Page 79 of An Inconvenient Vow

Jeffree breathed out. This was not a subject he wished to dwell on and neither did he want to encourage her criticism of his godfather. “I would not put anything past Leland,” he admitted grudgingly. “Though it little matters now.”

She nodded. “I suppose we will never know the twisted workings of his mind,” she shrugged. “Tell me, when you came to Longacre, did you notice Sir Dudley was a little quiet?” Sabina mused. She was awfully chatty for someone who had been yawning her head off all through their meal. He angled his head to make out her profile, so taken with the slope of her nose that he forgot to answer. “Jeffree?”

Her use of his name almost startled him. “He’s always quiet,” he said belatedly when she cocked her head to look his way. “He’s a quiet man.”

“Only until you get to know him,” she answered lightly. “Then he has plenty to say for himself.”

Jeffree considered this a moment, recalling the night he had fetched her from Longacre. “I suppose that is true,” he conceded slowly. He had never really considered Dudley Vyse’s character before.

“I like him,” Sabina said blithely. “I hope he does not feel we have trampled all over his aspirations.”

Jeffree felt instantly soured at this praise of his stepfather. “What aspirations?” he asked grudgingly. Vyse had aspirations?

“Having a son enter the Church I mean.”

Jeffree snorted. “My mother seems satisfied at all events.”

“Yes, and the seminary spared from a most unruly pupil,” she agreed with a smile in her voice.

“I suspect he will also make a most unruly squire,” Jeffree pointed out.

“More than likely, I would say,” his wife agreed with a sanguinity Jeffree thought wholly inappropriate.

“You need not sound so unconcerned,” he replied, extending his foot to nudge her calf. Sabina gave a muffled yelp at the unexpected contact. “As my squire, he will reside wherever I go,” Jeffree added. “Much like my wife.”

She turned her head sharply at that. There was a heavy pause. “Surely you jest, husband,” she replied uneasily. “For now I come to think of it, you must surely have rooms at court?”

“Yes,” he agreed, thinking of the cramped palace quarters with no great fondness. Then it came to him how fortuitous the turn in the conversation had taken. “You have ambitions to be presented at court?” he asked. If so, he could certainly grant that wish with the greatest of ease at the upcoming royal tournament.

“What? Certainly not!” Sabina practically recoiled at the suggestion. “I just thought… Well, that you must reside there for a good deal of your time,” she finished lamely.

“I rarely stay at court,” he retorted. “Only during the royal tournaments as a rule.”

“Oh. That sounds rather wasteful. Of the palace resources, I mean.”

“The rooms are not exclusively mine,” he explained. “My cousin Hugo uses them and also my godfather, Sir Charles, and his son.” The bed rustled as though she had stiffened at this indirect mention of Leland and he couldn’t say as he blamed her. “The Royal Summer event is the next major tournament to be held next month. That is always held at the King’s summer palace in Caer Lyoness.”

Sabina held her tongue for a minute, then she said evasively, “I will surely be very busy at Morecotte for the rest of the summer. As we discussed earlier, there is so much to be done.”

Jeffree’s brows snapped together. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her she would damned well attend whatever he deemed fit, but something held him back. After all, what was the point of introducing a discordant note, when things were finally starting on an even keel between them?

He had already made such huge concessions to secure her cooperation. Had he not saddled himself with the mammoth task of transforming his bratty younger brothers into squires? He had only agreed to such a preposterous thing to get into Sabina’s good books.

If someone, anyone, had told him he would willingly take charge of his siblings, he would have thought them mad. They would be in his charge for at least four years, if not longer. It suddenly struck him that it would likely have been far less painful to simply perform those pitiful courtship steps she had thought so essential.

What were they again?Praise her in front of her family? Make some public show of admiration? He cast a sidelong look in her direction. Would it have been so difficult, after all, to do those things? He was starting to think he had overcomplicated everything when it came to this woman.

“Jeffree?”

“Yes?”

“If neither of us are tired, mayhap we could practice that matter from before,” she suggested tentatively.

His ears pricked up at once. “What matter?” When she did not answer at once, he could not wait. “Kissing?” he rasped. “Is that what you mean?”

“Indeed, it was,” was all she managed to get out before Jeffree had turned and taken a firm hold of her. He fancied she gave a spurt of laughter, which he stopped with his lips. He had recalled the feel of her lips a thousand times already that day, but as soon as their mouths touched, he realized his memories had done her scant justice.

Sabina’s arms wound around his neck, and he groaned with pleasure. Oh, my gods. It was at this moment that Jeffree realized he had not been wasting his time all day, tiptoeing around this woman. When she was in his arms everything seemed to fall into place and make a strange sort of sense. Why was that?