Simply Perfect (28 page)

“Claudia,” he murmured.

“Joseph.”

He smiled again. He felt that he had already been caressed with intimacy. She had never spoken his name before.

And then he leaned closer and touched his lips to hers.

It had still not ceased to amaze him that of all the women he might have possessed or loved during the last fifteen years or so of his life, she should be the one his heart had chosen. Even Barbara faded into insignificance beside her. He yearned for this strong, intelligent, disciplined woman more than he had longed for anything or anyone else in his life.

They explored each other's mouths with lips and tongues and teeth, their hands clasped together behind his back. Her mouth was hot and wet and welcoming, and he stroked into it with his tongue, sliding over surfaces until she moaned and sucked it deeper. He drew his head back and smiled at her again. His eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness. She was smiling back, her expression dreamy and sensual.

He released her hands and shrugged out of his coat. He went down on one knee and spread it on the grass, then reached up for her hand.

She took his and then came down onto her knees too and lay down, her head and her back on his coat.

This, he was very aware, might be the only time ever. Tomorrow all might have changed again. She knew it too. She reached up her arms to him.

“I don't care about the past or the future,” she said. “We allow them far too much power over our lives. I care for the present moment. I care for
now
.”

He lowered his head and kissed her again and eased himself down until he was lying beside her.

It had been eighteen years for her, almost three for him. He could feel her hunger and tried to put some sort of brake on his own. But sometimes passion would obey no commands beyond its own fierce needs.

He kissed her mouth, ravished it with his tongue. He explored her with urgent hands, discovering a body that was shapely and alluring. He drew her skirt up and pushed her stockings down, caressing the firm smoothness of her legs until hands were not enough. He bent his head, feathered kisses from her ankles to her knees, kissed the backs of her knees and licked them until she gasped and her fingers tightened in his hair. He found the buttons at the back of her dress and unfastened them one by one until he could draw the garment off her shoulders with her chemise and expose her breasts.

“I am not beautiful,” she said.

“Let me be the judge of that,” he told her.

He caressed her breasts with his hands, ran his lips over them, licked her taut nipples with his tongue until she was panting again.

But she did not lie passive. She moved to his touch, and her hands roamed over him and beneath his waistcoat. They dragged his shirt free of his pantaloons and caressed their way upward over his bare back to his shoulders. And then one hand came free and moved down between them to cover his erection through his pantaloons.

He took her firmly by the wrist, moved the hand away, and laced her fingers with his.

“Mercy, woman,” he said against her lips, “I have very little control remaining as it is.”

“I have none,” she said.

He chuckled, and his hand went beneath her skirt again and up along her warm inner thighs to the junction between them. She was hot and wet.

She moaned.

He fumbled with the buttons at his waist, moved over her, pressing her thighs wide with his own, slid his hands beneath her to cushion her against the hard ground, and pressed firmly into her until he was deep and felt her muscles clench about him.

She raised her knees and braced her feet on the grass. She tilted to him to take him deeper yet, and he drew a slow breath, his face against the side of hers.

“Claudia,” he said into her ear.

It had been a long, long time—an eternity. And he knew he could not prolong what was about to happen. But he needed to remember that this was Claudia, that this was more than sex.

“Joseph,” she said, her voice low and throaty.

He withdrew from her and thrust inward, and the rhythm of love caught them both in its urgent crescendo until everything burst into glory and he spilled into her.

Far too soon, he thought regretfully as his body relaxed into satiety.

“Like an overexcited schoolboy,” he murmured to her.

She laughed softly and turned her head to kiss his lips briefly.

“You do not
feel
like one,” she said.

He rolled off her, bringing her with him until they were both lying on their sides.

She was quite right. Nothing had been wrong. On the contrary, everything had been right—perfect.

And for now it was enough. Now might be all they had. He hugged the moment to himself as he hugged her and willed the moment to become an endless eternity.

He saw the moonlight overhead, felt the cool breeze, felt the soft, relaxed warmth of the woman he held, and allowed himself to feel happiness.

         

Claudia knew she would not be sorry—just as she had never been sorry about that kiss at Vauxhall.

She knew too that there would be only tonight—or this evening. Tonight he must return to Alvesley.

She was as certain as she could be that Miss Hunt would not readily give up such a matrimonial prize as the Marquess of Attingsborough. It would not take much effort on the part of the Duke of Anburey and the Countess of Sutton to make her see reason. And of course he—Joseph—would have no choice but to take her back since the betrothal had not been publicly ended. He was a gentleman, after all.

And so there was only this—only this evening.

But she would not be sorry. She would certainly suffer, but then she would have done that anyway.

She refused to doze off. She watched the moon and stars above the lake, heard the almost silent lapping of the water against the bank, felt the cool softness of the grass against her legs, smelled the trees and his cologne, tasted his kisses on her slightly swollen lips.

She was tired, even exhausted. And yet she had never felt more alive.

She could not see him clearly in the darkness, but she knew when he dozed, when he awoke again with a slight start. She felt a huge regret that just sometimes one could not hold time at a standstill.

This time next week she would be back at school preparing lessons and schedules for the coming year. It was always an exhilarating time. She would be exhilarated by it.

But not yet.

Please not yet. It was too soon for the future to encroach upon the present.

“Claudia,” he said, “if there are consequences…”

“Oh, gracious,” she said, “there will not be. I am thirty-five years old.”

Which was a ridiculous thing to say, of course. She was
only
thirty-five. Her monthly cycle told her that she was still capable of bearing children. She had not thought of it. Or if she had, she had disregarded the thought. Foolish woman.

“
Only
thirty-five years old,” he said, echoing her thought. But he did not complete what he had started to say. How could he? What would he say? That he would marry her? If Miss Hunt chose to hold him to his promise, he would not be free to do so. And even if she did not and he was free…

“I refuse to be sorry,” she said, “or to think unpleasant thoughts at the moment.”

Which was
exactly
the sort of brainlessness about which she lectured her older girls before they left school, especially the charity girls, who would face far more risks than those who had families to guard them.

“Do you?” he said. “Good.”

And his hands moved caressingly up and over the flesh of her upper back, and his mouth nuzzled her ear and the side of her neck and she wrapped her arms more tightly about him and kissed his throat and his neck and jaw and finally his mouth. She felt the hardness of his erection press against her belly and knew that the evening was not quite over after all.

They stayed lying on their sides. He lifted her leg over his hip, nestled into position, and came inside her again.

There was less frenzy this time, less mindlessness. His movements were slower and firmer, her own more deliberate. She could feel his hardness against her wet heat, could hear the suck and pull of their loving. They kissed each other softly, openmouthed.

And it seemed suddenly to Claudia that she really
was
beautiful. And feminine and passionate and all the things she had once believed about herself but lost faith in even before she was fully a woman.
He
was beautiful and he loved her and was making love to her.

Somehow he was setting her free—free of the insecurities that had dogged her for eighteen years, free to be the complete person she really was. Teacher and woman. Businesswoman and lover. Successful and vulnerable. Disciplined and passionate.

She was who she was—without labels, without apology, without limit.

She was perfect.

So was he.

And so was
this
.

Simply perfect.

He set his hand behind her hips and held her steady as he deepened his thrusts, though even then there was more sense of purpose than urgency. He kissed her lips and murmured words that her heart understood even if her ears could not decipher them. And then he was still in her, and she was pressing against him, and something opened at her core and let him through—and he came and came until there was no she and no he but only they.

They remained pressed wordlessly together for a long time before he released her and she knew with deep regret that now they were two again—and would remain so for the rest of their lives.

But she would not be sorry.

“I must take you back to the house,” he said, sitting up and adjusting his clothes while she pushed her skirt down and then bent to pull up her stockings and the bodice of her dress. “And I must get back to Alvesley.”

“Yes,” she said, rearranging some of her hairpins.

He got to his feet and reached down a hand to her. She set her own in it and he drew her up until they were standing facing each other, not quite touching.

“Claudia,” he said, “I do not know—”

She set a finger over his lips, just as she remembered doing at Vauxhall.

“Not tonight,” she said. “I want tonight to remain perfect. I want to be able to remember it just as it is. All the rest of my life.”

His hand closed about her wrist and he kissed her finger.

“Perhaps tomorrow night will be just as perfect,” he said. “Perhaps all our tomorrows will.”

She merely smiled. She did not believe it for a moment—but she would think about that tomorrow and the next day…

“You will come to the ball?” he asked her.

“Oh, I will,” she said. “I would much rather not, but I believe the countess and Lady Ravensberg will be offended, even hurt, if I stay away.”

And how could she stay away even without that incentive? Tomorrow night might be the last time she saw him. Ever.

He kissed her wrist and then released her hand.

“I am glad,” he said.

21

The Duke of Anburey requested the presence of the Marquess of
Attingsborough in the library, the butler informed Joseph as soon as he set foot inside Alvesley again. He did not go there immediately. He went up to his room, where he found Anne and Sydnam Butler sitting with Lizzie. She had not woken up since he left for Lindsey Hall, they informed him.

“My father wants to talk with me,” he said.

Sydnam threw him a sympathetic look.

“Go,” his wife said, smiling at Joseph. “We relieved Susanna and Peter only half an hour or so ago. We will stay awhile longer.”

“Thank you,” he said, standing beside the bed and touching the backs of his fingers to Lizzie's cheek. She had a corner of the pillow clutched in one hand, and held it against her nose. He was
so glad
that all the secrecy had gone from their relationship. He leaned over to kiss her. She mumbled something unintelligible and was still again.

There was a terrible row in the library after he went down there. His father stormed at him. He had apparently talked reason into Portia and persuaded her that his son would behave properly and she would never have to see or hear about the child ever again. She was prepared to continue with the engagement.

Joseph, however, was not prepared to be dictated to. He informed his father that he was unwilling to hide Lizzie away any longer. He hoped to move her to Willowgreen, to spend much of his time there with her. And since Portia had released him during the afternoon, she must now accept this new fact if the betrothal was to resume.

He held firm even when his father threatened to turn him out of Willowgreen—it was still officially his. Then he would live with his daughter somewhere else, Joseph told him. He was not, after all, financially dependent upon his father. He would set up another home in the country.

They argued for a long time—or rather, Joseph remained quietly obstinate and his father blustered. His mother, who was present throughout, endured it all in silence.

And then his father and mother left the library together and sent Portia to him.

She came, looking composed and beautiful in a gown of pale ice blue. He stood before the empty fireplace, his hands clasped at his back while she crossed the room toward him, took a seat, and arranged her skirts about her. She looked up at him, her lovely face empty of any discernible emotion.

“I am truly sorry about all this, Portia,” he said. “And I am entirely to blame. I have known since the death of Lizzie's mother that my daughter must be even more central to my life than she had been before. I have known that I must make a home for her and give her my time and my attention and my love. And yet somehow it did not quite occur to me until today that I could not do it properly while living the sort of double life that society demanded of me. If it
had
occurred to me in time, I would have been able to discuss the matter openly with my father and yours before exposing you to the sort of distress you have endured today.”

“I came to this room, Lord Attingsborough,” she said, “on the understanding that that dreadful blind child would never be mentioned to me again. I agreed to resume my engagement to you and prevent your utter disgrace in the eyes of the
ton
on the condition that all would be as it was before you spoke so ill advisedly at the picnic this afternoon. And
that
would not have happened if that incompetent schoolteacher had not set her sights on a
duke
for a husband and neglected her charges.”

He drew a slow breath.

“I see it will not do,” he said. “While I understand your reasoning, Portia, I cannot agree to your terms. I
must
have my child with me. I
must
be a father to her. Duty dictates it, and inclination makes it imperative. I
love
her. If you cannot accept that fact, then I am afraid any marriage between us would be un-workable.”

She got to her feet.

“
You
are prepared to break our engagement?” she said. “To renege on all your promises and a duly drawn up marriage contract? Oh, I think not, Lord Attingsborough. I will not release you.
Papa
will not release you. The Duke of Anburey will disown you.”

Ah, she had had time for reflection since late this afternoon, then, as he had rather expected. She was not a young woman as far as the marriage mart went. Although she was well born and wealthy and beautiful, it would be an uncomfortable thing for her to be single again, with two broken engagements behind her. She might never have another chance to make such an advantageous match. And he knew she had set her heart upon being a duchess at some time in the future.

But to be willing to hold him to a marriage that would clearly bring both of them active misery was incredible to him.

He closed his eyes briefly.

“I think what we need to do, Portia,” he said, “is speak to your father. It is a shame he and your mother did not stay longer. It must be dreadful for you to be without them today. Shall we call a truce? Shall we put a polite face upon things tomorrow for the anniversary celebrations and then leave the day after tomorrow? I will take you home, and we will discuss the whole thing with your father.”

“He will not release you,” she told him. “Do not expect it. He will make you marry me, and he will make you give up that dreadful creature.”

“The centrality of Lizzie to my life is no longer negotiable,” he said quietly. “But let us leave it for now, shall we? Soon you will have your mother for moral support and your father to argue and negotiate for you. In the meanwhile, may I escort you to the drawing room?”

He offered his arm, and she set her hand on his sleeve and allowed him to lead her from the library.

And so officially he was engaged once more. And perhaps—who knew?—he would never be free again. He very much feared that Balderston might agree to his terms and that Portia might marry him and then not honor them.

All of which he would deal with when the time came because he would have no choice.

But for now he was not free and might never be.

Ah, Claudia!

He had not dared think of her since setting foot inside this house again.

Ah, my love.

         

Lizzie sat at a little table in Joseph's bedchamber the next morning, dressed neatly in her picnic dress, which a maid had brought to the room earlier, neatly cleaned and ironed, and with her hair freshly brushed and caught up in her white hair ribbon, also newly ironed. She was eating breakfast and holding court.

She was to return to Lindsey Hall after breakfast, but in the meanwhile she had a string of visitors. Kit and Lauren came with Sydnam and Anne Butler and her son, and then Gwen came with Aunt Clara and Lily and Neville, and they were closely followed by Susanna and Whitleaf. All wanted to bid Lizzie a good morning and hug her and ask if she had slept well.

All had smiles for Joseph himself.

Perhaps they were only smiles of rueful sympathy, of course, because they all understood the ordeal he had been through yesterday, though most of it had been kept behind closed doors. But even so, he wondered why he had kept the secret for so long. Society had its rules and expectations, it was true, but he had always belonged to a family that had love to spare.

And then his mother came. She hugged him wordlessly and then went to sit on a chair at the table while Lizzie lifted her face, knowing that yet again there was someone in the room besides just her and her father.

“Lizzie.” His mother took one of her hands in both her own. “Is that short for Elizabeth? I like both names. You dear child. You look quite like your papa. I am his mother. I am your grandmother.”

“My grandmother?” Lizzie said. “I heard your voice yesterday.”

“Yes, dear,” his mother said, patting her hand.

“It was after I went walking with Horace and got lost,” Lizzie said. “But Papa and Miss Martin found me. Papa is going to train Horace so that he does not get lost with me again.”

“But how adventurous you were,” his mother said. “Just like your father when he was a boy. He was forever climbing forbidden trees and swimming in forbidden lakes and disappearing for hours on end on voyages of discovery without a word to anyone. It is a wonder I did not have a heart seizure any number of times.”

Lizzie smiled and then laughed with glee.

His mother patted her hand again, and Joseph could see tears in her eyes. She was not without courage herself, coming here like this in defiance of his father. She hugged and kissed both him and Lizzie, and then it was time to leave for Lindsey Hall. She and Lady Redfield came outside onto the terrace to see them on their way.

Joseph rode over there with McLeith, Lizzie up on his horse before him and the dog running alongside until he tired and had to be taken up with them too, much to Lizzie's delight. McLeith was, of course, going to call upon Claudia, as he did almost every day. Joseph wondered if the man would ever persuade her to marry him, though he very much doubted it.

When they arrived at Lindsey Hall, Joseph sent the note he had written last night up to Miss Martin with a footman but then went back outside, where the Duchess of Bewcastle and Lord and Lady Hallmere were talking to Lizzie. McLeith went inside to see Claudia. Joseph strolled down to the lake with Lizzie and the dog.

“Papa,” she said, clinging to his hand as they walked, “I do not want to go to school.”

“You will not be going,” he assured her. “You will remain with me until you grow up and fall in love and marry and leave me.”

“Silly,” she said, laughing. “That will never happen. But if I do not go to school, I will lose Miss Martin.”

“You like her, then?” he asked.

“I
love
her,” she assured him. “Is it wrong, Papa? I loved Mother too. When she died I thought my heart would break. And I thought no one but you could ever make me smile again or make me feel safe again.”

“But Miss Martin can?”

“Yes,” she said.

“It is not wrong,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Your mother will always be your mother. There will always be a corner of your heart where she lives on. But love lives and grows, Lizzie. The more you love, the more you
can
love. You need not feel guilty about loving Miss Martin.”

Unlike him.

“Perhaps,” she said, “Miss Martin can come and visit us, Papa.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed.

“I will miss her,” she said with a sigh as they stood on the bank of the lake and he looked along to where the trees grew down almost to the water. Just there…“And Molly and Agnes and Miss Thompson.”

“Soon,” he said, “I will take you home.”

“Home,” she said with a sigh, resting the side of her head against his arm. “But, Papa, will Miss Martin take Horace?”

“I think,” he said, “she will be happy if he stays with you.”

Claudia Martin was walking with McLeith some distance away, he could see. They must have come over the hill behind the house and down through the trees.

He determinedly turned his attention to his daughter again. And how blessed he was to be able to be with her openly like this after so long.

“We never did have our boat ride yesterday afternoon, did we, sweetheart?” he said. “Shall we find a boat and do it now?”

“Oh, ye-e-es!” she cried, her face lighting up with pleasure and excitement.

         

“I would not have been surprised,” Charlie said, “to have found you ready to leave this morning, Claudia, as soon as the child returned and could go with you. I would have been annoyed on your behalf. It is Attingsborough's job to take her away, and it should be done as soon as possible. He ought not to have had her brought here in the first place. It has put Bewcastle in an awkward position and is a dreadful insult to Miss Hunt—and Anburey.”

“It was not his idea to bring Lizzie here,” Claudia told him. “It was mine.”

“He ought not even to have brought the child to your attention,” he said. “You are a
lady
.”

“And Lizzie,” she said, “is a person.”

“Miss Hunt,” he said, “has been dreadfully upset even though she has too much dignity to show it openly. She was humiliated before a houseful of guests from both Alvesley and Lindsey Hall, not to mention the local gentry who were at the picnic. I half expected that she would refuse to continue with her plans to marry Attingsborough, but it seems she has forgiven him.”

Yes. She had not needed to be told. She had read the stark message Joseph had sent up after she had watched his approach from the schoolroom window. She had only half noticed that Charlie was with him and Lizzie. She had waited without hope—but had realized after reading his note that in fact she had been deceiving herself. She
had
hoped. But suddenly all hope, all possibility of joy, was snatched away.