by Cee, DW
“I agree. Even a regular dinner at their house is like a cocktail party. I better go buy something, too. Did you bring a dinner jacket?” I asked Donovan.
“Of course,” he answered. “Gram?” She looked up from her coffee. “Are we all expected to attend?”
“Yes, Donovan. You, especially, must attend. I want you to see firsthand what my granddaughter is giving up, dating you instead of Michael.”
“Gram,” I complained. “You gave all of that up for Grandpa Jerry.”
“Jerry was worth every castle and summer home.”
“And so is Donovan.” I defended him.
“Just don’t get upset if I have a choice word or two if Michael comes on to your granddaughter.”
“I expect you to be a complete gentleman, Donovan. We are guests in their home.”
“When are we golfing, again?” My father asked. “Isn’t that what we’re here to do?”
“How about we golf after breakfast, Daddy?”
“Let’s do it.”
Everyone was in a good mood after another round of eighteen holes. I bailed after nine to go shopping with all the ladies. Grandfather gave us his winnings and told us to buy whatever we desired. We went into Edinburgh and did good damage on Prince Street and George Street. Gram, Mom, Aunt Sandy and Ma all picked out long formal wear. I picked out a slinky short number for Emily, who decided to go sightseeing with her family. Emily would complain about the sexy dress, but I was sure Jake would appreciate it. I, on the other hand was in a bind. I wanted something appealing for Donovan, but not so appealing for Michael. In the end, I got a fitted, stretch maxi dress that looked no different from a comfortable long dress, except for when I turned around. The back had what would be a very low cowl-type backless “neckline.” I would cover the back with a shawl, but tease my boyfriend with what wasn’t covered under the shawl.
We arrived at our hotel in plenty of time to get ready for dinner. Donovan was in the shower when I entered our room and quickly hopped in with him.
“Well, hello there.”
“Hi.” I was already breathing hard as he turned his attention to soaping me down.
“Good day shopping?”
“It’s always a good day when I’m shopping.”
“You pick out a sexy number?”
I shook my head no. “Seeing as how we’ll be at the Bennington’s, I thought I’d pick something understated and not draw any attention on me.”
Donovan gave me an appreciative soaping, down there.
“What, may I ask, is this?” Donovan finally noticed the backless dress once we got into our cab and the shawl fell off my shoulder.
I played dumb. “Hmm?”
“You said this dress was understated and I thought it was, though it hugs your curves more than I’d like for Michael to see.”
“It is understated. You see no skin except for my arms, toes, neck and face.”
“Babe…” He groaned. “And what about this?” He placed his hand on the lowest part of the open back and slid his fingers lower into the dress. “Shit.” He whispered and panted slightly in my ear. “Are you not wearing underwear?”
“It gave me panty lines so I had to ditch the underwear.”
Then Donovan placed the shawl back on my shoulder and surreptitiously slid his hand to the side of my dress and felt the curve of my right breast. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“What?” I played dumb again, but he didn’t buy it. “When I bought this dress, I figured I’d cover the back with a shawl and no one would be wiser, but you. What I didn’t figure into the equation was the bra and panty situation. It was only when I actually put the dress on, I realized I was in trouble.”
“Princess.” Donovan ground his teeth. “I’ve been telling myself since morning that I’ll be as aloof as possible where Michael is concerned, but now…” He was unhappy! “Now, I’ll not only have to worry about my hard-on the entire evening knowing that this slip of a dress is the only thing separating the proper you and the slutty you, but I’ll also have to worry about whether or not Michael is wondering why there are no bra or panty lines!” He ground out each of the last four words.
“Michael is not going to be staring at me and wondering about bra lines and panty lines. You can be so dramatic.” I played it off as though he was nuts.
The ride to the castle was a quick one and we got there at about the same time as the rest of the family. Donovan put the shawl around me, gripped his arms around the shawl and we walked down the beautiful walkway leading to the gorgeous old castle.
“Isn’t this stunning? I feel like I’m at Pemberely from Pride and Prejudice.”
“Me, too, Laney.” Emily was in as much awe as me. “Michael’s never brought you here before?”
“No,” was all I could say because I was so dazed with my surroundings.
“You sure you’re ready to give all this up for a small home and an even smaller hut in Southern California?” Emily teased an unhappy Donovan.
“I’d take the beach over this any day.” Donovan muttered.
“And I’d take you over any piece of property, any day.” I brought out his ridiculously cute smile. “No matter what happens tonight, no matter what is said, I want you to understand that I love you. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved you and nothing—no matter the property, the money, the people—will change my mind.”
“Thank you, Princess. Sometimes I know I don’t deserve you.”
“Only sometimes…?”
“Laney!” I heard a holler and saw a mad woman running down the steps to greet me.
Ruby Aleksandra Bennington hurled her body into mine and hugged me so fast and furious, we would have both fallen to the ground had Donovan not had a firm grip on my body.
“Ruby!” I hugged her back once I got my footing. “Where have you been?”
“Where have I been? I’ve been all over the freakin’ Arctic, thanks to a bet I lost to my damn cousin. It was so damn cold, I couldn’t wait to get back to the terrible summer heat and humidity in London.” She hugged me again, but quickly halted to stare at Donovan. “Well, hello!” She looked him up and down, and then all over again. “I’d dump Michael for this guy, too.” She whispered just loudly enough for all of the Reid and Bennington families to hear.
“Ahem!” The duke cleared his throat in displeasure. “Ruby,” he warned.
“Sorry, Grandfather.” Her apology was only a formality as her face giggled to all who could see.
“Good evening, everyone.” The duke spoke to all of us, but only had eyes for Gram. “May I walk you in?” He put out his arm for Gram, but Grandfather had her locked in his arm already.
Resigned, Gram linked her arm around both men and walked up the stairs.
“May I walk you in?” Michael came down the steps and gave the same offer as his grandfather.
I looked to an unhappy Donovan, gave him a light peck on the cheek and said, “I’ll see you inside. I thank you in advance for being so understanding. You shall be greatly rewarded tonight.” He grinned stupidly, but still insanely handsomely, and decided to be a good sport.
Before Michael and I ascended the steps, I saw Ruby put out her arm for Donovan to hold. She was taking the lead, which made us all laugh.
“You look beautiful, Duchess.” Michael looked at me with such love in his eyes, I knew another talk was necessary.
“Michael.” I warned.
“Don’t say it,” he warned back. “I’m not going to listen. I’m not going to live in regret like my grandfather. Look at him, sixty years later, still regretting not having gone after your grandmother. There was no passion between the duke and duchess. I don’t want to live like that.”
“And you won’t live like that. You will meet a woman who will return your love equally, who will give you that passion you so want and deserve.”
“I have met that woman. That woman is you. I have told you before, and I’ll
say it again for the last time. I’m not giving up.”
Confounded by his recalcitrant behavior, I walked away and greeted his parents instead, and brought my parents over to meet them.
“Mom, Dad, I want you to meet Michael’s parents. They treated me like a member of their family.”
“Thank you very much for taking care of our daughter. Laney has told us several times how good you have been to her. My wife and I appreciate all that you’ve done.”
“It’s our pleasure, Dr. Reid. We were just saddened by the fact that Laney will not be joining us in our family activities like she used to in the past.”
“Please call me Henry.”
“And you must call me Michael.” The dads shook hands and the moms gave each other hugs. “I heard that Michael and Laney had a bit of a falling out?” Mr. Bennington asked all of us.
Dad only chuckled. Mom looked very apologetic to Michael’s mother.
“Hello I’m Donovan Taylor.” Donovan rescued us from the awkwardness by introducing himself and putting out his hand first to Mr. Bennington, then to Mrs. Bennington. Even knowing who he was, they greeted him kindly.
“You look beautiful, Mom.” Donovan gave mom a loving embrace that made Mom’s heart melt almost as completely as mine.
“Son?” Dad asked with affection. “Will you get us a glass of wine?”
“White?”
“Sounds good.”
“Can I get you anything, Princess?” I was loving and cringing at this love-fest.
“I’ll take whatever Dad is having.”
“Let me not see any skin on your back tonight,” he whispered, “or those perky nipples I so love to roll around my tongue.”
Damn man got my nipples so hard they were poking through the nipple “patch” I was wearing. Just to show him what he did to me, I lowered the shawl enough for him to go through the evening with an image of my backless dress and perky nipples.
When we all sat down, it was no surprise to any of us that Donovan and I were separated. He was at one end of the table while I was at the other end. And to make matters worse, we sat on the same side so we couldn’t even look at one another. In the Bennington’s defense, all couples were separated except for Jake and Emily. They stayed with each other thanks to JR. The twins were at a table in the kitchen with two collegians who were hired by Mrs. Bennington, to help. The twins loved them immediately as the collegians brought a chest full of toys with them.
“Laney?” Ruby had to shout since the table was so long. “You want to spend the night here tonight?”
“Absolutely not,” Donovan answered her.
“I don’t believe my sister was asking you.”
“I don’t give a damn what you believe. I’m telling your sister, no.”
“How about you come over to Gram’s when you get back to London?” I suggested. “We are here as a family. I should stay with them this weekend.”
“I’ll be back end of next week. When should we meet?” This was rude to speak over everyone but since she was sitting across from Donovan, we had very little choice.
“Donovan said we are going to Vienna next week.” I told Ruby, and then asked Donovan, “When do we leave and when do we return?”
“We have a bit of a change of plans.” He wouldn’t expound.
“And they are?”
“You are going home with Mom and Dad and I am going on several quick trips throughout Europe. I’ll meet you at home Friday or Saturday.”
“Home as in Belgravia?” I asked because the way he said home was a bit suspect.
“Home as in our home in LA.”
“LA? Why are we going there?”
“Many reasons.” This man was being more circumspect than usual.
“And those reasons being...?”
“To make sure our home has a roof, the beach house is still standing, the cars run, the LA office is billing copious hours, to celebrate your father’s 55th birthday, my parents’ 37th wedding anniversary...need I give you more reasons?”
“Oh...” I knew Dad’s birthday was coming up, but I didn’t realize there would be a celebration. “Mom, are we having a party for Dad’s birthday?”
“Of course we are. We always have parties for his birthday.”
“And I’m going home with you and Dad instead of Donovan because...” Would someone give me some answers? I was getting pissed with these non-answer answers.
“We can’t leave till Wednesday and I’ll need your help getting the party together. We decided to combine parties, so it’ll be a bigger production than I originally planned.”
Since it was even ruder of me to only speak with my mother and Donovan, who were both far from me, I dropped the conversation and figured I’d get some answers back at the hotel.
Dinner was long. It was like, I-don’t-know-how-many-courses-I’ve-eaten, long. Michael and his mother kept me apprised of the Bennington goings-on, and all was going well till Ruby asked, “Grandfather. Will you tell us about you and Laney’s grandmum? Why didn’t you marry her?”
Yikes. That was not a topic of conversation I thought would ever come up in this family.
The duke didn’t look happy with the question, but surprisingly, he became a hell of a lot more loquacious than we could have ever imagined. We were done with dinner and moved to another room. Donovan was quick to nab me from the Bennington family and we sat in a comfortably small “love” seat. This is where Michael’s grandfather began his tale.
“I met Estelle for the first time right after she turned eighteen. Her family came here to attend a weekend house party and I couldn’t keep my eyes off her from the moment I met her. She was incredible.”
Looking over at Grandpa Roland, I could tell he agreed with the duke. My grandmother was a loved woman.
“Is that when you decided she was your future Duchess?” Ruby asked.
His Grace looked over at Gram and answered, “Yes. I courted her for about a month, then brought her back up to this castle and proposed to her.”
“How romantic,” Mrs. Bennington sighed.
“She wouldn’t say yes, but she also didn’t say no. She told me it was too soon to know. Our parents had already talked and we were to be married by winter, had all gone well.”
“So why didn’t you say yes to the duke?” I asked Gram.
“It was too soon, and I didn’t want to be like all the girls and get married so young. I wanted to go to the Uni and study more. I also wanted to study fashion. We were finally out of those stuffy dresses and into skirts that were knee-length and wearing pants had become more commonplace. Being a Duchess at eighteen was not what I wanted for myself.”
“Also, your grandmother met Jerry at Oxford.” Duke Harry Bennington spoke in a hard tone that let all of us know what he thought of Jerry Reid.
“I did.” If a picture was worth a thousand words, the picture of Gram when Grandpa Jerry’s name was mentioned was a thousand words of love. “Jerry told me the day he met me that we were destined to be married. I believed he was right. Once we decided to get married, I let Harry know that I couldn’t be his duchess, but never would have believed we wouldn’t speak again till now.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve never kept in touch with Laney’s grandmother till today?” Mrs. Bennington was shocked. “How can that be? She was the love of your life. Her Grace used to always say there was the ghost of Estelle Cowper haunting her every move.”
Gram smiled and stated, “Harry kept in touch in his own sweet way.”
“How?” All the ladies asked at the same time.
Gram smiled even wider. “Harry would send a large bouquet of Foxgloves whenever I celebrated a special occasion—every one of my birthdays, the birth of my five boys, Christmas, but never my wedding anniversary. I don’t know how he knew I’d given birth, but no sooner had I arrived home from the hospital with a newborn, than there they were, the flowers I fell in love with when I first came to thi
s castle. How on earth did you get those to me? I didn’t think they had them in the States back then,” she asked the duke.
“I had my ways,” was all he’d divulge.
“So when you ran into Gram at the golf course, you hadn’t seen her in more than sixty years?” I was amazed. “Why didn’t you fight for my grandmother?” Maybe that wasn’t the correct thing to say. Michael didn’t need any further encouragement.
The duke answered with only a shrug. The rest of us wanted more, but we let it go and got up to say good night.
After thanking the Benningtons, we got in our taxis, but Gram took a few extra minutes talking to His Grace. None of us knew what she said, but Michael’s grandfather uncharacteristically broke out of his stoic demeanor and embraced Gram with a grand smile. She returned the smile and the cuddle.
“Wasn’t that a romantic story?” I nuzzled my head into Donovan’s chest once we got back to the hotel.
“A little reminiscent of our own if you ask me,” the grim-Donovan was here with me.
“That’s what Michael told me on Monday, but he told me he wasn’t going to live in regret like his grandfather and not chase after his future duchess,” I confessed.
Donovan pushed me away just enough to look me eye to eye. “Are you shitting me? That’s bastard thinks he’s going to pursue you while you have a boyfriend?”
“Isn’t that what you did? Pursued me while I was dating Michael?”
“Um...NO! You had been in love with me all your life. I was only reclaiming what was already mine.”
“Do you hear yourself? I am not a piece of property to buy and sell.”
“But if you were, I’d give my entire fortune and live the life a beggar for a chance to be with you.” He covered his faux pas nicely. That deserved a kiss in many places, and not just his lips.
We golfed one last time with only our family and left for Belgravia after lunch. Donovan was busy preparing for his trip, so I kept myself busy helping Emily with the three kids, then preparing for my visit to LA.
“Why can’t I come with you on your business trip this time?”