Page 32 of The Viscount Needs a Wife (All for Love #2)

“Yes, Annis was, too. There are a dashed lot of bits that go into a lady’s toilette. Makes it damned tricky to get her out of all those layers.”

Rob grinned but didn’t comment.

After finishing with Hoby, the two men headed to Gentleman Jackson’s, where the duke was in the habit of practicing the pugilistic art regularly.

Emrys consented to go a couple of rounds with him and enjoyed it so much he resolved to continue the practice. After that, they repaired to their club for a meal.

Cutting into his steak, Rob said casually, “You look happy.”

Emrys sipped his wine and nodded. “I am. Annis is the perfect wife I never knew I needed.”

Rob nodded and said quietly, “I’m glad. No one deserves happiness more than you.”

“Well, I fancy I’m not the only one.” Emrys forked up some mashed potato and gravy with a quizzical look across the table.

Rob flushed faintly. “I am exceedingly happy. In fact”—he stopped and picked up his glass of wine—“you can be the first to congratulate me. We’re not making it public yet, but—”

“Sarah is expecting?”

Robert grinned and raised his glass to the one Emrys offered. “She is, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m so looking forward to it.”

Emrys nodded. “It is the best feeling in the world to hold them for the first time. Be warned, you will fall in love instantly and worry yourself into a frenzy about them for the rest of your life. Nothing will be the same again.”

“I know. I cannot wait,” confessed the starchy duke, already looking the very picture of a doting father.

They finished their meal and repaired to the billiard room for a game. This led to a card game or two, and it was in the card room that they were joined by the Marquess of Ravenshaw.

He started at the sight of Emrys’s shorn head. “Good God, Ashford, I thought you were someone else. What brought this on?”

“His new wife,” said the duke with a smirk.

Emrys opened his mouth to protest and gave up, shrugging. What did it matter?

“Careful, you’ll turn fashionable,” said Ravenshaw with a grin.

“I’ll never be a peacock like you,” retorted Emrys.

Ravenshaw was not only stunningly handsome with dark hair and blue eyes, but also immaculate in his dress and appearance.

His sporting proclivities prevented him from earning the sobriquet of dandy.

Instead he was a noted Corinthian. He was also well known for his competitive streak.

“Care to play?” asked the duke, about to deal another round.

Ravenshaw sat down and ordered a bottle of Chambertin. “Ought to send round for Pendrell. We could play Whist with four,” he said.

“You just want to beat us to flinders again!” said Emrys with a grin.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll send a note.” Robert said. “The fellow is bound to be home; he never goes out unless one of us invites him. He’s in serious danger of turning into a hermit.”

Robert scribbled out a note and had it sent round to Deodonatus Kinninmouth’s residence.

Half an hour later he joined them. The Earl of Pendrell was a giant of man with a shock of red hair and freckles, and features that were more hawkish than handsome.

He made a striking contrast with the Marquess of Ravenshaw who was built on slenderer and more aesthetically pleasing lines.

Ravenshaw put one in mind of a black panther or a bird of prey. Beautiful, graceful, and deadly.

“Congratulations!” Pendrell said, giving Emrys a bear hug. It was the first time he had seen Emrys since the wedding.

Several games later it was getting on time for dinner. Seeing that his friends were determined to make a night of it, Emrys debated whether to leave them and head home to Annis. He missed her already, he realized. It was the first day they had spent apart since they were married.

But when he suggested he would be heading home, the outcry gave him pause. He couldn’t spend every minute in Annis’s lap, as much as part of him wanted to. And his friends were good company, and he’d been neglecting them. He opted to send Annis a note and stay.

*

When Annis received his note, she tried not to be disappointed.

She had plenty to do, after all, between devising lessons for the children, her embroidery, and a book to read, but she couldn’t help feeling a little heartsore.

She missed him. But it was unreasonable for her to expect him to dance attendance on her every night, nor could she expect him to eschew his friends for her sake.

She tucked the children in and kissed them good night.

“Where is Papa?” asked Charlie fretfully.

“He is out for the evening, but he will be home later,” Annis said with a reassuring smile.

Charlie pursed her lips and caught Annis’s hand. “Will you sing a song for us?”

“Of course.” She settled on the bed and chose a lullaby with a soothing cadence.

She glanced across the room where Ewen was tucked into his bed, his eyes already closed and his thumb in his mouth. Mrs. Green sat in her armchair, some sewing in her lap.

Lizzie settled herself and closed her eyes, but Charlie gripped her hand tightly and watched her as she sang.

She clutched her doll in one arm and blinked as Annis switched to another song.

Her eyelids slowly dropped and popped open again, and then again, and her grip on Annis’s hand loosened.

By the end of the second song her eyes remained closed, but Annis continued singing softly for a few more minutes to make sure.

The little girl’s hand lay loosely in hers.

Charlie’s reddish-blonde curls escaped her plait and curled round her face, her skin so soft and translucent with the round-cheeked plumpness of childhood. She was a pretty child and would likely be a beautiful young woman one day.

Annis’s heart felt full for these precious children she got to call her own.

Her good fortune was hard to comprehend.

She loved their father unequivocally. But she loved each of them, too, not simply because they were his, but because of who they were.

Lizzie with her forthright personality and sunny disposition, Ewen with his sweet affection, and Charlie with her sensitivity.

Her compassionate heart bled a little for Charlie.

She understood so well the insecurity that plagued the little girl.

She of all of them seemed to have taken Caroline’s death the hardest. It had rocked her world and turned it upside down.

Her trust was broken. Charlie might resemble her mother most in appearance, but on the inside, she was like her father, sensitive and a bit insecure.

She hoped she could fill the void for Charlie, as she hoped she was doing for Emrys.

Gosh, she missed him. She was as addicted to his cuddling as he was to doing it.

She sat a while, just watching them sleep and wiped a tear of happiness off her cheek.

Finally, she rose and left the room on quiet feet, smiling and nodding to Mrs. Green.

When Emrys still wasn’t home at ten, she retired to bed and fell asleep over her book, jerking awake sometime later when the bed dipped and he murmured, “Just me.”

He slid under the covers and reached for her. The book fell off the bed with a thump, but she ignored it as he pulled her close and nuzzled her neck. “Missed you,” he said, husky voiced.

“Did you enjoy your evening?” she asked.

“Hm, yes, I did. Haven’t seen the fellows for a while. It was nice to catch up.” He kissed her neck, his hands running over her body through her night gown. “Bit bosky,” he confessed. “We had a few.” He found her mouth and kissed her. “What did you do this evening?”

“Planned tomorrow’s lessons and reading,” she said.

“And the children?”

“Charlie needed a song or two to go to sleep.”

He nodded. “I stopped in to check on them on my way here. They were all sleeping. Including Mrs. Green. Did you know she snores?”

Annis chuckled. “Yes, I did.”

“Should I be worried about Charlie?” he asked.

“I should think she’ll grow out of it,” Annis reassured him.

“Silly question, really. I’ll worry anyway. Which reminds me—got some news!”

His grin, visible in the candlelight, told her it was good news. “Yes?”

“Sarah’s pregnant.”

“Oh, how marvelous. I did wonder the other day; she seemed a bit pale and tired.”

“Rob’s over the moon. He is completely soft under all that starch, you know.”

“Yes, I do know. He was a very kind and considerate employer.”

His hands were still stroking her. They now squeezed, one on her rump the other on her breast. “Feels like forever since this morning,” he murmured, pushing her back into the pillows and moving a hand between her legs.

She sighed. He may have left her for the evening, but he was home now and wanting to make up for his absence. She wasn’t inclined to stop him.

Only a few evenings later, Annis joined Emrys out in society among their friends.

Her first appearance in society as Viscountess Ashford was a night at the theatre.

The duke had a box in Drury Lane, and she and Emrys were to join the duke, Sarah, Sarah’s sister Deborah, the dowager, Lady Ava, and the elder of the duke’s two brothers, Lord Hereward, for a performance of the opera The Fairy Queen .

Her dress was a cream silk with blue piping and embroidery, finished with lace on the bosom, sleeves, and hem.

The bodice was not cut so low as the gown she wore for the wedding, but it was still low enough for Annis to feel uncomfortable and for Emrys to eye it in a way that told her precisely what he would be doing when they got home.

If he didn’t whip her off into a secluded corner and do obscene things to her before then. ..

Since she was afraid he would wish to do precisely that, for Emrys seemed remarkably impervious to what other people might think of his behavior, she was only thankful that he didn’t get the opportunity to try.

They were never left alone long enough, which was a good thing, for Annis’s nerves were stretched to breaking point as it was.

Being presented as Viscountess Ashford couldn’t help but make her feel like a fraud.

She was terrified someone would step out of the shadows, point at her, and denounce her as a bastard.

A lesser fear was that someone would recognize her as the duke’s former governess, which would be bad enough.

Quite humiliating in fact. But not as bad as the other.

She tried her very best to cover her fear and smile and nod and appear relaxed, and she thought she was doing quite well until Emrys murmured in her ear, “Relax. No one is going to bite you. You’re among friends.”

She flushed. “Is it so obvious?”

“Only to me,” he said with an encouraging smile.

“I am so afraid someone will recognize me. You know, from before, when I was a governess.”

“Even if they do, they won’t say so. If you think anyone has more social credit than the duke, you would be highly mistaken. You’re my wife and a friend of the Duchess of Troubridge. Robert is known to be a high stickler. If he approves of you, no one is going to gainsay him.”

“Even the patronesses of Almack’s?”

“Well, the dowager is bosom bows with Maria Sefton, so I wouldn’t think so.”

“Oh.”

He kissed her hand and placed it on his arm.

He was wearing a new suit, and this one seemed a better fit than the usual.

Combined with his new hairstyle, he almost cut a fashionable figure.

His hair was still a trifle long, but more fashionably so, with a rather romantic fall across his brow.

And for once his neckcloth was tied properly.

“Come and sit down and enjoy the performance. I guarantee you’ll like it. ”

“Oh, yes. I loved A Midsummer Night’s Dream and this is based on it, isn’t it? We took the girls to a performance in Bath once. I was entranced.”