An Earnest Favour

XXIV

"If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind." Shannon L. Alder

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XXIV.

Jack awoke the next morning to the sound of Claire's breathy snores in his ear. It was odd how quickly he had become used to the sounds she made. She was sleeping close to him, nestled up against his chest, her arm strewn across his torso in her slumber.

For what had happened the previous evening, Jack could not care less about Arthur Slickson. Claire had kissed him of her own will. She had looked upon him with a desire in her eyes that he definitely thought he would never see.

It gave him the greatest hope for what might come out of a chance meeting in the library, and a plan that really ought to have exploded into flames. Though, he ought not tempt fate, as they were to announce Claire's pregnancy at luncheon, and that was a key conversation that needed to be believed.

Jack had not realised just how much he had wanted to kiss Claire until he was able to. To hold her in such an embrace was unlike anything else, and he felt lucky. Jack had certainly not considered himself a fortunate man in the emotional sense. But if Claire might love him, or regard him with enough tenderness, then he would be content for the rest of his days.

It truly felt like she might choose him.

Jack had kept to his word, and he had not forced intimacy upon Claire. And he knew that only a few short months ago, waking up with a woman having not had her properly, he would have felt cheated, or extremely dissatisfied. But this was different. It was contentment. Fulfilment.

Jack turned his neck down slightly so that he could look upon Claire's face. She had not washed it, and so the rouge that she had been wearing the night before had smudged, making her look entirely rosy. Her hair, as well, had not been braided, and so it was quite untidy, but he enjoyed it. Jack smiled and laid his head back down on the pillow.

A snore practically ripped itself from Claire's nose which shook her awake, and she looked around in a daze, quickly brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Oh!" she cried, her voice still thick with sleep. She then turned her head to look at Jack. "Good morning."

Jack smirked. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" he asked.

Claire nodded as she rubbed her eyes. "I still vehemently deny that I snore, but I do think I heard myself that time," she admitted reluctantly. "I do apologise if I was noisy."

Jack chuckled. "I am quite used to it now. It is my own adverse lullaby."

An amused smile teased Claire's face as she rolled over onto her elbows, one gently resting on Jack's chest. She then used her hands to cup her face as she looked at him.

Jack was startled for a moment at her sudden closeness, her comfort with him, and the very fact that she had such an expression of sweetness that she could have asked him for anything, and he would have consented.

"Where did you learn to dance?" queried Claire curiously. "You are wonderful."

"Oh," uttered Jack bashfully. "I don't know. One attends three or so dozen balls and one learns a step or two."

"I remember thinking you were a wonderful dancer the very first time we danced together," recalled Claire. "I wish I knew the steps to the finer dances that a house like this would host."

Claire did not yet know the family that she had married into. "Mother will take Susanna to London for the Season in April, and we will most likely join in the summer, when both of the children are born. There are always grandiose parties to attend as we watch mothers like mine parade their daughters about."