AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter26
James came to the adjoining door, and though my room was exceptionally dark, I could discern the outline of his long sleep shirt and mussed hair, and his presence made my pulse quicken. I had been in my bed for nearly thirty minutes now, long past the time I would have stood at the door and shared a fact with him. In truth, I did not know if he wished to speak to me or only ascertain that I was there and safe. He’d been surly after supper at the Grenville ball and his demeanor unapproachable. My guilt, of course, had not aided us in reconciliation.
“I need my fact,” James said, his deep voice penetrating the perfect quiet.
I pushed myself into a seated position.
“And,” he continued, when I failed to say anything, “I need you if I am to fall asleep.”
My body stilled, the words finding purchase and clinging to me. He needed me? Surely he had it in reverse, for it was I who needed him.
Ah, perhaps that was it. James must have suspected that I would prefer to be in his room and came to me since I’d failed to swallow my own pride and approach him. But how could I do so when relations between us were tenuous? We had found a strange balance between friends and lovers where we did not so much as kiss regularly, but I knew I could wholly rely on him—all while sharing in the intimacy of sleeping in the same bed. That very habit had broken a barrier between us in one regard, forcing a familiarity between us before we had an opportunity to grow acquainted with one another’s minds.
Had we moved too quickly in one area, or too slowly in the other? Even now we spoke like tentative acquaintances yet stood in naught but our sleeping clothes.
“Liss?”
I’d spent too long considering the state of our relationship. Regardless of how much a stranger I felt to this man in some ways, I also knew he and I were inseparably bonded. We’d exchanged vows, and that set us apart from any other relationship in my life.
My hair fell down around my shoulders, and I swept it back. The room was dark, the summer warmth causing little need for a fire outside of heating the curling tongs or burning off the crisp chill in the early hours of the morning.
“My fact,” I said, climbing from the bed and crossing the room. “I do not like feeling as though we are not in accord with one another.”
“Can that be my fact as well?”
“I’m sorry, but no. You must contrive something original.”
His gleaming smile was clear in the dim room. “I already have this evening.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. It has become a fact about me that I need you if I am to fall asleep.”
My heart leapt, despite my reservations. “How is it that we can seem so ill-suited in the light of day, but darkness seems to hide our differences?”
“Do you not need me?” he asked. His gaze was steady, the dark pools shining in the moonlight.
“I do,” I whispered. “I need you.”
James’s strong hand slid under my jaw and around my cheek, and I leaned into it. “Where did you go tonight during the ball?”
My body stilled. Did that bother him so dearly that he needed an answer now? I straightened, unable to think clearly with his skin on mine. “I wanted a break from the mass of people, so I found a small room with a fire and the intention to read.”
“Henry—”
“He was in the room first, doing the same thing I intended to do.” My body swayed away from him, though I did not do so intentionally, and his hand dropped. I did not like the tone of his voice or the direction of the conversation. It almost felt as though he did not trust me. Though I owned that the thought was ludicrous. I had proven myself anything but untrustworthy, had I not? It was James who’d asked his brother to remain while he was gone and look after me.
“Reading?”
“Yes. I found Henry in there, and we decided to spend an hour reading quietly before returning for supper. It was not so very odd, James. I was doing the very same thing when we met.”
“But as my wife, I rather expected you to remain in the ballroom for the evening. You are a new bride, and certain privileges are afforded you for this period in your life. If you are missing for a great length of time, it is noticed.” He ran a hand over his face. “If someone else was to see you return with Henry, rumors could have begun. We are already on unsteady footing as it is.”
Why would anyone believe nefarious things about a new bride and her brother-in-law? And furthermore, had we not put the scandal to rest when we sacrificed ourselves in matrimony?
James seemed to think we were on unsteady footing even now. “What do you mean by that?”
“The scandal surrounding our engagement,” he said. “Surely you realize that marrying did not snuff that fire entirely.”
