Page 84 of The Lord Next Door
His voice still moved her. “Good morning, David. Did you sleep well?”
Oh goodness. She might just as well have asked him why he left her bed.
“I did, thank you. And yourself?” He looked down at a sheaf of papers he was putting into a satchel.
A clutch of sadness hit her heart. It was as if he didn’t care.
“I slept just fine.” She wanted to say something funny, like he’d exhausted her, but his remote expression kept the words locked in her throat.
“I can’t ride with you this morning,” he said. “I have a meeting scheduled with my steward about our Scotland properties.”
“Of course,” she murmured.
“What time would you like to leave this evening?”
“Leave?”
“The masquerade begins at ten o’clock.”
“Masquerade?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I assumed you now wished to attend every important event of the ton.”
“Of course,” she said quickly. “I’ll be ready before ten.”
“Perhaps you should be ready at seven. We have a dinner with the Prime Minister at eight.”
“Oh.” Her head was whirling. But this was what she’d wanted.
Yet—why suddenly did it feel as if he was keeping her busy, keeping a wall between them?
After he’d gone, she stared at the front door, considering what might have happened between last night and today. Did he sense her deceit? Or had she foolishly thought lovemaking would solve everything? He knew her body, but after all, he didn’t know the secrets in her mind. How could she think to know everything about him?
~oOo~
After his meeting with the steward, David took a carriage to Southern Railway, and tried to think of the business ahead instead of his wife.
His radiant wife, whose face had lit like the sun when she’d seen him that morning.
Part of him had wanted to sweep her into his arms, to greet her as if the hours apart had been too long. And they had been. He had had a difficult time sleeping, knowing he could have been warm at her side instead of alone.
What was wrong with him? He had every night from now on to be alone with Victoria—hell, he could take her during the day if he wanted. And the moment he’d seen her, he’d wanted to.
As if he didn’t have any control.
He was already making a spectacle of himself.
~oOo~
That afternoon, when Victoria arrived home and went to her bedroom to prepare for the evening, she noticed that the household journal was lying on her desk, not where she’d left it. She opened it and found that David had penned the words, Until tonight.
She closed her eyes as memories of their mutual desire awoke within her. How could she honestly worry about their marriage if they shared this?
She was still staring at the notebook when her mother knocked and peered around the door.
“Victoria?”
“Come in, Mama.”
