Cold rationality, his longtime companion, asserted its seniority.
The other possibilities could be swiftly eliminated. She couldn’t be a housemaid here to poke up the fires or empty the chamber pots. Not in that dress. She wore no cap and no apron. And he’d warrant her hands were as soft as her skin looked.
If he took a few steps toward her, he’d learn whether she would reach to about his collarbone in height. It seemed wiser to remain at a distance. If he knew howshesmelled, he suspected it would work on his senses like a dose of opium.
All right, then. An innocent, sheltered girl, or so he’d been told. Gently bred. She had opinions. A bit prone to flirting and flightiness. He had about two seconds to decide what to say to her next.
And where once such a thing had been as instinctive as breathing, he’d never before had to do it with this awe playing havoc with his equilibrium. He cursed the need to do it, but that was no reason not to do it.
“If you’ll indulge me in another question, madam. You walked in as though you belong here... I seem to have lost a day or two of memory while I was indisposed. We haven’t... that is... did we...” He tipped his head toward the bed. “I haven’t gone and seduced you, have I?”
Chapter Eleven
Aurelie’s breath left her in a shocked gust and heat rushed her face.
She went still.
Surely...surelyvicars didn’t say that sort of thing in casual conversation?
Although... she conceded that he had a point. She had indeed walked into the room as if she belonged there. And as ifhebelonged to her. And who did that apart from a woman accustomed to waltzing in and out of the bedrooms of strange men?
“A pity,” he muttered, abstractedly, mildly amused. Clearly her scarlet complexion had answered the question for him. “Forgive me,” he added firmly, as an afterthought.
He didn’t sound contrite.
Something was very amiss. Her impulse was to turn around and swiftly leave the room.
She would perhaps begin with the benefit of the doubt, given that this was the beloved Mr. Bellingham.
She cleared her throat. “Mr. Bellingham, sir, my name is Mrs. Gallagher. I . . . looked after you last night. You were very ill indeed, so it is perhaps understandable you do not remember my presence. Your fever broke very early this morning. As you seemed to be sleeping peacefully, I stepped out briefly, and returnedexpecting to still find you sleeping. I am sorry to intrude. Shall I go?”
His extraordinary face registered gathering bemusement as he listened to this. “A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Gallagher. Don’t go. Who the devil is Mr. Bellingham?”
She worriedly studied him. “...you are, sir?”
“I assure you I am not.”
He sounded unnervingly convinced of this.
She cleared her throat. “Sir...” she began carefully, “perhaps you are still a bit... confused from your fever? The liberty was taken to give you some laudanum, too. I will bring some fresh water or some coffee to you and perhaps you will be able to think more clearly. And I think I ought to tell you that you might not want to say...” she lowered her voice and whispered, “‘who the devil’—in the sitting room. You will be obliged to put a pence in the jar.”
He took a breath, and it sounded suspiciously as though he were siphoning patience from the very air.
“Mrs. Gallagher... I am at a number of disadvantages. You seem to believe my name is Mr. Bellingham, and I feel obliged to inform you that this is not the case. Though it sounds as though you’re fond of Mr. Bellingham, which makes him an enviable man, indeed. And I am most decidedly not a vicar.”
She was speechless.
“But... then...” Her voice was faint.
She was horrified.
Butthenlast night she’d shared a few of her darkest secrets with a man she’d assumed was accustomed to hearing them. A man who, she’d thought, was a sort of conduit to God by virtue of his profession—the dear, benign Mr. Bellingham, with the intelligent chicken.She’d touched this man’s bare skin with her hand and soothed him, and soothed herself in so doing. They had both gained from the evening.
Did this man in front of her—whoever he might be—deserve that care less than a vicar?
Had he heard anything she’d said?
Had heunderstoodher?
