Thom held up her hands, and gave a little laugh. “I surrender. I bow to your superior knowledge of society. But surely you have no need to hide the Guide from Harry? Oh, don’t get your hackles up, I’m not suggesting that you tell him you wrote it — not that I think he would mind, he seems a very fair-minded man — but there’s no reason you couldn’t show him the book and try out one or two of the more interesting exercises. I was thinking that Heron Alighting Upon a Still Pond looked rather fascinating.”
“Heron Alighting—” A slow smile curved Plum’s lips as she recalled just what was involved in that particular calisthenic. “Oh, yes, that would be…ahem. Thank you, Thom. I will take your advice under consideration. Now, you’d best be off to your own bed. Will you be available tomorrow to take the children on a nature walk with me?”
“A nature walk?” Thom strolled toward the door, pausing when she reached it to cock an eyebrow at her aunt. “Why would you want to take the children on a nature walk?”
“They have a surfeit of energy. I thought a long walk where they will be free to run and romp to their heart’s content will benefit them, and serve to show them that good behavior will be rewarded.”
“Clever puss,” Thom said with a grin, then shook her head with rue. “I hate to miss that, but Puck told me the farrier is to come tomorrow, and I wish to watch him. You don’t mind if I miss your nature walk, do you?”
“Puck?”
“One of Harry’s stable boys. The one with the red hair and freckles.”
“Ah. No, I don’t mind.” Plum had a moment of misgiving thinking of herself alone with the children, but that was quickly squelched. She had triumphed over much worse things, how hard could it be to take five children on a walk through the countryside?
Thom bid her a goodnight. Plum stood by the open window, slowly combing her hair, thinking about the many challenges that faced her, not the least of which was the upcoming evening. Harry believed her to be a shy bride, not a virgin, but virginal, unlearned, and inexperienced. While it was true she had only six weeks of Charles’s attention before the marriage was discovered and he was sent abroad by his family, they were very instructive weeks. Thus it would be necessary for her to not take the initiative, nor to attempt anything beyond Leda and the Swan. “Which is a shame, because Thom is absolutely right, Heron Alighting Upon a Still Pond is extremely fascinating, particularly when the heron in question has legs as long as Harry’s.”
Plum didn’t have long to muse upon her sorrows before her husband burst into her room with a hurried knock at her door. He stopped just beyond the doorway and gazed at Plum, curled up in a chair reading a book (not the Guide). His eyes were dark behind his spectacles, but the heat within them was visible to her even across the room. Plum was filled with a responding warmth, her body reacting to that gaze by preparing itself for him. Beneath the soft linen of her night rail, her nipples hardened, her breasts waking themselves up out of a dormant sleep, becoming immediately both extremely sensitive and heavy, as if they needed hands — Harry’s hands — holding them up. Her stomach was filled with the same tumbling butterflies that made their appearance the night before, her thighs ached to wrap themselves around him, and her womanly parts were holding a celebration and offered an invitation to Harry to attend the festivities.
“Erm…Plum? You’re not going to throw me out again, are you? You’ve forgiven me?” Harry looked so adorable, so hesitant, so…manly what with his bare feet and ankles, and that little bit of chest that showed at the top of his gold dressing gown, not to mention the enticing bulge in the region of his groin that practically had Plum licking her lips.
I must be innocent, I must be innocent, she told herself, and fought a short-lived battle to keep from leaping up and ripping the dressing gown from his body. Her hands tightened on the arms of the chair with the effort. She cleared her throat and tried to speak, but her words came out hoarse. She cleared her throat again, then offered Harry what she prayed looked like a shy, innocent, maidenly smile, and not the smile of a woman who was anticipating the close examination and practical application of his body against hers. “Of course I’m not angry with you, and no, I will not ask you to leave my bedchamber again. That was very ill done of me, Harry, and I apologize again for my actions. In fact—” She paused and chewed her lip. Should she take the chance of angering him and tell him about Charles? With each day of acquaintance with him she was becoming more and more confident of him, just as her burden weighed more heavily on her soul, but with that confidence came reluctance to harm their budding relationship. Perhaps if she waited until later, after they had a chance to know one another, after he knew just how much of a help she could be in his life, perhaps then would be the time to bare her own secrets.
“In fact what?” he asked, moving closer now, holding out his hands for her to take. He pulled her to her feet, straight into his arms, his body moving seductively against hers as a smile played around his rugged, manly lips — lips that drove all thoughts out of Plum’s mind but what pleasure they brought her.
“In fact I should like very much for you to make love to me,” she whispered, forgetting to be shy and innocent in her desire for him. A flicker of surprise flashed across Harry’s face before he bent and scooped her up in his arms, turning to carry her into his room. Plum had little time to admire the dark blue colors of his curtains and matching chairs before he deposited her on the middle of his bed, stripping off her night rail before she even had a chance to gasp.
She lay exposed to his gaze, every last blessed inch of her, and although she knew she should be embarrassed by her nudity, the way his eyes were eating her, she wasn’t. All the tingling and pools of heat within her were stirred to a new level of intensity by the pleasure she saw reflected in his eyes. She rolled onto her side into a more artful position, and gave Harry a blatant come-hither smile.
“You look uncomfortably hot in that dressing gown, husband. Don’t you think you should shed it and come to bed?”
“What?” Harry’s voice was just as hoarse as Plum’s had been, something that made her smile to herself as she patted the bed beside her.
“Take it off, Harry. I wish to see you, too.”
Harry’s eyes went practically black as he struggled to relieve himself of the hold his dressing gown had on him. His fingers seemed to have difficulty with the buttons. After fighting them for a few seconds, he snarled and ripped the garment off, throwing himself down beside her, his hands reaching for her.
“No,” Plum said, pushing his hands away.
“No?” Harry choked. “No? What do you mean, no?”
“I mean no, I wish to look at you first.” Plum sat on her heels and looked at the vast array of Harry before her. He was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, better than she imagined. His legs were long and well muscled, not at all scrawny, as Charles’s had been. His belly had just the slightest hint of a softness to it, a sign of his age, no doubt, but a sign that pleased Plum immensely. Charles had been thin and boney, and she had always been partial to large men — not fat, but comfortable to touch. Harry’s little hint of a belly was the perfect balance to the rest of his hard, muscled self. Her eyes skittered up his lightly haired chest — a chest that was heaving, she was pleased to note — across the broad width of his shoulders.
“What is it about a man’s chest?” she mused aloud as she took in the last uncovered bits of him, two strong arms with long, blunt-tipped fingers, a strong neck, and oh yes, the part she had been trying to ignore, the part of him that stood up and saluted her with a cheery wave.