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She shrugged.
‘Tell me about the servants?’
Her eyes tightened. ‘Why do you change what we are talking of?’
‘Just tell me about the servants.’
‘Fenton, I do not like at all. He broke the scullery maid’s heart. Thompson makes sure to keep him in hand, though. He thinks of all the women on the staff as his daughters.’
‘And the maids. What are their names?’
‘Julia. Honour. Susan. Eliza, although she prefers to be called—’
‘Enough.’ He raised his hand.
‘Yes. I know their names. I saw them daily at your house. How could I not?’
‘That is just it. How could you not? I dare say you have no thought of the art in the house which could fund a small country.’
‘I do have some notion of the paintings on your walls,’ she admitted. ‘I have never imagined paintings could be so beautiful. Before I left the duchess, I walked through the house to view the art and that took her grief from my mind.’ She lowered her chin for a moment before looking back at him. ‘Days after I refused you, I realised I had turned away a chance to live with those works.’ She shook her head as if she could not believe it.
His response was half-chuckle, half-snort. ‘The art tempted you to say yes more than I did.’
She didn’t answer.
To speak took more strength than he could immediately garner. Words choked inside him in a way they’d never constricted before. Then everything vanished from his mind except for what mattered most. ‘I love you.’
Chapter Twenty-One
He’d not expected the deep intake of breath and the way her lids dropped causing her narrowed eyes to spear him.
He wondered if perhaps he’d been right to let his thoughts be directed by the opinions of others. He could not see what Bellona thought or meant or wanted.
‘You say that. But you have not shown it. You have made things so much worse.’ Quiet words from soft lips, but with fervour attached.
The words. He had to roll them around in his head to make certain he heard what she was saying.
He struggled to sort things in his mind and then he spoke again. ‘I believe that my art collection is one of the best in a private residence anywhere in the world.’ He watched her face. ‘In case you are wondering.’
‘Stubble it, Your Grace.’
‘Yes, sweetness.’
She moved within arm’s grasp and he could not help it. He moved enough to brush back the hair that had fallen to her temple.
The puff from her lips censured him, but she didn’t retreat.
‘You are trying to destroy my father and his family,’ she said. ‘You have no right.’
‘I have every right.’ She’d taken all his resistance to her and reduced him to the rank of a schoolboy. But then, she’d truly done that days ago. ‘The man—he may not have meant to, but he could have caused your death. He left you on that island to fend for yourself.’
‘You had no cause to interfere. I told you not to hurt him.’
‘His arms and legs are all attached, as well as his head. I would say he is unhurt.’
‘How my father treats me is my concern. I will deal with him, but how can I do that now when you have struck out at him and reduced him?’
‘And just what were you going to do—thank him for nearly causing your death by deserting you on Melos with no food? Forcing you to use whatever means you might find to survive.’
Rhys was taken aback that she was not more grateful to him, but he didn’t care. He cared that she was standing in his house and thought enough of her father’s wife to be concerned.
‘You are not my protector. You have no right to my life because we kissed.’
‘We did more than just kiss, Bellona.’
‘And the women before me—did you jump to their aid in this way, too?’
‘They did not have such problems as you, but I did not abandon them without a thought. Perhaps the first I did not stand by when I was very young and that cured me of the inability to do so again. I cannot hold a woman near my heart and then forget she exists the next day.’
‘That is a poor excuse.’
‘Really, sweet? I feel you owe me a bit of understanding. We shared something together I have never shared with anyone else.’
She raised her brows.
He lifted his palm, the cut towards her. ‘A very painful bloodletting. I should think you’d have some tolerance for me for that reason alone.’
‘You know that was not intended.’
‘Just as my actions towards your father are not intended to bear you any ill will.’
She shook her head. ‘You have meddled.’
‘Meddle? I did not meddle. The man, he needed to be punished. Any man who can cause such harm to a woman should suffer.’ He stared at her. ‘And you are here now—why? To what purpose? I cannot undo anything that has already happened.’ He held his palm where he could see it. He gave a dry chuckle. ‘This memento. It will never go away.’ He raised his eyes. ‘I suspect the true mark you have left on me is not on my palm.’
