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He wasn’t actually sure about that, but better to stay calm.
“Ihatethis,” she sputtered as her teeth chattered from nerves. “I’m never leaving England again after this trip.”
“Perhaps you should take something. At least to help you sleep.”
He expected her to put up a fight, but she cracked one sapphire eye open. “In my valise by the washstand.”
Henry pushed to his feet and lurched over to her bag, from which he retrieved a small bottle of laudanum.
“Just a drop,” Georgiana said.
Henry measured the dose, mixed it with water, and held the glass to her mouth. Her lips parted as she swallowed and Henry had to clear his throat again.
No man should be this aroused by a woman in the throes of nausea.
She leaned back against the pillows and Henry changed her cloths. “Tell me about your first time at sea.”
He let out a chuckle. “You want to hear about that now?”
“I need to be reassured that I won’t always feel this wretched. And I could use the distraction.”
“Well, I’m afraid I can’t help you much there,” he said dryly and she cracked a smile. “I was ill a time or two in the beginning, though never bedridden. Then again, they don’t really tolerate that in the navy.”
“I can imagine. How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
“So young?”
“They take boys as young as twelve. I would have gone sooner, but my mother wanted me to have more schooling first. My father had been a captain too, and he was my hero all my life.”
“You wanted to follow in his footsteps,” she said sleepily. The laudanum was taking effect. She didn’t look quite so pale as before.
“I did. We also needed the money, as he had died a few years earlier.”
She made a sympathetic sound. “That must have been hard. All that responsibility heaped on your shoulders.”
“It was,” he murmured. “But I made do.”
“Yes. We always seem to find a way, don’t we? When the situation demands it.”
Henry suspected she was speaking from personal experience. That was interesting. He was dying to ask her more, but it felt wrong in her current state.
“I should go,” he said and moved to stand, but she reached out.
“Please. Not yet.” Her hand brushed down his arm, setting off a trail of sparks.
“I don’t think Lord Pettigrew would approve,” he said in a strangled voice, fighting the temptation to stay. But she didn’t seem to notice his reticence.
“Him?”Based on her reaction, Henry might as well have suggested P. T. Barnum.
“I thought you had an…understanding.”
“Oh, no,” she said airily. “I won’t be marrying again.”
Henry blinked. She sounded quite certain.
She was quiet for so long that he thought she had fallen asleep. He watched the even rise and fall of her chest until his own eyes began to grow heavy. Then she spoke: “Do you regret going into the navy, considering all that happened?”
