Now she really needed to leave this ball and get to Derek to ensure he was well.That they were well.
But later, when she finally managed to steal away to his townhouse…he’d been nowhere to be found.
53
Livy
LivypacedtheIroncrestHouse receiving room while Aunt Mellie sat in one of the wingback chairs.The last thing Livy could do was sit still.When she’d received Franny’s note this morning…
Her eyes sank shut, and her hand rubbed her chest, but it was completely ineffective at quelling the panic coursing through her, at calming the way her stomach seemed to have come alive with nerves.She couldn’t imagine what Derek was feeling right now.
“Lady Elliot, Miss Forester,” came a soft voice.A brittle one.
Livy spun to face the dowager, and something cracked inside her.Strain pulled tight across the dowager’s features, and the invincible woman standing before her had never looked so small.So frail.Her Grace was a fortress, but right now she looked like one brought to its knees.Fallen.
Aunt Mellie was already at Her Grace’s side.“How is he?”
“Alive.”
Livy’s gut sank.One word had never held such foreboding, especially one that should have been a cause for celebration.Because it was so clearly followed by an unspokenfor now.Livy swallowed hard.
She stepped up to the dowager and wrapped her arms around the woman.This wasn’t a time for decorum.This was a time for comfort.Her Grace stiffened, and Livy was immediately transported back to when she’d hugged Derek for the first time.But was it any surprise?The dowager, the Duke, and Derek…there couldn’t be much physical affection between the three of them.Love, yes, but she had a feeling they might all be as starved for comfort as she was.She at least had Aunt Mellie and a loving father, even if he didn’t know how to show affection.These poor souls.She squeezed the dowager tighter, and the woman relaxed slightly, returning the squeeze.
The dowager pulled back and lifted her chin, the woman who couldn’t be taken down slowly reappearing.“He has a broken arm, and the spoke of a wheel went through his thigh.Otherwise, he was quite fortunate…in that regard.However, he suffered a serious head injury.He is unconscious.And there is no way of knowing…”
If he’d ever wake.
An uneasy, ice-cold shiver prickled over Livy’s skin.There had been a boy in her village who’d taken a fall from a stair banister.He’d never woken.Wasted away in a week’s time.But the Duke was a large, strong man.That had to be an advantage, right?
Aunt Mellie tucked the dowager to her side and started leading her toward the seating, but Her Grace reached out and gripped Livy’s wrist.“He’s in Raffy’s chamber.He made me promise not to…” Sorrow shimmered back at Livy.“He doesn’t want to see you,” she said quietly.
Livy’s chest hollowed out, leaving her with a sharp, piercing pain.
The woman’s dark eyes bore into Livy’s.“My butler will escort you there.He’s not going to be pleased when he finds I’ve broken my word.”
Livy nodded hard.She understood what the dowager implied.
She set her shoulders as she followed the butler out of the receiving room.She wasn’t certain what awaited her in the Duke’s chamber, but she knew she needed to steel herself for it.Derek was wounded in the worst way.Livy had a feeling it would be the first time she experienced the full force of the Marquess of Dunmore’s wrath.
The butler paused before a large oak door.He eyed Livy warily, as if he didn’t feel comfortable letting her into the room alone.She raised her chin and arched a brow.She could handle whatever she was about to face in that room.She had to.Because she knew the man in there was too broken to go through this alone.
The butler opened the door for her, and she took one last steadying breath before striding into the room.It took every ounce of strength not to falter when Derek’s face whipped to face hers.His black waves were wild about his face, eyes sunken, marred with dark circles.They were empty, like she was staring at a man who’d lost his soul.
Haunted.
His hands were wrapped around one of the Duke’s, his knuckles white, like perhaps he could transfer some of his life into his friend if he held on tight enough.
Oh, Derek.
But she couldn’t show weakness.
“I explicitly said I didn’t want to see you.”His voice was cold, and it crystalized over her skin like ice.
She tilted her chin up further and kept walking.He growled, low and menacing.Nothing like the purr he usually gave her.
“Leave,” he snapped.“I know what you’re doing, Miss Forester.And I don’t want it.”
She paused before him, an arm’s length of space between them.“And what is that, Derek?”
