Page 46 of Lady, Behave
“I do wish for tomorrow.”
“You shall have what you want.”
“You!” she said, joy shining in her eyes.
He splayed his fingers into the long silken strands of her glorious hair. “All of me.”
She frowned. “What of your father? His objection to me. I heard of it. Will he stop you?”
“I’ve secured the best legal advice, and he cannot object. Not on the grounds he presented to me. My father might wish to object to signing the documents to approve of your dowry and settlement. He might not want to sign to make you the legitimate spouse of the marquess to become the next duchess. Yesterday, I had my solicitor send him my own stipulations with the documents my father must sign. You see, I have, for many years, supported my father’s lavish spending with funds from my own earnings. I have cut those off unless he signs.”
“Your father can survive without your help?”
That she could show compassion for his father’s welfare at this juncture had Gyles loving her all the more for it. “He can and will. Furthermore, he should. He spends far too much. As to the painting he seeks that is supposedly in your grandfather’s collection, there is no record of him offering a family heirloom, a portrait to be exact, as collateral for a debt. If he sold a painting or gave it away, he was remiss not to record it in the family estate records. Trust me, everything of any value is always cataloged in those books. It is my father’s word, only, that he sold away the Holbein portrait of the Countess of Stonegage.”
Addy shook her head. “Hans Holbein?”
“The name of the artist who supposedly painted a portrait of a Stonegage lady, yes.”
“Laurel might know. She knows all sorts of things about Grandpapa.”
“I care not.” He’d settled that issue with his father and the solicitor, and he would not revisit the matter. Affirmed in that, he sent the bodice of her gown down over one perfect breast. Kissing every inch of her beautiful body would be his new daily ambition. “This, I do care about.”
She wiggled beneath him, encouraging him to bend to her and take her in his mouth. “Ohh. I must have more of this.”
He smiled against her skin. She would be a daunting bed partner, a daring lover, and a wife to savor for the rest of his life.
The dazzling vision of how they would be entangled together for the rest of their lives had him withdrawing his hand and covering all her charms. “Tomorrow, my darling. We will finish this.”
Chapter Thirteen
The wedding daydawned bright and hot, a perfect day, Addy thought, after such a terrible start yesterday. She chose for her wedding the white gown she’d worn to the musicale a few nights ago. Happy to be wed so soon after Imogen, she dressed with Fifi’s help and happily chatted away with Laurel as Fifi corseted her so tightly, she thought she’d never breathe again.
Addy turned this way and that in the cheval glass. “Loosen those stays, Fifi.”
“Zis gown,” the French woman groused, “it will not fit.”
“It will. Not to worry. Once I am at home in the country with Gyles, I’ll give up corsets forever!”
Fifi feigned a gasp. “Scandal!”
Laurel chuckled. “Good for you. You’ll be far enough away from society, they’ll never know you are…ahem…freeof all restraints!”
“On a serious note, I do want you to visit me.”
Laurel looked not at all disturbed that she was the last Devereaux triplet left on the shelf. She beamed at Addy, her jade eyes twinkling in happiness for her. “Never doubt that I will. You will have to usher me out the door, I will be such a bother.”
Addy whirled and threw her arms around her sister. “Never a bother. You are our oldest, our wisest.”
“Now, now. Don’t go too far. We have yet to see how I get on.” She plunked down into a slipper chair. Her pretty Chinese jade silk gown a complement to the red of her hair and ivory skin.
Addy turned back, picking up long diamond ear bobs that Gyles had brought from London from his heirloom vaults and given her yesterday. She had to let Laurel know her chances for a good marriage still existed. Perhaps more so in the past few days. “Lord Grey was pleasant to you yesterday.”
Laurel stilled, the flash of longing for her first love irrepressible. “He’s here for the rest of the Season, he tells me.”
“And without his family.” Grey’s father had been the one to demand that he withdraw his suit and leave Laurel with the scandal of being jilted.
“He came to Dublin without them years ago. That is no sign that he’s free from their influence.”
