Fuck, she has a kick like a mule.
He really should rearrange her skirts before he lifted her up and carried her inside. But the glimpse of her soft flesh gave him such a masochistic pleasure, he had to indulge, if only for a minute.
“You’ve gone and done it now, guv.” Adkins, his general man of all work at the hunting lodge grimaced and spat into the verge. He looked down at Jane and back at his master. “Where d’you want me to dig the grave.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Don’t act more the fool than you really are. You know fine well the shock of seeing me made her faint.”
“Ah well, it would to anyone with an ounce of sensibility.” Adkins guffawed at his own wit. “Want me to give you a hand?”
“No, you see to the horses.” Luke clapped the other man on his shoulder. “Then get off to your long suffering wife. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, for us.”
“Ha, let’s hope she does. My Minnie would be most unhappy if I had me bollocks sorted like this’un did to you.”
Luke laughed, and hid the twinge of pain it sent to his balls. “After ten children, I reckon your Minnie might be relieved.”
“Nah, she loves babes does Minnie. Mind you, she did say Bertie and Franny are the last.” Adkins touched the brim of his cap and went away whistling.
Luke watched him disappear round the side of the carriage and waited until it moved away. Then he touched his toe to the stockinged leg of his companion. “You can stop shamming now, Jane. I know you’re over your faint. Your breathing’s changed and your color has come back. It might be almost dark, but there’s enough light to see that much.”
Jane gave a shaky laugh and used her hand to lever herself upright. Luke stretched out and took hold of her arm to pull her to her feet. She dusted the driveway from her clothing. “Ten children?”
“From six months to fifteen years. Three sets of twins, and four singles. You’ve met one of them. Lizzie,” Luke said. “Who hopes to be a lady’s maid.”
“She’d be good,” Jane replied and looked him in the face. “Now what on earth is going on, Luke?”
“Hell’s freezing over and we’re going to fuck.”
The look on her face would be enough to freeze hell by itself. He didn’t need more than the lamp over the door to see that.
“Are we now? What makes you think that?”
Luke urged her toward the doorway, and into the hall. Three hounds bounded up to them and he ordered them to heel.
“They’re fine. I love dogs.” More than men, her tone implied. “What are their names?”
“Satin, Silk, and Satan.” Each dog gave a happy yelp when he mentioned his or her name. “Too old to hunt and I’m too soft to let them go, even if it makes Bet jealous.”
“I should think so. Who’s Bet?”
“Her.” Another dog joined them and rolled over onto her back for a tummy rub. Jane obliged with a giggle and then stood up. “So, I presume I have a room?”
He nodded. “Oh yes. Mine.”
“No.” He could see she barely held her temper in check. Her eyes sparked and she clenched and unclenched her fingers. “Mine.”
“Ours,” Luke corrected her as he took her arm and ushered her toward the stairs. She stiffened, but didn’t pull away. One small victory for him perhaps? “This is a small house, and I have few staff here. We mostly fend for ourselves. Therefore I’m your escort to our room, and generally your personal maid. I can arrange for Lizzie to attend to you on those occasions you don’t think I’m suited to attend to your needs.”
“Why would I ever think you would be?” Jane asked as they mounted the stairs. “Suited. You thought nothing of my needs before, why should I believe you will now?”
There really was no simple answer to that. Luke felt like a scrubby schoolboy called to order for not doing his homework correctly. “I labored under a grave misapprehension, and I apologized,” he said stiffly.
“You did,” Jane agreed. “And as for that miserable mockery of an apology? I believed not one word of it.” She matched him step for step, her body tense and stiff.
Even through the ice surrounding them, every glimpse of Jane’s dainty ankles moved his arousal up a notch. Luke decided he could hardly wait to have her naked under him, over him, and ready for him.
Once he’d realized he had no choice but to agree to Molly’s ultimatum, and then found out just whom he was to deflower, his mood had improved dramatically. Perhaps he could make amends? And if not, at least ensure Jane’s introduction to sex was as perfect as could be.
“Nothing unusual, nothing extreme,” Molly had warned him. “Keep your proclivities to what ordinary people enjoy. Nothing to make her run screaming to the authorities. We want her to learn how beautiful sex can be.” He’d raised one eyebrow and Molly giggled. “Yes, well. I think maybe a simple in out is enough as a first step don’t you?” He didn’t, but kept that information to himself.
As he opened the door to the withdrawing room attached to his bedchamber, Luke was even more certain of what he wanted. It wasn’t plain or straightforward and he had less than a week to persuade Jane she wanted it too.
“Can we start again?” he asked quietly. “I was well out of order in the past, and believe me I
have
regretted my behavior. Just because I wanted you was no reason to try and foist myself on you, and certainly not in the manner I did.”
“It wasn’t.” Jane sounded quite amiable. Why did it worry him? “But to deny me in the way you did was cruel. Necessary certainly, but cruel. However, Luke, please don’t labor under the misapprehension it has scarred me for life. It has done no such thing. Not in any manner. Mind you, I didn’t deal with you in the correct way either.”
What?
“You slapped my face and kicked me in the shins,” Luke reminded her. “That warned me off very successfully.”
“I should have followed on with a fist to the stomach and a foot in the balls. I was slow.”
“Ah, not slow, and believe me I knew how lucky I was.” Luke still hadn’t forgotten how hard she’d hit him. The lady had a fair left hook. “I heard about Ardingley and Blackett.”
“It’s amazing how many men think a widow is fair game. I soon put that misguided idea to rights.” Jane turned to him. “And if I don’t sort my condition out I’ll be doing it until I expire.”
“You want to be fair game?” Luke couldn’t keep the astonishment out of his voice.
“Not exactly, but I want to be all woman. One who knows.”
The rush of red-hot anger that filled him was a surprise. No one, but no one was going to play with this lady, unless it was he. That revelation stopped him in his tracks and he had to clear his throat twice before he could speak. “So I believe it’s up to me to rectify the situation,” Luke said. “In whichever manner I deem necessary.”
“It seems so.” Jane didn’t sound at all happy about it. “Why Molly thought of you I have no idea. Your reputation isn’t spotless by any means.”
“No,” Luke agreed. “But my prowess in bed is.”
She stared at him for so long he wondered if he’d gone too far, then she put her hand to her mouth and giggled. As Luke watched, tears of mirth streamed down her cheeks, and her shoulders heaved. Jane stumbled to a chair and sat down heavily, still giggling.
“It’s not that funny.” Luke did his best to sound grumpy, but this small glimpse of how lighthearted she could be made him happy. It was the most carefree he had ever seen her, and it transformed her.
He thrust a large handkerchief in her hand then went to stand against the mantelpiece, throwing another log in the grate as he did so. It might be a long night.
“Oops,” Jane wiped her eyes. “Sorry, but I feel so much better now.”
“Glad I was of service.”
“Well, you haven’t been yet, but it seems you might,” Jane said somewhat cryptically. It didn’t take him long to understand the innuendo.
Definitely more to this lady than meets the eye.
“So.” Luke moved toward a long table that graced one side of the wall and reached for the brandy decanter. “For you?”
“Please, oh and food if you have some handy. Or I’ll be fit for nothing, not even saying yes or no. My stomach has been rumbling this last two hours or more.”
“I have a cold collation here, or we can ring for dinner to be served?”
“Cold is fine. The fewer people who know what’s going on the better. Er, who does know?” Jane took the brandy from him and lifted up the covers of several large platters. On cue her tummy rumbled once more. He moved swiftly toward her and filled the plate with cold meats and bread before handing it to her along with a fork.
“Tuck in. As for in the know? Only you, me, Molly Simpkins, and the Countess of Addersley. The staff who are here think it’s ‘everso romantic what you’re doing to woo your lady my lord’.” His voice took on a falsetto note. “Alas, when you leave here they will be sorry for me and wonder where I’m lacking.” He injected a note of pathos into his speech and Jane rapped his hand with the fork.
“Rubbish. They’ll think you had a lucky escape.”
Luke knew
he
wouldn’t. He filled his own plate and sat next to Jane on the settee. “Do you want to tell me all about it?” he asked softly. If she didn’t, he could see the week fraught with difficulties. Was it Jane who chose to shy away, or had Nic been incapable of getting it up? “I know very little except that your marriage was not consummated and in order to move forward you need to lose your virginity. A virgin widow would be somewhat difficult to explain without letting secrets out.” His skin tingled. What business was it what went on in a marriage? But wasn’t he as bad? Luke admitted he was as nosy as the next man. Since his return, Jane had turned down his offer once, and it stung. Then he’d wanted to know how he didn’t measure up to her late husband, even if his offer was somewhat different to what she’d enjoyed. Now he just wondered who hadn’t measured up to whom.
Jane pushed her half eaten food away, and took a healthy swallow of brandy. “I’ve lost my appetite,” she said. “Then if this is strictly between us?” He nodded. “My husband felt unable to couple with me. I knew this before we married, but, well...” She sighed. “In his own way he loved me and I him.”
“Still preferred John?”
Jane gasped and went pale. “Whaaa...” She swayed.
“Don’t you dare faint again,” Luke said harshly. His lack of sympathy brought some slight color back to her cheeks. “I’ve always known he and John had a thing going. Hell, Jane, I shared a room with them all through school and ran interference long enough. The first time you saw me naked I was on guard to enable them to have time together. However, when I left the country, and heard you and he were wed, I assumed you would be in a marriage of three. I didn’t realize it meant he wouldn’t be able to serve you.”
“He tried once. It ended with him in tears. It was heartbreaking. I always knew it might never happen, but to see him go against all he held sacred to try and please me, well... He was a remarkable man. He and John adored each other, and in their own way me. We were as happy as could be except...”
“Except you’re a virgin. No wonder you tried to incapacitate me when I made my crass offer to you.”
“Oh, believe me, Luke, yours was by no means the worst. Now, it seems, according to Molly, I need to experience your best.”
“Yes, but we won’t rush. We have a week.”
A lifetime if I have my way, and not as master and mistress. Well, not as most of the ton see a mistress.
“But we could start by going to bed. Just to hold each other. Have you ever been naked with a man except your husband, love? Have you seen another naked man?”
“I’ve only ever seen one naked man, apart from Nic and John all those years ago. And it was you on the same day. I’ve never been naked with one. When he...we... oh, you know, Nic turned the lamps off and told me to keep my chemise on in case I got cold. My education is almost nonexistent.”
“Not for much longer.” Luke stood up and drew her to her feet. “Will you trust me, Jane? As your servant in every way?” He’d lusted after the widow Nicholby for no good reason as far as he could fathom, but holding her like this sent those feelings deeper. Why he had no idea, and he was well aware one false move could send her running.
The air stood still, until slowly she nodded.
Chapter Six
Jane let Luke lead her from the sitting room into the bedchamber. The bed itself, an overlarge four poster, seemed to dominate the room and the intricate crisscross of silken ropes and ties were, to her mind, excessive. She liked simple plain lines. Not at all the fashion of the day, but then Jane had never been one to follow fashion. Luke caught her gaze.
“I find it exciting to bind my companion’s hands and perhaps her body,” he said in the same tone he might use to admit he enjoyed a glass of port or a day’s riding to hounds. “Only if she’s willing, of course.” His look was speculative and Jane ignored the dampness between her thighs. The only times she’d ever experience that feeling was with the help of a specially crafted darning mushroom, that had never been near a sock or a hank of wool.
“Of course,” she said in the same tone. “And are they?”
“Well, you tell me.” Luke set one of the ropes swinging. “I’m not a mind reader, mores the pity.”
“I intend to walk before I run, or swing,” Jane said and turned into his arms.
Luke held her close, and she enjoyed the feeling of rightness. “Then a cuddle it is. Do you need—” He gestured to the door leading to the bathing chamber. “Everything is in there.”
The heat of a blush prickled her skin. “Please? Oh, and my nightrail?”
“Not needed. There’s a robe in there for you to wear until you come to bed. I’m going to use the bathing chamber across the hall, and meet you back here. I’m a modern man. I bathe and expect my guests to do so after a day’s hunting. We smell, the dogs smell, and I have no intention of my house smelling as well. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and I need all the help I can get.” He went out of the room whistling, and Jane chuckled as she made use of the facilities.
She eyed the robe that was indeed waiting for her. It was almost transparent. A robe for a lover. Had he really put it there with her in mind? She took a deep breath, wrapped it tightly around her body, and hurried into the bedchamber. To her relief, she was there before Luke and scrambled into bed, still wearing the robe. It might not afford much protection, but the illusion helped her.