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Chapter 14
Luke stared at the space that Miss Storey had just left, realising what he had done.
I have done the very thing I vowed never to do.
He covered his face with his hands, wishing that he could fall back into the flowerbeds and disappear amongst them, never to be seen again.
“Oh, Miss Storey, I am so sorry,” he murmured to the air, as if she was still there and could hear him. He lowered his hands once more, thinking of how she had stood before him as he had kissed her.
What a kiss it had been! The chasteness of it had been something tantalising, yet just as he had suspected, Miss Storey could be bold in her kisses, despite her sense of propriety. The mere memory of her lips pressed against his made him tingle with desire, longing to run after her. It was a kiss like no other, and that was the problem.
I have just jeopardised the reputation of a lady who I have vowed never to harm and could never imagine hurting. What if someone had seen us together? Good lord! I have become foul.
He kept cursing to himself and spun round, swiping at the tulips with his boot so that he decapitated some of the heads. He marched in the direction of the others to see that Adam and Miss Grove were not far away after all. At his approach, the two of them jumped apart from each other.
Luke had not been paying enough attention to be able to tell if the two had been touching or if just nearly touching. Either way, he had risked one lady’s reputation today, and from the look on Adam’s face, he was beginning to see that he might just have done the same thing.
“We have no chaperones here, so we should return to the tea party.” Luke took charge of the situation and led the way back through the garden paths. Adam and Miss Grove hurried on behind, arm in arm and whispering intently.
Luke tried to stop the envy that was burning in his chest, but he couldn’t help it. Whatever had passed between Adam and Miss Grove in that garden had clearly not ended as his meeting with Miss Storey had done. They were still close, talking as a courting couple might. It made Luke glance back to the two of them more than once, wondering what Adam was up to.
Adam’s mother may have kept insisting that he marry, but he had never shown much interest in the idea before. Yet his attentions to Miss Grove were certainly more public than he had ever shown interest in anyone else before. Any transgressions he had made had been behind closed doors, so few people knew of them.
Could it be he intends to court her?
As they returned to the garden party, Luke found Miss Storey was gone, as was her mother. Another lady approached Luke quickly enough, but he was so distracted in searching for Miss Storey that it took him a minute to realise who it was.
“Luke? Goodness, how much it takes to get your attention these days,” the Duchess of Bannerman said, moving toward him with that same pout on her lips that she always mustered.
“Not now, your Grace. I must speak to someone.” He looked back and forth again between the tables, but his suspicion turned out to be true. Miss Storey and Lady Maybury had left the tea party.
“Your Grace? Luke, there was a time when you only called me Maria,” the Duchess said, moving to his side. She bumped her hip against his as they stood behind a crowd that circled one of the tables, their position slightly hidden. Luke knew this move as of old by now. She would do this whenever she wished him to come round to her house for a particular reason.
“Are you lonely, Maria?” he whispered. When their affair had first began, he was certain it was because she was lonely. That she thought of him rather like a dog that she kept round the house, to keep her company. Not anymore. Her attentions had become rather too frequent and vocal for that.
“The house can be empty at night,” she said with a sultry smile. “The bed can be cold too. Perhaps what I need is someone to keep me company there. What do you think, Luke?” She lifted her hand and passed it through the crook of his arm, easily taking his arm with hers. Luke glanced down at the touch, wondering why he wasn’t pushing her off him immediately.
Had I not decided I did not want anything to do with the Duchess again?
Yet his blood was burning with the memory of Miss Storey’s kiss, and his anger was making his body tense. He had crossed a line he vowed never to do, and what he desired more than anything else in this moment was to forget what had happened.
“It looks like we could both do with a little escape,” the Duchess said, practically whispering in his ear. Slowly, she drew him away from the tea party. Luke found his hessian boots moved to follow her, putting one foot in front of the other through the grass in his haste to stay with her.
Whether it was the anger at himself or the longing for Miss Storey’s kiss that made him go, he wasn’t sure, but suddenly, following the Duchess did not seem like such a bad idea. He let her lead him out of the house and toward the carriage on the driveway, where he didn’t bother with his own carriage, but climbed straight into the Duchess’s.
***
“One more drink, Luke.” The Duchess pressed another glass of whisky into Luke’s hands.
He had consumed far too much. He knew that even as he tipped the glass back to his lips and took a hearty gulp. The familiar burn was soothing now, the return of an old friend that he had not indulged in properly for some time. With the dizziness in his head, he relaxed back in the armchair, slumping so far that his posture was gone, and his head was resting on the rear cushion of the seat. He gazed at what remained of the amber liquid in the glass, watching as the candlelight bounced off it, streaking the room in orange light.
It is like drinking fire….
The mere thought of fire and heat had him back in that garden with Miss Storey, kissing her, with their lips locked together in passion.
“Luke?” The Duchess of Bannerman’s voice tore the memory from his mind, and he was forced to look up, away from the glass, and turn his focus back on the lady at his side. Her face was barely in focus, she seemed to keep veering from side to side, though her body was still. Luke lifted a hand and covered his eyes, knowing that dizziness was in his mind alone.
“Luke, you are hiding from me.” The duchess was being playful. She reached for his hand and pulled it away from his face, but the moment she touched him, he snatched his hand away from her grasp. “What is wrong? You used to rather like my touch.”
