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From where he remained seated, he was essentially looking up at her.

"What exactly is it you wish to discuss?" he asked.

"Well..." She drew in a small breath. "I don't really know where to begin."

Her fingers danced softly against the cover of the book.

"You made it very clear that our marriage was an agreement and that I have already reaped the benefits of it, while you have not." She hesitated, her fingers tightening around the books. "You have not sought me out."

She lifted her hands from the stack and began pacing in a small zigzag beside his desk. As though movement had loosened something inside her, once the words began to flow, they refused to stop.

"So I have spent the past week trying to understand why."

She seemed to be speaking more to the room than to him.

"You want something from me", she continued quietly. "And I want to give it to you. I..." Her gaze dropped to the floor. "I want to be useful."

There was such simple sincerity in those words that they landed with more force than they ought to have.

"But you have not come for me." She held her hands together as she paced. "So after much research, I have come to two possible conclusions."

Eliza still wasn't looking at him. She simply kept talking.

Good Lord.

He had almost forgotten how much noise the woman could make once she gathered momentum.

"You either think I am preposterously hideous and as such the very sight of me renders you impotent..."

She paused.

"...or..."

She looked briefly towards the ceiling as though organising the rest of her thoughts.

"...like me..."

Her eyes finally met his.

"...you're inexperienced."

By the Gods.

Arthur almost choked on the air itself. For perhaps the first time in years, words completely abandoned him. He was suddenly immensely grateful Laurence had vacated the room.

Eliza, meanwhile, carried on entirely oblivious.

"And that's perfectly all right!" she hurried to assure him.

"There is absolutely nothing to be nervous about. Goodness..." She let out a small laugh.

"I am nervous. I've never had any experience with a man before. In fact, every touch, every kiss, every stolen glance has been with you."

The confession struck him with unexpected force. Everything she knew of tenderness, however little, had begun with him. Guilt gnawed at him. Without meaning to, he had become the keeper of every precious first she would remember, and as he had no intention of relinquishing that place to another, he would also be her last.

"I imagine it is rather different for gentlemen. You went to war. You've never been married before... you've been..." She searched for the word.

"...busy?" Eliza said as Arthur closed his eyes for the briefest moment.