He nodded, and the reality of their situation rained down on him. Nothing was official yet, of course, but how was he to begin a bank in Croydon if his wife was in Durham for eighteen months? Should he postpone his plans? But that would require him to hold off on letting the estate, and he may not find another location that he could afford. And he couldn’t start over in Durham, it was too far from London; a partnership with Sternam’s would not be feasible at that distance.
But also, this was not a true marriage, not as he’d always anticipated having. For the next week, it was false in its entirety… but even when the register was signed, it would be hardly any more real. What did it matter if his wife was hundreds of miles from him? She would have her job, and he would not lose his bet, and that was what truly mattered.
But it sent a lead stone the size of a boulder settling into his stomach.
“Andrew?”
He shook himself. “Apologies. What was your question?”
“You are leaving London so soon?”
“Yes. At least that was what I intended. I am near to signing the lease on an estate, and need to be there to settle the details of the bank. Perhaps I can postpone a little…”
She waved a hand. “There is no reason that you should. I do not wish to interrupt your plans any more than I have.”
He nodded, not entirely convinced himself.
Gratefully, she moved the conversation onward. “Now, about me, you need only know that I was taught by Mr. Grenton for three years, stayed with my Grandfather until his death last February, and taught mathematics and astronomy at The Bristol Seminary for Young Gentlewomen.”
He paused for a moment as Bess stirred. But she went still again, mouth parted in sleep. “Astronomy as well?” he whispered.
She shifted, pulling her legs up on the seat between them and leaning against the outer wall of the carriage. “It is important to have a well-rounded resume. I do believe it was what gave me an edge over my competition in the pursuit of this position.”
“I imagine Mr. Whitcomb would appreciate an individual who understood not only the equations, but the importance behind them as well.”
She nodded. “And you were building your banking empire and growing in wealth and prestige.”
He mirrored her stance, shifting backward until he leaned against the wall. “In between pining for my wife, who was too far away, of course.”
She grinned. “Naturally.”
“And what of your habits?” he asked. “Do you still rise late? Breakfast when it ought to be nuncheon? Require a turn around the garden each afternoon?”
Her lips quirked. “Had there been time for that in my schedule, I would have very much enjoyed one. I have not changed a great deal since childhood, in all honesty. I detest waking early, but have trained myself to manage it well enough. Grandfather and I generally engaged in a game of checkers at least weekly—I have not the patience for chess.”
“You astound me. You were always the picture of equanimity and restraint,” Andrew intoned.
She pinched her mouth, but her eyes were laughing. “No, dear Andrew, that was always you. The calm to my storm.”
“Hardly. I think I just got swept up in the tempest.”
She cocked her head as if thinking. “I was abominably persuasive, wasn’t I?”
“That is one word for it. I might have used heavy-handed, but you are the scholar.” He shrugged, the action languid, but couldn’t keep his amusement from his face.
“If I had something, I would throw it at you.” Her hand hovered near her slippers for a moment, as if considering.
“So, you are to be a violent sort of wife?” he quipped, hands lifted, should he need to shield himself.
“Only when my husband provokes me,” she returned, settling back again. It would seem he was safe from her slippers for the moment.
“How quickly you lay the blame at my door.”
“One need not lay what was always there to begin with.” The pertness of her response made his grin widen.
Gads, but he’d missed her. No one had made him smile so much that his face ached in months. Years, maybe.
“Very well, I shall accept to forever be in the wrong.”
