A Matter of Duty Read Free Page B

had to possess her, he had to be the first to know the secret delights of her body. He succumbed to passion, forcing his lips down upon hers. He kissed her hungrily and without finesse, intent only upon slaking the desire that consumed him.
    At last she began to struggle, trying to thrust him away, but he was too strong for her and nothing she did deterred him from his purpose. The candle slipped from her hand and the flame was immediately extinguished, engulfing them both in darkness. Still she struggled, trying to beat him with her fists, but then a new sound penetrated her fear – the patter of childish footsteps and muffled sobs as Emma Ieft her room and came tearfully to look for her.
    ‘Cherry? Cherry, where are you? I’m frightened!’
    With a savage curse, Geoffrey started back from her, just as another flickering light appeared at the head of the staircase. Emma stood there in her white nightgown, a candle in her hand as she peered down toward them, calling Louisa’s name again.
    Louisa needed no second bidding; she turned to dash up to the child, kneeling to gather her into her arms. ‘It’s all right, sweeting, I’m here.’ Her heart was thundering, her senses still in turmoil.
    Emma saw Geoffrey. Her fear evaporated and she hurried down to him. ‘Geoffrey! You came back just like you promised!’
    He was in no mood to be pleasant. ‘You should be in bed, Emma,’ he said shortly, his eyes furious still as he looked past her toward Louisa.
    Emma’s steps faltered. ‘Are you angry with me?’
    ‘Yes, I am. Get back to bed, or I’ll tell Stepmama that you’ve been disobedient behind her back.’
    The child’s eyes were wide with hurt.
    ‘Didn’t you hear me? I said you were to get back to your bed!’
    With a choked sob, Emma turned to run back up the staircase, the candle streaming and smoking. She dashed past Louisa, who lingered a moment, looking contemptuously down at him. ‘I find you abhorrent and totally despicable,’ she said in a low, shaking voice.
    He gave her a mocking, derisive bow, turned on his heel, and strode back toward the main doors. God damn Emma for interrupting. A few minutes more and he’d have succeeded. Now he’d have to wait, for he wasn’t deterred by the way it had gone; on the contrary, he was more fired than before to possess what was being denied him.
    He emerged beneath the portico, where the approaching storm had brought a light breeze that whispered between the columns. Searching in his pockets, he took out a Spanish cigar and some lucifers, and a moment later the sweet smoke was curling up to be snatched at by the night breeze. He gazed down through the park toward the river, where a flash of lightning fleetingly picked out the mast and rigging of the Cyclops . Louisa faded from his mind as his thoughts turned to his financial difficulties. A plague on the old man for choosing to make a stand! Geoffrey drew on the cigar. Cowes had an added enticement this year, for Lord Rowe’s champion yacht, the Mercury , had foundered on rocks off the island earlier in the year after taking foolish risks against Lord Highclare’s brilliant challenger, the Spindrift . Rowe’s vessel had gone down like a stone, taking five of her crew of ten with her, and Rowe’s bitter thirst for revenge was no secret – he’d voiced it many a time. Geoffrey gave a thin smile, pondering what might have been, for in the Mercury ’s absence he’d intended to challenge Highclare’s Spindrift himself and thus maybe snatch the crown. That had to go by the board now, for the Cyclops had to be sold.
    He raised the cigar to his lips again, but then paused. What a fool he was! Why hadn’t he thought of it before? The answer was obvious: Rowe must be persuaded to buy the Cyclops , one of the few cutters in England capable of tackling the Spindrift . Rowe was still in London, at his house in Berkeley Square, and could be approached the day after tomorrow, when an appointment at the War Office