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Chapter Twenty-Two

Ace and Lady Josephine made good use of their room at the inn that night. They were both exhausted, yet after being so long separated, they did not want to waste another moment.

Ace threw himself onto the old feather bed and said jokingly, “Take your clothes off, woman, and get over here to me. For I’ve spent a long day fighting battles for you, and I deserve a reward.”

Lady Josephine took off her dress and undergarments, but she did not join Ace in bed.What if he no longer finds me attractive? So much has happened… .

“What’s keeping you?” Ace asked jovially. “Come here to me, my love.”

Ace seemed startled to see a tear streak down Lady Josephine’s face.

“What’s the matter, my angel?” He sprang out of bed, unselfconscious in his nakedness, and came to her side. He wiped the tears off her cheeks.

“What is it? What’s wrong? You were never hesitant with me before,” Ace said. “Don’t you want me any longer?” She could see he felt hurt.

“Of course I do. More than ever. It’s just that...oh, Ace. You may not wantmeany longer. My hair is all cut off, and I’ve had almost no food for weeks. I’m like a skeleton….”

“Josie, Josie,” he said. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Even now?” she asked doubtfully.

“Particularly now,” he replied.

And picking her up as easily as a kitten, he carried her over to the feather bed and proceeded to show her, by his attentions to every part of her body, all night long, just how desirable she was.

After finishing one particularly energetic bout of lovemaking, Ace lay down beside her and cuddled her. “Oh, by the way,” he said a few minutes later, when he was already half asleep, “be sure to congratulate Paddy when you see him.”

“For what, Ace?”

“Because Mary said yes,” said Ace with a smile.

And with that, he closed his eyes, nestled Josie in his hard, muscled arms, and drifted off into the most pleasant slumber he had ever known.

Josie, meanwhile, lay in bed still wide awake. Before they were separated, she and Ace had experimented with all sorts of ways to give each other pleasure. But they had never taken the final step. Technically, Lady Josephine was still a virgin.

Why is he waiting? Why is he holding himself back?Was part of him unsure about making a complete commitment to her? She puzzled over this, and she had no answers.

* * *

Once the Duke was well enough to travel, the party split up. Charley and Paddy were heading back to London, accompanying the Duke to ensure his safe arrival at Clover House.

Ace had a different plan in mind for Josie and himself. “Josie, it’s going to be brutally hard on you when you return to London. Thehaut tonis going to chew you up. Particularly when it comes time for the Earl of Worthington’s trial, at which you’re sure to have to testify. Men don’t get blamed in these situations. Women do.”

“But what can I be blamed for, Ace? The way the Earl treated me, just because he wanted my father’s money…!”

“First of all, the Earl’s barrister is going to make you testify in public that you were sexually involved with me—the lowliest of your father’s servants—while engaged to marry him. He will say the Earl walked in on us and caught us nearly naked together, right there in the Earl’s own house. The court will sympathize with Worthington over that, you can be sure. They’ll make it sound like you only got what you deserved.

“And that will only be the beginning. Whatever happens to the Earl, you’ll be a pariah in Society. No one will invite you anywhere; ladies will cross the street rather than be seen saying hello to you. You’ll be cast out.”

“Let them cast me out,” Lady Josephine said, tossing her head. “What did Society ever do for me, when I needed help? I don’t need them.”

“That’s my girl,” said Ace. He was proud of her courage.

“But the trial won’t be scheduled for quite a while, I think,” Ace added. “Before all the trouble starts, how about if you and I went away and secretly spent a couple of weeks alone together? I was thinking of Madame Vallencourt’s cottage.”

“Yes,” Lady Josephine said. “That’s perfect. Let’s go to Cornwall. We can leave today. But, Ace….”

“What, my love?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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