Page 32 of A Story of Love (The Academy of Love #6)

“Why? You couldn’t have known about Moreland and how evil he was and the things he’d done.”

“Is that really true?” Fast asked, the question as much for himself as her. “Or did I willfully ignore the signs of his sickness? It is something I will revisit for the rest of my life. Bevil Norman was the closest to pure evil I’ve ever encountered,” Fast admitted. “And it disturbs me more than I can say that he was ever my friend.”

“You can’t blame yourself, Fast. A man like that was adept at hiding behind his mask. Why would any right-thinking person ever suspect what he was?”

He kissed her and then tightened his arm around her, wincing when her elbow nudged his side.

“What is it, Fast?” Her eyes narrowed. Are you hurt?”

“It’s nothing serious, love, just a little graze from the first bullet.”

***

“He shot you?” Lori squawked. “Wait! The first bullet? Just how many bullets were there? And why did you leave this out of the story you just told me?”

Fast winced. “Not so loud in my ear, darling. And yes, Lorelei, he shot me. That’s usually how bullets do their damage.”

“Quit being so cavalier and tell me what happened.”

“Moreland paused too long to gloat, and while he was prosing on at me like a villain from a gothic novel, I threw a knife at him and—”

“He let you have knives?”

He gave her a pained look. “He didn’t let me. He searched me and found the pistols and other knives, but he—”

“A pistol and knives? How many knives did you have?”

“Darling?”

“Yes?”

“If you would stop interrupting, then I could finish telling you the story.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She pursed her lips to illustrate her silence.

“He searched me but neglected to find a small knife I had strapped to the inside of my wrist and—”

“A wrist knife? How did you—Oh, sorry,” she blurted again. “I’ll be quiet. I promise,” she added when he cocked his eyebrow in that odiously attractive way he had.

“I was a privateer in my former life, sweetheart. Er, you knew that, didn’t you?” he asked, his tone more than a little arch.

Lori clucked her tongue. “Now, now, don’t be testy.”

“Of course not, dear.”

She laughed at his martyrish expression. “I really will be quiet now.”

“There isn’t much more to tell.” He shrugged and then grimaced. “Ow.”

“Poor darling,” Lori murmured. “Where does it hurt?”

He pointed to his shoulder and Lori kissed the expensive superfine of his coat.

“ Mmm ,” he said, smiling at her with heavy-lidded eyes. “That feels better already. Perhaps you might do that to all my injuries. But with my clothes off. Yours, too.”

“ All your injuries! How many times did you get shot?”

He sighed. “You are focusing on the wrong part of what I just said, sweetheart.”

“Fast,” she said in a warning tone. “How many times?”

“Just twice.”

“Just. Twice.” Lori had to take a deep breath and hold it to calm herself before she could say, “Explain.”

“It’s not a pretty story, Lorelei.”

“When will you understand that I am a newspaperwoman and accustomed to dealing with unsavory subjects?”

“Fine,” he said in a flat voice. “If you must have it, I brought him down with the knife and then I beat his head against an anvil until he was no longer breathing. And then I set the building on fire, with his body inside it.”

Lori’s lips parted and she mouthed the word Oh.

“You are shocked.”

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded. “Yes.” After a moment she felt compelled to add, “But I cannot say that I am sorry. Moreland deserved it. Not just for what he’d done in the past, but for what he probably would have kept doing.”

“I agree.”

“You still haven’t said why it took so long to come to me?” she reminded him.

“Because I had to see to the Jensen girl, which took a lot longer than I thought.”

“You mean Moreland hadn’t killed her?”

“Oh, did I forget to mention that she was there in the barn when I arrived?”

Lori rolled her eyes. “You are the worst storyteller ever. ”

Predictably, he laughed. But his expression quickly turned grim. “Yes, she was there—tied up. Bevil was going to stage our bodies after he’d killed us. He said he’d make it look as if I’d raped her and that she’d somehow got her hands on a gun and shot me and then killed herself.”

Lori felt ill. “That—that villain ! What happened with Miss Jensen?”

“First, she helped staunch my wounds. Then we set the barn on fire and watched it burn. Once I’d recovered a bit she rode for help. Afterward, I helped her collect her children—whom Moreland had sold—and brought all three of them to a nice cottage on my grandfather’s estate, where they are recuperating nicely. And no , I’m not going to tell you about the dreadful hell hole that bought the little girls. Suffice it to say you will read about the place in the newspapers sometime in the coming weeks.”

“Were the children—”

“They were fine, but it was a close thing. After Ellie was safely settled, I had to deal with Demelza’s situation. After that was satisfactorily managed, I came looking for you.” He gave her a tight smile. “As for why it took so long to find you? Well, my darling, you never told me your brother had a different surname than you.”

She winced. “Oh. Did I not mention that my mother was my father’s second wife?”

His expression was withering. “No. And I searched all over hell and gone for a Reverend Fontenot.”

“Why didn’t you just ask Freddie?”

“She was gone when I went to call on her.”

“Gone?” Lori repeated blankly. “Gone where?

“I thought she was just not at home to me, but that harsh-faced servant of hers managed to convince me otherwise.”

“Oh, Mrs. Brinkley?”

“I believe that was her name.”

“Did she say where Freddie went?”

“I got the distinct impression that she did not know where. Only that her mistress had packed her bags and gone on a journey.”

“How… singular.” And concerning. Freddy had never taken a trip anywhere in all the years Lori had known her.

“I thought the word inconvenient was more fitting,” Fast corrected.

“So then what?”

“I finally had to go back to Parker’s office.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh. ” He smiled grimly. “Don’t worry, Parker wasn’t there. At least not that time. It was his harried clerk who I wanted to see in any case. He was only too happy to allow me to ransack his files for your information.”

Lori frowned. “Wait. You went back ? And what do you mean by that time ?”

**

Fast eyed the love of his life with no small amount of concern, not quite sure how she would take this next part.

“I want you to promise me something, Lorelei.”

“What?” she asked, suspicion glittering in her eyes.

“Promise me you won’t be angry at me.”

“How can I possibly promise that?”

“Just say it.”

She gave him a look of profound feminine exasperation. “Fine. I won’t be angry.”

“The first time I went to Parker was the same day I returned to London from the house party.”

“You what ?”

“Don’t get angry,” he reminded her.

“What did you do, Fast?”

“I told him you wouldn’t be working for him anymore and—”

“You what ?”

“You’ve already said that, sweetheart.”

She glared.

Fast resumed his story. “I told him how he’d put your life at risk. I demanded to know what hold he had over you”—he winced at her shriek but went on— “when he refused to be cooperative, I had to… persuade him.”

She stood and would have walked away if he hadn’t caught her arm and yanked her back onto his knee. “You aren’t allowed to leave,” he told her sternly, hoping to cow her into submission with his lordly frown .

It didn’t work.

“ Just what did you do?” she demanded, thoroughly uncowed.

Why lie? “I beat him until he confessed.”

“You beat him?” she shouted, and then, “Wait. Until he confessed to what?”

“That he had passed Briarly off to publishers as his own book.”

“ What ?”

He flinched and hissed through clenched teeth, “Sweetheart, you are three inches from my ear.”

“Who—how—” This time when Lorelei jumped up off his lap, Fast let her go.

She paced back and forth across the small room. “I’m too angry to speak right now,” she said, “You go on.”

“Parker sold your book to Anthony Hayes over at Hayes and Sons. Once got that information out of him I went over and, er, convinced Hayes that it was in his best interest to give me back the manuscript.”

Her lips parted and her eyes went wide. “How did you do that?”

“I just told him the truth—that you’d written it.”

“And—and he just believed you?”

Fast snorted. “What do you think?”

“Please tell me you didn’t beat him, too?”

“No.”

She heaved a sigh.

“At least not much.”

“Fast!”

“What?” he asked, spreading out his hands. “How else was I supposed to retrieve your stolen property and get him to break his contract with that scoundrel Parker?”

“If you beat every single publisher in London, how will I ever do business there again?”

“I didn’t have to beat W.H. Newcastle. At least not when the man finally had a chance to read it.”

She gasped. “It was you who gave it to him?”

“It sure as hell wasn’t Parker.” He reached out and caught her hand, pulling her lush bottom back onto his thigh. “Why didn’t you come to me for help—rather than that scaly bastard Parker?” He claimed her mouth fiercely before she could offer up paltry excuses—such as she hadn’t known Fast back then—and savagely kissed her, all the worry and anxiety of the past weeks pouring out of him.

And all the love, as well.

When he decided to let her breathe again, he released her. “So,” he said, taking an immoderate amount of pleasure from her flushed face, dazed eyes, and swollen lips. “Is that explanation good enough for where I’ve been, why I’ve been gone so long, and why you will forgive me and marry me?”

Her lashes fluttered and her green eyes—so like those of her enchanting little niece—widened in shock. “Marry? But—”

He laid a finger over her lush lips. “If you utter any of that claptrap about not believing in marriage, I’ll drag you back to The King’s Purse and lock you up in the Queen’s Chambers. I’ll keep you there and use each and every one of those implements on the wall on your body until you beg me to marry you.”

“Fast!”

He was pleased to note that she blushed prettily and appeared titillated, rather than appalled, by his erotic threat. Hmmm, that was interesting. His little authoress was adventurous, was she? Fast could joyfully accommodate her curiosity.

“Well?” he demanded when she continued to stare dazedly. “Will you allow your brother to marry us tomorrow morning? Or must I carry out my threat?”

“But the banns haven’t been read.”

He patted his pocket. “I came prepared with a special license.”

“But…what about your grandfather? Everyone in London knows how high in the instep he is. He will never agree to you marrying me.”

“It was only thanks to my grandfather’s assistance that the Archbishop was persuaded to issue a special license to a reformed rake such as myself.”

She goggled. “You mean he doesn’t mind that you aren’t marrying a pedigreed peeress or an heiress?”

Fast didn’t tell her that the old man had minded a great deal. Nor did he tell her how loudly and passionately the two of them had discussed the matter. And he certainly didn’t mention that it had taken almost one entire week out of the last three and a half to finally persuade the marquess to see the light.

Instead, he smiled and said, “He is so grateful that I’m staying in England and have consented to wed that he said I could marry his char woman if she agreed to bear him a grandson.” That was the truth, as far as it went.

Fast knew the old man’s reservations would disappear after a few hours in Lorelei’s company. A few days, at most.

She laughed. “How flattering.”

Fast kissed her. “And don’t think I’m asking you to be my wife only so I can breed heirs on you, Lorelei.”

Her lips parted in that distracting way she had.

Fast smirked. “Although I certainly plan to practice breeding you often and vigorously.”

She raised her hands to her pink cheeks. “You also plan to keep me in a perpetual blush.”

“I do,” he agreed. “But as to the matter of children, I will make every effort not to put a baby in your belly until and if you are ready for it.” He gave her a faint smile. “I think you know I’m more than delighted to take and give pleasure in a variety of other ways.”

“What if I never want to have a baby?” she asked quietly, no longer smiling.

“Then we will do our best to make sure you don’t fall pregnant.” He tilted his head. “You really don’t want children?”

“No, I want them. Very much, in fact. I just want to make sure that isn’t the reason you are marrying me.”

Fast couldn’t help feeling relieved at her words—at least the first part. As for the second…

“I can’t believe you would think I’d only marry you for heirs, Lorelei.”

She stroked a soothing hand over his chest. “I don’t. I just want everything to be… clear. I’ve seen too much misery when there are no children—or if there are girls, and no heir. I want to know that you will not be terribly disappointed if I cannot have children. Or if I only give you daughters.”

“I would adore having a daughter with you. Especially if she looks like you.” He sighed and laced their fingers together. “I don’t think I made my feelings entirely clear, Lorelei. I will be forty years old in a few months, so I have not been in any hurry to marry. I want a family for my own pleasure and happiness, not to secure a title I care very little about. The fact that my marriage will please my grandfather is just a happy bonus.”

“ Hmmm . Forty,” she said, eying him speculatively.

“What? Is that too old for you, you little shrew? How old are you by the way?” He cast his gaze ceilingward and said, “Please say you are at least twenty.”

“I am five-and-twenty,” she retorted. “Is that too young for you?”

He grinned at her taunting. “For your information, you are perfect for me. You are perfect, full stop.” He raised her hand to his mouth and nibbled on her finger, regarding her hungrily from beneath his lashes. “Every single part of you is perfect.”

Her cheeks blossomed with color. “You can’t resist an opportunity to make me blush.”

“No. I cannot.”

She snorted and shook her head. “You are a rake. I can’t imagine how devastating you were when your powers were in full bloom.”

“I like to think I’ve just become better with age.”

She laughed.

Fast kissed her thoroughly, until she was breathless with something other than laughter. “Witch,” he muttered. “You have enchanted me thoroughly.”

His brazen little newspaperwoman shyly lowered her gaze. When she looked up again, she said, “What did your grandfather say about you marrying a newspaper woman?”

Fast hesitated, and then admitted, “I did not raise that subject with him. I told him what little I knew of your family connections. And I mentioned you lived with Lady Sedgewick.”

She pulled her hands away from him and the joy drained from her face. “So, in other words, you utterly concealed who I am.”

“My grandfather is almost ninety years of age, Lorelei. He is the product of another time and set in his ways. He would not approve of your aspirations to be a novelist, and he emphatically would not approve of me marrying a newspaper woman. However ”—Fast raised his voice to be heard over her scoffing—“ however , there is no reason that he should know of your ambitions, is there? At least not immediately.”

“What about the book contract you all but negotiated for me, Fast?”

He was genuinely surprised by her question. “What about it?”

“Do you expect me to just refute the offer if I agree to marry you?”

“Of course not!”

“Then how will your grandfather not find out about me?”

Fast frowned. “Surely you did not mean to publish your books under your own name?”

***

Lori wanted to retort of course she’d meant to claim credit for her novel. But it would have been a lie. She had always known she would need to employ a nom de plume. If she didn’t, she would feel constrained in her writing, fearing that she would put something into print that would shame her brother and his family.

So why did it annoy her so much that Fast might expect the same consideration for his family?

Because you are scared. Here is the thing you wanted and thought you could never have—marriage to this magnificent man—and you are scared that you are transgressing your own principles.

Was that true? Was that all she really cared about? The preservation of her principles?

“Lorelei? What are you thinking? Don’t hide from me. Talk to me.”

Lori began to rise up from his lap, but Fast tightened his grip on her fingers and slid his other arm around her waist to keep her on his knee.

“Not so fast, Lorelei. I have no objection to my wife writing books, but—”

“But you would not allow the woman you marry to work for a newspaper?” she couldn’t help retorting.

“Under no circumstance would I allow my wife to plunge heedlessly into danger, as you have been accustomed to doing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t come up with a mutually acceptable compromise.”

“As long as you get what you want.”

“Precisely.” He chuckled. “Quit squirming to get away,” he chided.

“I won’t be told what to do by some man!”

“I won’t be some man . I will be your husband.”

“That doesn’t— mmmff ”

Fast kissed her until she stopped trying to escape, until she reached for him, her fingers sliding into the silky heat of his hair. Before she knew it, she was moaning and pressing herself against him, taking control of their kiss, reveling in finally being joined to him when she’d feared for almost a month that he was going to marry another.

It was Fast who pulled away, his eyes heavy lidded. “Lord, but I’ve missed that.”

Lori shook off her erotic torpor. “Just because I allowed you to kiss me does not mean I agree to abide by your commands.”

He sighed. “Is working for a newspaper what you really want, Lorelei? Because I recall you saying that you only took the job with Parker so you could afford to do what you truly love, and that is write novels.”

Why had she ever told him that?

“Well?” he prodded.

“It is true that I want to work on my novel now , but what about if I decide to do something else later? What then, Fast? Are you going to forbid me to do as I wish?”

“I want us both to get what we want, Lorelei,” he said, holding her gaze. “We will work together to make sure we are both happy. I promise you that.”

“You can say that now, but once we’re married—"

“Once we are married you are my property under the law,” he finished for her.

She swore she heard the clanging of a cell door.

He lightly caressed her jaw. “I cannot change what the law says, Lorelei. But I can give you my word that I will always love, cherish, and protect you—without trampling your rights and desires in the process.” He gave her a rueful look. “Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take my word for that because I can’t change the law for you, no matter how unjust I think it is.”

“And you will accept no arrangement other than marriage?”

“If you’re asking whether I will stop seeing you if you refuse to marry me, then the answer is no . But if you’re asking if I think that sneaking into each other’s dwellings of an evening would satisfy me for long? The answer is also no. I want you in my life. Not just as a lover, but as a companion, a wife, a mate, and a mother to my children.”

Lori stared at him, both her stomach and her mind churning.

You are arguing with a man who is offering you more than you ever dared to dream you could have! He knows about you and Dorian, and he does not care. You don’t want to write foolish gossip columns or crawl around the docks in the dark to investigate stories, you want to write novels! And yet you continue to argue.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

Lori inhaled deeply and met his gaze. “You expect concessions of me, Fast—well, I have one for you.”

“If it is within my power to give it, I will do so.”

“Most men of your class keep a mistress—or go to places like The King’s Purse to satisfy their carnal urges. I could not live with that. It would destroy me if you were unfaithful.”

“I am not like my father, Lorelei. I have always vowed to myself that if I ever married, I would be a faithful husband. Have I had a lot of lovers in my life? Yes, many. Certainly enough to know when I’ve found a woman who is special and singular and worthy of my fidelity.”

“But you fell out of love once before,” she couldn’t help saying. “What if it happens again?”

He hesitated, looking torn, before finally saying, “There are no guarantees when it comes to love, Lorelei—at least none that I know about. All I can tell you is that I love you with my whole heart. And I honestly do not believe that I have ever felt so deeply for anyone else.” He smiled. “I am well and truly caught and grateful to be so. I have never met anyone like you. You entice, please, challenge, infuriate, and entrance me. I love you, Lorelei. And I hate the thought of living without you.”

Lori’s face blazed at his declaration.

Tell him you love him, too! Tell him!

But she couldn’t make herself say the words. Instead, she nuzzled her face between his neck and shoulder and softly asked, “Are you sure about this, Fast? Truly sure?”

“I’m sure, darling. Truly sure.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. You love him. You know a lifetime with him is what you want.

She sighed, squirmed a bit, and then pressed her lips to the tender skin just below his jaw, kissing and tasting him.

He groaned and pushed himself away, until she was forced to meet his gaze. “Stop tormenting me, you temptress. Will you marry me? Or do I have to carry out my diabolical scheme to make you surrender by seducing you into submission?”

Her body’s reaction to his words shocked her—although why it should at this point, was beyond her.

Stricken with a shyness that was foreign to her, she lowered her eyes before saying, “If I say yes , can we still go back to the Queen’s Chambers so you can seduce me into submission with all those implements ?”

Fast gave a shout of triumph that Lori suspected could be heard throughout the entire vicarage and pulled her close to kiss her soundly.

“That is one promise I cannot wait to keep, my adorable darling!”