Chapter 7
It was too reminiscent of another time. Will panicked while thinking of his past. He had to do something, yet he felt dreadfully paralyzed with fear. Erva sat gracefully at the piano, staring at the keys for a moment. Yes, he had to rescue her. This had happened before to his lovely but delicate wife, Julia. Some vicious brat of a girl had forced her to sing a song. Not thinking anything of it, he had merely waited for her to dazzle him, as had the mob of people surrounding Julia. He hadn’t known how frightened she could become of crowds, how timid, how paranoid, nor did he have a clue of the damage it would cause to his wife’s fragile mind.
Damnation, he wouldn’t stand idly by this time!
But before he could think of a distraction, Erva began to sing. Her voice was calm, steady, and thoroughly exquisite. After a few lines, Erva plucked the piano to accompany her elegant yet haunting song. The tune floated through many notes, always ending on a slightly sad tone. It was about a woman scared for a man, the man was her friend, and he had done something to enthrall a crowd, but the woman was nonetheless worried. Then the woman confessed how she felt about her friend. She loved him.
Will swallowed as Erva’s flowing voice turned breakable, but not as his Julia’s had. This was vulnerability for the song, the lyrics. Erva’s voice reflected the sadness and fright of the words she sang. Not because she was forced to perform.
He’d never heard a more tender song. It reminded him of the dark ages, of medieval knights, of wanting to live in another time far from now. How Erva reminded him of times of yore. How he wanted to be a knight for her. Noble and strong. How he hoped she was singing about him and no other.
One day with the woman and he was utterly smitten.
He hadn’t felt this way since...Julia.
No, as much as he’d been infatuated with his wife, this was different. He’d been so young when he’d met Julia, not necessarily thinking of mutual compatibilities, but attracted to her charismatic charms that only he was privy to. With Erva though, there was no need to protect her from the crowd. They hushed and watched reverently as she performed her haunting song. Lady Anne cried, and she wasn’t the only one. People began to silently draw closer to Erva. Even perverted Major Brighton had come into the room and watched Erva with mouth ajar.
The song twisted into a piano solo for a couple minutes, and Will watched fascinated as Erva’s body slightly rocked back and forth to the rhythm. Her lithe form, although he guessed she wasn’t trying to be a seductress, cast the last of the die. He wanted her. He wanted her badly. His body felt tight, his solar plexus exploded with...desire. His groin contracted, yet what humbled him the most was how his heart ached.
She closed her eyes as she sang even louder, more confident, yet heartbreakingly sad. She sang that she worried she was not the one for her love. By God, but she was. It had been ten years since Julia’s bitter death, and he’d assumed he’d never feel anything ever again. Her passing had been too much. It had broken his heart and soul. But he could have sworn he saw from the corner of his eye his wife’s ghostly form reflected in a window, smiling at him, pointing at the strong woman behind the pianoforte. Only, when he checked the glass, there was nothing but reflected candlelight flickering.
Lord, his eyes stung with the thought that his wife wished him to watch Erva, to revel in her as the crowd around him did. He blinked and cleared his too tight throat. He’d forever love Julia, but couldn’t help wonder if she had a hand in placing Erva before him.
Erva finished the song on an unforgettable note—sad, poignant, strong, and noble. The odd thought skittered through his mind that she was rescuing him. Erva was the knight. Her tactics had been effortless, but had pierced the dragon he’d carried with him for years. It might not be enough to kill the beast within, but it was a start he’d never seen coming. He’d had visions of dying soon, still heartbroken, still alone.
But now...
The crowd cheered as if Erva were the reputed prodigy Mozart himself. She stood slowly from the piano, curtsied, while blushing and smiling. The throng pushed toward her, enthusiastically talking. Through them, with her slow gait, she made her way back to him. He was so overcome, he couldn’t say anything for several seconds. Holding her hands, he felt so proud of her.
“Beautiful,” he could only whisper.
“Indeed,” a quiet yet authoritative voice from the crowd concurred. Will turned to see his commander in chief, General William Howe, nearby.
Will bowed as did The General.
“Is this the Lady Ferguson I’ve heard so much about?” General Howe smiled at Erva.
She curtsied and offered her hand, then The General kissed her knuckles. Will was fairly certain the man lingered with his hold of her hand. Possessively, Will placed an arm around Erva’s waist, thought briefly of social protocol, but then decided to be a beast and hold her as close as she’d let him. General Howe, as always the clever man, glanced from him to Erva with an all-too-knowing smile and released her.
“How on earth have you heard of me, General Howe?” Erva asked, a tad too excitedly for Will’s heart to take.
General Howe gave a small smile. “Through General Hill’s own men. The whole town is abuzz about the lady who shot faster than many of my own soldiers. I’ll have to recruit you if you aren’t careful.”
Erva chuckled and glanced down at the floor, slightly blushing. She was too adorable for this situation.
Howe was quiet too, Will knew, but he was also a bit of a ladies’ man. At least, so it had been rumored. Will never had worried. Until now. He pulled Erva a tad closer.
Then Admiral Lord Richard Howe, General Howe’s brother, sauntered close in his blue uniform. “I say, my lady, that was the best performance I’ve seen outside a stage. Never before was seen such an act in a house. Yes.”
Everyone blinked, not exactly sure what the admiral meant. Will had heard that the admiral had an odd way of communicating. Thus far, he’d never met the man.
Erva curtsied. “Thank you, my lord.”
“No, no, thank you.” Admiral Richard nodded.
“Lady Ferguson, have you met my brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t had the pleasure yet.”
Richard kissed her hand with efficiency, then turned to Will. “General Hill, my brother speaks of you quite often for your bravery and intelligence. It is an honor to finally meet you.”
Will bowed as did Richard, who also offered his hand in a firm shake.
“How—how did the peace talk with the Continental Congress progress, my lord?” Erva asked almost timidly of the admiral. Will was quite pleased the lady kept current of events and the negotiations between the Howe brothers and certain members of the rebel American congress.
Richard sighed deeply and looked at his brother. “Not well, my lady. As one of my aides said, ‘We came. We talked. We left.’ That surmises the meeting best, I think.”
She cocked her head to the side, her light blonde tresses shining in the candlelight. Then she bit her lip, but soon enough she couldn’t contain her smile. “I’ve—I’ve always wondered, Lord and General Howe, how you feel about America claiming her independence?”
Will pulled Erva even closer, knowing what she asked could be conveyed as sedition. However, he was proud of her for asking. Lord, she was a brave one.
Richard burst out laughing, then stopped as he leaned closer to Erva. “What a question, my lady. One I have not been asked, save by my own brother, for I am told what my king purposes, and that is America is not to have her independence.”
Erva gave the admiral a small smile. “Yes, but you haven’t answered my question.”
Richard softly chuckled again. “My lady, I wish I could answer it for myself, as does my brother.”
General Howe nodded conspiratorially. “Out of respect for my king, we cannot answer your question. But now I must turn the tables on you, my lady. How do you feel about America’s insistence
upon independence?”
Erva shook her head with a pursed smile. “If I told you, then that would be cheating.”
Both the Howe brothers chuckled.
The night couldn’t be more perfect. He had his arm around a woman who’d somehow already captured his...well, his body positively liked her. He liked her. He knew that much. Whenever he’d pulled her nearer, she’d willingly accepted. She had been fidgeting with her hands while talking to the Howes, but while they laughed, her hands relaxed by her sides. One of them slipped across his leg. Her touch had been much lower than before, which he had known was an accident. A fortunate one, at that. Just thinking about it had his cock almost come to life, of all the damned times.
As the brothers talked about loving a woman with a healthy sense of humor, Erva flittered her fingers against his leg again. This time, he was fairly certain it hadn’t been happenstance.
Seduce her, Will thought of the order from his sergeant. Men would laugh and tease each other about women, about having sexual intimacies with them. But Sergeant McDougal hadn’t been joking.
And neither was Will.
The problem was he’d never done such a thing. Julia had basically attacked him, and as much as he would never admit it, that had been his first time. After Julia...Granted, his body would somehow spring to life, have wants and needs, but he’d never sought an end to that means, at least not with another. He had a hand after all. It pained him to admit how utterly unsophisticated he was with women. There were few women he’d had intimacy with after Julia. God, how pathetic. And ironic, for he knew well of his reputation.
He thought it was beyond bitter to a point where he’d laugh at his rakish status. Until that moment, he hadn’t cared about it. Well, he had, but there was nothing to be done, he’d thought. However, now that he’d met Erva, sweet, strong Erva...
Seduce her.
Will swallowed. Erva stood slightly in front of him. Well, half of her blocked the Howe brothers from the leg her fingers swept across again and again. He grasped her delicate hand with his own. Her breath caught, but other than that she proceeded on with her conversation—something about the size of Richard’s cannon balls in his ship, which of course, all parties laughed at the innuendo. God, she was brilliant.
Slowly, he dipped his fingers between hers. She stilled, but remained smiling. Will pushed his hand closer to her own, wrapping each finger with hers. He curled his digits until they clung to her hand, then just as she reciprocated, he loosened his grip. His thumb swept across the inside of her wrist. Such pale skin she hid there, where her pulse bounced against him. And there, right where his thumb met her soft flesh, he saw another light-colored dove. This flying bird was almost white, and he traced the outline of it, wondering about her birthmarks. It was then he noticed that Erva held her breath. Gently he caressed her wrist until he heard a tiny, ever so slight moan come from her throat. Almost imperceptible, but her breath quickened too. She was doing her best to cover it, he thought. But her tiny shoulders rose and fell in a completely satisfactory way. Her scent curled around him, pulling him closer. She smelled deliciously dark and feminine, like night jasmine. He found each of her fingers and again inserted his own between hers. She clutched to him. Ferociously, at that.
His cock tingled with energy. Lord, at a banquet no less. Luckily, her dress’s skirts blocked that part of his anatomy from view.
The Howe brothers said something about needing to leave, how they wished they could stay...Will could hardly believe his luck. He could rush Erva away now. In the carriage, he would hold her ungloved hand and—it was time to think of what else she might like. He could kiss her sensitive wrist. Start there, yes. Then crawl his kisses up her arm. He hoped she would like that.
Lord, he was the least spontaneous man ever. He was tactically planning how to make love to her. Who did that? Well, obviously he did. But he’d always been a thinker, a planner. His army engineers had loved him for it. But he couldn’t plan how to seduce her. Or could he? Didn’t this act need spontaneity? Mayhap he could talk to Paul about how to do it.
God, he was a mess.
Just as his self-discriminating internal rant dipped into a downward spiral, he felt Erva’s thumb caress the inside of his own wrist. Oh, that did feel good. His stomach contracted, and his cock was all the more pleased with the turn of events. Perhaps seducing the lady might not be too difficult after all.
As the Howe brothers left with bows and kisses for Erva’s free hand, Miss Winny and her little friends stampeded to Erva.
“Lady Ferguson,” Miss Winny said with too wide, too proud a smile. “That was absolutely lovely. We loved your little song, didn’t we, girls?”
The two almost identical women behind Miss Winny nodded.
“It was so sad, yet, well, lovely. We’d love to learn it from you.”
“Oh,” Erva said, her surprise apparent.
“We’d love to have tea with you, whenever you are free.” Miss Winny turned to Will, her smile turned cruel. “Of course, we’d love all your women there, both Miss Emma and Miss Lydia.”
Oh God, Will thought. Mayhap Erva hadn’t heard the stories.
Erva’s spine straightened, and she pulled her hand from his, even took a step away from him. It hurt, the separation, and obviously Erva had, indeed, heard the rumors about his supposed mistresses. How could he tell her they weren’t true?
The gossip, unfortunately, wasn’t his to tell, though he craved to explain it away.
So much for seducing the lady.