“I was never so surprised when the colonel found me on a street corner, where I was, in essence, begging for my dinner. He walked right up to me and said, ‘Danvers, you are coming with me.’ I did.”
“And now here you are.”
“Here I am.”
His face had developed a ruddy cast, which Ted opted not to point out. He took his time, storing away the tools.
“Thank you—for telling me. I have a favor to ask. Actually, two.”
“To ask, or to order?” His gruff tone was back in place.
“I’m asking, Danvers.”
He seemed to hesitate, as if he did not know how to take Ted’s tone of respect. “I’m listening.”
Ted looked Danvers in the eye. “You said something the other day that seemed to me an indication you knew me. But when I asked, you claimed we’d not met.”
“Because we hadn’t. I knew you by reputation.”
“May I inquire what you heard?”
The butler folded his arms over his chest and rested a hip on the arm of the adjacent armchair. “You may or may not be aware that talk spreads between regiments—about the officers in command of their lives.”
He considered that. “I am aware.”
“Certain officers were known for being cowardly, being generous with the lives of the men in their charge while protecting their own hides. Others, like my commanding officer, Colonel Lord Culver, were known for their bravery. He didn’t come by his moniker for nothing.”
Ted nodded his understanding.
“You were like that. Sharp, courageous, unwilling to put your men in a situation you would not face alongside them. But…with you, there was talk of something more.”
Somehow he’d known there had to be a catch. He wasn’t a good man like Culver, like this Iron Lion. He’d heard the echoes of his father’s words too often now to be in any doubt.Irregular. Dissolute. Disappointment. No sort of leader.
“Such as?”
“Word was, at some point, you began asking for the most dangerous assignments. Especially ones calling for a solo actor. You’d go in, and against all odds, you’d somehow always walk away with your neck intact. They said you had more luck than smarts and some wondered if you’d perhaps come unhinged—not that it caused your men to doubt you. No, indeed, they would walk into Hell for you because you did so for them, again and again.”
Ted did not know what to say. This was not what he’d anticipated hearing.
“Makes a man wonder,” Danvers murmured.
“What’s that?”
“Why would a married man, with a wife waiting for him back home, risk life and limb, time and again?”
Leave it to Danvers to hit a bull’s eye in one shot. “I couldn’t say. But that brings me to my second ask.”
Chapter Sixteen
By the timeevening rolled around the following day, and Georgina once again dressed for the evening meal, she was quite beside herself. Her life had turned into a veritable seesaw. Moments of sheer delight, followed by bottomless longing—and a sense she’d fouled everything up beyond repair.
She had not seen Teddy since yesterday when she’d explained she didn’t feel married and thus didn’t wish to carry on as if they were.
She’d expected to see him at supper last night, at which time, she assumed, they might discuss the matter further, but the blasted man had opted to take his meal in his chamber.
This morning, according to Mr. Danvers, she’d missed him at breakfast by an hour. She somehow resisted the urge to utter a perfectly sarcastic rejoinder about having also missed him the previous two mornings, though she’d come down at differing times each day. She was not surprised the remainder of the day passed without her sighting Teddy even once.
His quite-evident determination to avoid her was likely for the best. Not only was he making steady gains toward recovery, looking more and more fit, more and more like himself as he recalled bit by bitof his life, but every moment he spent in her company left him vulnerable to…well…compromising her.
