She couldn’t be easy. She could be anything but easy. She closed her eyes, dug her fingers into his neck and chest, and allowed herself to sink into the pleasure he was giving her. His fingers slid deep inside her and back again in primal rhythm, as he moved his mouth over her cheek, her lips, her eyes, gliding so lightly that her skin simmered to the point she could scarcely endure even the whisper of his kiss. When he dipped his head to her exposed breast again, she felt herself sliding off a cliff and falling through space.

She knew he fumbled with his clothing. She gasped when he guided her to touch him. But nothing compared to the moment he slid the tip against her dampness. She was lost. It was pain, it was pleasure. It was a sensation beyond anything she’d ever known.

Leo dragged her hand up above her head and held it, then kissed her tenderly as he began to slowly, carefully, push himself inside her.

Desire and love intermingled and began to drum in her. She was inflamed by this intimacy, and despite a bit of discomfort, she would do this again and again with him. But as he moved deeper, pressing up against her maidenhead, she realized how profound this was, this moment in her life, with this man. She would never again feel so deeply for someone. Never in her life would she experience something so remarkable.

“Draw a breath,” he whispered, and as Caroline drew it, he pushed past her maidenhead. Her body tensed to absorb the discomfort, but then something remarkable began to happen—she could feel her body adapting to his.

He stroked her face, kissed her lips and began to move in her. He was whispering encouragement to her, but at some point, he stopped speaking. His breath deepened and he moved with more deliberation. Caroline began to move with him. It was as if her body knew what to do, how to reach the end with him, and all she had to do was ride along.

Her body raced toward release, her heart pounding in her chest. And then he put his hand between her legs and began to stroke her in time with the movement of his body. A moment later, her release poured out of her.

His followed—he pulled himself free of her at the last possible moment, then collapsed on top of her.

Caroline softly pressed her lips to his neck, her hand to his chest. She was speechless. She couldn’t imagine this with another man. She couldn’t imagine this with anyone but Leopold.

Which presented a bit of a problem, but one that Caroline would think about tomorrow. At present, she wanted only to revel in the feel of this man’s body with hers.

“I love you,” he said against her shoulder. “I need you to know it.” He lifted his head. “I love you, Caroline Hawke. And no matter what happens, I always will.”

It was too dark for him to see the tears in her eyes. “I love you, Leopold. I do, so desperately.”

They held each other for a very long time. But eventually, Leopold stood. He took a handkerchief and cleaned them both, then fastened his clothing. Her hair had come undone, and her beautiful gown was wrinkled and the overskirt torn in one place. She hardly cared.

He helped her up from the settee, then wrapped her in a warm embrace. “Caroline, I...” His voice trailed away, as if words had failed him.

“I know,” she whispered. She didn’t want to hear him say he had to go. She didn’t want to be reminded that they were hurtling toward the time he would leave her forever.

He kissed her cheek. Her mouth. Her hand. He kissed her lips and lingered...and then walked to the door. He looked over his shoulder, his gaze sweeping over her before locking on her eyes. She felt not of this earth. The candle had almost burned out, and he was in the shadows, like a dream. Her summer dream.

Caroline stood in the very spot he’d left her long after he’d gone. She couldn’t seem to make her feet move. She couldn’t seem to do anything but breathe, and scarcely at that.


CAROLINE WAS STILL abed the next morning when Martha came in and told her she had callers. Caroline groggily sat up. “Who?”

“I don’t know, miss. Garrett sent me to fetch you.”

Her heart started. Was it Leopold? She grinned and threw off the covers. She dressed in a simple day gown, left her hair hanging down her back in a tail and hurried downstairs, eager to see him. But when she burst into the drawing room, the very room where she’d experienced something so very profound just hours before, she didn’t see Leopold at all. It was Mr. Drummond, from the office of the foreign secretary, and a very green Beck.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT


An intimate supper party at the home of a newly appointed lord erupted into chaos when a maid new to the household was discovered to have run away in the middle of the evening. The party was quickly disbanded. In the following days our intrepid hostess and family departed for the country for the rest of the summer and has not been heard from since.

Ladies, for the bit of dust in corners that does not come away with a good feather duster, balling up a slice of brown bread and dabbing in the corner will do the trick.

—Honeycutt’s Gazette of Fashion and


Domesticity for Ladies

AMBASSADOR REDBANE CALLED on Leo in the common room of the Clarendon Hotel quite unexpectedly the morning of the Farrington supper. He seemed agitated, as if he’d been chased by a pack of wolves.

“Good morning, Redbane,” Leo said, looking up at him from the morning papers. “Is everything all right?”

“Your Highness,” Redbane said, clutching his hat. “It is imperative you leave for Alucia on tomorrow’s outgoing tide. The royal ship stands at the ready.”

Leo froze for a moment. “Tomorrow? Why?”

Redbane removed a letter from his pocket. “The British foreign secretary has requested it. They have some outrageous idea that you may be plotting with the Weslorians against the king, or involved in something even more nefarious. They have come to me, asking that the king remove you from England at once.”

“I beg your pardon?” Leo tossed the paper aside and stood up. Redbane handed him the letter.

Leo quickly scanned the contents. It was a formal request to be presented to his father that he be removed at once for reasons of “poor conduct.”

“Poor conduct?” Leo asked.

“It is a more palatable excuse for their accusations that you are plotting against your father. They want no trouble, Your Highness. They can’t have any sort of plot being hatched here.”

“I am not plotting against my father,” Leo said. “And if anyone suspects that is so, they need only follow me back to Alucia, where I will reveal the truth about my activities here,” Leo said curtly. He rubbed his eyes. “Has a dispatch been sent to my father?”

Redbane nodded.

Well, this certainly put a damper on things. Leo suspected his father would give no credence to the talk of treason, but he knew he’d give quite a lot of credence to the charge of poor conduct.

“It is in the best interest of Alucia,” Redbane added.

“Fine, I understand I must go. But on Monday.”

“But Your Highness—”

“There is nothing that will sway me, Redbane. There is one last thing I must attend to before I go.”

Redbane pressed his lips together.

“Is there anything else?” Leo asked.

“No, Your Highness.”

“Then you may go,” he said irritably, gesturing the ambassador away.

He was made distraught with this news. He still didn’t know where one of the women was, and he didn’t know what would happen this evening. But it was the thought of losing Caroline that made him feel so ill. He’d known this moment would come, that he’d have to say goodbye, but he’d fought to keep himself from dwelling on it. He had to face it. She’d come to mean so much to him. She’d come to mean everything to him. She was the light his soul needed. How could he leave? He didn’t know how he could go on, knowing that he wouldn’t see her for a very long time, and when he did, it would be in Alucia and he’d likely be married. If not to Eulalie, then to someone else.

His mood soured over the rest of the day as he tried to think his way clear of this dilemma. He dressed for the night, but he had that odd feeling again of not fitting right in his own skin. As if this new person he’d become didn’t fit his body. As if loving a woman was something he wasn’t built to do. He burned for her. He did. He even lifted his shirt, half expecting to see a mortal wound there.

What had he done? Had he taken the virtue of a woman he truly loved only to leave her? At the time, it had seemed imperative, the only thing that was right between them. Today, with this banishment hanging over his head, it seemed entirely wrong and selfish.

He glanced at Freddar, older than him by twenty years. “What do you say, Freddar, are you ready to return to Alucia?”

“Je, Your Highness. I miss my family, I do.”

Leo didn’t miss his family. He would miss Caroline more. So much more.


HE WAS GREETED at the door of the Farrington house by Lord Farrington himself. “Welcome, welcome, Your Highness. Thank you for coming,” he said as Leo handed his cloak to the waiting footman. “I hope you won’t mind that we are a small group tonight. I look forward to speaking with you this evening, as I’ve been working very closely with Mr. Vinters of Alucia.”

Leo paused as he removed his hat. “Have you?” he asked. That was the name Lysander had given him. His father’s most trusted adviser and peddler of human flesh.

“He’s a clever man, that one. I think we might find numerous avenues of cooperation between our two countries. Trade, naturally. But in the arts, as well. I’m very keen on that idea in particular.” He smiled broadly.