Page 62 of The Baron Takes a Wife

“Naturally.”

Chapter Nineteen

By the day before they were to leave, Elena’s seed of fear had sprouted into a whole garden of doubt. That morning, she woke with the dawn and sat at her vanity, staring out the window at her view of London. She knew it was a limited view, but with its busy, crowded streets, this city had been hers for the past three years. She knew David was correct that they ought to leave, but she could not rid herself of the worry in her chest.

“Elena?”

She looked back at her husband, whose eyes were still closed but who was reaching his arm for her on the bed.

“I’m over here. I just rose to watch the sunrise.”

“We’re not farmers, Elena,” he grumbled, “we don’t rise with the sun. Especially during the Season.”

She walked back to the bed, pausing to stand above him and stroke his hair gently as he seemed to return to sleep. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back into bed, wrapping his arms around her in a tight cage.

“Well done, my lord, you had me fooled.”

“The old eyes closed trick. Works like a charm.”

She clicked her tongue but still nestled into his arms, willing the warmth to help rid her of her fears. David rolled her to her back, loosened his grip, and stayed on his side. His green eyes searched her face as his playful expression shifted toward something more serious.

“Why did you rise so early, my love?”

She weighed telling him, but she shook her head. “You will think it is silly.”

He continued to search her eyes, waiting for her to go on. She realized she did want to tell him, but she did not know quite what to say. She stroked his hair as she weighed her options. “This, for the most part, has been my home these last few years.”

David blew out a long breath. “This has been the only stable home you have known since you saw your childhood home ransacked and abandoned.”

“I suppose, yes.” It did feel good to get off her chest, and she went on quickly. “I know that leaving right now is the best course of action, but I cannot help but be sad to leave. And a little afraid of your estate.”

He pushed himself up on an elbow, his gaze raking her over with concern. “You’re afraid of the estate?

“Not of the estate itself, but of how people will see me, view me. I hear some of what the worst in the ton say about me, how some gentlemen treat me.”

“Not since—”

“No, not since you returned. Truly, it did not bother me very much. But, in a new place, in your home? I don’t want to embarrass you or Irene.”

David entwined his hand with Elena’s and brought their joined hands between them as she shifted to her side.

“I cannot promise that everything will be perfect, and I understand your fears, Elena. I do. However, most people around the estate like our family but consider me a bit eccentric.”

“You? Don’t most gentlemen marry strange foreign women or have their aunts run a business because they are skilled at that work?”

He acknowledged her sarcasm with a roll of his eyes and went on. “I do not think they will be all that surprised that I brought a foreign woman back from the war. And once they get to know you, they will all fall in love with you, and Goliath will be terribly jealous.”

“I think you are optimistic.”

“I have been told it is one of my more annoying qualities.”

“That is true. Even outside Balaclava, there were only a few days where I saw true darkness upon you.”

“Yes, thank goodness I had you to pull me out of that.”

She looked away, humbled by his admission. They sat like that in silence for a moment when David asked, “Elena, did I do you a disservice when I married you?”

“What?” She was so surprised by his question that she sat up and looked down at him. “What moved you to ask that?