had since fleeing from the church.

The day shone bright in the breakfast parlor, where her host busied himself toasting bread over the embers of a fire. He waved the long fork in greeting and almost lost his slice of bread to an old hound dozing in front of the hearth with one eye open for providential errors.

Jasper interrupted his reading of a letter to greet her. "Good morning. Did you sleep well, Eleanor?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you." She eyed the letter warily and hoped it didn't mean they had been found.

Grantley placed the toasted bread on a plate. "Eat while it's hot, Miss Tennant. Don't stand on ceremony. Let me pour you some coffee. I don't have the key to the tea chest, the cook's gone off with it." He nodded towards Jasper. "The letter is from my wife. Bad news. Very bad news. It's all Jasper's fault. She's gone to an orgy. Hopes to meet Jasper there and intends to have her way with him."

He returned to his toasting, while her mind wondered exactly what the words _having her way_ meant. With a guilty blush she wondered if those words could apply to her? To what she had done to Jasper while he lay helpless in her father's hunting lodge. Not that a rake had the right to complain.

To her surprise, Jasper hauled his friend to his feet. "Remember, you are talking to a lady, Grantley. Don't make her uncomfortable with your false interpretation of Sophia's behavior. Your wife has run off to make you jealous, and that is the sole reason she flings my name in your face." He waited until Grantley grunted agreement before he let go.

Eleanor busied herself with breakfast. Grantley's wife had gone to an orgy because she wanted to have her way with Jasper to punish her husband. As for the orgy, her mother had often complained that her father made himself sick with an orgy of food, when he traveled to the market town.

Grantley explained, with his easy smile, "I had to tell Miss Tennant, because you have to help me get Sophia out of that demon's hell. I can't wander in on my own." He pottered over for more bread. "You know Cragg can't stand me."

"We are not going to Craggwater," said Jasper, enunciating every word as if he spoke to an idiot. It was a technique she used often. "I am with a lady."

Grantley gave a good-natured shrug. "It's all your fault Sophie has gone there. I'd got a letter from Lezarth saying to watch out for you. He thought you were wandering about off your head. Made me afraid to leave Sophia here alone in case you showed up. She's had her eye on you since before we were married. I think she only married me to get back at you for disappointing her. Told me you were top of her list to take as a lover when she got bored with me."

"She is trying to make you jealous," said Jasper, with his cool control firmly in place. "Just go and beg forgiveness. Ask her to come home with you. If she's been there a few days, she'll be glad to leave."

"You know I can't go there without a woman. You know Cragg's rules." Grantley waved his toasting fork about to add emphasis to his words. "When you didn't show up here, I thought you might go to Cragg's. I asked the damn maid to go with me, so I could get in. How was I to know you were traveling with your fiancée?

"An unlikely presumption, I admit," said Jasper.

"Sophie's gone to Cragg's with the damn maid, and it's all your fault. Now you have to lend me a female to get me into the house. Eleanor will do nicely— thank you very much for offering."

Eleanor ate her toast. She watched Grantley try to hold Jasper at bay with his toasting fork.

It didn't work.

"You have no rights where Miss Tennant is concerned. From now on you do not speak to her unless you behave like a gentleman." Jasper sounded very much like Lezarth.

She noted with a sorry shake of her head that he was exceedingly strong. If he decided to kill Grantley, she'd have to stop him with the poker. The thought made her choke on her coffee.

"Now look what you've done," said Grantley. "Eleanor thinks you have lost your senses." He gave a laugh, which made her realize he didn't fear for his life. "You don't mind if I call you Eleanor, do you?"

She coughed and shook her head.

Jasper gave a command to make more toast.

She shrugged away when he tried to pat her back to stem her coughs.

Grantley observed, "Not quite the loving bride-to-be, is she? How did you manage to persuade Eleanor to run away with you? Is she with you of her own free will?"

Jasper answered lightly, "Eleanor has a talent for running away. She decided to run away with me, and I am too much of a gentleman to refuse her."

A grunt of disbelief came from the man with the toasting fork. "You've always refused before."

"Who can refuse an angel?" Jasper sat next to her and poured himself some coffee.

Grantley gave an exclamation of surprise. "Is that what Lezarth meant about you rabbiting on about an angel? Said it was a sign you were off your head. As if I'd not notice otherwise."

Jasper handed her Lezarth's letter. "This is going from bad to worse, Eleanor. Your sister is at the Golden Hind in Lower Wollsop. That's where Grantley is supposed to send word, if he finds me. If you wish, I'll deliver you to her and disappear for a while to help find Sophie."

She smiled sweetly at him. "And leave me Lezarth's prisoner?"

"Nor for long. When Sophie is safely at home, I'll find you and take you to Scotland, if you still wish it."

"No, I thank you." She held out her coffee cup to be filled. "You should have left me with Colin. We'd have been half way there by now."

Jasper poured the coffee and looked pleased she had refused his offer to leave her behind. He gave a teasing smile. "Do you know how far Scotland is? You'd have been lucky to have gone ten miles."

"Is this Cragg person north from here?" she asked. "Surely it won't take long to rescue Mrs. Grantley, then we can be on our way." She rose to her feet.

He held her hand to stop her from leaving. "You can't go to Cragg's, Eleanor. Men go with their mistresses. Grantley, tell her how impossible it is."

Grantley shrugged. "Allowed to talk to her now, am I? Eleanor, I appeal to you to save my poor wife from ruin. Pretend to be my mistress. Get me in, help me find her, then you are off to Scotland with nary a backward glance."

Eleanor considered it. She compared the fate of attending a party to overeat with gentlemen and their mistresses, to being loomed over by Lezarth with chains to imprison her. Anyone trying to help her risked his wrath. She was already ruined in the eyes of the world if she returned without a ring on her finger and a husband on her arm. What was one orgy, even if it made her sick, compared to a lifetime of woe?

Her only hope for freedom lay northward.

"I'll do it." She turned to Jasper to see his distraught expression, before he hid it behind a genial mask. "We have no choice, Jasper. Lezarth will never think to find us there and it is north, on the way."

"One day only, Grantley. And Eleanor enters as my mistress. After we are inside, Eleanor, you must stay in our bedchamber. Don't venture out, unless the place is on fire. Promise me."

She smirked at him to annoy him. "And miss an orgy? I intend to participate."

Grantley gave a hoot of laughter. "Met your match have you, Jasper? You should see the look on your face. I don't know how you do it. The sweet-talking I must endure to get any encouragement at all from a female. Can't be right, not fair at all."

"Eleanor, I shall explain what an orgy is on the way. Grantley, we need a closed carriage, clothes and costumes. With any luck we'll be there before midnight."
Chapter 19

The old coachman grumbled his way north. Jasper and Grantley took turns on the box with him, because of his alarming tendency to fall asleep up there. The country lanes they took to avoid to avoid anyone searching for them, made opening and closing gates a tiresome chore.

While Jasper was taking his turn, Grantley flirted with her in so outrageous a fashion she laughed at him. "How ever did you manage to convince your wife to marry you? You tell such silly lies."

"Meant every word of the nonsense at the time," he said with another of his lovely smiles. "Just can't remember exactly what I said. Damme. She keeps wanting me to repeat it. What husband can do that a year later, I ask you?"

"An honest one?" Eleanor traded him look for look

"Cruel, cruel angel. Are you sure you aren't just a mere mortal in disguise. You are certainly a foolish creature to be gadding about with Jasper."

"Were you never afraid for your wife with him?"

"Not at all. I was certain she'd take advantage of his state and ravish him, if she was ever lucky enough to meet him like that." He leaned towards her to emphasize his words. "Gave me a nasty turn to find out he was traveling with you, Eleanor. You should not do it. I'm hoping we'll run into his brothers and they'll take him off my hands."

"You wouldn't deliver him to Lezarth. Not when Jasper is helping you get your wife back. What a way to repay him." Eleanor was shocked to think Jasper's friend had so little loyalty to him.

"My dear, I can only conclude the reason you are so brave with him is because he has not ravished you. I assure you, it'd be quite another story if he had. He is safe with his mistresses because they are paid well never to refuse him. Sophia has no intention of refusing him, more's the pity, so she would be safe too— though I'd prefer my first born to be my own." He leaned towards her to say seriously, "I don't believe he raped that maid, but he believes it. Rather not risk _you_ finding out it is true."

"He was a perfect gentleman. I must admit he can make me nervous when sane, but when insane he is perfectly well behaved." She shushed his laughter. "Grantley. Have you ever seen him have an attack?"

"Lord, he doesn't bother men when he wanders about dazed. And as long as he has his mistress with him, I've never worried about it. Doesn't happen often. Only seen it once, myself. We all got caught out in a storm. Wet to the skin, with a nasty cold wind making it worse. He ran a fever and went off with, what was her name, not that it matters. He wasn't seen for two days. She didn't complain. Looked better than he did, when they finally surfaced."

"Did you tell, Lezarth?"

He stared at her dumbstruck for a moment. "No. He's a cold bastard, but he loves Jasper. If Lezarth thought a course of treatment would save Jasper's sanity, he'd order it done. Do you know what that means? Jasper almost died from the bleeding, the ice baths, and the purging. When the doctor declared he couldn't raise a fever in him, the old duke still kept him locked up. Meant to keep him locked up forever."

"How awful."

"Lezarth is going to catch Jasper and this mad dash north will end badly. Mark my words."

"Then we'll both be imprisoned. Do you know why, Grantley?" she asked.

He gave a comforting smile. "To keep it secret."

"Yes, to silence me. All I did was save his life." The carriage slowed for another gate. "I cannot change his fate, I can only fight for mine."

* * * *

Long past midnight, Eleanor curtsied to the Earl of Craggwater.

He bowed to her, in a costume made entirely of black feathers. The odd arrangement on his head, half a globe with red feathers dripping from it, crowned with large black plumes sticking straight up two feet high, looked so strange that Eleanor didn't dare take a second glance and instead stared at his shoes made of embroidered purple cloth with long turned up toes.

Jasper squeezed her hand in warning. "Your Majesty, King of the Underworld, may I introduce an angel only recently fallen from virtue?" He raised her from a deep curtsy to give her hand to the earl, who used it to pull her closer.

She gave a squeak of alarm when he tried to bite her fingers. She pulled her hand free. "Beware, I am an avenging angel, Your Majesty. I have the power to cast thunderbolts."

"Welcome, Avenger, to my humble gathering." He waved his arms at the huge house and landscaped gardens, where strangely costumed creatures strolled about listening to the music from an ornate gazebo. "If you wish to change lovers for a night, I'd be honored to purchase you."

There didn't seem any answer to his horrid proposal. Eleanor simpered at Jasper as if she adored the rake.

The earl fumed, "Why do your women always prefer not to play? The next time you visit here, Jasper, be prepared to share."

"Perhaps there'll be no next time," said Jasper.

Cragg roared with laughter. "When hell freezes over. Enjoy him while his interest lasts, Avenger, he bores easily. When he does, send word to me. Ask anyone, they'll tell you I'm an extremely generous devil."

Jasper drew her to him. She dipped a disdainful curtsy to the devil.

Cragg turned to Grantley and gave an evil laugh, worthy of the King of the Underworld. "You know the rules, and your wife being here doesn't count. Off you go."

They left poor Grantley arguing.

"Don't worry," whispered Jasper. "He only protests to annoy Cragg. Grantley has more to worry about than what he must wear."

They were led through miles of hallway lit only by a footman's candle. He opened the bedchamber door and lit candles for them, before bowing himself out. The enormous bed reminded her she had to share the room with a rakehell. A window overlooked the gardens ablaze with lanterns.

Their luggage arrived as the lamps in the garden were being extinguished. Eleanor watched from the window, until only the path to the house glowed.

She jumped at the sudden roar of fireworks and gazed at the sky lit with rockets exploding like magic. She had never seen anything like it.

Jasper snuffed out all but one of the candles. He joined her on the window seat.

When the sky was silent, she turned to him. "Pru told me about fireworks. I'm so glad I didn't miss them. My first fireworks". The room was very dark. Fear gave her voice a nervous breathlessness. "You must be tired, Jasper. Why don't you go to sleep?" She hoped he didn't think she was offering to sleep with him.

"I must go find Sophie. She is a lamb among the lions and has not sense enough to know it." His voice was soothing. "Rest, if you can. Just don't open the door to anyone, unless I am there. Let me close the shutters. The sun will be up soon."

His angel slipped from the seat to let him unfasten the shutters in the window frame. Jasper hoped it would mask some of the noise from the garden.

She gave a squeak of fear.

He asked quietly, "Are you afraid of the dark, or of me?" He moved the candle to the table to give them more light.

"I'm not afraid of you." She looked away, not wanting to meet his eye.

Relief made him put his arm round her shoulders. "Is that why you stayed with me that night on the moor?" He tugged her gently closer. "Because you were not afraid of me?"

"Someone had to do it. You'd have died in Bogs Bowl if I hadn't."

"Every time I woke up, you were asleep in my arms."

"You were warm. The fire bothered you. I was cold."

He felt her resist him warily. Afraid of what might happen to her in the darkness if she encouraged a rake, or tried to hold him at bay by force.

"Go to sleep, Eleanor. I'll help Grantley find Sophia" The only comfort he had to offer was insanity or his absence. "Can you conjure snow? I'd leave the window open to persuade you my warmth is useful." He picked her up and carried her the few steps to the bed, overcome by his need to hold her. "I missed you, Eleanor. When I awoke to find you gone, I knew I'd lost heaven.

The bed creaked under his weight. She sat on his knee to poke at his chest, not the least moved by his words.

"Don't talk like Grantley." Eleanor hopped off his knee. "Lost heaven, indeed. I suppose in your world women are easily seduced with a soft phrase, especially when you have paid for them."

She went to open the shutters and the window. Moonlight streamed into the room.

"You're right," he said. "I hadn't really lost heaven. Only my fevered mind thought it. But then I met you and talked to you, and admired you, Eleanor."

"How romantic." She tried to sneer the words but her voice quavered. "Do you really think I want you to talk like this?" She backed away to the far side of the bedchamber. His angel was scared of him. She busied herself lighting more candles.

It was true, she didn't like him sane. Had too much sense to believe a word from him, not even when he spoke the truth. She didn't want to hear words of love from his lips.

Noises came from the gardens and the rooms nearby. From above them soared a cry of pleasure very like Pru's.

His angel closed the window and shutters, the picture of disapproving morality. "Go and find Mrs. Grantley so we can be on our way to Scotland in the morning."

"Lock the door behind me."

"With pleasure." She held the door open for him.

* * * *

Footsteps awoke Eleanor from a fitful sleep tainted with wicked dreams. She untwisted her nightrail and straightened the bedcovers.

Someone tapped on the door.

"Eleanor," whispered Grantley. "Whoa, there Jasper. Sorry, I forgot. Angel whatever your name is, it's us."

One candle still burned. Eleanor covered herself with a cloak, and held the candlestick high before she turned the key. The door opened to reveal Grantley and Jasper looking damp and disheveled. Jasper had shed his coat and pulled his shirt from his trousers.

"I can kill him," offered Grantley with a smile, "but I can't stop him any other way. He wants to be with his angel. We got caught in the fountain spray when the wind came up."

"My angel, not yours," warned Jasper. He waited, not daring to enter without her permission.

"It's really not safe to leave him out there like this," said Grantley "Cragg might, well, you never know what Cragg might do .... I can only assure you Jasper wouldn't enjoy it."

"Come in." The words were barely out of her mouth when Jasper was pushed over the threshold and his coat thrown inside after him.

Grantley shut the door with a hurried, "Lock it. Heaven help me. I have to get into Sophia's room. Don't let her in here whatever you do."

Jasper's adoring gaze never left her face. She couldn't meet his eyes and went to place the candlestick carefully on the mantle. It wasn't right to tempt her with his love, not when she hadn't been able to resist the first time.

He wandered about taking his clothes off. Eleanor fled to the opposite side of the room and tried not to watch him. Picking up his clothes gave her a good excuse not to stare. Not that it helped keep her gaze from him all the time. At last he stood forlornly by the bed wearing only his shirt, which was fortunately long enough to hide the sinful bits of him.

She was not feeling the least bit sedate.

Jasper struggled with his shirt, and got stuck trying to get it off over his head. His beautiful body exposed to her. She gave a gasp at the sight. He stilled, trapped with his arms over his head. The part of him she stared at rose before her eyes. His shirt slowly fell to cover it. The cloth bunched and puckered about his male parts. His eyes begged her to help, adoring and worshipful. "Can't get it off," he said.

Eleanor went to him. "Let me help you."

If he'd been sane she'd never have wanted to see him naked. Insane, he was hers.

Jasper was too tall to make the task easy for her. She shed her cloak and climbed to stand on the bed in the effort to free him. When at last she had the shirt off, he wrapped his arms about her and rested his head on her breast.

How long she meant to stand there stroking his hair and patting him, she didn't care to guess. Unless he caught a chill. Eleanor moved warily away, The mattress dipped beneath her feet. She held onto a bedpost near the pillows.

He left her there and got into bed. "My angel," he said, as if having an angel clinging to his bedpost was a normal occurrence. His warm hand caressed her ankle. Any attempt to move made his grip increase to stop her.

His hand slid down to her feet. "Cold," he muttered.

He fell asleep.

She wriggled under the covers, glad he was insane.

"My angel," he whispered, "don't leave me."

He held her gently, her body molded to his. She was not the least bit afraid of him like this, she was afraid of herself, afraid of being found out. Desire with its aches and lusts made sleep long in coming. She stroked his chest to soothe him, even though it made her aches worse. Her hand slid lower. He caught it by lacing his fingers with hers.

Jasper lay waiting for his angel to fall asleep in his arms. Tomorrow or the next day, the dower house loomed in his future. Pleas of sanity would go unheeded. He had run off with Eleanor and put the family at risk. A lunatic's behavior. When his angel found out what he'd asked Lezarth to do, she'd hate him forever.

He had only one chance. One way to persuade her to fall in love with him and agree to marry him. Mrs. Gillie's warning about virgins always falling in love hadn't fallen on deaf ears. His contracts, offering extra payment not to be loved, were to remind him not to fall in love, and never to encourage it.

And now he wanted this virgin's love. He needed her comforting embrace. Her waves of love for his insane self soothed the hurt hidden deep inside him. He remembered the night in the lodge as a hazy glow of love given and reciprocated, of awe and adoration. Emotions so far from his reach they were laughable. He wanted to make love to her to break the spell she held over him. And, if she fell in love with him, life would be easier for her.

To make love to her while pretending to be out of his mind, was going to take careful planning. If he betrayed himself, she'd hate him for it.

The candle burned low.

Eleanor lay sleeping in his arms with her head on his chest. His fingers busied with her nightrail, to unfasten the ties. He bared her breasts to look for the freckle. It was still there, he had not imagined it.

Sinners were not allowed to look at angels. He closed his eyes and took her soft pink nipple in his mouth.

His angel awoke with a start. She moaned and arched for him, inviting him, urging him to pay homage to her beautiful breasts, until she writhed in his arms.

"My angel" He kissed her slowly, worshipping her, adoring her. None of it a lie.

She kissed his chest. He urged her up to kiss his mouth. Urged her higher to let him kiss her breasts, while she gasped and helped him move from one to the other. At last she pulled away to kneel out of reach.

"Don't leave me," he whispered.

She was wary of him, and saw by the light of the lone candle, enough to make her suspect him.

"Show me your wings," he urged in a low voice. "Unfurl them for me. Please."

He knelt behind her with his thighs on either side of hers. She shuddered at his tongue skimming over her shoulder blades. Her winglets were as sensitive as her breasts. He played behind her for long minutes as she sighed and moved with him at his slightest touch. Eager for every sensation offered, lifting her arms at his command to let him remove her nightrail. He carefully laced his words with adoring whispers. None of them lies.

Fear of breaking the spell binding them both, made him hesitate to feel how wet and ready she was for him. Painful bonds tied his heart tightly to hers. He cursed his weakness. His rakish self urged him on, and his heart warned of agony if he made love to his angel and she hated him for seducing her.

Eleanor gave herself to sensual pleasure, swept so far away from sense she wanted her rakehell to caress her body, everywhere. Especially the dangerous bits. His rakish hands slid high and dangerously low, without touching anything truly dangerous. She wanted him, could not deny him. She needed his adoring words, spoken in a husky whisper as he caressed her breasts.

Strange, how his voice affected her until her heart quivered at the sound of him. And if she ended up carrying his child, she didn't care. Visits were possible. Scotland wasn't so very far away. Not that he'd remember or care when he recovered his senses.

She gasped and tried to stop his hand from touching her betraying wetness. He liked it, groaned with delight and played with skillful hands to bring her such intense sensations she never protested. Not once. Could not tell him to stop, could not speak a word. She was sure her womb communicated her desire for him to stroke deeper.

His fingers spread her, caressing the swift pain, soothing her with pleasure. Pleasure to make her mindless, to make her writhe and her heart react to his touch. She fell forward to bury her head in the mattress.

He followed her down to kiss her back, murmuring about his dratted angel. His knees ended up between her legs. She wanted more. She wanted to be touched rakishly.

Soft gentle kisses all over her back. Backs were surprisingly sensitive. How she ended up on her side with one leg over his, with her wicked place open to his hand, she didn't know, but she hoped he was not going to suddenly regain his sanity.

She let him touch her deeply in a place that welcomed him and squeezed his finger. He touched the most sensitive place to make her dance in his embrace with twitching hips and moans, so deeply mesmerized by his rakish skill, she almost wept with pleasure.

He turned her onto her back, and her legs let him move them to a strange position, spread wide, held open by his hot hands on her inner thighs. A warm tongue, probing, caressed her _there_. Men were not supposed to do that, were they? The rake licked a part of her unable to stand his inflaming touch. She tried to wriggle away. He spread her legs wider, and soon she didn't care what happened or what he did, as long as he didn't stop.

Long fingers slid into her wetness.

"Jasper," she moaned.

"Jasper. Jasper," she protested when he left her empty. No. She needed him. Wanted him. Burned for him. Blunt warmth pressed inside her. Deeper and deeper, opening secret places deep inside her. Pain and pleasure made her speechless. She couldn't breathe.

He moved inside her slowly, until her body grew used to him. His mouth on her breasts, his hands cupping her bottom, urged her on to move with him, to let him go deeper inside her. So deep she felt as if she'd die from it.

Heat and hardness surged inside. Each thrust brought her higher and higher, closer to an exquisite pleasure. Every part of her taut body moved with him. Her wicked place was wild for more. She couldn't stop writhing. Hard thrusts deep inside her, brought her to the point of madness. Speechless, unable to stop rising up in a spiral of pleasure so high she thought she'd die from it.

He held her tightly with such intense sweetness in his thrusts, she shuddered under him and submitted to the highest pleasure on earth.

When she could breathe again, he sucked her nipples with long gentle tugs to bring her cresting to another storm of pleasure. So hot and tight she thought she'd swoon from it, and didn't care as long as he didn't stop.

The candle guttered and went out. Complete blackness enveloped her. She could not see, could not breathe from fear. It blocked every sensation of pleasure. Her body fought to close, to make him stop. His deep thrusts hurt. Pain made everything worse. It was too dark.

In a panic, she cried out, "Ouch."

He was not sane. He'd not stop.

"Ouch," she cried. "Ouch."

The mad rake stilled inside her body with groan of anguish. He withdrew from her. It made her gasp with the loss of him.

Forgive me," he said in a low voice. "Never want to hurt my angel."

She had scared him. He'd never want to do it to her again.

Eleanor burst into tears. The darkness wrapped her in fear. She was sure hell wasn't lit by flames, it was endless night.

Jasper scrambled out of bed to get away from her. She heard him fumbling with the shutters.

Eleanor's fear of the dark faded with the early dawn light flooding the room. Her tears stopped. Did he fear a thunderbolt hurled to punish him? What if he tried to jump out of the window to escape her?

"Don't go, Jasper." She tried to stand up. Her head swam and her legs shook. Her wicked place felt swollen. "It was all my fault."
Chapter 20

Jasper picked her up. He sat her on his knee and held her close, to say in a dazed whisper, "Did I hurt you?"

Eleanor gave a sob. Wickedness had regrettably weakened her mind. "In the morning, when you recover, I am going to confess everything. If I can find the courage."

"Confess now, Eleanor," said Jasper, in his normal voice. "Or shall I go first. I confess I pretended to be out of my mind tonight, to make you comfortable with me."

"Let go of me." She struggled to be free. "You pretended. That's makes it even worse. You used your rakish talents on me.

He held her by force on his knee. "No, you are not going anywhere. Confess to me now. What happened that night on the moor? Eleanor, tell me."

She took a deep shuddering breath. It was impossible not to tell him, not after what she had just done with him. "The truth is, it was all my fault. You knew something had happened, and you were right. But I couldn't tell you what I'd done." She dripped tears on his chest. "I couldn't trust you not to tell everyone and ruin me."

"Eleanor, you know my secret. It is deeper and darker than anything you could have done." He kissed the top of her head. "Tell me, my angel."

"I enjoyed being your angel, but in reality I am an awful woman. A cruel liar by omission, because I didn't have to courage to tell you that none of it was your fault."

He brought her to lay down beside him. "I remember lying next to you like this. Did I force you?"

Eleanor stared up at the plasterwork on the ceiling. "I woke up, and you had removed the blanket covering you. My hand was holding your, your ... your male part. I don't know how my hand got there. I should have let go."

Jasper stroked her fingers. "Is that all?" he asked in a soothing voice.

"No." She groaned and covered her eyes. "I examined you. I looked at it. I felt it, all over. I was thorough. I looked and felt _everything_." She sat up indignantly. "Are you laughing at me?"

"With relief. No wonder you couldn't say what you had done. I don't remember any of it. I wish I did." He pulled her down to lie next to him.

Suddenly the humor of it hit her. "I couldn't tell you," she said between nervous giggles. "Lord Jasper, while you were sleeping, I satisfied my curiosity about men and looked thoroughly at all your details. What would you have said to me?"

"Marry me, my angel?" She felt his belly twitch with choked laughter.

"No, you would not. Rakes don't ask women to marry them, not when the woman is a female rake." She gave a great sigh. "Now you know I'm not fit to be any man's wife."

"You are fit to be mine," he protested. "We are a perfect fit."

"I've not finished confessing. It gets worse." She resisted the temptation to lay her head on his chest.

"Worse? Eleanor Tennant, what did you do to me?" He rolled over, taking her with him until she lay on her back trapped beneath him.

"Tonight." Her chin wobbled. "When Grantley brought you back...."

"Yes?" He stroked her tears away.

She said in a rush, "I was glad you were out of your senses. Because I wanted to do it again."

He laughed out loud. "Eleanor, you can use me in or out of my senses, I swear it."

"Can I? Your offer is a sop thrown to me—out of pity." She stopped talking to let him kiss her lips. "You pretended to be out of your mind to be kind to me. I always do things from the worst of motives. Why didn't you stop me tonight?"

"Stop you? I made love to you, Eleanor. As you are fond of pointing out, I am a rake. Why would I try to stop you? Give me the chance to teach you how to lust after me when I'm myself," he urged.

She gave a disdainful sniff. "Female rakes do not allow a man they dislike to give them pleasure." He was far too dangerous to her heart. Whores were his passion. Most of the men of his class had mistresses, and wives were useful only for breeding sons. She didn't want to marry him, and feared to fall in love with him.

"Are you very sure?" he asked in low growl. "Shall we try the experiment? Let me give you pleasure as often as I can, in the hope of binding your heart to mine."

"You have no heart. Let go." Before her bones turned to jelly and her lust betrayed her again. He wanted to make her fall in love him, so she'd be easier to persuade to do his bidding. "Release me at once."

"Eleanor, I thought it safer not to love or be loved. Now, I have no choice."

"Very flattering, my lord," she said, trying for a mocking tone. "And if I find myself with child, I suppose you think I'd marry you?"

"What if I have given you a child? And that child is like me?"

She smiled at the hopeful look on his face, and said lightly, "Mothers always love their children."

"You're not frightened at the risk of madness?" he asked.

"Rakes and angels don't frighten easily." She gave a sudden start. "Is that why Lezarth offered to father my children? Men never lust after me, they always lust after Juliet. He simply didn't want your child in line for the dukedom."

"If I'm not mistaken, you are now determined to have my child to get revenge for Lezarth slighting you?"

"Don't be silly, to be in line your sons have to be legitimate."

"Sons? Are we going to have more than one? I must draw the line somewhere, Eleanor. If you want two, you have to marry me."

She laughed at him. "Even more reason _not_ to marry you. While the duke has only daughters, any child of ours would be a threat to him. Would he poison my tea with pennyroyal and lock you up forever to make sure we'd have no children?"

"Not the pennyroyal," he said in ducal tones. In his own voice, Jasper confessed, "Alas, I can only hope not to be locked up forever." Not thinking about his future was easy with his angel trapped under him. He kissed what was visible and reachable.

His foolish angel tried to hide her breasts. "What are you doing? It's daylight.

"This is my revenge for what you did to me that night on the moor." He held her hands above her head with one hand.

She shuddered at his mouth on her breasts.

"I'm afraid," she confessed.

"I know how you controlled me, Eleanor. You _ouched_ your way through that night. Maybe it will work now, or maybe it won't. Just remember you can't fight me off."

"I'm not afraid of you, I'm afraid of me. You are like opium."

* * * *

Eleanor leaned against the windowsill in her locked bedroom watching everyone in sight. They were all women as far as she could tell, except for a suspicious looking Amazon with broad shoulders, who skipped from group to group, dressed in a low-cut gown. The men had disappeared hours before the women appeared.

The Amazon stopped under her window to blow a kiss to her and wave. Eleanor laughed when she recognized Grantley. Odd didn't begin to describe him. It was strange how much bigger he looked dressed as a woman.

"Come down, little angel. There is someone who wants to meet you. I told her what you risked to help me and she doesn't believe me." He adjusted his sash. "Damn, Cragg. He made me dress like this. Only reason he let me stay. Told you he hates me. The men are all playing some fool game or other. You are safe, no one will see you."

Eleanor unlocked the door and slipped out of the house to meet him. She wondered if the men were all at the orgy. She only knew it was something unspeakable in front of a lady and had nothing to do with food. She wanted to see the grounds, to walk and breathe fresh air, not to be cooped up like a cat to snooze the day away. Snoozing was dangerous. To her dismay, her body kept revisiting last night's pleasures.

Grantley offered his bare arm, rather hairy like his chest. She touched it lightly with her fingertips. "Where is your wife?" she asked.

"Goodness, don't call her that." He led her across the lawn with odd skipping steps that were designed to kick his skirts out from between his legs. "She is here as Queen of the Gypsies."

The queen didn't deign to notice her husband's approach. She chatted with another woman in the shade of a gazebo while they drank champagne and nibbled on a tray of hothouse fruit.

"Queens Mab and Esmeralda, Your Majesties, may I present an angel?" he asked in fawning tones.

The Queen of the Gypsies looked her over, before she smiled a false welcome. "Jasper's angel? Look how sweet she is. Join us, heavenly guest." She turned to gesture her husband away with an angry hand. "Go away. We are going to find out all about dear Jasper. Is he a good lover, skillful and endless?" she asked with a sly air.

Deserted by Grantley, Eleanor dipped a curtsy. "I really cannot say, Your Majesty, Jasper has forbidden me to talk or boast of him." She certainly thought two hours of making love might qualify for those attributes. To change the subject, she remarked, "If I'd known I'd meet royalty, Your Majesties, I'd have worn my wings."

"Call me Esmeralda. This is Mab." She indicated the slender beauty wearing a tiara of flowers in her hair.

Mab inclined her head gracefully. "So you are Jasper's virgin, or you were until very recently, if I may hazard a guess?"

Eleanor shrugged an answer about her virginity. It was far too sensitive a topic. "Queen Mab, I bring you greetings from another world than yours."

The lady smiled full of charm and wisdom. "Do join us, little angel."

Esmeralda glowered at Eleanor. "Shall we let her join the lottery? It seems a shame to deny her a chance."

"Little angel, do you gamble?" asked Queen Mab.

"Alas, I don't." Whatever game they played, Eleanor didn't want any part of it. She knew Mr. Grantley's wife did not offer anything she'd enjoy. The details of what went on at Cragg's had been left out from Jasper's explanation, but enough had been conveyed to make her wary.

"Are you but lately from heaven?" asked the ethereal beauty. "Are you by chance one of Mrs. Gillie's teachers?" She laughed, a lovely sound, which Eleanor was sure she did for effect and not because she found anything amusing.

"Who is she?" Eleanor asked.

The two women laughed at her answer, not the least taken in by it.

"Do you have sins to confess, little angel?" Queen Mab waited for the answer.

Eleanor smiled back. "Aren't we all sinners? I shall not be the first one to cast a stone."

"Will you cast your name in the lottery, for friendship's sake, my little friend?" Queen Mab leaned forward to touch Eleanor's knee. "There is no harm in it, between friends."

"No, forgive me if I seem rude, but I must decline." Eleanor was not taken in by appeals to friendship.

Esmeralda shrugged and pouted. "I shall put your name in. You'll miss out on everything if you don't."

Queen Mab sipped her champagne. "Cragg's rules say no guest is forced to take part in the lottery. For reluctant guests there is always the auction. Anyone can make the first bid. Of course, no one is obliged to accept a bid. There are rules about that too."

Eleanor shook her head. "I don't think I'll be attending the auction."

A trill of laughter came from Queen Mab. She signaled for two tall footmen. They bowed low and waited for their orders.

"You see, my dear, you will attend the auction, if only to see Jasper's face when the bidding begins. The house rules are you can take the money, Cragg stands surety for it being paid, or you can decline."

With the choice between going with Mab and Esmeralda, or being carried there, Eleanor decided to walk to the house with an unlikely queen on either side.

Queen Mab murmured as they walked together, "You must tell Mrs. Gillie when you see her again, that Clara sends her regards."

This elegant beauty was Clara, bought by Jasper from Mrs. Gillie years ago, after Lezarth had freed him from the dower house. Bought and paid for, only to lose her to someone at an auction.

Mrs. Gillie had described the long negotiation to Eleanor to explain how her contracts worked. Had Clara feared for her life with Jasper? Was that why she'd accepted Cragg's bid? Eleanor couldn't imagine any female preferring Cragg to Jasper, except Cragg was master of his fortune and his house, and all Jasper possessed could disappear in one public attack of madness.
Chapter 21

The ballroom was lit by a low, dazzling sun. Tables of female guests mingled and toasted each other as they waited for the rest of the company. A dais at the edge of the polished floor held Cragg and Queen Mab. The debauched devil roared with laughter at the joke she meant to play on Jasper.

Eleanor wished she had stayed in their room. There was no way to escape her fate, not with Queen Mab's footmen standing guard.

The men entered, some of them could hardly walk for drink. Jasper was one of the last to join them. He searched for her with a look of concern.

What good had she done by disobeying him? Mrs. Grantley had not listened to any of husband's persuasion to return home. Grantley, still dressed as a woman, grew quieter and quieter in his humiliation. He sat at their table, handsome in his way, now that Eleanor was used to his female dress. Not that he was alone in his misery, there were other men there dressed, with skill, as women. They reveled in their fate, unlike poor Grantley.

Jasper came to sit with her. Immediately, Queen Mab came to join them. Eleanor sat in the circle of his arm. She didn't mind the liberty. It kept her safe from leering drunkards. She leaned against him and her nerves relaxed enough for her to give a little shiver.

Queen Mab gave a sneering laugh in her lovely way. "Jasper, is your angel cold?" She rose to her feet, no longer feigning friendship. She called out, "I start the bidding on the little angel with one golden guinea."

Cragg rose in all his magnificence from among his cronies. His pompous strut towards them made her uneasy.

Jasper rose as he approached. Eleanor hoped he meant to leave with her, but he whispered, "You must stand on the dais. House rules. Just don't accept any bids or you will find yourself naked up there." At the look on her face, he added, "I warned you to stay in the room."

Men were all disgusting pigs.

Eleanor took Cragg's outstretched hand and allowed him to lead her to the dais set at the edge of the dance floor. He kept a tight grip on her fingers to bid in a loud voice, "One thousand guineas for one night with Jasper's angel."

She gave him a look of complete disbelief. He let her fingers slide from his grip.

"I am not impressed with your offer." She smiled sweetly at his look of surprise. He'd stolen Clara from Jasper years ago and now wanted to repeat his triumph.

Other bids rang from around the room. The bidding quickly rose to ten thousand guineas and the length of time changed with every bid.

Grantley rose to shout his bid. "Eleven thousand for her, with liberty for life." His wife threw her glass of wine at him. "Damn it, my love, I am trying to save her from a fate worse than death. Thank goodness she didn't put her name in the lottery, half the men here are poxed."

Eleanor couldn't hear what his wife replied, but suddenly Grantley went white and hustled his wife out of the room. She went with him, looking like the wife she was. Oh no, Jasper must stop them, to make them wait for her. How were they going to get to Scotland if they were left behind at the orgy.

She tried to step off the dais but Cragg stopped her. "Do you accept the last offer?" he asked.

"What was it?" she snapped at him. She had no time for silly games.

A stern regal man waved his hand. He looked vaguely familiar, like a Halyton. She had met him at dinner, though he had not deigned to speak to anyone but the duke. "I offer twenty thousand guineas for one year of your company, without license to touch you."

A tempting offer but it was a lie. He was not here to save her from Jasper but to capture her for Lezarth. It was a ridiculous offer. She could see the reaction it caused, the ripple of excitement from the men, even some of the ones dressed as women stopped to listen to her answer.

"No, it's a boring offer if ever I heard one."

The whole company gasped and drew a breath together. The bids came hot and fast now. Her price had dropped and the offers contained words she didn't understand. They shouted down one another and crowded around the dais a sweating, frenzied, lustful mass. One of them caught her skirt. She pulled it away.

Jasper approached the dais.

The mob grew silent.

He bowed in a lazy ironical way, to show he took none of it seriously.

"Gentlemen, you have no idea how to offer what an angel wants." He held out his hand to her. "I give you my heart. It beats only for you. For as long as you treasure it, I am yours."

Eleanor gave a delicate angelic laugh. "Your heart? Do you have one, my lord? I have looked with my divine powers and never found it. Therefore, I must decline your offer." She went to him, let him put his hands on her waist, but instead of helping her off the dais he lifted her onto his shoulder.

The crowd cheered him on. The suggestions of what he do to her contained those words she didn't understand. She clung to his coat, letting him hold her thighs to stop her from falling from his grasp. She could scarcely take a breath.

If only his heart beat just for her. She had almost lost her composure, almost lost her heart. If only he meant it. The thought of marrying a man who could make her yearn for his love and never return it, made her quake. To have only his good manners, his humoring of her wishes, and her use of him for carnal purposes, until he got bored. All given out of a sense of duty and compassion— before he fled back to his mistresses and his loathsome friends.

Jasper carried his angel out of the house and across the lawn.

Half of his mind had descended into madness. The Horde was here with Simon, or they would be very soon. The dower house loomed in his future, so close he could smell it. The blood, the bile, and enough ice to freeze him body and soul. To wake up there, to get into an ice bath twice a day, to be bled until he hovered near death. Purged till his gut gave up the ghost and every morsel of food revolted him.

Hellfire! There was no escaping his fate.

A rowboat was tied up at the dock. He placed her into the seat opposite him, then cast off and rowed for the middle of the lake. Anywhere but the dower house. Not there. His thoughts grew darker with every memory dredged up to meet the light of day.

"Stop it." His angel grabbed his hands. "Stop thinking whatever it is you are thinking." The oars splashed to a halt.

He told her the truth. "We have to go back."

"We are going to Scotland. You promised."

They'd be lucky to get to the gates. He rowed for the shore away from the house.

"Someone from your family is here," she said. "The duke must have sent him."

"If you'd taken Simon's offer and been stripped naked by Cragg, before being delivered wrapped in the king of the underworld's bloody cloak, Lezarth— " He stopped shouting at her. "The auction is a joke, Cragg has a strange sense of humor."

"Why do you come here? Is it to try to get Clara back?"

He gave a careless shrug, stung by her question. "If someone like me is deprived of a mistress, she is easily replaced."

His angel flinched. Hellfire! What was he saying.

For the first time, he wanted to tell the truth. "Craggwater is prime hunting country. Years ago on a long run I saw Mrs. Hardcastle, the woman I attacked. She had not gone to live in Yorkshire. They lied to me. I come here every year to see if I can catch a glimpse of her son."

The boat drifted into the reeds where it nudged the shore, hidden from prying eyes. "Clara is not even a minor attraction. I have no lingering fascination for her. It is Mrs. Hardcastle who brings me here. If Lezarth found out all hell would break loose."

"Quite frankly, you had a lucky escape with Clara," said Eleanor. "Her character is not nice."

"Precisely why I chose her. Falling in love was never my intent." He climbed out to hold the boat steady, his boots in the mud and his mind roiling with regret and guilt.

"Do you know, I still only like you insane." She took his outstretched hand. "It's the only time you are decent company."

He helped her to the shore, before her words struck him as funny.

His angel dragged him away from the shore to shelter under the canopy of a weeping willow. He sank to the ground laughing, unable to do more than roll on the earth like the lunatic he was.

To his delight, she laughed with him, and sank to her knees beside him with a glorious expression of joy on her face. She giggled and snorted until she lay down beside him as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

He held her hand, entwined his fingers with hers and enjoyed how her laughter shivered up his arm.

That set him off again. They laughed until their sides ached and her head ended up on his chest.

She gave a funny snort and said, "If you ever go permanently insane, I shall apply to Lezarth to be your keeper."

The cool green light filtering through the drooping leaves suddenly brightened as Lezarth stepped into their sanctuary. He stared down at them as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "Shall we discuss payment now, Miss Tennant?" He held the branches back. "He is here, bring the rope."

"Run." His angel bounded to her feet and tried to pull him up. "Run."

Lezarth gripped her arm.

She struggled to free herself.

Lezarth did not let go. He had no idea how to treat a lady or an angel.

Jasper surged to his feet. "Don't touch her. Let go, Lezarth. There is no need for violence."

The duke released Eleanor and looked ashamed. He gave a nervous cough and called, "Grantley, come help me."

Grantley pulled aside a branch to peer at them. "He's fine. I told you so, Duke."

Lezarth ignored him. "Jasper, you had better be out of your mind. Explain to me why you brought Miss Tennant here?"

Eleanor mimicked his haughty tones. "I shall answer for myself. I came here to rescue Mrs. Grantley."

"Grantley." Lezarth looked murderous. "Where is Sophia?"

"She is hiding in my carriage. We were trying to find the others so they could leave with us. There is a very good explanation for it all, I assure you."

"Pass me the rope. We are all returning to Halyton Court. Jasper step forward. I must tie you up for the journey, I am not risking anyone getting hurt." He gave a pointed glance at Eleanor. "Nor do I want to know any details of what went on here. I shall lock up the pair of you, until you have both recovered your senses."

"Not together," said a shocked Grantley. "It wouldn't be safe for Eleanor. What are you thinking?"

Jasper couldn't have said it better himself

His angel suddenly lashed out and hit Lezarth on the chin. The duke fell to the ground with a thud.

She squeaked an _ouch_ and ran, calling his name.

Jasper followed her. Eleanor had no sense of self-preservation, and he had a reprieve for as long as they could evade capture. He felt giddy with relief.

In the canopy under the weeping willow, Grantley knelt beside the duke, who groaned and held his chin. "Told you Jasper hadn't touched her. She wouldn't be so keen to save him from you if he'd ravished her, now would she?"

"Silence," ordered the duke. He struggled to his feet. "They can't get far on foot. I shall guard the gate with Richard, while you fetch Edward and Nash."

Jasper followed Eleanor.

He stopped her when they neared the gates. "There is Grantley's carriage. We can't take it because Sophia is inside, hiding from Lezarth."

"Look, there is your phaeton," she whispered. "We can't be hanged for stealing that."

"Is that you, Jasper?" Richard strolled out from the shadow of the gatehouse. "Miss Tennant, may I escort you to your sister? Really, I think you should say yes. Mr. and Mrs. Benedict are at the George Inn."

Jasper boosted her into the phaeton seat, "Tell Lezarth we are on our way there. Sorry, no room for three."
Chapter 22

"What can she say, if I'm with you?" Eleanor watched Jasper open the farm gate from her seat on the phaeton. "A generous gift, and you pretending to be safely married and besotted with your dratted angel. How much safer could you be?" She drove through.

He closed the gate behind her. "Stay with me at all times." He climbed on board. "Do I look feverish to you?"

"Not at all."

The farm house came into view. It looked prosperous with outbuildings and a large kitchen garden. Dogs announced their arrival from the yard and inside the house.

The black and white collie was silenced by a word from Jasper. It wagged its tail and obligingly led them to the door. Inside, a ferocious yapping came for the other side of the door. It opened and a woman stared up at Jasper with a look of horror on her face.

"No." She tried to shut the door in his face.

Eleanor braced her foot against the studded planks. "Mrs. Hardcastle, don't be afraid. I am Lady Jasper and it is my fault entirely that we are here. Do let us in."

"My husband isn't home. You must come back later, if you must call. I cannot open the door without him here."

"Nonsense," said Eleanor cheerfully. "We have only five minutes to spare. If we dawdle, the duke is sure to come here looking for us."

At her words, Mrs. Hardcastle gave a gasp of dismay. "You'd best come in then."

The door opened to admit them to a large room comfortably furnished. The small dog hid under the sideboard. Mrs. Hardcastle invited them to sit down then bustled away to make tea. Eleanor rushed after her to offer help and make sure she didn't flee by the kitchen door.

The kettle sang on the stove before Mrs. Hardcastle said another word. "Forgive me, my lady, but you should not have brought Lord Jasper here. I shall get in terrible trouble if my husband finds out."

Eleanor smiled conspiratorially. "We won't be here to tell him and no one saw us arrive. There is no need for you to inform Mr. Hardcastle about our visit. Won't he be pleased to hear of Lord Jasper's gift?"

"It's right generous of him. He's always been so generous. Such a kind gentleman. He always has been very kind, different from his father. Not that it's my place to say."

They returned to the living room to find the generous Lord Jasper pacing the floor. Eleanor gave him a reassuring smile. "Mrs. Hardcastle has just been saying how generous and kind you are, Jasper."

Mrs. Hardcastle smiled shyly and nodded her head. "Aye, that's right. Do you take milk in your tea, my lord. I've a good ale if you'd prefer that?"

"I'd like that very much." His wary posture relaxed.

The only disappointment was the absence of Jasper's son. He was in a boarding school and was visiting a friend for the holidays. Food was offered and accepted. Ham slices with homemade pickles and bread. Meat pies and tarts of fruit from the garden. Eleanor kept the conversation light and general until Jasper engaged their hostess in conversation.

Mrs. Hardcastle wanted to know all the gossip about the servants in Halyton Court. Jasper obliged her by recounting amusing stories of their dramas and triumphs.

Eleanor fell asleep in her chair while Mrs. Hardcastle told him all about her neighbors. She woke to find herself alone. It was strange to hear them talking in the kitchen. The woman flirted with Jasper after all that had happened between them, she was certainly not afraid of him

Rain tapped on the window. Eleanor slipped out of the house to check on the team, only to find they had been brought into the barn. She patted their necks and waited until her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

Someone was watching her. The sudden realization that Mrs. Hardcastle might have lied about Jasper's son being present made her cautious and curious.

"Oh dear, have you gone lame?" she asked the nearest horse. "I do believe you are limping. What am I to do?" Eleanor had not spent summers entertaining Mrs. Lumm's numerous offspring and large extended family without learning how to coax conversation from a boy.

"Nay, miss." The boy approached from the shadows. "There's nowt wrong with him."

"Thank you for taking care of the horses. Who are you?"

"I'm not allowed to say." He came over to talk to her, not the least shy. The dim light revealed a boy about twelve years old with a long pointed nose.

"You aren't?" said Eleanor. "Can you tell me why?"

"I'm supposed to be away at school." He checked the horse. "Nothing wrong with him, Miss."

"Do you like school?" she asked.

"Never bin near one. My mother teaches me at home." He gave a pleasant laugh, eager to talk to her. "She's a good teacher. She runs a dame school for the local lads."

"You're a bit old for a dame school, aren't you? Would you like to go to school?"

"Nay, I have to help on the farm."

The barn door suddenly opened. A man with a similar sharp nose, peered into the barn.

"Pa. We have visitors." The boy ran out to bring his father's mount into the barn.

"Who is it?" growled Mr. Hardcastle.

Eleanor strolled forward. "Good afternoon, I am Lord Jasper's wife." She held out her hand with a friendly smile.

The man stared down his nose at her. "That bastard is not allowed to marry. Never will be after what he has done. If you are one of his whores, I must ask you to leave. John, bring that team out the barn. Where is your mother?"

The news that his wife was alone in the house with Lord Jasper sent the man running.

Eleanor ran after him. She wasn't going to give him the chance to accuse Jasper of another attack.

Mr. Hardcastle flung open the door to his house.

Eleanor only understood one word in three of the insults he shouted. Jasper still held a cup and a cloth. Mrs. Hardcastle's flushed face paled and she shrank from her husband.

Jasper left by the kitchen door without saying a word.

Eleanor hesitated, then quickly returned to talk with the boy in the yard.

"Have you any brothers or sisters," she asked.

"Nay. Me mam only had me." He was a smart boy and knew why she was asking. "Is he Lord Jasper?"

"Yes, your father is furious we are here."

"Aye, he's like that. Quick to rage, says my mam. I'd best stay out of the house."

Jasper came through the kitchen garden with a strained expression on his face. He helped her into the phaeton and threw a coin for the boy, who caught it with a delighted smile.

The horses started with lively pace.

Eleanor whispered, "Your son looks just like his father, doesn't he?"

"Was that him? Are you sure? He can't be mine." He looked back at the boy standing in the yard and waved to him. The boy waved back.

Eleanor waved too. "They only have one child. He is a pleasant lad with good manners. His mother teaches him at home." She waited for a reaction to the news the boy was not his son.

"That explains why I never managed to find his school," he said in a relieved voice.

"Mrs. Hardcastle lied about what happened," said Eleanor. "She lied and they have been hiding the boy all these years."

"Isn't it as likely that she has forgiven me, knowing it was not in my character and that I repented."

"But he isn't your child."

"Eleanor, they were married the week after I attacked her. I am glad the child is his, and only regret I was the means of making her wed him."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Nothing. If I stop the allowance, she'd suffer for it. The money means nothing to me. I'm glad to know it, though. Hardcastle will treat the boy better because he is his son. I suspected it might be so, when all my efforts to meet him were denied. I hoped so and prayed so, because to have foisted my child on her gave me nightmares."

The phaeton went on at an easy pace. They looked like any couple out for the day. Dark clouds spattered rain.

Jasper resolved to stop at the next inn, even if it meant risking capture. He had to let it happen, they couldn't sleep in a hedgerow. Wandering around England to avoid the Great North Road meant delay, not safety.

They sheltered under a spreading oak to wait for a heavy shower to pass. He tried to engage his angel in conversation, but she answered him with her mind far away. Every now and then she'd shake her head and mutter something to herself. A sign of her distress, rather like Lezarth's nervous humming.

To distract her, when they resumed their journey, he asked, "Eleanor, won't your grandmother be shocked when we arrive?" Not that they had a chance of getting to Scotland.

She was distracted enough to stop nervously eyeing the road ahead. "Grandmama will be pleased to see me. Don't think she'll fall for your charm," she teased. "My grandmother has no time for men."

"Sensible woman. I'm just hoping she won't have me shot." He enjoyed her answering smile.

"Don't worry, I'll ask her not to shoot you anywhere important."

The phaeton lurched over the rough road. "Glad you consider some parts of me worth saving."

Soon, her worried expression returned. "You mustn't think badly of me, if I can't bring myself to marry you and live as Lezarth's prisoner. It isn't because I don't care for you, I do. And don't make the mistake of thinking I care about you because you give me pleasure. That means nothing to either of us."

"Yes, my female rake, pleasure can be separated from love, but I seem to have lost the knack of it since meeting you." His words fell on deaf ears.

"Don't change the subject. I am giving you fair warning. Do you think I want declarations of love from you?" She gave a little shrug of denial. "If I am ruined, why should I care if your family is tainted by gossip?"

He bent to kiss her cheek. "Isn't it better to be married than ruined in the eyes of the world? Would being my wife be so terrible?" A stupid question, but if they couldn't talk about it, he'd never be able to persuade her.

"My mother was pregnant with me before she was married," she said quietly.

"Not so unusual." He slowed the horses to a walk, to put his arm around her.

"Her fiancé had died and my mother was desperate. The man she married always treated me like his daughter. Even after Juliet was born. My mother made the safe choice, even though her mother warned against it. Mama married a Sassenach and went to live in England, and she has not traveled more than a few miles from her home since."

She said kindly, "You must understand, I won't marry into your family. I won't put my head in the noose, no matter how much pleasure you give me."

"Wicked angel." He hid his pain and his guilt, in a dry jocular tone. "You lured me to sin and now, having had your way with me, you intend to leave me to Lezarth's tender mercy and escape. I can only commend your strategy."

She studied him carefully. "I can't tell if I have the power to hurt you or not. If I do, I'm sorry for it. But I intend to use my knowledge of your condition over Lezarth's head. I give you fair warning, if ruining your family's reputation is the only way to be free, I'll do it."

He had no answer. Her plan might have worked, if he hadn't made sure it couldn't. They'd been married by lies, and there'd be hell to pay when she found out.

* * * *

Eleanor drove on, looking for a place to take shelter. Rain sluiced down in sheets. It drummed on their heads and soaked them to the skin. The phaeton's flimsy folding roof had collapsed under the weight of it, to hang drunkenly behind them. Breaks in the hedgerows on either side of the muddy road, revealed only gates leading into the fields. She glanced at Jasper, to make sure he was not trying to take his clothes off. "Not far now." she lied.

"Rain is bad for angels," he muttered. "Don't vanish." He gripped her skirt in his fist.

What if he died? She had to find somewhere safe to stop. The deserted roads led in circles. He needed medicine to bring his fever down. He needed to be dry and looked after. What a fool she was to think of journeying to Scotland.

They were going in circles. She had seen the tall trees with the rookery earlier, when Jasper had been persuaded to give her the reins. No threats of thunderbolts were needed. He had wanted a kiss and had been given two. It was as if he was sleepwalking. He didn't rave like one delirious, he entered a dreamlike state and retained a calm logic, even if it was a trifle warped. Her halo was back, her wings still a fascination.

Sprays of water flew up at the turn ahead. Two carriages rounded the corner and rumbled to a stop.

She peered through the rain. The Duke of Lezarth stepped down onto the muddy road. Edward and Nash followed at his heels. Grooms rushed to give them umbrellas, and then returned to wait blank-faced on the carriage.

Richard helped Jasper's physician out of the second carriage. They slid and slipped across the mud to reach the phaeton. The doctor was boosted up to perch precariously near Jasper. The phaeton lurched under his weight. Jasper recognized him. He warned, "Don't fall, Beecham."

Lezarth spoke to her in his ducal voice, "Your journey north is over. Jasper is accused of an attack on Mrs. Hardcastle."

Eleanor's exclamation of relief at seeing him vanished. "What?" she protested. "Nothing happened to her."

The duke demanded, "Were you with him the entire time?"

Eleanor suddenly remembered she had promised not to leave him alone with Mrs. Hardcastle. "They were doing the dishes together. She was perfectly at ease with him."

"Do you think he does dishes often, Miss Tennant? Certainly he was out of his mind, yet you left him alone with her. It seems, _Miss Tennant_ ," the duke emphasized her name in awful tones, "the only woman safe with him is you. Or do you welcome what he does to you?"

She was too cold to blush.

Get down," commanded the duke.

Eleanor scrambled out of the phaeton unassisted. Jasper followed her, his hand still gripping her skirt. She displayed a length of leg for everyone to see.

Jasper shrugged away the physician's flask.

"You will drink it," warned Lezarth, "or you'll have it forced down your throat." He waited until Jasper swallowed the medicine. "Get into my carriage. You'll sleep all the way home with any luck."

The duke turned to her. "You may travel with your sister. Where you go, I do not care. I never want to see you again."

Jasper swayed on his feet.

She embraced him. "I'm sorry. Forgive me."

"My angel, have you decided death and hell?" He looked sad. "Not heaven?"

Her tears ran to mingle with the rain on his wet coat.

He whispered, "Say prayers for me. Go back, safe in heaven."

"Jasper, let go of her. She doesn't want to be your keeper." Lezarth stepped closer. "Or do you? It comes with a price, Lady Jasper."

She replied from deep in Jasper's embrace. "I'm not married and you know it."

"Then walk away from him," said Lezarth. "I promise you, he won't bother you again because he is going to be locked in the dower house for the rest of his life."

She elbowed the duke away. "Jasper did not touch that woman. They are lying to blackmail you into paying for their silence."

Jasper tried to hold himself upright by clinging to her shoulders.

The duke pried her free. "What business is it of yours? Go to your sister. Benedict will take you where you want to go."

"Go." Jasper gave her a little push away from him. "Safe in heaven." His hand stroked her back in one last caress.

The duke stepped between them."

Eleanor was pushed away from the sheltering umbrellas.

Rain washed away her tears. "I want to stay with him."

Lezarth said sternly, "Then admit you have married him, Lady Jasper."

"No. Let me get him into the carriage. Why are you delaying? Save him."

He leaned closer. "Why won't you? You run away with him, sleep with him, and you won't marry him? I think you are ideally suited, both of you are lunatics."

Jasper pushed the duke. "Don't take her. Mine not yours."

"Get in, Jasper. Your angel has better things to do than be with you." Lezarth let Edward and Nash help Jasper into the carriage.

Eleanor tried to follow.

The duke blocked the door. "Lady Jasper, do you come with us, or do you travel with your sister?" He held the umbrella over her and bent his head politely to listen for her answer.

"I'll let you call me that, if you agree that I am not a member of your family and you have no right to order me about."

He gave a grim smile. "Lady Jasper, will you enter, or do you prefer to travel with your sister?"

Eleanor sniffed regally. "I shall travel with Jasper."

He held her arm in a firm grip to stop her from entering the carriage. "As Lady Jasper?" he enquired.

"You do not own me. Remember that, whatever you call me."

The duke said in ominous tones, "Go with your sister, you are dangerous to his health. When he overtaxes his strength to please you, he risks becoming permanently insane."

"That's not true."

"Do you really think he wants to travel like this?" The duke pointed at the phaeton with its two bedraggled horses. "Do you care if he dies from it?"

Guilt lashed her. "Please, save him."

"Exactly what I was trying to do when you hit me." He waited for her to apologize.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice.

"Miss Tennant, sane and insane, Jasper wants you. God only knows why, for you don't care a damn about him."

"Yes, I do," protested Eleanor. "Tell me what I can do to help him and I'll do it."

The duke let out a low musical hum of satisfaction. "Be his wife."

"Will you let me have a say in his treatment?"

"I'd expect you to have an opinion on everything concerning your husband."

"But will you listen?" she asked.

"Always. I swear I'll always listen to you and discuss his care with you." He held out his hand to assist her into the carriage. "Do come in out of the rain, Lady Jasper."
Chapter 23

"Eleanor has agreed to marry me today?" Jasper couldn't believe Lezarth had prevailed without a great deal of threats. His angel was not taking her role seriously. The dower house remained bereft of angels, and he dared not think about what came next, in case it drove his wits away. "You haven't forced her to be my wife, have you?"

"Forced her?" said the duke. "Not at all, I gave her a choice, to come with you, or go with her sister. I had to insist on her marrying you, when she chose you. By the time she'd finished with me, I didn't know what I was promising and all I was doing was babbling like an idiot."

"I'm sure you were perfectly lucid." Jasper stared out through the bars. The walled garden enclosing his world was smaller than he remembered. He had not set foot in the dower house since the day he'd been released.

"How do you persuade ladies to be your mistress?" complained Lezarth. "It must have been a lesson I slept through"

"They all want to marry you and be your duchess." Except his Eleanor.

Jasper linked his arm with Lezarth's to pace the room with him. Long ago they had walked like this. Back and forth, to talk together and to make it difficult for anyone to overhear them.

"How were you going to get her to marry you?" whispered Lezarth. "You were the one who told me to forge the wedding lines. Legally, you are married to her. If this ever gets out, I'll never live it down."

"No one will challenge you about it." Jasper stopped, far from doors where they could be overheard. "I've changed my will to give Eleanor independence after my death. Promise me you'll honor it, Lezarth. There are arrangements in place for her, while I live."

The duke reluctantly nodded his agreement. "You are not going to die, Jasper."

"Did you send Epping? We need a hold over Hardcastle, just as he has one over me. Don't ask to meet his wife. He is capable of beating her. When he entered the kitchen, she was badly frightened. His one aim was to get me to strike him."

"If Eleanor had not been with you, Hardcastle could have killed you," said Lezarth. "Makes my blood run cold." Curious, he asked, "What was his wife like with you?"

"Not afraid of me after the first few minutes. Wanted to know all the gossip about the staff. The fact I can remember it all is proof enough I was sane at the time." Jasper confessed, "I have no recollection of how you found me. Was Eleanor scared?"

"Not of you. I never saw anyone look so bedraggled and so beautiful. She radiated heavenly calm. You'd have followed her anywhere." The duke pulled a comical lovelorn face.

It felt good to laugh with him. Jasper asked with a casualness he didn't feel, "When does the treatment start?"

"Tomorrow." Lezarth looked guilty. "It must be done. If we hadn't found you yesterday, you might have died from fever."

"Yes, of course." Tomorrow, he'd wish he had died.

"What am I to do with your angel? She wants to go visit her father."

"Let her go. Make no attempt to force her to stay here. Promise me, Lezarth." Jasper waited for the duke's agreement. His brother's first instinct was always to say no. "If Eleanor decides to go to Scotland, help her to get there safely."

Lezarth asked suspiciously, "Did she tell you about her mother?"

"I've had no heavenly visitors," said Jasper. "What happened?"

"Mrs. Tennant has left her husband. She went to Scotland to visit her mother— without his permission."

"What did Tennant want you to do?" asked Jasper.

"Wanted me to bring her back," said Lezarth. "You can imagine how I reacted. Told him I had enough to do chasing his daughter all over England. Strange family."

* * * *

Eleanor arrived unescorted for her wedding at the dower house. Jasper greeted her at the door, dressed lightly in a thin shirt and trousers. His face was bleak and sorrowful. He took her hand to kiss her fingers.

In the parlor, Archibald Winthrop and the duke waited to hear her say her vows.

Her voice trembled now and then. She raised her chin to control it.

The bridegroom sounded not like himself. It spoke either of his distaste for matrimony or of his struggle for control.

Archibald sighed with relief when the short ceremony was over. "My dear newlyweds. It pleases me to preside over this second wedding." He gave a nod and wink. "May you grow in love and remember your vows. Whatever sadness life offers you, go forward together and find comfort and joy in your love for each other, for eternity."

Eleanor kept her eyes on the rector's waving hands. The iron bars at the windows were a bleak symbol of her marriage. A slight breeze moved the air, but could not rid it of the damp smell from a long neglected house.

Jasper held her hand in a strong grip. She looked down at the ring on her finger. Bound with gold, imprisoned. She was a horrible person to worry about him recovering and going back to Mrs. Gillie to buy another mistress. One who would be paid extra not to fall in love with him. A virgin to debauch until he tired of her.

Marriage was a trap.

She rubbed his fingers with her free hand, the one not marked by a golden symbol of his ownership, until his fingers eased their grip.

Lezarth showed his approval with odd musical hums from his position beside Jasper.

"Lezarth, may I speak with my bride in private?" asked her bridegroom.

"A few minutes to say goodbye." The duke led Archibald out.

Eleanor wiped a tear from her cheek. Weddings made women silly, powerless, and foolish. She heard the dower house gate clang shut. An ominous rattle to herald her entombment in the noble Halyton family.

Jasper took her in his arms. "Don't cry, my wife. Go to London, leave as soon as you can. Don't stay to watch. I couldn't stand it."

Her husband's first words were orders telling her what to do. She stroked his chest only because her head happened to be resting on it. "No, I'm staying. Lezarth promised I could have a say in your treatment."

"He lied. Lezarth will never relent about the treatment, because he fears I'll go insane permanently without it."

"He said _I_ was making you insane."

"I thought you liked me insane," he said, with a smile that looked out of place.

"Not if it means they must lock you up and torture you."

"You are a delight to me."

She held him tightly, not knowing if he told the truth or was hiding behind a lie. "Don't let them kill you."

He lifted her hand to kiss her fingers. "Leave soon. Don't stay to watch. Promise me."

Eleanor stroked him as an angel should.

Edward and Nash burst into the room to interrupt their embrace.

They waved bottles of champagne.

Jasper asked, "Have you taken to drink, I thought you'd got over that stage of youth?"

Nash waved a glass in front of her nose. Edward opened a bottle with a flourish and poured.

Edward winked at her. "We are here to lure you out for luncheon with the family, Lady Jasper." At her surprised look, he turned to his twin. "Give her the glass. May as well get her drunk, if a polite invitation won't work on her when she's sober."

Nash leered at her in a cheerful way. "We've bet Lezarth we can get you to dine with us. Except for Jasper, he has to stay here. Do you think it'll drive him mad?"

"If you two haven't driven me mad by now," said Jasper, "I doubt having some peace and quiet will do it."

Eleanor didn't want to go with them to face the Halyton family. She gave a shudder at the thought. They must all know what she had done with him. She fought a losing battle with color staining her cheeks.

Jasper drew her away from the two young men. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Rakes, male or female, do not care what other people think. They are selfish and care only for their own pleasure. Take control, don't wait for it to be given to you. Raise your chin and remember they want no scandal. They need you to keep secrets."

"I'd rather live in Pru's cottage."

"Do something for me, Eleanor. Promise me you'll sleep in my bed at Halyton Court."

She gave a hopeful smile. "Away from the duchess?"

"Rakes always want a life of luxury and comfort. Go and show them there is a price for your silence, my female rake."

* * * *

In the drawing room, Eleanor poured tea while Amelia flitted from person to person delivering the cups. It was the only task Eleanor had agreed to do. She refused to hover at the back of the duchess's sofa waiting for her commands.

The duchess whispered her conversation with Mrs. Grantley.

Eleanor waited until Grantley wandered about alone, before taking a cup to him.

He took it with one of his lovely smiles.

Eleanor could almost feel the scorching glances of his wife. "Are you so distrusted, Mr. Grantley, that I cannot offer you tea without your wife wishing me dead?"

"It's not the tea bothering Sophia, my dear. It's you being married to Jasper." He perched on the window sill. "She thought he'd never marry. Now look, he's gone and married you instead of her. I swear the only reason she married me was because he warned her against me, and she thought it might bring him to propose."

Eleanor asked with a teasing smile, "Was she very disappointed? Were you not consolation prize enough?"

"I tried, God help me. I tried, with her parents breathing down my neck in a disapproving way. Spoilt she was. I should have listened to Jasper. Said I'd be run ragged trying to please her and he was right."

"Wasn't she afraid of Jasper's history?"

"We both thought it a humbug from the start," said Grantley. "Everyone in the family knows about it, though they might not know everything. They do know better than to open their mouths. Lezarth's overly sensitive. Most families have someone locked away. Look no further than the king."

"There is a difference, Jasper is innocent. Isn't there a way for the truth to be known?"

"For a while I had servants trying to get friendly or at least useful to them. Close-mouthed lot. The duke's agent will never get any information from them, not from their relatives, either. No one wants to kill the golden goose by telling the truth. I've told Jasper a thousand times, that boy is not his child."

"What do you think happened?"

"God only knows. Jasper believes he did it, who am I to argue? I suppose the only person who knows for sure is Mrs. Hardcastle and she isn't telling."

"I am going to try to find out. I don't believe it, not for an instant."

"My dear, a word of warning, if I may?"

"Don't tell me not to tread of Lezarth's toes. I'll stamp on them if I have to."

"Not a good idea to make an enemy of Lezarth. He wants the truth too. Devilish fond of his brothers, especially Jasper. None of them will help you. They won't dare. Anyhow, the warning is not about the duke, it's about Jasper."

"Jasper? He is locked in the dower house."

"Only place no one can accuse him of anything. Don't go against his wishes, my dear. If he thinks you are putting yourself in danger trying to help him, there is no knowing what he'd do."
Chapter 24

"In love," said Jasper, in the gentle tones he only used when he was completely insane or pretending to be. He nibbled the ankle resting on his shoulder. Ankles were surprisingly sensitive. "In love with you."

Eleanor gave a moan. If he thought he was fooling her, he was too absurd. She must not let him stroke so deeply. One of the Horde was sure to hear her.

"With you, Eleanor. With my wicked angel." He took her to the edge of insanity and stopped. "Not yet."

"Rakehell," she protested.

He gave her ankle one last kiss and encouraged her legs to lay spread wide for him by stroking her inner thighs. He lingered over the task. "Feels like heaven," he murmured.

Her nightrail floated to cover where they were joined. He slid it up away from the tender parts aching for more. A knowing slide of his hand made her gasp. For long minutes she was mindless with her wanton part inflamed to madness and his mouth on her breast.

"Beautiful." Her sensitive nipple was quickly soothed by his tongue. "Bare the other one for me. Feel what waiting does for her."

"She hates to wait, " Eleanor protested. She arched her back to let her virgin breast beg for his attention.

"Forgive me," he whispered. Long hard thrusts sent her skyward. The bed shook and squeaked. It muffled some of the noises she made. Impossible to stay silent. Vivid tremors of pleasure echoed through her body until she could not take a breath.

He waited for her to recover her senses, deep inside her. She had to stop, part of her ached from his strength. He rolled them over and helped her to sit upright, with him so deep inside her she could not manage to stay there.

"Rise up on your knees." He watched her in the lamplight. "Does that feel better?"

Better? She was impaled on him.

"Lean back," he urged.

Not for long. She couldn't stand the sensations and she dared not go higher. Too exposed to writhe and dissolve, not with him studying her with a rake's hunger in his eyes.

Skillful hands made her gasp at the sensations. Her body refused to listen to her cries of protest, it wanted the pleasure he brought and obeyed him.

"Eleanor, I love you." He had not lost himself at all.

His cool control showed how little she affected him. She wanted to resist the endless sensations chasing her into chaos.

Words were beyond her.

Her knees drew up as intense pleasure sent waves soaring through her taut body. Fierce moans came from her mouth. She half fell from him, and he followed her to thrust into her, making her mindless, spinning out the pleasure to make her fly for him.

He groaned under his breath and collapsed against her, but he didn't let go. "My angel." Warm hands stroked her back, to feel for her wings. "Unfurl them for me."

In the few minutes it took for her to speak rationally, he explored her shoulder blades fully. The sensation of teeth scraping over them made her sit up. He had never bitten her before.

She turned to look at him. "You are pretending, aren't you?"

He gazed at her sadly. "Love my angel. Does angel love me?"

She was convinced enough to answer, "Yes, Jasper, I love you." She snuggled next to him to lay her head on his chest. "Close your eyes and I'll cover you with my wings to protect you."

"Where? Don't see them." He stroked her back. "Love me?"

"I love you, Jasper." She kissed him. "My wings are finer than gossamer. You have to lie very still."

Eleanor fell asleep in his arms.

Jasper lay awake to think. She did love him. He knew she did. He needed to believe it, as he waited for the dawn. Perhaps these quiet hours with the woman he loved were the last of his life. He didn't want to waste time sleeping.

Far too early, Lezarth's footsteps hurried by. He had visited the dower house before breakfast, to find him gone. The duke did not want to knock on Eleanor's door without the Horde to help, in case strength was needed to subdue a madman.

Jasper jumped clumsily from the bed to jolt Eleanor awake. "Lezarth cannot have you. You are my angel."

His angel threw the covers back and ran for his banjan.

"Brothers are here. Don't let them see your wings." He enjoyed the sight of her scampering round the room to dress them both.

The taps on the door grew louder. "Lady Jasper."

She fastened her dressing gown on the way to open the door, her head held high, determined to hide her embarrassment at being seen after a night of passion.

His brothers appeared in the doorway in order of precedence.

Lezarth took one look, then beckoned him forward. "You will return with me to the dower house, where you will be restrained for the duration of your treatment."

His angel said defiantly, "Jasper doesn't need treating."

"He is not well now," pointed out the duke. "Can you not tell? Do you prefer him that way?" Lezarth gave an exclamation of disgust. "Are you deliberately trying to kill him, Lady Jasper? It is obvious you did not cry out for help."

Nash gave Edward a nudge. The good twin stepped forward. "I did hear some odd noises, Lezarth. I should have investigated, but I thought it was only a peahen screaming from the grounds."

His angel pleaded, "Please don't force him into madness with cold baths."

"My brother's mind is of more importance than your foolish notions. He must be taken into madness and brought through the other side to have a hope of surviving sane." Lezarth actually believed it, and no arguments could dissuade him.

"You are cruel. It might kill him." Eleanor's tears were a breath away.

Not that Lezarth noticed. "It worked before, and I only order it now because I must." He motioned Edward and Nash to lead him back to the dower house. "What a strange relationship you have with your husband," said the duke, half enviously. "He is not a toy for you to enjoy when he is out of his mind."

* * * *

The doctor bound the wound on Jasper's arm. "That should bring his fever down, Your Grace. Like clockwork, it sets in after thirty minutes in ice water. Two pints of blood removed every day will soon have him too weak to raise a fever."

Lezarth nodded his dismissal.

Beecham bowed and withdrew.

"Do you know me?" Lezarth asked. "How are you feeling?"

"Where is she?" Jasper pulled against the straps binding him to the bed. "Did Eleanor do as I asked? What happened?"

At least he wasn't calling for his angel. Lezarth began his list of Lady Jasper's travels and hoped none of it was going to be inflaming. "Eleanor visited her father. I sent Richard with her to make sure she didn't do anything foolish. She visited Mrs. Lumm and spoke to Colin Lumm. Eleanor gave him some money to thank him for trying to help her. She did it quite openly in front of Richard. Then she went on to London." It comforted him to confide and to talk.

"Colin Lumm cannot be trusted. I wonder what she wanted him to do?" Jasper tried to get out of bed.

Lezarth sat beside him to keep him still. "Your wife hates me. She thinks I am cruel. Me. When I have only wanted what is good for her and for you. Why you keep pretending to be insane when you are with her, is beyond me."

"If I die, tell her I loved her."

"You can tell her yourself, when you have recovered."

"Told her, but she doesn't believe me." Jasper's eyes closed. "So tired. Can't make her believe me. Too good for me. Want to see her. Bring her back for me."

Lezarth patted his shoulder. "Eleanor is coming to visit you soon."

"Mine, not yours."

"Angels are not to my taste," said Lezarth. "Be good while I am gone."

"Where?"

"London."

"Mrs. Gillie?"

"Very clever, Jasper. I shall see you in a few days."

Lezarth gave his orders to the doctor waiting outside. "See to it that Lady Jasper is denied entrance. I doubt she'll return but if she does, keep her away from the dower house. I don't want him to even hear her voice, in case all your good work is ruined."
Chapter 25

In London, Eleanor hired a hack early in the morning and disappeared from Halyton House, without a footman or maid to escort her.

Mrs. Gillie was surprised to see her, but had no objection to her visiting Pru.

The small parlor was just as she remembered it. Her friend not the least embarrassed at being back with Mrs. Gillie.

Pru said in a voice low enough to keep her words private, "The duke has given me my congé. I annoyed him by calling Jasper's name in the heat of passion." Pru did not look repentant. "Lezarth wasn't to my taste, though he does look like a thin version of his brother. Aren't you the lucky one to marry dear Jasper. Is he coming to town?"

"I doubt it." Not for months. Not ever again to this house, she hoped.

"Oh, but then he'd never tell you. No doubt, he'll show up here one of these days." She shrugged gracefully. "I have no illusions about men."

"Why are you here, Pru? Haven't you money enough to live on? I can help you. Don't you want to be respectable again?" Eleanor had been shocked to discover, when she'd gone to visit Mrs. Merryweather, that Pru was back with Mrs. Gillie.

"Respectable? Impossible. Don't go thinking I have regrets. The only regret I have is you marrying Jasper. If he invites me to be his mistress again, I shall," teased Pru. "Men want more company than wives can supply."

"I'm not the slightest bit worried," replied Eleanor, "I have only to hint you are madly in love with him to be rid of you."

Pru laughed. "There will be others, if not me. Wouldn't you rather it was me. We could compare our fortunes and when he tired of us, we'd conspire to get revenge."

Eleanor took a deep breath. "Pru, I need your help. Jasper needs your help."

"Tell me all about it. I thought you wanted something to come here."

"Your mother said men came to the door."

"Men are such beasts. They were never let in, but they knocked at all hours and I thought it best to move away for a while. It seems Jasper's castoff women are thought to be wonderfully trained in the art of love." Pru raised an eyebrow and asked in a husky whisper, "Do you think it's true?"

"I've brought your mother to live at Halyton House with me." Eleanor gave Pru a hug at the sudden tears of gratitude in her eyes. "She is an old friend, after all. But don't think I did it only out of kindness— it is the start of something dangerous. I need you to lend me your house."

* * * *

A week later, Eleanor knocked at the door of Pru's house.

Colin Lumm opened it smartly. "Good morning, my lady."

"Good morning, Colin. Are my guests in?"

He ushered her in over the threshold. "Mr. Hardcastle is out." In a lower voice he added, "Gone to a boxing match with some of my friends, won't be back for hours." In his normal voice, he said, "Mrs. Hardcastle is in the drawing room." He opened the door and announced in a booming voice better suited to calling out names in a ballroom, "Lady Jasper to see you, ma'am."

Mrs. Hardcastle jumped up to greet her guest. After the initial pleasantries, Eleanor agreed tea would indeed be welcome.

As Mrs. Hardcastle knew no one in London, she warmed quickly to Eleanor's invitation of a drive through the park.

"So very kind of you, my lady. After all that's happened."

"Have you recovered, dear Mrs. Hardcastle? How you must have suffered." Eleanor looked as sympathetic as she could, while trying not to notice Mrs. Hardcastle's guilty flush.

"His lordship's not in London, is he, my lady. I'd not like to meet him again. It wouldn't be safe. It really would not. Not that Lord Jasper hasn't been kindness itself after it happened and he'd recovered."

"Lord Jasper is locked up at Halyton Court. They don't expect him to recover this time."

Mrs. Hardcastle turned away to hasten from the room. "I'll just go get ready," she said in an unsteady voice.

During the drive, Mrs. Hardcastle confided she missed her son, who had stayed behind with family who were looking after the farm for them. "Such a nice lad, he is. Takes after his father in looks, but he has my temperament. Kind he is, and thoughtful."

Eleanor could only conclude that Mr. Hardcastle was neither kind nor thoughtful. If he was the sort of man to beat his wife and blame another was not yet known, but she intended to find out.

With dismay she saw the twins approaching on horseback, followed by Richard. They immediately recognized who she was with. They turned away without a second glance.

Eleanor tried to retain her composure. If the family wanted to snub her, they could. She was going to get the truth out of Mrs. Hardcastle, if it was the last thing she did. She forced herself to listen.

"So kind of Lord Jasper to settle the pension on me. If I die, it dies with me. Do you think you could see your way to continuing it for my son, until he's grown?"

Jasper's father had paid Mrs. Hardcastle well for her silence and had given more to Mr. Hardcastle, to marry her. Jasper's pension and his payment of school fees for the boy, was his way of making sure Mrs. Hardcastle and her son had some worth. The golden geese, because if anything happened to them the money stopped.

* * * *

Richard lifted the flask to help Jasper drink his cooling physic. "That's enough, Jasper. I have to ask you what to do before the duke gets back. You look like hell, if you don't mind me saying so. You've lost so much weight you look like Lezarth, just skin over skeleton."

"Thanks for the compliment. That idiot is going to kill me if he doesn't stop soon. Hellfire! I'd kill for an orange."

"You shall have all the oranges you can eat, just keep your wits about you, because you're going to need them. You have to persuade Lezarth to let you go. This will never work."

"They hope to burn the fever out of me."

"They'll burn your life out of you. For heaven's sake why not just give you the physic and let you go on as before?" asked Richard.

"Too many times off my head."

"Don't tell me you think you actually went after Mrs. Hardcastle? When you go off your head, all you can think about is your angel. And I think you are faking it half the time, because she likes you that way."

Jasper laughed under his breath. "Never start out with a lie, it might become the truth. I faked a touch of madness that night to tell Eleanor how much I love her."

"Bet you both enjoyed it, judging from the noises coming from your bedroom." Richard gripped his shoulder. "Jasper, she is trying to prove you innocent by befriending Mrs. Hardcastle."

"What did you say?" His foolish angel was going to get herself killed.

"They are in London. I wager her husband is cooking something up to blackmail you," confided Richard. "I saw Eleanor in town, driving in the park with Mrs. Hardcastle. She has invited them down to London. What should I do— we can't let her do this. I came to warn you not to leave the dower grounds. Have a witness with you at all times. Edward and Nash are guarding her, but you mustn't recover until we have dealt with the Hardcastles."

"You'd better go, it's time for Lezarth's visit. Go out through the kitchen. Lezarth must not see you here."

"I'll tell the cook to give you oranges."

Jasper watched Richard flee as if the devil himself were after him. He called to his physician, "Beecham. Summon the imposter who pretends to be me. I am the duke." At the top of his lungs, he shouted, "I am the duke. Release me at once. I am Lezarth."

"Calm yourself." The doctor rushed over to waft a newspaper frantically to cool him. "The duke is walking down the path. What will he think, if he hears you claim to be him? Not that I'd dare tell him. He scares me witless." The doctor adjusted his spectacles nervously. "Rest while I'm gone."

Lezarth entered and was annoyed to see Beecham hovering. He waved him away.

Jasper watched the duke through half closed eyes. "Need to stand up. Cramp in my legs. Help." He moaned and writhed on the narrow bed.

Lezarth unfastened the straps binding his wrists.

Jasper rolled off the bed. He moaned again. It sounded good even to his ears.

The doctor was on his way to the house to have luncheon, a meal he never missed.

"Shall I rub your legs?" asked Lezarth.

Jasper's fist neatly connected with his brother's chin. It didn't knock him out, but it did stun him for a minute.

Before the duke had time to recover, Jasper dragged him over to the bed. It took all his strength and more. Sweat poured from him. He fastened the straps on Lezarth's wrists.

"Help!" cried the duke. "I am the duke. Help me."

Jasper began to strip him. He was so weak, he had to wait until he'd recovered somewhat before he dared unfasten the wrist straps, one at a time, to remove the rest of Lezarth's clothes.

No cries for assistance were heeded by the staff, until a young man opened the door.

"Out!" called Jasper in a ducal fashion. "I did not call you."

The young man disappeared. Jasper could hear him warning the others not to enter.

"Sorry, Lezarth. I have to go see Eleanor. She is putting herself in danger." He tugged on the straps. "This should hold you until the doctor returns."

An hour passed before the doctor returned. He peered shortsightedly at Lezarth. "How are you feeling, Lord Jasper?"

"I am the duke. Release me at once!" shouted Lezarth.

The doctor shook his head. "An emetic should take the edge off your anger, my lord. Then a nice cold bath. There is some ice left over from this morning, aren't we fortunate?"

"Release me at once, you miserable excuse for a physician. Don't you know who I am?"

"Now, now, swallow this. Don't make me call for the keepers to force your mouth open. No? What about a hot pepper clyster instead?"

"You wouldn't dare. Send for Richard this instant."

"There is no one at the house. They have all gone to London. Let's just turn you over. This might burn a little."
Chapter 26

"What are you dreaming about, Eleanor," asked the duchess from her place on the sofa in the drawing room of the London townhouse. "Read on. What happens next?"

Eleanor sat by the window to have better light. The duchess was just as annoying in London as she had been at Halyton Court. If Eleanor hadn't wanted to find out what happened next, she'd have refused to read aloud. On closer acquaintance, Mr. Darcy was proving to be a hero.

The clatter of a carriage stopped in front of the house. A voice, tight with anger, berated a footman in ducal tones.

Eleanor closed the book. She gave a shiver, and felt as if someone had walked over her grave. It could not be, it must not be him. Not when the Hardcastles were in London.

"Is Amelia downstairs?" whispered the duchess.

"She has not returned from the Benedict's house." Eleanor didn't want Jasper interfering with her plan. His presence made every nerve end tingle with fright and with something else she was loathe to confront.

The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs brought the duchess to her feet. "What do we do? Pretend?"

"We must get him back to Halyton Court before he finds out the Hardcastles are in town."

"How? Easier said than done. He cannot be forced to go anywhere or do anything by me." The duchess put a hand to her mouth, she warned, "Amelia must not see him."

A footman opened the door. Thin and gaunt, Jasper swayed on his feet. He pretended to be an irate Duke of Lezarth. "Lady Jasper, I must speak with you. In my study."

Eleanor mangled a squeak of distress. "Is Jasper dead?"

"No. If you'd look at me, you'll see I am not wearing black. Let us have no histrionics. I am seriously displeased with you. Come."

She hurried out of the room to see him taking the stairs two at a time. He stopped half way up the flight. "I do not want to be disturbed," he said imperiously to the footman on the landing. "Go below and stay there until you are summoned."

Jasper beckoned her with an impatient wave of his hand. "You have some explaining to do. Now. Come up."

Eleanor climbed the stairs until she stood next to him. He struggled to breathe normally. She linked her arm with his to feel his body trembling.

The footman, his face impassive, glanced at her as they passed on the stairs. She smiled to reassure him. He gave an indication he understood by the slightest nod of assent. Every servant in the house could tell the difference between Jasper and Lezarth, couldn't they?

The study was cold and dark. Eleanor closed the door. "Lezarth," she said, to no one in particular, just in case anyone was listening.

"My angel. Forgive me, I must sit down," said Jasper. "Almost killed myself trying to take the stairs as he does." He led her to a chair and it felt right to sit on his knee and weep on his chest.

When she had recovered, she tried to stand up but he held her in a grip surprisingly strong for an invalid. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "You should have gone to Grantley's."

"And have Sophie use me to annoy him?"

"Then go to Mrs. Gillie. You should have sent for me, not come here."

His warm hand stroked over her shoulder blades. "I left Lezarth in my place. As long as someone plays my role, Hardcastle cannot strike again."

"In your place?" Eleanor tried to picture what that meant. "Tied up and treated?"

Jasper gave a guilty shrug. "Was it wrong of me?" he asked.

"I don't believe you. Did you? Jasper. Tell me the truth."

"Trussed him like a turkey ready for stuffing. And made sure Beecham, who has extremely poor sight, had every reason to believe he was me." He held her while she laughed.

"Wicked woman," he said at last. "Have some pity on a poor soul being treated because he keeps insisting he _is_ the duke."

"Write a letter explaining it. This time let's go to Wales. Everyone will expect us to go to Scotland."

"Much as I enjoyed traveling with you, we must rescue Lezarth first. Come back to Halyton Court with me."

"Why are you here, Jasper? Your brothers told you, didn't they?"

"Richard came to warn me."

"Mr. Hardcastle has already struck twice, what more can he do? I am determined to get Mrs. Hardcastle to confess to what really happened. She is afraid of her husband, but if we offer her and her son a safe place, I am sure she'll tell the truth."

"It won't work, my angel, not while Hardcastle is with her."

"I intend to whisk her away from him."

"Eleanor, you must send them away, or go back to Halyton Court. Don't try to get the truth from Mrs. Hardcastle. Both of you would be in terrible danger if her husband found out."

"You believe you attacked her, don't you?"

"Blood from my fists was on the walls. My father matched the stains to the wounds on my hands. He believed me guilty and for all these years, I felt guilty. But Hardcastle made a grave mistake when he accused me again. Now he is the madman, if he thinks he can get away with it."

"What are you going to do?"

"Tell you how much I love you."

She tried to stand.

He held on tightly. "Plans are afoot to deal with Hardcastle."

"They are? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I never thought my brave angel would risk so much to help me. My love, it is far too dangerous. Come back with me to Halyton Court. If it gets out that I am here, Hardcastle might strike again."

"I am never going to take you there. Let's run away. Your estate steward has given me five hundred pounds. For a month. If it's a mistake, don't tell him."

"We can't leave Lezarth to Beecham's care. What if he dies from it?"

"I'll send Edward and Nash to rescue him," said Eleanor. "They are always following me, let them be useful instead of annoying."

"Come with me, Eleanor. My heart hurts when you are far away. It's worse than the ice baths. It's even worse than the purging."

"Why can't be you be infatuated with your dratted angel and obey me. If you'd met me as Eleanor Tennant, you'd never have loved me. You only really love me when you are out of your mind."

"I'd have met you at Lancelot Benedict's wedding, and I would have fallen madly in love with you and courted you until you returned my love."

"Hah. I know how the Halytons court their brides. If you'd forced yourself on me, I'd have cut your heart out and worn it as a medal."

"Only the dukes in times past took pride in a conqueror's right. Even Lezarth doesn't think that's the way to have a happy marriage. I want us to have a happy marriage, Eleanor. Happy lives together, filled with laughter and children. I love you."

She let him kiss her. It was never a good idea to argue with an invalid.

* * * *

Lezarth heard Grantley enter the dower house and bid the doctor take himself off. The fool obeyed him. At last, someone who'd rescue him.

A chair scraped over the floor towards the bed. Grantley sat down to take an exasperated breath. Lezarth raised his head to see the room spin in a revolting manner.

"Jasper," said Grantley. "Have you really taken leave of your senses? Not that I believe it, even if you swear it. You really shouldn't pretend, just because the lovely Eleanor likes you when you are off your head. Even my wife says you are delightful like that. Have to watch her like a hawk in case she ravishes you. Swears she'll do it one of these days."

"Release me," Lezarth slurred his words. His mind reeled from a dose of physic large enough to slay an elephant.

"I have news. The Hardcastles have gone to London. Followed them all the way there to find them as thick as thieves with your wife. They are staying at a house she rented for them."

"Got to go." Lezarth pulled against the straps holding him. "Dangerous."

"Yes. I can't let you go. If Hardcastle knows you are free, Heaven only knows what he'll do and then accuse you of it."

"Grantley." Lezarth glared at him with difficulty. His tongue felt like leather and his bowels had succumbed to numbness days ago, for which he gave thanks.

"Hold on there, Jasper, you are starting to sound just like the duke. Miserable sod that he is. I wish someone would give him a taste of what you are suffering. He'd not be so keen on it then."

"I am Lezarth."

"The doctor told me you thought so. Strange. Never known you to do that. And, if I was going to believe I was someone, it wouldn't be that musical scarecrow. Better get over that fancy fast, my lad, or no one will want to visit you."

"Grantley. Look at my chin," commanded the duke.

"Looking at it, Your Grace. Got a bit of a bruise there. Don't worry about it. Now, Jasper, gather your wits. What do I do about the Hardcastles?"

"Jasper hit me, tied me up and escaped. That myopic idiot employed by my brother, has been bleeding and purging me, not to mention the damned clysters he employs— "

"Steady on, Your Grace. Much as you'd like to believe it is that cold-blooded brother of yours suffering all this, it is really you, Jasper. Can't wish it on him, not while it's you that's moaning. Well, you can wish it, don't we all wish it, but that doesn't make it true."

"Where are my brothers?" The duke resigned himself to getting no help from a man of little brain.

"Brothers? The duke has gone to London to see how the ladies are doing. Edward and Nash are squiring them around. Richard is there searching for a book about mathematics, or was it chemistry? Veryan has gone to visit his godfather. All quiet, except for your wife. Congratulations, by the way. Very well done. Don't know how you managed to persuade her to marry you. I know I should feel sorry for her, but really I am relieved you are wed, so my wife doesn't kill me to have another go at you."

"Grantley, silence!" thundered the duke. The effort left his head spinning and it took all his concentration not to vomit again.

"My. That was well done. Sounded just like him. Better take myself off before you order my head removed. I'll go warn Lady Jasper she is playing with fire."

The duke lay back on the narrow bed. When Grantley met Jasper in London, he had to recognize him. Either Jasper was openly pretending to be him, or he was there searching for his angel. Either way, he could not fool the ones who knew him well. None of the women would believe it for a moment nor his brothers. But would any of them challenge Jasper, and what would happen if they did? Thinking made his head spin. Damn the doctor.

He fell asleep, to wake with a start when something foul was stuck in his mouth. He tried to spit it out, only to find he could not.

"That's it, Jasper. Just you and me here." Mr. Hardcastle tied a knot at his ear, trapping his jaw open around what smelled and felt like a sock in need of laundering. "No struggling, my lord, it won't do you no good. I can cut you now or cut you later." A knife was pressed, blunt edge, the duke fervently hoped, to his ballocks. "I've got your wife all tucked away safe. Want to come with me to see her for one last time?"
Chapter 27

Grantley hurried into the library at the London house. Eleanor leapt off Jasper's knee with a guilty blush. The breakfast dishes rattled as she knocked against the table.

"What have you done, Jasper?" Grantley asked in a mock whisper. "I had to pretend I didn't recognize Lezarth. That fool of a physician will notice some day and then there will be hell to pay. Not that I can't understand the attraction in London."

He kissed her cheek. "You are looking very lovely, my dear. We don't mind if the duke finds out what Jasper suffers, do we Eleanor? But if that cold-hearted musical bully ever finds out I did know who he was, he'll be deuced unpleasant. If he lets me live."

"You had better call me, Lezarth," said Jasper. "Everyone knows, but they are all keeping up the pretence. Tomorrow, we go to Halyton Court. Eleanor has agreed to give up her plot to get Mrs. Hardcastle to clear my name. It is safer if I am known to be locked up with witnesses about me." He reached for her hand to kiss her fingers.

Eleanor left them to talk. The duchess had taken Amelia shopping. The house was quiet with only faint noises from the street straying in with the dust through the open windows.

A footman delivered a note with the news that a carriage was waiting outside and Mrs. Hardcastle begged the favor of a word. Eleanor read the note with interest. Her canceling of the plan to go for a drive must not have been received in time.

She read a sentence twice. Mrs. Hardcastle warned that Jasper had escaped confinement at Halyton Court. She was leaving London and begged Eleanor to come to the carriage to talk to her.

The news was wrong. Lezarth was taking Jasper's place, unless it had been discovered. But then why had the duke not come to London to take his revenge? Eleanor had no doubt he would have raced to capture Jasper, before he did anything else. Unless he was too ill after all the bleeding, the purging, and the ice baths.

She put a shawl round her shoulders and ventured out under the watchful gaze of a footman on door duty. The carriage she had hired for the Hardcastles was waiting with Colin Lumm on the box. All the blinds were pulled down. Colin looked at her and slightly shook his head as if to warn her off. A groom jumped from the back to open the door for her.

Mrs. Hardcastle was backed into a corner, almost hidden by her husband who held a knife at Lezarth's throat. The duke looked dazed.

"Get in, my lady, if you wish to accompany us," invited Hardcastle. "I caught this beggar trying to get into our lodgings. Everyone tells me you are the only one who can control him. I won't let him go until we get back to Halyton Court. Tried to have his way with my missus again, but I stopped him. If he tries again, I'll geld him."

Mrs. Hardcastle whimpered. She was silenced with one look from her husband.

The knife pricked the duke's neck. "Will you come with us, my lady? I might not be able to manage him on my own."

The groom looked on impassively. His nose was pointed and belligerent, suspiciously like Hardcastle's. He held the door in a way that prevented anyone from the house seeing inside the carriage.

Eleanor knew if she refused, Lezarth would die.

She cried out, "Don't hurt Jasper. He's harmless when he is with me. Of course, I'll come with you. Just give me a minute to let the duchess know."

"No time for that." He knocked on the roof to signal Colin to start. Eleanor pretended to slip when half in the carriage. The groom pushed her inside with such a great shove that she landed on the duke.

To her surprise, his eyes filled with tears. With a cheerful smile, she said to Hardcastle, "I shall make sure he behaves himself. You have no need of the knife at the moment. What a trial he has been to you and dear Mrs. Hardcastle."

A horrid grimace crossed the man's face. He sat next to his wife and spoke sternly to the duke, "Any attempt on either of these females and you are gelded."

Eleanor clasped the duke to her bosom. "Dear Jasper, I shall take good care of you. Why don't you sleep? We shall be home before you know it."

She hid her stocking clad foot under her skirts and hoped Mr. Hardcastle didn't notice she had left a shoe on the street, like Cinderella.

* * * *

Jasper stopped speaking at the sound of frantic footsteps running up the stairs.

Grantley looked out the window. "Lezarth's carriage. They've twigged. Better run for it."

The door to Lezarth's study was flung open to reveal Beecham inarticulate with fright.

"What is the reason for this intrusion?" Jasper played the part of Lezarth to the hilt. The doctor was shortsighted, but he was no fool.

"Gone," cried the doctor. He threw himself on his knees on the carpet. "Gone. Lord Jasper has escaped."

"Did you bring his medicine?" Jasper did not want to prolong the interview for either of their sakes.

"Yes, I have a flask, Your Grace." The good doctor patted his pocket. "Is he here?" he asked hopefully.

In ducal tones Jasper replied, "Obviously not. Leave the flask with me and go." He let his voice drop to a silken whisper, "Unless you have something else to say?"

"Yes, Your Grace, I had to ask for help in searching for him. Everyone knows he has gone." The doctor rose cautiously to place the flask on the desk. "And I found a lady's shoe outside. By any chance, could Lord Jasper have run off with his wife? A carriage drove away as I arrived.

"Hellfire!" swore Jasper in his own voice. "Why didn't you say that first."

* * * *

Eleanor stroked her fingers through Lezarth's hair. His head lay on her lap, his long legs were curled up on the seat, covered by her shawl. A low musical hum began. She stealthily tugged on his hair to get him to stop.

Mrs. Hardcastle cast a despairing look at Eleanor. She knew very well it was the duke caught in the trap.

If her husband knew whom he had captured, he gave no sign of it. The endless afternoon was punctuated with brief stops to water the horses, and to open and close gates when they entered farmland.

The carriage rumbled towards Halyton Court, until it suddenly began to climb to high ground. They bumped along a rough track.

Eleanor felt obliged to notice it. "Where are we going, Mr. Hardcastle?"

"A shortcut, Lady Jasper. It'll save miles."

Not a shortcut at all. She knew the way. They were not going to Halyton Court. Her blood ran cold, even though it was what she expected.

She blurted out as if she had just thought of it. "We must be very careful not to take Jasper to Bogs Bowl. He'll try to wander off. It's only because the lightning frightened him that I have any control over him at all. If he is sucked into the bog, his body might never be found."

The duke froze under her stroking fingers.

She babbled on, "I do hope we are going to arrive at Halyton Court before it gets dark. It is so very scary to be out on the moor at night." She peered out at the edge of the blinds. "Do you think we might be lost? I do know the way to my parents' home from the needle rock marking Bogs Bowl. We could go there and chain Jasper in the stables, where he wouldn't be in the way at all."

Mr. Hardcastle gave a nasty laugh. "Happen he'd be more comfortable there. Why don't we try it? If you aren't afraid, Lady Jasper? Lumm told me all about you and Bogs Bowl. Said you were right terrified of the place. If you don't mind walking through it, we can take him there. This old carriage can't make it down the slope." He gave his wife a sharp nudge in her ribs.

"Oh, Lady Jasper," said Mrs. Hardcastle, "do you suppose you could talk to the duke about my pension? It would mean so much to me if my husband and son could have their own money, so to speak."

"After this last fright, I am sure you all deserve pensions," said Eleanor brightly. "I shall speak to the duke, and if he says no, I shall have them paid from my own funds."

Mr. Hardcastle got out his knife. His wife inched away from him.

"The way I see it, your pin money might not be enough." He raised the blinds to reveal the sun low on the horizon and the needle rock looming. "I am talking about enough to last a life time, in one payment to me. But we have a problem don't we? Yon bastard lying on your lap is going to come chasing after my wife again, if I don't stop him."

"Stop him?" asked Eleanor.

"Have him locked up forever," replied Mr. Hardcastle.

The duke hummed madly. Eleanor tried to muffle him.

Mrs. Hardcastle gave a slight shake of her head to Eleanor.

The duke sat up, his face flushed. "Idiot. You'll never get away with it. If you don't let us go, you'll hang for this."

The carriage stopped. Colin Lumm tapped on the roof.

"Time for another dose, Jasper." Mr. Hardcastle waited until his wife offered a flask to Lezarth. "Drink it or I'll geld you."

Lezarth took a large gulp of the medicine.

"Finish it."

Lezarth obeyed, gagging at every mouthful.

Hardcastle opened the door. "Lumm. The horses need to rest. My lady, you get out first. Any attempt to run, Jasper, and you'll sing soprano."

"I hardly think that matters now," muttered Eleanor. She dragged Lezarth after her. "Come with me, before you fall asleep on your feet." The duke was going to be no help at all. She could only hope he didn't get in the way.

Hardcastle glanced up at the box. "Lumm, you stay with the horses." He nodded to the groom. "Watch him."

Eleanor helped the duke down the steep slope into Bogs Bowl, followed by the Hardcastles.

Colin climbed off the box. "May as well make ourselves comfortable. I've had nothing since breakfast. My stomach thinks m' throat's been cut. Get that hamper out of the boot, my lad." He checked the drag and the traces, while keeping a wary eye on the armed groom. "There's a pork pie and a flagon of ale, along with two roast chickens and a treacle pudding."

The groom climbed down to unfasten the straps on the boot.

Colin ran for the path into Bogs Bowl. He slid down most of it and splashed along the stream towards the duck blind in the old peat workings. He approached it cautiously. "It's me, lads." Heads appeared. "Let's get this done without none of us swinging for it. There's at least two bruisers, mebbe more."

His brother climbed out. "Eli's trailing 'em." He handed Colin a sling and a handful of stones.

"Don't kill any nobs," said Colin. "They'll be crawling all over the place soon. Hardcastle is handy with his fists and he's got a knife. Don't get too close."

* * * *

Eleanor felt strangely calm. They all followed her along the path towards her father's hunting lodge. On either side, death lurked for the unwary. Mrs. Hardcastle was not going to be any help, not while her husband had the upper hand.

The wide opening appeared at the turn. Eleanor confidently stepped the wrong way on a track to nowhere. "Mr. Hardcastle, we must hurry or we'll never get Jasper to my parent's house before it's dark." She led the way. Hardcastle didn't know where he was and didn't care. He intended to murder her and blame Jasper.

The sun slipped below the lip of Bogs Bowl. The long shadows cast by the setting sun disappeared to leave a gloom that confused the eye and made judging distance difficult. She kept to the center of the path with the duke tripping over his feet at the edge of it.

Her shoeless foot felt dampness. She gave Lezarth a shove into the bog beside him, and prayed he had not balance enough to stay upright. He landed on his back and lay there stunned.

Eleanor gave a shriek. "Stop him, Mr. Hardcastle. He's trying to escape."

In the confusion, she fled down the path to nowhere. Hardcastle had two choices. He had to follow her or wade into the bog after Lezarth.

He pounded down the path after her.

She leapt over a small stream to land on a mound of slippery moorgrass. Mound after mound flew beneath her feet. She had played this game with Juliet. Hardcastle walked round the tussocks, not able to catch up to her. Soon there were none left, only a flat expanse of darkness. She dove flat to land on her belly with all the breath smacked out of her. Mr. Hardcastle gave a nasty breathless laugh and walked on the peat bog.

Keeping low she wriggled over the quaking surface, being careful not to allow any part of her to take all her weight. She led him on, deeper into danger. He laughed and followed her, until he was almost reached her. He kicked at her foot. She gave a squeak of terror.

Underneath her the quaking magnified. She went carefully over it with her breath caught in her throat. Hardcastle walked on to suddenly sink up to his chest, caught in one of the many mires of Bogs Bowl. He lunged for her foot. His fingers grasped the heel of her only shoe.

She let him have it. Something for him to hold on to as his struggles dragged him deeper to his death. Not that he'd drown. Bodies were found their heads sticking out. Time did the rest.
Chapter 28

The Halyton Horde reached the edge of Bogs Bowl to find mounts tied to a carriage, with no one in sight. Twilight gave a wash of purple gloom to the depths below them.

Richard took command. "God help us. Say a prayer and hope we find them."

"Wouldn't it be more useful to say, _stay in pairs_?" asked Veryan. "That way if one of us gets sucked in, the other one can help him out."

"We are a pair," said Nash. "Come on, Edward. Bet you we find them first."

They slid down the steep slope to find themselves feeling for the path with their feet, in a place where a wrong step meant disaster.

* * * *

Eleanor arrived back where she had left Lezarth, to find Mrs. Hardcastle struggling to pull him free by tugging on his ankles. The woman gave a scream at the sight of her. "Where is he? He's going to kill us all, I know it."

"He got trapped in a mire. In up to his neck. I don't think he's going anywhere soon. We really must get help. If only I could remember where I saw him last." Eleanor waded in to help rescue the duke. "Don't worry, it's not deep here. There's a ledge of rock underneath. Take the duke's other leg and we'll drag him out."

Lezarth said politely, "If you'd just help me to my feet. I can walk, I think."

"I don't know how you are still conscious," said Eleanor. "The dose you swallowed should have knocked you out." She grasped his hand.

Mrs. Hardcastle gave a little chuckle. "I watered it down, Your Grace. Had to leave some, just for the taste."

They dragged the helpless duke to his feet, only to find he had not the strength to wade anywhere. His dignity being less important, Eleanor tipped him onto his back and they pulled him out feet first.

"Which way?" asked the duke, when he stood with shaky legs on the path.

* * * *

"Been bested by a woman, our Frank?" Jem Hardcastle lay flat and held out his walking stick. "Here, grab hold."

Frank Hardcastle spat the mud from his mouth. "I'll make her pay before she dies." He struggled to free his shoulders by shrugging them backwards. "Hook onto my arm."

"Hold on." Inch by inch they worked him out of the mire.

"Where'd they go," asked Hardcastle. He sat on a mound of grass to catch his breath and to wipe off mud. "If my missus helps 'em, I'll break every bone in her body."

"They've gone towards the lodge. You stupid bugger, that was the duke you kidnapped." Jem hated the nobs.

"Can't be," sneered Hardcastle. "The duke's in London. Jasper was tied up in the dower house."

"Your wife called him, Your Grace. Can't you tell 'em apart?"

"I don't give a shite who he is. The one pretending to be the duke can pay and be glad we don't report him."

"Shut your gob, you stupid bastard. I heard a noise over there." Jem stared into the darkness. "It's something bleating." He clenched a fist and struck his brother hard on the shoulder. "Why come all the way here? We should have killed 'em in London."

"Who'd believe he got there while he was off his head? No, he escaped and he wandered up here. And there we were, with no witnesses, just me left to tell what happened."

* * * *

In the deepening gloom, Jasper found the path to the lodge. He remembered the twists and turns, even when they were hidden by the night. Grantley followed in his footsteps, far enough behind to be of assistance if anything went wrong.

"Jasper!" Grantley called out for everyone to hear. "We are not alone."

Two cloaked figures emerged. A faint scent of perfume wafted towards Jasper. A woman spoke with a faint Scottish accent, "Have you seen the Benedicts?"

"Mrs. Tennant. I'm Jasper Halyton. How do you do?" The social graces rolled off his tongue, but he didn't stop walking until he heard the sound of a metallic click.

"Och," said a Scottish voice. "Is he the ravisher?"

"Where is my daughter, Eleanor?" Mrs. Tennant was in no mood for pleasantries. Grantley offered, in his usual way, "You can't have lost both of them."

A silver pistol gleamed in the grandmother's hand. "Shall I force you to tell us, Jasper Halyton?"

"Have you been to the lodge?" asked Jasper.

"No one was there half an hour ago," said Mrs. Tennant.

Jasper knew Eleanor was near, he could sense it. Even in the dark the path felt right as it meandered towards the lodge. She had to be there. "You must go home, ladies. Are you lost?"

"Do not tell me what to do." Mrs. Tennant sounded very much like Eleanor. "Where is my daughter?"

"Answer or I'll blow a hole in you," warned the irate grandmother.

Jasper called, "Grantley, if I am shot go to the lodge."

"Alone?" he asked nervously. "Can I borrow your pistol, Grandmother?"

"Och, you may not," answered the angry woman. She pointed her pistol towards Grantley, peering towards him in the gloom. "Come a bit closer, laddie, so I can shoot you both. And as for you, Jasper Halyton, you great scunner, I'll have her out of your grasp soon enough." A strange Scottish oath blasted from her lips, followed by, "Och. Where did the handsome devil go?"

Grantley gave a nervous laugh. "He's run off to find the lovely Eleanor. I really must go with him. You see, I have a pistol of my own. Can't let Jasper have it. Sometimes, he's not right in the head." Grantley hastened to say, "Always a perfect gentleman, though. Lady Jasper can swear to that when we find her."

* * * *

Her father's hunting lodge was a welcome sight. Mrs. Hardcastle gave a wheezy sigh of relief and Lezarth staggered forward with the last of his strength. The key wasn't in its usual place.

Eleanor opened the door.

A shriek rent the air. Loud curses followed.

"Who is there?" shouted Mr. Benedict, much put out.

The lamp on the mantle gave enough light to see a significant amount of nakedness.

Eleanor goggled at the sight of her sister in disarray with Mr. Benedict half-undressed on the floor in front of the hearth. He attempted to shield his wife from view, while he cursed them. "Blast you. Get out. Damnation. I'll not be interrupted again. This is not a blasted party."

Her sister covered all she could and tied her laces. Her husband stood up first, almost decent.

Juliet warned Eleanor, "If you tell anyone about this, I shall never forgive you."

Mr. Benedict suddenly recognized the duke. "Lezarth. Beg pardon, I didn't recognize you in the heat of the moment."

Juliet flounced up from the floor. "Let's go, Lancie. Why should I care if the dratted duke is here? I hate Halytons. They are ruining my life."

Eleanor had no time for her sister's selfish moaning. "No one is ruining your life, Juliet. Must you always think only of yourself?"

"You don't know them. They are evil." Juliet shed a few tears.

Mr. Benedict hovered nervously between his wife and the duke. "Don't say so, my love, offer tea or something. Lezarth won't stand on ceremony." He brought a chair over. "You are looking a bit weary, Duke, won't you sit down."

Lezarth crumpled to the floor in a faint.

Eleanor knelt beside him. "This is Jasper," she explained. "He is just very thin from all the treatment he has suffered. I am taking him home, and the Hardcastles are helping me. We stopped to see the sunset and the view." The last thing she wanted was Juliet and Lancelot Benedict to be caught up in the death of Mr. Hardcastle. Neither one could keep a secret.

"Dashed kind of you, Hardcastle," said Mr. Benedict, to someone behind her. "Had a spot of trouble in the bog, did you? We'll be on our way. Good evening." He put a protective arm round Juliet. "Come, my love. Your father will be wondering where you are." He led his wife away.

The duke hummed in a distressed way as he lay on the floor.

Eleanor heard the door close behind them.

Mr. Hardcastle pressed his knife to her back. "Is Jasper pretending to be the Duke of Lezarth? I ask you, why would the duke be chained to a bed in the dower house, because that is where I found him?"

Eleanor wrinkled her nose at the smell of him. Some long dead animal had lingered in that mire. "When Jasper goes off his head, he often thinks he is the duke. It's easier to humor him, than to argue. Of course, he might be the duke. I can't tell them apart."

"He's Jasper. Know what he did? Ran away, but he didn't go far. He went to Bogs Bowl looking for you. What a pity you'd gone there with my missus. He attacked her again, and you tried to stop him. Killed her he did, with his bare hands."

"What do you mean?" said a shocked Mrs. Hardcastle. "If I die, the money stops."

"Not if he killed you," said her husband in reasonable tones. He burst into rude laughter. "It's a joke. You'll probably survive the beating he gives you."

He forced Lezarth to his feet. "Time to put your blood on the walls."

Mrs. Hardcastle saw her opportunity and ran outside as fast as her legs could carry her. Her husband called into the night. "Stop her, Jem."

No answering call came. No one followed the woman running blindly across Bogs Bowl. In an instant, she disappeared.

"Shite." swore Hardcastle. He slammed the door shut and locked it. The key went into his pocket. "Glad of it. Well rid. Got eaten up by the bog." Hardcastle hit the duke in the ribs. "That just leaves the two of you."

Eleanor punched at Mr. Hardcastle's pointy nose with all her might. He jerked his head away before her fist connected. "Wait patiently, my dear, or do you want to be first?" He gave a nasty leer. "What shall we do, while we wait for him to recover?" He winked at her. "I'm sure I can think of something." He dragged the duke over to the whitewashed wall.

Mr. Hardcastle had no trouble evading Lezarth's fists. "That's right, hit away. Let's get your fists nice and bloody. Gone mad you have. Mad dogs have to be killed."

A window smashed. The shutter hit the floor to skim over the slates and swirl in the mud on the floor. Huge blows to the locked door splintered it. The lock burst open. Hardcastle dropped the duke to the floor and grabbed his knife. "Jem," he roared. "Help! Jem!"

Eleanor dragged the duke along the floor into the kitchen. Fear gave her strength. She hauled him deep into the dark room and barred the door. Completely black, the kitchen was still a familiar room, there was no need to panic because she couldn't see. A squeak of terror escaped her. The duke stirred, trying to sit up.

She felt her way towards the knife box. Someone moved out of the way and it wasn't the duke. Eleanor screamed. The back door opened to Bogs Bowl, and a dark shape was briefly seen in the moonlight. He was a Lumm, though she couldn't tell which one.

Someone banged on the inside door. "Eleanor," shouted Jasper.

She opened it to fall into his arms. He had found her and she was never going to let him go. One hand gripped his jacket with fierce strength, the other had his shirt. If the duke tried to confine her husband to the dower house, she was going to free him and run away with him to keep him safe. She hid in Jasper's embrace and understood why his body shook with tics of alarm. Her teeth chattered with fright every time she tried to unclench them.

He collapsed to sit on the blanket box, her skirt drawn into his fists.

She stood between his outstretched legs to cradle him in her arms. "If L-L-Lezarth tries to take you back ... I'll shoot him m-m-myself."

Grantley's voice called out, "I have a gun. Don't make me use it."

Lezarth's answered in an icy voice, "Why have you not appeared with it before now?"

Grantley ventured in. He edged past Hardcastle's body. "Jasper didn't want to get shot by Eleanor's grandmother. Someone had to stop her. Why am I always in the wrong, whatever I do?"
Chapter 29

Mrs. Hardcastle crept back into the lodge, splattered with mud. "Why not bury him in the bog," she suggested, not the least bit upset to see her husband lying dead on the floor.

Eleanor shook her head, still keeping hold of Jasper. "He won't rot there. Better to bury him in my mother's garden and plant a fruiting bush over him."

"Nonsense," said Lezarth. "His death has to be reported to the authorities. There won't be any problem with it being found accidental. He slipped on the muddy floor and fell on his knife."

The loud roar of a pistol interrupted their argument.

Grantley took a step back. "Don't look at me. Who has Eleanor's grandmother shot?"

Loud cries of protest came from Nash. "Damn it. Who do you think you're shooting at?" Some indistinct mumblings were heard, then he spoke again. "My name is Nash Halyton and this is my brother Edward. No harm done, ladies. We all look alike in the dark."

Everyone followed Eleanor out. She ran into her mother's embrace. Her grandmother pointed her pistol at Jasper until finally, Eleanor had to say forcefully, "I love him. He did nothing wrong. No, you can't shoot him, especially not there."

With a stern look, Eleanor shielded the man she loved and enjoyed the way he held her close to his heart. But she didn't want her mother to see inside the lodge. There was only one topic likely to divert her. Eleanor said casually, "Do you think Juliet might be increasing? She went off with Mr. Benedict, saying she had to tell you something."

Her mother led grandmother away, after accepting an invitation from Jasper to visit them in London to see the sights. Grandmother said with mock concern, "Och. Your husband will never agree to let you go, Fiona."

Her mother laughed. "I have no intention of asking permission."

Edward and Nash offered to escort the ladies home, and were soundly rebuffed. Instead, the twins followed them to the path leading down and waved to them as if they were departing royalty.

Grandmother's voice floated back, "Are they all touched in the head or only the one?"

By the time the Horde gathered with all its members present, Hardcastle's body had disappeared. Not a trace of him was to be found inside the lodge. Mud all over the floor gave no clues. Eleanor didn't say a word. She knew the ways of country folk and doubted Hardcastle would ever been seen again. Jem, who ever he was, had not answered Hardcastle's call for help and never would.

She made no comment when the duke insisted the Horde search, armed with Grantley's pistol. Jasper held her close to him and they all searched for Hardcastle, dead or alive. Eleanor kept them away from dangerous places, and anywhere bodies might be hidden.

Colin Lumm suddenly appeared on the path when they neared the clapper bridge. He looked neat and clean. Eleanor took no notice of the fact he was missing both his shoes and was wearing a different coat.

"Where did everyone go?" Colin asked her. "I've been waiting hours, my lady. There's not a living soul about. I've been looking all over for you."

Eleanor held tightly to Jasper's arm. Men could be strange unthinking creatures. She trod on her husband's foot and gave him her avenging angel glare, just in case he had any ideas of his own about her being kidnapped.

"It's awful, Colin," she said. "Mr. Hardcastle wandered off and we can't find him."

"He probably got lost and headed down, my lady." Colin 's teeth flashed white. "His nephew ran off when the Horde arrived. Took fright and ran. Odd, I thought. Still it was right kind of Hardcastle to bring Lord Jasper back. Told him so myself. I hope he's come to no harm in the bog. It can be a right dangerous place."

"Lumm, come and help me," commanded Jasper. He put an arm round the young man's shoulder. "Thank you, Colin, thank you."

* * * *

The carriage swayed slowly up the road towards Halyton Court. Grantley rode on the box with Colin, armed and ready to shoot. The Horde served as outriders, though Edward and Nash argued against being assigned the rear, due to Veryan being the youngest.

Killing Hardcastle wouldn't have bothered Jasper at all. But someone had watched from the door while he'd done it. Not Grantley, ready to shoot. Nor was it anyone coming to help Hardcastle. Jasper said nothing about Colin Lumm helping to lure Eleanor to Bogs Bowl. He was sure the place swarmed with Lumms and their friends.

To have almost lost Eleanor made tremors shake him, even though the danger was over. Jasper watched her apply a dressing to Lezarth's skinned knuckles. "I'm sure it won't affect your ability to play music," she said in comforting voice.

The duke fought to keep tears at bay. "Eleanor, if you hadn't got in the carriage I'd be dead now. I'll never forget all you did for me. Never."

A nod was her only answer.

Jasper had no doubt his angel intended to use her power over the duke in the best of ways. She covered Lezarth with a shawl and returned to sit next to Jasper. He laced his fingers with hers. They both gave a tremor at the same time, which made her smile at him with love glowing in her eyes.

She whispered, "I'm never going to let you go."

His heart raced on, adoring, needing, wanting her.

She looked at him suspiciously. "Do I have wings?" she asked.

"Eleanor, my angel, you don't have wings." Her wings were beating inside his chest. "You really must let me adore you, when I'm not out of my senses."

Mrs. Hardcastle rummaged in the carriage pocket to bring out a flask. "Brandy?" she offered.

Lezarth gave a moan and shook his head.

Mrs. Hardcastle said cheerfully, "He's dead, I feel it in my bones. What a relief, if I may say so." She shot a quick glance at the duke, then leaned forward to confide to Jasper, "It weren't you that attacked me, my lord. Not that I could tell you. He'd have killed me."

Jasper gave Mrs. Hardcastle an encouraging smile. "I remember nothing of what happened that night."

Mrs. Hardcastle opened the flask and took a sip. "That's what made it easy for him. You had a bad fever when you were a boy and afterwards you went off your head whenever you ailed. It never lasted long. Not really insane, more like sleepwalking, as if you couldn't wake up fully."

"What happened?" Jasper asked gently.

"The maids in the house all knew, some of us were put to watching you at night. Gentle as a lamb, you were. And handsome, with such a lovely body, if you don't mind me saying so. You'd wander about naked, and we found the only way to get any rest was to lie next to you." Mrs. Hardcastle gave an embarrassed cough.

His angel made a sound of sympathy and encouragement.

Mrs. Hardcastle continued, "After Frank Hardcastle found out about you, my lord, he was determined to make his fortune. His brother, Jem, was a prize fighter who'd lost most of his teeth in a bout. He'd had got some Waterloo teeth, but he could never chew the same. So Frank wasn't keen to fight for his fortune. No, he'd other plans. That night he came down to your bedchamber while I was there."

"What did he do?" asked Jasper.

"He'd been courting me, so I thought he wanted to see me. He beat me, not badly, just enough to make it look real. You tried to protect me. He couldn't touch you, no one was going to believe I'd hit you, so he let you bloody your hands on the walls. He'd duck, and into the wall went your fists. Blood everywhere."

Lezarth was wide awake listening, with enough sense not to speak.

Mrs. Hardcastle gave a shudder. "I couldn't stand it. I screamed and screamed at him to stop. Hardcastle slapped me silly and disappeared down the servants stairs. How could I explain it? I knew he'd kill me if I tried. There he was telling the old duke you'd raped me, and how we were engaged to be married. I had to marry him." She wiped her eyes. "If that pension had been in his name, I'd be dead now."

The duke said in a weary voice, "The truth comes out at last. Not that I fault you, Mrs. Hardcastle, but if you'd confessed earlier, I'd have made sure your husband couldn't kill you." He gave a snort of disgust worthy of Amelia. "The maids were all in love with you, Jasper. Why do I find that easy to believe? Grantley's wife is enamored of you and is determined to have you. And your wife loves you, and is not the least bit disturbed when you go off your head. What is wrong with me? I ask you, what is wrong with me?"

To stop Mrs. Hardcastle from answering the duke's rhetorical question, Jasper took the flask from her. He offered it to Lezarth.

"Certainly not," said the duke. "I am awash with physic. The subject for the rest of the journey is," he searched for a word, "sobriety."

* * * *

Amelia brought the duchess into the breakfast room at Halyton Court, hours before her usual time to rise. Lezarth busied himself with a newspaper. He felt too weak for conversation. A breakfast of tea and toast helped settle his stomach. Hector wagged his tail in greeting.

"Mama, tell Lezarth," commanded Amelia.

The duchess drew a breath "Archie and I were married in London," said the duchess defiantly.

"He is not living here." Lezarth had no wish to stand in their way. He tried not to look too pleased.

The duchess gave a sniff of disdain. "From now on, I can be found at the St. George in the Woad rectory."

The sudden thought that he had deprived himself of Amelia's company, made Lezarth say kindly. "Amelia, you can live here or there, or both places. Your mother and her husband are welcome to use Halyton House when they reside in London for your come out."

Amelia perched on the arm of his chair. "Very generous, Lezarth. Think how happy you're going to be without us to annoy you."

"It's going to be dashed lonely without you," he confessed.

She said seriously, "You have to let Jasper go. Please, Lezarth, free him from the dower house."

"He's not in it," said Lezarth. "Jasper and Eleanor have not risen yet. They will be living in his house as soon as it has been refurbished. At the moment, they are in his bedchamber and they are not to be disturbed." He didn't try to suppress the gleam in his eye. "Unless you want to knock and tell them they'll miss breakfast, if they don't hurry."

Amelia gave a relieved laugh and kissed his cheek. "You are funny. When I come out I am going to find you a wife, then you can lie abed with her and be happy."
Epilogue

Eleanor swam towards the distant shore. Jasper closed the distance between them with powerful strokes. She turned on her back to float in the shallow bay and admire the blue Italian heavens. Being caught was always fun.

Cool fingers held her ankle. A wave rolled under her.

His hand slid up her bare leg. "Hmm, are you a mermaid?"

"I'll have to pretend to be one, if anyone sees me like this." She enjoyed the sight of him naked to the waist and the feel of his caressing hand.

"Your curves are entrancing, my angel."

"You are very wicked, my husband." Not that she intended to stop him.

"I am encouraged to be wicked by the lady I love." He looked ready to prove his words. "Have you recovered?" he asked innocently, as if he hadn't spent the night experimenting with ways to excite her.

She laughed at his look of mock sympathy.

He towed her towards the shore. "Time to rest. You didn't get to sleep until very late last night."

Faint screams became louder and louder. Eleanor stood up to watch.

Amelia shrieked a warning in Lezarth's ear as she ran past him. The duke stumbled out of the way of Edward and Nash, and almost knocked over Eleanor's mother. The twins raced to capture Amelia. A huge plume of water shot up from the three of them falling in together.

Eleanor enjoyed their shouts of laughter and Amelia's attempts to duck her brothers. They picked her up and threw her in deeper.

Eleanor's father rose from his chair to follow her mother down to the sea.

"Papa is walking much better. I think the sunshine must be good for his gout." Her mother took his arm and led him knee deep to help her search for shells.

"Your father would follow your mother anywhere." Jasper tugged her closer. "Once he realized it was the only way to be with her."

Sudden creaks and the lowering of sails behind them surprised Eleanor. No one sailed into the bay.

"That's Grantley's yacht," said Jasper. "Someone is waving at us."

She hid behind him just in case a telescope revealed she wore a cotton shirt, almost transparent and clinging.

A small boat was launched and Grantley soon rowed expertly in their direction. He began a litany of woes as soon as he neared them. "That damned blackguard has run off with my wife. Sophie left me a note. Said she was going to Lezarth, and not to expect her back until he'd done with her."

"Done what with her?" asked Eleanor. She sank into the water to hide her body.

He ogled her in a friendly way. "How should I know? This is his revenge."

Jasper laughed at him. "Sophie is not here. The pair of them would have been at dagger's drawn if they'd arrived here together. You know they don't get on."

"Then where is she?" Grantley asked in a plaintive voice. He drifted by looking forlorn.

"Grantley," called Jasper. "Stop thinking the worst. Sophie is taking care of Lezarth's daughters."

"How was I to know he wanted her to supervise his brats?" Grantley rowed around them. "The duke never took any notice of his daughters before. Why has he suddenly taken an interest now?"

Jasper explained, "Amelia and her mother no longer live at Halyton Court. Lezarth needs someone there to look after the girls until he gets married."

"He's getting married again? No!" cried Grantley. "Who is the poor, unfortunate, doomed lady?"

"He hasn't met her yet," said Eleanor. "Amelia is playing matchmaker next season." Last season's hunt had not gone well. Amelia had received seven proposals, none accepted, and Lezarth had refused dozens of suggested brides.

"He can't keep Sophie until he makes up his mind to marry. Might take him years." Grantley gave a comical shudder of distaste. "God help him. Has he arrived here yet?"

"Yes, he's right there." Jasper waved a hand towards the shore.

"I'm off then. Nice to see you. Really think you should go home and make sure he marries someone who has absolute pitch. It's the only way to make him happy, if that's possible. Besides, Eleanor, you should give birth in England. Can't leave that sort of thing to foreigners. What if you have a boy and he turns out to be the duke?" He stared towards the shore. "Talk of the devil. I do believe he's swimming this way. I'm off." The boat rocked and he accidentally splashed them to get closer. "Want to come back with me? Climb in and I'll have you in England before he notices you've gone." He gave a comical leer. "Promise I won't look, Eleanor, on my honor."

"And leave our guests? Grantley, where are your manners?" chided Jasper. "Join us and make peace with him."

"And give him the chance to kill me? No thanks. See you in London." Grantley rowed wildly with one oar to turn towards his yacht. "If Lezarth sticks his head in the noose of matrimony for the second time, I might even give a cheer, if it weren't for the fact some unlucky female has to live with him." He waggled his oars in a salute and rowed away, muttering about marriage and wives, and hell on earth.

Jasper sank into the water to cradle her. "Hmm, I feel as if we have heaven on earth, my love." He held her close. "Before we met, I was only half alive."

Eleanor stroked his chest. "You were too busy doing wicked things with women you didn't like," she teased. "If marriage is a trap to be feared and avoided, we must pretend we aren't married and be wickedly rakish instead."

"My female rake, I've never felt married to you." Jasper gave a husky laugh. "This wicked mortal loves you in all the ways his soul can reach."

Eleanor raised her face for a kiss. "I love you, Jasper." She especially liked his wicked ways and had a few of her own.

They waded in the shallows while her long shirt quickly dried.

The duke swam to them and managed not to mention her lack of clothing, though he gave a stern look of disapproval.

Eleanor splashed him.

He spluttered and coughed, and lost his dignity in the struggle to find his feet. "Come home and help me find a duchess," pleaded the duke, when he could talk. "It's lonely without any of the family, all on my own."

Amelia rushed over to duck him. When he surfaced, she said, "You have to let a wife triumph over you, Lezarth, if you want to have a happy marriage. It's the only way." She gave a sly wink. "Show him how it's done, Eleanor."

"Here?" Eleanor pretended to be shocked. She placed her hand on Jasper's chest.

He gave no resistance, just fell backwards into the sea with a mighty splash to accidentally drench her. The shirt suddenly hid nothing at all. The baby inside seemed to laugh at their antics.

Amelia gave a squeak of alarm and covered the duke's eyes. "Don't look. You have to find your own true love." She led Lezarth away to lecture him on the necessity of female superiority to attain marital bliss.

Eleanor sank into the water next to Jasper. "Should we go home?"

"Home is where you are, my angel."

She floated in his arms to let him kiss her belly.

"My heart is yours, Jasper." Love for him washed over her like the warm lapping sea. "Home is anywhere we are together."

The End

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