“And that is another thing! If all these things you say are true, how the devil does he have no recollection of her? A man does not get married and forget his wife!”
“He is barely conscious! Heaven knows what he himself has been through, but they parted not knowing if they would ever meet again. It is hardly surprising that other cares would have dominated his thoughts.”
Reginald jerked to his feet and stalked the room. “Assuming this is all true, what do we do now? We cannot very well carry on as if all is well.”
Darcy gritted his teeth and stared at the floor. “Why not?”
“Why not?Why not?Because she has blood on her hands!”
Darcy shot up in his cousin’s face. “So does your brother, but you do not condemn him! She did nothing you or I would not have done in her place. What would you prefer? That she had rolled over meekly, let the bastard have his way with her?”
“What I would prefer is not to have a woman of questionable merit in my house. Good heavens, Darcy, when were you planning to tell me? Never?”
“Precisely. The truth was good enough for Richard, and it is good enough for me. She did nothing wrong, Reginald.”
“You are not so naïve as that! You said yourself the law was after her. Even if they cannot pursue her here, think of the complications! This is the last sort of trouble we need just now.”
“On the contrary,” Darcy seethed, “she isjustwhat we need—what I needed to drink deeply from the well of life, and what Richard needs now. You said it yourself not twenty-four hours ago. Are you so quick to doubt? More than a strong and cheerful woman, she is the only one in this house who has an inkling of what he suffers.”
The earl scoffed. “I should think the very best London surgeons and his own mother would be comfort enough.”
“And you would be wrong. I have heard him tell of it before—the terrible remorse that comes over a man after the heat of battle. They do not speak of it, and he will never reveal it to someone who was not there, but mark my words; the man lying upstairs is not the same man who waved to you from that steamer last year.”
“No, he is not! He lost his bleeding eye and is riddled with scars I cannot begin to describe!”
“And not all those scars are visible. Look, Reginald, if he is to have any hope of mending his soul, it will start with the one who can understand his pain without the bother of words. You trusted her before—we all did. She is the same woman she was three days ago.”
“Three days ago, she wasyourfiancée, and quite enamoured of that fact. Everyone saw and heard it. Was it all a lie? She professed a love for you that would make any swain burn with envy, and I will even confess to a bit of jealousy myself. You tell me now that she will happily abandon you for a man she barely knew? Come, Darcy, if she is half the woman you claim she is, she would never do it.”
“She is twice the woman I claimed her to be,” Darcy growled. “Watch her—she will be as devoted to him as she ever was to me.”
“A battered soldier with one eye? You tell me she will honestly turn from you—handsome, wealthy, and in full possession of your faculties—to be content with nursing a man not even in his right mind? If she had married him for love, I could believe it, but with what you tell me, I do not think any woman capable of it. Better to send her away now than permit her to poison—”
“I will leave,” Darcy announced.
Reginald blinked. “What?”
“I will go—London, for now, and perhaps even to Boston with Georgiana. Without me as a distraction...”
The earl looked dazed, disbelieving. “Ridiculous. We need you here, Darcy. Richard needs you. Hell,Ineed you! You are a useful fellow when a man is up to his eyeballs in trouble. Come, you cannot flee to America now!”
“For her? And for Richard? Yes, I would, if only so she did not sense me looking on while...” Darcy swallowed and shook his head. “No, that is not true. I would do it for myself, so I did not have to watch the woman I love become a wife to a man I could never betray. I cannot do it, Reginald.”
“But...” The earl’s face had gone white to the lips, and he extended a hand. “You would not go right away.”
Darcy closed his eyes and turned away. “Not until I know Elizabeth will be well.”
Wyoming
May 1900
TwodaysafterreceivingRichard’s letter, Elizabeth dared to put her foot outside the house for the first time. The isolation and confinement of her circumstances were close to making her manic, but Uncle Gardiner had been firm on his restrictions.
“Please,” she begged him over breakfast, “it cannot be so bad now. Nothing has happened; no one has broken down our gates. I cannot very well stay in this house the rest of my life. Let me work in the storeroom if nothing else.”
Mr Gardiner wiped his mouth and shared a serious look with his wife. That good lady sighed and patted Elizabeth’s hand. “I am not certain it is the time yet, Lizzy. People are slow to forget these things.”
“But what else can we do that we have not done? I married the colonel to protect my image—though I wonder if anyone else suspects it was all a sham and he will never come back. But still, I have a letter from him—the rail master had to see it come through, and surely everyone knows about it. The sheriff has declared me innocent, and even the mayor has spoken in my defence. You have carried on business as usual at the general store, and no one has exactly shunned you.”
