Duke of Honor, page 13
She gave him a tentative smile and Sebastian offered his arm. She placed her hand atop it and he guided her from the drawing to the dining room. Name cards had been placed at each seat and he led her to her chair.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said breathily.
“Perhaps we can talk more later this evening,” he told her.
He left and continued down the table until he passed the back of Hadley. The blue dress in contrast to her hair was a stunning combination. He glanced down and saw Lord Stanhope would be seated on her left. Continuing along the table and still not finding his name, he turned and started down the other side, finding his name two seats from his hostess. Sebastian took his place as the rest of the guests began finding their seats.
Hadley was four chairs down from him on the opposite side. Close enough for him to easily observe her and yet far enough away to have no way to converse with her. Good. He didn’t want to talk to her.
He also didn’t want her talking to anyone else.
This was madness. It was foolish to want her and even more foolish not to want anyone else to want her. He knew she was interested in finding a husband at this house party.
Sebastian just didn’t want to have to watch her do so.
Dinner seemed interminable. Lady Veronica chatted with him but after receiving only grunts as answers from him, turned to the companion on her other side. Sebastian spent the next two hours observing Hadley without seeming to do so. Arabella led the ladies from the room after the end of the meal so that the men were left to their port and cigars. He wanted neither. His head ached. His cock throbbed.
He wanted to kiss Hadley again. Desperately.
Finally, the men finished and Jon rose, saying, “Shall we join the ladies?”
With that, he filed from the room along with the others, returning to the drawing room. Immediately, Hadley was surrounded by suitors. Irritation filled him.
Arabella clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Tonight, we are going to have a treasure hunt. We will draw for partners and you will be given your first clue. It will lead you to another and another until the final clue, which will allow the finders access to the treasure, is finally discovered.”
“What is the prize?” called out Lady Veronica. “I could certainly use a new piece of jewelry.”
Everyone laughed and Jon said, “I believe it is a crystal rose bowl.”
“It is,” his wife confirmed, holding up the bowl for all to see. “In it are slips of paper with the names of every gentleman present written on them. The ladies will draw for their partners.”
Arabella carried the bowl to Elise, who stood nearest to her.
“Draw, Your Grace,” Arabella prompted, “and reveal the name of your partner.”
Elise dipped her hand in and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it. “Viscount Dean,” she announced.
“We might as well concede now,” George quipped. “Dean’s brighter by himself than the rest of us put together. Give him the bowl, Your Grace. He’s going to earn it sooner rather than later.”
The shy viscount turned beet red at the attention. Elise walked to him and said, “I am happy to partner with you, my lord. As long as you allow me to take home the rose bowl when we win the contest.”
The group laughed and Arabella stepped to Lady Pamela. She drew and several others did, as well. Then Arabella reached Hadley. Sebastian’s heart was in his throat.
“The Duke of Hardwick,” she said, her gaze meeting his.
Sebastian smiled and crossed to her. “We are the team to beat,” he told the rest. “Lord Dean and the Duchess of Treadwell don’t stand a chance.”
Chapter Thirteen
Hadley’s heart hammered in her chest. Arabella had told her no matter whose name she drew, Hadley should announce Sebastian as her partner. It had been Samantha’s idea. She said not even to put Sebastian’s name on a slip to assure no other woman would draw his name.
Carefully, Hadley turned and bumped into Arabella, as planned. Playing her part, Arabella tilted the rose bowl, spilling a few of the slips of paper on the floor. Hadley knelt and scooped them up, replacing them in the bowl, along with the one she had drawn, which had revealed the Duke of Colebourne’s name. Now, the correct number of names were back in the bowl and the drawing proceeded until everyone had selected her partner.
“Once you solve your clue and go to the location it directs you, only one clue will be found at that spot,” Arabella informed her guests. “You will need to read the new clue and leave it behind for others to discover.”
“What if someone takes it so no one else may find it?” called out a guest.
“Cheating will not be tolerated,” Arabella said emphatically. “You will answer to my husband if you do. I doubt any of you wish to be soundly thrashed by my duke. I will expect the ladies to keep their partners in line. We shall reconvene here in one hour’s time. The couple who discovers the last clue—and it will be marked as thus—may bring it to the drawing room in order to show proof of their victory.” She paused. “You may claim your first clue from any footman you see. They are scattered throughout this floor.”
A lone footman stood in the drawing room, off to the side. Sebastian wheeled and practically pounced on the man. The servant handed over the folded page in his hand. Sebastian returned to her as other couples quickly left in search of a footman and the clue he held. Arabella winked at her and then allowed Jon to lead her away.
Sebastian opened the sheet and read the clue aloud. “Toast and jam, perhaps? Or maybe even ham? If you come here, you will be near.”
“The breakfast room,” Hadley said. “The clue will be where the buffet has been placed each morning.”
Quickly, they exited the drawing room and hurried downstairs. The room was well-lit and Hadley knew they were on the correct path. Sebastian’s longer legs had him reaching the sideboard first and he lifted the silver tray that sat upon it. Underneath lay another page. He read the next clue written upon it and they thought a bit before rushing to their new destination. They went from a sun parlor to the kitchens, as Hadley claimed the next hint and read it to him.
“A dagger—then death. The stars were not aligned.”
Sebastian frowned. “They are becoming harder to solve.”
She laughed. “Oh, this is an easy one. Follow me.”
Leading him to the library, they entered just as Lord Dean and Elise were leaving. Elise waved gaily at them, while the viscount averted his eyes and shuffled past them.
“We could always follow them and swoop in to claim the final clue,” she teased. “Lord Dean is rather brilliant.”
“I will not accept a tainted victory,” he said, his jaw tightening at the notion of her praising the shy viscount.
“You have proved yourself on the battlefield, Sebastian. You will do even greater things as a duke,” she told him. “Even if we don’t win the rose bowl.”
“Why are we here?” he asked gruffly.
Hadley went to the shelves and began skimming them, seeing if Jon had arranged the volumes in any certain order. She found a grouping of Shakespeare’s collected works and ran her fingers along the spines until she found what she was looking for and pulled the tome out.
“Shakespeare?” he asked.
“Yes. In Romeo and Juliet, she awakens from her deathlike coma to find Romeo and Paris dead inside the crypt where her body had been placed. Juliet had sent word to Romeo to assure him she had merely taken a potion that mimicked death but he did not receive the message. He drank poison after killing Paris. Juliet cannot stand the thought of life without her Romeo. She takes his dagger and kills herself. The friar who gave her the potion called her and Romeo two star-cross’d lovers.”
“I am not fond of reading, especially Shakespeare,” he said. “This tale illustrates why. What is the point of having two innocents die? Men have seen enough of that in war.”
She took his hand and he flinched. “I know you saw things you can never unsee, Sebastian. The war is over, though. Can you try to leave those horrors in the past and look to the future instead?”
He gazed at her grimly. Doubt filled her. She might never break through the walls he had erected between him and the world. She released his hand, worried that Operation Rescue would all be for naught.
Opening the book, she flipped through the pages until she found a slip of paper tucked between them. Her eyes fell to the page and saw it was the scene where Juliet stabs herself with her lover’s dagger. Hadley had read the tragedy several times, always finding herself in tears as the lovers missed seeing one another by minutes. She felt the same now, that somehow she and Sebastian kept missing the opportunity to come together. She refused to think she would fail despite the uneasiness that filled her. Somehow, she had to convince this man that they were meant to be together.
Without showing him the clue, she pretended to read it and then returned it to the book and closed it. Placing it on the shelf again, she said, “I know where the next clue can be found. The stables.”
Hadley hadn’t even bothered to read the clue. She did need to get Sebastian away from the house and other guests, though. Once she had him alone, she hoped she could change the course they were on.
“What did it say?” he asked as she took his arm and led him from the library.
Having only had herself to play with, Hadley had been very inventive as a child. A lie came to her and she said, “It referred to one of the uncredited tasks of Heracles. Cleaning the Augean stables. Heracles was supposed to perform ten labors as penance for slaying his sons and his wife, Megara.”
Horror crossed Sebastian’s face. “Good God, why would he do such a thing?”
“It wasn’t his fault. He was driven mad by Queen Hera,” she explained. “To atone for his sins, Heracles had to complete the ten tasks his cousin, King Eurystheus, set for him. The king refused to credit him with the slaying of the Hydra because Heracles’ nephew aided him in that endeavor. The king also denied recognizing Heracles’ actions in cleaning the Augean stables since he accepted payment for that task. Since no nine-headed hydras are walking about Blackstone Manor, I assume the clue will lie somewhere in His Grace’s stables.”
She hated lying to him but she didn’t feel she had a choice.
As the left the library and headed down the corridor, he said, “You look very nice tonight.”
Hadley’s heart skipped a beat hearing him praise her gown. “Thank you. I clumsily tripped and tore the hem of my gown as I left my chamber for dinner. Fortunately, the Duke and Duchess of Windham were passing by and she had changed her mind and donned a second gown for this evening. Her first choice was still pressed and ready to go. Since we are of a similar size, she offered to loan this one to me so that I would not be tardy to dinner while Millie repaired my hem.”
The words poured quickly from her and she wondered if he knew she fibbed.
Instead, he said, “You should see if she will allow you to purchase it from her. While the duchess is a beautiful woman, you look far better in the gown than she would have.”
Hadley heard something in his voice. Longing?
“Thank you for the compliment, Sebastian.” She deliberately continued to use his first name since he had urged her to do so. Calling him Your Grace would put distance between them that she was trying to erase.
They cut through the kitchens and left through the rear of the house. Only a few lanterns burned.
“It’s rather dark,” he noted. “I would think they would have the path better lit if they expect us to find our way to the stables.”
Then he took her hand, his fingers threading through hers. Warmth filled her.
“Watch your step,” he advised and slowed his stride to match hers as they continued toward the stables.
“This might be the final clue, I suppose,” he added. “Arabella wouldn’t make it easy on the winners, I suppose. The path being in partial darkness might discourage others, who think they had interpreted the clue incorrectly.”
Now, Hadley truly felt guilty. She hoped he wouldn’t be angry with her once they reached the stables and found no clue at all. Her heart was already beating fast enough because of their linked fingers touching one another. She yearned for his kiss and hoped the privacy of the stables would allow her to press her lips to his once more, hoping to convince him by her actions since her words had left too much undone between them.
They arrived and a lone groomsman sat in front of the stables as a guard. He nodded politely to them but as a well-trained servant, he didn’t ask why they were there.
Stepping inside, a lantern burned low. Sebastian lifted it from where it hung and held it high as he led her down the row of stalls. Reluctantly, Hadley broke away from him and entered an empty stall. He followed her inside. She reached for the lantern he held and pulled it from his hand, setting it on the ground. Wordlessly, she looked up at him.
“The clue didn’t lead us here,” she confessed. “I did.”
*
Sebastian had thought fate had intervened and given him one more time to be close to Hadley. He promised himself he wouldn’t touch her yet he had taken her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. They fit together as a hand in its glove and he had wavered between wanting to solve each clue quickly to impress her versus deliberately misinterpreting them in order to prolong their time together. She was bright, though, and had come up with the solution to several of them, urging them on toward victory.
Until now.
He hadn’t read the last slip of paper which she had found in the volume of Shakespeare’s tragedies. He had thought it ironic that the clue had led them to Romeo and Juliet, a play he had never read yet knew enough about from conversations, one in which the hero so fiercely loved the heroine that when he thought her dead, he hadn’t wanted to continue living without her. Sebastian understood Romeo’s feelings because he didn’t know if he could go on living without Hadley.
She deserved so much more in life than a damaged man who had betrayed his country. One whom the world thought was a valiant, fearless officer. Only he and a handful of others, including the Duke of Wellington, knew the difference. All Sebastian’s brave acts had led to one incident of bitter betrayal. He had spent the remainder of the war risking everything, trying to atone, as Heracles had, for his monumental mistake.
Yet here they were, not another person in sight, only the faint sound of swishing tails and chuffing horses nearby in the dark. He understood she wanted him for he had that same need regarding her. He wouldn’t take her maidenhood but Sebastian planned to make a memory with Hadley. Here. Now. One which would give her pleasure and him something to cling to for the rest of his life.
Chapter Fourteen
Sebastian enveloped Hadley in his arms, bringing her close as his mouth crashed into hers. He wished he could be patient and gentle but desire for this perfect woman filled him. His kiss was hard. Greedy. He wanted to brand her as his, unfair as it was. Her arms entwined about his neck and she pressed her breasts into his chest. He could feel the hard peaks of her nipples through the silk of her gown and knew he would soon taste them.
Urging her mouth open, he plundered her rich sweetness, tasting the peppermint she must have sucked on after dinner. The scent of hay and the vanilla on her satin skin wafted up, surrounding them. He dominated her with his tongue, plunging deeper, trying to drink every bit of her up to quench the hunger for her within him. She began fighting back, trying to gain control, and their tongues waged a sweet, hot war. Lovely sounds came from her, urging him on.
His hands caressed her back, the silk gown molded to her, and they slid lower, cupping her buttocks and holding her against him. She was warm and all woman, the object of his desire, which he would give in to for a few stolen moments of bliss. He tore his mouth from hers and she protested until his lips found the slender column of her throat and kissed it. He licked where her pulse pounded, tasting both salty and sweet on her skin.
His tongue traveled lower, down her collarbone, until he reached the upper curve of her beautiful breast. He ran his tongue along its curve and she shivered. He released her buttocks and his fingers found the top of the gown. Slowly, he pulled the gown and the chemise underneath it from her shoulders until both sat at her waist. The dim light from the lantern allowed him to drink in her physical beauty.
“You are perfection,” he murmured before his mouth took her breast.
He licked around the nipple and then across it, teasing it with his lips and tongue, then blowing softly on it. Hadley whimpered and shivered in his arms. He scraped his teeth across it and her back bowed, her head falling back as she cried out softly. Sebastian worshipped the breast and then moved to the other, not wanting to leave it neglected. She moaned, her fingers tightening on him, her nails digging into his flesh.
It wasn’t enough. He was the first who touched her this way. She needed more. He needed to give her more.
Sweeping her into his arms, he crossed the stall and dropped to his knees, lowering her onto the bed of hay. He kissed her again, long and deep, his hands cupping her breasts. As he kissed her, he reached down and found her ankle, encased in a silk stocking. His fingers encircled it, rubbing it, then gliding up her leg. Past her knee. To her inner thigh. Then he reached her core and stroked the seam of her sex. Her breathing grew shallow and rapid.
“This is for you,” he murmured, not sure if she even heard him.
Sebastian parted the folds and caressed her, causing Hadley to cry out. Gradually, he pushed a finger inside her and continued fondling her. Her hips began to rise and she panted as she squirmed beneath his touch. He continued the motion, sensing she was on the brink of discovery.
“Let go,” he urged.
Then he found the sweet bud and pressed hard against it in a circular motion. She bucked under him as her heated body gave over to the orgasm. His mouth silenced her cries as his fingers continued to pleasure her. She arched and writhed and then her body shuddered violently. He felt her go limp and slipped his hands from under her gown. She stilled and he kissed her for what would be the final time. Slow. Deep. His heart breaking at having to let this woman go.
