Amazed by the wide variety of emotions passing in fleeting moments across Eden’s delicate features, Raven wasted no time in meaningless pleasantries. “I expected you to be relieved I didn’t disturb your sleep last night, but that consideration doesn’t seem to have improved either your spirits or your health. You needn’t play the invalid on my account, but if you’re truly ill, I’ll summon a physician as soon as we dock this afternoon.”
It was too soon for a doctor to confirm her pregnancy, so Eden had no interest in seeing one. “This last week has been extremely difficult for us both. I’m sorry that I haven’t your strength, but I’m sure I’ll survive without a doctor’s attentions.”
Raven poured their tea and took the seat beside her. “All right, I trust you to know what’s best. We’ll spend only a couple of days in London, but if you’d like to move into the townhouse, I’ll arrange it.”
Eden frowned slightly, not truly understanding his question. “Are you asking if I want to go there alone rather than stay on board the Jamaican Wind with you?”
With her rumpled nightgown and unruly mop of curls, Eden looked as childlike as she sounded, inspiring Raven to make a valiant effort to hold his temper. “No, that’s not the choice at all. The both of us will either stay on board, or go to the townhouse. I have no intention of sending you off by yourself.”
Eden added a spoonful of sugar to her tea, and took a sip, but it was too hot to drink yet and she quickly set her cup back down. She seemed to constantly be apologizing to the man, and after the easy rapport she had had with Alex, that was deeply troubling. “I didn’t mean to upset you again, Raven. It was completely unintentional. Please don’t think that I do it on purpose.”
That would be too fiendish a practice even for her, in Raven’s view, and he reached out to pat her hand lightly. “I’m not upset. I just don’t want you to be confused. I want us to live as husband and wife just as we did at Briarcliff, not like some estranged couple who can barely tolerate each other.”
Eden sighed softly, thinking them far closer to being estranged than happily married. “Alex loved and trusted you, Raven, and I’m trying to do the same, but it’s awfully difficult when you don’t trust me.”
“Trust isn’t something that can be won overnight, Eden. Now you didn’t answer me. Which is it to be, do you want to stay on board, or go to the townhouse tonight?”
Eden did not want the memory of the one night she had spent there with Alex, their wedding night, ruined as she feared an inevitable fight with Raven would surely do. “I’d rather just stay on board if you don’t mind. It will save us the trouble of packing our things again for such a short stay.”
Delighted to find she also had a practical side, Raven began to smile. “I agree. Speaking of your things, I’ll send a note to your aunt in the morning, and if she’s free in the afternoon we’ll stop by for a brief visit and pick up your trunks.”
“Oh Raven, do you really think that we dare?”
Raven had completely forgotten he had warned Eden her reception at her aunt’s home would not be warm. A clever man, he caught the intent of her question immediately and provided an appropriate answer. “Even if you had not left so many of your clothes there, we would still owe her the courtesy of a call before we sail to Jamaica. She will undoubtedly have heard about Alex’s death, and that ought to ensure that she’ll at least be civil. I was worried you would not be made to feel welcome if you asked to return to her home. Our visit will be another matter altogether and shouldn’t be too taxing for any of us.”
“And when she learns we have married?” Eden asked shyly.
“I think we’d better save that announcement for when we are walking out the door.” Raven knew that news would easily create a scandal that would far outlast her mother’s elopement with an American. The excruciatingly well-mannered Lady Lawton would probably faint dead away, but that could not be helped. He started to laugh then, even though he knew Eden would never understand why.
Eden stared at her husband, shocked he could find anything humorous in what she knew would be an uncomfortable situation at best. Then she realized she had never really seen him laugh in such a lighthearted fashion. On numerous occasions he had used sarcastic laughter to taunt her, but that was not his purpose now. He was simply enjoying himself, and to her own amazement, she found she enjoyed watching him.
As Raven’s deep laughter echoed against the cabin’s teak paneling, Eden continued to study him. She had been thrilled by his rare smiles, but she had never before noticed that his lips had an appealing rose tint as though he had just finished a glass of burgundy or port. That she had kissed those lips with all the passion that still filled her heart made her blush.
At last Raven noticed the confusion in Eden’s glance and, as usual, misread the cause. “I wasn’t laughing at your aunt,” he hastened to explain. “It’s just that her kind is always more concerned with appearance than the truth so they are quite easily shocked.”
“That’s true,” Eden agreed, for she had soon learned appearances meant far more to Lydia and Stephanie than they ever had to her. Her attention had been focused so closely on him she had completely forgotten about her aunt, though. When she found him staring at her with an equal intensity, she was horribly embarrassed.
“Oh I must look awful!” she complained in a helpless
squeal. She had not paused to wash her face or brush her hair before searching for her diary. She had then been so lost in the thoughts of a child when Raven had entered the cabin that she had forgotten all about her appearance. That was an oversight that appalled her now.
Eden’s sudden dismay sent Raven into another burst of hearty laughter. “You still look beautiful, even if your grooming does leave a little to be desired. But what difference does that make? I’m your husband and you needn’t worry about how you look when you’re with me. Would you like to bathe before you dress? If the cook isn’t simmering soup in our tub, I’ll bring it right in for you.”
“You and your men bathe in a tub the cook uses for soup?” Such an unhygienic practice made Eden shudder. “Please remind me never to taste his soup.”
Despite the elegance of her manners, Eden displayed a remarkable innocence at times. Her lashes had nearly swept her brows as she had apparently imagined him and his crew dining on vegetables cooked in dirty bath water. “I’m teasing you,” he readily admitted. “The tub is only used for bathing, never for cooking. It was just a joke. I wanted to make you laugh too.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered by that?” Eden asked, still disconcerted by his peculiar sense of humor.
Eden looked insulted rather than amused, and Raven grabbed a biscuit as he rose to attend to the promised errand. He leaned down to kiss her cheek, then left before he was tempted to push his luck any further.
“Strange man,” Eden whispered to herself. He could be direct to the point of cruelty. He had a terrible temper, but he certainly didn’t brood over their disagreements. He would just go off by himself and the next time she saw him, more often than not, he would tease her as though no angry words had ever passed between them.
“It must be a trick of some kind,” she mused with a perplexed frown, “some sort of bizarre strategy.” She picked up her diary, and took care when she left the table. She still did not feel truly well, though, and nibbled a biscuit as she made up the bunk, hoping that having something more than tea in her stomach would be a help, and it was. She would just have to remember to move more slowly in the mornings, and pray she did not feel so ill she could not hide it until a babe was a certainty rather than merely a fond desire. She had absolutely no idea how she would reveal such monumentous news to Raven, but hoped by the time she had to do so, she would know him well enough to be able to do it in a manner that would make him as proud as she was sure to be.
Chapter Eleven
August 1863