The Dangerous Mr. Ryder

‘Jack—not again! My love, we ought to eat.’ My love. He closed his eyes again and just luxuriated in the words.

‘Must we?’ he managed at length.

‘Yes.’ Eva wriggled upright, a deliciously arousing activity in itself. ‘We have made love a positively indecent number of times and I am starving.’

‘Mmm,’ he agreed. Her change of position had brought his head into her lap; his tongue was quite prepared to explore down here, as well.

‘Jack!’ It was the imperious Grand Duchess voice. He rather thought he had not been dragged out of trouble by his ears since he was six, but he yielded, flopping over on to his back to smile up at her sleepily.

‘Dinner,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll ring.’ His legs supported him as far as the bell pull, just. He yanked at it, then struggled into his shirt and breeches. ‘Where? Here?’

‘Yes.’ Eva had slid out of bed and was groping amidst her clothes, complaining because the wet towel had made her stays damp. ‘Oh, bother it.’ She tossed her underthings aside, dragged on her gown, pushed her bare feet in to her slippers and went to braid her hair into a thick tail down her back.

There was a tap at the door. Jack put out his head and found Grimstone there, his expression so blank it was positively insolent. ‘Food. Wine. Here. Quickly.’

‘Guv’nor. It’s one o’clock.’ There was a pause. ‘In the morning.’ Another pause. ‘I’ll find something.’

Jack closed the door and leaned on it. ‘Do you know what time it is?’

Eva’s eyes were wide. ‘I heard. Poor Grimstone.’

‘I am sorry. Are you very tired?’

‘No. Not at all.’ His love twinkled at him wickedly. ‘I had a very nice sleep after the last time.’

‘Eva, we have to talk before we get to Maubourg. We have to have decided how this is going to work before we talk to Freddie and your brother-in-law.’

She got up and went to clear the small table that would take their food. With her hair in its simple plait and her rumpled skirts, she looked deliciously domestic. ‘I had thought—and you must tell me if this is not all right—that we could be in England when Freddie is at school and then here when it is the holidays. But I do not know whether you have an estate in England.’ She shook her head ruefully. ‘I am so ashamed, I never even took the time to find out about your home.’

‘That is a good compromise.’ Jack found himself thinking about Knightsacre, how he had neglected it, how it needed a mistress to love it back into life. ‘My estate is called Knightsacre. You would like it, Eva, it is in the West Country. Soft, green land, rolling hills, wide, clear rivers. You could learn to be the mistress of the house—it is three hundred years old, but with no towers and no dungeons. I have neglected it for years: it is waiting for you.’

‘Oh, yes. I can imagine it, imagine you riding home from wide acres to the steps of an English mansion that we will make home again for us. But here—what will you do in Maubourg? Will you not be bored? That was what I was going to think about on the journey.’

The knock on the door halted her worries while Grimstone carried in his spoils from the kitchen and set them out. ‘This all right, guv’nor?’

‘Good, thank you. You go to bed now.’

‘We’re taking it in turns to sit up. Don’t like to leave the place unguarded, not with Madame on the premises.’ He inclined his head sharply to Eva and took himself out.

Jack pulled up a

chair and waited for Eva to sort out the platters of bread, cheese and cold meats. ‘You are worrying about me being bored—does that mean I have to work?’ His mouth quirked. ‘I was expecting to have a very smart cocked hat and to stand one pace behind you during ceremonials, looking handsome.’ Her dismay at his teasing must have shown on her face. ‘I am sorry, sweet. I thought I would be an additional tutor for Freddie—teach him to shoot and fence and improve his riding. And I wonder if there is something I can do to promote agriculture—growing flowers for perfume is all very well, but the arable crops look woeful.’

She reached across the table and touched his hand. ‘You will be his father, not his tutor; he will love the attention. Thank you.’ She took a sip of tea and frowned. ‘Jack, will this stop your work for the government?’

‘It will stop my private work. As for the government, I will have to see. I would not be able to do anything that could compromise the duchy.’

‘Or dangerous.’ He raised one eyebrow. ‘Oh, all right, anyone would think it is fun! Well, nothing involving rescuing ladies, that I insist upon.’

‘Very well.’ He could promise that, at least.

‘Jack,’ she said again, still frowning in thought.

‘Yes?’ He watched her and tried to come to terms with being happy. It felt very odd.

‘Before, when we have made love, you were very careful. Tonight you have not been.’ She blushed rosily. ‘I liked it even more. But does that mean you do not mind if we start a family?’

‘I would like to, very much.’