Lady Adventuress 01 - His Wayward Duchess (30 page)

“Yes, secrets.
For one, there is the matter of your maid. I am given to understand she has a colourful past, yet you made a spectacle of appointing her to the post.”

This was said with perfect impassivity, but Holly was supremely tired of hearing people abuse poor Lucy over something that was not her fault.

She faced him squarely.
“Colourful past? And why is that, my lord? Because she is a woman, and a poor one? She was seduced by that vile cad Myles Wooley, yes, but no one deprecates him! And even if he hadn’t turned out so deplorable a creature, why should she be derided for following her passion? In the eyes of society, he may descend to any caddish levels of skulduggery he pleases, but she must be cast out and reviled, unable to find a respectable position anywhere in London. Lady Louisa is accepted because she is rich and highborn, but Lucy is to be trampled into the ground because she is neither. I do not care if that is how the world is, it is vile and I won’t accept it. If that means that I must forfeit your good opinion, then so be it.”

He had never seen Holly in such a temper before. It was like encountering a
squall on a calm sea.

It’s
women like she who, in another world, led revolutions and rebellions, he thought, watching her eyes flash and her mouth set with determination. So caught up was he in breathless admiration of her beauty and tenacity that it took him a moment to gather himself to speak.

“You helped the girl, though she came with scandal attached. There are not many would have done as you had.”

She looked at him as though she considered him a strange and foreign thing – and not entirely a pleasant one. “I think you will find, Your Grace, that kindness costs very little.”

Strathavon sighed, because he had not meant to insult her and yet he often got the words
absolutely wrong where Holly was concerned. It made him feel like an adolescent blunderer again.

“You are mistaken. I think you conducted yourself admirably,” he told her, his voice husky.

“And to think, when you began, I assumed you were about to make a fuss over my new carriage.”

“Did you?
I do not mind that either, so long as you resist any urge to race it in Hyde Park.”

Holly
endeavoured to look affronted. “Certainly not. Racing in Hyde Park would be infamous. Besides which, I doubt if we will have much in the way of good racing weather this winter.”

Sylvester
looked at her in mute astonishment a moment, before deciding that it was not worth it to say anything further on this subject.

Instead, he threw all caution to the wind, rising to his feet, and offering her his hand.

Setting aside her book, ruins forgotten, Holly rested her gloveless hand in his, and felt the unspoken strength in his sure touch.

Suddenly weak at the knees, she looked into the duke’s eyes
. She sought the reflection of her own heart in his blue gaze, and was satisfied by what she saw.

Holly hesitated a moment as she watched him and Strathavon seized the opportunity to sweep her up into a kiss. She had been about to speak
, but his kiss stole all words from her, and what was left of her poor self-control. Her suddenly-sensitive bosom was pressed firmly against his strong chest and the took shameless enjoyment at the sensations that exploded in her blood at every point where their bodies touched.

The duke broke away a moment to take in her expression. Holly thought she would melt at the slow smile he gave before leaning in a second time.

Strathavon claimed her lips with equal parts passion and tenderness, and Holly felt herself respond instantly.

For a moment
, she wondered if she would die of the sheer thrill of it all. Possibly, it was just the pent-up desire finally being set free like a dam bursting, but his kiss was sheer perfection, the most indescribable bliss imaginable.

Her fingers sought purchase in the fine fabric of his coat and tangled in his hair, while his hands roamed the slender expanse of her back
. She arched with pleasure at his tender touch.

She might have
written the whole episode off as a particularly delicious and cruel dream, only no dream could ever hope to contain so much surging feeling.

When their kiss broke at last, out of a most unreasonable need for air, Strathavon’s eyes blazed down at Holly with wild desire.

Bold and confident, Holly took a step towards him, the fire in her eyes perfectly matching his. For a long time, they just stood there, basking in their smouldering nearness.

Then, in one smooth movement, the duke swept Holly into his arms, and carried her up the stairs into her bedroom, which was lit only by a small fire. She could feel the pounding of his heart against hers.

Surely there had never been so perfect a moment in all the history of the world. She shuddered with relief and pleasure at being held so firmly in his arms, then sighed
and leant her head against his shoulder. Her arms were draped languorously around his neck, and her fingers played in his dark hair.

The duke took in her flushed skin, her slightly-parted lips, so soft and pliant.
Was she really so very innocent?
He wondered. But yes, she was. And she was all his.

Maddened with his need for her,
he tore her fichu away from her throat. The next thing Holly knew, his hot mouth had descended upon her trembling skin. The intoxicating press of his mouth against the tender flesh of her throat would soon drive her mad…

Ha
d her room always been so hot? Holly wondered dazedly.

As their desire twined around them, it was as though the rest of the world had faded out of mind and memory.

Their lips met again and again in an eternal, passionate dance of fire and flesh, as he lowered Holly to her feet and proceeded to slowly peel off her dark dress.

As his duchess
stood before him, her very soul blazing with love and desire, the duke admired her perfect, timeless beauty: the gentle curves of her lovely figure, her dark chestnut locks, tousled against her pale skin.

Holly looked her fill too, wondering if she would get to have him
after all, all hers at last. She ought to have been nervous, but she was not. How could she be, when she had seen the love in his eyes, felt it in every impassioned touch?

She admired his lightly-muscled
chest and his broad shoulders, delighting in the feel of his skin against hers as he pushed her onto the silken sheets. Divested of all clothing, there was nothing but the heat of their skin between them. Her legs instantly circled his hips, and she delighted in his gasp of pleasure at this new contact.

The slight weight of him
above her awakened something ancient and primal, which only fed the wild urges that suddenly consumed her being as his mouth travelled down her slender neck and towards the eager globes of her breasts.

She let her hands roam free
across his heated skin, thrilled at the reactions she elicited, the wonderfully wicked power she could command over him, with just her touch.

Then his hands trailed down her s
oft body and she was utterly lost.

Later, as she lay warmly ensconced in the arms of her Sylvester, listening to his soft breathing, Holly felt as if there could be no greater happiness for her in
all the world – no greater sense of completion and fulfilment, than just to be with him.

She looked
deep into his eyes in the pale moonlight and knew that, though he had yet to say the words, he had felt every second as strongly as she had.

“When I was a l
ittle girl,” she told him quietly, “all I wanted was to fall in love and to have my own grand adventure. But now I see that love is the grandest adventure of all.”

Her words felt like a confession and
a promise. They felt as though she were presenting him with a part of her soul, Strathavon pulled her deeper into his arms, and made his own promise with a gentle kiss.

“And
how do you feel about having married a notorious rakehell?” the duke murmured into her hair, when they had broken apart.

“I do believe I c
an live with your particular kind of rakehellery,” Holly replied wryly.

“I think perhaps you are mocking me.”

“I think perhaps I am.”

“
I was moderately infamous in my day,” the duke defended. “Though I think it is very much time that I ceded that title to some other green rascal.”

“
I
think you were never as bad as you claim, and most assuredly not so bad as you believe. Furthermore, I think,” said Holly teasingly, “it is most commendable that you manage to be a good man despite your questionable friends.”

“So you think Avonbury is questionable, do you?” His eyes glittered with amusement.

“C
ertainly, very questionable. He’d be flattered to hear that, no doubt. And Bettenhall, of course, though his mother would never believe it.”

*

Still caught up in her bubble of joy, Holly went to Lady Graham’s card party without Strathavon the next evening, partly because he had other business to attend to, and partly because she wanted to prove to him that she could.

After all,
just because she had given him her heart did not mean she intended to be shackled to him every moment of her life.

The card party was a muted affair held in Lady Graham’s elegantly panelled card room, and it did not promise much in the way of excitement.

Holly had already greeted Lady Louisa, who had gone on to join her partner in a game of whist, and she was contemplating
whether she cared to play a game of piquet.

Sir John stood next to her, surveying the company, though she could tell his mind was off with Verity at the
Chenefelt townhouse.

“I trust Verity is on her way to a full recovery?” Holly asked wryly.

“Yes, she is – your pardon, Holly. I am being very poor company.”

“I will forgive you – it’s justified, this time,” she twinkled at him.

“I take it you have gone back to read to her?”

“I have
. I shall tell you that I am to dine there tomorrow, by invitation of Miss Dacre’s mother.”

“Then it seems that you have snagged every success, Sir John,” said Holly, feeling genuinely happy at this felicitous outcome.

“All thanks to you. I shall never forget the happiness you have brought us.”

“Nonsense!
It was hardly my doing that you took such good care of Verity after her fall.”

“But it was you who caused us to meet again and again, and who told me how I was to go on – without your counsel, I would still be trying to find the words to request a dance!”

“I expect you would have found them, Sir John. I believe in you wholeheartedly.”

“And that is what makes
you so very dear, Holly. Shall I bring you a glass of negus?”

“That would be most kind.”

Holly moved to the side of the room where she might best observe the games, but her respite was a brief one, for she was presently joined by Lord Myles Wooley, who wore an expression of unmistakable dislike.

“Lady Strathavon
. All alone, I see? Ah, but no – there is Sir John, doubtless enjoying his triumph.”

“I beg your pardon, Lord Myles.
His triumph?”

“D
on’t play the fool with me, Your Grace. We both know that you artfully orchestrated the whole, snatching the promising Miss Dacre right out of my hands.”

“What foolishness.
If Miss Dacre saw the truth of your character, that is hardly my fault.”

“No?
Nor the fact that the servant girl, dismissed by my brother’s wife for her salacious ways, now works under your roof?”

“I shouldn’t think that hiring a person in need is a fault at all. And we will leave the debate regarding salaciousness alone, I think, because it is not fitting for this party.”

Holly did her best to suppress the anger she felt bubbling inside her at his careless dismissal of the people around him. As if they were nothing more than pawns for his pleasure!

Wooley smirked.
“As you will. Ah, but I know. Would you care to play a game of cards?”

It was, unmistakably, a challenge.

Holly met his eyes with her own unwavering gaze and icy smile.

“Very well
, let us play. Piquet, I think.”

Wooley inclined his head satirically and headed for the table.

Holly ignored the slight and took her own seat, gazing at him serenely across the table, which he seemed to find acutely irritating.

Being so near the vile man sent a
jolt of dislike through her, but Holly was careful not to show this, picking up the new pack of cards to shuffle it.

The tension at the table must have been palpable, because a few of the other guests had turned to watch with interest. Sir John came over with Holly’s
negus, frowning with concern.