Gallant Waif by Anne Gracie (the alpha prince and his bride full story free .txt) 📗

ashen. His hands loosened their hard grip. He looked away, staring blankly across the top of her head. “Nothing?” he said at last.

“Nothing in London. Everything I want in the world is right here,” she repeated.

He sagged in the saddle. “So be it.”

Defeated, he turned his horse back towards the village. They rode in silence, the only sound the twittering of birds and the slow clip-clopping of the horse’s hoofs. Kate lay back against his chest, rocking against his hard, warm body in rhythm to the horse’s gait. She could say no more. How could she, not knowing how he felt? She had told him as much as she dared.

Why had he come after her? Had his grandmother sent him? Was it duty? Or a constitutional dislike of being crossed? He’d saved her reputation, but then made it clear that he wanted nothing further to do with her. Oh, he desired her all right, but she wanted more than that.

They drew closer and closer to the village until at last the cross on the spire of the tiny stone church was clearly visible. The horse stopped.

“Damned if I do, damned if I don’t, so I bloody well will and damn the consequences!” Jack suddenly growled. He wrenched the horse around and started to gallop in the opposite direction. Kate clung on for dear life.

“Where are we going? This is not the way to the village,” she shrieked. His only response was to clamp her more tightly against his chest and spur the horse onwards.

“The cottage is in the other direction!” she shouted, bouncing up and down.

The horse galloped on. Jack said not a word. Kate thumped at his chest in frustration. “Jack! Where are we going?”

His arms tightened around her. “I’m kidnapping you.”

Kate was stunned. Kidnapping her?

“Everybody else does, so why not me?” he shouted into her ear.

“Oh, Jack, no. Not you, Jack, please, not you,” she cried tremulously. She began to weep.

Appalled, he wrenched the horse to a halt. Awkwardly he slid off it and lifted Kate to the ground. Her legs buckled under her and she crumpled on to the grass. He followed her, gathering her into his arms. “No, Kate, don’t, please don’t,” he said brokenly. “Don’t cry, please.”

He pulled out a large handkerchief and clumsily started blotting her cheeks with it. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. I can’t bear it if you cry.”

Kate just sobbed harder.

He held her against him, rocking her gently. Finally her sobs shuddered to a halt. He continued to hold her in his lap, her face pressed against his chest, stroking her tumbled hair with a gentle hand.

After a time she pulled away. “Why?” she whispered.

He took a deep breath and shook his head despairingly.

“I…I just thought that if you really had decided to live in rural obscurity…”

“Go on,” she prompted.

He looked deeply uncomfortable. “Well…I thought… you might…”

“Might what?” she prompted again.

Suddenly he exploded. “Well, if you must know, I thought that if you wanted to bury yourself in obscurity the least you could do is do it with me! There, now you have it! I am a despicable rogue, am I not? An arrogant fool, who thought you might consent…”

“Consent to what?” Her heart was thudding uncontrollably. This was the crux of the matter. What had he thought she might be willing to do? Consent to be kidnapped? To be his mistress? His doxy? Consent to have her heart broken?

There was a long silence. Finally he reached into an inner pocket of his coat and drew out a folded document. He stared at it a moment, his mouth twisting ruefully, then tossed it on the grass between them.

“See for yourself. There it is, documentary evidence of what an arrogant, desperate fool I am. Go on, open it, see for yourself. Just don’t laugh in my face.”

With shaking fingers Kate reached out and picked up the parchment. Opening it, she read it several times, her mind struggling to come to terms with the meaning of his having obtained this document.

“It is a special licence,” she said at last. “And not so very new, either.” He’d obtained it before she’d been kidnapped by Jeremiah Cole, Kate realised, with a thrill.

“Yes, fool that I am, I thought I could get you to marry me.” He laughed, a harsh, dry laugh that ended abruptly.

“Why did you not simply ask me?” she said softly.

“Ask you?” His voice was bitter. “Why ask when there’s no possibility of acceptance? What woman would consent to marriage with a fellow like me, a cripple, and a bad tempered, ugly one to boot? And with barely a penny to my name. What sort of a bargain is that for a woman?”

“Some women might think it a very good bargain.”

He looked at her then. “Perhaps…if the woman had lost everything—her family, her home, her…her good name. Such a woman might have thought it sufficient. She would have had no other options.”

And yet he’d lent her his family, given her a home and saved her good name. Kate felt a spurt of anger grow inside her. How dared he think himself such a poor bargain? And herself so mercenary!

“But a woman who had been left a fortune?” she said. “A woman whose good name had been retrieved by a bad-tempered, poverty-stricken cripple—such a woman must needs be tricked, kidnapped, coerced?”

He looked stricken. “Only because you ran away. You didn’t seem to want the London life, so I thought…”

“I came down here to redeem the things I sold when I had no money. Some of my mother’s jewellery, my father’s books, things like that. Lady Cahill knew that very well. She expects me back on Tuesday. I wasn’t running away from anyone or anything. You should know me better than that!”

“I didn’t think…” He shrugged despairingly.

“No, you didn’t think!” raged Kate. She moved closer and thumped him on the arm. “You are bad-tempered and poor, and also quite stupid! You great brainless clod! You don’t talk to me for weeks and weeks—”

“But you wouldn’t—”

“—and you glare