“These days, Father has developed a regrettable taste for the tables and the tracks. But he used to fancy himself an expert puzzle solver—riddles, anagrams, acrostics. That was before…”Before Drake had diedhung in the air between them.
Teddy nodded his understanding.
She smiled, trying to keep the mood light. “My mother’s favorite hobby is visiting the modistes on Bond Street and joining her friends for tea—and gossip.”
She meant to stop there, but Teddy’s watchful gaze somehow spurred her to go on.
“Growing up, it was as if they forgot, at times, they had children. Not that it bothered me, because Drake was always there to nurse my scrapes, dry my tears, instruct and guide and correct me when necessary.”
His hand gripped hers now, squeezing it gently. “And now that he’s gone?”
“I suppose I’ve been taking care of myself, with the help of my friends.”
He regarded her very seriously. “And now you have me to take care of you.”
A moment later he cursed, simultaneously releasing her hand to face the railing once more. “Oh, that’s right. I haven’t a penny to my name which I can access, and at any rate, have no idea who I am or what properties I have. I can’t even visit an assembly without fear my father will find me and drag me back to the madhouse like a recalcitrant schoolboy.”
A flood of protectiveness surged through her and she grasped his bicep, what she could of it, at any rate. “Don’t do that,please. This is all temporary, Teddy. Youwillrecover your memories and reclaim your life. And nobody,nobody,is going to take you anywhere you do not wish to go, or make you do anything you do not wish to do.”
A crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You sound very fierce, madam wife. I almost believe you would pit yourself against the devil himself and come out victorious.”
“If he stood between me and you, he wouldn’t stand a chance,” she told him, her mouth curving up in a helpless response to his.
“I do believe you’re serious,” he murmured. He pulled her hand from his arm, flipped her wrist and pressed a gentle kiss to her palm, then met her eyes. “And yet, you seek to annul our marriage.”
She swallowed. What could she possibly say that wouldn’t undermine the fragile boundary she’d erected between them to keep him safe—from her? From being entrapped by her into a real marriage not of his choosing when all this was through?
So she said nothing.
He lowered their joined hands then released her. “What will you do if it’s denied?”
“I don’t think it will come to that,” she answered, and searched her mind for another topic of conversation. Anything other than a continued discussion of their inevitable split.
In the end, Teddy lightened the tone. “Well, as we are both still here, married and such, what’s say we have a night cap—indoors. One of us seems rather cold.”
She hadn’t realized she was shivering until that moment. “Very well.”
He opened the door and gestured for her to precede him inside. “What have we to drink? I don’t suppose you have any cognac?”
She gazed over her shoulder at him as he crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. Quiet descended, and the room seemed warmer by ten degrees.
“Yes but…” Oh she really didn’t want to have to ask this.
He arched a thick brow.
“Cognac is rather strong. Won’t it interfere with your medicine?”
The smile he sent her did not meet his eyes. “I believe I can handle one. If you’ll point me in the right direction?”
“I’ll fetch the drinks. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Why, thank you,” he murmured dryly and, linking his hands behind his back, began moseying around the space, as if taking it in.
She went to the credenza, wanting to pinch herself. Teddy, here, now. She’d never expected to spend time with him like this, much as she’d fantasized about it over the years, even as a young girl on the brink of womanhood.
She unearthed the cognac, working out the cork, and recalled Drake, Teddy, and her father, retiring into her father’s den on many an evening to partake of a glass. Teddy spent a lot of time at their townhouse in those days, during his and Drake’s extended breaks from Oxford.
She’d asked Drake about that, once, assuming Teddy’s family must have departed London on holiday.
