Page 37 of Gallant Waif
Kate didn’t allow herself to rise to his bait. “Well, yes, I would know, but I don’t expect you to believe me. Now, it’s extremely cold on this ground and you’d better move if it’s at all possible.”
He glanced at her again, and a frown darkened his forehead as he noticed that she was shivering. Then his eyes fell to her pelisse, tucked securely around him. He swore, dragging it off him and almost angrily thrusting it at her. “Put that on at once, you little fool! Do you want to catch your death?”
Kate ignored him. “Do you think you can stand up?”
Jack moved his bad leg a little and groaned. “I think I can manage to walk, but the question is, can your ears bear the bad language that will doubtless result from the effort?”
Kate laughed aloud at this. As if he did not already curse with almost every breath he took! “Here, put your arm across my shoulder and see if you can stand.”
He sat up and she wedged her shoulder under his armpit. Using his good leg and herself as a lever, he slowly rose to his feet. His lips were tightly compressed, but he did not utter a word. By the time he was upright, he looked exhausted. White lines around his mouth told Kate he was in considerable pain.
“Do you really think you should be trying to walk on your bad leg?” said Kate hesitantly. “I could easily run for help and fetch someone to carry you on a litter.”
“I’ll be damned if I’ll let the blasted thing make me a cripple,” he muttered bitterly.
“Oh, well, that’s a relief,” murmured Kate provocatively.
He shot her a look of hard enquiry.
Her lips twitched with amusement. “I feared the strain would be too much for you.”
“I fail to understand what you find to amuse you in this situation,” he grated.
“Oh, nothing, to be sure, sir,” she said. “Only that I feared that your effort to refrain from cursing would be too much for you. However, I perceive that your tongue is in its usual fine form, so I need feel no anxiety on your behalf.”
He stared for a few seconds and then recalled his use of the word “damned’. Despite himself, his lips twitched. Leaning heavily on her, he began to move slowly towards the house. After a few minutes he glanced down at her. “You really are the oddest girl.”
“What makes you say so?”
“Ninety-nine women out of a hundred would be turning this into a major dramatic occasion, weeping and having hysterics over me, and here you are, having the audacity to tease me about bad language.”
“Would you prefer me to have hysterics, then, sir?” Kate pretended to consider it seriously. “I must confess that I haven’t had a great deal of experience in the matter, but if it would make you more comfortable, then I’m sure that I could undertake to stage a very convincing bout of hysterics. If you prefer it, that is.” Her eyes danced mischievously, but all the time she urged him onward, hoping her nonsense would distract him from the pain.
He threw back his head and laughed outright at that. “Good God, no! Heaven preserve me from hysterical females!”
They continued their laboured progress for a few more minutes, then stopped for a brief respite.
“You have no idea how refreshing it is to have a sensible female to deal with,” he said earnestly.
At this Kate was forced to lower her head and compress her lips to prevent herself laughing out loud.
He noticed, however. “What is it now?” he asked and, when she did not respond, he put a hand under her chin and turned her face up to his. Finding it brimful of suppressed merriment, he frowned in suspicion.
“Well, what have I said to cause this?” With a light finger he flicked at the dimple which peeped elusively out.
Her eyes danced irrepressibly. “For weeks now you have been calling me ‘the stubbornest, most infuriating female it has ever been my misfortune to meet’!” she growled in a deep gruff voice. Then she allowed her mouth to droop mournfully. “Andnow, when you call mea sensible female, alas, there are no witnesses!”
His lips twitched. “Well, most of the time…” he began.
Kate burst into peals of infectious laughter and reluctantly he joined in. As they laughed, she met his eye and felt the jolt of warm good humour pass through her. Slowly the laughter died in his eyes and she felt his gaze intensify. Suddenly Kate became hotly aware of the intimacy of their position, her body held tightly under his arm, wedged firmly against his hard, warm body, his mouth only inches away from hers. For a moment they stood there, their eyes locked, then she felt, rather than saw, his mouth moving down towards hers. Abruptly she turned her head away, her heart racing, her mouth dry.
“Come on now,” she murmured. “We’d best keep moving and get you in out of this chilly morning. Your leg will need to be examined by the doctor.” She felt him withdraw as they moved off.
“I’m not having any damned leech or sawbones maul me around any more. I had enough of them to serve me a lifetime on the Peninsula.”
“Oh, but surely you cannot compare the physicians we have here in England with some of the butchers that passed for surgeons during wartime?” Kate said incautiously.
Jack stopped and looked at her in surprise. “Do you know, you’re the first person in England that I’ve ever heard with an accurate notion of some of those bloody devils? Apart from anyone who was there, I mean. You sound as if you actually have an inkling of what it was like.”
