“Your husband was called to his father’s house early this afternoon.Hodgins told me Lord Sommerset said he would be dining out this evening.”
Violet let out a long sigh of relief.“Thank you, Ginny.You would not believe the day I’ve had.”She pushed at a stray curl that stuck to her cheek.“Do I look terribly disheveled?”
Ginny bit her lip and nodded.“You have blood on your sleeve,” she whispered.
Violet looked down at the white lace cuffs of her dress.“Oh dear, do you think it will come out?”
“I’ll do my best.But ma’am, how did the blood get there?Are you harmed?”Ginny glanced around the foyer suspiciously.
“No, I am unharmed.Did you bring the salve?”
Ginny nodded.She pulled the small jar from the pocket of her cloak and handed it to her.
“Thank you, Ginny.I will be ready to leave soon.I just need to deliver this upstairs.Will you wait for me in the kitchen?The housekeeper is Louisa.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Violet headed back upstairs.There was more wrong with Rhys than just the stab wound.She recognized the grimace of pain that he thought he hid so well.He had walked up to the front door like an eighty-year-old man.Fighting off four men surely came with quite a few blows.
As she reached the top of the stairs, Zeke exited Rhys’s room.He headed her way with a smile.“Don’t worry, he’ll live.Seen him much worse after a good fight.”
“Worse?”Violet replied.“Well, I’ve had my maid bring over this salve that has always helped soothe my bruises.”
Zeke tilted his head to one side.His smile faded.
Violet flushed, her cheeks heating.“I mean, the salve is well known for soothing sore muscles.I think it would help him.Ginny’s father is an apothecary, so she knows ever so much about tonics and salves and the like.She is waiting for me downstairs.I hope Louisa won’t mind.”
“Louisa doesn’t mind about much,” Zeke replied.“You’ll never get him to use it.He’s real prickly when he’s hurt.Doesn’t like to be reminded that he’s human like the rest of us.Maybe it’s best if you go home.”
Violet looked over Zeke’s shoulder at the closed bedroom door.Rhys lay in there, hurting, and she knew that the salve would help.“Did he tell you to send me home?”
Zeke rubbed a hand on the back of his neck.“Maybe.”
“Thank you, Zeke, but I think I will just have a word with him about taking care of himself before I leave.I want to see for myself that he is all right.”
Zeke shook his head.“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.Good evening, Lady Sommerset.”He tipped his cap and headed down the stairs.
Violet strode down the corridor.She knocked on Rhys’s door but didn’t wait for him to tell her to go away.Instead, she entered to find him still in his leather chair.His trouser leg had been cut off, and a white linen strip bandaged his thigh.A very muscular thigh.Violet gulped.Her gaze ran down his bare leg, taking in his knobby knee, his lean, muscled calf covered in light brown hair, and his bare foot with its long toes.His other boot had been removed—by Zeke, she assumed—and his toes dug into the soft pile of the Oriental rug.
“What are you doing in here?”Rhys growled.
His tone snapped her into action.“I’ve had my maid bring over this salve that I use.I know you must be aching after fighting all four of those awful men.”She came to stand in front of him.
He glared up at her.“I’m fine.”
“Your face is still covered in blood.”She turned and set down the jar, then refilled the basin with a small amount of water.Dipping a cloth into the clean water, she turned back to Rhys.“May I?”
“If I say no, will you go away?”
She shook her head.
He sighed.
Violet took that as an assent.She came closer to him and began to wipe the blood from his face.Working carefully, she was glad to see that indeed none of it appeared to be from any cuts or lacerations.Rhys kept his gaze on her face the whole time.His clear blue eyes were stormy as he stared up at her.She turned to rinse the cloth in the basin and to catch her breath.This man stirred in her something that she had never felt for anyone before.She didn’t understand it at all.Violet wrung out the cloth.“Lean your head back.”
He complied, and she wiped long strokes down his neck, then over his ear.She ran her thumb over his jaw.“I think there is a bruise forming here already.”
His eyes snapped to hers.“Yes, Calvin got a few good hits in.He used to be a boxer.”
