Chapter 19 #2
His mouth found her breasts and together they struggled to open his britches and drag them down his tapered hips.
Alix felt his member fall heavily against her and she moved anxiously against him.
She heard him groan, “Alix you drive me to madness,” as he positioned himself between her thighs.
She opened herself to him and this time there was no pain, only pleasure.
Alix wrapped her legs around his flanks, needing to feel him strong and deep within her, satisfying the yearning only he created and only he could quell.
Her hands clenched the hard curve of his buttocks, urging him on.
Rafe thrust and withdrew, circled and teased, and Alix arched upwards eagerly following his movements.
He tried to control the pace, to lead her slowly into climax, but she pressed against him, the heat of her desire urgent against his manhood, and he was lost. They climaxed together, their bodies seeming to fuse with the heat of their passion.
Alix whispered, “Yes, yes, yes” to unasked questions: Was it good? Was it right? Did they belong together?
Afterwards they lay slick and spent like newborn birds in the scattered nest of his clothes. Rafe drew Alix close and kissed her gently, murmuring her name. They fell asleep enmeshed in each other’s arms, enjoying the first dreamless sleep either had known since they’d arrived together in London.
When Alix awoke she saw a thin blade of sunlight cutting through the curtains and she knew that it must close to noon.
Rafe had woken her just before dawn with gentle caresses, carrying her to the bed and making love to her one final time before Lady Melbourne’s staff was up and about.
She stretched out her arms and pulled the pillow where his head had rested close, inhaling the lingering scent of his body.
She was going to be his wife, she mused and smiled.
The thought no longer seemed frightening.
As she stroked the indentations where his body had lain, it seemed more like a challenge.
She’d heard the Earl of Moreham rarely gambled and then only played to win.
Well, so did she. If he thought he’d won Alexandre Charlotte de Rabec de La Brou for his wife, then he find he would have to pay with his heart.
Alix sat up in bed, noticing as she did that her nightdress had been carefully folded at the foot of her bed.
Pulling it over her head, she hopped purposely to the floor and drew back the curtains.
Immediately the dark room was flooded with rich golden sunshine.
It was a beautiful day, she thought, and she had lots to do.
Ginny bustled in shortly, a tray of steaming cocoa and a basket of warm bread and muffins in her hands.
Putting the tray down on a table near Alix’s bed, she went first to the fire, which she stoked up until the flames crackled noisily on the hearth.
She stood for a moment, admiring her handiwork, brushing her hands off on her apron.
Then she began rattling about the breakfast tray.
It seemed to Alix that she spent an inordinate amount of time arranging the silverware and the breadbasket.
Finally Ginny turned, offering Alix a cup of cocoa that rattled noisily in its saucer.
Carefully fixing her eyes on a spot beyond the bed she said, “Would you like some porridge, mademoiselle? Because we’ve got some lovely porridge in the kitchen.
I know you French folks don’t care for it, but it’s really quite good.
We’ve got some kidneys, too, and some nice eggs if you’d prefer.... ”
Alix frowned. Ginny knew she didn’t like to begin the day with a heavy breakfast. “No, thank you, Ginny.”
“And we’ve got ham, some fine country ham, sliced lovely and thick. There’s a bit of kippers...”
Alix interrupted, afraid if she didn’t Ginny would proceed to offer her the contents of Lady Melbourne’s larder.
“Really, Ginny, this breakfast is fine.” She smiled reassuringly.
“Are you feeling better this morning?” The maid flushed nearly as bright as her strawberry-blond hair, and Alix understood the reason for the expansive breakfast menu.
“Ginny,” she began, “about last night.”
The maid looked up her skin surpassing strawberry and shifting to a shade Alix thought might be described as tomato. “I’m sorry, miss, if I’ve done wrong, but Jervis said…”
“I can just imagine the stories Jervis told you,” Alix said, trying her best not to think about what Rafe’s manservant had told her maid. “Jervis could probably talk his way into King George’s bedchambers if he had a mind to.”
Ginny nodded eagerly. “Right you are, mademoiselle. The man’s a marvel with his tongue.
When I’m with Jervis, sure he could convince me day was night even with the sun shining clear as anything in the sky.
When he explained why I should step out last evening, it all seemed to make perfect sense.
” She pleated her hands in her skirt. “It was only later that I began to think I might have done something wrong.” Ginny bowed her head, her hands fisted.
“I’d understand, mademoiselle, if you’d told her ladyship to turn me out. ”
Alix stared at the maid aghast. “Oh Ginny, I’d never do that. No young woman should be left to fend for herself on the streets. There’s no harm done, really there isn’t.”
Ginny looked at Alix, her blue eyes intent. “Jervis said you was a good one and you are mademoiselle. He said we were only doing what the good Lord intended. And he’s a godly-man Jervis is, goes to church with me every Sunday.”
Alix had some difficulty seeing Jervis as one of the Lord’s right-hand men, much less as a regular churchgoer, but she could sympathize with Ginny’s confusion.
“I’m sure that whatever forces were moving Jervis, he meant well,” she said carefully, thinking she’d better have a talk with those forces before they led anyone else astray.
“Oh right you are, mademoiselle,” Ginny agreed hastily, “right you are. Can I draw you a bath while you’re taking your breakfast?”
Alix smiled. “That would be lovely.”
Ginny rushed off to comply, grateful the discussion was over and that Alix wasn’t angry with her.
Perhaps Jervis had been telling the truth when he’d said mademoiselle was the earl’s wife and that they’d had a misunderstanding.
Certainly her mistress looked happier today than she’d ever seen her and word downstairs was that a servant in his lordship’s livery had arrived early this morning with a letter for the Comtesse de La Brou.
Still, it was mighty queer, a man and wife pretending they weren’t married.
Ginny shook her head as she started down the stairs for her buckets.
For people who were supposed to be her betters, the quality sure could make simple things complicated.
Alix was sunk deep in her bath when her mother swirled in, a vision in a yellow day dress scattered with nosegays of violet. Madeleine might wear black in public for dramatic affect, but in private she adored color.
“Alexandre, ma petite, I knew you would take after the de Rabecs and not those dull de La Brous, I knew it.”
Alix cast a puzzled glance at her mother.
“Don’t look coyly at me, young lady,” Madeleine continued.
“In a single evening, you have made one of the greatest conquests of the season. The Earl of Moreham has sent word that he would like to speak to me this afternoon to seek my permission to pay his addresses to you.” She clasped her hands together, her face glowing.
“He is not old, he is not ugly, and her ladyship tells me he’s quite well off.
Indeed, the duchess was quite surprised when I told her the news.
She says his lordship has been quite elusive on the marriage mart, though there had been some speculation he might marry the Duke of Dinsmore’s daughter Lady Anne.
” She waved a hand dismissively. “I think we may have met her, a long-faced girl who speaks deplorable French.”
“But back to the earl,” she said, regarding Alix intently. “I will not arrange a marriage for you without your consent as your father did with that awful Marquis de Beincourt.” She shuddered delicately. “With those terrible bony roaming fingers.”
Alix glanced quickly at her mother, surprised that Madeleine had known about the marquis’s unpleasant tendency to grope her bosom when they were left unattended and wondered what else her sharp dark eyes had observed.
Schooling her face to appear no more than mildly interested she nodded.
“It is all right, Mother, you may tell him I will consider his suit.”
Madeleine clapped her hands together. “Eh bien, I will tell him.” She turned back for a moment before she left the room “I have a good feeling about this one,” she said.
Alix’s fingers touched the heavy gold ring hidden beneath the bubbles of her bath, and thought, So do I, mother. So do I.