Eliza clung to Darius’s warmth when he wrapped his arms around her. It was the first time he’d touched her since making love to her the night before. God, it felt like a lifetime ago already.
When he spoke, she curled into the vibrations of his voice, the touch of his fingers at her back, until his words sank in. “I’ll leave within the hour.”
She pushed out of his arms. “What? You can’t leave us behind.”
“You will still be well guarded, but I cannot take you with me. I also can’t leave my men to keep repairing the ship while I rusticate. They need my help and an extra pair of hands. The quicker all of that is done, the sooner we can be gone from here.”
“But we only just—” She stopped herself in time before she admitted how much she had been looking forward to the night when it was the two of them, alone but together. There hadn’t been a lot of time to dwell on the events of the night, before the fire, but each time she sat, her body reminded her of the way Darius had risen above her and claimed her as his. She could still feel the delicious tingle of her lips when his eyes dropped to her mouth as though he wanted to kiss her again.
“You will come back, won’t you?” Hadn’t that been her fear all along? That he would take her dowry and disappear? Had she been right about her misgivings?
“I will return as soon as I am able.” His voice emerged husky, the words almost a whisper as they carried his promise and, damn her, she believed him.
She was being silly and selfish wanting him to stay just so he would hold her and make love to her again. Her cheeks warmed at her own wantonness but with every wicked thought, she found she cared less and less for being proper and cared more and more for Darius and none other.
Outside of her own desires, he didn’t have to tell her how much there was to gain from a quick getaway. Each and every sound during the night had woken her from her tossing and turning until the sun came peeking over the horizon in a rare display telling everyone that winter wouldn’t stay forever. It had almost given her hope that perhaps this day wouldn’t be worse than the one before.
But she had been wrong. Wrong to hope. Wrong to want.
Eliza nodded and stepped away from her husband, forced to trust him. Forced to let him go. “Of course, you must go.” It hurt so much to say the words but reason stole its way in. They wouldn’t be entirely alone. They were watched by armed men by day and by night and if she wanted to, she could sleep with the children if she grew lonely or worried for them.
Darius looked as though he wanted to say something else, perhaps a reassurance? He drew in a deep breath and then let it out. He pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was fierce. He didn’t linger, but it told her what she needed to know. That he didn’t want to go anywhere at all, that desperation drove him. His ship and his men needed him in the same way her brothers and sisters needed her. They both had to remain strong.
Hours later she watched him ride down the drive with a half-dozen sailors fanned out around him and she wondered where she would pull that strength from. She wondered how she would put on a brave face and distract the others from Darius’s absence.
She already wondered when he would be back.
Chapter Twenty-One
The first full week as a bastard’s wife was apparently as uneventful as the day Eliza married one. And the day before that. Well, actually that day had been eventful. As she stared at her hands, now fully healed from the small cuts gained from crawling over broken glass, and beyond them to the snow-covered grounds, she actually thanked the Lord for a quiet day. A quiet two days with no sign of her husband returning from where he’d docked his ship or of Marcus returning from London.
Had Wickham caught up with Marcus? Had Harold spilled their secrets? Or had their unknown assailants with a penchant for broken windows and screaming children shown their faces? Wickham should have been the last creditor standing according to the papers in her father’s study. If she’d had the bullets in her gun, she might have killed him when he’d approached her lands. But she didn’t have it in her to murder in cold blood. Her gaze shifted from her hands to Gabriella as the two wandered the courtyard between the sheltered wings of the great house.
“How are you faring with all of this?” Eliza asked her next youngest sister.
“Surprisingly I’m all right. I have the strangest feeling that everything will work out for the best.”
She wished she had that feeling also. Before she could comment, Gabriella went on. “Do you think you will find happiness with Darius?”
Eliza raised her face to the weak sun breaking through clouds heavy with another downpour. Predicting her own future was much like trying to guess how many seconds would pass before the first drop of water fell to the ground. But if she did have a crystal ball like the gypsy aunt her father proclaimed her to be similar in nature to, of course she would say yes. Why would she hope to be sad and lonely for all her days? She’d done nothing to deserve that. Gabriella on the other hand had shot their father. Yes, her reasons were righteous but her actions were not.
She finally answered, “He is a very kind and considerate man.”
Gabriella was silent for all
