He snorted. “If you do say so yourself.”
She started to push him away, but he held her fast.
“You’re ravishing. The most beautiful, most tantalizing woman it’s ever been my good fortune to behold.”
Mollified by his playful tone as much as by his words, she snuggled into him.
He sifted his fingers through her hair. “Let us say, for the sake of argument, that you were not always as you are now. I fail to comprehend the significance. What difference does it make for a child to be less than perfect in appearance?”
“You do not comprehend, sir. I was quite small.Scrawnywas one word used to describe me. And exceedingly fair. Both my hair and the cast of my complexion had an unappealing paleness about them. And then there were my eyes.”
“Your eyes?”
“They did not work well together. The doctor suggested a remedy for the situation which involved me wearing an eye patch over the dominant eye to strengthen the weaker one. Luckily, it worked and, over time, I could focus with two eyes as one, like the rest of the world.”
He snorted. “You must’ve been adorable. A little fae child with blue eyes and wispy hair, flitting about wearing a black patch like a badge of honor. Whoever said there was anything wrong with that? Local children? An ignorant maid?”
Slowly, she levered up onto her elbow to regard him. “Are you teasing me, sir?”
He shook his head, looking nonplussed. “Of course not.”
As she watched, his expression darkened. “Annabelle,” he began, his nostrils flaring. “Did your parents not tell you the very same thing I did?”
She could not speak. A lump had formed in her throat, all but choking her. She shook her head.
His jaw tightened, and he cupped her cheek with one hot palm. “What did they say?”
Schooling her emotions, she managed to get the words out. “I cannot recall, per se.”
“In general, then.”
“In general, the hope was I would eventually resemble the rest of my family, and then I could be…seen in public.”
He closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. Then, his eyelids slitted open. “Do you know how utterly stupid that is, Annabelle? I swear by all that’s holy, if we are ever blessed with children, we will not allow your family anywhere near them.”
She gasped. “Never say that.”
“Under supervision, then,” he growled, before slanting her a suspicious look. “What if we have a so-called ‘unattractive’ child? Will you…” His jaw tightened, and it was plain he was working to control his temper. “Will you think less of her? Will you banish her, as your parents banished you?”
She did not have to so much as consider. She’d asked herself this a million times. She shook her head.
His expression softened. “I thought not.” Urging her head to his shoulder, he said, “You were a faery, aboard a ship. Then what?”
She’d nearly forgotten she was recounting the nightmare. “I’m below deck, in the engine space. I’m locked in, and screamingfor help, hanging onto the rungs of the metal ladder as the water surges in from a hole in the hull.
“Above deck, I can hear adults laughing, the sound of marbles clattering as children play, and somehow I’m able to see that on the horizon, Miss Jenkins—my governess--is in a skiff, rocked by the waves, and the tide takes her further and further away until she’s barely a spec.
“The water surges higher and higher. I’m so cold and certain no one is coming to save me. Not like in the real world where she came. I’m going to drown, and no one is coming.” She sighed, finger doodling over his bare chest. “The nightmare ends there, mainly because I always awaken before the water covers me. It sounds ridiculous, I know. Not at all scary.” She huffed out a chagrined laugh.
“Dear God. That…something like that actually happened, didn’t it?” He sounded so coldly furious, she glanced up at him in alarm.
“Well, not exactly.”
“What,exactly,did? Let me guess. Your brother locked you in someplace. Where? One of the staterooms?”
She hesitated. “It was the engine room. And he did lead me there. But what happened after was purely an accident.”
“What happened?”
