Chapter Seven
Ian climbed into the bed thinking she was asleep, as she’d been the past few nights. But when he heard the hitch in her breath, as though she’d been crying, he reached out toward her.
“Why the tears?” he asked, thinking to comfort her. Instead she pushed him away and scrambled from the bed to go to the wash basin and get a cool rag from the bowl.
“No reason. I’m a woman. Can I not shed a tear every so often without it being for a specific reason?”
“There’s always a reason,” he replied, trying to sound sympathetic. His eyes followed her in the moonlit room as she sat on the chair and placed her compress over her eyes.
“Well, I have none except that” —she removed the compress and faced him— “we will be in New York soon, and… you will think this is selfish beyond measure, b
