This was how it should always have been since the first time. Without words or doubts, withoutself-doubts and even thought. Sheer instinct, sheer feeling, the giving and receiving of joy.
It could not last at such intensity, and it didn’t. But God, it was necessary and wonderful and more than she had ever dreamed, even after the first time.
They held each other bonelessly, recovering their breath.
“At least your hat fell off,” she said unsteadily, and they both began to laugh.
She helped him out of his coat, and then the rest of his clothes, until they could be skin to skin at last. And then, it all began again, this time with slow and leisurely worship.
*
Solomon had notintended their reunion to be quite so urgent, but the sight of her, the feel of her yielding in his arms, returning his passion… Well, for once in his life, he’d abandoned thought and control and gloried in the result.
By the time they were ready to talk, all their personal issues, the inexplicable distance he had been unable to fix, had been solved without words. He was hers, and she was his.
“I saw a house I think you will like. And I applied for a special license.”
She had been lying draped over his chest, but at this she levered herself up, her warm, sleepy eyes brightening with excitement. “Really? Tell me!”
“No, I want you to see it for yourself without my influence.” He hauled himself up against the pillows and settled her against his shoulder, his arm around her. “Tell me first about the case.”
“I think I’ve found a thief, and it’s not Nell Dickie. I’m sure whoever wrote the letters must live alone, because apart from Miss Mortimer’s, they were all delivered during the night or very early in the morning. How is David?”
“I think I know who the culprit is, but I’ve left Inspector Omand to find him so that we can try to prove it.” He told herwhat Janey and Lenny had discovered at the Crown and Anchor, and their list of Chase’s investments, then moved on to Captain Blake and the story of theMary Anneand its stolen cargo.
“That must set David’s mind at rest, at least. You don’t suppose Omand will call at your house if and when he finds this Drayman?”
“Well, he might,” Solomon said. “I could hardly tell him not to. So we had better finish here quite quickly, if we can. Jenks already knew David was not me, so I can’t rely on Omand’s failing to notice the differences either. I suppose,” he added reluctantly, running his fingers through her hair, “we should get up and dress. After you’ve told me about your thief…”
Oddly, it was only as he rose from the bed at last that he noticed the bruises on her arm and shoulder, and caught her around the waist.
“Did I do that to you?” he demanded, staring in horror.
“No, of course you did not! I forgot all about them…”
“What happened?” He skimmed a gentle hand over the soft, discolored skin. “Those look nasty.”
“Oh, they look worse than they feel, although I admit it was sore at the time. I fell downstairs at the manor.”
He knew there was more, but forced himself not to tense.
She examined the bruises. “It was slightly swollen just after it happened—”
“Which was when?” he interrupted.
Her gaze lifted to his. “The card party.” She turned, sliding both arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. “I couldn’t tell you. You wouldn’t have gone to London.”
“I wouldn’t have,” he said, pulling back to search her face, “and you wouldn’t have hidden it if you had merely tripped. Constance—”
“I was pushed. When I was returning from the retiring room. Someone had put out the lights and lay in wait. I fell only to thehalf landing, twisted my ankle slightly, but landed mostly on my elbow and shoulder. Sophie Chadwick saw me fall and ran up to me. My attacker fled down another staircase.”
“Who?” he demanded. Sick anger had closed around his heart and kept squeezing until he recognized fear as well. And guilt because he had not even noticed. He had been so absorbed in the case, in David’s, in his own feelings at parting from Constance, that he had not seen her pain. Not even this morning in the grip of his desire.
“I am indebted to Sophie,” Constance said, “for noticing that Miss Fernie and Peregrine Mortimer left the drawing room shortly after I did. It was because of Mortimer she came after me, afraid I didn’t know that he ambushes women alone.”
His fingers curled into fists, and she caught one in both her hands.
“I don’t think it was Mortimer. I did, at first, but I don’t believe he is violently inclined. He was just never taught to keep his hands to himself, and enough women must have welcomed his attentions.”
