“Did you not hear me? Your father is…ill, and he wishes to see you.”
“Ill? How? What has happened?”
“Oh, I’m glad to see you nurse some small amount of affection for your poor parents.” She sniffed. “Bartholomew has contracted a lung infection. The doctor assures us it is but a seasonal illness that will pass, but one never knows, does one?”
Georgina backed off the carriage steps. She did not like to think of it, but her father was getting up in years. “I’ll gather my things. In the meantime, Mr. Danvers will escort you to the retiring room and then settle you in…the library until we depart.”
She rarely used the library. It was small, and lacked the charm of the large receiving room as its windows faced the street. But there would be no sign of Teddy within their four walls.
“Very accommodating,” her mother groused with evident sarcasm.
“I won’t be a minute,” Georgina threw over her shoulder, already dashing toward the villa’s front doors, leaving her mother to lumber down the steps with the assistance of her groom.
Once inside, she found Mr. Danvers in the foyer. After instructing him how to see to her mother, she ran up the stairs to the first floor.
A quick glance told her Teddy was no longer where she’d left him. She searched the dining room, then peeked into the library—it would be her luck for him to have ventured there, today.
He was not in the library.
Skirts in hand, she trotted up the stairs and headed for the guest chamber housing his things and his sketch equipment. She knocked and waited for his “come” before entering to the welcome sight of Teddy, shirtless, and in the process of stripping off his pantaloons.
His body was beautiful. Tanned and lean, muscles carved from his frequent ventures in the ocean.
Naked, he straightened. “What has your mother to say?”
She leaned against the door, closing it, and blurted, “I have to go to London. Mother informs me my father is ill.”
He cocked his head and sent her a perplexed frown. “You mean,wehave to go.”
“No, just me. You must stay here.”
At the frost forming in his eyes, she explained. “I do not believe this is the time to make a formal announcement about our…” She could not bring herself to say the word. “Us. Not with father ill and…your condition unresolved.”
His face went devoid of all expression. “I see. Of course. What need have you of my assistance? You, who so admirably manage everything and everyone in your life.”
He turned his back on her and stalked to the wardrobe, jerking it open. The looking glass on the cabinet door before him revealed a muscle in his jaw, rapid-fire ticking.
“I do need you, Teddy.” She had no idea how to make him understand—especially as she had not yet told him the truth.
He sent her a sardonic look over his shoulder. “You need my body. You need my touch. You do not need my meddling. Do I have that right?”
Her face went instantly hot. “That is not fair.”
Remorse flashed in his eyes. He snatched a fresh, white shirt from the wardrobe and shrugged into it, then faced her. “I apologize. That was crude of me.”
She shook her head, her insides twisting with guilt.
“It was. My only excuse is I grow weary of living this half existence. I’m a husband, but not. I’m a viscount, but not—I’m not managing my lands, not overseeing investments, not appearing at Parliament, not doing a bloody damned thing aside from playing at art, frolicking in the sea and, whenever possible, bedding my enticing wife.” A brief smile flickered over his face at the last. Then he sobered. “I’m meant for more than this, Georgina, and sometimes I fear I’ll be stuck in this purgatory for the rest of my days.”
She could no more keep from going to him than she could willherself to stop loving him. Wrapping her arms around him, she said, “Perhaps, after I return, we should consult with another physician to see what else might be done to aid your memory’s return.”
His gaze dipped to her mouth. “Perhaps.” With a mock sullen air, he returned her embrace. “I do not like the notion of spending a single night without you, wife. How long do you suppose you will be away?”
She sent him a tremulous smile. “I shall return this very night, if at all possible.”
He barked out a laugh that warmed his eyes. “You can spare your poor father an evening or two. But do not lend him money to cover his gambling debts,” he cautioned. “Indeed, I would not be surprised if this whole thing is but an elaborate scheme intent on separating you from your money.”
“I shall be extremely cautious, my lord.” She leaned forward and ran the tip of her nose over his supple chest, still bared to her thanks to his unbuttoned shirt. “In all seriousness, I am rather fond of the baron. I do hope to find him on the mend.”
