“Being shot?” Izzy finished with an attempt at a wry smile that made her wince. “Or rather, almost being shot?”
The events of the morning still seemed like a nightmare from which she would shortly wake, relieved to know none of it had occurred. The pain radiating from her wound, however, told her how unlikely that was.
“Thank God the bullet grazed you,” Zachary said, his countenance as grim as she had ever seen it as he brought her uninjured hand to his lips for a worshipful kiss.
She thought of the night in the library here at Barlowe Park when he had seduced her with such kisses. It seemed two lifetimes ago instead of mere days.
“I shall live.”
It was the wrong choice of words.
The expression on Zachary’s face told her so. His jaw tightened and his grip on her hand became tight. Almost painful. But the harshness was not for her. Rather, she suspected, it was for the circumstances.
“I am so damned sorry this happened to you,cariad,” he said softly. “And believe me when I promise you I am going to find the man responsible and make certain he pays for his recklessness.”
There was the endearment again. She had not imagined it then, in the blur of their ride back to the manor house. She wanted to tell him not to pretend he cared for her, that the illusion was unnecessary, but the intensity in his eyes suggested he did indeed care.
Did she dare trust the raw emotion she saw reflected in those blue depths?
“It was an accident,” she said. “Please do not go seeking vengeance on my account.”
“You are mine to protect now, and I mean to do a better job of it than I have thus far.” His tone, like his expression, was somber.
“You had better, Anglesey,” Ellie said pointedly, reminding Izzy that she and Zachary were not the only two in the room.
How easy it was to forget everyone else when he was near. And he had that effect on her without even trying. It was merely the sum of his presence, the force of his gaze. It was merelyhim.
“I do not need protection,” she said weakly, feeling extraordinarily tired from the combination of the laudanum and the shock. Likely, the loss of blood had not helped either.
“You certainly look as if you need it from where I sit,” Ellie observed, her tone crisp.
“I ought not to have been wandering,” she said. “The fault is mine.”
And if she had been paying more attention to her surroundings rather than ruminating over the man currently at her side, perhaps she would have seen something that would have alerted her to the presence of a hunter. But instead, she had been fretting about the widowed countess and that stolen kiss. It still hurt her heart to think of what she had witnessed.
However, Zachary’s contrition had appeared genuine. As had his every interaction with her, from his kisses to the manner in which he had flown to her rescue earlier. He had been calm and in control, keeping her panic at bay as he rode them back to the manor house. When her mother had exchanged places with him at her bedside, she had been reluctant to see him go.
“The fault was mine,” he corrected her now, a hardness creeping into his baritone that she was beginning to recognize. “I should not have brought you here to this damned estate. From the moment we have arrived until now, it has been nothing but one disaster after the next.”
“Calamity has a way of following the Collingwood family about,” Ellie said lightly.
Izzy could not deny the truth in that. Havoc seemed to perpetually follow in their wake, like it or not.
“We should leave you to your rest,” her sister added. “After everything you have endured, a proper sleep is in order.”
Sleeping sounded lovely. However, she was not sure if she could manage it with the throbbing in her arm and the listlessness the laudanum had seemingly caused.
“I was hoping to have a word with your sister before I go,” Zachary told Ellie.
“Alone, I suspect,” her sister said shrewdly, glancing from Izzy to the earl. “Very well, you may have your time. No more than five minutes, however. She does need her rest.”
Zachary nodded, his gaze fixed on Izzy. “Of course. Her wellbeing is my utmost concern.”
How he melted her heart when he looked at her that way.
Ellie rose and leaned over her, placing a sisterly kiss on her cheek. “I love you, sister. Do not ever give me a fright like this again, if you please.”
She smiled weakly. “I’ll endeavor not to. I have a feeling I have exhausted all the good fortune I may have once possessed after today.”
