And hopefully she, too, had moved on, and wouldn’t ask him to fulfill John’s duties in every way but one.
But all the same, he was glad that it would be March when he disembarked in London, too early in the year for Francesca to have arrived for the season.
He was a brave man; he’d proven that countless times, on and off the battlefield. But he was an honest man, too, honest enough to admit that the prospect of facing Francesca was terrifying in a way that no French battlefield or toothy tiger could ever be.
Maybe, if he was lucky, she’d choose not to come down to London for the season at all.
Wouldn’t that be a boon.
It was dark, and she couldn’t sleep, and the house was miserably cold, and the worst of it was, it was all her fault.
Oh, very well, not the dark. Francesca supposed she couldn’t take the blame for that. Night was night, after all, and she was rather overreaching to think that she had anything to do with the sun going down. But it was her fault that the household hadn’t been given adequate time to prepare for her arrival. She’d forgotten to send notice that she was planning to come down to London a month early, and as a result, Kilmartin House was still running with a skeleton staff, and the stores of coal and beeswax candles were perilously low.
All would be better on the morrow, after the housekeeper and butler made a mad dash to the Bond Street shops, but for now Francesca was shivering in her bed. It had been a miserably freezing day, with a blustery wind that made it far colder than was normal for early March. The housekeeper had attempted to move all the available coal to Francesca’s grate, but countess or no, she couldn’t allow the rest of the household to freeze at her expense. Besides, the countess’s bedchamber was immense, and it had always been difficult to heat properly unless the rest of the house was warm as well.
The library. That was it. It was small and cozy, and if Francesca shut the door, a fire in its grate would keep the room nice and toasty. Furthermore, there was a settee on which she could lie. It was small, but then again, so was she, and it couldn’t possibly be any worse than freezing to death in her bedroom.
Her decision made, Francesca leapt out of bed and dashed through the cold night air to her nightrobe, which was lying across the back of a chair. It wasn’t nearly warm enough—Francesca hadn’t thought to need anything bulkier—but it was better than nothing, and, she thought rather stoically, beggars couldn’t be choosers, especially when their toes were falling off with cold.
She hurried downstairs, her heavy wool socks slipping and sliding on the polished steps. She tumbled down the last two, thankfully landing on her feet, then ran along the runner carpet to the library.
“Fire fire fire,” she mumbled to herself. She’d ring for someone just as soon as she got to the library. They’d have ablaze roaring in no time. She’d regain feeling in her nose, her fingertips would lose that sickly blue color and—
She pushed open the door.
A short, staccato scream hurled itself across her lips. There was already a fire in the grate, and a man standing in front of it, idly warming his hands.
Francesca reached wildly for something—anything—that she might use as a weapon.
And then he turned.
“Michael?”
He hadn’t known she’d be in London. Damn it, he hadn’t even considered that she might be in London. Not that it would have made any difference, but at least he’d have been prepared. He might have schooled his features into a saturnine smirk, or at the very least made sure that he was impeccably dressed and wholeheartedly immersed in his role as the unrecoverable rake.
But no, there he was, just gaping at her, trying not to notice that she was wearing nothing but a dark crimson nightgown and dressing robe, so thin and sheer that he could see the outline of—
He gulped. Don’t look. Do not look.
“Michael?” she whispered again.
“Francesca,” he said, since he had to say something. “What are you doing here?”
And that seemed to snap her into thought and motion. “What am I doing here?” she echoed. “I’m not the one who’s meant to be in India. What are you doing here?”
He shrugged carelessly. “Thought it was time to come home.”
“Couldn’t you have written?”
“To you?” he asked, quirking a brow. It was, and was meant to be, a direct hit. She hadn’t penned him a single letter during his travels. He had sent her three letters, but once it became apparent that she didn’t plan to answer, he’d conducted the rest of his correspondence through his mother and John’s.
“To anyone,” she replied. “Someone would have been here to greet you.”
“You’re here,” he pointed out.
She scowled at him. “If we’d known you were coming, we would have readied the house for you.”
He shrugged again. The motion seemed to embody the image he desperately needed to convey. “It’s ready enough.”
She hugged her arms to her body, effectively blocking his view of her breasts, which, he had to concede, was probably for the best. “Well, you might have written,” she finally said, her voice hanging sharp in the night air. “It would only have been courteous.”
“Francesca,” he said, turning slightly away from her so that he could continue to rub his hands together by the fire, “do you have any idea how long it takes for mail to reach London from India?”
“Five months,” she answered promptly. “Four, if the winds are kind.”
Damn it, she was right. “Be that as it may,” he said peevishly, “by the time I decided to return, there was little use in attempting forward notice. The letter would have gone out on the same ship I did.”
“Really? I thought the passenger vessels were slower than the ones that take the mail.”
He sighed, glancing at her over his shoulder. “They all take the mail. And besides, does it really matter?”
For a moment he thought she would answer in the affirmative, but then she said quietly, “No, of course not. The important thing is that you’re home. Your mother will be thrilled.”
He turned away so that she wouldn’t see his humorless smile. “Yes,” he murmured, “of course.”
“And I—” She stopped, cleared her throat. “I am delighted to have you back as well.”
She sounded as if she were trying very hard to convince herself of this, but Michael decided to play the gentleman for once and not point it out. “Are you cold?” he asked instead.
“Not very,” she said.
“You’re lying.”
“Just a little.”
He stepped to the side, making room for her closer to the fire. When he didn’t hear her move toward him, he motioned toward the empty space with his hand.
“I should go back to my room,” she said.
“For God’s sake, Francesca, if you’re cold, just come to the fire. I won’t bite.”
She gritted her teeth and stepped forward, joining him near the blaze. But she kept herself somewhat off to the side, maintaining a bit of distance between them. “You look well,” she said.
“As do you.”
“It’s been a long time.”