Chapter 6
“For goodness’ sake, stop scowling. We are on our way out to dinner, not approaching the gallows!”
Titus, seated opposite Pru in his carriage, now shot her a belligerent glower from beneath his lowered brows, evidence he was completely unamused. They both knew that the gallows was exactly where the lady found guilty of treason would go.
Pru looked beautiful this evening in a deep purple mourning gown suitable for attending a private dinner party, with a matching cloak about her slender shoulders and the hood pulled up to cover her golden curls.
It was a beauty and elegance which did not improve Titus’s mood in the slightest, when where they were actually on their way to was dinner at the Duke of Stonewell’s London home.
Titus should never have allowed Pru to flirt and cajole him into accepting Stonewell’s invitation on behalf of both of them. But, as he had learned these past two days since he’d revealed all to Pru in regard to The Sinners’ investigations, he was totally unable to withstand either Pru’s demands or her cajoling.
She should have been accompanied by her maid this evening, of course, but had explained the omission by informing him that young lady now had an aversion to traveling anywhere by coach or carriage. Understandable, when the last occasion the maid had done so, the carriage had caught fire and she had almost been killed.
Being completely alone with the beautiful and tempting Pru was not the best way for Titus to start an evening that already promised to be fraught with tension.
Not only was he suspicious of Nik’s reasons for having extended the invitation to Pru as well as himself, but he did not trust the excited gleam now in Pru’s eyes either. “I am well aware of where we are going,” he snapped. “I only hope you will keep your promise to me to behave yourself.” That promise was the price she’d had to pay for his accepting the dinner invitation on their behalf.
It was not the only reason Titus had decided to accept.
To his discomfort, he had been unable to stop thinking about Pru since he’d kissed and spanked her two days ago. Nor could he dispel the ache he felt to do both those things with her again. To spend a whole evening in Pru’s company, even at Stonewell’s home, was a temptation Titus had ultimately been unable to resist.
He eyed Pru warily now as she rose to cross the carriage and sit down on the upholstered bench seat beside him. “What are you doing?”
She turned fully to face him. “I thought to reassure you I shall not embarrass you this evening.”
He was not fooled for a moment by the earnestness of her expression. “You did not need to sit beside me to do that. Nor is that reassurance the same as promising to behave yourself.”
Pru was well aware of that, but how could she uphold such a promise? Moreover, one she believed to have been made under the duress of Titus refusing Stonewell’s dinner invitation if she did not make that promise. She would have promised him anything if it resulted in her being able to dine with the Duke and Duchess of Stonewell this evening.
She fluttered her lashes. “But I would embarrass you if I did not behave myself.”
“You will end up over my knee having your bottom spanked again if you continue flirting with me,” he warned.
Pru sat back on the seat with a flounce of her cloak. Obviously, Romney was not in the least fooled by her attempt at innocence. “And then you would have to explain to your friends why I am unable to sit down at the dinner table!”
He gave a grin of satisfaction. “I believe I might safely take a guess that several of those friends take delight in administering that same…brand of chastisement to their wives.”
“Then you are all barbarians!”
He nodded. “Unrepentantly so.”
“Bully.”
“Witch.”
Her lips thinned. “I believe I dislike you again after you treated me so abominably two days ago.”
“That is a pity.” Romney turned in his seat, the long length of his thigh now pressing against her own. “Because I like you, and your bare bottom, very much.”
Pru felt the bloom of color in her cheeks. “You are not a gentleman!”
He chuckled. “And you, thank God, are not a lady.”
She frowned her curiosity. “Do the other Sinners…really do to their wives what you did to me?”
“Will you think less of those ladies if I say yes?”
“Less…?” Pru’s brow cleared. “How well do you know my mother?”
Romney looked taken aback. “I assure you I have never—”
“Not in that way, silly.” Pru was openly laughing at him. “My mother would never be swayed from her love for my father by a handsome younger man.”
His brows rose. “You believe me handsome, then?”
“Tolerably so,” she drawled. “But the reason I asked about how well you know my mother,” she continued determinedly, “was because she has very…positive views on how a lady should or should not behave, in the bedchamber and out of it.”
“There is more than her telling you how to pleasure yourself?”
Pru’s cheeks grew warm. “She spoke with Cilla and me when we reached our sixteenth birthday. Explained…well, I am sure you know what she explained,” she dismissed impatiently. “We already knew about all that, of course. I had read several books on the subject—”
“You had?”
“My father has a whole top shelf of a bookcase on erotic literature he no doubt assumes we cannot reach or would not dare to read.”
“But you did both.” It was a dry statement, not a question.
“Of course I did. Anyway, some I read and some of them only had pictures. I, of course, passed all the information I found along to Cilla. She did not believe half of what I told her,” she added affectionately.
“I am sure you managed to convince her otherwise.”
Pru gave him a reproving glance. “Then, of course, my mother gave us her little talk about the marriage bed, and also explained how we might pleasure ourselves until we were married, something Cilla and I tried the moment we were back in our bedchambers. After we had both reached the pinnacle of that pleasure, Cilla had no choice but to give credence to the other things I had told her.”
“I fail to see…”
“That is because you have not allowed me to finish.” She tutted. “During her talk, my mother also told us that a woman must be a lady in public, always, but when in the bedchamber, there are…things a man and woman do together which are completely private to them and, if by mutual consent, are no one else’s business but their own.”
Romney shifted uncomfortably. “Such as?”
“Such as the gentleman spanking the lady.” She eyed him with amusement. “The use of ropes or silk handkerchiefs to subdue one partner or the other during lovemaking. That there is more than one place a gentleman might put his cock. Between a lady’s legs, of course, but also in her mouth, and then again—”
“I believe I now have the gist of the conversation,” the viscount interrupted hastily.
Pru eyed him curiously. “Am I embarrassing you?”
“Not in the least.” The clearing of his throat gave lie to that claim. “But I do find it incredible that your mother should have discussed such things with you and your sister.”
“Why?”
“Well. Because… A lady does not normally—”
“My mother is every inch a lady,” she defended. “She is also forward thinking in her belief a woman should have the same physical pleasure as a man. Would you not enjoy it if I were to take your cock into my mouth?”
“Of course. But—”
“Did you not enjoy spanking me?” She already knew of her own pleasure in the act…
“Very much.” Romney nodded. “I am sure you must have felt the evidence of my enjoyment pressing against your bottom.”
Pru felt a warming between her thighs at the memory of the way the thickened length of Titus’s cock had fitted snugly against the crease of her burning bottom cheeks.
“I see that you did.” Romney nodded.
“But that is the whole point of my mother talking to us in that frank manner. She believes that if a woman is willing to experiment and enjoy sexual acts with her lover or husband that the relationship will flourish rather than stultify into nothing more than politeness, duty, and ultimately, unhappiness.”
“It is one way of looking at things, I suppose.”
“Are your friends happy in their marriages?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“As are my parents.”
Romney closed his eyes briefly. “I am not sure I shall be able to look at either of them again without imagining— I do not wish to think about it further,” he dismissed firmly.
Pru nodded. “Apart from the pleasuring-myself part, I found some of the things my mother said and which I read about and saw in those books hard to believe too until I met you.”
“Now see here—”
“When you spanked me, and I was aroused by it, I finally realized what my mother had meant.”
He gave a pained wince. “I see.”
She looked at him beneath lowered lashes. “That being the case, if there are any other sexual acts you would like us to try—”
“Pru!” he reproved sternly.
She pouted slightly. “I have not touched myself again for the past two days and nights.”
His brows rose. “Because I asked you to wait until we were together again?”
“Yes.”
Romney breathed in deeply. “Does that mean you want me to give you that pleasure again now, before we arrive at Stonewell House?”
Pru had ached these past two days and nights to have Titus’s hands upon her again. But he seemed so shocked by the things she had already said to him, perhaps it would be for the best if—
“Do not even think about lying to me, Pru,” Romney warned softly. “Not when I only have to do this.” One of his hands moved beneath the hem of her gown and unerringly up the length of her leg before deftly sliding his fingers inside the slit in her drawers to stroke her nether lips. “To feel how wet you are at the mere thought of feeling my hands on you again.”
“We cannot do that here,” she gasped in weak protest, her body already betraying her as her core heated and she felt the gush of fresh juices against Titus’s stroking fingers.
“According to your mother, we can,” he assured gruffly. “But I think perhaps we shall not.” He removed his hand from inside her drawers. “Perhaps the thought of what might occur during our carriage ride home later tonight will help you to remember your manners this evening.”
Pru glared her frustration at him. “That is blackmail.”
“Only if you wish for me to pleasure you again.” He quirked a dark brow. “Do you?”
Quite how Pru would have answered that question, with the truth or prevarication regarding her desire for Romney, she had no idea, as she was saved from replying when the carriage came to a halt outside Stonewell House.
Romney placed a hand on her arm before they alighted from the carriage. “You will remain by my side this evening.”
“And if I should need to go to the ladies’ retiring room?”
“Then I will accompany you there and wait outside so we can return together. You are not to be alone at any time during the evening,” he stated firmly.
“Is that for my sake or someone else’s?”
His mouth thinned. “Yours.”
Pru frowned. “Are you not taking my protection to a ridiculous level?” She had not seen any of the men Titus told her he had watching and following her, or the Duke of Stonewell’s, but she nevertheless knew they were there. “We will, after all, be in the home of one of your closest friends.”
“Where his wife, mother-in-law, and several of my friends and their wives will also be in attendance. The only one of The Sinners who will not be present this evening is Wessex and Lady Jocelyn. They retired to the country the day after the wedding.”
Pru was well aware of that. She missed Jocey’s company and her friend’s counsel very much, would have liked to talk to the other woman regarding her own recent behavior with Titus. Sensual behavior Titus seemed to feel his friends also indulged in. Pru now wondered if it had happened to Jocey too, and if so, how her friend felt about it.
Without her sister or her friend to confide in or give advice as to how she ought to proceed, Pru had taken to acting purely on instinct.
That instinct now told her the possibility of Titus pleasuring her again later tonight would aid in preventing her from causing a scene or any embarrassment during this evening spent at the Duke of Stonewell’s home.
As Romney, damn him, intended it should.
“How is your investigation progressing?” she murmured as they disposed of their outer garments into the butler’s care before being shown to the drawing room.
“Slowly.” Titus’s effort to retrace the steps of the initial investigation was proving more difficult than he would have wished. Partly because he was unsure as to whom he could trust, necessitating he deal with the matter himself, and also because he did not wish Stonewell or anyone else to know of his private investigations. “Nor will we discuss this again here,” he added as their hostess came forward to greet them the moment the butler announced them.
“How lovely to see you again, Romney.” Angelique Sinclair gave Titus a warm kiss on his unscarred cheek. “And the lovely Lady Prudence. We so appreciate you putting aside your mourning for one evening so that you might join us for dinner.”
Titus easily felt Pru’s gloved hand tense as it rested on his forearm.
“I shall never cease mourning my sister, ma’am,” she answered the other woman tautly.
The duchess blinked at her vehemence. “I meant no offense by the remark, my dear.” She gave Pru’s arm a squeeze before releasing her. “I only wished to convey my pleasure in seeing you here this evening with our darling Titus.”
Pru was unsure whether to be more offended by Angelique Sinclair’s remark concerning her sister’s death or the proprietary claim she had made on Titus’s friendship. Either way, Pru did not know how to answer the other woman without, as Titus had requested she did not, misbehaving.
“Romney and Lady Prudence!” The Duke of Stonewell strode across the room to join them, a polite smile curving his sculpted lips and giving a less severe appearance to his austere features. “You are the last of our guests to arrive,” he continued once the social pleasantries of bowing and curtseying had been satisfied. “I’ll introduce you to everyone else.”
Pru felt a little shy as the duke took her and Titus about the room and introduced her to four more of The Sinners and their wives. All of The Sinners were extremely handsome gentlemen, their wives women with whom Pru was acquainted but did not know intimately.
Four women who, like her, had been suspected of treason.
And a fifth, the duchess, who must surely be that traitor?
“And I believe you both know my mother-in-law, Lady Jacqueline Kingston, and Lord Cedric Holmes.” The duke introduced an older couple standing beside one of the bay windows.
Lady Jacqueline was an older and slightly faded version of her red-haired daughter, and a lady known in Society for her eccentricities. She had a habit of making completely inappropriate remarks while in company, as well as gadding about the town unaccompanied by a maid or companion.
Pru recognized Lord Holmes, a gray-haired and portly gentleman, but she did not recall ever having spoken to him before.
Nevertheless, Pru greeted them both politely before her attention was distracted by the butler offering her a glass of sherry from a silver tray.
She was barely aware of sipping the sweetness as she shut out the inanely twittering conversation of Lady Jacqueline in favor of once again turning her attention to studying The Sinners and their wives:
The Duke of Wolferton and his duchess, Beatrix.
The Duke of Huntley and his duchess, Isabella.
The Marquis of Deveril and his marchioness, Lady Alys.
The Earl of Carlton and his countess, Lady Heather.
Was it possible one of those ladies had been wrongly cleared of committing treason?
Or that, as Titus now suspected, it might be that none of the eight ladies under suspicion was guilty.
Titus had been quite right to caution Pru in regard to confronting the Duchess of Stonewell and accusing her of the deed without proof of her guilt. Better to wait until after Titus had completed his own investigations before—
“Your staring is bordering on rudeness,” Romney cautioned beside her softly.
Pru gave him an irritated frown, at the same time noting that Lady Jacqueline and Lord Holmes had moved away during her distraction and were now standing across the room talking to the Earl of Carlton and his wife. Possibly because Pru had ignored them both after the initial introductions.
“I am simply observing the other guests while sipping my glass of sherry,” she dismissed.
“And imagining each and every one of the ladies as being guilty of treason,” he acknowledged grimly.
“Yes,” she admitted with a grimace. “But I am also wondering… Do you suppose that Lady Jacqueline and Lord Homes are lovers?” She had observed a certain…intimacy, between the older couple.
He nodded. “Much to Stonewell’s disgust.”
“He does not approve of the friendship?”
He chuckled. “I do not think he will mind quite so much if the affair results in marriage and the removal of his mother-in-law from his home.”
“I am pleased to see you are now smiling rather than scowling as you were when we discussed the subject of sexual practices earlier,” she teased.
Titus had been scowling earlier because after their conversation on sexual practices, he would much rather have carried Pru off in his carriage and ravished her until she cried out her release, again and again. With the knowledge of a long and tedious evening ahead of him, he now deeply regretted not having done exactly that.
Pru was far from the most classically beautiful woman he had ever seen. Definitely not the most charming! Nor were her slightly rounded curves in the least fashionable. But Titus knew he desired Pru as he had desired no other woman. Quite possibly, he might even be falling in love with her.
He had no experience of the emotion, beyond observing the loving affection of the other Sinners and their wives. Perhaps with the exception of Stonewell, who was polite to his young wife but did not seem to share the same intimacy of manner with his duchess as his other friends.
Titus’s parents had not married for love but for title and wealth, his mother the former and his father the latter. They had grown to like and respect each other over time, and Titus had never had reason to doubt their love for him, but their marriage was not a love match. Consequently, he had not grown up in a household where affection was openly given or received. Had been taught that duty to one’s family and the Crown was of more importance.
He had met the other Sinners at boarding school, and over time, the eight of them had formed an alliance which held precedence over any and all other relationships. A brotherly loyalty might best describe that friendship, he believed.
Love for a woman was not something Titus had any personal experience of.
He had no idea if that was what he now felt for Pru.
But whatever his feelings for her were, he felt honor bound to protect her. From herself, if necessary. “Will you at least try to enjoy this evening as merely a pleasant time spent with my closest friends?” he prompted gently.
“Does that mean you wish me to cease my speculations regarding the relationship between Lady Jacqueline and Lord Holmes?” Pru’s eyes now glowed with humor as she looked across the room to where that lady’s loud conversation with her daughter, and the duchess’s attempts to calm her, showed the effects of the older lady having helped herself to a second glass of sherry.
Titus grimaced. “Lady Jacqueline has lived with Stonewell and Angelique since the beginning of their marriage and is, I believe, the bane of Nik’s existence. He does not say much about the situation out of loyalty to his wife, but it is clear his mother-in-law becomes more eccentric by the day. She even managed to set fire to the library here several months ago when she fell asleep in a chair reading a book and knocked over a candle while sleeping.”
Pru’s eyes widened. “After what happened to us, are you sure it was an accident?”
He nodded. “An empty decanter of brandy was found on the table beside her. She was, to put it mildly, more than a little drunk when the incident happened.”
“Poor lady,” Pru sympathized.
Titus gave a snort. “Poor Nik.”
Pru turned to face him. “Will you be seated next to me at dinner, do you suppose?”
“Why?” Titus became guarded at this sudden turn of subject.
She linked her arm through one of his. “Because I should like it very much if you were.”
Which did nothing to alleviate Titus’s wariness. “Why?”
Pru laughed softly. “For the very reason that it is obviously worrying you not to know what my motives are!”
“Minx.”
She maintained a sweet and insincere smile. “Tease.”
He did exactly that. “I thought you told me in the carriage earlier you had decided not to like me again?”
“I don’t,” Pru answered lightly.
And truthfully.
Because some time in the last few days, Pru had come to realize her true feelings for this man. She was in love with Titus Covington, Viscount Romney. That she had, in all probability, been in love with him for several months.
A man who did not completely trust her, even though he made no secret of the fact he desired her.