There was a knock, and then the sound of boots crossing her sitting room. Lord Townsend must have come directly from downstairs. She could hide here or go out to welcome him. If she hid here, he’d only come in to get her, so she decided to present herself to him instead.
“My lord,” she said in greeting.
“Aurelia.” He looked fresh and bright-eyed, his hair a bit windblown from being outdoors. He smelled faintly of horse, but more of his gentlemanly sandalwood scent. “I’ve been out to make some calls, and then into the village,” he said. “I brought you something. A gift.”
The rectangular parcel was for her, then. It was rather wonderful that he’d thought to bring her something, and the way he smiled...broadly and with pure delight. Before she could look more closely at her gift, he hid it behind his back.
“I should ask first if you are a squeamish sort. Do you like insects?”
Aurelia gaped at him. “No. Not very much.”
“But this one is special. Come and look.” He held it out, and she noted it wasn’t a box exactly, but a fine-mesh covered frame of polished wood. At first she thought it was empty inside, but then she saw a flutter of movement and discovered a sleek, very large grasshopper in one corner of the box.
“Oh,” she said, shocked. “It’s a cage for a bug.”
“A cage?” Her husband frowned. “It’s a habitat, not a cage. You see, the creature can move about and breathe through the mesh. You can put vegetation inside, such as wheat or barley. The shopkeeper assured me they love alfalfa. It’s meant to be a pet.”
“A grasshopper for a pet?” She peered in at the poor trapped creature. “Who would think of such a thing?”
He didn’t answer at first, only gave her a devilish look. “I keep a grasshopper for a pet. I find her rather diverting.”
Did he mean her? She felt laughter bubble up in her throat. She clamped her lips shut so the merriment wouldn’t escape, but one small giggle did anyway.
“I am not a grasshopper,” she said, trying to be sober, “at least not a real grasshopper like this one.” He had brought her a grasshopper as a gift! She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about it. She took the cage and carried it closer to the window in the east corner of the room. They peered through the mesh together. She’d never seen a grasshopper so close up, that was certain. It was larger than she thought a grasshopper would be, with iridescent, patterned markings and delicate wings.
“Oh, they can fly,” she said. “I never realized. I thought they only hopped.”
Lord Townsend looked closer. “I’m not sure they can fly.”
“But it has wings, you see? And look at how strong the legs are fashioned. I suppose this one could hop quite far without using its wings at all. Oh, it’s a lovely thought, Townsend, but it shouldn’t be kept in a cage.”
His eyes widened above the mesh. “I believe that’s the first time you haven’t lorded me, Aurelia.”
She flushed. “Well, it’s the first time you’ve gotten me a gift.”
“I ought to have done it sooner then. If you don’t take care, you’ll be calling me Hunter soon, and acting like a fond wife.”
They stared at one another. When he smiled, how handsome he was! She didn’t know if she could ever bring herself to call him Hunter, and be so casual and intimate. As she considered the possibility, a green blur launched itself from the mesh enclosure.
Aurelia gasped. “Oh, look, the clasp’s fallen open. The grasshopper’s escaped the cage.”
“It’s not a cage,” he insisted, turning to look for the thing. “It’s a
habitat
.”
Then both of them dispensed arguing and set about to locate the creature. “Be careful where you step,” she said. “It would be horrible to crush it.”
“Where has it gone?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure it can jump great distances,” said Aurelia, remembering its thick legs. “And it has wings. What if it flies out of the room?”
“They can’t fly, for God’s sake. They’re called grasshoppers, not grassflyers.”
The escaped insect chose that moment to fly with a great buzzing racket across the length of the room. Lord Townsend ran after it, waving his arms.
“It’s going to go in my bed,” Aurelia shrieked. She and Townsend collided in their efforts to ward off the thing. Both of them fell, her husband guiding her atop him with a quick twist of his frame, so she was rescued from a hard crash to the floor.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
He raised and lowered his head. “I’m fine, but the grasshopper’s gone silent. I fear I may have landed on our new friend.”
“Oh, no.” Aurelia hoped it wasn’t so. “It’s terrible luck to kill a grasshopper in your home.”
“I’m going to turn over and you must look beneath me for the guts, my dear.”
She was about to protest that she couldn’t possibly do such a thing. To locate a smashed grasshopper beneath her husband? But then she realized he was laughing. He tumbled her up and over so he was in the superior position over her.
“You were teasing about smashing it,” she said, blushing.
“I haven’t smashed it, I’m sure. It’s too quick for us.”
“What will become of it, loose in the house?”
His laughing gaze turned tender. “Are you afraid for it, my love? How quickly you grow attached. We shall have to get you a proper pet. A kitten or puppy would be more cuddly than a grasshopper.”
She blinked, remembering long ago scolding and reprimands. “We always had pets at home, but I was never permitted to cuddle with them.”
“Nor sprawl about on the ground having picnics. I remember. But you are sprawled on the ground now, or on the floor anyway. What a naughty girl you are.” Her eyes widened as much at his tone as his provocative expression. “Speaking of naughty, how is your bottom today?”
“It’s very well,” she assured him, to no avail. He was already pushing her onto her stomach, right there on the floor, and pulling her skirts up. She tried in vain to resist him and push them back down. “What if a servant walks in?”
“Then they shall also see how your bottom is.” He put a hand on the small of her back to stop her squirming. “Let me look. You know where resistance will get you.”
Yes, she did know. She stopped fighting him and lay still. His fingers caressed her bottom cheeks while her stomach flip-flopped and her breasts pressed against the floor. She would not become aroused by this ignominious treatment. She
would not
.
After a few moments of lazy inspection, he made an approving sound. “No bruises, really. Nothing. You can take a good spanking, my dear, and barely show it the next day. Perhaps I’ll have to take advantage of that.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.” Her voice felt curiously tight in her throat.
“I’ll take your wishes into consideration,” he said, turning her back over. “But you know I’ll always do what I feel is best.”
“My mama wrote me today. She said respect within marriage can bring great dignity to both partners.”
“Ah, I agree with your mother.” A grin teased the corners of his mouth. “A respectful wife is a treasure indeed.”
Very well for him to be amused by her mother’s platitudes. She stuck her chin out. “I believe she meant that husbands too must show respect to their wives.”
“I’ll show you respect. After I show you a lot of other things.”
Her eyes widened as he moved his hips against her front. Why, he was blatantly aroused, the scoundrel, here, on the floor, in the middle of the day!
“Dignity between partners is no laughing matter,” she said in her most severe and prudent tone.
“Is it not?” And then her grinning husband commenced tickling her, running his fingers over her midsection and up to the sensitive underside of her arms. She couldn’t remember the last time such a thing had happened to her. She didn’t know whether to beg for mercy or laugh until she couldn’t breathe. In the end she did both, flailing and pushing at him, and even kicking once or twice, but laughing and shrieking too, as loud as her lungs could manage. She heard him laughing too, deep chuckles teasing her ear.
“Please, stop,” she gasped when she could draw in air.
“I don’t want to stop. I enjoy the sound of your laughter, prim Lady Dormouse.”
The name had hurt her so many times, but now he was calling her that in good humor, with a twinkle in his eye. It was altogether different, and really, she wasn’t a mouse, not anymore. She’d been laughing as loudly as any street urchin, and yes, sprawling about on the floor, even kicking in a most unladylike fashion. The tickling had stopped. He stared down now with a look she recognized, the intent look that always preceded a very thorough kiss.
But as he bowed his head, the shrill
chirp-chirp
of a grasshopper sounded not a few feet from where they lay.
They both froze and looked over toward the sound. Her husband drew a soft breath. “I see it. I think I can trap it in the corner under the table.”
“You won’t hurt it, will you?”
“I’ll try not to. You go fetch the box, or habitat, or whatever the bother it is. Go quietly so it doesn’t fly again.”
He let her slide from under him. By the time she’d crept over to get the mesh cage and return, Townsend had the grasshopper handily cornered beneath a low table. By slow degrees, he corralled it into the box and latched the door shut.
Aurelia clapped and smiled at him. “Oh, well done. You were ever so patient and you got it back into the box where it can be perfectly safe.”
He turned to her and she noted an almost shy pleasure written across his face. “I have prevailed, yes. But I thought you didn’t want it in the box.”
“I don’t, really. May we take it outside and let it go? It was a lovely gift, but...”
He stood, looking rumpled and strikingly handsome for all his disarrangement. “Yes, let’s take it outside.”
He let her carry it. They walked somberly down the halls on their mission of mercy. She knew the grasshopper would be much happier out in the woods where it could be free, and she was grateful that Lord Townsend agreed with her.
He led her across the side lawns to a more wooded area and stopped on the edge. He took the box from Aurelia and peered into it. “I hope this contrary creature doesn’t upset the delicate balance of the manor’s vegetation and start some blasted plague or something.”
A peal of laughter escaped before she realized she ought to chide him for cursing yet again. He smiled back at her.
“It’s nice to hear you laugh sometimes, Aurelia. I know you think it’s crude or uncultured or some such nonsense, but it isn’t. It sounds like angels singing, to me anyway. Not that I’ll ever know how angels sing if I don’t straighten up.”
His beleaguered expression wrested more laughter from her. Now that he’d taught her how to laugh so easily, it seemed she couldn’t stop.
He held out the cage with the grasshopper fluttering inside it. It went still and seemed to look at her, although she didn’t know where its eyes were. But if it was looking at her, she hoped it would not remember her with too much unkindness. “Would you like to do the honors?” Townsend asked.
She handed it back to him. “I’m afraid it will jump on me if I do.”
“I think it shall want nothing further to do with either of us, but I’ll release it if you like.”
He opened the door and set down the cage. The two of them backed away, and within a few moments the grasshopper had availed itself of its glorious freedom and taken a great hop into the nearby foliage.
“It’s better for it to be free, isn’t it?” she said with some satisfaction.
“Until a bird eats it for dinner. Yes.”
She tried to look cross at him, but she couldn’t quite manage it. He looked back at her, feigning irritation.
“So much for my gift. I hope you don’t make a practice of casting off everything I bring you, ungrateful chit.”
“I am not ungrateful, nor a chit. I only believe that insects must be free.”
“You are ungrateful. You have not thanked me yet, not once, for giving you our grasshopper friend.” His arms came around her, pulling her close. She felt frightened and thrilled at the same time. His lips came very close to hers. “You ought to be taught some manners, young lady, and I know precisely how to do it.”
She felt that hot, tingling sensation in her middle as he pinned her with his gaze. “Thank you,” she said through suddenly dry lips. “Thank you for the grasshopper, my lord.”
“Back to ‘my lording’ me, I see. Very pretty sentiments, if a bit late.” His hand moved up and down her arm in a mesmerizing trail. “Perhaps we shall have a lesson tonight on how one shows gratitude, my lady? What do you think?”
He teased her, and yet he didn’t tease. There was some steel beneath his words that left no question what type of “lesson” this would be.
“As you wish, my lord,” she said.
And as I wish...
His gaze intensified. He pulled her closer and kissed the side of her neck, then lower, over the tops of her breasts to the plunging neckline of her gown. Again she could feel the hard heat of him against her, even through both their clothes.
“I should return to the house,” she said, stiffening in his embrace.
At first he didn’t let her go, but finally, to her relief, he did. “Yes,” he sighed, smoothing a hand over the bulge in his buff-colored breeches. “I suppose the pillowcases won’t embroider themselves.”
She gave him a questioning look. He took off his coat and handed it to her.
“Take this and deliver it to the butler on your way. I am going to stay outdoors yet awhile. I need to cut some branches for a birch rod which I shall make use of this evening.”
She stared at him a moment, then turned and walked away as fast as her shaky knees could carry her. She thought she heard a chuckle behind her but it might have been the whisper of the leaves. No, it was a chuckle.
Back upstairs in her sitting room, she slid her parents’ letter under some other papers on her desk and tried to calm the erratic pounding of her heart.
Hunter awaited his wife with a sense of great contentment. Today had been a good day, not least because he had heard her laugh merrily not once but three or four times. She was changing already, growing more at ease in their home and in their marriage, although she still regarded him with an occasionally wary air.