Georgina went on. “You said we mustn’t let on what happened as our families would undoubtedly be crushed if we left them out of our celebration.” Her chest rose and fell as she drew in a deep breath in a visible effort to compose herself. “It was one of the most romantic gestures you’d ever made. You wanted me to know how much you…that is, the extent of your feelings for me before you departed for war, in case the worst happened.”
He drummed his fingers on the table. That sounded decidedly unlike him—or so he thought. He wasn’t actually certain. But something else she’d said niggled at him. What was it? The others. “Who were ‘the others’?”
Her chestnut brows arched. They were thick and bold and looked exactly right on her face. “What others?”
“You said ‘you pulled me aside from the others.’”
She stared at him. For the life of him, he could not read her expression.
“At Hampstead Heath,” he prodded, not bothering to hide his impatience.
“Oh, yes.” She sounded breathless. “My brother, Lord Drake Belfry.”
A sudden wave of nausea slammed through him. Black spotsdanced before his eyes.
“Teddy, what’s wrong?”
The image of a man with dark curly hair, grinning, and wearing sports tweeds flashed in his mind’s eye. Another wave of nausea hurled through him.
“Teddy?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and waved her off with a flick of his hand as the nausea receded. “I am fine.”
“In that case, let us return to the point I wished to make,” she said.
He dropped his hand to eye her. It seemed his wife had a tenacious streak. “Very well.”
She folded her hands before her on the table. Her fingers were graceful, her nails neatly trimmed. “I think it’s best I simply come out with it.”
“Good. Please do.”
She flashed him another of those peeved looks. “Teddy, you must take your medicine.”
His eyes narrowed. “No.”
“The doctor warned me you might be difficult.”
“Difficult? Try downright obstinate, love. I will not take it and that is final.”
She worried her delicious lower lip between straight white teeth. “You must understand my position. He said you’d tried on multiple occasions to hurt yourself. He went so far as to suggest I leave you there, in his care. He made it clear my own safety was not assured in your presence—unless you took the medicine prescribed you by your very own physician.”
No longer with any appetite to speak of, he lounged back in his chair and shoved his unfinished plate away from him. “And if I don’t? What then? You’ll drug me like Dr. Penhurst did and return me to Brook Haven?”
She met his gaze with a steady, unblinking eye. “No. I will notreturn you there, no matter what.”
He had not expected the unqualified assurance. He’d assumed she’d hedge rather than answer with such calm certainty. “Even though you’re afraid of me?”
She lifted her chin. “I never said I was afraid.”
Nor had she issued an unmitigated denial.
He wanted to tell her he’d never hurt a woman in his life. However, though it galled him, he refrained. He could hardly attest to something as he did not precisely recall how he’d treated any women from his past.
He hated that she feared him, however, and so he said the one thing sure to appease her. “Very well. I’ll drink the noxious stuff—for now.”
Her liquid-silver eyes widened with unmistakable relief and she sent him a brilliant smile. It lit up her entire face and made the blatant lie entirely worth it.
From nowhere, another image of the man with the curly hair came to him. This time he was not smiling, but staring up at the sky with sightless eyes.
