“There was no need to escort me back to the carriage.” She cut in before he could shoulder the blame. “I am not a lady.” Why was she forever feeling the need to remind him?
“A fundamental wrong, in my opinion.”
“Nonsense,” she croaked.
He poured a glass of water. “Drink.”
How had he known she was thirsty?
She, of course, was constantly anticipating—feeling her charge’s feelings, apprehending her employers’ desires. She’d a natural sensitivity to others she’d honed. Because her livelihood depended on being thoughtful, aware and one step ahead.
She’d never, however, had someone not only divine her yearnings but endeavor to meet them as well.
The water went down roughly through her parched throat. Their fingers brushed as she handed him back the glass. He wasn’t wearing gloves. Nor was she. Contact shocked her once again.
She doubted she was in danger from him, not with the children so close by, but still, the situation was far too intimate.
“You,” she said, “And I...weshould not be... What I mean to say is...”
“I’m going down to spend the night on a bench off the taproom.” He saved her from inelegance. “What’s left of the night, that is. But I did not wish to leave you until you came fully to your senses.”
She did not wish him to leave at all. She wished him to stay right there. To keep speaking in a low-toned, lulling cadence. To tell her the same lies he had told the children. To tell her that she was safe.
That nothing bad would happen while he kept watch.
She’d believe him.
The moment he’d come into the courtyard, brandishing a chair in one hand while a pistol glinted in the other, she’d lost all sense of danger. She’d trusted he’d do whatever needed to be done.
“You marshaled the rescue, didn’t you?” she asked.
“Marshalis a bit overblown.”
Him? Being humble? “You were magnificent.”
He exhaled, harsh and uneven. “Youwere magnificent.”
“I didn’t think.” She leaned back against the pillows. “I just acted.”
“You kept the children safe—at great risk to your person. Without your quick thinking there would not have been time to ‘marshal’ additional forces.”
“So, youdidinspire the men to mount a rescue.”
“Threatened, more like.”
She half-laughed. “That, I don’t doubt.”
“I am only a bully?—”
His accurate self-description made her smile into the darkness.
“—Whereas you embodied bravery.”
An unfamiliar tone thread through his voice, a tone that made her tingle with pleasure. Was she hearing admiration?
She wasn’t to be admired. What she’d done had been foolish. And, while she was fond of Delmare and Fee, what would have become of her child if she’d been seriously injured or killed? The workhouse. Or worse.
That she’d acted without thought and might not have survived to claim Annis had been her last thought before all the fear she’d kept subdued had rushed back into her veins, overwhelming her consciousness.
