Page 74 of Sensibly Wed

“I’ve missed your facts, Liss. I feel you owe me at least two now.”

“Fact number one: I am not a perfect person. Fact number two: I am sorry for being upset with you.”

“You’re forgiven, though I do not know what I did to upset you. I understand that my mother—”

“I do not wish to speak of her at this moment,” I whispered. Sleep was overcoming me now that I felt both warm and safe, and the last thing I wished to think of before succumbing to that peaceful state was the woman who did not want me in this house. “Though I will, if you so desire it.”

“No, we can speak of other things.”

“Like your facts?”

He chuckled softly. “Fact number one: I missed you last night and the night before.”

“Fact two?”

“I fully believe I will be able to sleep easily tonight.”

“As will I.”

James reached across the space between us and took my hand, his thumb rubbing softly over the back of it, and I nestled further into the feather mattress, inhaling the muted spicy scent.

The cover of darkness and the safety of this bed gave me the courage to ask a question that had been on my mind. “James?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you agree to marry me? Aside from the obvious, of course. The scandal notwithstanding.”

He was quiet for a moment, and I wished to take the question back into the safety of my protection where I could guard and protect that small insecurity.

“Because it was the sensible thing to do.”

Sensible. Of course. My eyes drifted closed, and I tried to staunch the sorrow that accompanied that bald truth. James’s thumb continued to softly rub my hand, and I was certain in that moment he hadn’t meant to wipe the place the candle had burned me. I’d inaccurately assigned meaning to James’s gesture—meaning which it did not possess.

Sleep descended on my budding sorrow, taking me under the darkness and away from consciousness. But as I drifted away, I thought I heard James say, “Goodnight, my love.”

My love.