The Countess Page 0,57

the message, Haversham."

"Of course, my lady." Haversham nodded solemnly and then turned to move away.

Christiana sighed and glanced back toward the others but her mind was in a bit of an uproar. Dicky was back. Richard, she reminded herself. He'd asked her last night to cal him that and so she would.

"There!" Lisa said brightly. "Dicky's going to join us. That wil be nice, won't it?"

Christiana glanced to her younger sister, noting the silent pleading on the girl's face, and sighed to herself. Lisa was silently asking her to give the man a chance to prove he'd realized the error of his ways and changed. And last night had certainly been like nothing she'd ever experienced in her marriage to date so he might very wel have done so, but what was to stop him from changing again? Would it be Dicky, the nasty husband she'd lived with this last year who joined them, or last night's lover, Richard?

Aside from that, there was the whole "does he have a strawberry on his bottom"

issue to worry about as wel . The man might real y be George, a murderer of his own sibling. Honestly, it was al enough to make a woman want to scream and pul her hair out. Surely, most wives did not have such issues with their husbands. How had she landed in such a tangled marriage?

"Chrissy?" Lisa asked and Christiana stood abruptly.

"Chrissy?" Lisa asked and Christiana stood abruptly.

"I should have asked Haversham to have a tray prepared and brought to us. I shal do it now," she announced and hurried out of the room. Christiana spotted Haversham about to enter the kitchen at the end of the hal when she stepped out of the parlor, and hurried to catch up to him to make her request. Once the task was done, however, she headed upstairs. Christiana simply could not stand to wait and worry about whether he had the birthmark or not, and what kind of mood he would be in when he arrived in the parlor. She wanted to find out both things at once and she wanted to do so in private rather than with witnesses.

Although, if she were to be completely honest with herself, Christiana had already decided it must have been the birthmark she'd seen and that seeing it again would just be a formality. Because she simply couldn't believe the man who had held her in his arms and given her such pleasure could be a kil er. That left her real worry being how Richard would treat her when next they met.

This first meeting would tel her if she had made the biggest mistake of her life last night, or a smart decision. Christiana didn't head straight for the master bedroom, but stopped in her own room to check her hair and make sure it was stil in the nasty, tight bun Grace had automatical y fixed it into that morning. Dicky - Richard, she reminded herself

- would berate her if every hair was not in place and that was not a good way to start. She suddenly stopped dead as she realized what she was thinking. Dear God, she was already fal ing back into the dutiful wife mold! Worrying about her hair being perfect so as not to upset Dicky - Richard? Wel , she was done with that, Christiana reminded herself grimly. She'd experienced a few hours of freedom from her husband when she'd thought him dead, and that brief taste of freedom, along with the love and support of her sisters, had made her find her backbone once more. Straightening her shoulders, she determinedly turned and strode purposeful y across the room. She had paused at the door to the master bedroom and half-raised her hand to knock before she caught herself. She was supposed to see his bottom as soon as she could so if she entered without knocking and caught him changing or something of the like, it would actual y be a good thing, Christiana told herself as she opened the door without knocking and walked in.

He wasn't half naked mid-change or anything of the like. Instead, he and Daniel were talking quietly as they crossed the room in her direction. Both men paused abruptly at her appearance, however, eyes widening with alarm as if they'd been caught doing something they shouldn't. Christiana felt her eyebrows crawl up her forehead at the strange reaction and glanced curiously from one man to the other.

"Ah."