Page 56 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
‘You look beautiful. Happy. Your cheeks have colour and your eyes are bright.’
He stood and offered her his hand to help her up.
‘You cannot wear your coat.’ She bent to pick it up. ‘It is too creased. You must give it to John’s valet to see if he can repair it.’
‘I can live without it.’ He took it from her hand.
‘It is only John and Kate who know I am with child. I have not even told my mother and father.’
He smiled, wrapped an arm about her shoulders and pulled her close as they walked back to the house.
28
When Drew woke, Mary was fast asleep, so he left her in bed and walked to the lake to enjoy a cigar and absorb the quietness. It was calm here. Peaceful. When he returned, Mary had risen and gone to breakfast. He was on his way to join her.
Last night, the atmosphere during the evening meal had been strained. Pembroke, his duchess and Mary made polite conversation to avoid uncomfortable silence and the Duchess worked hard to draw him into it, but he had not really known what to say.
As soon as the meal was over, he escaped with Mary.
They retired to her rooms and talked for a long time, before falling asleep.
She woke him in the night, with a kiss. The kiss became urgent lovemaking in the utter darkness, serenaded by the calls of tawny owls through an open window. A warm breeze had brushed across his skin.
That was another special thing about this place, the air smelt clean; of the meadow grass and clover.
He woke her at dawn, and made love to her more slowly, adoring every inch of her body. Afterwards she tucked herself beneath his arm and slept again.
Today, he knew, to the very depths of his marrow, that she was entirely his, and always would be.
‘He does love me, John.’
Drew stopped midway across the hall at the sound of Mary’s voice.
People who listened to conversations about themselves never heard anything good, Mary had learned that when she’d listened to his friends talking. And yet, he could not help it, he wanted to know what she said behind his back.
The door of the dining room was left open to a point that Drew could see the table was only occupied by Mary and her brother, and there were no servants in view.
Drew could see Mary’s back and Pembroke looking at her.
‘We watched you yesterday for a while, Katherine and I, when you were talking in the meadow. His behaviour certainly suggested he has feelings for you.’
‘If you knew him…’
‘He is not a man who is easily known.’
‘But that does not make him bad, he has reasons to be wary.’
Her brother’s gaze showed something Drew would not have recognised a few months ago – care. He cared immensely for his sister.
Pembroke smiled in a way Drew would not have thought him capable. Pembroke was different here at home.
Pembroke stood up.
Drew stepped back, trying to watch but not be seen.
‘He promised to be different now.’
‘I hope he is, for your sake, and I believe he has feelings for you. I wish you happy, as does Katherine.’
