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‘Not the one I carry in my boot.’
‘Ah, yes.’ He nodded. ‘How remiss of me. The blasted boots. Your reticule knife was removed, but it was strictly an oversight on my part not to have someone collect the knife from your boots. That’s their charm, isn’t it? That’s why you wear them?’
She answered with her eyes.
He stared at her bare feet and his eyes trailed up her body clad only in her thin nightdress, leaving warm currents in their wake, causing a frisson in her stomach. ‘I would say that you do not have another knife hidden about you right now. Is that a safe assumption?’
‘No—yes, I do not have a knife.’ The words. They scared her. She’d just told a man she was unprotected. The walls in the upper rooms were solid... The duchess would not hear a scuffle. No one could answer her if she called out for help. In the servants’ quarters, there was a chance someone might respond, but not here.
He watched her, but without the darkness she feared. ‘You should go so I can summon assistance.’ She lost all thoughts he could ever harm her. He was injured and he cared that she not be discovered in his room.
The red on his hand reminded her.
She had done that.
‘I will summon my valet,’ he said.
As he moved forward, she threw her body between him and the pull. ‘I cannot go to my room.’ He stepped to brush her aside, but she flattened her palms on his chest. His eyes widened. He felt rather like a wall. A wall of muscle and skin and male. ‘Your Grace.’ She thought it best to address him such at the moment. ‘I will worry.’
He leaned close. He’d been drinking brandy some time in the evening. His eyes shone with an emotion that jumped into her and caused a heating sensation that somehow managed to touch her entire body.
‘Sweet. It’s his job. I will tell him that if I die he must alert the entire household. So, if you do not hear, then you will know I am well.’
‘I am not leaving. He may care for you if you wish, but I am to stay and see that it is done right.’
‘You cannot be found in my chamber in the middle of the night, particularly with blood on both of us. The man is discreet. He will not speak of it, but I fear he would have an apoplexy keeping silent on that. I would then have to replace him and I simply do not have the time.’
She lowered her eyes to her palms still resting on his chest and then slid her hands away, before looking up again. ‘I will care for you.’
‘You will?’ He smiled. ‘Just as you cared for me a few moments ago?’
Surely he would live if he could jest. She nodded and took the cloth from the counterpane, holding it towards his clasped hands. ‘Yes, Rhys.’ She daubed at the smears on him, taking the red from his knuckles.
When she indicated that she wanted to reach the cut, he did not open his grasp, but extended his fingertips to clutch the cloth.
‘Let me,’ she said, refusing to release it.
‘You’ve already attacked me once in the night. Don’t struggle with me now. I might stumble backwards and knock myself in the head.’
‘If you stumble now, you will land on the bed. Sit on the bed so I can see the wound better.’
He sat on the edge. She was no closer than before until she perched beside him, her shoulder aligned with his. She wiped the cut clean.
‘What happened to bring you out into the hall with a weapon?’ he asked.
She pressed on the wound. ‘I awoke from a nightmare and thought you were...someone evil.’
‘And you only cut my hand?’
She pressed harder.
He flinched. ‘Go more lightly with the cloth. You’re making it worse. Leave and I will send for my valet. I just do not wish for him to know how this happened, but I suspect he will notice the cut and the shirt will have to be burned.’
‘How dear are the lamps?’ she asked.
‘I have no idea. They’re lamps.’
She sighed. ‘Break the glass of one and tell him you stumbled.’
‘I can do that. But when you turned to get the cloth, I noticed a bloodstain on your back. How will that be explained away?’
‘The maid will not notice after I finish with the garment.’ She peered at the cut. ‘Move your fingers.’
He did.
She rested her forehead against his shoulder momentarily, then straightened again. ‘That is fortunate. Now do not move them again.’
She held the flannel tight against his hand. He reached to pull it away, but she clasped it. Determined, he took the cloth and put it against his palm, closing the fingers of his right hand over it.
‘You don’t have to tend this. I’ll break the lamp, call the valet and now you can go back to your room and get some rest.’ Then he pushed her aside so that he could stand, reached with his left hand, picked an unlit lamp from the side of the bed and crashed the globe against the table. The glass shattered and he sat the base back on to the table.
