Her One Desire
Sienna Kilgarn
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This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are fictitious and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Sienna Kilgarn
http://www.siennakilgarn.blogspot.com
Published by Sienna Kilgarn at Smashwords
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the friends who have helped and supported me along the way. Your encouragement means a lot to me.
CHAPTER ONE
“Honestly, Bri, I don’t know how you do it,” whispered Diana Callworth. “How do you put up with these stuffy gentlemen afternoons?”
Aubrianna Chestermere raised an eyebrow at her friend’s remark. Diana rarely spoke so frankly, but Aubrianna was both amused and thrilled to see her hatch from her usual shell. “Careful Diana, do not let Charles hear you call me that, you know how he abhors it,” she whispered back. “But to answer your question, it is only once a month and it gives me an excuse to invite you to Kent to save me from the boredom. At any rate, I’ve become quite adept at putting on the right facade in public for my husband’s sake.”
Lord Charles Chestermere was high profile, not only in Kent, but in London circles as well. His long-time close relationship with the influential, Lord Merril Howard, had also helped him catch favor within the political arena.
For the most part, Aubrianna gladly kept out of her husband’s affairs and she was content to let him have his political fantasies as long as he did not stand in the way of her own – although political they were not.
The two women sat chatting on a yellow satin settee some good distance from the group of men. For now, at the beginning of her husband’s meeting, it was acceptable for Lord Chestermere to show off his stunningly beautiful wife. When they were ready to get down to brass tax, however, she and her companion would be expected to make themselves scarce.
“Who is that?” Diana raised her lace fan to hide her lips as she spoke, then motioned with her glowing hazel eyes to a young gentleman sitting near the open window.
“That?” Aubrianna raised her own fan. “That sweet little bit of tight meat is Walter Howard.”
Diana giggled softly at Aubrianna’s overly familiar description of the handsome young man. “Wait. Walter Howard? You don’t mean to say he is the son of—”
“The very same,” Aubrianna finished.
“I’ve seen him here before. He’s ever so good looking.”
“Isn’t he, though?” Aubrianna fanned her face rapidly. She was intimately acquainted with young Walter’s good looks... and more.
“Why Bri, you look as though you may pounce from here. You two aren’t… are you?”
Aubrianna ignored her friend’s question as she noticed her husband giving her the nod. He was dismissing her from her wifely duty of making the other men in the room want to loosen their cravats and mop their brows. For the life of her she did not understand why Charles insisted on such ridiculous insinuations, considering he’d barely touched her since their marriage a little more than a year ago.
“Come with me to the courtyard, Diana. We can gossip there.” Aubrianna knew that Diana had not grown up in the circles of the upper crust. It was only their close relationship with one another that had flung her into a world of money and power. She knew Diana could take it or leave it and that was one of her most endearing qualities.
Aubrianna had just turned thirty, a spinster by social standards. But her mother’s languishing illness had kept her from marrying in her prime years. When she had caught the eye of Lord Chestermere, Aubrianna had not hesitated to accept the opportunity to cement herself a secure future. She had found Charles somewhat attractive and he had been charming and kind to her. It had been a quick decision despite the age difference of twenty five years. She hadn’t had a crystal ball with which to look into the future to see that her new husband’s precious flag only flew at half-mast.
The two women strolled leisurely through the courtyard toward the old gatehouse. The sun was sumptuously warm and a light summer breeze carried with it the scent of purple heliotropes.
Some distance away, Christian, the Chestermere’s carriage driver, stood brushing a dappled mare. He was six foot tall if he was an inch and big, by no means fat, but muscular. His hair was long and wiry and twisted into tight neat rows and there was a skim of facial hair on his dark and tanned jaw.
“I do think he is handsome, don’t you, Bri?”
Aubrianna glanced over at the man and said, “If you like that sort.”
“Where is he from, you know, where did you get him?”
Aubrianna kept her eyes fixed on the man as she spoke. “He was with Charles when we married. I don’t really know much about him at all except that he is from the Indies and his father was a white sea Captain. That’s all I can tell you.” Aubrianna was lying to her friend, something she rarely did. Christian had caught her eye long ago but he’d never once shown the slightest bit of interest in her and yet, he was the one person she knew she could trust implicitly.
The man turned and stared straight at Aubrianna while blindly continuing to brush the mare.
Aubrianna caught her racing pulse and ripped her eyes away from him. Seeing they were a sufficient distance from the main house, she reached up to release the pearl-studded comb that held up her hair. It fell in waves down and over the shoulders of her white and yellow dress, tickling her arms beneath her short cap sleeves. As if on command, a gentle breeze struck up and toyed with a few wayward strands.
Diana just gave her a quick glance and shook her head. “I wish I were like you.”
“Like me? Why in God’s name would you want to be like me? You are just a babe, Diana, a beautiful, young babe.”
“Twenty-one is not a babe.” She smiled. “You are brave. You do things that other women do not – would not. I never see you wear a morning dress. Robert would kill me if I walked around with the top of my breasts showing. You are as free as I would like to be. You are a lioness with flaming red hair and a constitution to match.”