Caesar promptly fell silent. In fact, he was so quiet that Bliss lifted the washtub and freed him. He staggered away and minded his own business all the while that Bliss was gathering eggs.

When she returned to the kitchen, Jamie was there, quite alone, sipping coffee from a mug with a chip in the rim. Bliss’s straight little shoulders stooped a little, under the weight of her discouragement. “Hello,” she said, thinking how stupid and inane that word could sound as she set the egg basket on the counter and reached back to fiddle with her apron ties.

She felt Jamie’s gaze on her breasts when they were thrust forward by the motion.

“How are you, Duchess?” he asked softly.

“As if you cared,” Bliss muttered, and she was immediately remorseful because Peony’s injury was real and it was serious and she hadn’t meant to make light of it by indulging her own jealous feelings.

She felt his hands on her shoulders. “I do care, Duchess,” he said.

Bliss turned in his grasp to look up at him, searching his handsome face for any sign of deception. Her throat was thick with emotion; just standing so close to Jamie made her yearn for him.

“Hold me, Jamie,” she implored him in a despairing whisper.

He drew her to him, and she took comfort from the strength of his embrace. After a few moments, though, he drew back, allowing his hands to rest on her waist. “I want you to do something for me, Duchess—with no arguments.”

Bliss didn’t like the sound of this, but she kept her peace, determined to listen if not obey.

“When Reeve leaves for Australia at the end of the week, I want you and Peony to go with him.”

Bliss’s mouth dropped open. Of all the things Jamie might have said, she had never expected that. “Wh-what about you?” she asked finally. “Aren’t you going, too?”

“Aye,” Jamie answered after a short silence, and there was an angry distance in his eyes that frightened Bliss. “I ’ave business there. But I’ve got some things to tend to before I leave, so I won’t be travelin’ with you.”

Bliss fought an urge to cling to him; she couldn’t have Jamie thinking that she was weak, and no wife for a man like him. “I’ll wait for you, then,” she said, with a proud lift of her chin.

Jamie shook his head. “No, Duchess. I want you kept safe, and this is the only way.”

Bliss lowered her eyes for a moment, struggling to retain her composure. “I’m never safer than when I’m with you,” she said softly.

“Aye,” Jamie said with a skeptical chuckle that was utterly devoid of amusement. “Were you ’safe’ that day when Dunnigan and ’is men jumped us along the road? If it ’adn’t been for Cutter and Dog, we’d both be dead by now.”

Boldly, Bliss lifted her hands to the sides of Jamie’s face. “But we aren’t dead, Jamie—that’s the important thing. And I don’t want to be separated from you.”