Page 16 of Avenging the Earl's Lady
“I can see the pulse in your temple pounding.You must take deep breaths and calm yourself.”
“Must I?”he asked, lifting a corner of his mouth in a half-smile.“I find that difficult to do when I’m around you, Jane.”
But he obliged her by closing his eyes, the half-smile still in place, and she counted out sixty seconds, studying him.
Scrapes and splotches of bruising colored his jaw under the black and gray scruff of his beard.He’d been too beaten up for a comfortable shave.The skin on his knuckles was cracked and still raw.The night before, the dragoon’s surgeon had tended to wounds on his chest.The spreading blood on his shirt meant that something was wrong there underneath the white linen.
She pulled her handkerchief away and his eyes flashed open.
“There.The bleeding has stopped.”
“Has it?My pulse is still pounding, Jane.”
She gritted her teeth.“But there is blood on your shirt and it is spreading.I’ll have a look at those injuries.”
“Very well.”He shrugged an arm out of his coat sleeve, wincing.
“Let me help you.”Standing behind him, she wouldn’t feel so exposed, or so tempted.
She pulled the coat and waistcoat away while he flung off his neckcloth and pulled out the tails of his shirt.She peered over his shoulder and took in a sharp breath.Blood spotted the shirt in several places.
“You should not have been up moving around so,” she said.
“Yes, yes.Help me out of this, Jane.”
He raised his arms and she pulled the shirt over his head and gasped.
Fresh bruises and scrapes layered old scars that crisscrossed his back.
The Duque de San Sebastian had done this.She knew it.This she didn’t have to ask.
Under all his fine tailoring, he was every bit as broad and as muscled as his henchman lying up in the bed, but Shaldon had suffered more.Those scars explained his drive for vengeance.
She circled around him and dropped to her knees.Every inch of his chest bore bruises and abrasions over more scars.When she raised her eyes, he was watching her.
She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and tried to rise, wobbling.His hand shot out and steadied her, his other reached for her waist.
Someone knocked firmly on the door, and Jane jumped back.
Shaldon had left the door ajar.Blast it.Whoever was there had seen them.
