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“Oh, but it is still a dreadful injury,” she insisted.
“The physician assured us that she will make a full recovery.” He led them up the stairs to Diana’s bedchamber.
“I will only be convinced when I see her with my eyes.” Lady Dervin sniffled, and Matthew wondered if there was any sincerity in her actions.
When they reached Diana’s door, Matthew raised his hand to knock, but Lady Dervin was quicker, and she opened the room and entered. He lingered by the door as the ladies walked in.
Diana was awake and seemed to have just finished eating her breakfast. There was a maid in the room with her, but she hurriedly curtsied and excused herself.
“Oh, Diana! I might just cry from relief!” Lady Dervin sat on the bed and wrapped her arms around Diana, while Florence went to the other side of the bed to join the hug.
“I only sprained my ankle, Aunty,” Diana said softly. “I shall be well again very soon.”
Lady Dervin held Diana’s hand. “But you cannot walk yet, which is a pity.”
“His Grace has been very generous,” Diana said, her gaze meeting his. “He saved me.”
Matthew smiled at her, the longing to be close to her shrouding him.
“We are very grateful, Your Grace,” Florence said.
Since the night they went to the theater and he observed how bored she had been by the play, he had carried very strong doubts and avoided her. She must have noticed the change because she addressed him formally now, and the familiarity she once regarded him with was absent from her eyes.
Besides, Diana was his entire focus now, and there was a powerful urge in him to protect her and hold her close to him. She was regenerating his jaded soul with a vengeance, and something precious was blooming in him because of her.
“It is my pleasure, and I am going to ensure Miss Pearson has everything she requires as she recovers.” There was a hidden warning in his words but he doubted they heard it. “I will leave you alone with her now.” He drew the door as he left but he did not close it completely.
Something inexplicable made him linger. Perhaps it was his desire to protect her. And when Lady Dervin spoke, thinking he was gone, he found her tone had changed entirely.
“You filthy little harlot!” she condemned, and every fiber of Matthew’s being tensed.
Chapter 26
“You planned to be out in the rain so you could be brought here to trap him, did you not?” Lady Dervin accused.
Matthew was about to push the door open to confront the ladies when Diana spoke, giving him pause. “Tell me how I could have planned something like that, Aunty,” Diana said.
“You are a vile child, and nothing nefarious is beyond you.”
There was amusement in Diana’s voice when she retorted. “Are you not afraid the walls of this castle would hear your words and expose you?” Matthew believed she’d had to deal with them like this many times. “What would you do if the duke discovered everything you have done to me?”
“He will never know,” Margaret said. “You are too lily-livered to tell him.”
“I do not have to tell him, Aunty.” Diana’s voice was calm despite the vitriol that surrounded her, and Matthew was impressed by her. “The truth is ever insistent, and it will emerge.”
“You are still harboring fantasies about—"
“I want you both to leave this instant.”
“How dare you send us away?” Margaret’s voice was raised.
Although Matthew did not want to interfere because Diana might not wish for him to, he had to do something, and so he knocked on the door.
There was silence, but Diana spoke. “There appears to be someone at the door, Florence. Will you answer it?”
The door was opened a moment later, and Florence’s eyes bulged when she saw him. “Your Grace, we did not expect you to return so soon.”
Lady Dervin laughed awkwardly. “We were just telling Diana a story to cheer her up. Were our voices too loud?”
