Page 31 of An Accidental Elopement

“She really is, isn’t she?” Archie said and felt the boiling feeling from before turn into a pleasant warmth at the thought that at least his little sister had found someone to love.

“Sleeping with a woman is not everything there is to a marriage, you know that, right?” Gregory asked after a moment.

Archie snorted.

“Yes, I know that, you asswipe,” he said. “It’s just that it seemed to have changed the easy air that was between us before.”

They stared into the darkness for a moment.

“If you are such an expert on marriage, why don’t you marry?” he needled Gregory. If he did not know him so well, he might not have caught the hurt expression that passed over his brother’s face before he grinned and stabbed Archie in the side with his elbow.

***

Archie tiptoed as he entered the dressing room between his and Cecilia’s rooms. Peters had helped him with his jacket and shoes, but he wanted to discard the rest of his clothes on his own to not wake Cecilia. As he entered, he saw immediately however that the light was still on in her room. He quietly unbuttoned his waistcoat as he thought of his conversation with Gregory. If someone had harmed her previously, that changed everything, although he could not for the life of him fathom why she had not simply confided in him. Could she be embarrassed and somehow feel that it was her fault? As far as he knew her, it would be an obvious way for Cecilia to react.

Without giving it more thought, he knocked on the door to her bedroom. There was a beat of silence, then another.

“Enter,” Cecilia called in a quaking voice as if her heart was in her throat.

He gently opened the door to not scare her and peeked in.

“I could see the light, I hope that I am not interrupting,” he told her.

She was sitting in the bed with a book in her lap and several candles lit around her to be able to read.

“No, not at all,” she mumbled. Her hand rose to her neck though as if her whole body was counteracting that statement.

Archie stepped inside and leaned against the closed door to keep as great a distance between them as possible. There was a door directly to the hall outside, so if she truly feared being alone with him, she would have an escape.

“I know we never really talked about what our expectations were for this marriage,” he began haltingly. Truth be told the only thing he had done to convince her to marry him was kiss her, which was not exactly an argument in itself.

“No,” was all Cecilia said. Her hand was still resting on her collarbones.

“I have to admit that I just assumed that our marriage would be like all others. That we would...” He made a gesture towards the bed since he did not know how to phrase “sleep together.” Which synonyms for it did she even know?

Cecilia’s eyes widened.

“That’s not why I am here,” he hastily said and turned his gaze toward the ivory-colored curtains as if he might relieve her of a burden by not looking at her. “I just thought that maybe it would be easier to talk about this now... when it’s dark. There are certain matters that are easier to discuss in the dark, don’t you think?”

He looked back at her in time to see her nod. Heavens, she really was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The golden light from the candles almost made her blonde hair glow and seemed to form a halo around her head. Her gray eyes were large with trepidation though.

“But perhaps that was not what you had in mind? When we married?” he asked her and looked closely for her reaction but saw only confusion.

“What?” she asked hoarsely.

“That we would have...” he cleared his throat, “a normal kind of marriage.”

Cecilia’s mouth turned into a round O, and it really should not turn him on, although everything about her seemed to at the moment. She blushed profusely and looked at her hands that were closely knitted in her lap.

“It was, yes,” she practically whispered.

“Was?” Archie echoed and felt as if he had turned hollow.

“Yes, well, you know how I reacted. I thought I could do it, but perhaps I cannot,” Cecilia mumbled. Now it was her turn to look at the curtain and not at him.

“Cecilia,” he breathed and took a step closer to her, then caught himself as her head snapped up and she stared at him with wide eyes. He stepped back against the door, feeling the hard, cold wood through the thin linen of his shirt. “Did someone hurt you?”

“Hurt?” she echoed.