His butler pushed him toward another lamp and unwrapped Milton’s bloody fist to begin plucking bits of glass from his flesh. He was still fussing when Elizabeth’s billowy self rushed the room in her night-rail, spectacles askew. She looked from Milton, to the shattered oil lamp, to Gerald.
Too pale. Too thin.Christ.
“Forgive me,” she said stiffly. “I heard something … break.”
Her voice flayed his heart to ribbons.
“Lady Milton, will y’ see t’ Jasp a moment, please? I’ve an urgent matter downstairs.” And out Gerald scurried, the bleeding opportunist.
Elizabeth cautiously approached.
Milton turned from her. “I can manage.”
“Removing glass from one’s dominant hand is no easy task.”
His heart spasmed. “Someone else can?—”
“Am I truly so abhorrent to you, sir, that you would spurn my offer to help?” Her words lashed. “I’ll not speak, if my voice repulses. I will simply pluck out shards.”
“Lizzie, that is not what I?—”
“Don’t speak to me either,” she bit back. “Just allow me to assist.” She took his hand in her palm.
He was both chastened and aroused by her presence, for it had been ages since they’d stood this close. The smell of her, her touch on his skin… The way her dark braid framed her neck, so elegantly elfin while the rest of her was so deliciously?—
Milton forced himself not to think of his wife’s anatomy. “I trust you are feeling better?”
She did not respond.
“I meant to offer my?—”
“Congratulations?” The word puffed from her lips. “Are we at a house party, sir, that you only now acknowledge your wife is with child, with your precious heir?”
He deserved her ire. He deserved far worse. “I did not wish to upset you more during your convalescence.”
“How considerate of you not to wish toupsetme.”
“Lizzie, I know I’ve been a?—”
“Do not speak, sir. Your actions leave no doubt as to how little you regard me.”
“Elizabeth, I cannot…” He was at a complete loss for words, while feeling miserably, abjectly sorry. To stand so near to her while she methodically pulled slivers from his hand was doing things to him which he’d tried desperately to avoid.
“I will remain your wife—I’ve no choice.” Her tone stung. “And I will raise this child as best I am able, but I will engage in the bare minimum of necessary interaction with you, Baron. I have not forgotten your treatment of me or Mr. Kilpert.”
Milton blinked as something wet fell to his hand.
“If you are in pain I will slow my efforts.”
“It is nothing,” he said stiffly.
The air between them blistered, yet when she finished, her words surprised. “Why did you crush the lamp?”
“Need you ask?” His voice cracked.
She rashly cupped his cheek. “Jasper, if you are hurting I will?—”
“Damn it, woman, can you not see how painful tenderness is to me?” He violently withdrew, leaving her to stare back at him with such wide, wounded eyes he felt kicked.
