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Chapter34
Aweek had passed since the night of our ball, and I awoke to find James leaning on his elbow in the bed beside me, his shadow-darkened eyes trained on me.
“It is somewhat alarming to wake to a set of wide eyes staring at you,” I said, remaining perfectly still while I raked my gaze greedily over his sleepy morning face.
“Not romantic?”
“Perhaps if I knew to expect you, it might be.” I fought the smile threatening my lips and widened my eyes for impact. “Otherwise it is just shocking.”
“What is shocking is how you’ve yet to comment on my lack of an eyepatch this morning.”
“Oh, James!” I sat up swiftly and knelt before him, sliding my hand over his cheek. I ran my finger beneath his injured eye which was now watching me closely. “Can you see clearly? Does it hurt?”
He chuckled softly, and I felt the rumbling of his chest through the feather mattress. “It does not hurt today—though in fairness, it no longer hurt last night really, either—and my vision is perfectly clear.”
“What a relief. I worried I’d maimed you. What an awful way to begin a marriage that would be.”
“The beginning of our marriage has been anything but awful.”
I slid my hand further over his cheek, losing my fingers in his mussed hair. His jaw was a little scratchy from the overnight beard growth, his smile lazy, and he was so handsome my heart squeezed in affection.
“Perhaps I will become injured more often if this is the sort of treatment I receive,” he murmured. “I could grow used to your tender ministrations.”
“That is a little dramatic.”
“Oh, my head aches. I believe I need a cool compress.”
“Your poor head,” I said. “I ought to leave you then. A headache is best healed in darkness and solitude.”
I pulled my hand away from his face, and he caught me by the wrist. “I meant my hand, not my head. It is tired from all the writing I’ve endured this week.”
“Your poor hand.” James had received word from Benedict that he was no closer to achieving his goal in locating Miss Northcott, and James sent out a variety of letters to the girl’s old acquaintances in the hope that someone would know something useful. “You are doing a good thing in helping to locate Thea.”
His face fell from facetious to serious. “Perhaps, but I worry that we will incite a scandal if we are not more circumspect. Thus far we’ve only written and spoken with servants, really, or families who knew Thea’s mother and father but don’t attend Society functions. It is only a matter of time before her antics are discovered and all the work Mother did to prepare her for a Season and a husband are for naught.”
“It cannot be as bad as that, surely? If Benedict is able to find the girl before the summer is over, Lord and Lady Claverley need never know that she disappeared at all.”
James gave a lopsided smile. “That is the hope, of course. We shall see if it is so easily accomplished. Now, enough of Thea. I have a surprise for you today.”
I slumped into a seated position and leaned away from James. “The last time you planned a surprise, you ended up with an eyepatch.”
“Did I not tell you moments ago how I planned to remain injured always so you could nurse me back to health?”
“That is not equally humorous on subsequent repetitions, James.”
“Very well.” He pushed himself into a seated position, the blankets falling down around his waist and revealing his bare chest. “Forgive my ill attempts at humor. This surprise will hurt neither you nor me, I promise.”
“I am certain you felt confident that you could promise the very same safety for a round of battledore and shuttlecock, and look where that led us.”
James chuckled. “Trust me, darling.”
“Oh, I do,” I said easily. I let my head fall back against my pillow and closed my eyes. Why could he not find more interest in sitting around safely inside a drawing room or walking sedately through the garden? Neither of those activities required enormous, powerful animals or balls stuffed with feathers. I shifted my head to look at him. “It is trusting myself that I have more difficulty with.”
He moved to lean over me, his face hovering just above mine. “In this case, I think you have nothing to fear.”
“Easy to say, of course, but I am certain I can prove you wr—”
James lowered his lips to mine and cut me off with a kiss. His mouth moved over mine in a rhythm that had become both familiar and exciting. Warmth hummed through me, and I was quite positive that I had never expected to love or be loved so fully as I was now.
