Unconsciously, she pressed a hand to her abdomen and felt the aching in the place where they had been joined. She just thought maybe it was whores and not heroines with whom Pecos might be most familiar.
Chapter 26
They waved Evie and Tyler off at the train station in Cincinnati. Then Daniel took her hand and led her down the platform.
"Well, Mrs. Mulloney, shall we go home, or would you prefer to wait for the next train and go wherever it takes us?"
Georgina started slightly at the sound of her new name, but his words captured her attention. There was nothing she would like better right now than to run and hide in some faraway city where no one knew her, where she could learn to deal with her embarrassing predicament without the watchful eyes of people who had known her all her life. She wanted to be the child she once was, the one who knew the world was a happy place and everything would be all right because Daddy made it so. But she wasn't.
Georgina turned her eyes up to her husband's concerned face. They had been stiff and nervous with each other ever since Evie and Tyler had gone. She didn't see any immediate resolution, but she knew enough now to know the answer Pecos Martin expected. "Your father still thinks he's running a slave plantation. Who will correct that if we don't go home?"
Although there were shadows of strain behind his eyes, Daniel smiled and brushed her hair with his hand. "Then come on, Miss Merry, the train's fixing to leave. It's time to head back."
They had made this trip together once before. That time they had laughed and teased and behaved outrageously with each other. That had been before, when she was still a child. Perhaps she had proved her wanton status even then. Had Daniel seen it? Was that why he had allowed her into his life? Because he had seen what she was and wanted her the way a man desires a whore?
Georgina's cheeks flooded with embarrassment. She clutched her hands in her lap and stared out the window.
Daniel watched as Georgina closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. He had taken something magical away from her and destroyed it. He didn't know how to undo whatever he had done. She was afraid of him, and rightly so. He didn't know himself anymore.
His stomach clenched as he remembered how he had taken her last night, not once, but twice. She had every reason to fear he would lose control and do that to her again. He couldn't even tell himself that he wouldn't do it again. Even knowing he must have hurt her very badly, he was aching to have her again. He couldn't keep his thoughts from straying to their bed, of dragging her up the stairs and tearing her clothes off, and of making mad, passionate love to her for the rest of the day and night.
He was obsessed with the notion. Sex had never been an extremely important part of his life. It was something one did when the time was right. The rest of the time he had been quite content with his books and printing presses and horses and whatever interests he was involved with at the time. He had always been surrounded by women. They were there to laugh with, to talk to, to flirt with upon occasion. But they hadn't been the kind of women he would take to his bed and practically rape. Neither was Georgina. But that's what was on his mind now. He was sitting here peaceably beside her on a public train, but he was so hard his trousers pinched.
Loins aching, Daniel struggled with this new problem life had dealt him. Surely, his obsession with his wife a temporary aberration that he would overcome with time and work. Georgina was a lady, and he had a proper respect for ladies. It was just a matter of getting back into their regular routines. He would give her time recover from the discomfort, then he would take her properly, with the gentleness that she deserved. He didn't want her to regret marrying him. He adjusted himself uncomfortably while his wife slept.
Georgina woke when the train pulled into the Cutlerville station. Determined to do things properly and not to frighten her anymore, Daniel talked of what needed to be done when they returned to the office. She brightened somewhat as she made suggestions for his next