Page 88 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“Nothing, my wife. Now, off you go.” He turned her around to face the door and gently swatted her backside. She obediently left the library, unable to deny her curiosity. She did wish to make sure Isla was sleeping soundly. They had spent Christmas Eve at Lennox House, had a fine Christmas dinner, and played enough parlor games to wear the child out.
Isla’s new nursery held the bed that Rafe had chosen for her. All of her toys and clothes had been moved from Lennox House after the marriage. Even Mrs. Chesterfield had agreed to come to Foxglove with them. Right now she was at her usual post by Isla’s bed, but her book was abandoned and she was asleep. Diana crossed the room to stoke the fire with the poker and adjust the fire grate, then tucked Isla’s covers up and readjusted the doll in her arms. A memory came back to her quite suddenly and vividly.
Diana and Eleanor had just opened their presents one year when Diana had been five and Eleanor was seven. Diana had been given a beautiful brunette doll who wore a lovely greengown. The doll had dark hair and brown eyes just like Diana. She thought it was the most beautiful doll she’d ever seen.
“What’s her name?” Diana had asked her parents. They told her it was her duty to name her doll, but she then looked to her older sister as always for guidance in such crucial matters. “Eleanor, what should I call her?”
“Why, little fox, she’s Mrs. Crumpet, of course. She’s a duchess, you know,” Eleanor had declared so confidently that Diana had accepted the name without question.
As quickly as her memories had led her away, she returned once more to Isla’s bedside.
“Mrs. Crumpet... a duchess, of course.” Diana’s voice wavered as she whispered the doll’s name. It was such an old memory, one that she’d quite forgotten... until now. A brush against her shoulder had her turning, expecting to see Rafe behind her, but no one was there.
Except perhaps there was. Diana felt the silvery presence move through and around her, and her soul glowed with a quiet, unshakeable joy.
“Thank you, Eleanor. Thank you for coming home.”
It might have been a whisper of wind against the panes of glass from the snow flurries outside or the whistle of sap from the logs on the fire. It might have been her imagination or wishful thinking. Whatever the source, she heard the words and felt thelovethey carried with the magic of Christmas.
“Love you, little fox . . .”
Diana kissed Isla’s forehead, and the little girl smiled in her sleep the same way Rafe did. She truly was the daughter of his heart. Diana’s life had been upended at the loss of her family, and a deep well of grief had opened within her. Now that well was filled with love for her new family.
Before she had met Rafe and Isla, she’d had a family, the people at Foxglove who had stood by her and cared for her.More than once, Rafe had reminded her that even during her bleakest moments, when her shine had dimmed, she’d had the light of others to burn for her in the dark. And now her family at Foxglove had grown with the addition of Rafe and Isla. He had given her back so much of herself, and she could never stop showing him how much she loved him. She heard Ashton’s words that day they’d rescued him from Caddington:“Rafe, you are the heart of this family.”And he was right. Rafe was all heart, and he’d chosen to love her with that heart.
She lingered a moment longer in the nursery as sunny dreams danced in her mind’s eye, promising a wonderful future for her growing family. Then she headed for her bedchamber, where Rafe was waiting for her.
She paused when she noticed a lone candle someone had left unattended on a little table between two tapestries. She lifted it and blew out the candle before setting it back down on the table. The smoke curled up in the moonlight, and she felt a cold whisper of wind behind her.
Something hard and circular pressed against her lower back and a gloved hand suddenly encircled her throat, holding her firmly without squeezing. She sucked in a shocked breath as a hard, hot body held her immobile from behind.
“Easy, lass. Ye wouldna wish to wake the house,” a cool, seductive voice murmured in her ear. “Now take me to yer bedchamber.”
“Why?” she hissed.
“Because ye owe me, little fire drake, and I’ve come to claim what’s mine.” Warm, silken lips caressed her ear before the wicked intruder nibbled on the lobe, making her moan.
The man forced her to guide them to her bedchamber door, and he ushered her inside with a wave of his pistol before he closed the door behind him, smiling at her from behind a blackdomino. The piercing blue eyes of her beloved, wicked Tyburn stared back at her.
“Stand and deliver...wife,” the highwayman commanded as he waved his pistol at her dressing gown. “I want my prize.”
Heart hammering, she unlaced the front of her dressing gown and let it pool at her feet. She hesitated with the ties of the chemise at her collarbone, and he growled for her to continue as he leaned back against the closed door, blocking her escape with his lithe, muscled body.
“I’m afraid I have nothing to give you,” she whispered, excitement racing along her skin.
“Yer body is all I need, but I’ll steal yer heart too since I’m a greedy man.” The masked man pushed away from the door, tossing the pistol aside and seizing her. His gloved hands roved over her body as he rid her of her chemise and bared her naked body to his gaze. He stroked the leather-covered tips of his fingers over her hard nipples and cupped each breast, kneading them, without ever taking his eyes off her.
His eyes narrowed. “Ye seem more sensitive than I remember,” he mused as he tugged on one nipple.
She gasped and arched into him. “Perhaps because...” She stifled her words, catching herself before she said too much.
“Because what?” he asked, his voice sinfully dark and dangerous. He tugged at one breast almost roughly, just the way she liked it.
“I forget... oh Lord...” Her body was almost shaking with need for him now. “How did you know?” He stroked one hand over her bare bottom, caressing it while somehow making her feel deliciously owned by him.
How could he have known that she loved Tyburn as much as she loved Rafe? That they were two beings who belonged together in this world within the same man—her man.
“Because I love ye, lass, and I ken what ye need, that when the moon is high and the wind whistles down the lonesome roads, ye need to see me, need to be claimed by me.”
