by Matilda Hart
The first step would be to get them all back to his home, where all the parties involved would be gathered. And he would have to explain the truth about his absence to her father, who thought that he had business that was keeping him away. Nothing else could possibly go wrong...or so he hoped a he went to his study and summoned the butler. He had a dinner party to plan, and an engagement to celebrate.
Chapter 11
The time for the last house party of their visit was upon them, and as Maddi sat in the carriage that Drew had sent for her family -- her uncle and his family would arrive in their own carriage -- she tried to tell herself that she was calm, and that she could handle seeing the man she still loved and not fall apart. Her parents had been giving her strange looks for the last two days, and she had twice had to tell her mother that she was not ill, just tired. No one asked what made her tired, for which she was grateful. One lie was all that she could manage.
The carriage rolled to a stop before the impressive doors of Claybourne Abbey, and Maddi took the hand of the footman who came to help her down. The family were all once again waiting to welcome them, and their mood seemed to be particularly festive to Maddi, who wondered what good news they had received. Perhaps the perfidious duke had finally made an honest woman of the mother of his children, and she was to be unveiled to the world as his wife. The thought of it made her chest hurt, and she took deep breaths to ease the pain.
She was last in lie to be welcomed, and Drew;’s was the first hand she touched, The shock of his touch went straight to her toes, and between her thighs, and she had to lock her knee together for a moment to steady herself as he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. His lips lingered, and she tugged on her hand to make him free her. She dared not look into his eyes, but murmured a subdued “Good evening, Your Grace” before moving on.
She was grateful when the party went indoors, and everyone gathered in the drawing room for before dinner drinks. The chatter was very excited all round, and Jane told her, when she asked why, that there were already guests present for the house party whom she had yet to meet. Maddi was indifferent. She had her work cut out for her to maintain a calm appearance when every time she looked up, Drew was looking at her with such deep emotion in his eyes that it made her own burn. How could he do this to her, pretending that he had real feelings for her when there was another who had a claim on his affections?
She looked away, unwilling to let him see how wounded she was, and turned to the door through which new arrivals were approaching. Her jaw dropped in shock at the sight of a petite woman with sunshine for hair and the most beautiful face, leading two precious children by the hand into the gathering. She saw the woman kissed by Drew’s mother and sister, and she saw Drew approach her with a smile of welcome on his face. No one was paying any attention to her, or so she thought until she swayed on her feet and someone caught her before she fell.
“My lady, are you well?” a strange voice asked in her ear, and she opened her eyes and stared...into the most beautiful gray eyes she had ever seen. And she knew that she had seen them before...as he had ridden off with her family’s valuables all those weeks ago. She struggled to sit up, and said as she did,
“Do you make it a habit, Your Grace, to entertain highwaymen in your home?”
No one spoke. Everyone’s eyes were turned to her face, shock and disbelief evident in them all. And when she looked at her mother, she saw embarrassment as well, and it curdled in her stomach. She was making a scene, and embarrassing her family, and the duke’s as well. But she knew that the man who had by now let go of her and was standing next to the woman and her children was the brigand who had robbed them. She would get to the bottom of this, but for now, she needed to try and salvage the very awkward situation that she had created.
Before she could speak, however, the stranger said,
“Do not be alarmed, my lady. You are not the first to remark upon my uncanny resemblance to The Rogue.” He gave her his most charming smile, the same one he had bestowed upon her that fateful day. “I am flattered that you think me as handsome as they say the man is.”
The assembled guests all laughed, mostly in relief that an awkward moment had been settled. And when she looked into the stranger’s face again, he winked at her. She was clearly not mistaken, as she had not been about seeing Drew in the High Street, and yet, here they all were, and her father was not demanding a duel at dawn to redress the wrong done to her by Drew’s perfidy. She joined in the laughter, though she felt as though she were the butt of a jest that everyone else knew about but her.
Her father came to help her to her feet, and kept his arm around her as Drew made introductions. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce my childhood friend Cailean Blair, his sister Fiona, and her twins, Liam and Georgina.” A general greeting was said, and then Drew continued. “They have an opportunity to make a new life for themselves and the children in North America, and will be leaving the day after tomorrow for Nova Scotia in Canada. So tonight’s dinner party is in part a farewell dinner for them.”
More excited chatter, as everyone who knew the family asked a myriad of questions. Maddi felt as though she had had a bubble of water blown into her ear, and she was hearing everything from a third remove. She felt numb, and foolish, and humiliated. And she had no one to blame but herself. She smiled at anyone who approached her, tried to answer when spoken to, and managed to make it all the way through dinner, at which she was seated next to the highwayman on the one side and his sister on the other. She wondered briefly if Drew had planned it so to punish her for drawing such egregiously erroneous conclusions about him. But he had not known that she had known the bandit...or had he? She didn’t know what to think anymore, and she didn’t dare make any assumptions.
After dinner, while the men remained behind to talk shop and drink whisky, the ladies repaired to the drawing room where the talk was all about Janet’s upcoming nuptials and Fiona’s even sooner departure for the New World. The Nanny came to say that the children were wanting their mama, and she excused herself, saying that she would see them all at breakfast, before disappearing. The men came in then, and her father said he had an announcement to make. Everyone quieted, and Maddi felt her heart race. Without having been told beforehand, she knew that her betrothal to the Duke of Annadale was about to be announced.
“As His Grace has hinted, there was more than one reason for this evening’s dinner party. My family and I come to Scotland every year for the summer, and her ladyship and I have watched our only child Madalene blossom and grow into a beautiful, spirited young woman. She has never been one to seek the limelight, but we knew that sooner or later, she would catch the eyes of someone worthy to call her his own.” He paused dramatically, and one could have heard a feather fall in the silence that waited for his next words. “I am happy to inform you all that the young duke has asked for my daughter’s hand in marriage, and I have consented to give it.”
Applause greeted the end of his statement, and Drew was clapped heartily on the back by every man present. He smiled broadly, and came to stand by her chair. “Thank you everyone. We appreciate your congratulations. The dancing is postponed until tomorrow night. But I believe that my mother and sister have some other entertainments planned for this evening.”
He made no effort to touch her, for which Maddi was grateful, but he did send her meaningful glances thought the games of charades, and whist and the piano recital. By the time the guests began to seek their beds, Maddi was a tightly drawn bow, ready to break. She approached Janet quietly and asked if she would mind chaperoning her one last time. She needed to speak to Drew, and she would not be a coward and put it off. Once again, the three found themselves in the library. Janet made herself as scarce as was appropriate, and Maddi stood before the man she loved, suddenly tongue-tied.
How does one begin an apology that could take a lifetime to forgive? She did not know where to begin, and so she merely said, “I am so sorry, Your Grace, for the gross misapp
rehension under which I was laboring, and which I used as a cause to defame you. I had no excuse for saying those horrible things to you, and I am aware that you do not have to pardon me. But I still beg your pardon, my lord!”
She stopped speaking. The depth of her humiliation and grief were more than she could bear. Tears swelled behind her eyes, and crowded her throat, but she would not let them fall. She did not want his pity, and what she wanted she had no right to. She turned, about to walk out of the room when his question stopped her in her tracks.
“Do you love me, Madalene?” he asked.
Five words...and her whole world fell apart. Or came back together. She didn’t know. The emotions that swamped her were so many and so powerful that she could do no more than nod dumbly and wait. And when he pulled her back into his arms, and hugged her to his chest, she wept tears of joy and relief and passion.
“Give me the words, my love,” he demanded, holding her chin up so he could look into her eyes.
“I love you, Drew,” she said.
And then he kissed her.
Epilogue
“I now pronounce you man and wife. Your Grace, you may kiss your bride.”
Drew brushed his lips tenderly against Maddi’s, and then let her go. He smiled into her eyes and watched as they sparkled with love. They had waited for six months, during which he had visited her in England as often as he could, and taken her round and about, including to London, where, properly chaperoned, they had made her known as the newest duchess, and one whose husband had holdings in both England and Scotland. She was the envy of her peers.
He had also waited that long, because he wanted her to be sure of him, and to get to know him,. So that the misunderstanding that almost wrecked their love could never happen again. And it gave his mother and hers time to plan the most extravagant wedding ever to be planned for a Lockhart, as well as two house parties to celebrate the nuptials...one at Claybourne Abbey, and one at Holford Hall, where Maddi’s parents lived.
And now, at last, she was his. He wished that he could skip the wedding breakfast and the hobnobbing, but he was the duke, and his tenants had all been invited to share in his good fortune. Still, by early evening, he had had enough, and he took his lady off to bed, to the cheers and wolf whistles of everyone who saw them leave...which was everyone there. He laughed as he swung his bride up in his arms and took her to his bed.
Someone had been kind to them, and had turned down the bedcovers. Their night attire had been laid out for them as well, but Drew had no intention of soiling perfectly clean clothes when he would just have to remove them in the heat of passion. He threw them onto the chaise and began to undress his bride.
“There are far too many buttons here, my lady,” he complained, kissing her neck as he unbuttoned her. When the dress was loose about her shoulders, he pushed it down, exposing creamy flesh to his hungry gaze. He feathered her shoulders with light kisses, and as he pushed down the dress, he left a trail of kisses.
“Step out of it,” he instructed her, and helped her to do so. The dress was carefully strewn across the back of a chair. “This is a very delicate chemise, my love,” he said, drawing the garment over her head, and exposing her stays, which cinched her waist delightfully. He inhaled deeply as he took in the sight of her breasts and bottom. He forgot that he had not put her chemise in a safe place, and it was crushed as he pulled her closer so he could lick his way across the tops of her lush breasts, and insert his tongue into the deep cleavage between them. Her soft gasps of delight fired up his already overheating blood. He returned for a moment to her lips, which he sucked into his mouth one at a time, before taking her tongue and playing with her until she was shivering with need in his arms.
Then he began to pull the strings that held her stays together. The material had marked her skin, and he found that he liked the way she looked, marked for his pleasure. “I hope that you will wear these stays for me every day, my love,” he told her. “They leave beautiful markings on your skin that arouse me greatly.” He breathed the words into her ear, and then licked the lobe. She hissed in pleasure so he did it again to the other ear.
When the stays were finally untied, he pulled the garment off her and threw it on the growing pile of clothing on the chair. Then he knelt before her and removed her slippers, and rolled her stockings down her legs slowly, savoring the unfolding of her creamy thighs. He kissed his way down her legs, and after he had pushed both garter and stocking off each leg, he made his way back up, kissing the inside of her legs, pausing at the juncture of her thighs to inhale the scent of her growing desire. Then he turned her slowly and kissed his way up the backs of her legs until he reached her round bottom. He squeezed each cheek, and put his face to them, moaning in delight at how she tensed them when he kissed her there. He slid his tongue over each mound of flesh, and nipped her playfully, scraping his teeth against them. She must have liked that, because she reared back, pushing her bottom into his face. He opened his mouth over her and sucked, leaving marks that he would explore again and again before he had had his fill. She groaned, and he echoed her.
Drew’s body was hard, his erection painful against his fall. But he would not hurry. This was Maddi’s first time, and he wanted her to remember it with pleasure. He turned her back around and spread his fingers over her thighs just where they met in the center at her mound. He massaged the flesh there with his thumbs, reaching lower each time until they touched the lips of her sex. He massaged her there, not going in, just playing with her lips, getting her accustomed to the feel of him there. She opened her legs instinctively, and he smelled her desire, now even stronger than before.
Oh,” she said, when his thumb grazed her clitoris. “Oh god!”
He teased her with the light touches there, while his mouth made contact with her lips and kissed them. She began to move, trying to follow the point of pleasure, but he kept moving it, from her clit to her lips to the hole that would soon accept his cock. Soon she was grinding herself against his face as he licked her and stroked her lips and clit. When he removed his hands from her body, she protested, but when he replaced them with his mouth, French kissing her deeply on those lower lips, she cried out in startled pleasure.
Drew wanted her to come; he wanted to flood her system with pleasure. He inserted a finger into her virgin hole, slowly taking her while he continued to kiss her lips and stroke her clit with his tongue. She began to tremble, and he moved with her to the bed, laying her across it so that her legs hung down the sides. Then he lifted them onto his shoulders and went back to work, taking her slowly with his middle finger while he sucked and licked her, until he felt her walls tighten around his digit and she moaned loudly as she came. He could feel her heartbeat racing in time with his own, and before she was calm again, he thrust two fingers up inside her core, preparing her for the invasion of his by-now-straining cock.
“Drew!” she cried out as he took her with his fingers, stroking her clitoris as he did so with his thumb. She writhed beneath his hand, widening her legs and raising her hips to take him deeper. Her thrusts became wilder as he built her to her second release, and when she broke, and stuffed her fist into her mouth to stifle her screams, he felt pre-cum slide from his body and he had to grit his teeth and tighten his muscles to stop himself from coming in his pantaloons.
Drew was as out of breath as she was when he stood and ripped his clothes off his body. He threw them away from his body without a thought for where they landed, and pushed her up the bed so that her leg no longer hung over the side. He stood still for a moment when he saw where she was looking. He knew that she had never seen a man’s naked body before, nor one in so painful a state of arousal. He let her look her fill, and then he leaned over her and whispered,
“Are you ready for me, my love?” His voice was raspy with lust and passion.
“No...yes...I don’t know...what if it won’t fit? What if I can’t…?”
He kissed her into silence, drawing her tongue into his
mouth and teasing her into playing with him there, until she was moaning again, her anxiety melting like butter on a hot griddle. “It will fit, my love. And you can. Trust me.”
He reached down between their bodies and stroked her clit even as he lined himself up with her entrance and pushed in slowly, careful to gauge her body’s reaction to his invasion of its secret places. He shook with the effort to restrain his desire, and fought against the urge to ram himself home. She was tight, so tight it made his teeth ache. His heartbeat sped up as she took him in, and when he reached her maidenhead, he paused, and whispered in her ear,
“This may hurt, my love. But of you do as I say, it will not hurt for long. Trust me?” He waited until she nodded and then he said, “I’m going to rock back and forth, and you must breathe out every time I push in. Can you do that for me?”
When she nodded again, he pushed in and pulled out, and she did as he bid while he strained to keep the pace steady. He rocked with her, and once he pushed past her barrier, he thrust all the way home. She cried out, and he stayed where he was, ;letting her get used to the feel of him, to his girth and length. He reached between them again and rubbed against her clit, and soon she was rolling her hips against his finger. He moved his hand and pulled out of her. She protested and tried to hold him inside. He chuckled and thrust back in. She sighed in pleasure, and then he began to move. She was so responsive to his touch, to his thrusts, to the motion of his hips as he rocked from side to side, and then lifted one of her legs so he could deepen the penetration. And then when he changed the angle of his thrusts, and she felt him hit that place inside that would make her scream, she thrust a fist into her mouth again as she came hard, bucking against him and gripping his cock tightly inside her contracting walls.
