Abandoned to the Prodigal - Mary Lancaster Page 0,97
her to bliss and increasingly powerful desire. His breath coming in short, hard pants, he dragged her hand to his body, encouraging her, showing her where to caress him. And his pleasure fed her own, like wind to a wildfire.
She cried out when he entered her, but it was more relief than pain. And then he was moving above her, and his caresses were inside as well as out. And this, this was the culmination of her love and his. Finally, they were one.
And when the groans of ultimate joy escaped him, they carried her, too, seizing all the abandoned, glorious pleasures and hurling them together into a wave that consumed her, that would always consume her.
Later, holding her in his arms, close against his body, he murmured, “It’s as well you married me, you know, for I’m not sure how much longer I could have kept my hands off you.”
She thought about that. “I didn’t want you to. Keep your hands off me, I mean. I’ve never met anyone like you, Dan Stewart.”
“Nor I anyone like you, Juliet Stewart.” He smiled into her hair. “Will you stay with me?”
“Always,” she whispered. “Will you love me?”
He turned her, moving over her once more. “Always,” he breathed.
Epilogue
Three months later…
Having pruned the last of the revived rose bushes at the front of Myerly Hall, Juliette straightened and shaded her eyes against the low autumn sun. She smiled and waved, for two figures on horseback were riding up the drive toward her.
Dropping her basket and knife, she hurried across to meet them. “How wonderful! You’re early!”
“Well, we didn’t go to Hornby first,” Kitty confessed. “We came straight here and thought we could go to Hornby tomorrow.” She slipped to the ground unaided to hug Juliet. “I am so glad to see you after all these weeks!”
Juliet hugged her back. “How was the wedding trip?”
“Wonderful,” Lawrence said fervently, kissing Juliet’s cheek. “Though I’m sorry about Lord Myerly.”
Juliet nodded. “Thank you. He died quite gracefully at the end. Not bitter, as he would have been when he summoned everyone to his so-called deathbed in August. I like to think Dan and I made him laugh and eased his last few days in this world.”
Kitty nodded. “I’m sure you did. He obviously loved Dan. And you.”
“Where is Dan?” Lawrence asked as they walked to the front door, leaving the grooms to take the horses.
“Oh, out in the fields. There is much to do before the new planting begins if they are going to make all the changes they want to. But he shouldn’t be long. He’s been looking forward to seeing you both.”
Kitty had paused, gazing up at the house in wonder. “But Juliet, what have you done with the place? It’s a beautiful house beneath all that grime! We almost didn’t recognize it.”
“We just had the stone cleaned and repaired, and the chimneys. And we’ve opened and aired all the rooms. It is not yet all as we want it, so you must excuse the chaos, but we have a few decent rooms.”
She was still showing them around, and they were still exclaiming over the lightness of the rooms and the beauty of the polished old carvings and the new carpet in the drawing room, when Dan shouted upstairs and strode in to join them like a fresh wind.
He wore his old clothes, somewhat muddied, but he grinned at his guests, kissing Kitty’s proffered cheek and shaking hands cordially with Lawrence.
“I am disappointed,” Kitty pronounced. “I had hoped to see you in a smock!”
“You can, some days,” Juliet assured her. “It depends how much laboring he plans to do.”
“It does,” Dan agreed, catching her round the shoulders and kissing her full on the lips. “But I have several coats now that even Hugh has pronounced acceptable, and a couple of natty waistcoats that he secretly envies. Give me ten minutes to change, and I’ll join you!”
“He seems happy in his new life,” Lawrence observed.
“He is. It’s as if he has come home.”
“And you?” Kitty asked, searching her face.
She smiled, knowing her sister would read the answer in her face. “Oh, one moment,” she said. “I have to tell the kitchen…”
But she did not go to the kitchen which, with several more servants, now ran itself without any interference on her part. Instead, she hurried upstairs, to the completely gutted and redecorated rooms she shared with Dan.
His hair was wet and his skin, scrubbed. He had donned a clean pair of pantaloons and was struggling into a fresh shirt when she came in.
She walked right up to him, flung her arms around him, and kissed him. His arms closed around her, and he cooperated fully.
He was smiling when he raised his head. “What was that for?”
“Just because I had the sudden urge. And I’ve never been so happy in my life.”
For an instant, his eyes were serious, and then his smile returned, and he kissed her again.
Somewhere in the house, a dog barked in delight, and someone squealed.
They broke apart. “Gun,” they said as one and fled back downstairs to rescue their guests.
About Mary Lancaster
Mary Lancaster lives in Scotland with her husband, three mostly grown-up kids and a small, crazy dog.
Her first literary love was historical fiction, a genre which she relishes mixing up with romance and adventure in her own writing. Her most recent books are light, fun Regency romances written for Dragonblade Publishing: The Imperial Season series set at the Congress of Vienna; and the popular Blackhaven Brides series, which is set in a fashionable English spa town frequented by the great and the bad of Regency society.
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