“I honor you with every second of my life,” he said, his voice gruff with sincerity.
Astonishment lit her eyes, although surely she must already know that was true.
“Oh, my dear,” she said in a broken rush and rose on her toes to kiss his lips. Odd that this kiss, totally devoid of passion, should lay waste to every defense in a way those extravagantly passionate kisses hadn’t.
He cleared his throat to shift an inconvenient lump and made himself straighten, although his hands remained at her waist. He couldn’t bear not to touch her.
“Now, my wife...” His voice sounded impressively steady, although he had to work like the devil to keep it that way. “It’s time to tell me about Kerenza.”
Chapter Seven
* * *
Morwenna straightened her yellow dress, although she suspected anyone who saw her must guess just what she’d been doing in the breakfast room. She took Robert’s hand. Odd to think that last night, she’d been afraid to touch him. Now it seemed as natural as breathing. Mo
re natural, in fact, than it had when they’d been together after their marriage. Then she’d been so young and uncertain. Not uncertain of her love, but uncertain that she was a worthy wife to such a superior creature as Robert Nash, naval hero, London gentleman, and brother to a lord.
Now none of those worldly things mattered. What mattered was that she loved him, and he’d suffered so much, and her presence calmed the devils she saw in his eyes when he thought she wasn’t watching.
“Come with me.”
He followed with alacrity. “Are you taking me upstairs to have your wicked way with me?”
She regarded him in surprise. Not at the suggestion. Despite that shuddering encounter that left her weak-kneed and breathless, hunger still hummed about him. If she set out to seduce him, she knew he’d cooperate.
No, she was surprised because what he said almost sounded like the teasing, laughing man she’d married. He wasn’t smiling, but the fraught air was absent. While not exactly at ease, he no longer seemed likely to shatter into a million pieces at the first provocation.
“You have to go to the Admiralty. And I need to tell you about Kerenza.” She crossed to unlock the door, feeling the pull on well-used muscles with every step. “But when you have time, I’m at your disposal.”
“Morwenna?” He sounded dazed. His steps slowed, and his hand tightened on hers.
She turned her head and cast him a searching look. “You’re not the only one who has missed conjugal relations, Robert.”
A spark lit his black eyes, and he pulled his hand free. There was a different quality in his curiosity as he studied her. “You’ve changed.”
Her lips flattened. “Of course I have. I’m older. I’ve had a child. Not to mention that I spent an eternity alone and grieving for you.”
He took her hand again. The ease of the gesture proved anew that he emerged from the frozen wastes where his soul had wandered for so long. “I wasn’t sure at first, you know.”
“That I’d grieved for you?”
“Yes.”
She looked at him aghast. “Oh, Robert...”
He directed a burning stare at her. “Do you love Garson?”
“You know I don’t.”
“Then why did you agree to marry him?”
Morwenna blinked back stinging tears. She wasn’t sure she was up to handling this inquisition so soon after succumbing to that stupendous climax. All her emotions ranged far too close to the surface, and she feared saying something to bring the bleakness back to his eyes. She recalled the frightening blankness in his face as he braced himself to tell the family what had happened to him in South America. She never wanted to see that expression again.
She sucked in a breath and made herself answer. “Because it had been five wretched, empty years without you. Because Kerenza needs a father. Because while I might have felt like I died with you, I didn’t, and I’m only twenty-six. Because he’s a good man. Since you’ve been gone, I’ve lived in isolation, apart from when your family dragged me out into the open. But this season, when Sally Cowan suggested a second round of Dashing Widows, I decided it was time to be brave and rejoin the world. For Kerenza’s sake, more than my own.”
She braced for him to express his disappointment in her lack of steadfastness. But after a weighty pause, he nodded. “I understand.”
“Do you?”