Felix sipped from her tea, testing the temperature, then finding it satisfactory, handed it to her with the rim where his lips had settled facing her. Small detail. Purposefully meant. Her entire body flushed. The more of herself she shared with this man, the more his tiny gestures felt entirely provocative. The kissed rim of a teacup more salacious than her body fully revealed before him.
Perfection. Which was why…
“Felix,” she said, attempting to hide her hesitance, “I have a new plan I would like your opinion on.”
He chuckled. “Smash it. That is my opinion.”
“You like my plans.”
“Some of them.”
Her chair lurched toward him, and she looked down with a yelp to find his foot hooked around one leg, dragging her sideways.
“Felix!” she cried when her chair butted against his and she toppled into his lap.
“Yes?”
“The others are watching.”
“And?”
“And… and…” Could not make up a single reason for him not to behave badly. She enjoyed it so much. “Oh, very well.”
He kissed her as the morning birds sang and the sun warmed the blooming flower petals. He thrummed his fingers throughher hair as the maids and footmen paused their chores to sigh and watch or shuffle away with embarrassment in their cheeks.
“Now,” Felix said, setting her back onto her chair, “what is your plan?”
“My what?”
“Good to know that works that way.”
Caroline blinked, shook her head, found her focus. “Oh yes!” That kiss proof things were progressing in the right direction for what she was about to suggest. “I think we should move out of the folly, and I have a three-step plan to enable that goal.”
His smile became brittle and broke off like an iced twig in winter. His gaze flicked toward the house before he engrossed himself in pouring his own tea, in buttering some bread. “We’re moving back to London, then?”
“London? No, of course not. You said you’d stay. We are moving into my bed chamber. Inside Hawthorne.” She enumerated her points on her fingers. “You are no longer having nightmares. Righting the house is moving more quickly with help. The gardens need attention next, and the folly, situated so close to the gardens, is a perfect place to store whatever is needed for that project until it is done.”
His jaw twitched. “Why? Why must you control everything, everyone? It’s an impossible task.”
Frustration rose in her so suddenly, flushing into every inch of her like a crashing wave. “Because otherwise no one regards me with one ounce of seriousness!” She stood with a jerk, the lovely, rosy happiness from before smashed like glass beneath her feet. “I must prove myself with every breath. Prove I am not silly, prove I am not scatterbrained or childish. The glaziers will not speak with me; they ignore me and look for my husband. My father’s philosopher friends laugh at me. His political acquaintances have patted me on the head. Like I am a girl of five when I am a woman of eight and twenty! I plan because Iknow I am good enough. But the world does not. And I must arm myself in every way I can to prove it.”
She blinked, her skin hot, her hands fisted so hard her nails cut into her palms.
Slowly, Felix stood. He clasped his hands behind his back and bowed his head. “I apologize. I do not mean to question you. If I have one certainty in life, Caro… it is that you are the most impressive woman I’ve ever met. You dream it, and you do it. If I have insulted your plans, I have not meant to insult you. I can be a brute.” He peeked at her from the corner of one eye. “What are your three steps?”
Her legs simply… quit working as all the frustration that had entered her so quickly simply drained away and she sunk back into her chair. “Oh.”
He knelt in front of her, resting his hands atop her in her lap. “Well?”
“Are you sure you want to hear?”
He nodded, moving back to his chair and settling one ankle atop the other knee as he sat. He laced his fingers together atop his abdomen.
She beamed. “F-first, we try one night. Just one. In my bed chamber. We do not even have to sleep. We will keep each other up all night in order to acclimate you. Second, we invite Chloe and Garrett and your grandfather to stay with us and we fill the house with company and laughter. That way you do not see ghosts here, but very live people who love you. Finally, we try another night. Then another. And we keep trying until you are happy sleeping inside. I will not begin work on the gardens until then. See, I have modified my original plan to take account of your situation. Aren’t you proud of me? I’m learning.”
A smile twitched in the corner of his lips. Encouraged, she moved back into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I know you were happy here with your family at some point, andit is the lack of those people who made you happy that fuels your discontent.”
“It’s not that.”
