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Sighing, she fussed with one of the ribbons at her throat She supposed the nightgoas satisfactory By noshe had ever worn to bed The fabric was the finest lawn--virginal white with several delicate, pale blue ribbons braided through the neckline and tied off in a bow at the center of her chest

She glanced to the cabin door, wondering where her husband had disappeared to There couldn’t be too e That look on his face rose up in her nawed at the corner of her lip She closed her eyes in a tight blink and told herself to think no ined it--projected it upon hi

Rising, she azed out at the river A soft current rippled the black surface Thewhite on the undulating water

The door opened behind her, and she turned, the he at her ankles as her bare feet rotated on the floorboards Bloodsworth--Richard--stood there, leaning one shoulder into the doorjahtfully, wearing that boyish set beneath his perusal

"Frightened?" he queried, taking a sip

She shook her head Perhaps too quickly "A bit," she allowed, returning his smile with a tremulous one of her own

He pushed off the door and closed it after him with a soft and final click

Suddenly she are of how alone they were Her throat thickened and she fought to s She had never been alone with a man before The air throbbed with a strained silence around theh they were sealed inside a tomb, secreted away from the world

She knew there were two members of his staff on board His valet, to see to their needs and soh they were utterly alone, cast adrift in a vast sea When he first suggested the wedding be held at his fa barge, she had thought the idea rohtful It had only confirirls

Only now, on this barge, in this cabin, floating down a dark river, she wished they had married in St Ja She longed to hear the steady pulse of Town bustling outside herSheher to sleep Somehow there was comfortsafety in the busy clatter

He advanced on her She held her breath, releasing it in a soft whoosh when he stepped past her to gaze out at the river

"Beautiful night"

She turned to follow his gaze out the"Yes It’s been an altogether lovely day A lovely wedding"

She felt his gaze return to her face She held her poise, her hands clasped together before her

"It as it not?" hetocherish"

If his coe, she didn’t reveal it If an even odder sense of disquiet grew in her belly, she did not reveal that, either

"Tired?" he asked

She nodded, and then stopped, having no wish for him to think her too wearied and resistant to the notion of sharing a bed with hiht of hihtly sloping shoulders, the narroaist For nigh on a year he had been the elass down and ant sweep of his hand "Shall we?"

Her pulse leapt against her throat She nodded perhaps too briskly With her heart beating like a drue, folding her hands in her lap At sight of her rough, chapped fingers, she winced, wishing she could hide theloves Perhaps they would soften with ti of a duchess

He approached the bed She stared steadfastly at his legs, too nervous to look up and aze held hers, and he was looking at her in that considering way he so It was speculative As though she was so not quite decipherable Not unusual, she supposed He probably never i the likes of her

"Lie back on the bed," he instructed evenly

She hesitated at his co only when he smiled "Don’t fret We are married now, are we not?"

She nodded and scooted back on the bed Her heart pounded like a wild bird, fighting to burst free of her chest, of this roo else as he crawled above her on the bed, his thighs settling on either side of her hips His eyes pinned her in place, and fear stirred in her heart She batted it back He was her husband Handso A duke She had waited her whole life for hirew darker as they gazed down at her Deep and dark She blinked and looked away, looking back only when he said her name

"Annalise Look atto rest on either side of her head, trapping the long strands of her hair beneath his palht his face closer, his mouth a hair’s breadth from hers The brandy on his breath wafted over lips "Are you ready?"

She inhaled a sharp breath No

"Y-Yes," sheit was her duty to coue instinct shouted at her to get up, to squeeze out from under him and flee She nodded He chose her Above all others Even the dazzling Lady Joanna He cared for her

His s in his cheek, softening him into that boyishly handsoer down her cheek "I’m sorry This may hurt a bit"

She nodded jerkily "I--I know" She had heard as ue terms, but she had understood And then there had been the other shop girls orked for Madame Brouchard They were far more experienced than she They had always shared stories of their exploits

His head cocked to the side, his dark eyes glinting "Do you?"

"I’ve been told as led his head, studying her with a sharpness that made her think of the hawks that had hunted the mice in the field behind the manor home of Mrs Danvers, her mother’s eain beyond this initial disco to that, my dear"