Mina gave a hysterical giggle. “Oh dear. I seem to have turned into one of those women that causes scenes,” she murmured. “This reminds me of that first night I arrived at The Harlot,” she said as Nye carried her over to the bed and laid her carefully down.
“How?” he murmured, sliding onto the bed beside her. “Tell me, I want to know.” He rolled into her capturing one of her hands in his in the pillows above and twining their fingers.
“Well, because I was so shocked as I went from room to room, trying to find somewhere to sleep.” She wiped her eyes with her other hand. “I had led such a sheltered life till that point,” she mused wryly. “You wouldn’t believe what an eye-opener it was. That night, you’d had a boxing match in the yard,” her eyes rose to meet his and she was disconcerted a moment by the expression his held.
“I remember,” he said gruffly. “Keep going.”
“Well, the place was full,” she said uncomfortably. “I’m sure you recall. I met you on the second landing.” Her eyes slid away, but his long fingers caught her chin and drew her back to face him. “How is this like that night?” he persisted.
Mina gave an awkward laugh. “Well, there were prizefighters all over the place and – and their company,” she said.
“Mmm,” he agreed, his hand sliding down to cup her between her legs, over the pale pink silk. Mina gasped. “Like you’re my company now?” he suggested huskily.
“Yes,” Mina agreed breathlessly. “Someone – I’m not sure who, for I did not know everyone’s names at the time – well, he was fighting with a woman in the front bedroom. At least...” She frowned. “Now that I think about it must have been Clem, for the female shouted, ‘I’ll see you hanged, Clem Dabney, or something of that sort.” Nye’s thumb had started to lightly stroke over the silk covering her mound and Mina’s breath caught.
“So, Clem was fighting with his doxy?” he put in smoothly.
“Yes, they broke a mirror. I think she threw something at him. Possibly a shoe.”
“Mmm, then what?”
“Then—” Mina had to make a concerted effort to concentrate. “Um- oh yes. I heard Ivy in with someone,” she broke off distractedly. “Oh wait, I think it must have been Frank Toomes, for when I went into the room next door, his brother Jack was lying on a mattress on the floor and he said ‘Are you finished with Frank now?’ Because you see, just for a minute he believed I was Ivy.”
Nye’s thumb immediately stilled. “He spoke to you?” he asked sharply.
“Yes, you see, he thought—”
“He thought you were Ivy, yes,” Nye said tensely. “What reply did you make?”
Mina gazed up at him. “I don’t really remember, in all honestly,” she added at his heavy frown.
His eyes narrowed. “Mina—”
“I think I just uttered some kind of apology and ducked out of the room,” she said truthfully.
“That was it? The full exchange?” Mina nodded, wondering at the intensity of gaze. Why was he so wound up about it? She watched his shoulders relax. “Then what?”
Mina cast her mind back and flushed. “I don’t remember!” she prevaricated.
A smile curved his lips. “Little liar,” he contradicted her. “That’s when I happened upon you. Outside Jeb and Effie’s room.”
“Oh yes,” she admitted weakly.
“Listening to them rolling in the sheets.”
“Nye! I was not!”
“Your face was red as fire,” he teased. “And when I spoke to you, you jumped two feet in the air and shook like a leaf.” The playful look left his face and he looked regretful. “You were scared of me.”
“No,” she contradicted him uncertainly. “It wasn’t as straightforward as that. I felt really, really angry with you.” She heaved a great breath. “On the walk back from the church, I had wound myself up into a huge temper with you. Even at the time,” she mused. “I knew it was strange that I blamed you more than Jeremy.”
“Did you?”
She nodded and bit her lip. “Because, I felt—” She broke off her words. “It’s silly really.”
“Tell me,” he insisted.
“I felt that we’d been forced into it together and—” She heaved a breath. “But you didn’t feel that way at all and I felt so humiliated in the church,” she squeezed her eyes shut and felt him shift closer into her, crowding her with his bigger body, his hand stroked over her hip encouragingly. “I couldn’t really make head nor tail of anything that night,” she recalled wonderingly. “And I didn’t know anyone save you and Jeremy. Everyone else were complete strangers to me. And I knew there was something between you and he, but I didn’t understand then what it was at all. I just knew I was completely in the dark.” She paused and his fingers squeezed her waist. “And when you grabbed my elbow, I just felt myself relax, because for some reason, I trusted you in the dark to steer me right.” She swallowed. “But then you – you left me behind. You walked out of the church and everyone followed you. And when I tried to catch up, I fell over my shoe,“ she broke off as a tear rolled down her face. “So stupid.”
“Yes, I was,” he said gruffly. “Because you were right. We were in it together and I had no right to blame you like that. I was a fucking idiot to leave you in that church. I showed myself up, not you.”
She looked up quickly at that. “Well, but—”
“Do you know why I was angry with you, Mina?” he asked softly.
“Yes. Because you didn’t want to marry me.”
“No,” he contradicted her. “It was because I thought you were Jeremy’s cast-off mistress.”
Mina gasped. “Oh yes, I had forgotten about that,” she admitted. “Ivy explained it to me later.”
He looked grim, but she knew his anger was directed toward himself. “I thought he was giving me his leavings, like his father did to mine.” She regarded him speechlessly a moment. “And I was furious about it, really furious. I wanted to break his neck. Not yours,” he added. “Never yours. But I didn’t want you. Not then.”
“Well, I’m not surprised.” She gulped. “Not if you thought that!“
“I wanted you at the top of the stairs, though,” he said gruffly.
“What?”
“When you stood there, looking so fucking embarrassed.” He reached up and scratched the side of his jaw. “It really threw me off.”
“You had to put your mouth by my ear to make me hear,” she recalled. “Because Effie was making so much noise.” She cleared her throat.
He smiled. “And you shivered and dropped that ugly bag of yours as if I’d touched you. And I thought, why the hell does he want to be rid of someone as sweetly responsive as that?”
“Is that really what you thought?” Mina marveled. “I thought you despised me at that point.”
He snorted. “No. If I had, I never would have sent you up to my bed.”