Seducing Miss Lockwood
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A cobalt-blue sky smiled over the green crest of hills in the distance, golden sunlight pouring down the slopes. High overhead a hawk hovered, while a couple of noisy magpies perched on a fence. Dogs with wagging tales and tongues lolling from panting mouths watched and waited in a shivering, excited alertness to catch the frightened rabbits that would come darting out from the corn, disturbed by the cutters.
Juliet’s eyes drank in the intoxication of it all. She suddenly felt like a gilded bird freed from its cage for a few precious hours.
Juliet and Dolly carried the basket to the shade of the hedge, where others from the house, who gave them no more than a cursory glance, were already unpacking baskets. Placing the basket on the ground, Juliet took a moment to let her gaze wander to the surrounding fields where the corn had already been cut and stooked and stood like aisles of cathedrals in long rows on the golden stubble.
Kneeling on the ground, she began helping Dolly. Juliet liked the young maid, who was easy to talk to and always went out of her way to make her life easy at Lansdowne House. Dolly looked at her and smiled.
‘This isn’t the kind of work I expected to see you doing, miss. You don’t have to.’
‘I know, but I’d like to. Besides, it’s my day off, and it’s much better than being by myself. Who are all these people, Dolly? Where do they come from?’
‘The village mostly and surrounding hamlets. Casual workers are paid by the day, others by the week. It’s backbreaking work, with not many breaks. Too much time resting in the heat of the day and the target of corn to be cut, tied and stooked will not be reached. If the heavy rains come and lay the corn, it’s difficult to cut so they keep going.’ She looked up at the sun. ‘They’ll soon be breaking off. There’s the Duke over there.’ She pointed him out. ‘He’s handsome, don’t you think so?’
‘Yes, he is.’
‘He’s a lady’s man, too, when he goes to London,’ Dolly said in a matter-of-fact way. ‘Randy as a ram in town, but he never brings any of the ladies back here. He’s never been known to interfere with the female staff, either. He’s sober and fair minded and generous towards those who work for him, and admired by everyone in the district.’
‘You certainly place him in an amiable light, Dolly. It is not consistent with his behaviour when he is in London.’
She shrugged. ‘He can do what he likes in town, it’s how he behaves when he’s here that counts. Take people as you find is what I always say. His friends are a bit lively, though, and he has a habit of setting the whole house in uproar during the shooting and hunting season, when every gentleman here abouts invades the house. Always puts poor old Pearce in a flap and Mrs Reed never knows how many she has to cater for. That Sir Charles Sedgwick has to be watched. Have you met him?’
‘Yes, on my arrival.’
‘He’s an ever-so-charming rogue with the ladies if ever there was, so you watch out for him,’ Dolly warned, pausing in her work to give Juliet a stern look, as if she were instructing a child when in fact she was younger than Juliet. ‘He can be very persuasive.’
‘Well, he is very good looking.’
‘They all are, miss. That’s the danger of it. Let them have their way and the next thing you know you’re in the family way. Miss Geraldine Howard’s got her hooks into him, but he’s not averse to trying it on with any pretty face that comes his way. Always causes quite a stir among the housemaids when he comes a-calling.’
Juliet laughed lightly. ‘Never fear, Dolly. I’ll take heed of what you say, although I like to think I have a cool head in matters of the heart and always keep my feet firmly on the ground.’
Juliet paused to watch the workers toiling in the field, becoming thoughtful about what Dolly had said about her employer. Had she been mistaken about his character, and that except for his dissolute behaviour when he went to town, his actions when he was at Lansdowne Hall put a different construction on his character? To be fair to him, from what she had observed of him as he went about his work, he conducted himself with dignity and was always civil and courteous, and had Dolly not given him an almost flawless character?
In her plain dove-grey dress, a few seasons old but flattering with a modest neckline and short ballooned sleeves, some of the workers began to take notice of Juliet. Unlike the other maids in their white aprons and caps covering their hair, from beneath her bonnet Juliet’s hair hung loose about her shoulders, the sides drawn back and secured with a narrow ribbon. Young men in the field became fascinated by her presence, exciting them and thrusting from their thoughts all the other young maids who were unpacking baskets of food.
When there was nothing to do but wait for mid-day, sitting a little away from the others beneath the shade of a willow tree, spreading her skirts about her, Juliet watched those hard at work. It was a cheerful group of maids who, happy to be relieved from household duties for a short while, eyed the youths in the field with encouraging flirtatious glances, tittering and giggling and hoping they would be singled out when they came to eat.
It wasn’t difficult for Juliet to pick out her employer, who was arranging up the sheaves in stooks of eight. Never had she seen a figure of such masculine appeal. Against her better judgement she allowed her captivated senses to propel her deeper into her own thoughts, and as often happened, she was filled with such longings and yearnings as she had never thought to experience, and she felt that melting sensation in her secret parts.
Like many of the other male workers, he was naked to the waist. His legs were clad in buckskin trousers that fitted him like a second skin, tucked into high black boots and secured around the waist with a leather belt. The hairs on his chest glistened like strands of polished jet as every time he lifted a sheaf caused hard muscle to tense and ripple under his bronzed skin.
In no way did he resemble the refined gentleman who inhabited Lansdowne House. He was more like a gypsy, too swarthy for a nobleman, yet as much at ease in a fancy drawing room dressed like a duke as stripped half-naked in the harvest field, working and sweating like a beast of burden with everyday folk.
At mid-day it was a cheerful yet weary group of workers that drifted to the shade of the hedge. They gathered around the baskets, mothers picking up their babies and unashamedly bearing their breasts to feed them. They sat quaffing ale and cider, the women and children cold tea, before tucking into bread and cheese, fat bacon and Mrs Reed’s succulent pasties and pies.
The air was languid, the warm, sweet smell of the cornfield prevalent, and butterflies and insects fluttered about. For a while silence reigned, as everyone was content to munch away, unfazed by the presence of the Duke among them, content to work side by side with him, their only concern being to get the work done.
Juliet watched him throw himself down on the ground with his fellow workers, and when one of the men spoke to him a slow half-smile curved his sensuous lips, and she saw him give a careless shrug before lifting his a flagon of ale to his mouth. Tilting his head back, he drank deep, the curved arch of his throat strong and muscular. Passing the flagon on to the next man, he wiped his mouth on his arm and bit into a pasty.
It wasn’t until he’d finished that he raised his fine dark eyebrows at some remark and finally looked in Juliet’s direction. He sat watching her in silent fascination, then he smiled as their eyes met and he excused himself and hoisted himself to his feet.
Chapter Three
There was a mild stir of interest as the Duke made his way towards Miss Lockwood, but then everyone went back to filling their bellies. Dropping down beside her Dominic stretched out on his side, looking up at her.
‘So, Miss Lockwood, you have deserted your duties in the library to wait on the workers.’
‘I hope you don’t mind.’
‘Not at all. It’s your day off so you are at liberty to do what you like.’
Uneasy by his semi-nakedness, Juliet tried to keep her eyes averted, but it was virtually impossible when he was so close.
Sensing her unease and amusingly aware of the reason, Dominic got up again and went and dragged his white lawn shirt off the hedge where he’d discarded it earlier. Shrugging himself into it, he resumed his position on the ground beside her.
‘I would not wish my state of undress to offend your maidenly senses, Miss Lockwood,’ he said by way of an apology, ‘so I will spare your blushes.’
She merely smiled, relieved that she no longer had to gaze on that wide expanse of firm flesh. How handsome he is, she thought, with his black hair wildly tousled by his exertions. The dark liquid of her eyes deepened as she became caught up in the excitement of his presence.
She was sitting on the ground in a position that was neither dignified not ladylike. In her wildest imaginings she had never expected to find herself sitting in a wheat field with the Duke stretched out beside her. He took the piece of bread and the lump of cheese she offered. For a moment their hands touched. His hand was tanned, with strong, elegant fingers. She was instantly conscious of the warmth and potential power of that hand and felt an answering spark at his touch that no other man had aroused in her.
She hesitated, unable to look away from his face. His gaze was strangely compelling, though she still couldn’t decipher the expression in his guarded silver-grey eyes. She was torn between a desire to get up and run away, and a fugitive wish to prolong the moment.
‘I—intended finding a quiet place to read my book, until I saw Dolly struggling with the heavy basket.’
‘And so you volunteered to help her. How very considerate of you, Miss Lockwood.’
There was something about the amused tilt of his eyebrows, the sudden mischievousness in his eyes, that made her laugh. ‘I like to oblige when I can.’
He cocked a brow, his silvery eyes glinting with reflected sunlight. ‘You do?’
She flushed softly, hoping he didn’t mean what she thought he did. When his smile curled and his lips lifted slightly at one corner, his eyelids drooping seductively over his eyes, she knew that was exactly what he meant and didn’t deign to reply.
Seeming to be content in her company, he allowed his eyes to remain on her, gauging her, watching for her every shade of thought and emotion, his gaze missing nothing. She looked lovely and arresting and very interesting. Her body was rounded and disturbing in its femininity. The swell of her hips and the firm shapeliness of her breasts as she leaned over the basket were outlined softly beneath her gown.
Hauling himself to a sitting position, he idly took hold of the short handle of a sickle that had been left lying on the ground and set it down by his side before turning his attention back to his charming employee, his leg brushing the naked blade.
‘Have a care, Lord Lansdowne. If you do not treat the sickle with respect, it could do you untold damage should you happen to …’ They stared at each other in silence for several moments, then Juliet grinned impudently.
Dominic glanced sideways at her. There was a gleam in his eyes, and she saw a smile form on his lips. He was clearly amused by her gauche remark. ‘What? Sit on it? I sincerely hope not since I intend to father many children one day. But, my dear Miss Lockwood,’ he uttered with mock horror, ‘you should be flayed to within an inch of your life as a warning to others for your disrespectful boldness.’
She flushed hotly, wondering how she could have been so unsophisticated as to speak her thoughts aloud, but then, seeing the funny side when she realised what he thought she was referring to, laughter bubbled to her lips and it was a moment before she could speak.
‘Or hung from a gibbet at a crossroads somewhere,’ she suggested at last, tears of mirth gathered in her eyes that were gently teasing, ‘as a warning to others not to be rude to a duke—or transportation to the colonies, even. Goodness, the punishments could be endless.’
He grinned, the sunlight emphasising the distinctive contours of his face, his strong white teeth gleaming as he returned her gaze. ‘You’re far too attractive for gallows meat, Miss Lockwood, and were you to be transported to the colonies, then who would I get as efficient as you to finish cataloguing my library?’
‘Who indeed?’ She laughed. ‘But no one is indispensable, your Grace.’
‘I wouldn’t count on that if I were you, Miss Lockwood.’
Looking around and seeing that everyone had eaten their fill and were lolling around before they would start the afternoon work, Juliet began placing the uneaten food and drink carefully back into the basket, studying her employer surreptitiously. He was the most assured man she had ever met, yet she sensed that his self-confidence wasn’t founded on empty arrogance, but on hard-won experience.
He looked so relaxed, sitting there with his arms resting atop his drawn-up knees. And yet, she had the strangest feeling that beneath that relaxed exterior there was a forcefulness, carefully restrained for now, but waiting. If she were to make a wrong move, a mistake of any kind, she felt that he would unleash that force on her. Recollecting herself, she gave herself a hard shake. Now she really was being foolish and fanciful.
As she turned her head away, her attention was caught by a young couple several yards apart eyeing each other with a certain look. Without a word she saw them get up and saunter towards a break in the hedge, come together and disappear through the gap, and a moment later from behind the hedge came a fit of giggling. Juliet glanced at her employer, who had also seen the couple disappear. He was watching and waiting for her reaction with quiet amusement.
‘They are sweethearts, Miss Lockwood,’ he said quietly by way of explanation, smiling broadly at her sudden confusion and the hot flush that sprang to her cheeks.
‘Oh—I see.’
‘You do? Every dinner time, when food and drink have been taken, Mandy Cooper always gives Simon Archer a nod and a wink and he knows what it means. Mandy wants him to take her to the shade and privacy behind the hedge and—’
‘Please don’t go on,’ Juliet gasped quickly, before he could go into detail about what they got up to behind the hedge. He didn’t seem to mind that Simon Archer was only too happy to oblige Mandy Cooper in the harvest field. She lowered her head, grateful for the wide brim of her bonnet hiding her embarrassed confusion. It would never do to let him think he had her at a disadvantage.
Dominic chuckled softly. ‘They are to be married at Christmas,’ he told Juliet, as if this made everything all right.
‘Please don’t go on. It isn’t something I consider funny, even if you do,’ she informed him haughtily.
‘Of course I find it amusing. I’m always entertained by the amorous antics of others.’
‘I expect you would be,’ she retorted sharply before she could stop herself.
Comprehending her meaning, his eyes narrowed. ‘So, Miss Lockwood, my reputation has preceded me.’
‘Yes. Do you deny that you have a certain—reputation, your Grace?’
‘I would do so with alacrity, if I didn’t think the answer would disappoint you,’ he answered, a faint smile playing on his lips. Reaching out he brushed her hair with his fingers. She pulled back in surprise and he laughed, holding a piece of straw that had become entangled. She sighed and met his gaze. ‘At heart I am a true romantic.’
‘Are you suggesting I find anything—remotely interesting about the idea that you are a womaniser, Lord Lansdowne?’ Juliet exclaimed, colouring hotly at the implication that she might find something attractive about the fact that he enjoyed the reputation of a libertine.
He chuckled softly. ‘It’s a talking point, if nothing else. Although it might be difficult for a monumentally respectable young woman like yourself to understand.’
‘I don’t know of any other womanisers, your Grace, so, yes, I do find such behaviour difficult to understand. But I meant no disparagement of your character.’
‘And I would wager that you would not have said that if I were not your employer, Miss Lockwood. I’m sure you would give me a severe dressing down, which some would say I deserve.’
‘Perhaps you do. It’s not for me to say.’
‘How old are you, Miss Lockwood?’
Her eyes locked on his. ‘You know perfectly well how old I am, Lord Lansdowne. It was on my reference when I applied for the position.’
‘Twenty-three, I believe. Not on the shelf yet.’
He grinned and she flushed, uneasy about this inappropriate turn in the conversation.
‘I—I can’t make out the time,’ she said quickly, busying herself with the basket, ‘but I suppose everyone will soon have to begin work. I’ll stay and help Dolly with the basket. We can go back to the house together.’
His gaze shifted from the hedge to her. ‘Not until I’ve heard you laugh again. You should laugh often.’
Juliet shook her head and lowered her eyes, unsure how she felt about the way he was looking at her. She relaxed and managed to smile, finding it hard not to when he spoke to her in that silken voice.
‘I confess I haven’t laughed so much since I was at the Academy—when I was eleven years old.’
When he realised she wasn’t going to elaborate, with his lips twitching with amusement, Dominic said, ‘Since you’re obviously reluctant to share it with me, as a duke and your employer I insist that you do, Miss Lockwood.’
‘Must I?’ she said, laughter not far away. ‘Have you no mercy, your Grace?’
‘None whatsoever—and not when you address me as your Grace.’
‘But it wasn’t that interesting.’
‘I don’t care. Make it up. That’s an order, Miss Lockwood. Pray continue.’
She sighed and sat back on her heels. ‘If you insist.’
‘I do.’
‘Well,’ she murmured, her voice softening as she looked back into her past, ‘at the Academy we had a particularly strict teacher called Miss Murdoch. She was tall and willowy with a pointed face and a pair of extremely penetrating green eyes. Nothing ever escaped her and if any of the girls failed to come up with the correct marks in lessons, she was vicious with a ruler over one’s knuckles.’
‘And what subjects did this monster of a teacher teach?’
‘English, history and music. As you know, my musical talents are sadly lacking, my singing offensive to the ears, but Miss Murdoch would insist that if I tried harder I would get better. She made me play the piano in front of the whole Academy once, which turned out to be a total disaster; instead of blaming herself for making me do it, she blamed me not doing enough practice and gave me such a rattling on my knuckles that I couldn’t have played the piano for a week if I’d wanted to.’
Dominic felt an unexplainable surge of anger at the dreadful Miss Murdoch. ‘What has that to do with laughter, Miss Lockwood? It sounds more like torture to me.’
‘There is a humorous side to the story,’ she said with a breezy smile and waving her hand dismissively, ‘and it wasn’t just me she had it in for. A few of the girls got together and decided to wreak their revenge. We sprinkled itching powder between her sheets one night. The poor woman came out in a dreadful rash and couldn’t stop scratching herself for days,’ she confessed with twinkling eyes.
‘I assume the poor woman never found out the truth?’
‘Oh, no. Never,’ she replied merrily. ‘We would all have been expelled for sure. But I shall never forget the look on her face when she came down to breakfast the next morning. She had the reddest face you ever did see and she had to leave the room because she couldn’t sit still.’
‘And you got your revenge?’
‘Absolutely. But nothing changed. She was still the same sour Miss Murdoch, but we were cheered by it at the time.’
Dominic smiled, but his voice was quiet, seductive, thinking how lovely she was. The light breeze had whipped strands of hair around her face into a frame of soft, feathery curls. ‘After what you have told me, now I know what sadistic cruelties you are capable of, I must remember never to get on the wrong side of you, Miss Lockwood. Next time your revenge may take you beyond itching powder.’
‘Things were different then. I am no longer eleven years old.’
‘So you didn’t make it up?’
‘No. It may surprise you, but I didn’t and at the time it was more hilarious than the telling over ten years later.’
Seeing everyone returning to work, the men picking up their sickles, Dominic hauled himself to his feet and looked down at her. As she tried to get up, her legs stiff because she’d been sitting on them, he reached down and took both of her hands in his, drawing her easily to her feet.
She looked up at him, very conscious of how close together they were standing, and the almost casual intimacy of their actions, which nevertheless was most inappropriate considering her position.
‘When all the harvest has been gathered in,’ he said, ‘you must come to the harvest-home supper. It’s a night not to be missed, when everyone from miles around comes together. It’s held in Farmer Shepherd’s barn.’
‘I’d like that. Thank you.’ While Dolly shoved the remaining leftover food into the basket she watched him turn and walk away to begin work.
One afternoon, when she was sorting through some manuscripts, someone walked in. Raising her head, she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when she recognised the young man, Sir Charles Sedgwick, who she had seen on her arrival at Lansdowne House, the same man who had been insufferably rude.
She caught her breath as he sauntered towards her. The picture of him and the lovely Geraldine flashed in her mind. She saw him leaning over to caress her neck, and how Geraldine had almost purred like a cat with the pleasure it. It was like an erotic engraving come to life. She forced the unwelcome images out of her mind and tried to compose herself. His pale blond hair was thick and as shiny as silk. He was good looking all right, no question about it, but fortunately she knew him for what he was and was completely immune to Charles Sedgwick’s kind of potent sexual allure.
When he reached the table she managed to give him a cool, indifferent glance. Shoving some books aside that she had stacked up to be rebound and perching his hip on the edge, he folded his arms across his chest, looking very pleased with himself.
‘Well, well, Miss Lockwood, we meet again,’ he drawled, quizzing her at close range with open male interest. His seductive, smoky blue eyes appraised her and a lazy smile curved his mouth, for the ravishing young beauty bore no resemblance to the pale, bedraggled little sparrow who had interrupted their dinner.
Juliet raised one eyebrow at him and regarded him coolly. ‘I am surprised you can remember, since I wasn’t looking my best.’
‘I must have been well into my cups not to see how lovely you are—and I shall endeavour to see a good deal more of you while you are here.’
‘Really? I think I am right to be wary of you. You look like a scoundrel to me.’
‘And you would know what a scoundrel looks like, would you, Miss Lockwood?’
She raised her eyes to his. ‘Oh, yes, Sir Charles. I have come across men like you before and always stay well clear. Now, will you please go away? I am trying to work.’
He grinned. ‘I am a very persistent fellow, Miss Lockwood.’ His voice was pleasant, almost playful, but there was nevertheless a steely edge to it. ‘I am a good-natured, gregarious sort of chap, and you are a beautiful young woman, the employee of my best friend—if I can make your life a little more cheerful while you are here then why should I not endeavour to do so?’
‘Why not indeed?’ Juliet uttered drily. ‘It is obvious to me that you have a way with women—with everybody come to that, even the Duke himself—but my instinct tells me that you will do me no good. Do you flirt with every woman you meet, Sir Charles?’