Chapter 23
W
“Anna asked me to marry her. I told her no. I told her no. I’m sick, and I need to sleep, but I can’t, and I don’t know what she is going to do, and I don’t know what I’m going to do, and I don’t feel like I can live knowing I could help her, but I won’t.
Because how could I? It isn’t as though I could marry her and protect her fr . . .”
We left the drawing room and crossed the foyer to David’s study.
He pulled the door open and ushered me in with his hand on my back once again.
It was such a small motion, such a light touch.
It shouldn’t have made me want to lean into him or feel as though I belonged to him when I knew I didn’t.
Not permanently, at any rate. But it did.
When his hand left me so he could step over to his desk, I immediately missed the warmth and weight of him.
He pulled a thick envelope from his desk. “Your solicitor brought this to me.”
“My solicitor?” I raised my eyebrows and dashed to the desk, pulling the envelope from his hands. There was only one thing my solicitor would have brought. “My inheritance?”
He nodded. “Yes. As your husband, I signed for it.”
I pulled out the paper; it was a note from the National Provincial Bank with an amount of available funds listed under my name.
I gasped when I saw the number. I’d known, of course, how much was coming, but it felt different now that I had it.
With this, Mama and I would be able to pay Mr. Green and be done with him.
To my abject horror, my eyes were suddenly moist.
David did not seem bothered by my emotion. Instead, he folded his arms over his chest and grinned. “I should write a book on how to make one’s wife happy. It is so very simple.”
“It is?” I asked, trying but failing to keep my voice from wavering from the relief this money brought.
“Definitely. You need only one thing.”
“What is that?”
He motioned to the paper in my hands with his chin. “Ill-gotten gains.”
I burst into a grin and jaunted over to his side of the desk.
“You should surely write that book.” I put a hand on his elbow and placed a brief but very firm kiss on his mouth.
I didn’t know what had come over me, but I was so grateful for this man.
My whole life had improved the moment he’d stepped back into it, and I couldn’t help myself. “Thank you, David, for everything.”
His eyes flared, and he took a step backward. He unfolded his arms and folded them again. “Please don’t thank me. You know I’m happy to help.”
“I do know that about you. I don’t think I’ve met anyone more helpful.”
“Mostly toward you.”
“And Julia and your father’s tenants. I’m very fortunate I was the first woman in your vicinity to need a husband, or I would have been too late.”
“Are you so certain you were? Perhaps I make a habit of marrying women only to have the marriage annulled. After all, I started asking women to marry me at age fourteen.”
I snorted. “I don’t think so. I don’t think Garrett would have been quite so pleased to torture you about me if it were so.”
“What did you think of my brother?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “He seemed nice enough, but he has his flaws.”
David narrowed his eyes. “What flaws?”
“He was, as predicted, much too tall.”
His eyes darkened again, and his eyes went to my mouth. “Really?”
I nodded, thinking back to our conversation in my bedroom. “And too old.”
“He is only a few years your senior.”
“Don’t remind me. I am also, perhaps, too old.”
“You aren’t.”
I was finally starting to believe him when he said things like that. The appreciative look in his eye made it hard not to. I should have been brave for a few minutes longer and lengthened that kiss. “Don’t flatter me, David. I’m not certain I can manage myself if you do.”
He pointed to his mouth. “You think that kiss was managing yourself?”
Had he not noticed how short it was? “Very much so.”
His eyes lowered, the smallest crease forming at the corners of his lips.
Not quite a smile, but it was gone almost as soon as I’d noticed it.
When he met my eyes again, he looked like a sailor facing a hurricane—wary but settled, one hand bracing himself on the chair tucked into his desk.
“Tell me what other flaws you find in my brother.”
“I don’t think he would marry a woman simply to help her.”
He shook his head. “I’m not certain that is a flaw.”
“His hair is too dark, by a shade.”
David swallowed, his hand clenching tighter on the chair.
“He’s never held me while I was sick.”
His eyelids closed slowly enough for me to watch their descent.
“And he resembles your father.”
David stiffened, and whatever he’d been steeling himself against disappeared. My comment had taken him by surprise. His eyes flew open. “He isn’t anything like my father.” His voice wasn’t angry, but it was firm.
“I mean in appearance. It’s unsettling.”
David nodded once. “I think on that point, Garrett would agree.”
I thought perhaps he would ask me to point out more things Garrett lacked, but he didn’t. Our chance of quiet flirtation had disappeared the moment I’d mentioned his father.
“I suppose we should dress for dinner,” I said.
His eyes searched my face. “Only if you aren’t too tired. If you need to rest, I can make your excuses.”
“Are you worried about me hearing any more disparaging remarks your brother might make about your work ethic?”
“Of course not. We both know he is grasping at straws to get a rise out of me.”
I smiled. “I feel well enough. And I like having a guest. I hope he will visit more often.” The words were out before I realized my mistake. Even if he did visit more often, I might not be here the next time he came.
“Garrett tends to stay in London with my father.”
“I don’t understand Garrett’s relationship to him. Do they live together there?”
David hadn’t had a positive word to say about his father, and I’d assumed, based on a few things he’d said, Garrett and Julia had similar feelings toward him.
“My father keeps him close, but two years ago, Garrett managed to move into some rented rooms of his own.” David looked down at his desk and moved a few papers around.
“Now,” he said, making it clear he had no desire to keep speaking of his father, “If I’m going to ignore my duties for the next few days while Garrett is here, I have a few things I need to look over before I dress for dinner. ”
It was a dismissal. Not a harsh one but a dismissal nonetheless. I nodded, holding my inheritance to my chest. “Thank you again, David.”
He gave me a quick smile. “I wish I could do more.”
There it was again—his feeling that he was in my debt. I didn’t understand this man, yet somehow, I did. I just wished I knew what I could do to be more than someone he was grateful to for things I’d done for him so long ago.
Before dressing, I checked in on Mama again, but she was resting, and I decided not to wake her.
When I got to my room, exhaustion overtook me.
Rather than ring for Maren to help me dress, I lay down on my bed, fully clothed.
Light shone through my four windows, but I closed my eyes and managed to doze off anyway.
I woke to noises coming from the adjoining room—a trunk being dropped and feet shuffling around.
It seemed as though Garrett would indeed be sleeping in his father’s room.
A strange arrangement with me in the adjoining one.
I would have to ask David about the keys to the door.
Did I have the only one? David trusted Garrett completely, but I’d met him only a few hours ago.
I double-checked the door and made certain it was locked before glancing at the clock on the mantel.
I was over half an hour late for dinner.