“I would wager there is very little about our time together that I do not recall. You were, without question, the very best part of the last twelve years of my life.”
Her smile blossomed once more. “You can hardly count the first two years. We merely endured each other then.”
Perhaps that had been true for her, but he had been top-over-tail in love with her even in those earliest years. “I have not spent any significant amount of time here this past year or more. Tell me, do you still ride in the mornings?”
“Most mornings, yes. Followed by a walk in the gardens after tea. Then, after dinner, Mother insists on reading aloud to us all, sometimes for more than an hour at a time.” Her tone and expression were equally rueful. “Do you not envy me my exciting existence, George? I have all of this whilst you have had to content yourself with the minuscule diversions of London.”
“I will issue my promise once more. You have but to say the word and I will take you to London myself, and you can enjoy those diversions to your heart’s content.” He felt he knew Caroline well enough to know she would never wish to spend her time in truly frivolous or scandalous behavior. But he suspected she would be thoroughly delighted with the theater and the opera, with balls and musicales. She would very easily make friends amongst the other young matrons, and would pass many cheerful afternoons making calls and receiving visitors.
“Where do you spend your time when the Season is over, George? Do you descend upon Bath or Brighton, or are those months passed in Shropshire?”
“Shropshire. I have at last managed to see the house refurbished and the estate fully prospering. I have time enough now to live as a gentleman of leisure, but have found myself most comfortable at home. I am afraid I am doomed to live a most dull existence.”
She smiled at him. “I doubt your life will ever truly be dull. You have always possessed a knack for finding adventure wherever you may be.”
“Why is it that we are forever attacking one another with our childhood misdeeds?”
“Perhaps because there are so very many of them.” She very nearly laughed, he could hear it in her tone. Oh, how he hoped that meant she was feeling more at ease in his company. “And, more likely still, because we were always present for one another’s disastrous failings.”
“There have been good times as well,” George reminded her. “The time we convinced Cook to secretly give us tarts and we ran all the way here, to the garden, to eat them without anyone knowing.”
She moved a bit closer to him, holding tighter to his hand. “You also danced with me at my first assembly. The very first set, in fact.”
“I remember. I had to punch Edward in the face in order to claim that privilege.”
She stopped walking at once. “You did what?”
He laughed at the shock in her expression. “Did no one ever tell you about that row?”
“No.”
“All of the male members of your family were terrified that you would have a less than enjoyable experience at your first assembly and had, therefore, concocted a very elaborate scheme to ensure your success.”
“And that scheme involved striking Edward?”
He slipped his hand from hers and set his arm across her back, guiding her around a puddle in their path. “I suggested that I ought to be permitted the first dance. Edward insisted that he meant to claim it. In the end I had little choice but to dim his lights a bit.”
Once again she stopped walking to look up at him. “I am grateful you both wished to help me, but coming to blows seems drastic.”
“Mine and Edward’s motivation was, I assure you, not at all the same.”
She watched him, her gaze seeming to take in every inch of his face, as if searching for an answer in his expression.
Mr. Downy’s warning about not pressing his advantage too quickly ringing in his ears, George kept to the least revealing of his reasons. “I always did enjoy dancing with you, Caroline. I haven’t in quite some time, you know, and I would very much like to be able to again.”
“A husband may dance with his wife anytime he wishes,” she said.
“Anytimeshewishes,” he corrected. “A wife is not a slave, and a husband is not her master.”
“How refreshing.” She leaned her head against the side of his shoulder. “That is the best argument you have made for this marriage thus far.”
“Did you believe I would treat you so poorly?” He most certainly hoped not.
“Of course, not. I am simply pleased to know that I was right.”
This was progress, however small. “Do you still enjoy dancing, Caroline?”
“I am so seldom permitted the opportunity that I hardly know.”
