Page 36 of Seducing the Marquess (Lords and Ladies in Love 1)

The room was empty.

All the air left her lungs. She turned to the footman at the door. “Has his lordship breakfasted yet?”

“Yes, my lady. He left a short time ago.”

“Oh.” She wandered to the table and sat when the man pulled out her chair. As much as she wanted to know where he’d gone, she would not ask. Asking a servant for her husband’s whereabouts was merely too lowering. Then she took herself to task. He might have had an appointment. They had never lived in each other’s pocket, so there really was no reason for him to have deviated from their normal life. Just because she felt like a silly young girl, she had no reason to expect him to now be at her beck and call.

Feeling a bit better after her mental shake, she asked the footman to bring hot tea.

…

Devon had hurried through his bath and normal routine, indulging in a breakfast of only coffee and toast, and headed to his club. He had to get away from the house as quickly as possible.

Last night had been incredible. He’d seen a side of Eugenia he never expected to witness in his entire life. She was not the woman he had courted and married. Certainly not the lady whose bed he’d visited for the past five months.

Exhausted after their activity, he’d fallen into a deep sleep—one of the best he’d had in years. Stunned to not only find himself still in her bed, but Eugenia examining him, he’d made a quick exit that he was afraid appeared foolish.

But he had to think. For a while now, he’d noticed a distinct change in his wife’s behavior. He thought back on the difference in the way she wore her hair, the types of gowns she’d started wearing, her popularity at the last ball they’d attended, and arriving home to find a room full of men gazing adoringly at her.

Since it was still early in the day by ton standards, the club was half empty. Still, several men gathered around the betting book, a few played cards, a small group sat in a circle and, from the sound of it, discussed politics.

Wishing some time to himself to read the newspaper and sort out his conflicting thoughts, he nodded at several men, then found a comfortable seat near the fireplace. After requesting coffee and a newspaper, he leaned back and closed his eyes.

As soon as he did, Eugenia popped into his mind. She’d been fascinating the night before. No shrinking violet, she had surprised him at every turn. A man could get used to a wife who was so responsive and active in the bedchamber.

He thanked the footman who delivered the newspaper and coffee. He added cream and sugar to the cup and took a sip before snapping open the daily. Parliamentary news caught his attention, and he focused on that. Anything to get his mind off Eugenia.

Finished with the political mess the Parliament was getting the country into, he leafed through until he reached the gossip column. Not one to pay much attention to it, nevertheless he perused the various articles, smiling at what the ton called news. Who was about to make an offer for whom, what events last week were considered a crush, and speculation on who was sneaking off with whom.

This girl was considered a diamond of the first water, and that girl was having a hard time making anyone come up to scratch, even with her hefty dowry. He was about to toss it aside when a line caught his eye.

Your humble correspondent is most confused by Lady D. and Lord R. making their early excuses from the Worthington garden party last week, and then leaving in the same carriage. Should Lord D. be concerned? One wonders.

He bolted upright, with a sinking feeling slowly dropping like a stone to his stomach. Eugenia had been at the Worthington garden party last week. Without him, because he’d had an appointment with his man of business. His hands shook where he gripped the cursed newspaper as an explanation for the conundrum he’d been wrestling with hit him square in the gut like a well-aimed fist. The only reason for his wife’s bizarre behavior of late.

Bloody, bloody hell. Eugenia has taken a lover.

Chapter Eleven

“The sound of a woman in her bath can be quite captivating.”

Secrets of the Bedchamber, p. 79

Eugenia kept herself busy consulting with Cook, the housekeeper, and the gardener until it became apparent she had become an annoyance to them. She watched the clock all morning, and well past luncheon, but Devon did not return. Feeling somewhat silly for having all her thoughts on Devon and when he would return, she had the carriage brought around so she could make her afternoon calls.

Once she was on her way, she felt her spirts lift. Just because his attentions last night had been more along the lines of what she had hoped for, that did not mean their daily routine had changed. What had she expected? That he would ravish her this morning?

It would have been nice.

The butler opened the door and took her card at Lady Spencer’s house. She followed him down the well-appointed corridor with inlaid black and white marble floors to the staircase boasting an odd piece of statuary she was unable to identify. Her hostess held the reputation for attempted sophistication that fell quite short of the mark. The fact that she relied on her unsophisticated, very young paramour for advice in that regard caused bemused comments whenever her name came up in conversation.

They made their way to the first floor, where the staid butler announced her before she entered th

e room full of eight people.

Like most drawing rooms in London townhouses of the Quality, the room boasted floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as a large marble fireplace. The feel of the room was much lighter, more feminine than the ground floor, displaying warm tones and silk wall hangings. A small balcony showed through the French doors where two ladies stood conversing and enjoying the garden below.

Eugenia’s eyes grew wide, and she smiled brightly when she saw her brother, Nash, was one of the guests. “Nash! How nice to see you.”