A Secret Affair

her neck and undid it before lowering the hood from her head and opening back the cloak.

Her hair was loose again, held back from her face with heavy jeweled clips above her ears. Her dress was dark in color—blue or purple, perhaps. Royal blue, he saw in the shaft of light from a street lamp as they passed. It was low cut, high waisted. The diamonds had gone from her neck and earlobes.

She was a woman ready for her lover.

He lowered his head and kissed her. Her lips were warm, slightly parted, receptive.

He slid one arm behind her back, one beneath her knees, and swung her over onto his lap.

He kissed her again, and she slid her arms about his neck.

Oh, yes, there was lust right enough.

And something else, perhaps?

It was pure rationalization that made him imagine so. This was not partially about companionship, as his affairs usually were. This was purely about lust.

Sex.

Which they were going to be having with great vigor within the hour. It was enough. The summer and winter had been long. Surely he could be forgiven a little unbridled lust during the spring.

They had not spoken a word to each other since they left the theater.

***

SHE WAS NOT to be whisked upstairs and tossed onto his bed without further ado, Hannah discovered when they stepped inside his house and he dismissed the butler for the night, saying he would have no further need of him.

Constantine then took her by the elbow and guided her into the room where they had dined last week. The table was set again, with cold meats and cheese and bread and wine this time. A single candle was burning in the center of the table. And a fire crackled in the hearth again.

It was as much a relief as a disappointment, Hannah found. Not that she was particularly hungry. Or in need of wine. And she had certainly been wanting him very badly all evening. She had hardly concentrated at all upon the play, one of her favorites. And desire had all but boiled over in the carriage, especially after he had lifted her onto his lap.

How deliciously strong he was to be able to do that without heaving and hauling her and panting with the exertion. She weighed a mite more than a feather, after all.

She was glad desire had not quite boiled over. Which was a strange thought. She was doing all this purely out of lust, was she not? This spring she was free to take a lover, she had deliberately chosen to take one, and she had very carefully selected Constantine Huxtable.

Only to discover that lust was not quite sufficient in itself.

How very provoking!

One really ought to be able to fix one’s mind upon a certain goal—especially when one had chosen it and worked toward it with deliberate care—and move inexorably forward until it was achieved.

Her goal was to enjoy the person of Constantine Huxtable until summer drove her off to Kent and him to wherever in Gloucestershire he had his home.

What was the big secret about that place, she wondered, that he would tell her nothing?

And now she was discovering that perhaps his person—gorgeous and perfect as it was—was not enough.

Maybe she was just tired. Oh, but she was still feeling lusty too. She was glad, though, that there was to be some supper first—even if she did not eat anything.

He drew her cloak off her shoulders, standing behind her as he did so. His hands barely touched her.

“Duchess?” he said, indicating the chair on which she had sat last week. “Will you have a seat?”

He poured the wine as she seated herself. She placed a little of everything on her plate.

“Did you enjoy the performance?” she asked.

“I was somewhat distracted through much of it,” he said. “But I believe it was entertaining.”

“Barbara was ecstatic,” she said. “She views the London scene, of course, through eyes that have not become jaded.”

“She has never been here before?” he asked.

“She has,” she said. “While I was married I occasionally prevailed upon her to spend a couple of weeks or so with me, though most of those visits were in the country rather than in town. And she would never stay long. She was terrified of the duke.”

“Did she have reason to be?” he asked.

“He was a duke,” she said. “He had been since the age of twelve. He had been a duke for longer than sixty years when I married him. Of course she had reason to be terrified even though he always went out of his way to be courteous to her. She is a vicar’s daughter, Constantine.”

“But you were not terrified of him?” he asked.

“I adored him,” she said, picking up her glass and twirling the stem in her fingers.

“How did you meet him?” he asked.

How had the conversation swung in this direction? That was the trouble with conversations.

“He had a family which he liked to describe as ‘prodigious large and tedious,’” she said. “He ignored them when he could, which was most of the time. But he had a sense of duty too. He attended the wedding of one relative, who was fourteenth in line to his title. He always felt an obligation to anyone who was higher than twentieth in line, he told me. I was at the wedding celebrations too. We met there.”

“And married soon after,” he said. “It must have been love at first sight.”

“If I had not noted the hint of irony in your voice, Constantine,” she said, “I would tell you not to be ridiculous.”

He gazed at her silently for a few moments.

“Your youth and beauty and his rank and wealth?” he said.

“The reason behind a thousand marriages,” she said, biting off a piece of cheese. “You make the duke and me sound quite ordinary, Constantine.”

“I am quite sure, Duchess,” he said, “you do not need my assurance that you were in fact a quite extraordinary couple, but I will give it anyway.”

“He was quite splendid, was he not?” she said. “Courtly and stately and oh-so-aristocratic to the end. And with a presence that drew all eyes but not many persons. Most people dared not approach him. Oh, he must have been a sight to behold when he was a young man. I do believe I would have fallen hopelessly in love with him if I had known him then.”

“Hopelessly?” he said.

“Yes.” She sighed. “It would have been quite, quite hopeless. He would not have spared me a glance.”

“Hard to believe, Duchess,” he said. “But I do believe you were a little in love with him anyway.”

“I loved him,” she said. “And he loved me. Would not the ton be amazed if they knew that we had a happy marriage? But no, not amazed. They would be incredulous. People believe what they choose to believe—just as you do.”

“You proved me colossally wrong on one recent occasion,” he said.

“You called me vain tonight,” she said, “when in reality I am simply honest.”

“It would be rather foolish,” he said, “if you went about calling yourself ugly.”

“And massively untruthful,” she said.

She drained her glass as he gazed across the table at her.

“And you have called me greedy tonight,” she said.

His eyebrows arched upward.

“I hope, Duchess,” he said, “I am too much the gentleman to accuse anyone of greed, least of all the lady who is my lover.”

“But you have implied it,” she said. “At the theater you chose to view my jewels and hear about them with amusement. And here at this table you have presumed to know my motive for marrying the duke.”

“And I am wrong?” he asked.

She spread her hands on the table on either side of her plate. She had removed all her jewels at home and