AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If you want me out of this room, then you’ll have to pick me up and remove me yourself. And since I happen to know you’re too much of a gentleman to do so, I suggest you make yourself at home in that room over there.” With no more than that, she plopped her head down atop his pillow and snuggled in beneath the bedding.
Henry had to blink a few times to dispel the magic she’d seemed to weave over him with her nearness.
He ran a hand over his face. “You’re planning to sleep fully dressed?” She was still in the nearly-off-the-shoulder dress she’d worn to dinner.
“I’m considering it an extra layer of protection between me and any other rats you may have missed.”
He’d never met someone so headstrong as she. “I didn’tmissany other rats because he was the only one.”
“I can’t hear you—I’m trying to sleep.” With that, she took a second pillow and plopped it down over her head.
Henry turned toward the door, but his gaze was instantly pulled back to the sight of her hair spilling out from between the two pillows.
Dinah lay inhisbed. Her petite form now made an alluring curve within the blankets—the blankets that, before tonight, had always warmed him.
Lud, he could not be thinking about bed and warmth and Dinah all at the same time. Henry strode purposefully toward the door that connected his room with the sitting room. Perhaps he ought to see if one of the beds in the guest wing was made up; he needed as much space between himself and Dinah as he could manage.
“Henry?”
He stopped, his hand on the door knob.
When she spoke, her voice was far softer than before. “You are certain there are no other rodents about?”
He nodded but didn’t look back at her. “Quite certain.” He turned the knob and opened the door.
“Henry,” she called again. “Your bench along the foot of the bed is quite soft.”
Slowly his head swung in her direction. Surely she was not suggesting what he thought she was.
Dinah looked at him, her eyes wide and her mouth set at an uncertain angle. Her fingers fidgeted with the blankets around her.
“I am used to sharing a room...and...I don’t want to be alone just now.”
Henry rested a hand against the door frame. He ought to tell her to call her abigail. He certainly could ring for the maid himself. And yet, even while listing all the reasons this was a bad idea in his mind, Henry found himself stalking back over toward the bed. Without looking at her, he tore off first his cravat and then his jacket and waistcoat. The jacket hit the floor with a clunk. Her hair brush—it was still in his jacket pocket. That stupid hairbrush had started this whole unpleasant evening.
Well, unpleasant maybe wasn’t the right word. Frustrating or even troublesome was more accurate. Sitting atop the bench near the foot of the bed, which was not nearly as soft as she made it out to be, Henry tugged off his boots. Reaching behind him, he found the spare blanket folded at the foot of his bed—hisbed, not hers—and pulled it toward himself.
Laying down, he spread the extra blanket over him and, with hand tucked beneath his head, Henry closed his eyes.
“Thank you, Henry.” He heard her settle deeper into the bed.
The simple words were far from an embrace, even further from a kiss. Yet, they warmed him all the same. Henry pressed his forehead into a scowl, though he didn’t open his eyes. His situation with his wife had finally gone too far. He was done with this. Done with waiting for her to leave, struggling to ignore all he was feeling.
His aunt may have lived with him for over two decades, but she’d always made it clear she’d stayed because he was her responsibility, not as an act of love. The only two women who had ever truly cared for him were Emily and his mother. Both of them had made it clear they no longer did.
If Dinah was going to leave him, as other women had, she might as well get about doing it.
Perhaps all she needed was to see exactly the type of man she’d married. Not that he’d been hiding who he was from her; indeed, a small part of his mind couldn’t help but acknowledge that he’d been more himself with her than with anyone else of his acquaintance. Still, she simply hadn’t had cause to see some of the rougher, less polished sides of his character.
Perhaps it was time she did.
Henry shifted about on the bench, which was far too small for him to truly get comfortable on. The sound of Dinah breathing deeply in her sleep was distracting, and he found he had to fight the urge to slip into bed beside her.
Henry silently cursed the desire. It was certainly time Dinah was shown all the reasons she needed to go.
