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“This time? For what?” she asked.
“Let me show you.” He moved their bodies. It was sudden, rocking his hips into hers. Marina gripped the rug beneath her as James made love to her for a second time that night, somehow, his body ready again.
She found she did everything he asked of her. When he urged her to raise her legs high, she did so, and when he told her to move to her knees and face away, allowing him to enter her from behind, she did so. She was only too happy to follow his commands when it came to experiencing such pleasure. He was rather good at showing her what they could share.
When she reached her climax for a second time, her face falling forward on the rug and her hands gripping the strands as he thrust into her from behind, she had a feeling that with the danger now passed, she and James could have a very happy marriage indeed.
EPILOGUE
“What do you think of it?” James asked as Marina walked through the gambling hall.
It was vaster than the last with the cavernous ceiling above them filled with candlelight. On one side of the room, there were the card players and gamblers with each man poring over his table, desperate to win something. On the other side of the room was a different sort of clientele, hidden mostly by a curtain though Marina could glimpse them through the gap.
She smiled to see this chamber room full of women, come to gamble too.
“I think it quite brilliant,” she said, unable to stop her smile as she took James’ arm. “This way, wives can gamble as well as their husbands. Though I’d wager for most, they will not lose as much as their husbands.”
“Ha! You looking to make a bet with me, love?” James asked as he laughed, drawing her around the room. Marina had seen with impressiveness how James had built this new gambling hall. Buying a property in Covent Garden, there had been extensive building work done, but the club was better and much more alluring than the last had been. She didn’t doubt many a man would come here to gamble their money away. “I told you before, I don’t gamble,” James whispered in her ear.
“Oh, that is just one rule though.” She pointed out, lifting her chin high as they circled the room. “As I recall, you have broken many of your rules since you have met me.”
He playfully narrowed his eyes toward her, prompting her to giggle.
“A few of them, perhaps.”
“A fair few!” she said pretending to gasp in shock. “Who would have thought you would have married for one thing?”
“Or fallen in love with my wife,” he whispered into her ear, making sure only she could hear him. She shivered with delight at him coming so close and found her hand curling tightly around his bicep. It was moments like this she regretted their decision to come to the gambling hall at all, wishing they could have stayed home alone. “Don’t look at me like that, Marina.”
“Why not?” She snapped her eyes up from his chest to his eyes.
“Because I’ll be tempted to make use of that new bedchamber upstairs.”
She laughed as she moved her hand down his arm, finding his palm with her own. They walked around the gambling hall together, hand in hand. Marina’s walk suddenly came to a stop when she saw someone in the hall she had not expected to see.
Sitting at one of the card tables was Neil, James’ brother. He was looking intently at his cards, but as one of the servers approached to offer him a glass of whisky, he shook his head and returned his attention to his cards.
“James,” she murmured, pointing toward him.
“I know, I can scarcely believe it either.” He pulled her into him, so they bumped into each other. “He came to see me this afternoon. Apparently reading of our trial against the Marquess of Stanton has shaken him. He apologized to me.”
“Apologized?” Marina said in surprise.
“Yes. He said he realized reading the paper how precarious life is. Reading of the fire, he imagined a world I wasn’t in. He didn’t want that life.” James smiled rather sadly. “We are hardly the best of friends, yet, but maybe this is the start of something new.” He looked with hope toward his brother at the card table, and Marina smiled to see it.
Thank goodness. Perhaps the two of them can be friends at last.
“I’m glad to see he’s lost his keenness for a drink, anyway.” James nodded his head at the way Neil refused a second offer from a server for a glass of whisky. “At least, I am comforted now that he will not be following the path our father chose.” He drew her away from the card table, circling the others. “Speaking of friends, I have not seen Michael for this last hour.”
“Have you not?” Marina laughed, for she knew exactly where Michael was. “Here, let me show you.” She drew James away from the main room and toward the vast curtain that partitioned the spaces before stepping beyond.
On the other side, there were more candles, and the space was much brighter. Some ladies gathered here used the room as a saloon, for they sat and talked together, rather than played games, whilst others sat staring at their cards intently.
Amongst the tables there was one where Caroline sat, and Marina pointed toward it. Beside Caroline was a rather attentive Michael, whose gaze he seemed to struggle to tear away from Caroline, even as she urged him to do so, suggesting he paid closer attention to the game of cards they were playing together.
“I see.” James stopped at her side. “It seems my friend is quite enamored.”
“Perhaps he is,” Marina said with a smile as she watched her friend’s face closely. The two had been introduced before at the wedding but only in passing. After Marina had been rescued from the Marquess of Stanton by James, it became almost a daily habit for Caroline and Michael to check up on her. In those visits, the two saw each other more and more. It hadn’t escaped Marina’s notice that Caroline blushed every occasion Michael looked at her.
