Page 59 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

“I am glad that you are well, Curious Jo,” he told her with his usual charming grin as he rode off. He placed a hand at his hat in greeting to Robert, who only mock-scowled in return.

Robert felt Jo’s eyes on his face and turned to meet her gaze. He could feel his features soften immediately when he looked at her.

“What is wrong?” Jo asked confused.

Robert sighed as he jumped from the horse and then lifted his arms to help Jo down. He was buying himself time to find a way to answer her, he knew that. He needed to tell her the truth or part of it, since it was beyond him to put the fragments he did know together: Thornston flirted with everyone, and Robert did not like the implication that he did with Jo as well. He was afraid that Jo might misunderstand, he told himself, but of course he could not tell her that. And he had to be certain to frame his reply the right way, so that she did not think he was jealous. Because he was not, it was merely that it was inappropriate that his friend would flirt with his wife.

“I don’t like him taking liberties using your given name,” Robert finally settled on as he nodded in acknowledgement to the groom who was leading the horse away.

“But your family does. You have invited Xavier to do so, even though he mostly calls me duchess,” Jo commented as they headed into the house.

“Xavier is my brother.”

Jo stopped in the dimly lit hallway and studied Robert. He met her eyes as calmly as he was able to while hoping she could not read any of the thoughts he was hiding in them.

“I assumed you thought of Thornston as a brother as well.”

Robert stood very still and rubbed his chin. His affection for Thornston was the same as for Xavier, even if they were not formally tied together as a family. He had not considered it more closely before, but…

“I suppose you are right,” he finally muttered. “I just…” He sighed heavily and looked in the direction of a footman, then ushered Jo into the nearest room, a small library with a large bookcase taking up most of one wall, a desk at one end and a seating arrangement with two high-backed chairs and a small sofa at the other. Robert closed the door behind them. “Thornston flirts with everyone and I just don’t like…”

“That he flirts with me?” Jo whispered and her eyes lit up.

Robert nodded and looked away. Fuck, she was going to read too much into it. She was going to believe it meant more than it did.

“He means nothing by it. It is actually rather fun, that such a dandy would flirt with me. An old married woman from Hampshire,” Jo teased and Robert allowed himself to smile slightly. “Why don’t we sit?” Jo asked and gestured to the chairs.

Robert nodded and waited for her to sit in one chair, before sitting in the other.

They were silent for a long moment as both of them were evidently figuring out a way to start.

“Jo,” Robert began at length as he peeled off his riding gloves and looked at his scabbed fingernails. They looked horrible. He had to ask his valet whether he knew how to treat them.

“What happened to your hands?” Jo gasped and reached for one of them.

The touch of her warm fingers sent a frisson of desire down Robert’s spine. Heavens, how he longed for this conversation to end with them heading upstairs. But he could wait, he told himself, as he once again tempered his expectations. Of course, he could wait.

“I… was trying to dig through the chalk to find you,” Robert said as he looked at Jo’s hand holding his, rather than looking at her.

“The chalk?”

“At the landslide? I thought you might be caught under it…”

“Right,” Jo muttered, then rose decisively.

Robert moved to stand reflectively, but Jo halted him with a hand on his shoulder.

“I am going to ring for soap, water, and a cloth, and then clean your hands,” she told him in a firm voice as if she expected him to argue. He certainly was not going to.

It seemed futile to start a deep conversation moments before a maid would interrupt them with the required necessities and Robert opted to ask Jo about her trip and why she had walked from Newhaven rather than drive. He felt his entire body tense when she told him that she had not brought any money and that no one believed her to be a duchess due to her shabby clothing.

“Please bring enough money to hire someone to bring you home the next time,” Robert said in a tight voice. Even though Jo was sitting right across from him, he felt the panic at not knowing where she was and what had happened to her rise yet again as a prickling uneasiness. He briefly considered asking her to bring a footman with her the next time as well but knew it would be too much to ask. Walking in order to clear her head and organize her thoughts was an essential part of who Jo was, and Robert had to find other ways to make certain that she was safe. Perhaps he could teach her to box and use a knife. His blood heated at the thought of standing close behind Jo as he showed her how to wield the knife against a potential attacker. Before he had a chance to suggest it, a maid arrived with the soap water and cloths on a tray.

“Please close the door on your way out,” Jo told her in a kind, but assertive tone.

She leaned forward to clean Robert’s fingers, but the angle was awkward with them sitting beside each other in the high-backed chairs.

“Why don’t we move to the sofa?” Robert suggested.