“They very much do.” She met her friend’s smile. “It has been such an incredible year, thanks to you, Lady Campbell.”
“Oh, I imagine I had little to do with it.” Emma’s smile turned knowing. “But very much you finding the independence you so richly deserve.” She squeezed Prudence’s hand. “And I cannot tell you how happy I am at how everything has progressed in your life. Hope that you continue finding happiness in all things.”
“I very much intend to.” She wished she could scream out loud how she felt. What she was about to do. Instead, as more and more people arrived, she could only hope Emma saw her happiness and understood her returned innuendo. “This very night…” she let her words linger a moment, “when I enjoy the ball, of course.”
Emma’s eyes sparkled with pleasure. She nodded to let Prudence know she understood. “I could not be more pleased to hear that, Lady Barrington.”
They had little time to talk after that as things grew too busy. Not before Emma had a chance to send Prudence in the right direction, though. “I know you have had little time to hear the news, but I am so pleased to share that the Duke of Argyll has joined us for the celebrations. Do be sure to say hello to him in the drawing room.”
Just like every time she knew he was close, her heart leapt, and she wanted to race into his waiting arms. Because she suspected they would be open, be damned decorum. Yet as Mr. Fenwick would primly say, and he was right, there was such a thing as proper manners, and she must abide by them. Now more than ever, if she were to become a duchess.
So she allowed the butler, dear Finley, to take her coat and made her way toward the drawing room. As always, when she knew he was close, it felt like she walked on air. Floated. Especially when she arrived at the door and spied him standing in front of the fire, chatting with several gentlemen. Better still, finally saw him as he was meant to be.
Chapter Eighteen
Jacob swore hefelt Prudence before he saw her appear at the door of the drawing room. When their gazes caught, everything faded away, and he could only see her. Only ever her.
She had come.
She was here.
In truth, he had been worried she might not, considering he had given her an ultimatum of sorts. How could he not when the way things were now had become so hard? Torture for them both. Dressed smartly in a lovely blue dress suited to traveling, Prudence seemed frozen in place until Maude and Blake nudged her along.
“Oh, how wonderful that we are all together again.” Maude grinned back and forth between Jacob and Prudence when the three of them joined him. “A bit of a full circle, is it not?”
“It is,” Jacob said once he found his voice. What was it about Prudence that made every time feel like the first? He let his lips linger on the back of her hand when he kissed it. Remembered kissing other parts of her. Tasting her in the throes of passion. “So good to see you again, Lady Barrington.”
“You as well, Your Grace.” Prudence curtsied, and her cheeks turned rosy. Almost as if she reflected on their lovemaking every bit as much. “Such a pleasure.”
Silence stretched as he kept her hand and their gazes held. What he would not do to be alone with her right now. To pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless. Kiss her until she told him what he longed to hear.
“Of course, I will marry you, my dearest Jacob,” she would murmur softly in a way that told him she wanted him between her thighs soon. “How foolish of me to have put you off for so long.”
“Your Grace?” Blake asked, tearing him from his reverie.
“Aye?” he asked, startled.
“Might we sit and enjoy refreshments before you return to business?”
He glanced around only to recall they were not alone, and thoughts of Prudence moaning as he took her were highly inappropriate. So he joined her on the sofa where they had sat the first day. Chatted as if everything that happened between then and now never transpired.
Only it had, and he felt it every time Prudence glanced his way.
“I must say, I quite like seeing you in your plaid, Your Grace,” she said softly when Maude and Blake were distracted. “It suits you so very well.”
“Thank you, my lady.” Caught in the sheer impact of seeing her again, he had forgotten this would be the first time she saw him in full Highland regalia outside of a portrait. The holiday called for it, so he had dressed appropriately.
If they had been alone, he would have answered in any number of ways. How pleased he was that she liked it. That he would live in his tartan if she wished it. Die in it if she asked him to as long as she were by his side wearing his clan’s colors as well.
“How were your travels here, my lady?” he asked at one point during their very proper conversation. Ever-so-discreetly, he rested his thigh against hers. “Comfortable, I trust?” He longed to know if she were here for all the right reasons. “That you enjoyed the journey and had time to contemplate all the wonders of our beloved county?”
“I most certainly did, Your Grace.” Her lovely gaze never left his face as she sipped her tea. “Fortunately, there was no need to contemplate as I am well aware how wondrous Scotland and her people are.”
Did that mean she would be saying yes? He could only pray.
They kept on with double innuendoes and wordplay for some time before they inevitably eased into their usual way when together. Comfortable and chatty. While he wanted to steal her away up to the battlements, they had made a deal. The eleventh hour this eve, and she would give him her answer. Although equally tempted to pull her off into the nearest hideaway and at least kiss her hello, the hour was wearing on. He still had business to attend to, and she needed to prepare for the ball.
So he bid her farewell, his thoughts forever with her as he used Blake’s study and saw to things. He focused enough to accomplish his tasks, but it was bloody difficult. Should he find a way up to her? Sneak into her room and make love to her before the busy hours ahead?
