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H arrington left it as late as he possibly could.

But eventually, he could delay no longer. He gave Edward a hasty hug, pounding his brother on the back, then climbed into the carriage with Inge.

He was quiet during the drive to the Royal Dockyard. Not that there was anyone to talk to. Edward had offered to accompany him, but Harrington had asked him to stay behind and convey his regrets to Diana whenever she turned up. Which, knowing his luck, would be two bloody minutes after he left.

He blew out a petulant breath. Inge, seeming to sense his mood, left her perch before the window to lay her head in his lap. He stroked her head, grateful that he had her for company.

On board the Mercury , Captain Bannister showed him his quarters.

He had a bunk in a room with a handful of junior officers.

Which was fine, as the voyage shouldn’t take more than a few days.

He had certainly slept in worse conditions during the retreat from Hanover, when he got to sleep at all.

He opened his trunk to see what Edward had packed for him.

Right on top of a stack of clean shirts was a thick book.

He peered at its spine. The Complete Works of Plutarch .

Harrington groaned. This was what came of asking his bookish brother to pack for him.

But, upon a cursory inspection, Plutarch aside, Edward and his valet had done an admirable job.

There was plenty of clean linen, all his officer’s accoutrements—sword, pistols, canteen, that sort of thing—and a box of his favorite tea.

There was even a miniature portrait of Diana that belonged to Lucy.

It was a thoughtful thing to include, but seeing her cool gaze felt like a punch to the gut, and he closed the lid of his trunk with a snap.

He knew he should probably introduce himself to the officers of the King’s German Legion.

This was usually a part of his job that he was actually good at—gladhanding with his fellow soldiers, making a friend of every man he met, whether he was a foot soldier or a field commander.

But Harrington found himself in an uncharacteristically foul temper and thought it better that he keep to himself.

If he spoke to anyone right now, he was going to put the wrong foot forward, and he bloody well knew it.

He wandered the ship until he found a relatively uncrowded spot at the bow, just behind the figurehead of a curly-haired god in a winged hat.

He sat cross-legged on the deck, rubbing Inge’s neck and feeling sorry for himself. As the sun sank low, the sailors untied the mooring lines and the ship drifted into the Thames. He hung his head. There was a certain finality about slipping away from the shore, an irrevocability.

An irrevocability ? What a bunch of tripe. When had he become so fucking overwrought? At this rate, he might as well go back to his bunk and read the Plutarch.

He should probably go and join the other officers.

At least it would distract him from his melancholy.

But he couldn’t seem to muster the will to move from his solitary perch, where the same set of miserable thoughts circled round and round inside his head.

Diana was going to be furious with him, and who could blame her?

He was abandoning her without a word just one week after their wedding!

It was a despicable thing to do, no matter how you looked at it.

And, now that he couldn’t do anything about it, he was starting to second-guess every bloody decision he’d made today.

It wasn’t as if he could disobey an order from his commanding officers.

But he might have asked for more time. Given his status as a newly married man, surely such a request was reasonable.

God, he should have at least asked. The worst they could have said was no.

Then there was his decision not to sign those annulment papers.

At the time, he had felt that signing them would be an insult, signaling that he had no wish to continue their marriage.

But the papers wouldn’t be legal unless Diana signed them, too.

What if she wanted to end their marriage, in light of his desertion?

Considered another way, signing those papers would have given her options.

Isn’t that what he had said he wanted to do?

Splendid. Now she had another reason to despise him…

They were sailing past the East India Docks when Inge lifted her head. She held perfectly still for a moment, scenting the air, then scrambled to her feet and went bounding across the deck.

Perfect . Even his dog had deserted him.

That was when he heard it—a feminine laugh. “Inge! Braver Hund . I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Harrington watched in disbelief as Inge returned, trailed by… his wife?

“Diana?” He scrambled to his feet. “What…? How…?”

She smiled up at him, which seemed odd. Didn’t she hate him?

“I returned Lucy and your mother to Astley House a quarter of an hour after you departed. Your brother told me what happened. I had to make a quick dash back to Latimer House to collect my trunk, and then I came straight here.” She laughed.

“It was a near thing—they were pulling up the gangway when I arrived. I had to shout at them to put it back down.”

He shook himself. “But… the captain said there was no room. That the cabins were all spoken for.”

She lifted her chin, her face falling into a characteristically insouciant expression. “What is the point of being the richest heiress in all of England if I can’t even bribe my way onto a ship?”

“Bribe?” Harrington said dumbly. His poor brain was still having trouble processing the fact that she was here.

She shrugged a negligent shoulder. “I paid the first mate a handsome fee for surrendering his cabin. But I suspect Captain Bannister would have found a place for me regardless.” A smug smile twisted her lips. “I have my ways.”

Diana was nothing if not diabolical. “Dare I ask what you mean by that?”

She clutched his sleeve, making her eyes large and tremulous. “Oh, please, sir! I can’t bear to be parted from my husband!” Her shoulders drooped, and she gave a great sniff. “We’ve scarcely been married a week!”

Harrington took an involuntary step back. “Good God. Don’t do that!” He held his palms out as if to ward her off. “It’s more than a man can take!”

Diana perked up, dropping her pathetic facade as easily as she had donned it. “True. But you must admit, it was effective. Now, have you gone and made my brother any more imprudent promises?”

“I—no.” Harrington blinked. “That is, he asked me to sign some papers annulling the marriage. But I told him, er…”

Diana’s eyes were keen. “What, exactly, did you tell him?”

“I told him to fuck off,” Harrington admitted.

She laughed, a bright, sparkling sound. “That would explain his temper.”

He squinted at her. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“No. Why would I be?” she asked, bending down to stroke Inge’s back.

He shook himself, sure he must have heard wrong. “Because I abandoned you without a single word.”

There was sympathy in her eyes. “Yes. But, from what I heard, you didn’t have any choice in the matter. And everyone I spoke to emphasized the fact that you spent all afternoon riding around Mayfair searching for me.”

He rubbed the back of his head. “Did they use the word pathetic to describe me?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Only once or twice.”

He ran a hand across his face. “Perfect.”

“Harrington!” She laughed, tugging down his arm. “You’re forgetting the most important thing.”

He struggled to think. “What’s that?”

She stepped forward, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. “You are finally free of the vow you made to my brother. Which means that we are going to consummate this marriage.”

Oh, God . His thoughts had been consumed by his complete and utter failure and how Diana was going to hate him.

Sex had been the furthest thought from his mind. But she was here. She was here, and that stupid vow he’d made to her brother no longer impeded him, and?—

“Did you say we have a cabin?” he blurted, his cock already stiffening.

Her gaze traveled downward, and a satisfied smile cropped up on her perfectly pert pink lips. She swung her eyes up to meet his. “Yes. Yes, I did.” She seized his hand in hers, tugging him after her. “Come, husband. I have need of you.”

As she led him down the length of the ship, he heard snickers all around him. No doubt word had spread like wildfire that his new wife was aboard. It didn’t take a genius to guess what they were heading off to do, and they were surrounded by sailors , for God’s sake.

If Diana minded these lewd murmurs, she gave no indication of it.

Harrington, on the other hand, secretly loved it.

Oh, the fellows would rib him about it later, the way his bride had dragged him across the ship with his cock already starting to thicken in his trousers.

It wasn’t that embarrassing. They were newlyweds, after all, and every man aboard would have been in a similar state had they been fortunate enough to be in his position.

But Harrington specifically loved the fact that it was slightly humiliating.

He loved this high-handed version of Diana.

He loved her ordering him about, treating him like her war prize.

God, but he was eager to serve her. He’d spend the rest of this voyage with his head between her thighs and not utter a word of complaint.

Captain Bannister’s smile as they approached was amused. “Ah, good. I see that you found your husband.” He turned to face a boy of about twelve years with straw-colored hair. “Benjamin! Take charge of Lieutenant Astley’s dog for the duration of the voyage.”

Young Benjamin surged forward, looking delighted by this assignment. He dropped to his knees and began petting Inge, who responded by licking his face. “Yes, sir!”