He cleared his throat. “That was unexpected.”
I lifted my head, flashing him a wide smile. “I knew I was going to kiss you the minute you opened the door.”
As soon as I spoke, I knew the words to be true, as strange as they were to me. I shook my head, cursing myself inwardly.
He raised an eyebrow, his lips parted in mock surprise. “My, Miss Byrnes. I did not think it would take so little to get back into your good graces.”
I lifted a finger and pressed gingerly against my raw scar. “Well, those blasted stitches itched so. I suppose I was overcome with gratitude to see you.”
He lowered his gaze to his damp trousers. “I believe it is I who am overcome, Miss Byrnes.”
I laughed and pressed a small kiss to his lips. I wanted to kiss him forever, the whole afternoon at least. He tasted like warm tea on a cold day, like the smoke from a brush fire in autumn. I wanted more. So much more.
“Please,” I said. “I hope you will call me Audrey. When we are in private, that is.”
He stroked the crown of my head. “In private?”
I smiled. “How else do you think these affairs go, Dr. Moorland? The people of the Gathering wear masks, and so do we. Of a fashion.”
His face fell, and a sharp pain hit my chest. The good doctor didn’t strike me as a romantic. He must know our prospects were impossible in every way imaginable.
“So you will play the Irish princess,” he said in a tight voice. “But who am I?”
I ran my fingers over the buttons of his shirt. The material was cheap, but the cut was well-tailored. I wished I could shower him with the finest fabrics, but I would never write enough books to make a sultan out of Dr. Moorland. He needed a good, middle-class wife, someone a little higher in status. With connections. Not a penniless author with a sickly sister and a drunken father.
“You are the crusader. The idealist. I saw you in the sitting room,” I said. “I saw your display of grace when Lady Aberthorne insulted you. You’re in this play, too, Dr. Moorland. We all are.”
He grasped onto my fingers and pressed them to his lips. “Please, call me Joseph.”
Chapter 9
Joseph
My grip tightened on my wine glass. I swore I would crush it in my fingers and use the shards to slice Lord Castlevane’s saggy throat if he stared down Audrey’s décolletage one more time.
Even still, I couldn’t help but sneak a glance at her bodice. How did such a tiny woman come to be in possession of such full breasts? My cock swelled as I recalled their heaviness in my hand, the small nipples bright pink against her pale skin. She had tasted like silk, like white wine in summer. She smelled like a field of cool grass, and I wanted to bury myself in her. I did not know what had come over me today, but it took all my self-control not to rip off my trousers and take her right then and there. She made it clear this was a secret tryst, and the arrangement held an allure. How many places in this monstrous mansion could we find for a clandestine rendezvous? I would need to conduct my own investigation.
“So Dr. Moorland.” Lady Aberthorne leaned in to me. Her musky perfume burned my nostrils, and I shifted away to escape its heady fumes. “What is it this program you were going on about to my husband?”
The tablecloth moved, and a small hand gripped hard onto my cock. My knee jammed into the table, rattling the dishes.
She released her hand and let out a giggle, her dark curls spiraling down and springing against her shoulders.
I cleared my throat, and Audrey smiled at me over the rim of her cup. I met her gaze and nodded before my attention returned to the lady of the house and her wandering hands. Lord Weston had mentioned how she enjoyed “entertaining” her guests, and if her performance at the Gathering was any indication, she liked more singular diversions. Perhaps there was a time with Weston where we might indulge the lady, but all my thoughts returned to Audrey. Audrey talking. Audrey singing. Audrey laughing. I could not escape her vibrant presence. Like bright rays of sunlight, she filled all the dark shadowy corners inside me. I wondered if she would come to me tonight. I would not dare enter her room without a direct invitation, but what an incredible night it would be. To take my time. To taste every inch of her.
“Dr. Moorland?”
My eyes returned to Lady Aberthorne who studied me with a quizzical expression. She might have said something, but blast it, I did not care a whit what the woman uttered. Not with Audrey in the room.
“My vaccination program?” I ventured.
She gave me a warm smile, batting her eyelashes at me. “You mentioned something about orphans?”
“Yes, that’s where we would start,” I said. “In the more crowded areas of the cities and move outwards.”
Lord Castlevane leaned across the table, pointing his fork at me, a pink slab of meat dangling at the end. “Would that smallpox could eradicate the lesser populations of London. I believe that’s what this country needs, to be honest.”
I shook my head. “With all due respect my lord, what you are suggesting is nothing short of genocide.”
Castlevane raised his eyebrows. “My, that is a harsh assessment, Dr. Moorland. Genocide denotes a degree of malice. I believe nature should take its course. Consider what the plague did to clean up the urban cities of England.”
My chest tightened, heat flaming in my face. I clenched my fists and let out a long breath. As Audrey said, Castlevane was the key to Lord Aberthorne. I glanced over at the table toward my host, but he was laughing at some joke of Weston’s. My attention returned to Castlevane.
“I have considered the plague. I have studied it. How it works and whom it affects. Disease knows no class. It brings down kings as well as the lowliest peasants. The scourge you ignore today will find you eventually.” I took a long sip of wine. I could feel Audrey’s gaze, but I looked straight at Castlevane.
He dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. “You are an alarmist, Dr. Moorland, if not a Jacobin discontent.”
Ice water flooded my veins, and I set my glass down on the table, willing my hand not to shake with rage. “I prefer to keep politics out of science and medicine. We are entering a new age of discovery, Lord Castlevane. What is the point if we do not use our knowledge to improve our society?”
Lady Aberthorne’s skirts rustled as she leaned in to me. “You have such passion, Dr. Moorland. If you did not bore us all to death with your lectures on disease, you would make a great poet.”
“I believe Lord Weston has the market cornered in that regard.” I looked across the table. “And Miss Byrnes, of course.”
She smiled and looked down at her lap, her cheeks turning pink.
Lord Castlevane glared at me.
“Still,” Lady Aberthorne said, “it’s a shame such rigor is wasted in laboratories.”
Her hand crept up my thigh, and I gritted my teeth. If I slapped her away, I might offend her, and she would mention something to her husband. Perhaps out of jealousy, he would throw me out, and the inoculation program would be over. But I was not a toy, and my back bristled with every inch her fingers shifted up my leg. With a sharp movement, I grabbed hold of her hand and squeezed. Hard. She let out a sharp exhale, and I gave her a pointed look, trapping her fingers in my palm. If I had to sit here all night with the lady’s hand in mine, so be it.
“My dear Lady Aberthorne,” I said in a low voice. “If I can keep one child from the pain and trauma of smallpox, I will see my duty done in this world and the next.”
Lord Castlevane brought his wine glass to his lips again, shaking his head. “That is where you are wrong, young man. It might begin with a vaccination program, but where will it end? Next thing you know the peasants will be storming Westminster, demanding all manner of things.”
And perhaps they should.
From across the table, Audrey rolled her eyes, shading her pained look by brushing her hand across her forehead. Her scar would heal beautifully, fading to nothing eventually. I suppressed a smile and nodded at
her.
“Yes, Lord Castlevane,” I said. “Where does it end? I am a man of science. Not a magician. I cannot see the future.”
I glanced over at Lady Aberthorne who stared at me from beneath hooded lids. Her thumb curled against my palm, rubbing back and forth.
“But what I can see,” I began again, “is a clear solution in our present times.”
Aberthorne cleared his throat. “I do say, what is it you all are arguing about down there?”
A wide smile passed over the lady’s face. “Nothing, my dear. Dr. Moorland is dazzling us all with his plans for a better world. He is not just a great man of science, but a true visionary.”
He nodded thoughtfully, appraising me with a warm smile. Out of the corner of my eye, Castlevane settled back in his chair with a sulky frown. Lady Aberthorne’s hand slipped out of mine and wandered between my thighs to cup my sac. I gritted my teeth, my chest sinking. I may have made an ally, but at such a cost.
Chapter 10
Joseph
I lay on my bed, my thoughts passing over the evening’s events. My mind lingered on the way Audrey’s hair brushed against her cheek as she played the harp, the way her mouth opened to usher out her high, silvery voice. I shivered, recollecting her long fingers as she plucked the strings, her shoulder muscles releasing and her back arching when she closed her eyes. It was the same look on her face when she came for me, her face flushed, a soft sheen of sweat on the edge of her forehead. I grasped the bedspread and bolted to standing, ripping off my cravat. Good god, there was no end to this.
I tugged my boots off, and they landed on the floor with a soft thud. I had my trousers half unbuttoned when a soft knock sounded at the door.
My heartbeat quickened. Was it Lady Aberthorne? My mind raced, trying to come up with some sort of excuse not to let her in. That fish had smelled a bit off, so perhaps if I said…
The knock sounded again, more urgent this time. Buttoning up my trousers, I took a deep breath and opened the door a crack.
My mouth gaped. Audrey stood in the hall in her nightdress and wrap, her eyes shining.
“May I—”
Before she could finish, I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. Throwing her against the door, I crushed my mouth to hers, pushing my tongue between her lips. I gripped her tight, afraid she might slip away, but she melded her hips close to mine, a small whimper erupting from the back of her throat. My cock hardened at the vulnerable sound, and the need to claim her sent a fever to my brain. This woman. There was no end to wanting her.
She broke off the kiss. “Joseph, wait!”
Gasping for breath, I stopped, backing away with raised hands. “I apologize, Miss Byrnes. I—”
She took my hand and silenced me with a small kiss. “No, please. It’s not that. It’s…”
I pulled her closer to my chest. “Is there anything I can help you with? Anything at all?”
“I…I don’t know.” Her lower lip trembled, her eyelids blinking hard.
Oh dear god, she was about to cry. Panic paralyzed my limbs, and I clenched my fists at my sides. Lord grant me a broken arm. A laceration. A cold. Such things I could help, but not a weeping woman.
“What is it?” The steel in my voice shocked me, but my head pounded with rage. Someone had hurt her. Someone had distressed her somehow, and I would defend her, provide her my protection. I could do that at least.
She let go of my hand and staggered over to a chair beside the hearth. A few coals still smoldered in the grate, and I grabbed the poker and stabbed into them, forcing them to take flame. I stole a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her before kneeling at her feet.
“Please tell me what distresses you, Audrey.”
She pulled the blanket closer under chin and let out a long, shuddering breath before glancing up at me with a big, soulful gaze. “Do you find Lady Aberthorne attractive?”
I spluttered, my face heating as I recalled the woman’s wandering hands. “I…er…”
“I find her beautiful…in an imperious sort of way.” She glanced down and played with a loose thread on the blanket, her delicate finger wrapping it around and around in a hypnotizing motion. “And as a leading member of the Gathering, surely one could do worse for a night companion.”
I blinked hard. “Audrey, my darling, I am not sure I’m following—”
Her head snapped up. “Lady Aberthorne kissed me.”
“Oh.”
She smiled, shaking her head. “And I believe I sort of enjoyed it.”
“Oh.” I settled back on my heels, my cock swelling in my trousers. The idea of Audrey kissing that formidable, sexual woman sent a bolt of desire through me, and I let out a long breath, trying to steady myself.
I swept my hand back and forth across her forearm. “She must be a woman of insatiable appetites. She was quite forward with me, as well.”
Audrey let out a low laugh. “Oh my. What den of iniquity have we found ourselves in, Dr. Moorland?”
I shrugged. “I do say our intentions were good, Miss Byrnes.”
“The road to hell was paved with good intentions.” She waved her other hand before resting her chin on her palm.
I leaned forward. “Audrey. You do not have to do this. Whatever she asks of you…you can say no.”
She shook her head. “Say no? Joseph, are you mad?”
“I…that is…” I ran my hand through my hair, shaking my head. I had not spent a great deal of time in the company of women, what with medical school and then my travels within the Ottoman Empire. I did not think Audrey was the type of women to trifle with the opposite sex, but I knew I had to walk a delicate line with her lest I say or do the wrong thing and scare her off forever.
“The Aberthornes are the highest patrons I could ever imagine procuring. To elicit Lady Aberthorne’s disfavor…I can’t imagine the consequences.” Her eyes peered sideways at me. “And what of you? I saw how she looked at you this evening. Would you refuse her? What would that mean for your inoculation program?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. She knew one of my greatest weaknesses. One of them might have been petite brunettes with lilting Irish accents. The other? Medicine. Always medicine.
“Joseph…” she whispered.
“No.” My hands swept up to wrap around her small waist. I clung to her, shaking my head. The sound of the sputtering fire filled the room and the shadows grew longer across the wall.
“Joseph, what if…?”
I raised my head to glance at her. She looked like an oil painting. All soft curves and blurred edges. I suppressed the urge to reach up and touch the lines of her face to see if they were actual flesh and blood.
“What if…”
“What is it?” I pressed.
She leveled me with her gaze. “What if we approached her together? Did this together?”
I burst out laughing. “What do you mean? Bed Lady Aberthorne? Would her husband be joining us?”
Audrey shook her head and waved her hand. “He has three mistresses. Christine told me. He doesn’t care a whit what his wife does. In fact, I think he likes it for some reason.”
I let out an exasperated sound, dropping Audrey’s hand. “And what do you mean, doing ‘this’ together? What is ‘this’?”
She sat up, folding her knees to her chest. “I don’t know. Pleasuring her. Giving her what she wants. It could be…nice. Don’t you think?”
Flashes of Audrey rolling in the sheets with the dark-haired lady arrested me, and I coughed, shaking my head. “Lady Aberthorne is the high priestess of the Gathering, a Bacchanal cult of the lowest order. Or highest order, depending on who’s doing the measuring. Who knows what she wants?” I paused, stifling a laugh. “I suppose I could imagine a few creative scenarios if pressed.”
Audrey swatted me with the back of her hand, and my spine went rigid. This woman had no reservations, truly.
“Joseph, this is serious. The contract for my next novel is still in negotiations. Y
ou’re fighting for your program in Parliament!”
I raised my hands. “Yes, and I fail to see how fluffing the wife of the most powerful man in England could help my case.”
“Fluffing?” She quirked an eyebrow at me.
I met her gaze with a devious smile.
She blew the hair out of her face and grabbed both of my hands. “Joseph, look. I told you. Lord Aberthorne doesn’t care. He would probably knight you for giving his wife an orgasm.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Do you really think so?”
“Joseph!”
My smile widened, and I leaned toward her. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Fluffing is quite a serious business.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I doubt fluffing her would be such an unpleasant task. I think I could enjoy it, actually.”
The thought of Audrey hovering between Lady Aberthorne’s thighs sent a tingling sensation straight to my cock. I shifted, clearing my throat. “How can I be of assistance?”
“Well, that’s just it. I’m not quite sure.” She stared down at her lap, and when she peered up again, her face was contorted in a frown. “How does one lady please another lady? It seems so unnatural.”
I let out a snort, and tried to stifle my laughter with my shoulder.
She swatted me again, but I caught her wrist.
“My dear Audrey, I think you know one way in which a woman can pleasure another.” I laced my fingers in hers. God, I wanted to sink my hand between her legs. The merest suggestion sent me into a fever.
Her face reddened and she stood up, pushing me away. “All right, then, so that’s one way.” She paced in front of the fireplace and turned to face me. “But certainly that’s not all…is it?”
I stood up and met her by the fireplace, taking her hand in mine. “No. There is more. Has no man ever shown you?”
Wild Irish Girl Page 7