Haunted Hearts

15

Elphi's voice was thick with sleep and slid into a deep yawn as she whispered, "Good morning."

So much for avoiding detection as he'd hoped.

"Morning," he murmured with a shy smile curling his lips as he stole a peek out of the corner of his eye. "Sleep well?"

"Surprisingly, yes," Elphi sighed before peeling herself off him. She mumbled an apology as she scooted to the opposite edge of the bed. "You?"

"Better than I have in a long time," Rufus said with a nod as he sat up.

He bit back a grin when she grumbled several expletives at failing to find the curtain's edge. "There's a pull cord on either side of the headboard," he murmured, exposing the loop of gold braided cord on his side before giving it a gentle tug to open the curtains around the entire bed.

Bright sunlight bathed the room in a cheery glow and warmed the floorboards beneath Rufus's feet when he stood. He stretched and yawned, absently scratching his chest just as the disapproving faces of Percy, Bradford, and Fitz materialized directly in front of him.

He stumbled backward onto the bed, a startled expletive escaping his lips.

Elphi whipped around to face him, her eyes wide with alarm and a hand to her throat. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Rufus lied, scowling at the snickering, smug-looking ghosts, then glanced at his wife over his shoulder and climbed off the bed. "I merely lost my balance while stretching."

When he stood at his full height again, he cast another glare at the three tormentors and walked to his armoire.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, pulling the doors open before selecting a clean shirt, navy waistcoat, and pair of trousers.

"Famished," Elphi said behind him.

Rufus stuffed his right leg into his trousers, then the left, and began buttoning his fly as he turned to Elphi. He'd intended to tell her his housekeeper usually had breakfast laid out for him by quarter to seven since he was an early riser.

But at that very moment, he felt reduced to a boy of fifteen, suddenly struck speechless by the breathtaking woman across from him bathed in the morning light.

Which, he thought, was absurd. He was a grown man of twenty-seven and hadn't been frightened into silence by a woman since first meeting Edwina.

Distance, perhaps, but not silence, he mentally corrected himself as his hands abandoned the last two buttons of his fly and fell limply to his sides.

Thankfully, Elphi paid him no attention, focused as she was on brushing her hair while gazing out the lead-paned windows.

Sunlight silhouetted her body through her nightgown and created an auburn halo around her head, making Rufus suddenly wish he were an artist with an endless supply of canvas and paints at his disposal to capture the picturesque sight.

"Will you be working in your..." The remainder of her question dwindled into silence when she glanced at him over her shoulder and turned to face him, clutching her hairbrush to her chest.

She swallowed. "You're staring."

Rufus blinked a few times but try as he might, he couldn't look away. "I am."

Elphi dipped her head in a hesitant nod, making it clear she'd caught the inflection in those two small words that made it a statement rather than a question as he'd intended.

Rufus grunted, vaguely aware the more proper response on his part would now be to utter an apology and turn his attention elsewhere.

But propriety be damned because he couldn't look away. Air lodged in his throat, his mouth became dry as a desert, and his heart hammered against his ribs.