Page 35 of Dangerous

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After a long soak and several pots of strong black tea, Adam’s body was much recovered. His pride, however, was sniveling and trying to hide in a dark corner. His conscience, which was both appalled and relentless, demanded he seek his wife immediately. And perhaps even apologize. Pride and conscience struggled while he bathed and poured tea down his throat, the battle ending in compromise.

Adam entered the sunny breakfast room only a half hour after his usual time. He stopped in the doorway and stared. His wife was sipping a steaming cup of coffee and leafing through the Gazette.

His copy of the Gazette, an affronted voice in his mind observed.

Adam banished the voice. “Good morning, my lady.”

“Good morning, my lord.” She smiled up at him, fresh as a new day. “I hope you do not mind that I am reading your paper.”

Yes. Yes, I do bloody well mind.

“Of course not,” he lied.

He went to the sideboard and began filling his plate with food as he considered her discountenancing presence. It was his experience that ladies didn’t leave their rooms until after twelve. Veronica never had.

What was his wife doing eating breakfast in the breakfast room at a quarter after nine? He suddenly recalled she had not spent the better part of their wedding night quaffing the contents of his cellar. He closed his eyes as yet another wave of embarrassment engulfed him. The truth was she had every right to be in his breakfast room—their breakfast room—reading his paper.

He opened his eyes to find he’d heaped his plate with a stunning pile of food. He turned and went to the only other place that had been set, the seat across from her. Her eyes widened at the enormous heap of meat, eggs, and bread on his plate.

“Have you anything planned for your afternoon?” He asked the question as much to distract her attention from his plate as anything else.

“I’d thought I would visit Hatchards and purchase some books to take with me to Exham.”

Adam chewed and swallowed before scalding his mouth with black coffee.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” he lisped, the scorched flesh of his mouth numb.

“No, I’m merely looking for something enjoyable and engaging.” She crumbled the corner of a piece of toast before looking up. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but my English skills are rather rusty. There were not many books where I lived.”

Adam was a dunce. Of course life in a harem would provide few opportunities to expand one’s knowledge of literature. He forked more food into his burning mouth and glanced around the breakfast room. There were six footmen. The number seemed ... excessive. Were there always this many?

It suddenly dawned on him that his servants’ curiosity about his exotic new wife probably accounted for the increase in breakfast service. No doubt it would reach even greater heights after word of his late-night drunk made the rounds. Adam grimaced. He’d made her position here bloody awkward and he’d also made an ass of himself. The shame that had been hovering just out of sight descended on him like a flock of starving crows.

He put down his fork, no longer able to pretend he was hungry. He’d made a dreadful hash of things, beginning with taking a wife in the first place. That said, she was not Veronica and did not deserve to be treated as such.

Adam signaled for the servants to leave and waited until the door closed behind the last one before turning back to his wife. “I would like to apologize for last night.”

She nodded. “Thank you, my lord.”

He waited for her to inquire as to the source of his wretched behavior, but she seemed determined to show him mercy. “Our library here is quite extensive. Hill purchases a great number of new books each year, including novels. If you like, I could familiarize you with the way the library is organized after breakfast.”

She gave him a smile he did not deserve. “I would like that very much. I’m afraid I’ve had very little time to read these past months and my father’s library had very few works of fiction, in any case.”

Adam nodded, unable to speak as the enormity of this woman’s life for the past few months—hell—for the prior two decades, crashed down on him. She’d been torn from her family, raped at fourteen, and abandoned in a bloody harem for seventeen years. And when she was able to return, her father auctioned her to the highest bidder before less than a quarter of a year had passed. And Adam—the weak reed on which she was forced to lean—had spent the few hours they’d shared baiting her, ignoring her, or getting drunk.

“Would you care to go to the theater tonight?”

She paused, a piece of toast halfway to her mouth. She put it back down without taking a bite. “I should love to go to the theater.” Her voice was even lower than usual.

Adam raised his cooling coffee to his mouth, wishing the cup were larger so that he might hide behind it. Her obvious pleasure at his small kindness gutted him. He’d been such a bloody cad.

He lowered his cup, spilling half in the saucer. “I’ve left it rather late, so don’t get your hopes up,” he said gruffly. He glanced at the pile of cooling food on his plate. “Shall I take you to the library and give you the general lay of the land before I set off?” He glanced at her plate. “After you’ve finished eating, of course.”

“I am finished.” She stood and smoothed the front of her gown, the action drawing his eyes to her body. She was again garbed in green, her frilled costume flattering to her small, feminine form.

“Do you ride?” The question escaped before his mind vetted it. It seemed he’d lost control of his mouth, along with everything else in his life.