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“Has she come to stay?” Nick asked.
“Someone fooled her. Or she is fooling me, I haven’t yet decided. She claims to have received a letter signed with my name inviting her here. I sent her away, but then she…” He gestured toward Nick.
“She what?”
Robert growled. “She offered to nurse you until she could find other employment. Once you are better, she will be gone.”
Nick’s mouth dropped open. “You cannot be serious.”
“I never lie.”
Nick shook his head. “You cannot mean that you will force your only living relation into a domestic life when you have this enormous castle and more funds than you know what to do with. It is not right, my lord.”
“Do not tell me what is right, boy,” Robert growled through gritted teeth. Nick had touched on a vulnerability, to be sure. “No spawn of Patrick will live under my roof.” He spat the name with disdain.
“Does she resemble him too greatly? Is it a discomfort for you?” Nick was pushing the boundaries and he knew it, but he could not stop himself. He only wished it wasn’t so tiring, pressing the earl. Or that he could stand and tower over Robert. Perhaps his weakened state, lying in bed, was a benefit in this circumstance. Robert had a tendency to close up when he was feeling overpowered.
“Not in the least. She is the spitting image of her mother.” Robert spoke so quietly that Nick shut his mouth, biting back the retort he had readied on the tip of his tongue.
It paid off, for Robert continued, his eyes glassy as they stared into the distance. “I could not live in a state where I must wake every day and be forced to look into that face.”
“And I felt like she hardly left my bedside.” Nick laughed.
Robert pierced him with a strange look. “She hasn’t. She’s been very attentive in her duties. I have the impression hard work is not new to her. And knowing my brother, it does not surprise me one bit.”
The men were quiet, each ruminating in their own contemplative spheres. Nick had not seen Robert act this way in…ever. There was something about the situation that he was not sharing. And, knowing Robert, it was the key to the entire mystery.
“So she stays until I am better?” Nick asked.
“Yes.”
Then I must do my best to never, ever get better.
