Page 53 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“You could’ve been killed,” she replied. “You shouldn’t have run down to us on the field like that.”
A hard steel look cast his features in stone. “I would never fail my child.Never.”
She knew then that someone had failed this poor man long ago. Had it been his mother or his father? Diana wasn’t sure if it was the weight of her soaked dress or the frightening intensity of Rafe’s vow, but a shudder racked her. This child was loved, deeply,fiercely. Rafe was a father who would do anything for his child, even surrender his own life.
“May I sit with you and wait for the doctor?” Diana asked.
He didn’t answer—he simply reached out with one hand and clasped her fingers in a firm hold, not letting go.
That single touch changed something in her. It almost felt like she was home. For the first time in more than a month, she didn’t think of Tyburn and his kisses. She thought only of this man... and the ferocity of his love, even though it wasn’t meant for her.
Rafe watchedthe doctor examine his daughter, numb in a way he’d only felt once before. Dr. Rainsgate was a spry and hardily built man in his mid-thirties. He wasn’t afraid of storms, and he had raced up the stairs to the nursery straightaway upon his arrival. Now Rafe held his breath, frightened beyond imagining what the man would say.
Isla was sitting up in her bed, yet she looked half-asleep as the doctor listened to her heart. He sighed and set his instruments back in his medical bag.
“I believe the shock of the storm is what has made the deepest impact on the child, rather than the rain and chill. Keep her warm, feed her hardy broths with chicken for a day. Do not starve her. If she is hungry, feed her. If she is not, make her eat a little bit. And keep her drinking water. She must not go too long without water.” He stood and faced the people who now filled the room. Ash and Rosalind stood behind Rafe, and Mrs. Chesterfield hovered nearby. Diana was at his side, and her presence gave him a strange sense of peace, as though all would be well so long as she was with him.
“Thank you, Dr. Rainsgate,” said Rafe.
“I shall return tomorrow to see how she fares,” the doctor said.
“Let me see you out, Doctor.” Ashton held out a hand toward the door and followed the doctor out of the chamber.
Rosalind gave Rafe’s shoulder a gentle squeeze as she left. “I’ll speak to the cook and have some broth and milk brought up in a short while. If you and Diana need anything else, just pull the bell cord. The footmen have been notified to be ready.”
Mrs. Chesterfield sat down in her chair by Isla’s bed and took the little girl’s hand as the child lay back down to sleep.
“Rest now, little one,” the nanny soothed and tucked the girl in. Rafe’s chest tightened, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe.
He could have lost her, lost his little girl. That frightful truth held him pinned in place, unable to move, to think. The thought of life without Isla was... no life at all. She’d saved him in a way he hadn’t known he’d needed, and to fail her as he had, by not thinking of the danger of the storm and immediately taking her back inside? His failure had almost killed his child. And now he had yet another thing to lose if he wasn’t careful—the woman standing beside him.
“You should change out of your wet clothes, Mr. Lennox,” Diana said, and her voice startled him. “You’ve been in them too long now, and we cannot have you fall ill.”
“Rafe—you called me Rafe in the storm.” He gazed at the remarkable woman beside him. His little thief, his shining star... his fierce, protective fire drake.
Her face flushed. “I’m terribly sorry for the breach of propriety. I wasn’t thinking clearly in the moment. But still, I shouldn’t have?—”
“Rafe,” he said softly. “I am Rafe to you,now and always.” He reached for her hand and lifted it to his cheek, pressing her icy fingers to his skin before he kissed them. It was on his lips to reveal that he was her shadow lover, that she could trust him now, just as she had last night when he’d played the part of Tyburn. But something kept him silent. He wanted to earn her trust as himself, not as the wild rogue he’d become out ofdire necessity. He wanted to be loved for himself, not for the dangerous life he no longer wished to lead.
Lord, if Ashton ever found out that he was thinking of love like this, he’d laugh himself silly.
“Rafe, then,” Diana agreed, and the sound of his name on her lips charged his soul as if he had been struck by lightning.
“You need to change,” she reminded him. “If you wish to remain at her bedside, she will need her father fit and well.”
“I can’t leave her—” he started.
“I will stay here until you return. Between Mrs. Chesterfield and myself, we shall keep her safe.”
He hesitated a moment until Diana squeezed his hand. Then he let go of her fingers and rushed to his chamber to change.
When he returned, he found Diana had moved two chairs next to the little girl’s bed, and she occupied one of them.
“Are you feeling better?” she asked.
He nodded. “Immeasurably. Now it is your turn.”
She shrugged one shoulder as if she didn’t care about her soaked state. Damp strands of her long dark hair clung to her shoulders, yet she didn’t seem to notice. “I have nothing to change into, and I am quite all right. It isn’t the first time I’ve been soaked to the bone.”
