‘Long enough to have killed you had I been Guy Bernard.’
Unexpectedly she smiled, her eyes brightening. ‘Then I am glad you were not.’
‘Come and have breakfast with me, Celeste. You look like you need it.’
She stood, brushing the detritus of a night’s interrupted slumber from her clothes and when her jacket gaped a little he saw the rise of one breast above a heavy binding of linen. More rounded and full. He looked away before she noticed. ‘This protection you insist on giving me is not necessary.’
She said nothing as she followed him into the house. The sideboard in the dining room was laden with fare to break their fast and his servants watched her with more than interest. Today she looked nothing like the lad she was dressed as, and when she took off her hat her hair spilled down, curlier than it had been yesterday.
‘If you would like to wash first, there is a bathroom through that door.’
She nodded and promptly disappeared, returning five moments later with water sluicing down her wild curls and her face washed. She looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her. Shaking away that thought, he gestured for her to sit.
‘If you do intend to stay, perhaps I could offer you the use of my library. You once enjoyed books, if I recall?’
‘I’ve barely read in years.’
‘And yet people have not stopped writing. There are some recent editions of novels that I could recommend.’
She met his gaze then, full on, and he could see things inside her eyes that he had no words for, hidden dark things brittle with sadness. The servant at her back interrupted such discoveries, though, as he asked her what her preference was for the morning’s meal. When she had given her order she once again observed Summerley Shayborne.
‘I was sorry to hear about Jeremy. He sounded like a lovely man. I cannot remember meeting him, before.’
‘Who told you of his death?’
‘Many people.’
That was also a lie for there was complicity on her face. Lord. So many feelings came flooding back. Complex complicated feelings that he had no need of.
‘When did you arrive in England?’
‘Just over a week ago.’
‘Have you been down to Langley?’
He knew that she had even before she answered him.
‘My grandmother was pleased to see me. You were right about that.’
‘And now? After this? Will you go back to Sussex again?’
‘For a little while. Just until I find my feet.’
‘I am due down at Luxford next week. Vivienne, my brother’s wife, has been despondent since Jeremy’s death so I try to see her when I can.’
The bruising in her eyes darkened. She was not pleased with his words. Breathing out, he began to eat his eggs and bacon and she did the same.
* * *
The food tasted like dust in her dry mouth. Summer would be in Sussex next week! It was too soon. The wheels of fate were turning too fast and she could stop none of it.
This morning he was dressed down and he looked so much more like the man she had traversed France with, the man she had slept with every night for weeks.
Love me, she felt like saying, here in a room filled with food and servants.Take me in your arms and make the world right again.
Swallowing such emotions, she directed her mind to other things and was pleased when he spoke.
‘Aurelian said that Les Chevaliers was disbanded along with a few other of the agencies of Napoleon?’
