Nicholas' Bargain Ch. 04

*

'You're late.'

'It wasn't my fault, milord – Master, I-' the high, anxious voice was sharply stifled.

'No it never is, is it Margaret. Well come in. You have news for me, I hope.'

Hurrying into the low lit room, Margaret stopped a good few feet away from the seated figure and hesitated as she stood, cautious, as she always was, not to make eye contact. It made her light-headed with fear whenever she was around Him and she'd not tempt her luck by glancing the demon straight and boldly in the eye.

'He warned her, milord. He warned her to flee as soon as possible with the young mistress, Lara.'

'Older mistress, I think you'll find.'

Margaret's brow furrowed at that but she wasn't inclined to ask for an explanation and incite any sort of unnecessary conversation with the demon. She shuddered at the thought. The sooner she could leave...

'Yes, my dear, soon. Soon enough you shall return and resume your mundane duties. I'm afraid you'll have to bear my attentions for just a few moments longer.'

Flushing and hastening to deny Him, Margaret started as the demon continued sharply, but not, it seemed, towards her,

'I am disappointed. Morely was always so dependable but there you have it. He will be moral to the very end. Where are they fleeing to?'

'One of their home's in the country. Northamptonshire.'

'Fools,' Nicholas commented without heat. 'Very well, you may go. You recall what you have to do now?'

'Yes, master.'

'Go then.'

*

'People will talk – we cannot simply depart with two weeks of the season left, Amelia. Lady Bellamy's yearly-'

'Mother, you don't understand how imperative it is that we leave, it's – we must – it's father!' Amelia shot her mother a triumphant look as the thought came to her. Surely that would be enough to convince the woman to forgo her ritual societal gatherings?

'Oh for heaven's sake, what has he done now? It's always something.'

For the briefest of moments, Lara felt a pang for the man who had fathered her, at how dismissive his wife was of his inner demons, his visible and mental decline. Surely she wasn't so unconcerned inside?

'I'm worried about us being here and leaving him alone. You want to avoid talk; well surely you can't be so unaware, mother! Everyday there's a new speculation about father-'

'He's not alone, Amelia - he's in a house full of people serving his every need. You are too dramatic by half. The real problem is that you father is an eccentric. When I was young, it was an alluring characteristic but such things become tiresome as they stale. My mother did warn me to keep my guard about me but there you have it. It is said it runs in the family. His side, of course. Luckily, you get most of your character traits from me, darling.' And thus relaying the biggest speech Lara could ever remember hearing from her aunt, the older woman began to finger her recently decorated coiffure, apparently setting Amelia's plea's far from her mind.

'Very well, mother,' Amelia said coldly, feeling revulsion at the blasé woman she had once so admired, her mind working on another plan of action, her mother's consent be damned.

*

'Where are you going?'

'To bed,' Lara said, surprised at the hard, almost suspicious look Amelia gave her. 'What's the matter with you?'

'I - think there's a mouse in my room. You should check your room carefully.'

Lara cringed. 'Have you told a maid? You'd best sleep somewhere else tonight.'

'The unused rooms are too musty. They require at least a day to air, you know. Can't I bed with you tonight? I'll come by in a short time.'

'Very well,' Lara sighed. 'Wait-' she hesitated as Amelia made to depart the dinning room after their evening meal. 'Isyourfather alright?' She said, her tones daring Amelia to correct her choice of words.

Amelia sighed heavily and gave Lara a weary look. 'Fine enough for another two weeks, I suppose.'

Nodding, Lara left the room with her and the two climbed the curving central staircase in the hallway, going their separate ways at the first floor. Once in her room, a maid helped her perform her nightly ablutions and Lara chaffed at the fact that she wouldn't be alone tonight once Amelia arrived. Her nights alone she treasured. She would start by retrieving the hardback book of poetry she carried everywhere with her and read a few verses. It always seemed to soothe her, make her feel languid, when she did. And then, when the lights were off...

'There was a man, miss. He was waiting outside, near the parkland opposite the townhouse as I came home from the market earlier today. I forgot to say.'

'Oh?' Lara responded politely as the maid, Margaret, helped her tug a stubborn tangle from her dark hair.

'He wanted to relay a message, miss, but he was wary of coming in. He say's he wouldn't be welcome. That there were instructions to send him away earlier, to keep you from seeing him.'

'Amelia?' Lara questioned, frowning at the maid in he mirror.

Nodding, Margaret continued, 'He introduced himself as Lord Armel. Must be foreign, I'm thinking. Well, anyway, he said I was to give you a message. I thought there's no harm in giving a message since he was respectful enough to stay a little way from the house owing to my Lady's dislike of him.'

'Margaret,' grabbing the brush from the startled maid's hand, Lara, her body shivering as she shook with excitement and disbelief and a strange cold fear, seated the maid where she had been mere moments ago and loomed over the older woman.

'Was he – how did he look?'

'Miss?'

Shaking her head impatiently, Lara continued, 'It's not important. What did he say? What did he say!'

Her face paling, the maid said, 'That he had obeyed your command. That's it. Odd, really,' she have a high laugh at that. 'He isn't cracked, is he?'

Lara turned away to stare out of the window. 'But...that can't have been all. It justcan't. He must have said something else?'

'Nothing else except...' Margaret trailed off, uncertainty written in every line of her face. 'It's above stairs, in my quarters. Shall I bring it down?'

'What is it? Lara blinked.

The maid shook her head and left on a quick tred, returning speedily some moments later carrying a brown hardback book.

'He left it with me. To give you...I wasn't sure that I should accept but...'

Lara whipped the book from the maid's shaking hands. 'This has been in your quarters? Since yesterday?'

The maid nodded uncertainly.

Lara stared at her treasure, a simple book of poetry gifted to her some time ago now. It seemed like an age ago. Every night she would palm through the book, re-read lines now confined perfectly to memory. Poems of love and desperation. Tragedy, too. It seemed very fitting. Every night, that was, except last night. Closing her eyes tightly, she recalled how routine had been suspended with Amelia's presence in her bed.

Chilled, Lara walked to her bed and dropped to her knees, feeling underneath the wooden frame, her hands grabbing and finding nothing as she scoured her usual resting place for the book. A perfect act of futility but she'd had to check. Staying in her kneeled position, ignoring the maid's nervous questions, Lara opened the handsome book but paused as she focused on the very first, usually blank page and stared at the bold, clear script, the fresh ink;

'Come to me.'

'How? How do I...'

'Miss, please-'

Lara glanced up distractedly at the anxious face peering at her but returned her stare to the elegant scrawl once more.

'I – I can take you to him. I know where he is...I'm so sorry, Miss. So sorry.' Face wet with tears, the maid bore a look of guilt and desperation. 'I had no choice, miss...I had no choice,' she begged of Lara. 'When he wants things, he gets them. One minute we was told that this houseful was not accepting new staff and then the next thing I know, I'm working right near you as I was instructed. I was to watch you, miss. Only you, mind. I didn't concern myself with it, just put my head down and did what I was told but, well, it's been almost a year with me working here and I've grown fond of you.'

'All this time, all along he never forgot...' Lara breathed.

'Miss! You mustn't do it, you mustn't go! He's evil-'

Lara laughed at that. 'Indeed, he's evil personified. And what a handsome face evil has! Are his eyes just as potent as before?' Lara braced a hand on the polished wooden floors and stood up, the book of poetry clasped to her chest.

Margaret blinked at her in bemusement. 'Miss...he won't let you go. If you go to him...'

'Just tell me where he is, Margaret,' Lara demanded, 'You work for him, you say?'

'It's my punishment,' the maid admitted, her face taut. 'He wanted my baby, Miss. He wanted my Sam. I have five children, miss, but Sammy, my eldest, will always be my baby. I couldn't do it,' she sighed, tears streaking her round cheeks. 'I did it all for Justin, to save him. Damn his black soul,' she bit out.

'And now you serve Nicholas.'

The maid crossed herself at that, fear making her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

'Don't you see, Margaret?' Lara soothed, feeling an usual but empowering calm take over. 'You must take me to him. It's what he'd want, I am sure. And you wouldn't want to disobey him.'

'He will hurt me,' the maid nodded and Lara's breath caught hard at that.

Repressed thoughts jeered at her, sense and rationality battled for attention. Self-preservation fought a hard battle. And lost.

'I – I can't allow that to happen,' Lara said, 'I can't allow you to be harmed. Please, take me to him.''

'But it's not that plan,' the maid argued fretfully, beginning to pace about the room. 'I was to tell you and hand you that book. Then the master was to give me further instruction.'

How very calculated, Lara mused. 'Let's surprise him.'

'Miss, please!'

'He won't hurt me, Margaret,' Lara hurried over to the maid and clasped her shoulder, 'He won't.' she added, believing it.

'He's killed men.'

The proclamation chilled Lara. 'I've no doubt,' she said quietly.

'He would have killed my Sammy, too.'

'But he didn't,' Lara offered in desperate tones as she tried to convince herself of something flimsy.

Throwing her a dirty look, the maid said, 'Nor would he when he had me in exchange when I refused to give Sammy to him. Alright, miss, I'll take you. Might as well hear what he has to say about my disobedience. No doubt he'll find out what I've done just telling you as much.' She sighed fretfully.

'Now?' Lara's heart leapt in excited desperation.

The maid shook her head quickly. 'Later – once the upstairs maid's take their leave. Leaving by the back entrance is best. Miss, are you sure-'

'That will be all, thank you.'

So dismissed, the maid turned and left, but only after throwing a pitying glance towards an anxious Lara.

*

Well past midnight, six streets from Amelia's townhouse, Lara and Margaret stood before a sleek white house in an elegant square. At the sheer wonder of the fact that Nicholas has been residing – however long, she did not know – so close, Lara felt faint.

She wasn't given much time to mull over it as a hard-faced man opened the door and eyed them with probing eyes.

'What are you doing here, Margaret?' he looked the older woman over with hard eyes.

'Move to the side, Keith, move and let us in,' she replied wearily.

'Not on your life. He's not here but he won't be pleased – and he especially won't be pleased if he finds out I let you in without his say-so. I didn't get any instructions so you don't come in,' so saying, the man shut the door loudly.

'I can't believe it,' Lara stuttered, outrage overtaking nervousness. To think that she had waited all this time to be halted now by a fool of a man. Giving the maid a determined look, she turned back to the door once more and thumped hard on it, her second thump landing in the man Keith's face.

Before he could retaliate, Margaret said quickly, pleadingly, 'You'd best not. She'sthegirl – do you want to risk his mood if he finds out you marked her?'

Cupping his cheek, Keith looked from Lara to Margaret but although his expression showed belligerence, there was also unmistakable fear that hadn't been there before. Silently, he stepped aside.

*

Lara groaned as she attempted to lift her head from the floor. Once she had managed the feat, she blinked about the white walled, unfurnished room as she tried to come back to herself. Of course. She had decided to stay put in this room – one among the many other almost identical, abandoned rooms in this mammoth house – after nosing about the place. She hadn't remembered falling asleep, only seating herself on the polished floorboards, her back against a wall, as she tried to convince herself not to flee.

She wondered at the time but a quick glance outside had revealed that it was still dark outside. Perhaps she should go and seek out Margaret...would the women still be here? Of course she would, Lara reasoned.She wouldn't abandon me, surely.

'Did you have pleasant dreams, my pet? Ah, she gazes with such wide eyed surprise. Surely, dear, you were expecting my arrival?' a pause. 'How beautiful you are,' the last was said with a lack of passion, almost with bitterness.

'Margaret...'

'Yes. What of her?' Nicholas arched a brow, viewing the figure standing stiffly against the opposite wall from his vantage point by the doorway. His body was pulled taut, stunned, delighted and wary.

The nervous reply floated over to him, the sweet, remembered voice a balm to his mood, 'I wondered where she was – I wanted to talk to her.'

'There's no need.'

At the dismissal, Lara said quickly, 'Don't be angry with her – it was I who forced her to bring me here.'

'You think to manage me?'

Shocked, Lara began to reply but was interrupted quickly by a sardonic Nicholas, 'You are fond of her, I see. Curious, considering you have her to thank for your fate now.'

Lifting her chin in false bravado, Lara countered, 'I choose my own fate. It wasIwho wanted to seeyou.'

A laugh met her. 'Still fiery, I see. A pleasing discovery. Tears, now? What for, pray tell?'

'You laugh at me heedlessly – I wish to see Margaret!' Lara scrubbed harshly at the betraying emotion over her face.

'Calm down,' Nicholas soothed, taking a calculated step into the room, closer to the girl but far enough away so as not to unduly threaten. Her scent, already clouding his senses, ignited them at the closer proximity. Feeling almost light-headed, he watched a lone tear streak a pathway down one cheek. Loath to be the cause of it, he found himself replying to reassure, quite brusquely, 'I've not harmed the woman, if that's what you worry for.'

'And can I trust that?'

The quiet words scored his very centre. 'Have I not proven so once before?' he seethed, his eyes never leaving the ones trained on his face, and when he saw those eyes soften at his words, the triumph, the victory he felt, was overwhelming.

'Yes...oh, yes,' the girl responded breathlessly. 'But then you left, you left...me.'

At the hesitance in her voice, Nicholas let out a harsh breath. 'A necessary course of action, unless it would have thrilled you to see me struggle at your feet.'

'Then it was true...it...ithurtyou to walk away from what was rightfully yours. Me, my father...what Mika said was true.'

'Ah, yes! The reason why I've found myself back here - the cursed fool, that he dared come here, seek you out...answer me now and do not lie – did he touch you?'

Startled at that particular question, Lara found her tongue clumsy in its haste to deny, 'Of – of course not.'

'But you shake now. With fear, shame? With remembered desire? What? What!'

The stunning burst of violence induced a cold sweat over Lara's body. Her memories of Nicholas painted him as cool and sardonic. But once could she recall a break of control so sharp...his reaction towards her father when the older man had revealed her paternity.

Pressing her back closer to the wall, a small voice in her head reminded her that he would not hurt her. That no matter what else happened, he would not hurther. It was such a confident voice, held such conviction, that she started to believe it fully.

'Neither. I told you, he did not touch me. Perhaps – perhaps you should trust me, too?'

Appearing bemused at her reply, Nicholas said nothing and Lara took a breath of release as his taut shoulders loosened enough at her words. Not by much, mind. But it was certainly progress...a small level of strength and control followed the revelation that she had such an effect on him. In fact, she revelled in it.

His cool, ice blue eyes looked almost luminous as they pinned her and his devastating form was so potent in that moment that she felt her channel clench in helpless desire. Everything about him was made to stun and attract. His imposing height, his broad shoulders, strong legs encased in coal black trousers. And his face...chiselled and angled beyond mere perfection, it made staring at him for too long difficult. Intimidation at it's finest. Compared to him, she felt as plain and bland as day old milk.

He spoke and she tried valiantly to follow his words, to not relive a time when he had pleasured her so deeply with his tongue that she thought she would break into pieces. 'Perhaps I should trust you...but what haveyoudone to earn my trust, I wonder? Through my stupidity and staying my hand when it came to your father's bargain, I have suffered the consequences. Forgive me, then, if I elect not to trust you when you have given me nothing in return.'

Lara observed the bitter expression on the handsome face musingly. Bitterness and jealous. Unlike Amelia, Margaret...everyone else he had no doubt revealed himself to, she had long since ceased to see him as a creature or monster - someone different from herself – and presently as she stood, she saw it all too clearly now that he was just like her in the ways that counted.

A strange desperation, a strange love and a great lust for him moved her to her next decision.

In four long steps, she stood before him, far enough back so that she could see him without having to crane her neck too much but close enough to touch if she reached out a hand. Reaching out that hand, she let it fall and rest on his chest, covered in a snowy, crisp white shirt. His expression remained as arrested as it had since she had made her move towards him. At the contact, her fingers tingled.

'You came to me, in some form – at night, while I bathed, I am sure of it...' she murmured.

'Yes, what of it?' Nicholas dismissed, trying to look offhand but revealing a small sheepishness at her words that made Lara smile.

'It made me desperate – for you. But you never came for me. Not properly.'

Making no move, looking almost wary, Nicholas watched her face closely, his eyes quickly slipping to her hand now caressing his chest before returning to her eyes.

'You never kissed me,' she added.

A slight grunt met her words as he dismissed, 'What need is there in it?'

Lara blinked a few times at the indifferent reply. 'Every,' she insisted. She had read enough novels in her life to have yearned for a sweet kiss or two in her youth. Despite the sexual awakening he had shown her, she yearned for the intimacy of a kiss, of pressing her lips to his ever stern ones.

'I can find much more pleasing ways to use my lips upon you,' he replied, placing a hand over hers and Lara felt her already wet pantalets become soaked as she recalled his mouth between her legs again, a vision that would not now be denied. White-hot lust warmed her blood at the vivid images. 'Shall I prove it to you?'

'No,' she refused abruptly. 'I want to show you - that you can trust me. Will you let me or not?' she challenged, pulling her hand from beneath his.