Chapter Twenty-Four
Sophie looked across at Devlin, seated against the plush cushions of his carriage, his legs stretched out and brushing slightly against her own. Their visit to Lord Crowley’s residence had not gone as expected. Instead of producing any answers, all it had done was raise a great deal more questions.
She very nearly gasped as the outside of Devlin’s thigh knocked more fully against hers when the carriage went over a bump. Odd how she had never really noticed how confined and yet intimate a carriage was before. “Um, thank you, by the way, for your assistance today. I would never have thought to bribe the butler to gain entry and get some answers out of him.”
“Money is what makes the world go ’round,” he replied.
“I suppose it does,” she conceded. “But none of it makes any sense still. First Jane disappears, then this girl Tina and the footman Benlow both up and leave the Crowleys’, too. Yet Benlow coincidently gains employment in my household after his predecessor just so happens to be viciously beaten and incapacitated. Then it would appear he steals my mail, and Tina comes asking if Jane has been in contact, pretending to not know Benlow at all. It makes no sense.”
“No, it does not,” he agreed.
She wrung her hands together. “No one leaves their posts without a reference or without telling anyone. There’s the fact, too, that Benlow had a reference supposedly written by the Crowleys’ butler, yet when asked about it, the man denied he ever wrote one. There is something extremely suspicious going on here.” And Sophie was determined to get to the bottom of it all, certain that if she could, she would find Jane.
“I shall make some further enquiries immediately,” Devlin said grimly.
“Thank you, I do appreciate it,” Sophie replied, glancing out the window. “What are the chances that two maids from the same residence up and leave without a word to anyone? It simply does not happen. They would have nowhere to go. Hopefully, we shall discover some answers at the Crowleys’ house party.”
Devlin was silent for a moment. “I do not think it a wise idea for you to be looking into this any further.”
She blinked in confusion. “But Devlin, I must. I simply cannot stop.”
“You can and you will,” he commanded. “I do not like the way this situation is evolving, and I do not want you in any danger. Already it appears you’ve been at risk while that footman was in your house.”
“I appreciate your concern,” she allowed as his admission told her at least some of his high-handedness came from fear for her safety. “But you must understand that this not a game for me. Jane is an ex-Grey Street orphan, with no one else to look out for her. It is personal for me. I cannot simply stand by and do nothing. Besides, you did agree to take me to the party.”
“Which reluctantly I shall do.” Devlin sighed. “At least promise me that you shall not make any further enquiries about this situation without me being present to protect you.”
Though Daniel had always been rather determined to protect her, a great deal of the time he was away at the country estate or traveling overseas, so she’d gotten rather accustomed to protecting herself. It was somewhat heartening to hear Devlin’s words. “I am fairly used to doing things alone.”
“As am I.” He smiled briefly. “But we are to be married and must learn to do things together. And if truth be told, I do not wish to worry about you any more than I already do.”
“You worry about me?” Perhaps he wasn’t wholly the rake she’d thought him.
A guarded look slid over his eyes. “If anything was to happen to you, my deal would be jeopardized, which I can’t afford to have happen. It would set my project back months.”
Her spirits fell. Of course, that was why he cared. Her ascribing more to his actions than business was a dangerous path to tread. With sudden clarity, Sophie understood for the first time why her mother had kept forgiving her father, over and over again. Why her mother had thought that her love could change her father and why it never could. A leopard never changed its spots. Sophie would do well to remember that, and then she and Devlin should be able to make their marriage work as the efficient business arrangement it was.
“I am sorry for my brother’s behavior last night.” She hoped that a change of topic would help to alleviate the suddenly charged atmosphere. “It was very unexpected and ungentlemanly of him to hit you as he did.”
“Unexpected, yes. However, if I too had a sister, I daresay it is exactly what I would have done.” He rubbed the left side of his jaw where Daniel’s punch had connected. “But it is over and done with now, and it was not your actions that require an apology.”
“But nonetheless, Daniel is my brother, and I was sorry that he hurt you.”
“Hurt me? Please, he barely grazed me.”
Men could be so prickly about injuries. “The side of your jaw is mottled with a purple bruise.”
He leaned across and picked up her hand. Caressing the underside of her palm with his fingers, he brought her hand up to his lips. “As I said, just a graze.”
Sophie ignored the warmth spreading through her body from his touch. “Well, it looks rather sore. Does it hurt?”
He released her hand. “It is just a small bruise, which I am sure will subside in a few days. Must say, though, that Nicholas was most impressed by the sight of it.”
The thought of Nicholas brought a smile to her face. “I imagine he would have been. Where is he today, by the way?”
“If I was to hazard a guess, I would say harassing Jenkins, no doubt,” he answered. “I really am going to have to find him another governess and soon, too. Perhaps you could assist with that?”
“I would be happy to help. But he can always come with me to Grey Street of a morning in the interim.”
Devlin nodded. “I am sure he would enjoy that. He kept prattling on about his visit with you. I believe he wants to adopt a whole bunch of kittens now.”
“Yes,” she laughed, “he was quite taken with them.”
“As I am with you, my lady.”
Sophie blushed and quickly looked out of the window. How many times had he used that phrase with another lady before? She didn’t really want to know and fought to change the topic. “Aunt Mabel has a good remedy for bruises.”
“I think I am actually becoming somewhat fond of the bruise. Most ladies find a man with a bruise rather dashing, do they not?”
She laughed softly, her embarrassment from a second ago forgotten. “Quite frankly, I think a woman that holds such an opinion to be a twit. Males that engage in fisticuffs to settle a difference of opinion are idiots. Using one’s mouth and talking is a much better way to settle such things.”
“I could not agree more. One’s mouth can settle many ailments.” Devlin’s expression definitely had an air of mischief about it. “Perhaps you wish to kiss my injury better with yours? I have heard it can speed up the healing process a great deal.”
“What a load of nonsense.” Sophie rolled her eyes.
“How would we know unless we try?” He leaned in closer toward her. His hands reached out, and before she realized his intention, he had clasped a hold of her waist and pulled her onto his lap.
What was the man thinking? They were almost at their destination. She put her palms up onto his chest to steady herself. “Devlin,” she breathed, “this is ridiculous.”
“I find I am in need of your tender ministrations,” he murmured as he slipped his hand behind her head, his fingers intertwining in her hair.
Her breath hitched in her throat as she gazed into the intense blue of his eyes. His mouth was barely an inch from her own. “But you cannot kiss me. The carriage might stop at any moment.”
“I can kiss my fiancée wherever I damn well want to and particularly in my own carriage,” he stated as he brought his other hand up and slowly caressed her cheek. “Besides, we have plenty of time until we reach your residence, and my footmen are extremely well trained. Even if the carriage did stop, they would not open the door and disturb me without my say-so first.”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. Sophie placed her hands firmly against his chest and pushed away from him. “Do you mean to tell me that having a lady in your carriage cavorting with you in such a manner is a common enough occurrence that your footmen know not to disturb you? Even after you have reached your destination?” The idea of him treating her just like his other conquests was enough to send her into a rage. She would not be taken for granted or treated, like those…those loose women!
He scowled. “That is not what I meant at all.”
“Is it not?” she ground out as she reached down and attempted to dislodge his hands from her waist. It was no use; the man’s grip was made of iron. “My brother was right to warn me about you.”
“For God’s sake, you are not going to listen that damn overly protective brother of yours, are you?”
How dare he disparage her brother, who had more integrity than anyone she knew? “Daniel’s words seem to have great credence, particularly as a moment ago, you confirmed as much.”
“Like hell I did.” He refused to let her go, though she knew she could have broken away completely if she’d really tried. The problem was, part of her wanted him to explain away her fears.
“Well, how many women have you had in here and kissed?”
“God damn it, woman,” Devlin growled. “Do you always have to be so difficult?”
“Wanting to know how many women one’s intended has seduced is not being difficult.” She tried once more to wriggle free from his grasp. “Now release me.”
“Damn it, Sophie, I have never entertained another woman in my carriage,” he ground out as he relinquished his hold.
She was so surprised by his admission, she forgot to get off his lap. “You don’t actually expect me to believe that, do you?” Did the man think she was simply naïve or completely stupid? “Particularly with your reputation!”
“Well, it is true.” His voice was glacial. “As much as you might not think it, my reputation has been somewhat exaggerated over the years.”
She never expected him to lie blatantly to her face. “Please! Do you forget I saw with my own eyes just what sort of—amorous things—you used to get up to!” The scent and feel of his muscular frame against her was beginning to weaken her resolve. She needed to get off him, or it wouldn’t matter how furious she was. She’d be butter in his hands. She began to slide off of him.
“Sophie, please.” The please made her still once more, unaccustomed as she was to hearing it. “I don’t claim to be a saint,” he said. “But I made a deliberate choice a long time ago to never to share my personal spaces with my dalliances. Now you had better stop squirming your pretty little derrière around on my lap, or you will face the consequences of doing so.”
“You were the one to place me on your lap in the first place.” But instead of pushing off him, she found herself grasping his lapels as if she were drowning.
“Do not say that I did not warn you.” He drew his face closer to her and then kissed her in a frenzy of heat.
Sophie struggled against the delicious sensation. She could feel her defenses start to crumble. She gripped at his jacket as his tongue parted her lips and demanded a response. Her breath hitched in her throat.
She was lost in the sensations. Her body reacted of its own volition; she pushed her chest forward against him, and her tongue met his, returning the thrusts with equal fervor.
His right hand kneaded the flesh of her nipple through the satin material of her gown, causing a pool of heat to rush through her. Reaching her hands up, she gripped the back of his head, trying to get impossibly close.
He groaned in response and deepened the kiss. She was oblivious to anything but him. His touch shocked her. It thrilled her. It drowned her in wonder.
A delicious shiver cascaded through her, and she gasped when his right hand began inching her skirts up over her ankles. The pads of his fingers started trailing up the stocking of her legs, while his mouth began tracing her collarbone, his touch exquisite against her flesh.
“So soft,” he murmured as his hand skimmed the top of the stockings on her left leg.
She inhaled sharply as his hand moved across her skin and rubbed against her undergarments at the junction of her legs.
His lips again found hers, and he kissed her while his hand continued caressing the area between her legs. She had never experienced a feeling like it before. Shivers of pleasure were radiating from the very spot he was slowly rubbing, a pressure slowly building within, heating her very core.
She could not stand it. The feeling of pleasure was too intense. It felt like she was about to fall from some great height. She began squirming against his hand. “Devlin? I do not understand. What is happening to me?”
“’Tis all right, my darling,” he whispered against her lips, his fingers still rubbing against her. “Enjoy what you are feeling. Allow the sensation to consume you.”
Sophie whimpered as the intense pleasure built higher and higher, feeling as if she was about to explode. She closed her eyes in surrender.
The pressure building between her thighs engulfed her. She cried aloud as her whole body suddenly clenched, and wave after wave of rapture cascaded through her entire being.
Collapsing against his chest, she drew in several shaky breaths. She felt odd, as if she had just run a marathon but was now floating on a cloud of contentment; never before had she experienced such intense bliss. She blinked up at Devlin and noticed that he had a look of supreme satisfaction on his face.
A delightful tremor ran through her as he cupped her cheek gently and placed a chaste kiss on her parted lips. “So beautiful,” he murmured against her skin.
“Does that happen every time?” She marveled at the wonder of it.
He laughed. “It will be a lifelong goal of mine to see that it does.”
“But what of you?” she asked. “Did you, too, feel such a sensation?”
“Not this time, my darling,” he answered. “But it did give me a great deal of pleasure watching you experience such satisfaction.”
A blush stole across her cheeks. “I can see now of your great popularity with the ladies. No wonder they all flock to your side.”
Devlin stiffened slightly. “As I previously mentioned, a good deal of the rumors surrounding my liaisons have been greatly exaggerated.”
“I did not mean any offense by the comment,” Sophie cringed. “I was actually trying to pay you a compliment, in a roundabout sort of way.”
“You were, were you?” he asked, lifting her from his lap and onto the seat opposite.
Adjusting her skirts, she found herself momentarily unable to look him in the eye. “Absolutely. It is merely that I have heard a great deal of rumors throughout the years. Though, I do suppose,” she conceded, “that in actuality I have only ever seen you with a few other women. Definitely not in the amount of hundreds, as the rumors suggest.”
“It was a fair assumption to make.” He relaxed somewhat. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t by any stretch of the imagination been close to celibate—”
“Actually, I think I’d rather not discuss this,” Sophie interrupted him.
“But I want you to know that I am telling you the truth when I say I have not entertained another woman in here. Nor alone in any of my residences, for that matter.”
Sophie drew back slightly from him. “But what about the lady you were cavorting with the night we met?”
“That was only a bit of tomfoolery in the gardens. I had no intention of returning to my bedchamber with her,” he replied.
Not particularly a great consolation. “And your other mistresses? I know from my own observations that you have had many.”
“True, I shall not lie to you on that score.”
Tamping down on her disappointment, she curled her fingers into the folds of her soft silk dress.
“But it has been a steadfast rule of mine,” he continued, “that I would always attend the lady’s residence and not the other way around.”
“But why?”
“I never wished for them to think they had any permanent place in my life.”
“Oh…” She was at a loss as to how to reply. But then her curiosity got the best of her. “How many mistresses have you had?”
His beautiful mouth flattened. “Now I think that question is best left unanswered.”
“But why? You said you would always tell me the truth.”
“That I did, and I will of course honor my promise,” he agreed. “However, my mother did teach me some manners, and disclosing any of my past liaisons to my fiancée is a subject that she would not have deemed suitable. If she were still alive, I am sure she would have scolded me something severe for even discussing the subject with you.”
“She sounds like she was a very sensible woman.” Sophie felt a twinge of sadness that she would never meet her.
A wistfully look flitted across his face. “She was always determined to teach me right from wrong. She wished me to grow up and be like my father, honorable and decent.”
“I am sure they would both be very proud of you.”
He flinched. “I doubt that. But perhaps if they had lived longer, I would have grown up to be more like the man my mother wished me to be.”
Her heart softened. She could see the pain he was trying to conceal, if the rigid set of his shoulders was anything to go by. She quickly moved across to sit next to him.
Picking up his hand, she squeezed it gently. “She would love you for the man you are, Devlin.”
“You, my dear Sophie, are an idealist,” he said, covering her hand with his other. He grimaced faintly. “My reputation for being heartless in both business and in personal endeavors has generally been well deserved.”
She put her other hand up to his cheek. “You have just taken in a young orphaned boy as your ward, whom you treat with warmth and caring. That is not the action of someone who is heartless.”
“I did not do so out of the goodness of my own heart; I owed Nicholas’ father my life. It was the least I could do to repay him. And the boy seems happy enough with me.”
“Making someone else happy is a very noble endeavor.” She hoped that he could see the truth in her words.
He sighed. “That is what my mother used to say, too.”
“A woman of good sense.”
“Yes.” His voice grew distant, his thoughts presumably lost in the past. “She was forever trying to help those less fortunate in our parish. Though she did not have the social connections to effect great change, mainly due to my grandfather cutting off my father’s income when they married. She did, however, manage to still bring a lot of people a great deal of happiness with her kindness.”
His features seemed to soften as he regarded Sophie. “She would have liked you immensely.”
A feeling of pleasure stole through her from his words. She leaned in closer to him and brushed her hand across his cheek. “I am sure I should have liked her equally as well.”
Devlin absently began caressing the back of her hand with his fingers. “You would have, for you both had a great deal of the same interests in common. Two women of strength and compassion, trying to make a difference in the world.”
“It is a shame I never had a chance to meet her. I should have very much have liked to have known both of your parents.”
He stilled. “You can thank my grandfather for that deprivation, as it was he that was responsible for their deaths.”