Bride Who Fell in Love with Her Husband by Cheryl Ann Smith

“I find myself in need of a bath, husband. Perhaps you would care to join me upstairs?”
    His brows went up with the invitation. He turned to the servants. “My wife would like a bath. Bring the biggest tub we own.”
    * * * *
    The house was a-bustle when Thomas returned at noon from a meeting at White’s with a shipbuilder looking for investors. The sound of footfalls from above drew his attention to the staircase. He quickly went up to find several maids carrying his wife’s possessions from her bedroom to his.
    â€œWhat is this?” he asked when Rose appeared in the open doorway of his bedroom. He sidestepped a maid.
    Rose came into the hallway. “I am weary of waking in the morning and finding you gone. The dressing room between us is too far a walk, so I have decided that it is time for us to share a bed.”
    There was a hint of mischief in her eyes. His lovely wife loved to flaunt convention whenever she could. “Sharing a bed with one’s spouse is highly frowned upon,” he teased. The idea of sharing a room appealed to him, too. “We will shock the household.”
    â€œThe baroness has already called it unseemly,” Rose said tartly. “I think she has taken to her bed with a mysterious malaise.”
    Thomas looked around and discovered that the door across the hall was open. He took Rose by the hand, pulled her into the empty guest room, and pushed her gently against the wall behind a silk screen.
    â€œI think the idea is splendid. I would like nothing more than to share a bedroom with you.” He kissed her soft mouth, teasing her with his tongue until she melted against him.
    The voices of the maids drew them apart. Rose caressed his chest and met his eyes. “We will continue this later, in our marital bed.”
    With a last seductive glance, and sway of her hips, she rejoined the maids in the hallway.
    Thomas chuckled. In a matter of a few days, she’d upended his somber household and sent his mother into fits of vapors. She seduced him, laughed with him, and challenged him.
    His wife was positively delightful.
    With a sigh, he ran his hands through his hair. Perchance his worries were for naught. She’d shown no signs of restlessness over the last few days and the hat had vanished. Unfortunately, he could not shake the feeling that despite her wish to share his bed, all was not settled in his marriage.
    * * * *
    Hyde Park was busy when Thomas, Rose, and Priscilla arrived in the carriage. Priscilla tried to keep poised, but the sight of Byron, bedecked handsomely in a gray coat and trousers, brought a wide smile. When he helped her from the carriage and tucked her hand under his arm, she was fairly gleeful.
    â€œFor a woman who just two days ago was embracing spinsterhood, your sister has changed for the better,” Rose said as Thomas swung her down from the carriage.
    He tucked her in beside him and followed behind Byron and Priscilla. “Priscilla never embraced spinsterhood. She felt she had no choice. Mother ran off her callers until they stopped coming. My brother and I were away at school and couldn’t intervene, and Father’s illness has kept him from worrying about his daughters. Sadly, spinsterhood was their only option.”
    Rose nodded. “Will I ever meet your father?”
    Thomas peered up at the sun peeking through the trees. “Possibly, though unlikely. His madness keeps him from socializing, even with family. The last time I was in Dorset, he chased me out of the manor. From what I’ve learned from his physician’s correspondence, he has to be kept locked in his chamber on many days to prevent him from doing harm to himself and others. I fear one day soon we will receive news of his untimely death.”
    â€œHow sad.” Rose remembered the painting of Thomas’s father in the library. They resembled each other. “One would think having family close would bring him