The longer he remained unconscious, the further any other consideration was pushed into the background of Lucy’s mind.
She would have traded all she possessed to see him blink open those black-as-sin eyes and give her that supercilious sneer.
“And how did he come by the injury?”Dr.Perry inquired delicately.
Lucy took Thornecliff’s large hand between her own smaller palms, unable to stop staring at him.A thick white bandage wrapped around his head, the plain linen an insult to his gorgeousness.Lucy pressed his hand and longed to feel a return pressure, but there was nothing.
It was surreal to see a man so full of life and vigor, and sheer, radiating force of personality like this.
A shell.
She shuddered, tears threatening once more and thickening her voice as she replied, “He fell.From my window.”
She held her breath, trepidation shivering through her.From the corner of her eye, she saw the silent look exchanged between Nathaniel and Bess.In the next instant, Bess was sweetly but firmly shepherding out everyone who was not patient, family, or doctor.
Dr.Perry appeared not to notice that anything was amiss.“And that would be on the second story?I see, I see.Well, the wound has been cleaned and bandaged, and His Grace appears to be resting comfortably.I believe that’s all I can do for the moment.”
“All you can do!”Lucy managed to tear her gaze away from Thornecliff to stare at the doctor, aghast.“What do you mean?He is still asleep!”
Dr.Perry blinked behind his spectacles.“I can’t force him to wake up.He must do that in his own time.”
“Meaning what?In a few hours?”
“Perhaps.Or it could be longer.”His round face registered a scientific interest that struck Lucy as cruelly uncaring.“I have seen cases like these where the patient came round in the same afternoon, and ones where it took weeks for the patient to wake up, or even months.Head wounds are terribly unpredictable.”
“Months,” she breathed, stunned.
“Yes, and that leads me to my next suggestion…” Dr.Perry’s voice faded from Lucy’s awareness as he rose and crossed the drawing room to speak with her brother and sister-in-law.
Months.He might be like this for months.It was unthinkable.
Her hands tightened spasmodically on Thornecliff’s fingers—and for the first time, he squeezed back.
Only a slight pressure, a mere reflex, but it was a response.
Lucy’s heart battered against her rib cage.She half started up out of her chair, gaze fixed on Thornecliff’s slack face, in time to see his unfairly long eyelashes blink open to reveal his eyes.
Black as sin.And at the moment, hazy with bewilderment and mostly likely pain.
Lucy lifted a shaking hand to cup his cheek, feeling the bristle of golden whiskers tickle her palm.All her senses were strangely heightened.
The teal watered silk that covered the chaise was bright enough to sear her eyes.She could smell the freshness of crushed grass and the copper tang of blood on the highwayman’s black garments he still wore.
He blinked, focusing on her, and Lucy could only stare back at him with her breath lodged in her lungs.
The enormity of the situation crashed over her like a wave.
This man had deceived her.On every level, and to what ends she could hardly bear to guess.But at least partly—he had lied his way into her bed.
Into her body.
Anger rose up, swamping the relief she might have felt at his recovery.Anger and a devastating sense of loss, because in one fell swoop the only two men with whom Lucy had ever felt a genuine connection had proved to be…not genuine at all.
Lucy dragged in a shuddering breath.Thornecliff’s brows drew together.He looked as painfully blank and overwhelmed as she felt.
She managed to speak over the shattering of her heart.“It’s all right.You’re going to be well.The doctor is here, he’s seen you, let me get him?—”
His long, strong fingers tightened irresistibly on hers when she would have pulled away.Lucy paused, hovering over him.That frown had deepened.
