Free His Lady Peregrine by Ruth J. Hartman Page B

his
grasp. “I don’t—”
    He stroked the back of her
hand with his thumb, and a warm sensation went up her arm straight
to her heart. “Please. Just listen. If after I’m finished you still
wish to not be of my acquaintance, then…” He swallowed. “Then I
will honor your wishes.” He tilted his head and waited.
    Oh how she longed to reach
up and touch his face, stroke his cheek. But no, that wouldn’t do.
With a nod, since she couldn’t seem to form the words, she
agreed.
    He sighed and then smiled.
“Thank you. Now, you already know the first part of the story… that
the dowager fell, hit her head, and then mistook me for her… her
husband.”
    Not trusting her voice to
come out as anything other than a sob, she simply
nodded.
    “ What you didn’t know was
what happened yesterday after I left your house.”
    She took a deep breath,
wanting to apologize for how she’d acted yet feeling that it would
be wrong to say she was sorry when she really hadn’t
been.
    “ Aren’t you going to ask
me what happened?” One side of his mouth rose.
    Familiar warm feelings
flowed through Georgiana’s mind as she remembered his quick wit and
odd sense of humor. “Aren’t you going to just go ahead and tell me
anyway?”
    He chuckled. “Well yes.
That was the plan.” He winked. “Anyway, when I returned home, she —
that is the dowager…” He cleared his throat. “She seemed to be in
deep distress because of my hasty departure. The guilt crept in
anew and—”
    “ Oh I know
how—”
    He pressed his finger to
her lips. “Please let me finish, for I fear if I do not say the
words, I might expire from the need to express them.”
    She smiled. “All
right.”
    “ As I said, the guilt
threatened to overtake me. So when she requested… when she asked
me, begged me for an embrace, I felt I couldn’t refuse.”
    “ I… see.”
    “ As I knelt on the floor
next to where she lay, and she wrapped her arms around
me…”
    Her stomach clenched. Oh
the agony of picturing Percy in the arms of another!
    “ She pulled me close and
addressed me.”
    Georgiana frowned. “What
do you mean? Did she call you darling again as she did when I was
there?” The memory tore another small piece of her heart
away.
    “ She did call me that, But
also—”
    “ What? What did she call
you?” Georgiana chastised herself. She’d been so adamant about not
speaking, about holding onto her hurt and anger. But she couldn’t
stand it. Couldn’t stand not to know!
    He reached for her other
hand and now held them both. The warmth of the gesture, in
thoughtfulness along with actual warmth from his skin nearly caused
her to weep. “Georgiana, what I mean to say is she said my
name.”
    “ Pardon?”
    “ My name. She called me
Percy.”
    “ But—”
    “ At first it didn’t hit
me, the significance of it. But when I asked her about it, she
became defensive, saying I’d been mistaken. That she hadn’t said
it. I began to despair that I’d have no way of proving it when an
angel by way of Amelia entered with Conrad.”
    Georgiana smiled in spite
of herself. “I like Amelia.”
    “ Me too.” He
grinned.
    “ And what… what did Amelia
say?”
    “ She’d been suspicious of
her mother-in-law from the start. From some things she told me
afterward, the two have always had a tempestuous relationship. That
Miriam didn’t possess one positive attribute or trait.”
    “ Go on.”
    “ Amelia came right out and
demanded that Miriam speak the truth. So she did.”
    “ And what was it? The
truth, I mean.”
    “ Miriam definitely had a
plan in mind, a reason for what she did for her scheme.”
    “ Tell
me.” Before I expire from not
knowing.
    “ It seems, my dear
Georgiana, that Miriam desired me.”
    Georgiana waited for more.
When there wasn’t anything forthcoming, she tapped her boot against
the grass. “And…”
    “ That’s it.”
    “ She did
all of that, caused all of the harm and told lies simply because
she desired