“Wait and see,” he said with a slight smile. “Maybe I’ll prove you wrong this time.”
Maybe he would, at that. “If you’re right, at least we have the coach.”
He glanced back at the canvas-topped vehicle. “Did you buy it?”
“Yes.”
“So you don’t always trust the sun.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Not at all between October and March. And I go into town more often now. There is little time for leisurely walks.”
Very little time at all. Her friends had urged her to move into Skagen so she wouldn’t have to make that journey every day. It would have been more practical. Her offices were there, and the expense of the wiregram lines she’d installed to connect her business to her home—and the cost of repairing them after every storm—could hardly be justified. No one waited for her at the house. But Georgiana couldn’t bring herself to leave it.
At first she’d worried that if Thom returned, he wouldn’t know where she’d gone. But after hope for his return had faded, she’d stayed, anyway. She loved the house. She loved the beach and the constant roar of the ocean. She loved being able to leave the town behind.
She also loved driving into town, because every day, she had a purpose there. In the steamcoach, her gaze was fixed on the road ahead of her instead of on the horizon.
And not every day was a sunny one. She appreciated the roof over her head.
She frowned a little. Thom wouldn’t have one.
“Where do you intend to stay tonight, Thom?”
He shook his head. “I’ll figure something.”
“You don’t need to. Stay at the house until we have everything settled. I’ve room enough—and we’ll avoid the gossip in that way. I’ll open the upper bedrooms.”
“They’re not ready now?”
Not after Georgiana had become her mother, standing at the window and waiting. “No.”
His gaze searched her face. “I don’t want to give you trouble.”
“It’s no trouble. I’ll leave a note for Marta.”
He exhaled on a sharp breath, looked out over the sea. Debating. After a quiet moment, he said, “I’d best not stay. You’ll be looking for a new husband soon. I’ll be in the way.”
“A new husband?” Surprise pushed a short laugh from her. “Why would I do that?”
“You have to have someone.”
She frowned at him. “You sound like my father. I did well enough on my own for four years.”
“You wanted children.”
Yes, she did. “Perhaps I’ll have those on my own, too.”
He didn’t respond, but his gloved hands clenched at his sides. That was the Thom she didn’t know well. The one who kept so much concealed.
She gave that hidden Thom a little push into the light. “Perhaps it won’t be long until I have a baby, if you stay tonight.”
His head jerked around, gaze locking with hers. He took a step before stopping to stare down at her, eyes burning blue. Georgiana’s breath caught. He’d looked down at her like that before. In bed, his arms braced beside her shoulders and his mouth carefully tasting her lips. Everything he’d done, so controlled—but that burning in his eyes had eventually been smothered by her tears. She’d known their lovemaking would hurt the first time, yet breaching her virginity had been even more painful and bloody than she’d expected. And the second time, she’d been so tense that his entry had hurt again, even though he’d been so careful and slow.
But the last time, he’d kissed her endlessly before finally lifting her nightgown to her waist and settling between her legs. There’d been discomfort, at first. Then just wetness and heat and Thom sliding back and forth inside her, and all of her body had been caught between the same sensation of heavy and light, but so much heavier, so much lighter. He’d been so slow and so careful, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself from moving beneath him, or the little noises that had welled up, so that she’d had to bite her lips to keep herself from begging him for . . . she hadn’t even known. Faster. Harder. Something more.
Now that same need rose inside her again—and he wasn’t even touching her.
And she wasn’t crying this time, but the burning in his eyes still went dark. “I don’t know how to be a husband, Georgie. I know even less about being a father.”
“I would be enough of a parent for any children.”
“And I should abandon them?”
“You abandoned me,” she pointed out, and the edges of his mouth whitened. She didn’t know if it was anger or hurt.
It was anger. His face hardened, cold steel that matched his voice. “Only because you asked me to.”
Georgiana gaped at him. “What?”
Through gritted teeth, he repeated harshly, “You asked me to. Don’t you—”
He abruptly stopped. Not controlling his emotions again, she realized. Something had changed. His gaze had fixed behind her, a frown slowly darkening his features.
“You have your pistol, Georgie?”
Oh, dear God. Without question, she dug into her bag, spinning around to scan the beach and road. Ravenous zombies roamed the continent, but they didn’t cross water. A shallow sound to the south prevented almost all of the creatures from venturing this far up the peninsula, but now and again one made it through and wandered into a town. In all of the years she’d lived here, none had come near her home or as far north as Skagen. Yet she always kept a pistol with her, nonetheless.
Nothing moved. She glanced up at Thom, saw that he’d focused on the sky—on an airship flying along the shoreline. A white balloon over a small wooden cruiser. Such airships were a common sight . . . except that it flew silently, using its sails instead of propellers. This far from town, there was little reason to stay so quiet, unless they didn’t want the engines to announce their approach.
“Thom?”
“The shed.” He didn’t wait for her to make sense of that. His arm wrapped around her waist and he hurried her through the humid clouds of rising steam and into the shed. “You have more bullets?”
“In the coach, under the bench.”
Heart pounding, she glanced at the airship again. Just a personal yacht or a small passenger ship, though by the gleam of its polished hull, a rather fine one. Why had the sight of it alarmed him? Who did he think was coming?
The clank of metal against metal turned her head. Thom had found the ammunition box, set it on the coach’s boot. He shoved his sleeve up over his steel left arm. With his opposite thumb, he flicked open a small panel on the inside of his forearm, revealing a cylindrical chamber. He began loading the bullets into his arm, one by one.
Georgiana’s lips parted in shock. What in the world? “Thom?”
“You hide, Georgiana. You stay in this shed, out of sight. No matter what.”
“Why? Who are they?”
“The same pirates that took Oriana.” He snapped the chamber in his arm closed and covered it with his sleeve. “Maybe they think I still have some of the coins. I don’t know. I’ll give them the last one and send them on their way.”
And if he truly thought they’d leave so easily, would he be telling her to hide? Georgiana wasn’t going to fall for that. “Thom.”
His jaw clenched. “Listen to me. He aimed a rail cannon at Oriana’s deck and came aboard, asking for the coin chest. I offered to give it over, even though it meant I wouldn’t be coming home with anything but my ship. He said he wouldn’t risk anyone else having a claim on the gold and shot me. So you stay here. I’ll try to stop them however I can. I won’t see you hurt, too. Let me do this one thing, and protect you.”