Andrew shook his head as if he, too, wasn’t quite able to focus. “Did I do something wrong?” she whispered, and he smiled and kissed her again.
He explored her slowly but as thoroughly as he had once talked of exploring continents—and he claimed her as completely as any adventurer had ever claimed a mountain peak or an island. He brought her to ecstasy with his hands and his mouth, and held her while she trembled through her first orgasm. Only then did he slide inside her, slowly and gently stroking her—until Kate whimpered in frustration and his control broke. He surged deep inside her, thrusting hard, until to her infinite satisfaction they reached the pinnacle together.
***
Simon’s calm agreement—his matter-of-fact assessment that Olivia should change her name when she moved on from Halstead—chilled her heart and made her wonder if this conversation was only an intellectual exercise to him.
What was wrong with her, anyway? She had never expected faithfulness, for she had never considered it possible for Simon. But had she truly been foolish enough to hope she might be different from his other mistresses, that her moment in the sun might actually last?
Simon went on in a matter-of-fact tone. “You require a protector who will assure that the scum up in Lincolnshire is no longer in a position to harm you.”
“A protector,” Olivia said slowly. Was he suggesting that she simply move on to another man, another affair? “No. I have no intention of… of becoming a lightskirt.”
“Olivia—”
“Please, Simon, just let me finish. I beg you, help me to go away. Help me to find a place where we can live quietly.”
He frowned. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t expect anything further from you—just a little help to get myself away, to reestablish myself somewhere else. You must see that even if it wasn’t for the gossip, I can’t let Charlotte grow up just outside the gates of Halstead, wondering why she’s never invited to the manor anymore when she remembers being an honored guest.”
“No, you can’t let her grow up outside the gates of Halstead.”
It was all the confirmation she needed; this was the end, then. Sadness washed over her.
“Stay inside Halstead, Olivia,” he said softly. “Stay right here with me.”
If she was starving and staring at a loaded table she was not allowed to touch, it would not have hurt her so much as to be offered something she wanted so badly but could not have. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I don’t ever want to have to explain to Charlotte what I did to secure her future.”
“Marry me,” Simon said, “and you need never tell her anything at all. I will protect you both.”
The words seem to echo around her.
Marry me… But she must not salve her pain by hurting him. Olivia shook her head. “You’re only offering because you feel responsible for the gossip, for what Sir Jasper is saying.”
“Why should I feel responsible for the insanity of your late husband’s brother?”
“Because I’ve lived here for months without incident, until I met you. Then Sir Jasper realized it might be worth looking into my past, and here we are. But it would have happened anyway, sooner or later. You’re not to blame.”
“I am not offering for you out of guilt, Olivia. Or to protect you, either, though I have every intention of doing so. Sir Jasper will not say another word about you to anyone, ever.”
“You seem very certain of that.” She studied him more closely. “You don’t look as though you’ve been in a brawl.”
“Drawing his cork would have been satisfactory but crude—and within minutes everyone in the house would have known, which would hardly have put a stop to the gossip. However, I know a few things about Sir Jasper that he would prefer not to become common knowledge.”
“Blackmail?”
“He seemed to grasp the concept readily enough when it was turned back on him.”
“You are very kind.”
“Dammit, I’m not kind. I’m a selfish brute and I want you.” He leaned his chin against her hair. “I need you, Olivia. There must be a hundred and fifty rooms at Halstead, and so far I’ve made love in just one of them.”
She blinked. “That can’t be correct.”
“You told me quite emphatically that I should never bring a mistress to the duchess’s room, and I haven’t. But as it happens, I’ve never brought a woman to Halstead at all—not until now. Not until you.”
“Never?” Her voice was little more than a squeak.
“Never. There were always more convenient options to carry out my affaires. I didn’t know I was saving Halstead for you, but that’s the fact.”
Her throat had closed up so completely that she couldn’t speak.
“Somewhere between the grape juice and the abbey, I fell in love with you. Marry me, and make this our home. Be my duchess, and the mother of our children—Charlotte, and the others we’ll have.”
“I—Your Grace…”
“Simon,” he reminded. “I’d marry you tonight if I could, darling, but it’s almost midnight and I think the archbishop would balk at giving up dancing to write out a special license.”
Olivia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, to agree or to protest. Was it possible he was telling the truth? He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring set with a huge emerald and slid it onto her finger. “It’s the Somervale emerald, but you can’t keep it unless you agree to keep me as well.”
Even then, she hesitated. It was only when he kissed her—the soft, gentle kiss of a lover—that she relaxed and melted into him, feeling as if she had indeed come home. With her surrender, he grew more demanding, until the air around them sizzled with the strength of their passion.
Finally it was Simon who broke the kiss. “Though I would dearly love to take you to your new bedroom right now, a wise woman told me to reserve that room for my duchess on our wedding night. So we have time on our hands. Perhaps we should go peek into the nursery and check on our daughter?”
***
Less than two hours before Lady Daphne’s wedding, Penelope ventured out of her bedroom and ran into Kate in the entrance hall. When Penelope saw the appraising look on her friend’s face, she felt her cheeks flush.
“I was starting to think you might miss the wedding as well as the ball,” Kate said.
Penelope’s embarrassment flared into scorching mortification. Even if the guests hadn’t noticed for themselves that the Earl and Countess of Townsend had not appeared for dinner or for the ball on the previous evening, she suspected it was too good a bit of gossip for the ones who had paid attention not to pass on to everyone who was present. “Do you happen to know where my husband is?”
“He was in the breakfast room a few minutes ago. Some of the guests overindulged last night, and the earl was doctoring them with a sobering potion he said was your father’s recipe.”
The butler approached and presented a tray with a calling card lying in the center. “Lady Townsend, you have a caller.”
Penelope picked up the pasteboard and tapped the edge against her wrist. Then she sighed and crossed the hall to the room Greeley had indicated.
Her caller had not bothered to sit down, but when Penelope noticed the straight-backed wooden chairs, she wasn’t surprised. “Hello, Papa. What brings you to Halstead?”
“I’m not delivering barrels of ale for the wedding,” Ivan Weiss shot back. “I hear tales.”
“Do you? Etta reached London safely, then. Would you like to walk with me in the garden.” Where we’re less likely to be overheard.
“If you’re trying to distract me with flowers…” Ivan Weiss followed her through the great entrance hall and out the nearest side door. He didn’t even stop to examine the justly famous hanging staircase, and his lack of interest set Penelope’s senses quivering.
“What’s this about a torn nightgown, Penny? Etta sounded like you were carrying on like a hoyden down here.”
“Cavorting was the word
she used. She also said I was both common and wanton.”
“Yes, she told me—though I didn’t believe it. My Penny acting like anything but a lady?” He shook his head. “Still, she does have an eye for details, so I came down to find out what’s really going on. If that highfalutin earl has been mistreating my girl, I’ll horsewhip him.”
Penelope’s heart warmed at the idea that her father had not taken Etta’s report at face value—even if he had things entirely wrong. “What nonsense, Papa. But I am glad you are here, for I need to speak with you. You should invest in the earl’s estate.”
A low voice behind her said, “Mr. Weiss need do nothing of the sort. Tell me, ma’am, did you send for your father in order to make this plea?”
Penelope spun around to face the earl. “My lord!” The chilly note in her husband’s voice froze her heart, and she knew she must look the picture of guilt. “No, I did not. But as long as he is here…”
Ivan Weiss cleared his throat. “As matters stand, Penny, any improvements I financed would benefit only a distant cousin of the earl’s, the current heir. My investment would be lost to me entirely, should the earl die without a son.”
“Blackmail will get you nowhere, Papa.”
The earl stepped between them. “Sir, you may go directly to the devil. Your daughter is no longer your responsibility.”
Ivan Weiss asked shrewdly, “Where are you going to get the money to support her?”
“I’m more concerned about her happiness.”
“At any rate, you can’t cut off my allowance, Papa, for Charles told me it’s written into the marriage settlements.”
“Yes, he made certain of that,” Ivan Weiss said.
“That’s enough, sir. Penny is no longer to be badgered about giving you a grandson or menaced by your feeble threats to leave her without funds. In short, stop making your daughter miserable or you will not see her again.”
Ivan Weiss lifted an eyebrow. “What do you say about that, Penny?”
“I should not like to stop seeing you, but if my husband feels it is best…”
Ivan Weiss rubbed the back of his neck as if it hurt.
“It’s time for you to back down, Papa. You must realize by now that you made a foolish move when you chose a man like the Earl of Townsend and then expected to be able to crush him under your foot.”
“Foolish? That’s a strong word, Penny.”
“Yes, foolish. You can’t break him. But perhaps we can all work together.” She slipped a hand through her husband’s arm. “We’re going to rebuild Stoneyford, Papa, no matter what it takes. The only question is whether you’re going to be a partner or a hindrance.”
Ivan Weiss began to wheeze. Penelope, concerned he was choking, tried to slap him on the back, but her father shrugged her off, and she realized he was laughing.
Finally he wiped his eyes and grinned at her. “Formed a conspiracy against me, have you? Well, it’s about time. I’ll be off now, and when you get back to London we’ll talk about that place of yours, Townsend. Stoneybrook, is it?”
“Stoneyford,” Penelope said firmly. “And we’re not going back to London, at least not to stay. We’re going to Stoneyford, and we will make it our home. So if you’d like to discuss the estate or see me, you can come there and take your potluck.”
The earl said, “Penny, you can’t live in that house.”
She raised her chin. “You were going to.”
“But it’s different for you. It’s no place for a lady just now. There’s nothing in the house but a…”
“Bed?” Ivan Weiss said blandly. “And such a bed it is, too… Oh, yes, Penny, I looked the place over, long since—before the wedding, in fact. I wanted to see what I was letting you in for. But I must say I didn’t expect you to take this turn on me. So all the two of you need to set up housekeeping is a bed, eh?”
“There’s a kitchen table, too,” Penelope said placidly. “It will do for a start.”
“Well, well—we’ll talk next week at Stoneyford,” Ivan Weiss said. “Perhaps I’ll send down a chair or two for your drawing room, for comfort’s sake.”
The earl drew Penelope into his arms.
Ivan Weiss said, so calmly that Penelope almost didn’t hear him, “Though I might better send sheets and pillows instead. No point in dropping my brass on things that won’t be used!”
***
After a while, Andrew kissed Kate’s temple and said, “If I’m crushing you…”
She shook her head and wrapped her arms tighter. “No. Please don’t move.” She wanted to stay this way all night, to keep him close to her, to hold him inside her as long as she could. To make a memory that would have to last forever.
There would be all the time in the world to be sad over what could never be, she told herself. Tonight, she would simply be grateful. So she kissed his chin and smiled. “That was wonderful, Andrew.”
“You were wonderful. I have wanted this since you were seventeen, when I kissed you in the garden that day. You were so perfect then, so untouched, so innocent—until I nearly destroyed everything. I could so easily have ruined you.”
“And yourself as well, for my father would have come after you with a whip.”
“He was amazingly understanding.”
Kate gasped. “You told my father?”
“It was the only way I could assure it didn’t happen again. He did not fault you in the least, Kate, but he made certain I never had another opportunity to give in to temptation.”
“I thought you avoided me because I didn’t know how to kiss.”
“You didn’t. But I liked teaching you—far too much to trust myself.”
“Daphne said…” She broke off, but when Andrew raised his head a fraction and looked at her, she couldn’t avoid his gaze. “When you stopped talking to me, she said it was because I had embarrassed you with my schoolgirl fantasies.”
“Daphne has always been a little witch. She spent that summer trying to flirt with me—so no wonder she took aim at you, if she realized where my dreams had led me.”
“But after that summer, you never came back to Halstead again, until now.”
“I didn’t dare hope you would still be here, Kate—and free. Are you as fond of me now as you were then?”
“Let me think,” she said. The rumble of his laughter caressed her body, and she felt him stirring inside her once more.
He dozed off as dawn approached, and Kate slipped away to return to her own room. But she didn’t sleep; she sat at her window and brushed her hair and watched the sun rise.
***
Two hours before Daphne’s wedding was to begin, Kate left the bridesmaids squabbling as they helped each other into their gowns and went in search of a box of rainbow-colored favors that Daphne insisted had been sent down from London.
She detoured to the breakfast room for coffee and watched in bemusement as the Earl of Townsend handed out his father-in-law’s headache remedy. She ran into Penny in the entrance hall, yawning as if she’d had no more sleep than Kate had. When Penny went off to greet her caller, Kate turned toward the morning room—perhaps the blasted box of favors would be there—only to hear Lady Stone’s raspy voice from the stairs.
“There you are, Miss Blakely.” Lady Stone ran an eye over Kate’s new lavender walking dress. “That will do well enough for a start, but you’ll need a complete wardrobe for London. It gives me an ague to see a young woman wearing the same three dresses over and over. I see Iris gave you her trick prayer book.”
Kate had picked up the book, along with her best kid gloves, simply because a prayer book seemed the right thing to carry to a wedding. She frowned. “Her trick prayer book?”
“I couldn’t mistake it. I’m the one who gave it to her years ago—when she was just about to make her come out. I wasn’t always the pillar of rectitude I am now.”
Lady Stone as an example of moral uprightness—now there was a picture, Kate thought. “A prayer book?”
�
�Don’t be dense, Miss Blakely.” Lady Stone reached for the satin bow at the side of the prayer book and tugged. “Look inside.”
At first glance the prayer book was perfectly ordinary. Kate flicked through a dozen pages and then turned one more and gasped. Only the margins were left, just enough to hold the shape of the book. The center of each page all the way to the back cover had been hollowed out to form a little box. In the opening lay a curled slip of paper. Kate unrolled it, and out tumbled a wad of bank notes.
“I don’t know what Iris used it for, but I found it very handy to pass illicit notes to a suitor.” Lady Stone’s tone was nostalgic. “My mother thought one young man quite spiritual because every time I dropped my prayer book, he would soon press it back into my hand.”
Kate read the letter. “My dear Miss Blakely, I know you can use funds, but it feels too cold to offer to pay you for your work, so I make you a gift as a friend. You must count on my friendship wherever you go, and call on me when you have a need. Iris Somervale.”
Once more, Kate thought, she had misjudged the duchess. She must find an opportunity to thank her. Though not, of course, for everything—such as her night with Andrew, which had come about entirely because of the duchess’s invitation…
“Woolgathering?” Lady Stone asked crisply.
“I beg your pardon. When do you leave Halstead, ma’am? I ask so I can be ready to travel at your convenience.”
Lady Stone looked thoughtful. “I’d planned to leave for Dorset tomorrow.”
Perhaps I can have one more night with Andrew, Kate thought. “I have only a few things to pack at the cottage. My one regret is that I shall be leaving Lady Reyne in confusion.” At least with the gift from the duchess, Olivia would be able to pay her rent on time after all.
“Oh, you needn’t worry about her,” Lady Stone said briskly. “It’s a good thing for you that Iris is happy this morning, by the way, for she was not pleased last night when you went missing before the ball was finished.”
Kate remembered how easily she had drowned the flicker of conscience as she’d watched the group of bridesmaids go by. “What Her Grace must think of me—she gave me a lovely gift, and then I didn’t carry out my responsibilities.” Even so, Kate could not find it in herself to regret her night with Andrew.
The Wedding Affair Page 29