"Thank you, Your Highness," the duke replied, bowing, and feeling just the faintest prick of irritation over the prince's remarks. I am so damned proud of Allegra, he thought. What instincts she had! She had greeted their unexpected royal guest, fed him, and turned his disappointment into pleasure. And he had not a doubt that this hunting party was going to come off without a hitch.

Crofts was awaiting his mistress outside of the dining room doors. "I have had the Lake Suite prepared for His Highness and the Blue Bedroom for Mr. Brummell, your ladyship."

"Excellent," Allegra replied. "In one hour, Crofts, I shall want a footman to take my letters to the stables. Send one groom, mounted, for each letter, and they are to await the reply. We are having a hunting party in two days. As far as the prince and his companion are concerned, this event has been planned for some time."

"Very good, your ladyship," Crofts said, hiding a smile. He had served two previous Duchesses of Sedgwick, and this third was more than their equal.

"I will be in my drawing room. Send Honor to me with my writing case," she further instructed him.

"At once, your ladyship," he replied, bowing, and hurried away.

As soon as she had her lap desk, Allegra hastily penned notes to Sirena, Eunice, and Caroline explaining that the prince had arrived without warning, and she had invited him to remain for a hunting party. They must come in two days' time. She then wrote a note to Lady Perry apologizing for her last minute invitation, and requesting that the lovely widow and her sister join them. Sealing her missives with red wax and impressing her seal ring in the wax, she rang for the footman.

"Has Crofts given you your instructions?" she asked the footman.

"One groom for each letter, and await the reply," Perkins said. "Is that correct, your ladyship?"

"Go along then," Allegra said nodding.

The next two days were spent in preparations, but those arrangements were made with the utmost discretion so as not to arouse the suspicions of their guests. The prince and the duke spent the day out-of-doors riding and hunting waterfowl. Mr. Brummell, however, begged off. They ate great breakfasts and suppers. The evenings were spent playing Whist for no stakes as Prinny well understood the duke's aversion to gambling, although he was unable to refrain from one small complaint.

"Seems to me a man so plump in the pockets shouldn't be so stingy, Sedgwick," he grumbled. "Especially when he's winning."

"But if we were playing for real stakes, Your Highness," Allegra remarked, "you should owe my husband both Devon and Cornwall by now. Quinton is but saving your kingdom for you."

Brummell burst out laughing. "A clever sally, your ladyship," he said. "I hope you will come to London this winter."

"It is unlikely, Mr. Brummell. We are country folk, and happy to be so," Allegra said to him.

"Nonsense!" Prinny answered her. "I command you to come, Duchess. Can't ever have enough beautiful young women about me, I fear. You will be a triumph, I vow."

"How flattering you are, Your Highness, but remember I have a duty to fill my husband's nursery even as your wife is now doing. I must attend to that before I come back to London," Allegra told him.

"Prettily put, Duchess, but unless you are breeding, I will expect to see you dancing at Almack's," Prinny replied. "God bless me! I believe I have won this hand, gentlemen."

Quinton had not come to Allegra's bed the second night of their marriage, but she had been far too busy with all her preparations to notice his absence. Now on the third night she lay quietly, unable to sleep, and wondering why he was not by her side, when the door to their rooms opened and the duke entered the bedchamber, climbing into the bed next to her.

"My lord, I had begun to believe you had forgotten you had a wife," Allegra said frostily. But secretly she was delighted to see him. "Our guests will be arriving tomorrow. We will have no time for each other, I fear."

He pulled her into his arms, giving her a long, slow kiss that set her pulses racing and her toes tingling.

"I could hardly forget you, Allegra," he told her when he had thoroughly kissed her, leaving her breathless and slightly dizzy. "And this is not my idea of a perfect first week of marriage. Damn me, my dear, if we shouldn't have taken a wedding trip after all."

"It would have been fine," Allegra replied, "if Prinny hadn't got it into his head to come to Hunter's Lair for our wedding, and then arrived after the fact. Why isn't he at home with his wife? She is expecting a baby after all."

"He despises Princess Caroline. If the truth be known the princess is gauche, rough-spoken, and not given to bathing as frequently as she might. You know how fastidious Prinny is, my dear. I went to the wedding in April. The prince was drunk to the point of collapse. The king had to run after him when he wandered away from the altar during the ceremony."

"How sad for his wife," Allegra said softly.

"Why sad?" the duke probed. "Their marriage, like ours, was a sensible and practical matter, Allegra."

"They might not be in love, Quinton, even as we are not in love, but you are kind to me. I do not believe if I were carrying your child that you would leave me to wander about visiting your friends and acquaintances," she responded. "You would not desert me."

"No, my dear, I would not," he agreed softly. He lay her back against her pillows, smiling. "Dare I hope that you missed me last night here in your bed? I know that I missed being with you."

"Did you, sir? Then, pray, what kept you from me?" she demanded.

"Our guest and his passion for Whist, I fear," was his answer. "It was quite late when Prinny decided he would go to bed. Mr. Brummell is far more sensitive to our newly married state despite his youth and bachelor status. He attempted several times to coax Prinny from the card table, but to no avail."

"You are here now," she said in a tone he would have sworn was seductive.

"Madame, are you flirting with me?" he teased, and chuckled when she blushed. There was still so much innocence about her. He reached out, and pulled the ribbons of her night garment open. A single finger flicked each side apart. "Are you suggesting, madame, that I make love to you?" He looked directly at her.

"Yes," she replied eagerly, taking his breath away when she drew his head down, and brushed her lips across his mouth.

He needed no further encouragement. Burying his face between her two little breasts he began to kiss her most passionately. "You are delicious, Allegra! I want to devour you, my dear. I shall devour you." His mouth fastened over a pert nipple, and he suckled upon her flesh. His head was spinning. His heart was hammering with his excitement. How could he have been so blind about love?

Allegra sighed happily as his mouth and his hands began to roam over her warm flesh. What was happening to her? You are falling in love, the little voice whispered in her head. "No!" she cried aloud.

"What is it, my darling?" the duke said, raising his head from her breasts. "Are you all right? Do you want me to cease?"

"No, no," she said. "Don't stop, Quinton." Why had he called her darling? "Oh, yess!" she murmured as his lips moved down her shapely torso. "Ohh, that is nice, husband," she told him as he licked at her belly. "Ohh, I want to do it!"

"Do what?" He had stopped in his worship of her body.

"I want to make love to you. Wives can do it, can't they?" she asked. "I don't want to be some passive lump of dough. I want to learn to make love, too, Quinton. Can I? Will you show me how?"

Sitting up, the duke yanked his nightshirt off and threw it by the bed. "You have but to do what I do to you. And yes, wives can make love to their husbands in return, Allegra. I am flattered that you want to make love to me."

"You give me pleasure, my lord. We are friends now, and I would give you pleasure in return."

He lay back. "Then do so, madame," he told her.

Matching him, Allegra pulled off her own nightgarb. Then she sat cross-legged at his side studying him for several long and silent moments. Finally she reached out with her hand and touched the hair upon his broad chest. "It's soft," she noted aloud, her fingers ruffling across it. Then she traced the narrow line down his flat belly curiously. She wanted a better view of him, and so to his surprise Allegra climbed atop him, plunking her bottom upon his thighs. Reaching out she ran the palms of her hands over his long hard torso. Her fingers teased at his male nipples. Leaning forward she brushed them with her own nipples.

He drew his breath in sharply, unable to help himself, amazed by her boldness.

"Did you like that?" she asked curiously.

"Your touch is arousing," he admitted honestly.

"You have a beautiful body, Quinton," she told him. "I saw pictures of ancient statues in books in Papa's library. That is how I may make my comparison."

"I would not have thought otherwise, my dear," he responded gallantly. His male member was absolutely throbbing, imprisoned between his thighs beneath her round buttocks. He wanted to roll her over and plunge himself into her sweetness.

"What is the matter?" she asked him, seeing the look in his silvery gray eyes that she didn't understand.

"Climb off me, you little bluestocking, and I will show you," he said, half laughing.