“Where’s Dottie?” he asked, “It’s not her evening off.”

“Oh, I told her I wouldn’t need her tonight. I saw her at the end of the meeting and she was going to the pub with some other girls,” Petra said easily, tossing her silk stockings aside.

“Your maid is a member of the Union?” There was a note in his voice that made Petra sit up straight.

“What if she is? It’s her business.”

“I find it hard enough to accept that my wife is a member of the WSPU but I certainly will not permit members of my household to be involved in that political issue. It causes disagreements among the staff and leads to all sorts of trouble. Babbit won’t stand for it if he finds out.” He walked into his dressing room, closing the door behind him with a click.

Petra stared at the closed door. He had never shut it before. It seemed like a statement of a kind. And not a reassuring one.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Petra awoke in semidarkness the next morning with a faint sense of unease. She lay for a moment in the half world between sleep and wakefulness probing the feeling. Turning her head on the pillow she felt a wash of relief. Guy’s head was on the pillow beside her and he appeared to be still asleep. She had fallen asleep the previous evening before he had emerged from his dressing room and now realized that her sleep had been disturbed by the fact that she hadn’t heard or felt him get into bed beside her. Reassured, she turned on her side and went back to sleep.

When she next awoke it was broad daylight, the curtains drawn back across the window to let in the autumn sun. Guy was standing in his dressing gown beside the bed, holding a cup of tea, which he set down on the bedside table.

“Good morning, sleepyhead. Your tea.”

Petra reached her arms above her head in a luxuriant stretch. “Come back to bed. It’s lonely without you.”

He shook his head, bending to kiss her. “Don’t tempt me. I have the country’s work to do.”

She put her arms around his neck in a tight clasp, rolling onto her back so that he fell forward onto the bed beside her. “Are you sure I can’t tempt you, my lord?”

He groaned. “All too easily. For such a little thing you make remarkably strong magic, Petra.” He reached behind his neck to unclasp her hands. “But not this time. I have an important meeting to attend.”

Petra yielded, pulling herself up against the pillows as he stood up. “What’s the meeting about?”