Chapter13
Drew continued to hold Aurora’s hand as they rolled along, sitting side by side in the close confines of the carriage.
Aurora was silent but occasionally looked at him with a soft smile playing on her lips. He still could not fathom that she had so little faith in a man’s word. He would not look elsewhere for a bride, or a lover either. Not now.
But Aurora must have a good reason for not putting her future and happiness in his hands.
He did not believe it was anything he had done or not done to give her those doubts.
At his new home, Aurora allowed him to assist her out. He knew none of the neighbors yet, which was fortunate. They would not recognize Aurora or know she shouldn’t be here with him without a chaperone or maid’s protection.
Aurora removed her bonnet and set her reticule on a hallway table and looked around.
The house was still as quiet as the first time he’d come here with her. He’d yet to engage servants for the place, having only settled the purchase just yesterday. But all the dust cloths were folded away, and the fires were ready to be lit.
Aurora nodded, looking around again. “Have you found a tenant yet?”
“I have someone in mind.” Himself. He’d decided to move here, with or without a wife. It would make meeting Aurora in secret easier, since none of their friends would know of his change of address for a while yet.
“That is good news. When will it be occupied?”
“Oh, any day now, I should think,” he promised. His servants were packing his trunks at this very moment.
“We will have to find somewhere else to meet then, I suppose,” she remarked, dragging her fingers over the wood paneling as if she adored the place.
“Not as soon as all that,” he promised quickly, lest she put him off again. He took off his hat and gloves and left them beside her bonnet on the hall table. He would move in and surprise her with his new address the next time they met here. Today was for easing her into his arms again. Willingly. He hoped she might stay a while longer than she had the last time they were together. It had been days since they’d been alone. “Have the Whartons returned yet?”
“No. But I expect them on Friday,” Aurora promised. “I had a long letter from Sylvia explaining that they had all decided to stay in Bath a little longer than originally planned.”
“Good.” Wharton’s return, and particularly Sylvia’s, would complicate matters and make it harder to see each other. “Would you care for a drink or a light repast?”
“Do you have food here now? I thought you said this was an investment.”
“Oh, you are not wrong. But I’ve been spending so much time here the past week, waiting for you, that I brought some things along in case I miss the pie seller passing by. Were you hungry?”
“I’m only hungry for you.”
“That is exactly what a man hopes to hear.” He walked to her, took her face in his hands, and kissed her gently. He’d been much too angry with her earlier to have enjoyed their first kiss of the day. Seeing her with a young man had made him insanely jealous. Until he’d realized the man was a potential client, he’d felt threatened. He ought to apologize now and clear up the misunderstanding. “I must apologize for my earlier behavior. I have no excuse.”
“I made you angry. People say and do a lot of things in such a condition,” she replied in an offhand manner that again gave him pause.
“That is not the behavior of a gentleman,” he admitted, embarrassed even now by the way he’d carried on.
“That’s the behavior of every man I’ve ever known,” she informed him with a shrug. “You are all bossy creatures. You want what you want. When you want it, and heaven help anyone who gets in your way.”
“I will try not to be as bad as all that in the future,” he promised, but Aurora only patted his chest and walked around him toward the staircase.
She stopped, reached back, and fluttered her fingers in his direction, inviting him to go with her up the treads. Drew did not hesitate to follow.
The bedchambers were also ready for occupation, and she led him to the chamber they’d made use of the last time.
She glanced at the large bed, the one they’d lain in together, and cast him a wicked smile. “You made the bed again?”
“It’s one of my newly acquired skills,” he answered. “You should see me chop wood.”
“That must be where you acquired all those muscles I admire so much,” she suggested, turning with an arched smile.
“The muscles you were so surprised I had?”