“So I see,” he said coolly.He added in a crisp voice, “The best way to carry through a deceit is to keep to it continually.Anyone could have overheard that comment and would be entitled to wonder about our situation.”
How dare he reprimand her!Every instinct demanded that she fight back, but then she had to acknowledge the justice of the reproof.It was essential that no one question their story.
With deceptive submissiveness she said, “I am sorry, sir … Nicholas, my dear.”
His lips twitched and a sudden warm light in his eyes startled her.“Quite,” he said as he removed her cloak.He took her hands.“You’re cold.Did you have to wait long?”
Eleanor tried to remove her hands—she found his touch disturbing–but his grip was firm.“No, not really,” she said quickly.“I’m not cold.It’s nerves.”
He drew her forward to the blazing fire and pushed her gently into a chair there.He knelt to tend the fire deftly and make it blaze.“At least you are honest.Of what are you afraid?”
She looked at him, surprised by such a question.Then she realized that though she ought to be afraid of him, she wasn’t.Despite the evidence, it was just as impossible to imagine this man to be her ravisher as Lord Stainbridge.
It was all most peculiar.
His silence demanded an answer to his question.Of what then was she afraid?
“I suppose,” she said slowly, “I am afraid of the abnormality of things.I am, or was, a conventional sort of person.”
Humor twinkled in his eyes, emphasized by the dancing flames.“With a brother such as yours that is quite an achievement.”He rose smoothly from attending to the fire.
“It was, but he overcame in the end.”Too late, she realized this could appear to be an attack on him, which might be unwise at this point.He took no offense.He hardly seemed to have heard.
“Do you feel able to go down now to dinner?We have a private parlor bespoken, and later, of course, we will have to go out.”
For her wedding, she realized as she stood.The dreaded moment of confrontation had come and gone without a moment’s thought.Now, however, she found herself resentful of his lack of contrition.Some word of apology, some recognition of his fault, would have been in order.
He turned by the open door and caught her expression.“What is it, Eleanor?”
She sighed.Perhaps this was what he meant by keeping to the deceit.There hardly seemed any point in forcing him to acknowledge his fault at this stage, but, she promised silently, if he imagined he could pretend forever that nothing untoward had occurred, he was mistaken.
“Nothing is the matter,” she said.“I just need to tidy myself.”
Instead of leaving, as she had hoped, he closed the door and moved to sit and watch as she washed her hands in the china basin and subdued some curling wisps of hair that had escaped the severe knot at the back of her head.
Under his calm regard her fingers fumbled.If he is going to be husbandly, thought Eleanor, then I will be wifely.
“Is Madame Therese an old friend?”she asked, watching him in the mirror.
“A very old friend,” he replied, amusement in his eyes and voice.“I knew her in Vienna.”
Had the man no shame?“I see,” she said sweetly, determined to disturb his composure.“And is she likely to be jealous of my … status?”
“Not if she discovers the truth about it,” he replied calmly.
Which serves you right for being arch, Eleanor though on a gasp, and thrust a number of pins roughly into her hair.Life with Nicholas Delaney would present certain challenges.She reassured herself there was not likely to be much of it.He would be away on his travels in no time.
Perhaps with Madame Therese, she thought crossly.
She stood abruptly and swept to the door, but in one smooth movement he was before her and bowing her through.Drat the man!
Lord Stainbridge was nervously pacing the parlor, watching a maid set the table.He would probably have said something indiscreet had his brother not forestalled him.
“Eleanor is feeling slightly better now she is on dry land again, Kit.I assure you, she is not normally so delicate.I believe a little fresh air after the meal will complete the recovery.”
Lord Stainbridge had been gazing anxiously at Eleanor as if seeking reassurance, but he accepted this lead as he seemed to accept everything his brother said and did.
A fine protector he will be, thought Eleanor.
