no question that I would need a wife to produce heirs and introduce my siblings into society.”
Pain lanced through Fancy, and she lowered her gaze to her hands, which were twisting the coverlet. She didn’t know what to say. How to respond to the fact that the woman her husband loved was hurt by his marriage. Hearing him state so plainly that he married her, Fancy, not out of desire but necessity felt like a blow.
“Not that those were the only reasons I married you.” Frustration threaded Knight’s voice. “Bloody hell, I’m making a hash of this. Fancy, look at me, please.”
She raised her eyes.
“Imogen is in my past, and I am damned lucky that you are my wife and here with me now,” he said with quiet intensity. “I know that you and I didn’t marry under the best of circumstances, but we’re making a go of things, aren’t we?”
A go of things. If he’d married Imogen, would he have described their marriage in those terms? Fancy wondered morosely.
“Are we?” Her voice cracked a little.
“I think so.” He cupped her cheek, his grey eyes as warm as the sky during a summer rain. “I have never wanted a woman the way I want you, Fancy.”
That was something, at least. A balm to soothe the soreness of her heart. Even if he didn’t love her, he desired her physically, and according to him, more than any woman he’d known.
More than Imogen? The question popped into her head; she wasn’t ready to know the answer.
“I’m sorry I have not been attentive these past few days,” he went on. “Will you forgive me?”
It was not in her nature to hold onto hurt. Knight had apologized and explained things, and he’d been honest about Imogen from the start. Fancy couldn’t expect his feelings to change overnight; she had to give their marriage time to grow and blossom.
She nodded, ready to move on.
The tension eased from his features, a smile reaching his eyes. “Tell me what you have been up to, sweeting. I know you’ve been busy. Aunt Esther has been singing your praises to me.”
“Really?” she said in surprise.
His lips quirked. “She said, and I quote, there’s no lack of effort on the gel’s part. She is determined to become a proper duchess and to do you and the family name proud. Trust me, coming from Esther that is the highest of accolades. And she is tickled that you managed to wrangle an invitation to Princess Adelaide of Hessenstein’s salon.”
“Aunt Esther ’as been a good mentor to me. ’Er bark is worse than ’er bite, and I think she’s ’appy to ’ave something to do,” Fancy mused. “It must ’ave been lonely for ’er until you and your siblings came along and gave ’er a family.”
“We hardly qualify as a family,” Knight said dryly. “We are more like strangers stuck at an interminable house party with no hope of escape.”
Fancy had to grin at the description, which wasn’t far from the truth. Yet hearing his unspoken longing, she wanted to encourage him.
“I thought everyone was on better behavior at supper last night,” she said diplomatically.
“Because you, chérie, think the best of everyone.” He brushed his finger along her nose. “In reality, Cecily was sulking, Jonas drinking excessively, and Eleanor reading the book she had hidden beneath her napkin.”
“Toby was sociable,” she pointed out.
“And nearly hit you in the face with an oyster,” Knight muttered.
“Not on purpose,” she countered. “’E apologized for it.”
“The boy is a walking disaster.”
“Don’t lose ’eart in your family,” Fancy said earnestly. “They’ll come around. Why, if I can change into a duchess, then surely your siblings can learn to behave better.”
And I’ll ’elp them, she thought determinedly. They’re my family now, too.
For better or worse, family stuck together.
“Don’t change too much, my dear,” Knight said softly. “I like you the way you are.”
His tender words caused her heart to constrict with hope. “I like you too.”
“I don’t know what I did to get myself such a good little wife,” he said huskily. “Which reminds me…I have something for you.”
He left the bed, striding over to pick up his dressing gown. She couldn’t help but stare at his backside, the taut curves and hollowed grooves of his arse, the flexing muscles of his back. When he headed back toward her, his virility arrested her breath. Even at rest, his male equipment was weighty, swaying heavily between his corded thighs.
“This is for you,” he said. “Unless there is something else you