Her smile was genuine but strained, convincing me this was the best choice. “It will be nice to be still for a little while.”
We made our way into the inn, where I was greeted by the innkeeper’s son. This wasn’t the first time I’d stayed at this inn while traveling between my estate and London, but it was the first time I wasn’t alone. I requested a room for the afternoon because my companion wasn’t feeling well and informed him that we needed to head out again by post chaise before sundown. Then I handed him a generous sum of money.
He slipped the coins into a pocket. “Of course, my lord. I will make the arrangements. You can rest assured that you won’t be disturbed.”
I had no doubt he thought we would spend the afternoon making love, but it didn’t matter as long as no one knew who I was with. That assumption would be better than anyone suspecting I was escaping London to spirit a well-bred young woman away to Gretna Green.
“One more thing,” I said. “If anyone asks about me in particular, you are to tell them I left with my carriage.”
I handed him a small pouch, the coins within jingling.
His eyes widened briefly, but he tucked that pouch away and bowed. “Of course, my lord. I saw you depart myself.”
We followed the young man upstairs to a room at the back of the inn. When he left, I locked the door and placed the portmanteau next to the bed.
Diana was staring at the bed, then her gaze returned to me. She licked her lower lip, and I felt my desire stir. Reminding myself that she had a headache, I pushed it aside. There would be enough time for all of that later.
“Are we going to—” she asked, her eyes returning to the bed.
“No.”
Her shoulders sagged with what I assumed was relief. She lowered her gaze. “Of course not. You don’t want that from me.”
I reached out to cup her chin and guided her face up to mine. “Make no mistake, Diana. We are going to have a real marriage. But I won’t take you, and especially not for the first time, when you so clearly are in pain.”
Her eyes widened. “How did you know?”
I stroked a finger along one temple. “You’ve been squinting, and for the last hour, you winced every time the carriage went over a rut. You need to rest for a little while. Hopefully you’ll feel better when it’s time to go, but it’s not safe to tarry long.”
She swallowed thickly then took a step back. I allowed my hand to drop, feeling oddly disappointed.
“It’s not so bad. It’s just that I’ve been wearing my hair up for so long, and when it’s bound tightly…” She shrugged. “It makes my scalp ache.”
I tilted my head to one side, taking in her hairstyle. I’d never considered how a woman’s scalp could hurt in such a situation, but her explanation made sense. She reached up to begin pulling out pins, but when she winced, I pushed her hands away.
“Allow me.”
She smiled, amused. “Of course, my lord. I’m sure I’m not the first woman whose hair you’ve taken down.”
I said nothing to that. It was true, after all, and there would be no point in trying to convince her I was a saint.
I began pulling pins, and the more I pulled, the more I found. “How many of these deuced things are in here?”
“My hair is quite thick. It requires a lot to keep it up.”
When I got to the innermost layers of her hair, I could see that she hadn’t told me the full truth. Yes, her hair was pulled back tightly, but several of the pins were digging into her scalp. I could even feel slight indentations. I wanted to chastise her for doing that to herself. No, that wasn’t quite true. I wanted to throttle her aunt and uncle for torturing her in such a manner. But I suppose in this case, I was the one most at fault because she’d worn it this way throughout the night, much longer than she normally would have.
Finally, when I stepped back, all her hair tumbled about her shoulders, down to the middle of her back. Unable to stop myself, I sank my fingers into the thick mass, amazed by just how much of it there was. “Has your hair always been this thick?”
Her voice was strangely tight when she replied. “Yes, normally there’s a curl to it, but when it’s pulled back so tightly, most of that disappears.”
The desire to see her hair newly washed and curled about her shoulders, flowing down her back in waves, surprised me. “Come over to the window.”
She turned her head to glance at me, an odd expression on her face, but didn’t protest. I continued to shift through the thick tresses. Strands of deep auburn were threaded throughout the brown.
She looked up at me and with the bright light from outside, her pupils had contracted. The ring of brown around the dark center was much smaller now, and I could see the green more clearly. Together with the red threaded through her hair, the combination gave her the air of someone who could easily bewitch me. I found myself swallowing thickly.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said, stepping back and massaging her scalp. “I think I’ll just lay down for a little while. How long do we have?”
