The Countess (Madison Sisters #1)(29)
Author: Lynsay Sands

Suzette smiled and immediately slipped into the parlor. She also pul ed the door closed, Christiana noted and briefly considered opening it and reminding her sister that unmarried ladies did not stay alone in a closed room with men. However, she simply let it go and turned to head upstairs. The two would be married soon enough.

She found Richard in the master dressing room, contemplating George’s wardrobe with a less than pleased expression. Christiana supposed she could not blame him. George had dressed like a dandy and Richard just was not a dandyish man.

"Oh, Christiana," he said and smiled wryly when he noted her entrance. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she assured him quickly, running a hand absently over a pair of pink knee breeches. "I just wondered how you wished us to proceed with the interviews. I presume you don’t wish us to give away what we are trying to learn?"

"You presume right." Richard frowned. "We don’t want whoever hired them to realize we are on to them before we sort out who it is."

"No," she agreed.

"I suppose you and Suzette have the hardest task of the bunch of us. I’m sorry about that."

She smiled faintly and shrugged. "It wil not be hard to carry out, just hard to succeed at. We might manage to be able to cross servants off the list, but I doubt we wil learn exactly who could have poisoned the whiskey. It could have been put in at any time between the day he died and the last time he drank from it before that.

George didn’t al ow anyone else to drink his special whiskey."

"True, which suggests there was no urgency to seeing him dead," he murmured thoughtful y. He shook his head, apparently unsure what that meant, and then held up a pale green cutaway frock coat. "This appears to be the best of the lot."

"Yes," she agreed and watched him shrug out of the dark coat to pul on the lighter one.

"Do I need to change my trousers?" he asked as he buttoned the coat over his cravat.

Christiana glanced to the buff trousers and hessian boots and shook her head.

They went with pretty much everything. It was why the color was popular.

"Good." Richard sighed and started past her. "I had best go then."

"Before you do," Christiana said, catching his arm as he started to pass her.

He paused and glanced down at her in question.

Christiana hesitated and then blew out her breath and said, "I wanted to thank you for trusting me to interview the staff."

His eyebrows rose slightly, and then he frowned and took her by the shoulders to turn her until they faced each other. "I am not George, Christiana. I realize you are an intel igent woman capable of many things. You are also my wife and partner.

Trust is important in such a relationship. We must learn to trust each other if we wish this marriage to succeed."

"Yes," she acknowledged. And while she knew it was true, it was just so hard.

She had little confidence in her ability to inspire love after life with Dicky.

She had little confidence in her ability to inspire love after life with Dicky.

The thought made Christiana blink in surprise as she realized that it wasn’t real y that she worried Richard would change, but that she feared she wasn’t worthy of love anymore. It was something she’d been confident of while growing up surrounded by family and friends who loved her. But somehow that foundation had been washed away, leaving her floating in a sea of uncertainty . . . because George hadn’t loved her and she’d assumed it must be due to some flaw in her. If she’d just been smart enough, pretty enough, charming enough he would have loved her. In truth, she’d spent the last year trying to earn that love, and almost lost herself in the process.

"I should go," Richard murmured, peering at her worriedly. When she managed a smile and nod, he bent to press a quick kiss to her lips. At least, she suspected he’d intended it to be a quick parting kiss. However, it didn’t end up that way, because Christiana did what she’d wanted – and had been too afraid – to do that morning.

The moment his lips met hers, she went up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, pressed her body against his and opened her mouth to him. Richard stil ed, obviously taken by surprise, but then his own arms slid around her back and he pul ed her close and deepened the kiss. Christiana breathed a little sigh of relief into his mouth. She had fol owed her instincts and he had not rejected her, berating her for unladylike behavior. It was a smal first step, but a step just the same, she thought and then let go of her worries and merely enjoyed the kiss as he caught her head in hand and tilted it to al ow him more access as he tried to devour her with his mouth.

When he clasped her bottom through her skirt and lifted her to press her against the hardness growing between them, Christiana breathed a little moan and curled her fingers into his hair. Heat was already pooling in her lower bel y and spreading outward to answer that hardness, but he then lowered her back to the floor and broke the kiss.

"Temptress," he growled, leaning his forehead against hers.

"Are you tempted?" she asked in a pleased whisper.

"You know I am," he said on a humorless laugh.

"Do you mind?" she asked next, holding her breath as she waited for the answer.

"Mind that my wife tempts me to take her in the dressing room amongst the hatboxes and breeches?" he asked with amusement. "No, I don’t mind at al . But Daniel probably would if I succumbed."

"Suzette is with him." She slid one hand from around his shoulder and let it drift down to press against the proof of how she was affecting him. "I don’t think he would mind a short wait."

Richard growled as she ran her hand over him through the cloth of his trousers.

"Stil , I should – "

His words died on a gasp as she suddenly slipped her hand inside his trousers and clasped him.

"Witch," he breathed and oddly enough it didn’t sound like an insult. In the next moment he was kissing her again, his own hands beginning to move over her body through her gown, cupping and caressing her br**sts, squeezing her behind and then dragging her skirt up to slip beneath and move over the skin of her outer leg and hip as she undid his trousers to be able to caress him more ful y. Christiana had just got the last button undone and taken him in hand again when his own hand slid between her legs to press against the center of her. They groaned in unison into each other’s mouths then, the sound and vibration merely adding to their excitement.

Christiana felt the dressing table press against the backs of her thighs through her dress and realized he’d backed her up, but was taken by surprise when he removed his hand from between her legs and suddenly lifted her to sit on the spindly legged piece of furniture. His hand returned to her then, caressing and urging her legs wider so that he could move between them. When he urged her hand away, she released him and clutched at his shoulders. Richard then took himself in hand and rubbed his shaft against her teasingly and Christiana gasped and wiggled her bottom to the edge of the table, her legs wrapping around his and urging him closer.

"Witch," he repeated, breaking their kiss, and then he clasped her bottom and pul ed her even further forward on the tabletop and final y gave up his teasing to thrust himself into her.

Christiana cried out and clawed at his shoulders, her heels pressing into his behind and urging him deeper. She lifted her face to his, seeking his lips again and then kissed him desperately. Richard withdrew, and then groaned as he plunged into her again, his tongue thrusting into her mouth at the same time. She was vaguely aware of a banging sound as he moved and realized the table was moving with them and hitting the wal with each thrust, but didn’t care and simply held on as the sound became a rapid tattoo.

As fast as it had started, it ended just as swiftly, both of them crying out as one and clutching at each other as they were rocked by the explosion. Christiana then sagged back against the wal , taking Richard with her. He leaned his head against her shoulder for a moment and then gave a shaky laugh.

"What?" she murmured, raising one languid hand to brush the hair from his face in an effort to see his expression. Richard raised his head and smiled at her wryly. "I was just thinking, whatever his faults, George had excel ent taste when it came to choosing a wife,"

he admitted almost apologetical y, and then cupped her face, pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and whispered, "Thank you."

Chapter Sixteen

That went wel."

Richard settled back in the carriage and merely nodded. They had just finished making arrangements for the funds to pay the blackmailer. He was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary, but was prepared if it was. Richard was glad to have the business out of the way. He’d spent the past hour constantly worrying that someone was going to stand up shouting, "Imposter!" He supposed that was foolish since he was the true Richard Fairgrave, Earl of Radnor. However, George had been impersonating him for over a year and it was he everyone was used to. Richard had been sure someone would notice something different about him, courtesy perhaps, or a less caustic attitude. He was actual y surprised and even a little insulted that they hadn’t. He liked to think he was different enough from his brother that someone would have noticed something, and couldn’t help his slightly disgruntled tone as he commented, "No one seemed to notice anything amiss or different about me."

Daniel smiled wryly and shrugged. "People see what they expect to. Besides, while you were thanking the clerk for your tea I commented to Lord Sherwood that I was glad to see you final y shaking off the strange mood that had claimed you this last year since your twin’s death," Daniel admitted. "He said he’d heard you were final y coming around and had even attended a bal . So I wouldn’t worry too much. It appears everyone wil just put down any oddity they notice to your final y getting over the grief that has supposedly plagued you this last year."

"Wel , that’s something anyway," Richard said wryly, tugging at the sleeve of his pale green coat and grimacing. He detested the color, but it had been the best of the lot. "I real y need to improve my wardrobe."

"George always did have terrible taste in clothes," Daniel said dryly, eyeing his outfit. "Why do we not stop at the tailor’s on the way back to the townhouse?"

Richard hesitated, his conscience making him feel that he should head right back to the townhouse and try to further their investigations. But he didn’t want Christiana to think he didn’t trust her to interview the staff, and he could hardly gain gossip on himself. There seemed little reason not to stop, so he nodded and ordered the driver to change direction.

"How are you finding marriage so far?" Daniel asked as Richard sat back in his seat.

"It has not even been a ful day yet," he pointed out with amusement.

Daniel shrugged. "Christiana appears terribly wary. I think she fears you wil suddenly begin criticizing and berating her as George apparently did."

Richard nodded, not surprised his friend had noted the wariness that often clouded Christiana’s eyes. It was seldom missing. The only time it seemed to him that she managed to completely shed it was when he stirred her passions. Then she managed to forget everything but the pleasure they were enjoying together, and to trust him with at least her body. It gave him hope that eventual y she would trust him with more and he said, "Time wil help undo the damage George did. When she sees that I do not change and do not try to change her, she wil relax and be more herself."

Daniel nodded and said with a grin, "She made a good start this morning racing Lisa downstairs barefoot."

Richard smiled at the memory. That had surprised him. Christiana had been so polite and stilted when she first awoke, the complete antithesis to the warm passionate woman he had made love to just hours earlier. In truth, he’d been disappointed when he’d kissed her that morning and she’d not kissed him back. It had made him worry about what it might indicate for their future together. Would she be one woman at night, a warm passionate lover in their bed, and then another woman, the cautious, wary proper lady during the daylight hours? Not that that would have been the worst thing in the world to deal with, many men were not even fortunate to have the passion. However, Richard wanted more from Christiana. He wanted her to trust him and to be as unguarded and warm with him al the time as she was in their bed. He wanted the easy affection he saw her shower on her sisters and even Robert. He wanted her as a friend as wel as a lover.

Much to his relief, the episode in the dressing room before he and Daniel had left had gone a long way toward reassuring him, however. She hadn’t been a proper lady then, and they hadn’t been in their bed either, but in the closet in broad daylight. Richard wasn’t sure what had caused the difference in her, but was grateful for it.

He was truly beginning to believe they would more than make a go of this marriage.

They might actual y have a sterling one like his own parents had enjoyed. Theirs had been a love match and while he’d never real y thought about it before, Richard now decided he would like that for himself as wel .

"Here we are."

Daniel’s words drew his gaze out the window to see that they’d arrived on the street where the tailor was. A glance along the busy lane told him his driver wouldn’t be able to find a spot close to the tailor’s without some difficulty and he commented,

"It looks as if we wil have a bit of a walk to reach the tailor’s."

"I don’t mind," Daniel said. "After spending al yesterday and last night in a carriage, I shal enjoy the brief walk."

Nodding, Richard banged on the wal of the carriage. Moments later they were disembarking and making their way along the crowded walk toward the tailor’s.

"You’l need a whole new wardrobe," Daniel commented as they swerved closer to the road to avoid a smal party of women walking the opposite way.

"Yes," Richard agreed dryly. "Fashion is one of many things George and I did not have in common."

"Did you have anything in common?" Daniel asked with amusement.