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She went back to the largest bedchamber. The windows were black with the coming night, reflecting the light of her candle. Without the sun shining in, the place felt a bit forlorn. She set the candlestick on a trunk and pulled the wildly patterned draperies closed. The swirl of color actually seemed rather cheerful in these circumstances.
Sarah opened one of the portmanteaus. Her nightclothes were there, with her hairbrush and other necessities. She went to the other trunk and pulled out the bedsheets she had stolen from Poldene. Each member of their new household had been told to bring their own linens. She suspected that Elys had provided more than one set from the Poldene stores. She carried hers to the bed, a rather grand four-poster that had been stored in pieces in the cellar.
They had piled her luggage and Kenver’s all together in this bedchamber. No one had asked for direction. They had simply assumed they would share the room.
Sarah’s heart beat faster. They weren’t precisely alone here at Tresigan, but at least they would face no disapproving glares. Well, except for Merlin’s, but that wasn’t personal. Any expectations, any rules, would be their own. She started to spread the linens over the bed.
“You don’t need to do that,” said Kenver’s voice behind her. “I will call Gwen.”
Sarah started and turned. “I want to.” When he looked uncertain, she added, “Small tasks help make a place one’s own.”
“I don’t like to see you doing menial work.”
“I don’t consider the bed menial.” Hearing her own words, Sarah blushed.
He stepped closer. “Shall I help you?”
Very conscious of his nearness, Sarah grew even warmer. “If you like.”
He took hold of the other side of the sheet, and they pulled it over the feather mattress together. Sarah smoothed it. He mimicked her. It was a curiously intimate movement.
“You tuck in the corners like this.” Sarah demonstrated a crisp fold.
He tried it, fumbled, then got it right. “That’s clever.”
“You’ve never done this before?”
“No, have you?”
Sarah nodded. “At school. We had to keep our rooms tidy.”
“Ah.”
He hadn’t gone to school, Sarah remembered. He’d never lived anywhere but Poldene, where he’d been waited on hand and foot. And remained firmly under his mother’s eye.
“It must have been grim if you had to make beds,” he said.
“Oh no. It was the happiest time of my life.” Meeting Kenver’s gaze, Sarah realized that this had not been the most tactful thing to say. “Till now,” she added. She turned back to the trunk and extracted two pillows.
“I forgot to pack any linens,” Kenver said, his voice constrained. “In the…flurry of departure, I left them behind.”
Flurry or fury, Sarah thought. It was no wonder bedsheets had slipped his mind. “I didn’t bring a coverlet,” she answered, just noticing this. “I hope it won’t be cold.”
“Perhaps I could keep you warm,” he said.
Sarah turned. He looked as if he was uncertain of her answer.
“Of course I know you may need time to…”
“So much time has been taken from us already,” Sarah interrupted. She held out a hand.
He moved around the bed and took it.
It was odd to be shy when they had been married for weeks. She knew him better, but there was still much unresolved between them. Shewaslonging for his touch. Sarah decided to throw caution to the winds. What was she thinking? She’d tossed any shred of caution to the tempest long since.
But he dropped her hand and moved away.
“Of course there is no lock on this door.” Kenver tugged at one of the trunks, pulling it in front of the closed panels. “I’ve had enough interruptions. Far more than enough! It we don’t stop him, we’ll have Merlin coming up to inquire whether we have noticed the extraordinary size of his radishes.”
