Page 57 of King of Rogues
She nodded, a soft smile on her lips. “Yes. Tonight, was wonderful. I plan to take you up on your offer of us making love whenever and wherever I want.”
This woman. She humbled him with her open affection. He had been a fool to waste the past few years, denying his growing attraction to her. Keeping her at arm’s length. Hurting her.
And I almost lost her.
“I can come back to bed if you need me now,” she said. Her words a clear invitation. If you want me.
“Soon, my love. But first I wish to know more about your search. Did you uncover anything?”
“Unfortunately, not. I did manage to find a little bit about the first Duke of Monsale. The one who picked the wrong side in the battle. Robert McNeal. From what I read in that book I can see where you get your skills for business dealings from. He apparently swindled a lot of the original Monsale wealth out of other people.”
He laughed. His father had always found that particular story to be of great amusement. The McNeal bloodline was full of rogues and dirty dealers.
“Didn’t you ever wonder why a duke from Kent had a Scottish surname? It’s because he sold a massive tract of land in the highlands to a gullible English lord, in exchange for the land around here in Deal. Legend has it that the other chap was too embarrassed at being taken for a fool to ever make a fuss about it.”
The thought of his ancestor pulled Monsale up short. He and the rest of the family had known the history of their lands, yet no one had ever made mention of the oath ceremony. There had to be a record of it somewhere. For the story to have been handed on down the years.
Six hundred years ago, this sort of thing would have been written on parchment. A document like that probably wouldn’t have survived the centuries.
His forebears must have had a way to share the knowledge.
Apart from the last two dukes, his father and uncle, the rest of the Dukes of Monsale were all buried in the family crypt, here at Monsale Castle. A place where they had lived and died.
Now there is a thought. What if the record of the oath is in the crypt?
He glanced at Naomi’s thin night attire. It was tempting to take her back to bed and make love to her once more, but since his wife had made the effort to follow up on the oath, he should support her. A gentle smile crept to his lips.
My wife.
“How about we go back to our room, and you can put something warmer on. I am thinking that the next place we should search is the family crypt,” he said.
Naomi’s eyes lit up. “A midnight treasure hunt. How exciting. This is the best wedding night present you could have given me.”
“What about?”
He got a cuff over the ear for his cheeky impertinence. Naomi wagged a finger at him. “You are a saucy duke, and I shall have to punish you later for it.”
Promise. Please.
After returning to their room where Naomi dressed and put on her cloak, they headed down to the main floor of the castle. Monsale pointed to a narrow set of steps set against the far wall of the great hall.
“I hope you are not scared of spiders,” he said, taking a burning lantern down from off the wall.
The last time he had ventured down those stairs, he had been forced to fight his way through a labyrinth of cobwebs.
She shook her head. “No. I have many brothers, and all have at one time, or another subjected me to jests involving spiders, bugs, and mice. If I had an issue with any of those things, I should have perished from fright long ago.”
Naomi might have no problems with things that crawled and scurried, but the dark wasn’t her favorite place. Taking the lantern, she held it high above the topmost step and peered into the inky black of the stone staircase.
“We could always leave it until morning,” she said.
Her husband leaned in close behind and whispered in her ear. “Where would the fun be in that? Just imagine in the years to come, you will be able to tell our children that you went on a grand adventure into the crypt.”
“Or I could just tell them that their father did, while I stayed in the warmth of our bed because only a ninny would venture down into a dark dangerous place in the middle of the night.”
A hot kiss was placed on her neck, followed by a teasing nip of her earlobe.
“But you are a McNeal now, we fear nothing.”
