His gaze flickered. Just once.
“It seems… prudent.”
“Does it?”
“Yes.”
Her mouth curved, faint and knowing. “Prudent things are usually easier to explain.”
James shifted his weight impatiently. “You are testing me.”
“I am observing you husband, and if you feel as if that is a test, then you should look inward to better understand why it is that you do,” she corrected.
“And what have you observed?”
“That you leave earlier than necessary. That you return later than required. That when you speak to me, you position yourself as though you might retreat at any moment.”
“That is your interpretation.”
“It is plain as the nose on your face.”
His jaw tightened. For a moment, the only sound was the fire. “You assume intention where there may be coincidence,” he said.
“Do youtrulywish for me to believe that?”
He did not answer.
Eleanor’s voice softened. “I would not mind the distance,” she said. “If it were not so… deliberate.”
Something strained in his expression then. “You think I am punishing you?”
“Not fully, no. Some, yes,” she said gently. “I mostly think you are punishing yourself.”
His eyes darkened. “You do not know what you are speaking of.”
“I know,” she said, standing and stepping just close enough that she could feel nearly touch him with a deep enough breath, “that you do not look at me the way you did before we –”
He swallowed, fully caught off guard. “My dear, you are treading on thin ice,” he said hoarsely.
“No, not yet,” Eleanor shook her head, and looked up at him squared her shoulders. “I only wish you would make it easier on both of us and create another rule for that which you refuse to name.”
“I will not give what you are looking for tonight, wife.”
She held his gaze, calm and unflinching. “I am beginning to wonder why you are so afraid to give it.”
The silence that followed was taut, intimate, and unresolved which was exactly as she intended.
They regarded one another in the low lamplight, something unspoken hovering between them, fragile and unresolved.
“Good night, Eleanor,” he said at last.
“Good night, James.”
She sat and poured herself another cup of tea as he left, steps retreating down the corridor loudly. And for the first timesince he had mentioned them, Eleanor knew that she no longer wished to follow his ridiculous rules.
CHAPTER 19
James woke with the distinct sense that he had overslept.
