by Gill, Tamara
The following morning Louise all but floated down the stairs to the breakfast table. She entered the room, hoping to find Luke breaking his fast. Instead she found it empty of everyone. She turned to a nearby footman. “Where is everyone this morning?”
She sat at the table and requested tea, toast and bacon.
“His lordship along with Miss Sophie and Mr. Stephen have gone for a ride, your ladyship. They said they would be back to join you at breakfast.”
Louise took a sip of tea, sighing at its sweetness just as the door opened and the marquess walked in with her siblings. All of them were flushed, hair askew from riding. They looked refreshed and happy and her heart twisted at knowing her siblings were safe and content.
She met the marquess’s gaze and her stomach clutched with need. He was so very handsome and he was hers. Hers to have whenever she wanted. The thought made her cheeks burn and she turned back to her toast and bacon, hoping he’d not guessed her wayward thoughts. She was turning into a wanton.
“You’re up?” he said, coming to sit at the table to her right. “You look well today, my lady.”
Her gaze tore to him. He grinned, ordering coffee before picking up The Times beside him. “Sophie and Stephen are becoming quite the riders, Louise. You would be proud of them.”
“We are, Louise. I even had a try of cantering today. I didn’t fall off, so one would assume that in itself would be quite the accomplishment.”
Stephen laughed. “You did bounce about though, Sophie. I thought you would break your poor pony’s back a time or two.”
Sophie swiped at their brother’s arm, laughing. “I confess I need to learn to sit solidly in the saddle, but his lordship said that will come with practice. And I’m determined to be a great horsewoman.”
“I’m sure you will be,” Luke said, turning the page on his paper and throwing Louise a grin. “We are going to do a turnabout the park this afternoon in the carriage. All of us,” he declared.
Sophie clapped, all but bouncing in her chair at the news.
“We are?” Louise asked, wondering at his change of heart. Had he altered his mind about having a wife and was willing to do things with her? To be dedicated to their marriage as she hoped? After last night, hope had bloomed inside her there could be more between them than she first thought. There was little doubt in her mind that when alone, the air all but thrummed with a delicious tension. Surely they could build on that, work to make their marriage one that was satisfying to them both.
“You’re my wife. Your siblings are now my responsibility. A ride in the park as a family is not outrageous.”
Louise studied Luke a moment as she’d never heard him use that term before. She reached out and clasped his hand, squeezing it a little. “A ride in the park would be lovely.”
Over the next few weeks they did multiple trips to the park, along with the museum, Vauxhall and Richmond Park. Little by little she learned more about her husband, what his likes and dislikes were. They laughed at gossip, and at balls and parties he was always by her side, a protector and husband.
The night he’d put little Lady Clara in her place before Louise had been an exceptionally high point in their relationship.
Louise stood beside Luke at the Cavendish ball, waiting for the waltz that she’d promised to her husband. She held his arm, enjoying the warmth that his person afforded her, being so close. He glanced down at her and she sighed, swallowing the lump wedged in her throat.
Somewhere over the last few weeks she’d fallen utterly in love with the man. They laughed and played through the days, enjoying their newly formed family, going on excursions and Luke had showed them many sights of London she’d never known of. At night they had come together, their passions set free. Not one evening since he’d pulled her into his room after the delicious carriage ride home had she slept in her bed. Always in his, always waking up in a tangle of arms and legs.
It was heavenly and she’d been powerless to stop her heart from tumbling head first into love with him. She loved him more than she ever thought a person could be loved. He was everything to her. The question was, did he love her in return?
“You look beautiful tonight, my lady,” he said, leaning down, his whispered words against her ear sending a shiver of delight down her spine.
“You look good enough to eat, my lord,” she teased. His eyes burned with desire and she clutched his arm harder, liking the fact that the action pushed her breast, her nipple against him and teased her.
“And you wish to eat me here, my lady?” He started moving them toward a nearby door. Louise grinned, following without question.
“Are you not going to dance with me?” she asked, as the first strains of the waltz sounded.
“No, we have other dances to take part in.” Luke pulled her through multiple rooms, all deserted and closed off for the ball.
“You know this house very well,” she stated, not totally at ease by the fact.
He chuckled. “I’ve known the family all my life and therefore the house as well. There is nothing more to it than that.” He pulled her into a small room moderately furnished. The curtains were drawn, but with a moonlit night, the glow seeped through the fabric and bathed the room in enough light so that they could see.
Luke clasped her hand, walking her slowly to a nearby settee. He sat, looking up at her, and she didn’t move. He was so very handsome, with his superfine suit, his groomed hair and perfectly tied cravat. She wanted to muss him all over. Send him spiraling into mayhem as much as he always did to her.
Louise kneeled before him, and his eyes widened.
“What are you doing?” he asked, although not in the least attempting to shift her from her knees.
She reached out and, holding his gaze, slipped free each button on his breeches. His eyes burned with need and heat pooled at her core. Who knew that giving pleasure, which she was utterly about to try, could give pleasure in turn?
“I’ve wanted to attempt this for some time now. Let me,” she said, reaching between the flap of his breeches and clasping his rigid member.
He leaned back on the settee, a willing participant, and wickedness thrummed through her veins. Louise pushed his knees farther apart and shuffled closer to the settee. She ran her hand up his thighs, the strong, corded muscles beneath her palms flexing at her touch.
“This is very wicked of you, my lady.”
“Hmmm,” she said, pulling him free. She bit her lip, having never seen his penis so close before, she’d wondered a moment how on earth she took him inside of her with ease. He was so large, so solid and hard and yet the skin about his phallus was the softest thing she’d ever felt. Utterly amazing.
He groaned, pushing into her hand and she looked up and caught his gaze. His breath was ragged and she tightened her grip, pumping his cock a couple of times to tease him more.
“You’re a vixen.”
Louise leaned over him and kissed the tip of his penis. It jerked at the touch and she smiled, sticking out her tongue a little to lick the droplet of moisture that sat there. He gasped her name, clasping the nape of her neck, but not urging her down, simply accepting whatever she wanted to do to him. And she wanted to do so much.
Licking her lips, she placed them over his manhood, sliding down his engorged penis, running her tongue along the base of his phallus, teasing the vein that ran there. She sucked, increasing her speed when she noticed that doing so only seemed to give him greater pleasure.
He was delicious as she’d always thought he would be.
Luke was sure he saw stars. To have Louise on her knees before him, taking him into her mouth and sucking with an expert precision left him speechless. His body thrummed with need, his balls swelled and ached for release. The base side of him wanted to spill in her mouth, and yet he wouldn’t. Not here. Not tonight.
He leaned back in the chair, clasping the nape of her neck as she slid up and down over his cock. He wanted to come, he wanted to fuck her in every which way h
e could. Over the last weeks she’d weakened his defenses and the walls he’d put up about his heart had slowly cracked away.
His chest ached when he spied her about the house, when she laughed he smiled. Silly and odd things such as these happened all the time, and for the first time since he was a boy, he enjoyed the sound of people in his home.
Somehow Louise had shown him what it meant to have a family again. She had brought him into their fold of three and made them a fold of four and his heart had moved.
Unable to take a moment more of her ministrations, he wrenched her onto his lap, grasping at her skirts to lift them to her waist and sheathed himself fully into her tight core.
They moaned in unison before she lifted on him, kissing him as she took her own pleasure upon his cock.
“You feel so good,” he said, kissing her back and tasting himself upon her lips.
She mumbled her agreement as she increased her pace, her little mews of satisfaction keeping him from coming too soon. Her core suckled his cock, warm and tempting as sin. She shook in his arms and he knew she was close. She rode him, knew how to bring pleasure to herself when atop him like this and he sat there, holding her and letting her have her fill.
“You’re so beautiful,” he gasped. Louise murmured his name against his lips as the first contractions of her climax spiraled through her. Luke let go, allowed her core to drag him along and he moaned her name as his seed shot into her again and again.
He kissed her deep and long, and the final stone about his heart crumbled away and he accepted it for what it was.
He’d fallen in love with his wife.
Chapter 13
A letter arrived two days later from a woman who claimed to be nursing their aunt who’d grown ill during her visit to Bath. The woman requested Louise and her siblings come to Sandbach as soon as possible.
Louise set the letter in her lap, looking over to Luke who sat at his desk, watching her.
“Is something the matter?” he asked. He stood, coming over to her. “Who was the letter from?”
Louise handed it to him, before standing and ringing the bell. “We’ll have to go straightaway. I’ll have the maids pack a valise for each of us.”
Luke looked up from the missive, understanding clear in his eyes. “Of course. I’ll have a carriage readied for you. I will follow you in a day or two. I have a parliamentary session tomorrow that I cannot miss.”
He stood and pulled her into his arms. She wrapped her hands about his back as tears pricked her eyes. Her aunt had been there for all of them for so many years. Upon her marriage, she’d sent some of her pin money to help her with her travels, and her aunt had wasted no time going about England and Scotland on her tours.
That she had fallen ill in Bath and that it did not sound good was so unfair. “Just when she was enjoying herself, having a little time for herself, and this happens.”
Luke rubbed her back, kissing her temple and hair. “Maybe it’s just a passing virus and she’ll soon get better. Before you panic, wait and see what she is like when you get there.”
Louise nodded. He was right of course, but her stomach churned at the idea of losing her. She was the last person they had in the world. Their only living blood relative.
“I will try,” she said, just as the door opened and a footman entered.
“Ready the traveling coach and have her ladyship’s maid pack a valise for her and her siblings. Straightaway,” Luke said.
The young footman bowed. “Of course, my lord,” he said, closing the door softly behind him.
Luke leaned down and kissed her. “It will all be well. I promise.”
She hugged him again, hoping that were so.
The carriage ride to Sandbach was a long and arduous one. They had forgone staying overnight at the Inn at Northampton, and had instead simply changed horses, ate dinner and continued toward Cheshire. Louise stared out the window, the night closing in fast. The inn had given them heated bricks and in this part of England it looked like they had suffered some summer storms, the road muddy with water, laying over it in places.
She glanced back at her siblings, both of them sound asleep and each of them leaning up against the side of the carriage. She took in their fine clothes, their fuller cheeks and smiled that she’d been able to finally give them security. The chance of a life just a little easier than their prospects were before.
A large crack sounded and Louise clasped the squabs as the carriage tipped alarmingly to one side. The sound of screaming horses and that of her siblings merged with her own as they rolled off the road and down an embankment. Grass and rock broke into the carriage, wood splintered and Louise gasped as something solid smashed into her forehead. The world blurred before her, all of them flaying about like dolls being tossed in the air, before everything went quiet and thankfully, peacefully, black.
One week later, Luke sat beside the bed where Louise lay, still and injured after their accident. Having heard of the carriage accident, he had ordered her and her siblings to be moved to Lord Buxton’s estate, a friend of his for many years and who was more than willing to help. Luke had demanded his doctor from London travel to them and attend her posthaste.
Unfortunately, Louise would never get to say goodbye to her aunt, who passed away the day of the carriage accident. His heart hurt for her that she would wake and find out such news, news that would break her heart.
He ran a hand over her face, pushing aside a lock of hair that had slipped over her eyes. Her forehead sported a large, deep gash that the doctor had stitched, but it would leave a scar. Possibly leave her with a scar far deeper than the skin.
The doctor had warned them that she may never be of sound mind again.
That she had not woken at all, not even when they had placed smelling salts beneath her nose was not a favorable sign, or so the doctor had stated. Luke spoke to her daily, just as he was told to do, and yet she continued to lay still, not even a flicker of an eyelid or twitch of her finger.
Nothing.
He sat back, running his hand over his jaw as the sight of her brought back a deluge of memories. Of his mother and father, little sister lying on their beds, cold and dead. Never to laugh and smile again.
He couldn’t do it again. He should never have allowed himself to care. Nothing good ever came out of caring for others. Louise, lying in this bed, lifeless and pale. Her stillness was the thing that haunted his dreams, a nightmare come true to life. It was not what he’d ever wanted to partake in again.
The door to the room opened and her brother hobbled inside, the walking stick helping him about. He too had been hurt, a severe sprained ankle, multiple cuts and bruises. Surprisingly, Sophie had fared the best of the three. She had sustained cuts and bruises, but had managed to miss most objects that would cause her harm and had been the one who waved down help for her siblings when she’d climbed up the embankment and sought assistance.
The driver was found dead, and the doctor had come to the conclusion he’d had some medical event prior to losing control of the carriage. Both carriage horses had to be put down. When Luke had inspected the carriage at the nearby town, he’d been amazed anyone had survived such an accident.
Thank God they had, but there was a lesson in this for him. He’d let his guard down, let himself feel and care for someone again only to have that possibly ripped from under him. If his life had taught him anything, it should have been that perhaps he wasn’t meant to love. Perhaps he wasn’t worthy of the emotion.
“Any change, my lord?” Stephen asked, seating himself at the other side of the bed.
“No.” Luke stood and strode to the window, needing to see anything other than his wife in such a condition. “I have to return to London. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”
Stephen glanced at him, his face ashen. “You cannot leave. Not with Louise in such a state.”
His words tore at his conscience and he pushed it away. He’d almost lost this young man as well. A boy on the b
rink of manhood that he’d grown to care for. To think that all of them could’ve been torn away, just like his own sweet sister. His stomach churned at the thought. He couldn’t do it.
Panic seized him and he leaned against the windowpane for support, breathing deeply lest he cast up his accounts over the Aubusson rug at his feet. If he left now, before she worsened, then he could distance himself from the situation. Allow others to deal with the issue and be done with it. To stay, to see Louise worsen, wither away and die before him was not to be borne. He’d seen enough dead bodies to last him a lifetime, he would not stay and see another. Not if he could help it.
“I must go,” he said, unable to meet Louise’s brother’s disapproving eyes. Yet he didn’t need to look at the young man to feel the loathing aimed at his back.
“If you care for my sister at all, even the smallest amount, you will stay. Help us bring her back.”
Luke cringed. Damn it, the urge to bolt coursed through him, yet his feet remained lodged firmly on the floor. His mind screaming to leave and another part of him, a part he’d not thought to use ever again ached to stay. To be strong and face the worst head on.
“Luke?” Louise fought against the fog that clouded her mind. Her mind was awash with images of her rolling, of flying about in the carriage as they tumbled down the embankment. The sound echoed in her ears and she opened her eyes, wanting to rid herself of it all.
She focused on the ceiling sporting images of cherubs on clouds. She tried to remember where she was heading and why. She took in the four-poster bed and couldn’t place it.
Where was she?
“Luke?”
A warm, comforting hand clasped hers and she shut her eyes. “I’m here, Louise.”
“Stephen. Sophie? Where are–”
“We’re both well, sister,” her brother said, taking her other hand and clasping it tight. He leaned over it and she heard the sob that broke through his composure. “We’re a little bruised and sore just as yourself, but we will heal.”