Gervaise was struggling in his grasp, eager to be on his way. ‘Whatever boat is nearest.’
Robert smiled. ‘The Navy it is, then. And a word of advice, Gervaise. The thing in front of you is called a ship. Off you go, then. Bon voyage.’ He directed the driver and groom to see to it that Mr Gervaise found his way to the captain and climbed back into the carriage to wait.
* * *
It was almost dawn before he reached his next destination. He yawned and wondered if he would ever adjust to London hours. It seemed the streets were never empty, no matter when he was on them. In his opinion, decent people should be asleep, rather than just coming home.
Then he smiled. He might be thoroughly done up, but there was at least one who was still awake and hoping that he would visit. While a few hours’ sleep might be welcome, he had wasted too much time away from her already.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘Did you have a good evening, dear?’ Dru yawned as she pulled off her gloves and shrugged her evening cloak into her husband’s waiting arms.
Priscilla gave her sister an arch look, then smiled. ‘You know I did. I hope that my behaviour was not too trying.’
Drusilla smiled back at her. ‘Now that it does not affect my prospects for marriage, I find it most entertaining. Of course, if Father hears of it, he will be furious.’
‘We have no father,’ Priss said, pulling a face that she hoped was a creditable imitation of Benbridge when he was angry.
‘We will see how long that lasts, once you become the notorious Duchess of Reighland.’ Dru glanced at her husband. ‘John, will you help her Grace with her cloak? We want her to remember her humble family with kindness after her marriage.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Priss asked hopefully. ‘He left before dinner was even completed. And he said hardly a word to me. He did not even ask me to dance.’
‘You are wearing his ring again, aren’t you?’
‘Well, yes…but he did not give it to me. It was passed to me by Folbroke.’
‘If Reighland did not wish for you to have it, it would still be in Folbroke’s pocket,’ Mr Hendricks assured her.
‘And the way he behaved at dinner did seem significant, didn’t it?’ Priss sighed as she thought of her Robert handling the cream of London society as though he was whipping show ponies around a ring. Why had she ever thought him coarse or common?
‘Does that mean the next time he calls, you will be at home to him?’ Hendricks asked.
‘You had better be,’ Dru reminded her, returning to her old dictatorial ways. ‘After tonight, I will not let you mope in your room another moment. It is clear that those hostesses who slight you will do so at their peril. I expect to see a flood of invitations in tomorrow’s post. And if we do not see a renewed offer from Reighland soon, he shall likely have to fight for your hand.’
Priss twirled once, then dropped on to the sitting-room sofa. ‘There will be no others, Dru. If I cannot have Reighland, then I shall have no one at all.’
‘Do not be foolish, Priss. You cannot discount all of London without a fair hearing. You had other favourites last year. I know for a fact that several of them are still single.’
Priss reached out and caught her sister’s hand, looking seriously up at her. ‘This is not caprice, Drusilla. I am quite serious. If I cannot have Reighland…I simply do not know what I will do.’
Her sister squeezed her fingers, then patted her firmly on the shoulder. ‘You do not need to think of that tonight, my love.’
Hendricks pulled aside the curtain and looked out on to the street. ‘It is morning, dearest. And it seems she will have to think of it after all. We have a visitor.’
Before they had even heard a knock on the door, Hendricks was out in the hall and opening with a deferential, ‘How may I be of service to you, your Grace?’
‘You can leave off with bowing and explain to me how you were waiting at the door to let me in. Your foresight is quite uncanny, Hendricks.’
‘A coincidence, your Grace, nothing more.’
‘Robert!’ She could not help it, but she sprang to her feet and ran to the hall, pelting into him and throwing her arms around his body before he had even managed to remove his coat.
In response she felt his arms tighten around her and his body slump gratefully into hers. ‘Hendricks, Mrs Hendricks, might I have permission to speak to my betrothed alone for a time?’
‘Is that what she is again?’ Hendricks asked. ‘The ton is buzzing with rumours as to whether you will marry or not. Considering the recent scandal and the incidents of tonight, circumspection might be wise.’
‘Oh, John, do not be difficult.’ To Priss’s surprise, the last came from her sister, who had twined her arms about her husband’s neck and was murmuring sleepily into his lapel. ‘I swear, I am so exhausted that you must put me to bed.’ She looked up long enough to give Reighland a sloe-eyed stare. ‘We must trust you to treat my sister properly, your Grace. Perhaps tomorrow a special licence might be procured.’
‘Unfortunately, not,’ Reighland replied and Priss loosened her grip on him, afraid that she had misunderstood everything that had happened in the last few hours. ‘We will be married in St George’s on the day we reserved it. There will be a bishop at the altar and the Prince Regent shall sit in the first pew. There will be so much pomp and ceremony that all of London will take notice.’ He gave Priss a tired smile. ‘I am sure I will find it quite unbearable. But when it is through there will be no question that you are my duchess.’
‘Father will want to know of it,’ Priss said, trying not to sound disappointed by the fact.
‘He has already been informed that his presence is required,’ Robert said. ‘And I assume you will want your sister and Mr Hendricks to stand witness.’
‘I did not think it would be possible,’ she whispered.
‘If it will make you happy, then I insist upon it,’ Robert said, looking and sounding less like an irritable bear and more like a sleepy lion who assumed his wishes would be attended to with no further growling.
‘It is clear that my sister is in good hands, Your Grace.’ Dru whispered something in her husband’s ear and tugged upon his arm, leading him towards the stairs. Then she glanced back over her shoulder. ‘When you are finished talking, please let yourself out. Priscilla, we will see you at breakfast.’
Priss burrowed a little further into Reighland’s coat and listened to the retreating footsteps, wondering if she had actually heard the irony in her sister’s voice at the idea that all they would do was talk. Then she pulled Robert back with her towards the couch in the sitting room. ‘We have been left unchaperond again, Reighland,’ she said.
‘Considering how I feel about you, that is probably unwise,’ he rumbled. ‘But then, when have either of us ever bowed to convention?’
‘True enough.’
‘This evening, your behaviour was quite scandalous.’ He collapsed on to the seat with her and pulled her close until she was practically sitting in his lap.
‘I am sorry I have shamed you.’
‘On the contrary. You were most diverting. Is it true that you called Gervaise an inadequate lover?’
‘Merely a rumour,’ she said.
‘Then of course I shall ignore it.’
‘But there is some truth in the statement,’ she admitted. ‘He was most unsatisfactory.’ The description made her smile. ‘Most unsatisfactory indeed.’
‘And he deserved to be punished for it,’ Robert agreed. ‘I have sent him away again, more permanently this time. I drove him down to the docks and put him on the nearest ship. He will be gone with the morning tide. But now to less insignificant matters. What do the gossips say of your other lovers?’
She smiled. ‘That I had one
of the most powerful men in England at my feet.’
‘And you do again,’ he said, sliding off the sofa and on to his knees before her. ‘Of course, in that dress, you could bring any man to his knees. You look positively indecent in it.’
‘Do you really think so?’ A few weeks ago, the comment would have embarrassed her, but now, coming from Reighland, it seemed the most natural compliment in the world.
‘Allow me to show you.’ He crooked a finger to coax her closer, as though he were about to whisper a secret. But as she leaned forwards, her bodice gaped and he hooked his finger in it and tugged it down to free her breasts. ‘Shocking,’ he muttered, then buried his face in them.
‘Reighland,’ she whispered, tugging at his hair, ‘does this mean I am forgiven?’
‘There is nothing to forgive,’ he muttered. And then he paused and looked up, smiling. ‘Unless it is I who need forgiving. I left you alone when you needed me. I did not help you, when you were afraid. And I shouted at you, the night we argued. But I mean to make up for that now.’ He reached for her slipper, pulled it off and threw it behind him.
She gasped.
‘Am I to be treated to such a reaction each time we remove your shoes?’
‘Only because I remember what happened the last time,’ she said. ‘And you cannot be throwing clothing all over my sister’s sitting room. It is not proper.’
‘Very well, then. Only the one shoe tonight. I will save your full unveiling until after the wedding.’
‘That is good,’ she said, a little disappointed that it had been so easy to persuade him to behave.
Then he lowered his mouth to her breasts again, taking a nipple deep into his mouth and pulling upon it until she thought she might scream from the excitement. He sensed her agitation and looked up. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
‘It is almost dawn,’ she said. ‘The servants will be up soon.’ She thought for a moment of the sorry state she was in and the feeling of his kiss drying on her breast. ‘I want you to hurry.’
‘But I meant to take my time,’ he said, kissing slowly upwards in a trail of nips. ‘I would not wish to be thought inadequate. I have a reputation to maintain, after all.’ He found her mouth and ravished it, his hand cupping the back of her neck so that she had to struggle to escape him.
‘Reighland!’ she whispered.
He sighed. ‘Very well, then. As my lady wishes, we shall do this quickly.’ And he flipped her skirt up and buried his face between her legs.
‘What…?’ It was the last thought she managed before he found the core of her and sucked it into his mouth, working it mercilessly with his tongue. In seconds she was fully aroused, and in less than a minute she was begging him. By the first shudder he had undone his trousers and yanked her out of her seat, on to her knees and on to him, pinning her against the furniture and taking her in short hard thrusts. She kissed him to stifle his groans and her own, digging her hands into his shoulders and letting go of everything else in the world as he lost himself in a rush that swept her along with him.
He relaxed back on his haunches, holding her to him with one hand and tugging her bodice up with the other. Then he whispered, ‘Was that as you wished it?’
‘That was amazing,’ she replied.
‘Six days,’ he said, ‘until we are married. If I do not mean to spend it here on the floor with you, I had best be going.’
‘On the contrary,’ she whispered, ‘I think you must stay for breakfast.’
‘Think of your reputation,’ he said with no real enthusiasm.
‘I am,’ she said with a smile. ‘If I do not do something scandalous at least once a day, whatever shall they write in the papers?’
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227491
Copyright © 2012 by Christine Merrill
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Lady Priscilla's Shameful Secret Page 22