The Wicked Governess (Blackhaven Brides Book 6)(65)
“Aunt Caro! Aunt Caro! You’ll never guess! I saw the biggest, finest horse in the world and I gave it sugar! It was his,” he added, grinning at Javan while Caroline hugged him in her good arm.
By then, Eliza too was kneeling at her feet. “You’re here, Caro! Oh, thank God, I was afraid we’d find you wilting in bed, quite at death’s door!”
Inevitably, there was a hint of accusation in among Eliza’s genuine relief.
“Like Peter?” Caroline said before she could help herself.
Eliza had the grace to blush. “Well, I am sorry about that letter. It was a great mistake and I am thoroughly ashamed, but how was I to know you would gallop up here and get shot? Which Mr. Benedict said was not my fault.”
“No, it was his,” Richard drawled, waving one hand at Miller, who hung his head.
“Is that why he’s tied up?” Peter asked, sliding off Caroline’s knee to allow his grandmother to embrace her.
“Exactly,” said Javan. “Ladies, allow me to present my sister, Miss Benedict, my cousin Mr. Richard Benedict, and my daughter Rosa. And Mr. Miller, of course,” he added, apparently for pure devilment. “Known to his friends as Killer.”
“Good Lord,” Caroline’s mother murmured. “Do you trust him?”
“God, no. Not unless he’s tied up and has something to gain by cooperating. Please, sit down. A glass of sherry, perhaps? We’re expecting dinner at any moment.”
This was the time Caroline had been secretly dreading. She liked her sister to shine, but she didn’t want to see the light of admiration in Javan’s eyes when he looked at her. Her smile could dazzle the coldest hearted princes… Or at least it had dazzled Theo Dauntry. But she wouldn’t think about him. She would only think of her pleasure in seeing her family. There was nothing she could do about anything else.
She knew she was quieter, more subdued at dinner, as she always was in her sister’s company. And Eliza was in form, spreading her smile indiscriminately. “How handsome Mr. Richard is, Caro,” she whispered. “And heir to a baronet, you say? Of course, the other is more romantic, but just a little frightening. Perhaps it is the scar.”
She seemed to imagine she had her choice of them. Certainly, it never entered her head that either could be interested in Caroline. And of course, they indulged her. It took Caroline some time to realize that indulgence was all it was, like humoring a child by listening to her prattle. They both addressed frequent remarks to Caroline by name and gradually, Caroline began to reply more naturally until she realized it was Eliza who had grown subdued, stunned by the attention paid to her older, plainer sister the governess.
She chided herself for ill nature, but after Theo, it was sweet to see Javan’s attention rarely straying from herself. She wanted to preen.
Since the inn only had three bedchambers, it was decided that Caroline would share one with Marjorie and Rosa. Her mother, sister, and Peter would have the second bedchamber, and the Benedicts the third. Williams undertook to watch Miller in the stables.
Javan conducted Caroline upstairs behind Marjorie and Rosa. Because it was sweet, she leaned on him just a little more than she needed to. And when Marjorie and Rosa went inside with their candle, Javan quietly closed the door on them, set his candle in the window embrasure, and there in the passage, took Caroline into his arms. She melted.
“Tell me now, Caroline Grey,” he whispered into her hair. “Will you marry me?”
She inhaled the scent of his skin, let her lips open against his warm, rough cheek. “Do you love me?”
His mouth found hers. His kiss was long and tender and left her devastated.
“More than life,” he murmured against her lips. “Never doubt it, for I shan’t. It seems as if I’ve always loved you. I always will.”
Never had she expected such a comprehensive declaration from Javan Benedict. She smiled without letting her lips leave his. “Then yes, I will gladly marry you. So very gladly.”
He kissed her again. “Tomorrow?”
She laughed breathlessly at his eagerness. “I hardly see how! But as soon as it can be arranged, yes. Perhaps Mr. Grant could marry us.”
“Perhaps,” Javan said, kissing her lips and then her forehead. “Perhaps. Good night, my love.”
“Good night,” she said, so enchanted that she had to reach up and kiss him again.
Her mother’s door further along the passage opened and Eliza looked out and saw them. Her mouth opened in shock.
“Good night,” Caroline gasped and whisked herself inside her own room. As she leaned her back against the closed door, Marjorie and Rosa blinked at her in surprise. She could hear Javan’s soft laughter and his footsteps as he ran back downstairs, no doubt to join Richard in finishing off the brandy.
*
When she woke in the morning, her arm didn’t feel quite so sore, perhaps because she was so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling. She could still feel Javan’s kisses on her lips. He loved her. He wanted to marry her. Never, since the day she’d discovered Theo’s betrayal, had she expected to find this kind of happiness. And what she felt for Javan felt so much more than that ignorant, girlish love. More intense and overwhelming, as if she’d never stop falling and never wanted to. It was almost…frightening, because she couldn’t control it and yet, she was delighted to follow where it led.