“I have a good friend whose horse is named Juliette.”
“Joan! Hush and apologize to Lady Juliette!”
“Yes, Mother. Excuse me, Lady Juliette. But it is a very nice horse, a mare actually, and she has the softest nose and the roundest belly and her tail, it is lush and thick, and twitches whenever there are flies or stallions around.”
Douglas overheard the last and he laughed, he couldn’t help it. His sister was the best weapon he’d ever had in his arsenal and he’d never before realized her wondrous capabilities. He was pleased that he had allowed her to remain downstairs this evening.
“Joan! Douglas, speak to your sister.”
“Hello, Sinjun. Pour me a cup of tea, if you please. Alexandra, continue your playing. You are quite accomplished. It pleases me.”
Tony went to sit beside his wife.
The dowager, seeing the evening spiraling downward, announced that whist was to be enjoyed. Douglas, grinning, asked Alexandra to be his partner.
Their opponents were Tony and Juliette.
Douglas wondered if his wife played as skillfully as she’d hinted. He wasn’t left long in doubt. She didn’t count all that well, but she played with verve and imagination, with a strategy remarkably similar to his own. That annoyed him as well as pleased him and he wondered, but just for an instant, how well Melissande would play if she wore a bag over her head. He and Alexandra won most hands. Tony groaned good-naturedly even when Juliette trumped a good lead or whined about a valueless hand.
Douglas had to hold his cards in front of his mouth so that no one would remark the unholy grin that overtook him when Alex did Juliette in, and the twit didn’t have the brains to keep quiet. Oh no, she squawked. She threw down her remaining cards, rose and actually stomped her foot.
“However could you have known that I held the king of spades? Why, it is impossible. Why would you lead the ace, a bad lead surely? It is luck, all of it. Or it is that mirror I have been remarking.”
That was quite beyond the line. Douglas rose himself and said in a very cold voice, “I believe you are fatigued, Lady Juliette. Surely such unmeasured words could not come from a well-rested mouth.”
Juliette sucked in her breath and held her tongue, a difficult proposition in any circumstance, and allowed a very solicitous Uncle Albert to lead her out of the drawing room.
“She is beautiful,” Sinjun said dispassionately, “but she is so very stupid. A pity.”
“Why a pity, brat?” Tony asked, grinning over at her.
“Some poor gentleman will wed her, all enthralled with her beauty, and then wake up to find he’s married to a stupid woman who hasn’t any kindness.”
Melissande came to stand beside her husband. Her hand rested lightly on his shoulder and his hand came up unconsciously to pat hers. “I pity you for playing against Alex. She is a killer. Papa taught her. Reginald tried to teach her to cheat, but she never did that particularly well. She always turned red whenever she tried.”
“She needs to learn to count better,” Douglas said.
“I venture to say that you will be responsible for teaching her many new things, cousin,” Tony said, and rose, bowing to Alexandra, then saying his good-nights to the remaining company.
Alexandra actually sighed once she and Douglas were mounting the stairs.
“It was a long evening, I’ll grant you that.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice suddenly clipped. Oh dear, would he insist upon coming to her again? Her step lagged.
Douglas stopped in the middle of the long corridor, took her shoulders in his hands and said very clearly, “Let me make this perfectly clear to you so you don’t have to sigh again. You only have one choice. Do you wish to be in my bed or shall I be in yours?”
And even then, he took the choice from her. He lightly shoved her into his bedchamber, then closed and locked the door. He stood there watching her, his look brooding in the sluggish firelight.
“I will not frighten you tonight. I will be calm and subtle. I will control your pleasure just as I will control my own. I am an experienced man, a man of the world. I will be as tranquil and placid in my movements as that fire. Do you understand?”
She stared from him to the fire and back again.
“Say you understand, dammit.”
“I understand.” Then, she held out her arms to him, an unplanned gesture, and in the next instant, he’d lifted her and was carrying her to his bed. He came down over her and his hands were wild on her gown, pulling and jerking and ripping it to shreds. “It doesn’t matter, dammit!” Then there were no words for he wouldn’t stop kissing her. When he bared her breasts, his eyes blazed and he moaned even as he nuzzled her with his mouth, even as he suckled her. He was trembling, lurching over her, trying to cover her with his mouth and hands, all of her, even as he was jerking away her clothes and his.
And when she was naked beneath him, he had to rise to get off his trousers. He wasn’t very graceful; he was frantic and ripped his britches. Then he was naked, splendidly naked. His body glowed in the firelight and she said, “You are so beautiful, Douglas.”