Chapter 37
SEBASTIAN WOULDN’T LET HER TOUCH A TOWEL. He dried her off himself, every inch of her. Margaret didn’t object. When he picked her up and carried her to bed she might have told him it was unnecessary, but she rather liked his arms around her, so she didn’t say a word.
He didn’t join her in the bed, though. He actually went back to clean up the mess they’d made in the bathroom.
He might have thought she’d be asleep before he finished.
Perhaps he’d hoped so. But she wasn’t. She wasn’t the least bit tired, and she managed to keep all thoughts of his imminent departure far from her mind.
He smiled when he joined her in the bed and pulled her close to him, so she could snuggle with his arm around her. While she wasn’t going to castigate herself over her complete about-face, at least not yet, she did have something on her mind that he might not be pleased about.
“I have a confession to make,” she told him.
“Must you?” he asked dryly. “I’m damned pleased with you at the moment, Maggie. You aren’t going to change that, are you?”
“Possibly,” she said. “You see, I visited with Douglas this afternoon. We talked about you, well, that is to say, I talked about you.”
“You told him about The Raven?” he guessed.
She cringed. “Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t think you wanted to keep that secret, but then it occurred to me that you might, but well, I thought of that too late and—”
“You aren’t going to run on and on again, are you?” he cut in.
She pinched his side. “As it happens, yes I was. Are you very angry?”
“Not a’tall,” he replied. “I’m not proud of the name I’ve earned, but I’m not ashamed of it, either. It was never my intention to garner such a reputation. But I really don’t care if he knows or not. You didn’t mention our ‘marriage’ to him, did you?”
“Certainly not,” she said indignantly as she sat up.
“I may become scatterbrained occasionally, but I don’t forget important conversations and decisions of that sort.
If he hears of it, it won’t be from me. But you do realize that he won’t stay more’n another day or two in his bed, if even that?
He’s regaining strength rapidly now, and his wound is mending. ”
“And your point?”
She wondered if he said things like that just to annoy her.
“You know very well what it is. I managed to tell him about my ‘husband’ without mentioning your name. And he hasn’t associated my bringing you back here with my having a husband now.
But it’s bound to occur to him soon that he doesn’t know who I married and he’ll end up asking someone.
And there’s the dowager duchess’s party tomorrow night, which is expressly to honor the ‘newlyweds.’ He might even be up to attending and—”
He silenced her with a hard, demanding kiss. “You made your point admirably, m’dear. I’ll have to see what I can do about wrapping this up tomorrow to put your concerns to rest, which will end my job here. I’ll speak with him again in the morning, so I can be on my way before noon.”
She didn’t gasp. She wasn’t sure how she managed not to. Just like that? Here’s your answer, good-bye? And there wasn’t a single thing she could say to keep him here—nothing that he’d want to hear.
Somehow she hadn’t thought that would be his answer. It put a definite damper on her mood. She lay back down but turned on her side away from him. That caused him to lean up now and turn her back to face him.
“What?” he asked curiously.
“I—” She could have said that the thought of him leaving disturbed her, but he might read more into that than she wanted. She found her voice through the lump in her throat and was proud of how calm she sounded as she mentioned, “I haven’t paid you yet.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Maggie. I never intended to take your money.”
That jolted her out of her despair. “You didn’t? You had me agonizing over your suggestion of a trade when you—”
“It worked, didn’t it?” he cut in, giving her his devilish smile.
There was no holding back that gasp, or her retaliation as she shoved him out of her bed. “You’re not just an odious man, you’re a—a—a really odious man! And you can spend the night where you deserve to be,” she added, pointing a stiff finger at the bathroom.
He sighed. “Just as well. A man could get used to—”
“Don’t say it!” she warned furiously with heated cheeks.
He started to but must have changed his mind. But was that a wistful look she saw in his eyes as he glanced at the now empty spot in the bed beside her? He didn’t stay long enough for her to credit that possibility as more than her imagination.