Butallof this was his fault. He met her gaze, remembering what she’d said before she’d toppled over:It’s all my fault. I’ve ruined too many lives already…
He inhaled a deep breath. The two of them, it seemed, were going around in circles.
“I think,” he began, “that you and I need to stop blaming ourselves for what’s happened. No guilt on either of our parts is going to make it go away. Is it possible to simply…start over?”
She blinked slowly, watching him. “I am sorry, though.”
“I am too.” He leaned against the side of the bed. “But let’s put an end to all of this apologizing, shall we?”
Some pink was returning to her cheeks, and her tears had disappeared. “I’d like that.”
“I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get much sleep last night. Somehow, I doubt you did either.”
He would not be consummating his marriage on his wedding night.
Polly returned with some washcloths, a towel, and hot water and shooed him away. “I’ll take care of her from here, My Lord. Until the doctor arrives, that is.”
Chase nodded, disappointed but also relieved.
This husband business just might be more complicated than he’d imagined.
Chapter 13
Chaste as a Lamb
Bethany opened her eyes and blinked a few times before the room came into focus.
Various colors of orange—everywhere she looked. It seemed even more atrocious now than it had the day before. Or perhaps her disgust was simply heightened by the bump she’d given herself at supper.
And the residual pain in her head.
The doctor had assured her that she would be fine. Large quantities of blood, he’d declared, were perfectly normal for head wounds. She’d slept surprisingly well, aside from Polly hourly poking at her side to make sure she was alive, that was.
Moving gingerly, she waited for the room to quiet down and then slid off the bed with a grimace.
The morning after her wedding and she was chaste as a lamb.
“My Lady?” Polly entered through one of the jib doors. “Two ladies are waiting to see you. Lady Tabetha and Lady Felicity. Are you well enough to meet with them?”
“Yes.” Bethany gathered her bearings. “Of course. Would you mind showing them up?” It must be later than she’d realized. The bed was only rumpled on one side, and she wondered if her visitors would guess that she’d not really had a wedding night.
Did it even matter?
She padded across the room to check her appearance in the looking glass and then almost wished she hadn’t. The reflection staring back at her left little to be desired. The bandage the doctor had tied around her head had twisted about, tangling most of her unbraided hair with it. She unraveled the strip of linen and then dabbed her fingers at the wound. Her hair was matted but the bleeding had stopped.
“Good afternoon,Lady Chaswick. It’s good to know marriage hasn’t changed your sleeping habits,” Tabetha teased as she peeked around the door and then slipped in, Felicity behind her. Both girls had golden blond hair and looked almost too stunningly exuberant for Bethany to handle that morning.
“You don’t look so good,” Felicity announced. “Tell me he didn’t… ”
“Didn’t what?”
“Er, take up where he left off the other night?” She shifted her gaze pointedly toward Bethany’s derriere.
“You mean with the…?” Bethany made a swatting motion, and Felicity nodded. “Good heavens no. He isn’t like that…”
Both young ladies stared at her suspiciously.
“So you enjoyed it then? Was it everything you dreamed it would be?” And with a sweeping glance of disapproval Tabetha added, “This room is ghastly.”
