Page 57 of The Lover's Eye
Her pulse quickened at the possibilities.There was still so much of their marital life they had not discussed, so many expectations yet to be revealed.
Without answering, he walked on until they reached a quiet niche beneath the stairs.He sat her down with excessive gentleness, her feet not making a sound as they connected with the tiled floor.
“You may go wherever you like,” he said, smiling down at her as she smoothed her skirts.“I only thought I’d take you away from the staff.Save you the trouble of introductions.”
Isobel paused in her task to look at him.“Why?”
“I could tell they made you nervous.”
“I—Well, thank you,” she said, smiling.She peered out into the deserted corridor.“I am sure I will grow more comfortable with them in time.”
“I am sure you will.And your lady’s maid will be here before day’s end.”Betsey had stayed back at Shoremoss Hall to gather the last of her and Isobel’s belongings.
“In the meantime,” Giles said, removing his gold pocket watch from his waistcoat and checking the time, “would you like one of the staff to show you to your room?Old Finch might give you a history lesson, but he’d do a respectable job.”
Isobel recalled the crease-weary countenance of the aged butler.As her husband had carried her into the house, she had tossed a momentary glance over his shoulder, and Finch’s face was the last she’d seen.His eyes had locked with hers, and though he wore no expression—other than one of aged impatience—Isobel got the distinct, chilling sensation he did not approve of her.
“Perhaps you might show me, instead?”she asked in a small voice.
Something glittered in Giles’s eyes, and he offered her his arm.“The pleasure would be mine.”
They advanced up the grand staircase, and he guided her down a corridor new and unexplored to her, with gaping height and ornamental door casings.He stopped before a wide, oak panel door.
“These are your chambers,” he said, releasing her arm.“And mine are just there.”He pointed to the nearest door on the left.
Isobel glanced down the corridor in the opposite direction.A little gape of light was emerging from the next door on the right.“And what is there?”
Giles stiffened and wordlessly went to the open door.He shut it firmly, removing a little set of keys from his pocket to lock it.“It is nothing, but perhaps dangerous.Some unfinished renovations.I would not wish you to injure yourself.”
Isobel nodded, smiling and returning her attention to the unrevealed room before her.“May I?”
He was back at her side now and rested a light hand on her back.“Of course.”
She twisted the handle and stepped inside, pausing before they reached the room’s center.
Giles rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.“I asked Finch and Mrs.Taylor, the housekeeper, to bring it up to date for you.But if anything they have done does not suit you, I will only be too happy to—”
Isobel turned suddenly and, to his evident surprise, grasped her husband’s arm.She stared up at him, smiling until her cheeks lifted and her eyes crinkled.“Do not be silly, Giles.It is lovely.You did not have to alter it at all.”
“You would not say that, if you had seen it before,” he said, warmth pooling in his eyes.“My mother, God rest her soul, had created a chintz mausoleum of the place.”
“Well, I adore it.”
Isobel was being truthful.The cavernous chamber was more substantial than her room at Ridgeway House and did not have the stiff air of Shoremoss Hall.Each nook was tastefully occupied by carved antique furniture, making the largeness feel approachable and comfortable.
The walls had been papered in sage green silk with a subdued floral pattern that put her in mind of the walled garden, and complimentary pastel draperies enclosed the fourposter bed.There was a chaise longue angled before the marble fireplace, its silken upholstery warming by the low-licking flames.The space seemed to reverberate the comfortable familiarity of home, no matter that it was Isobel’s first time seeing it.
“I must take extra care to thank Mrs.Taylor and Mr.Finch for their good taste,” she said.“And thank you, of course.”Isobel lifted her eyes once more to Giles.Her hold on his arm had loosened, her hands sliding down to rest on his.
“You need not thank me.”He raised his unoccupied hand to smooth a hair from her forehead.“You are at home, now.”
The soft scrape of his fingertips sent little shivers across her scalp.Mere inches separated them from touching, from sharing some greater intimacy like the kiss Isobel longed to recapture.
But Giles cleared his throat and lowered his hand from her face.“Excuse me, I need to retrieve something from my chamber.”
She watched as he stepped away, expecting him to exit through the half-open door they had entered by.When he veered to a door on the adjacent wall, opening it to reveal a little dressing room and an adjoining bedroom, her mouth gaped.Their rooms connected?
Heat bristled up her neck.Only a week ago she’d grappled with the idea of being engaged to Giles.Now they would sleep just steps apart, separated only by two meager doors?Or …
