"Oh, oh!" Caroline, Lady Dunsmore, moaned as the feeling swept over her. "No more, please. Let me breathe."
Her lover rolled off of her.
"My dear Jeffrey, you are insatiable."
"No more than you, my dear," replied Jeffrey Tremaine, Major in the King's Household Light Cavalry and first son of Edmund Tremaine, Lord Dunsmore. "You want it as much as I."
Caroline threw her naked leg across his. "Yes, yes I do but not all at once. We must take a break at times."
"Yes, mother. Whatever you say."
Caroline was indeed Jeffrey's mother. More correctly his step mother. She was only twenty-five and had married his Lordship four years ago. Lord Dunsmore had turned sixty last week and had long since realized that he couldn't keep up with the demands of a young woman like Caroline. Little did he know that she would turn to his own son.
The marriage was one based on power and wealth. Caroline was a dark eyed raven haired beauty who any man would welcome to his bed. Instead her family married her off to a much older man who truly could not appreciate her latent talents. In return, her father was granted a seat in Parliament from a rotten borough and given a government position that proved to be quite lucrative. His Lordship gained a spy in the government, one that was very useful. So she came to the Dunsmore manor a naïve young girl not sure what to expect or what was expected of her.
And it was there that she met Jeffrey.
Jeffrey Tremaine, Lord Dunsmore's first born was only a few years older than Charlotte but he had seen so much more. During the Seven Years' War he had seen action on the Continent as a fourteen year old volunteer aide with the first British units committed there since Marlborough. He was mentioned in dispatches numerous times and through his Lordship's and others help was able to rise quite quickly to his present rank. His reputation in the Army was only matched by his reputation with the ladies.
His initial trial into the pleasures of the flesh was with the wife of a German officer. She was almost 3 times his age at 40 when he met her. She still possessed her beauty and though her husband was German, the lady herself was French and wise in the ways of love. Jeffrey was a blank canvas at fifhteen but she took him as her own personal student. She taught him that loving a woman was not a game of pursue and capture but should be savored like a fine meal. It should be taken slowly with each bite appreciated and enjoyed. She taught him more, manners, correct behavior, and numerous languages. He became a polished and refined young gentleman, presentable in the finest homes of Europe. When she felt he could learn no more, she turned him out. When he refused to go, saying he loved her, she explained it was not love he felt but gratitude and he must look elsewhere for his true love.
He had grown into a fine young man who carefully and discreetly used what he had been taught but more than that. He moved gracefully through society, finding friends easy to come by, male or female. He was blessed with the looks, grace, and wit of his mother and the intelligence and cunning of his father. He was a man who enjoyed life to the fullest but took no chances without weighing the results.
So it was with Caroline. He worked his charms on her and within the first year, she came to him willingly. Remembering his lessons, he took his time until it was she who could take no more and came to his room. Since that night, he had molded Caroline into loving woman.
"It is true, my love, I can't stay away from you," Caroline said. "But it is your fault. It is you that taught me. Before I came to you, I never knew such pleasures."
"But you came willingly."
"Yes, I did but now I am afraid." She said burying her face in his chest.
Jeffrey lifted her chin. "Afraid of what?"
"Afraid of loving you too much. What if you make me with child?"
He pushed Caroline onto her back and moved on top of her. Effortlessly he entered her and felt her respond. "Then his Lordship will be the envy of all England."
Lord Dunsmore sat the table, scanning the day's papers. With his close set eyes, hooked nose and bald palate, he resembled that great bird of the America's, the bald eagle. He resembled it more than just in looks. His Lordship was wise and cunning with decisions measured for their results. His most recent marriage was one such decision. His first wife had brought him more wealth as she came from a titled family. But she brought much more. She brought love, laughter to the great house and a smoothing to his rough edges. She also gave him children and a lasting legacy. When she died, something died within him. Jeffrey thought his father would never marry again but when fate came his way in the wondrous form of Caroline and power, his Lordship quickly did.
"So son, did you sleep well?" his Lordship asked without looking up.
"Yes Father, I did." Jeffrey replied. He stood at the sideboard, filling his plate with cold meats and bread.
"Where are you off to today?"
"To London, Father," he said as he sat down. "I'm meeting with General Burgoyne to discuss the upcoming campaign. This may be it and then I will be off."
"Yes, quite right." His Lordship put down the paper, now quite interested in the conversation. Lord Dunsmore had served with the General in Spain and rode with him in the 16th Dragoons. The two were fast friends and it was his Lordship who helped Burgoyne elope with the daughter of Lord Derby and then helped repair the damages it caused. It was through this friendship that Jeffrey was able to secure a place on the General's staff for this campaign in the colonies. "Awful stuff this tiff in the colonies. Should have ended it long ago."
"General Burgoyne has put forth a bold plan, Father. If North and Germain let him do it and properly support him, I don't see how it can fail."
"That's the rub, son," his father said. "If they support him. We shall see."
At that moment Caroline entered the room.
"Good morning, my dear. You look absolutely radiant. Mornings seem to agree with you."
She kissed his Lordship's forehead. "Yes, they do. I feel so alive today."
"Well, you should. Jeffrey says he leaving us today. Hush, hush and all that. We don't have time to give him a proper send off."
She gave Jeffrey a harsh look. "I didn't know. When were you going to tell your mother?"
He tried to apologize. "It's not until this afternoon. Please forgive me."
Caroline pouted as she sat down. "I will think about it."
Lord Dunsmore was oblivious to the action between the two.
"Terrible thing this Danbury affair. Ruinous! Jeffrey, I understand you are somehow involved." Dunsmore said slamming the paper down. "Disgraceful!"
"Yes it is, Father. My only connection is that I'm Wormsley's second. He is my friend and he asked me. It is now a point of honor."
"Honor!" he roared. "I understand Lady Danbury is heavy with child and has fled to the Continent. Your friend Wormsley has cuckolded his Lordship and is now being called out by his son. Where is the honor in that?"
"He claims he is innocent, Father," Jeffrey replied.
Caroline spoke up. "Yes, my dear husband, Jeffrey is only backing a friend. I find nothing wrong in that."
"Please be quiet and don't worry your pretty head on such matters, my dear. What do you know of such affairs?" His Lordship shook his head. "Why can't you young men find a wife for yourself, one your own age, and settle down? Instead of spoiling the married bed?"
