“She’s not something to be possessed, Grayson.”
“We’re not living in your twenty-first century,” he reminded her stoically.
“She’s not something to be possessed in any century.”
“Is jealousy more acceptable?”
“It’s different,” she told him. “It involves your heart.”
“I don’t know what I’m feeling, Harper,” he confessed and sat up again, feeling restless. “I feel like I don’t know myself anymore. I learned a new kind of dance, Harper. Did I tell you?”
She shook her head, smiling with him.
“She calls it contemporary,” he told her, feeling a little better while he spoke of it. “I danced it, and I never want to stop.”
Her smile warmed him. She took his hand. “It seems to have ignited a light in you and for that I’m deeply grateful. I hope you dance until you’re an old man.”
He smiled, letting his emotion toward her show. She was the motherly one who hadn’t left him.
A knock at the door summoned his attention. He waited while Harper rose to open the door. When he saw Miss Darling, he almost left the bed.
“Excuse me, my lord,” she said in her dulcet voice. “I just wanted to check on you.” She smiled at Harper and then back at him but didn’t enter. “I’m glad to see you awake and alert. How are you feeling?”
“Weary and feverish,” he answered dryly.
She hurried to his bedside with Harper close behind. When she reached him, she shot out her hand and pressed her palm against his forehead.
He could do nothing but stare at her while she felt him for fever. He felt himself falling as her warm, sweet breath fell over him. Why didn’t she wear her hair up in those hideous bundles of curls over her ears like the other women at court? Why was it always falling over her shoulders and down her back like a fragrant veil? Why couldn’t he get the images of her shapely legs, her radiant grace while she danced out of his head?
“Miss Darling,” he said, moving his head away from her hand, “did you return alone?”
Behind her, Harper shook her head at him.
“Harper, you can go for now.”
“Are you sure?” she scoffed at him. “If you feel feverish, you might not be yourself right now?”
He got her meaning. He was going down the wrong path with Miss Darling. Jealousy was never pretty.
He gave Harper a nod. He was sure.
When she left, he returned his attention to Miss Darling.
“Will returned with me,” she told him without haste. “I told you I didn’t want to check the doors alone in case I’m stopped by—”
“As you can see, I’m alright,” he interrupted softly. “You shouldn’t keep your door waiting, Miss Darling.”
Or Will Gable, he wanted to throw at her, but he wasn’t one to react or behave rashly. He’d done that once…
“If you find your way home,” he said, “I won’t see you again. I wanted to tell you that you were right. I can communicate with animals and now I know why I wanted to forget it.”
“Why?” she breathed out.
He didn’t want to tell her and have his responsibility for the death of all those animals and Mr. Gable be the last thing she remembered about him. “It’s not your concern, Miss Darling. Hopefully, you’ll find your door and return to your family. Is Will Gable prepared to see you go?”
She blinked and swallowed back something she wanted to say. “I haven’t asked him.”
“You haven’t asked me either.”