Page 55 of An Earl to Remember
Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face, the memory of that night aboard his yacht washing over him in chilly waves. There had been an argument with his mistress, and she had shoved him. He could not tell if her intention had been to send him overboard or not, but that had been the result.
How long had he stayed in the water? By what grace had he washed ashore in Crandell? “By God,” Daniel muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I fell overboard my yacht.”
“You were damn well shoved overboard.” His brother grimaced. “Lady Johanna came to my lodgings only last week and tearily confessed to her part in the entire affair. The lady had been living in dread that she had killed you.”
“She could have,” Daniel hissed, fury raking like talons through him. “Did she alert any of the people aboard my ship that I had fallen?”
His expression grave, his brother said, “No. But she is a wreck and remorseful. Since she told me, I have been searching for you, then I saw the notice in theMorning Chronicle. Mr. Daniel Stannis. The coincidence was just too incredible to dismiss. Now what the hell are you doing here? And what in tarnation are you wearing?”
Daniel faltered into remarkable stillness as the import of everything washed over his senses. Miss Heyford claiming him as her husband, setting him to work around the ramshackle manor, doing all sorts of menial work including mucking cow dung every day.
He had no wife…no new sisters…and he did not live in that manor. Every touch, longing stare, and wicked kiss had been a fabrication. A peculiar, yet profound sense of loss and emptiness tore through Daniel. All of the contentment he’d felt, the hope and determination to make life better for his family, was not real.She is not really mine and they are not my family. A knot tightened and grew into a painful lump inside. The anger that lit in his veins felt cold and unforgiving. A lie.It is all a lie.
Then another realization slammed inside his chest. “I am bloody filthy rich,” he growled under his breath.
“Of course you are rich,” Stephan said with a frown. “What are you about and why are you here in Crandell?”
What a petty, vengeful scheme, Daniel thought darkly.
The audacity of the chit was astounding.So this is your revenge for me firing you, is it?
Now he understood the nerves she’d displayed when he touched and kissed her…when he had first suggested she join him in bed. His heart started a harsh drumming. What the hell did she mean by the liberties she accorded him? Did she not worry that his memory might return, and he would flip the scheme and enact his own brand of revenge?
“I will leave for London tomorrow,” he said.
His brother frowned. “Why not now? We can take the train to—”
“Tomorrow, Stephen. I have some business to take care of that cannot be delayed.”
“You are angry,” his brother said slowly.
The smile that curved Daniel’s mouth did not reach his heart or his eyes. “I am uncertain as to what I am. Send a notice to the papers. I took some time to holiday in Crandell. I was not lost or missing. See it done.”
His brother nodded, and as Daniel walked away, he heard his soft mutter of, “What poor fool has crossed you now?”
What poor fool indeed, only he was the simpleton in this matter, to have so easily trusted a pretty face and laughing golden eyes.
Aye, a damn fool I am.
Even with cutting through the woodlands, the walk back to the manor took him almost an hour. Georgianna was in the woods near the brook, picking berries and humming sweetly beneath her breath. He stood for unknown minutes simply watching her and her alluring sweetness. Sensing him, she looked up, a radiant smile curving her mouth.
“Daniel!” She lowered the basket to the ground and hurried over to him. Her hands came up, hovered a moment, and then settled lightly against his chest. “Is everything well, Daniel? You seem pale. Is your head hurting? Is that why you’ve returned?”
How sweetly worried she appeared and sounded. He wanted to wrap his hands around her pretty little neck and… Daniel took a steady breath, ruthlessly pushing the anger aside.
“I am quite well, wife,” he murmured, pressing a small kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I am merely anticipating spending the night in your bed.”
Her eyes widened, and she gasped. “Daniel!”
“I prefer to hear ‘my husband’ from these sweet lips,” he murmured, rubbing his thumb across her lush mouth.
What a scheming little hellion you are.
“I want you in my arms the entire night, wife, not only for a few minutes or an hour.” And by God he would sate this maddening hunger he had for her and get this little witch out of his blood and the space she had already started taking up inside his heart. The honorable provisionwould be to walk away…to refuse the taste of her lips and the pleasure of her body. However, he would not deny himself.
Daniel had always been a ruthless man, and now…he was even more ruthless in his persuasion, knowing he would walk away after. A part of him acknowledged he had a weakness for her…something he had never before endured even though he was a man of strong carnal appetites and had always been the master of himself and his desires, not the other way.
Her eyes were wide and vulnerable…trusting, stirring something deep and untouched inside of him. Almost angry, he thrust his fingers through her mass of hair, tugging her close. “Will you not deny me?” he asked roughly, a part of him waiting for her to push him away because surely she would not take her ruse this far.
