“Please take care of yourself,” she said unexpectedly. “I could not bear to lose you.”
Her sweetness always caught Navan off guard. “We likely will only have a day or two in Cork City before a ship will be available for your departure. Will you permit me to treat you to some of the pleasures of the city?”
“I would cherish such memories, Navan.”
Unfortunately, neither of their hopes for actually enjoying the city as a young married couple came to pass. A ship was available to leave the following morning. Navan had offered to pay an older couple from London to escort Annalise to Bristol and then on to London. The Irish Sea was more dangerous than the Atlantic Ocean as far as pirates were concerned, and he worried excessively for her safety.
So instead of spending an evening out exploring Cork City, they had dined privately in their quarters. By silent consent they had not spoken of their parting on the morrow. They simply reverted to the easiness that always rested between them when they dined together at Amgen House.
“What do you miss most about your mother?” he asked as he studied the sweetness of her features.
“She would always cut my food, no matter what it was, in the shape of diamonds,” his wife answered without hesitation. “Then shewould say, ‘We may not wear diamonds, but we can eat them.’ I hated the salty fish aboard ship, but it was so much easier to swallow when we had contests to determine who could eat the most diamonds.”
She was smiling from the memory, and Navan thought her the most beautiful woman of his acquaintance. “Same question to you,” she ordered as she sipped her wine.
Navan sighed softly. “My mother would always set aside a special treat for me each evening. Sometimes it was an extra cake or an unusual rock she had found or she would share a poem she loved.”
“Your life with her sounds so heavenly. Promise me, if we are blessed with children, that we will continue these memories and pass them on to them.”
He nodded solemnly in affirmation, but the memory of his mother still remained and had not fully released him. “She was so lovely. My mother was so lovely,” he said softly. “My father claimed she was the most beautiful woman for a hundred miles around.” He paused before adding, “She was crying uncontrollably as she closed the door to the hidden passage when we were attacked. She had to know her fate and that of my father’s. Her last words to me were a warning for me not to cry or come out of the hiding place until all the chaos had died away. I was afraid to open the small door.”
Navan could see it all as if it was happening again. “I do not know how long I waited, but, eventually, the door was opened from the outside. It was Duncan and a dozen or more English soldiers. He reached for me and said that my mother had told him where to find me. I did not know she had passed until much later.”
Annalise was immediately kneeling at his side to catch his hands and to kiss them over and over as she cooed words of sympathy, but also of affection. “Your mother loved you more than anything in her world. I now understand why Lady Klare grieves so deeply. Her ladyship, like you, lost a remarkable woman. She must have been so strongto do what she did.”
Navan stood and brought her up with him. He splayed his hands about her waist, while the more masculine parts of his body reacted to her feminine strength and her genuine care for his person. She wound her arms around his waist and plastered her body along his front. Her breath shuddered against his chest. “What is going through that lovely head of yours?” he asked.
“I have been considering how much I wish we had different choices.” Her fingers wandered lazily up and down his spine, sending desire thrumming through him.
“The thought you could be returning to danger makes me crazy,” he admitted. “As I cannot be with you, I will send a note to Hartley to assign someone to keep you safe.”
Sadness marked her features when she looked up at him. “I despise that you have taken it upon yourself to protect me when you are already dealing with more than necessary. There is no real reason you should abandon everything for me.”
“There is this,” he declared as he bent to lift her into his arms.Did she truly not understand how much he required her in his life? Setting her upon the bed, he caught her face between his hands to kiss her as he had wanted to kiss her all day. Her lips parted, and Navan took full advantage of all she offered. He was quite proud to know he had taught her to kiss him as he liked to be kissed. Heat surrounded his tongue, inviting his desire to dance with hers.
He nipped at her bottom lip and then stroked it with his tongue. When he meant to pull away, she leaned forward to continue to kiss him.
As he eased her back to lie on the bed, his hand reached to claim the heaviness of her breast. “We have rushed everything, my lady,” he groaned as the fingers of his other hand tunneled into her hair.
He began to undress her—pulling laces free as she reached for the buttons along the fall of his breeches. Within a matter of minutes, they had divested themselves of all their clothes.
She reached for his manhood, and Navan did not know whether to thank God that his wife had been a quick study or curse the saints for how hard he was. He moved over her, marveling at how perfectly their bodies fit together. “You are the most remarkable woman on this earth,” he groaned as he slid inside of her.
No more words. No more complaints. No more broken promises. Just her legs wrapped about him. A decadent need rocked them together until she cried out his name and arched into him. With the power of his own release, he collapsed on top of her. The perfection for which he had searched rested beneath him. Now, if he could continue to hold onto it, he thought happiness might still be within his reach.
Navan had enjoyedhis wife’s sweetness two more times before he had seen her onto the outgoing ship. Permitting her to leave was one of the most difficult tasks Navan had ever executed.
“We’ll see to her ladyship’s safety,” Mr. Manfried said with a smile.
“Lady Beaufort will see you paid once you arrive in London,” Navan instructed in a reminder that the Manfrieds would not see the full payment until Annalise reached Beaufort House in Mayfair, “but here is enough to cover inns and letting carriages and food and so forth. My lady is quite capable of seeing to her own care.”
“Excellent,” Manfried declared. “Hopefully your business is completed soon.”
Like her watchupon the ship taking her and Navan to Cork City, Annalise again had remained at the rail, watching first Cork City and then County Cork and, finally, Ireland disappear from view. Her heart was breaking, for she had always promised herself, unlike her mother, she would never sail away from her husband, meekly following his orders, but just like Madelyn Dutton, she had performed in a similar manner. “I apologize, Mama. I was unfairly critical,” she murmured to the open sea.
“My dear,” Mrs. Manfried said as she came up behind Annalise, “the captain says he expects a storm. He hopes to outrun it, but he wishes us to seek safety. Come away from the railing. I know you dearly miss Lord Beaufort, but Mr. Manfried and I promised to keep you from harm.”
Annalise wished to assure the woman that she was accustomed to climbing the netting and even hanging from the sails during the worst of storms, but she permitted the woman to lead her towards the relative safety of the few cabins available.Keep Navan safe, God, her mind announced,and if one of us must suffer make it me.
