Page 38 of Plucked By the Orc

While her mum was alive, she’d read stories to Iris of enchanted castles and princesses who found true love in faraway lands. But that was a time so distant, it seemed to Iris as though she was thinking of a child she had once known rather than herself.

After her mother passed, as the years stretched by, her father lost the house she had grown up in and moved her into a significantly smaller dwelling. Then, that seemed too much for her father to manage, and they moved again, this time to a bedsit in Lambeth, not far from where Iris and Lottie rented their room.When Iris had been old enough to strike out on her own as he’d told her when she was but thirteen years of age, her father rarely showed up at all.

One day, the man who owned the building met Iris at the bottom of the staircase with a letter stating she was tovacate the premises. No money had changed hands between her father and this bloke in months. That’s when her circumstances downgraded even lower. She had no time for the books, games, and lessons that filled her life while her mother was still alive. Iris Gabbert’s life consisted of nothing more than survival. The romantic fairy tales her mum once read to her were only that—figments of someone else’s imagination.

“Ah! You’re awake.”

Caught up in her whirling thoughts, Iris hadn’t heard Duncan come in, which was something of an accomplishment, given his footfalls were so hard to miss.

She cleared her throat and immediately regretted it, for the sound was unpleasant. Iris sat straighter, demonstrating the posture of a lady, as she was always meant to do. But she didn’t know what to say to him, nor how she should say it: as Iris Gabbert, the flower seller he had initially met at Drury Lane, or as this mythical countess he hoped she would become.

Her words fell somewhere between those two extremes. “Good morning, your grace.”

“Your grace?” The indentations in his broad brow deepened. “Why the formality? Do you regret—”

“Not at all. I only said that because I thought you might like it. That it would remind you of our … well, our time together last night.”

Duncan’s features relaxed. He flashed a wicked smile at her. “You enjoy calling me this?”

She swallowed, unsure why that warmth between her legs had returned so quickly but having no wish to make it go away. She blushed and shrugged simultaneously. “I do.”

“Then it shall suit very well. And do you prefer to be called Miss Gabbert?”

She glanced over her shoulder. Though Clemons and Mrs. Thompson usually afforded them the utmost privacy, one could never be sure.

“I think outside of private quarters, that will do. I rather like it, actually. Fancy it makes me feel respected and such.”

Duncan clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his feet a bit. She’d witnessed him do as much when he was out of sorts. Which didn’t happen often. And made her feel rather proud for being the cause of it.

Well, not proud, perhaps, but satisfied, at least.

“Do not doubt that I respect you, Miss Gabbert. I wonder if you will do me the honor of making our experience last night something we might repeat.” He hesitated. “Strictly if you’re willing. Our lessons shall continue regardless of your response. The choice falls squarely in your domain.”

Some birds liked to coquette and make blokes feel like they had to chase after them. But what was the sense of that when Duncan had so obviously caught her? And how strongly sheremembered and relished the intense pleasure of the release coursing through her body and soul under his hands?

He returned her smile, though when their eyes met, he couldn’t hold her gaze as steadily as he had the night before. Matters were different in the light of day, much as either of them might hope that wouldn’t be the case.

“I agree to this course of action, your grace,” she said, spirited as she was able with her heart fluttering around. Seemed like it was better fitted for the chest of a bloody fool. Surely, this heart couldn’t belong to sensible Iris Gabbert.

“Then I think we will both have a most pleasurable experience leading up to Lady Bellingham’s rout.”

Iris nodded, a mite too vigorously. He had asked for her full consent, and he had granted it. A pleasurable experience was what they both wanted from her time here.

So she wasn’t sure why the thought that her body appealed to him, but her soul did not, left her with a quivering sensation in the pit of her chest. Odd that. And completely insensible.

“Speaking of pleasure …” Duncan gestured toward a stack of calling cards on the sterling silver tray Clemons presented for his consideration every morning. Not that she had witnessed an abundance of callers to the townhouse. In her haze over the previous night, Iris had neglected to notice them waiting on the sideboard. And unlike the light volume of cards she was accustomed to seeing, the tray was piled high.

“I think it time we prepare you for that evening in a manner befitting a lady. Please consider the various tradespeople I have collected.”

Iris tilted her head. “Tradespeople?”

“Well, I don’t know how to put it. Craftspeople?” He picked up the tray and presented it to her with an elegant flourish. “Please take a look.”

As she reviewed the cards, Iris was surprised to see they were for various grooming services. A hairdresser who had recently relocated from Paris. A modiste known for daring gowns. Another woman whose cards declared she could take the roughest hands and make them acceptable.

Iris settled on a document enclosed in a larger envelope along with the traditional calling card. A list of potions and what have you:Toilette Treatments by Emmeline. It listed perfumes and oils for bathing and to sweeten the scent of one’s hair and the more intimate corners of one’s body. A unique collection of cinnamon and peppermint for tooth powder. Serums to add to one’s nails to strengthen them. And, most curiously, a wax to aid in the removal of hair “even in the most private of privates.”

Her body responded immediately, remembering Duncan’s hands caressing that part of her. She wondered what he would make of it were he to discover her quim completely bare.

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