Page 41 of Romanced By the Orc

Perhaps that was the idea. The decision about whether she might permit Albion to tear that gorgeous silk from her body rested entirely in her hands.

A rap on the door disrupted her fancies. Izzie came in to help her out of her evening gown. She wore a tidy black dress and white apron, less formal than her uniform in Bloomsbury, where she also donned a starched bonnet and tight collar. Izzie unlaced her quilted corset before presenting her with the sleeveless peignoir that awaited on the canopied bed. Then she smoothed Diana’s hair with a mahogany-handled brush.

Diana worried the pendant at the base of her throat, its brilliant sapphire catching the crystalline light from the candles around her room. A spasm of guilt troubled her stomach. While Lillian worked as an angel of mercy in Chamberly, Diana had every possible wish fulfilled.

Well, almost every wish. There was but one left, and Diana needed only to say the word, and that too would be satisfied. More than satisfied, she knew.

Her mind occupied, she took several minutes to realize that Isabel remained strangely silent. The two of them had come to a comfortable routine at the end of the night when Izzie assisted Diana in getting ready for bed.

“You’ve nothing to share about your first day under this roof? Are you feeling poorly?”

“Oh, no. Fit as a fiddle.”

“You seem quiet this evening.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity,” Izzie told her. “I’m happy as a clam to be here. I was only wondering if I should call you ‘Daisy,’ the same as Lord Albion does.” Izzie shut her mouth abruptly. “I would still say ‘your ladyship’ in company.”

“If it pleases you.” Izzie freely called Diana by her given name when they were alone. At first, that had been a mistake on Izzie’s part, being relatively new to domestic service, but Diana had found she liked it.

Now, she tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I hadn’t considered whether others call me Daisy. I shall ask my husband about the Orcan custom.”

My husband.How pleasing to refer to Albie as such.

“You want to be a true Lady of the Hidden Realm, then?” Izzie said. “Following their ways and all.”

“It is appropriate, is it not?”

Izzie leaned in closer. “His lordship seems plenty plump in the pocket. I saw those latest gowns in your wardrobe. All beauties. Aren’t they just? Slim in the hip and full in the bosom, as they should be.”

“Izzie!”

She shrugged. “They’ll pair right nicely with your new bauble. But I wonder if you might try the Orcan styles. If you could find a dressmaker willing to give them a go.”

“Oh!” Diana thought of the Dowager Duchess’s finery at Iris and Duncan’s wedding, the cunning cut of her sleeves. She decided she would ask Albie for more information as she’d no doubt he could describe the latest fashions of the Hidden Realm and conceivably even assist her in drafting patterns.

“Deuces, if that isn’t a sharp idea!” Dear Lord, she sounded like Albie. But why shouldn’t she? For all the shallow pretense he affected for Society, one could not deny the joy he took in this life. A joy Diana hadn’t experienced in far too long. “You will help?”

“My talent’s more in baking than sewing, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Brilliant.” She caught Izzie’s eye in their reflections in the mirror. “But that is not all you wish to say to me, is it?”

Izzie bent down to brush the long ends of Diana’s hair, which fell to the small of her back when undone. But not before Diana caught the start of a smile quirking her maid’s lips.

“It isn’t to do with gossip from below the stairs, is it?” Diana asked. “Do you like the staff here? Does Isaac?”

“Oh, that lot’s the same as any other household. My brother and I have learned little out of the ordinary. Although they have all observed something odd about his lordship.”

Diana’s brow furrowed. “I hope this is not some cruel gossip regarding the Lords of the Hidden Realm.”

“Heavens, no! His lordship pays twice what other gents do and owns an amicable demeanor on top of that. No, nothing of the sort.”

“I should think not. Out with it, then.”

“The staff here are saying how mad his lordship is for you. They spotted him pacing the place before we arrived, looking allout of sorts. And then, once he saw you, his eyes lit up like fire. And his smile. They say he smiles often, but this one was straight from his heart. The genuine smile of a besotted gent, they say.”

The rush of power in hearing these words, knowing she wielded some dominion over Albie’s thoughts even when she was not present, only enhanced her already aching desire. Diana hunched over one of the jeweled earbobs on a glass tray atop the vanity. Married woman or not, childhood lessons still lingered in her thoughts, and she dared not let anyone see her preoccupation with sensual matters. Not even Izzie.

“But I’ve something else on my mind, too. Especially seeing how we get on. It’s just that you and his lordship … and with your mother not available as such.”

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