Page 30 of The Duchess in His Bed
With a joyous grin, she patted his shoulder. “Paint one for the nursery.”
“I was going to do that anyway. Better yet, maybe I’ll paint the entire wall with unicorns.”
“I daresay, Aiden, there is a whimsical bent to you.”
He winked at her. “Keep it between us.”
With the rag she’d been using to wipe her counter, she teasingly slapped his arm. “Wait there while I go pen a missive for you to take with you to hand over to the butler.”
While she walked off, he took a long, slow swallow of his beer, already envisioning how he would seduce Selena until she lowered all her defenses and became an open book, confessing all her secrets and all her sins.
Sitting in the front parlor, Selena found herself surrounded by the well-meaning ladies of thetonwho looked at her with unbridled sympathy and sorrow as though she were on the verge of following her husband into the grave. She rather wished she’d insisted on attending the funeral. The somber affair that included morbid mutes in tall black silk hats had to be far jollier than being in the center of all these black-clad women who reminded her of ravens eyeing their prey. What they were awaiting were her tears, but she’d released them all the night before, sheltered within Aiden Trewlove’s strong arms.
So in addition to her sadness, she was battling against incredible guilt because she’d drawn such comfort from another man’s tenderness. Although she suspected Lushing would forgive her for that slight. After all, he’d never purposefully sought to make her unhappy. He would be appalled by all the mournful looks cast her way at that precise moment. He’d always been one who enjoyed life, looked for the fun to be had, celebrated each day as an opportunity for new adventures.
Even her sisters, sitting around her, seemed at a loss. Certainly one was to be reflective and portray sadness at a time such as this—and she was devastated Lushing had passed. But it seemed wrong somehow that the silence was deafening. She wanted to ask Constance to play a lively tune on the pianoforte or Florence to belt out a vivacious song to her heart’s content. She wanted joy and happiness. She wanted to laugh. God help her, she wanted to hear Aiden Trewlove’s laughter circling the room just as it had when he’d realized she did indeed know her way around a carom game.
Then off to her right, she heard a whisper of glee that had her heart expanding as she recalled how many times Lushing would whisper something untoward in her ear—
“Do you think Lady Lilith owns a mirror? That gown is a ghastly shade on her.”
“I daresay Lord Hammersmith will be sneaking into Lady Margaret’s bedchamber later if I’m reading the message of her fan correctly.”
“I believe Lady Downing is pouring spirits into her punch and it’s not even two of the afternoon yet.”
So she strained to make out the conversation, to hear something she might share with Lushing when she visited his grave, something that would have brought a smile to his face in life.
“...decadent. Gambling, drinking. I smoked a cigar in the billiards room.”
Selena closed her eyes. The billiards room. She’d done a good bit worse than smoke a cigar. Although perhaps the girl was talking of another—
“Mr. Trewlove prowls through the rooms like a great predatory cat, so lithe and smooth, and then suddenly he’s there, standing beside you, whispering something delicious in your ear.”
“Like what?” Lady Carolyn asked sotto voce.
Your skin reminds me of silk, only softer.
“That I should only ever waltz as I’m far too graceful for anything else.” This from Lady Georgiana, the smoker of cigars.
“You’ve waltzed with him?”
Oh yes, but not nearly enough.
“Well, no. He never dances with anyone. I suspect with his upbringing he doesn’t know how.”
Oh, he knows how.
“He waltzed with someone the other night,” Lady Josephine piped up. “My word, the way he held her, the way he looked at her, the way he moved with her—it was enough to make my mouth water.”
“Who was she?” Lady Carolyn had never been afraid to ask questions.
“I don’t know. She was masked. That’s the thing. If you’re not comfortable being seen there, you can wear a mask. Really, Lady Carolyn, you simply must give it a go.”
The girls’ voices had increased in volume until Selena was fairly certain she wasn’t the only one eavesdropping on the conversation. The twins had perked up considerably, their attention no doubt snagged. Even as she thought it was not the sort of establishment that she wanted her sisters to visit, she couldn’t help but consider that it would be a nice escape for them. She could limit their exposure to the ballroom. Perhaps she would confide in them and take them with her, although her reasons for going were far more unsavory than theirs would be and she would have to slip away unnoticed without igniting their curiosity. Better to leave them at home.
“Honestly, girls,” one of the matrons, Lady Marrow, chastised. “This is entirely inappropriate conversation for the occasion.”
“I thought the place was myth,” Lady Waverly, another matron, said.
