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Elizabeth raised a hand and slapped it on his chest. It was light, not strong enough to move him. She raised another, curling her hand into a fist before she beat it against him. “Are you insane?” she murmured.
Hysteria building within her, she kept beating her hands against him, pain spreading through her fists. But she didn’t care. She didn’t care how unladylike she appeared, how violently she was acting, she didn’t care about the tears streaming down her face. All she could think about was the fact that William was like this because of her.
“Are you out of your mind?” she screeched. The force of her blows forced him back a step, but he held his ground, accepting each hit to the chest. “You could have died! Because of me, something bad could have happened and you could have...”
“The knife barely nicked me,” he said softly. “I’m completely fine.”
“There was a knife?” Elizabeth gasped. Impulsively, she whirled and grabbed one of the pillows on the bed, hitting William with it over and over again. “Why didn’t you run? Why did you stand there and let yourself get stabbed by a knife? How many times did they hit you to make your face like that? Are you trying to kill me too, William?”
A chuckle broke through her haze. Elizabeth stopped hitting him, watching through her blur of tears as he laughed again. Her jaw dropped with surprise. “Is this funny to you?”
“Not at all,” he said, still chuckling. “In fact, I’m in quite a lot of pain. I’d almost forgotten that you’re capable of landing such heavy blows. You could take on those men without issue, I reckon.”
“Oh, goodness.” The strength fled from her legs. Elizabeth dropped the pillow, tilting on her feet. William wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her. “You could have died tonight, and you have the strength to laugh.”
“How can I not when I see how worried you are for me?”
“Did you think I would not be?” she murmured. It felt nice being in his arms, even when the strength returned to her legs. Elizabeth wished she could stay there, could curl into his side and remind herself that he was safe, and he was healthy, and that nothing else mattered other than that.
“No,” William murmured. He didn’t seem to want to let her go, either. “I knew you would be worried, which is why I was afraid of letting you see me like this. But I did not think that you would attempt to worsen my wounds yourself.”
“A few blows from a maiden will not do you any harm, William.”
“You do not give your strength the recognition it deserves, Beth.”
Laughter sprang from her lips, feeling odd and out of place considering everything she’d just done. An unusual sense of relief took hold of her and Elizabeth let out a shuddering breath, trying to bring herself back to normal.
“I want to see it,” she stated. “You say you were nicked by the knife and that it is nothing but I want to see it for myself to be sure.”
“If it means I might be subjected to your assault again, then I’ll do whatever you ask of me.”
She resisted the urge to laugh again, trying to make him see that she was serious. She watched as he reached for the buttons of his waistcoat, popping them free one by one. As he shrugged out of it, Elizabeth felt slow heat crawling throughout her body. She ignored it to the best of her ability, but she could not stop her heart from pounding when he tugged his shirt up over his head and tossed it to the side.
His chest was…quite muscular, just as she’d expected. For a moment, that was all she could see. The rippling planes of his midsection, the defined chest, and the dark curls stretched across it. She didn’t even see the red line, not until he twisted his body to the side.
“Do you see?” he asked. “It’s nothing.”
Taken by surprise, Elizabeth glanced up at him to see that he was watching her carefully, his eyes dark—as if he could tell exactly what she was thinking.
Elizabeth cleared her throat and approached him, taking a closer look at the wound. It was just as he’d said. It was rather small, the slice in the skin barely bleeding. It shouldn’t hurt him much. She straightened, feeling a rush of relief.
Suddenly, William took her by the hand and pulled her into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, cradling her head to his chest. Heart pounding, Elizabeth heard him breathe in deeply. “Just give me this moment,” he murmured into her hair.
She was more than willing to. She rested her head on his chest, letting out a long breath. After a moment, William did the same. “I’m sorry, Beth.”
