AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Fingertips traced the back of her neck and trailed away, leaving gooseflesh in their wake. “As you wish, my dear.” He paused on his way to the door. “There is no fleeing from what is between us. We shall discuss it at length soon. A heart-to-heart, as it were.”
Timothy was through the door on the heels of Alwyn’s exit. “Where is His Grace going?”
“I sent him away.” She gathered cornmeal, cayenne pepper, mustard seed, nutmeg, Epsom salts, and a length of bandage; as she reached up to a high shelf, she turned her ankle again.
“Here, let me.” Timothy took down the bowl and set it aside.
“I can do that.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He led her over to the chair everyone seemed to want her to sit in and sat her in it.
Her brother made short work of combining the ingredients into a poultice with water kept warm on the fire. He pulled over a short stool and sat in front of her; after laying a towel on his thigh, he propped her ankle gently on it. “Allow me to do something for you, for once in your life. No matter where we go or what we do, you will not let me help you at all. Not overtly.”
Tabitha banged a fist on the arm of the chair. “Youwerepaying more than I in rent, I knew it—”
“It is not about money.” Timothy applied the mixture, and his soothing touch in addition to the herbs resulted in blessed comfort. “When that loathsome lord turned on me, you would not step back. You left England so I would not be alone in my grief—”
“Your heart was shattered. Do you think even I, who had never loved anyone like you loved Jasper, did not realize? You were bereft, and his horrendous brother would not leave you alone.”
“And in turn, you took him on and almost got yourself married to that creature.”
“He never would have gone through with it.” The poultice soothed her ankle immediately. “I knew this mixture would work without spending a fortune on saffron,” she said. “The mustard is an excellent substitution if I do say so—”
“I often wondered if you wound him up only to contrive a reason for us to run.” Timothy talked over her as he wrapped the bandage around her ankle. “No more running for you, Tab. In more ways than one, perhaps.”
“That appears to be the consensus.”
He held her ankle, applying and releasing pressure as she would do if she were not the patient. “You must know you are the fated mate of the Duke of Llewellyn.”
What?“I am not.”
“You are. Everyone can tell.”
“How do you know they can tell?”
Timothy applied greater pressure. “I had more than one Shifter draw me aside after today’s drama, certain his lion will return because His Grace has chosen you.”
“That is neither here nor there.” It wasn’t, it mustn’t be, it was not the time. “He is in grave danger. He must go away until that woman is caught. But will he? No, he will not. He will put himself at the forefront, I am sure, and draw her out—”
“If I hadn’t known for sure you two were fated, then I would now,” Timothy interrupted. “Both of you endless fonts of sacrifice to the disregard of your own needs. As you sacrificed yourself for me.” He rose and set aside the mixture, muttering, “Endless sacrifice, endless gratitude…”
“I do not want your gratitude,” Tabitha said.
“That is somehow worse.” In his methodical way, he prepared another round of poultice she would need later.
“As if everything I have done for you has hampered you—” Tabitha began.
“It has hamperedyou.” He fisted a hand on the tabletop. “Forgive me if I am not grateful to have been used as an excuse to flee your fate. How noble to have sacrificed your childbearing years for the sake of your nancy brother.”
“Do not speak of yourself like that.”
“Do not tell me how to speak, how to call myself. My friends and I derive immense satisfaction from usurping the slurs used against us. And do not turn the subject. Do not continue to make me your excuse.” Timothy cut another length of bandage. “I am well able to take care of myself. At least admit you had desires of your own.”
“I desired to see you safe.” This conversation felt more dangerous than Asquith’s pendulum.
“You desired to see the world. We never stopped because you wanted to keep moving. France was workable, Belgium and Germany interesting. The Netherlands! I could have lived in Rotterdam and counted myself content, but you wanted to move and so move we did.”
“We had to take advantage of our opportunities.” Tabitha was incredulous. “What was the point of having such freedom, and the skills to support ourselves, if not to take in as much as we could?”
