Page 24 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

A melia sat at the breakfast table late in the next morning, reading the paper and enjoying the bounty their amazing cook had provided.

Normally she was up far earlier, but it had been a long and powerful night.

Hugh hadn’t been able to wait to get home to have her.

They’d made love in the carriage coming back from Lucas and Diana’s.

And then he’d kept her up for hours afterward, making her come until she was limp and sated in his arms.

If this was what the time along together would be like, she thrilled all the more for it.

As that wicked thought passed through her mind, Hugh entered the breakfast room and smiled at her. “Don’t you look lovely. That blue matches your eyes perfectly.”

Heat filled her cheeks at the compliment. It was never only the words he said, but the way he said them and how he looked at her. Like she was so precious to him.

“Thank you, my love,” she managed to respond before he dropped a kiss to her lips and took a seat beside her. She expected him to take some portion of the paper and get his breakfast, but instead he simply looked at her until she shook her head .

“I’m beginning to think I have something on my face.” She laughed.

He shook his head. “Not at all. I was just wondering what Her Grace has planned for the day.”

“Well, let me see. I intended to take a walk in the garden and speak to the staff about some mites on the roses on the west end of the maze.”

“Titillating,” he teased.

She stuck her tongue out at him playfully. “And then I have a needlepoint piece for Lizzie’s birthday that I thought I might work on. Otherwise, I am free as a bird. Did you have something in mind?”

She thought she knew what he had in mind. After all, she’d left her schedule open so that she could spend as much of the day with him as possible. He leaned in and brushed a lock of hair away from her cheek.

“I would love to join you in the garden walk,” he said. “Though I won’t be much help with the mites, I think. And while you work on the needlepoint, perhaps I could read something out to you from the library.”

“I’d love that.” She lifted her hand and tangled her fingers with his.

“And tonight…” he said.

She leaned forward. “Tonight?”

“I’d like to take you to the theatre.”

She blinked. That was not what she thought he had in mind. “Oh. Oh.”

He tilted his head. “Not a fan of the theatre?”

“Oh no, I’m a great fan, the few times I was able to go. I’d love to attend with you. I just thought we’d do…other things.”

His eyes lit up. “Oh yes, I’d very much like to do a great many other things with you.

I’m sure I will do a lot of other things perhaps before and after we attend.

But I also think we have an opportunity with our time alone, Amelia.

We can…get to know each other, as we should have been able to do before we wed. ”

There was something a little sad in his gaze and she cupped his cheeks. “I know you, Hugh. I know you down to my soul and down to yours.”

He smiled. It made him look so much younger and she loved that this serious gentleman became more for her. “You do at that. But I’d like to know more trivial things, as well. Like if you like comedies or tragedies. Like what kind of art makes your beautiful eyes light up. I want to know it all.”

He was describing…wooing her. That couldn’t be correct. They were married. He had her, she was his unreservedly, he didn’t have to pursue anymore. But the idea that he wanted to know such things warmed her to her toes.

“Then I look forward to going out with you tonight,” she said.

He caught her hand and kissed her knuckles, then he got up and turned to the sideboard where he served himself breakfast and poured a cup of tea. She watched him as he did so, noted the little spring in his step. Whatever his plans, he did seem excited about them. And she found herself excited too.

A melia smiled at her maid as Theresa moved toward the door to her chamber. She had done a wonderful job preparing Amelia for her night, as usual.

“Thank you,” Amelia called out.

“Have a wonderful time,” Theresa said with a wide smile before she slipped away.

Amelia stood and looked toward the door that led to the antechamber which separated her rooms from Hugh’s.

They so rarely were parted in this way. She slept in their bed in his room.

Sometimes he was the one who helped her dress…

certainly he was th e only one who undressed her anymore. He only left her side when he had to.

And yet tonight he had announced he would not see her until she came down to meet him in the foyer so they could depart. He’d been smiling when he said it, almost giddy, and since they’d spent a wonderful day together the parting didn’t feel like a punishment.

She just wasn’t certain what it was. She checked herself in the mirror once more and smiled.

She was wearing a blue evening dress, with an intricate hemline of bows and braided white at the shoulders.

It brought out her eyes. Meant for him, for he said he loved it when her dresses did that.

Theresa had lifted her hair up, keeping her neck bare.

Another act she performed for Hugh, as he liked to kiss her neck when no one was looking.

Liked to torment her with all the pleasure that simple act gave her. It was a tease. A promise.

She hoped he’d do it tonight in their darkened box overlooking the stage.

She left the room and came down the stairs to find him in the foyer speaking softly to Murphy. They both glanced up at her as she began her descent down the stairs and then Murphy stepped away so there was no one but them.

Hugh’s eyes grew wide and he shifted his weight toward her as he watched her approach. His mouth went a little slack and he licked his lips before he croaked, “My God, Amelia.”

Her cheeks heated with the roughness of his voice, the need and love merged as one. She did a little spin. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” he said and drew her into his arms. “You look like a queen. A goddess. You make me question the idea of ever leaving this house again.”

She laughed. “We don’t have to. We can do the theatre another night."

“Very tempting,” he said, closer to her ear. “Because that would mean I could take you upstairs and lift up that dress and make you moan against my tongue. ”

“Hugh,” she gasped, gripping his arm a little tighter at the idea.

“But I want to take you out into the world and let the entire ton be wildly jealous that you are my wife. I want to enjoy watching you in that gorgeous gown before I strip it from your body.”

She caught his hand and tangled their gloved fingers. “Then lead the way.”

He did so, to the waiting carriage and off they went to the theatre. But even as they chatted and talked, all Amelia could think about were the alluring promises of pleasure he’d whispered to her. Promises she intended to make him keep.

A s the curtain fell, Hugh watched Amelia rise from her seat in their box and applaud with great gusto.

He’d been watching her more than the play all night, truth be told.

Watched her truly engross herself in the story being told on stage, rather than be distracted as a great number of the other attendees were.

Ones who came to be seen rather than to see.

But Amelia was as passionate about the show as she was about everything.

How he loved that about her. Loved that she committed herself wholeheartedly to what she cared about.

And loved that he was lucky enough to be counted as part of her world.

If he had done this to court her, taken her to a play, he knew he would have been enraptured immediately.

She turned toward him as he rose to his own feet and her face was flush with excitement. “Oh, it was wonderful, Hugh! I loved it.”

“I’m so pleased,” he said. “It was very good. Come, shall we move with the throng to the door?”

She nodded and took his arm as they headed for the teeming crowd moving to the exits. “Do you think Adelaide ever played the part of Minerva when she walked the boards?”

She was referring to the wife of one of his best friends, Graham. Adelaide had secretly been an actress, and a celebrated one, before settling down as his duchess. It was a secret very few knew.

“I don’t know. The next time we’re together, you must ask her.”

“I’m sure she would have been wonderful,” Amelia mused.

He guided her through the throng with only a few absent nods to friends and acquaintances. He had no interest in being waylaid tonight.

“Do you ever wish you’d done something like that?” he asked.

“Acted?” she said and then laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think I would have ever been so bold. To have so many eyes on me?”

“I’ve seen you be far more bold,” he said softly as they exited the theatre and he guided her to where he’d asked their carriage to wait so that they wouldn’t get too caught up in the crowd. “You are the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”

She turned to look at him. “I think my dreams were always about finding true love. And now that I have it…it’s even better than I could have imagined. I don’t need the theatre.”

He looked at her, haloed by moonlight, her eyes locked on his like he was the only man in the world. “May I take you home, Your Grace?” he asked.

She laughed at his turn of phrase. “I would be furious if you didn’t, Your Grace .”

He opened the carriage door and handed her in before following.

He took the seat across from her and they began to rattle into motion.

“I like that your fantasies are coming true,” he said.

“But I want you to be free to pursue anything that you wish. Your father, he kept you from dreaming too big, I think.”

She bent her head. “He did. I was only a tool for him. A way to gain influence or money or whatever it was he wanted.”

“But you are not that to me,” Hugh said. “I know you’re accomplished in your needlework, but were there other dreams you put away?”

“I suppose I liked to write a little,” she admitted slowly. “Little stories here and there. My father found one and burned it, so I kept them secret.”

“Do you have the rest?” Hugh asked.

She nodded. “Somewhere hidden in my things, yes.”

“I’d like to read them,” he said. “If you want to share.”

She stared at him, almost like she’d just seen him for the first time. He liked that he could do that. That they could discover new things. He hoped they would always. That was the beauty of the wooing he was attempting.

“I would,” she said. “And I suppose it might be nice to try to write again.” She leaned closer to him. “But right now I have other things in mind.”

He lifted both brows at the suddenly seductive lilt to her tone. This was the other benefit of wooing one’s wife. He could also bed her, not wait out of propriety.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked.

“What you talked about earlier. Your hands and mouth on me,” she whispered. “We’ll be stuck in this crush for a while, you know. Perhaps you could give me a preview of what will come when you have me alone in our bedroom?”

He smiled and dropped to his knees before her, pressing her legs as wide as her pretty gown would allow before he started to lift up her skirt. “That would be my greatest pleasure,” he murmured before he dropped his mouth to her knee and began a soft trail upward.