“None.”
“Thanks, but you know my opinion of one-word answers. Talk to me. I’m not delicate. You can be disappointed or frustrated with how things are.”
Her fingers gripped his collar tight. “You want me to own my feelings?”
“Yes.”
“I’m frightened, more frightened than I’ve ever been.”
“Because of Markham?”
“Because of Colin. I couldn’t keep him happy. He wouldn’t listen to me. And now you don’t look happy. And you won’t listen to me when I say I am.”
“You’re not good at this rake business. Or understanding the complexity of being happy that I married you and being frustrated that I’m not well enough to enjoy the fruits of this labor.”
“If you are happy—”
“I am content for now. I want more of you. I want my name to be the only one on your tongue.”
Busick lifted her chin, took her lips, and hoped to coax her to confess to the love he saw in her eyes. “I’m listening now, Patience.”
She smoothed his shirt, her palm splaying down his shoulders. “To keep Colin from his moods, I couldn’t be me. I don’t want that with us. Take us to Wellington or some other place where Markham won’t find us. Let me prove to you that I will pick up your sword and fight for you.”
“No.” He touched her cheek, swiped at a tear pooling at her chin. “You don’t have to prove anything. I just need your voice, telling me what’s inside.”
Patience put his hand to her heart. “I believe in you. Let’s go away. When it’s safe, bring us home.”
“Hamlin is our home?”
“Where you and Lionel are is home for me.”
He put his arms about her, drawing her as close to his heart as possible. “Then why are you packing?”
“I needed to do something while I waited for you to come get me.”
“An ambush then, that was your planning? So now you want to be a strategist?”
“Well, no one is a better teacher for me than you.”
He nestled her long neck. “Your resident strategist knows how to make Hamlin safe. The answer is Colin’s diary. Well, Markham and Colin’s diary.”
She squinted at him, and he smoothed away the wrinkles to her brow. “It’s Colin’s hand at the beginning, but the latter half is Markham’s. Very close, very similar hand.”
“Markham’s?”
“Yes, he had been manipulating Colin, and now he’s manipulating you. I have a plan to rid us of him. There are risks, but you won’t have to do any disguises, only the thing you hate. We have to wait. We must have patience and wait him out.”
“Then we are doomed, Busick.”
“Nothing is doomed when we work as a team.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing, Patience. Now it’s time for me to put you to bed.”
“Busick, I had intended to sleep in the other room. I don’t want to say something that hurts you.”
“Well, intentions are fine and lonely, but I need you.”
