“Two hours,” Douglas said at the same time.
“Two hours it is.” Gregory, a romantic at heart, quickly exited, thinking maybe he should return in three.
So he did.
* * * * *
Julia was so happy, she could barely contain herself.
Life had most definitely taken a dramatic turn.
She still worried about the future (she couldn’t help herself). She also had moments of sorrow that she was not sharing these joyous times with Gavin and Tamsin. Further, she would, approximately six times a day (she started counting), have to stop herself from telling Douglas her feelings and would sometimes nearly let slip that she knew about his childhood (it was appallingly easy to drown in moments of tenderness when she was with him, which was often, very often).
Despite all that, Charlie’s prediction that even without any avowal of undying love from Douglas, life with him was better than any life she knew before.
And Julia savoured it sweetness.
He was possibly the most attentive, the most voracious, the most generous lover she’d ever had, in bed and out of it.
Indeed, if he were actually to love her, she might expire from the rapture of it because it could scarcely get better than this.
Although, in the deepest regions of her heart (where she had firmly and stubbornly buried it), she wished for that vow of love more than anything in the world.
She was humming to herself as she was getting ready for Valentine’s dinner. Douglas was taking her somewhere in Bath and they would be gone the entire evening, not to return until the morning, and she knew (happily) what that meant.
Ronnie, who also had a new boyfriend of her own, was home at her bedsit getting ready for her date. Carter was off for the evening. The Kilpatricks had taken the children out for a curry and would be watching them for the night.
Julia had the house to herself.
She had wrapped Douglas’s present, no cologne or tie this time, but a pair of gold cufflinks of Gavin’s which had also been their grandfather’s.
She had Patricia’s approval of this gift, indeed, as with everything that had to do with Douglas, she had Patricia’s approval, especially after Julia (in a moment of weakness and in deepest confidence) explained the Kilpatrick’s story of his childhood.
Julia had the cufflinks cleaned and put in a handmade box of cherrywood that was lined with black velvet. They had been (except for his wedding ring) Gavin’s proudest possession and Julia truly hoped that Will didn’t mind that Douglas owned them until such time as nature took its course (in, hopefully, about sixty years) and they came to Will.
She had spent an age getting ready, bathed, lotioned, powdered and made up. She donned her frock, made specifically for the night by Gregory. It was an absolute vision, a swathe of scarlet red satin, strapless and form-fitting, cut at the knees. In the back hem, frothing forth from a deep slit, sprung a dramatic poof of black tulle. She wore it with black, high-heeled sandals with peek-a-boo toes and a daring ankle strap.
It looked like something Marilyn Monroe would wear and Julia loved it.
She was affixing her diamond studs to her ears, her diamond watch to her wrist and had moved from humming to singing Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You.
She couldn’t wait to give Douglas his present. If she couldn’t tell him she loved him, she was going to do everything she could to show him.
Giving her cheekbones one last swipe of blusher, she felt the draught against her ankles and ceased her singing.
“Well, Lady Ruby, where have you been lately?” she asked the draught as if it would answer her.
To her surprise, the icy draught turned polar, freezing her ankles and drifting up her calves. It was so uncomfortable, Julia jumped away from it.
“Now, Lady Ruby, nothing is going to spoil my evening. Run along now and play with the kittens. They could use a good scare,” Julia suggested (though, not meaning it), walking swiftly out of her dressing room and into her bedroom to avoid the chill.
The sun had long set but, as Julia had been in the dressing for hours, she had not pulled the drapes. The scratching was there, louder than ever, and she saw that Archie was outside her window. The spectre was scratching frantically with both hands, looking like he desperately wished to come inside. His mouth was moving like he was shouting but no words were coming out.
Julia stared at the vision in horrified silence.
The freeze hit her ankles again, swirling around her calves and thighs and Julia staggered back from the frenzied Master while trying to escape his Mistress.
“What’s going on?” Julia breathed.