* * *
They looked at each other in silence. Marguerite, with an effort, restrained herself from bursting into tears and flinging herself on Argyle’s chest. Still standing by the door, she gazed at him and waited.
He said slowly, his face expressionless, ‘So, I understand that we are engaged.’
‘I could not have stayed here by myself, otherwise.’ Her voice, a little unsteady, sounded defensive to her ears.
‘I see. And how long are you planning on staying?’
The harshness of his tone would have irritated her before, but she was so flooded with joy and relief that he had not died, that she looked in his face and said simply, ‘As long as you need me. Or until you send me away.’
He was silent for a moment, then he said, his voice still harsh, ‘Jack told me you rode here.’
‘Yes, it was faster. I have only just changed out of my habit.’ She glanced at him and said, a hint of defiance in her voice, ‘I have sent the groom back with the horses.’
‘But why did you come?’ Some fleeting but strong emotion crossed his face.
She made a sound between a sob and a laugh. ‘Because I love you,imbécile! What did you think?’ There, it was said. And it was true.
A small light went on at the back of his eyes and a muscle twitched in the corner of his mouth. He said, in a tone that had lost all harshness, ‘In that case, I dimly seem to remember youoffering to be naked in my bed until my death. And, since I do hope my demise is not imminent…’
She was suddenly furious. ‘If you heard me in the night, why did you not say something? I thought you were dying.’ Her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears.
‘It was all so jumbled, I don’t remember much. I could not speak. Things come back to me in snatches.’ He saw two tears roll down her cheeks, and said, ‘Come here, you wretched girl, I cannot bear to see you cry.’
He opened his arms and she went to the bed and sat on the edge and hugged him very carefully, hiding her face in the smooth skin of his neck above his collarbone, inside the open collar of his shirt. He stroked her back and she mumbled, ‘Becoming engaged was what you wanted, wasn’t it?’
He said, ‘It was. It is.’ He put his face against hers, and the stubble on his jaw scraped her skin.
She said, ‘Ow,’ but did not pull away.
He said, roughly, ‘Is the offer still open?’
‘Yes.’
‘Every night in my bed?’
‘Yes.’
He tightened his arms around her. Feeling him flinch, she drew back and looked inside his shirt and saw the bruising on his ribs; most of his chest was blotched a dark purple.
She said, in a small voice, ‘That looks painful.’ She sniffed and hunted for her handkerchief.
‘It is. And my head is splitting. I am only thankful there are no broken bones. I could not have borne months with my leg in a cast.’ He took the handkerchief from her hand and dried her eyes, and the unexpected tenderness of this gesture made her swallow hard.
She said, ‘Oh, Thomas, you would have borne it if you had to. I would have kept you company. WhatIcould not have borne, is if—if you had died, which you came very close to doing. What happened?’
‘I don’t remember much. I know I was going too fast—my mind was weighed down with…everything. Then it is all a blur.’
She clutched his hand. ‘It is all my fault for sending you away. I cannot imagine why I did that, I find that all I want is to be with you.’
Argyle touched her lips with a finger. ‘It is not your fault, my heart. You wanted to marry for love, but I never once told you I love you. I never thought to woo, only to conquer. I was obsessed—I never had a woman defy me before. But you—you came here—and you declared your feelings first. I stand in awe of you, my beloved.’ He looked at her face and said, smiling a little, ‘You look astonished!’
Her eyes were wide. ‘I am. I have never heard you talk like this before.’
He gave a short laugh. ‘It must the knock on the head.’ His lips curled in irony and then he said, simply, ‘But I have never felt this way before.’
‘Oh, Thomas.’ There was a pause, and then she said, ‘Do you know, when you announced you were going to India, I nearly gave in—when you left, I was distraught.’
