by Stacy Reid
The backdrop of the wintry lake with swans gliding on the slightly rippling water presented a pleasing vista. The stark skeletons of the now naked trees reflected in the water, and the blue sky decorated by a few small fluffy clouds only added to the scene's tranquility, and he felt happy. He briefly examined the emotion but accepted that Juliana being there was the main reason for that sensation.
Careful not to jolt her, he made his way over and lowered himself to the grass. He, too, watched the sky, waiting for her to stir. She was aware of his presence, for he could see the wild fluttering of her pulse at the base of her throat where she’d untied her neckcloth.
He sprawled on the grass beside her, staring up at the sky.
“I went for a jaunt in the village,” she offered. “I cut across the woods of your estate.”
“I noticed. Was it pleasant?”
The grass crinkled as she rustled. “At first. Then I realized just how far I had to walk.”
He chuckled at the wry humor in her tone. “You may take the carriage even to do personal errands.”
“Thank you.”
They fell into a comfortable silence, and he was contented with watching the puffy clouds gently sweep across the sky while he mentally calculated the probability of rain. In the distance, the bright colors of a rainbow painted the sky with its beautiful color. “Julianna, do you know how rainbows are formed?”
“Yes.”
He turned his head on the grass and stared at her.
Humor danced in her beautiful eyes. “After Our Lord washed away the evil in Noah’s time, he promised never to destroy immorality with a flood again. So, whenever there is rain, a rainbow will streak across the sky, reminding us of God’s promise.”
Wentworth scowled, and she laughed, the sound rippling through him, creating the warmest feeling he’d ever had on the inside. He came up on his elbows. “It is much more…romantic than that.”
“So, tell me,” she said, a lovely smile playing about her mouth.
“Sir Isaac Newton studied the phenomenon of colors. He was the first to understand that the beautiful array of colors we see is not from a mixture of light and darkness as proposed by Aristotle, but that sunlight contained all colors which could be separated by prisms. Whenever white light is refracted with a prism, we see colors. The sun actually creates rainbows when sunlight passes through raindrops. The raindrops act like tiny prisms. They bend the different colors in white light, so the light spreads out into a band of colors that are reflected back to us as a rainbow.”
Her smile widened. “Ah, so now you have explained how Our Lord did it, but I told you the why. Is it not beautiful?”
Wentworth stared, then he smiled. “You are beautiful. I am going to kiss you…”
Her eyes widened, and she lifted slightly off the earth to glance around. “I do not think it would go over well, should another of your staff see you kissing your valet!”
He shifted, leaning over her, his body blotting the low sun from her face.
“I dreamed of kissing you,” he murmured, “and I woke with the taste of you still on my mouth. How is that possible?”
She cleared her throat, her blushes getting brighter. “Is that not a common occurrence?”
“Not for me,” he immediately replied. “And I’ve kissed other ladies before.”
They stared at each other, and he removed the hat from her face, tempted to remove the wig.
“What is that look on your face,” she said softly, her eyes searching his expression. “I’ve never seen you appear so intense, and I’ve seen you walk into a door before because you were so engrossed with reading.”
“Saw that, did you?”
She touched the corner of his mouth with a gloved finger. “I did.”
“I am a gentleman,” he began.
“I know.”
“I’ve never seduced an innocent before.”
The corner of her eyes crinkled with her smile. “Is that what you’re about? Seduction?”
“Well, I am thinking of kissing you until we are both senseless.”
“I sense an objection.”
“A gentleman does not take advantage of a young lady unless he knows he will marry her,” he said gruffly. “How can I kiss you…do all the things I hunger to do without making you my wife? I would be a right rogue.”
She slipped her hands around his neck, and he braced himself on his elbows. And they just stared at each other. In her eyes, he spied something tender and wicked.
“That means I am a rogue as well because I want you to kiss me more than anything else.”
“Juliana—” he began warningly.
“And I do not want you to marry me when you are done.” This, she said with amusement dancing in her lovely lavender eyes. “Marriage is not a part of my plan, and it is silly for you to have it in your thoughts.”
“That sounds as if you are granting me the liberty to act a rogue, Miss Pryce.”
“And if I am?” she asked teasingly.
“Then, you best be prepared to deal with the corollary effects.”
“A few kisses are hardly something to worry over.”
Her words were bold, but her eyes bright with curiosity and longing. A mischievous sort of anticipation shivered through his heart and trailed down to his cock. He tugged the gloves from his hand, not braced above her, desperate to feel the softness of her skin beneath his fingertips. “Silly, Miss Pryce…a few kisses? Rogues and scoundrels do not stop at kisses, only the most stalwart of gentlemen do.”
Juliana caught her breath at his implication, a flush warming her cheeks. “How shocking, even with that knowledge, I want your kisses.”
Wentworth took her mouth with his, pressing in for a very thorough and naughty kiss. She moaned, the sound so achy and bloody sweet. His heart started to pound, and he reverently cupped her jaw, sliding his thumb to the fluttering pulse at her throat. And he took her mouth in a wet, carnal claiming, sliding his tongue along her bottom lip, and when she parted her mouth, his tongue ravished her.
Wentworth had never felt such raw need from a kiss. Something roared inside of him, urging him to wrench her trousers down, right here in the open, lick along her wet slit and then take her with long, deep strokes.
His cock throbbed, and with a harsh groan, he released her mouth, kissing down to her arched neck. The kiss he pressed into the hollow of her throat was violent with restrained hunger. He reached between them, tugging her shirt from her trousers. Soon the skin of her belly was bare to his touch.
Her breath caught in her throat as his hand stroked over the lowest part of her abdomen. His hand ran lightly up and down her quivery soft stomach, his touch lingering and provocative. Wentworth went even lower, slipping his fingers below the waistband of her trousers. They both faltered into stillness, the provocative intimacy of the moment creating a subtle tension in their bodies.
His fingers grazed her mons, the soft hair curling there. A tiny whimper slipped from Juliana, and she grasped his shoulders.
“Remove your gloves, I want your bare hands on me.”
She complied and tossed them onto the grass. When she touched him next, it was to cup his cheeks. How delicate her fingers felt…how soft. With a groan, he lowered his head and kissed her. This time slowly, savoring each sigh and breathy moan she made against his lips.
Desire knifed through him, sharp and insistent. Her hips lifted in entreaty, but he did not move the fingers lightly rested on her mons. If he dared move them, slipped them lower and found her wet…
His cock jerked, and he pulled his mouth from hers, also removing his hand from her body and tugging her shirt down. Her lips were red, and it would be evident to anyone with eyes that they had been thoroughly kissed.
He touched his thumb to her damp, swollen lips. If she was a debutante, and they had been caught alone together like this on his grass, he would be honor-bound to marry her. Yet Juliana didn’t want marriage. He understood that. It simply wasn’t a part of
her plan, and the feelings burgeoning between them were too new, too unfamiliar for it to interfere with the long-held dreams she had of her future.
Hell, he shouldn’t even be thinking of her and marriage in the same breath. Yet Wentworth knew that he liked her a lot. And he had five more weeks with her under his roof. It would be impossible to resist kissing her and doing more. Yet it felt damn wrong to ask her to be his mistress.
But what about a friend…and a lover.
He rolled off her, laying flat on his back again, wondering if the distinction between a lover and a mistress would make him less of a scoundrel. On the one hand, he helped her maintained her ruse because he wanted her safe and her charade was harmless. If she were to remove her disguise, word of a young marriageable lady under his roof would travel swiftly around the parish and might even reach London. Those damn busybodies and their gossiping mouths.
“I can feel you thinking,” she murmured.
“I am wondering at the smartness of you acting as my valet for several more weeks. Perhaps I was too hasty with the suggestion.”
“Are you thinking of the scandal should I be discovered?”
Before he could reply, she asked another question, this time with a quaver in her tone. “Do you wish me to leave, my lord?”
“No. The very opposite. I greatly like your company.”
He felt her pleasure as if she had touched him.
He placed his hands behind his head. “The chances of your stepfather finding you here are very slim. Even if you were to stay as Miss Juliana Pryce, a guest in my home.”
“Do you really think there would be a chance he might hear of it should I remain as a guest?”
“People gossip. But I did a quick analysis of the people we know, grouped them, and created an intersection. The probability of him uncovering that you are under my roof if you remain as yourself is about five percent.”
“And what would I do if he discovered me?”
“Nothing. You are a guest in my home. He cannot just take you. I would not allow it.”
“I would never want to endanger you!” she gasped.
“I am an earl of the realm, I rank above your stepfather, so it is no danger. But if he acts the boor, I will simply challenge the man to a duel. I am an expert fencer and a crack shot. If he refuses, I’ll probably plant him a facer for frightening you with his kidnapping and chasing after you. But he’ll understand that you are protected.”
“You are entirely serious,” she said.
“Of course.”
“You would be willing to fight a duel…punch my stepfather if he dared to come for me here?”
Wentworth once again shifted his head on the grass and their gazes collided. “Of course. I am a good fighter. Not many in society know that I’ve fought in the fighting pits.”
A garbled sound of shock emitted from her, and he scowled.
“You’ve fought in a fighting pit…in the barbaric manner of bare-knuckle boxing?”
“Yes.”
“Good heavens!” she said in admiring tones. “You are a man of many talents.”
He nodded smugly, pleased with her admiration. “That I am. And I even won a purse of five thousand pounds some weeks ago.”
She smiled, but it slowly dimmed. “I am that poor of a valet?”
He leaned in, his lips almost touching hers. “Only a saint will be able to resist taking you to their bed.”
Juliana’s breath hitched audibly. She met his eyes, and she swallowed. “And you are not a saint.”
Her words were barely audible.
“I am no saint, but a man who is very attracted to an exceptionally pretty lady.”
You were warned, seemed to float silently from his thoughts to hers. But instead of blushing and looking away as he’d anticipated, she smiled, reached over, and laced their hands together.
It hovered on Juliana’s tongue to tell Wentworth that she wanted more than kisses with him, but once again, that odd shyness assailed her, and she silently sighed. I do not want you to stop at kisses. The caress against her bare stomach just now had aroused her senses to startling heights. How she had ached, and even now her skin felt sensitized, her breasts heavy, her face flushed.
“I prefer to remain as your valet,” Juliana said. “If I were to appear as Miss Pryce, your mother and aunt would expect me to be a paragon of ladylike behavior. As Julian, I am free to come and go without scrutiny.”
“Very well, we shall not speak of it again then. But know I’ll not allow your stepfather or anyone to take you before your five and twentieth birthday.”
The feelings swirling inside her chest were sweet and fierce and hungry. Juliana hoped they would never leave but was also perplexed on what to do with them. How she wished he had not rolled off her. His large presence had been comforting even as it had roused her senses.
I am so wanton, she thought with a measure of amusement.
“I suspect you want the freedom to move about freely.”
“Yes.”
“Though we are in the country, it is best to always walk with protection. If you mean to traverse the woods, take one of the dogs with you or even a pistol.”
“I will,” she said, then offered, knowing he must have wondered where she had gone for so long. “I visited Billy today.”
“The boy who’d been hunting on my lands?”
“Yes.”
Wentworth frowned thoughtfully. “You went to check up on him?”
“Yes. I…I just wanted to see if he got the job with your game master and if Billy’s family was doing well.”
“I see. And is he well?”
“He’s not gone to the game master as yet. He was worried about his clothes. They were very rag tagged. And his shoes had holes in them. His mother works as a washerwoman in the parish, and they can barely afford to clothe themselves for the winter. He knows he has to present as respectable to work under the gamekeeper at the Earl of Rawlings’s estate.”
“I will pay them a visit,” he said gruffly. “And take him directly to Mr. Colby.”
Her stepfather would have been affronted at the very idea. Yet Wentworth did not hesitate to offer to pay this family a visit. “They are not your tenants,” she said softly, “They rent a very run-down cottage from Squire Harris. He does not maintain their abode because they are behind on rent. I suppose it is a kindness he allowed them to stay for the last few months, but I suspect he might fancy the lady’s eldest daughter. She is fourteen and a beauty.”
Quickly she relayed to Wentworth, her impression of the girl. Juliana had spent some time talking to her while they walked in the woods. She had been incredibly careful not to appear a suitor and listened to the girl’s dream to be a seamstress. However, to procure the money to start that journey seemed impossible, unless she relied on the squire who had slyly offered to assist the young girl’s endeavors.
“Bloody hell,” Wentworth growled. “The man is known for his profligacy about town. How did you help?”
She dug her fingers into the grass. “Why did you think I helped?”
He chuffed. “I might have only known you for a week, but you are a lady of thoughtful manners and kindness.”
Juliana grinned. “I had to sell a necklace of mine to make some purchases for my ruse. I had some money left over. I…I gave Billy’s mother a hundred pounds in banknotes.”
Julian's throat ached when she recalled the lady’s shock and the tears. “Her dignity was upset, so she tried to refuse it, but Billy took it for her.”
“Smart lad.”
“They are a family of six. That money will keep them well fed for several months, buy them suitable clothes and new boots for the winter. And also bring them current on their rent, and perhaps even pay for another year. It really astonishes me the disparity of wealth between the upper and lower society. Did you know that as your valet, my wage is thirty pounds per year? That one-hundred-pounds is roughly three years’ salary for me. And I am a top paid servant in your hou
sehold.”
“I will inform my land steward in the morning to increase all my servant’s wages appropriately, and I will give each a considerable bonus this year.”
Juliana laughed, delighted with him. “I even thought of a business that might help young girls like Laura. Perhaps a charity of sorts that will fund their apprenticeship for at least three years. Each person would receive the funds to pay for independent lodgings, food, and the work tools they might need for the duration needed to learn their skills. Or perhaps a school of sort…that teaches these skills to these young ladies, and provide lodgings, food, and even a stipend.”
“A worthy endeavor,” he murmured, a smile touching his mouth. “Many will try and fraudulently take the money and run. It would need to be administered and would cost as much in administration.”
“Have I mentioned that my inheritance from my father is an obscene amount.”
“I imagined you like most England heiress with fifty thousand pounds or more.”
“A mere pittance,” she drawled. “But that would be a worthy business investment were I to remain in England.”
He stiffened, and something undefinable flashed in his eyes. “You have thought of staying?”
The air around them felt altered, and her heart clamored. “I…I’ve not given it any thoughts really; it was a slip of the tongue. I…I would not need to be present for such a business to start.”
He looked away, shuttering away the intensity. Was it that he wanted her to stay in England? That couldn’t be it; he’d just made her acquaintance. Juliana did not understand the sudden pounding ache that went through her heart. “Wentworth—”
“I will be going to London soon. You are to remain here at Norbrook park.”
An odd sensation dropped low in her belly. “You are leaving?”
“Only for a few days.”