Reckless in Pink (14 page)

That was what had stung. The deception. Tears pricked his eyes, but not for himself. For her. She deserved better. He wouldn’t vouchsafe the rest of his secret, not yet.

He glanced at Binney.

When she shook her head, her curls gleamed in the candlelight. It didn’t seem fair that her hair seemed so full of life, when her skin was so pale and she was in so much pain. Binney had reached bare skin now and was busy swabbing away blood so he could find the site of the wound.

She winced, but kept perfectly still. “I don’t care.” She barely finished the last part. Her body twisted violently on the bed and Dominic grasped her waist to help to keep her steady. He climbed on to the bed, the better to help her.

“I want her lifted,” Binney said. As always, he forgot social niceties, or disregarded them, when he was employing his professional skills. “I need to see the other side of her shoulder.”

As gently as he could, Dominic slid his hand underneath her and rolled her toward him. She needed no conversation to keep her awake now. The pain did that more effectively than he could.

Downstairs, his doorbell clanged. Dominic groaned. It could only be one person, or a set of people. Shouts came from downstairs while Binney smoothed her clothes away and attended to the wound.

While Dominic was holding Claudia close, murmuring reassurance to her, the door to his bedroom burst open. In any other circumstances, her brothers would probably have run him through. Now, one soft exclamation and a curse told him they’d taken in the situation.

“She was shot outside Lady Marbury’s house.” He made up some innocuous excuse for her being outside with him, and then dismissed it. What was the point? “This man is in my employ. He was in the army with me as a surgeon and physician. Your sister couldn’t be in better hands.”

The brothers raced across the room and bracketed the bed, the one in claret, Valentinian, standing by Binney and Darius behind Dominic. “Let me take her,” Darius said to Dominic.

He would give her up to nobody. “I need to hold her steady.” He was lying on the bed, the better to provide support to her. The sight must be disturbingly intimate, at least if the onlooker discounted the blood.

Binney sighed and moved, rocking the bed.

Claudia whimpered. “No. I want you.”

Foolish woman. He wouldn’t let her go if that was what she wanted. He was her servant in every sense of the word.

The surgeon rummaged in his bag and pulled out a bundle of bandages. “It’s a graze. Quite a deep one, but it hasn’t touched any of the major blood vessels.”

Sighing in relief, Dominic closed his eyes. “Thank God.”

“Does that mean I won’t die?”

She had her head half-muffled in his shoulder, and her breath warmed his neck. The notion of that stopping forever made his chest tighten. He would not allow it. As long as he lived, she would have a protector in him.

“That means you won’t die.” He had no right promising her that. She could still get an infection or other complications.

“Did she break anything?” he asked Binney.

“No, she has been very fortunate. I suggest that I clean and dress the wound and then put on new dressing twice a day.”

“We’ll have our own physician attend to her,” Val said from Binney’s side of the bed.

Behind him, Darius was busy lighting candles, casting more light on the scene.

Alarm streaked through him at the idea of her family taking her away from him, a primitive need to care for her taking hold. “I do not know of anyone who can care for her better than Binney,” he said.

That was true enough. While in the field Binney had developed unusual techniques and developed potions and lotions of his own that helped to prevent wound infection and healed breaks cleanly.

“I want to keep her here to be cared for. Is there any way it can be achieved without her reputation being compromised?”

“There’s one simple method,” Darius said. “We can obtain a special license tomorrow.”

“No.” His response was instinctive. He couldn’t help murmuring, “You know why,” and touching her forehead in a brief kiss. He wanted to cherish her and to deny the possibility made his heart ache. While he was under this cloud, he could not do it.

“We all do,” the twin in claret ribbed silk said. “It doesn’t matter to us. We’ll have the matter arranged in a trice.”

Groaning, Claudia lowered her head, and leaned against him.

Val shook his head. “We don’t know how many people saw us. Servants at the ball, your servant downstairs, the man who brought you here, there are any number of people. Who knows she was shot?”

“I don’t know.” Dominic frantically forced his mind back to when she’d fallen. “I’d walked away from Lady Marbury’s, and she was running to catch up to me. I did not mean for her to do that.”

“If she marries, that will give her a chance to hide until she’s recovered.” He glanced at Dominic. “He’s a suitable candidate. He’s shown an interest. Yes, I think that will work.”

Dominic shook his head, but he could see the necessity. “I wanted to wait until your father and brother returned from the country.”

“She’s over twenty-one, so legally Claudia can marry who she wants.”

Binney had a bowl of water from his fresh supply by the washstand. “Hold her while I clean the wound.” He dipped a cloth into the water.

Claudia leaned into him so sweetly, so naturally, that all his instincts told him she belonged there. If she left, she’d create a gaping hole in his life.

Valentinian gazed at the scene. “If it weren’t for the blood, you’d appear charmingly domestic,” he said dryly. “Several artists of my acquaintance would kill for that pose. Hogarth would make a whole series about it. As it is, the servants will have this story all around town by morning. We’re done for.”

He would not disgrace her. Whatever happened, his first priority would be to ensure she was cared for and safe. He could return to the army and live out his disgrace there. Even if society didn’t disgrace him, his parents’ transgressions would. His foster parents, he reminded himself. Their betrayal still staggered him, and he found it difficult to think past it and on the implications of their treachery.

“You may lay her down again,” Binney said.

God help him, he didn’t want to. He would continue holding her until he was sure she was safe. “If her sister stayed to chaperone, would that fit the proprieties?”

“It would probably help.” Livia entered and closed the door, bringing a can of hot water with her. “I did what you had failed to do, by the way, and gave the footman at the door a hefty vail. You owe me five guineas. If he speaks, I told him I’d send my brothers back for him.”

“That won’t stop him gossiping,” Darius said glumly.

“Yes it will.” Dominic said. “He’s a London servant. I got them all from the best registry office in London, and he is the only servant who saw us arrive.”

“Unless others from the nearby houses took an interest,” Val pointed out.

Livia pushed her way past her brother, removed the basin of bloody water, tipped it into the slop pail, and poured hot water. She’d also brought a stack of clean cloths. She’d make someone an excellent helpmeet one day.

“Here.” She put the basin where Binney could reach it. Touching her sister’s arm, she smiled. “I’m glad you’re in good heart, Claudia. We’ll get through this, just like we do all your tangles.”

Claudia nodded and smiled faintly, but winced when Binney set to washing away the blood around her wound. It was nearly clear now. Binney was right. The bullet had carved a considerable groove across her upper arm, but it hadn’t penetrated her flesh. She would heal, barring infection, and Dominic would do everything in his power to ensure that didn’t happen.

Binney continued to clean the wound with the fresh warm water. “While you are discussing philosophy and propriety, this young woman could be dying. Thank God one of you has more sense.”

When Claudia held out her hand, Dominic took it and forced a smile. “It seems, my dear, that you are to be my guest for some time.”

“They’re marrying,” Val said flatly.

Claudia shocked him by her loud cry of “No!”

At first Dominic thought Binney had hurt her, but apart from a few whimpers, she’d borne his probing and careful washing with great fortitude. He glared at Binney, who shrugged as if to say he’d done nothing.

“I mean I won’t marry you like this,” Claudia said.

The room erupted with male voices ordering her to do as she was told. Dominic wanted to order them all to be quiet. The noise disturbed her as, flinching, she buried her face in his shirt.

How could he deny her anything? “We’ll find a way,” he murmured to her.

“Oh, you idiots!” Livia waded into the fray. “All this talk of honor and disgrace, can’t you see? I’ll stay, too. You can send our maid with some clothes tomorrow. That takes care of the propriety. Now go and leave us alone. You know she’ll be fine.”

“I’m not going,” Dominic said quietly. Not until he saw her properly settled.

“I want to dress the wound,” Binney said. “Then we may see about settling her.”

“She’ll need some new clothes,” said Livia. “We’ll say Claudia was attacked by a footpad and sustained an injury severe enough to call a physician, who advised that she not be moved. That I’m staying with her until she is better. That’s all we need do.”

When he eased her back, Claudia had her eyes closed and a look of beatific peace on her face. “I will not marry someone who doesn’t want me,” she said. “Mama and Papa didn’t let me wait all this time only to throw myself away at the first scandal.”

Val and Darius glared at Dominic. They wanted their sister married to him. She’d created scandal enough. He would not let her believe that, but he needed time to talk to her. Now she knew his secret, how would she feel? How would society feel?

“We will obtain the license,” Val said. “Just in case. For tonight, we’ll leave you be. Take care of her.”

“Of course,” Livia replied. “Now go. She’s not seriously hurt, and she’ll be home soon.”

As soon as Binney told her she was well. Dominic wouldn’t risk her health for anything. If they had to marry, so be it, but Livia’s solution was a good one. With one small change.

“You are welcome in my house,” he told Claudia’s sister. “I’m grateful someone, at least, has a practical solution.”

Livia folded her arms across her chest. “If you’d thought properly instead of posturing, the idea would have come sooner. For goodness’ sake.”

“We’ll return soon,” Val said. He bent over his sister and kissed her forehead, ignoring the bloody mess she was in. “We’ll bring Julius.”

Claudia groaned and closed her eyes. “Can I go to sleep now?”

Claudia stirred and her sore shoulder sent a shot of pain through her, waking her up.

Dominic roused from the daybed with a smile. “Is there anything you need?”

This was the second night she’d slept in his bed and the second he’d dozed on the daybed. He must be exhausted. She’d tried to get him to leave, but he’d refused. He refused to talk about anything but her getting better.

The first night she’d slept. When the bullet had initially struck her she had felt nothing. Only the wet heat of her blood had told her something was wrong. That and the expression on Dominic’s face just before he leaped for her and took her down to the ground. She’d seen absolute horror, and something she’d never expected to see from him—fear. For her. Only then had fear crept into her. If he was afraid, what had happened?

Then her idiot brothers arrived and her clever sister. Livia was still here. On Dominic’s refusal to leave her, Claudia’s twin had taken herself off to the room next door and slept there, without fuss.

She had spent much of the next day sleeping and when she wasn’t doing that she’d had her wound dressings changed or she was eating. Still nobody would discuss anything, but she feared she might not be able to concentrate.

He wasn’t his parent’s son? She didn’t care. Whoever he was, and wherever he came from, she still wanted him. If he wanted her. She would not be a martyr or be forced into something. Or more importantly see him forced. He would come to resent her, and that would kill her.

Looking at him now, so handsome and sleepy, dark hair tousled, she just wanted him. Being Claudia, she would do her best to get him. This was by far the worst mess she’d ever found herself in, but this time it was not of her own making and nobody blamed her. That in itself felt strange. Nobody was blaming her or accusing her of anything.

“Could I have…some water?” It was the best she could do. The cook here had made her some barley water but she’d drunk it all.

“I’ll get you some.” He climbed wearily to his feet.

“No, no don’t. I don’t really want water.”

He turned and gazed at her. No condemnation or complaint lay in his soft gaze.

“Come here,” she said, and patted the bed next to her with her good hand.

His attention flicked from her to the bed and back again. “It’s not wise.”

“Why not? You’re not going to pounce are you?” She wanted him to get some rest. Nobody entered the room without knocking, so he had time to move should someone try to enter. He wasn’t sleeping properly, and now she was feeling better, she needed to know he was rested.

“No. I can’t do that. I should let your sister in now you’re feeling better.”

“Why didn’t you do that before?” she asked softly. Had he, or was he fooling himself with thoughts of propriety and honor?

With a groan, he sank on to the cover but didn’t touch her. This was a big bed.

“Because I wanted to be the one to care for you. I wanted to ensure you were safe.”

“You haven’t slept well,” she said. She didn’t move her hand.

“I have survived on much less.”

He was wearing a shirt and breeches, his feet tucked into slippers, and he appeared so much more approachable than he did when dressed up. His wig sat on a stand on his dressing-table, but he hadn’t touched it in two days. He’d served her himself, with Livia around to add a tinge of respectability. For the first day, he’d insisted on carrying her to the powder room when she’d needed it.