Page 37 of Pride of Valor

Sidmouth had eased into the evening with his wife, Lady Jane, after the early, embarrassing start when she’d taken off in her own carriage. He hadn’t even known she wanted to go to the theatre. Thank God Harriet had invited her to see “Othello” with them. Who knew a woman who refused to live under the same roof, let alone ride in the same carriage, would want to share a theatre box with him?

He was beginning to hope he might have inched closer to being allowed to sire an heir with the woman, considering how she doted on Nicholas. And now they’d be sharing a suite at Pearce’s, with the young Marquess of Blandford in tow. He shook his head hard. The situations family obligations could land one in were complicated. Even for a duke.

With a pang, he remembered that night in Venice when he’d destroyed what had started out as a companionable, convenient marriage. He regretted every word that had spilled out of his mouth when he’d discovered how well trained in the sensual arts his duchess had been. He’d gone over and over their heated exchange in his head, trying to figure out how to start again. But he was a duke, and apologies were damned difficult.

Just then, his Lady Jane chose to reach across Nicholas and place her small hand on his forearm. “Is something wrong, Sidmouth?”

He stared down into her eyes, even darker than usual in the candlelight, and smiled while he patted her hand. “Nothing at all, my dear. Nothing at all.”

She was killing him.He was going to die right there in Sidmouth’s family box if she didn’t quit leaning over to fiddle with her skirts in that silky green gown that cupped and lifted her breasts like two glowing globes of light. She reminded him of the torches wreckers put out near the rocks along the shore to lure unsuspecting ships.

Yes, he was headed for the rocks. He would run aground and drown in her arms, knowing full well what he was doing. Without any regrets. A sudden thought invaded his brain. Now he understood the anguish Captain Bellingham must have gone through protecting Sophie through the Season. He’d had to watch her dance across glittering ballrooms with other bastards, knowing he should quit craving her and go back to sea. Watching the pain his ship’s commander went through should have been warning enough for Richard, but he still wanted to sit down with him over a bottle of wine and ask how he did it. How had he finally found the courage to declare his love, make Sophie his wife, and then sail away?

Harriet leaned her face close to his while Algernon’s version of the Moor was going through the motions of slashing his wife to bits. “Is that frown on your face for Desdemona’s husband? Or me?”

He growled low and moved his face so close to hers, it would take just a second to steal a kiss. “That’s what you women do to us helpless men. We become so smitten, we fly into a jealous rage at the slightest provocation.”

She drew back and stared straight ahead, the tiny wrinkle forming between her brows signaling she was angry. Now what had he done? He made a quarter turn away from her and stretched one boot out in front of him to ease the position he’d been sitting in for over an hour.

She reached over and plucked at his sleeve. When he looked back over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised, she stuck out her tongue, barely visible in the low light to anyone but him. Richard could not help but grin. Only this woman could break his heart and make him laugh at the same time. He was going to enjoy peeling that green silk dress from her body, one piece at a time. He’d enjoy her body tonight like it was the last time he’d enjoy any woman’s body. Because it would be.

Harriet had never so enjoyed “Othello”that she didn’t want it to end, but tonight was an exception. Anything to delay the inevitable. The look Richard had bored into her when she teased him made her body clench in the vicinity of her womb. Moisture pooled low at the apex of her thighs and made her tighten her knees together.

When she chanced a glance in the direction of her cousin, the duke had his arm slung easily over the back of Nicholas’s chair with his hand lightly brushing Lady Jane’s shoulder. Too bad circumstances would put them in a suite with her son tonight. She definitely sensed the beginning of a thaw in their relationship. Perhaps his duchess would soon move back into Bocollyn House?

And then she jarred her matchmaking thoughts to a halt. She had insurmountable challenges of her own. She would have to leave “her” Marine’s warm arms in the morning for the cold embrace of a man more than twice her age. But she was firm in her resolve. Nicholas had to be spared the scandal her relationship with Richard would surely cause.

On the stage, Othello was killing himself in remorse for having doubted and slaughtered his wife. Shakespeare’s play had been entertaining the many times she’d seen the production before, but now she saw the ending as deserved for two lovers flouting the norms of society. Not the kind of plot she cared to ponder tonight.

Perhaps she should tell Richard right now what she planned to do, but her selfish heart wanted one last night to drink in his love before he went his way with lovers in every port. And she followed her destiny to the bed of a querulous old man.

At the endof the play all the theatre-goers stood and gave Algernon an ovation. Richard sought out theatrical entertainment whenever he was in port, and he’d seen “Othello” a good many times. Algernon was an exceptional actor who would stand out in any venue in London, but he was an Haitian-American. And that had made his acceptance more difficult on the London stage. However, according to Thorne, he’d been playing a circuit of performances over the years in Cornwall and Devon where he’d built up a profitable following.

Sidmouth moved quickly to Richard’s side. “We should leave now, before the final presentation.” He nodded toward his grandmother and Nicholas in explanation. Richard helped Nana secure her cape and then turned to swirl Harriet’s heavy woolen shawl across her shoulders. When she looked up at him with complete trust in her emerald gaze, he hoped she didn’t see the longing and possessiveness in his.

“Let’s go,” Sidmouth urged. “Algernon and his wife will join us later at supper in a private dining room at Pearce’s. We’ll talk the two of them into helping us set up a family theatre at Bocollyn.”

17

Harriet was nearly light-headed from exhaustion. So much had happened since morning, this day had seemed more like two days than one. She couldn’t stop thinking of the night to come. She wasn’t even hungry. Her Dover sole stared back at her from an enticing, steaming pool of herb-flecked butter, but she didn’t care.

No matter how she tried, all she could think of was the look in Richard’s eyes across the table. He looked as if he wanted to consume her. And she was the last person who would stop him, because this was their final night together. Forever.

Nicholas had insisted on staying up for the late supper because he was fascinated by the theatre and wanted to meet Mr. Algernon. He sat next to his newest, closest friend, Her Grace Lady Jane Sidmouth. Harriet smiled at their sweet, mutual attraction. Maybe Jane had decided a woman could forgive a man many things if he could give her a child like Nicholas.

Nana was sleeping peacefully in Sidmouth’s suite, with guards outside the door, because Harriet had made sure she drank her tea dosed with the tincture of laudanum her physician had recommended to curtail her erratic wanderings.

Harriet nibbled at a small bit of the sole and discovered she was ravenous for food as well as the marine sitting across from her. At the head of the table, Sidmouth inclined his head toward Mrs. Algernon, and elicited a peal of laughter from the woman who earlier had played the part of Desdemona onstage. The Algernons’ troupe of actors had toured throughout the West Country for years, all the while keeping Falmouth as their home base. They now had a large brood of children who worked alongside their parents in the family business.

It would be fun to transform one of the old, rambling halls at Bocollyn into a theatre they could open to friends and the community. A sudden catch in her throat made her put down her fork. Just the diversion she’d need to keep her mind off a certain marine a world away, and a reason to get away from time to time from the cantankerous old man she’d be bound to for the rest of her life.

Nicholas could grow up safe from the crushing gossip of theton, and she…she would fill her life with things that mattered. What those would be she had no idea, but she was determined when she set herself to a task.

Richard sweptthe empty room next to the one Harriet occupied with a critical eye and was finally satisfied he’d ruled out all possible dangers. He’d decided he’d not only lock the connecting door, but once he was safely on the other side, he’d pull a heavy piece of furniture in front of the opening for extra protection.

He’d not seen any more of her annoying brother-in-law since their fractious encounter in the theatre anteroom, but he still carried a sense of foreboding from what Sidmouth had told him about the man. He was a danger to both Harriet and Nicholas.

Richard seethed at the thought that her former brother-in-law wanted her in his bed. The thought that he plotted to eliminate her son at the same time so he could claim the title for himself was more than a little chilling. Harming a woman’s child was hardly the way to her heart.