Page 55 of His Wicked Secret
“Good.” Charles reached over and gave Linley a hard shove.
“Ack!” The young man flailed his arms as he plummeted off the dock and into the water with a splash. When he came back up sputtering outrage, Charles hooted with laughter. Linley had lost his cap, and his blonde hair was plastered to his face.
“My lord!” Linley snapped. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“You’re far too tense, lad. You think I haven’t noticed? You deserve some fun.” Charles curled his arm around one of the wood pillars of the dock and leaned forward to peer down at his all too serious servant.
Linley swam up to the dock and gripped the nearest post for support. Without warning, he grabbed Charles’s ankle and yanked. Charles tried to grab the wood pillar, but it was too late. He plunged into the cold depths of the pond.
For an instant he panicked. He saw the light shimmer on the surface above him and felt the momentum of the fall drag his body down…down. But no. There were no weights. No rope. He was fine. He kicked hard and clawed his way up from the depths, and the panic dissipated. In fact, he reveled in the fact that he was not powerless. He had his freedom.
“Not so fast, lad.” He tugged the young man under the water again, with a triumphant cry of, “Revenge!”
Linley struggled but came up laughing. Charles grinned. Tom reminded him so much of his little brother Graham and how they used to play. That had been before… Now he and Graham rarely spoke, something that made the holidays quite awkward for their mother and sister.
Linley splashed him, laughing as Charles shook his head, sending water spraying around them. Charles held up his hands in surrender.
“You’ve done me in, lad. I need to rest.” He swam along the dock and reached the bank. Then, squishing his wet clothes to remove excess water, he walked back down the dock and held out his hands to Linley.
“My lord, you don’t need to—”
“Nonsense. Take my hands.” Linley’s eyes were wide, but the innocence he saw there harbored shadows of pain.
He’s still afraid to trust me, even after all this time. I haven’t hurt him the way his previous master did. I wonder when he will learn to trust again?
Linley’s secrets still caused him pain, but Charles couldn’t help the boy if the he would not open up to him. And it wasn’t as if Charles himself spoke easily about his past. Not the moments that haunted him, anyway.
“Very well. I was only trying to help.” He turned away, but the young man surprised him by grasping his hand firmly. Charles turned back and hoisted a dripping wet Linley out of the water.
“Look at us, like a pair of drowned mice.” Charles laughed and twisted the loose part of his shirt and dripped the water onto the dock. Linley crossed his arms over his chest and shivered.
“Let’s get you inside before you rattle your bones.” Charles slapped Linley’s shoulder, and the pair headed back to the house.
It was only as they reached Rochester Hall that Charles realized that this was one of the rare times that he had seen Linley smile, even laugh. He wasn’t sure why, but the fact that he had given the boy some small joy filled Charles with a peace he hadn’t felt since his father had died.
* * *
“Are you ready?”Jonathan asked.
Audrey danced forward a step, fists raised. It was the fifth day of the house party, and she and Jonathan had managed to successfully train in the leisure room whenever there was a lull in the activities.
“I’m ready.” Wearing her breeches she had so much more agility, and she had grown to love the time she spent training with Jonathan. This time she hadn’t even worn a corset and couldn’t believe how easily she could breathe without the confining press of whalebone against her chest.
“Remember, you must evade first, disable second.” Jonathan’s green eyes were serious, and she liked that. Whenever they sparred, he didn’t patronize her or attempt to seduce her, which he easily could have done. In the last week, she had grown far too used to his kisses during the day and spending each night in his bed and in his arms.
He kept to his agreement to sleep and nothing more, which Audrey was of two minds about. She enjoyed being close to him, but she feared that if she fully gave herself to him she would never be able to handle it when he decided he wanted to leave her alone and stop their lessons. She tried not to think about his sudden sweetness and what it meant. She wasn’t sure she could trust this more open side to him. There was always the chance it was simply the final move in whatever game he might be playing.
Jonathan lunged for her. She ducked and darted around him, keeping her arms up. As he turned, he swung a fist, a little more slowly than a real attacker might, but still fast enough that she had to hastily parry the blow. First she had to commit the moves to memory, and then they could speed things up. He gave her no time to recover; he tried to sweep her legs, and she jumped, narrowly averting being knocked flat on her back.
“Good,” he said. “Very good.” He nodded and lowered his hands. Audrey did the same, beaming in delight. He lunged again, grabbing her by the hair. The hold didn’t hurt, but it startled her enough that she cried out. He pulled her back against him, and his other hand gripped her throat. She was trapped, her back pressed against his chest.
“You must never for a moment trust that you have safely outmaneuvered your opponent,” Jonathan said in a silky whisper by her ear.
“But we were finished.”
“Were we? When a man attacks, he may pretend to yield and wait for a better moment to strike. You must always think like a predator in order to protect yourself. These men see themselves as the foxes and you are the rabbit. You must learn to be the fox. Now, try to get free.” Jonathan repositioned them so she was pressed up against the wall with her body caged in by his from behind.
Audrey pushed, her muscles straining. She had been sore and fatigued each night, but she hadn’t asked Jonathan for any breaks in their lessons. Now she wished she had because she felt too weak to move.
