Page 85 of A Much Maligned Miss

She considered this for a moment before shaking her head. “No,” she said. “The letter has some deeper significance; I am sure of it.” She worried her lip between her teeth.

“Is that it? Have you told me everything now?”

“That’s disturbing me?” She laid her head against his shoulder. “Yes,” she said hesitantly. “That is all.”

He narrowed his eyes and drew back. “Is it? You don’t sound so sure.”

She let out a shaky breath. “How well you know me!” It rather shocked her. No one else had ever bothered to learn her ways.

“I would know you better yet,” he admitted in a low voice. “Now tell me.”

“Oh, very well! It’s just…when I dreamed of it last night, I seemed to notice things that weren’t right about it, the body, I mean. I looked closer and under my shawl, the dress it wore was bluish gray. It wasn’t one of mine but one of the servants’ dresses.” She swallowed, then added in a hushed voice, “And then, I knew. The body was not mine at all but Sophy’s, our maid. I had not realized before, because the bonnet obscured her features. It was horrible, horrible!” she wept, turning into Gervaise’s shoulder.

He ran his hands comfortingly up and down her back. “But don’t you see? That proves it was just a dream, my sweet,” he tutted. “That sort of thing happens all the time in dreams. One person becomes another, a thing vanishes and reappears, the color of a dress changes, a face…”

“I don’t know. Oh, I don’t know. It seemed so real, both then and now.” She lay against him until she was soothed, and they remained like that for a long while, listening to the crackle and hiss of the logs as the fire burned merrily in the grate.

Finally, Caroline tipped her head back to look at him. No doubt her eyes were puffy and red, but he gazed down into her face, showing no sign of disapproval. She plucked at one of the buttons on his shirt. “You know,” she said throatily. “If not for that vision, then I would never have climbed into your carriage the next morning, Gervaise.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Then, forgive my selfishness, my sweet,” he answered softly, “but in that case, I am glad you had it.”

34

“Come here,” Gervaise said as soon had both washed and dressed for bed. He was clad in his nightshirt and she in her voluminous nightgown.

Caroline scooted over and he hugged her close beneath the covers. “Cold?” she asked.

He kissed her brow. This constant craving to hold her was damnably inconvenient but at least he could indulge it at bedtime. He tangled his feet with hers and found hers still encased in socks. “I want to feel your toes,” he admitted huskily.

“My toes?” She sounded startled, as well she might. It was an odd request.

“Yes.”

When she tried free herself of his hold, he perversely tightened his grip on her. “I thought you wanted me to take my socks off,” she exclaimed with a gurgle of laughter.

“No. I want to remove them.” Fuck, why was he so excited about the idea of removing her woolly socks? This spell of celibacy was affecting him strangely. The socks weren’t even hers; they were his!

“Feel free,” she answered. “Though you will be responsible for the warming of them, and I don’t want to hear any complaints about how cold they feel against your ankles.”

He smiled against her hair. “Now you sound like a governess again. Authoritarian.”

“I think you must have a tendresse for governesses,” she mused. “You never had one of your own so it must be a new development. Tell me, how did you find Miss Pinson when you stayed at Vance Park?”

“Miss Pinson?” he echoed, thinking of his godson’s diminutive governess. “An admirable woman, though she would not be my ideal at all. I doubt she’s ever scolded Teddy a day in his life.”

“So, it is a stern governess you desire?” she mused. “A scolding governess with a secret life.”

“A secret life?” he repeated, intrigued.

“Yes, for she cannot be trusted with the men of the house, I remember you saying so.”

He gave a short laugh. “Did I?”

“Yes,” she answered promptly. “You did.”

“Hmmm. No doubt because of that secret prettiness of yours,” he mused. “Only a select few can detect it at first. Teddy saw it,” he admitted grudgingly. “For all my taste and discernment, I only became aware of it that night you were out of your mind on laudanum. Then it wasn’t a secret anymore, but blazingly apparent.”

She caught her breath. “What do you mean?”