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“Oh, I am quite adventurous, but I am also not fond of heights.”

“I shall hold the ladder, so if you fall you shall crush me. Can’t you find some solace in that?”

Jo let out a burst of laughter. “As much as I should… Oddly, no.” She turned on him fully, her eyes pleading, her teeth tugging nervously on her lower lip. “Richard, can’t we just go to your chamber?”

He shook his head. “Don’t you trust me?”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him. After a few seconds, she walked back to the opening and peeked out. She took a deep breath and put her hands on the ladder. “Very well,” she muttered and started climbing.

Richard held the ladder steady so it wouldn’t rattle against the floor. As soon as she climbed up, Richard swiftly followed behind her.

He hauled himself up and helped her stand. When she got to her feet, Richard led her closer to the edge. “See? It isn’t so frightening, is it?”

Jo plastered herself to his side. “Speak for yourself. We are on the roof of a four-story building.”

Richard laughed and wrapped his arm around her, pressing her to his side. “Let’s move away from the edge.”

“I still know that we are very high,” she whined.

He steered her to the middle of the roof. “Just look straight ahead. It isn’t as terrifying if you look into the distance.”

Her chest moved on a deep intake of breath. Richard laughed. “Are you so very miserable?”

“No. I wouldn’t say miserable.” She shook her head, but her worry-filled gaze belied her words.

Richard paused, thinking how he could make her more comfortable. He took her by her arms and turned her to face him. “How about we lie down?”

She looked down, aghast. “Here?”

Richard laughed. “Yes.” He swiftly took off his coat and spread it before them. “What do you think?”

Jo raised her brow at him as she chewed on her lip. This was a terrible idea, and his refined actress hated it. He could see it.

Instead of screaming in horror, Jo held on to his hands tightly and lowered herself to the floor of the roof. She then lay flat on her back, leaving him room on the coat to join her.

Richard smiled and lay carefully beside her, his back on the roof, his gaze straight ahead at the sky.

“I love the fluffy clouds here in the countryside,” Jo said.

Richard glanced at her with a teasing smile. “Are there no fluffy clouds in London?”

“There are,” she agreed. “But with all the smoke and dust of the city, I think the beauty of nature just gets lost.”

Richard grunted. His hand moved until his knuckles encountered Jo’s soft skin. He paused, then slowly grazed her fingers again. His insides turned to molten lava as a tingle spread over his body.

Just a simple action. Barely even a touch. And it ignited all his senses.

Suddenly, he could feel all of her with every fiber of his being. His right side burned from the mere nearness of her. His nostrils flared to take in more of her sweet rosewater scent. He didn’t need to turn to her to see her, for, in his mind’s eye, she was as clear as if he was looking at her.

He inhaled a lung full of her scent and held it in. If he could bottle it up and carry it beneath his nose all the time, he would. And not just perfume… but her. Just her.

“Tell me about your childhood,” he prompted.

“I grew up in the theater,” she said with a brilliant smile as she turned toward him. “The theater manager raised me as his own. He was in love with my mother, so when she died, he took me under his wing. He didn’t have his own children and he died soon after. But the time I spent living with him was probably the happiest I remember being.”

He raised a brow. “Not when you were with your mother?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Theater was his life. So I spent most of my days watching plays, writing plays, performing.”