Chapter Eleven #2
Moving to stand beside the desk, he gestured to her sketchbook.
‘Your work is really very good, you know. As far as I’m aware, no one has yet published sketches of British mammals.
You ought to put together a collection—“Animals of the Lake District,” you could call it.
Begin with your sketches of the Herdwick lambs, the red squirrel, the deer, the peregrine falcon and go on from there.
You’ve completely filled your sketchbook; once in London, we can get you more materials. ’
She smiled. ‘I don’t know about gowns and furbelows, but I would love a new sketchbook.’
Rafe shook his head fondly. ‘Other husbands worry about their wives spending hundreds of pounds on jewels and finery. My wife wants a few shillings for a sketchbook. But there is one final, most important reason for you to accompany me.’
He paused, waiting until she looked up at him inquiringly. ‘I find I’ve grown quite fond of having you near me—friend, wife and lover. I find I don’t like the prospect of being without you for several weeks or months.’
‘Fond of having me near you?’ she repeated.
‘Excessively fond,’ he elaborated. ‘I should miss you very much if you chose to remain at Thornthwaite. I hope you’re not going to wound me by saying you would not miss me,’ he added, initially teasing, but suddenly feeling almost…
uncertain about the answer. She was so capable, so self-contained—would she miss him?
After a short pause, during which his wordless alarm intensified, she said, ‘You may rest easy; I would miss you, terribly.’
He felt a flood of relief whose strength he didn’t wish to examine.
‘Then won’t you, dear wife, agree to accompany me to London? You did pledge to do what you could to make me happy, you’ll remember.’
She sighed. ‘So I did. I admit, I’m…not quite as opposed to going to London as I was.
I… I truly would miss you a great deal if we were apart.
But aside from your close friends, who will accept me for their love of you, I still doubt I will be well received by the rest of Society.
However, if it is so important to you, I… I will endeavour to endure the trip.’
‘Excellent!’ Rafe replied, not bothering to hide his sense of relief this time.
‘I do fear that with your duties in Parliament and catching up with your friends, I won’t see much of you. Here at Thornthwaite, I’ve got rather used to spending time with you every day.’
Feeling pleased, he pulled her to her feet and gave her a hug.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ he soothed, leading her to a seat on the sofa.
‘I doubt you’ll see me much less than you do here, as I’m often out with Sterling much of the day.
We will have social engagements, it’s true, but we should have dinner and the evenings together most every day, I would think. And every night.’
‘Unless you dine at a club and remain there late, catching up or playing cards with your army or university friends.’
He shrugged. ‘I’d rather meet them during the day and save my evenings for my wife. Though I imagine you’ll want some time to yourself. I doubt you’d want me to live in your pocket. After all, how much of me do you want to see?’
As she gazed up at him, he suddenly realized from her intent expression the double meaning of his words. As always, the sexual innuendo sparked in his ever-eager body an immediate stir of response.
‘Well, there is one part I’m particularly fond of.’
His breath caught and he felt himself harden. ‘Is there, now?’
‘Oh, yes. A part I am always thrilled to see…and appreciate.’ Once again turning to seductress, she gave him a wicked smile and slowly licked her lips, leaving them plump and sheened with moisture.
‘A part that, in London, I shall probably not be able to see and appreciate in your library in daylight. So I should make the most of my opportunities here.’
Then, her eyes never leaving his, she dropped to her knees and with excruciating slowness, undid one by one the buttons of his trouser flap.
At the first touch of her lips, his brain shut down, pure sensation taking over as he arched back on the couch and gave himself over to pleasure.
Sometime later, back in her own chamber, Juliana regarded her image in the pier-glass. ‘What have you agreed to, little fool?’ she asked her reflection with a sigh.
No going back on her word now. And perhaps London wouldn’t be the disaster she feared.
She was reasonably sure Rafe’s friends would be kind.
And if he truly wouldn’t push her to attend any events whose high-born Society guests would make her inadequate and unwanted, maybe the social engagements at which they did appear wouldn’t be overly trying.
She might have continued to refuse…if only she hadn’t known in her bones that she would miss him terribly if she held firm and remained at Thornthwaite. If only she hadn’t dreaded that, if she gave up the daily contact that had drawn them closer, when he returned, she might never recapture it.
He’d become ‘fond’ of her company, he’d said, she recalled, feeling again the sharp ache of longing for some deeper feeling from him, an ache she didn’t seem able to completely suppress.
Well then, if ‘friends’ was all she could hope for, they would be the dearest ones, she told herself stoutly. Fortunately, as the episode in the library just demonstrated, Rafe still responded eagerly to her sensual advances.
She meant to use every tactic she possessed to hold on to every bit of closeness—even if it meant venturing to London.