by Joan Wolf
Her mother touched her cheek. “I rather think you saw in him the father that you had always wanted. I have thought that all along and it worried me a little. But you seemed so happy.”
Diana stared at her mother with dawning enlightenment.
Louisa smiled at Alex. “I am very glad that the two of you have finally come together. I don’t think Diana has been truly happy since you left.”
Mama knows me better than I know myself, Diana thought in amazement.
Alex said, “We are putting the past behind us and concentrating on the future, Cousin Louisa.”
“I think that is very wise,” Louisa said.
“We must begin to plan the wedding,” Lady Standish said with relish. “Sally is being married at St. George’s in Hanover Square in June. Do you wish to be married before or after her, Alex?”
Diana looked at her new fiancé. “We are going to go home to Standish Court and be married at our local parish church as soon as possible,” he said firmly. “Dee and I have discussed this and we are in agreement. We’ll have the banns called because I don’t want any of the gossip that would invariably arise if I just got a special license. But once the banns are called, we’re going to be married.”
Lady Standish looked disappointed. “But you’re an earl, Alex! You should have a big wedding.”
“You’re giving Sally a big wedding. That will have to be enough.”
Lady Standish sighed. “Oh, all right. But there will be gossip whatever you do. Diana can’t jilt Rumford and marry you without gossip.”
“We won’t concern ourselves with the gossip,” Louisa said briskly. “But we will have to coordinate wedding dates, darling. I want to be able to attend yours and I want you to attend mine.”
Diana hugged her mother again. “We are both so lucky, Mama.”
Louisa hugged her back. “Yes, we are, darling. We certainly are.”
That night, after everyone had retired, Diana was dressed in her nightgown and sitting up in bed with a book in front of her when a knock came upon her door.
“Come in,” she called softly.
A thrill of excitement ran up and down her spine as Alex entered. He was dressed in just his breeches and a shirt that was open at the neck. His black hair was hanging over his forehead. He closed the door behind him but didn’t advance into the room.
“Are you sure this is all right?” he asked huskily.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s the rightest thing that has happened to me since the day you left.”
“God.” He crossed the floor and sat on the bed next to her. She put her book down on the rosewood night table and looked up at him. Her hair was loose and streamed down her back in a fall of glorious coppery curls. He reached out and touched it.
“It feels just like I remember it,” he said. “Like silk.”
Her breath caught at his touch. She placed her hands on his shoulders and ran them over his upper arms, feeling the strong muscles. He wasn’t the slim boy she remembered any longer.
“You’ve gotten bigger,” she murmured.
“And you’ve gotten even more beautiful.” His voice was huskier than it had been before.
She tilted her head back. “Kiss me, Alex,” she whispered.
He bent his head and his mouth came down on hers. His kiss was like fire and she met it and matched it. All of the passion that she had so scorned with Rumford came rushing over her. She linked her arms around his neck and opened her mouth to him. The penetration of his tongue caused a throbbing to begin in her loins.
Alex laid her back upon the bed and swung his legs up to lie beside her. Their bodies pressed into each other and all this time they were kissing frantically. Finally he broke the contact of their mouths.
“Dee,” he said breathlessly. “Do you think we could get rid of this nightgown?”
She didn’t hesitate for a moment. She pulled the white cotton nightgown off over her head and her hair spilled down over her perfect white skin. He kissed her throat. “I thought only babies had skin as fine as this,” he said.
She didn’t respond. Her own fingers had felt something raised under his shirt and she frowned. “Fair is fair,” she said. “Now you take off your shirt.”
He looked at her for a moment, then he shrugged and pulled the shirt off over his head. She saw the scar on his shoulder immediately.
“You were wounded worse than we thought,” she said accusingly. “That’s a nasty scar.”
“The scar makes it look worse than it was,” he replied easily. “Don’t fuss over it, Dee. It doesn’t hurt anymore. I hardly think of it.”
She reached over and pressed her lips against it. “Poor Alex,” she said. “I hate to think of you being hurt.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” he replied. “When I think of the men who were killed, or who lost an arm or a leg, I realize how lucky I was.”
“Thank God you’re all right,” she said fervently. “Thank God you came home to me.”
They began to kiss again. As they kissed Alex’s hand moved from her throat to her breast and began to caress it. Diana’s breath came faster. Then he slid his mouth away from hers and went lower, kissing first her throat and then her breast. After a few moments, he gently sucked on her nipple.
It was as if there was a nerve that went directly from her nipple to between her legs. Her hips arched involuntarily, searching for release from the building tension.
He moved to her other breast and started sucking there. She buried her hands in his thick black hair.
Finally he lifted his head and looked down at her. Her hair was spread out around her like a halo. “I love you so much,” he said. “I was faithful to you, Dee. I want you to know that. There were available women around, but I never looked at them. I was always true to you.”
Tears formed in her eyes. “I’m glad,” she whispered. “I’m so glad to hear that, Alex.”
He bent and kissed the tears away. “Don’t cry, my love,” he said softly. “I never want to see you cry.”
“They’re happy tears,” she said.
He found her mouth and kissed her again. Then his fingers found the spot between her legs where her most intense feelings were concentrated. The shock of his touch ran all through her and once more she lifted her hips.
“Does that feel good?” he asked. “Do you like that?”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Oh yes.”
He kept kissing her and moving his finger and all of a sudden a stupendous rush of sensation ripped through Diana, all emanating from that one single spot between her legs. Her body jerked again and again with the power of what she was feeling.
“Let me in, Dee,” he said, and she opened her legs wider to give him access to the throbbing inside of her. She took him in deeply and closed around him, shutting her eyes, feeling that with this one act they could shed the lost years, shed the long loneliness, shed the pain. The heat between them was so intense, so deep. The feel of him inside her was so natural, so solid, so good.
She held him tightly, feeling the strong muscles in his shoulders and back, feeling the light sheen of sweat that clung to him.
He said her name as he reached his climax and she held him tighter, feeling the pounding of his heart and the laboring of his breath.
“Alex,” she said. “Oh, Alex.” And once again she had tears in her eyes.
Afterwards he lay quiet, with his body all along hers, his arms holding her close. He kissed her hair. “I love you so much,” he said. “So much, Dee.”
There was in his embrace a feeling of cherishing and protectiveness that was very sweet to her. She felt so safe, so loved and so very very happy.
“I love you, too,” she said.
Time passed as they breathed together. Then he said, “I don’t want to wait for the banns to be called. I want you to be mine right away.”
“We have to wait,” she said. “Our mothers would be very upset if we got married by a special license. It would probably cause a scan
dal, whereas our waiting for the banns will just cause gossip.”
“Damn,” he said.
“It’s only a few weeks,” she said.
“A day seems too long.”
She kissed the scar on his shoulder. “I don’t want to wait either, but we must.”
He heaved a sigh. “All right. But I’m not ready to go back to my room yet.”
“Who said you had to?”
“Will you kiss me again?”
She lifted her face to his and their lips met with great tenderness. “I will love you forever,” she said.
“I will make you happy, love,” he promised. “I swear it.”
“I know you will,” she replied softly. “You already have.”
Epilogue
Diana and Alex were the first ones married. They spent a week at a seaside cottage that belonged to a friend of Alex’s before returning to Standish Court. A week later they traveled to Sussex for the wedding of Diana’s mother and Sir Gilbert Merton. Then, three weeks after that, they all removed to London for Sally’s wedding to the Duke of Sinclair.
Sally and Sinclair would have been happier to be married quietly, with just family present, like Diana and Louisa had been, but Lady Standish had set her heart on a big wedding and Sally loved her mother too much to disappoint her. So they were married in St. George’s, with the church crowded with all of their relatives and friends. The wedding breakfast was held at Standish House and even the prince regent threatened to attend. Fortunately, he did not, and Sally and Sinclair were able to get away to one of Sinclair’s smaller estates, where they spent their honeymoon.
It took Sally two months to get with child. It took Diana four months. It took Louisa a year.
The most jubilant of all the couples was Louisa and Sir Gilbert. The younger people had always thought that, in the natural course of events, they would have children. But to Louisa and Sir Gilbert, a baby was like a small miracle.
Sally’s baby was named Eleanor and called Nell. Sinclair was not at all perturbed at not having a son. In fact, Nell brought out a tenderness in him that touched Sally deeply.
Diana’s baby was a boy whom they named William. The minute that Diana’s son was born, she and Sally began plotting how the two children could marry each other. The fathers told them not to be looking so far ahead, but they went right ahead with their plans anyway.
Louisa also had a son, to Sir Gilbert’s great delight. With the death of his first son in the Peninsula, Hatton Manor was going to have to pass into the hands of a cousin. Now he had another heir, and a new child to help ease the pain of losing his eldest.
Lady Standish remained single, thoroughly enjoying her emancipated life as a wealthy widow. She spent the summer in Brighton and the Christmas holidays and the occasional visit to Standish Court, but otherwise she was perfectly happy in London, where she had acquired a host of friends.
Sally and Sinclair were building an orphanage on one of Sinclair’s lesser estates and they continued to work for improvement in the lives of climbing boys.
Diana and Alex started their horse breeding enterprise by acquiring three beautiful thoroughbred mares to breed to a stunning-looking draft horse stallion that they found at a sale in Derbyshire. Diana’s riding had been curtailed somewhat by her pregnancy, but she was back in the saddle quickly after the baby’s birth. Together she and Alex began some improvements upon their tenants’ houses.
“We’ll never be as philanthropic as Sally and Sinclair, but at least we can see to it that our people are comfortable,” Alex said to Diana. He had spent months going over the books and the estates with his estate manager and he felt much more comfortable about what needed to be done on his property. He still had an occasional nightmare, and he still went into London once a month for a meeting of his veterans’ club, but overall his mind was at rest.
As Diana said to him one night, as they were standing over the crib of their sleeping son, “It’s so wonderful to be happy, Alex. How sorry I am for all the people in the world who aren’t as happy as we are.”
He reached over and took her hand into his own large, warm clasp. “We’re very lucky,” he responded soberly.
Diana raised his hand to her lips and kissed it. “Yes,” she said softly. “We are.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6296-9
HIS LORDSHIP’S DESIRE
Copyright © 2006 by Joan Wolf.
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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