26. Chapter 26
twenty-six
T here hasn’t been a woman since…
Since last night? Since he’d left London? Since before their wedding?
Jenny’s brain had spent the previous night and all the next day filling in the rest of the sentence he’d left unspoken.
Despite her best efforts to tell herself that she didn’t care and it didn’t matter, she knew that it did.
It mattered because she suspected the worst had happened: she had fallen in love with her husband.
It might have happened when he told her to behave as if she had bollocks between her legs.
But no, it was earlier. It could have been when he’d fed her supper in bed.
Or when he’d told her how he felt abandoned by his parents.
Or maybe even their first night together.
The possibilities were endless because she found herself liking almost everything about him.
It only drove home the point that she should not be allowed to be alone or even in the same room as her husband. Her heart had almost zero ability to protect itself, especially when orgasms were involved, which they inevitably were with him. Even when he was sleeping in the next room.
So what if his parents had abandoned him by dying and left him heartbroken and alone? Many people had similar things happen and she didn’t go falling in love with them. She empathized with them and had compassion for their circumstances, but she did not love them.
The sex was the only variable here. It made her brain and her heart not work as they should, which is why she never should have fallen into bed with him here in Paris.
She had made that bedroom agreement with him in London because that had been necessary.
Deep down she had known it wasn’t necessary in Paris, but she’d wanted to do it so she’d made herself believe it had been.
“What will I do, Jenny? I can’t believe he simply left.” Luci burst into tears again, leaving Jenny to gently maneuver her friend out of the carriage while a footman looked on helplessly.
When Luci nearly tripped over the cast-iron carriage step as she blindly disembarked, the young man took hold of her shoulders just in time.
“Thank you, James.” Jenny put her arm around Luci and walked with her as James ran ahead and opened the wrought iron gate and then the front door of David’s home for them. “There, there, darling. Let’s get you upstairs and into a nice, hot bath. You’ll feel better. I promise.”
“But I don’t want him to go,” the girl wailed behind the hands covering her face.
David appeared at the top of the stairs, watching them curiously, and Jenny paused. “Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Yes, fine,” Jenny answered. To Luci, she said, “Step up, dear. My bedchamber is just up here.”
The girl complied and her sobs subsided because she was now aware of David watching them.
“Good evening,” he said to Luci when they reached the top of the stairs. “Is there anything I can do?” he asked Jenny .
“Perhaps you can have Mme Tremblay prepare a tray for us. We’ll also need hot water for a bath.
” At her door, she added, “Oh, and please send a message to Mama and Cora that we won’t be available for dinner tonight after all.
” They’d been having an informal dinner with them most nights since their arrival in Paris.
Disappointment clouded his features, “Perhaps I should join them at the hotel and you can stay here and tend to…” He motioned to Luci.
Jenny had just finished ushering the girl inside her room but paused to stare at him. “You’d go by yourself?”
“Unless I’m needed here.”
“No, of course not.” She glanced into the room where Luci had thrown herself across the bed to continue her crying. Closing the door, she walked back to David so they could talk quietly. “Please don’t feel you have to entertain my family. They’ll find other amusements.”
He grinned. “It’s no trouble. I…I quite enjoy my time with them.”
“You do?” She’d never thought a duke’s heir and her mother would get on.
His smile broadened to reveal the not-quite-even teeth that somehow intrigued her. “They’re interesting. Do you know your mother can speak on any topic? Whether she knows anything about the subject at all, she can launch into entire monologues that seem somehow relevant.”
Jenny laughed. “I do know that. Most people find that annoying.”
He shrugged. “It’s charming. She’s well read, more so than I had assumed from first meeting her.”
Jenny felt something pinch within her. She’d never imagined that he might appreciate her mother’s more eccentric qualities. She was speechless.
“Fanny is amusing,” David continued. “Having no memories of my own mother…well, Fanny isn’t the worst sort to fill the vacancy. ”
Jenny felt her own smile matching his. He might be a cad, but he tolerated her mother and that was no easy feat for an aristocrat.
There hasn’t been a woman since…
If only she wasn’t too afraid to hear the end of that sentence.
But she was, because she knew it would ensnare her heart even more, making her vulnerable to him.
If she hadn’t already learned her lesson about men the hard way, then she only had to look to her mother and Mr. Hathaway.
This sort of passion wasn’t lasting and it would only leave her heart shredded.
“Well, if you don’t feel pressured to go, then please tell them I apologize for my absence.”
His expression sobered and he nodded to her closed door. “What happened?”
“She and her beau parted ways.” Luci had spent one night—last night—with M. Marceau, the singing master, and this afternoon, he announced he’d be leaving tomorrow as his employment had come to its natural end with the opera opening tomorrow night.
“Ah, I trust it wasn’t her decision?”
“Decidedly not.”
“Won’t the landlady at the boarding house be angry?”
Jenny huffed. “I paid her a double-occupancy rate in advance when I moved out for Luci to be able to room there alone through the end of the show’s run and the woman put someone in with her anyway after I left. I don’t really care what she thinks.”
David frowned but didn’t remark on that. Jenny’s door cracked open.
“I’ll be right there, Luci.”
When she looked back, David had righted himself and said, “I’ll see to your requests, and check back in with you when I return.”
“That won’t be necessary but thank you. ”
David inclined his head and made his way down the stairs.
Jenny couldn’t help but watch him go. She didn’t know what to make of his newfound tolerance for her family.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t like it.
They’d seen them almost every night since they’d been in Paris and Jenny couldn’t recall a single evening when David had made it seem as if he didn’t want them around.
Luci sniffled.
“I’m coming.” Jenny hurried to the door and closed it behind her.
***
David balanced the two mugs full of ices in one hand as he tapped gently at Jenny’s door.
He was aware of the late hour but figured the women would be awake.
He didn’t have to wait long until his wife opened the door.
She wore a nightdress and wrapper, but she had clearly been awake.
Her eyes were bright and liquidly, almost as if…
“Have you been crying?” he asked and looked past her to make certain the object of her misery wasn’t in the room with her.
“Shh…” She held a finger to her lips and looked behind her. Luci was sleeping, having fallen asleep on top of the covers wrapped in a knitted lap blanket. Jenny closed the door behind her and then indicated they should talk in his bedroom.
He agreed and followed her inside.
“What’s that?” She indicated the mugs.
“Ices.” He held them up. “The hotel served them and I thought you and Mlle Blanc might like them.” When he’d briefly explained the situation to Fanny, she had hinted that sometimes women liked sweet treats when they were feeling low .
“That’s very thoughtful. I think we should let Luci sleep. She’s had a rough day.”
“Then let’s share. Violet or lemon?”
“Violet? What an odd flavor.”
“I thought so, too, but the proprietor assured me it’s a favorite of Queen Victoria’s.”
She stared at them, clearly wanting to try the violet but not wanting to make a bad choice.
“Try them both and then choose the one you want,” he urged.
“But which do you want?”
“Either one will do.”
She seemed to not want to believe him, but when he nudged them both toward her, she selected the violet and tasted it. “Mmm, very good. Want to try?”
He couldn’t resist anything she wanted of him. He nodded and watched as she gathered a bite of the creamy concoction on the wooden spoon and he tasted it while trying not to care that it had been in her mouth seconds earlier. “It is good.”
She tried the lemon, which was also good, but settled on the violet.
“Shall we sit?” He indicated the settee near the window when she’d made her selection.
She nodded and followed him over. As she sat and arranged her clothing, he tried not to notice her bare toes peeking out from under the long hem or that she’d flashed him with her ankle as she had arranged her feet under her. Christ, even her feet and ankles were enough to set him off.
He took a large bite of the cold dessert to give himself a headache and take his mind off her. It worked, but only briefly.
“Are you all right?” she asked, amusement in her voice as he pinched the bridge of his nose .
“Yes, it’ll pass in a moment,” he forced out between clenched teeth.
She giggled and took another, much smaller bite. “Thank you for this. It’s very good.”
“You’re welcome.” Feeling more like himself again, he glanced at her and then contemplated the ice cream in his cup. “Were you crying earlier?” he hedged.
She was silent as she scraped up some of the cream and licked it from the spoon. “Yes, but I’m fine. It was silly, actually.”
“I’m sure it’s not silly. What’s wrong? Did something happen? Is it about the landlady, because—”