Theo didn’t precisely want to experience the act her mother had, vaguely, explained to her, but an emotion akin to disappointment settled in her gut. To compensate, she rose. His gaze darted down her body, and her hand, braced against the table,tightened. “If you’re not here to share my bed,” she said, “whyareyou here?”
A slight frown caught his brows as his gaze, once again, dipped, and found its way back to her face. “To talk, but perhaps this isn’t the best time.”
“Do you think we made the right decision?” she blurted.
He stepped closer, until he captivated her senses. He had no right being so tall—her brother Henry was the larger of the two men, but Henry wasn’t here. There was only Nathanial and her, in her bedroom. As man and wife.
Goodness, Betsy had piled the fire far too high; she had not thought it was so hot. Resisting the urge to fan herself, she clasped her hands before her.
“To marry?” he asked. “Don’t tell me you’re having cold feet now.”
“No.” Her voice was oddly breathy, and she stepped back to create some space between them—space they needed, because for some unaccountable reason, she was far too aware ofhim. “Not cold feet exactly, but—”
“You fear I regret the match?”
Looking up at him, at the grey eyes that usually held so much amusement, she noted their seriousness. Their steadiness.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Then fear not, my dear—you will prove a charming wife.”
“And you a charming husband?”
His hand hesitated. “Do you wish me to be?” he asked at last.
She hardly knew what she wished. All she knew was when he stood in front of her as he did now, she longed forsomething. The air was no longer quite enough; she would suffocate without more.
His thumb brushed her cheekbone and her lips parted as she sucked in a breath. His gaze darted to her mouth. Whenhe glanced up again, there was warmth in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Her knees felt distinctly wobbly.
“I should go,” he said, retracting his hand. “Goodnight, Theo.”
She ought to move, to clamber onto the large and awe-inspiring bed, but she couldn’t quite coax her legs into action. And when Nathanial glanced back from the doorway, hesitating with one hand wrapped around the wood, she thought she saw the same confusion written across his face, as though something had just transpired between them—something as unexpected for him as it was new for her.
But instead of articulating his thoughts and putting a name to the sudden tension in the room, he merely shook his head and closed the door behind him as he left.
Chapter Six
After their honeymoon, during which they rather modestly toured the Lake District, Theo and Nathanial returned to London to take up their position at the front of Society’ston. Nathanial had, of course, procured Almack’s vouchers, and they reached that hallowed establishment for ten o’clock on the second evening of their return.
Theo had been to Almack’s several times over the course of her debut. She had, however, never once entered on the arm of a duke, and it transpired that made the situation entirely different.
For a start, she was announced as Her Grace, The Duchess of Norfolk, a title that seemed altogether too stately for her. Then, as though that in itself wasn’t enough, she found herself the subject of every person’s stare. Whispers erupted from behind fans and under bobbing curls.
Nathanial, to her relief, steered her across the packed room to his sister, Elinor’s, side. She didn’t look especially interested in spreading rumours, and instead waved her fan at them. “Theodosia,” she said. “Nathanial, I’m almost surprised you came—I haven’t seen you at Almack’s in an age.”
“I usually find the entertainment somewhat wanting,” he said languidly. “But I thought I ought to accompany my wife, seeing as we are so recently back from our honeymoon.”
“How generous of you,” Theo muttered.
“And because,” Elinor said, a little too pointedly, “you are so madly in love, of course.”
“Ah.” Nathanial’s voice was quiet, and Theo pinched his arm for having made such a stupid, infernal claim toboththeir families. By the scepticism in Elinor’s voice, she didn’t believe it for a moment, anyway. “Yes. Of course.”
“I suppose you can hardly bear to be apart,” Elinor continued, an eyebrow slightly raised. The resemblance between her and Nathanial was even greater when she did that. “I remember when I married my dear Robert, I was the same.”
“Absolutely,” Nathanial said dryly. “As you can see, we are joined at the hip. Theo, dance with me?”
If any other man had asked her with such abruptness, she would have been tempted to refuse, but Nathanial was her husband and they were supposed to be in love. It was extremely irritating.
