“Hm,” he murmured, sitting down on the edge of the counterpane. “I shouldn’t have told you, but it was difficult to converse sensibly when I wanted only to tug down the neckline and see them uncovered entirely.”
Them!She felt her cheeks warm at the notion he was referring to her breasts as if they were discussing something not of her body, like apples. But she couldn’t help giggling. It rose up in her throat and burst out of her.
“I believe you’ve laughed more in the past five minutes than in all the time I’ve known you.”
“I am relieved and excited and happy, all at once.”
He nodded, and she could see he felt some of it, but still…
She groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead. “Owen, I am sorry. How inconsiderate of me!”
His dear sister remained very much gone forever. Moreover, he’d had to relive the awful discovery of Sophia’s body by finding a rope around her neck.
Adelia shivered, thinking how easily it could have ended badly. She could have died. Thomas would not have gone free, and Owen might have ended up being charged with her murder.
“Please,” he said, “don’t come over all grim. I adore a happy Adelia.”
“How did you find me?” she asked.
“Luck and more luck, I suppose. I had an inkling you would risk everything on some natter-brained plan to prove your brother innocent—”
“Which he was,” she reminded him.
“Which he was and for which I will apologize to him profusely for the rest of our lives when he is my brother-in-law.”
She beamed again.
“I cannot tell you the terror I felt while driving to Whitechapel. A part of me believed I would find the same as last time. Hearing your scream, knowing you were alive, was the best and worst sound in the world.
She lifted her palm to his cheek, and he turned into it, holding it there with his big, warm hand.
“If Beaumont was guilty of anything, as I suspected, I had to believe he would go back to the same place that worked so well for him previously. In the nasty underbelly of London’s East End.”
She nodded. “He said you would be blamed for my murder, as revenge against Thomas.”
Owen shrugged. “Unlikely. Garrard said he had doubts about your brother’s guilt because of the obviousness of the clues.”
“I tried to tell you that.”
“I know,” he agreed, “but I needed to believe I had accomplished something.”
“Now, you have.”
“With your help, yes. May I kiss you?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
“Yes, please. At once.”
He lowered his head to hers. As he claimed her willing lips, liquid fire ignited in her body. He tilted his head, slanting his mouth for a better fit.
“Ouch,” she said into his mouth since her lip continued to sting, but she didn’t let him pull away. Wrapping her arms around him, she held him tightly until he sank down onto the mattress beside her.
“I cannot believe I am here in your home.”
“Frankly,” he said, “neither can I.”
His confession made her giggle again. “My face?” she asked after a moment.
“Bruised a little.” He touched the tip of his finger to her cheek. “Are you positive you don’t wish to see my doctor?”
