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“Some of the men are in London, and some are in other parts of the country trying to uncover the depths of Sayers’ crimes. It is going to take us a long time yet, but we will find him. We always get our man,” he admitted modestly.
Slowly but surely, her new position began to register on her. She was now sitting astride her lover, looking down into his face. It felt terribly risqué but wonderfully liberating.
“Don’t do that,” he pleaded huskily when she wriggled experimentally.
“Does it hurt?”
“Nope,” he groaned. “I am just trying to tell you who I am and why I am here.”
“It’s why you knew so much about the law, and how to deal with Lloyd, isn’t it?” she asked with a delighted smile.
She watched his face change and felt the hard evidence of his desire for her nudge her thigh. Suddenly her smile of feminine satisfaction dimmed. It was difficult to concentrate on anything when her body thrummed with sensual anticipation.
“What do you plan to do about Ben?” She gasped, trying to ignore just how intimately they were entwined.
Watching her eyes grow wide, Marcus sighed. “I am not going to arrest him. The lad is what, one and twenty?”
At her nod, he forced himself to focus on the reassurance she seemed to need.
“He is a young man who is only trying to feed everyone. I am sure the owner of the Priory could afford to lose a few pheasants. While I am not condoning it, you understand, I am not going to arrest him either. He has to learn there is a right way of going about things, and a wrong way.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, placing a gentle kiss on his chest.
His revelation made her feel infinitely closer to him and left her free to experiment with her new-found freedom. When he moaned, she began to tease him by wriggling her hips again.
“Is this the right way of going about it?” she murmured.
Marcus smiled and knew he couldn’t deny her anything she wanted. He would have to tell her the rest later. Before he could reply, his lover decided to show him just how much she had learned.
Later that afternoon, Marcus finally relented and left the bed. He could quite happily have kept her there for the rest of the day. The guests could help themselves to dinner as far as he was concerned, but Jess insisted they had to get up before Ben came home. The last thing she wanted was to face the embarrassing situation of having to explain herself to her brother.
Marcus reluctantly had to admit she was right. Until he could get matters settled in his mind, he couldn’t explain to anybody where his delightful new relationship would lead him. Besides, he had to write letters to Sir Hugo in London, and Jeb and Barnaby in Framley Meadows.
An hour later, he found Jess humming in the kitchen while she chopped vegetables.
“Jess,” Marcus said. “I need to go into the village to post these. How about coming for a walk with me?”
She hesitated. Her instinctive response was to refuse. She had a mountain of chores to do, all of which would still be waiting for her when she returned. The hours she had spent in his arms already meant that some of the chores would not get done today. Could she spare the time for a wander to the village with him?
“That would be nice,” she replied softly.
When she passed him to fetch her shawl, he stopped her for a very thorough kiss.
“Go and fetch your shawl, I am going to put my boots on,” he murmured.
Jessica’s heart was hammering as she hurried off to get ready. She was sore from the morning’s activities but delighted at this new intimacy she shared with him. She had never felt this close to another living soul, and it was as wonderful as it was worrying. The only issue to dampen her joy was that she knew his job would take him away at some point. It was highly unlikely he would want to stop in a small village like Smothey, not when mysteries and crimes awaited him in London.
She quickly closed that particular gloomy thought out, and hurried into the hallway where she found Marcus waiting for her.
Minutes later, he escorted her out of the house. To his surprise, when they left, Jess didn’t just close the door as most people would. She took a huge iron key out of her pocket and locked the house up behind her.
His brows lifted as he watched her.
“Does a lot of crime happen around here?” he asked, partly to get a better understanding of just how effective the magistrate was.
“No. Not really. Well, no more than any other village. There are questions as to whether the people the magistrate has arrested during his time in office were guilty of doing anything wrong or just enemies of his, but nobody has any proof,” Jess explained. “I lock the door because it stops people wandering in. Because it is a lodging house, there have been one or two occasions when I have returned from Retterton to find people in the sitting room, looking for accommodation. Of course, they haven’t done anything wrong exactly, but I just don’t want to come home to find strangers, or Lloyd, waiting for me in the sitting room.”
“Lloyd shouldn’t even cross the threshold now, but I know what you mean,” Marcus replied. He was relieved she was so conscious of her own safety. It made his job of protecting her considerably easier.
