The Regency Season Collection: Part One. Кэрол Мортимер

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ had not known such intimacies, such pleasure, as that existed.

      The attentions of Zachary’s mouth, tongue and fingers had been centred between her thighs, but the pleasure had been felt everywhere. Radiating out from between her and consuming her every sensation, as it coursed, burned through her torso and throat, and into all of her limbs to the very ends of her fingers and her toes. And not just once, but twice! That pleasure building again, carrying her along on a tide of sensation. By the time Hinds had knocked on the door of her bedchamber...

      Hinds!

      What must he think? What conclusion could the butler have come to, in respect of the time his employer had spent in Georgianna’s bedchamber this morning?

      Considering the reason Zachary had informed his household staff for her being here at all, no doubt the butler had drawn the correct conclusion regarding their activities this morning.

      Georgianna was genuinely shocked at her own behaviour. Mortified. She had no idea how she was going to face Zachary again when he had looked at her and touched her so intimately.

      However, this personal mortification paled into insignificance in the face of Napoleon’s move from Elba.

      If it was true, and if Napoleon should indeed return to the shores of France, then there was sure to be another war. England and her allies could not just sit back and allow the Corsican to retake the French crown for his own. And if, when, that happened, more Englishmen would die.

      And to think, Georgianna might have prevented it if she had been more courageous. If she had not wasted so much time seeking safe and undetected passage for herself from France.

      Zachary might be one of the ones to die.

      Sooner rather than later if, as she suspected, he was leaving for France later today.

      If Napoleon should make it back to France in the next few days, as he was bound to do, then the next few weeks, as he marched towards Paris, would be dangerous indeed. Having lived there for the past few months, Georgianna knew, perhaps better than most, that the people of France were not all enamoured of having their king returned to them. And that many, given the choice, would far rather that Napoleon return as their emperor.

      The thought of Zachary deliberately placing himself in the midst of that turmoil was a frightening one.

      Georgianna shied away from admitting why she found the idea of Zachary in danger so disturbing. Shied away from facing that truth. Even to herself.

      She should hate Zachary Black. For having imprisoned her here. For disbelieving the things she had told him about André, as well as Napoleon’s plans to leave Elba. Most certainly for the liberties he had taken with her this morning.

      And yet she found she could not bring herself to hate Zachary. Certainly not enough to wish him ill. To wish him dead.

      Surely she had not come to care for him this past day or so? To feel something, some nameless, softening of emotion, for the very man she had run away from marrying in the first place?

      What other explanation was there for her response to him such a short time ago?

      It would be worse than ironic if that should be the case.

      ‘What are you thinking about so intently?’

      Georgianna spun sharply to face the man standing in the doorway of the bedchamber. The same gentleman, who now occupied so much of her thoughts.

      Her face was instantly ablaze with embarrassed colour, as she found her gaze drawn to those beautifully sculptured lips. Lips, that such a short time ago, had been kissing and suckling her intimately.

      ‘I was merely wondering exactly when you intended leaving for France, so that I might know when I will, most thankfully, be relieved of your company,’ she replied tartly, her gaze now meeting his boldly.

      Zachary gave a slow and mocking smile at that now-familiar sharpness; ridiculous of him to have expected that their earlier intimacies might have in any way softened Georgianna’s feelings towards him.

      The fact that she had once again dressed in the unbecoming black gown in his absence was evidence enough, surely, that she regretted those intimacies?

      At the same time as Zachary acknowledged he now had no choice but to believe that the information Georgianna had given him about Napoleon’s movements was, in fact, the truth.

      As had been her claim not to have seen Rousseau for many months?

      The intelligence report that Zachary had read on Rousseau would seem to indicate that also was true.

      Which, taken to its logical conclusion, must also mean that Georgianna had indeed parted from Rousseau only a week or so after arriving in France, and that she had then worked on a farm for several months, before going to back to Paris to work as a kitchen maid in Helene Rousseau’s tavern.

      Zachary found himself scowling at the thought of this beautiful young woman wandering alone about the French countryside, let alone returning to Paris to work in such a lowly tavern as the Fleur de Lis, leaving herself prey to any and all of that inn’s patrons.

      ‘Never mind my own plans for now, what on earth did you think you were doing by remaining in France once Rousseau had finished with you, and so putting yourself in danger for so many months?’ He scowled his displeasure.

      Oh, yes, André had certainly finished with her, she reflected bitterly. Indeed, as far as she was aware he still believed he had finished her off completely and that her stripped and bleached bones now lay scattered about a forest outside Paris.

      She gave an uninterested shrug. ‘Why not stay, when I had nothing to return to in England?’

      ‘Your father was still alive then, and your brother...’

      ‘A father and a brother who had quite rightly disowned me,’ she responded tautly.

      The duke scowled.

      ‘Why did the Duke of Wolfingham need to speak with you so urgently?’ she prompted shrewdly.

      Zachary raised dark brows. ‘I do not recall Hinds indicating that Wolfingham’s visit was urgent in nature.’

      ‘I assumed, from the haste with which you left earlier... Silly me.’ Georgianna gave a discomforted grimace. ‘No doubt the urgency was for you to leave my bedchamber, rather than your need to rush to Wolfingham.’

      ‘And yet here I am, back again,’ he drawled.

      ‘Only because you had not finished our earlier conversation, I am sure.’ Georgianna turned away to walk over to one of the windows. ‘You cannot seriously intend to leave me a prisoner here whilst you go to France?’

      ‘I do not believe I have ever confirmed my intention of going to France.’

      ‘But we both know that you are.’ Georgianna glanced back at him as he did not deny it a second time. ‘And you would have admitted it was so earlier if we had not been...’ Her face flushed fiery red as she remembered the reason for their earlier distraction.

      ‘No, I would not, Georgianna, and for the simple reason СКАЧАТЬ