Richard brought the tray to the desk, slopped brandy into both glasses and lifted his in salute. ‘Amen to that!’
Charles steadily downed the remainder of the decanter as he wrote a letter to the King. By the time he’d finished both the brandy and the letter, neither of them made much sense. Richard was careful not to drink too much, but allowed Charles to bury his grief the only way a soldier could. He carefully removed the over long and insulting missive from under Charles’s hand after his face had finally settled on the blotter. He tore it into tiny shreds and fed them to the fire.
He left his friend, snoring in the study and went to find the Duchess. ‘Deacon? Where is the Duchess?’ he asked politely.
‘I believe she is in her suite with her son, my Lord.’ Deacon said softly.
‘Do you know who is keeping vigil?’
‘I believe Lady’s Margaret and Agatha are in the Chapel at the moment. Mrs. Tate was wondering if there will be dinner tonight.’
‘I would say so, but not too fancy or formal. But I shall check for you with the Duchess.’ Richard sighed. ‘Charles is asleep in the study. Don’t disturb him, if you need to wake him up, call me.’ He set off upstairs and sure enough Victoria was in the ducal suite.
He knocked politely on the main door and a maid opened it. ‘My Lord. Her Grace is indisposed.’ She said and Richard took no notice, but strode in the room.
‘That may be, but there are decisions to be made and we will need her attention.’
‘It’s all right, Susan,’ Victoria said as she emerged from the bedroom in a black silk mourning dress. ‘Richard is right.’ She looked at him. ‘Where is Charles?’ she asked surprised.
‘In the study. He’s already consumed a decanter of brandy and written a very saucy letter to the King.’ Victoria gasped and put her hand over her mouth in horror. ‘Luckily I was there and that particular missive is now up in smoke.’ He smiled softly. ‘I threw it on the fire.’ He sighed, ‘and Charles is sleeping it off. I’ve ordered Deacon and Mrs. Tate to lay on dinner, but it won’t be formal or rich. Just simple food to feed our bodies.’
‘Please sit down.’ She indicated a chair beside the fireplace. ‘This isn’t my first bereavement. It was difficult when Robert died, not because it wasn’t such a shock, but the title had to pass to a boy. Edward was only five when his father died, but he remembers it and today in the Chapel I could see the terror in his face, as he recalled that day. Yes, I will shed a great many more tears for Thomas, because I truly loved him, but I’m in control now.’ She smiled wanly. ‘I think you should see Kitty, she is distraught.’ Richard nodded and stood. ‘I’ve invited Sir Francis for dinner as well as the magistrate. I think we should all hear what he has to say.’ She looked calmly at Richard. ‘See if you can sober Charles up, because we need him here, not in his cups.’
‘Yes, Your Grace.’ He said and left smartly. Just down the corridor he could hear Kitty crying. He tapped on her door and it was opened by her maid Mary.
‘She’s distressed, My Lord.’ Mary said softly. ‘I can’t get her to stop crying long enough to change her clothes.’
‘Let me see if I can help.’ And as he stepped into the room Kitty ran into his arms with a fresh heave of her shoulders. Mary had managed to get her jacket off and the skirt.
‘Have you heard?’ she gulped out in between sobs.
‘Yes.’ He said calmly. ‘I’m sorry, Kitty.’ She tried to burrow into his chest and again found one of his wounds as she tried to hug him. He groaned loudly and staggered sideways.
‘Richard!’ she called and tried desperately to keep him on his feet. But his knees gave way and all Kitty could do was stop his head from hitting the floor as he blacked out. ‘Mary?!’ she called and the maid appeared in the doorway. ‘Fetch me some cold water and a flannel and ask a couple of footmen to help me get him on the bed.’ Mary bustled away and was back in no time. Kitty constantly stroked his hair, murmuring to him and hadn’t even realised that she’d stopped crying. Mary squeezed out the flannel and Kitty wiped it over his face.
‘What’s the matter with him, Lady Amelia?’ Deacon asked from the doorway as he hustled the footmen in.
‘I think it’s his wounds from Badajoz. He said they were aching this afternoon.’ She looked at the men around her. ‘Help me get his jacket and shirt off and then we can lay him on his face on the bed.’
It didn’t take three men long to get his upper body bare and all three sucked in sharply as his scarring was revealed. ‘That’s fine. You can leave now.’ Kitty said firmly after he was on his face on her bed. ‘Mary? I’ll need a large cold compress, if you could ask Mrs. Tate to make one. No make that three.’ She ordered and Mary hustled away. Carefully she pulled Richard’s boots off and spread the eiderdown over his legs. She sat on the edge of the bed and just looked at the ridged destruction on his back. There were five distinct scars from what looked like bullets and a ridged burn in the centre of his back. The skin in the burn was puckered and shiny. It looked red and angry and when Mary returned with an armful of hand towels and a bucket of cold water from the well, Kitty dunked the first towel in the bucket, squeezed it out and folded it in half, before laying it on his back. He moaned. ‘Mary? Go and fetch some brandy. He’ll probably need some when he wakes up.’ She remembered just how he drank the brandy in the conservatory and hoped he wouldn’t just upend the decanter today. She soaked the next towel in the bucket and twisted the water out, before she switched it with the warm one, making him moan again.
‘It’s alright, darling.’ She murmured. ‘Everything is just fine.’
Mary delivered the brandy. ‘Is there anything else?’ Kitty just shook her head as she sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Are you sure? I could prepare a bath for you?’ Mary insisted. Kitty nodded vaguely. ‘Very good, my Lady.’ Mary withdrew, quietly closing the door behind her.
Every time she changed the towel, Richard moaned and eventually she couldn’t resist him any longer and slowly she traced her fingers delicately over the round blobs of his wounds. He had two in each of his shoulders, one above the scapula and one below. There was one lower down, near his right kidney. She had studied a little anatomy when Charles left for the Peninsular, just in case he was killed and she would know how he died. Now she’d stopped crying she wondered where the bullet had hit her father and was so distracted by it that she traced her lips over the ridge of the burn, making Richard groan, but not in pain. He suddenly rolled over and grabbed her, pulling her onto his chest. ‘You should sleep.’ He murmured. Kitty was startled, but too fascinated to move, as her gaze travelled over his muscular chest. Delicately she circled one of his nipples with her fingertip provoking a chuckle from him. ‘If you do that I shall have to do the same.’ He mumbled.
‘Is that a promise?’ she whispered.
‘You can count on it!’ he said more firmly and rolled her on her back. He was almost awake as his lips found hers and he was just thinking about opening her shirt when he realised he was naked from the waist up and they were on a bed.
‘Kitty!?’ he exclaimed suddenly. ‘What the hell am I doing in your bedroom?’
‘You damned well passed out!’ she spoke hoarsely, as he had ignited the fire that Victoria had spoken about that afternoon. She thrust her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down for more kisses and Richard was astonished that her body was thrumming. He scooped his hand around her waist onto her back and pulled her against him and gasped as her hips rose in supplication.
Kitty was aware that her body wanted something, but she wasn’t at all sure what, until Richard twitched her shirt out from her britches. His hand was calloused and warm as it stroked her waist, then her ribs and finally settled on her breast, making the nipple pucker in arousal. Richard swallowed her gasp as he took her lips in a soul shattering kiss. The supple weight of her breast filling his hand, the point a hard button in his palm.
‘Oh! God!’ he murmured as his fingers slowly opened the buttons on her shirt. ‘
You have to tell me to stop, Kitty, because I’ve lost all control now.’ He muttered as he peeled the shirt over her shoulder and kissed her collarbone gently.She’s perfect.He thought as his lips traversed her upper breast.Her breasts are just the right size for my hand.He slid his hand over and cupped the breast, circling his thumb around the hard crest until his mouth got there and he slowly engulfed her nipple in his mouth.
She moaned and clutched his hair as she felt him suckle on her breast. It sent spirals of desire down her body to the juncture of her thighs and she felt her sex throb. She didn’t notice that he had deftly opened the buttons on her britches, until his fingers touched her pubic hair. In a thoroughly wanton display, Kitty opened her legs for him. Richard gasped as he slid his fingers over her labia, stroking the cleft softly as he persuaded admittance, instead of burrowing in like a beast. ‘Oh! Richard.’ She gasped as his fingers found the way in and stroked her satiny core. He lifted his head and looked down into her face, seeing the flush of desire on her skin as well as a blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. The proof of her arousal was weeping from her and Richard didn’t want to waste it. His finger lazily traced a course from her opening back up to her pure and untouched clitoris. He needed her naked and suddenly he was stripping off her boots and the britches. He ran to the door and locked it before he came back to the bed undoing his britches and discarding them on the floor.
‘Kitty my love.’ He murmured in her ear. ‘I want you now.’ He laid his hand flat on her stomach and felt her muscles ripple with desire.
‘Yes, Richard. Now would be fine.’ She murmured as her fingers closed around his penis, making him groan as all the blood in his body arrived in his groin, making it throb and pulse in time with his thudding heart.
‘I want to taste you.’ he said as his lips suckled her nipple again.
‘Can I taste you, too?’ she asked innocently and Richard groaned as he again imagined her silky lips sliding over the head of his manhood.Could I ask her to suck my cock?He asked himself and then forgot about it as he traced his tongue down her belly, circling her navel a few times, before continuing on it’s journey to paradise.
Kitty was astonished when his mouth touched her most intimate place. Her eyes flew open as she inhaled sharply, but a moan escaped with her breath as his tongue flicked across her clitoris before he plunged it into her vagina. She instinctively lifted her hips for him and he cupped her firm buttocks in his palms as he coaxed the first orgasm from her untutored body. Kitty opened her legs wider, without even realising she was doing it and as her body started to tremble on the verge, her hands flew into his hair as if she would push him away or pull him closer. Richard felt the first throb of her contracting passage as he heard her cry out and he kept her coming for as long as he could.
Kitty was overwhelmed by the sensations and emotions roiling inside her body, she was so self absorbed, that she didn’t notice Richard had moved until she felt the pressure as his penis nudged her opening.
‘Stay relaxed, beautiful. This should only sting for a second or two.’
‘Why?’ she asked dreamily.
‘Because I have to break your maidenhead.’ He whispered and stroked his fingers over her cheek. ‘It’s necessary, I’m afraid.’
‘I know.’ She whispered as she felt him push steadily in, stretching her impossibly wide, filling her to bursting point and making her gasp. He didn’t stop at her hymen either, but pushed straight through making her jerk and gasp again, as her fingers dug into his biceps.
‘There. I’m in, now you should relax.’
‘I don’t know whether I can.’ She panted.
‘Your body will adjust.’ He muttered as a light sheen of sweat broke out over his body from holding himself in check. He kissed her gently. ‘I love you, Kitty.’ He murmured as he slowly pulled back. ‘Oh God! I love you so much!’ burst from him as he thrust into her again and she lifted her hips for him, quickly picking up the rhythm of his passion.
Again she was overwhelmed by the sensations bombarding her, the slick friction inside as he moved forcing her to strive for a pinnacle she couldn’t imagine or even see.
Richard was stunned as he felt her body start to demand, as untutored as it was, he could feel her orgasm building and slipped his hand between them so that he could put just the right amount of pressure and friction on her dainty clitoris. It galvanised her body, making her moan and he increased the pace. ‘Come for me, Kitty.’ He begged softly in her ear. ‘I need you to come now!’
‘Oh!...Oh!’ she gasped as he felt the muscles in her vagina ripple and milch him. ‘Oh! God I’m coming!’ she said in wonder as her body convulsed beneath him. He felt his testicles cramp and the first burst of his ejaculation as he pushed in to the hilt, shuddering with the force of his orgasm, every muscle in his body held rigid in the rapture of the moment.
Chapter 13
Louise opened the door to the study cautiously. Deacon had assured her that Charles was in there and as the door swung open, she could see him asleep at the desk. She closed the door carefully behind her and moved silently across the room, sitting demurely in the chair Richard had vacated. She watched Charles sleep as he twitched and jerked in whatever nightmare he was dreaming about. She noticed the empty decanter and knew that’s why he was asleep.
Louise would never admit to anybody that she had been in love with Charles Stafford since the first time Kitty took them all to Mickleton Hall while they were still girls. That first summer, there was Millicent, her sister Anne and Emily Blunt, who was no longer considered a friend. Thomas had called them the Frilly Five, but Charles hadn’t really taken any notice of them. Robin had been interested in Emily, because she was flirtatious by nature and, of course, her beauty was incomparable even at thirteen, but Louise didn’t really like him and was very glad that Thomas wouldn’t arrange a marriage for his son. She became very embarrassed by her father, constantly badgering for Robin to marry her, but to hers and Robin’s relief, Thomas wouldn’t hear of it.
Charles had caught her eye that first summer. She thought he was so handsome, but in comparison to now, he’d been a gawky teenage boy. She admired his resemblance to his father, Robin hadn’t looked at all like Thomas, but he did resemble the portrait of his mother that used to hang in the formal drawing room at their Grosvenor Square mansion.
‘Charles.’ She said evenly. ‘You should wake up now.’ He jumped, but didn’t wake up. She sighed and tried another tactic. ‘Captain Stafford.’ She said loudly. ‘Captain, wake up!’ she said as she slapped her palm on the desk top.
Charles jerked, sat up and washed his hands over his face. ‘Louise.’ He said softly. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m visiting.’ She said unhelpfully. ‘May I enquire why your bed isn’t good enough for an intoxicated nap?’ she asked looking pointedly at the empty decanter.
‘You weren’t in it.’ He muttered under his breath, or so he thought.
‘I could be, if you were willing to just take me there.’ She said evenly, looking demurely at her hands. ‘I got the impression that you didn’t want to upset your father.’
‘I don’t want to.’ Charles said without thinking and then realised what he’d said. He looked up at Louise sharply. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he.’
‘Yes, Charles. He’s dead and you are the new Duke of Durham. I know you don’t want the title, but unless Victoria is already pregnant, you have no choice.’
‘Victoria being pregnant won’t change a thing.’ He muttered darkly. ‘I’m the Duke and I’m stuck with it.’ Her heart turned over at how depressed he sounded.
‘Maybe we can learn together.’ She murmured. ‘That is if you still want to marry me?’ she asked and Charles was struck by the desolation in her face.
He lurched out of his chair and swung around the desk. ‘Of course I still want to marry you,’ he said as he reached for her hands and pulled her to her feet. ‘You are so beautiful.’ He said as he stroked his fingers across her cheek to c
up the back of her head and crushed his lips over hers. He was so astonished, when she rested her palm on his throbbing erection, that he snatched his mouth away from hers and audibly gasped. ‘Don’t.’ He mumbled as he stepped back. ‘Please? I don’t trust myself.’
‘In what way don’t you trust yourself, Charles?’ she asked provocatively as she moved forward.
Jesus! I’m in over my head! He thought, recognising the light in her eyes as he stepped back again and collided with the edge of the desk across his buttocks. ‘I don’t trust myself not to tear your clothes off and make love to you on the rug in front of the fire!’ he gabbled, his voice not sounding like his at all. He tried to clear his throat as she smiled wickedly.
‘That sounds delightful.’ She murmured, turned abruptly around and walked towards the door. Charles sighed deeply in relief, but it was short lived as she asked ‘Do you love me?’
‘What kind of question is that?’ he demanded rather more harshly than he intended.
She stood facing the closed door. ‘I just wondered whether you knew yet.’
‘You fascinate me.’ Charles admitted grudgingly, slowly relaxing against the desk and shoving his fingers through his hair in exasperation. ‘Do you love me?’ he asked deliberately.
‘Yes. But then I have from the first day I saw you.’ she said and looked at him over her shoulder, her golden eyes blazing like fire. Suddenly she turned the key in the lock on the door and walked back to the desk. ‘I think you should indulge yourself, Your Grace.’ She said as she snaked her arms around his neck and invited him to kiss her again.
It was too much for him and he crushed his mouth over hers as he wrapped his arms around her body, pulling it firmly against him. He moaned as his fingers undid the back of her dress and he shook his head in denial as his hands forced the dress off her shoulders. He was utterly astounded to find her naked underneath her dress and suddenly she stood before him in all her glory, the late evening sun making golden blocks on her body. Her nipples were erect.They are the same colour as her blushes,he decided in awe. She smiled as she reached up for the pins in her hair and suddenly it was flashing in the sun too, like the flames in a blaze. She shook her head, making her hair tumble about her body and leaned forward to drop the pins on the desk. ‘You have a good deal too many clothes on.’ She said huskily and reached for his silk cravat, pulling the end slowly until the bow burst open. Charles was galvanised into action and he wrenched his jacket off, flicked open the first few buttons on his shirt, before he yanked the whole thing over his head and started on the buttons of his britches.
The Theft of a Dukedom Page 16