His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) (17 page)

“
How did you repair things?” Elijah heard himself
ask.

“
I fixed her telescope,” Alex said as if to suggest Elijah
could do the same thing to mend his relationship with
Amelia.

“
While I'm thrilled that worked for you, I don't think it'll
have the same effect for me.”

“
No, probably not.” Alex's chair screeched back away from the
table. “It wouldn't have worked for me, either, if I hadn't been
there, ready to apologize and make things right when she found
it.”

“
And what did you say when she found it?”

“
The truth. All of it.”

Chapter Sixteen

The sun always shone so bright after a
storm it was amazing half the countryside hadn't been blinded,
Amelia thought as she rapidly blinked her eyes to get used to the
blinding light pouring into her window.

She lifted her left hand to shield her
face and looked around the empty room. Dropping her hand, she
sighed. Elijah must have decided to spend the night in his
brother's home. That was for the best, really. She rolled to the
side of the bed, put her feet over the edge, stretched her hands
way up over her head and gave a hearty yawn.

“
I can't imagine why you'd have such a need to stretch so much
after having such a large bed all to yourself last
night.”

Amelia dropped her arms as if they
suddenly weighed five hundred pounds each. “I made sure to stay on
my own side last night. But since I woke up today in the same
condition I went to sleep in, I'll be sure to sprawl out like a
starfish tonight and every night hereafter.”

“
You be sure to do that,” Elijah said with a quick grin. “We
were better at being friends than lovers anyway.”

She forced a smile. Although she'd
wanted him to stop trying to get her into bed, his cavalier
attitude about it stung. “Right you are.”

Elijah walked into the room and over
to the wardrobe. “Once you're dressed, I'll take you into Bath. We
never did have that slice of cake I'd promised you
yesterday.”

Amelia's heart squeezed at the memory
of what he'd said about her and cake yesterday. “No, thank
you.”

Elijah turned to face her, his blue
eyes wide with what appeared to be shock. “Did I just hear Amelia
Banks forfeit her boon?”

“
I'm not very hungry.” That was a lie. She was
famished.

“
That's all right.” He turned back to the wardrobe and pulled
out a white shirt and red waistcoat. He laid them across the back
of the chair closest to him. “After we walk around and visit the
shops for a while you will be.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but
quickly closed it. He might have made an unflattering remark about
her request for cake yesterday, but if Henry was to be believed,
and there really wasn't a good reason to doubt him, she'd do well
to spend the day talking with him—she just might discover what it
was he was hiding from her.

“
We could even get an ice if we see a vendor,” Elijah
continued, bending down to unlace his boots.

Amelia knew she shouldn't stare at his
backside. She just couldn't help it. Would it be as hard and
muscular as it looked? She tore her eyes away. What was wrong with
her? Not two minutes ago she'd boasted about her win and that she
was now free from his unromantic advances. So why now did she find
herself even more attracted to him than before?

“
Get dressed,” Elijah said, handing her the lavender morning
gown she'd borrowed from Edwina.

She took it from him, thankful that
it'd only be a week or so before the modiste who'd come by
yesterday afternoon would have some gowns whipped up for her. “Do
you plan to leave?”

“
No,” he said, tugging his shirt over his head. “If you'll
wait a moment, I'll help you dress.”

Help her dress?
“That won't be necessary,” she rushed to say in
spite of the way her cheeks burned.

Elijah pulled on his clean shirt then
reached for his trousers. “In case it has escaped your notice, I
haven't yet employed a lady's maid for you.”

“
Oh, so that's your plan?”

Elijah's movements stopped and his
face hardened. “I don't like what you're insinuating, Amelia. And
you'd do well to stop accusing me of being a depraved
reprobate.”

Amelia's heart slammed in her chest.
“I never meant—” She broke off. How had her words been taken so
wrong? “I was jesting with you, Elijah.”

“
Jesting?”

“
Jesting,” she confirmed. She set her gown on the bed next to
her and fell backwards onto the soft mattress.

“
That's a jest I don't find very humorous.”

“
I know that now, but I didn't mean for it to come out that
way,” Amelia mumbled, bringing her arm up to rest across her eyes.
Why was it so hard to talk to the one person who'd once had the
ability to put her at ease better than anyone else?

Next to her, the mattress dipped under
his heavy frame as he lay down next to her. His warm hand found her
cheek and turned her head to face him. “Why don't you explain it,”
he said in a tone far softer than the one he'd spoken in a moment
ago.

“
It's of no account.”

“
Sure it is.” He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone, his
jaw no longer clenched. “I want to know.”

“
It won't even be funny now.”

He grinned. “All the more reason to
explain it.”

She knit her brow. Was he cracked? Who
wanted to hear a jest when the moment for the height of the jest
had past?

“
I'm waiting.”

“
You're impossible,” she said with a smile. “You'd said you
were going to help me dress—play the part of my lady's maid because
you hadn't hired one for me so I asked if that's your
plan.”

“
Yes, I got that,” he said in a tone that lacked any humor
whatsoever.

She closed her eyes. “I
didn't mean it
that
way. What I was implying was that since you're a younger son
and have no title, you have to have a plan for your life. You're
seven-and-twenty and haven't yet taken up as an officer or become a
vicar, both of which are respectable things for a gentleman of your
station. So since you haven't done either of those, I was jesting
that you'd—”

“
Planned to become a lady's maid, instead,” he finished for
her, a blank expression on his face.

***

What an idiot he'd been. He swallowed
past the pound of gravel in his throat. “Amelia?”

“
Yes?”

He searched his mind for the right
words, but nothing came to mind of how to make amends for accusing
her of something so distasteful.

“
I told you it wouldn't be funny now,” she mumbled, taking him
from his thoughts.

“
No.” He reached for her small hand and held it in his. “It's
not that. It was funny. Or it would have been had I not been such
an arse to realize it.”

She stared up at the ceiling. “It's
all right. It seems we've both been guilty of such these past few
days.”

He nodded against the mattress,
companionable silence filling the room. He released her hand, then
moved his so they were palm to palm and entwined his fingers with
hers. It had been years since he'd touched her ungloved hand, and
yet it was still as soft as he remembered.

“
Will you forgive me?” he whispered after some time had
passed.

The slight movement of her fingers
between his was the only indication he had that she'd even heard
him at first. “You're not the only one who's been beastly,” she
said softly a moment later.

He brushed the pad of his thumb across
the back of her hand. “Shall we start over?”

“
No.” She turned back to look at him, a small smile on her
lips. “Your brother hasn't yet discovered how to travel through
time, thus making starting over impossible.”

He grinned at her logic and traced the
edge of her jaw with the index finger on his free hand. “All right,
since starting over is an utter impossibility, how about if we both
try to atone for our recent beastly behavior and have a nice visit
to Bath today?”

Her lips twisted as if she had to
think really hard about her answer. “I'll agree, but only on one
condition.”

“
Which is?'

She pulled her hand from
his and sat up in one swift motion. “You must get rid of
that.
”

Elijah's eyes followed Amelia's
outstretched finger to a little wooden box with a thin sheet of
glass over the top, and he began to chuckle. “I think I can manage
to get rid of the box.”

“
And the creature inside,” Amelia said, pulling a comical
face.

“
No, he stays.”

“
Oh please, Elijah; last night while I was getting ready for
bed I saw what's in there and nearly swooned.”

He snapped his fingers. “Ah, but you
didn't.”

Amelia shook her head ruefully. “No, I
managed to keep my wits about me, but only because that thing was
behind the glass.”

“
That thing has a name,” Elijah said in the most serious tone
he could muster. “His name is Mr. Henry Hirsute.”

“
Well, Mr. Henry Hirsute needs to find a new
residence.”

Elijah shook his head sadly. “I have
nowhere else to take him and he'll die if I just let him go.
Tarantulas weren't made to endure the weather this far north.”
Elijah glanced over at Mr. Henry Hirsute. He'd found him on the
England-bound ship the last time he'd come home from South America.
In the summer months, Elijah had to place his box by the window to
help keep it warm and in the winter months, he'd wrap blankets
around it and move it close to the hearth. He was actually
surprised the critter had lived this long.

“
If he can't survive the cold, then why did you bring him
here?”

“
I thought he'd make a good pet.”

“
Then get a hound.”

“
I've had one before,” he said with a dismissive flick of his
wrist. “They eat too much.”

“
I see,” she said slowly. “And just what does Mr. Henry
Hirsute eat?”

“
Cockroaches.”

Her silver eyes grew to the size of
Mother's favorite tea saucers, just the way he'd hoped they would,
and her hand went to her throat. “Cockroaches?” she breathed, her
lips curled up in disgust.

“
Would you like for me to show you?”

She shook her head with so much vigor
her loose coiffure started tumbling down. “No, but that is just all
the more reason to get rid of your friend.”

“
Because he eats insects?”

“
Yes, and because the particular insects he likes to dine on
often have friends of their own that like to come into places they
are not invited.”

He chuckled at her reasoning. “He can
eat other things, and often does.” He reached over onto the table
and picked up the glass jar he usually kept insects in to feed Mr.
Henry Hirsute. “While he prefers cockroaches, I have no more desire
to touch them than you have to see them, but he'll happily eat
grasshoppers, too.” He frowned at the jar in his hand. It was
empty. “Apparently, I need to go catch some more for
him.”

“
Outside?” Amelia croaked, drawing her knees close to her
chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.

“
Unless you know of somewhere else.”

“
Actually, I do,” she said with a small giggle. “Alex's study
has enough insects for Mr. Henry Hirsute to eat like Prinny for a
week.”

“
Indeed,” he agreed. “Say, how would you know
that?”

She swallowed audibly. “I...uh...went
in there yesterday.”

What reason in the world would she
have to go in there? “And?”

She shuddered. “There were jars of
insects lining the windowsill.”

“
Did you enjoy looking at them?” he asked just for no other
reason than to see her shudder again, an action which unbeknownst
to her made her pert breasts jiggle in the loveliest
way.

“
About as much as I enjoyed seeing Mr. Henry Hirsute last
night.”

“
That much?” He set the jar back down. “He's really not so
bad. He's soft and fuzzy. Would you like to touch him?”

“
Would you like to learn to embroider?”