some more corn and dispersing it for the ducks.
“And she would have your blue eyes and your long lashes,” he continued as if she had not spoken. “She would call me Papa and I would teach her how to swim in the lake when she is old enough, and you would show her how to properly sit a horse. And then a brother as well. He would be stubborn like you, and mayhap he would inherit my nose and chin.”
He was breaking her heart. Her hand trembled as she reached for another fistful of corn. She struggled to maintain her outward composure. “What a fanciful imagination you have, my lord.”
“Do not tell me you have never thought of it, Nellie.” His voice was low. Knowing.
Of course she had, damn him.
“It is a moot point,” she told him coolly. “For it will never happen.”
“It could,” he pressed. “Our babe could be growing within you even as we speak.”
“I do not believe fate would be that cruel.”
“Would it be cruel?” he asked softly. “Would you hate it that much, Nellie?”
No, she would not hate it at all. And that was entirely the problem.
“What does it matter?” she asked. “Why do you care?”
“Because I care about you, Nellie.” His hand closed over hers in the basket of corn. “Because I love you.”
Desperation had her jerking her hand away from his touch. “Stop saying that.”
“Why?” He was calm. “Is it easier to lie to yourself when I do not remind you that my heart beats for you and you alone?”
Nell could not bear any more of this. How was she going to survive twelve more days of such agony? She had no inkling. All she did know was that she had to escape him.
She clenched her jaw. “Finish feeding the ducks on your own. I find myself suddenly suffering from a headache.”
With that, she turned and began hurriedly retracing her steps on the path.
“There you are, Nellie, run away again,” he called after her, his voice mocking. “Running will not solve your problems.”
He was right again, blast him.
But she ran anyway.
Ten bloody days to go.
Jack was running out of time, and he had a wife who believed she could spend most of their remaining time together hiding away from him in her apartments.
She was about to discover she was wrong.
He knocked at the door adjoining their chambers.
“Go away, Jack,” she called in what had become rather a familiar routine.
A deuced unwanted one. He glared at the door, which was the symbol of her continued resistance and his continued failure.
“If you do not unlock the door, I will break it open,” he warned.
“Do not be a beast,” she said. “I have the megrims.”
Her voice was muffled and dismissive.
He did not believe her.
“You have had the megrims for two days,” he countered. “When we made this bargain, you know damn well I had no intention of you spending the next fortnight hiding in your apartments.”
“I am not hiding,” she countered.
Her voice was closer.
Not close enough.
“Hiding, running, lying,” he listed off, his irritation getting the better of him. “You have until the count of five to open the door before I set my shoulder to it and break it down.”
“You would not dare.”
“One,” he counted grimly. “Two, three, four—”
“Cease this nonsense at once,” she reprimanded him in her stern governess voice.
“Five,” he said. “Stand back.”
He stepped back, angled his body so that his shoulder would bear the brunt of his forward motion, and slammed himself into the door.
“Jack!”
The shock in her voice told him she had not expected him to follow through with his threat. Good. He wanted to shock her. He also wanted to open the damned door.
He launched himself into it again, gratified at the groaning sound of the hinges.
The latch scraped, and the door flew open.
Nell stood there, wearing only her dressing gown. Her hair was unbound, and she was clutching the third volume of his travel memoirs to her breast in one hand as if it were a shield.
But not even the knowledge that she had been hiding herself away, reading his words, was enough to cut through his frustration. His shoulder smarted, and he did not particularly relish having to damage his own house just to finally convince her to open the door.
“What were you thinking, you oaf? You nearly broke the door down,” she said.
“I warned you I would,” he told her calmly, striding past her, crossing over the threshold.
“I insist you remove yourself from my chamber,” she said. “I did