Page 77 of The Make-Believe Marriage
He stretched out on the bed and watched her, his grin rakish and admiring as she slipped out of her day gown and began to wash up.
“Yourassetsare glorious, by the way.”
She blushed. “Shouldn’t you start getting ready?”
“No, it’ll take me five minutes and we still have almost an hour before we have to be on our way. I’m enjoying the show.”
“I’m going to hit you with this wet cloth if you don’t behave. But I’m glad you like my body.”
“That is an understatement. I cannot keep my hands off you whenever we are in bed together. Which brings up something that has been on my mind. What sleeping arrangements do you want for us when we return to London? We’ll be staying with Ambrose and Adela for the moment, but we can search for a place of our own to let, if you prefer.”
“I think it makes more sense to stay with Ambrose and Adela until your Admiralty assignment is better settled.”
“Separate bedrooms?”
Her heart tugged. “If that is your wish.”
He rose to come to her side, his magnificence hard to overlook while he stood so close. “You know it isn’t. My preference is one bedchamber and one bed to share. You seem comfortable with this arrangement here, but London will be quite different for you, especially if we are not going to make our marriage real.”
“I know.” She set aside her wash cloth and turned to face him. “It is on my mind constantly, but can we please leave it unanswered for now? This feeling of dread that plagues me does not come from any doubts I have about you. The fear is of an outside force destroying our happiness.”
“And you think that outside force will show itself once we are in London?”
She nodded.
He caressed her cheek. “All right, I’ll leave it alone for now. You’ll make the decisions once we are in London. Just keep in mind that we are stronger together than apart.”
She melted into his arms when he put them around her. “It would be so much simpler if we hated each other.”
“Syd, never say that.”
“All right, I’m sorry. Let’s hope for the best.”
He kissed her on the brow and then eased away. “Come on, Cheerful. We’ll be late if we don’t get moving.”
She laughed and flicked a few droplets of water at him. “You are the one who is moving slow as a turtle, you fiend.”
Lady Lennox’s dinner party was bittersweet and Syd felt more sentimental than usual. But she made it through the evening without bursting into tears or begging Octavian to leave her behind while he returned to London. Avoiding London would ease her feeling of doom, but it would also mean being without Octavian, and this felt even worse.
That night, she held onto him tightly.
Her dreams were full of gathering storms and howling winds roiling an angry sea. She was lost amid the vast sea, calling out for Octavian to save her from drowning, but he could not hear her as she drifted away from him. The harder she tried to swim back to him, the fiercer the current and tumultuous waves pulled them apart.
Then, she could no longer see him.
She began to shiver.
She would not stop shivering.
“Syd. Syd, love.” She heard Octavian talking to her and realized he was trying to shake her awake. “Open your eyes, love. You’re having a bad dream.”
It took her a moment to shake out of her dream and regain her senses. “What?” She groaned. “What time is it?”
“Still early, sweetheart.”
She noticed the grayness of the night and realized it was approaching dawn, but still too early even for the cock’s crow.
“Rough night, Syd? Want to tell me about it?”
