talk at the salon weeks and weeks earlier. It was something he had rarely considered in his life. Happiness was a luxury, and one he wasn’t certain he could afford.
But now he found himself wanting it. Though he didn’t know what the definition would be, or if he could find it with a woman who seemed determined to keep him at arm’s length.
Exactly as they had agreed to do.
Abigail paced her new study, distracted and discombobulated. It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to do. The boxes of books from her former home had all arrived that morning. She needed to catalogue and shelve them. And there was the matter of overseeing the herb garden. Though Nathan had agreed to allow her most of the greenhouse in his country estate, he had also had a corner of his garden in London cleared. There were directives to be given about building boxes for certain herbs and creating extra shade for others.
She was doing none of it. Instead she wandered from one side of the room to the other feeling…well, icky was the only way she could describe it.
She rolled her eyes at the childish word, but it was most apt. She didn’t feel right and she had been trying to avoid the reason for that. But it was impossible.
It had been three days since Ophelia had returned to Nathan’s home. Abigail’s home. She was trying very hard to recall that it was her home, too. Sometimes it felt like it. Nights where she and Nathan sat quietly in the library, each reading. Occasionally he looked up and she saw the bright spark of interest.
Hours in his bed felt very much like home, too.
The man was magical. That was all there was to it, and her body sang to his music in a way it had never done before.
It didn’t change the fact that her days were spent alone. By design. She found things to keep her busy and separate from Nathan. And once they’d made love, she always went back to her room.
It was the only sanctuary she had to the feelings that sometimes accompanied his touch. Feelings she didn’t want. Feelings he didn’t reciprocate, no matter how disappointed he looked when she left him.
And so today she thought of all those things. All those confusing, tangled things, and icky it was.
There was a light knock on her door, and she turned, expecting to see a footman with more boxes. Instead it was Nathan himself, holding a small trunk.
“This is the last of it, I’m told,” he said as he came into the room.
She blinked. “And so you carried it yourself?”
“I was coming to see you either way.” He glanced toward the pile of crates and trunks. “Should I stack it with the others?”
She nodded and watched him do so. He was not wearing a jacket so his shoulder muscles flexed in a very distracting fashion against the linen of his shirt.
“You said you were coming to see me,” she said. “Did you need something?”
He didn’t respond, but looked around the room slowly. “It’s coming together. All that hard work is paying off.”
She looked with him. The room did look more like her now. Flowers were on the mantel, as well as a miniature of her late sister. Her desk was neatly stacked with a few papers and letters. The curtains had been changed and were perpetually open, as was the window when the weather was fair.
“Once I unpack the books, I think it will feel more like it is mine,” she said.
He inched toward her, and she stiffened. If he touched her, especially here in this room where they had shared such a powerful encounter before their marriage, she wasn’t sure she could take it. She already sometimes found herself staring at the desk, thinking of the way Nathan’s neck had flexed as she sucked him. If he did more than that, the room would always be theirs, not hers.
And she needed a space in this house that didn’t make her think of him all the time.
She ducked behind the desk and sat down. He frowned but didn’t pursue further. “Did you need something?” she repeated.
“I don’t know if need, but I did have a few topics to discuss,” he said slowly. “Firstly, Rhys and Pippa have extended a very kind invitation for my sister to join them at their country estate at the end of the summer. We’re invited to join them, as Celeste and Owen will also be