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The day after the Coastal Trader set sail, spirits were very high on the Stealthy Runner .

Younge had brought his vessel to the dock, and the crew was working with gusto to prepare her for sea.

Fresh water and victuals were being loaded, as well as a good amount of grog that the Captain had purchased from the landlord of the Happy Leprechaun.

Laraby complained to Younge that Jones was usurping his position, the crew tend to follow Jones directions quickly, and ignore his.

Younge had rebuked him and said that if he did not stop complaining, Jones would be promoted as the new first mate.

Laraby was seething. He had stuck with Younge for over five years, and this was how his loyalty was rewarded!

He ignored that he himself had no loyalty to commander or crew; his loyalty was to the money that they earned.

He decided that as soon as he was given his due for this caper that he would leave the crew.

Angry men are seldom wise, Laraby decided that on the first night out of Bundoran he would have Jones with him for night duty, and Jones would have an ‘accident’ overboard.

He intended to make sure that the man was dead before his body hit the water.

No one threatened Amos Laraby’s place until he was ready to relinquish it!

Jones, Forester, and Tibbson could see that their plan to win the confidence of the crew was succeeding beyond what they had imagined.

They returned to the room they had rented for the last months to pack their meagre belongings for the move on board the sloop.

During preparations Forester noted the animus in the looks that Laraby directed toward Jones every time he thought he was not being observed, and while alone wanted to make sure that his friend was aware of it as well.

“Jonesy,” Forester got his comrade in arms attention, “I wonder ‘ave you saw ‘ow Laraby glares at you? He be jealous that the crew prefers you ta ‘im.”

“You not ta’ only one thats notic’d it, Forester,” Tibbson agreed.

“Yea’ I sees it. ‘E thinks that ‘e is doin’ it when I am not payin’ ‘eed,” Jones informed his friends.

“You needs to watch ya’ back w’ ‘im, Jonesy,” Forester pointed out.

“I will, I promises both of ya’, if ‘e tried somin’, e’ will be sorry!” Jones said with conviction. Jones chuckled, almost feeling sorry for Laraby because he had no idea that him and his mates were former marines, and experts in self-defence with reflexes most men their size did not possess.

Mrs. Johanna álvarez could see her destiny ahead of her.

They would leave this place in but two days to follow the plan all three believed was without flaw.

The toffs would never expect that they would take the woman from her own home.

Johanna had put the small amount of sorrow that she had felt about Tony’s defection spurred by the small amount of motherly instinct that she had out of her consciousness.

She hoped that her son was having a hard time in the little nowhere town to which he had absconded.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Tony álvarez was, in fact, very contented, and the city of Oxford was anything but the ‘nowhere town’ his mother believed he was hiding in.

Tony had been assigned a chamber that he would share with Hastings Stockton, the son of a large estate owner in Wiltshire.

Luckily, Stockton did not look down on Tony for being below him in status, and that was even before he found out about Tony’s connections to multiple powerful peers of the realm.

It did not take long before the young men became close, and a lifelong friendship was born.

They were constantly together throughout the week of orientation even before classes commenced.

A lordling or two had started to belittle Tony for his low birth, then Stockton pulled them aside and mentioned who Tony’s patrons were.

The two lordlings knew just how powerful the families mentioned to were and never approached Tony again, hoping that their rude and supercilious behaviour would not make its way back to their fathers via a duke or an earl.

Young álvarez was impatient to begin his studies.

He was determined to repay the faith and support of his new family, the Elliots, by being successful at Oxford.

He promised himself that in two years he would graduate with honours.

He had fulfilled his promise and written a letter to the Elliots to let them know that he had arrived safely, and how much he was enjoying getting acquainted with the young man that was sharing his chambers.

He was certain that Mr. Elliot would pass his tidings onto their Graces and their families.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

Lady Elizabeth Darcy had fallen in love with Pemberley at first sight and was enjoying the last few days there prior to the move to Falconwood.

At least her beloved husband would be with her for a time until they received confirmation that the conspirators had landed and were preparing for their travels toward Derbyshire.

Rather than dwell on the time that she would be separated from her husband, she decided to make the most of the time that she had with him before he returned to their estate without her.

Mrs. Reynolds had impressed on the servants that if they encountered a closed door, they were to knock loudly before entering the room.

One traumatised maid was enough for her.

The poor girl had walked into one of the unoccupied guest chambers that she was to clean and found the master and mistress ‘occupied’ within.

She kept her wits about her and fled the room.

Once she reached the corridor, she leaned against the wall to keep from fainting.

After hearing a tinkling of laughter intermingled with a deep guffaw, she ran with all speed away from the room.

The servants now put their ear to any closed door before entering the room.

If they heard any sounds at all they withdrew.

Even with no sound detected, they knocked as loudly as they were able.

Luckily after the incident when the maid had entered the chambers, the couple had made sure that any doors or spaces that they decided to ‘initiate’ were locked before they commenced their activities.

Lady Anne smiled as she recalled helping Mrs. Reynolds calm the poor girl down after she had inadvertently seen the master and mistress in-flagrante delicto.

She had known almost from the first time that she met Lizzy that she would be perfect for William, but even she had never predicted the unbridled passion that the two enjoyed.

She remembered with warmth that it had been like that with her George.

It too was not a newlywed phenomenon with them; and it had never waned through the years of their marriage.

Lady Anne was sure that it would be the same for her son and daughter-in-law, a lifelong fire that would never burn out.

At that very moment that Lady Anne was ruminating about her son and daughter-in-law, the door to the master’s study had been locked.

His desk was always ordered with neat piles of correspondence and other documents.

All were pushed to the side while the duke and duchess made love on the wide oak desktop.

When they had both achieved, and after helping each other put their clothing to rights, they collapsed onto the settee under the windows.

“William, if anyone had told me that I could feel the infinite love that I have for you, I would never have believed it possible,” Elizabeth said as her heart slowed down to its normal rhythm.

“You are my everything, my husband,” she added as she took his head between her hands and drew him in for a long gentle kiss that she couldn’t hold back from bestowing.

“Every day I ask myself what I did to deserve your love, my dearest Elizabeth,” he said after she had pulled back and met his eyes. “You are a gift from God to me, and I cannot conceive of my life without you in it.”

Darcy drew her in, and his lips travelled along her shoulder as her skin was exposed, then he began to minister to her pale and buxom breasts as he loved to do.

Her back arched with pleasure, and he felt his appendage becoming tumescent again.

He felt his wife open the fall on his breeches and her hand wrap around his erect member.

It was not long before her skirts were raised, and they made urgent love on the settee with her sitting astride his lap as they moved in unison.

The two emerged from the study a half hour later with the afterglow of lovemaking evident to all who cared to look, making their way to their chambers for a much-needed bath in one of the enormous brass tubs and to change.

If one assumed that they repeated the lovemaking in the tub, one would have assumed correctly.

~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~

The ladies were sitting in the drawing room when the Countess of Brookfield gave her twin sister a knowing smile. “Why do you think that we have seen so little of our younger sister of late, Marie?” she asked mischievously.

“For the life of me, I cannot hazard a guess, Janey. Do you think we should ask Lizzy what has been demanding so much of her time of late?” Marie added to Jane’s tease.

Their younger sister, who was pouring out the tea, almost missed the cup she was pouring into and was blushing furiously.

She was in no way ashamed of her passionate relationship with her husband, but the teasing from her sisters on this subject was new to her.

“Girls!” Lady Sarah admonished them playfully, “Do not tease Lizzy so. We all know that her many ‘duties’ have been demanding her attention, and I would guess that she attends to her duties most carefully.”

“It seems that my nephew always has business to attend to the same time that Lizzy is occupied,” Lady Catherine stated with a straight face.