Page 106 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
His eyes scanned the shadows. Eleanor could feel his heart pounding hard in his chest, but nothing tore his attention away from his search. She tried to get his attention, but his eyes were vacant.
She could see him sifting through thoughts he wouldn’t share, and she tried to pull his focus back to her to no avail.
“We cannot go to the constables,” he muttered. “We have no proof that we are under threat.”
“Spencer, let us just return to the party,” she urged, but he refused to move.
When she made to step back toward the house, the pain lanced through her side. She inhaled sharply, and the sound finally drew Spencer’s attention.
“Come on,” he said, turning back to her. “Let’s give our excuses. I do not want to stay here any longer.”
Eleanor frowned at how his voice had changed. He sounded so… distant.
He is just concerned.He takes things too deeply to heart and will think he has endangered us by attending tonight.
But the formal tone was one she had not heard him use in so long, not since the early days of their marriage, and it sent a skitter of worry through her.
She nodded anyway, letting him guide her back to the house, where they discreetly collected Charlotte and Lady Montagu.
Back at Everdawn House, Spencer led her into the drawing room, eased her onto the settee, and then set about gathering supplies. The jagged edge of the broken balustrade had left an open cut, but she would be fine.
As he cleaned her wound, Spencer was quiet and focused, fixing the dressings with methodical care.
“You know, this brings me back,” she said lightly, wanting to reconnect with him, wanting to break the strained silence between them, brought on by fear and worry. “Not only to our first kiss but the night at the inn. You tended my wounds back then, too.”
“I washed you,” he corrected quietly, not meeting her gaze. “I should not have been so brazen.”
“But you were,” she insisted.
“I must have scandalized you.”
Eleanor moved back, out of reach, as he made to wipe her wound again. “Whatever do you mean? Why would you say that?”
“It is true,” he said. “You were an unwed lady, alone, all but kidnapped by a man who had you half-naked within hours,sleeping in the same bed. You accused me of such indecent acts yourself.”
“Yes, when I was hysterical.” She laughed.
But Spencer was not laughing. He stared down at her hands, then at his own, which were curled into fists.
“Spencer, where is this coming from?”
“Nowhere,” he answered shortly. “Let me finish this.”
“No, speak to me,” she insisted. She reached for his face, only for him to pull back, muttering about needing more gauze. “There is a roll right here.”
“Alcohol, then,” he said. “To clean it.”
“You have cleaned it several times,” she pointed out. “Why are you not speaking to me? Did I tease too much in the garden? Did I offend?—”
“We should not be careless like that again.” His blunt statement was unexpected and confusing.
Eleanor shifted back into the settee. “Spencer?” A nervous, uncertain laugh bubbled out of her. “I—Was it not you who said that the public nature of it made it all the more enticing?”
His eyes were still lowered. “Yes, and I was foolish for saying such a thing. We were careless, Eleanor.”
“Oh, Spencer,” she sighed, smiling, trying to cup his face again to draw his eyes to hers, but he jerked away. “It is all right now. Do not fret. I am well, the balustrade will be fixed, and we will continue investigating the footman you saw like we have been doing. He is merely another?—”
“He is Belgrave’s footman, I am certain,” Spencer snarled. “Wewill not be continuing anything. I should have protected you, Eleanor. I should not have let you go tonight. It was dangerous and a risk I should not have taken. I had a lapse of judgment for the sake of passion that could have waited, and I—you were hurt under my watch. My protection.”
