“Will you keep me warm, then, madame?” he murmured back, his eyes dancing with amusement.
“Very warm,”she promised him, and then she kissed his lips. “Now,” she straightened up, “I must go and send a note around to Pickford House to tell the others we are not coming. Drink some tea. It will help to warm you up.”
He caught her hand for a moment. “I do not mind that we are to have an evening alone, my darling,” the duke told her. Then, turning the hand over, he kissed its palm ardently.
Allegra colored, then smiled. “Neither do I, Quinton. Next winter we need not come up to London. By the time we go home to Hunter’s Lair we will have tasted all its pleasures, and not need to come back at all until our daughters come for their seasons.”
“We have no daughters,” he reminded her.
“We will…eventually,” she promised him. “Now let me go so I can send my note off to Pickford House.”
“I don’t think I can ever let you go, Allegra,” her husband told her.
“To be loved as you love me is sometimes overpowering,” she answered him, and then taking her hand back, hurried off.
Quinton Hunter lay back against the lavender-scented pillows. Her words rang in his head.To be loved as you love me is sometimes overpowering. And she loved him back. Passionately in his arms, but with words Allegra was more reserved. He hoped one day she would not be. It was his own personal weakness, although he would never admit to it, that he needed to hear her voicing her love for him. He closed his eyes. It had been a long time since he had been ill. He was going to enjoy being taken care of by his beautiful wife.
Allegra had left her bedchamber where her husband lay. She passed through her salon, and hurried downstairs to the small family drawing room. “Fetch Hawkins to me,” she told an attending footman, and when the duke’s valet came she said, “Was the duke wearing flannel drawers today, Hawkins?”
“No, Your Grace,” the valet replied. He could see that the duchess was in a fine fettle.
“In future you will see that His Grace is dressed properly for the winter weather, Hawkins, which means his hat as well. If he complains at you you will say that I have given you your orders. Is that understood?” She looked hard at the valet.
“Yes, Your Grace,” he replied.
“You are dismissed,” Allegra told the valet.
Hawkins departed the room, and as he did he ran into Marker. “Her’s got a good temper on her, eh, Marker. You must have been given the back of her tongue many times, her growing up in this house.”
“Her Grace is generous of heart, and sweet-natured most of the time,” Marker replied stiffly. He thought the valet presumptuous to say the least. “If she has chastised you then it is because you deserved it. I understand the duke has returned home with a chill. Obviously he was not warmly enough dressed by you thismorning. You had best watch your place, Hawkins. There are those who would be eager to serve His Grace if you cannot.”
“Tough old bird, ain’t he?” Hawkins heard behind him, and turned about to see Honor standing there.
“I’ve had two dressings-down in a very short time,” Hawkins said sourly. “For a lass with no background so to speak, your mistress is a proper Tartar, Honor.”
“You watch your mouth, Hawkins,” Honor said, suddenly angry. “I’ll hear naught against my lady. You didn’t do your duty.”
“He don’t like flannel drawers,” Hawkins said stubbornly, “and I can’t make him wear a hat if he don’t want to. I’m his valet, not his ma.”
“You have your orders from Her Grace,” Honor warned him. “The duke will obey if you tell him she says it. He loves her something fierce.”
“I’d like to love you,” Hawkins said slyly to Honor.
“When you do your duty better,” Honor said, “we’ll see if I let you walk out with me.”
“Didn’t say nothing aboutwalking out,” Hawkins replied.
“Then you’ll not belovingme. I’m a proper girl, Hawkins, and best you understand that right now,” Honor answered him. Then with a flounce of her skirts she was off.
In the little drawing room Allegra wrote her note to Caroline and Eunice. She dispatched it with a footman, and returned upstairs to where her husband lay. Supper was brought. Cook had followed the duchess’s instructions. There was a thick, rich soup which Allegra fed to her husband, sitting on the side of the bed as she spooned it into his mouth. Then she coaxed him to eat a bit of capon with some bread and butter. And finally thecook had provided a silken egg custard that the duke very much enjoyed. And when her husband had been fed, Allegra sat down at a small table and ate her own supper as Quinton watched, slowly sipping a glass of ruby port as he did so.
A footman came, and cleared the dishes away. Then Honor helped her mistress to prepare for her bed. When she was washed and in her nightgown and cap, Allegra dismissed her maidservant for the night. Wrapping a lacy shawl about herself she sat down by the fire.
“Come to bed,” the duke said softly.
“Shortly,” she replied.
“Why do you sit by the fire?” he asked her.
