His Courtesan Bride (Brides of Mayfair 3) (21 page)

She had also managed a quick note to Lady Devlyn and the Courtesan Club, assuring them that she was fine and not to worry while she was away.

Whatever Darius hoped to achieve with this little detour, he would be greatly disappointed.

Serena had grown up in the country. She and her mother had survived near starvation as virtual prisoners on their ancient, crumbling estate. Gazing at the village houses and rolling fields they passed on their journey, Serena wondered at the painful truth hidden behind those pastoral facades…poverty, abuse, unhappiness and hopelessness. Those things could affect the gentry, too.

She was reminded of a line from the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
: ‘Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.’

That’s what it had felt like for her and her mother, surrounded by the lush beauty of green pastures like these, full of grazing sheep and cattle, yet they themselves were starving. The local vicar and his wife did the best they could to keep them fed. It had been depressing to realize that even farm animals had more to eat than Serena and her mother did.

She shook off the memory. That was ages ago…another lifetime. Serena had left that poor girl behind. She was a courtesan now, well on her way to financial independence. She had taken steps to ensure that she would never starve again, nor be shackled to a wastrel husband like her mother had been.

“Look, Serena—just over that rise,” Darius pointed at rolling green lawns in the distance. “Manning Park.”

She sat forward and craned to get a look at the illustrious estate that was Darius’s pride and joy. The mansion, built in a classical style popular in the seventeenth century, had been modeled after an Italian villa. The pale stone façade glowed golden against the green lawns that surrounded it.

The grounds were breathtaking as well. A mirror-like lake graced the bottom of a long, slightly graded hill. Atop it, a folly that resembled the ruins of a Roman temple stood sentinel, looking down at the expansive grounds below. At the far end of the lake, a Chinese bridge spanned the water, connecting the narrowed shores.

The carriage passed a group of farmers as they worked in a field. They looked up, and when they realized it was the earl himself, greeted him with hearty waves and a cheerful doff of the cap. Darius sat forward in the window, returning their welcoming smiles with a wave of his own.

“Some of my tenants,” he explained to Serena. “A harder working bunch you’ll never find.” He sat back in the seat and gave a contented sigh. “It’s good to be home.”

The carriage made a turn onto a wooded lane. Serena was not a crack navigator by any standards, but it seemed that they were moving away from the manor house, rather than closer to it.

“We are not going to the Hall?” she asked.

Darius continued to stare out the window. “My mother is in residence. She is not in the best of health. You can imagine the shock it would put her under if I installed my mistress in the family home while she was there.”

“I see.” Serena was not much insulted. She was after all, his paid courtesan, not his wife. “Where are we going, then?”

With a wicked sparkle in his jewel-blue eyes, Darius slid her a glance. “It’s a surprise.”

Serena sighed. “Oh, please do not tell me we are to sleep in a tent.”

“
It’s a surprise
, I told you,” he insisted. “You will just have to wait.”

“I feel completely within my rights to say that I generally do not like your surprises, Darius,” she countered. “They usually involve a tableau which features you holding me in an uncompromising position, whilst someone is looking on, who most decidedly should not be.”

“My dear Serena, you still haven’t forgiven me for that?”

“Certainly not,” she replied.

He looked pensive. “You know, whenever you tell that story, you never mention the priceless diamond necklace I had just fastened about your neck, moments before.”

“And you always fail to mention the look on the duke’s face when he saw us in that scandalous scene, moments later.”

“You always dwell on the negative,” Darius said, easily. “You should adopt a more positive view of life.”

She gave a jaded laugh. “Good advice from the man who single-handedly orchestrated my social downfall.”

“You see?” he said. “There you go again, seeing only the negative. If not for me, you would never have become a student of Lady Devlyn and learned the secrets of the art of love, where you are quite accomplished, by the way.”

“I would never have
had
to,” Serena pointed out.

“Come now, my dear,” he continued, “are you saying you would have rather remained free of scandal and ended up married to a vicar who believes that sex is for procreation only? Though I might admit that having sex with you is close to a religious experience, somehow, I can’t see it.”

In truth, Serena couldn’t either. Which only made her more cross, because she would rather die than give Darius the satisfaction of being right.

“I shall never know, shall I?” she commented. “And it is all thanks to you, my lord protector.”

“I
am
protecting you, Serena. One day you will understand that.”

She turned her attention to the passing scenery. “Well, it had better be one day soon, as we only have a little over twenty more together. Not that I’m counting.”

“If you knew the duke as I did, you would be running in the other direction,” Darius said, crossly.

She sighed. “Oh, let us not quarrel. It is none of your concern, anyway. Please do not worry about my personal affairs.”

“That is a difficult thing you ask, Serena,” he said. “Once a man knows a woman as intimately as I know you, he feels somewhat responsible for her. You’ve taken me inside your body, held me there, pleasuring me in the most intimate ways a man can be. A bond like that is not easily broken.”

“Actually, a bond like that will be broken rather soon,” she stated.

“I am not so sure,” Darius replied.

“You think to change my mind by bringing me here to your estate?”

“Perhaps,” he said.

Serena gave him a dismissive glance. “So far I have seen
nothing
that would change my mind.”

“Not yet,” Darius echoed, his mouth curving with the hint of a grin.

Serena wondered what he could possibly have in store for her. “You do not accept defeat easily, do you, Darius?”

“I do not accept it, period,” he replied, flatly.

“Well you had better begin to entertain the idea,” Serena said.

“So had you, my dear.”

Serena slapped the carriage seat in frustration, saying, “Arguing with you is like arguing with a brick wall.”

“Exactly,” he agreed. “If you were smart, you’d stop such nonsense at once.”

Serena huffed in annoyance.

The carriage turned onto a clearing.

Darius said, “Ah, we have arrived. This shall be our home for the next few weeks, Serena. I hope you will enjoy it.”

Serena craned her head to get a look, but Darius’s massive body blocked her view as he alighted from the carriage. Concentrating on her footing, Serena did not look about until she was safely standing on the ground. When she did, her breath was quite taken away.

A cottage stood nestled in a grove of trees, looking for all the world like something out of a fairy tale. A stone chimney stood at the side of the house, somehow having been fashioned to look like the trunk of a tree. Branches and leaves were painted on the stone facade, curling around the sweet little windows like arms in an embrace. Vines and flowers adorned the other side of the house. It was unlike anything Serena had ever seen.

“Welcome to Hawthorn Cottage,” Darius said.

“I confess, I am quite astounded,” Serena replied. She walked about, taking in the painstaking craftsmanship, as well as the whimsical nature of the structure. In front, a little garden—now littered with fall leaves—was surrounded by a charming white picket fence.

“Would you like to see the interior?” Darius asked, holding out his hand.

Serena nodded, following him in through the front door, which was shaped like a keyhole. They passed through the small foyer, into a cozy drawing room. Plush furniture seemed to beckon one to sit down and open a book, a shelf of which stood across the room, full of volumes. An assortment of knick-knacks decorated the fireplace mantel.

Darius beckoned Serena to follow him, and he took her into a quaint little dining room painted sunny yellow. The kitchen was well-appointed, with brass pots and pans hanging over a central counter.

“Where are the servants?” Serena asked.

“There aren’t any.”

“Who is going to do the cooking, then? Me?” she asked.

Darius grinned. “No,
me
.”

“You!” Serena couldn’t believe her ears. “You must be joking.”

“I am quite serious.”

“Ah. You mean to poison me, then,” Serena said.

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Darius replied. “I’ll have you know I was quite the cook in the Peninsula. While Havelock and I were sneaking about Portugal and Spain gathering intelligence for Wellington, we couldn’t exactly bring along a personal chef. If I had relied upon Major Price’s cooking, they would have buried us long ago.”

Serena laughed. “Will you be doing my laundry as well?”

“No,” he said. “I have arranged for one of the farmer’s wives to come each morning and take away what needs to be done. She will also bring us foodstuffs for the day.”

“Well, you seem to have thought of everything,” Serena said, following him upstairs.

There was only one bedroom, tastefully decorated in sky blue. A four-poster bed dominated the room, giving it a masculine atmosphere. Across the hall was a room for attending to ones’ needs.

“Won’t your mother be wondering what you are doing here, night after night?” Serena asked, raising a brow.

Darius simply shrugged.

“Oh, I see,” she mused. “This is where you have brought your other lovers, and your family is quite accustomed to the habit.” Serena curled a hand around a thick column of the bed frame, and met Darius’ piercing eyes.

“Does that bother you?” he asked.

“Why should it?” Serena answered. “I am simply one in a long line of lovers you have had and will have in the future.”

Darius walked slowly toward her, his eyes full of desire. He reached out a strong hand to circle her waist and pull her toward him. “That is where you are wrong, Serena. I will have no other lover than you.”

His mouth hovered inches away from hers, sending a bolt of heat to her belly, and then below.

“That will be difficult when I become courtesan to the Duke of Balfour,” Serena said, taunting him.

Darius’ eyes grew dark with displeasure. “Tread carefully, my dear. A smart woman does not poke a lion with a stick. And that is exactly what you are doing when you suggest such a thing to me.”

Leisurely, he lowered his hand to possessively cup a breast. “I am your protector. Now, and for the next three weeks, you are mine. Isn’t that what our contract states?”

Serena closed her eyes as he teased the tip of her breast with his thumb. Damn him, but he was right. There were certain things she’d be within her rights to refuse, of course, but the fact remained that she had offered herself as a sexual partner to Darius, in exchange for monetary compensation. She was as bound to that contract as he was to pay her what he’d promised. For the first time in the months they’d been together, Serena felt that Darius had achieved the upper hand.

And she didn’t like it one bit.

“Isn’t that what it states, Serena?” He dipped his mouth to her neck and trailed hot kisses there.

“Yes,” she said, fighting to control her shaky breath.

He held her face in his hands and whispered, “I am going to bind you to me, and if I have to use my body to enslave you, I will.” He kissed her mouth, his tongue teasing and tempting her. “And when I finally take you to the ultimate pinnacle of passion, your soul will open to me, and I will claim it as I’ve claimed the rest of you.”

Serena bit her lip as he dipped his head to kiss the other side of her neck. She hated when Darius talked like that. Because though she was a trained courtesan, part of her feared that what he predicted might come true. If it did, not only her career would be destroyed…she herself would be.

She could not let that happen.

She
would
not let that happen.

Then why did she feel weak as a kitten when Darius took her into his arms?

As Serena surrendered to the physical sensations he stirred within her, three more weeks with him seemed like a very long time indeed.

Chapter 16

“
The courtesan may enjoy pleasure for pleasure’s sake, but must guard against becoming too fond of one man’s style of lovemaking. For if she let’s herself enjoy it too much, she may find herself ensnared in her own web, unable to break free….”

–from Memoirs of a Courtesan, by Lady Night

“Let me go,” she said weakly, pressing her palms against the wall of his chest.