Amelia smiled at her and then stepped forward to embrace her. “Thank you for understanding. And we have all the time in the world to spend together during my time here and then later in London.”
Hugh frowned as Lizzie flinched ever so slightly. She had refused to go to Town since the incident with Aaron Walters. Refused to do anything except stay in the country and hide.
He had no idea how to change that. But at least Amelia’s company seemed to cheer her.
“Good night,” Lizzie said, kissing her cheek before she stepped toward Hugh. Her smile was wide and genuine as she hugged him. She whispered, “I like her so much.”
Hugh squeezed her a little tighter and smiled as she left the room with a little wave. He turned toward Amelia. “What do you think?”
“Of Lizzie?” Amelia asked with a smile. “Oh, she’s lovely, Hugh, truly. So sweet and kind and so welcoming. A delight. You should be so proud of her.”
“I am,” he said slowly. “She is the light of my world. I only want her to be happy.”
“I can see that,” Amelia said, stepping toward him but stopping just short of touching him.
He closed the distance she had not and reached to take her hand. “Thank you for not…for not telling her what I did in London,” he said, feeling heat in his cheeks.
Amelia tilted her head. “The circumstances of our marriage, you mean?”
He nodded. “She wouldn’t understand. And it would have caused her grief.”
Amelia searched his face, and for a moment he felt like she could see all the way through him. All the way to his soul. He shifted beneath the intensity of her look.
“Hugh,” she said at last. “Whatever difficulties are between us are our business, no one else’s. Certainly, I would not hurt your sister just to bring you pain or get some kind of strange revenge for what you did in London.”
“Thank you,” he repeated softly.
She edged closer. “Do you truly want to sleep?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not at all. I want to take you to my room and make love to you in the biggest bed in the county.”
She laughed, her cheeks growing pink at the frank words. “And yet there is abutin your tone.”
“But,” he said with a smile, “I see how tired you are. It’s been a trying week for you, in more ways than one. So tonight, as much as it pains me, perhaps we should sleep alone. And tomorrow we’ll be more refreshed to…to enjoy my estate and all its pleasures.”
She tilted her head, and once again her look was probing. She lifted her hand to his cheek and stroked the skin there gently. He found himself leaning into her fingers.
“You are so impossible to read, Brighthollow,” she whispered. “I hope to one day understand you. But I appreciate the offer of a night’s sleep. I think I will be better equipped for everything if I take you up on that offer.”
“Good night,” he whispered.
She smiled and then lifted up on her tiptoes. She cupped his cheeks and drew him down, bringing his mouth to hers. Her lips parted and she traced his with her tongue. He was lost, swirling down into the sensation as she tasted his mouth and drew herself up flush against him.
He had no idea how long they stood that way. He was too lost to count the time. But finally she stepped away, her gaze bleary and her smile shaky.
“I look forward to seeing the biggest bed in the county tomorrow. Good night.” She squeezed his hand and slipped away, leaving him alone with his confusion, his thoughts and his erection.
Chapter Fourteen
Hugh stood on the terrace, watching down into his garden below where Amelia was picking flowers and placing them in a big basket draped over her arm. She was not wearing a bonnet and the early morning sun glinted off her sleek, black hair. She had not noticed him standing above her and moved through the garden at ease.
He was brought back to the first time he saw her, in her father’s garden. She hadn’t realized he was watching her then either as she picked flowers for her father’s hall. She’d been engaged to Aaron Walters, and now he wondered if she’d been thinking of him that afternoon.
Was she thinking of Walters now? Or was she thinking of Hugh as she leaned in to smell a rose here and there? It seemed like a lifetime ago since that day when he’d looked down and pondered if he could marry a stranger in order to save her from his worst enemy.
Now he had. Now she was his.
Only she wasn’t. Not completely.
