“I am very well,” she assured him.“But it would seem that the only person whodidlike the duchess was you,” she turned to tell Julian.“Initially, at least,” she dismissed.“I can only assume that was because you were not thinking with your brain but another part of your anatomy.”
“Georgiana!”Julian gasped at the same time as Robert Eames almost choked on a swallow of ale.
“Can you claim otherwise?”she challenged.
Julian’s nostrils flared.“What I can state categorically is that your father should have spanked your bottom more when you were a child!”
She huffed.“My father had absolutely no interest in anything to do with his three daughters, let alone the desire to correct anything as insignificant as their behavior.”
Although, Georgiana inwardly admitted, the mere thought of havingJulianspank her bottom now seemed to have created a pleasurable warmth between her thighs.
How odd that she should find the suggestion of physical chastisement so erotic.But she could not deny the dampness soaking in the gusset of her drawers that accompanied that warmth.
She turned toward Eames rather than continuing to look at Julian, feeling a little awkward after imagining herself draped over his muscular thighs before he threw up her skirts and spanked her bare bottom.
“I trust Meggie is well?”she prompted the other man.“She has not joined me on the beach to collect shells these past two days.”It was the first time she’d had the opportunity to mention this to him, not having previously wished to interrupt the purpose of the day.
A cloud seemed to pass over Eames’s features.“She sometimes has bad nightmares this time of year, followed by two or three days when she feels melancholy and prefers to stay at home with her mother.”
“I am so sorry to hear that.”Georgiana frowned.“I would have called on her if I had known that was the reason for her not joining me.”
Meggie’s father shrugged.“I am sure she will be feeling better soon.She talks of you often.At least, I have assumed the ‘kind, dark-haired lady’ to be you?”
“I hope it is too.”Georgiana smiled before that humor disappeared.“The nightmares only happen this time of year, you said…?”
His gaze no longer quite met hers.“Yes.”
“How strange.”The end of spring and the start of summer had always been one of Georgiana’s favorite times of year.
It was a time when she felt that the warmth of continuous days of sunshine couldn’t be far away.Although, last summer had not met those expectations.There had been very little sunshine.Many of the farmers had been unable to plant or harvest their crops due to the bad weather.
“Meggie fell and broke her arm two years ago, and the nightmares and melancholy have happened since, and always at the same time of year,” Eames confided.“Try as we might, my wife and I do not seem to be able to convince her that the pain will not happen again.”
“But you are sure she will recover?”Meggie was usually such a sunny child, Georgiana could not bear the thought of her being so unhappy.
“Usually within a few days, yes,” Eames confirmed.
“With your permission, may I visit her tomorrow?”
“Certainly,” he assured.“I know she will appreciate—” Eames broke off to stare curiously out the open window as the sound of carriages arriving could be heard.
Twocarriages had pulled in and were now stopped in the inn’s courtyard.Distinctive coats of arms were visible on the doors.
Ones that Georgiana had no difficulty recognizing as belonging to the Duke of St.Albans and the Duke of Hellsmere.
CHAPTERELEVEN
“I cannot tell you how gratified we are to see you looking so well.”Lily, the Duchess of St.Albans, murmured softly against Georgiana’s ear as the two friends hugged in the courtyard of the inn.
Having recognized who owned the two newly arrived carriages, Georgiana had excused herself to the two gentlemen before hurrying outside.She was hoping that two of her closest friends had accompanied their dukes.She knew that St.Albans was reluctant to ever be parted from Lily.
The happiness Georgiana felt as both Lily and Chloe stepped down from the respective St.Albans and Hellsmere carriages had brought the sting of tears to her eyes.
Lily now gave her a reproving look.“We have been so worried about you since we received your letters and learned you had come to Norfolk and were not staying with Julia and Amanda, as you had previously told us was your intention.”
“We feared the worst after we both received a letter from you, and my father and Lucien also had one from Moreland, both of you requesting answers to so many questions,” Chloe chimed in.
“But first, my husband had to explain his part in acquiring employment for you as secretary to the Duke of Moreland,” Lily put in with a reproving glance at St.Albans.
