Page 54 of Midnight Rider
“Oh, I think Bernadette can cope,” he murmured drily.
“I think I can, too,” she said. She loved Eduardo desperately, and he was feeling something for her, if only affection. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to build on. “Never let it be said that a good Irish girl ran from a fight!”
Colston glowered. “You’re as good as anybody and don’t you forget it!”
She grinned at him. “I won’t.”
Eduardo was curious. “Was such a comment made?”
It had been, and by him. Bernadette didn’t want to remember what she’d overheard in the hotel after the wedding. “Only an insinuation,” she said evasively. “I won’t have to pack again,” she said, changing the subject. “I didn’t have time to unpack.”
“I’ll bring the carriage back to fetch you,” he told her. “And this time,” he added firmly, “you’ll wear something over your face during the trip to protect your lungs from the dust!”
“Yes, Eduardo,” she murmured with a wicked glance.
“Ah, how docile you sound,” he said mischievously, “and how well I know that you aren’t any such thing.”
“You said you were going to be the master in your house,” she reminded him. “I was only trying to be suitably subservient.”
“You’ve already shown how humble you are.” He glanced amusedly at Colston. “She poured a pitcher of cream over my grandmother.”
Colston let out a delighted laugh. “So much for my fears,” he said, rising. “I’ll get back to work, then. You take care of yourself, lass,” he added firmly. “No more carelessness with those lungs. I’m not risking the only daughter I’ve got!”
Bernadette’s face was radiant. She smiled up at her father with pure delight. “I’ll be good,” she promised.
He winked at her and went out, leaving her with Eduardo.
They smiled at each other.
“So we begin again,” he said softly. “And this time, we won’t fall at the first fence.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Thecondessaand Lupe were in the parlor sewing when Eduardo escorted Bernadette back into the house. They looked up, and actually seemed embarrassed.
“Bernadette is still not doing well,” he told them formally. “I’m taking her upstairs to lie down until the evening meal.”
“Of course,” Lupe said, and forced a smile to her lips.
Thecondessalooked at Bernadette with a subdued expression. “I trust you are feeling better,” she said stiffly.
“I’m feeling much better,” she replied with deliberate brightness. “Thank you for asking.”
Eduardo drew her along with him, nodding politely to his relatives.
The room to which he took her was enormous, with windows that went almost to the ceiling and heavy mahogany furniture. The bed was huge, four-postered, and its cover was a patchwork quilt obviously done by an expert. The curtains were like the chairs, plain and functional rather than pretty. It was a man’s room, not a woman’s.
“I’ve slept here since my return to the ranch,” he told Bernadette. “You can change the look of it, if you like.”
“I won’t do anything right away,” she told him. She sat down on the edge of the bed, which was so high off the floor that her feet didn’t touch the polished wood. She glanced at her husband with a shy smile.
He sighed, leaned against the broad dresser with his arms folded across his chest and studied her. “You look at home on my bed,” he said. “I hope you know that I don’t mean our marriage to be a platonic one.”
“I know.”
His black eyes narrowed. “Bernadette, we haven’t spoken of a child,” he said after a minute. “I know that you have a terror of childbirth. I also know that in the heat of our coming together, I did nothing to try to prevent one.”
She was more curious than afraid. “Can you? Prevent a child, I mean? How?”