NO NOTE HAD come from Kit.
Wearing a sapphire silk dressing gown, Rose paced her crimson bedchamber while her sisters and Judith watched. They were here to help her dress for her wedding.
But she couldn’t help wondering if she was going to have one.
She lifted the bouquet she’d made for herself and stroked the soft red and white petals. If she hadn’t given all that money to Kit’s sister, she wouldn’t think twice about the fact that he hadn’t arrived yet; in truth, she had no reason to expect him this early. And he wasn’t supposed to see her before the wedding, anyway.
But she’d thought she’d hear from him Thursday night. And now it was Saturday…
“You look worried,” Judith said.
Rose inhaled deeply of the sweet floral scent before she set the flowers down and forced a smile. “Wedding nerves. You suffered them, too, if you’ll remember.”
“Did I?” Judith laughed, looking happier than Rose had ever seen her. “But there was no cause for nerves, as I discovered. If it’s the wedding night you’re dreading…don’t. It was ever so wonderful—” She must have suddenly realized what she was saying, because she broke off, her cheeks flushing pink.
Struggling to keep a straight face, Rose exchanged glances with her sisters. “Thank you,” she told Judith primly. “I feel much better.”
“Oh, good.” Judith smiled.
Rose’s hair was already dressed with pearls and red ribbons, her lashes darkened, and her eyes lightly outlined with kohl. For want of something to do, she sat at her dressing table and fluffed more powder on her face.
“You’re going to look like a ghost,” Violet said.
“Good God, you’re right.” Staring at her pale self in the mirror, she pulled a little sheet of red Spanish paper from a tiny booklet. “Where’s Kit?” she asked, rubbing it on her cheeks.
“Now you look like a harlot.” Lily grabbed a handkerchief to rub some off. “Let me help you.”
Rose sat rigid under her ministrations. “Is it time for me to get dressed?”
“Might as well.” Violet swept the red gown off the bed. “Shall I call Harriet?”
“No. You three can help me. I cannot stand any more of her chatter. All she ever talks of is Walter and getting married. I almost wish they’d chosen to live at Hampton Court instead of with me.”
“That isn’t true,” Lily said.
Of course it wasn’t. Harriet’s chatter hadn’t bothered her before she gave the money to Ellen. She just couldn’t take so much unadulterated happiness right now. It set her teeth on edge.
She slid out of her wrapper and stood in place while Judith slipped the diaphanous chemise over her head, being careful not to ruin her hair or her carefully applied face. Then her sisters brought over the gown and helped her wiggle into it. Violet smoothed the satin skirts over her hips while Lily stepped close to lace her tightly into the bodice.
“I think I may be with child,” she murmured to Rose’s chest.
Rose blinked and glanced down to Lily’s still-flat stomach. In her dusky pink gown, her sister’s body looked as lithe as ever. “Are you sure?”
Lily looked up with a dreamy smile. “I’m two weeks late.”
“Oh, Lily!” Violet threw her arms around her.
“Me, too,” Judith said shyly.
Lily froze. “You’re not jesting?”
“No,” Judith said, and they both let out excited little screams.
Beaming, Lily turned from Violet’s arms into her friend’s. “Remember when you said we should be newly wedded together? Now we’re going to become mothers together, too!”
Rose watched them embrace, slowly tying her abandoned laces in a bow while her own flat stomach churned. Lily and Judith and Ellen, all pregnant. And Violet had three children already.
On this day that was supposed to be happy, she felt so left out. She reached for her stomacher and plastered it against her front, beginning to fasten the tabs. Would she ever have children of her own? Not if Kit didn’t show up to marry her—
“Edmund is thrilled,” Judith gushed. “What did Rand say?”
“I haven’t told him yet.” Lily hugged herself round the middle as though she were protecting her child. “I wanted to be sure. We’ve been disappointed before—”
“Oh, heavens,” Judith said. “You’ve been wed just two months. You must tell him. If he’s half as happy as Edmund, you’ll end up spending a night that makes you wonder if you could possibly conceive a second child when you’re already increasing with the first—”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks looking like she’d used a whole booklet of Spanish paper.
Lily laughed. “I’ll tell him today.”
“Tell who what?” came a voice from the doorway.
Kit.
Rose’s heart thundered beneath her laces.
“Never mind,” Lily blurted.
Kit locked his gaze on Rose, but she couldn’t read his face. “You’re not supposed to see me before the wedding,” she said inanely. “It’s bad luck.”
“I’ll risk it. I need to talk to you.”
He looked so serious. The little breakfast she’d managed to choke down this morning was threatening to come back up.
“Well…we’ll leave,” Lily said.
“Excellent idea.” He waited by the door while the other three women scurried out, then shut it decisively behind them. “Do you need help with that?” he asked, indicating Rose’s half-attached stomacher.
“No.” Her fingers began moving again, albeit shakily. He was walking closer. “Kit—”
Her sentence was cut off when his mouth crushed down on hers.
This was no gentle caress, but hot and emphatic. His lips coaxed hers open and his tongue swept her mouth in a declaration of possession that made her senses dim and her knees threaten to buckle.
By the time he broke contact, she was gasping for breath, reeling with the sudden reversal of worry to elation.
He kissed her chin, her neck, between her breasts where her stomacher dangled drunkenly. “God, I love you,” he murmured against her skin. Closing his eyes, he inhaled deeply. “You smell like sin.”
She threaded her fingers into his hair and pressed her lips to the top of his head. “I was so afraid you’d hate me.”
“Hate you?” Straightening, he lifted her chin until her gaze was forced to his. His incredible eyes searched hers. “Why?”
“For meddling in your affairs. I only wanted your happiness…”
“Did you think I didn’t know that? Did you think I wouldn’t fall in love with you all over again when I realized you were willing to give up your inheritance to bring me and my sister together? What kind of man do you think I am?”
She’d known what kind of man he was—she shouldn’t have let her sisters lead her to doubt. “You didn’t answer my letter.”
“What letter?” His thumb moved from her chin, skimming tenderly over her cheek. “I never received any letter.”
“I left it propped on your washstand.”
He shrugged. “No one’s ever done anything that touched me the way you have. Lord Almighty, sweetheart, when I went to give Ellen her dowry and she told me—”
“What?” She forgot about the missing letter as her hand flew up to grasp his wrist. “You gave Ellen her dowry?”
“I tried to,” he said with a wry grin. “She told me you already had.” His gaze softened. “However was I lucky enough to win a woman as special as you?”
Rose’s throat tightened. No one had ever called her special. “I should have known you would do the right thing.” She’d known he was a good man—that was why she’d decided to marry him.
He kissed her again, more gently this time, a tender kiss that made tears well in her eyes. No matter what he said, she knew she was the lucky one—lucky he hadn’t given up when she’d pushed him away for all the wrong reasons.
But if he had given up, he wouldn’t have been Kit.
“No crying on your wedding day,” he said, wiping a rogue tear off her cheek with a warm thumb. “I’m sure that’s worse luck than having me see you before the ceremony.”
She managed a watery chuckle.
His hands went to finish attaching her stomacher. “You look beautiful.”
“You look better,” she said, her pulse thumping madly under his fingers. He wore a deep green velvet suit with silver braid trim on the long waistcoat and the surcoat that went over it. Just enough lace fell from beneath his cuffs, and a tasteful diamond pin winked from the folds of his cravat.
Perfect. If she’d noticed how he was dressed when he first appeared in her doorway, she would have spared herself a few anguished seconds of worry. No one would take him for anything but a groom.
A heart-stoppingly handsome one.
His fingers traced the pearl scrollwork on her stomacher. “I have something for you.” He pulled a small wooden box from his pocket. “I wasn’t sure what color you’d be wearing, but I think they will match.”
She opened the lid to find an exquisite pair of earrings, two teardrop pearls swinging from clustered diamond tops. “They must have cost a fortune,” she gasped. She’d never seen such enormous pearls.
He smiled as he took them from the box and moved closer to fasten them on her ears. “I may not be titled, but I’m hardly a pauper.”
“I’m not wearing any earrings. I didn’t have any I wanted to wear.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, kissing a bare lobe before he decorated it. “I don’t ever want to see you wearing that damned duke’s jewels again. In fact, I think you should pawn them. Permanently. I just happen to know of a pawnshop.”
She laughed as he attached the second earring. When he was finished, he drew her close, running his hands over her back and down to her bottom. She ached where he brought their bodies together.
“I love you,” he said.
She’d never tire of hearing those three words. “I love you, too.”
“I love you in red.”
“I’m glad.” His scent was making her dizzy. “My sisters both wore blue.”
“I’d love to see you in blue, too.” He nibbled her neck. “I’d love to see you in purple,” he said conversationally. “I’d love to see you in green. I’d love to see you in a rich, metallic gold.”
Each word against her skin made delicious shivers whisper through her. She sighed, tilting her head to give him better access.
His lips settled in the sensitive hollow of her throat. “But mostly,” he whispered devilishly, “I’d love to see you naked.”
If her sisters hadn’t knocked on the door then, he might have.