“I should like to hear the whole of what happened in your room,” Griffin said. “If you are prepared to tell me, that is.”
Olivia appreciated that he framed it so carefully but wondered if she truly had the right to refuse. She caught the glimmer of his smile as he waited patiently for her response. How was it that he seemed to know what she was thinking?
She indulged in a deep breath and released it slowly. “He did not rape me, if that’s what you want to know.”
“You are telling me what didnothappen. I’d hoped you’d be able to tell me what did. How was it that Wick came to know that you were in danger, for instance?”
“I was able to reach the window. I threw it open and managed to get my head out before I was dragged back. I think I screamed. I must have, else Wick would have had no cause to raise the alarm. I certainly didn’t know he was in the yard.”
“Sent out on the cook’s errand, I believe. It was difficult to make out most of what he was telling me. Excitement did not lend itself to clarity of his expression.”
Olivia could well imagine. “Poor Wick.”
It was her perfect sincerity that made Griffin cock his head to one side and study her in this new light.
“You are staring,” she said.
“Am I?”
“You are. Have I a smut on my nose?”
Laughter rumbled deep in his chest. “On your nose. Your cheeks. A crease of it on your brow.” Because she held the cup and saucer she hadn’t the means to hide her face behind her hands. Taking pity on her, though not necessarily because he regretted pointing out the blackened state of her complexion, Griffin relieved her of her tea before she upended the cup. He set her drink and his aside, then disappeared into his dressing room.
“Stop rubbing,” he said upon his return. “You’re making it worse. Hold this.” He placed a basin of water in her lap and soaked a flannel in it. “I’m sorry, but this will be cold.” He wrung out the flannel as he hitched his hip on the edge of the bed and turned to her. “Close your eyes.”
She blinked several times before she obeyed, then the damp flannel was against her cheek. She could feel the gentle pressure of his fingers on the other side of it, washing her face like velvet.
“Go on,” he said. “Tell me the rest of it.”
It took her a moment to realize he meant that she should go on with her story. It seemed oddly intimate, uncomfortably so, yet there was ease here, too, because he’d seen to it that her eyes were closed.
Griffin prompted her. “You were telling me that he pulled you back into the room after you called for help.”
“Yes. I hit my head on the sash hard enough to see a flash of…” She frowned slightly. “No, I don’t suppose it was that hard after all. I think what I saw was the fire.”
Griffin put his fingers at the back of her head and probed gently. He found a bump. Even a gingerly exploration caused her to wince. “Hard enough.”
She waited until his hand dropped away before she spoke again. “He…he pulled me down. The towel I’d been using to dry my hair was on the floor where I’d dropped it. I thought there might be some use for it. There were no other weapons at the ready.”
“No, I don’t imagine there were.” Griffin applied the cloth to her left cheek. “So did it prove helpful?”
“After a fashion…That is…It is difficult to…” Her voice trailed off as she considered the words in her own mind. There was no bow she could put on the thing to make it pretty. She’d almost strangled a man. That was the truth she could tell him, but it was the truth that he would hear that troubled her more. The truth that she felt not a whit of remorse. “I don’t think I want to say.”
“Very well. You don’t have to.”
Olivia felt compelled to offer something in its place. “The noise you made at the door distracted him.”
“Is that right?”
She ignored the thread of skepticism in his voice and nodded. “And…and I was able to throw him off.” It was not a complete lie. “I ran to the door, but you couldn’t open it from your side either, and I was afraid he might take me down again if I tried to take the key from him.”
“A perfectly reasonable fear,” said Griffin. Acid churned in his stomach.
“Was it? I felt the coward.”
Griffin dropped the flannel in the basin and placed two fingers under Olivia’s chin, lifting it. “Look at me, Olivia.”
She knew herself to be compelled by the softly spoken command. She opened her eyes and found herself mirrored in the dark reflection of his own.
