Read Lisbon: Richard and Rose, Book 8 for Free Online

emerged as an icy condemnation. I didn’t want that. I wanted the hot fury.
    “You didn’t know what waited for you on deck after that crash. Or who.” The still, quiet voice. Oh hell.
    “No, I didn’t. But I haven’t changed, Richard. I still want to face my fate head-on.”
    His voice remained dangerously low. “It could have been pirates, mutiny, anything.”
    I wanted to laugh at his outrageous suggestions, but one look at his face, his features as graven as a marble statue’s, told me that would be a mistake. “It was one crash on the deck. I wanted to discover what it was, so I could protect my children. Our children. It wouldn’t have been pirates, and I knew it wasn’t an explosion. It was some kind of accident, I was sure.” He couldn’t keep up this cosseting forever. I would go stark mad, and why did he think to question me in this way? I got to my feet and whirled around to face him in a flurry of skirts and anger. “Don’t you trust my judgment any longer?”
    A tiny twitch at the side of his mouth alerted me. He was thawing. He looked away and bit his lip before turning his attention back to me. “I— Yes, I do. But I trust my own more, and I couldn’t tell what that crash could have been. I do trust you, Rose.”
    My mouth twisted bitterly. “Then act like it. Richard, I might tire easily, but apart from that, I’m not an invalid anymore. We didn’t need this trip. I could easily have weathered an English winter, especially with the pampering you give me, but I wanted to see my sister. And I wanted to get away. I thought it might help. I’m the same person, Richard. I am .”
    He stood fully three paces away from me. I took a step towards him. “Unfasten me, please. I need to change.” My skirts were bloody from the grazes the sailor had sustained in his fall, and they were sadly creased. I wouldn’t go ashore like this. I was still wearing the stays that unhooked down the front, and I could easily get out of them on my own. But I wasn’t about to tell him that, any more than I was the day before. Unlike yesterday, I wouldn’t allow him to flinch away. This was a challenge. Would he accept it?
    Richard never walked away from a confrontation. Firming his chin, he stepped forwards and put his hands on me. I quelled my shiver of response. It might deter him.
    Although layers of clothing lay between my skin and his, I sensed his touch like a burning brand. He must have felt my shiver because he paused, his hands on my robings where they hooked into my stomacher. He dropped his gaze, ostensibly concentrating on the fastenings. My gown undone, he pushed it off my shoulders, and I let it fall to the floor. My stomacher remained, and when I turned around, he could loosen its strings. I caught it as it fell away and dropped it on the chair nearest to me. This was different to yesterday. He wasn’t in control of his emotions. I had to push a little more, take the chance the unfortunate boy had inadvertently provided.
    His hands fumbled at the cords of my stays. He’d always undone them deftly in our days of nightly loving and punctuated the unfastening with kisses and murmurs of love. None of that happened this time. He gave me a gentle scolding, controlled and careful. I would have preferred a clearing of the air, but he wouldn’t do that. He’d stopped himself a few moments ago when he was quivering with fury. I was losing him again.
    He gave me reason and common sense. “Sweetheart, we have four children now. They need their mother. That’s why we brought them, rather than leave them at home.”
    “I am here.” I put my hands on my hips to facilitate his action. Incipient tears blocked my throat, filled my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall until he’d left the room. Not that I intended that to happen for a while. If we continued like this, so watchful around each other, thinking about every word, every touch, we would drift apart. I’d seen it in too many couples who had let