To remind herself that she still had a thriving underground to operate. That she had to tell him about it. As well as her determination to keep it moving.
"We"ve also borrowed a few pieces of clothing, now and then. And, my, but you have a marvelous archive of newspapers and the like."
"By "we" you mean your three wily a.s.sistants?" He turned his head against her neck and nibbled a slow path to her ear, took the lobe between his teeth and made love there and at her nape.
"Just them, Ross." Oh, my, he was making this difficult. "But while I"m confessing, and I really must confess all, before we continue a moment longer..." Before he drove her mad with his fingers toying with her nipples, stealing her breath away and all of her will.
"Keep talking, wife. I"m listening."
But she wasn"t, not well. Not with him sliding her toward his thick erection, fitting her cleft hot against the full length of his p.e.n.i.s, making her throb against him, when she wanted him to be inside her, thrusting.
"Ross! Oh, my!" Now she was writhing wantonly against him and he was chuckling while they both really ought to be paying attention. "You might as well know that the Bank of England has more than the fictional Adelaide Chiswick on their books."
"What?" He stopped rocking, stopped dallying and straightened, narrowed his eyes at her, dark fires suddenly flickering deeply beneath his long lashes. "You"ve opened other fraudulent accounts?"
"The devil was in the details. I set up the Adelaide Chiswick account as a test to see if I could do it as a wobbly old widow and not be recognized by the bank clerks."
"Why?"
"So that I could help other women open their own bank accounts, using false names."
"False names?"
"And disguises, so their husbands wouldn"t find o ut."
"Elizabeth..." He closed his eyes as though she"d just punched him.
"Oh, and by the way, Ross, I carry an excellent collection of French letters in the back room of the bookstore."
"That"s contraband, Elizabeth." He shook his head at her. "They have to go. No privy council discussion about it."
She"d just have to find another way to distribute them. Maybe in the Adams itself.
Or as part of a workshop. But contraceptive devices were the least of her worries.
She could only hope that he would understand the strength of the convictions that drove her.
"Then there"s Lydia Bailey."
"Who?" Though his hands were planted firmly on her backside, he was once more focused and listening, and all she could do was hope for the best of his understanding.
"I"ve made arrangements for Lydia"s abduction to happen on London Bridge three days from now."
He pulled back and stared at her. "You must be joking."
"And I believe I"ll be arranging a similar disappearance for another young woman very soon. Lord Stopes"s fiancee."
"No, no, no, Elizabeth." He was shaking his head at her. "I won"t allow it."
"That"s between me and Miss Preston and the other women who help them along the way to freedom."
"You can"t, Elizabeth, because Scotland Yard will learn about it immediately. From me."
"You"d actually tell them? Risk unleashing Lord Stopes"s brutality on his helpless fiancee? Risk him battering her face and breaking her bones because n.o.body will stop him?"
"d.a.m.n it, Elizabeth, I can"t very well ignore you and still pretend I"m looking into the matter."
"Why not?"
"Because it"s a waste of manpower."
"It"ll just have to be that way, Ross, until the police start arresting husbands for a.s.saulting their own wives. What if you had a sister who was being beaten by her husband?"
"I"d kill him."
"Then you"d go to jail, Ross. But if he killed your sister in a fit of anger, he would be excused because, after all, she was only his property. Don"t you see the injustice? Sometimes we just have to take matters into our own hands and set things right as best we can."
Ross felt the familiar roar of outrage rising up in his chest, tried his best to blink away the stark image of Thomas lying dead on the steps of the doctor"s surgery. The broken little body, bruised face, limbs at odd angles. He"d died in Jared"s arms and they carried him to the surgeon"s front stoop, a place where they knew he"d be found. Then they went in search of Squire Craddock, the savage b.a.s.t.a.r.d who had beaten him to death.
They"d come away with a handful of solid gold b.u.t.tons, and a brighter, braver future.
The same future that Elizabeth was offering to Lady Wallace and the others.
No wonder he loved her so dearly, so deeply. She was his heart and his soul.
His past and his future.
But it couldn"t be this way. "No more kidnappings, Elizabeth."
Her eyes flashed a rebellious emerald. "Ross, I -"
"But I can help." In his own way.
"How? Kill off all the husbands?" She scowled deeply, so ready to stand her ground for the defenseless. "Because that"s what it"ll take. When Lady Hayden-Cole sought a civilized separation from her husband, the man threatened to commit her to an asylum if she ever tried to leave him again."
"Madam, you"re sitting on the lap of a man who has a vast network of power available to him."
She raised her eyebrows, only half amused. "Ross, your prowess as a lover is admirabl e -"
"Only admirable?"
"Staggering, then. Awesome, overwhelming. Howeve r - "
He cupped her chin and brought her closer, wanting her to understand his promise. "Bring them to me, Elizabeth, and I"ll see them safely to their new lives without a single threat from their husbands."
Her face filled with doubting wonder. "You can do that?"
"In the blink of an eye." He winked, smiled because he couldn"t help himself.
She sniffed at him. "You didn"t know where the princess was until I told you."
"But you did tell me, Elizabeth." He touched his mouth to the arc of her lips. "I"m usually not as dense, but you unbalance me."
"Then you really will help me?"
He took her hand and flattened it against his heart , hoping she heard it galloping there. "My word of honor, my love."
"Oh, Ross, you"re in y -"
He didn"t let her finish, certain he"d just become her hero. He kissed her instead, covered her mouth completely and made love with her tongue. Caught her sigh inside his chest, and growled with the pleasure of her squirming, riding him without when he"d rather be buried inside her.
A lift of her hips and they would be connected there. Though he would surely spend himself immediately. And often.
A risk he planned to tak e - But she pulled away, her eyes bright. "I have a brilliant idea, Ross!"
"And I have a great need for you." He cupped her bottom."We can take Lord Tuckerton to New York to live with his dear Eugenia.""What?" Would the woman ever stop planning great escapes. And how the devil did she know Tuckerton?
"He"s miserable, Ross. We have to tell him that his grandniece is well. But we can"t let him stay here in London because Lord Wallace would surely find out where she was hiding." She cupped his chin, her eyes suddenly r.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears. "We can"t let him just waste away in a club chair at the Huntsman. That would be cruel."
And he"d noticed himself that the old man had already begun to fade, in just these few weeks. His hair white, his eyes more dull, his back more bent.
"Oh, G.o.d."
"Next week, Ross? As soon as we can, please. I have excellent contacts at all the steamship companies! And what a grand honeymoon for us!"
"We"re on our honeymoon, Elizabeth, in case you hadn"t noticed that I"m ready to burst for wanting you."
Elizabeth had noticed, could feel herself ready to burst, ready to give her heart and her soul to this amazing man.
"I"m not exactly what you bargained for when you married me, am I, Ross?"
"Now, there"s an understatement, wife. You are a wonder." He was looking at her in a very heady way, breathing like a bull, dropping hard, steaming kisses across her bosom. "And as it happens, Lord Clarendon agrees."
"The foreign minister?"
He looked up long enough to say, "He"s arranging for a royal commendation for you."
"A royal commendation!" How amazing! "But what about Jess and Ca.s.sie and Skye? They were every bit as important to the mission as I was."
"I"ve already informed them of their commendations, when I was looking for you at the Adams. As I would have informed you, had you stayed put."
"I obviously don"t know what"s good for in e." But she knew what was good for him.
And he must have thought so too as she closed her hands around the very hot shaft of his p.e.n.i.s.
And then she leaned down and kissed him there, suckled and teased and fondled this big howling husband of hers until the poor man just couldn"t take it anymore.
He lifted her off his thighs and, with an unerring aim and a roar of triumph, he slipped his thickness inside of her and rocked her world with his wonder.
They made love until the noonday sun was piercing through the windows, until they were breathless and starving and her limbs no longer moved. Until her eyelids drooped and her dreams came nudging up against her.
She woke sometime later with Ross looking down at her. He was stretched out above her, looking every long inch the sated wolf, cleanly shaven and smelling of soap.
"Good afternoon, wife."
"A very good afternoon." She cuddled against him, amazed at the turn her life had taken.
"By the way, love, I made two stops after I left the Adams. Before I came here to look for my runaway wife." He lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them, then gathered her right hand inside his.
"Two stops? For what?"
"Something I neglected to do the night we were married." His eyes sparkled as he lifted her hand to show her the wedding band he"d magically put on her finger sometime while she"d been sleeping. "Call me a little slow."
"Oh, Ross!" The band glinted gold and steadfast. "I"ll call you wonderful to the end of our days!"
She kissed him long and hard, catching her name in her heart as he whispered it against her mouth and her cheek and her temple until he was rolling her to the edge of the bed and climbing out.
"Where are you going?" She grabbed at his arm but missed as he lef "t her for the wardrobe.
"Don"t you want to know where else I stopped on my way here?"
"Not if it"s going to keep you over there." Though he was a delicious feast for her eyes from this distance. Ta l l and bronze and still very nakedly aroused.
"Greedy." He returned with a smile and slipped back into bed beside her with a folded packet of what looked like legal papers.
"You went to a lawyer?"
"I had these started the morning after we were married." He handed her the packet, then laid back against the pillow with a catlike smile.
She unfolded the stiff pages. "What is it?"
"It"s everything you owned before we married. I"ve deeded it all back to you."
"What do you mean, Ross?" She sat up and tried to make sense of the words swimming around on the pages, realizing that she couldn"t read for the tears welling in her eyes.
"It"s all yours again, Elizabeth. Lock, stock, and barrel." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking very pleased with himself.
"But, Ross... ! That"s not what I want." It felt wrong. Separate from this man she loved with all her heart.
He frowned and sat up. "It"s not?"" I love you, husband!" She shook the pages at him, shocked at the turn of her own feelings. "You said we were partners."
"We are." He looked bewildered.
"Then I"m going to take these back to that lawyer as soon as we get to London and I"m going to make it right."
"Right?"
"My name and yours. That"s what belongs on each of these deeds. Us, Ross.