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Christiana nodded wide-eyed and al owed him to lead her to the sideboard.
Where George had insisted on a variety of foods available to him in the morning, it seemed Richard had requested a much more conservative selection. This morning the sideboard held breakfast items she was more used to, plum cake, baked eggs, sausages, and hot rol s. Smiling she picked up a plate and quickly made her choices, bypassing the baked eggs but taking one of everything else.
"No eggs?" Richard asked as she reached for a slice of plum cake, having to rise up on tiptoe to reach over the rest of the food to the plate on the back of the sideboard.
Christiana tensed and sank back on her feet, but said, "I don't care for baked eggs. Our cook used to boil them for me. "
"Sorry, I didn't realize. I prefer them baked myself, but I'l tel Cook to make both in future. "
Christiana relaxed and smiled at him, then turned back and rose up on her tiptoes again to get a slice of the plum cake.
"Er . . . Christiana, I think you forgot something. "
She glanced toward him in question, and then down toward her feet as she saw where he was looking. Realizing that her position revealed her bare feet, she released the cake and dropped self-consciously back to her heels again.
"I doubt she forgot," Robert said with a laugh, piling sausages onto his plate next to Richard. "She was forever running around barefoot at Madison. "
Recal ing Grace's words, when Richard glanced at her with surprise, Christiana straightened her shoulders and said, "My feet get hot. I'm more comfortable barefoot and most of the time see no reason to don shoes unless I'm leaving the house or have company. "
Richard nodded. "I see. That's fine. I just thought in your rush that you had forgot them. If you're more comfortable without, then don't wear them. "
"Real y?" she asked doubtful y. "You don't mind?"
"Why would I mind?" he asked with surprise.
"Wel , George said - "
Richard silenced her by catching her by the chin and urging her to meet his gaze, and then said solemnly, "I am not George. "
She met his gaze, and then nodded equal y solemnly. "No, you aren't. "
Smiling, he turned back to the sideboard and Christiana watched him for a moment, and then let her breath out and turned away to head to the table, thinking that maybe Grace was right. Maybe she could be herself with this man. Maybe he wouldn't hate her for it as George had.
"Christiana?"
She paused and turned back, and then glanced down with surprise when he set a piece of plum cake on her plate. "I know you forgot this. You tried to grab it twice before being distracted. "
Christiana smiled wryly and murmured, "Thank you. "
There was little conversation as they ate. Christiana supposed no one wished to discuss either the blackmailer or the murder of George when they suspected a member of the household staff might be involved. They were also apparently eager to get on with their individual tasks for the day and were soon finished and excusing themselves from the table.
"Shal we head out?" Daniel asked Richard as the group left the dining room.
Christiana noted the distaste on her husband's face as he glanced to the wrinkled dark coat he wore and wasn't surprised when he said, "I need to change my clothes first. I should have sought out a change of clothes on awaking, but so loathe wearing what's available that I put it off. I won't be a minute though. "
"I shal wait in the parlor," Daniel said with a nod and turned into the room as Richard started up the stairs. Christiana watched Richard jog lightly up the steps, and then glanced to the side when Suzette touched her arm.
"When do you want to start interviewing the staff?" her sister asked, glancing toward the parlor after Daniel.
"We wil wait until everyone leaves," Christiana decided. "Why do you not go keep Daniel company? I want a word with Richard about how he wishes us to proceed with the staff anyway. "
Suzette smiled and immediately slipped into the parlor. She also pul ed the door closed, Christiana noted and briefly considered opening it and reminding her sister that unmarried ladies did not stay alone in a closed room with men. However, she simply let it go and turned to head upstairs. The two would be married soon enough.
She found Richard in the master dressing room, contemplating George's wardrobe with a less than pleased expression. Christiana supposed she could not blame him. George had dressed like a dandy and Richard just was not a dandyish man.
"Oh, Christiana," he said and smiled wryly when he noted her entrance. "Is something wrong?"
"No," she assured him quickly, running a hand absently over a pair of pink knee breeches. "I just wondered how you wished us to proceed with the interviews. I presume you don't wish us to give away what we are trying to learn?"
"You presume right. " Richard frowned. "We don't want whoever hired them to realize we are on to them before we sort out who it is. "
"No," she agreed.
"I suppose you and Suzette have the hardest task of the bunch of us. I'm sorry about that. "
She smiled faintly and shrugged. "It wil not be hard to carry out, just hard to succeed at. We might manage to be able to cross servants off the list, but I doubt we wil learn exactly who could have poisoned the whiskey. It could have been put in at any time between the day he died and the last time he drank from it before that.
George didn't al ow anyone else to drink his special whiskey. "
"True, which suggests there was no urgency to seeing him dead," he murmured thoughtful y. He shook his head, apparently unsure what that meant, and then held up a pale green cutaway frock coat. "This appears to be the best of the lot. "
"Yes," she agreed and watched him shrug out of the dark coat to pul on the lighter one.
"Do I need to change my trousers?" he asked as he buttoned the coat over his cravat.
Christiana glanced to the buff trousers and hessian boots and shook her head.
They went with pretty much everything. It was why the color was popular.
"Good. " Richard sighed and started past her. "I had best go then. "
"Before you do," Christiana said, catching his arm as he started to pass her.
He paused and glanced down at her in question.
Christiana hesitated and then blew out her breath and said, "I wanted to thank you for trusting me to interview the staff. "
His eyebrows rose slightly, and then he frowned and took her by the shoulders to turn her until they faced each other. "I am not George, Christiana. I realize you are an intel igent woman capable of many things. You are also my wife and partner.
Trust is important in such a relationship. We must learn to trust each other if we wish this marriage to succeed. "
"Yes," she acknowledged. And while she knew it was true, it was just so hard.
She had little confidence in her ability to inspire love after life with Dicky.
She had little confidence in her ability to inspire love after life with Dicky.
The thought made Christiana blink in surprise as she realized that it wasn't real y that she worried Richard would change, but that she feared she wasn't worthy of love anymore. It was something she'd been confident of while growing up surrounded by family and friends who loved her. But somehow that foundation had been washed away, leaving her floating in a sea of uncertainty . . . because George hadn't loved her and she'd assumed it must be due to some flaw in her. If she'd just been smart enough, pretty enough, charming enough he would have loved her. In truth, she'd spent the last year trying to earn that love, and almost lost herself in the process.
"I should go," Richard murmured, peering at her worriedly. When she managed a smile and nod, he bent to press a quick kiss to her lips. At least, she suspected he'd intended it to be a quick parting kiss. However, it didn't end up that way, because Christiana did what she'd wanted - and had been too afraid - to do that morning.
The moment his lips met hers, she went up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, pressed her body against his and opened her mouth to him. Richard stil ed, obviously taken by surprise, but then his own arms slid around her back and he pul ed her close and deepened the kiss. Christiana breathed a little sigh of relief into his mouth. She had fol owed her instincts and he had not rejected her, berating her for unladylike behavior. It was a smal first step, but a step just the same, she thought and then let go of her worries and merely enjoyed the kiss as he caught her head in hand and tilted it to al ow him more access as he tried to devour her with his mouth.
When he clasped her bottom through her skirt and lifted her to press her against the hardness growing between them, Christiana breathed a little moan and curled her fingers into his hair. Heat was already pooling in her lower bel y and spreading outward to answer that hardness, but he then lowered her back to the floor and broke the kiss.
"Temptress," he growled, leaning his forehead against hers.
"Are you tempted?" she asked in a pleased whisper.
"You know I am," he said on a humorless laugh.
"Do you mind?" she asked next, holding her breath as she waited for the answer.
"Mind that my wife tempts me to take her in the dressing room amongst the hatboxes and breeches?" he asked with amusement. "No, I don't mind at al . But Daniel probably would if I succumbed. "
"Suzette is with him. " She slid one hand from around his shoulder and let it drift down to press against the proof of how she was affecting him. "I don't think he would mind a short wait. "
Richard growled as she ran her hand over him through the cloth of his trousers.
"Stil , I should - "
His words died on a gasp as she suddenly slipped her hand inside his trousers and clasped him.
"Witch," he breathed and oddly enough it didn't sound like an insult. In the next moment he was kissing her again, his own hands beginning to move over her body through her gown, cupping and caressing her breasts, squeezing her behind and then dragging her skirt up to slip beneath and move over the skin of her outer leg and hip as she undid his trousers to be able to caress him more ful y. Christiana had just got the last button undone and taken him in hand again when his own hand slid between her legs to press against the center of her. They groaned in unison into each other's mouths then, the sound and vibration merely adding to their excitement.
Christiana felt the dressing table press against the backs of her thighs through her dress and realized he'd backed her up, but was taken by surprise when he removed his hand from between her legs and suddenly lifted her to sit on the spindly legged piece of furniture. His hand returned to her then, caressing and urging her legs wider so that he could move between them. When he urged her hand away, she released him and clutched at his shoulders. Richard then took himself in hand and rubbed his shaft against her teasingly and Christiana gasped and wiggled her bottom to the edge of the table, her legs wrapping around his and urging him closer.
"Witch," he repeated, breaking their kiss, and then he clasped her bottom and pul ed her even further forward on the tabletop and final y gave up his teasing to thrust himself into her.
Christiana cried out and clawed at his shoulders, her heels pressing into his behind and urging him deeper. She lifted her face to his, seeking his lips again and then kissed him desperately. Richard withdrew, and then groaned as he plunged into her again, his tongue thrusting into her mouth at the same time. She was vaguely aware of a banging sound as he moved and realized the table was moving with them and hitting the wal with each thrust, but didn't care and simply held on as the sound became a rapid tattoo.
As fast as it had started, it ended just as swiftly, both of them crying out as one and clutching at each other as they were rocked by the explosion. Christiana then sagged back against the wal , taking Richard with her. He leaned his head against her shoulder for a moment and then gave a shaky laugh.
"What?" she murmured, raising one languid hand to brush the hair from his face in an effort to see his expression. Richard raised his head and smiled at her wryly. "I was just thinking, whatever his faults, George had excel ent taste when it came to choosing a wife,"
he admitted almost apologetical y, and then cupped her face, pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and whispered, "Thank you. "
