“You may kiss me there. Nibble me.”
Rupert didn’t need to be told again. He shifted his upper body to face her, and then leaned forward. His lips found the side of her neck and Elizabeth tilted her head back and closed her eyes. His lips upon her were like fireworks in her loins. She felt a desire there, one she didn’t feel often. HIs hand left hers and rested on her leg, though it was hard to feel him there through the layers of skirt. His other hand went around her back, resting on her side.
“Rupert,” she whispered, but he didn’t say anything. He kept kissing and sucking on her neck, and Elizabeth felt as though she was moments away from turning her head and kissing him on the lips.
“Miss Elizabeth,” a voice called, and Rupert quit kissing her quickly, standing and spinning around to face who had spoken. It was Ms. Hedson, an old woman who had been a servant for Elizabeth’s family for quite some time.
“What is it, Beverly?” Elizabeth asked, standing as well and using the woman’s first name.
“Mr. David Weatherby is here to see you,” she said, and then she turned to leave. Elizabeth glanced at Rupert, but a dark shadow had crossed over his face seemingly within seconds.
“I must be going,” he said, and he strode away without waiting for a goodbye. Elizabeth sighed and then went to meet with David.
He stood in the parlor, looking at a large globe there, wooden and heave in a stand which allowed you to rotate it. She took a moment in the doorway to look him over. He was handsome, that was to be sure, even more so than Rupert. David’s frame was smaller, thinner, but he was a bit taller. His hair was as dark as the sea at night, and his eyes just as dark, though they somehow still managed to shine.
“Mr. Weatherby,” Elizabeth said as way to get his attention, and he turned.
“Hello, my dear,” he said, striding to her and taking her hand so he may kiss it.
“If you are here to attempt to bed me,” Elizabeth said with narrowed eyes, “then you may as well leave. Until we are married, the answer is the same.”
David laughed aloud and then slapped a hand over his chest, where his heart beat. “You offend me!” he said loudly. “You think such thoughts about me.”
“You have only seemed interested in me for one thing,” Elizabeth said. She wanted to go on, but she couldn’t. While she had resisted David’s charm for quite some time, she hadn’t resisted falling in love with the man. For all his faults he was kind and caring when he wanted to be, and he loved his family and friends fiercely. He was a kind warm man, and Elizabeth craved to be the one to bring it out of him.
“I came to speak to you about marriage,” the man said, and Elizabeth was surprised.
“What about it?”
“I think the time has come for us to be joined,” he said, taking her hand once more.
Elizabeth was startled, and she said a joke to give herself time to register what he was saying. “You must have lost all of your money, and now you’re coming for my father’s.”
It had been meant as a joke, but the flash of surprise that ran across the man’s face told her instantly that she had stumbled across the truth in the form of a jest.
She pulled his hand away from his. “You really seek to marry me for money?”
David knew there was no point in lying, and so he told the truth. It didn’t matter what the truth was, she was promised to him, and he would have her. “My father has cut me off. Last night he made me sleep at an inn. I have nowhere to go and no money.”
“And so you seek to marry me for my father’s money.”
“He will give us an allowance, and me one of his banks to run, as my own father had promised to do until yesterday.”
“I will not marry you,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head. “Not for that reason.”
“You are my beloved and betrothed,” David said. “You must.”
“I am not your beloved, you have never loved me.”
“I care for you. That hurts me to hear you say.”
“And then you are hurt,” Elizabeth said, “and it bothers me none. Please, leave here.”
“I will speak to your father,” David said simply, and then he did turn and leave.
Elizabeth watched him go, and then slumped down to a nearby chair and began to cry.
4
The same evening that she had spoken to David, Elizabeth was called in to her father’s study. He sat behind a large desk, signing his name to a stack of documents.
“My dear,” the old man said when he saw his only daughter. In fact, she was his only child, her mother having died giving birth to her, and her father knowing he could never love someone as much as he had her.