“Adorable,” Kate said again, in some amusement. “And much preferable to the way he’s been attempting to impress me with his clearly irresistible charms. Whoever let him off his leading strings this soon was overconfident in his hopes.”
“Yes, about that,” Jessica said to Gideon as the clergyman hastily arranged everyone in the proper order in front of him. “Adam told me a few things this afternoon. Shocking things. We should talk about them.”
“Tomorrow,” Gideon promised as the clergyman pointedly cleared his throat and opened his prayer book.
In the next few minutes, much more quickly and even prosaically than she could have imagined, Jessica became the Countess of Saltwood. She hadn’t really given much thought to that particular result of marrying Gideon, even after Lady Katherine had earlier joked about curtsying to her. Many people would now curtsy to her, address her as my lady, or your ladyship. Just the sort of thing she had once daydreamed about a lifetime ago, back in the days of her innocence.
Now Gideon, by wedding her, had given her back what he so clearly thought was the life she deserved. He’d married her because he felt the Redgraves owed her something, that was clear. But he also desired her. She hadn’t thought about desire as a young girl awaiting her first Season. She certainly hadn’t thought about it during her months with James, except to think men were no better than animals in the forest.
Yet when Gideon looked at her with desire in his eyes, she knew the trappings of society meant nothing. The titles, the curtsies, the balls, the nights at the theater, all of it.
How strange that her father and stepmother had clearly been preparing Adam for what was to come, but had not attempted any such education with her. Considering her father’s plans for her, that did seem odd. Unless that was to be her appeal…her ignorance. Her innocence.
Unless…unless her father had never planned any such thing for his daughter and had only been obeying someone else, who’d demanded her from him, demanded his obedience. James had been afraid of someone. Had her father been equally terrified? Cowed enough or frightened enough to allow his own daughter to be sacrificed? Yes, that seemed the more logical explanation, not that she could ever forgive her father, no matter how deep his fears.
Jessica looked down the length of the dining table to see Gideon watching her, and realized her wandering mind had been taking her to a place that had no place tonight.
He raised his wineglass to her in a sort of salute, and immediately Lady Katherine took up her own, rising to her feet. “Since my brothers are not here to do the thing properly, I suppose it is up to me to propose a toast to the Earl and Countess of Saltwood. Which I hereby do.” She raised her glass higher. “To a long and happy life, Jessica, even if that means having Gideon in it. Cheers!”
“Oh, hear, hear!” Adam agreed, also on his feet, glass raised high. “To a long and happy life, Gideon, even if that means having me in it!”
Everyone laughed, as they were hopefully meant to do, and Jessica gazed at her brother in real affection. He’d be all right, he truly would. They’d all be all right, in time. Because Gideon would see to it. She truly believed that.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
WITH KATE YAWNING into her hand and Adam thoroughly in his cups and half-asleep in his chair, Gideon exchanged a meaningful glance with Richard, who immediately stood up, stretching and yawning and then quickly apologizing for his lapse.
“Quite a day for an old man like me, quite a day,” he said, smiling at Lady Katherine. “Would you do me the extreme favor of allowing me to escort you upstairs to your chamber, my lady?”
“What was that?” Adam stumbled to his feet, blinking. “I can do that. I’ve always wanted to escort a lady to her bedchamber, damned if I haven’t.”
“Adam!” Jessica exclaimed from her seat beside Gideon. “You really must learn to not say everything you think!”
“He thinks?” Gideon asked quietly, eying the curls at Jessica’s shoulders, the ones he’d been manfully resisting wrapping around his finger this past hour or more. But it hadn’t been easy goings. “It is rather late, Richard, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, my lord. After a long day,” he added helpfully, and then winced as the mantel clock struck ten. Many carriages were just now leaving Portman Square, for an evening round of parties. “All things considered, that is.”
“You’re all as subtle as a sharp jab to the ribs,” Lady Katherine said, but then held out her hand to Richard, to allow him to help her to rise. “I held out as long as I could, as I’d like to think part of my mission in life is harassing you and Max and Val, Gideon, but I will admit I’m more than ready for my bed.” She looked to Richard and Adam. “And I would greatly appreciate both you fine gentlemen accompanying me upstairs. To my door,” she added, shooting Adam an amused look.
“We’ll all go up,” Gideon said, holding out his hand to Jessica. He wouldn’t look at her, because she might smile at him, and if she gave him one more ounce of encouragement he might just take her here and now, on the couch.
The way she looked at him from beneath her lush lashes, the way she held her spoon as she sipped her soup, her endearing habit of touching her hand to the middle of her breasts as she leaned forward to listen to the conversation. He’d even envied her serviette as she’d dabbed the fine linen against her lips.
It hadn’t been her fault. He knew that. She’d done nothing out of the ordinary. She hadn’t purposely teased him. She had only to breathe to make him want her.
Ten days. Who knew ten days could be so long a time? He’d given Gwen her congé, even introduced her to Freddie Banks, who much to Gwen’s delight immediately offered her his protection. He’d harassed a modiste and her dozen seamstresses like a man possessed. He’d petitioned the church for a Special License, pretended not to know his grandmother’s favored way to secure, well, favors. He’d paced the floor each night, he’d counted the hours each day. He’d stared at the locked door between his and Jessica’s bedchambers and suffered the torments of the damned.
And all for a woman he barely knew. A woman who was now his wife.
He’d wanted her. In the beginning, it had been that simple. Because what he wanted, he took. Had always taken. He’d never seen any reason to deny himself anything.
But he’d never wanted anything the way he wanted Jessica.
And now he had her.
They entered her bedchamber together, his hand at the back of her waist. He turned and closed the door. Turned the key.
They moved farther into the large chamber, to see it was subtly lit with candles and the light from a small fire, the curtains on the four-poster bed tied back on one side, draping the other three. The coverlet was turned down, a confection of ivory lace rather artfully arranged atop it.
He couldn’t believe he wasn’t seeing a scene welllaid for seduction.
He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Where are your women?”
“I dismissed them for the night.”
He cocked his head to one side. “You did? And why was that?”
“I don’t know. The note I found this morning. The new clothing, the necklace…all of it. I had…hopes,” she said, and then stepped closer, raising her hands to his neck cloth, deftly beginning to undo it. He decided to help, quickly dealing with the buttons on his waistcoat and shirt.
His smile brought a hint of color to her cheeks. “You had two eyes in your head when you saw yourself in this gown, and knew I couldn’t see you tonight and then simply walk away.”
“So now you know how I feel, every time I look at you. It was only the once…but I can’t forget it. How you made me feel. I hadn’t felt anything, Gideon,