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Chapter Six
Edward didn’t know what had possessed him to say it but he had asked Ariadne to stay.
She blinked down at him. “You want me to stay with you?”
Edward nodded, already regretting his decision. “I mean just for a bit of a conversation, not the whole night. But if you don’t feel comfortable—”
“Yes,” Ariadne said, “I will stay.”
Just then Leda appeared at the door with a tray and a bowl in her hands. “Your dinner, Sir.”
“Thank you, Leda,” he said warmly as the younger girl placed his dinner beside him. Ariadne was watching him. He so desperately wished to take a peek behind the curtains of her mind. She was truly extraordinary, dashing all his expectations about women as he knew them. His sister and his betrothed could talk about nothing but embroidery and clothes and the gossip of the ton. Ariadne knew about anatomy, fixing wounds, and even manual work, it appeared. One thing was clear to him by now—she was no damsel in distress.
“Won’t you have dinner?” Leda asked her sister with some concern.
“It's all right, you and Emma have it first,” Ariadne said reassuringly.
Leda hesitated. Edward looked up from his dinner and saw the distress in her eyes. “Is everything all right?”
“The bread is almost gone. I thought we could share it between the three of us before it gets cold.”
Ariadne’s cheeks turned red. It was obvious that she didn’t want to have this conversation in front of him. She took her sister by her hand and led her outside. Edward waited as he watched them exchange words before Ariadne finally came back, smoothing her countenance.
“Is everything all right?” asked, concern obvious in his voice.
“Indeed,” she said shortly.
Edward looked down at his own plate and then back at her. “What about your dinner?”
“I’ll have some porridge later,” she said. Edward looked down at his food. The broth was flimsy water with stirred vegetables. She wouldn’t even be half full after the measly food.
“Won’t your mother and sister mind?” he asked worriedly.
Ariadne pursued her lips and Edward had the feeling he had said the wrong thing. “Emma isn’t my mother. I lost mine when I was a child.”
Edward’s hurt thrummed. She had lost both her mother and father. Edward’s father was a force to be reckoned with but he couldn’t imagine losing him or his sweet mother.
And then something else dawned over him that made his stomach turn. “You’re sacrificing your portion of the meal for me, aren’t you?” Edward couldn’t believe that he had been so blind not to see it before. Three women living together under such improvised conditions with no fixed source of income. And here he was stealing her own food away from her. Dash him.
He pushed the tray of food, which contained bread and the broth, toward her. “Here have it.”
Ariadne shook her head, her tone insisting. “I can’t. It's your food.”
Edward folded his arms and set back. “Well, I want you to have it. I’m not hungry.”
“Neither am I,” Ariadne said stubbornly.
They glared at each other silently. Both were obstinately stubborn. Edward’s eyes traced her gray-blue eyes, her oval-shaped face, and her features. That which he had marked plain just a few hours ago, now seemed to transform as if a puzzle falling into place. She was exceedingly gorgeous. He managed to tear his eyes off her with some effort and coughed. She wasn’t his betrothed for him to be staring so freely at her. Ariadne, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind his gaze on her. She was observing him, her eyes slowly raking in his features. Edward’s ears grew hot under her gaze.
He coughed loudly.
“Does something ail you?” she asked. “Do you want me to fetch water for you?”
“None of that will be necessary. I have a simple solution to this problem and since neither of us is going to change our mind, we should very well share this meal.”
Ariadne shook her head. “I can’t share a plate with you, my Lord.”
“Why not?” Edward asked. Even two days ago he himself would have come up with ten reasons not to share his meal with her. He was the aristocracy, and in every sense, he was a blue blood, his lineage drawn from a long line of royal titles while she was…
