Page 16 of Twelve Drummers Drumming

Jemima fell silent as she stared at the soldier seated beside her.

She knew such an obvious stare would be considered rude, but she and Captain Rotherham had transgressed so many rules of decorum that she felt no shame in breaking this one.

There was certainly a darkness in him. Not only in his eyes and in his hair, but in his very soul.

So, this was what a soldier was after he returned from battle. Her anger at warfare and all it held for men such as this deepened.

Then he smiled, his dark eyes flashing. “It was why I could not wrench my eyes from you.”

“Me?” Jemima said stunned. “Why on earth? The closest I have been to France is my French dressmakers!”

Captain Rotherham laughed. “Not because I thought you had any French battle experience. Miss Fitzroy, you may calm yourself! No, I could not help but stare at your eyes. The more I gazed into them, the more I realized you have suffered great hurt as well. You have been let down by people, ignored by them, perhaps slighted by them by their disregard of your opinions.”

Jemima’s mouth fell open. “How on earth…”

Captain Rotherham shrugged. “When one has experienced it, one learns to recognize it. And what I asked myself was, what has a woman of twenty—”

“One and twenty,” corrected Jemima automatically.

She hated herself for doing it as soon as the words had left her lips, but she could not help it. She felt painfully that extra year that pushed her from being a new blossom in Society to a faded rose that had seen better days.

“A woman of one and twenty experienced that could have brought her so much sadness? So much isolation. So much in common with a man like myself.”

Jemima looked into his eyes and saw such understanding, such compassion, such lust that she could no longer deny it.

It made her blush just to think it.

She was attracted to Captain Rotherham.

There was a stirring in her no other man had created, a pull in her navel that was drawing her to him in a way that she could not—would not—resist.

Captain Rotherham’s gaze moved down to her mouth. A jolt surged through her, one she could not control.

If he was not careful, she was going to move into his arms and place her lips on his, forcing them apart to take what she wanted…

They stared at each other.

Jemima licked her lips unconsciously and saw the captain’s jaw tighten.

He wanted her. It felt wonderful to be so desired, to have such control over a man. She had no idea where it came from, no idea how to wield it—but she had some power over him.

The same power he had over her.

The air seemed to crackle with the repressed desire that neither of them seemed willing to take advantage of. Jemima certainly wouldn’t; she was a lady. It was for him to kiss her, to whisper sweet nothings in her ear, to make the tingle down her spine move to the rest of her body…

And it was just not just his dazzling good looks. Captain Rotherham understood her, recognized a kindred spirit, and she had not even mentioned a word of her family: her loss of her mother, the stepmother that did not seem to understand her, the countless sisters all demanding attention from their parents, and the gentlemen that passed them, and her father…

Her father was standing directly behind Captain Rotherham!

“Jemima Fitzroy!”

Jemima stood up frantically as Captain Rotherham swung round to see who had spoken.

Arthur Fitzroy, dressed in a dark green overcoat with his collar pulled up against his ears, stormed forward and stopped in front of his eldest daughter.

“Jemima Fitzroy, where in Heaven’s name have you been? Have you no thought at all within that selfish head, have you no consideration for the feelings of others? Your mother has been frantic, Sophia has been crying this last hour, and if Caroline ever manages to forgive you, then I shall be very much surprised! Did you completely neglect to remember that you had promised to meet us after the engravers at the bakery to discuss the wedding cake?”

Jemima was not entirely sure how her father had said all of this in one breath, but he had managed it.

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