by Julia Donner
“Now you’re being ridiculous. You know them by now, Em. They would have leaped on the poor bastard and chewed off his ears.”
She choked on a watery laugh. “You should have seen them, Hugh. Facing him down. They were magnificent. I’m so proud of them!”
“Not me?”
She smoothed his jacket lapels and had to firm her mouth to stop a smile. She didn’t want to give the wrong impression and yet couldn’t resist a gentle tease. “Now, would you please look at that?”
“What?”
“I was crushing your lapels as tightly as I could to hold you still and there’s not a sign of it. Nary a wrinkle or smudge. Perfect as always. ” She inhaled a shaky breath. “Oh, Hugh! You’re not an old stick. I’m so sorry I ever said that.”
“Hush now.” He kissed her brow then her mouth. “I told you. I’m an old hand at this.”
She rubbed her wrists over her eyes. “At fending off annoying suitors?”
He ran a fingertip down the bridge of her nose. “There is that, but I was thinking more along the line of females in an interesting condition. They tend to get weepy over the most trivial things.”
“Scandal is not trivial, Hugh.”
“Neither are you.” .He lifted her hand to gently sink his teeth into the fleshy heel of her palm. “Did you notice if there is a lock on the door?”
She pulled her hand free. “We will not take advantage of this moment just because neither of us are at the moment wearing undergarments.”
He chuckled, a deep, rolling sound that made her legs weaken. “Been looking, have you? Give me your hand.”
Scandalized, she hissed, “Behave, Hugh!”
With an unholy grin, he slid her hand up under the sporran and what she encountered there made the room blur and begin to fade. At the starting whine of bagpipes, her eyes flew open to stare at the closed door. She inhaled a gasp of amazement and he released her hand.
She laughed at Hugh’s pleased grin. “You hired pipers for Aunt Agatha’s birthday? You found some, here in London?”
He laughed, something rare for Hugh. “Mother did. They marched in behind her. You should have seen Auntie’s smile.” This time when he grabbed her hand, he pulled her toward the door. “Come on, old thing. Pregnant or not, you owe me a reel.”
Chapter 27
The party didn’t last until dawn, but Emily had scarcely been able to stay awake for the drive home. Stressful events had sapped her energy more than dancing. The last thing she recalled about the party was a parting embrace in Ana’s strong arms. How she got from the carriage to her bed she only vaguely recalled after falling asleep against Hugh’s shoulder. He had to have carried her. She felt cheated to have missed that experience. She hoped a servant hadn’t brought her up the stairs. How lowering and unromantic.
She roused when Hugh left her side. She drowsily watched him reach for the robe he’d thrown over the foot of the bed, smiling as she vaguely remembered him making slow love to her as she half-slept.
She stretched and sighed. “It’s a sin to cover all that lovely flesh with a robe. You have the most delicious body ever given to man.”
He planted his hands on the bed and leaned down to nuzzle her neck. “And I have the most beautiful and delectable female since God made Eve. Do you forgive me for partaking while you slept?”
Purring a contented laugh, she assured him, “Waking, sleeping, standing, lying, any place, any time.” She slipped her hand inside the gap in his robe and slid her palm up his thigh. “But let me sleep a while longer. Then I’ll be ready for more of this.”
He hummed an agreement, his eyes darkening. “I love your promises, but I don’t like the thought of wearing you out with my intentions. I can’t seem to stop myself from feasting on you.”
She laughed and snuggled up to his pillow. “Feast away, but next time, I’d rather have enough rest to be a participant.”
“Then rest well, my love. I’ll tell Ferris to wait until you ring for her.”
She mumbled something and closed her eyes to the memory of how he’d invaded her lax body with tender loving in the middle of the night, his thrusts gentle yet infused with deliberate restraint. He didn’t stop until her body resonated with his to a shuddering end. She’d loved the odd sense of being outside of herself, observing his relentless reach for their united satisfaction, the way he’d gathered her close afterward. He’d searched over her body with his hand, as if to seek assurance that he hadn’t hurt her then gathered her close, secure in his arms. She sank back into sleep and didn’t hear him leave.
A surprise met her in the breakfast room. Hugh’s mother sat in his place. Emily didn’t know Sophia’s age but assumed she was in her seventies. She bequeathed her son with her commanding facial features and chilling demeanor. Her still thick, iron-colored hair was hidden under a turban, but not the kind in fashion. Sophia’s resembled the headwear of the desert people, and she wore a flowing robe of velvety cotton that looked comfortable. Her skin was oddly unlined for her age with a few wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and a frown line between her eyebrows. With luck, in forty years, an elderly Hugh would look as astonishingly young-looking.
Emily dipped a curtsy, went to her mother-in-law’s side, and kissed her cheek. A waft of a delicate scent exuded from Sophia’s clothes, an exotic mix of sandalwood and jasmine.
“Good morning to you, Sophia. I see that the rigors of Aunt Agatha’s celebration has not rendered you exhausted.”
Sophia gestured for Emily to take the seat on her right. “Stupid girl. Why do you insist on standing on ceremony with me? It annoyed me when you were a child and does not cease to annoy.” She looked at Clarkson. “You may leave us. I wish to speak to my daughter in private.”
As the servant’s door swung shut, Emily snitched a hothouse strawberry from Sophia’s plate and got her hand slapped for it. She sealed her lips tightly around the juicy treat, chewed then grinned at her adopted mother. “Getting slow, Sophia?”
“I danced more than you last night, Miss Saucebox.”
“Where is Hugh?”
Sophia lifted a cup of aromatic coffee, brewed strong, thick, and sweet, the way Hugh liked it. After a taste, she set down the cup and answered, “I sent him on an errand. We have much to talk about and my time is limited. I’ve booked passage to the Colonies.”
Emily slowly rotated the base of her chocolate cup in its saucer. “Must you leave right away? You’ve only just arrived. We’ve missed you and your grandsons would adore to hear stories of your travels.”
“And so they shall. What is this nonsense about Captain Blake? It was reported to me that the fellow came to the party uninvited, in his cups, and that you agreed to go off somewhere with him.”
Since there was nothing else for it, Emily divulged the whole. Sophia might have succeeded in prying the information from Hugh, but that was doubtful. He’d also inherited her stubbornness.
“I am glad that you have explained yourself, Emily. I thought I might have to sink to despair. My son is prodigiously belligerent when he sets his mind to it and would say nothing. Has his father’s sense of honor and will not be budged. I had a difficult time dissuading him from the notion of marrying you.”
She kept her gaze lowered to hide the hurt. “I hadn’t considered that you might object. In any case, you couldn’t have sent word in time. We were married as soon as it could be arranged.”
“I wasn’t speaking of recent events. I meant when you were scarcely more than children.”
Startled, Emily blinked. “Hugh asked to marry me? Before Beryl?”
“Certainly. He asked while you were away at school. He was concerned that you would have no offers. You had no dowry to speak of. Your only connections were with us. But as I explained at the time, that was neither here nor there. Hugh had always dreamed of restoring Réveillez. Beryl had a great deal of money and came from an acceptable family. Hugh listened to reason and I was able to secure a good match for you. But now that I see the t
wo of you together, I begin to wonder if I was wrong.”
When Emily stared, unable to comprehend what had just been said, Sophia continued, “He’s happy with you. He never looked that way with Beryl. He admired her greatly, of course, and esteemed and treated her with the utmost care as his wife and mother of his sons, but he never looked as he does now.”
Still caught up in disbelief, Emily asked, “How is that?”
“How he looks? Relaxed. Contented is a better description. I thought he was at the point of laughing last night. In public. Never done around Beryl.”
“Why ever not? She was the most agreeable person I’ve met.”
Sophia crumbled the remainder of her toast. She paid no attention to the crumbs missing the plate and being scattered across the tablecloth. Her voice sounded strangled when she said, “I would expect that he never knew if she’d take affront. I began to worry that he’d forgotten how to laugh.””
“I must disagree. Hugh laughs in private.”
“No need to defend him, child. He is certainly capable of doing that himself, and I haven’t seen him laugh since he was a boy. When you were not being a thorn in his side, you were laughing with him. Don’t you remember?”
“It appears that I do not. I must wonder why.”
“I believe that it’s because you did not wish for an association with what you missed most in your life. You associated the memories with the pain of separation from your family.”
“Perhaps you have the way of it, although I was sensible of the care you took to select a man of good family and the protection of a title.”
“Did you think that I was not aware of how lost you felt when you came to us as a child, then sent you away again, right out of the schoolroom? No matter how one looks at it, I married you off to a man you didn’t know, and once again in your life, you were obliged to become part of another stranger’s environment. Most difficult of all, you did not have Hugh. But you must understand. He is my son. His needs and security came first.”
That was as close to an apology that Sophia would ever come. “Indeed, now that I am about to have a child of my own, I do understand.”
“Not your own, Emily. A child of ours, and we will speak no more of that other one. Hugh has assured me that my next grandchild will be female. I was delighted to hear it. By the time I return from my next adventure, the child will be talking, I have no doubt. Until they can carry on a conversation, I haven’t much interest in them.”
Since she knew Sophia didn’t care, Emily dunked her toast into the chocolate. It tasted marvelous. Glad that her appetite had returned, she finished the slice and reached for another, this time, smearing it with butter.
She kept munching when Sophia said, “I see that you have a hearty appetite. That is important for a breeding female. I have no idea what Hugh was nattering about when he spoke of you eating like a bird.”
Emily kept dunking and eating, feeling as if she would never get full, allowing Sophia to set down her cup and say, “Now to the matter and reason why I sought a private moment with you.” She paused when Emily made an offering gesture at the last slice in the toast rack. “Thank you, no. If you are able to wrench your attention from eating everything in sight, I should like to show you something.”
Sophia lifted an object on a chain from the inside of her robe. “I must wear it at all times, you see. It’s far too valuable to remove from my person. I will ask you to do the same.”
Emily dabbed butter and crumbs from her mouth before pivoting on the chair to face Sophia. “What must I wear?”
“I will preface. While in India, I became the object of interest of a certain maharajah. His elephants liked me and would follow me around for some reason unbeknownst to me. Be that as it may, His Highness decided that I might be a minor goddess. Ridiculous, of course, but the idea became firmly implanted in his head when most of his forty-three children came down with a fever ailment. I merely said that it might prove efficacious if the children were bathed in cool water until the heat within their bodies abated. He did so. All of his children lived. In recompense, he gave me this.”
She’d been holding the item on the end of the golden chain in her fist. She opened her fingers and revealed a massive, pink gem. “His Highness called it his rose diamond. I’ve had it looked at by reliable sources. It’s worth at least four-hundred thousand pounds.”
Gaping in awe and confusion, Emily watched Sophia lift the chain from around her neck. She handed Emily the diamond. “It is now yours. I suggest taking it to Rundell to handle the sale. I would also suggest that you know the reason why I’ve given it to you.”
Emily breathed one word, “Réveillez.”
“Very good, child. Exactly as I thought. You see, I never understood until many years later how deeply you loved my son. I thought it a child’s infatuation, because it didn’t manifest until you became a young woman. I thought his devotion to you was that of a brother. Hugh reveals himself to no one. Therefore, I had no way of knowing.”
“Oh, Sophia, this will make him so happy. When I took the boys to visit the ruins, I saw where he had to stop work on the restoration. The cost had become insurmountable.”
“Not insurmountable. He transferred everything into the funds. He folds the interest back into the capital until there is a sufficient amount to continue.”
“It would still take decades to have enough to finish the restoration. Sophia, you should give this directly to him.”
“No, this is my wedding gift to both of you but mainly you. It is my way of giving you a dowry, even though you marry my son. Every woman should enjoy a sense of financial worth when she enters into marriage. Her way of contributing to the union, a matter of pride, beyond that of providing an heir. Since that is no longer an obligation for you to fulfill, one might say that you now have the financial equivalent.”
Emily tucked the gem inside her bodice. Fortunately, she was not overly endowed, allowing for enough room. “I will be honest and say that I had hoped that you would allow me to chose something from your collection of pickled specimens, but Beryl sent them somewhere. Hugh said that they haven’t been found.”
“Yes. Annoying, stupid girl. At least she brought funds into the marriage. You see what I mean?”
“I must suppose that it’s relative to one’s subjectivity. Do you have anything from your recent travels? Waldo and Howie would be agog, and were every time I described your rooms. Will you have time for them today?”
“We have an appointment after luncheon. I’ve brought them dried specimens of ancient creatures found in the desert sands. Storms have blown away areas where there are skeletons as large as the elephants. A guide told me they are remnants of the great flood of Biblical history.”
“They will be beside themselves with wriggling ecstasy. Please allow me to join you.”
“Certainly. And I would suggest showing the diamond to him as soon as possible. I find myself desirous of enjoying his affectionate response before I leave the proverbial mortal coil.”
Chapter 28
The roundness of her tummy made it uncomfortable to lie on her stomach. Emily sprawled on her back on rumpled sheets while Hugh made delicate, intricate paths on the gentle mound with a fingertip. He began to use his tongue, a delicious, tickling glide.
“Hugh?”
“I’m occupied at the moment. Tell me later.”
“No. I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Was there anyone at Aunt Agatha’s party you didn’t know?”
He lifted his head, thought for a moment, and shook his head. “Don’t believe so. Why do you ask, and make it quick. I want to return to what I was doing.”
Without waiting for her question, he carried on, but lifted his head when she said, “There was the most intriguing gentleman there. Oh, Hugh, do stop scowling. It has to do with Ana.”
“Ana? The headmistress?”
“Yes. He followed her with his eyes the entire evening through. She avoided him every time he attempte
d to approach her with someone to make an introduction. It became rather awkward.”
“What does he look like? And be careful, wife. Nothing too glowing.”
“You are so ridiculous. He has black hair and eyes. Lovely shoulders, like yours. An air about him that he’s not English. Sort of Romany looking but not from the Continent. An intimidating manner. Not standoffish or anything like that. I would say it seemed more like…commanding.”
Hugh stared at the wall with a thoughtful squint. “Must be Carnall.”
“Can’t you think of anything else but sex?”
He chuckled. “Not when you’re around, but that’s his name. Carnall. Marquis of, although I suspect the accent is spoken on the last half of his name in Ireland.”
“Oh, how marvelous. My Ana, a marchioness!”
“Doubt that’s going to happen if she was avoiding him. I suggest we stop talking now and proceed to the main course.”
She captured his face between her hands and forced him to look at her before she became too distracted. “This is important and I can’t wait any longer to see your expression when I tell you my surprise.”
He leered. “Oh, even better. I like it when you tell me what you’re going to do.”
“Be quiet. Not that, stoopid.”
She rolled onto her side, releasing a squeak when he took advantage of the position. She reached back to swat his roving hand then stretched to slide open a drawer. She withdrew a black silk pouch and handed it to him.
His sandy eyebrows came together in a frown. “What is it? A naughty toy, I hope. The Chinese have these incredible—”
“Stop it, Hugh. Be serious! My, I never thought I’d have to say that to you. Open it.”
He loosened the string and upended the pouch. The diamond rolled out onto the sheet, sat there, almost the size of her fist, sparkling in the candlelight.
“Lud, Emily, is that real?”
“Yes. A wedding present from your mother. Actually, a sort of dowry.” When his questioning gaze connected with hers, she whispered, “For Réveillez.”
