“It is pretty horrible, but Peregrine and Phoebe sounds pretty.”
Was that a confession? The blood rushed his ears, but her blank face reduced it to a trickle. No confession or stray memory, just Jemina’s delightful turns of phrase. He could play too. “We don’t know everything. Your middle name might be Phoebe, then we’d still be such a match.”
He let fall a ridiculous laugh that made his chest feel freer. “I miss our teasing. Let’s purpose to fix us.”
She put her hand to his cheek. He tensed, but for naught. No slap. By the cravat, she grabbed him. “You want a dutiful, submissive, believe-everything-you-say wife. Fine.” She leaped at him, kissing him into a corner.
Court frills fell and a dulled hook pressed into his spine.
“Whoa, Jemina. That’s not fixing. This isn’t talking. It’s the opposite.”
“We talk too much.” Wrapping him in her arms, she sealed her lips to his.
Her passion this time backed him into a wall of shelves.
“Jemina?”
“Daniel, I’ve been told I’m too loud.”
“Then I should close the closet door.”
She wound her hands underneath his coat. “Let’s go back to our wedding day, when I believed everything you said. When I knew you trusted me.”
Her teeth raked along the veins of his throat, sweet and seductive, but her words possessed a ruthlessness. He didn’t know what to listen to.
“Jemina, I may waiver or dither, but I come back to bare facts. I know you and I are meant to be together. In the end, that’s all that matters.”
“If you say so, Daniel.”
Something was wrong.
Jemina kissed his frown. Deep with raw, bitter passion, she tasted of sweet, swirling confusion.
Catching his breath, Daniel put distance between them. “Let’s go for a ride. Get caught in the rain and rebuild whatever has broken.”
“What if I told you that your failure to disclose to me that Hope was on theMinervahas made me question what else you’ll hide from me, Peregrine?”
He stopped looking at the hurt raging from her eyes. He owed Jemina the truth. “I did fail you, because I don’t want to remember how I almost lost everything. That day on the docks waiting for news of theMinervawas harrowing. I searched for news of Phoebe, then little Hope was put in my arms because they thought she belonged to me. A Black man coming for a Black babe. If I’d been late the lieutenant was going to dump Phoebe’s daughter at a brothel.”
He cleared his throat, wrenching at his cravat. “I don’t want to know how close I came to missing the most wonderful little girl in the world.”
He ran both hands through his hair. “I don’t want to think of it anymore.” Clasping her fingers, he led her to the door. “Go get dressed. Let’s ride. Let’s ride in the rain.”
“Daniel, you saved Hope. They couldn’t find her mother.”
“Phoebe was gone, and all I had left was that angel. I vowed that day on the docks to protect her and love her like she was my own flesh and blood.”
Something lively danced across Jemina’s countenance. A smile warmed her face, the first since their wedding night. She embraced him about his waist. “Oh, Daniel, you’re a hero. Let’s pretend you’ve caught me in the thunderstorm.”
Jemina kissed him and slipped his waistcoat to the floor.
Her shawl fell away, and they undid his cravat together. “Let’s get out of thesewetclothes.”
The play in voice had returned, and he noticed the uptick in her heartbeat. In his. “I do love a woman who knows what she wants.”
“I know now. I’ll focus on how lucky I am you saved my little girl.”
She kissed his cheek.
