Page 57 of Her Impeccable Scoundrel
“I’m sorry.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “It was brutal. I was wrong. I made you cry and…”
“A whore, Graeme. And that was after you pulled Archie off of me and started a fight that drew everyone out of the ballroom before I’d put my bodice right. Archie came to our wedding with a black eye that hadn’t quite healed.”
“I’m not sorry about blackening his eye. I am sorry they made you marry him.”
“They made me marry him, and I wanted to marry him. More fool I.”
“I was crushed, Blythe. I wanted, I hoped, that when I was old enough, you would still be unmarried. I thought, you ought to have waited. I was too proud to say that, so instead…” He took in a breath. “I loved you, and then I hated you, and now?—”
“Now you want to swive me.”
“No,” he said, emphatically. “There’s nothing ugly in what I feel, in what I want from you. I tried to put you out of my mind. And I almost succeeded.”
“You will try again and this time you will succeed.”
“Yes.” The heat in his eyes made her toes curl and told her they were talking at cross-purposes. “I won’t stop trying.” He kissed her again, briefly, tenderly, and stepped back. “I’m very good at peeling apples. How many do you need?”
Chapter Thirteen
The journey to town was long, the tedium inside the coach broken up by games, naps, food from the basket Blythe had prepared, and Lady Hermione’s story telling.
Radley, stout traveler that she was, rode part of the way up on top with Graeme’s valet. When it rained, she crammed inside the large vehicle with them. Coralie and Nicholas, who had never traveled farther than the village, enjoyed the new sights and the adventure.
It was well past dark when they crept into London, and the one footman left on duty admitted them. Maids went to hastily make up the nursery and Radley led both children upstairs, while Blythe promised to join them in moments.
“We didn’t expect you, my lord.” Adwick appeared, pulling on his coat, his tone bordering on peevish.
“Apologies, Adwick,” Graeme said. “It couldn’t be helped. My wards and Mr. Jarrow will be staying with us. I’ll need someone to carry a message tonight, and we’ll all need a light meal.”
“Not I,” Lady Hermione said. “I’m for bed. Good night, my dears.”
They wished her a good night too, and Graeme invited Mr. Jarrow and Blythe to join him in the library.
“I’ll be along in a moment,” she said, and both men left.
“The green room for Mr. Jarrow,” she told the butler, “and tell Cook, sandwiches in the library will do. Has my brother gone out?”
“Yes, my lady. He was to attend the theater and a ball afterwards.”
“Has he left any messages?”
“In fact, there is a letter he asked me to post to you first thing tomorrow.”
Her heart thumped wildly and all her fatigue vanished. “I’d like to see it immediately.”
“There are some other letters for you as well.”
She’d best look at all of them. Lunetta had promised to write again.
“I’ll wait here, while you may bring me those as well.”
When Adwick returned, she carried the letters upstairs to her chamber, where one of the footmen was settling her trunk.
Graeme would be sending a message to his friend to secure more men to guard the children, but surely that could not be arranged until the morrow. She hoped he and Jarrow would stay in tonight.
She herself would go to the nursery. Nicholas might be frightened by the new surroundings. Firstly though…
She picked up the unfranked letter and recognized Will’s scrawl.
