Edmond removed his gloves, and she gasped when he took her feet between his hands and started a massage.
It was blissful.
She groaned, arching her foot into his hand. Back and forth. Soft then hard. He unknotted the ache that had cramped her insteps and toes. Ester purred when he repeated a particular motion that cascaded bliss through her feet. The dratted man’s hands were simply magical.
“Are you delighted, Miss Fairbanks?”
Ester laughed, a dizzying feeling of happiness sweeping through her. “I am.”
She watched the night sky while he diligently attended to her cramped feet. Ester wondered what her siblings would say should they see her in this scandalous and potentially ruinous situation.
Was this how they felt as they tumbled into lust and love. Desperate but also breathless?
Why would I be so foolish to allow my heart to love a man so unsuitable?
“What are your dreams, Ester?”
The question so stunned her she pushed up on her elbows into a sitting position and stared at him.
“Why do you appear so surprised?”
She flushed and curled her fingers into the grass. “No one has ever asked me that before. I…I was merely startled.”
“Not even your siblings?”
“My family is very large. There are twelve siblings and numerous cousins and aunts. Dreams are more of a shared hope for our family than the individual. I daresay we own our private wishes, but they are hardly ever spoken about,” she said wistfully.
His hand paused on her ankle, and he gave her a considering stare. “What hope is that?”
Ester wrinkled her nose. “To marry well within thetonseems to be it. Our family had a bit of a naughty reputation in Penporth.”
“I’ve heard some of the gossip.”
“Last year, our brother Colin became the new Lord Celdon, and suddenly we must be…as perfect as one can be. Our grandaunt, Lady Celdon, was adamant that we must make respectable marriage alliances to be accepted in society.”
“Hmm, I gather this is why she was so opposed to your sister marrying my brother,” he said with a caustic bite that was rather unnerving.
“He is good enough,” Ester said fiercely. “Lucien is wonderful…you all are.”
Edmond’s mouth curved into that small enigmatic smile, and his eyes gleamed with an emotion she could not decipher.
She sighed. “My sister Fanny is a viscountess and Lizzy a duchess. I daresay that should have paused the old dragon’s matchmaking efforts, but she seems even more determined that we will all find such elevated success. Mama is even more encouraged by Fanny and Lizzy’s success that all her daughters will be just as splendidly wed.”
He gave her a searching look. “You do not wish for this kind of success?”
Ester held his regard. “I think…I think if I should meet a gentleman who regards me highly, perhaps even spoils me a little, and I feel the same way, I would indeed besplendidlywed. If I should find a husband who would not think it unflattering and unladylike that I enjoy watching birds in the countryside or that I dream of seeing the pyramids of Egypt, or the Aegean waters, or that I have a bit of rakishness inside me, then I would be splendidly matched. I will not marry in haste or because I am pressured to, that I do know. I never want to stand in the rubble of my own shattered hopes and dreams.”
Edmond smiled, the look in his eyes far more tender than she had ever seen. “A bit of rakishness, hmm?”
“Most assuredly,” she purred. “My brothers taught us to ardently pursue the things we want from life. I daresay because they were unrepentant rakes, we were charmingly affected.”
His low laughter rolled over Ester’s body and filled her with the sweetest warmth. “Do you only dream of expanding your business holdings?”
His fingers tightened briefly on her toes, and she wriggled them in protest.
“Unmatched success has driven me for years. I…after our parents died, seeing my brothers and sister suffer was…” He expelled a soft breath. “I never want to see them brought low ever again. It is my duty always to see that they are provided for.”
Her throat felt thick. “Is it possible their circumstances could ever be so reduced again?”