“Mine sounded just the same!”
“Poor Jonathan,” she clucked. “You really can’t carry a tune.”
“How dare you, madam?”
“Dear me, have you changed your mind? Am I to shut my eyes to your foibles after all?”
“That may depend on the number of foibles you mean to discover.”
“Oh, very few, I should think.” She shifted her hips suggestively. “In most respects I find you more than adequate.”
“Mmm. A gratifying sentiment. Some might even prefer it to ‘I love you.’”
She found a lock of his hair to tug. “I love you, too.”
Though he merely grunted, she could tell he was pleased. “But will you still love me after I’m forced to dispatch your brother in a duel?”
“Oh, you need have no fear of that. Mr. Evans is the soul of discretion.”
“And his footmen?”
“Would never dare cross him.”
“Hmmph. Let us pray you are right.”
“Of course I’m right. And even if I’m wrong…” She lost her train of thought; she was still toying with his hair, enjoying the feel of it slithering through her fingers.
“It was worth the risk?” he prompted her.
“Hmm? Oh, right. Don’t you think so?”
“Without question. In fact, I foresee us taking many such risks through the years. Twineham is full of sofas languishing in disuse…”
She giggled. “There’s a rather comfortable one here in the saloon. Later, we could?—”
“No,” he cut her off firmly. “Later we are meeting in your chamber, where I’ll remove every stitch of your clothing, and you’ll have a proper deflowering at last.”
“Yes, your grace.” Anticipation fluttered in her stomach. “But is it true that a woman must be nude to consider herself properly deflowered? I’ve never heard that said.”
He chuckled. “Not true. In my estimation, proper deflowering has more to do with taking one’s time.”
“Then why are you so fixed upon the notion of undressing me?”
“If a man is forced to go about his daily life whilst knowing what Claire Chase looks like undressed?—”
“I knew it!” She sat bolt upright. “You were envisioning me all year, weren’t you?”
He looked unrepentant. “Constantly.”
She gasped. “And had I banished you again, would you have continued the practice?”
His eyes danced. “For the rest of my life.”
“Well!” She regarded him with wonder. “I can only thank God it all came out right in the end.”
“Because we’re together now, you mean?”
“Oh, yes, that too. But imagine if I had undressed before other men, and they were all out there seeing me nude to their dying days?”
