He would bathe, dress, and hopefully have dinner with his wife. She couldn’t hide from him forever. What sort of marriage would they have? One in which they barely spoke during the day and made passionate love at night? That’s not what he wanted. Well, that wasn’tallthat he wanted. He wanted the young woman who’d laughed with him, joked with him, spoken to him about her mother. He wanted Thea, all of her.
He took a steaming bath. When he emerged from the tub, he wrapped a towel around his hips. As soon as the footmen finished emptying the tub and removing it from his bedchamber, he dismissed them. A soft knock sounded on the door from Thea’s bedchamber.
“Come in,” he called.
Thea opened the door. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw his state of undress. But instead of leaving, he could have sworn he saw a twinkle in her eye. She continued walking directly toward him.
“Would you like me to come back later?” she asked.
He glanced down at his towel and then back up at her. “No. Why?” He gave her a devilish grin.
She shrugged and continued to walk toward where he stood at the foot of the bed. “Very well. I came here to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About the fact that I’ve been an idiot,” Thea replied.
Ewan grinned at her. “That is extremely convenient.”
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“Because I was planning to talk to you about the same thing. Er, well, the fact thatI’vebeen an idiot, I mean.”
“Oh, good, you go first.” Thea clasped her hands together in front of her and blinked at him expectantly.
Ewan chuckled. “No. No. Ladies first, of course.” Despite his state of undress, he bowed to her.
Lydia nodded. “Very well. I spoke with Phillip today and he told me that you aren’t in love with Lady Lydia Malcolm.”
Ewan frowned. “Yes, he mentioned it. But I must ask, why would you think I was in love with Lydia? How did you even know about Lydia?”
Thea blushed. “I was … well, you see … I was listening outside your study door the morning Father came after the story about us appeared in the paper. I heard you say you’d need to cry off from yourfiancée.”
Ewan expelled his breath. “I was never actually betrothed to Lydia.”
“Yes, but you had an understanding with her father, did you not?”
“That’s true. But love was certainly never part it.”
Thea turned away from him. “I didn’t know that. I thought perhaps you had affection for her at the least and were madly in love with her at the most.”
Ewan sighed. “Did you ever think to ask me?”
Thea whirled to face him again. “That is precisely why I’m an idiot. I’ve been racked with guilt, all these weeks. Ever since I showed up in your stables and broke my leg. It’s all been my fault. All of it. If I hadn’t been sneaking around, you never would have been forced to marry me.”
Ewan crossed his bare feet together at the ankles. “You’re forgetting that you initially refused to marry me, and we weren’t forced into it until I arrived at your home and kissed you in the sitting room.”
“I only knew I thought you wanted Lydia. Until Phillip told me the truth.” Thea’s voice was tentative.
Ewan winced. “What exactly did Phillip tell you?”
“He told me that you missed me, you talked about me, you wished I hadn’t gone.” She blushed. “He said you never spoke of Lydia.”
Ewan put a hand on his hip. “That is true. Lydia’s father is well-connected. I thought of the match as a political decision. I suppose I was angry when the story first appeared in the papers because my ambition was about to be thwarted and that had never happened to me before. That’s why I mentioned it to your father that day. But Thea, you must believe me when I tell you that I’ve long since discovered that ambition is nothing compared to … love.”
Thea sucked in her breath. “Love?”
Ewan nodded and a lock of wet hair fell over one eye. He brushed it aside. “Before I met you, I never even guessed that I could marry for love, I—”
