How to Fool a Duke (The Husband Dilemma #1) - Lancaster, Mary Page 0,47

hard strength that yet showed her such tenderness, such soft, sensual pleasure.

Stroking his short, tousled hair, she realized he was smiling.

“What?” she asked

“Nothing. I am just happy. My world was upside down, and now it is not only righted but wonderful.” He raised his head. “I found great joy in you.”

“And I in you,” she whispered.

He kissed her then with great tenderness.

“Why now?” she asked. “Why did you come back?”

“I think I came to tell you I had reached some understanding with my mother. Partly. Mostly, I came just to see you, to hold you if I could. I didn’t really expect this happiness, though I can’t deny I hoped for it.” His arms tightened around her. “I should not have so risked your reputation, but I cannot be sorry.”

“Neither can I,” she admitted.

“But I should go before your Hammy returns.”

“Probably,” she said reluctantly. “At least no one in the village will gossip if they saw you come in. That is one of the many beauties of Whitmore.”

“I would not have the world think ill of you just because my ardor was too urgent.” He dropped a kiss on her hair and sat up, dangling one long, muscular leg over the side of the bed.

Fresh desire curled in her stomach.

“When do your parents arrive?” he asked.

“Tomorrow. Before Lady Whitmore’s soiree.”

He nodded. “Then I will speak to your father when he arrives at the castle.” Smiling, he leaned over and took her back into his arms. “I cannot quite believe in my own happiness. I will spend every day trying to make you just as happy as I… We shall have such fun, you and I.”

She kissed him and pressed her cheek to his. She truly believed they would.

***

As they walked together to the front door, Leonard thought he would explode with the joy she had just given him, with excitement for a future spent with her. Life was suddenly wonderful. He felt as if there was nothing he could not do.

Beside him, Sarah was dressed modestly in a morning gown of pale blue, but her dark curls still spilled around her shoulders. She was so beautiful; he didn’t know how to keep his hands off her. In a bid to try, he opened the front door.

But he could not leave her without one more kiss. Since a quick glance up the path to the street showed him no one, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her thoroughly. She clung to him, responding with a passion that delighted him.

“My,” drawled a voice from the gate. “What a sight to delight the gossips.”

Leonard knew that voice only too well. Inwardly, he groaned. Outwardly, he refused to be hurried. Although Sarah’s lips had stilled with shock and she made a quick flutter to be free, he deliberately finished the kiss, before releasing her.

“I’ll deal with her,” he breathed and stepped outside, closing the door on Sarah.

He strolled along the path toward Maria Loxley and a highly embarrassed Trenton. Of all the people who could have walked past Sarah’s gate at that precise moment, it had to be these two strangers, unbound by the laws of privacy which governed Whitmore.

“Why, Leonard,” Maria said, apparently amused although her eyes flashed with a quite different emotion. “I thought you were too much the gentleman to ruin unmarried, gently born young ladies.”

“I am.”

Maria laughed, “What, will you pretend it was the maid?”

“I shan’t pretend anything at all,” Leonard replied. “With respect, Maria, it is none of your business. As guests here, we must all abide by the rules. I am trusting your discretion, Trenton.”

“Of course,” Trenton said stiffly.

“Run along, my lord,” Maria commanded. “His Grace will escort me to the inn, since it seems we have all lost interest in his muddy pits.”

Trenton tipped his hat and stalked off. Ruefully, Leonard remembered that the young earl was interested in Sarah on his own account.

“What is it you want to say?” Leonard asked Maria bluntly as they walked toward the inn. “You had best get it over with, but I tell you now, I will not discuss the cottage I have just left or any who reside there.”

“Well that limits the conversation,” Maria observed. “But I suppose you need not discuss, just listen. I don’t know who she is, but I am aware Lord Drimmen’s daughter is here, and so I do suspect. I am prepared to believe you did not seduce her—frankly, I could more easily imagine the other way around—but my dear, the world