He knocked lightly, not knowing if Matilda would be asleep already.
The door flew open before he had the time to rehearse what he had intended to say. Matilda stood there in her nightdress, eyes wide with that wild sort of fatigue where someone desperately needed sleep but could not manage it. But she smiled as she saw Albion.
“Did the constables leave?” she asked, hiding a yawn behind her hand.
Albion nodded. “I’ll venture into town for the hearing, but they said it wouldn’t be until tomorrow at the earliest. So, I thought I should get some sleep.”
“Did you come to bid me goodnight?”
Albion took a breath. “Actually, I hoped you might not be averse to having some company.” He paused, more nervous than he had ever been in his life. “It has been a strange few days, and I just want to make sure you’re within arm’s reach.”
“Is that so?” Matilda’s smile lit up her entire face as she stepped back, allowing him in. “Naturally, I would be delighted to have the company. As you say, it has been a strange few days, and I would haveyouwithin arm’s reach too. Closer, perhaps, as long as you do not snore.”
He chuckled. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Do you?”
“I am a lady,” she replied. “Of course, I do not snore.”
Leading the way, Albion got into the left side of the bed, closest to the door, and sat up, waiting for her to join him. But Matilda stood at the end of the bed, pulling a disapproving face.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
“Well… that is usually my side of the bed,” she replied.
He smiled. “You’ll have to learn to like the other side. I don’t confess to knowing much about being a husband, but Idoknow that—as a captain—I need to be the one closest to the door. If anyone creeps in, they’ll strike at me first.”
“But no oneisgoing to creep in,” Matilda complained, fidgeting with her sleeves.
He patted the empty side. “Nevertheless, you’ve got to let me fulfil my duties, my love. I won’t rest at all if I’m not protecting you, even if it’s from nothing at all.”
“Very well.” Matilda mustered a shy smile and came around to the other side, slipping in under the coverlets.
Albion put his arm around her, bringing her into him, her head resting on his chest. She immediately relaxed, cuddling into his side, draping her arm over his stomach as his other arm came around to hug her tighter. There was none of the awkwardness he had anticipated, almost as if they had always been meant for this.
She tilted her head up, a girlish smile upon her lips. “I cannot believe it took two brushes with death to coax you into sleeping beside me and at our honeymoon’s end too.”
“We’ll have another honeymoon,” he told her, stroking back the stray locks of hair that tumbled around her face. “We’ll go anywhere your heart desires, sleep next to one another in countless beds, and make up for lost time and foolish mistakes.”
She grimaced a little. “I cannot believe that the one time a man half listened to me, it almost got you killed.”
“I listen to you all the time,” he protested, laughing softly.
“A man who does nothaveto listen to me, I mean.”
“I don’t have to listen to you.” He kissed her brow. “I choose to, I want to because almost everything you have to say is fascinating.”
She squinted up at him. “Almosteverything?”
“I admit it, I drift off when you start talking about numbers, but that’s why I’m even luckier to have you—because you adore numbers and heaven knows I need someone who adores numbers,” he replied. “You’ll keep this household shipshape; I’ve no doubt about that.”
She grinned. “I am looking forward to it. Goodness, I love nothing more than a detailed ledger.”
“Nothing?”
She tightened her arm around his waist, eyes bright. “Of course, I loveyoumore than anything. Truly, I do.” She swallowed loudly. “The moment I was informed that you had been poisoned, I realized that nothing else mattered and that I never wanted to be that far away from you again. I realized that I love you, and there is no turning back from that.”
“Onward,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Onward. Always.”
