Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Under her gloved hand, Ginger’s knock on the wooden door to Noah’s room at Shepheard’s sounded dull and soft.
Within a few seconds, footsteps approached.
Noah stood there. He blinked at her, surprise registering on his face.
Then he stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind him. “Ginger. What are you doing here?”
Her brows drew together in puzzlement. Why did she get the feeling he wasn’t pleased to see her? “I was at Groppi’s and—” She glanced down the hallway. No one was in sight. “Can I come in?”
Noah’s expression was wary. “Why don’t I get my jacket and join you outside instead? In the garden?” He wore his uniform trousers and shirt but was missing his hat and jacket and was barefooted.
She reached past him for the knob. “I’d prefer the privacy of your room—” She turned it, pushing the door open behind him.
The room was shrouded in darkness, but movement came from the bed. A form rolled to the side as though stirred from sleep.
A woman.
Ginger’s heart slammed against her ribs, her gaze flying back to Noah’s. Frozen with shock, she stayed rooted in place, scanning his eyes.
He has a woman in his bed.
Feeling sick, Ginger stumbled back. She covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my God.”
Noah grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door shut, pushing them both back out into the hall.
His hand encircled her wrist. Ginger’s eyes darted down the hall, feeling like a caged animal who couldn’t cry out without attracting unwanted attention.
She yanked her hand back, but he didn’t release it. “Let me go.”
Reluctantly, he let her wrist go. She gave it an exaggerated rub, then turned and stalked down the hall, tears burning her eyes.
Noah caught up with her. “Stop and listen to me.” His voice was low, as discreet as possible, but anxious. “Please. It’s not what you’re thinking. It’s Victoria—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” She didn’t slow. How could I be so foolish? Victoria, of all women! Noah knew the insecurities Victoria roused in her. “You were clearly trying to hide her presence from me.” She reached the lift.
“I wasn’t trying to hide her presence—”
The hell he wasn’t. “Then why did you want to go to the garden?”
Noah held her by the shoulders, facing her toward him. “Because I was trying to let her rest.”
“And your bedroom was a perfect place for that, wasn’t it?
” She gave him a cutting look. “Wasn’t it just recently you told me you didn’t want me suturing your shoulder in your room because of how it might look to others if we were seen?
I suppose that didn’t matter with her, did it? The risk is only worth it with her?”
An angry scowl flinched across his features.
His shoulders lowered with a frustrated breath.
“I rescued Victoria last night. The exchange resulted in Lord Helton being taken by her kidnappers. She could probably use a nurse or doctor to tend to her. I don’t know what they did to her, but I didn’t want to ask either.
She was terrified of going back to her home and being alone. ”
A hundred thoughts assailed her at once. Her lips parted with shock. Lord Helton had been captured? No wonder Osborne had said he was indisposed. Noah had been out doing something incredibly dangerous the previous night, and she hadn’t had a clue.
What if Noah had been killed? How would she have learned of it?
And … Victoria. The cool, emotionally detached woman that she’d practiced being both growing up and in nursing prevailed. “Is she injured?” she managed, crossing her arms. “I am a nurse, after all. You might have thought to tell me from the beginning and let me see to her.”
Noah scanned her face, his dark-blue gaze hesitant. “I’m not sure you’re the right woman for the job. She’s been through an ordeal, Ginger—I don’t want to add to it the sting of any humiliation she might feel around you. Especially given your initial reaction.”
Ginger clenched her jaw, and her anger and hurt came tumbling back to the surface. “You’re a married man now, Noah. You can’t just take women back to your room and expect your wife to be happy about it.”
“I didn’t want to bring her here, but it was the best option, given the circumstances. She needed my help, Ginger. I brought her in discreetly. I’ve already sent for my friend who runs a safe house, to see if he can help her.”
It wasn’t just about Victoria being here. He’d put her in a horrible position with Peter Osborne by coming to her house. And then there was Captain Young.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through the last few days?
Not only did I have to tend to Captain Young—who, by the way, remembered your involvement in his attack and spoke to Peter Osborne about it—but Osborne also informed me you were seen going into my home in the middle of the night.
” Her breath came in short, frustrated bursts.
Noah’s expression was unreadable, but his shoulders slumped. “What does Osborne know? I’m hoping to go to the CID and tell one of my superiors about everything with Lord Helton as soon as Victoria leaves.”
“I don’t know. I’m not certain what Young told him.” Her irritation grew. He hadn’t even responded about the potential damage he’d done to her reputation. And Osborne’s claims about Noah today bothered her in a way she knew they wouldn’t if she hadn’t found Victoria in his room.
What if she’d allowed her feelings for him to cloud the truth? He’d showed a side of moral greyness the last few days that worried her. She’d married him hastily. Had she made a mistake? Don’t be ridiculous, Ginger.
In a shaky voice, she said, “Tell me about Kut. What you did there.”
He looked at her enigmatically, his face hardening. “Kut?”
She set her hands on her hips. “Convince me you’re the man I think you are and not the ruthless one I keep hearing about.”
His lips twisted with displeasure. “You know nothing about Kut, no matter who has poisoned you with tales about it. Osborne?” He jerked his chin up. “And you’re choosing to believe Osborne, without even asking me.”
Disappointment gutted her. There must be some truth to what Osborne had said. How would Noah have known what she was referring to otherwise? “I’m asking you now, aren’t I?”
The lift arrived and the operator pulled the gate back, the sound of metal scraping against the floor. “Please don’t get on.” Noah’s eyes searched hers. “You know me.” He sucked in a breath and looked back toward his room. “You need to believe me.”
A quizzical expression filled the lift operator’s face as he waited for her to climb on.
She started forward. Noah slipped his hand in hers. “Please, Ginger.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. His explanation was reasonable. But she didn’t want to be reasonable right now.
Not yet.
And he still hadn’t bothered to address so many questions.
“You won’t answer me, will you?” she asked, ever aware of the impatient look from the lift operator.
“I won’t talk about Kut here.” A spark flickered in Noah’s gaze. “Or Victoria. She needs help and compassion, not your wounded ego.”
“Ego?” Ginger’s voice was loud enough that the lift operator flinched. He swung the gate closed, and the lift departed without her.
She wished she could leave too.
She glared at Noah. “Your choice to bring her here was unacceptable. This has nothing to do with my pride.”
Noah gave a contemptuous, humorless chuckle.
“Doesn’t it? I told you the truth and that’s still not good enough.
Bringing her here was an error in judgement, perhaps, but I felt I had no choice.
I can’t change that Victoria was linked to me in the past, no more than I can that she has unrequited feelings for me.
The only thing I can see keeping your anger alive now is your pride. ” He turned to go.
She was tempted to take the wedding ring off her finger and throw it at him.
Not that it was that simple now.
Unable to summon the right words, she started down the hallway, in the direction of the staircase.
Her pride?
She whirled back around, stalking toward him. “How dare you question my pride? Don’t you remember what I sacrificed, what I lost, for you?”
She regretted the words the instant she spoke them. They hung in the air between them like a glass of water teetering on its side, about to fall onto the floor with a crash.
Noah stepped back, his gaze growing cool.
He put a hand above his heart, as though the words had found their impact there.
Raising his chin, he stared at her. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it?
You’ll never be able to look at me without thinking of what you lost. And you can’t forgive yourself for it. ”
Her throat grew tighter, her hands in loose fists. Stubborn tears stung her eyes. At once she wanted to go to him, apologize, kiss him. When she’d almost lost him, when she’d spent months wondering if he’d survived, she’d never questioned what she’d done.
A tear found its way down her cheek, and she dashed it away with her gloved fingertip.
“Find Dr. Jane Radford at the hospital where I work. She’s an excellent physician, something I’m not.
At this rate I probably never will be. But if you call and ask for her to come here and help with Victoria, she will. Tell her I sent you.”
She rushed down the hall toward the stairs, her heart aching with emotions she didn’t fully understand.
This time he didn’t follow.
She loved Noah. She’d loved him almost from the start. Why was she so angry with him?
As she exited from the stairwell, she found her way through the lobby of Shepheard’s, then out the door to the terrace. The bright afternoon was just as she’d left it, but the sun and cheerful surroundings did nothing for her heavy heart.
The terrace was thick with British patrons at the tables, much like Groppi’s had been. And in the corner on one side of the terrace sat Lady Hendricks. Alone.
Ginger’s fingers curled into fists.