with Bilston. For what it’s worth, I think they are pleasantly surprised in you.”
“Hmm.” She didn’t sound convinced.
However, he left it there, and for a little, they sat in companionable silence, occasionally sipping from their glasses. She was a peaceful person. He hadn’t expected to like just being with her. He hadn’t expected to kiss her and mean it.
He gazed at her profile, enjoying her quiet beauty. “Perhaps, once we have set everything in motion here, we can take a trip to the continent. If you would like.”
She looked round in surprise. “But you have so much to do here.”
“I think it would be good to escape for a while, do only as we wished, and get to know each other a little better. Besides, it is always fun to visit other countries.”
A little frown tugged at her brow as she searched his face. “Did I tell you that we all came so eagerly to the princess that evening because we hoped she was taking us abroad with her?”
He shook his head.
“Then you are not just being kind to me?”
“Oh, I’m far too selfish for that. I hope it might be kind to both of us.”
In the candlelight, her eyes seemed to glow softly before her lashes swept down, hiding whatever emotion she felt. A delicate flush stained her cheeks. He didn’t know if it was embarrassment or pleasure, and he had to force back his impulse to take her in his arms, to kiss her properly this time. He didn’t know yet what either of them wanted… But the thought of finding out excited him.
*
Like the gentleman he was trying hard to be, he left her at her bedchamber door, with no more than a chaste kiss on the hand. He imagined her breathing quickened, and then, before he could do or say anything else, she slipped free and closed the door on him.
He smiled ruefully to himself as he walked the long, winding passages to his own chamber. No light shone under any of his guests’ doors. All must be asleep. He hoped his grandfather would leave again tomorrow to relieve Deborah’s stress.
Yawning, he finally reached his own chamber, lit his lamp from the candle, and undressed.
No, he told himself severely, as Deborah’s face kept swimming into his mind, smiling, laughing, surprised by his kiss, wide-eyed, walking beside him so closely her skirts flapped against his legs…
Still, he wondered how she would feel in his arms—fragile and sweet or warm and passionate?
Or simply appalled by his attention?
Or politely tolerant? That would be worst of all.
But her eyes had been warm and soft when he had kissed her, and when he had spoken of going abroad together…
“No,” he said aloud and splashed cold water over his face and body. He would not break their agreement. In fact, he would do better to find a woman to distract him from his wife. Only it seemed unnecessarily humiliating to his wife to do such a thing, whatever their agreement, and however discreet he tried to be.
Besides which, when he thought about them, he found he didn’t really want any of his past inamoratas, not even Marina Belham, not even Nell.
He groaned. Am I really going to be obsessed with the wife I married for convenience? What in God’s name was I thinking of?
He dried himself and threw the towel aside before flopping into bed and blowing out the lamp. Determinedly, he closed his eyes and prepared to sleep.
After a little, he forced his mind into different channels—the school and its funding, parliamentary problems and ambitions, the possibility of a minor cabinet post. He imagined entertaining the great and good here at Gosmere Hall, Deborah standing beside him as they greeted their guests.
Hastily, he tugged his mind away from Deborah once more, fixing instead on the room he wanted for a study, the possibility of taking a house in London rather than just the rooms he rented in St. James. He would need different accommodation if Deborah were to join him in town, an expense he had not considered. He wasn’t even sure if she would wish it. She did not like crowds, though she could cope when she was the hostess with clear duties. It came to him that he did not want her simply to cope. He wanted her to be happy.
Outside in the passage, a floorboard creaked. Something swished. Mice, he thought with irritation. They would need a cat. Several cats.
Other sounds, from other directions, interrupted these speculations. A