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Chapter Twenty-Two
“Then, as luck would have it,” Uncle Jeffrey said, his hands moving as he spoke, “just as the French soldiers were about to spear the stack of hay I was hiding in, a wolf off in the forest howled and drew their attention away. In that moment, I darted from the hay, leapt atop a horse, and rode past their startled faces and out into the night.”
Dinah sipped at her tea as the elderly man leaned back in his chair. “They’d have been far more surprised if they’d known I held the troop movement plans in my pocket.” He patted his chest as though the plans were still there.
“You make it sound as though you won the war singlehandedly,” Miles said from across the room.
“It might just be that your old man did,” Uncle Jeffrey said in return.
Dinah only smiled into her tea. The family was in the parlor at the moment, enjoying the fact that this room stayed cooler than the rest of the house during the hot summer afternoon. Everyone was here except Henry. She’d awoken that morning to find him already gone. It was strange how easy she’d found it to feel safe while he’d been in the room. She’d rather hoped that last night might have proven to be a bit of a shifting moment for them.
That Henry still believed they could never be more than man and wife in name only was no secret to her. And yet, when she’d awoken to find herself alone in the room, she’d been quite sad. She hadn’t seen him all day either. A maid had informed her that his lordship was in town but hadn’t known why.
It had only been since last night that they’d spoken, yet she already missed him.
Which was foolish since he clearly didn’t miss her.
And now she had to worry about what to write to her family...yet again. It seemed they were respecting her only slightly veiled wish that they give her and her new husband time and space to make a life together. She hadn’t had a visit in weeks. But what they lacked in face-to-face communication, they had made up for in the written variety. How many more times would she be forced to lie to her family? To say all was well and that she and Henry were blissfully happy together?
Or perhaps it was time to write them the truth. Henry had only married her out of a sense of duty. They rubbed together well enough, but there was no love. At least, not on his part.
There was plenty on hers.
But right now, that love for him only made her feel pitiful.
Aunt Beatrice fanned herself as she placed her tea down on a table beside her chair. “It’s such a dreadfully hot day.”
“Regrettably so,” came Emily’s quiet reply. “I thought it best if the boys and I stayed indoors today.”
“Very good.” Aunt Beatrice gave Emily a small smile, but as her gaze moved away and toward Dinah, her smile shrank, and she lifted her nose.
“Actually,” Emily said, “since the ball is only a few days away, I had thought—”
Dinah glanced up to see what had caused Emily to pause mid-sentence.
Henry stood just inside the room, and he looked ghastly. His left eye was red and a bit swollen. A small bit of blood was dried to the side of his mouth.
“What the—” David stopped himself there.
“I am quite fine, I assure you,” Henry said, his tone as light as though nothing out of the ordinary was about. “The other man is far worse off, though.”
“Tell me you have not been boxing again,” Aunt Beatrice said, her tone indignant.
“I needed to do something,” he said, sitting himself down directly across from Dinah, and giving her a most pointed glare, “seeing as how I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Oh, so he was blaming her, then?
“I’d best see to the children,” Emily said, her voice weak. Quickly, she stood and hurried out of the room.
David watched his wife leave and then stood as well, coming around to face Henry. “What’s gotten into you?”
Henry continued to stare Dinah down.
“You know my wife can’t stand the sight of blood,” David hissed. When Henry continued to ignore him, David let out a sigh and then followed his wife from the room.
Still, Henry only stared at Dinah. And Dinah, never one to back down, only stared back.
“I think it is terribly ungentlemanly of you to enter the room looking thusly,” Aunt Beatrice huffed. When no one looked her way, or even acknowledged her statement, she walked up to Henry much as David had done. “I insist you go and clean yourself up this minute.”
