Netherby Halls

“Indeed,” he said quietly. What was towards here? What was she doing? She was too cool a character to give away what she couldn’t retrieve.

“How nice. Then it is for some refreshment I owe your visit to, today?” She eyed him frankly.

“One might put it that way,” the marquis said, getting up and moving to slide his arm around her trim waist. “I am told that sort of refreshment, the sort I have a decided penchant for, will not be available till Friday night.” He sighed purposely. “And this man needs amusement in the meantime.” He knew this was a daring move.

“Whatever do you mean?” asked the headmistress, not bothering to withdraw from his hold. She blinked her lashes at him playfully.

A knock sounded at the door, which caused the marquis to drop his arm, and a man’s voice called out, “Bianca?”

She eyed the marquis saucily and called out, “Yes, Dr. Bankes, do come in.”

The marquis noted that Bankes had already done so and stepped away, one eyebrow up. Just as he thought, Bankes and the headmistress were lovers … of a sort.

A loosely wrapped brown package was tucked under his arm, and he immediately bowed his head to her. “Good day, Mistress Sallstone.” He turned to the marquis. “My lord.”

“James,” said the headmistress, not bothering with formalities.

“I brought this along with me. I was in Bath today, and your dressmaker asked me to deliver it to you,” he said lamely. The package slipped from his underarm, fell to the floor, and exposed a fiery red spangled gown.

Bankes turned nearly as red as the gown as the marquis eyed it and then him, his brow up and his expression loud, very loud.

“I do regret, madam, that I must leave you now. Perhaps another time?” he said as he picked up his things and started backing away.

“I do hope so,” she said, smiling warmly.

He inclined his head, nodded to Dr. Bankes, and made his exit, his mind meshing together all the things he knew with all the things he was learning.

* * *

“Good lord, James!” exclaimed Bianca, turning on him as soon as the marquis was gone. “I cannot imagine what made you barge in like that. What if one of my staff was present? How would it have looked?”

“Thoughtless, yes. At any rate, no harm done. I tell you what though, Bianca, that is the last time I shall go into Bath for one of those dratted gowns. Hang it, woman, what would it look like if one of my respectable patients were to see me coming out of Madame Olly’s? She does not exactly cater to the cream of the ton, you know. ’Tis far too risky for me.”

“Risk? It is Tom and I who take all the risks. You have never risked anything.”

“You are forgetting that one little thing I did. Not to mention the old gentleman down Turner’s Way. Now he pays nicely, don’t he? Fifty guineas every Thursday night!”

“Shut up, you fool!” Bianca snapped. “Do you want someone to hear you?”

“Then don’t be putting on airs with me and asking me how I earn my share!” he snapped right back at her.

“All right, all right. Leave the dress and just get out now. I can’t abide the sight of you today!” She waved him off and turned her back.

He was on her in the heat of the moment. He turned her by her shoulders and ripped open the bodice of her gown to expose her breasts. “Have someone new in mind, Bianca?” he said as he fondled her.

She was breathless as she gazed back at him and whispered, “The door … someone might come in …”

“I don’t think so, sweetings.” He lifted up her day gown, grabbed a hold of her crotch, and squeezed her hard.

“Yes … oh yes.” She groaned. “I like it when you are rough … yes …” She pulled at her undergarments even as he released his cock from his breeches.

He turned her once more, this time bending her over her desk as he rammed into her and said, “Like that, Bianca … is that how you want it … hard like that?”

She moaned her answer.

* * *

Tooling his reins on the way home, the marquis’s thoughts flitted about his brain. He had never felt more anxious to quit a woman’s company than he had been to get away from Bianca Sallstone. She disgusted him in every imaginable way.