It was not nearly time to go down to dinner. He still wore his silk evening shirt open at the neck. His man was brushing his velvet coat, and paused in his task to answer the tap on the door.
“You may leave, Winthrop,” Lord Thomas said, smiling at his visitor. “I shall ring when I want you to return.”
The man bowed and left the room.
“Well, Sybil,” Lord Thomas said softly, still smiling.
“Thomas,” she said, fragile and lovely in pale blue silk, her hair loose down her back. “You came home.”
“As you see,” he said.
“You had the courage to come back,” she said, “though he drove you away.”
He smiled at her.
“Oh, Thomas,” she said, “you have come back.”
He turned his hands so that his palms faced toward her, and she uttered a little cry and hurtled across the distance between them and into his arms.
“Did you think I would go away from you forever?” he said against her hair.
“Yes,” she said. “I thought you must stay away since he had ordered you to do so. I thought you would never be able to come back. Thomas,” she wailed, looking up at him with horrified and tear-filled eyes, “I married him.”
“I know, love. Hush,” he said. “Hush.” And he found her mouth with his own, ravishing it with his tongue while he wrapped his arms about her small and pliant body. “Ah, you are so beautiful. More lovely than ever, Sybil. How could I have stayed away from you forever?”
“I have not known how to live without you,” she said, her voice high-pitched with emotion. “Thomas, I have been half-dead without you. You went to India? I had no idea. I did not know where you were or even if you were still alive. And I don’t think he knew either, and if he had, he would not have told me. Why didn’t you write? Oh, why didn’t you give me some sign?”
“It would not have done,” he said. “You know it, Sybil. It was kinder to let you think me gone forever. Dead even. Have you been half-dead without me?” He framed her face with his hands and gazed into her large blue eyes. “But you married him after all, Sybil. I did not expect it of you. I thought you would have remained faithful to my memory. I thought you would have refused him, anyway, of all people.”
“I had no choice,” she said, “with you gone. Oh, Thomas.” She hid her face against him, pressed herself even closer to him. “You were gone. I had no choice. I thought I would die. I wished to die. But he came day after day to beg me. And I did not care anymore with you gone. I married him. I hated him, but I married him.”
“Hush,” he said. “Hush. I am back now, love.” He kissed her again lightly, then more deeply. “Back where I belong, and everything will work out, you will see. Is it time for dinner yet?”
“Not for a while,” she said. “There is time.”
“Is there?”
He stood back from her and smiled. And she comprehended him, bit at her lip, and reached up trembling hands to the buttons of his shirt. He gazed into her eyes, his own serious, as he slid the blue silk from her shoulders and down her arms and cupped her naked breasts in his hands. “How does Adam treat you?”
“He doesn’t.” She looked at him in distress. “Thomas, don’t talk about him. Please don’t. I ought not to be here. I should go. I just wanted to talk with you privately.”
He laughed softly. “There is more than one way of talking,” he said. “And I have been starved for you, Sybil. Don’t leave me now. He won’t be looking for you?”
“No, he won’t,” she said. “Thomas. It isn’t wrong, is it?” She buried her face against his shoulder as he lifted her into his arms. “I only ever loved you. You do believe that, don’t you?”
“And I only ever loved you,” he said, laying her down on the bed and stripping away her clothes. “Why do you think I came home?”
“For me?” she said. “You came because of me?”
“Mm,” he said, lying down on top of her and moving against her soft flesh. “God, you’re beautiful, Sybil. How could you ever have thought I would not come back to you?”
Beyond the surging of his desire he thought of the unlocked doors of his dressing room and bedchamber and wondered with a certain amusement what would happen if his brother walked into either room.
“Ah,” he said against her mouth as he plunged into her. Yes, indeed, it really was very good to be home again.
THE DUKE OF RIDGEWAY had not talked with his brother beyond an exchange of the merest pleasantries. As the gentlemen joined the ladies in the drawing room after dinner, he noticed that his wife was even more happy and animated than she had been since the arrival of her guests, and his jaw set in anger again.