Coins and Daggers (13 page)

Lord Dextrem passed a glance in her
direction and smiled. “I have to agree with you on that score. The
view is, in fact...quite stunning.”

Audelia glanced at him for just a fleeting
moment and frowned, returning her gaze to the pond. She’d observed
His Lordship countless times: at dinner, breakfast, a number of
brunches and even at the local theater. To her, he’d always seemed
to be a reserved individual with cool hazel eyes and a handsome
face. But she’d only viewed him as an uncle or perhaps a godfather.
Strangely, his presence suddenly felt a bit stifling and she could
hardly comprehend the feeling.

“
It is,” she muttered, making good use of
a smile that, she was told many times, was also one of her winning
assets. “But I fear the sun has taken quite a toll on me.”

“
You shall like to return to the house,
then?” he inquired, his gaze scorching her face.

“
Yes, I would very much like that,
please.”

“
Well, then.” Lord Dextrem stood and
offered his arm, ever the gentleman. Audelia rose as well, lightly
accepting the gesture. “Allow me to escort you. Well, would you
look at this.”

“
What is it?” Audelia frowned as he
reached across her face and into her hair. She feared that she had
been swarmed by some terrifying insect, and highly doubted that
she’d be able to contain her good manners if that were the case.
“Is it a bug?”

“
Not a bug.” He withdrew his hand and
grinned, holding his hand before her face. A strand of beautiful
yellow blossoms, from the overhead branches, laced his fingers. “It
appears your hair is blossoming.”

Audelia smiled and swallowed tightly as His
Lordship’s gaze zoned in on hers. There was something in his eyes
that she had never seen before and hardly could recognize. Perhaps,
she had been in the sun too long for she truly must be dazed.
Jumping slightly, she felt his finger graze her cheek lightly
before he rest his hand over hers in the crook of his arm...and
they walked on.

Audelia blinked a few times, now growing
aware of the gentle tugging on her left arm. Giving herself a
mental shake, she willed her heart rate to slow down and turned to
glance at Her Ladyship, who was sporting quite a deep frown.

“My...my apologies, Your Ladyship. You were
saying?”

“I was telling you of the fun my brother and
I used to have here as children.” Lady Ryia touched Audelia on the
arm, her countenance drawn with deep concern. “Are you alright,
Lia?”

Not at
all
. “Yes, I’m alright.” She
pasted on a smile just to seal the deal. “I was just caught up in
memory is all. You remember that friend I told you about? The one I
haven’t seen in a while?”

Lady Ryia smiled warmly. “Of course. If only
you knew where she was, I’m sure you’d visit her.”

Audelia nodded. She did know where Jocelyn
was. It was the risk of running into Madame de Lucci or the
Dextrems that worried her. “At the earliest opportunity. So Your
Ladyship, you were mentioning something about when you were a
girl?”

That seemed to divert Lady Ryia’s thoughts
rather quickly and she giggled like a schoolgirl. “Yes. I’m sure
you’ve met my brother on a couple occasions.”

Audelia’s
cheeks burned hotly, lowering her head as she nodded. She’d done a
bit more that
meet
Lord St. Rosso. Still, memories of
the previous night threaded through her mind and made her blood
heat with a longing that she’d never experienced until then. She
had not seen him since they’d parted ways to their separate
bedchambers, him to no doubt a luxurious one and Audelia, to her
own just outside the servants’ quarters. And at that point she had
lay curled up in her small bed, smiling like a ninny, and replaying
the memories of his tender sweet strokes and warm kisses over and
over and over again in her head.

“I have.”

“Then you know how...withdrawn he can be.
Surely, the rest of the staff talks about it.” Lady Ryia shook her
head. “It’s a pity though, for he hasn’t always been like
that.”

Audelia cocked her head. He hadn’t been like
that last night either. “Really?” She tried to sound surprised by
it.

“You’d best believe it, Lia. When we were
children, Bryce was a darling. He loved company and had many
friends. We played together in this garden until Mother had
promised to give us both a proper spanking.” Lady Ryia laughed, a
hearty laugh that brought tears to her eyes. “I had ripped far too
many gowns and he had completely worn out the seats of his
trousers.”

Audelia chuckled, trying to picture Lord St.
Rosso as a boy with his beautiful green eyes and charming face. He
possibly had been a pretty little fellow back then. “Sounds as if
you had a great childhood.”

“We did,” she remarked, her smile
short-lived and quickly growing into a dejected frown. “I
believe...everything changed when Father passed. Mother had been
inconsolable. So was I, if I am to truly admit it.” Lady Ryia
smiled sadly then, a thin film of tears glossing over her cool blue
eyes. “I was only twelve then...and Bryce, sixteen. At that point,
he’d assumed the position of Lord Chastelle and all the duties that
came along with it.”

Audelia
supposed those were tender ages to lose a parent in aristocratic
circles, and none at all surprising where she came from. She’d met
hundreds of orphans like herself while growing up and had begun to
accept that it was natural in families which sat at the lowest
stages of the social ladder. At the end of the day, they were all
just thrown into orphanages until they turned eighteen. In circles
like
this
, at least the children of deceased aristocrats
were left with a home they could call their own.

“It must had been truly hard on you. Both of
you,” Audelia uttered, fighting back her own tears. Audelia knew
she could offer more than empathy for she was an orphan as well.
Perhaps she was a little like His Lordship, in a sense. She did not
know quite well how to offer sympathies. “I...I lost my parents a
long time ago too.”

A tear trickled down Lady Ryia’s cheek and
she swiped it away to glance over at her lady’s maid. “You-you must
miss them terribly.”

“If only I knew them any at all.” Audelia
sniffled and smiled, trying to cheer herself with the sole intent
of easing Her Ladyship’s obvious pain. “But I suppose it’s no use
thinking of the past now. You have a family. One that I am sure
adores you. And a husband who loves you dearly, if I am
correct.”

Lady Ryia chuckled and patted her fingertips
beneath her damp eyes, smoothing away the tears. She then giggled
and bumped her shoulder against Audelia’s in a friendly manner. “I
am quite happy to have found you for a lady’s maid while I am here,
Lia,” she expressed rather fondly “I do not think I have ever
discovered a more gentler and kinder company than yours.”

Audelia smiled, her insides warming at the
compliment. Lady Ryia was a good person with a gentle, caring soul,
and once again reminding her of a most beloved friend.

Fourteen

T
urning the last page
of the book she had borrowed from the library, Audelia yawned and
placed it on the small table next to the head of the bed. Her
candle was already half-burnt, its steady flame gently illuminating
the room. Audelia feared that she did not like the darkness
overmuch and tried her best not disturb the imaginary creatures
that lay within it.

“Oh, stop it,” she softly scolded herself.
“You are not a child any longer.”

Pulling the
warm cotton sheets up to her chin, Audelia sighed and dared not to
close her eyes. Instead, she allowed her mind to be captivated by
thoughts of Ulric St. Rosso.
Bryce
. She liked that
name for him. His sister had been correct. It did add a softness to
his character that she was beginning to think had been there all
along. She also saw herself being partial to a man like him. Gads,
she already
liked
him.

There was no denying the attraction she felt
whenever he cornered her, and the look in his eyes alone told her
that the feeling must be mutual. But Audelia was not naive either
to hope for a love match from a man such as the Lord Chastelle. He
was a wealthy aristocrat from birth and she, she was nothing but an
orphan from the common villages of Camden. A runaway. A thief.

Audelia turned on her side, watching the
flame as it danced, molten wax slipping down the length of the
candle and into the saucer that held it. She knew she shouldn’t
want more than what he was offering but a tiny space in her heart
triggered sparks of hope with each passing hour.

A tap came on her door so gently that
Audelia had almost missed it. Glancing up, she frowned, listening.
The tap came again and she quietly eased out of bed, taking the
candle with her. Pressing her ear close to the cool wooden door,
she curved her hand around the flame, lest it was to blow out.

“Who is it?”

The smooth sensual voice that came
afterwards sent a jolt of electricity straight down into her toes.
“Unlock your door before I manage to wake the entire house.”

Shuffling clumsily, she slid the bolt aside
and opened it to see Lord St. Rosso taking up the entire entrance.
“C-come in.”

“I hardly thought you’d leave me standing
here on so cold a night.” Ulric smiled and stepped over the
threshold, his hands clasped behind him. In truth, it was the only
thing he could do to save himself from thrusting his lustful hands
all over her body. “Couldn’t not sleep, could you?”

Audelia took a wide path around him and
placed down the candle. “I was reading.”

“About romance again?”

“Medicine, actually.”

She sat down on the edge of the bed, now at
a good enough distance where she could watch him comfortably. Ulric
St. Rosso was certainly not overdressed. In fact, he looked as if
he’d come to see her straight from his own bed. His white
long-sleeved cotton shirt seemed as if it had simply been thrown
on, the neckline unbuttoned and revealing a portion of a smooth
wide chest. His breeches were also folded at his knees, exposing
well-formed and very, very naked legs. Sweet heavens, his feet were
bare. Audelia swallowed and forced her gaze elsewhere, anywhere but
on him.

“Medicine?” Ulric raised a brow and
chuckled. “You read about philosophy, romance...and now medicine.
Are you still expecting me to remain convinced that you are just an
average wench?”

“We are all entitled to our own opinions,”
she muttered, breath jilting as she watched him move closer.
“Medicine happens to be a long-time interest of mine.”

“So, you’d aspired to be a physician then?”
He sat next to her, pulling her hands into his.

“Yes.” Audelia watched his thumbs as they
moved slowly over her palms, gently kneading the area. “It was what
I’d dreamed of.”

Ulric brought one trembling palm up to his
jaw and turned his face into it, kissing the inside of her wrist.
“An ambitious dream, that was.”

“I suppose.”

“I missed you dreadfully today.”

Audelia licked her drying lips, startled at
his confession. Men like him were not supposed to be so open with
expressing their feelings. “I thought you were avoiding me.”

“Hardly. My sister had you in tow for the
entire blasted day. I was almost ready to steal you away from her
selfish clutches.”

Audelia chuckled, reveling in the way his
lips felt against her skin. “But then you’d have to come up with a
plausible excuse as to why you were in need of a lady’s maid.”

“That too. My dignity would have suffered
greatly.”

Smiling, she slowly pulled back her hand and
quickly glanced down at her thin white nightgown. Instinctively,
her arms went upwards, folding about her breasts. The last time
they had been together, his gaze had not been so painfully thorough
and Audelia feared that she might lose all the courage she had
carefully cultivated over the past year.

“Why’d you come?”

Ulric pulled Audelia’s arms from their firm
hold about herself and moved in just a bit closer, tipping her chin
so that she looked him in the eyes. “I should think that was rather
obvious. My day has been miserable.” He then lowered his head and
murmured against her sweet lips, “I’ve missed these.”

“I’d missed you too.”

Pulling back, he raised one skeptic brow.
“Did you, really?”

She nodded, reaching for his hard muscular
shoulders. “I did.”

“Why not seek me out then? You knew where to
find me.”

“That would have hardly been proper.”

Tracing a finger down Audelia’s neck and
slipping it inside the neckline of her gown, Ulric teased the soft
flesh of her breasts, never missing the low eager gasps that rushed
pass those luscious lips.

“ ‘
Proper
’?”
Hardly the word he’d expected from her mouth. He nipped at the
corner of her mouth and brushed his thumbs over the pebbled
imprints of her nipples. “I am not a proper man, Audelia.
This
...is not proper. And the things I want to do to you is
very far from it.”

Swallowing, Audelia released a throaty moan
as Ulric’s forefinger and thumb did marvelous things to her right
nipple. “What...what things?”

Covering her mouth with his, Ulric crushed
her slender body against his, his hand slipping beneath the hem of
her gown, and yanking the fabric up over her blessedly cool naked
thighs.

“Do you want me?” he breathed against her
neck, longing to hear her say the words that would set his blood on
fire. “Say it.”

“I want you. Please...”