day took root and a lead ball was lowered on his stomach. “You two spent your day here, didn’t you?”
With an audible swallow, she nodded. Tears glistened in her eyes and Simon wrapped her in a hug. “Rae, I’m so sorry. When my mother said she wanted to spend the day with you, I assumed she planned to take you shopping or calling not to work at her blasted lending library. I’ll go speak to her immediately.”
“No! You mustn’t.” Rae’s hands pushed at his shoulders, tears coursing down her face. “I don’t want her to know.”
Simon enclosed her hands with his. “I won’t tell her everything, just that you’re not her apprentice and if she wants to spend time with you, it won’t be here.”
“Please, don’t say anything to her.” Her tone held an edge of hysteria he didn’t understand.
“If I don’t then you’ll be back here again,” he pointed out.
“Which is better than if you do and she wants nothing to do with me.”
Simon pulled her close again. “You and my mother can find something else to do together,” he assured her.
“Simon, please promise me you won’t tell her. Please?”
“But what if she could help you learn to read?”
Her stricken face was her only reply.
“All right, I won’t tell her,” he promised. He’d promise her the world if he could. Though how he’d go about helping her hide that for the rest of her life was a mystery to him. An idea formed. “But—” he tipped her chin up using three of his fingers— “only if you promise to let me help you learn.”
Rae’s body went rigid in his hold. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why does it suddenly matter so much to you that I cannot read?” She pulled away from him. “It didn’t before we wed. Why does it now?”
“It doesn’t matter to me.” He pierced her with his gaze. “It matters to you.”
Rae wished Simon wasn’t so blasted perceptive. It did matter to her. For as much as Simon tried to tell her that it shouldn’t, it did. It all mattered. It only confirmed why his parents thought Simon chose to marry her. There was nothing special about her. She was just someone to ease his pain.
“Let’s go home,” she said, forcing a smile she didn’t feel.
30
One Week Later
Just as Simon had concluded when he’d talked to Rae in his mother’s library, Rae’s sudden change toward him had nothing to do with a female complaint. Though she acted and claimed nothing was wrong—she even smiled and winked at him from time to time and never once denied him intimacies—something was amiss. He just knew it.
And it was driving him mad.
So much so he was considering asking his mother to speak to her. He gulped. No. He wasn’t that desperate. Yet.
Perhaps he should pay Lady Townson a call—
“Go home, Simon,” Father said from the open door.
Simon jerked. “Pardon?”
“Simon, go home to your wife. There’s little to do here today.” He strolled into the room and took a seat on the opposite side of Simon’s desk. “Which is for the best.”
“How so?”
“Because I doubt you’d be able to pay any mind to anything other than woolgathering about your new bride,” Father teased.
Scowling, Simon said, “These aren’t pleasant thoughts.”
“No?”
Simon shook his head.
“Would you care to talk about it?”
“No,” Simon said automatically. He sighed. “I mean no offense to you, but the last thing any man wishes to do is talk about his marital problems with his father.”
“I can think of worse things,” Father said gently. “But, if that’s the last thing you want to do, perhaps then you’d rather bring these documents to Giles and give him a message for me.”
“He doesn’t want to see me,” Simon said with a scoff.
“Have you ever considered that your sticky web of problems with others, namely Giles and now Henrietta, has more to do with your lack of trying to untangle a little knot before it became a much larger one?”
Simon pursed his lips together. “What is that to mean?”
“You need to put forth a little more effort for what you want.” Father tossed the documents on Simon's desk. “Start with making an effort to go see Giles.”
“I did,” Simon defended. “Last week. He didn’t even invite me into his house.”
“Did you tell him you were there to talk to him?”
That brought Simon up short. “No.” He drew the word out. “I didn’t think I needed to.”
“The man isn’t a seer, Simon. If you wanted to talk to him, you need to tell him so. It