Their mouths met, hot and wet as he rocked up against her, as they rocked together, an exquisite rhythm that built and built until she came undone with a little cry that was swallowed by his own deep moan of pleasure.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered after she caught her breath. “That was one perfect moment.”
One perfect moment of euphoria.
“We’ll have more,” he murmured, pulling back to wipe traces of tears from her cheeks. With one gentle finger, he touched the dent in her chin. “A lifetime together.”
Nothing would ever come between them again.
FOR A LONG time Lily stayed wrapped around Rand, and he held her close, cradling her head against his chest, his gaze drifting out the window. Rain pattered softly against the leaded panes. Beyond the glass, tall old trees danced in the blustery breeze, bright green against the dark gray sky, and farther beyond that, the red brick of Hawkridge Hall loomed majestically.
This, Rand thought—all of it—would someday be his. And he belonged here, as much as he belonged in a lecture hall or huddled over a cryptic passage of ancient text.
As a lad, he’d sought acceptance from a father who couldn’t stand the sight of him and a brother who’d hated him since birth. Alban was dead now, his evil laid to rest. And as for the marquess…maybe now he would finally offer that approval that had been so elusive.
But to Rand it didn’t really matter anymore. Because now he had Lily.
A contented sigh drifted from her, and he raised her face for his kiss. He would never get enough of her, he thought as he grazed her eyes and her cheeks and her lips, settling there to savor her sweet mouth. A kiss as gentle as the summer rain, a kiss for them both to melt into, a kiss to meld bodies and souls. And then another kiss. And another.
And another, until they heard a scratch and a peck and a tap against one of the dairy’s windows.
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Next up is Rose’s story in Rose. Please read on for an excerpt.
If you’d like to learn more about the real places and events in Lily, read on for my Author’s Note…
BONUS MATERIAL
Author’s Note
Explore the Chase Family World
Excerpt from Rose
Books by Lauren Royal
Free Historical Recipe Book
Contest
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Jewels of Historical Romance
Contact Information
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader,
Before I receive a bunch of letters claiming that mastiffs are gentle, protective, indoor, family-type dogs, I want to say that all of that is true—for today’s mastiffs. But in days gone by, the mastiff was known as a fighting dog. Caesar mentioned mastiffs in his account of invading Britain in 55 B.C., describing the huge British dogs that fought beside their masters. Soon afterward, mastiffs were bought back to Rome, where they saw combat at the Circus, matched against not only other dogs but also bulls, bears, lions, tigers, and human gladiators. Marco Polo wrote of Kubla Khan, who owned five thousand mastiffs used for hunting and war. Henry VIII gifted Charles V of Spain with four hundred mastiffs intended for use in battle.
However, by the 1920s, mastiffs were disappearing from England. During World War I, people thought it unpatriotic to keep dogs alive that ate as much in a day as a soldier. By World War II, they were nearly extinct in England, but afterward, mastiffs were imported from Canada and the United States to start new kennels. Now they are well established again, but with a change: modern breeders have bred the mastiff for gentleness and companionship rather than fighting. In his Knight’s Tale, Chaucer described mastiffs as large as steer, which sounds unbelievable until we remember that cattle were much smaller in those days. Today’s mastiffs are the same massive size, but they’re loving and sociable pets.
In 1680, Irish scientist Robert Boyle began selling coarse sheets of paper coated with phosphorus and wooden sticks with sulfur. A stick drawn through a fold of the paper would burst into flames. This device was the first chemical “match” and ultimately led to what we think of as matches today. In 1855, the first red phosphorus “safety” matches were introduced in Sweden, and paper “match books” were invented in the United States in 1889.
Bawdy songs have always been popular, and in the seventeenth century the English were more comfortable singing such verse than they tend to be today. They relished the ribald and didn’t take pains to disguise sex as love. Cromwell’s Puritan Protectorate may have driven lusty singing underground, but with the Restoration, the ballad sellers returned. These early entrepreneurs sold single-sheet songs on the street, cheaply printed overnight to gain the most profit from each newly written piece.
In 1661, publisher and composer John Playford put together a collection of these songs and ballads and called it An Antidote Against Melancholy. In 1682, his son Henry expanded the collection and published it as Wit and Mirth: An Antidote Against Melancholy. By 1698, the book was so popular that Henry expanded it again, this time sold as Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy. It proved so successful that after Henry’s death it was published by others, and five further volumes were eventually added. By the time Thomas D’Urfey edited the final edition in 1720, the six-volume set contained more than a thousand bawdy songs.
Most of the homes in my books are
