But he turned away instead and moved toward the opposite side of the room. “I’ll look for food,” he murmured over his shoulder.
Meg moved toward the settee that he had apparently uncovered after he built the fire earlier and took a place on it, covering her face with her hands. She was trembling, and it wasn’t from the cold. She wasn’t certain she would survive this.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Chapter Five
It was slim pickings, but a packet of dried fruit Simon assured her had been brought to the cottage by James and the other men just a few months ago and a bottle of wine would tide them over. It wasn’t as if they were going to stay here forever. Simon almost laughed at that thought, though there was nothing funny about this situation. If they were going to stay here forever, never go back to the consequences, Simon knew exactly what he’d do. And it would havenothingto do with food or honor.
Meg shifted in her place at the table and adjusted her ever-sliding blanket. It was fascinating to watch it move over her skin, and yet he forced himself to look away. These wayward thoughts were entirely too dangerous in their current situation. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to lose all reason and do something rash that could never be taken back.
The room was utterly quiet, and Meg looked upward, drawing his attention to the banging of the rain on the roof. It had eased up slightly from the torrent it had begun as hours before, but it was still far too hard to consider making a run back to the house on foot. Especially in the increasing darkness outside.
“It’s not going to stop, is it?” she asked, her voice thin and her face pale in the candlelight.
He swallowed at that question. It could fit so many things about this situation, but she meant the rain. He had to focus.
“No, I don’t think we’ll see it let up any time soon, considering it’s been doing this for almost two hours.”
She bent her head. Theybothknew the consequences of what had happened here. They would spend a night together, unsupervised. The talk when they returned to James’s estate would be vicious and instantaneous. Probably it was already happening amongst the party guests.
Because of that, Meg and Graham would likely have to marry right away after this. If she had a child any time in the next year, people would whisper that it could be Simon’s, even though that would not be possible.
A child. Simon gritted his teeth. The idea of her having a child with Graham was the thing he most often tried to avoid when he thought of her future. Of course, it would happen eventually. Northridge needed heirs and spares to carry on his title, just as they all did. Graham and Meg would probably have a huge family in the end. How could he resist her, after all, once he’d had a chance to touch her?
Simon’s stomach turned.
“What do we do?” she asked.
The resignation to her tone cut him to his very bone, and there was nothing he could do to console her. Especially not with his body on edge like this.
He sighed. “Go to bed,” he suggested. “We’ll go to sleep and wake up early and hopefully be able to make our way back through dryer elements.”
She lifted her gaze to his and her body let out a great shiver. He frowned. Despite the blankets and the fire, she was still cold. Come to think of it, so was he. And with night descending it was only going to get worse in the drafty cottage.
He stood up and looked down at her. He was about to suggest something that was likely the worst idea he’d ever had. Something he wasn’t completely certain was for her own good or his satisfaction. Something ungentlemanly no matter how much he tried to tell himself otherwise. If she slapped him across the face, he would deserve it. And yet he was still going to say it.
Heneededto say it.
“Meg, the best way to fight a chill like this is…body heat,” he managed to force out past suddenly very dry lips. “Would you be…opposed…to sharing the bed? For the purposes of increasing warmth only.”
Her mouth opened in shock and he saw a dozen emotions cross her face. One was most definitely the kind of interest that an unmarried lady would do well to deny. He tried to ignore that interest and gritted his teeth as he waited for her to process the request.
“But we’re…naked. Our clothes won’t be dry for—”
“Hours, yes,” he agreed. “We can’t put them back on until morning, probably, or risk getting even colder.”
She swallowed. “So we would laynakedtogether in a bed.”
When she said it like that, it slammed Simon up short. “Yes,” he whispered. “But I promise you Meg, I wouldn’t do anything untoward. As soon as morning came, I would leave you. We will go home and there is no reason in the world that anyone would ever have to know what happened here. I’ll tell your brother and Graham that I slept in the outer hall and that you took the bed. I’ll even tell them that you leaned a chair against the door to protect your chastity.”
“You would lie,” she said.
He shrugged. “I would protect your future.”
She turned her face at that statement. “It would be our secret,” she said, still soft and her tone as unreadable as to her thoughts.
He nodded slowly. “Yes.”
