Only by supreme strength of will did Mina stop herself from bristling like an old schoolmarm. “I wouldn’t know about that,” she said loftily. “I’ve never been to the music hall.”
He gave a slow smile. “You don’t say.”
This talk of music halls made her think of the covered screens she had used previously, which were decorated with flyers and advertisements for similar acts. “If we’re to share this bedroom, I could do with some screens,” she mused. “Maybe I should bring those ones up from the scullery.”
“That tatty old thing,” Nye objected. “It’s not fit for anything but the rubbish tip.”
“Someone clearly went to a lot of trouble to paste those advertisements all over it,” she pointed out. “Who made it?”
He was silent a moment. “My mother,” he said finally. She waited a moment, but nothing more was forthcoming.
“Oh, well, I expect it could be restored with some work.”
He made a rude noise. “It’s hardly worth the bother.”
Mina pulled her drawers on underneath her billowing nightgown. “Maybe I should strip it down and re-decorate it with your news clippings,” she said, then wondered why she was provoking him. He clearly hadn’t wanted her to see those articles. She shot an uneasy look at him, wondering if she had gone too far.
Nye’s eyes glinted at her, despite his relaxed pose. “Well, this is unexpected. Are you teasing me, Mina?”
For some reason, her face filled with hot color. “No,” she burst out vehemently.
“It sounded like you were.”
Was she? Mina shifted from one foot to another. “I just—spoke without thinking, that’s all.”
“Maybe you should do that more often.”
She bit her lip and tied the drawstring at her waist. “Now you’re teasing me,” she said flatly. He didn’t answer but when she sat on the edge of the bed to pull on her stockings, she felt his arms close about her from behind.
“I was in earnest,” he said gruffly, then nuzzled his face to her neck. Mina gasped feeling the rasp of his stubble up and down her sensitive skin. “Don’t be so starchy.” Before she could make any reply to that, he released her with a kiss to her pulse point and ringing slap to her backside that was hard enough for her to feel despite both layers of cotton.
“Nye!” she gasped in reproach as he sauntered across the room to where his clothes lay across a chair back. He just smirked.
“Are those your clothes in the wardrobe?” Mina asked on impulse. “The red silk cravat and the black dress trousers?”
He looked across at her as he drew his collarless shirt down over his bare chest. “Aye, they’re my fancy town clothes,” he said with a wink. “You should see me rigged out in them, I’m a sight to behold.”
“Now you are teasing,” she answered, but looking at him, found she believed him. Will Nye would be a striking figure in that scarlet striped waistcoat and flashy silk tie. Even when clothes covered his rippling physique, they showed his shape was built of solid muscle over an impressive frame.
He did not possess the polite good looks which graced a ballroom or a tea party, Mina realized. But while he did not have the smooth address of his half-brother, Lord Faris, he had something infinitely more disturbing. A sort of earthy, sensual attractiveness. Dressed in his best, he would not cut a respectable figure, but instead the brash kind of figure her father would have crossed the street to avoid.
“I should take you to town,” he said suddenly. “One day soon. We could take in the sights. Eat a meal at a fancy hotel, do some shopping, maybe even a show.”
Mina was so surprised she nearly dropped her stocking. “Which town?” She wondered if he meant St Ives.
“Exeter,” he answered, pulling on his breeches. “Or maybe London.”
“You have business there?”
“No,” he said. “It would be for pleasure, not business.”
Pleasure? Mina’s breathing came faster. He would take her there for pleasure? Or did he mean it would be a pleasure to take her? She hardly dared look at him. It seemed a very intimate thing to be dressing together like this. She slid her plain garters on and reached for one of her petticoats.
“Would you like that, Mina?” his voice was husky and sent a shiver down Mina’s spine. She glanced at him to find him knotting a kerchief about his tanned throat.
“Yes, I would,” she admitted softly and saw by the gleam in his eye that he was pleased by her words. “But that would mean several days away from the inn,” she pointed out. “Is that an easy thing to arrange?” Suddenly, she remembered Ivy’s defection and suffered a pang. They would not be going away anytime soon.
“You let me worry about that.” He drew on his black waistcoat and reached for his boots.
“Do you have any mending you need doing?” she asked on impulse, feeling herself blush and wishing she could control her reactions to him.
“Very wifely,” he said, and Mina lowered her eyes, feeling suddenly rather shy.
“Where do you keep the rest of your things? There’s barely any of your effects in here,” she pointed out, glad to think of a distraction.
Nye seemed to consider this as he fastened his cuffs. “Here and there. I’ve a trunk in the stable,” he said with a shrug. “There’s a bunk in there too. I used to doss down in there for an hour here and there where I could snatch it.”
“I see,” Mina answered, though she didn’t really. Why would he sleep in the stable? It made no sense to her.
As though aware of her thoughts, Nye looked up from tying his bootlace. “I know you’ve seen precious little evidence, but I really am a bad sleeper,” he said. “I can never usually snatch more than a catnap.” He frowned. “For some reason, when I’m around you…” He left the rest of the sentence unspoken.
“You get unbroken sleep at my side?” she said with surprise. She wondered if his poor sleep pattern might be because he always had to rise in the early hours to meet unsanctioned ships.
“I don’t know why,” he said, as though he’d heard her unspoken thoughts. “But yes.” He straightened up. His gaze flickering over her. Mina suddenly realized she must look a sight still half-dressed and all beneath her nightgown. The petticoat was flaring out, giving it a very strange silhouette. “Soon you won’t hide yourself from me, Mina,” he said. “There won’t be any point.”
She made no reply to this, indeed what could she say? He took a deep breath in and then out again. “You can help Edna get the place ready for Wednesday,” he said this in the manner of one making a great concession. Mina looked up quickly. “They’ll start arriving Tuesday, maybe even as early as tonight. We’ll want all the rooms made ready and the bunks in the stable.”
She nodded, wide-eyed, pleased to be making progress. “You could bring your own things in, that would free another bunk,” she heard herself say rather breathlessly.
He paused a moment before answering. “You want me to do that?” There was a heavier significance to his words, that she did not want to examine too closely.