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“What does unseemliness entail, I wonder?” The duke led her around to Jupiter’s near side, his fingers stroking her palm.
“If you have to ask…” Felicity murmured then laughed at her own cheekiness.
“I would inquire, but I think my mouth can be put to better use.” He leaned in, and Felicity sighed, in relief. More kissing, thank Go—galoshes.
Marshall bounded around the corner, and they leapt apart, Felicity knocking into the cob.
“I’m only half-asleep looking at this feller,” he said. “Poor auld Juventus. Not so young any more, are you?” He held Jupiter’s offside stirrup and said, “Up you get, missus.”
“Her Grace.” The duke glowered.
“Thank you, Marshall,” Felicity said, looking pointedly at the duke. “May I have a leg, please?”
“You may have all of me,” the duke whispered in her ear, and as he lifted her with her own impetus, he nipped her on the knee. “I find these trousers to be appealing, of a sudden.”
Marshall held the cob for form’s sake, as it would have been amazing had the animal moved of its own initiative. She applied her leg to Jupiter’s sides and had to squeeze with far greater strength than she had only the day before.
“Off you go, you two,” Marshall called as he headed away. “Home in time for supper!”
“Insubordination,” the duke growled; Felicity was certain this was for form’s sake as well. In fact, she was beginning to believe much of his apparent truculence was a blind for his true nature.
“Poor Juventus,” Felicity cried, as they crept down the drive. “Not quite the ducal mount I imagined.”
“Have you imagined my mounting?”
“One envisions a destrier, along the lines of Bucephalus, or Wellington’s own Copenhagen.” She ignored his inflammatory comment and turned in a circle round the duke; even lethargic, Jupiter’s gait covered more ground than did that of the heavy cob. “One more suited to the impression that your manse conveys.” She looked up at the facade, a rich concoction of redbrick, numerous windows, of terraces climbing and winding around both sides before fetching up against the hedges.
“And how are you finding it here?” The duke applied a little more leg, which resulted in a dozy flick of an ear.
“I cannot imagine a more welcoming estate on which to be held captive.” She looked at the house as she made another circuit around him. “It is impressive, and luxurious, as well as old-fashioned and somewhat helter-skelter.”
“I have not the time for domestic issues.”
“It is not within your remit to tend to them yourself,” she replied. “It is, however, your duty to provide the framework within which your butler and housekeeper may make decisions for themselves.”
“Have they registered a complaint?”
How lethal he sounded. “They have not. Yet, anyone with eyes in their head could see that those extraneous footmen ought to be given the opportunity to learn other jobs of work on your estate, that the kitchen is feuding with the butlery, which is not ideal for the well-being of the lower servants, that the decoration of the house is languishing somewhere in the last century—” None of this was any of her concern.
“What you are saying, madam, is that the house needs a woman’s touch.” Juventus quivered at the duke’s sonorous tone.
As did she. “And yet there is much that is unique to recommend Lowell Hall. Is that amusing, Your Grace? This topiary, for example.” She once again rode tandem with the duke, although rode was overstating it. “Most often, one finds such treatments of shrubbery at the back of a great house, and here, it marches along your drive. Quite a charming…welcome.” She trailed off as they reached the end of the lane, over which two topiaries ranged, shaped as lunging beasts that looked to be ambushing the unsuspecting visitor. “Is that—those are—are they wolves? Or some crossbreed perhaps, something similar to the Irish wolfhound?”
“They are common in these parts.”
“Will you ever answer me without equivocating?”
“We shall sally forth to the right, if you please,” the duke said. “There is much to see, and at this rate, we will see almost nothing.”
“I take that as a no.” Felicity looked about as they curved ’round the bend. Unlike the wild hedge shielding the park, well-manicured, low-lying shrubbery bordered the road. From her vantage point on Jupiter’s back, she saw fields, both fallow and fertilized, rolling away in every direction. As they ambled along, the workers looked up and saluted as they passed; how they heard them or even saw them was impossible to fathom. The Edenbrook soon made an appearance and veered off to the left even as they turned to the right.
Did the big dog live in the wood by the meadow? She hoped he didn’t venture out into these fields, as they seemed well-attended. Was he the only one of his kind? She hated to think of him alone, with no others like him. How a creature that size could see to his own feeding without decimating the park and village of its smaller beasts was beyond her. His presence must be known by the land’s inhabitants. She looked at the duke, who, in all unlikelihood, was struggling with his reins. “O’Mara mentioned that all the dogs on the estate are working beasts?”
“They are. They have their places and know it, madam.”
“And I begin to understand that you are taunting me. You allow your people the run of the place, you take in all and sundry as is necessary, and you seem to have a sense of humor I would not have credited. I cannot believe you would allow even the humblest creature within your bounds to suffer or lack in any way.”
A large hand reached out and grabbed Jupiter’s reins; that same hand shifted to her elbow, pulling her toward the owner of that hand, who kissed her on the lips. As quickly as the kiss was stolen, the thief resumed his saddle but kept his hand on her arm. “You may call me Alfred when we are in private together,” he said. “Is that amusing, Felicity?”
