Chapter 23

CHAPTER23

“Idon’t think I have ever seen you so happy,” Irene observed as she took Isabella’s arms.

“Happy?” Isabella repeated distractedly.

The last couple of days had passed by in a blur for her. She had spent much of the time with Henry, and today was the first day they were spending time apart. He had gone to see his friend, Lord Hillson, and she had come to promenade with her sisters.

She and Irene walked down the path of Hyde Park, arm in arm, as Susan walked ahead of them, holding flowers that she had picked from the garden. To their left was a vast lawn with a bandstand and cellists on the platform playing. Surrounding the cellists were families and couples who had come to picnic. To their right, paths stretched out through the park, with courting couples walking arm in arm as their chaperones hurried to keep up with them.

“Your ridiculous smile,” Irene said pointedly, then mimicked it. “Don’t your cheeks hurt yet?”

“About as much as yours do.” Isabella gestured towards her sister’s smile. “May I take it that your friendship with your suitor is progressing well?”

“Very well.” Irene’s smile became huge.

“Oh, yes, that’s quite a small smile,” Isabella said sarcastically, earning a playful elbow from her sister. “May I predict a courtship will soon be on the cards?”

“I truly hope so.” Irene sighed with contentment.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were in love.”

“I’m sure she is!” Susan called back, evidently having heard their conversation. “She keeps sighing intermittently as if she were acting Juliet on the stage. All that is missing when she receives a letter from her beau is clutching her chest and sighing dramatically ‘woe is me!’”

“I am not that bad,” Irene protested.

“You are,” Susan insisted and hurried ahead again, picking another flower.

“What about you?” Irene asked, elbowing Isabella once again though softer this time, and with a more serious tone.

“What about me?”

“I mean this smile.” Irene motioned towards her sister’s lips. “You have happily been speaking of your husband all morning too. You have said three times what a kind gift he gave to you this morning.”

“He gifted me a horse. I was going to buy one with my own money, but he was so keen for that money to be used elsewhere, towards you and Susan for your dowries, so he bought the horse himself. Is that not kind?”

Isabella had nearly knocked Henry down that morning as she had run towards him and hugged him so hard to thank him for the horse. He’d laughed and whispered in her ear to save knocking him flat for the bedchamber.

“He is hard to resist, that is all.”

“Oh! Hard to resist, eh?” Irene laughed at her. “Then, it must be love.”

“I never spoke of love.” Isabella shook her head. “I like him, that is all.”

“You don’t love him?” Irene raised her eyebrows, shocked by the idea.

“Is there a possibility for love? Yes, I suppose so, but I’m not in love with him.” Isabella shrugged, unsure what to make of the idea. “There’s certainly a devotion to him, an affection that runs deeper than I had thought possible. He’s still argumentative, trust me. He is frustrating and possessive.”

“If these are bad things, why are you smiling so much?”

“I don’t know.” Isabella sighed deeply. “His virtues outweigh his flaws. We all have flaws, do we not? No perfect man exists.”

“No. But love certainly does exist.”

“Even if I do love him, I would not be blind to those flaws…” Isabella paused, realizing what she had just said. Her feet halted beneath her, and Irene laughed, releasing her arm.

“Susan, I think she just admitted it!” Irene called.

“I didn’t.” Isabella shook her head firmly, wishing to deny it. “I said ‘if.’”

“You still said the words.” Irene continued to laugh as Susan returned to their side. “I do believe our sister to be in love with her husband.”

“Thank God for that,” Susan declared loudly.

“Shh!” Isabella pleaded and walked to catch up with them. “I didn’t say I loved him. I said ‘if.’”

Yet, nothing Isabella could say could quell her sisters’ excitement now. She walked ahead, and they trailed behind her, talking at length about Henry.

“I suppose they make a good couple, don’t they?” Susan said. “Both so tall and striking.”

“Indeed, they do. Especially if he smiles as often as she does now that they’re growing so much closer.”

Isabella turned back and hissed, “Irene! Susan! For the Lord’s sake, lower your voices. I do not need the whole of Hyde Park to hear that I… that I care about my husband.”

“She nearly said it,” Irene said and then snickered, unable to hold in her laugh.

“You can just say you love him, Sister,” Susan pointed out and hurried to catch up with Isabella. “There is no harm in it.”

“I didn’t say I did.”

Isabella couldn’t think about it. She and Henry were so happy, so much closer, that talking about such depth of feeling made her a little afraid. What if talking about love scared Henry off?

“Very soon, there will be little versions of Isabella and Henry running all over that fine estate, you mark my words,” Irene said confidently, striding forwards. “Our sister will have others to take care of instead of us soon enough, Susan.”

“How sweet that will be. We’ll be aunts!”

Susan started talking happily about what she would buy her nieces and nephews. Isabella hung back, walking slower behind them, struck by their words. Children weren’t something she and Henry had yet talked about, though the possibility had her turning to look at the families that were picnicking by the bandstand nearby.

One mother was reaching towards her young daughter, who was just beginning to learn to walk. The mother held her arms out to her daughter, and the toddler fell into them, their smiles both wide.

Maybe it is something we could discuss.

* * *

“Henry? Are you home?”

“In your new sitting room,” Henry called back to Isabella from where he was sitting surrounded by the soft duck egg blue and white tones.

He was strangely happy in this room and found himself retreating here more often than he did his study at the moment.

Lifting his gaze from the paperwork he had strewn across the table, he admired the room. It was significantly warmer than when his father had been alive. He was beginning to think it wise if he encouraged Isabella to extend her redecorating to the whole of the house.

“Henry?” She appeared in the doorway.

Her cheeks were a little flushed from her morning walk, and her hair was coming down out of its updo. When Henry’s eyes settled on her, he felt such a stirring in his gut that he sat back in his chair, quite forgetting about the paperwork for the tenants he had been dealing with.

“How are your sisters?” he asked conversationally, though his eyes were already running over her.

“They’re well. Irene certainly has hopes for her suitor, but Susan is so young I don’t think she’s given much thought to love yet. I’m a little relieved.” She sighed and crossed towards him. When she perched on the table beside him, capturing his attention, he abandoned the papers entirely. “There is something I wished to speak to you about.”

“What’s that?” he asked and turned to rest a hand on her waist.

Slowly, he slid her down the table so she sat there in front of him. Clearly startled by his touch, Isabella’s lips parted, and she broke off from whatever she wished to say.

“You’re looking at me in that way again.”

“What way?” he asked and reached for her waist with both hands.

“The way you were doing in the carriage the other night.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said innocently, then lifted her off the table, drawing her on his lap.

Her smile began to grow as she knelt beside him on the vast chair with one leg, then drew the other up so it was on the other side of his hip.

“Oh, you have no idea what I mean?” she asked and rested her hips against his.

“Well, perhaps a little,” he murmured, turning his chin up towards hers. “I’m glad you came home.”

“Me too.” She hovered over him, finding his lips with her own.

Henry responded instantly to her kiss. By now, he knew she would not be sore anymore, and she had not complained either from any feeling of tightness. The assurance made him long to know her better, to explore her completely once again.

“Henry,” she murmured between kisses.

“Yes?”

He didn’t let her lips go for long before he recaptured them. Repeatedly, he drew her closer, his hands splayed across her waist in an intimate touch.

“We are in the sitting room. Anyone could walk in if we were to stay here.”

“They might not, but if you wished to be sure.”

He put her back on the table so suddenly that she jolted in surprise. He hurried to the door of the sitting room and jammed it shut with a spindly chair so it would not open if anyone pressed against it, then he moved towards the windows and closed the white curtains, blocking out the view of the garden, in case any of the staff decided to take a walk.

“There, we are completely hidden now.”

She laughed as he rejoined. He didn’t hold back as he reached for her. There was something about this passion that was so overwhelming that he just needed to satisfy his desire again. From the moment that morning when she had nearly tackled him over with her gratitude for the horse, he had been thinking of this rush of feeling.

When she responded to his kisses, arching towards him, he moved quickly. Standing between her legs, he kicked the chair away to give himself room, then brought her knees up around his hips. Lifting the hem of her gown so it was around her hips, he rocked the two of them together, just once.

“Such a tease,” she reprimanded him, her voice teasingly firm.

“Ah, talk to me in that way and I won’t be able to hold back.” He turned her around, determined to try something new. “If you don’t like it, then you can tell me to stop, at any point.”

“You’re always quick to reassure me.”

“And I always will.”

He kissed her neck, then urged her softly down to bend over the desk. Her breath hitched as she leaned away from him, her hands over the wooden surface. With her hips in front of him, Henry continued to lift the hem of the gown and chemise higher.

He knew they could not risk being completely undressed in their sitting room, but for now, they could certainly do something. With the gown gathered around her hips, he brushed his hips to her behind, letting her feel how aroused he already was. At that movement, she moaned. The sound seemed to reach deep into his core, making his body stand completely to attention.

His fingers moved between her legs so he could reach for her center. He not only wished to check she was ready for him but wanted to give her as much pleasure as possible. There had been something so heady about seeing Isabella climax before, he found that moment as powerful as his own release.

He began to caress her with his fingers. When she rocked back against his hand, needing more of it, he withdrew from her. She growled in frustration, and he chuckled, releasing his length from his trousers and moving towards her.

“Impatient, wife?” he teased her.

“Not at all,” she said with sarcasm.

He laughed, loving her humor, even at this moment of heavy steam and need. When she was the one who rocked back against his length, he tipped his head back, feeling the pleasure suddenly engulf him. He started slowly at first, thrusting gently that she soon began to quiver.

Leaning down on the table, she arched her back and lifted her hips, opening herself to him completely. The sight and feel of her had his body tingling with excitement. His movements became faster and harder. She responded to him, her back arching all the more and the moans growing louder from her lips. He prayed all the staff were in the far recesses of the house, though he didn’t care too much at that moment. He just wanted to hear her pleasure.

Their speed increased, and with each thrust Henry made, she matched it, bouncing back against him. The heat and excitement were overwhelming, to the point that Henry could feel his heart racing, not just with their activities, but with the thrill of it all.

When Isabella reached her pinnacle, it was sudden. Her body tightened around him in such a way that he came very close to finding his own release.

Not like this.

He barely managed to pull out of her in time. He reprimanded his own body for being weak to her as he spilled his seed in a handkerchief, but that protest was soon lost. She turned round and embraced him, kissing him strongly, and he returned her kiss with passion.

It’s too easy to lose myself in her.

She laughed as she parted her lips from his, sitting back on the table. He moved his hips against her, promising her that more could come if she wanted it.

“You were right,” she marveled. “There was no pain this time. Only…” She paused and shuddered with delight, running her hands over his arms. He tipped his head back at her touch, startled by how such a simple thing could have such power over him. “Only pleasure,” she finished her sentence.

“Each time it will be pleasurable.” He kissed her cheek, her temple, then her neck again. “Oh, hang on.” He pulled back. “Weren’t you coming to talk to me about something? Apologies, I think I distracted you,” he said playfully.

“You did, but I was happy to be distracted.” Her smile broadened. “It can wait.”

“Good. Then I’ll kiss you again.”

He moved his lips over hers, wondering in the back of his mind what it was that she had at first thought was important to talk about but now thought no more of.