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She lifted her eyebrows. “Must I remind you of our terms?”
“Must I remind you that I never doubted your reputation?”
“No?” Giulia challenged. “Yet it is acceptable for you to risk it?”
“And that wasn’t risking it?” Nick retorted with a gesture toward the doorway.
Giulia caught his steel glare and returned it with fervor. She tried to reduce the ice in her tone when she spoke, but it was altogether impossible. “That was an accident. Or do you propose I make a habit of standing outside your door, lying in wait for Jack to open it so I may fall desperately into his arms?”
“Well, it sure looked as though you were enjoying yourself,” he muttered.
It took her a moment to piece together what he had said, and she sighed. She came here with a specific purpose, and they were getting nowhere fast. She nodded to his shoulder. “May I?”
He sat himself up a little further and opened his shirt to give her access to the bandage. She leaned over him and peeled back the linen to check the doctor’s stitches and had trouble focusing on what she was supposed to be looking for. It was nearly impossible with Nick’s breath tickling the hair by her ear and his body heat reaching her torso as she leaned over him. She touched a cool finger to his warm skin to peel back the bandage further and he jumped slightly.
“Sorry,” she muttered, and then began closing the bandage.
“Trust me, you have nothing to apologize for.” Nick’s low voice reached her gut and she shivered. Clearing her throat, she reached for the blanket around his waist and pulled it higher, out of habit.
His hand came over hers and held it in place. “I am warm enough, thank you.”
Giulia nodded and retreated, wringing her hands to wipe away the feel of his contact. “Shall I fetch you some tea?”
“Some breakfast would be nice.”
She regarded him for a moment and nodded. “It seems to me you should be able to stomach real food by now. You have not lost your meals since those first few days. The pea soup settled well, did it not?”
“Yes, it was lovely.”
Giulia nodded before she turned to pull the rope. She hesitated on the far side of the room, feigning an interest in the fire and waited for Tilly.
She needed distance from Nick to regain her composure. He was stirring feelings within her that only one man had a right to. A man who was far away working hard for a future he was planning on sharing with her. Guilt seeped into her stomach and she scolded herself. Ames deserved better than this. He deserved complete and utter loyalty. And she planned to give it to him.
Tilly stepped inside and Giulia asked her to bring up a breakfast tray for Nick. “No more broth, Tilly. Would you inform Cook? And please make sure that while he is served solid foods, we must keep away from anything rich for today. Just in case.”
Tilly bobbed a curtsy and left.
Giulia steeled herself. She was about to have a conversation with a flirtatious, attractive man that she should neither flirt with nor find attractive. Perhaps if she imagined he was covered in warts she would be able to accomplish her goal.
A small smile graced her lips as she sat in the chair across from Nick and imagined his neatly square jaw dotted with warts, his arched cheekbones pocked with bumps, his gorgeous green eyes hooded over with the malady. It was nearly working.
His face split into a glorious grin, dashing away the imaginary warts at once. “What do you find so funny?”
Well, not working nearly enough. She waved off the question and gave him one of her own. “Do you have a plan for obtaining information on what made my father flee? Or…I suppose, if there was another reason for his departure?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.”
She waited patiently for him to continue, but it was fruitless. “Care to elaborate?”
“I think I would be much more inclined to talk once I have eaten.”
Giulia gave him a patient look. “Very well.” This man was going to be the death of her. Of all the patients she had ever assisted with, Nick was by far the most trying. He was not the first man to attempt a little flirtation with Giulia, but he was the first who was not either in her father’s party and thus aware that she was off limits, or on the boat where she was constantly shadowed by the tall, dark, and leering Ames. The same Ames who insisted she wait for a betrothal—and, subsequently, the protection of his name—until he proved he could support her.
She wondered what Ames was doing at that moment, and why he had not written to her yet. In fact, why had she not received a single letter at all since arriving to Halstead? The followers of The Adventures of Patrick Pepper and his assistant Jules were usually more persistent than this.
