Mail-order Bridegroom Part 35

her?" he said curtly. Worse, with some arrogance. His exalted father coulddo no wrong. His mother's sins could be easily pardoned.Incensed, Roslyn broke away, walking rapidly towards the lake."Heaven forbid!" she called.Marsh caught up with her, turning her to face him. "Can't we take this calmly for once?""It seems not. And don't call yourself calm. You're as arrogant as thedevil. The fact is, Mumma wasn't grand enough, anyway. She was a servant.There was always that as a powerful deterrent." She stopped abruptly on thehard constriction in her throat.

"It's impossible for you to let go, isn't it?"

Roslyn felt something akin to frenzy run through her blood. Why was shealways in the wrong?

"Listen, that's no news flash," she proclaimed angrily.

"I don't say to the past, 'come back and haunt me." It does. Your way seems...o...b.. to put a lid on it, but you can't keep it from simmering away. We have to address this, Marsh. "

"When it might destroy us? It's already robbed us of years. My parents.G.o.d rest their troubled souls, are dead."

Sudden tears swam into Roslyn's eyes. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry.

Marsh. I want so much for things to be right between us, but my mind is fullof trepidation. I'm on the cla.s.sic emotional roller-coaster.

Nothing is going to be easy for us. Particularly me. I'll be the target.We can't simply go off and get married. Just the two of us.

Everyone will expect a big ceremony. The media will have a field day with myrags-to-riches story, my whole background. The gossip mongers will haveplenty to say in private about your father and my mother.

There will be plenty of ugly speculation. Honourable as they might havebeen, any halfway observant person could have detected they really cared foreach other. "

Marsh lifted his head and looked away across the lake. "There's little enough caring in the world, Rosa. I have to tell you I don't give a d.a.m.nabout what people think. The people that matter anyway will understand.You'll have to be the same. If you want us to be married privately, we will.I'll marry you any way you like."

She heard the resolution in his voice.

"Then the word will go around I'm pregnant. I really can't win. By the sametoken, I don't feel inclined to duck anything, either."

"That's my girl!" He drew her to him and kissed her hair.

"Besides, I think I'm ent.i.tled to see my wife as a bride. It would give meinfinite pride and pleasure. I want everyone to see you, Rosa. The whole world!"

It was the rea.s.surance she wanted. Harmony was restored. By common accordthey walked into the summerhouse, its romantic ambience increased by thefragrance and starry profusion of the King Jasmine.

It twined through the white latticework and climbed the slim, elegantsupports.

"How beautiful it is here!" Roslyn leaned her hands against the railings,staring out over the shining expanse of water. The lake was alive with myriad little sounds and the incessant throbbing song of the cicadas.

"Beautiful!" Marsh came behind her, wrapping his arms around her. Marsh, the sun in splendour. Marsh, the moon at night. At his slightesttouch, the heat of desire blazed up. In the soft, purple darkness she couldmake out the outline of two swans, probably Sirius and his mate, Bella,asleep on the water, their necks bent over their backs. The other swans were somewhere on the banks, their black plumage hiding them from sight. The lake was deceptively deep. Once she had given in to a craze to dive in andSirius, the most splendid and aggressive of the swans, had chased her.

"Do you remember when" -- "Sirius chased you? Yes, I do. I don't know how . many times I told you he would." He pushed the shining _ cascade of herhair to one side, revealing a profile traced by the starlight in silver.

A soft, smouldering sensation was licking along her veins.

"You promised. Marsh."

He kissed the exposed side of her neck, one hand roving the sweet curve of her breast.

"I certainly didn't promise not to put my arms around you."

"That's all it takes."

' "With you. No one else. You're a creature of fire and air. You know how to weave spells." His mouth began nuzzling her ear, the tip of his tongue tracing the delicate inner whorls.

"It's late," she said.

"Yes, I know."

Her hands half floated up to stop his, then dropped as yearning overcame her.

She rested her head back, savouring afresh his marvelous, male scent. It had always aroused her. She had a boundless urge to turn into his arms, to feel the fused lengths of their bodies. He continued to kiss her as though famished, dozens of kisses, light, delicate, pressing. She let him, her mind reliving the old splendour in total recall. The very same stars looked down on them then as now. Brilliant, eternal, their radiance lightening the black velvet sky to a soft, mysterious dark lavender. No other sky looked like the sky over the vast, empty outback. The air was so pure, so unpolluted, there scarcely seemed a barrier to reach up and pluck a star. A perfect jewel.

She gave a dreamy, spellbound sigh.

"Marsh, this has to stop."

"When did I ever force you to do anything you never wanted?" he murmured.

She could think of no time at all. The fire in the blood had been mutual.

Her magnetism for him had been as electric as his magnetism for her. She knew she was brushing too close to danger. Only when he told her he loved her could she cast off the final constraints.

She was suffocating with emotion now, her feelings building to crisis point after the long deprivation. Water

lapped against the giant gra.s.ses and reeds. A breeze shook out the jasmine, spilling blossom and scent.

"Kiss me," Marsh said, nudging her face up to him "Kiss me and don't stop.

It's been too long."

Her breath fluttered. Her lips parted. She turned her body slowly, a near

balletic movement that had him reaching for her, his body hard.

Masterfully he soughi and found her mouth spreading a white-hot illuminati or that enveloped them both.

"Sleep with me, Rosa. Sleep with me. I'm afraid to let you go."At his words, the sound of pa.s.sion in his voice, she felt herself at thebrink of a chasm. She had done what he wanted before and lost everything.

She could risk ii all now. She pressed her hands against his chest,immediately fending him off."I'm no s.e.x object. Marsh."From lovers to instant antagonists. A pair of aliens."Here we go again," he said harshly."You're a loi more than that.""Tell me, please. I have to know. What has changec exactly that you now want to marry me?"

"Why exactly are you considering my proposal?" he countered in a suave,cutting voice."I thought we hac this out?"She felt tendrils of the jasmine clutch at her hair and she brushed it off."I'm sorry, but we've never had anything out. Not since you drove me away.

I certainly wasn't good enough for you then."

"Don't talk like a fool," he said angrily.

"You were a schoolgirl."

"Well, there's that," she said, her voice deceptively benign.

"I had an excellent education. That helps."

He heard the hard mockery behind the dulcet tone

"Indeed it does. Thenthere's the way you look. The way you speak.

The radiant flash of your smile. There's not a man alive immune to the spellof a beautiful woman. Men are erotic creatures, Roslyn.

Violently erotic at times. I can't promise to keep you up there in yourivory tower. I want you badly. You, on the other hand, won't be trulysatisfied until you bring me to my knees. "

"How repulsive!" Roslyn actually recoiled.

"And too d.a.m.ned close to the truth. You'll never admit to it, Rosa, butrevenge drives you. I was hopelessly in love with you, but you saw yourselfas a woman scorned. d.a.m.n it, girl, you were a teenager.

Sixteen" " I was a woman in all else. I knew how to suffer. I'm damaged,Marsh," she said in a hurt, aching voice. " Can't you see that?

Damaged people are dangerous, so they say. "

"h.e.l.l, Rosa, you talk as though you've stumbled on a secret. Lots of us aredamaged. I was fairly well damaged myself. There wasn't a lot of love inour house and what there was wasn't normal. In my parents' eyes I had to beperfect. The perfect heir. I wasn't a medal to be worn with great pride. Iwas just a boy like any other. Many the time I would have swapped placeswith my friends. To h.e.l.l with my inheritance if it was going to cost me myonly chance at happiness."

Roslyn shut her eyes to all the emotion in his voice. "I know the pressuresthat were put on you. Marsh."

"So stop hammering away at me. I want to marry you, Rosa," he said, revealing the ruthless, imperious streak that was in him.

"Not only that, I'm going to. You're mine"

CHAPTER FOUR.

later that night, alone in her bedroom, Roslyn sat on the bed trying to thinkhow best to tackle the difficulties that lay ahead of her. The very first thing she had to do was liberate the minds of Marsh's family who had never recognised her worth, but had chosen to see her through LadyFaulkner's jaundiced eyes. In the old days, she would scarcely have beenallowed a place at me table. Now the fact that Marsh had asked her to marryhim represented an overwhelming triumph.

The only trouble was, there was lots of pain behind the triumph and lost time.

Engulfed in her thoughts Roslyn gave a start when her mother tapped on the bedroom door, then put her head around it.

"Sorry, darling. You gave a little jump. I just wanted to say goodnight and

tell you how wonderful it is you're here."

"Come and talk to me, Mumma," Roslyn begged, patting a place on the bed beside her.

"Just for a little while," Olivia smiled.

"You must be tired out after all that travelling?"

"I ought to be, but I'm not. Too many things on my mind." As Olivia found

herself a comfortable place on the bed Roslyn slipped a pillow behind her mother's head.

"You looked beautiful tonight, Mumma," she said proudly.

"The dress suited you perfectly. Harry couldn't take his eyes off you."

"Harry enjoys women," Olivia said in a complacent voice, taking her daughter's hand.

"Of course he does, bless him, but don't hide your head in the sand, Mumma.

He's very fond of you."

"Harry knows he's perfectly safe with me," Olivia said, as she always did, but added another piece of information.

"He was married. Did you know?"

Roslyn was astonished.