Claiming His Wife (35 page)

From her perch in the hallway, Grace
sorted out several issues, deciding which items would go in the
coach with her and Alex and which would be part of the baggage
train, which would travel much more slowly due to its weight.
 It felt rather nice to only have one thing to oversee,
instead of rushing around the house and trying to make sure every
single aspect of closing up the house was being handled.
 

By the time Alex was handing her up
into the carriage, before climbing in after her, Grace was having a
great deal of trouble beating back the hope that was pounding
inside of her chest.

******

As much as Alex wanted to have a real
discussion with his wife, he decided that a carriage ride was not
an appropriate venue.  Even if she hadn't looked so tired.
 Yesterday had been exhausting, on several levels, and they'd
been woken up earlier than Grace was used to rising, and she hadn't
had a moment of rest yet.  

Sitting himself next to her, he felt
her tense slightly as he wrapped his arm around her.  Pulling
her into his chest, he tried to soothe some of that tension away,
running his hand down her arm.

"Try and get some more sleep,
sweetheart," he murmured, stroking her hair.  Almost
immediately she relaxed, and he realized she must have been worried
that he was going to try and do something else.  Seduce her
perhaps?  Or talk to her?  Which would concern her more,
he wondered.

Going by how vocal they'd both been
the past two nights, he didn't think seducing her would be any more
appropriate than the discussion he had in mind.  Loud talking
would easily be heard by the coachman, much less shouting of any
kind.  Besides which, they had a very long ride ahead of them,
he didn't particularly want any kind of encounter with his wife
that would make it awkward or uncomfortable.

Leaning his head against
the back of the coach, he looked out the window and watched as the
streets of Bath rolled by to give way to meadows.  Grace fit
under his arm perfectly, her soft snores making him smile.  On
the ride into Bath, she'd barely been able to look at him, much
less sit beside him.  Now she was snuggled up right where she
was supposed to be.  

For now he could wallow in
contentment, but he knew that they would have to talk eventually.
 Hopefully it wouldn't ruin the way things had been going
between them.

******

That night, at the inn, Alex didn't
try to press Grace into deep discussion.  He thought about it,
but when she gave him a saucy look and asked if he could help her
disrobe, he allowed himself to be distracted again.  Hopefully
the foundation of physical intimacy that they were building would
help to promote emotional intimacy.

He certainly felt as
though they were becoming more joined together, as he moved inside
of her, their eyes locked together, bodies moving in tandem.
 Every touch, every kiss, every moan, broke apart the barriers
between them just a little bit more.  It was tempting to think
that they wouldn't need to talk at all, but even with Grace
cuddling beside him, her hand on his chest and her head nuzzled
into his shoulder, he knew that it wasn't possible.

This was an idyllic moment
out of time, where they were neither here nor there, but traveling
both physically and metaphorically.  They were both acting as
if there was nothing wrong between them and never had been, but
until they addressed the past, they couldn't really move into the
future.  Even though she gave herself to him every night, even
though their conversations had become much more natural, there were
still times when she would hold herself back.  Times when he
would feel his own anger and mistrust rising - especially when a
letter from Conyngham caught up with her.

She'd given him her return letter to
mark and post.  It hadn't been sealed.  He'd gritted his
teeth, sealed it and sent it on without reading it, hard as that
had been.  Even though he knew she'd left it unsealed so that
he could read it, he was determined to show that he trusted
her.

Besides, she'd read aloud the letter
that Conyngham had sent her, which had mostly been full of gossip
from the capital, including his current rivalry with his best
friend over another woman.  Grace had seemed quite amused and
Alex had told himself that he had no cause to be jealous.  She
certainly didn't seem upset that Conyngham had already moved on
from her, so why should he be upset that the man was contacting
her?

Still, that night he made her climax
over and over again until she was nearly limp and begging him to
stop, before he took his own pleasure.  Proving to both of
them that he had full mastery over her body, doing his best to wipe
away the memory of any other man.

After almost a week of
traveling, they finally reached his estates, and Brookeside, the
main house.  Everything looked exactly the same as he'd left
it, the rolling hills around the house, the white walls of
Brookeside's impressive front, flowering bushes decorating its
edges, but it felt completely different.  Because, for the
first time in years, he was here with Grace.  In fact, they'd
only been here as a married couple for a few nights.  The rest
of their time they'd been on their honeymoon or in
London. 

Now he was returning home, with Grace
on his arm, fiercely triumphant in getting her back where she was
supposed to be.  The look on her face, as she stepped out of
the carriage, was both wistful and wary.  

Peters opened the door for them, and
Alex felt Grace jerk beside him.  He supposed he should have
warned her that her former butler was at Brookeside, but he truly
hadn't thought of it.  There'd been too many other things to
consider.  However, her stiffness told him that might have
been a mistake.  Just seeing Peters was bound to remind her of
her staff's betrayal when Alex had come to collect her - as well as
the fact that he'd had to collect her at all, that they'd been
apart, and all the reasons for it. 

"Welcome home, my lord, my lady,"
Peters said smoothly, stepping back and bowing his head
slightly. 

"Don't pander, Peters, it doesn't
become you."  The waspish tone of Grace's voice grated over
Alex's nerves.  She'd lost that edge during their time in Bath
and he wasn't happy to hear it back, even if he understood
why.

Putting his hand on the small of
Grace's back, he pushed her gently forward, away from the butler.
 Recriminations weren't going to help any of them right now.
 A quick glance at Peters showed that the man wasn't offended
by Grace's reaction, he was watching her with a mixture of regret
and worry.  Alex shouldn't be too surprised, after all, Peters
had gotten to know Grace's whims and moods quite well over the
years.  

He
was
surprised to feel the slightest
twinge of jealousy about that. 

"Peters was just doing his job,
sweetheart," he murmured, as he guided Grace towards to staircase
to the upper level.  "Don't blame him for that."

The look that Grace gave him was not
promising.  "So you're saying I should blame you?" she asked,
smiling at him in a poisonously sweet way that made his hackles
rise. 

"We'll discuss this
later," he said, firmly.  Because he could tell that this
discussion was going to go straight to their past and their
estrangement, and he didn't want to start that in the hallway, when
they'd just finished traveling.  Both of them were tired,
dirty and in no kind of mindset for such an important conversation.
 Besides, if he let her have her way now, they'd end up
fighting and he didn't want that either.  "For now, I'll have
a bath sent to our room so that you can bathe and
change."

Dark eyebrows rose as she
looked up at him, her venom tempered by confusion.  "What will
you be doing?"  She blinked.  "
Our
 room?"

"I need a quick word with my steward
about the estates, now that I'm back.  And yes, our room.
 I sent word ahead to prepare the rooms accordingly.  By
now you should be used to sharing a room with me."

Pushing open the door to
said bedroom, which was actually his room, he ushered Grace in
before she could protest.  Her mouth worked, but snapped shut
when she saw that Rose was already in there, waiting for her.
 Alex grinned at her suspicious look, which was also tempered
with relief.  Perhaps a bath and then some food would soothe
the savage beast. 

Once they were calmer, and in a better
frame of mind, they were finally going to talk about why she'd left
him and how they were going to go forward from here.  This
time, he didn't care if she stripped naked and danced for him, he
wasn't going to be distracted again.

******

Grace almost hated to admit how much
she needed the bath.  It had been prepared while Rose helped
her undress, and the hot water had soothed muscles that ached from
riding in the carriage.  The roads hadn't been too horrible,
but there was always a bit of bouncing, and her neck ached from
sleeping on Alex's shoulder the day before.  The hot bath also
soothed other aches, between her legs.

They'd made love every
single night, and sometimes the next morning as well.  Alex
had been absolutely voracious, even more so than he'd been on their
honeymoon.  Not that she'd been protesting, although she
certainly wasn't used to this much activity down there.
 Before her lovers had always been at her beck and call,
coming over only when she desired company or comfort or pleasure.
 Now, she had no choice.  Although, Alex always made her
want it, despite the aches of her inner muscles.  He always
made sure she found her pleasure too, before he found his.
 Sometimes multiple times.

Sighing, Grace relaxed against the
tub, feeling rather drowsy from the heat surrounding her.
 Rose puttered about the room, unpacking Grace's things.
 At this point, Grace had nearly forgiven the maid for
actually being in Alex's employ.  She supposed she should
forgive Peters too, although somehow she felt that betrayal even
more keenly than Rose's.

Perhaps because she'd
confided in Peters about her innermost thoughts and feelings nearly
as much as she had in her lady’s maid, Rose, but she'd always seen
him as a protector.  He'd stood between her and Society,
stalwart and unbending, keeping the worst of the gossip-mongers
from her and removing anyone who upset her.  More than one
person had found themselves in the bewildering position of being
dismissed from her house by a mere butler, with all the civility
and manners one could expect, and yet the dismissal was just as
firm and just as final as if it was from a Duke.  

Yet he'd let Alex through the
door.

Maybe if she and Alex truly managed to
reconcile she'd feel better about forgiving Peters.  Even if
it was unrealistic to expect him to protect her from his true
employer, she'd still trusted him.  Up until the day he'd let
Alex in, she would have sworn that Peters was on her side.
 That had been half the reason she'd hired
him. 

She was drying off when Alex came in
and immediately began stripping off his clothing. 

"Alex," she said, rather sharply, as
Rose squeaked in dismay, halting the shedding of his clothes.
 She looked at her maid.  "You may go, Rose."

"Thank you, my lady," Rose said,
hurrying from the room, avoiding looking at Alex even though he was
still quite respectable in his shirt and pants. 

"I forgot she was here," Alex said,
chagrined, as he began to take off the rest of his clothing.
 "I'm so used to it being just us."  The warm way he said
it, and the almost loving look that accompanied the admission, made
Grace's heart dance inside.  

"You'll have to get used to more of
the servants being around," Grace said mildly.  Brookeside
required a much larger contingent of staff than the small house
they'd stayed in when they were in Bath.  Especially now that
Grace was in residence.  It wouldn't surprise her to know
that, other than his valet, Alex rarely had to contend with
servants inside his bedroom.  But if he wanted Grace in his
rooms, he was going to have to accustom himself to Rose being there
as well, as well as some other maids.

Grimacing, Alex stepped into the tub,
lowering himself into the lukewarm water.  "I suppose I will."
 

Unlike Rose, Grace had no desire to
look away from his long, lean body, enjoying the view as he began
to scrub away the dirt of the road.  However, there were still
things to do.  

Sighing, she pulled on a simple day
dress, one that she didn't need Rose or anyone else to help her
with.  Since they were at Brookeside and not expecting
visitors, there was no need for her to dress up at
all. 

"I'm going to go arrange dinner," she
said, pulling her hair back in a simple tie.  "I assume Mrs.
Stewart is still in her position?"  The housekeeper had been
as efficient as a general in the army, Grace couldn't imagine Alex
dismissing her.

"Yes, and she'll be happy to see you,"
Alex said, his lips twisting into a wry smile.  The older
woman was starting to get on in years and, although she was quite
practiced in her role, she'd been the first in the household to
start pushing Alex to either collect his wife or get a new one.
 Surprisingly, she hadn't seemed to have a preference,
although Alex had assumed she would be disapproving of Grace.
 Servants could sometimes be even more prudish than the upper
classes when it came to scandal.