Page 62 of Contracted as His Countess

‘It did, but it got blocked and Father had it removed while it was cleared out. Jack, that is a drain.’

‘I noticed.’

‘A small drain.’ There was blood on the shoulders of his shirt, she saw now he was closer. Blood and mud all down the front of him.

‘I wriggled.’

‘You are hurt,’ Madelyn started forward, but Richard caught her arm.

‘Not until I know he is not going to be violent.’

‘I would not lay a finger on Madelyn. You, on the other hand—’ Jack was very close now. Close, large, menacing—and then he turned from Richard and was looking at her as though...

As though he loves me?

She hardly dare hope. ‘Richard, ring for Carlton, we are going to need hot water for a bath and dressings for those scrapes. Jack, come nearer the fire or you’ll catch pneumonia.’

Jack did not move, did not look at the other man. ‘Turner, leave that bell. Go. Now.’

‘Yes, please, Richard. It is all right.’ She held her breath, it seemed, until the door closed behind him, the sound echoing around the space. ‘Jack, I can explain.’

‘No. No, I do not want you to explain and it would make no difference.’

She had been wrong. That had not been love in his eyes, not if he did not even want to hear her justification. ‘I see.’ Madelyn sat down on the nearest bench and felt the hope drain out of her as though it was blood from a severed vein.

She sensed Jack moving, but she did not raise her head when she saw his bare feet right in front of her, water pooling on the flagstones.

‘Madelyn, look at me.’

I must tell him how I feel. It doesn’t matter if he spurns me or thinks it is only an excuse.

‘Jack, I meant it when I said I love you.’

‘I love you,’ he said at the same moment. Then ‘Did you mean it? Madelyn.’ He was on his knees and she was held against him, the wet soaking through her gown, the thud of his heart against her breast. ‘I have been such a fool. I should have told you.’

‘I should have, too, but I was afraid,’ she confessed, wriggling so she could look into his face. ‘I couldn’t believe you could really love me for myself and I thought, if I told you how I felt, you would assume I was trying to deflect your anger over the money. And that is what you did think. I was sure that you only cared because of what I brought you in my dowry.’

‘And I thought I was simply a duty for you, a potential father for your children.’

‘It was good when we...when we made love,’ she murmured, rubbing her warm cheek against his cold one.

‘Perhaps we should have listened to what our bodies were telling us,’ Jack said, his arms tightening around her. ‘Why did you leave me? Were you frightened of me?’

‘I realised that something was wrong, that I had been naive in trusting Lansing so entirely, even if it was only to tell me the truth about matters, and I thought he was hiding something. I knew he would not let you or your people look at the Castle Beaupierre books. But he could not refuse me.

‘I needed an expert of my own, one I could trust, and I remembered Richard telling me about his work with the East India Company. He enjoys tracking down fraud and malpractice, errors and false accounting. I thought that if he could establish the facts then I could show you that my intentions had been good and then I could tell you that I loved you. Besides,’ she added ruefully, ‘I did not think you were in any mood to listen to me stumbling through half-formed hunches and wanting to involve a man you already had suspicions about.’

‘You are probably right,’ he admitted.

‘Jack, you are shivering. Sit by the fire.’

He stood and allowed himself to be pressed down to sit on the fender, but he was tense now under her hands. ‘Tell me what was going on when I came in.’

‘Richard had found something out. I am not certain what, exactly, because you came in as he was explaining, but enough to prove that Lansing was doing something illegal and that there is money after all.’ Madelyn stood up, still only half-believing that this was real, that Jack loved and trusted her. ‘I am going to ring for a hot bath for you. Between my father’s old wardrobe and what Richard brought with him, we ought to be able to find you dry clothes.’

She tugged the bell pull and the doors opened so quickly that she suspected Carlton had been poised ready.

‘Hot water is being taken up to your rooms, my lady. Cook has put dinner back.’

---