Page 124 of The Reckless Love of an Heir
She smiled and slipped off her shoes, then slid her spectacles a little further up the bridge of her nose. She sat sideways, as she had done last night with her knees bent up and her head resting against his chest. His arms surrounded her and held her in place.
‘Do you remember when you were painting in here and I came in to sleep?’
‘Yes, I remember.’
‘The room seemed a dozen times more peaceful with you quietly painting near me. I think that was when I first began to know you meant something to me. Something I had overlooked for years.’
Her cheek rubbed against his black waistcoat as she snuggled in closer to him. ‘When I watched you, while you were sleeping. You seemed so different that day from the boy I had known?—’
‘And disliked.’ A rumble of amusement rang in his chest at the thought of her accusing words.Reckless and self-centred. But she had been right about him. He had behaved wrongly towards her, following Alethea’s equally selfish lead, the two spoilt eldest children who thought the world owed them everything.
Her head lifted. ‘Very well, the boy I disliked. I could see so many of your bruises, and you looked so… wounded and not arrogant at all.’
‘Arrogant. Was that a charge you threw at me too? I hadforgotten if it was.’ His hand lifted and he would have stroked her hair but it was secured in a chignon. Instead he ran a curled finger down the bridge of her precious nose, below her spectacles. ‘I love you.’
‘I love you too, but you should sleep, Henry, I would guess you have hardly slept for nights. Take this moment of peacefulness. I shan’t leave you. I will sit here and read and make sure no one disturbs you.’
She would have risen but he held her down. ‘No. Stay here. Lie down beside me. If I am able to sleep it will be with you in my arms.’
She sighed, yet her head rested against his chest again. ‘Very well, shut your eyes.’
The sound of a gong woke Susan. Dinner. Henry’s hands were heavy on her head and her shoulder.
She sat upright. ‘Have you slept?’
He smiled. ‘Yes. I woke only a moment ago.’
His arms fell away from her. She stood as the gong sounded again.
‘We are not dressed for dinner.’
‘I think we will be forgiven. It is only our family.’
Our family. Yes. She would not worry if she had been at home, and Farnborough was home now.
‘Do I look dreadful? Is my hair tangled?’ Her fingers lifted to press against it, looking for strands that might have slipped free from the pins.
‘You look beautiful, and only as though you have not dressed for dinner, and no one will care.’ He stood up and tugged his black waistcoat down to straighten it. He was not wearing hiscoat, only his waistcoat and white shirt. It made him appear so slender, enhancing the look of his figure.
‘Come along and cease your fretting. I feel rested for the first time since William died and I am not going to allow you to feel ashamed for enabling it.’
No one looked at either of them oddly in the dining room, it was just a family meal, and Aunt Jane – Mama– smiled at Susan regularly throughout the meal as Henry’s father joined the conversation occasionally, even quietly laughing at things Gerard and Stephen said. It changed the tone of their whole conversation. Percy became more exuberant, speaking of horse races and Susan joined in because she knew about race horses as her father bred them.
When Uncle Robert – Papa – joined the conversation, Percy grasped at his responses and turned to him, asking for his view.
Susan glanced at Henry and caught his gaze. He smiled.
When she looked away, she saw Jane watching his father with a soft smile too, and moisture in her eyes.
32
‘Susan!’
‘I am in here!’
Henry’s father had been working in the library and so she had brought her paints up to their sitting room to work, and was currently trying to capture the light as it fell on what was probably one of the last yellow rose buds of the season. It was already autumn.
He walked into the room from their bedchamber. He probably thought she had come up to rest. Samson, who had been sitting beside her, rose, tail wagging, and crossed the room to welcome Henry.
