Page 102 of The Earl She Once Saved

“Another shell struck before we reached cover. The fragment went through his leg.”

Verity looked at the cane wreathed in flowers.

“He carries that wound because he saved you.”

“He nearly lost the leg because I could not free myself.”

The guilt beneath the words was so raw that she felt it in her own chest.

“Rafe.”

“He never blamed me. That made it worse.”

His hand stopped moving.

“There were months afterward when I slept only when exhaustion forced it. When I woke fighting men who were not there. Ezra stayed through all of it.”

“He kept you from going under.”

Rafe nodded. “That is why I mean to help him with London, with whatever comes after. I owe him more than I can ever repay.”

Verity looked at Ezra. Win had sat beside him now, though a careful space remained between them.

“Perhaps it was never a debt.”

Rafe turned. The words seemed to touch him somewhere deep. Verity held his gaze.

“If he did it because he loved you as a brother, perhaps repayment is not what he wants.”

“What, then?”

“For you to live well.”

Rafe’s face changed. He looked down at the cup. For a moment, she thought he might retreat behind silence.

Instead, he answered. “I have not been particularly skilled at that.”

“No.”

His eyes lifted.

“Nor have you.”

The answer should have offended her. It did not.

A small smile pulled at her mouth. “Then perhaps we are both badly in need of instruction.”

Rafe’s smile came slowly. “From Ezra and Win?”

“Good God, no. We should die waiting for the first lesson.”

He laughed. The sound warmed her.

They began again to take the matter apart in low voices: whether Ezra would plan his declaration like a military campaign, whether Win would pretend not to understand, and how long the entire household could endure their blindness before someone locked them in a room together. Verity laughed until her cheeks hurt.

When at last they returned to the tables, the ease remained. It followed them when the horses were brought and when the tenants called farewells across the green.

They rode home as the sun lowered behind the hills. The road stretched gold before them. Their horses walked close enough that Rafe’s boot brushed the hem of her riding skirt once, then again.