“I assumed you might need assistance with the buttons. And the corset. I can leave you to it if you can manage.”
“Oh! I suppose I do. But it would be improper?—”
“You’re my wife. Remember?”
“Oh,” I repeated, stupidly. “Yes, of course.” I turned, offering him my back. I had to tug the tangled waves of my hair, long having forsaken the hold of any remaining pins, over my shoulder.
He was less tentative this time as he worked the buttons down my back in a perfunctory manner. Still, I could have sworn his breath felt ragged against the nape of my neck.
Once the dress gaped enough to pull free from my body, he backed away while I stepped out of it and my petticoat. All that remained were the corset and chemise. He loosened the corset with more confidence than he’d tightened it, until it pooled on the floor.
I heard his receding footsteps, then the scratch of the screen against the wooden floor, before the rustling of bed coverings.
“You’re… You’re staying?”
“I thought you might need help putting them back on. But you can just call for me.”
“You’re right. Stay close?”
“I’ll just be outside the door.” He opened and then clicked it shut again.
I pulled off my chemise. With a deep breath, I dipped a toe into the single coldest bath I’d ever had, trying desperately to hold back my whimper.
KIT
I let my forehead thump softly against the door as I dipped my hand into my waistcoat pocket only to find it empty.
And wasn’t that a lark. Her hairpin—my pathetic talisman—my desperate attempt to remind myself of propriety, of integrity, lost to the muck and mire by the side of the road.
“What are you doing Uncle Kit?” Little Sarah asked behind me. I hadn’t realized anyone was upstairs, but I couldn’t bring myself to stand upright. The nine-year-old was hardly concerning company.
“Questioning my life choices.”
“Did you need to be alone to do that?”
“No, sweetheart,” I said, rolling my forehead until my gaze met hers. She was beside me now, peering up from against the wall.
“You got married.”
“I did.”
“I would’ve come. I didn’t get to go to Auntie Katie’s wedding, and now yours too.”
And wasn’t that enough to make me feel like a right arse in spite of the fact that there had been no wedding to attend. “I’m sorry for disappointing you, sweets.”
She nodded in that too wise, forgiving way that she had. “Is it ’cause you’re an earl now?”
I turned, pressing my back against the door before sliding along it to sit on the floor. She plopped herself beside me. “Sarah, if it had been possible for me to have you there, you would’ve been my flower girl. You know you’re my best girl. It was the biggest disappointment of the day.”
“Do you mean it?”
“Swear it.”
“Your wife is very pretty.”
“She is,” I agreed easily.
“Is that why you had to marry so fast?”
