Page 77 of His Stolen Duchess
Chapter Twenty-Five
Georgina looked around the table as she ate. She knew that each of her sisters must have once felt the same way as she did, but it was likely that it had been on their wedding night.
My wedding night was anything but ordinary. What should have been the first ended with me drying off after falling into a lake, and then my actual wedding night came without any intimacy. I thought he might never touch me, but he has done a lot of that recently.
She tried to erase thoughts of intimate activity from her mind, but it was proving impossible. The couples were all seated together for dinner, and that put her near enough to Lysander to inhale his scent. And once she could smell him, she could only think about the times she had been close to him, and those were typically the times they’d been intimate.
With that came the reminder of how he had made her feel. She knew he would do the same that night, but it would be much more than that. He would be inside her, and even though the thought of it scared her, she knew that their union would be astonishing. Every time he touched her, it was bliss.
“So, what were you all laughing about?” Georgina asked Lysander in an attempt to take her mind off what had been promised.
“I would love to tell you that, but I have been sworn to secrecy.”
“Oh, so, it’s like that, is it?” Georgina asked, nudging him with her knee.
“It is out of my hands.” He speared a chunk of venison and chewed on it.
“Then I won’t tell you what we were laughing at,” she said. “Even if it was extremely funny.”
A part of her wanted to tell him about Emily and her balled fist, but she also didn’t know if she should. It was the type of thing that was humorous within them, but would it be funny to someone else?
“Then I shall forever wonder.” Lysander scooped up a large chunk of parsnip and consumed it.
“You wouldn’t believe it, even if I told you.”
“I’m sure.” He speared another piece of venison with his fork and mixed it into some cranberry jelly on his plate.
His answers were infuriating, though she was certain he did want to know, but knew she wouldn’t tell him, so he was forced to pretend to be unbothered in order to save face.
I know you would laugh if I told you what we were laughing about.
“You were getting on well with the other men,” Georgina noted. “That will make it much more pleasant when we are all together again. If that’s something that you would want to do.”
“Perhaps.” A potato was at the mercy of his cutlery this time. “I have been invited to play whist this evening.”
“And?”
“I have accepted the invitation. I haven’t played in a long time, but I do enjoy playing. It felt like the right thing to do. They told me that they always play together, and I didn’t wish to disappoint them or you.”
“Me? That wouldn’t have disappointed me if you had said no,” Georgina claimed.
“You might make your peace with it, but you would much rather I made some effort to be a part of your family while we are all together. I do want you to be happy, and if my playing whist withyour sisters’ husbands is what adds to that happiness, then why not? It’s an easy thing to do, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.”
“That’s extremely considerate,” Georgina conceded.
“It’s the least I can do after what you did for me the other night. It’s been four nights since you came to my room and we slept in the same bed, and I haven’t had another horrid nightmare. My dreams plagued my thoughts almost nightly, but your presence altered something in me. Perhaps Thomas was right. You have changed me.”
“I didn’t do much, I only?—”
“No, don’t sell yourself short,” Lysander said. “You did much more for me than anyone has in a long time. Thanks to you, I have been able to sleep much better than before. I know the dreams will come back, for they always do, but I have some respite for now.”
“Perhaps we do work well together.” Georgina finished the last bite of her main course and put her cutlery down. “We only need to find the ways in which we do. And it is not only me who is changing you. You have also changed the way I think about myself, at least. I am a better person for being with you.”
“We almost sound like everyone else at the table,” Lysander pointed out. “We do a good job of passing as a happily married couple.”
Yes, we do, and I wish that we were. The more I think about whether I can live without love, the more I crave it. I want to feel the things you make me feel, but I also want to feel that you have freely and willingly given me your heart.
Georgina was jolted from her thoughts when a pea hit her on the cheek. She looked around the table and spotted her nephew Harry, who refused to look her in the eye. He held an empty spoon, and there was a generous arsenal of peas on his plate.
