Page 75 of A Foolish Flirtation

“Let me take care of you, Ballentine,” he said, his eyes so warm and full of tender concern. “We need to get cleaned up before you can sleep. Is that agreeable to you?”

She nodded, and he looked so sleepily happy she could not regret it. Jeremy spent the next twenty minutes assiduously tending to her as they washed and settled back into the bed together. With each passing minute she felt herself relax a little more in his company, until finally she was calm once again. He would not hurt her. She was being foolish.

Emmie was just dropping off to sleep when she suddenly remembered something. “You know, there are two purple chaise longues already in the viscountess’s sitting room,” she said drowsily.

“In your sitting room, you mean?” he replied, a frown in his voice.

“Yes.”

“Are there?” He sounded genuinely surprised by this news.

“Yes, purple ones.” He shrugged, and she reflected once again that he could not have spent much time in his wife’s rooms. “We could always move one of them into here,” she suggested.

A smile curved his lips as though he knew full well she was reflecting on his earlier words. “This room is currently blue and orange,” he reminded her. “Do you not think the color might be ill-suited?”

It was Emmie’s turn to shrug. “I am not really accustomed to whole rooms being so uniform in color and theme,” she admitted.

He turned his head to look at her. “Even in your father’s smart London townhouse?”

“Even there,” she agreed. “We had a yellow saloon but even that had chairs that were upholstered in green velvet and over time more colors crept in.”

“I see,” he yawned, and his eyes closed. “Is it alright if I fall asleep in here?” he asked without opening them. “If you would rather I cleared out and left you, I will, of course.”

“Why would I want that?” she asked in surprise, but Jeremy was already asleep. He said such strange things sometimes, she reflected, reaching out to touch his cheek. She wondered if she would ever really understand what was going on in that pretty head of his.

17

Jeremy woke early, and after kissing Emmeline’s bare shoulder, he made his way stealthily back to his own rooms via the connecting door. Here, he wrapped himself in his dressing robe and rang the bell for his wash and shave.

It was only after Simons, his valet, started hunting around for his evening clothes that he realized he must have left them in a heap on his wife’s bedroom floor. So much for conjugal discretion. “One moment,” he told Simons and slipped back through the door to collect them.

Emmeline was still sleeping soundly, and he could not resist dropping another kiss on her delightfully rounded shoulder. He was half regretful for having left her so early, but it was his habit when in the country to rise at seven and then spend his morning at the stables. As it was, Masterson, his stable manager, would have looked for him in vain the previous day.

Simons took the proffered clothing with his eyes tactfully averted, and Jeremy dressed in riding clothes before heading out of the house. It was overcast at present, and if he was not mistaken, there would be rain later in the day. He headed down toward the racing stables at a brisk pace, for it was a good twenty-minute walk to reach the block where he kept his racehorses.

As he walked, Jeremy’s mind dwelled pleasurably on the previous day. There was much to be happy about and not just the highly satisfactory ending to it. For one, there was the easy camaraderie she had already established with his son.

She had fitted in so well, seamlessly in fact, into their game of soldiers in the nursery. She had been charming with Teddy all day, chattering away with him in a natural and easy fashion. That side of things was already progressing far better than he could have hoped, even in his wildest dreams.

Emmeline might not think she made the greatest impression on Mina and Nye, but he was sure they thought her a vast improvement on his first wife. Amanda had wanted to cut the connection with his siblings altogether. Not that he had ever allowed it, but all the same, before Mina had come along, his relationship with his brother had been rocky, almost nonexistent at times.

Nye was both stubborn and proud, and moreover he had not needed Jeremy. Most likely he had resented his golden brother who had always lived in luxury at Vance Park while he carved out a living in a busy inn and among the boxing rings of Exeter.

Mina had been the key to cracking that particular nut, and though Jeremy might regret how he had gone about it, for his treatment of her at the time had been undeniably poor, luckily his sister had forgiven him, and things had worked out for the best. Now, even Nye had thawed enough to visit Vance and accept his hospitality.

All was going swimmingly. The only fly in the ointment had been Emmeline’s request the previous morning that they never again mention the night of the Hawfords’ ball. That had stung. Of course, even for him, the memory was bittersweet. Still, he would have thought that moment in the conservatory between them was worth preserving. It hurt somehow that she did not agree.

Overall, though, she had forgiven him a great deal, so he knew he did not have the grounds to resent her request. She had married him, despite his past behavior and he was extremely grateful for that fact. She wanted to look to the future, that was what she had said before and she was right. It was only, he did rather treasure their shared history and it felt confining somehow to know he could never allude to it again.

To give her her due, he had not been through the same repercussions she had. After that fateful season, he had not gone into a social and financial decline as it appeared Emmeline had. His steps slowed as he suddenly wondered if she had suffered more rather more reverberations from that night than he had ever realized.

Was it possible that someone had seen their clinch in the conservatory? Someone other than that fool chaperone woman, Smith or whatever her name was. Could it be that she had told Emmeline’s father about their embrace, and then Emmeline had been forced to shoulder sole blame for it? Had her punishment been the abrupt end of her only season?

Before now, he had teased Emmeline by saying she had let him “practically ruin her” but had those teasing words struck uncomfortably close to the truth? He turned cold at the thought. Had he in fact truly ruined her prospects? Had that been the reason she had ended up withdrawing from fashionable society and become engaged to that idiot Stockton?

He racked his brains to try to think if he had ever seen her after that fateful night. It had all been such a miserable blur. He had not wanted to see her when he knew he no longer had the smallest hope of approaching her. Instead, he had used his engagement as an excuse to stop attending all those gatherings altogether. Why would he attend now, when there was nothing to be gained from them?

Amanda and her mama had been furious that he had not wanted to be paraded about like a caught fish, but he had been selfish enough not to care. She had the diamond on her finger, and he would say the vows in church. Other than the odd morning promenade, a few rides in the park, and a family ball at the Tiptons’ townhouse, he could not remember much else from that period in his life.