Then she saw him glance around and note the items she had brought down to decorate the room, and a new reason for anxiety presented itself.She swallowed nervously.
But all he said was, “You have done wonders with this room, Eleanor.I recognize some of the bits and pieces.”He caught sight of her face.“Good heavens, don’t look as if I were going to eat you.It is about time this stuff had some air.You have a magpie for a husband, but I never know what to do with my collection when I get it home.Now, tell me what coals the aunts chose to stir this time.”
By mutual consent they retired to the library and she reenacted the afternoon’s battle so well that they both ended in fits of laughter.
“Dreadful women,” he said, but then he sobered.“I wish they would leave Juliette out of it, though, for Kit does feel that.But never mind.Tell me what else you have been about.I think I recognize the skills of Madame Augustine.”He pulled her to her feet and gently twirled her for his inspection.“Very becoming.”
“I’m afraid I have ordered quite a few more outfits.”
“I would be angry if you hadn’t.But there is something else…” He turned her face to the lamplight.“You have done something to your eyebrows.”
Eleanor blushed.“I didn’t think you would notice.”
“What an unobservant person you must think me,” he said.“And besides,” he added with a mock frown, “what possible purpose could there be except for me to notice?Unless you already have another conquest in your sight.”
Conquest?Eleanor stared at him, feeling a blush heat her cheeks.
“I’m sure it must be painful, though,” he carried on before she could think what to say.He gently traced the curve of one brow with his finger.“Do not torture yourself on my account.”
“It doesn’t hurt at all,” lied Eleanor cheerfully as, unconsciously it seemed, he traced the other brow.She began to feel a little breathless.“I like the improvement it makes in me.”
“Excellent.But I warn you,” he said with a lazy smile, and his finger trailed idly down her cheek, “do not take to wearing creams and lotions when I wish to kiss you.”He tapped gently on her parted lips.
Bedazzled, Eleanor had nerve enough to challenge him.“And what would you do to stop me, sir?”
His eyes twinkled but he assumed a stern expression.“I would scrub it all off with unnecessary brutality, madam, and then condemn you to wear clothes of my brother’s choosing for the rest of your life.”
She laughed, and he dropped a kiss on her smiling lips.Eleanor felt ridiculously happy.
“Now, I have a confession.I am turning you up sweet for a purpose.I have a favor to ask.”
She would give him the moon and the stars.“Anything!”she declared.
He shook his head.“Next lesson is caution, I think.I would like you to preside over a bachelor dinner here tomorrow night.It is a longstanding arrangement.”
That was more daunting than obtaining the heavens for him.Eleanor was unused to full-blown social occasions.“I am willing to attend,” she said hesitantly, “but I would be equally happy to have a tray in my room.”
“I would like you to be there.I need a restraining influence, my dear.Some friends and I get together at fairly regular intervals, but it generally degenerates into a maudlin drunk.I particularly wish them to keep their faculties this time.Anyway, it will be good for you to meet my closest friends.”
Eleanor hoped they were less challenging than his relatives, but she couldn’t help but rejoice that it was she, not Madame Therese who had been asked for this assistance.
How foolish to even think of it as a contest when she was his wife.She had no evidence that he had seen the woman since Newhaven.
But the memory of that tableau in the inn haunted her, especially the way he’d carried the woman’s hands to his lips.As well have ravished her then and there…
Such thinking did no good.She could at least attempt to be a perfect wife.Eleanor dutifully noted the number of guests and summoned Hollygirt and Mrs.Cooke.Together they planned the food and drink most suitable for a group of healthy young men.
Francis,Lord Middlethorpe, opened the letter brought to his home in Hampshire by an exhausted groom.He recognized the writing immediately.
What on earth are you doing at the Priory when I need you in London?The reunion is for tomorrow and it is vitally important you be here.I would have thought mere curiosity to see my wife would have brought you hot-foot!Nicholas
His lordship stared at the note in dumbfounded silence for long enough to convince the butler that disaster had fallen on the house of Haile and then tore off to his mother’s room.When he eventually gained admittance she was putting the final touches to a meticulous toilette and stared at his riding clothes in horror.
“Francis, it lacks only fifteen minutes to dinner!What has happened?”
“Mama, why didn’t you tell me Nicholas was married?”
“Nicholas?”queried Lady Middlethorpe vaguely.
