“Best to get her inside so I can clean the wound.”
“I know that you what?” Bethany’s eyes fluttered shut. She would die without ever hearing the words.
“She’s going to be all right then?” Chase was speaking to somebody else now. It seemed an entire conversation would take place while she lay here dying. “She has to be.”
“But of course, My Lord. No need to worry at all. The bullet barely grazed her.”
Chase leaned forward,resting his elbows on his knees, when Bethany let out a feeble moan.
The physician had left several hours ago, after dosing her for the pain. So long as the wound didn’t turn putrid, it was not life-threatening.
“Bethany?” A hand to her forehead reassured him that she wasn’t fevered.Thank God.
“Am I dead?”
Relief had him smiling even as he blinked away the stinging in his eyes. Chase had never comprehended how a person could have such a burning desire to strangle another human being at the same time he wanted to kiss her senseless. But now, thanks to his intrepid wife, he did.
His own heart had nearly stopped when he’d watched blood seep into the material of her gown. “You are not. You are also lucky you’re bedridden for now, otherwise, I’d have to throttle you.” He did nothing to smother the stern tone in his voice.
Now that he knew she was going to be all right.
If the bullet had entered a few inches to her left… Chase dismissed the reminder from his mind. Such a close call. Too close! He’d come much too close to losing her.
Anger shot through him, replacing his relief.
“What did you think you were doing?” He’d nearly died when he realized the ragamuffin minx running at him was his wife. Into the middle of a duel, no less!
She’d scared the hell out of Westerley—so much so that he’d flinched just enough to set off an unusually touchy trigger.
“I’m sorry.” Tears squeezed out from her eyes. “But you should have told me.”
“You only would have worried. I was protecting you.”
“I told you. I don’t require that kind of protecting!” She squirmed and then winced. “Help me up.”
“You should rest.”
“I’ve rested plenty. Please, just help me sit up.” She flinched and Chase reluctantly adjusted the pillows to support her in more of an upright position. Staring at her determined face, he wondered how she’d managed to so thoroughly capture his heart.
He squeezed her hand. “If you only realized how you scared me… When that gun fired and…” He swallowed hard, reliving the moment that had shaved twenty years off his life. “I thought…” Emotion choked his voice.
“But Ido realize,” she insisted, pinning an admonishing gaze on him. “I imagined either you or my brother being killed. That’s why I ran into the middle of that field. If I had known what you were really doing—if either of you had bothered to tell me—then I would have known of your agreement to delope.”
He glanced at his desk across the room where the open missive lay. “You read the note?” Of course, it was what had sent her running through Mayfair to stop it. Half-clothed, alone, and unprotected.
His head hurt to imagine how many levels of danger she’d put herself in this morning and then when she’d stepped in front of him.
Which she wouldn’t have done if he’d told her.
“I saw Lady Starling give it to you.” Although sitting up now, Bethany rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. “At least half the guests assumed the two of you had agreed to a tryst.”
Chase paused, watching her closely. “Was that why you left the ball?”
“No.” She licked her lips. “I was upset because you didn’t see fit to let me know we had a problem. I was upset because you were so busy protecting me that you left me alone in the ballroom. And when you came to me last night, you still didn’t tell me the truth. I was upset because you shut me out.”
She was right.
“I told Westerley everything. I told him about my sisters, about my mother… I told him that I loved you.”
