Page 76 of Triumph at Pemberley

“From the very first moment you left! Of course I did, you slowtop. Why would I have married you otherwise?” How could he even think it?

His answer came slower this time. “Perhaps to prove you could make it happen, even when everyone said it was impossible.”

She could not help laughing at that. “Well, I cannot say it is a misreading of my character, but for small things, things that do not matter. I would not gamble the rest of my life and my independence simply to prove someone wrong!” She squeezed his hand, and this time he gripped back.

“I see.” He sounded so calm, completely untouched by this. “Yet you are already planning to leave.”

It hurt. What was wrong with him? “Have you always been this cork-brained? This is my home now, but that does not mean I will never travel again. Especially when so much depends on it! I will go, yes, but then I will return.” Why had he bothered to make a fuss over this when he now sounded so indifferent and detached?

Detached. Oh, what a fool she was! She struck herself lightly in the forehead with the heel of her hand. He had even warned her about this. Here on his own land he could not afford to be anything but calm. That was why he had run away from her – because he had been upset and needed to stop. She was going to have to learn a completely new way to deal with him, now that he had to keep such a tight rein on his emotions.

It would be another language she needed to learn. Which was another argument she could present. “I married you knowing I would have to learn to speak Welsh. Do you have any idea how much I hate learning another language? My French tutors despaired of me. It was torture, studying all that grammar, all those rules. It made no sense at all. I would never do it again for anything but love.”

He brushed a stray lock of her hair back behind her ear, and even that light touch sent desire coursing through her. “I will not despair of you, since you speak excellent French.”

“An act of desperation on my mother’s part! When I failed at every other method, she fostered me with an émigré family for a year and told them to speak nothing but French to me. I could not even eat anything unless I asked for it in French. That worked, when nothing else did.”

“Then no doubt you will do the same with Welsh. Perhaps I should only speak Welsh to you.” There was a smile in his voice.

She gently punched his shoulder. “Don’t you dare, Roderick ap Rhodri! I deserve some breaks as I learn. It is hard enough to understand life here without that.” And to understand him.

He gave a low laugh and tugged her onto his lap, nuzzling her neck. “I have faith in you. A question, though – how did you save Jack?”

She shivered as his lips teased her delicate skin. Oh, how she had missed this, the way he could make every inch of her come alive! And she was unspeakably relieved to be on good terms with him again. “When he was learning to heal with the King’s Bond, and then when he went too deep into the land again.”

Roderick stiffened. “Using the Bond to heal is inadvisable.”

“Why? Jack was doing it perfectly well, once he learned his limits.” Had she missed something, though? Would Jack pay a price at some point?

Or just perhaps Jack, with her help, had discovered a way to make it work, whereas Roderick had never tried. There might be something to be said for experimentation. Certainly Sergeant Sutton was grateful for it. She had surprised Roderick, that was clear.

“It is difficult to regulate,” he said. “Often too much Talent pours into the patient, burning or even killing him. More importantly, the user can be dangerously depleted by it. Unless it is somehow different in England, I would advise him against it.”

“He has saved many lives,” she argued. “At first he could not control it. Poor Sutton had a paroxysm during his healing. That was where I came in, helping him limit it.” She frowned, thinking back to that day in the hospital tent. “No,” she said slowly. “He did not control it. I did. I kept my hand on him, and when he tried to use too much power, I stopped him. I taught Richard how to do the same before I left.” She only hoped her brother could be effective, given how untrained his Talent was.

He hesitated. “It may only be possible for you.”

She cocked her head to look up at him. “Why?”

This time it was a long minute before he answered. “You were part of the awakening of his Bond. It is a connection of sorts.”

That strange sense she had since that astonishing day in the churchyard. Did that mean Jack could still be in danger from his attempts? And there was little she could do about it except to send a letter that Jack would not receive for at least a week. And hope Jack could prevent battles from beginning.

“Does that mean you could try it with whoever was your guardian when your Bond was awakened?”

“Unfortunately, my uncle is dead,” he said slowly, clearly considering the implications. “We are taught from childhood never to use the Bond to heal.”

“Well, perhaps it is time to reconsider it, then. Jack saved many lives – not full healings, but enough to give them a chance to recover on their own.” She laid her head back on his shoulder.

Roderick’s eyes were smoky in the darkness. “Do you truly intend to return here from Pemberley? Are you not disappointed in how little I have to offer? Your welcome to my home was hardly warm.”

Was that what this was all about? She could not deny the problems with his stepmother, who had spent dinner speaking about people Frederica did not know. Hardly surprising, since they had no acquaintance in common apart from Roderick and Granny, but it had clearly been a deliberate effort. “Your sister is very sweet, and several of the servants have gone out of their way to be helpful.”

“Yet it is not what I would wish for you. I want you to like it here. I know it is not what you are used to, but—”

She stopped his mouth with a kiss. “We have been through this. Yes, it will take me time to find my footing here, but your valley is lovely, the common people are charming, and I like this house. Manors in England have all been rebuilt again and again to match the fashion of the day until they are nothing but a mishmash. This house knows who it is. But it is also true I will leave sometimes, as I would even if everything here was utterly perfect. I will still want to visit my family. Not to mention our children, when they are being educated in England. None of that means I do not want to be with you.”

“But it is more than that.” His body tensed under her hands. “You are tied into Jack’s Bond to England.”