Chapter Twelve
“Not at all. I’m more than happy to oblige,” she said, far too hastily, because the idea of taking in the sunset over the ocean, Teddy at her side, sent an instant thrill through her.
Then she glimpsed what she read as a flicker of amusement in his eyes, and added in a more subdued tone, “It is rather odd, though.”
He moved in close to pull out her chair. “What is odd?”
She rose and found herself nearly toe to toe with Teddy.
His tantalizing scent, some perfect combination of warm male skin, the spiced, masculine soap she’d furnished him and something uniquely Teddy, danced into reach.
As long as she’d known him, he’d emitted a distinct, alluring redolence, the aroma clean and fragrant and denoting a slight herbal tinge that caused her toes to curl in her slippers.
It didn’t matter if he and Drake had spent the day racing horses through the park, or stealing hearts on the dance floor, or rowing on the water.
She’d made the mistake of mentioning her observation to Drake, once, and the pitying look he gave her had convinced her never to breathe a word of it, ever again.
“You were saying?” Teddy murmured.
What had she been saying? Oh, yes. It concerned his medicine.
“It’s just that doctor at Bell Haven clearly cited fatigue as one of the major side effects of the tincture you’re prescribed.”
He grunted in reply and stepped to the side, placing his warm hand at the small of her back to lead her from the room.
She suppressed a shiver of delight. “Probably, you’re just becoming accustomed to the effects. I’m glad—especially as you require it for your recovery.”
“Mm. I’m sure you’re right.”
They traversed the corridor and entered the receiving room.
“The sunset promises to be spectacular. Shall we venture onto the balcony, pet, or will it be too chilly for you?”
She shook her head. The wind off the ocean would likely chill her to the bone, but the idea of standing beside him, surrounded by potted palms and hanging ferns, the ocean below and stars above spreading before them as far as the eye could see, proved too enticing to resist.
He ushered her out and the soft ocean breeze swirled over her exposed skin, sending her skirts aflutter and dragging at loose tendrils of her hair, one of which he reached to tuck behind her ear, as if he had every right to.
As if he had done so a hundred times. A giddying sense of delight welled up inside her like a cresting wave.
“Georgina, I’d like to ask you something, if I may.”
“Of course,” she replied. “What is it?”
He issued a small, unmistakably self-conscious laugh and lowered his eyes. In the waning light, she could almost count the thick fringes of his curling lashes. “It’s about…me.”
Her favorite subject. Folding her arms over her chest to ward off the chill, she propped her chin on her fisted hand. “Go on.”
“Was I happy?”
His question took her aback. “What do you mean? When?”
He glanced around as if he struggled to find words. “Did I have a happy life, growing up? Before Drake and I departed for the continent.”
“Yes.” He’d always seemed imperturbable. Completely comfortable in his own skin—unlike her.
He regarded her, an unreadable expression in his caramel eyes. “I told you that?”
Of course he had not. “Not precisely,” she hedged. “Why do you ask?”
He shifted to gaze out over the vast ocean and he leaned his forearms on the railing. “Earlier, I thought—I might have had a memory involving the man they tell me is my father.”
His voice had gone low, so she had to struggle to hear over the wind and waves.
She scooted in close. “Oh? Tell me about it?”
He glanced down at her, his eyes somber. “He said…I think he said…It does not signify.”
The instinct to touch him, to provide any sort of assurance, compelled her to lay her fingers over his hard forearm.
He noticed immediately, glancing down at where her fingers rested.
Though warmth flooded her cheeks, she did not remove her hand.
“It always seemed to me you had the perfect family, Teddy. Your father enters a room and commands attention and respect, like a general before his troops—unlike mine, the proverbial life of the party. And you carry yourself the same way, emanating an unconscious aura of power. But where Lord Ainsworth is rather austere—”
“Austere,” he muttered under his breath. “That’s one word for the impression I’ve gained of him.”
She cupped his cheek and guided his face to look at her. “You are more…”
He studied her, as if he hung on every word.
“Magnetic,” she stated, “with an innate and seeming unshakable confidence that somehow never edges into arrogance. In short, my lord, you are quite remarkable.”
“I see,” he said with a soft chuckle as a slight ruddiness tinged his cheeks.
Her hand dropped and he caught it in his, angling his body toward her. Smoothing his thumb over the back of her knuckles, he said, “Tell me about your family, Georgina. What of your parents?”
She blinked, flummoxed by his interest.
His teeth flashed white in a brilliant smile that stole her breath. “Why so surprised?” he asked, reading her in a moment. “You’re my wife, aren’t you? It’s only natural I should want to know who I’ve married. Besides, maybe something will ring a bell.”
She squelched the guilt trying to emerge, as she was not truly his wife, by telling herself Drake would surely have divulged information about their family over the years.
“My father is Lord Bartholomew Belfry, Baron of Gladstone. His wife, my mother, is Lady Olivia Belfry. They are nice enough parents, if distractible.”
“Distractible? What on earth does that mean?”
He had begun toying with her fingers, almost as if he did not realize he did it. But Georgina felt every brush, tug, and pull.
“These days, Father has developed a regrettable taste for the tables and the tracks. But he used to fancy himself an expert puzzle solver—riddles, anagrams, acrostics. That was before…” Before Drake had died hung in the air between them.
Teddy nodded his understanding.
She smiled, trying to keep the mood light. “My mother’s favorite hobby is visiting the modistes on Bond Street and joining her friends for tea—and gossip.”
She meant to stop there, but Teddy’s watchful gaze somehow spurred her to go on.
“Growing up, it was as if they forgot, at times, they had children. Not that it bothered me, because Drake was always there to nurse my scrapes, dry my tears, instruct and guide and correct me when necessary.”
His hand gripped hers now, squeezing it gently. “And now that he’s gone?”
“I suppose I’ve been taking care of myself, with the help of my friends.”
He regarded her very seriously. “And now you have me to take care of you.”
A moment later he cursed, simultaneously releasing her hand to face the railing once more.
“Oh, that’s right. I haven’t a penny to my name which I can access, and at any rate, have no idea who I am or what properties I have.
I can’t even visit an assembly without fear my father will find me and drag me back to the madhouse like a recalcitrant schoolboy. ”
A flood of protectiveness surged through her and she grasped his bicep, what she could of it, at any rate.
“Don’t do that, please. This is all temporary, Teddy.
You will recover your memories and reclaim your life.
And nobody, nobody, is going to take you anywhere you do not wish to go, or make you do anything you do not wish to do. ”
A crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You sound very fierce, madam wife. I almost believe you would pit yourself against the devil himself and come out victorious.”
“If he stood between me and you, he wouldn’t stand a chance,” she told him, her mouth curving up in a helpless response to his.
“I do believe you’re serious,” he murmured. He pulled her hand from his arm, flipped her wrist and pressed a gentle kiss to her palm, then met her eyes. “And yet, you seek to annul our marriage.”
She swallowed. What could she possibly say that wouldn’t undermine the fragile boundary she’d erected between them to keep him safe—from her? From being entrapped by her into a real marriage not of his choosing when all this was through?
So she said nothing.
He lowered their joined hands then released her. “What will you do if it’s denied?”
“I don’t think it will come to that,” she answered, and searched her mind for another topic of conversation. Anything other than a continued discussion of their inevitable split.
In the end, Teddy lightened the tone. “Well, as we are both still here, married and such, what’s say we have a night cap—indoors. One of us seems rather cold.”
She hadn’t realized she was shivering until that moment. “Very well.”
He opened the door and gestured for her to precede him inside. “What have we to drink? I don’t suppose you have any cognac?”
She gazed over her shoulder at him as he crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. Quiet descended, and the room seemed warmer by ten degrees.
“Yes but…” Oh she really didn’t want to have to ask this.
He arched a thick brow.
“Cognac is rather strong. Won’t it interfere with your medicine?”
The smile he sent her did not meet his eyes. “I believe I can handle one. If you’ll point me in the right direction?”
“I’ll fetch the drinks. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Why, thank you,” he murmured dryly and, linking his hands behind his back, began moseying around the space, as if taking it in.
She went to the credenza, wanting to pinch herself. Teddy, here, now. She’d never expected to spend time with him like this, much as she’d fantasized about it over the years, even as a young girl on the brink of womanhood.
She unearthed the cognac, working out the cork, and recalled Drake, Teddy, and her father, retiring into her father’s den on many an evening to partake of a glass. Teddy spent a lot of time at their townhouse in those days, during his and Drake’s extended breaks from Oxford.