The Viscount and the Vixen by Lorraine Heath

Author:Lorraine Heath
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-11-29T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

A week later, Portia unlocked a door and led her newest staff members into a room that she was fairly certain had been at least one marchioness’s morning room. At the far end, the windows jutted out to create a little alcove, with bookshelves along the wall on either side. She could imagine herself curling up—book in hand—in one of the two large plush chairs near the windows and reading to a little girl nestled in the other.

“Let’s get started, shall we?” she ordered as she whipped the draperies open, coughing as the dust floated around her.

Since the marquess hadn’t seemed disturbed by the tidying of the music room—in fact he seemed to relish it, since he joined them there each evening shortly after she began to play—she had attacked the marchioness’s study with gusto. Now she had a place where she could write letters—if she’d had anyone who would welcome receiving a letter from her. The cook met her there each morning to go over the menu for the evening meal. She kept the midday fare simple—bread, cheese, sometimes soup. She would have a tray carried up to Marsden’s bedchamber and she would take her meal there. Without much prompting, she could entice him into speaking about his love. She thought it the most wonderful thing in the world that after so many years, he could still love his Linnie so deeply. She wished she’d an opportunity to know the woman, although through her afternoon visits with the marquess, Portia was beginning to have a sense of his wife’s personality and temperament. Of course, over the years, he’d no doubt idealized her, for surely no woman could be that perfect.

But she had obviously been perfect for the marquess. Unlike Portia, who was the absolute worst choice for a wife that the viscount could have made. Although of late, she was finding it a bit difficult to keep up with him in the evenings. She’d begun taking a short nap following her time with the marquess so she wouldn’t be completely exhausted when her husband wasn’t content with one session of lovemaking but was in the mood for two or three, usually keeping them going until long past midnight. Not that she minded. He was incredibly thorough and was never satisfied unless her pleasure equaled or exceeded his. She wasn’t accustomed to such considerations. Sometimes guilt nagged at her because he was a far better husband than she was a wife.

As she began examining each piece of furniture to determine which might need to be taken to Mr. Wortham for a bit of repair, she supposed she’d have more energy for the evenings if she stopped helping the staff as they worked to make each room habitable. But being involved made the days pass more quickly. She’d had two years of being little more than an ornament, waiting to be taken off the shelf. She delighted in all the activity during the day, although she had begun finishing up an hour earlier so she could be bathed and dressed by the time Locksley returned from the mines.

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