Page 28 of The Forbidden Love of an Officer
‘Ellen.’
She sat up and blinked.
She stole his breath when he saw her for the first time each day. She was a balm to soothe his battle-sore soul. ‘I have ordered dinner.’ The innkeeper had told Paul she had not eaten.
He sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Is sleeping all that you have done?’
She nodded. ‘I was tired.’
He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers. ‘We are to sail in four days. Tomorrow, I will take you to meet the other officers and my men.’ She looked nervous. ‘They will like you, Ellen.’
She nodded. A knock struck the door, announcing the arrival of their dinner.
* * *
When Paul ushered her into his lieutenant colonel’s quarters, cold fear tightened in Ellen’s stomach. It had been one thing to travel with Paul, it was completely another to become a part of his life. She had stepped into a world far beyond her father’s sheltered realm. This was a world she did not know, one in which Paul was the warrior who still frightened her a little.
Paul’s body stiffened as he entered. It felt as though his thoughts detached from her. Here, he was the soldier who had killed the highwayman, not the man who had turned music pages for her in her father’s drawing room – the man who could make her smile and laugh.
All the men she was introduced to were just as intimidating, dressed in their smart red and gold regimental coats, looking tall and confident. But all of them smiled and bowed over her hand, wishing her well, and giving both her and Paul words of congratulations. Only his commanding officer, the lieutenant colonel, made her continue to feel uncomfortable, because he never stopped watching her from the moment she and Paul had entered until the moment they left. But the conversation progressed and all the men were polite and jovial. Particularly a man Paul said was his closest friend, Captain George Montgomery. He followed them out of the office and onto the parade ground.
‘I am pleased for you, Paul. You’ve picked a pretty little piece…’ His smile was for Paul, but passed onto Ellen. ‘We will have a ray of sunshine to look forward to in our baggage train, ma’am.’ He gave Ellen another swift bow.
‘She will bemyray of sunshine though,’ Paul answered, the jest half joke and half warning. His friend winked in Ellen’s direction.
A blush burned her skin.
‘Quite the diamond,’ Captain Montgomery commented, looking back at Paul. ‘And all yours, yes, I know. No wonder you do not wish to leave your wife behind.’
‘Come.’ Paul’s hand gently embraced her arm. ‘Let me introduce you to my men. Good day, George.’ Glancing back at his friend, he nodded in parting, the pressure of his fingers encouraging Ellen to move away.
‘Good day, Paul.’ His friend’s smile passed from Paul to her again. ‘Ma’am.’
She smiled. He was a rogue; she could see the twinkle in his eye, and as they walked away Paul confirmed it. ‘George is a charmer, but you are to pay no mind to it, he is harmless in reality. Simply a slave to a pretty face?—’
‘A sublime face!’
The shout came from behind them, and they both looked back. Captain Montgomery grinned, lifting a hand in a gesture that said goodbye. Paul scowled when she looked at him, but then his gaze grew depth and warmth. ‘It is true, though – you have a sublime face,’ he said, with humour in his voice.
A smile she could not have held back parted her lips. She could live in Paul’s world when there was a soft look in his eyes to carry her through. He let go of her arm, and instead she held his, as he pointed to a two-storey, red-brick building on the far side of the parade ground. ‘My men are quartered there. Tomorrow I shall have to be here at eight o’clock to run them through their paces. I imagine they will have been lax during leave. It is time we returned to routine.’
She could not even begin to imagine the routine of her new life.
When they entered the room full of soldiers, it was very different from meeting the officers. There were shouts and whoops, and a mass of masculine energy surrounded her. She pressed close to Paul, holding the sleeve of his scarlet coat tighter as his other arm lifted, calling for quiet.
‘Show my wife some courtesy!’
The men then paraded past her, and Paul gave their names as they bowed.
She did not lift her hand to any of them but feeling wide-eyed and unnerved, nodded at their comments and congratulations. Her mind spun with names at the end of it, and she could not match one to any man in the room.
‘Will you stay and take a drink with us?’ Paul’s sergeant asked Paul.
Paul looked at her, a question in his eyes.Are you comfortable?
She was to live among these men, in closer quarters than she had lived with her sisters. She refused to be feeble. She nodded.
The sergeant flicked his hand at one of the soldiers who moved to begin pouring from a jug, and others then moved too, refilling pewter beakers. She was given one full of frothing small beer, as was Paul, and then the sergeant encouraged them to take a seat on a long bench beside a long wooden table.
