She patted his other knee. “Shh. I won’t hurt you. Let me feel.”
Theo concentrated on not losing the edges of his vision as she pressed her gentle hands to the swollen lump of his knee.
“Are you taking laudanum?” she asked.
“No,” he gritted out.
She frowned. “You are a very strange man.”
“You are a very strange woman,” he retorted. There. Now he’d proven he had a face to rival Medusa and the clever repartee of an eight-year-old lad.
“You need crutches,” Virginia announced.
“I have crutches.”
“How often do you practice with them?”
“I don’t need them.” He pointed at his knee. “I’m staying right here until this is back to normal.”
“It won’t heal properly if you don’t exercise it.”
“It will heal faster if I leave it alone.”
She paused. “How many times has this happened to you?”
He stared at her. “This is the first and only time it shall ever happen to me.”
“Then I have more experience.” She lifted her chin with confidence. “Tomorrow we will start with small stretches and work our way up. The secret is not to add pressure before you are ready, but to keep the muscle supple and limber.”
He gazed doubtfully at his ruined knee. “More likely, I’ll never walk again, and you don’t want to tell me.”
She lifted a shoulder as if him walking or not was as inconsequential as the falling snow. “You definitely won’t if you don’t try.”
He scoffed. “And you are the only one who can fix me?”
“No one can fix you,” she said matter-of-factly.
He waited for the rest.
She said nothing more.
“Not the most inspiring of speeches,” he said dryly.
“You already know I can help you. I told you yesterday.” Virginia inclined her head. “You needn’t worry. Now you have me.”
Nothing could worry him more.
Theo folded his arms over his chest. “You intend to spend your holiday playing nurse to a stranger?”
“I’m not a tourist,” she said. “I live in the castle. We’ll work on your recovery every day for as long as you need me.”
He frowned. “You live in the castle?”
She nodded. “Many people do.”
“I assumed just servants,” he admitted. “And the Marlowe family, of course.”
“When Mr. Marlowe died, he bequeathed the castle to the villagers.” Her green eyes shone with gratitude. “I was already living there. So was my friend Noelle, and many others.”
