Yet she was filled with more questions than ever.
She jogged up the final steps to the castle entrance and all but ran directly into her bosom friend Penelope and her new husband, Nicholas.
Penelope’s eyes lit up. “Off on a constitutional with Duke? I doubt he gets much exercise trapped inside a basket.”
“Nor can a bird fly inside a golden cage,” Virginia stammered. She hoped Penelope would not have more questions about where she had been. “Were you looking for me?”
Nicholas grinned. “We were doing biscuit reconnaissance. Penelope with her notebook and I with my stomach.”
Virginia tried not to be hurt that they had not been looking for her after all.
“Have you heard of a Lord Ramsbury?” she blurted out.
“Is he here?” Nicholas glanced over his shoulder. “The marquess is a cold fish, but his son is a standup fellow. Honest, clever, well-respected. Good chap.”
“Is he here?” she asked.
Nicholas shook his head. “Lord Ormondton is off on the continent fighting Boney.”
Lord Ormondton.
Theodore wastitled.
Virginia felt the blood drain from her face.
He wasn’t being tossed into High Society like a minnow into a pool of piranhas. HewasHigh Society.
Penelope gave her husband an affectionate smile. “Perhaps your friend will be back by the time we get to London.”
Virginia stomach sank further. “You’re going to London?”
“Nicholas is used to spending the Season in town,” Penelope explained. “Now that Noelle is there, too, I thought it would be nice to pay her a visit.”
Virginia nodded. She missed their good friend, too. Virginia had just hoped Noelle would return to Christmas, not that all her other friends would leave as well.
Her heart pounded. Everyone said friendship was forever, but for Virginia it had not been. Everyone said family was forever, and for Virginia it had not been. Everyone said a mother’s love was forever. For Virginia, it had been the first to go.
She didn’t get to have the same things as everyone else.
Chapter 5
Theo gritted his teeth as he stretched his leg in another round of the movements Virginia had prescribed.
He had doubted their potential effectiveness and dreaded the inevitable pain, but to his surprise, his muscles gradually grew more limber and the pain slightly more tolerable.
Even if the pain had increased, Theo would have continued with the stretches for as long as they seemed to increase his strength. His jaw clenched. He would always be scarred and perhaps always limp, but he would be damned before he allowed himself to be weak.
Yet the biggest surprise of all had nothing to do with the slow but steady recuperation of his ravaged body.
Normally, whenever he needed to distance his mind from something that caused him pain, he would block out the rest of the world and recite verses of poetry. He’d all but memorized every stanza of his most cherished possession, a leather-bound book of poems by Matilda Bethem.
But he hadn’t needed the familiar escape in order to withstand today’s stretches. He’d forgotten about poetry altogether. All he could think about was Virginia.
She occupied his thoughts even when he did not wish to be distracted. When he shaved his jaw, tied his neckcloth, drank his tea… There she was, filling his head. The more he tried to push her from his mind, the more indelible her image became. Her face was the last thing he remembered before drifting off to sleep at night. He rather suspected she had even visited in his dreams.
Of course, any peace she had brought him shattered when her cat had awakened Theo by licking the good side of his face.
Right now, the beast was sneaking atop the dressing table to lap at the bowl of ice meant for Theo’s knee.
