man he surely had been before he had gone off to war and nearly died.
He hadn’t seemed inclined to share, but when their lips met, it seemed that all of the emotion he had been hiding deep within came pouring out through where they were connected.
It began as a chaste, quick meeting of the lips.
Then, with some hesitancy, they started to explore one another, their lips moving over each other first in soft, quick kisses, until the pressure increased and they melded into one. The dance then began as Hannah sensed something change within Edmund, and as one of his hands came behind her head, the other pressed against the small of her back, holding her close as he tasted and touched, until his tongue dove against the seam of her lips and she opened to him.
It was then, as he kissed her in earnest, when she nearly lost all ability to breathe, that she knew.
She stood as still as a statue as the realization poured over her, so much so that he released her when she quit responding to his touch.
“What’s wrong?” he asked gruffly, and while Hannah knew he was likely assuming the very worst, she couldn’t speak for a moment.
He said nothing as he stepped back away from her, walking around her as he made his way to the door.
“Goodnight,” he said, his words so low she almost couldn’t hear them, but she managed to find her voice before he left the room via the closest staircase in the back corner.
“It was you.”
He stopped, pausing in the doorframe.
“What?”
“It was you,” Hannah repeated, walking toward him now, more astonished than anything else. “The night in the library. The night of your brother’s tryst. You kissed me. You warned me against him.”
She shook her head, feeling the fool. She had known that Edmund had seemed familiar – his voice, his stature – but she had thought that she would quite obviously have remembered his face. It was because she hadn’t seen him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked now, more curious than anything.
“I didn’t think it mattered,” he replied, not meeting her gaze.
“Of course it mattered,” she said. “I felt something that night. I wanted to find you again, to determine if that connection would stand. When we were married, my only hesitation was because of the stranger in the library. And it was you the whole time.”
A smile began to spread on her lips, knowing that the man she had feared she had missed was in fact the one with whom she would spend the rest of her life.
“Edmund,” she said on a sigh, stepping toward him with the intention to renew their kiss. “Do you know what this means?”
“It means nothing,” he said, his voice harsh, cutting through the wistful hopes that had arisen within her. “Nothing at all.”
“But—”
“Do not become fanciful, Hannah,” he said. “This changes nothing. That night in the library, I warned you off Byron, and I’m glad I did. But you didn’t get much of an exchange, ending up with me, now did you?”
“How can you say that?” she persisted. “If you would allow yourself some enjoyment now and again, then—”
“And why should I?” he cut her off, nearly taking Hannah aback by the anger within his eyes. But she would not be intimidated.
“Isn’t the better question, why should you not?” she countered. “I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like in the prisoner camp, or how much pain you must have endured. But isn’t that more reason to provide yourself with the ability to enjoy the life you were given once you were freed?”
He turned abruptly and walked away from her, crossing the room to stand before the stained-glass bay window, looking out toward the inky darkness beyond.
“There was a man in the prison who took care of me,” he said, and Hannah remained rooted to the spot, sensing that he was telling her something he had not shared with another.
“He sounds kind,” she said softly, urging him to continue.
“He was a physician,” he said, beginning slowly, “had a wife at home, two children and hopefully one more waiting for him, as his wife was expecting another child when he left. He had no reason to enter the war, except that he felt like he wasn’t doing all he could for his country. Ended up at the prison. He took care of me, brought me back to life. We spent countless days and nights upon that floating prison