by Jenny Frame
Evan’s words made sense, and her title made sense for the first time in her life. She nodded and took a step away from the fireplace, then stopped and looked back at Evan.
“I’ll be moving back in on Monday. That all right with you?” Clementine said.
“You mean here? Live with me?” Evan stuttered over her words.
“Yes, well, it is the duchess’s house.”
Evan grinned. She had her. Clementine was going to commit. “You’re quite right.”
“Oh, and I thought I better ask, because it’s not the done thing to ask a duchess yourself—will you marry me?”
Evan’s mouth hung open in shock. “Um…yes, I’d love to, Your Graceship, Mrs. Fox.”
“Mrs. Fox? Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Clementine said, then she walked to the centre of the room.
She heard Evan say, “What a woman.”
“Excuse me, everyone?”
The chatter died down. “Thank you. I just wanted to say a few words. This summer’s weather has been unprecedented. The severity of the rain and storms is not normal—they’re a consequence of the damage we are doing to this world, to our ocean and the land, exactly as Evan has been telling us from the start.”
Everyone was shocked when James O’Rourke interrupted, “We have to find a new way of living. I’m sick of plastic and pollution in the water. I see every day the damage it’s doing.”
Then Mr. Mason piped in, “And my crops will be ruined. We need to change before it’s too late.”
“Exactly, we need to buy in to Evan’s ideas to make this world a better place. I know it’s frustrating sometimes, but as Evan said when she first came here, we have a chance to make Rosebrook a shining example to the country, of how to live.”
Mrs. Murdoch put up her hand. “What about our homes, and the new cottages that are nearly finished? The floodwater will have ruined them.”
“We rebuild. The trust has the money, and as someone reminded me recently, material things can be fixed or rebuilt, but people cannot. We have to come together as a community and make it somewhere to be proud of, the vibrant, thriving village it used to be.” Clementine put her hand on her chest. “I am here for you all, and I’ll make sure everything is done properly. I’m going to be working on this with my team, full-time. There will be no more part-time duchess.”
Evan walked beside her and slipped an arm around her waist. “The Duchess of Rosebrook is moving back into her ancestral home, and she has agreed to marry me.”
Kay was first to jump to her feet and congratulate them. “Oh, Clem, I’m so happy for you.”
Then Ash followed suit along with all those that weren’t injured. Fergus waved Evan over, and Clementine heard him say, “Congratulations, youngster. Bagging a duchess isn’t half bad.”
“And a countess and a baroness, don’t forget,” Evan joked. “I think I’ve done pretty well for myself.”
* * *
Once everyone had been settled in the many bedrooms Rosebrook had to offer, Clementine and Evan retired to the duke’s bedroom. Evan took a shower first and was waiting in bed for Clementine to come back from hers.
She came out of the shower room dressed in one of Evan’s T-shirts. She looked so sexy with her wet hair hanging down her back. Evan was overjoyed by Clementine’s proposal. She couldn’t wait to hold her.
“I’m too tired to dry my hair,” Clementine said. “It’ll just have to wait until the morning.”
Evan patted the bed. “Come in here.”
Clementine slipped under the covers and let out a breath. “I’m so exhausted. Tomorrow will be even more tiring. We’ll probably have company staying with us for a week or so, until the water in the cottages can be pumped out.”
Evan leaned up on her elbow and smiled down at her. “Don’t worry about that now. The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned.” Evan stroked Clementine’s wet hair from her face. “You are going to be my wife. I can’t believe it.”
“Neither can I. I just think it’s the right time.”
“The way you took charge down there, you really turned me on,” Evan said.
Clementine chuckled. “You like strong women. You told me.”
“I did.”
Evan was overwhelmed with the need to touch Clementine. She trailed her finger down Clementine’s chest and lightly stroked her hand across Clementine’s breast. Clementine’s breathing caught and her nipple became hard.
“I know you’re exhausted, but do you think I could touch you?”
Clementine nodded.
Evan sneaked her hand up Clementine’s T-shirt and cupped her breast lightly. Clem groaned and Evan placed soft kisses on her lips.
“I’m going to love your body so gently, just relax and feel.”
Evan moved her hand down to Clementine’s sex. She cupped it and squeezed in the gentlest of fashions. She wanted to rock her tenderly and gently to her orgasm, and then to sleep.
Clementine moaned and grasped the back of her neck.
“Slowly and softly, m’lady.”
Evan pushed past Clem’s underwear and felt that Clementine was already wet. She slipped her finger into her wet folds and split her fingers around Clem’s clit, so that she would be barely touching it.
She began a gentle, rubbing motion and felt Clementine’s clit become hard. Clementine rocked her hips at the same pace.
Clementine had her eyes closed and was just concentrating on the feeling of being rocked to her orgasm in utter love and devotion. It built so slowly that it was almost overwhelming when the wave of orgasm washed over her. It felt like pure love, and Evan had given her the love that she never dared to dream of.
* * *
Evan woke from sleep and found the bed empty. She scrubbed her hands through her short hair and sat up. Just like the first time they slept together, Clementine was sitting on the window ledge, but unlike last time, Clementine had a large sketch pad on her knees and was scribbling away.
Evan got up and wandered over to her. “Morning, m’lady.”
Clementine looked up and gave her a bright smile. “Good morning.”
Evan leant in and kissed her. “What are you up to here?”
“Planning.”
She looked down at her sketch pad and saw drawings, notes, and lists filling the page. “What kind of planning?”
“Things we need to do with the village, staff we’ll need for the estate, new buildings and cottages we’ve still to build, and of course there’ll be lots more work to do once we assess the damage from the storm,” Clementine said.
Evan had never heard Clementine so animated. She spoke with such speed and excitement in her voice that it sounded like her ideas were running away with her, and all of it was said with the biggest smile.
“Oh, and I had an idea for the military buildings. Why don’t we refurb them as lodgings for students? We could set up a scheme where students could come and spend time with us, learning and helping us with our ecological work here. Like an internship. Young people often have the best ideas. What do you think?”
Evan shook her head. “Wow, you’re just blowing me away. I think there’s a lot of Isadora in you. You’re daring to dream.”
Clementine put her sketch pad down and stood up. “I didn’t know I was capable of dreaming.”
Despite waking up to the aftermath of one of the worst storms Rosebrook had ever known, Clementine had never felt more positive. Evan had taught her it was safe to dream again, and she was loving it. Her creative spark was bursting out of her brain when she woke, and now Clementine couldn’t wait for the future.
Clementine placed her hand on Evan’s chest and said, “I’ll never be as optimistic and positive as you, I don’t think anyone is, and I’ll always have to rein in your wilder flights of fancy, but yes, I can’t wait to see what dreams we’ll come up with together.” She pushed on Evan’s chest and grinned. “Let’s go back to bed. I have a lot of energy this morning.”
“But what a
bout our guests? Your villagers will be surfacing and will be needing tea and breakfast.”
“Our villagers,” Clementine corrected Evan. “You can be quick, can’t you, Foxy?”
Unusually Clementine had Evan mentally and physically off balance. When they got to the bed, Clementine pushed her back onto the mattress. She pulled off her nightie and saw the look of hunger on Evan’s face.
“I think I like it when you’re positive and demanding,” Evan said.
Clementine climbed on top of Evan and leaned over to within a few inches of Evan’s lips.
“I’m learning so many new things about myself. Like, dreaming and planning make me all hot and bothered.”
Clementine kissed Evan so deeply and passionately that Evan moaned. Evan grasped her bottom with her hands, squeezing and making Clementine rock her hips on Evan’s stomach. But this wasn’t about her. She wanted to make Evan feel good, loved, and appreciated for the wonderful person she was.
She broke away from the kiss and felt Evan try to turn her onto her back. She wagged her finger. “Uh-uh. This morning you’re mine, Foxy.”
“Oh God,” Evan replied.
Clementine moved down Evan’s torso, kissing and teasing as she went. Evan gave the biggest moans when Clementine’s breasts brushed against her thighs.
She teased Evan with her tongue, lightly licking around her clit.
Evan sat up propped on her elbows and begged Clementine, “Jesus, Clem, don’t tease. Suck me.”
Clementine stopped and met Evan’s gaze. “Well, I did tell you to be quick.”
She winked at Evan and returned to her clit. Clementine sucked it in, and Evan groaned. “Oh yeah, yeah, just like that.”
As Clementine picked up the pace, Evan’s hips thrust right along with her, and as she got closer to her orgasm, Clementine felt Evan’s hand in her hair, grasping it tightly. She sucked and licked faster, matching the thrust of Evan’s hips and her moans until she went rigid and still.
“Fuck!” Evan cried out.
After she had squeezed every ounce of pleasure out of Evan’s orgasm, she climbed up to Evan, who was trying to get her breath back. Clementine stroked her face tenderly.
Evan pulled her into a deep kiss, then said, “Can you be positive every morning?”
Clementine laughed. “I can try.” Before she could stop her, Evan had flipped her onto her back. “We don’t have time, Foxy. Our guests will be waiting for us.”
Evan trailed her fingers down Clementine’s body, and without any teasing or preamble slipped her fingers into Clementine’s wet sex.
Clementine moaned, and then Evan lowered her lips down to Clementine’s, and as she had done, Evan whispered, “You can be quick, can’t you?”
Epilogue
Five months later
It was a crisp, frosty winter morning in mid-December. Clementine was in the family burial ground out at the back of Rosebrook House. She told herself that she wanted to visit her mother, but deep down it was the grave beside it she wanted to talk to. Isadora Fitzroy, who was buried with her wife, Louisa.
Clementine sighed. “I’ve spent most of my life trying to hate you, Grandmother. Life wasn’t good after you lost our money, and I didn’t want to acknowledge that you were trying to do good, that your social conscience was something to be admired. I’ve never been a dreamer, never understood anything but order and precision. I never understood it’s the dreamers that make the progress that advances us as humans. Some will fail, some will succeed—”
She heard the telltale crunch of gravel that meant someone had walked through the gate.
“Those who succeed need people like you to keep their feet nearish the ground.” Evan stood beside her with her hands behind her back.
“Nearish is right. Is it time?” Clementine asked.
“Just about. Mr. Fox wants to give you something.” Evan took her hand from behind her back to reveal a hand puppet of Mr. Fox, holding some papers tied with a red bow.
“What’s this?”
“A wedding present,” Evan said.
“It’s not our wedding for another two months.”
“It’s early—open it.”
Clementine took the present and then started to untie the bow. Some very old and extremely tattered papers were amongst the pile.
“Read the top one.”
Evan looked so excited, and that worried Clementine. Every time Evan was excited, it usually meant more dreams and ideas to try to make come true.
Clementine opened the first document, which had an old wax seal on it.
“My gift to you, the future Mrs. Fox.”
She scanned it quickly and her heart started to pound. These are the deeds to Thistleburn Castle and its land. Owned by Clementine Fitzroy, Duchess of Rosebrook, Countess of Thistleburn, and Baroness Portford.
“You bloody didn’t?”
“I bloody did. I had Archie do the research and the business. The local council didn’t know what to do with it. It was too expensive to refurbish, and they were thinking of knocking it down. I bought it lock, stock, and barrel.”
“Why?”
Evan cupped Clementine’s cheek. “Because I want you to have your family lands back, and when we have this village up and running, Thistleburn can be a second site for us to develop.” Evan gesticulated wildly. “Think of it. We can show the world how we can make communities work and make them green, not just as a one-off village but two, and maybe three or four—”
Clementine saw that Evan was starting to get too excited and lost in the clouds, as her mother had put it.
“We could have a village in every corner of the kingdom, then maybe towns, then cities—”
She grasped Evan’s hand. “Evan? Calm down. How about we make one village work first, and then see about the second, and so on.”
The summer storm had wreaked havoc on the village and the building work already done, but in a way it had been a positive thing. It brought the community closer together and proved to the more reluctant members of the tiny community that they had to try and make changes to the way they worked, farmed, and lived, so that natural disasters didn’t become the norm.
“I’m getting overexcited, aren’t I,” Evan said.
Clementine kissed her cheek. “Just a bit, but this”—she held up the deeds—“it’s too much. I mean, what do I bring to this marriage?”
“Are you kidding me?” Evan picked her up and twirled her around. Evan straightened her best fox tie and said with smugness, “I get a duchess. The third highest ranked dukedom in the country. Even Archie couldn’t get a duchess. In fact, I think I shall get a lapel badge and a bumper sticker for my Beetle: I’m married to a duchess.”
Clementine laughed. “Be serious, Evan.”
“I am. Besides, isn’t this the way things used to work in Jane Austen–type times? One partner brought the money, one brought the title.” Evan imitated her future wife’s posh voice and said, “A very prudent match, wouldn’t one say, what? What?”
“That is not how I speak.”
Evan kissed her. “Near enough, come on, we better get going.”
“I love you, Foxy.”
“I love you, m’lady, Your Graceship.”
“Come on, you.” Before they left the burial ground, Clementine reached out and touched Isadora’s grave. “Look after Mama, Dora, and if it was you who brought us together, thank you. We’ll try to make Rosebrook everything you dreamed of.”
* * *
“Why are you not up there? It’s your baby, Fox,” Archie asked Evan.
They both stood at the back of a crowd, in front of the newly completed Seaside Cottages. Clementine was in front of a ceremonial red ribbon drawn around the beginning of the row of cottages, with Ash beside her. Twenty new residents stood intermingled with all the locals, including Blake Campbell, Eliska Novak, and their daughter, Ola. Those carefully chosen first twenty people included single people as well as families of all sizes and kinds, all enthusiastic abou
t the opportunity for a new life.
They had promised Blake and Eliska that they would have their new home, their safe haven, by Christmas, and they did. Blake had said it was the best Christmas present they could have. Evan looked forward to getting to know the couple.
She folded her arms and smiled. “Nah. It maybe started out as that, but that strong woman there is the leader of this village. When I first met her, Clem was weighed down by the world and her problems. She felt a responsibility to these people, to their living conditions, but couldn’t do anything about it. Look at her now.” Clementine was laughing and taking an oversized pair of scissors from Ash. “She has her purpose back. Look how much everyone else has changed. Clementine told me that Ash hardly ever went out, but now she’s learning the business and happily mixing with people.”
Archie leaned over and whispered, “Just don’t ask her to make you a nice cup of tea. She has a long memory.”
“Well you deserved it.”
“True. Oh, Griffin got back to me. She’s really interested in your offer.”
Evan had finally gotten hold of her old friend Griffin, who was an expert in craft brewing. Evan thought she would be perfect to make the beer factory a success, but that was for another day.
“Excellent. It’s all coming together,” Evan said.
“I bet Isadora is smiling down on you both.”
“I think she’d be happy that a Fitzroy is mistress of Rosebrook House again. It seems like my whole life has been leading me here, to her.”
As Evan gazed at her soon-to-be wife, she filled with so much love. She had gotten her love story at last, and it had been so worth waiting for.
