For some reason, his utter exhaustion, as if she’d worked him a like a plow horse, tickled her, and she started to laugh.
After a moment, he spoke into the sheet.
“What are you laughing at, woman?”
That sent her into another fit of giggles. It felt like bliss to be in bed with him, after he’d played her body as well as she played the violin.Even better!
“I am ... happy,” she said. “That is all.”
“That’s everything,” he said, finally turning to look at her. “You deserve to be happy.”
“Do I?”
Alice wasn’t so sure about that. Her mistakes had cost everyone.
“I should get dressed and make an appearance. I wouldn’t want anyone to think we were doing ... anything.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe you went from answering to Lady Beasley to now answering to your former staff.”
“I am not,” she defended herself. “But they have been good to me, and I have responsibilities here. You can stay and rest but do come down fully dressed.”
He grinned at her.
“And try not to look likethat,” she pleaded.
“Like what?”
If anything, his expression became even more smug. Turning her back on him, she rose and dressed under his watchful eyes, but soon, his eyelids grew heavier. Adam was asleep before she left.
In a single bed thatmight have once belonged to the missing groom but had been placed in a guest bedroom on the second floor, Adam lay down after a plain but tasty supper. Before that, he’d eaten for the first time with a gardener and a cook, discussing the land and the strong community of people in the neighboring town where both had been born. They’d even played a few hands of whist.
In a room without another stick of furniture except the bed, not even any curtains, he thought about Alice. She’d been a little edgy all evening and too quiet, perhaps embarrassed by what they had done.
Moreover, she had refused to come to bed with him or to let him return to her room for the night. They’d had a brief discussion in the hallway in loud whispers.
“I don’t want the staff thinking I have become as common as a barber’s chair.”
“I thought you said they were friends, not staff,” he had pointed out.
“Don’t mince words,” she’d said. “I have tried hard to redeem myself —”
She broke off.
“Redeem yourself? From what exactly?” he prompted, wishing he could see her face better. But she was in the shadows, as was he. Everyone was given a single stubby candle, and no oil lamps burned in the passageways. It was as if they had literally returned to the Dark Ages.
“From nothing really,” Alice said quickly. “I suppose from marrying the wrong man,” she added, but he knew it was something else. “I don’t want anyone thinking I am loose with my person, that’s all.”
“Of course not.” He thought of the reputations of his sisters and didn’t press the matter, despite knowing a widow had more freedom than any other female, at least in his class.
Thus, he had gone to bed alone, surprisingly able to fall asleep quickly since he’d traveled many miles and then had the best swiving of his life.
Naturally there was no way to know short of asking, which he wouldn’t, and perhaps he was being a vain arse, but he thought Alice had been surprised by her climax. It was rather satisfying to think he’d brought her to a heady finish such as she’d never had before.
As he’d told her, he had no interest in deflowering a virgin, yet seeing the look of shock on her face when she spent not once but twice made him believe her the most innocent woman he’d ever tupped. Certainly, she was the least experienced widow he could imagine.
In the morning, practically bouncing out of bed, Adam felt happier than he had since the awful instant he learned she’d left Bath — perhaps happier than he had ever been. More than that, he felt a peaceful joy because she hadn’t sent him away. Quite the opposite, they had finally consummated the intense attraction between them.
Not only was he eager to do it again, he wanted to do it with her for the rest of their lives. He’d awakened to the absolute knowledge that Alice should be his and his alone. After all, everything was different now. They were on an even footing socially, and thus, he no longer need worry about what people would think if he came home with a governess in tow.
