you to your chamber now. I am afraid we dare not tarry any longer.”
She was not sure which hurt the most—that she must leave him or that he called her Lady Felicity once more. Part of her wished he would ask her to stay longer as he had earlier. That he would kiss her again, that he would offer to marry her himself. That somehow, some way, he could be the answer to her problems and the man who owned her heart at the same time.
But he did not ask her to stay.
Nor did he kiss her.
Instead, he rose from the bed, taking the tray with its remnants of biscuits and wine with him.
“I must get dressed,” she agreed miserably.
“I will give you some privacy as you do so,” he returned.
The perfect gentleman. A veritable stranger once more. The mood had shifted between them, growing heavy and tense.
This night was, indeed, all she would have with him.
He presented her with his back as she slid from his bed, doing her utmost not to shed a tear.
Chapter Twelve
The dawn sun was just rising when Eugie returned from a visit to the nursery. She slipped beneath the covers where her handsome, drowsy husband awaited her.
“Mmm,” Cam, Earl of Hertford, mumbled, drawing her body against his and burying his face in her throat. “Where have you been, my love?”
“I was feeding our precious little Julia,” she said, kissing the slash of Cam’s cheekbone and wrapping her arms around him.
Their tiny daughter was still a source of amazement for Eugie, and although most ladies used wet nurses to feed their babes, she refused to accept the practice. It meant long nights and less sleep than she had been accustomed to before, but she had no regrets when she held their child in her arms. Many nights, Cam joined her, but this evening, she had hated to wake him when she had gone on her evening sojourn.
She was rather relieved she had not, considering what she had witnessed on her return.
“How is our precious cherub?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her neck in the place that never failed to make her shiver with appreciation.
“Sweet as ever.” She rubbed her hands slowly up and down her husband’s strong back, reveling in his strength and vitality. “Do you know, I do believe there is a bit of wickedness happening at this country house party?”
Cam rolled her to her back and aligned his body with hers. The delicious feeling of him against her chased all thoughts from her mind for a moment.
“There could be more wickedness happening,” he growled, giving the bare curve of her shoulder a tender nip.
And to think, he had once been known as the Prince of Proper.
She smiled, love for him rising steady and strong, mingling with desire. “I believe I saw Lady Felicity Hughes and Blade sneaking through the halls.”
Cam kissed his way back up to her lips. “Matchmaking your sisters have been up to gone awry?”
“Mayhap,” she said. “Mayhap not.”
There was every chance that was the reason Lady Felicity had been gadding about with Eugie’s half brother, Blade.
She brushed a rakish forelock that had fallen over her husband’s forehead aside. “Do you think I should speak with her aunt?”
“That dragon?” Cam gave a mock shudder. “I would not. I do seem to recall a Christmas country house party here at Abingdon Hall where a great deal of sneaking about in darkened corridors occurred.”
He was speaking of them, of course. “And look at how excellently that sneaking turned out.”
The grin he gave her melted her heart. “I could not agree more, Lady Hertford.”
He kissed her. And it was quite some time before either of them had a thing more to say.
Blade awoke to an empty bed, dazzling light shining in through the window dressings, and a shocking realization.
He was in love.
He would never, as long as he lived, understand how he woke with that thought on his mind, the declaration written on his heart. But he had. And it was true. Shockingly, utterly mad. And true. The unrelenting knowledge that last night had changed everything—that mayhap, even, everything had changed the moment he had first stared into Felicity’s hazel eyes—could not be denied.
“Spoony prick,” he muttered.
Aye, that was what he was. A spoony, stupid arsehole. What had he been thinking, inviting an innocent lady to his chamber? What had he expected would come of such lunacy? Holding her afterward, talking all night long. Fetching her biscuits from the kitchens as if he