“Of course I haven’t,” Lady Verity denied, however.
Perhaps she protested too much, Sybil thought.
“I was merely wondering if you thought it possible for someone, anyone, to fall in love a second time,” her sister-in-law added.
Which only served to heighten Sybil’s suspicions.
But she didn’t press the matter further, as the carriage had arrived at the Children’s Foundling Hospital. They alighted in companionable silence and ventured into the familiar edifice. Within, there was an unusual bustle of activity. Wooden crates had been amassed in the main hall of the orphanage, with the headmistress overseeing the unpacking of them.
“Your Grace, my lady.” She greeted Sybil and Verity with a curtsy upon spying them. “You have arrived at a most opportune moment. I was thinking that we might arrange your new desks in the music room for now until we know for certain where they will best fit. What do you think, my lady?”
“Mynew desks?” Verity’s brow furrowed. “But I hadn’t anything to do with new desks being ordered for the Children’s Foundling Hospital. Mrs. Stevens, I’m afraid you must be mistaken.”
The headmistress shook her head. “These crates arrived at the direction of the Duke of Kingham, my lady. His Grace said you had arranged for them and that we were to place them wherever you wished. There are also crates of books, new dresses for the girls, and boots for the young lads who have outgrown their shoes.”
Kingham had done this?
Sybil turned to her sister-in-law, who appeared startled by the revelation as well. Her suspicions in the carriage returned to her tenfold. It would certainly seem as if there was something between Kingham and Lady Verity. Something far more than friendship, if the vast generosity of his gifts to the Children’s Foundling Hospital were any indication.
“I will write His Grace a letter at once, but please also convey our thanks to the duke when next you see him,” Mrs. Stevens was saying. “Such munificence, all at once, is a wonderful surprise for us. The children shall all be overjoyed. And oh, how well they will like to learn at their new desks.”
Lady Verity smiled. “I will do so, of course. As for the placement of the new desks, I should think that the music room will suffice until we can settle upon a larger space and clear it for the new schoolroom.”
“Thank you, Lady Verity,” Mrs. Stevens said before turning her attention back to the workmen who were opening crates and organizing their contents.
“That was indeed most charitable of Kingham,” Sybil said in a low aside to her sister-in-law, careful to keep her voice from carrying.
Pink washed over Lady Verity’s cheeks. “I had mentioned to him that I planned to raise funds for new desks for the children where they could learn, but I wasn’t even certain if he had heard me. If I recall correctly, he paid insult to another gentleman’s trousers just after that. As for the boots and dresses and the rest…I must have spoken of it in passing. I certainly never asked him for his largesse.”
She frowned as she completed her thoughts, apparently not liking the notion of being beholden to the Duke of Kingham for anything.
“The children shall be the better for it,” Sybil reminded her.
Lady Verity nodded. “Indeed, they shall. I suppose we should get to work so that we can visit the children before we have to return for dinner.”
“Yes, let’s do that,” Sybil agreed, noting that her sister-in-law was once more holding the golden locket in her hand, worrying it with her gloved thumb as she surveyed the bounty before them.
What an interesting development. She hoped that her sister-in-law could find love again. Lady Verity certainly deserved happiness. And if Sybil couldn’t have it, then watching her most deserving sister-in-law would be the next best thing.
CHAPTER 15
Sybil clutched her husband to her tightly as he spilled inside her, selfishly hoping that no child would come of their coupling. Because she wasn’t yet ready to lose his nightly visits when that day inevitably came.
She kissed his neck, finding the place where his pulse pounded at a gallop from his sensual exertion, and inhaled deeply of his scent as she caressed up and down the smooth, muscled planes of his back. His body was a thing of beauty, much like his lovemaking was. She knew she would never grow weary of holding him to her this way, just after they made love, before he withdrew from her and everything changed.
Not for the first time, it occurred to her to see what would happen if she tried to persuade him to stay. To spend another hour in her bed, if not the whole night. Sybil was languid with desire, and her love for him couldn’t be contained.
When he shifted in the familiar motions that meant he was about to slide from her body and leave, she tightened her hold on him. “Stay.”
He stilled, lifting his head to stare down at her, a lock of hair falling over his brow. “You should rest.”
Determined, she ducked her head and kissed along his jaw, enjoying the rasp of the stubble on his jaw against her lips. “I don’t want to rest. I want to lie here with you.”
For a long moment, he was silent, and she was intensely aware of all the places their bare skin touched. The prickle of his chest hair on her nipples. The jut of his hip bone beneath her thigh, the warmth of his back, taut and tensed beneath her fingertips. He was still inside her.
She found his lips and kissed him slowly, sweetly, coaxing him as he often did to her, before sinking her tongue into his mouth. With a low groan that told her he couldn’t resist, he returned the kiss, rolling them as their lips remained fused until he was on his back and she was atop him.
They kissed for a time, hands traveling over each other’s bodies, mouths seeking. Sybil closed her eyes, savoring him, lost to sensation. After a time, she lifted her lips from his and settled her head on his chest, just above his madly thudding heart, testing the waters. Seeing if he would allow her to remain or if he would seek to disentangle himself and leave.
