Page 83 of A Match Made On Duchess Square

“Griping? I am protecting you from making a terrible mistake.”

“Or it might be the most wonderful thing ever to happen to me. Your griping,” she said, “has made me more certain than ever that I am doing the right thing.”

“Do you love me, Gwen?” He laughed wryly as she faltered while trying to form a response. “If you do, then just admit it. But you cannot, can you?”

The air thickened between them.

“James… I…”

“No, do not cajole me. I do not want to hear platitudes from you.”

She tipped her pert chin into the air. “I wasn’t going to lie to you or flatter you. Do I ever give you less than my honest feelings? I just… My feelings are in a bit of a muddle right now.”

“There’s a surprise,” he muttered, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. “Have I not been warning you of this very thing? You need to be sure about this next step.”

“Is it not enough to be sure of you? To trust you with my heart and my life, and to know you will always be gentle with me?”

“Gad, you are the most irritating woman I have ever met.”

Her chin began to wobble. “I don’t mean to be.”

He groaned because he was not really angry with her, just frustrated by their situation. He always understood that her pulling away from Clement’s grip was going to take a while and be messy.

“Confused, are you?” he asked.

She looked down at her toes as she nodded.

“Let’s talk about this, Gwen. What is going through your head?”

She sat on the bed beside him. “I don’t know. A lot of angry thoughts right now. Not about you, of course. Being with you feels very right.”

“Sure it does. But is it right only for tonight?”

She cast him a stubborn look. “I am certain it is for far longer than that.”

“We’ll see.”

“Yes, we will. I’ll be staying the month at Milbury Hill, and I hope to spend as much time with you as possible. I’m sure I will have my mind made up about my future and your presence in it by then.”

He removed his boots. “Great. Let me know once you’ve come to a decision about me. If you truly love me, then it won’t be hard to take the next steps. By that, I mean marriage and then bed. In that order. In the meanwhile, go to sleep, Gwen.”

He’d earlier removed his jacket, waistcoat, and cravat, so he had nothing else to take off other than his shirt and trousers.

He was keeping his trousers on for certain. But it was warm in the room, so he tossed off his shirt before stretching out on the bed. The slats groaned beneath him as he sank back onto the mattress, which was yet another reason they should not engage in the activity Gwendolyn wished. They’d wake up the entire inn with that noisy bed…and what if Gwendolyn turned out to be loudly expressive in her satisfaction?

No, they could not do it.

Gwendolyn frustrated the daylights out of him by neatly folding his shirt and placing it over the chair atop her gown, a gesture that proved how naturally nurturing and caring she was. Then she climbed back into the bed beside him and nestled against his body. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Curling up beside you.”

Bloody blazes.

Why couldn’t she simply accept his marriage proposal? He knew her well enough to understand she would not be curling up next to him, practically lying atop him while clad in the thinnest strip of linen as the only barrier between them, unless her heart was fully engaged.

As for her brain, that organ had yet to catch up to the inevitable.

Yes, it was telling her to be wary of commitment. To her, commitment and abandonment were too closely linked.