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She smiled.

“You are most welcome, Ambrose.”

Then she slipped from the chamber, closing the door softly behind her.

Ambrose remained in his chair, listening to her footsteps fade along the corridor.

His skin still burned, and his eyes ached whenever he tried to open them fully. Yet something about the morning had changed.

He had expected Marina to recoil from the sight of him. Instead, she had touched his face as though there were nothing dreadful about it.

And she had looked at him with hope.

Ambrose closed his eyes again, remembering the coolness of her palm against his cheek.

For the first time in many years, he found himself wondering whether the affliction that had ruled his life might not be quite as hopeless as he had always believed.

Twenty-Four

After the excitement of the night and morning, the rest of the day was rather subdued. Ambrose returned to his chamber and slept, which was for the best.

Marina spent a few hours making lists for the upcoming Christmas ball and went over them with a more than a little surprised Mrs. Dalton. The idea of a Christmas ball had taken the woman so much by surprise that Marina wasn’t sure she would ever fully recover.

She wrote to her sister Sophia with the latest news, secretly wishing she could invite her family. But she knew Ambrose was already uneasy at the thought of a house full of guests; adding his in-laws would be asking too much.

That evening, with Emma asleep, Marina found herself thoroughly bored. Luna kept her company, sleeping comfortably upon her lap. She stroked the animal’s fur absentmindedly and sighed, wishing Ambrose might wake and come to visit Emma. She couldn’t deny that she missed him.

This was absurd. She had seen him only that morning. Had she truly become so greedy for his presence already? Her eyes drifted to the grounds below the window and then froze. Something was different now; there was more than snow below.

There was someone standing below her window. A tall figure. A very large hat. And his face was covered with cloth, but she knew that height anywhere.

“Ambrose,” she whispered, her heart giving an embarrassing little leap.

“I am terribly sorry, darling,” she whispered apologetically to the sleepy cat before placing it upon the floor. “But I fear I must betray you.”

She gathered her skirts and hurried from the chamber. She flew through the doors and stepped into the golden evening light. She hurried around the house until she was beneath her window, and there he was, still standing exactly where she had seen him. Tall. Patient. Entirely composed. As though he had not just summoned her heart racing across the manor.

She stopped before him, breathing harder than she would have liked. The first thing she noticed was the faint amusement in his green eyes; he clearly knew she had run all the way down. It softened the usual hardness of his expression just enough to make her pulse stumble all over again.

“Ambrose,” she greeted with a small, almost embarrassed curtsy.

Ambrose inclined his head with impeccable chivalry. “Marina,” he returned with equal courtesy.

Marina cleared her throat, still trying to recover from the breathlessness that had nothing to do with her rushed journey through the manor. “Why are you standing beneath the nursery window?” she asked curiously, her eyes lingering upon him.

Ambrose tilted his wrapped face toward the fading sun. He held it there only a moment before returning his attention to her. That tiny smile of his was still there.

“Because I wished to see you before the sun died,” he explained quietly, his voice low and muffled by the cloth, yet it reached her like a secret.

Marina’s lashes fluttered. She could not possibly have heard him correctly. He had wanted to see her… under the sun? Especially when his health required otherwise?

Fortunately, he appeared considerably better prepared today. The large hat shielded most of his face, while the cloth concealed the rest. And more importantly, the evening sun had already weakened into a soft golden glow.

Still, the thought of him standing there simply because he wished to see her made something flutter painfully sweet within her chest.

“Why?” she asked at last, her voice softer now as she searched his green eyes.

To her surprise, Ambrose took a step that closed the remaining distance between them, the broad shadow of his frame falling across her. The nearness made Marina stiffen as his green eyes held hers above the dark fabric. She desperately hoped that he could not hear how quickly her heart had begun to beat.