The Wyndham Legacy (Legacy 1)

“She’ll get over this infatuation with me, or perhaps she’ll go to her grave an old doddering woman still carrying a worn-out torch for me.”

“She’ll get over it,” the Duchess said. “Just two more years and both the Twins go to London. She’ll see you then as a drooling old man and dismiss you out of hand. Now, about my birthday. Three years, you say?”

“Yes, a good three years.” He picked up the pearls over her stomach, looked at them closely and said, “They’re more luminous now, just for these few minutes on that white belly of yours.” He then bent down, and began kissing her stomach. She tugged at his hair and he raised his head, grinning at her. She said, “Very well, Marcus, I’ll dress myself in the pearls again on the fourteenth. I will consider this my first birthday installment. And what shall I have you pose in, Marcus? I know, I want you to wear that incredible ring with the huge ruby.”

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

“When did you say your birthday was, Duchess?”

“I believe it begins in just about ten minutes. Actually, you’ve already begun it on my stomach.”

He laughed, leaned down and kissed her, and began playing with the rope of pearls. “Damn,” he said, between kisses, “we will wait until you are perfectly well again. You’re still sore and I hate it, but there it is.”

“I’m not at all sore. It’s been well over three weeks. I’m perfectly well now, even my side.”

He frowned at that, lightly tracing his fingertip over the still pink scar on her flank. He could still see the marks from the thread and remembered all too clearly how George Raven had stuck the needle in her white flesh then pulled it through, again and again. He gulped. The Duchess said, “Stop it, Marcus. It’s over. I’m well. We both survived. Your hard head and your hand healed, albeit more quickly than I thought fair.”

He shook his head. “You’re right. It’s in the past, thank God. You may be certain that I will take excellent care of you from now on. As to anything else, sweetheart, we’ll wait until you’re beyond perfectly well. No, don’t argue with me, Duchess, though I want you to, just about more than anything, even more than Badger’s splendid Carbonnade of Beef or his very splendid medaillons de veau poches à la sauce au Porto.”

“However do you know that French name with the poached veal?”

“My dear wife, Badger and I did the menus together during your illness.”

She gave him a disbelieving look, but could only giggle.

He said, “By all the gods, to hear you laugh again. Do you know I want you to want me so much in return that you’ll burst into tears, swear you’ll poison me unless I take you right this moment?” When she started to speak, her eyes sparkling, he put his fingers over her mouth and sighed a martyr’s sigh. “No, don’t do it.” He quickly rose from the bed again and put a good ten feet between them. “No, I’ll just gaze upon you wearing those pearls, and sweat. Perhaps kiss your belly some more, but it hurts, Duchess.”

“I hate to see a man sweat, Marcus. Hurting is quite another matter.”

“Be quiet, Duchess. No, don’t move, just lie there like a courtesan in a sultan’s bordello, but I will migrate my mind to other things. I’ve a strong mind, I can do it. I’ve been thinking that the two chalices, that Bible, and the other Church pieces—including that relic which is some saint’s finger bone, I suppose—should go to Rome. As for the rest of it, it stays here.”

“Yes,” she said. “I was thinking the same thing. I like what you gave to Maggie too.”

“I wonder if she’s lying quite without a stitch on in her room at this moment, wearing only that emerald necklace.”

“No, she’s sitting in front of her mirror brushing her glorious red hair, admiring the emeralds with her coloring. Your mother told me she was wearing her diamond tiara tonight to the dinner table. Ah, and the Twins are in alt over those bracelets you gave them.”

“As for Spears and Badger, I told them they could both retire with the coins that were their share, but they were both quite put out with my suggestion. Spears looked down his nose at me, quite like your father would do to both Mark and Charlie when he’d caught them in a bit of mischief, and told me that he feared for my well-being were he not to be here to see to things.

“As for Badger, I fear for our dinner, given his black looks at my well-meant suggestion. He gave me this pursed look, his mouth all puckered like this, and said that such a worthless suggestion wouldn’t go unpunished in Heaven. When I asked him what that meant, he said he would think about it.”

“That’s quite interesting to be sure; however, enough. Husband, I would like you to put on that ruby ring.”

He shook as he looked quickly at her. “I’ve been amusing you,” he said slowly, so hungry for her that he shook even more, “and all you’ve done is think lascivious thoughts about my tender self. Just look at you, all draped with those pearls around your breasts, and now you’re lying on your side, and let me tell you, Duchess, that pose is more than wanton, thank the good Lord.”

She took his hand and laid it over her breast and said very softly, “Marcus.”

He gaped and swallowed with some difficulty and gaped some more. He stared at his hand, hard and large and brown against her smooth white flesh.

“Listen to me and cease trying to amuse me. I’m very well now. George said so just this afternoon.”

“I wouldn’t let him really examine you. He doesn’t know, how could he? He’s not a woman.”

“Neither do you know and neither are you a woman. However, I’m a woman and I do know. You’ll be gentle; even when you’re not gentle, it’s gentle enough for me, because all I can think about is what you’re doing to me and how it makes me feel, and that’s all that matters. Please, Marcus, put on that ring.”

He muttered, gave her dark looks, and put on the ring. But she kept after him until he was quite as unclothed as she was, that large ruby sparkling in the late-afternoon sunlight pouring through the window. After that, he played with her pearls, each one of them, and the white flesh beneath each one, and when he came into her he was gentle, perhaps more than he’d ever been, and the sweetness of it filled her until it changed, becoming more, as it always did, until she couldn’t bear it, and then she was in a frenzied place, filled with light and excitement that was unbearable yet she didn’t want it to end. He was with her and she knew as she kissed his throat, his shoulder, her hands caressing his back, that he always would be with her.