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‘Where am I?’
‘At my house.’
‘Your house?’ Kit searched his mind, but the big black well prevented him. ‘What am I doing here? The last thing I remember is getting into a fight with a stubborn drunk.’
‘You are to stay in bed until the doctor says that you can rise.’ She crossed her arms and glared at him. ‘I’d be grateful if you obliged me in this if nothing else.’
He tried to catch her hand before remembering how she’d walked away from him and settled for clutching the sheet instead. He refused to beg. He had deliberately driven her away.
‘Hattie? Why am I here? How? You live miles away from Stagshaw. The last thing I recall is the fight near the cockpit. And that drunk with his paws on you.’
‘Not too far.’ She turned her face from him, revealing her slender neck. ‘I had them bring you to my house. It seemed the best place. A bit closer than Southview. I was being practical after...after the fight. You couldn’t be left on your own, waiting for the doctor to show up.’
‘I thank you.’
‘It was the least I could do in the circumstances. I’d do it for any wretch who risked their neck to save me.’
Kit swallowed with difficulty. She’d had him brought here out of duty. ‘Why?’
She stood up without speaking and moved over to the right, away from his vision.
‘Why, Hattie? There must have been a dozen other places I could have gone.’
‘You were injured trying to save me. It seemed to be the Christian thing to do. I could hardly count on your valet or Mr Hook to look after you properly.’
‘Beggars can’t be choosers. I shall put my faith in your nursing skill.’ He hated how his heart thumped. He knew it for a lie. He couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather have nursing him and it frightened him. She’d forgiven his outburst without him doing anything.
‘It is good of you to accept what is going to happen.’
‘You haven’t given me much choice.’ He lay back on the pillows and breathed in the lavender scent. The smell reminded him of when he was a young boy in his room back in Hampshire, safe and secure without a care. He could almost picture the scene with the fire blazing and his nurse sitting, knitting socks, while a kettle hummed in the background.
‘You were in no fit state.’
‘My head pains me.’ Kit tore his mind away from the memory. He always swore that he’d never voluntarily think about his childhood, and certainly not with a great longing. He must have hit his head far harder than he’d thought.
Hattie laid a cool cloth on his forehead. ‘Is that better?’
A warm glow flooded through him. Despite her words dismissing him earlier, Hattie had stayed by his side. More than that, she’d obviously insisted that he was carried to her house. She’d publicly declared their friendship, after telling him that they were finished. Women were a different species entirely. He reached out his hand. ‘You need not have done that.’
‘Allow me to make my own decisions. I prefer to have my conscience at rest than worrying over your health.’
Kit struggled to upright. He clutched the blanket to his chest and tried to make sense of the turn of events. Nothing, simply flashes of voices. However, with each breath, he found himself more distracted by the way Hattie’s hair curled about her shoulders and the shadowy place at her throat. ‘Did you undress me? How did I get this nightshirt?’
A merry peal of laughter filled the room. ‘You may stop looking shocked. You would think you were unused to a woman’s attentions. It is not as if I haven’t seen the male form before.’
‘Hattie!’ He pulled the collar of his nightshirt up.
‘The doctor did it for me.’ She shook her head. ‘He wanted to examine the wound to your chest, but it turned out to be just a light cut. But your shirt is
ruined. I found one of my late husband’s nightshirts. It seemed sensible. Sleeping in one’s clothes is hardly advisable at any time, but particularly not when one has been injured.’
He collapsed back against the pillows. He should have expected respectability from her. It was wrong that he’d briefly hoped that she’d been unable to resist taking a peek. ‘The ruffian managed to miss. Sometimes my luck astonishes me. He must have been unable to see straight.’
‘There was a deflection, something was in the way.’ She sobered and her teeth worried her bottom lip.
‘Out with it. Let me know the worst.’
