‘Alex-’
‘Shh! If you make a noise, Lady Eleanor will hear you and doubtless be scandalised!’
‘Oh!’ In her strangely weakened state, Jane felt herself fall back against her pillows. Alex leant over her.
‘And I do love you,’ Alex continued, his words muffled against her throat. ‘My darling Jane, I love you so much I would have thought it was utterly obvious to everybody!’
‘Oh!’
‘Is that all you can say?’ Alex smiled wickedly down into her dazed eyes. ‘I am used to far more accomplished repartee from you, my love!’
His mouth captured hers again and Jane lay back against the yielding pillows with a little sigh. She reached out to him, sliding her hands over the firm muscles of his back beneath his jacket, feeling the heat of his skin through the linen shirt. It was delicious and intoxicating and entirely improper.
Jane was aware that her nightdress, high-necked and virginal as it was, constituted scant barrier against a determined approach, and already Alex’s deft fingers were unfastening the laces, brushing the flimsy cotton aside and drifting gently over her exposed skin. As he traced the curve of her breast, Jane arched in pure pleasure, digging her fingers into his back. Improper or not, she certainly did not want him to stop now.
‘Jane, we must stop this now if I am not to break all the rules of hospitality and seduce you in your brother’s house!’ Alex’s voice was hoarse, his eyes glittering with a desire that could not be hidden. ‘God forgive me, I never intended it so, but I can scarce help myself!’
He removed himself to the end of the bed, very forcibly. ‘I need to talk to you, Jane, but this is evidently not the time and the place since talking is not uppermost in my mind! Now, do you still doubt that I love you?’
Jane could feel herself smiling in the darkness. ‘No…’
‘And I shall not show so much restraint on our wedding night, I promise you!’
Jane drew the covers up to her chin. She felt warm and happy and very much loved. ‘I should think not, your Grace!’ she said primly.
They met at breakfast, when both behaved as though the previous night’s encounter had never occurred. Thérèse noticed that Jane could not meet her fiancé’s eyes, but her rosy colour and slight smile suggested that she was in no way displeased to see him. After the meal they escaped from company with indecent haste and strolled towards the walled garden.
‘Why did you ever imagine that I did not love you, Jane?’ Alex asked. There was a certain expression in his eyes that made Jane feel suddenly breathless and, as she remembered the events of the previous evening, the colour came into her face again. Her doubts seemed so foolish now, in the bright light of day and secure in the knowledge that Alex loved her. Yet at the time they had seemed horribly real…
‘Well, first there was your pledge to your grandfather-’
‘What of it? I am sure that I am pleased to fulfil his wishes, but I would not let that dictate my marriage!’
‘Oh! But that cannot be so! You said that our marriage would be a neat solution!’
Alex looked rueful. ‘I did say that, I know! It is partly correct, of course, but it hid the most important truth, which was that I had wanted to marry you myself almost from the first moment. It took me a little while to realise, for I was not accustomed to seeking the company of women-’ He broke off. ‘Why the reproachful look, Jane?’
‘I did not wish to bring Lady Dennery’s name into this,’ Jane said, mock-sorrowfully, ‘but it seems I have no choice! If you did not seek her company, then how would you describe your conduct?’
Alex laughed. ‘Very well, I concede I made a bad mistake there! She threw herself at my head and I-well, I was trying to distract myself from the curious hold you appeared to have over me! Needless to say, it did not work! But,’ he added hastily, ‘she was never my mistress!’
‘Hmm!’ Jane looked severe. ‘I believe she had her eye on your strawberry leaves!’
‘They will look nicer on your head, I think!’
Jane tried not to smile. She had not yet finished her inquisition. ‘There is a more serious charge against you, however. What of your love for your wife?’
‘For whom? I collect you mean for Madeline? Yes, I suppose I should tell you about her.’ Alex stopped smiling and Jane felt her heart start to race. Now, she was sure, he would be honest with her and tell her that no matter how much he loved her, he had never ceased to care for his beautiful Duchess. He gestured to her to sit down in the rose arbour.
‘It’s true that I loved Madeline very much when I first married her,’ Alex said. ‘She was beautiful and I was young and not very wise. Even when matters started to go awry between us I kept hoping that I might yet make all well, that I might make Madeline love me again. It was a long time before I realised.’
‘Realised what?’
Alex shrugged. ‘Why, that Madeline was incapable of loving anyone except herself. She had nothing to give; she wanted more and more, until she was insane with greed. Greed for riches and power and love, but without paying any price in return.’ He shook his head. ‘It was then that my love, which had been twisted out of all recognition, finally died.’ He looked up suddenly to meet Jane’s sympathetic gaze and took her hands in his. ‘I told you once not to pity me, did I not? That was not because I had any feelings left for Madeline, but because I had already started to care for you! It was not pity I wanted from you, Jane, but something far stronger!’ His voice dropped. ‘And more passionate!’
‘I thought-’ Jane stopped and started again. ‘At Malladon, when you showed me her picture, I thought you were going to tell me that you still loved her. I thought that you kept the portrait in so prominent a place to remind you…’
‘I never go to Malladon,’ Alex said simply. ‘The house was let until a few months ago and it was never a favourite home of mine. I had forgotten that Madeline’s picture hung there! That evening, I was going to tell you what had happened between Madeline and myself, and to tell you that I loved you. Then you ran away and I thought that it was too soon to make my feelings known!’
‘If only I had known! My own reluctance sprang only from the belief that you wanted to marry me for all the convenient and none of the romantic reasons!’
Alex’s lips twitched. ‘We have made a fine mull of things between us, but I hope that in future we shall achieve a better understanding! I certainly intend to devote a great deal of time to doing so!’
They sat for a while in the sunshine. ‘I am so glad that everything is all right,’ Jane said contentedly. ‘I kept looking at Sophia and Thérèse and feeling so envious of their happiness, when all I wanted was mine for the asking!’
The old church at Ambergate was bright with orange blossom and lilies on the day of the wedding. The three radiant brides emerged on to the village green on the arms of their proud husbands and were showered with rose petals and good wishes. As they paused beneath the lych gate, Lady Sophia Delahaye turned a glowing face to her sister-in-law the Duchess and gave her an impulsive hug. Her eyes were as bright as stars.
‘Oh, Jane! I can scarce believe it! Is this not fine?’
Nicola Cornick
