Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Epilogue

He reached across the table and squeezed her hand warmly.

"I'm okay." Verushka offered him an empty smile. "You are right though, Liara was an excellent baker. I wonder what she is doing now."

"We could always find out." Cain tilted his head as if listening for more than the refusal he knew that she would give him.

"No." Verushka answered unsurprisingly. Amidst the daily tasks of Her Majesty's Secret Service she always kept one ear to the floor. Although the dowager duchess was careful to ensure a certain measure of separation so that the sovereignty of the Crimson Guild was upheld, Verushka knew that Liara was already beginning to make waves as an accomplished courtesan and actress. Mina, however had slipped between the cracks to disappear as adeptly as a thief in the night.

It was always their way. Liara hid in broad daylight and Mina hid in the shadows.

"It doesn't' matter now." Verushka dusted off the crumbs coating her full lips. She smiled again, this time more warmly than before and reached out to smooth the worried lines that wrinkled the corners of her husband's eyes. "I'm fine. I have you."

"That you do." Cain placed a palm over her hand, rubbing his thumb along the slim lines of her fingers. "Come." He laced his fingers with hers and waited as she grabbed her mug before guiding them to the alcove of the pantry where the bricks lay heated as they always did and a stack of books was continuing to grow in the corner.

"What shall we read tonight?" He asked.

"Hmm.." Verushka mused and selected a thin volume of Shakespearean plays. "This one."

"Othello?" Cain arched an eyebrow.

"Mmm hmm." Verushka nodded and nestled into Cain's side, coiling herself around the curve of her mug.

"Interesting choice."

"Well it is our wedding anniversary and Othello and Desdemona were newlyweds." Verushka rationalised.

"You know that Othello murders his wife, right?" Cain eyed Verushka incredulously.

"Really?! I must have forgotten about that." She reached for another book but Cain pulled her back.

"No, let us delve into the cautionary tale of the lack of honesty and openness in a marriage lest you consider leaving your duke after one very long year of marriage." Cain chuckled as Verushka pinched his arm and began to read without cracking the spine of the book he held.

"ACT I. SCENE I. Venice. .'"

Verushka's heart warmed as the rhythmic ebb of Cain's voice soothed her as it always did. She relaxed, letting the heat of the stone ease the knots from her back. Without thinking she reached up to stroke the blond locks that had recently been shorn so close to Cain's head. For over a year the Duke of Bexley had set the fashion for the ton with an almost unkempt long crop of sandy hair that men all over England attempted to reconstruct. However at the end of this year's Season he had taken it upon himself to chop it all off and the effect gave the usual jovial and youthful duke a debonair maturity that stirred something in Verushka's belly.

"'- You're not listening." Cain commented dryly.

"I am!" Verushka asserted with a giggle.

Cain wrapped his arm around Verushka to tickle the small of her back.

She lurched in his embrace spilling tea over her nightgown. "Cain!" she yelled as the tepid liquid seeped into her clothes. "You know how ticklish I am. Now, look at me. I am soaked through."

"Well you had better take those wet garments off then." Cain grinned.

"Really, Cain? This was just an attempt to have me disrobe?" Verushka shook her head exasperated but her fury was betrayed by her smiles. "You needn't have worried with the subterfuge. You could have just asked."