Love was so easily broken when you’re broken.
But now I was whole.
I found me, I chose me—the me that was a mother and wife and friend of the best man.
Daniel offered me all of his pillow, but I placed his hands on my waist and gave myself to him.
When nothing beyond Finchely was promised, there was no better place to hide than in my husband’s deepest embrace.
CHAPTER 59
DANIEL—ANOUTING TOTONBRIDGE
Sitting across from his wife as his carriage made its way to the Sleck Building in Tonbridge, he worked through his arguments for this trial of truth. He needed to be as good as Prinny believed to make sure that Jemina and Hope were never bothered by the St. Maurs again.
Jemina fidgeted in the seat. She looked nervous, and he hurt for her.
“This solicitor business will end. You will be free of troubles, Lady Ashbrook.”
Ambivalence had been his weapon, to appear unaffected by the difficulties of the world. Jemina needed his passion and his sense of fashion. Both would keep her focused on what was important: today, love and Hope.
With her carriage dress of bright poppy red and a line of shiny pearl buttons down the front, she made the best-looking witness he’d seen in a long time. “Another smart outfit, Lady Ashbrook. Definitely brings out shades of victory in your eyes.”
A smile showed for a moment but then disappeared with her tensing cupid’s bow. She looked away, her thumbs opening and closing about an imagined distance in the air.
He clasped those moving digits. “Maybe we should get you an embroidery needle and thread to occupy your thoughts?”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“No, it is I who am sorry. I’m not distracting you enough.”
“It’s hard. Willingham and Mosey and Lady Lavinia are terrible, but they hold the key to so much. And if your friend calls me Buckles, I will stomp her.”
“You’re ready to fight. That’s good but keep your head, dear heart. The law and your barrister are your muscle today.”
Daniel moved and sat beside her, putting his arm behind her, then about her.
She relaxed against him, and that distinctive heartbeat slowed.
“For what it’s worth, nothing Mosey or Willingham can say will change us, how I love or crave you.”
“Daniel, it could be another trap.”
“Yes, but I borrowed some of the duke’s soldiers as our grooms. Nothing will happen. I like being on Repington’s good side. It has advantages.”
When the carriage stopped, Daniel helped Jemina down. She looked well on his arm. He was proud to claim her.
Followed by three soldiers, they went into the Sleck Building.
A clerk, a weasel-looking man who looked a lot like one of the men who held him down at the Widow’s Ball, sat at a desk penning something. The big snout of this fiend needed busting but Daniel had larger rats to skewer.
“We have an appointment with Mr. Mosey.”
“He . . . ah . . . he didn’t say you’d be bringing an entourage.”
Repington’s men in full pomegranate regalia with flintlocks and starched uniforms were impressive. Still, the less witnesses, the better. Daniel tossed a gold coin, hard. It made an impression on the clerk’s forehead. “Go away for an hour.”
The man put the money in his pocket and rubbed his reddened brow. “Yes, sir. Sorry.”
