She had no wish to make a fool of herself.

“You always speak his name as though you don’t approve of him,” she said.

Jasper’s cool gray eyes were impossible to read. “I don’t disapprove of him. I just wonder why you bought so many of his books all at once.”

“Because I’ve fallen behind on reading him over the years. And because you have an interest in his work. I thought I had better catch up if you and I were to have anything to talk about.”

“We have other things to talk about,” Jasper said irritably, only to fall silent as she cracked open her novel and turned to the folded page that marked her spot.

She’d begun reading it last night before bed and had only got through the first few chapters. Thus far it was a poignant tale, if not a fast-paced one, filled with love, and loss, and unrequited longing. The perfect read to calm her jittery nerves.

“I thought you were going to sleep?” Jasper said after a time.

“I couldn’t,” she replied. “Not yet. I’m far too anxious.”

An understatement.

Seated beside her new husband on a train hurtling rapidly toward her equally new life, Julia felt on the razor’s edge of panic. She didn’t know anything about men except what she’d read in books. She didn’t know anything about being a wife or a mother.

“Bridal nerves?” Jasper’s deep voice was a husky inquiry, as gentle as his touch when he’d last held her hand.

“A little,” she admitted, glancing up from her book. “I hope the children will like me.”

“I like you,” he said.

She met his eyes, her heart thumping. “You’re not having second thoughts?”

“If I am, they aren’t about you.”

She hesitated to ask. “What, then?”

His frown deepened. “Until today, I’ve only ever been truly selfish once in my life. Things didn’t go quite the way I expected them to.”

Julia didn’t understand. “Are you saying that marrying me was selfish?”

“Of course it was,” he answered. “I told you. I like you, Mrs. Blunt. The children will like you, too, once they get to know you.”

Some of the tension in her spine eased. He hadn’t previously addressed her by her married name. It was rather reassuring.

Belgrave Square hadn’t been warm or welcoming—it hadn’t been safe—but it had still been her home. Leaving it made her feel like a boat cut loose from its mooring, set adrift on a turbulent sea.

But she wasn’t adrift at all.

She belonged to Jasper now. He was her husband. Her anchor. Even if they weren’t madly in love, she was still safe and wanted.

“I like you, too,” she said earnestly. “More than any gentleman I’ve ever known.”

He flashed a brief lopsided smile. Except for his scar, it might almost have been boyish. The sort of smile to make a lady’s heart turn over. “Convenient,” he said, “seeing as how we’re married.”

Her heart swelled. Seated side by side, they were already close, her arm pressed to his and her skirts bunched against his leg, the hem pooling intimately over one of his booted feet. She drew closer still as she read, taking comfort from the muscular strength of his large presence.