Lady Theodora, on the other hand, ate like one who had been starving, albeit with good table manners.
Perhaps she hadn’t had much to eat in the past several days, thanks to her father’s gambling losses. Pity, however, was no better a basis for marriage than lust or guilt.
“And now the cake!”
They both turned to see the grinning innkeeper carrying a platter toward them, followed by an equally plump and jolly older woman who must be his wife.
“Can’t be a proper wedding dinner without the cake!” the innkeeper repeated as he set down the platter bearing two slices of what appeared to be fruitcake. Petrified, dried fruitcake.
Dev struggled to keep his expression placid. “Alas, I’m unable to contemplate another morsel after that excellent dinner.”
“Oh, surely you can manage a bite!” the innkeeper’s wife insisted. “Just a wee one.”
Feeling like a minor martyr, Dev picked up the cake and took a bite. Sawdust would have tasted better. He managed to swallow, then immediately reached for his wine.
“Good, eh?” the innkeeper suggested.
“Never tasted anything quite like it,” he replied honestly.
“Now you, my lady,” the innkeeper’s wife prompted.
He must not have been as subtle as he thought, for his bride quickly and emphatically shook her head. “I’m sorry. I fear I really couldn’t eat another bite.”
When both the innkeeper and his wife looked about to insist, Dev rose. “It’s time my wife and I retired,” he said in a way that would brook no protest. “Please call us first thing in the morning. We want to be on our way as soon as possible.”
The innkeeper and his wife looked disappointed, until the wife said, “I’ll wrap a piece up for you to take with you. For your first baby’s christening.”
At the mention of children, Dev glanced at Lady Theodora. Her cheeks had turned a light shade of pink and—somewhat surprisingly—her smile appeared genuine when she said, “Thank you.”
“We’ll call you just after dawn, sir.”
“Good,” Dev said, holding out his hand to his wife.
Theodora ignored the gesture, instead leading the way up the stairs.
Just as well. Her touch had a most disturbing effect upon him and should he require witnesses for an annulment, they could honestly say there was a distinct lack of affection between Sir Develin Dundrake and his bride.
* * *
When they reached the bedroom now lit by candles on the washstand and bedside table, Dev faced Theodora and said, “If you’d rather not share my bed tonight, you need not. I can find accommodation elsewhere.”
Her eyes widened and her hand went to her cheek as if he’d hit her. “You don’t want to make love with me?” she asked in a soft, sad whisper.
He thought she’d be relieved by his offer, yet she was undeniably upset. And surprisingly vulnerable.
Where had that brazen, resolute and bold Lady Theodora gone?
However she looked at him, he had to resist both her appeal and his baser urges. He had to think, not feel, if he was to be master of the situation.
Yet despite his own resolve, Dev simply couldn’t tell her that he’d reconsidered their arrangement and was thinking of annulling the marriage. “I thought you might be too tired. It’s been a long day and we have another journey tomorrow,” he said instead.
“I slept in the carriage and so did you,” she noted, splaying her hands on his chest, her eyes full of longing.
This was the reaction he’d expected before. What had changed? Why was she so different now?
Until you know, it would be better to resist the urges of your body, his mind declared.
Yet she cannot be insincere in her desire, his heart replied. Her eyes aren’t lying. And you know what it is to long for affection. For love.
“I thought you enjoyed the pleasures of the bedroom,” she whispered, winding her arms about his neck. She raised herself on her toes so her lips were less than an inch from his. “Or so I’ve heard.”
“Where did you hear such things?”
“London. You are quite well-known, you know.”
“Gossip. Rumors,” he replied, his breathing quickening, his yearning increasing even as he fought to restrain it.
“Were they lies? Do you not enjoy the pleasures of the bedroom?”
He lost the battle to resist. “I did. I do. I will,” he murmured before he embraced her and captured her mouth in a fiery kiss.
* * *
As Sir Develin held her close and kissed her, Thea’s doubt and dread ebbed away. He wanted her as much as she wanted him. She could sense it, feel it, was certain of it. It was like a thick, soft rope between them, drawing them closer and binding them. She’d been afraid her bashfulness had caused him to reconsider and regretted acting like a naive girl. But he was proving her fears groundless. However he had behaved during the meal, he wasn’t sorry he had married her. She was Sir Develin Dundrake’s bride, and this was their wedding night.
Tonight she would have no fear, no shame, no embarrassment, no restraint. She would be his wife in every way, as he would be her husband.
Still kissing him passionately, she slipped her hands beneath his jacket to feel the muscles of his powerful chest. She remembered the sight of his naked back. The taut flesh. The narrow valley of his spine.
Her need growing, she pulled away. Keeping her gaze on his flushed face and questioning eyes, she reached back to untie the laces of her gown, then wiggled out of her dress that was as ugly as her pelisse until it puddled around her ankles and she stood before him clad only in her chemise and petticoat, stockings and boots. As he continued to watch, she pulled the pins from her hair until it fell loose about her shoulders.
Still he hadn’t moved, so after she set the pins on the washstand, she blew out the candle there and returned to him. Without speaking, she began to remove his clothes, starting with his jacket. He made no effort to help or hinder her while she continued with his shirt, undoing the buttons as far as they went. That wasn’t so easy, because her fingers were trembling, but in the end, she succeeded and pulled it over his head.
Regarding her steadily, he reached for the buttons of his trousers.
She was not, she discovered, quite as prepared for what was to come as she thought.
She hurried to the bed, tugged off her boots and stockings and got beneath the thick coverings before blowing out the candle on the bedside table and plunging the room into darkness.
“Do you still want me to stay?” he asked, his voice low and deep and seductive.
“Yes,” she replied, although she pulled the covers up to her chin.
The bed creaked and the feather bed dipped as he got in beside her.
She waited, breathless and excited, until his lips found hers for a tender, seeking kiss, exactly what a bridegroom’s kiss should be.
She put her arms about him, letting him deepen the kiss and slide his tongue between her lips. His hand grazed her breasts, his thumb flicking ever so gently over the nipple that had grown stiff. The warmth flooding her body increased.
She put her hands on his shoulders and slid them down his arms, feeling the strength of him as she moved to caress his back, moving lower until she felt the rise of his buttocks.
That was as far as she dared while he untied the drawstring of her chemise and slipped his hand inside to stroke her naked breasts.
She moaned and arched and he inched closer, cradling her against him, before he broke the kiss and put his lips over her nipple, licking it gently with his tongue. It was like nothing she had ever known. Thrilling. Exciting. Arousing.
She closed her eyes and arched again, panting, while he continued to pleasure her with his lips and tongue. His hand moved beneath her petticoat and crept up
her thigh to touch her intimately.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
“Trying to ensure that you’re ready for me,” he answered in that deep, soft voice.
“By touching me there?”
“Yes,” he whispered. He shifted lower and kissed her shin, then moved his lips steadily upward.
“Oh!” she gasped when he reached the inside of her thigh.
Surprise quickly melted into desire. Her knuckles whitened as she held tight to the sheet and let his tongue go where it would, do what it would. She felt no more shock or shame, only a delicious building tension.
Rising, he put his hands on either side of her and hoisted his body between her legs. His mouth returned to hers, taking it not so tenderly this time, but with a fiery, heated passion that kindled a similar blazing desire in her. She ran her hands over his shoulders, his back, his ribs, his chest, thrilling to the feel of his hot flesh and taut muscles, the welcome weight of him as he shifted his hips.
Again he pleasured her breasts, and now she arched to meet his licking, teasing tongue. Panting, she groaned as he stroked her below. And then his finger slid inside.
Her eyes flew open and he raised his head, his breathing swift and ragged. “I think you’re ready. Are you sure you want this?”
She was ready for anything her husband might do. “Yes!”
He reached down and placed himself where his finger had been. Then, slowly, he eased himself inside.
It didn’t hurt.
She smiled with joy and relief until he leaned down to take her mouth with his. Instinctively she wrapped her legs around him and encircled his neck with her arms. Breathing became gasps and small groans. She closed her eyes, the delicious tension building more and more, as well as a growing sense that something was about to happen, like the uneasy calm before a storm.
He moved faster. She, too, began to move, rising to meet his thrusts. Gripping him harder, tighter. No longer kissing, their gasping breaths joined until, in a shattering moment, the tension broke, sending wave after throbbing wave through her body. At the same time, he groaned like a man about to expire, his body bucking.
He stopped and, panting, lay with his head in the crook of her neck while she slowly, slowly returned to a place where she could think. And speak. “Is that...all?” she asked in a breathless whisper.
He pulled away and moved to lie beside her. “It’s enough for tonight. And now that we’re so intimately acquainted, you should call me Dev.”
“And you should call me Thea.”
“Good night, Thea,” he replied, rolling onto his side, away from her.
“Good night, Dev,” she said, also turning onto her side.
But she couldn’t sleep. After a while, she got up and washed, then crept back to bed, trying not to disturb him as she lay wide-awake. He needed his rest, for he must surely be exhausted.
* * *
But Dev was not asleep then, or for a long time afterward. He was trying to decide what, if anything, he should do.
Although he’d agreed to marry Thea Markham out of guilt, remorse and his distaste for the marriage mart, she also intrigued him. Her passionate responses had thrilled him, too, perhaps because she was so serene and practical and resolute at other times. But when it appeared she may have feigned her desire, he’d begun to question all the reasons for his decision and been prepared to seek an annulment—until she’d looked at him with apparently sincere longing. Then, and despite whatever reservations he still harbored, he’d been unable to resist his lustful urges, just as his father always said.
What should he do now? Stay married and trust that her desire was as genuine as it seemed and that their marriage could succeed despite its unusual origin, or give up the hope that any union based on such a foundation could be happy and seek an annulment?
In the end, he decided only one thing: until he was sure of his course of action, he should not touch his wife again.
No matter how much he wanted to.
Chapter Four
Seated in the barouche the next morning, Thea kept her gaze on the passing countryside while they continued their journey back to Dundrake. The rugged beauty of the lakes and mountains, and the play of the light and shadow caused by the sun disappearing behind clouds, were a wonderful change from the squalid areas of London where she’d been living. Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of a waterfall or wild river, the water rushing over rocks. Occasionally they would pass a farmstead, the yard alive with chickens and geese, and sometimes a dog or a child quietly watching the fancy coach pass. Or they passed through a small village dominated by a little stone church, a smithy and a few shops around a green where some farmers and their wives were buying and selling.
Yet Thea couldn’t completely enjoy the scenery. She was too distracted by the grimly silent presence of the man sitting opposite her.
After finally falling asleep last night, she had awakened to find that Develin was already up, washed and dressed in expensive, well-made traveling clothes. He bade her a good morning and said little else. Unsure what to do or say to her husband, she quickly washed and dressed. She was relieved that, in spite of the intimacy they’d shared, he’d kept his gaze averted. It was different being alone with him in the brighter light of morning than it had been in the candlelit room last night.
At breakfast, he’d been polite but still nearly silent.
Perhaps he was simply tired, exhausted from the events of the day before and especially the night that followed. After all, she was weary, too. She’d lain awake most of the night wondering if she’d pleased him as much as he had pleased her and trying not to contemplate the other women with whom he’d been intimate.
“We’re nearly at Dundrake Hall,” her companion abruptly announced, his tone matter-of-fact. “The next curve should see us at the gates.”
Thea’s heartbeat quickened. What would his servants think of her? And his friends? Although she was educated and knew how to behave in polite society, she was a stranger and no beauty. She fervently hoped she could hold her own with the ton, or at least not be an embarrassment to her husband.
Despite her self-assurances, her pulse increased again when the coach rounded the curve and she had her first glimpse of the imposing iron gates of Sir Develin Dundrake’s estate. They looked like they belonged to a prison.
Perhaps one of the horses would throw a shoe or an axle break and delay their arrival. All she needed was a little more time to prepare herself.
Unfortunately no disaster impeded their progress.
When they reached the gate, the door to what had to be the gatekeeper’s lodge opened. An old man, gray-haired and bent-backed, hurried toward the gates from the wattle-and-daub cottage.
“Ah, it’s Sir Develin back, eh?” he called out in a thin, reedy voice as he peered inside the barouche. “And not alone, neither. I wish you joy, Sir Develin.”
“How the devil—?” her husband began, echoing her own surprise before a frown darkened his features.
The cat was clearly out of the bag, the news arriving via a visiting relative, peddler or tradesman perhaps. However their marriage was discovered, curiosity and speculation were no doubt going to be the reaction that greeted her introduction as Lady Dundrake, and likely not just among the servants.
She had had worse receptions. She suspected Develin had not, though, as his subsequent actions proved.
He leaned out the window and rather forcefully asked, “Is there a difficulty, Simpkins?”
“No, sir, no!” the gatekeeper replied, his gaze now fastened on Thea, who wished she had a better bonnet.
“Then open the gates,” her husband snapped before he returned to his seat, where he frowned and crossed his arms.
Since she was Lady Dundrake, it was time to begin to act like it, she told herself, so
she gave the gatekeeper her best smile as they drove by.
Her smile disappeared when she saw the house. The Georgian structure with its grim gray stone and several gleaming windows had seemed vast and imposing when she approached it from the garden. It seemed vaster and more impressive from the front, with a wide stone portico and stairs and ornamental plinths and cornices. Dundrake Hall must have cost a fortune and taken years to build.
“My father did have a few good qualities,” her husband noted as the coach rolled along the gravel drive. “He had excellent taste and knew how to get what he wanted from a builder.”
“The house was your father’s design?”
“Yes, all of it, inside and out.”
“Did not your mother...?” She fell silent when she saw the warning look that flashed across Develin’s face. Clearly his mother was a subject to be avoided, at least for now.
So she stayed silent as the coach reached the house, where the servants were lined up like a firing squad in maids’ uniforms of dark dresses and white aprons and caps, or fine green livery for the footmen.
She took a deep breath and managed to sound composed when she asked, “How many servants are there?”
“Twenty-five or thirty, depending on the season. Mrs. Wessex can tell you how many are currently employed. She and Jackson, the butler, have been with the family since before I was born,” her husband replied.
Mrs. Wessex must be the housekeeper, and it was no comfort to Thea to find out she had been at Dundrake Hall for so many years. Servants of such long standing might very well look askance at a wife who had apparently appeared out of nowhere. “I daresay they’re surprised that you’re returning with a bride.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “They’re used to my impulsive decisions.”
“That is not quite the same as bringing home a wife they know nothing about.”
“I’m sure they’ll manage.” His brow furrowed. “You did say you knew how to run a household.”
A Marriage of Rogues Page 4