Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey
She probably wouldn’t have used this herbal salve today if his damn mistress hadn’t shown up. She heard the hiss of his breath as she applied the extra-strong mixture, but he said nothing and she refused to glance up at his face as she gently rubbed the salve over and around his wound. She wished she hadn’t been so thin-skinned and pretended to have an earache the last two days, because although she was spending so much time in proximity to him, they were no closer to getting along than they had been the day she’d arrived. Now, more than ever, after reading those few lines in Ella’s diary, she wanted to talk to him about Robert and Ella, and the baby, and find out how Ella had died. But knowing how the subject of his sister enraged him, she decided to start out with a less offensive line of conversation.
Before she could do so and not realizing she’d absentmindedly applied more salve than was necessary, he asked, “Will you miss rubbing my thigh once I’ve healed? You seem to be enjoying it today.”
Brooke snatched her hand away. “My mind was wandering for a moment.”
“Thinking of other parts of my body you’d like to soothe?”
Brooke gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to take the bait and get angry. “I was wondering about what sorts of family enterprises you were referring to earlier.”
“Of course you were,” he scoffed, but he deigned to answer her. “Coal mines, but after my grandfather expanded those, competition got rather fierce, so he built a fleet of ships, which enabled him to sell the coal abroad. The shipping business turned out to be quite profitable and now transports other commodities besides coal. And then there are tenant issues that I usually handle personally.”
“No sheep farms?” she asked, curious. “I saw so many sheep as we traveled through Yorkshire. I bet sheep love the heather, which grows here so abundantly. And wool is probably just as profitable as coal.”
“How would you know about sheep?”
“I don’t know much about them. My father owns sheep farms, but he certainly doesn’t run them.”
“I don’t want to hear about your family.”
She sighed to herself before she handed him the new bandage and went to wash the salve off her fingers. She had intended to offer to read to him today after discovering a wonderful collection of books in the library. But he would probably rather spend time with his harlot while she was here. Then Brooke blanched when it occurred to her that the woman might have been his fiancée instead of his mistress, in which case Brooke’s behavior went beyond the pale.
“Were you otherwise engaged?” she blurted out as she came back to his bedside.
“Engaged in what?”
“To marry someone else? Is that why you’re so dead set against us?”
“There is no ‘us.’ ”
If he prevaricated once more, she might growl in frustration. Being absolutely direct this time, she said, “Were you engaged to marry Lady Highley?”
“No, Priscilla likes London society too much to be a good wife for me. She’s just one of my many mistresses.”
“Many? How many do you keep at one time?”
He shrugged offhandedly. “However many it takes to satisfy me—usually two or three.”
Her mouth dropped open, but only for a moment. This was obviously just another of his attempts to scare her off—it better just be that. She decided to play along instead, pretending to be curious. “One at a time or all at once?”
He looked surprised, and also as if he might laugh, but didn’t. “That’s an interesting notion. But as to your original question, I wasn’t committed, but once I put your brother in the ground, I intended to begin courting my neighbor Elspeth Shaw.”
The sound of truth in that statement made Brooke feel horrible. She remembered that it had occurred to her in Leicestershire that he might be in love with someone else. Yet she remembered Gabriel’s telling her, too, that Dominic was the last Wolfe to carry the name and wanted to keep it that way. Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t marry, only that he didn’t want to sire children. But if that was so, she had a right to know, didn’t she? Especially since she did want children eventually.
“So you intended to marry, but never to touch your wife?”
His brows snapped together. “Where the devil do you get such ideas?”
Her cheeks went a little pink. Had Gabriel lied to her? But she shouldn’t have asked! It implied that the thought of their never sharing a bed might worry her for reasons other than children.
She quickly explained, “It was a logical question. Gabriel told me that you wanted to be the last of your line.”
Dominic snorted. “That was a notion I shared with him one night long ago when I was deep in my cups. I wasn’t aware he thought I was serious.”
“Then you weren’t?”
“I was, but for barely a week. It was a silly notion, wrought from—”
She wondered why he didn’t finish, but guessed, “Because of the curse?”
He gave her a calculating look for a moment. “No, because of the ridicule those rumors generated after they reached London. The young bucks in that town found it amusing to howl like wolves whenever they passed me on the street. Didn’t know what you were actually marrying into, did you?”
He seemed pleased to be able to add that. She felt like snorting. One day she would laugh at the way he was drawing every card from the deck to push her away. She didn’t doubt he’d just told her an absurd whopper and decided to call him on it.
“No one would dare do that to you, as feral as you look when you’re angry. They’d be terrified you’d kill them on the spot. So what really made you want to end your line, even if you only felt that way for a mere week?”
He stared at her for a long moment. She did just call him a liar, she realized belatedly. Maybe she should be running from the room . . .
But then he admitted, “Because my sister had just died and I was full of despair, with no hope for the future. But now revenge against your brother brightens my future.”
Now that she could believe. She waited for him to ask her to leave again, because that would complete his revenge, stripping her family of everything. Or would only Robert’s death satisfy him?
But he didn’t say that, instead he fessed up. “The howling incidents did happen, but only twice and over the course of a few years, and it was just college pranks. Not that I wasn’t angry the first time it happened. But I caught one of the lads that day, and he was so terrified he blurted out that it was a dare that would have gotten him into a brotherhood at school—if I had just ignored them. The second and last time there was a larger group of young bucks, courage in numbers, I suppose, but I had two school friends with me that day, Benton Seamons and Archer Hamilton. Benton chased four of them down the street. The two remaining just stood there laughing at how quickly their friends were trying to get away—until Archer punched one and slapped his glove across the face of the other, getting the response ‘Don’t be a bloody ass,’ before that chap ran away, too. Archer wouldn’t really challenge the young buck to a duel over such nonsense, but it did give me a good laugh at the time.”
She was incredulous that he’d just shared that with her. There was a different man inside the wolf, one that she hadn’t met yet, one that she might be able to laugh with someday—one that she might be able to love. But then it occurred to her again that he’d had plans for his life, specific plans that were now ruined because of her—no, because of her brother. She could still only guess at what Robert had done to set these events in motion.
She was about to ask again, but bit the words back. That subject provoked nothing but rage in him. She’d pressed him enough for now. And he had a guest he’d probably rather spend time with.
“Don’t let your lady friend tire you today. Rest is your friend just now. I will return in the morning to check your wound.”
“You will return for dinner tonight as is your habit.”
She wasn’t going to argue or join him for dinner tonight if Priscilla Highley
“Unless you’ve finally decided to leave? In which case, you can give the salve to Cilla. She will take care of me tonight.”
Brooke didn’t answer, but she did slam the door shut on the way out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
LADY HIGHLEY WAS SPENDING the afternoon in Dominic’s room. Brooke was spending the afternoon in hers, pacing close to the wall that separated her room from his, trying to hear what they were saying. After taking care of Dominic all week, it annoyed her that he could so quickly turn his attentions to another woman. Now she understood why her brother had told her parents in that conversation she’d eavesdropped on that “the wolf won’t accept her.” It was because Dominic was used to being with beautiful, sophisticated women.
She was neither beautiful nor sophisticated, just a constant, blatant reminder of his sister’s death and always would be. It was still possible that he would fail to comply with the Regent’s demand and simply tell her to get out. He could probably do so and manage to hold on to a least one of those family enterprises he’d mentioned. The coal mines or the shipping business alone would still make him a rich man. Maybe he’d already sent off a missive to the Prince to suggest it? Or that harlot might put the idea in his head today . . .
Brooke glanced down at her fingernails and pictured what she’d like to do with them right now. Then she pressed her ear to the wall again. Still no sounds in his room. They might as well be whispering—or doing something that didn’t require words. That thought sent her out for a good gallop before the dinner hour.
When she got to the stable, she found that Wolf had finally got around to searching for the cat he’d smelled on her. He was standing in front of the door barking, his hair bristled straight up, while Raston sat just inside calmly grooming a paw—or sharpening his nails.
Arnold’s approach shooed the cat back up to the rafters. The dog charged in, trying to give chase, but that wasn’t going to happen. Brooke said a few commiserating words as she stopped beside the dog and tried to rub him behind his ears, but he wasn’t interested.
“He’ll give up shortly, so don’t be worrying about the cat,” Arnold said.
Brooke grinned slightly. “I’m more worried about Wolf. Raston can be nasty in a fight.”
“I’ll send for Gabe to take the dog back to the house.” Then Arnold surprised her with a request. “Royal fancies your Rebel, m’lady. But no one fancies giving that brute the exercise he needs while his lordship recovers. Royal barely tolerates me grooming and saddling him and lets no one on his back except Lord Dominic. Would you mind if Peter rides your mare along the fence between the pastures? We’re hoping Royal will give chase or at least keep pace.”
“I could try to ride him.” The elderly groom looked so appalled, she quickly amended, “Never mind. Go ahead and give it a try when I get back from my ride today.”
“Don’t be gone too long, m’lady. My wife saw two rings around the moon last night, which foretells the coming of a wicked storm. It was just such a stormy day some hundred years ago that the eldest Wolfe daughter met her death. Whether it was the curse or just an accident that her carriage slid off an embankment in a rainstorm, no one knows.”
She stared at Arnold. Was he that superstitious? Were all the villagers? That would explain why rumors of that silly curse had persisted for hundreds of years, and why the wolf-man rumor had started, too.
Brooke smiled politely, though she was skeptical that it would rain today since the sun was shining and the clouds weren’t at all dark. Alfreda also often predicted rain that never came.
But having just spoken of the two horses that obviously wanted to breed with each other, Brooke thought it was a good time to mention one of her goals. “I wouldn’t mind if you pastured Rebel and Royal together for a spell.”
Arnold’s face reddened. “I would, but Royal is a champion racer. His get is worth thousands of pounds. He’s actually not been bred since his lordship began breeding stock for the army. But you might discuss that with him after you marry.”
Everyone else assumed there was going to be a marriage. Only the bride and groom were still holding out hope that there wouldn’t be. Reminded that Dominic was at that moment working on his latest tactic to get her to leave, she didn’t set off at a trot when Rebel was saddled for her, she raced away at a full gallop.
She rode northwest this time, away from the roads. She passed several plowed fields where crops were already growing. Farms dotted the area north and south of the village. There was even a cultivated orchard with fruit trees lined up in rows. She passed only one sheep farm, though. Dominic had said he had tenants, so he owned the land but let the people who lived on it do what they wanted with it? She thought about visiting the village, which was so picturesque from a distance, but she wasn’t in a friendly mood today, so she rode on.
The Yorkshire countryside was so beautiful, and she enjoyed feeling the warm wind whip through her hair as she galloped across the land. She liked the landscape here better than in Leicestershire for some reason.
Maybe because it was wilder, the terrain alternating between farmland and barren moors. Or maybe she simply liked it because it was so far away from her family.
Even though she was dealing with a churlish, impossible viscount, she felt freer here. But what if Dominic had his way and she would have to leave soon? She decided to take this opportunity to ride farther than she’d intended, to see more of Yorkshire while she still could.
She was surprised to come upon a herd of cattle, one of the long-haired Scottish breeds mixed with some stout Angus stock. The people here were so self-sufficient, growing or breeding everything needed for the pantry.
She crossed a creek, but farther north it widened considerably, becoming a river. She paused to watch the rushing water and wondered if the fish she’d had for dinner the other night came from this river. She continued on, then veered toward a lone sheep she spotted in the distance. When she got closer, she realized it was a dog, a rather big dog. She reined in, but was curious enough to trot forward a little more. No dwelling was nearby from which the dog might have wandered away, nothing habitable this far north in any direction that she could see, just the ruins of another of those small castles to the north, this one with only a few walls left standing, so not worth investigating. She wondered if the dog was lost.
Rebel refused to get any closer to the animal, so Brooke dismounted and hobbled the mare’s legs so she wouldn’t run off. The dog didn’t shy away as she approached; it just sat next to a large grassy mound watching her. It resembled Dominic’s dog but was bigger and mostly white with a few streaks of gray on its back, which was why from a distance she’d thought it was a lost sheep. It was beautiful, actually, face all white except for a thick border of black around the eyes, which were so pale they looked white as well.
Four feet away from it, she held out a hand so the dog could sniff it, but it didn’t approach her and she didn’t go any closer to it either. Trying to make friends with a dog this big might not be her brightest idea. But someone owned this animal. It didn’t seem feral. It was too calm, too curious. Then it raised its nose as if sniffing the air. Had it caught the scent of Dominic’s dog on her hand?
The dog suddenly let loose a mournful howl. Brooke shivered and nervously stepped back, then stepped back again when the dog stood up. “Well, you probably know—”
She paused when it whined and flicked its ears. She had the incredible thought that it had never heard a human voice before. That was highly unlikely, so she started talking again. “You probably know how to find your way home better’n I do. Or you could follow me. As pretty as you are, someone at Rothdale likely knows who you belong to.”
She turned about and rushed back to Rebel. Mounted again, she felt much safer and glanced back at the dog—if it was a dog. It was certainly big enough to
The dog sat down again and was still watching her. She wished she had something on her to feed it, but all she had was the one carrot she’d brought for Royal, who hadn’t come to the fence to get the treat. She dug it out of her pocket and tossed it halfway to the dog. She had no idea if it would eat a carrot. Maybe she should try giving one to Dominic’s dog later to find out.
Riding away, she glanced back over her shoulder one last time. The animal still hadn’t moved, but it did howl again. She shook off a shiver and urged Rebel to a fast gallop.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“IS EVERYONE ON YOUR household staff going to come in here today?” Priscilla complained when another maid she’d never before seen came into Dominic’s suite with fresh water. “Even your cook delivered our dinner. When has she ever done that?”
They were sitting at the chess table Dominic had had brought up from the parlor. Not exactly what Priscilla had thought she would be doing here today, but she was a good sport and didn’t want to tax his wound any more than he did. Priscilla and his mother were the only two people he’d played who had a chance of beating him. Gabriel knew how to play, but he didn’t have the patience for the game and usually lost deliberately just to end it.
Dominic moved his queen. “They are probably just curious about what you’re doing here when it’s been nigh a year since your last visit.”
Priscilla moved her knight into position to force his queen to retreat. “And let’s not forget the more likely reason: that they already favor your bride-to-be and think I’m stirring the pot against her.”
“This is only her fifth day here,” Dominic scoffed, although he, too, had observed that Brooke had charmed his household. It seemed as if she’d been there for weeks, not days, probably because he’d seen so much of her in so short a time.