Page 55 of His Illegitimate Duchess

“How do you like it?” He asked, not taking his eyes (or hands) off of her.

Elizabeth looked at the horizon, unable to find the words to describe how she felt. “It’s different. Where did you learn to swim?”

“At Norwich, when I was a boy.”

“Ah.”

They were both silent for a while. In the distance, a seagull called. Elizabeth’s brow was sweaty, but her body felt cool in the water.

“Do you want to try something?” Colin asked.

“What?” Lizzie cocked her head as she looked up at him.

“No shrieking this time, please,” he said as he took a step towards her and lifted her behind with both hands. “Wrap your legs around my waist.”

Elizabeth did as she was told. He took a step back into even deeper water.

She felt indescribably light. She spread her arms in the water and leaned back to see the sky.

She was floating on her back while holding onto Colin with her legs.

She started laughing with joy and glanced at her husband, who was smiling proudly.

“This is wonderful!” she exclaimed.

“My view is more wonderful,” Colin teased, and she looked down at her wet dress that now revealed her puckered breasts as clearly as if she, too, were naked.

She lifted her torso back to his chest and pinched his waist. Colin laughed with his head thrown back. He looked much younger than he usually did.

Later, Elizabeth sat on the machine steps with only her legs underwater as Colin swam around, clearly with the goal of impressing her with his ability. She was quiet as she stared at the horizon.

All my worries are small and insignificant, she thought as she inhaled deeply with her eyes closed. The world is so much bigger than I am.

“What are you thinking about so intently?” he asked when he swam closer to the steps after a while.

“I’m trying to think of the words I can use when I try to put this in a letter to send home.”

“Is it more difficult to find the words for this experience for some reason, compared to others?”

“I am overwhelmed by this sight,” she admitted as she stirred the water with her legs.

“I’ve only ever experienced something close to this when we were in the forest with Bruiser and Miss Judy.

I never felt this way in London, not even in the most beautiful of gardens or parks.

It makes me think, is this how and where humans were meant to live? ”

“I don't have the answer to that," Colin said, uncharacteristically humble. "You seem to think about your London home a lot. Do you miss it?” He asked as he held out his hand to her, and she accepted it.

She joined him in the water and, willingly this time, went deeper with him.

“I miss the people in it. And since I remember how we all used to read Thomas’s letters together and how we learned new things about the world from them, I want to give them that gift as well. Although now I see that reading is one thing, and living is another.”

“I wish you had replied that, yes, you couldn't wait to go back to London,” he said, obviously trying for a light tone, but not really succeeding. “Since we have to go back soon.”

Elizabeth stiffened. Colin stroked her arm.

“The Parliamentary proceedings, I can’t excuse my absence any longer, now that most of the harvest is over,” he explained patiently. “You could stay here, of course, but I don’t like the idea of being away from you for so long.”

Hearing that made Elizabeth feel better, and she looked at him with a small smile.

Colin lifted her in the water, and this time she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist as he kissed her instead of saying anything else. She tasted salt as he parted her lips with his.

Lizzie smiled and said, “I rather like the taste of the sea.”

“I told you drinking sea water is good for your health, you should taste some more,” he said with a rakish smile.

She slowly brought her face closer to his and licked his lips, then his cheek, then his eyelids, at first jokingly, but then with increased urgency.

He started kneading her behind as he moaned while she licked his neck and earlobe.

The evidence of his arousal kept poking her stomach as they moved in the water.

”You truly are a little kitten,” he said in a hoarse voice, and she laughed, embarrassed by her eagerness and boldness.

“Should we go back to shore?” He asked after a while.

“Not yet,” she said sleepily. “Who knows when I’ll be able to sea-bathe again?”

“Don’t be dramatic, wife,” Talbot said, and she laughed. “Just imagine, if you’d gone to America, you would have missed all this.”

“I’m sure they have a beach over there,” she laughed.

“Not like this one,” he said seriously.

*

“I can’t wait for you to taste it,” he said enthusiastically. “The fishermen who live here catch them in the spring and summer, and they’re a delicacy.”

“I have eaten crab before, you know,” Lizzie teased him gently.

“Not Cromer crab,” he said adamantly and watched her like a hawk as she took a bite.

Elizabeth feared she might burst out laughing, but then the taste of the meat hit her.

“Oh my,” she said between bites, “it’s almost sweet.”

“Now add some lemon juice.”

This time, she complied without resisting. It tasted even better with lemon. She closed her eyes as she chewed. She then ate some fresh bread and butter. She was ravenous after her day at sea.

“And what is this?” she pointed with her fork.

“It is samphire,” Colin explained. “Salt marsh green.”

Never having heard of it, Lizzie cautiously took a small bite. Then added some crab meat to it for her second bite.

“It tastes like the sea,” she said admiringly. “It complements the crab meat perfectly.”

Colin smiled proudly, like he’d been the one who had woken up at dawn to catch the crab for her.

Lizzie was unable to stifle her smile at the memory of her husband struggling to light a fire, but Talbot thought she was just smiling back at him.

*

A week later, Talbot woke up in the same inn where he had spent his first night with his wife.

And consummated our marriage, he thought smugly.

He’d dreamt that he was falling and had woken with a start. Elizabeth was still asleep next to him. He looked at her serene face.

What is she dreaming about? He thought, somewhat jealously. He wanted to possess and know all of her, even her dreamscape.

He’d recently remembered the woman he had proposed to as a young man and had, once again, been filled with the profoundest gratitude that she had refused his proposal.

For a moment, he'd entertained the idea of telling Elizabeth about that time in his life, but he knew his kitten would find the idea of him proposing marriage to another woman (especially since he’d never proposed to her!) most abhorrent.

Better to look ahead than to dwell on the past , he concluded.

Colin could see how nervous and subdued his wife had become because of their upcoming return to London. Deep down, he had to admit that he was also worried about the possibility of people’s comments negatively affecting her and was desperate to shield her from that.

He had been surprised to realise that the only emotions he felt regarding his peers’ judgment were anger towards them and protectiveness towards Lizzie.

As soon as people see us out in society together, no one shall dare say anything to her, he reassured himself for the hundredth time.

But it didn’t help.

Will Elizabeth like our London residence? He wondered, trying to steer his thoughts in another direction.

Right then, his wife stirred.

Thank God, he thought.

“Good morning,” she said sleepily.

“Good morning. Have you slept well?”

“I did, thank you. Have you?”

“Extraordinarily well. There is something about this inn,” he teased. “I wonder if it’s impressed by everything that we’ve learned since the last time we stayed here,” he laughed as he folded his hands under his head.

“Colin!” She hid her face in her hands.

“Don’t hide your face like that,” he said, appearing deceptively helpful, “better take the pillow you used to muffle your cries last night.”

“You are utterly horrible,” she pinched his exposed underarm and laughed at his yelp.

*

“Baker handed me these just as we were leaving yesterday.” She pulled some letters out of her reticule and lifted them to show Colin when they were settled in the carriage. “Do you mind if I read them now?”

“Go ahead,” he said magnanimously.

“Oh, this one’s from Elinor,” she exclaimed happily, and he enjoyed watching her as she opened and started reading it.

Soon, however, she looked surprised, and then slightly worried.

“Oh, my,” she said.

“Has something happened to your friend?” Talbot inquired.

“In a way,” Lizzie said vaguely, then sat in silence for a few minutes. “Amelia has eloped to Gretna Green with Corporal Harding.”

Colin was momentarily terrified of the possibility that his wife was jealous.

He took several deep breaths.

“Elinor doesn’t know all the details, but it seems to have been Amelia’s idea,” she said, still frowning a bit, like she was focused on untangling a knot.

“That does not sound like something Lady Fairchild would do,” Colin said carefully.

“Well, yes and no…” Elizabeth trailed off. “She heard you, you know.”

“Pardon?”

“At her parents’ ball, Lady Amelia was on the balcony with me. She heard all you gentlemen making fun of her, saying she’d never get married. It most likely affected her more than any of us can ever know. I wonder how big a part it played in her decision to arrange her matrimony with the Corporal.”

Colin didn’t want to think about that wretched evening, nor of the cruel words he had so harshly spoken about his now-wife. He wished, not for the first time, that he could put them back in his mouth somehow.

You were very concerned about her status and their opinion back in the Fairchilds’ library, a voice in his head mocked. What changed?

Did I change, or did she change? He wondered.

He remembered being at Eton and struggling with the lectures on Aristotelian logic and classical philosophy, particularly The Principle of Non-Contradiction.