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Alexander brushed smoothly and firmly over Hannibal’s glistening flank. Here was where he had once felt most at home…breathing in the smell of warm animals and hay instead of feeling the weight of the hundreds of responsibilities that lay scattered across his study desk.
In the stables, no one had expected him to see to anything or converse with anyone. Hannibal had always understood him completely without the need for words.
In fact, Alexander Colbourne had preferred animals to most people for his entire life…that is, until the day that Charlotte Heywood had strode confidently into his study.
And now look at him…a blissfully happy, blithering idiot who wrote poetry and professed his innermost feelings on a daily basis. He was so vastly different from the subdued man he had been for the past decade that, at times, he almost failed to recognize himself. And yet, Alexander was alive in a way he had never been before.
Each day brought new avenues of happiness that he did not know existed: kisses from his beloved Charlotte anytime he wanted, jubilant hugs round the waist from Leo, standing in as Augusta’s dance lesson partner as his wife played merrily on the spinet. The latter activity inevitably dissolved into a chorus of breathless giggles as he danced each of his ladies around the drawing room in turn.
Speaking of the exuberant ladies of Heyrick Park, Alexander had only minutes before stolen away from the drawing room where they were making orange pomanders and discussing the varying bits of news acquired at the Sanditon Christmas ball the night before.
Passing the end of the table, he had reached out and plucked an apple from the festive fruit display before stealing out of the door.
His departure, however stealthy, was observed by Charlotte who was engaged in a lively conversation with Augusta about the lace trim that had featured on Georgiana Lambe’s ball gown.
Watching him go from the corner of her eye, Charlotte had smiled with secret understanding. While her husband had made great strides over the past year in becoming more comfortable in social situations, she knew he was likely still a bit depleted from all the interaction and conversation of the previous evening.
Gentle, kind Alexander was not a natural extrovert, and she was learning to tell when he needed a few minutes to himself away from the chatter of their often-giddy young ladies.
Based on the apple he had absconded with, it was no secret to Charlotte where he would be on this crisp, Christmas Eve night.
Alexander, still deep in thought as the brush continued to sweep its comforting rhythm, did not notice Charlotte steal quietly up behind him until he felt the touch of her small, gentle hands. Though it had happened countless times before, it never ceased to be heaven itself when she would slide her arms around his waist and rest her head against his back. On this particular occasion, he felt her press her mouth to the place between his shoulder blades, exhaling to warm the area with her breath.
“Why are you out here without your coat, my love?” she asked softly into the back of his waistcoat. “I really would like to keep you alive until spring so that you might look upon the face of our new baby at LEAST once.”
Smiling at her humorous concern, Alexander returned “Ah, to miss that would be tragic indeed but I am really not a bit cold.” Then, with a cheeky smirk: ”And why would I need a coat? Thoughts of our activities this morning keep me quite warm every time I think of them. And I have thought of them many times this day.”
He received, as expected, a substantial poke to the ribs as Charlotte ducked under his arm with a laugh. “Be that as it may, I have brought it just the same” she said, drawing his overcoat up and over his athletic shoulders.
“I am here at the girls’ request as they have greatly missed your conversational contributions this last while.”
Amused and not at all convinced, Alexander cast his wife a look of faux suspicion. “Those were their exact words?” he questioned playfully.
“Well, perhaps it was I that missed you.” And grasping his collar, she tugged her husband’s handsome face down for a kiss, her lips still warm from the drawing room fire.
From Alexander’s immediate response, Charlotte could tell that he would be happy to remain engaged in their present position indefinitely, but she broke off saying “Do not let me keep you from your work. Provided you don't mind the company, might I stay and walk back with you to the house? If you are weary of conversation, I promise that I can be quite silent.”
To demonstrate her claim of self-control, she visibly pinched her rosy lips together and regarded him with a very determined look.
Alexander attempted to mirror her serious expression. Then, with a twinkle in his brown eyes and an animated look on his face, he countered in a clipped tone: “Or…we could discuss the feathers in Lady Denham’s grand headpiece last night. How many ostriches do you suppose sacrificed their plumage to her vanity? Whatever was she thinking?” Charlotte laughed out loud at Alexander’s imitation of Augusta’s chatter, her heart swelling at his uncanny ability to always surprise her with his humorous antics.
Charlotte sighed happily as she regarded Alexander…HER Alexander…who had returned to brushing Hannibal with long smooth strokes.
Good Lord, he was an inspiration. Was there anything he could do that did NOT show off his fine form to full advantage?
Unable to resist, she reached out and caught his lean, brown hand in her own, twining her fingers through his in that particularly sensual way that always made his heart race.
“Ah yes, I remember,” he murmured, pausing to press her hand lingeringly to his lips, “you prefer non-verbal communication from time to time, do you not, my Charlotte?”
“Mmhmm” was her heady reply.
CLATTER went the brush on the cobbles.
Alexander’s now-free hand grasped and entwined with Charlotte’s other gloveless fingers. Turning their joined palms upwards, he drove her softly but determinedly back against the wooden stable wall, his strong frame gently holding her fast. Charlotte felt her desire rise to match his but still ventured amusedly “And whatever is this maneuver, Xander? Should I be concerned that Jennings might suddenly walk in?”
Alexander’s senses were overwhelmed completely by his wife as he hovered with his nose brushing hers, tracing the outline of her cheek, coming so close yet not quite giving her what she so obviously wanted. “Mmmm, you forget, my Charlotte, that I have given the staff off work for the evening” he now breathed warmly into her ear “and I believe they’ve all departed to their own festivities.”
By now, Charlotte was nearly mad for want of him. Sensing her desperation, Alexander did the one thing that he knew would render her putty in his hands. He moved in to kiss her, but not directly. Coming from below, he dragged his warm lips upward over hers, brushing with full contact before settling on her top lip with obvious intent. Charlotte nearly gasped audibly as she was immediately transported back to the night that they had returned to Heyrick Park after the ball…the night that Alexander had first kissed her in this exact way. Even now as a married woman, she still flushed at the thought of how he had looked at her on the carriage ride there...eyes steadily aflame with desire. How his kiss had made her feel... So womanly… So wanted…
Each time he kissed her again in the same way, it felt like the first time all over.
As her husband released her lips and advanced again, Charlotte’s fingers pulled free of his, sliding up his forearms, then his shoulders, and finally coming to rest in the soft hair at the back of his neck where she could find the leverage to better answer his intensity.
Alexander, enjoying Charlotte’s obvious enthusiasm, was delving deeper and deeper into her mouth as his hands braced against the wall on either side of her. They would have continued on in this way for some time had not one of the carriage horses in a farther stall stomped its foot, causing them a moment of terror that some member of the staff had remained on the estate for the evening after all.
Quite rumpled but satisfied that the disturbance was animal and not human, Alexander turned back to rest his forehead against his wife's, their breaths coming raggedly as heartbeats returned to normal.
“I..I love you, Charlotte” Alexander whispered reverently to her, overwhelmed once again at the priceless treasure that he held in his hands.
“And I love you, Xander” his she returned without hesitation, shivering partially from pleasure and partially from the chill in the air.
“Do you have much more to do here?” asked Charlotte after a moment, thinking longingly of the warm fire and soft covers that waited in their bedroom.
Alexander pursed his lips “No, I think I am nearly finished. Would you hang Hannibal’s bridle while I do a last check to see that all is well?”
“Of course!” Charlotte willingly agreed, taking the leather from his hands.
Crossing to the tack hooks, Charlotte suddenly stepped on a trailing rein, lost her balance, and sat down with an undignified plop on the pile of hay awaiting morning feeding.
Alexander, who was on the far side of Hannibal as Charlotte made her unexpectedly hasty descent, heard the noise and bolted to her side in a state of panic. “Charlotte! Are you alright? Is the baby alright?” he questioned as he knelt before her, eyes brimming with concern.
His wife, unperturbed and unhurt, merely grasped his am with a giggle and hauled him forward into the hay next to her. “I am not hurt at all, Xander!” Charlotte assured him as they both fell back in relief. “Thankfully I picked the most advantageous place in the barn to fall onto. I am only five months along with this bundle, but I am sure that he has made me clumsier already!” Alexander’s eyebrows flew up into his curls: “He???”
Charlotte’s eyes sought out the excitement in his. “Of course I can’t be sure. But I do have a sort of feeling” she smirked knowingly.
“I shall be ecstatic whether it is a boy OR a girl…but Charlotte, you are not clumsy!” Alexander protested adorably. “You are not clumsy at all…but you ARE cold” he observed, shrugging out of his generous, warm coat and spreading it over the two of them like a bed cover.
They both stared up at the wooden rafters, Alexander’s right arm resting under his head and his left hand searching for Charlotte’s right as it lay somewhere between them. Finding it at last, he curled his fingers into hers, gently rubbing back and forth creating friction to warm it as they lay in companionable silence.
After a few moments he ventured “What are you thinking about, my love?”
“You may think it silly, but I could not help but consider the holy family as they experienced similar circumstances.”
“Oh?” her husband queried softly, shifting onto his side and propping his head on his hand.
“Yes…” said Charlotte in an attempt to put her thoughts into words. “I was thinking that, if Mary and Joseph loved each other as much as WE do, those nights in the Bethlehem stable must have been very comfortable and enjoyable indeed.”
“Indeed.” He smiled at the thought and plucked a piece of straw from her hair, trailing it from her ear down to the dimple in her chin.
Charlotte twitched her face and turned toward him with an impish look. “Beware, husband, or I shall have to make you pay for your insolence.”
“Oh?” he questioned again innocently as the straw drifted down to her neck, making her squirm, and then lower still to one of his most favorite places.
“Enough!” Charlotte squeaked, tweaking the offending object from his hand and smashing her lips into his for the third time that evening. Alexander moved as close as possible, his hand roaming inside her winter coat, feeling the delightful softness of her. He had not said so before but he quite liked that she had recently begun to forego wearing stays out of consideration for her growing belly.
Meanwhile, Charlotte was running her hands over his warm chest, clutching at his collar and neck as she kissed the end of his nose, along his jawline, and back to his warm mouth again.
“Xander?” she mused softly after a moment.
“Yes, Mrs. Colbourne?” he breathed back before taking her earlobe between his lips and teasing at it with his tongue.
“Do you find the social duties of a married man too demanding?” she queried carefully, not wanting to make him feel self-conscious. She hurried on. “I am so delighted that you accompany us to events so willingly, but I would not wish to make you uncomfortable too often. Before we were married, you did not have to attend balls and parties if you did not wish to and…”
Alexander closed her mouth with his, letting his kiss speak first, his thumb stroking its familiar pattern just in front of her ear.
“My love,” he answered finally, pulling back to meet her still-concerned eyes with the warm sincerity of his own, “I attend these balls not out of duty, but so that I might have the pleasure of dancing with my beautiful, wise and most superior wife! In fact, I would attend a thousand balls just to earn the pleasure of being her husband for one glorious day.”
How does he always know just what to say to relieve my mind?…Charlotte wondered as her husband buried his stubbled face in her neck, tickling her skin as he left soft kisses wherever his lips landed.
“Only one day, you say?” she ventured in a nonchalant tone. “However would we make best use of such a short amount of time?”
Immediately, Alexander’s head popped up, excited eyes searching her expression. "Really? Again?" Her wide eyes twinkled meaningfully back at him, pleased to have elicited such a response twice in the same week. I really must make a habit of surprising him like this.
"But this morning!" he stammered "Are you sure you feel up to it again so soon in your condition?"
Charlotte put her finger to his lips. "Xander, I am expecting, not incapacitated!" She reached up and flirtatiously brushed the stubborn curl back from his forehead.
Assured now that she was serious, her husband leapt immediately to his feet, grasping her hands to pull her to standing, then throwing his coat around them both. Grinning at his enthusiasm, Charlotte leaned into his side as they started for the house, arms wrapped tightly around each other.
“Christmas presents can start early, can they not, Mr. Colbourne?”
“Oh, indeed they can, Mrs. Colbourne…” followed by his low, husky laugh “…indeed they can.”