Her head was resting against the side of the bed, her arm folded beneath her cheek, her hair loose the way it had been in the nursery two nights ago. She was still in her day dress, her shawl half draped over her shoulder where it had slipped while she slept.
She had stayed even though she had been frightened.
She stirred, and her eyes opened, finding him immediately. He was, after all, in the bed she was sleeping against.
The emotions that crossed her face in the next three seconds were some of the most honest things he had ever seen. Confusion first, then understanding, then shyness. Color rushed to her face as she straightened, pushed her hair back, and pulled the shawl up, reassembling herself with speed.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“I am.”
“How long…”
“A little while.” He did not tell her how long. He suspected she would find it embarrassing, and he found he had no interest in embarrassing her. “How is your neck?”
She paused in the middle of arranging her hair. “My neck is perfectly fine.”
“You slept in a chair; your neck is not perfectly fine.”
She dropped her hands to her lap. “It is adequately fine.”
“You stayed,” he said.
“I was checking the ice.” She shrugged. “I must have?—”
“Isadora.”
She stopped.
He looked at her across the bed, at the loose hair and the creased shawl and the color in her cheeks.
“Thank you,” he said simply.
She held his gaze for a moment. Then she looked at the ice pack, which had done its job and was no longer cold, and lifted it.
“I’ll have Reeves bring fresh ice,” she said, standing up. “By the way, the physician is coming at nine. And you will not have the report until he says you may.”
“Isadora—”
“Your ankle needs another day’s rest at least,” she said to the ice pack. “You will stay in bed, and you will rest, and you will not attempt to conduct estate business from a horizontal position.”
“And if I argue?”
She looked up at him. “I will take the report and hide it somewhere in the old library, and you will not find it for weeks because you do not know how the library is organized.” A pause. “I do.”
He sighed. “All right.”
She moved toward the door.
“Isadora.”
She stopped and turned slightly.
“I am glad you stayed,” he said.
Her face flushed further.
She stood in the doorway in the grey morning light, with the ice pack in her hands and the loose hair she hadn’t finished pinning, and looked at him for a long moment.
