Seduced Bride-To-Be

by June Richards

  God, he had never imagined anything like their lovemaking. He had had many women, but none had ever managed to ignite his passion so strongly. Just looking at Dinah, breathing in her scent was enough to send his pulse racing. It was as if they were made for each other. And when she offered herself so freely to him, he had no power in him to resist her. Especially as he had no such intention.

  Alex knew where to look if he wanted to satisfy his needs, but he had never dreamt of seducing a young girl of society. He would have not let the things between them take such a course, despite her half-provocative half-desperate behaviour, had she not been who she was. Lord Timbury’s future wife.

  Deep in his thoughts, he did not notice when Dinah woke up.

  Through half closed eyes, Dinah studied the man, in whose arms she laid. Strong jaw line, horrific scars, broken nose, dark, brooding eyes. Who was he?

  And what had she done! Had she lost her mind? To throw herself on the stranger, risking her reputation was as shocking and immoral as it was reckless and dangerous.

  ‘I am spoiled goods now’ she whispered, half smiling to herself.

  She could feel Alex turning towards her.

  ‘I thought you were asleep’ he said softly.

  ‘I was. It must have been exhaustion. I do not want to sleep, though. I want to cherish every moment with you!’

  Turning, resting on his elbows, Alex bent over her, his long dark hair tickling her face. Dinah looked into his black eyes and what she saw there made her heart beat fast. There was something there, something more than desire. She did not dare to find a word to name it.

  But soon she forgot everything, because he was kissing her again. She was glad that she was lying down. She felt so weak with lust that she feared her legs would not support her. Entangling her fingers in his hair she led his head lower, to her throat and breasts.

  This time Alex took it slowly, as if indeed he was kissing every freckle. His expert fingers caressed every crevice of her body, until she gasped with mounting pleasure.

  Wanting to return this pleasure to him, Dinah rolled on top of him and soon was exploring his hard body with caresses and kisses of an adept pupil.

  There was no way to keep a slow tempo for much longer.

  Alex moaned when Dinah’s lips moved down his abdomen and her searching fingers closed around his hardness.

  ‘Oh, Dinah…’ he groaned, pulling her up.

  Sitting her on top of him, he easily found his way inside her. He placed his hands on her hips as she started the rhythmical movement. The image of her, hair tumbling down her back, full, firm breasts rising and falling over her slender waist, was tantalising and unashamedly erotic.

  He could feel her quickening her pace and hear her gasps growing louder. He moved one of his hands up to her breast and felt his fingers clenching on her hips. As he reached the point when he could contain himself no longer, her body arched and with a long, throaty gasp of pleasure she froze for a moment before collapsing into his arms.

  CHAPTER 3

  Dinah sat looking into the fire and listening to Alex moving about the house. He went to fetch a bottle of wine from his uncle’s cellar and some water for her. She marvelled at what had just happened. At the creature she seemed to have turned into under Captain Alex Legrant’s touch. Could it be the same Miss Dinah Benson, who attended tea parties and conversed politely about charity events, latest developments in fashion and upcoming balls? Dinah, the always obedient daughter, praised for helping the poor, her modesty and impeccable manners?

  But what did the people know about the real Dinah, full of life and daring that could only be released in her dreams of wild adventures? And whose real life seemed so dull and controlled and was going to remain so after she got married.

  ‘Are you not cold?’ Alex’s voice interrupted her broodings.

  He stood in the door, his uncle’s dressing gown that Dinah wore earlier too small for his broad frame. He emanated strength and confidence and Dinah wished that she could stay with him in this small hunting lodge forever, once and for all cutting off the outside world.

  ‘I am fine, thank you. And I shall be even warmer now’ she smiled when he sat behind her and wrapped his arms around her, passing her a glass of water.

  ‘So, are you fit now to tell me how on earth did you end up alone on a country road in the middle of the storm?’

  ‘Well, it is a long story, really’ she murmured.

  ‘We have plenty of time until the morning. The clock has only struck eleven’ he said resting his chin on the top of her head.

  Dinah felt a surge of pure happiness but it was quickly gone when she remembered why she had been visiting London.

  ‘I went to see my mother’s aunt’ she said with a sigh. ‘Her name is Mrs Grahams and she is distantly related to Lady Dudley. My mother was well connected and her family was not very pleased when she married my father, but not all of them cast her out. My Aunt Grahams has always been very kind to me. She has been helping me with my clothes for a ball my father is giving this Thursday.’

  ‘But surely, you did not travel alone?’ Alex asked.

  ‘No, I went with our neighbour, Mrs Jenkins. But Mrs Jenkins fell suddenly ill on Sunday and was not fit to travel. I had to leave today, however, there is so much to organise before the ball and Papa cannot manage without me. Besides, we are expecting guests on Wednesday, perhaps even tomorrow.’

  ‘Well, your father could entertain them without you, I am certain.’

  ‘Not really. Apart from some members of our family, we are expecting Lord Timsbury and his sister.’

  ‘So you shall meet him at last’ said Alex, the tone of his voice impossible to read.

  ‘And my father can announce our engagement during the ball’ answered Dinah bitterly.

  Alex turned her head and looked her in the eye.

  ‘Surely, your father would not force you to marry Lord Timsbury if you do not want to’ he said.

  ‘No’ Dinah’s voice was almost a whisper. ‘But I know he expects it of me. He says it is high time I was married.’

  ‘But Lord Timsbury has not actually proposed yet. Maybe your father has got things wrong?’

  Dinah shook her head:

  ‘No, Papa told me that Lord Timsbury spoke to him. He asked for my hand in marriage and Papa gave his consent. He expects I would not disappoint him.’

  Alex looked stonily into the fire, a muscle going in his jaw, but Dinah did not notice it as she continued.

  ‘Papa thinks that Lord Timsbury will speak to me just before or during the ball. So he wants the occasion to be even grander that it usually is.’

  ‘But how can he expect you to accept a man you have never met before?’ asked Alex pouring himself another glass of claret.

  ‘Oh, apparently I have met Lord Timsbury’ said Dinah casually. ‘Although, I can hardly remember the occasion. And I cannot at all recall what he looked like.’

  Alex took a swig of wine and felt his muscles relaxing again. Dinah’s tale disturbed him, yet he needed to hear all of it.

  ‘When did you meet up with Lord Timsbury?’ he asked casually.

  ‘Oh, six years ago. I was seventeen and doing my first, disastrous season. My aunt invited me to London and did her best to grant me a place in society. But for most of the people I was just a rich merchant’s daughter, who had no right to be there.’

  Dinah’s voice suddenly broke and tears of old humiliation stung her eyes. Alex felt a sudden, overwhelming sensation, a mixture of tenderness towards this sad, brave girl and a murderous rage against anyone who would wish to harm her. He hugged her closer and, despite her earlier protestations, filled her glass with wine.

  ‘Drink it’ he said gently. ‘You do not need to tell me anything you do not wish to talk about.’

  But it all went pouring out. Turned backs, whispers and an overheard conversation between two girls who called her ‘thin, pathetic, freckled thing’ and sneered that she was lord-hunting.

&
nbsp; ‘It hurt so much’ she sobbed. ‘I did not dare tell my aunt, she was so excited about me doing the season. But I gave up all efforts to make friends with the other young people. There were some young men who still asked me to dance, but I knew my aunt had told them to.’

  ‘And Lord Timsbury was one of them?’

  ‘Yes. I was playing a wallflower, as usual, when I saw this young gentleman talking to my aunt. Next moment he was asking me to dance. I was so humiliated that I could not even look him in the eye. I mumbled something about a headache and asked my aunt to take me home. Then she asked me how I liked Lord Timsbury, who seemed so taken with me!’

  ‘Perhaps he was’ suggested Alex quietly.

  ‘Impossible! I was a pathetic, freckled thing, remember?’

  ‘That is what you told me tonight as well’ he parried. ‘I happen to disagree and perhaps so did Lord Timsbury.’

  Dinah looked at him, bewildered.

  ‘Do you suggest that my aunt told the truth? That he admired me then and perhaps still does so?’

  ‘There has been nothing in your tale so far to prove otherwise.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ she exclaimed and, looking at her glass of wine, took a deep swig. Then she smiled:

  ‘I am certainly becoming corrupted in your company.’

  ‘No one like an old soldier to lead you astray’ he smiled wryly. ‘You still didn’t tell me how you ended up on the road.’

  Slowly he started to kiss her neck and shoulders.

  ‘Mrs Jenkins fell ill’ said Dinah and swallowed hard.

  ‘Poor soul’ murmured Alex into her hair. ‘So you set home alone, hoping for an adventure.’

  His arm slid under hers and his hand closed around her breast.

  ‘Not exactly’ said Dinah removing it. ‘I took my aunt’s maid to accompany me, but…’

  She gasped. His fingers found their way back and were circling her nipple.

  ‘But?’ he moved away from her to remove his dressing gown.

  His hot body pressed against Dinah’s when he kneeled behind her.

  ‘She disappeared… oh!’

  He reached for both her breasts, squeezing them, and bit her lightly on the shoulder.

  ‘Disappeared?’ he whispered, letting his tongue explore her earlobe.

  ‘In the ‘Red Lion’ where we stopped. She said she felt sick and needed… oh, Alex!’

  His hardness rubbed against her buttocks and one of his hands slipped between her thighs.

  ‘She must have arranged it earlier… She had escaped with one of the lads…and…oh!’

  ‘And now they are probably enjoying each other as we do.’

  His finger found a spot it was searching for and as he stroked it, Dinah completely lost the track of her story. She felt him slid inside her from behind and soon they were united again in escalating pleasure.

  ‘So the neighbour fell ill, the maid eloped, the carriage broke an axle and the coachman had an accident. It seems like a divine plot to bring us together.’

  They were lying exhausted in each other’s arms. Alex felt his heart was melting when Dinah smiled at him.

  ‘I hope you are not sorry that you found me. But, actually, how did you find me?’

  Alex explained how he was coming back from a ride with his manservant and how they found an injured man on the road. He was very anxious about his young mistress and only let himself be helped when Alex set off to assist Miss Dinah Benson.

  ‘I hope that you are not sorry that I found you’ he ended smiling back at her.

  ‘No’ she whispered seriously. ‘I shall never regret this night, no matter what. But how shall I go back tomorrow? I must go home at once, with the ball in three days!’

  ‘Don’t worry, I shall arrange things. Trust me. And now try and get some sleep.’

  ‘It seems such a waste to sleep when I might never see you again’ she whispered.

  ‘You will see me again. Now rest. Adventures tend to be rather exhausting.’

  He kissed her lightly on the head and soon could hear her regular breathing.

  Delicately, so as not to wake her, he reached for his wine glass and marvelled at the unexpected course the night’s events had taken.

  He hoped he did not make things more difficult. They seemed excessively complicated as they were. Well, he would soon find out, when Lord Timsbury arrived to claim his bride.

  CHAPTER 4

  Every night has to come to an end, thought Dinah sadly, as she dressed in her damp, crumpled travelling gown. It was hard to dress without a maid and a mirror. She better find one before she showed her face to the outside world.

  There was no sign of Captain Legrant, only a note to her that he went to make arrangements for her journey. She did not hear him getting up.

  Dinah was in a muddle. The events of last night left her feeling dizzy. She tried to block the images, the sensation, the feelings… There would be time to confront them later, perhaps a lifetime at Lord Timsbury’s side.

  At the moment, there were more pressing matters to worry about. How was she going to explain her position? No matter the circumstances, if the story leaked out that she had spent a night alone with a strange man, she would be ruined.

  Perhaps I would not have to marry then, she thought with grim satisfaction.

  She was so deep in thoughts that she gave little notice to the rooms she inspected, concentrated only on finding a mirror. She finally located one and, taking a look at herself, decided that she needed a maid.

  With deep blush she noticed a red mark on her shoulder where Alex had bitten her last night. Suddenly, she could no longer block the wave of despair at the thought that she might never see him again. She sat trembling at the nearby chair when she heard a noise outside.

  Running to the window, she saw a somewhat battered looking carriage driven by a young lad. When it came to a halt, an even younger girl jumped out of it. She carried a large basket and was soon knocking on the door.

  ‘Miss Benson, ma’am! Wake up! I’m come from Captain Legrant to help you dress. I brought you breakfast. Then we must go.’

  Dinah hurried to open the door. The girl around fourteen smiled at her. She had dark hair and dimples in her face.

  ‘Captain Legrant sent you?’ asked Dinah.

  ‘Yes, ma’am. My name is Nan Thomas and that is my brother, Dick. Captain Legrant asked to give you this letter.’

  She handed her a slightly crumbled, sealed piece of paper.

  ‘If you please, ma’am, I shall serve you breakfast. The coffee’s probably gone cold already.’

  Dinah moved away, so the girl could go past her. She seemed to know her way around as she opened the door to a small parlour. The chattering girl explained quickly:

  ‘My ma’ used to work for the old Master, ma’am, but he died last year. That’s how I know the place so well. He used to spend more time here than on his estate. He was a loner. We live not far away, in a cottage. Captain Legrant takes care of us now, since his uncle’s gone. Ma’ sends him food and keeps the lodge clean when he’s away. I’m glad he’s back from the war, we were so frightened when he got injured. He nearly died. Now, Miss Benson, let me just tidy you up a bit and you can have your breakfast. My sister is a lady’s maid, so I’ve learnt a few things from her.’

  While Nan chattered away and administered to Dinah’s appearance, Dinah felt suddenly ashamed. There she was, crying for herself and complaining of her fate, when Alex must have seen so many horrors during the war. She had seen his scars, touched, even kissed them, but she did not try to ask him how exactly he came to obtain them. The fact that she sensed his reluctance to talk about it did not justify her enough.

  She longed to be alone and read his letter. She also hoped that Nan did not notice the love bite on her shoulder. When she finally sat down to drink a cup of coffee, still warm despite Nan’s grim prophecies, she opened the letter with her name on the top written in Alex’s sure handwriting.

  Dear Miss Benson,

>   I hope you have spent the night comfortably at Mrs Thomas’s cottage. I have arranged with her that her son, Richard, will drive you to your father’s house in a hired carriage. We have packed your luggage into it. Nan shall go with you and act as your maid for the duration of the journey.

  I have enquired after your servant and he is feeling much better today. He shall soon be fully recovered from his injuries. I am assured that he is very well looked after.

  I sincerely hope that your journey will pass without any more adventures. Please, do not trouble yourself about any of the arrangements. Mrs Thomas and her children are very happy to help you in your distress.

  As for me, it was a real pleasure.

  I wish you all the happiness in the future,

  Yours faithfully,

  Captain Alex Legrant.

  PS. I have found your lost glove in the carriage. Somehow it got under one of the cushions.

  After Dinah read the letter, she sat for a moment completely puzzled by its tone and content. She did not lose any glove. Then she nearly burst out laughing. Of course! Here she was all ready to receive a passionate epistle, while she was sent a coded message.

  Well, after all Alex had been a soldier.

  She selected a roll from a basket, poured herself more coffee and laughed reading the letter again, feeling as if they were sharing a private joke.

  He hoped that she spent the night comfortably, how considerate of him! And it was a real pleasure for him to assist her. Well, she should be insulted, had it been otherwise. He wished her a journey with no more adventures. Was it supposed to mean that he would feel jealous? But what, on earth, was the meaning of the lost glove?

  ‘I found it in the carriage, under the cushion…’ whispered Dinah.

  Did Alex try to tell her to look for something in the hired carriage? Did he leave her a message which he chose not to disclose in the letter, in case someone else than her would read it?