Evening Star (Star Quartet 1)

But Alex was frowning. “I’m too heavy for you now, like this.” He saw that she would protest, and added on a grin, “I don’t want our child cursing his father before he is even born.”

He scooped her in his arms and pulled her onto her side, facing him. “We’ll just have to become more inventive, Giana,” he said against her mouth. “This isn’t so bad, is it?”

She moved against him, and whispered as he moaned, “No, Alex. I see that you like it quite well.”

When at last she was snuggled against him, and he was gently stroking her back to calm her, he felt her arch back to look up at his face. “Will it always be thus? Will you always make me want to die for you?”

“I will always try.”

She kissed his chin. “You need to shave,” she said. “I should dislike being so hairy,” she added thoughtfully. “I should not like putting a razor to my face every day.”

“I should dislike your doing it too.”

She laughed and snuggled against him, burrowing her face against his chest.

“Princess,” he said softly after a moment, “promise me that you will tell me if something distresses you.”

“I felt so depressed,” she said on a sigh.

“There was no need, as I hope you believe now.”

“I suppose you are right,” she said, though to his ear she did not sound certain.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and gazed down into her sleepy face. “I can’t change the laws, Giana.”

“No,” she said sadly, “no one can. Men will not allow it.”

“But we can ignore the laws. They needn’t touch us.”

She became very still in his arms. He waited for the wariness to shutter her eyes, and realized he was holding himself as still as was she.

She said nothing.

“Go to sleep, Giana. We have a couple of hours before dinner.”

She heard disappointment in his voice, and felt tears sting her eyes. She was afraid.

Chapter 22

“Do listen, Giana.” Once Leah had secured her stepmama’s attention, she read from the Times. “ ‘Lord Palmerston has been dismissed from the Foreign Office after expressing approval of Louis Napoleon’s coup detat.”’

“Coup d’état,” Alex corrected automatically.

“What is that?”

“It means a sudden overthrow of a government,” Giana said. “Of course,” she added, with all the English disdain of the French, “it is not unexpected in a country like France.”

But Leah, having delivered her bit of news, had her head buried again behind the Times pages.

“Lord Palmerston is an excellent statesman,” Alex said.

“Come, Alex,” Giana said, “Lord Russell had no choice. Palmerston has behaved outrageously. What of the supposed apology he snickered to the Austrian General Haynau after the poor man was attacked by employees in a brewery?”

“Haynau is a pig,” Alex said. “Lord Palmerston was perfectly justified in his bit of rudeness.”

“Who is the painter J.M.W. Turner?” Leah asked suddenly.

“Why, Leah?” Giana asked.