Page 18 of Holding Onto Love

“Seams to let out. I am too well fed.”

He felt a growl in his throat. When this had started, the base of her neck showed deep hollows and his fingers could, with very little pressure, trace her ribs. He’d found it worrisome. Now she was gaining a pleasing softness. A very pleasing softness.

Her words registered.

“Wait. You are sewing? Fixing clothing?” That irritated him beyond measure. He sat up, the sheet slipping down to his hips. “You have a maid. And if she has not the skill, hire a seamstress. I’m not a pauper.”

She sniffed, as if to jolly him out of his temper. “It’s not your dress.”

“It’s a reflection on me.”

At that, she laughed outright. “How? How will your set know that I am mending my own clothes?”

He had no answer for that. Instead, he considered a moment, then said, “I am wrong. If you wish to do it yourself, by all means, do it. But you don’t have to, do you see? I know ladies have expenses. I want to be generous. It hurts me to think you would scrimp rather than ask for something.”

“Still, you must see that it bothers me to ask.”

If she didn’t ask, he wouldn’t know.

“But I can’t read your mind. I can’t anticipate your needs.”

“It’s not a game I am playing.”

“I didn’t say that it was!”

Vanessa rolled from him, tucking the sheet about her, shielding herself from his gaze as she sat up and settled her feet on the floor.

Was this to be their first argument? How ridiculous.

“Vanessa, I refuse to quarrel over something so insignificant.”

“It is not—”

“Why don’t I simply increase your pin money?”

“We have a contract, Jasper. If I don’t abide by it, how can I expect you to?”

“What do you think I will do? Refuse you your ten days?”

She scowled. Rightly. He didn’t know why he’d said that. She had turned him away only five. By his reckoning, it would soon be five more. But that was all. There were a few nights he had not come to her. He informed her first that he had to spend time at the parental home because they were insistent. But those nights should not count against her ten because she had not turned him away.

“I mean,” he blurted, “that there are still ambiguities in the contract. And this is not what I wished to argue about.”

The annoyance fell from her face, and she teased him. “Do you mean you had a separate argument planned?”

“Don’t laugh. I did.”

She laughed.

He made himself smile. “Vanessa, I’m terrified that you’re bored all day long. And don’t tell me you have plenty of sewing to occupy yourself.”

“If this is about the pianoforte—”

“It is not. But we can take that up again also.”

“Well, then, I have decided to accept your generous offer. I would like one.”

“You are bored during the day.”