Page 66 of Slippers and Thorns
She’d crawled into bed early the previous evening and pretended to be asleep when Mike came in, then risen early to disappear into the halls for an indoor walk, having left a note that she would meet him at breakfast.
Breakfast was awkward, at least for her. She kept waiting for him to say something about it, but the little conversation that they maintained centered around their interrupted departure plans. Mike smiled pleasantly at her, but she could tell it was strained. The bags under his eyes might have been a side effect of his cold, but she couldn’t convince herself that the crease between his eyebrows was from the same cause.
Even though he didn’t say so, she knew Mike expected her actions the night before to indicate a change in the type of affection that he was allowed. Unfortunately, Ella was desperately wishing she could take it back.
Not that she regretted kissing him, precisely. She deeply appreciated that he had not dismissed her concerns but had instead listened to them and acknowledged them.
But they would soon be back at Hartford. Back in the full glut of his distractions.
Back where she was not nearly as important to him.
So while she didn’t regret rewarding him with a kiss on the cheek, she still didn’t want to move beyond that. Not until she knew how he would act after their return.
After breakfast, since the weather wouldn’t allow for outdoor activities, she reluctantly joined Mike in the library. It was semi-public, at least, but there was a loveseat that he always insisted on sitting on when they were there together. She settled into the spot under his arm as usual, but she held herself more stiffly than she had the day before. Mike’s hand trailed across her shoulder and down her arm, tempting her to give in and snuggle closer.
“How are you feeling?” she asked after he sneezed the third time. Refusing to snuggle didn’t mean she couldn’t be concerned for his health.
He set his book on his lap and picked up his cup of tea, leaving his left arm across the back of the loveseat behind her. After inhaling deeply of the steam wafting off the cup, he took a sip, coughed, and set it back on the end table. “I’ll survive.”
“Are you going to be all right to travel tomorrow?” She furrowed her brow as she watched him make use of his handkerchief. “Won’t riding through the cold for several days make it worse?”
Shaking his head, he stuffed the handkerchief back in his pocket and smiled at her. “If the first day does me in, we’ll stay at the inn longer.”
He squeezed her shoulder with his left hand. She smiled slightly and sternly told herself that she couldn’t bolt. Not yet.
But after lunch, Ella escaped to the halls again to slowly wander, pausing from time to time at a window to watch the snow gently falling. She needed to figure out how she was going to handle the rest of the evening and the night to come.
Not to mention the following days and nights, whether they were traveling, holed up in an inn to let Mike rest, or still at Reineggburg if the poor weather persisted.
Maybe she could simply give up and let him kiss her. It wasn’t as if she didn’t want it, after all. Would it be such a big deal to let her husband have her heart?
Until he dropped it again…
Sighing, she resumed walking down the hall. It didn’t seem quite right that “happily ever after” should be so hard. Maybe there was no such thing.
She felt the hair on the back of her neck starting to rise just before reaching the next window. Pausing, she gently touched her hand to her skin. It almost felt like—
She froze. It was the same feeling that seemed to herald the trance-like state in the men.
But the last time was only the previous morning!
Glancing around uneasily, she saw a male servant traveling down the hall with a strange gait. It couldn’t be happening!
But it was.
“Mike!” she gasped.
Perhaps she should have tried to do something for the poor servant, but all her focus was on her husband. She’d left him in the library; she’d start there. If he was gone, she would check their room, the dining room, anywhere she could think of.
Spinning on her heel, she raced off down the hall.
CHAPTER 29
Michael
M
ichael tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, his eyes staring at the open book on his lap without seeing it.
