It was close to noon, but she was still drowsy, her limbs deliciously heavy. She buried her nose in Charles’s pillow and breathed deeply of his male smell. There was the musky aroma of sex. They’d made love again before he rose, this time more leisurely, which had left her melting and mindless, before she drifted back to sleep.
She put her hands to her hot cheeks, recalling their rowdy lovemaking in the carriage. After she had saucily suggested it, Charles had closed the blinds and, kneeling before her, eased up her gown and made her breathless, drawing ripples, waves, and shudders before he pulled her onto his lap, and anchored her upon him. How good it could be in a cramped space. She’d arched over him, loving the sense of power the position afforded her, until he’d wrestled it from her and holding her hips, drove hard into her with a loud groan. Nellie had fallen against him, half giggling, half gasping.
“My reputation will be in shreds when you’ve finished with me, my lady wife,” he’d said with a laugh.
“You might have to carry me to bed,” she’d confessed when the coach drew up outside the house. “My knees are weak.”
Laughing, Charles had carried her inside, causing the porter to drop into a low bow and avert his gaze. Charles put her down. They were disgracefully disheveled. His cravat was untied, his hair tousled, and her attempts to restore her hair to its former elegance had been in vain. When they’d entered her bedchamber, he tossed her onto the bed and made love to her again.
All her earlier fears seemed banished in the afterglow of pleasure.And love.She gasped. “I must not fall in love with him,” she said sternly.
Peter wagged his tail.
“I’m a fool, aren’t I?” she asked the dog. She planned never to chance her heart again. Was it possible to love someone so much you forgave them anything? She frowned. Charles had not spoken of love. Even in the throes of passion, the declaration had not passed his lips.
She ran her hands through her tangled locks. If only she could overcome the distressing fact that he had not married her for love. Had she forgotten that during the evening, the woman he wanted, Drusilla, Marchioness of Thorburn, had been absent from the ballroom at the same time as he had?
Nellie sat up in bed and clasped her knees. She would not allow the marchioness to hurt her. She would not think of her now.
Lilly entered with her tray. “Good morning, Your Grace. I hope you and the duke had a lovely evening.”
“It was very enjoyable, thank you, Lilly.” Nellie took the cup of chocolate and sipped the flavorsome drink while her maid drew back the curtains.
“It is going to be a nice day.”
“How do you plan to spend your afternoon, Lilly?”
The maid twisted her fingers in the folds of her apron. “I thought I’d walk in the park, Your Grace.”
“An excellent idea, with so many celebrations in London, there’s always something to see. But you mustn’t go alone.”
“One of the servants will go with me, Your Grace.”
“Good.” Nellie put down the sweet roll she’d taken a bite out of, her mind on her wardrobe. “I’ll get up. I’m lunching with Lady Belfries this afternoon.” She felt guilty that she had worried Marian. She would put her sister’s mind at rest.
Lilly disappeared into the boudoir.
Nellie was in the act of donning her dressing gown when a downstairs maid entered. She bobbed. “Your Grace.”
Dismayed, Nellie stared at the vase of red roses she carried. “Who sent those, Maude?”
“Mrs. Knox, the under-housekeeper, said there wasn’t a card, Your Grace. I was told you asked for any roses to be brought up….”
“Yes, I did. Thank you. You may go.”
Nellie threw off the covers. She walked the length of the carpet. On her way back, she narrowed her eyes at the hated roses in their crystal vase, while she fought the urge to take them to Charles’s bedchamber and dump them, water and all, onto his bed. She turned away. The servants would only have to clean it up.
“Lilly?”
Her maid emerged from the dressing room with one of Nellie’s hats in her hand. “I’ve sent for the hot water, Your Grace.”
“Take the roses down to the housekeeper. They displease me. The color clashes with the walls.”
Lilly looked mystified. “Yes, Your Grace.”
Charles was absent from his study again. She was a little relieved. It was not her intention to fight with him, not with Marian’s advice ringing in her ears. She resisted asking Barlow of his whereabouts and left the house. When she entered the hotel dining room, Marian waved from a table.
Nellie sat down.
