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As if he could do her any harm. “I can spare you a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” He accepted the bowl of porridge and milk, ate a few mouthfuls, then paused. “I do appreciate your family’s hospitality in allowing me to stay. I’m sure your grandfather was not best pleased.”
She settled into a nearby chair. “Sometimes it’s necessary for us to do what is good and not what is merely expedient.”
“A do-gooder, are you?”
“Do you take exception?” She glanced up from adjusting her skirts.
“Well, no.”
“I am pleased to hear it, for I should think your heroics qualify you for such an epithet. As for myself, I cannot claim it.”
“Bravo.” He chuckled again, more wholly this time.
She encouraged him to eat some more.
He obeyed, taking several more mouthfuls. “At least if I am forced to stay, it is with such convivial company.”
“We are extremely convivial, it is true.”
Again that crack of laughter. “Are you always so witty, madam?”
She paused, her head tilting. “You know, I have never truly considered the matter.”
A grin lit his features. “I do appreciate your solicitude and that of your family’s. When I think I could have ended up at an inn, forced to endure all sorts of hardship … but instead I am here, being fed by someone I suspect might be a descendent of angels.”
“It appears you must have hit your head quite badly.”
“My head? No.”
“You must have, seeing as you appear to be suffering from some form of delusion.”
His gaze remained fixed on her. “No delusions, I assure you.”
A ripple of unfamiliar emotion crossed her heart. She hid her confusion by busying herself with the medicine bottles and other accoutrements of illness. When she judged her voice could speak normally, she said, “You might consider several other advantages. Your enforced stay will encourage you to rest, which I gather the past few years has not allowed much time for.”
“Try the past couple of decades.” He winced as he pushed himself higher in the bed then adjusted the sheets. “I joined the army when I was just sixteen.”
“Is that not awfully young? I know Grandfather and Father were both eighteen when they joined.”
“And eighteen is so much older than sixteen.”
“Isn’t it?”
He smiled, and her pulse knew another undulation. Oh, it was too easy to banter with him.
“You might consider, too, that staying longer allows more time to consider what you would wish to do with Mannering. It certainly looks better now. Well, except—”
“For the floor in the hallway?”
“Precisely so. It is a wonder that happened as it did, given the number of persons and furniture moving across it in recent days.”
“Perhaps that was the problem, and it simply could not withstand the continued weight. I am simply thankful that it happened to me and it was not Rebecca’s misfortune to be present when the floor decided to give up.”
“Something to be thankful for indeed! Not, I assure you, that I am in any way pleased that you are injured, of course.”
“Of course.” The look of amusement in his eye provided reassurance before he bent to finish his bowl.
