Page 46 of The Forbidden Love of an Officer
They had laughed about the lavish event and the battle to obtain invitations a week ago. Those who had remained in the city had not stopped their parties; if anything they entertained themselves even more determinedly and the Duchess of Richmond’s was the ball everyone wanted to attend.
The Duke of Richmond had rented a house in the Rue des Cendres and the ball was to be there.
Ellen set down her sewing. ‘How? Why? I thought you did not want to go – and stand among the gawping falls.’ She mimicked his voice.
‘I did not. I do not. But the lieutenant colonel desires our presence. He insists all his officers attend. At least the Duke and Duchess are holding it for the right reasons, the most annoying tourists will not be invited.’ Paul had told Ellen previously that Lady Richmond was entertaining solely to hearten the soldiers and keep their minds off war for a few hours. The Duke of Richmond commanded the troops who were to remain in the city and defend Brussels, should Napoleon reach this far.
The ball was to be held in four days, on the 15th of June.
‘So Captain Montgomery will be there too?’
‘And the others. We are to make it appear as though nothing is afoot beyond us enjoying ourselves. Apparently, even the Duke of Wellington wishes it so.’ He dropped the invitations on a side table. ‘You may leave us, Jennifer,’ he said with a smile.
The maid dropped a swift curtsy in both their directions, then left the room, closing the door behind her.
‘And for now, Ellen, I want to enjoy myself…’ Paul said as he walked across the room to her. He leaned down and captured her chin between his finger and thumb, ‘by feeling the flesh of my wife against my flesh.’
‘Do you not want dinner first?’ Ellen smiled as his eyes shone with love and longing for her.
He shook his head, smiling too. ‘I suppose you would rather I was civilised though and let you dine first.’
She held the sides of his scarlet coat. ‘I can wait.’ She would let him do anything he wished for as many days as she had him still – she hoped that would be forever. The tears which had been threatening to fall all day finally flooded her eyes. She blinked them away, pushed him back and rose from the chair. ‘I will go and find Jennifer, and ask her to buy supper and bring it here, then we can eat afterwards without rising from the bed.’
Jennifer had gone up to her attic room. Ellen tapped on the door. ‘Jennifer…’
The door opened. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Will you bring us something hot from a local inn for dinner, a pie, perhaps? Oh, and purchase wine too, and of course, something for your own meal.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Thank you. When you return, please bring it to our bedchamber.’
When she entered the bedchamber, Paul was seated on the bed undressing. Ellen shut the door, leaned back against it, watching him sitting in his pantaloons, bare-chested, as he worked to pull off his boots.
He looked up at her. ‘All I have thought of all day is you, and being back in bed.’
She smiled. It was good to know he thought of her, and now she could help him escape. She watched the muscles move beneath the skin of his torso. The hard contours were more defined since he had lost weight from working so hard, but it only made him more beautiful. Yet he looked so young today. He was young. Young and too full of life to face death.
‘Take your dress off, Ellen.’
She shook her head, not to say no but to chide him for asking such a thing, yet, smiling, she began unbuttoning it. He watched, leaning back and resting his hands on the bed.
She undressed slowly, then turned her back to him so he might unlace her short corset. The moment it fell away there was a knock on the door.
‘Your dinner, ma’am, Captain,’ Jennifer called, scarcely more than a quarter of an hour after she had left.
‘Thank you, Jennifer. Would you leave it outside the door!’ Ellen turned away from Paul. She wore only her chemise. She listened as Jennifer walked away before opening the door to collect their food. The smell of hot, cooked mutton filled the room as she carried it in.
‘Well, now my stomach is rumbling,’ Paul said, standing up.
They ate at the small table in their bedchamber, facing one another, she only dressed in her chemise, he in his pantaloons. She had shared many moments with him in the past six months, but none had felt as intimate as this, as he sat shirtless before her, eating hungrily and speaking of his day. At the end of the meal his hand swept his hair back from his brow and his gaze settled on her.
She got up. ‘Let me rub your shoulders, you look tense.’
‘That would be nice.’
She stood behind him and her fingertips and thumbs pressed into the tightly bunched muscles across his shoulders and lower neck. ‘Relax.’
