Page 24 of When the Marquess Was Mine
Oh, it is. Smiling brightly, she just shrugged.
“No,” he said again, this time sounding genuinely shocked.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. It was unnerving that he was so appalled. If he’d kept laughing, it would have soothed the niggling worry inside her that he seemed quite different from the man she’d known in London—only from afar, but well enough to be entirely justified in her dislike of him.
“Of course it does!” He slid closer to her. “Do you think I don’t find you beautiful?”
She flushed. “I’m sure I don’t know...”
He reached out and turned her face toward him. “You’re quite the loveliest woman I’ve ever seen in my life.” His eyes were almost golden as he studied her face. “Even if you hadn’t saved my life, I’d think so.”
Georgiana had been told many times that she was lovely, pretty, even beautiful, as stunning as a princess and as fair as a summer’s day. None of those compliments had ever left her speechless, as this one did.
“You... you got hit on the head,” she said unsteadily. “Quite hard.”
He smiled. His smile was crooked, she realized; one corner of his mouth went higher than the other, and his eyes crinkled unevenly, too. It made his handsome face even more endearing, and she realized with a bolt of alarm that she was coming to like Lord Westmorland. Or at leastthisWestmorland, who didn’t remember that he thought her vain and shallow, who liked being outside, who found her beautiful.
“I didn’t get hit so hard I went blind,” he murmured.
“I didn’t save your life,” she said in reply, her wits scattered by his fascinated gaze. “Adam did.”
“Really?” He leaned a little closer. “It wasn’t Adam who decided to bring me here, who washed all the blood from my smashed-in head, who sat by my bedside day and night.”
“Well—of course not, he’s a groom, he has responsibilities with the horses—”
“It wasn’t Adam who helped me come outside, just because I wanted to, even though it was foolish to get out of bed so soon.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “That’s more like an accomplice than a savior.”
His shoulders shook with a silent laugh. “I haven’t seen Adam... at all, as far as I can remember. Which is not that far, I admit, but Idoremember you’ve been there every time I opened my eyes.”
“Of course,” she said faintly. She had to be there, in case he woke up with his memory restored and reverted to his malicious former self. But all she could see right now was the way his eyes laughed at her, and the way he looked at her as if he were about to...
Kiss her.
“Of course I was there,” she said in a rush, jerking bolt upright, privately terrified to realize she had been tilting toward him. She was definitely going mad. She did not want to kiss him, and she could not, under any circumstances, allow him to kiss her. “I can hardly expect Kitty’s servants to sit up with you all night, can I? They’ve got work to do.”
She busied herself with smoothing away nonexistent creases in her skirt, but she felt him retreat. His disappointment was palpable. “I appreciate it dearly nonetheless,” he said, his once-teasing tone subdued. “Thank you.”
You wouldn’t thank me if you knew the truth. “Pooh,” she said with a forced laugh. “You shouldn’t thank me!”
“Perhaps not,” he said with obvious reluctance.
She laughed again, but stopped as he pressed one hand to his temple. “Does your head hurt?”
“Not much more than usual.” He squeezed his eyes closed. “Usual as it’s been the last two days, at any rate.”
She was on her feet at once. “That’s it. You simply must go back inside.”
“Perhaps it will be better in the shade,” he mumbled. His head dipped, and he swayed on the bench, and with a horrified gasp she flung herself at him, holding him steady as she cried out for Angus.
“Much better already,” came his muffled voice. His hands came to rest on her hips.
Georgiana blushed. To keep him from falling over, she’d thrown her arms around his shoulders, and was holding his face pressed up against her bosom. If she didn’t feel his hands shaking as he held on to her—for support at least as much as... anything else—she would have let go, even if he toppled into the wisteria. But he was shaking and his breathing was labored, and when Angus came running, Rob didn’t make a sound of protest at being half carried back into the house while Georgiana hurried ahead, throwing open doors along the way.
Only when he was back inside, paler and weaker by every measure, did she realize how ill he’d become. Angus barely managed to grab the basin before Rob leaned over the edge of the bed and wretched violently.
“I shouldn’t have allowed that!” She grabbed a towel to dab his face clean as Angus took away the basin. “Such a mistake! Now you’re ill again, and all for a few minutes of sunshine!”
