The Mysterious Governess (Daughters of Sin Book 3) (30 page)

“Mmm, more of that.” She relaxed into the soft mattress and exhaled on a deep, satisfied moan at the exquisite sensations. So this is what she’d been missing out on? Closing her eyes, she was sinking into even more pleasurable euphoria when to her annoyance he stopped abruptly, rolled her over, and began to undo her buttons so that he could pull first her dress, then her petticoats, and finally her short stays and chemise over her head.

“My Lord!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have you dressed in a trice when I’m done but
this
is how I want to see you.”

She smiled coyly, enjoying her nakedness, or rather the raw appraisal in his eye as she flaunted herself without shame. “I suppose I’d better not spoil those if I’m going back to the ball,” she conceded, glancing at the pile of her clothes as she drew the counterpane up to her chin.

“Now why do you suppose I went to the trouble of undressing you?” he asked, dragging it away again so he could look at her. He raised his eyebrows. “My, but you are rather a delectable little thing. Despite the fact you’re insufferably haughty and immeasurably vain, you have the body of a racehorse. I shall enjoy getting used to this.”

“Well, get used to it now, because this is the only time you will.” She grinned up at him, feeling smug. Yes she had the measure of him. He was in thrall to her and she was—thank goodness—getting a little pleasure for once out of this sport.

“The only time? What makes you think that, Miss Partington?” He chuckled as he resumed stroking the swollen lips about her entrance, then bent to suckle her right nipple.

“I’m marrying Roderick in a little over a fortnight.”

“Maybe I want to marry you myself.”

“You’re far too dangerous, My Lord, and besides, I’ve changed my mind about thinking that was a good idea. Oh! Ooooh!”

He’d caught her by surprise. Her body exploded with sensation and she bucked and jerked, but she was not ready to cast herself completely into the abyss of pleasure just yet. Lord Debenham had more work to do in order to make up for all the terrible things she’d been forced into, just to get respectably married.

She threw her head back and opened herself up even wider to him, making clear with her sighs exactly what pleased her. “Further up. That’s right. Oh yes, just a little faster and a little harder. Yes, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Her climax was sudden and intense and the most thrilling sensation she’d ever experienced. Dear Lord, so this was why people got into trouble.

For a few minutes she lay there, gasping, then Lord Debenham took hold of a handful of her hair and drew her into a sitting position. She looked at him in surprise. He wasn’t rough but it certainly wasn’t a gentle act, either.

“My turn now,” he said, thrusting apart his legs so his member sprang out before him.

She blinked as she was forced to wriggle onto her knees on the soft, though lumpy mattress. He was still gripping a hank of her hair. “What do you mean?”

“Take me in your mouth.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Take me in your mouth. Like this,” he said, pushing her head down so that his pulsing member nearly choked her. “And careful of your teeth. Yes, up and down, slowly, that’s right.”

She was horrified, but his pleasure was infectious, and soon she felt her own body swell again with desire.

The timing was perfect, for just as she felt her juices build up to nearly explosive quantities, His Lordship hoisted her up under her arms, pushed her onto her back and thrust himself unceremoniously inside her.

“God, this is magnificent!” he shouted joyously as he began to pump himself madly in and out.

The tension was mounting for Araminta, too. Every nerve ending was on fire as Lord Debenham continued his frenzied thrusting. She was vaguely conscious of the counterpane slipping to the floor, the protesting groans of the squeaking bed, the slapping noise of their thighs. She wrapped her legs about his waist and dug her fingers into his buttocks in her escalating frenzy as the tension tightened.

And tightened.

Then, with a gasp of utter rapture, she shattered once more as he exploded inside her.

The only sounds in the sudden silence were the chiming of a clock in the dim recesses of the house—and the protesting creak of the door as it was thrust open upon a horrified wail, a small shriek and a cry of anguished dismay.

Araminta wriggled up onto her elbows and peered over Lord Debenham’s shoulder.

She was met by the disbelieving look of her husband-to-be, the scandalized fury of her hostess, Miss Hoskings’ mother, and the incredulous look of Cousin Stephen.

Dropping back onto the mattress—Lord Debenham hadn’t moved, but still presented his bare buttocks to the assembled onlookers—her last sight was of the triumphant grin of her seducer.

“
There’s
a nice piece of court gossip.” Ralph, standing at Lissa’s shoulder at Mrs. Nipkins’ round wooden dining table in the tiny parlor, reached across to point out a paragraph in
The Times
newspaper she was reading.

Lissa rested her head on his shoulder and nodded, more occupied with dreams of their happy, shared future, than gossip sheet news.

“What does it say, dear?” Mrs. Nipkins raised her head and smiled from where she was sewing the skirt of white sarsnet to the bodice of a beautiful ball gown. Her owlish eyes glittered with interest, but they were kind eyes and her interest was never inspired by prurient scandal.

Lissa enjoyed living with her. It was a small house but it pulsed with warmth and good humor. Since Lissa had arrived, Ralph had moved from the second bedroom to a tiny attic, while pretending he’d moved lodgings to next door. It broke Lissa’s heart that she’d been the cause of his having to compromise his comfort, but he’d joked that Lissa’s arrival was the instigator of him rising in the world. And from his attic room he could see the whole of London.

Lissa, caught up with affectionately tracing the veins on the back of Ralph’s hand, let Ralph do the reading while she and her landlady listened.

“Miss Kitty La Bijou, who has taken London by storm with her sensational rendition of Juliet in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet
, is rumored to have secured the forthcoming role of Desdemona—and the attentions of a certain Lord X.”

He was about to continue reading when Mrs. Nipkins asked, “Ooh, yes, I have heard about Miss La Bijou. Very popular she is and quite the beauty. Have you see her? I know how much you like the theatre, Mr. Tunley.”

“She was excellent when I saw her in
Romeo and Juliet
,” Ralph conceded, “but she’d better not get mixed up with this Lord X. The gossip reporter is wasting his time being cryptic, for all the world knows he’s referring to Silverton. And Lord Silverton is part of the fast set to which my not-so-very esteemed employer, Lord Debenham, belongs.” He raised one eyebrow as he explained. “Debenham is fond of the gaming hells. So is Silverton.”

Lissa couldn’t meet Ralph’s smile. Her mind was racing too fast.

Kitty La Bijou was the name her younger sister had always said she’d adopt if she ran away to London. A few weeks before, Lissa had received a letter from their mother admitting that Kitty had been gone for some weeks; that following another of their regular arguments, she’d stormed out of their cottage. Her mother said she’d been certain she’d return, however, Kitty had finally written to say she’d found work in London and wasn’t coming back.

Kitty had never hidden the fact she loathed her life in the small village in which they’d been born. While Lissa and Ned had both kept a low profile and ignored the taunts from the village children regarding their shameful birthrights, Kitty had been more outspoken. Often, Kitty would return from having trespassed onto the grounds of The Grange, their father’s estate, where she’d gone to spy on their half-sisters. Enviously, she would describe the lavish clothes and other luxuries their half-sisters took for granted.

Lissa let Ralph continue to read while her thoughts ran riot.
Kitty La Bijou
. It couldn’t be
her
Kitty? Surely? Having her name associated with a man of dubious reputation, or any man at all, in a news sheet? No, it couldn’t be.

Mrs. Nipkins bit off her cotton thread and put down her work. “Lord Debenham is your employer, Mr. Tunley. Regardless of what you feel, it’s unwise to speak uncomplimentary of him.”

“Even to the two ladies I trust most in the world?” He grinned. “Should I fear losing my job or worse because I confide intimacies to you?”

“Of course not, Mr. Tunley, but you never know who’s listening or standing behind a door at this very moment.”

A loud rap on the thin door to their cramped living quarters made them all jump. Now Lissa and Ralph did exchange fearful glances.

Just as Ralph reached the door to open it, the rapping continued, and a lady’s hurried, anxious voice intruded.

“Forgive me for arriving so late and with no warning.”

Lissa watched with surprise as a slight young woman entered. With graceful hands their visitor pushed back the hood of her cloak, revealing, to Lissa’s shock and incomprehension, the familiar face of Mrs. Crossing.

Astonished, she made the introductions and then Mrs. Nipkins rose to say goodnight, so that Mrs. Crossing could occupy her seat once it had been established that her visit was in strict confidence.

Immediately Mrs. Crossing folded her hands in her lap and leaned forward. “I am leaving tonight for France but I had to see you first.” She looked at Lissa then nodded toward the window. “My carriage is waiting for me outside, and I shall be meeting Sir William in Calais in three days’ time. He is returning to Constantinople and I shall accompany him.”

Lissa wasn’t sure how to respond. Perhaps asking the obvious question would help. “You are leaving your husband?”

“Sir William and I have planned this for some time. We were waiting for his position to be secured so that he would have a permanent residence where I could safely join him. Of course, our elopement is a closely guarded secret, and no one must know.”

“Then, with respect, why tell us?” asked Ralph.

“Because Sir William desires your involvement, Mr. Tunley, in an important mission, which was the reason for his brief return to London.”

Lissa jerked her head around to see Ralph’s expression flicker between hope and concern. For her own part, she didn’t know what to think.

“We know something of the matter about which you speak, but why is Sir William not asking me, himself?”

Mrs. Crossing handed him a sealed missive. “He entrusted this to me to deliver to you before I left London.”

“Rather cloak and dagger.” Ralph laughed uncertainly.

“It is,” Mrs. Crossing agreed. “A new world to me, also, but I am slowly learning. Mr. Tunley, I understand you are still officially in the employ of Lord Debenham, who will be back from his wedding tour in a month?”

The scandal involving the elopement of Miss Araminta Partington with dangerous Lord Debenham had had London town agog and Miss Partington’s name considerably sullied. Word was that the daring debutante had accepted a marriage offer from Lord Debenham’s nephew, Mr. Woking, the night prior to her elopement with her betrothed’s uncle.

“I am,” agreed Ralph.

“It is Sir William’s desire that you will accept his offer of a position as his attaché, as you will read in his missive. I shall be living in Sir William’s household as his widowed cousin, and his hostess. There are other matters for which he has enlisted my help, and this is one.”

Pain slashed through Lissa like a sword. This was the kind of work Ralph had always dreamed of. But there was no place in such a new life for her. An attaché was constantly roaming the world.

Ralph cleared his throat. “I would be honored, however, Miss Hazlett and I are affianced. I could not abandon her to live abroad.”

Lissa gasped. He was refusing an opportunity that promised him so much? This was the most concrete affirmation of his loyalty and intention to keep her safely by his side that she’d received, though she had no doubt of his affection.

Mrs. Crossing cocked her head. “When are you to be married?”

Ralph shifted uncomfortably. “No date is set for, alas, I have not the means to support a wife, but as soon as that situation changes, yes, Miss Hazlett and I will be married.”

A warm glow suffused Lissa, even as she knew she couldn’t be the means of standing between Ralph and his rising in the world. She gripped his hand. “You must accept, Ralph. Our time will come.”

The light in Mrs. Crossing’s eye brightened as she leaned farther forward in the cramped parlor. “I believe it is greatly to everyone’s benefit that the two of you have such an understanding.” She smiled her sweet smile at both of them. “Miss Hazlett, your astonishing skill at rendering a likeness with a few rapid strokes of a pencil will be of enormous benefit in the work Sir William is doing. I had not realized there was such a definite understanding between you but this is wonderful.” She hesitated as doubt clouded her brow. “That is, if you are amenable to the proposition I’m about to put to you, speaking as Sir William’s, proxy. Although it is not something he has not yet endorsed I am confident of persuading him of the merits.”

Lissa could feel Ralph’s interest sharpen while her own heart beat harder.

“What proposition?” Ralph’s voice sounded dry and tense.

“As you are well aware, there are a number of dangerous gentlemen—indeed, several who are peers of the realm—who are under suspicion for past misdeeds, including the attempted assassination of Lord Castlereagh. It is thought these same men are involved in a more heinous plot that threatens our country’s sovereignty.”

Lissa felt her hands go clammy.

“Lord Debenham is their principal person of interest, together with a small group of close associates whom the government believes to be involved in a conspiracy with several foreign operatives.” She took a breath and looked at Lissa. “It was your drawing of Lord Debenham in company with Lord Smythe and Mr. Buzby—men who have hitherto denied any close association—that reignited a suspicion long held by Sir William. I do understand you already know this. However, his investigations have, to date, revealed nothing that would result in a conviction. Nevertheless, he is anxious that these men, and several others with whom they associate, be watched closely.”