really been there, just shimmered and retreated, quickly, yet there hadn't been any real movement, nothing jerky, just the quiet grace of the still air. She'd seen her clearly yet the bedchamber was dark, too dark to make out the details she knew she'd seen. Then she was simply gone, her hand stretched out toward Sophie, just as Ryder had come into the room.
"Sophie, there's no such thing as the damned Virgin Bride. It's a simple legend. Sinjun is a fanciful girl—it wouldn't surprise me if she occasionally plays the blighted young lady just to tease us. No, you dreamed her up."
"No I didn't. She spoke to me, Ryder, only she didn't, not really, but I heard her, and the words were very clear."
He was caught, he couldn't deny it. He set the candle on the tabletop beside the bed and sat down beside her, not touching her. "What were the words she didn't really say?"
"She said that I wasn't to worry, that even when they come it will be all right."
He frowned at that. Such a message was unexpected. He'd rather thought the words would hark to some sort of secret treasure or some such. Perhaps that Sophie would bear twins and they would grow up to wed English royalty.
"What the hell does that mean? Who are 'they,' for God's sake?"
"I asked her but she just disappeared. Then you came in. I think you chased her away."
"Nonsense."
Sophie turned to him, frowning, then realized that she was in her nightgown and he was sitting next to her, fully dressed, thank God, but still. He was here, sitting on the bed, and he was her husband. She forgot the ghost and the message. She forgot her lamentable behavior of the afternoon. She even forgot, for the moment, those two very lovely young women. She very slowly began to move away from him until she was on the edge of the other side of the bed.
Ryder pretended not to notice. He rose, stretched, and began to take off his clothes.
She wouldn't watch him this time, she wouldn't. She said, "What have you been doing? It's quite late."
"Ah, just a bit of this and that."
"You were with one of your legion of women, weren't you?"
"Legion? No more than a small battalion. I'm only one man, Sophie, no matter how much you stand in awe of my strength and vigor."
"I don't care. Your claims to such prowess is absurd. You are jesting with me, mocking me, and I don't like it. Keep a hundred women, nay, five hundred. It matters not to me."
"Are you certain about that, Sophie? You saw only two today and you went really quite charmingly mad."
She looked at him. He was naked. He was just standing there on the other side of the bed, quite without a stitch of clothing on. He was tall and lean and very nicely formed, she would give him that. She looked furtively toward the bedchamber door.
"No, no more races down the corridor. I prefer to be the only man to see you wearing only your beautiful hide."
"It was very embarrassing. It was difficult to face your brother today."
"I imagine that it was. However, perhaps Douglas is excessively myopic. Now, just to clear the air between us, I know that you've wanted to box my ears all evening. Please feel free to box metaphorically, to express your heartfelt rage, to expound freely on your woman's ire."
"You would like that, wouldn't you? You would enjoy me squawking like a fool so it would make you feel important. Men like to have women fighting over them, they like to be the center of everything. Well, I will tell you, Ryder Sherbrooke, I felt nothing! Absolutely nothing, less than nothing. It was merely that I felt angry for your brother. It must be beyond embarrassing for the earl to have all these women hanging about Northcliffe Hall, hanging on your arm and whispering nonsense into your ears and kissing you."
"Really? That sounds very rehearsed to me. Not bad, don't misunderstand me. Just practiced, perhaps a dozen times." He scratched his belly and her eyes followed every movement of his long fingers. He wasn't all that hairy, but the thick light brown hair at his groin . . . she managed to look back to his face. He knew she'd been looking at him, he knew, but he said only, "Goodness, so you wish me to believe that all your curses at me were in defense of my poor beleaguered brother's sensibilities?"
Sophie knew she was digging a hole that would eventually reach to China if she didn't stop now. She tightened her lips until it hurt. She just shook her head.
"It pleases me that you've found a bit of control. But, my dear wife, if you wish to continue to rant, please do, I don't mind."
"Go to the devil," she said, then concentrated on keeping her mouth shut.
Ryder raised his arms and stretched. She was looking at him again and he knew it, and his sex swelled quite predictably, there was nothing he could do about it. She stared at him for a very long time, then jerked, as if finally realizing what she was doing. She looked away, toward the windows.
"You quite terrified both Sara and Tess," he said, dumping a bit of oil into the fire. "They couldn't accept at first that I would enjoy a possessive, quite jealous wife."
She managed not to take the bait.
He smiled at the back of her head as he stepped to the bed. He pulled back the covers and climbed in.