The Marquess Who Loved Me - By Sara Ramsey Page 0,37
let go of him, he moved to the seat across from hers. “Are you sure?”
His voice was calm, but utterly ruthless.
“Sure of them, or of your plan?” she asked.
“Both, although the plan won’t succeed if they fail.”
“My servants are discreet. They wouldn’t be employed here if they weren’t. As for the plan — do you have a plan beyond our initial silence?”
He didn’t acknowledge the question. “Why are your servants so discreet?”
“I’m a widow, Nick, not a nun. It’s best for everyone if my servants don’t spread tales.”
“And what tales would they spread?”
His jealousy was aroused, even though he had little cause for it. She frowned at how quickly he had changed the subject. “Shouldn’t you be more concerned about your potential death than my past sins?”
“I’ve changed, Ellie my love.” His voice dropped, turning into a caress. “Sin interests me more than it used to.”
Ellie snorted, breaking the seduction that hovered over her like an executioner’s axe. “If you think to lure me into giving you a full confession, you’ll have to try harder than that.”
He leaned back into the cushions, stretching his legs so that one booted foot stroked her ankle. “I’ll find what I want to know in the end. You can depend upon it.”
She would have laughed, but seeing the blood on her skirts turned her sober again. “I will help you find the highwayman, no matter what you need of me. But that doesn’t change the past.”
He didn’t respond. He closed his eyes instead, looking like a great general dreaming of battle even though his foot still toyed with hers.
She looked away, staring mostly unseeing out the window until the carriage stopped in front of the Folkestone stables. When she turned from the window, she found Nick watching her again.
He helped her out of the conveyance without a word. When she was on her feet, he looked her over. “Can you walk to your room?” he asked. “You should rest until dinner — Marcus and Lucia won’t return in time to discuss everything before then, so we should reconvene tomorrow.”
She nodded. “My head hurts, but I can still walk. Are you sure we should wait? I thought you preferred to question people immediately.”
“You’ve been injured — resting will help you more than questions will.”
“I’m not an invalid, Nick.”
He nodded absently, but didn’t let go of her hand. There was a depth to his silence that had nothing to do with the mechanics of an investigation, and a fear in his eyes she had never seen.
Then he brushed his lips across her knuckles. “I meant it too, Ellie. When I said I missed you.”
He strode away, running his hands savagely through his hair like a man who’d narrowly escaped disaster. She sucked in a breath, wishing she knew her own heart, wishing she knew what was possible and what was not.
She hadn’t been brave enough at nineteen to explore possibilities. She had been a coward, and a fool, and so desperate for her father’s approval that she had believed the story he had told her about familial duty and social responsibilities.
But that past was over. If Ellie hadn’t been brave at nineteen, she would make up for it now. And while she had no intention of letting Nick back into her heart, she would make sure he survived his homecoming — whether he ever recognized her actions or not.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dinner that night was not the glittering success Ellie was accustomed to hosting. For one, her head still ached, even though the bruise was smaller than she had expected. It seemed to throb in time with the grating titters of the ladies around her. They hung on Nick’s every word like he was a Hottentot curiosity whose kind they had never seen before. They wouldn’t snub him — only a fool would snub money and a title — but they wouldn’t stop examining him, either.
Which meant, of course, that none of them missed the way he watched her, or the way she ignored him. She should have flirted like he was any other male, but she was too raw for flirtation. She flirted with Norbury instead. He was amenable to it, but the concerned look in his eyes said he knew what she was doing.
So by the time Ellie could take refuge in her bed — perhaps her final night alone, if Nick held true to his plan — she was in no mood for sleep. Not a single word had been said about highwaymen at dinner,