She made quick work of dabbing the paste over and around the stitches, though she stood back as far as she could from him to do it. “Let that dry while we eat. I will bandage it before I go so the paste does not rub off while you sleep.”
“You know I don’t want your help?”
“Yes, you have made that quite clear.”
“Then why do you persist?”
“As I mentioned earlier, you’re going to be my husband, so it’s my duty to assist you.”
“Your life will never be pleasant here. You need to think about that very carefully and figure out that you only have one option.”
She raised a brow at him. “To leave? That is actually the only option I don’t have. So maybeyouneed to do some thinking instead and give in graciously—if you know how to do that.”
“Get out!”
She almost said,Make me!But she bit the words back. She had to stop succumbing so quickly to anger! Where had this willingness to fight with him come from? If he weren’t bedridden, she wouldn’t dare. And Alfreda’s herbs were likely to get him out of that bed sooner. More fool her for helping to that end!
Chapter Eighteen
BROOKE DIDN’T LEAVE THEwolf’s den, although she stared at the door for a few moments, tempted to walk out. She finally chose to ignore Dominic’s order and picked up one of the two food trays that had been set on the little dining table and took it to Dominic. A small vase of flowers had been added to one tray. Marsha must have tried to make amends to the viscount for delaying his dinner until Brooke was ready. He probably wouldn’t even notice how pretty the flowers were. She knew she ought to offer a smile as she set the tray on his bedside table, but she couldn’t quite manage it. He was lucky that she didn’t dump it in his lap.
“Would you like me to feed you?”
She had to stop goading him! It got her the glare she expected. He didn’t thank her for putting the tray within his reach or for handing him the dinner plate. Did the man have no manners at all, or was his abundant rudeness reserved just for her?
After removing the ceramic dome that had been put over his plate to keep it warm, she took it back to the dining table, where she intended to eat, far from him. She was doing it again—reacting to his churlishness and forgetting her resolve to make him like her. So she removed the dome from her plate and took her tray with her as she went to sit in the chair at his bedside. She would be pleasant despite him and show him it would be nice to have her around.
He didn’t reiterate his order for her to leave. He was probably too busy eating to care just then. The baked fish was served with a tangy cream sauce topping it. Brooke found it quite tasty. Crisp vegetables filled the other half of the plate. The dinner trays also had biscuits, little bowls of butter, and cinnamon scones for dessert.
Dominic didn’t appear to have any trouble reaching for whatever he wanted to add to his plate. But then, aside from the wound on his thigh, nothing was wrong with his body and his arms were long. She imagined she was going to be impressed by his height when she saw him standing. Would she find him even more intimidating then? She wished they could come to some sort of peace before then.
With fork in hand, Brooke tried to introduce a topic of conversation that didn’t touch on their impending marriage. Since she was curious about his family, she asked, “Your mother isn’t in residence?”
He didn’t answer. Actually, he must have debated whether to respond, so she was pleased when he finally got around to saying, “She lives permanently at our house in London now. There are too many bad memories here for her to want to return to the moors.”
“You’re estranged?” she guessed. “You could say the same thing about me and my mother, but I didn’t have the luxury of leaving home. Until now, that is. Odd that we would have that in common.”
He gave her an incredulous look, which ended in a dark frown. “We don’t haveanything in common. That’s a nasty habit you have, of jumping ahead with your assumptions, particularly when it couldn’t be further from the truth. I am quite close to my mother. She merely refuses to come back to Yorkshire because all the memories of my sister are here, which is understandable. And she was raised in London. The social whirl and her old friends there at least distract her from her grief.”
Since he mentioned his sister without getting enraged this time, she added carefully, “Yet keeps her from you. Does she even know you were wounded?”
“She knows I dueled and why, but, no, I didn’t want to cause her worry over this wound. But I’m in the habit now of spending half of each year in London with her. We keep a town house there and another in Scarborough on the coast. Here is where we come to hide.”
To hide from what? she wondered, but pointed out, “It’s not possible to hide when you are in the open with next to nothing blocking your house from view.”
“You haven’t grasped the size of Yorkshire, have you? We are the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
“Then you probably shouldn’t have built a road that leads straight to your door.”
“We didn’t. It winds.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. She knew very well he didn’t mean to be funny, which was why he was scowling at her now for laughing. She didn’t care. At that moment she decided to be herself while she was here... well, mostly—at least when he wasn’t frightening her with his scowls and bared teeth. Though maybe she should ask if he would mind.
So, trying to keep her tone light, she confessed, “I’ve never been able to be myself with anyone except Freda. I was trying to explain that earlier—before you annoyed me. But it seems fitting that I be myself with you since you will soon be my husband. Don’t you agree?”
He raised a curious brow. “Am I supposed to understand what you’re implying? How could I stop you from being who you are? Actually, explain that remark. Is something wrong with you?”
She choked back another laugh. “Not a’tall. I’ve just been stifled, raised in a house that never felt like a home. I was an unwanted daughter, you see. And when no more sons arrived after me, I got blamed for that. So your calling me a spoiled earl’s daughter could not have been farther from the mark.”
