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“A very duchessy dismissal, my dear,” Alfred joked.
Felicity turned to stand before him. There would be time to investigate her premises—her premises!—but there would never be this moment, in which he presented her dream on a silver platter, or more like, in the shape of a building she had never dared conceive of. Speechless, she ran her hands over his arms, over his shoulders, and down to his heart. She held her hands there, feeling the rapid beat of it, and leaned her head against That Chest. She embraced him, held him, beyond words. Upon reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands, stroked her thumbs over his lips, and then kissed him, a new kiss, a sweet one, one of thanks and appreciation and purity of heart.
“I take it you are pleased.”
She smiled at the uncertainty in his voice. “I never thought to reach this high. I would have been happy enough with a satchel full of papers and a sturdy pair of boots.”
“All the world will come to you,” he said, his hands caressing her waist. “There will no finer equines in all of England.”
She raised her lips to his, melted against him, and the sweetness, the purity, transformed to fire and wantonness. Everywhere he touched her burned with desire. She slid her hands down around his back, laughed against his mouth as she grabbed his posterior, and whooped as he hoisted her up onto the reception room’s countertop and once again insinuated himself between her thighs.
“Alfred, there are no curtains in the windows.”
“We need not remove our clothing for you to be pleasured. I know you know to what I refer. Do you often pleasure yourself, Felicity?” She mumbled and he—it wasn’t a chuckle, but it wasn’t a proper laugh either. “I did tell you about my exceptional hearing, did I not? ‘Never so much as you’ve done since your arrival at Lowell Hall’? I wonder why?”
“That bath.” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded sultry and abandoned. “One can recline at full length in that bath. One can relax in the warmth and the scents, and if one had asked Mary Mossett to secure the exact blend of vetiver and bay as used by a certain duke of one’s acquaintance, then the entire experience is rather more…”
“Rather more…” He wrapped his arms around her.
“Rather more invigorating that usual,” she said. “Rather more sensual.”
“And are you aware,” he asked, as he parted her thighs with his hips and ran his hands over her belly, “that there are a variety of ways to invigorate yourself?”
“Earlier, in fact, it had occurred, when your—your leg was underneath my sensitive place—”
She gasped as his hands parted her thighs even further, and he dipped his head, leaning it against her thigh and kissing her very near her honeypot. “Oh, yes, many ways.” His hands squeezed, and then his fingers ran over her falls, and his tongue peeped out. His eyes on hers, he lowered his head toward her—
“Alfred! You cannot think to—”
An almighty clatter from above on the roof gave even the duke pause, and Felicity did not hesitate to sit up. After a quick buss on his lips, she braced her hands on his shoulders and hopped off the counter. “That is quite enough for now, Your Grace. I would acquaint myself with my office. For despite his dastardly schemes, my uncle has not succeeded in thwarting me.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “How he could think to murder his sister’s beloved band? And Himself is nowhere to be found…”
“Felicity.” Would she ever tire of hearing her name spoken with that voice? “I must deal with him. It is to do with my second nature as much as my first that I must. Vengeance need not be bloody to be satisfying, I assure you.”
“What has become of Rollo?”
“He is even now reposing in the belly of a hulk bound for the Antipodes. I would ensure that Purcell join him.”
“I have known nothing but spite from both,” Felicity said. “It pains me that we have come to this pass, but I will abide by your solution.” She sighed. “I understand that Cecil, in his way, did much to help. He deserves a reward.”
“He does indeed,” he said. “It is down to him that we found your father’s true will. He revealed several hiding places about the property and our magpies made quick work of it.”
“How he remembered after all these years…” After all these years, she thought, the truth would come out. Thousands of questions ran through her mind, not only regarding her father’s wishes, but also how Cecil had known to contact her, how the plan to kill her animals had been devised—how her uncle could have known her so well as to have divined her very soul and used it against her. Alfred waited, watched her, and likely sensed her every emotion, his desire to come to her aid almost palpable, there for the asking, and she felt…she felt as though, after all these years, the answers would wait another day.
And yet: “Did my father elevate me above all females through his legacy? Am I to receive a fortune, or no?”
Alfred looked regretful. “Somewhat, and not precisely.”
“Then it matters not,” she said. “Nothing matters, as I look around me.”
“There is indeed a legacy,” he began.
“I am only interested in the future,” she countered.
“It is quite a…” He was lost for words. “It is significant.”
Felicity shrugged. “Then I will read the will myself, at my leisure.”
“And we will marry in two days.”
