The Countess (Madison Sisters #1)(17)
Author: Lynsay Sands

Christiana grimaced as she realized she was separating his good behavior from his bad behavior rather than considering it al as a whole, but that was how she was starting to think when it came to her husband. There was the Dicky she’d lived with this last year who she could believe would have done such a thing, and would be happy to find some way to escape. And then there was the sweet, considerate and passionate lover, Richard, from last night. The problem was she had no idea which man he was, and who she would be confronted with the next time they met. Would he be the Dicky who was so mean and cold to her, or the lover Richard? And if it was Dicky by day and Richard by night, was it worth spending her days in a sort of hel to enjoy nights of heaven?

She supposed that didn’t real y matter. The marriage was consummated, so unless it turned out Richard was real y George, the marriage would stand firm. She would never al ow Robert to sacrifice himself by pretending to be her lover to gain her a freedom she’d lost through her own wanton desires. Though she had to admit the very fact that he would even suggest it was touching. She didn’t doubt that he’d carry it out if she agreed. She also knew without a doubt that he’d make the same offer to both Suzette and Lisa were they in similar situations. Truly, he was the best of friends, a brother in every way but blood . . . and she couldn’t al ow him to ruin himself for her.

"Chrissy?" Langley prompted again.

Christiana sighed and final y just said, "Why do we not just wait a bit? I am sure I can get to see his bottom tonight. I wil make sure I do, and then we shal decide what is best from there."

"Christiana," he began sternly, but it was as far as he got, for the door opened just then and Lisa and Suzette entered.

"There you are," Lisa tril ed brightly as she led Suzie to join them. "Haversham said Robert was here. Why was the door closed?"

Christiana blinked in surprise at the scowl Lisa cast on both her and Langley for such an impropriety. Lisa rarely scowled at anything or anyone. "I’m afraid I closed it without thinking when I entered. Come sit down, I was just about to ask Langley if there are any bal s we should attend tonight."

As the two girls took their seats, Christiana turned a warning glance to Langley.

She didn’t want the conversation to continue in front of her sisters. She real y didn’t want to discuss it anymore at al , at least, not unless Richard didn’t have the strawberry birthmark. Then, she supposed there would be a lot of discussion going on. Fortunately, Robert obeyed her silent plea and began to discuss bal s.

"I hear voices."

Richard paused in the entry at Daniel’s hissed words. After listening for a moment, he relaxed. "It is coming from the parlor. It sounds like the women are al in there, which means we won’t run into them upstairs."

"Right, wel that’s something," Daniel grunted, shifting his hold on his end of the carpet-rol ed George. Nodding, Richard started forward again, moving quickly toward the stairs.

George was a lot heavier with the added weight of the carpet around him and no doubt they would both be relieved to set him down. He just hoped they managed to do so without encountering anyone.

They made it up the stairs and were moving quickly up the hal with their burden, Richard thinking they might just manage the task undiscovered, when Haversham appeared from the master bedroom and started in their direction. Richard heard Daniel curse under his breath behind him and silently echoed the sentiment, but kept calm. It wasn’t like they were carting a nak*d, dead George about for anyone to see. He was wrapped in the carpet after al . No one could tel he was in there, Richard assured himself. They would just carry the rug past as if nothing were amiss. That was the plan anyway, however, Haversham put an end to it by stopping in the middle of the hal directly in front of him, forcing Richard to a halt. The elderly butler peered at the rol ed up and slightly bulgy carpet, raised an eyebrow and then peered at Richard and asked, "Would you like me to send for a couple of footmen to help you with that, my lord?"

"Er . . . no," Richard forced a smile. "I – we are just – it’s a bit chil in my room and Lord Woodrow offered this carpet to take away the worst of the chil ."

"Hmm." Haversham nodded solemnly. "The ladies had a similar problem just yesterday."

Richard frowned at his words, but before he could ask what the man meant by that, the butler continued.

"I would venture to suggest that closing the window of a night would help warm the room as wel , my lord . . . which I just did. I noticed it was open as I was inspecting the bed. The upstairs maid feared it was quite ruined. I came to see what could be done, however it looks as if it somehow got quite soaked through."

"Oh . . . er . . . yes. It . . . er . . . I . . ." Grimacing, he simply said, "Don’t worry about the bed, Haversham. I’ve ordered a new one and wil just sleep with Lady Christiana until it arrives. I mean in her room, not – wel , not that there is anything wrong with a husband sleeping with his wife, I just – "

"What his lordship means to say," Daniel interrupted Richard’s bumbling. "Is that he wil reside in Lady Christiana’s room until his own bed is repaired. That being the case there is real y no need for the maid to worry about his room at al for the time being. In fact, he wil probably just lock the doors for now so she doesn’t waste her time dusting an unoccupied room."

"Yes. Exactly. What he said," Richard muttered uncomfortably. Real y, he tended to avoid lying because he wasn’t very good at it. He supposed he didn’t feel it was a very honorable ability anyway so had never practiced it.

"Ah." Haversham looked extremely solemn as he nodded. "Very good, my lord. I shal tel the staff to leave the room be until you say otherwise."

"Thank you." He smiled his relief and then steered around the man, eager to continue up the hal .

"Shal I tel Lady Christiana you are returned and wil join the ladies and Lord Langley in the parlor soon?"

"Oh, no, that’s al right. I – Lord Langley, you say?" he interrupted himself to ask as the name registered in his head. Pausing again, he frowned back at the butler.

"Yes, my lord. He arrived some time ago asking to speak to her ladyship and has been cloistered in the parlor with her and her sisters for some time now."

Richard felt his eyes narrow. "He has, has he? Wel , yes, please tel her I shal join them shortly."

"Very good, my lord." The butler turned smartly and headed for the stairs, apparently to do just that. Richard scowled after him, contemplating that Langley was here in his home, cloistered in the parlor with his wife and her sisters. And the man had asked for Christiana when he arrived. He’d also danced with her twice last night at the Landon bal , appearing very protective and caring of her as he did. Richard hadn’t cared for it much at the time, but he liked it even less after spending the night with Christiana and deciding the marriage would continue. She was his now and he wasn’t having Langley –

"For God’s sake, Richard. Are we going to stand here al day? This rug is heavy."

"Oh, right," he muttered and began to move again. The sooner they had taken care of George, the sooner he could get down to the parlor and let Langley know Christiana was his.

Chapter Ten

Langley was answering about the hundredth question from Suzette on Lord Woodrow’s character when Haversham cleared his throat, drawing their attention to his presence in the parlor doorway.

"Yes, Haversham?" Christiana asked as Langley paused in his answer.

"Lord Fairgrave has returned. He and Lord Woodrow shal be joining you here shortly, my lady."

"Daniel’s here?" Suzette asked.

"Yes, my lady," Haversham said solemnly, and noting the way she was suddenly peering past him, added, "He is assisting his lordship in carrying something to the master bedroom."

"Oh." Suzette frowned, apparently not pleased with the news. Christiana noted that in an absentminded way, but her own thoughts were taken up with the announcement and what should be made of it. It was just so out of character for Dicky to have her informed of his return. He usual y just appeared when he wished to, and disappeared just as abruptly without explaining anything. This was very thoughtful and completely unlike his behavior to date. Realizing that the butler was waiting to be dismissed, Christiana murmured,

"Thank you for relaying the message, Haversham."

"Of course, my lady." Haversham nodded solemnly and then turned to move away.

Christiana sighed and glanced back toward the others but her mind was in a bit of an uproar. Dicky was back. Richard, she reminded herself. He’d asked her last night to cal him that and so she would.

"There!" Lisa said brightly. "Dicky’s going to join us. That wil be nice, won’t it?"

Christiana glanced to her younger sister, noting the silent pleading on the girl’s face, and sighed to herself. Lisa was silently asking her to give the man a chance to prove he’d realized the error of his ways and changed. And last night had certainly been like nothing she’d ever experienced in her marriage to date so he might very wel have done so, but what was to stop him from changing again? Would it be Dicky, the nasty husband she’d lived with this last year who joined them, or last night’s lover, Richard?

Aside from that, there was the whole "does he have a strawberry on his bottom"

issue to worry about as wel . The man might real y be George, a murderer of his own sibling. Honestly, it was al enough to make a woman want to scream and pul her hair out. Surely, most wives did not have such issues with their husbands. How had she landed in such a tangled marriage?

"Chrissy?" Lisa asked and Christiana stood abruptly.

"Chrissy?" Lisa asked and Christiana stood abruptly.

"I should have asked Haversham to have a tray prepared and brought to us. I shal do it now," she announced and hurried out of the room. Christiana spotted Haversham about to enter the kitchen at the end of the hal when she stepped out of the parlor, and hurried to catch up to him to make her request. Once the task was done, however, she headed upstairs. Christiana simply could not stand to wait and worry about whether he had the birthmark or not, and what kind of mood he would be in when he arrived in the parlor. She wanted to find out both things at once and she wanted to do so in private rather than with witnesses.

Although, if she were to be completely honest with herself, Christiana had already decided it must have been the birthmark she’d seen and that seeing it again would just be a formality. Because she simply couldn’t believe the man who had held her in his arms and given her such pleasure could be a kil er. That left her real worry being how Richard would treat her when next they met.

This first meeting would tel her if she had made the biggest mistake of her life last night, or a smart decision. Christiana didn’t head straight for the master bedroom, but stopped in her own room to check her hair and make sure it was stil in the nasty, tight bun Grace had automatical y fixed it into that morning. Dicky – Richard, she reminded herself

– would berate her if every hair was not in place and that was not a good way to start. She suddenly stopped dead as she realized what she was thinking. Dear God, she was already fal ing back into the dutiful wife mold! Worrying about her hair being perfect so as not to upset Dicky – Richard? Wel , she was done with that, Christiana reminded herself grimly. She’d experienced a few hours of freedom from her husband when she’d thought him dead, and that brief taste of freedom, along with the love and support of her sisters, had made her find her backbone once more. Straightening her shoulders, she determinedly turned and strode purposeful y across the room. She had paused at the door to the master bedroom and half-raised her hand to knock before she caught herself. She was supposed to see his bottom as soon as she could so if she entered without knocking and caught him changing or something of the like, it would actual y be a good thing, Christiana told herself as she opened the door without knocking and walked in.

He wasn’t half nak*d mid-change or anything of the like. Instead, he and Daniel were talking quietly as they crossed the room in her direction. Both men paused abruptly at her appearance, however, eyes widening with alarm as if they’d been caught doing something they shouldn’t. Christiana felt her eyebrows crawl up her forehead at the strange reaction and glanced curiously from one man to the other.

"Ah." Daniel was the first to speak. His eyes moving to Richard he asked,

"Should I . . . ?" He shifted his gaze over his shoulder in a silent question she didn’t understand.

"No. That’s al right. Go ahead," Richard said quietly. Apparently he understood the question. Frowning, Christiana peered in the direction Daniel had glanced, but didn’t see anything but the bed. It looked quite lumpy, but then Grace had said it had been ruined by the soaking from the melting ice. The other servants were apparently speculating on how the bed had come to be soaked as it was, but she doubted they’d ever come up with the truth. Christiana, her sisters and Grace themselves had gone out to fetch back the ice to avoid involving the other servants.

"Christiana?"

She blinked her thoughts away to realize that while she’d been wool gathering, Daniel had exited through the door she’d left open and Dicky – Richard

– was now standing directly in front of her. His expression was questioning, but she couldn’t help noticing that his eyes were locked on her mouth and darkening with a heat she recal ed from the night before. It brought an answering heat to life inside her.

"You must be terribly uncomfortable with your hair pul ed so tight," he murmured suddenly and reached up to begin removing hairpins.

"It’s the way you insisted I wear it," Christiana reminded him, irritation slipping in to nudge aside a bit of the awakening heat.

"Then I was an idiot," he said simply as he finished freeing her hair and al owed the now loose strands to fal around her face. He smiled with approval.

"Much better."

It felt much better too, she acknowledged with a sigh as the pressure was released from her scalp, but her eyes widened as he now caught her face between his hands and lifted it so their gazes met. They widened even further when he asked, "No kiss of greeting for your husband?"