Devices & Desires by Pamela Sherwood

Author:Pamela Sherwood [Sherwood, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Castle Publishing

Keep calm, Gervase had advised her, and Margaret had to admit he was in the right of it. In the first shock of the announcement, she would almost certainly have said the wrong thing. Now, at least, she’d taken the time to consider her approach, and discard the ones most likely to blow up in her face.

She would speak to Reg first. After all, he would understand her objections far better than Alicia would. Steeling herself, she knocked on his chamber door, only to learn from his valet that Lord Reginald had gone down to the gymnasium with Lord Saxby.

No word on whether Alicia was with him, Margaret mused as she headed downstairs. On reflection, she hoped not—it would be far harder to say what she needed to say to Reg in her sister’s presence. Finding a way to speak to him alone would be enough of a challenge.

Pausing outside the gymnasium, she took a deep breath, then opened the door. Almost immediately, she caught sight of Reg and Hugo, stripped to the waist, and engaged in a vigorous wrestling bout in the middle of the room. Not surprisingly, they had an audience, much of it female and admiring, although—to Margaret’s relief—there was no sign of Alicia.

Making her way towards the bench where Madeline, Juliana, and Elaine were seated, she glanced at the two wrestlers as they alternately circled and lunged. No denying that Reg was a fine figure of a man: tall, broad-shouldered and broad-chested. Even more impressive than Hugo, whose own build was also athletic and well-proportioned. Just now both men glistened with a fine sheen of sweat as they grappled with each other. From a purely aesthetic point of view, Margaret supposed many would find Reg irresistible, although she herself would have preferred to watch another man: not as tall, but lean, lithe, and elegant as the fencers’ foils he wielded with such skill: Gervase, without a shirt, wrestling, fencing... or simply lying slack-limbed among her bedclothes, smiling at her with the lazy repletion of a recently fed lion.

Her face flamed at the memory, and she glanced down at her hands until her cheeks cooled. Keep your mind on the task at hand, she reminded herself sternly. She could not afford to be distracted by thoughts of her lover, however delightful.

A heavy thud accompanied by a grunt had her glancing up again. Hugo now lay on the mat, with Reg sprawled on top of him, pinning him in place. A scattered but enthusiastic round of applause broke out.

“Finished?” Madeline inquired sweetly of her husband, whose chest was heaving like a bellows. “Or haven’t you been punished enough yet?”

Hugo shot her a speaking look, but made no other reply, rolling to his feet once Reg let him up and extending a congratulatory hand to his brother-in-law. “Well done, old boy,” he half-gasped, with a rueful smile. “Listen to me, wheezing like a grampus! I probably should know better at my age.”

“Probably?” Madeline murmured, but both men ignored her.

Reg grinned, relaxed as he always was when engaging in the pastimes at which he excelled.

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