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“I am tired.” He tried to stifle a yawn as she approached, closing the door behind her. When she reached the desk, she placed the candle down beside his own and looked harder at his face. “I feel as if I am being examined. A little too closely,” he jested with her, relieved when she smiled a little.
“Those shadows under your eyes—they are large.” She motioned to his face. She stood straight and looked around the room with her hands on her hips, but upon finding there was no other chair, for he had sold the rest of the furniture in the room, she turned and sat on the desk instead.
When he raised his eyebrows, she shrugged.
“Where else am I supposed to sit?” she asked. He didn’t protest, for he rather liked her being so close. “Where have you been all day?”
“Worried for me?”
“Oh, I simply couldn’t answer Grace’s questions as to where you were.” Ophelia leaned toward him, resting her hands on the table. “And maybe I worried a little.”
“Speaking of worry, should I be worrying for you?” Elliot sat back in his chair. “I hear from Mrs Mouser you had a visitor today.”
“That I did.” Ophelia sat tall and looked to the ceiling. Elliot rather wondered if she was really thinking of the heavens far above. “It was not an easy meeting with my stepmother, but I feel as if God smiled down on me today.”
“He did? By sending an angry woman to shout at you?” Elliot asked.
“She did shout a little.”
“A little? Ha!” Elliot shook his head. “If Mrs Mouser is to be believed, you and your stepmother really went for one another. Mrs Mouser said the plaster on the ceiling began to shake.”
“It did not,” Ophelia insisted.
“Don’t misunderstand, I think the housekeeper was rather impressed.” He nodded with the words. Elliot was warmed to see how easy it was to fall into conversation with Ophelia. Hours ago, he’d been worried about the way he had left things with her the night before, yet here they were jesting with one another, sitting very close together. “On a serious note, for one minute—”
“Serious? Must we be?” Ophelia pleaded, turning her head to the side.
“Don’t plead with me so. You look rather sweet when you do that.”
“Me? Sweet?” She laughed at the idea.
“You’re not making it easy to be serious.” He laughed with her, then leaned forward. The creaking of the chair had them both falling quiet. “As I was saying, let me ask you in earnest for a minute. After your meeting with your stepmother, are you well? I hope it did not upset you.”
“It was a strange thing.” Ophelia lowered her voice in a whisper. He could have pointed out they were alone in his study with no one there to overhear them, but he rather liked how close she came to him. It made him angle his head to look up at her more, admiring the beauty in those bold eyes and the strong cheekbones. “Gertrude and I have always been cordial. Yes, that is what you could say.”
“It is not a good way to describe family, is it?” Elliot pointed out.
“No. I never thought we were enemies, though. I suppose we rubbed along because my father loved her, and I came with my father. That was the way of things.” Ophelia reached down to the papers on his desk and began to shuffle them, seemingly absentmindedly. “She has made it quite plain now what she really thinks of me. She accused me today of being devious.”
“Devious? For marrying a man not of her choosing? I’d call that independent,” Elliot countered.
“I think I prefer the way you see me to how she sees me.”
“Oh, I could go on at length as to how I see you,” Elliot said, feeling his eyes drop to her lips. His voice had deepened with the words. Knowing how alone they were in that room, he felt his desire stirring for her. What he would give to know Ophelia intimately, to make love to her and to explore this passion to its fullest, but the memory of the night before still bothered him.
“You cannot look at me like that here,” she said softly. “We are not in a bedchamber.”
Elliot laughed at the words, shaking his head. “And you think such things must pass in a bedchamber?”
“Well, I guess I had never thought of them passing elsewhere. I’m a new bride, after all—I have no experience.” She was flirting with him again as she bit her lip, making those lips turn a darker shade of pink.
“I could introduce you to many things, I am sure.” He was tempted to raise himself to her and kiss her then, but the papers she had been fiddling with were between them and one slipped out of her hand.
“What is all this?” she asked. “Does this relate to where you have been today?”
“Yes.” He turned over the papers so she could see them all clearly. Knowing it was her money that was saving him, he would be open and honest about every payment.
“These are the debts I have paid today. My mother and father were unscrupulous in where they spent their money. They seemed to have no qualms at all about it. I have settled the worst of it today and will do the smaller debts next week. Then, I will invest some of the money, so we can make it back again.”
