“How did you do that?” Fox asked, well aware of how silly he sounded talking to the blasted animal.
Mr. Dandy swished his elegant tail once more and pricked his claws into the wool fabric.
Fox shook his head, trying very hard not to see the entire event as a wan ill-timed omen.
Somethingunexpected loomed.
The very air felt like those breathless moments before the battle had engaged at Coorg. That brief instant before he had shattered, body and soul.
He trembled when he thought upon Leah and Madeline.
Every woman in his life had left him, in one way or another.
Every. Single. One.
Would Madeline be dragged from his care?
If he gave over his heart to Leah, could he trust her to never betray him as others had?
I would not survive such losses, he thought.
Not Madeline.
Not Leah.
Not even Coorg had filled him with such fear.
22
Leah stared at Susan’s letters on Fox’s desk.
She had been staring at them for a wee while now.
Fox had caught a salmon earlier in the day, and Leah had come up to the library to inquire how he would like it cooked for dinner.
She had found the room empty, but the familiar foolscap on Fox’s desk caught her attention.
Susan’s letters from the trunk in the south wing. All of them.
Leah swallowed, touching one, tracing the words ‘your beloved captain’ with a fingertip.
“Pardon,” Fox said behind her, causing Leah to jump. “I should not have left these here.”
He moved past her to gather up the letters, head bent, gaze averted.
Leah found herself studying the side of his head, following the curve of his nose and mouth, features she adored exploring with her lips. Traces of gray threaded through the hair at his temples, more wiry and askew than the dark gold of the rest. Laugh lines fanned out from the corner of his eyes.
“How may I help you, wife?” he asked, coming upright, pinning her with his blue gaze.
This was the moment, Leah realized.
She could kiss him in greeting, ask about the salmon, and retreat downstairs. Return to her domestic duties and let her curiosity go.
The Leah she was before her marriage would have done precisely that, willing to trade her questions for the right to touch his body whenever she wished.
But she was not that woman anymore.
Marriage had changed her.
