"Then the map is just a hobby?" He stroked his hands down her back. "You appeared quite engrossed in it earlier."

"That is due to my pride." Charlotte arched into his caress. "I dislike living under the duke's thumb. It allows him to feel that he's won, that he's bested me. If I could acquire financial independence, I could control my own fate. That's worth studying the map with all the enthusiasm I can muster. Besides, there was nothing else to occupy me in this weather." She pressed a kiss to his nipple. "Until you came along."

Hugh tucked her hair behind her ear. "I've never considered keeping a mistress, but-"

"Why pay for what I give you for free?" she interrupted with a sly curve to her lips.

"You're avoiding the subject again." He slid lower and draped her body over his. "You are quite adept at evasiveness."

"I am adept at a great many things."

He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose, pleased that she'd confided so much in him. "Is Her Grace harmless?"

"Oh, yes," she assured him. "She's no danger to you."

"Then why did she venture into my room this morning?"

Charlotte's eyes lit with mischief. "Perhaps she wished to have her wicked way with you."

"That's not funny," he grumbled.

She giggled. "I think it is."

He began to tickle her.

"Stop it!" she gasped, laughing.

"Now this…" he said. "This is funny!"

Turning, Hugh pinned her beneath him and smiled.

"Oh, no, you don't!" she protested, pushing upward against his chest. "I must eat; I'm starved. I want to bathe and… other things."

Hugh rolled his eyes and then rolled to his back with an exaggerated sigh. "For a mistress, you're not very accommodating," he complained.

Charlotte tossed a leg over his hips and straddled him, still clutching the sheet like a toga. "I am your lover, not your mistress. And I've been accommodating you for hours, my lord. Now you must accommodate my hunger."

"Hugh," he corrected, needing the familiarity. He was beginning to believe his recent ennui was a result of his lack of close personal associates. Perhaps all he needed was a mistress, one woman he could concentrate his attentions on, rather than indulging in fleeting liaisons. But first he had to prove to Charlotte that she needed him in some way. "When we've finished breakfast and fucking, we'll go over the map and journals together."

She laughed and looked down her nose at him.

"You don't believe I can help you?" he asked, with a frown. Perhaps this would be more difficult than he'd thought. "I have some investment in Lambert Shipping and-"

Gentle fingertips drifted across his lips, searing him with their touch. "I believe you can do anything you set your mind to, but I don't believe you'll ever finish fucking."

Hugh growled, her belief in him causing his lust to surge. "Best you retire to your room now, before I prove you right."

Charlotte leapt from the bed and ran from the room in a fit of giggles.


"You should never have visited his room," Charlotte scolded. "Now he knows about the hidden passageways and the map."

"I'm sorry," came the contrite reply. "You said he was gorgeous. I just wanted to see for myself. Was he dreadfully angry?"

Charlotte took a seat at her vanity and relented with a sigh. "He might have been originally. But he's not any longer."

Soft hands settled on her shoulders. "I just wanted a good look at him."

Glancing in the mirror, Charlotte caught the reflection of the woman at her back. "Perhaps it's best if you don't see him. There is something fundamentally unfair about having a man that gorgeous around. It makes it nearly impossible to think clearly." Lowering her gaze, she was startled to discover that the woman who stared back was younger than she remembered, with flushed cheeks, bright eyes, and a kiss-swollen mouth.

Hugh La Coeur liked kissing. He took his time with it, tasting her, caressing the inside of her mouth with deep licks of his talented tongue. She'd had her share of selfish bed partners, men who couldn't be bothered with foreplay. Hugh, however, was a tactile man. He loved to caress her hair, her skin, her lips, and she preened like a cat under his touch, wanting to stretch and purr and soak up his affection.

Fierce and primitive in bed, he took her body as if it belonged to him, as if it existed only for his pleasure. The tiny glimpses of vulnerability she'd seen in him certainly didn't extend to the bedroom. His lovemaking was breathtaking, his stamina impressive. Twice she'd begged him to leave her alone, only to find that she craved him again within moments. He knew it, too, the arrogant man. It was rather like an addiction to chocolate, she supposed. She only hoped she would have her fill before the storm blew over and he went away.

Charlotte picked up her brush and ran it through her hair. "I told him about the map and Glenmoore."

"That sounds promising. What did he say?"

"He offered to help, actually." She thought of his reactions to everything he'd witnessed so far and had to admire his aplomb. Nothing seemed to catch him off guard. And the way he'd soothed Katie and offered to buy a dozen pitchers for her… Charlotte had been touched. She didn't trust people easily, but Hugh's flashes of kindness for her, for his footman, and for her servants made her believe he was someone who genuinely cared for her welfare.

"Do you think he can? Help, that is?"

She shrugged. "I'm not certain, but I don't see how it can hurt anything for him to try, and it will keep us occupied during the storm."

Laughter greeted that statement. "I didn't think you needed any outside influences to keep you two occupied."

Charlotte set the brush down with a firm click. "Now that, I'm certain, isn't proper at all!"

Chapter Five

Hugh stared into Artemis's single eye and refused to give ground. To cave in to a servant… Why, the thought was abominable!

"Listen, old chap," he said curtly. "'Tis a simple enough question."

Artemis set his hands on his hips. "And one ye need be askin' 'er Grace!"

"You answer the door, for Christ's sake! You know as well as anyone if Lord Glenmoore comes calling here."

"O' course I know! Doesn't mean I'll be tellin' you!" The bulbous eye protruded further as the butler narrowed his gaze. "You can ask from 'ere to perdition, gov'na, and I-"

"Hang it all!! The proper address for a peer is 'my lord.' Is that so bloody difficult?"

Artemis gasped. '"Ere now! Are ye complainin' 'bout the way I perform my duties?"

"Complaining?" Hugh snorted. "Good God, I'm astounded. Amazed. Stunned."

Artemis nodded in agreement. "And so you should be, gov'na."

"'Tis not every day one finds service of your caliber," Hugh muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Are ye bein' sarcastic?" Artemis asked suspiciously.

"Who, me? Never."

"What are you two arguing about?" Charlotte asked as she descended the staircase. Dressed in soft floral muslin that was a few seasons out of style, she looked fresh and young, a vision of ripe innocence that belied her sensual past.

"You can ask 'er!" The butler turned to leave without being dismissed. "A man shouldn't 'ave to deal with this sort of treatment in 'is place of employment," he grumbled as he shuffled away.

Hugh gaped after him.

Charlotte laughed, a raw, husky sound that made his cock hard.

Damnation! He scowled. He couldn't go around sporting a constant erection, which is precisely what he'd been doing since he arrived.

Coming to a stop before him, she brushed his frown away with the soft touch of her fingers. "Artemis is a good man, and whatever you asked, you shouldn't have asked him. You know as well as I that no respectable upper servants would ever divulge information about their employers."

Not accustomed to admitting he was wrong, Hugh stewed for a moment before nodding.

Charlotte's green eyes sparkled with amusement. "Now, what did you want to ask?"

Hugh released a deep breath. "I'd like to know if Glenmoore still comes to visit you."

A dark red brow rose. "In what capacity?"

He snorted. "In any capacity."

"He stops by occasionally," she said carefully. "But I no longer share my bed with him, if that is what you're inquiring."

The relief that flooded him was profound and, because of that, disturbing. "Why does he come, then?"

"I suspect he simply wishes to assure himself that the duchess remains here and poses no threat to his precious reputation." She laced her arm with his and steered him toward the drawing room, where tempting aromas made his stomach growl.

He was ravenously hungry, and once they were seated, he tucked into the delectable meal with gusto. Consisting of kidney and eggs, honey cakes and plum cakes, the food was delicious. Despite the rather frightening specter the cook presented, Hugh had no trouble admitting that her talent in the kitchen was impressive. She was much better than the resident chef at Montrose Hall.

When Katie came in a few moments later, bearing a pitcher of wildly sloshing water and favoring a bandaged hand, he simply smiled, unalarmed. Everything seemed different today. The candlelight that bolstered the dreary morning light seemed more golden, the food more appetizing, Charlotte more beautiful.

Suspecting it was contentment he was feeling, Hugh grinned, savoring the moment. He wanted to feel this way more often, and he knew Charlotte was the cause. Therefore a stratagem was required to convince his lover that having him around could benefit her in more ways than orgasms. Since she'd provided the solution already, he had only to take advantage of it.

"You're in a fine mood," Charlotte noted, smiling against the rim of her cup. Hugh La Coeur was also in fine form. Dressed in warm shades of brown, he made her mouth water, the handsomeness of his features intensified by a boyish smile.

"I am. More's the pity for you." He waggled his brows suggestively.

She laughed. "A girl could become accustomed to having you around."

"I hope you do." He pushed away his empty plate and stood, moving to her chair. "Shall we retire to my room and study your map?"

Charlotte rose, a sharp tingle of awareness coursing through her veins. She glanced at Hugh over her shoulder and batted her lashes. "I thought studying the map came later?" Her eyes dropped to his trousers, and she watched, fascinated, as his cock swelled before her eyes.

"Stop that." He grabbed her elbow and led her to the stairs.

"Stop what?" she asked innocently, biting back a smile.

"You know very well what," he said, his voice a slow drawl that made her toes curl in her slippers. "Drooling while staring at my cock."

"I did no such thing!" she protested, choking back a giggle as they ascended the stairs.

He shot her an arch glance. "You did, too, insatiable minx. A man can hardly get any rest around here."

She choked. "Horrid man! You wouldn't leave me alone. How many times did I roll over and attempt sleep?"

"Several," he said smoothly. "But it wasn't long before you reached for me again."

Charlotte paused on the middle stair. "Only because your erection was poking me in the spine!"

Hugh shrugged in exquisite nonchalance. "You were wiggling."

She stared at him, fighting back laughter, her entire body warming to the sensual amusement she found in his dark gaze. He was so devastatingly handsome, full of vigor and mischief. He was a man who lived life, while she'd spent the last few years in a daze. She was drawn to that energy, to that zest, wanting to absorb the thrill of it into the marrow of her bones.

Unable to help herself, she stepped forward and offered him her mouth. With a deep groan, he obliged, gifting her with one of his sensual kisses. Charlotte melted against him, her hands drifting to clutch the powerful muscles of his shoulders.

"See?" he murmured, licking her parted lips. "You are doing it again."

Achingly aroused, she laughed breathlessly. "You're a conceited rake."

"And you're a brazen wench." His hands cupped her breasts, teasing her hardened nipples.

She pulled back with a grin. "You like that I am."

Hugh leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms. "I quite like that you are," he agreed. "Now would you like to go over your map?"

Charlotte considered him for a moment, from head to toe. He was fully, impressively aroused, and she was obviously willing, but he wanted to study the blasted map? She chewed her lower lip.

"Think you can keep your hands to yourself?" he prodded.