Court, in love with her?
Vivi was too afraid to hope it was true, for it was all she had ever wanted.
She shook her head. “I just keep thinking of ways this all might have gone differently. If only I hadn’t planned a house party. If only he had told me his reason for leaving before he left. And if only he had told me he would return.”
“We can’t live our lives by ‘if onlys,’ dear heart,” Clementine said sensibly. “We must live them by certainties, with hope for the future.”
“Why must you be so wise?” she asked, a note of teasing creeping into her voice.
Once more, she was heartily glad for her friend’s presence here, for her listening ear, her sound advice.
Clementine winked. “All the best matchmakers are wise beyond their years.”
* * *
Vivi bustledtoward Court in the great hall, smelling of lush flowers and summer sunshine. She was so gorgeous, so beloved, sohis, that an ache formed in his throat as he drank in the sight of her.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she told him, a welcoming smile on her lips that a mere fortnight ago he wouldn’t have believed would ever be directed at him.
He wasn’t sure that he deserved it.
They had come a long way in the last two weeks. But Court didn’t fool himself. The wounds of the past year had not, by any means, been entirely healed, and he had yet to tell her the full truth of his guilt at Percy’s drowning. But they had settled into an easiness with each other that had been absent since that night at the boathouse, and he was damned thankful for it.
“You’ve been looking for me, have you?” He stopped before her, tempted to kiss her pretty pink lips despite the likelihood of an audience.
Servants were everywhere, making final preparations for the arrival of the guests.
He narrowly resisted.
“Yes.” Her blue gaze dipped to his mouth as if she were having similar thoughts. “I was wondering if the repairs on the west wing roof have been completed.”
“They have,” he confirmed. “The green chamber will be suitable for Lady Featherstone’s impending occupation on the morrow.”
Vivi’s smile deepened. “Thank heavens. I was beginning to fear we would have to place her somewhere else, and that could have been disastrous.”
“I’m pleased to be the savior of the house party,” he said teasingly.
In truth, he wished there were no house party looming over them. After a year of self-imposed exile, he selfishly wanted his wife to himself. He wouldn’t deny it. The very notion that he was about to have his ancestral home filled with guests for the next two weeks made his necktie feel like a hangman’s noose. But Vivi had planned the affair, and he owed her far more than the indulgence of a fortnight’s worth of merriments.
Vivi’s countenance turned serious, her gaze burning into his. “I’m glad you are here, Court.”
Simple words, but the meaning behind them was far more complex.
“I’m glad I am here as well,” he managed past the emotion threatening to choke him.
How had he been able to survive a year without her? He never wanted to be away from her side again. But if they were to truly make amends and move beyond the pain of the past year, he needed to be completely honest with her.
He offered her his arm. “Walk with me?”
Her hand settled familiarly in the crook of his elbow. “Dare I ask where we are going?”
“To my bedroom,” he answered quietly, keeping his voice from carrying to the busy domestics darting about the great hall.
Her fingers tightened on his sleeve, and she cast him a sidelong glance. “In the midst of the afternoon?”
The sinner in him wondered if she would object to such an assignation. But his intent was not, in this instance, carnal in nature.
“There is something there that I want to give you,” he explained, thinking of the singing bird box that had finally arrived that morning from London.
