Chapter Seventeen
“No, absolutely not!” Lucien roared hearing the news his bride’s parents were going to have a masquerade ball in honor of their marriage.
“I told her no. I told her you wouldn’t attend, and she still refused to make a concession.”
“Why on earth do you suppose she’s insisting on a masquerade ball? Celebrating their daughter’s nuptials shouldn’t be one where you’re trying to guess who everyone is.”
Harriet shook her head. Her mother was simply being herself. “I was unable to get a true reading on her motive.”
“I believe I’ll go ahead and write her, sending our apologies.”
“Yes, please do so. Maybe she’ll listen to you and agree to changing it away from a masquerade.”
Lucien nodded. “I’ll remind her that we won’t be attending if she insists on making what’s supposed to be an introduction ball a masquerade. No costumes.”
“If she just asked first. I’d have told her no then and helped her with the planning. But she’s already started. The invitations are out, caterers have been lined up. She would not take no for an answer.”
“There’s still time to inform her guests that it’s no longer a masquerade,” Lucien said.
“Yes, there is. If she insists on not changing it, I think we should refuse to attend.”
“Or, we show up as ourselves,” Lucien replied.
Giggling, Harriet, had to agree with him. But she didn’t want to embarrass her mother. “Not a bad idea, husband. First you talk to her and see if you’ll change her mind. If not, we’ll try something else.”
“She should have consulted with my mother. They could have done a joint ball. Does she know Mother is out of town?”
“Yes, and she wants us to get her to return.”
“I’ll not do that, and I know my mother is not going to leave her sister’s sick bed for a party.”
“I tried telling her that and got nowhere with her,” Harriet said.
“Very well. Rather than spend hours trying to sort this thing out, let’s just agree I’ll go speak with your mother.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Harriet replied.
“Actually, I had hoped once we married and began our own life together, she would have changed, calmed down or something. Instead, she’s even more bold.”
“I don’t think anything can change her.” Harriet shook her head and sighed.
“Anything you would like to do today?” Lucien asked.
“Do you have time?”
“Yes. I’ll always make time for you,” he replied. “And I do have an idea of what we could do for the next couple hours. After that we could go out for a walk. Perhaps go visit your father?”
“I’m not sure what his schedule was for today, but we could try.”
“Good. Would you show me to the music room? I thought I’d like to play if you don’t think anyone would mind,” Harriet asked and giggled. “I forgot to mention Rex is in our suite putting things away with your valet. It seems things arrived early this morning.”
Lucien tried to appear emotionless at her news. Now the music room might just prove the perfect place since their suite was occupied. Harriet’s playing could be extremely seductive and perhaps now she would try it again.
“Yes, of course. Let me show you.”
The first thing Harriet did was walk directly to the piano. She ran her fingers across the keys to hear how it sounded. The instrument badly needed tuning. She could try to play it, but the sound would not be good. “Do you know when the last time this instrument was tuned?”
“No, but the housekeeper probably would know,” he replied.
“We’ll ask her later.” Harriet’s fingers hit the keys, and she began her attempt at playing Mozart. Lucien might not be able to distinguish the sour notes, but it was very apparent to her.
She hadn’t noticed her husband lock the door and walk back to stand beside her. He positioned himself directly behind her as he leaned down and kissed her neck several times before moving his hands down to her breasts.
Moaning as he freed both breasts and pinched their tips was all she could stand while continuing to play.
Finally, unable to resist his touch Harriet quit playing just as he was lifting her skirt.
Spreading her legs, her own body pulsed with need and desire.
Finally, Lucien led her to the other end of the instrument and bent her over.
He unfastened his trousers, freeing his cock and grinding it into her.
She held on to the piano with all her might, as they kept a steady rhythm.
His fingers found her wetness and he entered her.
She bucked beneath him and, unable to keep it from her, Lucien spilled his seed deep inside her.
Turning her slowly around to face him, her skirts whooshed to the floor. He held on to her so closely there was no space between them.
“Lucien,” she said, her breath still ragged. “I need more.”
“You do?”
“Yes,” she replied anxiously as she began to lift her skirts to give him access.
“Show me where,” he said.
Grabbing his fingers, she led him to the apex between her legs and began rubbing herself against them. “Harder,” she whispered.
His lips came down on hers as she exploded into a million pieces. She wasn’t expecting him to silence her but as she came, her body showed her it wanted more. A lady wasn’t supposed to act like this, was she?
Lucien must have sensed her need because he lifted her down to the rug below them. She spread her legs and wrapped her fingers around his hard pulsing manhood and led him to her entrance and ecstasy.
*
Harriet found her husband reading a letter at the breakfast table. She leaned down and kissed his cheek and bid him good morning before making her choices from the sideboard. She had been most impressed with the cooking here. The food was always perfect.
Picking up a plate, she found some sausages and eggs, along with seasonal fruit. She chose some toast and jam before returning to the table with her plate. A footman poured her a cup of coffee as she settled and arranged her plates as she wanted.
Lucien was in the middle of folding and putting the letter on top of the newspapers to his left. He took a sip of coffee and sighed.
“I wrote to my mother late yesterday about the masquerade your parents wish to give us,” Lucien said.
“I gather you asked if she would come,” Harriet said.
“I did, and she answered just as I figured. Her sister is quite ill, and she is not planning to leave now,” Lucien replied.
“Her sister must indeed be very ill for her to stay. We need to inform my mother that we think her ball should be postponed until your parents can join us.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. She is not going to like it, but she’s going to have to respect your mother’s decision.”
Harriet watched her husband as he put jam on a piece of toast he hadn’t yet eaten. She wondered if his mother had mentioned what ailed her sister. It was obvious it was life threatening and could go one of two ways.
“Do you want me to tell your mother of our decision or do you?” he asked.
“Why don’t I be the one to tell her. I’ll send her a missive this morning. She’ll come calling as quickly as possible to try and change my mind.”
“Very well. If you do not wish to stay and wait for her to come, we could go to the museum. I understand there’s a new exhibit on Egyptian tomb finds. It sounded quite interesting to me,” Lucien suggested.
“I think the museum is a much better choice than having to spend time waiting for my mother to show.”
“Then it’s settled. How much time will you need to write your mother and get ready for our outing?”
“An hour and a half? Is that all right?”
“Yes, and while you’re doing that, I’m going to finish up some things in my study,” Lucien replied. He finished his coffee and picked up his mother’s letter. He rose from his chair and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
“I’ll see you soon,” Harriet said.
“Yes, you will.” He smiled and pushed back an errant lock of dark hair that had covered his right eye.
She found herself alone, which was fine.
It gave her time to compose her letter to her mother in her head.
She knew no matter how she told her mother, her mother would never listen.
Harriet had already made the decision that if her mother were even the slightest bit difficult and didn’t accept what she was being told, she would let Lucien take over.
Her mother just didn’t know when to quit, and her mother would see he already knew her tactics.
Finishing her breakfast, Harriet walked back to their suite. Rex was in the middle of tidying things up when she walked in.
“Lord Lucien and I are going to the museum, so I best change into something more appropriate. I was thinking about that dark-blue dress.”
Rex nodded in agreement. “That color looks good on you, especially that shade. Let me go get it ready. I won’t be but a few minutes.”
“Perfect. I need to write a quick note to my mother,” Harriet replied.
As her maid walked to the room where her clothes were, Harriet glanced outside as she sat down at the writing desk. It appeared to be the perfect day to be outside. The sky was a clear deep blue with a few fluffy white clouds drifting lazily along.
Gathering what she needed out of the top drawer, Harriet placed the writing paper to her liking and began to tell her mother there would be no party, at least for now. She knew her mother wasn’t going to take well to the news, so she tried to tell her as gently as possible.
She thought for a moment about warning her father but knew if he wasn’t at home and her mother happened to see her handwriting, she’d open it and make excuses to her father later. He was used to his wife’s antics, so he’d take things in stride as he normally did.
Giggling for a moment, Harriet was sure her father would be glad he didn’t have to dress up as Henry. The postponement would allow everyone in the family time to convince her mother a masquerade was best suited for something else. Not a wedding ball.