‘Mama, please do not fuss. I really do not need a chaperone in my fiancé’s bed chamber, especially when he is this weak.’ That was Julia, Hal realized, surfacing slowly from sleep, wondering what the faint agitated clucking sound was. There had been no chickens in the hovel.
‘Oh I suppose not. But it all seems so sudden, dear.’ Oh yes, Mrs Tresilian, and this was Julia’s bedroom and he was in her bed—alone unfortunately. ‘He is such a…a physical looking young man,’ Mrs Tresilian continued.
Hal converted a laugh into a cough and opened his eyes to find both women regarding him. His future mother in law had the expression of someone finding an exotic, and probably dangerous, animal in the room; Julia was pink in the cheeks and appeared to be suppressing a smile. Mothers in law were an aspect of marriage he had not considered.
‘Good morning. How are you feeling?’ Julia enquired, obviously intent on ignoring her mother’s embarrassing observation. ‘Shall I send George up with your break fast?’
‘Thank you, yes. I feel much better. Good morning, Mrs Tresilian. Perhaps, ma’am, it would be possible for us to discuss the situation a little later?’ It seemed he had slept for more than twelve hours and he was, provided he did not try and move, feeling a sight better for it.
‘Oh dear; I mean, yes, of course.’
‘Captain Grey has called and he will bring the doctor later this morning,’ Julia said, calmly ushering her mother out of the room. ‘We can talk this afternoon, after luncheon.’
So, he had found himself a managing wife, had he? Hal gritted his teeth while George got him sitting up, then found that Julia had sent up a vast break fast. A wife who did not believe in gruel for invalids, thank goodness. He had, he realized, committed himself to a wife who was infinitely better than he deserved. But what she had done to deserve him, other than be open-hearted, brave and generous, he could not imagine.
‘It would appear from what Dr Gregson says that I am going to live, with all my limbs attached,’ Hal said calmly. ‘I have, beside my career as an officer, a small estate in Buckinghamshire which is in good heart and which brings me sufficient to maintain a wife and family in comfort. I can establish you, ma’am, in the country or in town, which ever is more agreeable to you. I will, of course, under take Phillip’s education.’
He paused, and Julia decided he would probably show as much emotion briefing fellow officers before an engagement. The effect it was hav
ing on her mother was, however, miraculous. She was positively beaming. No, she could not have refused Hal’s offer—his order—to marry her. Whatever her scruples and the second thoughts she’d been having for the past day, her reputation, Hal’s own sense of honour and her family’s needs must over-ride them.
‘As to the ceremony, I would propose the English church in a week’s time.’
‘Hal! You cannot possibly be fit by then,’ Julia broke in, unable to maintain her pose of meek attentiveness any longer.
‘I will be well enough to stand up for half an hour,’ he countered. ‘As you know, my colonel called just after the doctor. I am ordered home to re cu per ate and I would suggest the sooner we sail after the ceremony, the better. I regret that I will need to trouble you, Julia, to write the necessary letters to arrange that.’
‘Oh my goodness.’ Her mother, it seemed, was only thinking about the ceremony. ‘There is so much to do! I will begin making lists at once. Your trousseau, my dear!’
‘I will give you a draft on my bank,’ Hal added, sending Mrs Tresilian almost running from the room to start work, without a thought to her un chaperoned daughter left behind in the bedroom.
Julia told herself that her mother’s state of flustered happiness should make her happy too, but inside her stomach was a cold knot of misery. Hal, no longer the informal, friendly man he had been in the hovel, was approaching their marriage with a cool efficiency that frightened her.
‘What is wrong?’ He was sitting up against the piled pillows. To her critical eyes, he looked too fine-drawn and pale. Perhaps it was just the strength of the afternoon light flooding in through the window. She got up and went to sit in the chair by his bedside, trying to calm herself with the doctor’s reassuring words.
‘Wrong?’ She made rather a business of smoothing down her skirts. He had never made any pretext of loving her, it was unfair to feel resentful that he was treating their coming union as anything but an arranged marriage. ‘Nothing, really. It is just that I am concerned that you are overdoing things. It is only four days since you were wounded. We are comfortable here; your friends can visit you. I am sure that however eager they are to see you, your family would rather you waited until you were stronger.’
‘And I am rushing you into marriage,’ he said dryly. ‘You are missing the opportunity for planning and shopping and looking forward to a wonderful day with all your friends.’
‘I do not care about that.’ Indignant, Julia looked up and met Hal’s frowning gaze. ‘But it is too soon.’
‘Are you frightened?’
‘Frightened?’ She frowned back. What on earth had she to be frightened of now Hal was out of danger? ‘Of Hebden, you mean? No. Perhaps I should be, but it doesn’t seem quite real—a feud and vengeance. And I should be frightened of meeting your family, but I know I will like them.’
‘Of me,’ he said, holding her gaze until she realized what he meant. The blush seemed to rise from her toes.
‘No!’ He wouldn’t release her, however much she wanted to look away. ‘Of course not.’
‘You are very innocent, Julia.’
‘Not that innocent,’ she pro tested. ‘I know what…happens. I cannot pretend it does not sound strange, but I am sure I will soon become accustomed.’ And the sooner, the better, she acknowledged, shocking herself. She wanted the wedding delayed for Hal’s sake, but she wanted it quickly, for her own.
Making love did, indeed, seem a very peculiar business, but her body was sending her quite clear messages that it under stood more about it than she did. The proximity of Hal, the haunting memory of his naked form, the vivid impression of that kiss, the very fact that they were in a bedroom alone together, all produced that strange, restless sensation and an almost irresistible need to touch him.
This marriage was going to be difficult enough, but perhaps if they could achieve an understanding through intimacy, that would help with everything else.
‘I hope so,’ he said, turning his head away, restless, on the pillow. ‘I hope that you will find marriage pleasurable.’