“Silly? Unreasonable? Unfair?” Noble folded his arms across his chest and glared at her.

“Silly, unreasonable, and unfair. Noble, you know full well that keeping me a prisoner in the house, forbidding me to see friends and family, and, worst of all, denying me my son, is simply intolerable. I will not stand for it!”

“Harry, please tell my wife that she will stand for whatever I tell her she will stand for.”

“Um…no, I don’t think I will tell her that, Noble.”

Noble added Harry to his list of people to be glared at.

“See,” Gillian said, tapping Rosse on his arm with her fan. “Irrational and emotional.”

“I’m nothing of the sort,” Noble snapped.

“You are, husband, just look at you! You’re sitting there scowling and growling at us, and over what? A simple stroll in the park with my cousin, son, and others.”

“You left the house by yourself, madam, without a footman or groom in attendance, and,” he said hurriedly, before Gillian could protest his statement, “you walked for some time alone with that murdering bastard.”

“If you had three Bow Street Runners following me, then I was not alone,” she said triumphantly, pleased with her logic. “So my going out to meet with Lord Carlisle was perfectly respectable.”

“That’s beside the point. You didn’t know the Runners were in attendance…”

“Yes, and I’d like to discuss that with you…”

Noble waved her objection away. “The point is, you deliberately disobeyed my commands.”

“Noble.”

He glared at her gentle smile. “What?”

“You’re speaking to me.”

He swore under his breath. “Gillian, you will not distract me by smiling at me in that manner. The issue at hand is one of obedience. Without any concern for your health or safety, you left the sanctuary of our home to meet with that—”

“—murdering bastard, yes, Noble, we all know who he is.” Gillian took a deep breath and reached out a hand toward him. He frowned at it.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake…” Gillian moved across to sit next to her husband and, by wriggling her fingers, managed to work her hand under her husband’s crossed arms. “Noble, I was perfectly safe. I knew Charlotte would be there, and I was in a public place.”

She reached up with her free hand and ran her finger around the cleft in his chin. “Can you not see your way clear to forgiving my transgressions, and I shall forgive yours?”

He reached up to grab her fingers, his scowl growing blacker. “My transgressions? You will forgive me my transgressions?”

“Yes”—she pulled her hand out of his and placed it on his chest—“I am quite willing to forgive if you are.”

Her hand slid up his chest and curled around the back of his neck, sliding into his hair. God’s eyebrows but his hair was sinfully soft. It was like silk slipping through her fingers. She closed her fist around it and tugged his head toward hers, tilting her head back and offering up her mouth.