The Long Awaited Lord Read online

  the long awaited lord

  THE VALIANT LOVE

  REGENCY ROMANCE

  a historical romance book

  deborah wilson

  Copyright and About the Author

  Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Wilson

  All Rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this book in any form or by any electronic means without written permission from the author. Recording of this book is strictly prohibited. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  You can check out my full > > Amazon Book Catalog HERE.

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  Table of Contents

  Copyright and About the Author

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  Copyright and Disclaimer

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  ABOUT THE BOOK

  The hunt for The Circle, a brotherhood known to exploit children, finally comes to an end with Leonard’s tale.

  The verse that inspired this journey is the one below. Written as a plea to the judges of the courts at the time, this verse is still relevant today.

  How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? Defend the poor and fatherless. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalms 82: 2-4

  Someone must stand up to the wicked and help good win the day, and that’s what Cassius Hayes, the Duke of Van Dero, is all about.

  I hope you enjoy reading about the duke’s friends and how the men who walk the line finally turn their backs to the darkness and fall into infinite light.

  There’s more to come, but for now, enjoy Leo’s tale of family, forgiveness, and the power of unbreakable love.

  * * *

  Miss Madison Blake stared into the window and knocked against the glass. She jumped at how loud the sound was, but then the house’s occupant looked in her direction and his eyes widened. It seemed she’d knocked loud enough.

  She backed away from the windowsill and wrapped her coat around herself more firmly. The wind was chilling her to the bone. At first, she’d barely felt it, but with the walk taking over an hour, she could barely feel her toes.

  Judd opened the window and tried to glare at her, but his mouth refused to obey, so he was smiling when he asked, “What are you doing here? I told you in my note that I would see you upon my return.”

  Madison’s heart raced with a mixture of love and nervousness. Actually, it was more nervous than anything. “I need to speak to you.”

  He placed his hands under her arms and pulled her up through the window with little effort. Then his warm hands were against her cold cheeks. “Maddie, what were you thinking to come here in this weather? What were you thinking to come at all? You know it is not allowed. This is wrong.”

  “I needed to see you.”

  He dragged her toward his fireplace and placed her on the end of the couch closest to the flames. She’d never been in Judd’s home before. She looked around and decided she liked his burgundy and green drawing room.

  He knelt at her feet and took off her boots. He’d gathered hot coals from the fireplace and had already placed them into a pan while she’d been musing. He wrapped it in blankets and then placed her feet on top.

  The heat seeped through her stockings, and she moaned in bliss.

  He grinned. “I suppose I don’t have to ask if that is better.”

  “It’s wonderful. Thank you.”

  “Tea?”

  “Please,” she said, even though she knew she couldn’t stay long. Her father sometimes came to her room in the middle of the night and kissed her head. He’d been doing it since before she could remember. Though she was eighteen, he still saw her as his little angel.

  Her belly rolled as she thought of how wrong he was. How would he react to the news?

  It only took Judd a moment to fetch her some tea.

  With the warm cup in her hands, the coals under her feet, and Judd caressing her with his eyes, Madison was completely happy.

  He stood over her with his hands on his hips. He was so young but after becoming the Viscount of Arland last year, he’d changed. He was no longer just a gentleman, but a lord. He’d become harder. His words were more direct.

  Yet he never failed to tell her that she was his greatest weakness. He could barely put his foot down with her… which had gotten them into a great amount of trouble.

  “Missing me already?” he teased.

  Tears filled her eyes because she was. She saw him almost every day and on the days she didn’t see him, he wrote to her.

  His message that morning had been strange. He’d said he was leaving. The journey was abrupt and unplanned.

  It was late, yet the fact that the servants were up and he was dressed in travel clothes told her he was getting ready to go.

  In the middle of the night?

  “Where are you going? I don’t understand why you’re leaving.” Maybe he knew her secret and was running away from her. Maybe he didn’t love her anymore.

  He lowered himself into the seat beside her. “I know this trip was unplanned, but it’s necessary. I’m going to London.”

  “Why?”

  “To speak to Lord Van Dero.”

  Madison’s eyes widened. “You’re going to see the duke? I didn’t know you knew him.” It was Cassius Hayes’ first official Season as Duke of Van Dero, yet the man’s name had been flowing through ballrooms near and far for the past several months.

  He was wealthy, said to be only a little less powe
rful than the Prince Regent.

  Madison had never been to London, but the people of Oxford loved to gossip just as much as anyone else. With so many young men in the area for school, it was impossible to walk into a gathering and not hear whispers.

  “What are you going to speak to the duke about?”

  He cupped the back of her head. “Madison, I don’t want you to worry.”

  “But I am worried. I love you.”

  He smiled sadly. Painfully. “I love you with all my heart.” He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Nothing matters more than you.”

  She believed him, but he’d been so different since his father’s death five months ago. They’d known each other for years, but Madison had not known Judd intimately until after his father’s death. They were in the same circle, but they’d never shared more than pleasantries until five months ago.

  His anger and broodiness had called to her. She didn’t understand the pull, but she’d looked into his sad eyes and wanted nothing more than to make everything right for him.

  She’d had her cook make him a pudding she’d noticed him take more than one serving of when they were at the same party. She’d learned his schedule from the books her father kept on his students and had taken the basket with the bowl of pudding to the school when she knew he’d be leaving her father’s lecture hall.

  It was wrong to give men gifts, so she’d had to do it in secret. She’d met Judd at his carriage. He’d been surprised to see her.

  “Lady Madison? Are you here see your father?”

  “No, I’ve come to see you.”

  Shocked, Judd quickly turned to keep his driver from seeing her, for servants were known to talk, and then moved closer and lowered his voice. “Is this about your father?”

  She held out the basket. “No.” She couldn’t say more than that. He was so close that she noticed everything about his lively green eyes. She’d always known he was beautiful. He and his friends were the most handsome men she’d ever met, yet Judd stood out in his own way.

  Perhaps it was because, before his father’s death, he’d always been without a care. And now, nothing made him smile.

  She wanted him to smile. “It’s a gift,” she finally said.

  He didn’t take the basket. Instead, he frowned. He glanced at the basket suspiciously and his eyes flickered back to her. “What is it?”

  She turned up her lips and lowered her voice. “You won’t know until you take it.”

  “I can smell it.” He held her eyes even after the basket was in his hand. “How did you know? Did one of my mates tell you?”

  “That you like pudding? Anyone who has watched you at a party knows you like pudding.”

  His expression shifted, even as their gazes remained tangled. “You’ve been watching me, Lady Madison?”

  Her body’s response came out of nowhere. Heat blazed across Madison’s skin, scalding her and making her cheeks hot. No man had ever spoken in such a dark tone to her. It matched the worldly knowledge that rested in his eyes.

  She said nothing. She could barely think. Her heart raced.

  He smirked and then smiled. “Thank you.”

  She twisted her lips and then said, “Well, I hope it makes you feel better.”

  “You have made me feel better.” Then he lowered his mouth and whispered in her ear, “I shall think of you with every bite.”

  The moment he pulled away, she turned and ran. His laugh trailed behind her.

  His laugh. She’d not heard it in so long.

  A few feet away, she turned back, because she had to witness it for herself. He was still smiling. Still watching her. And Madison knew her life was changed forever.

  One minute, they’d just been acquaintances and in the next… so much more.

  They’d fallen in love overnight and almost half a year later, nothing had changed. Yet recently, she could feel him slipping away. She didn’t understand it, especially with just how physical they’d become.

  She thought his distance had to do with the fact that she didn’t want to hide their relationship anymore and hadn’t wanted to for months. But he was a student of her father’s and wanted to finish school before they moved forward.

  “I’ll not have them tarnish me or your father’s name by implying he gave me academic favors for your hand.”

  And she knew he was right. She trusted him. Oxford talked and the gossips said that he no longer went to the brothels. He no longer saw his friends as much either, but they didn’t know where Lord Arland was going.

  He was coming to her. She’d given him her heart and body. And from that, they’d created life. That was why she here, to tell him everything before he left.

  ∫ ∫ ∫

  0 2

  * * *

  “I’m with child,” Madison whispered. She held his eyes and watched his reaction.

  Shock came first. Then he was out of his seat and his face shifted to complete happiness. He sat back down and cupped her face. “Maddie, are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. I’ve not bled since we met..”

  He wrinkled his nose at that.

  She laughed. She always felt safe in telling him anything. “Also, my breasts—”

  “Are larger. I’ve noticed,” he growled, staring down at her chest.

  She blushed. “I was going to say tender, but…”

  He bent his head and kissed her between his words. “Maddie, this makes me so happy. I love you. I’m going to ask your father for your hand, and we’ll marry just as soon as I return.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and moved closer. Carrying the baby had also had other effects on her. She wanted him all the time and his only complaint about it had been that they were rarely in a place they could be alone.

  They’d had sex at routs and the gatherings of their friends. They’d often slip away, one before the other, and meet in a bedchamber. She was starving for him now.

  Madison crawled onto Judd’s lap, and he groaned before setting her back on the couch.

  “I can’t,” he sighed. “I have no time.”

  “We can be quick.” She was not above begging.

  He groaned and kissed her right before he pulled away and smiled at her, a sweet expression on his face. “I can’t wait to marry you. Then I can have you with me always and we never have to leave the house.”

  She curled her fingers into his hair. “I want nothing more than that.”

  His grin was lusty. “Our friends would despise us. Hivers already hates the way you take up all the time I used to give to him, even if he doesn’t know you’re the one who is getting it.” Some guilt flashed in his gaze. He hadn’t told his dearest friend about her, and she’d kept the truth from her own friends as well.

  She chuckled. “The Earl of Hivers and everyone else will have to get used to missing your company because I plan to be a very greedy wife.”

  He captured her face in his hands and stared at her. She couldn’t read his expression completely. There was tenderness but also something else. Worry. “I love you so much, but could you do me a favor, my love?”

  “Anything.”

  “Don’t tell anyone about the baby until I return.”

  She nodded. London was only a few days’ ride away. He’d be back before a fortnight.

  He tightened his hold on the back of her head. The tenderness left his gaze. “And if I don’t return, go to Van Dero immediately. Tell no one of the baby’s existence until you get to him.”

  The ugliest feeling of fear pricked its way over her skin. “Why wouldn’t you return, Judd? What is going on?”

  “I’m going to ask Van Dero for help, for protection, and then all will be well.” Then he frowned. “I’ll have to give him something in exchange.” He glanced at the clock that sat on the mantle above the fireplace before turning back to her. “But you’re more important than secrets from the past. You and our child are all that matter now.”

  “Judd, I’m scared. What is going on? Why do you
need protection?”

  He stood. “Wait there.” He moved to the other side of the room and opened a drawer in the writing desk. When he returned, he had two things in his hand. The first made her gasp.

  He dropped before her and took her hand. “I was planning to give this to you after I asked your father for your hand. Madison, you are the most compassionate, beautiful woman I’ve ever met. You came into my life and took it from mildly bearable to something I would fight tooth and nail for. You brought me happiness and worth.”

  She was weeping as he slipped the ring onto her finger. They were happy tears, but she was still scared.

  “I love you,” he said again. Then he gave her the other thing. A key. He curled her fingers around it. “If I don’t return, that key opens a drawer to an old writing desk in the cellar.” He’d lowered his voice for this, as though fearing the servants would hear. “Everything you need to take to Van Dero is there. If I’m not back in a fortnight, take it all and go to him. Swear to me you will do this.”

  “I will.”

  He placed a hand on her stomach. “Swear you’ll protect our child at all costs. Protect the future Viscount of Arland.”

  “Come back to me and do it yourself, Judd Lewis,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “Only you have called me Judd since my father’s death. Not even Hivers calls me that anymore. You see how lenient I am with you?”

  She smiled. “It’s not lenience. It’s love.”

  He looked sad again. “I wish my father could have met you.” He’d said that before. “Father would have loved you just as much as I do.” He chuckled. “He’d have thought you too good for us.”

  She laughed.

  He kissed her. “One last thing.” He stood and walked away.

  Madison kept her eyes on the flames that danced in the fireplace. She looked up at the clock. It was after midnight. Her father would have finished his reading by now and gone to bed. Had he stopped by her room?

  Did it matter anymore?

  Judd was leaving, and there was a chance she’d never see him again.

  He stopped in front of her and handed her a note. She opened it.

  It was a banknote for a great amount of money. Enough to keep her for years. It was likely most of his money.