‘We must get you home.’
‘My home is in Kent.’
She huffed. ‘Well, that’s not going to work.’
Neither was this. Neither was the way they were fighting each other. Which—now that he thought on it—was exactly what the two of them did. They bickered.
He straightened up in his chair. He forced himself to stand as if braced against a stiff wind. She matched him, though she was shorter than he.
‘Miss Richards,’ he said formally, ‘do you not remember our last conversation before my departure?’
Her expression turned wary. ‘I do—’
He didn’t let her finish. ‘You told me to prove myself to you. And so I departed.’
She snorted. ‘Those were not my words. They wereyours. You said you would prove yourself to everyone.’
‘And now I am here, standing upon all that I have left, my honour and a sliver of pride. There is c-coin. P-prinny will be pleased. But n-not enough to show your f-father.’ Damn his stuttering tongue. ‘I failed,’ he repeated. ‘And so you are right to discard me.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Lord Domac, only you could make a Cheltenham tragedy out of a middling cargo.’
Damnation. How could she see him so clearly and so completely wrong at the same time? He was making a dramatic pronouncement. Of course he was. Because after this, he would slink off to Kent never to be heard from again. ‘At least, give me my exit scene,’ he muttered.
‘Exit? You’ve only just arrived. And, as usual, you are making all the decisions without considering anyone else.’
Was she joking? ‘All I do is think of everyone else,’ he choked out. It was hard because his vision was beginning to swim.
‘Then you are thinking all the wrong things!’ she snapped. No, it wasn’t her voice that snapped. It was her fingers.Snap! Snap!Beneath his nose. ‘Cedric!’
He lifted his gaze to hers. Or he tried. Why was his head so heavy?
‘Fetch the carriage immediately. We’ll take him home.’
Was she talking to him? ‘Kent is a very long way.’
‘Your head is a very long way away.’
‘Wha—?’ He couldn’t finish forming the word. His mother hated that.
He heard her sigh. Then her face dropped to be directly in front of his eyes. Her forehead was crinkled with concern. That made him smile. She cared for him.
‘So enthralling,’ she whispered. ‘Just like when we first met. What is wrong with me that you are so damned mesmerizing?’
‘Such big words,’ he said, hearing the words slur but unable to fix the problem. ‘Where’d you learn them?’
‘From you!’
‘Are you ill?’ he muttered and didn’t know if he was asking her or asking himself.
She rolled her eyes even as she slipped an arm beneath his shoulder. ‘Come along,’ she said. ‘I’ll explain everything.’
Would she? He doubted it because nothing made sense these days. The only hope for it was to close his eyes and pray that tomorrow was better. That was how he’d survived at sea.
Wait. No, that was absolutely not how he’d survived.
Every night he’d closed his eyes and envisioned his powerful, righteous return to England. And once there, he’d wallow inhis wealth, his rightness and his brilliance. He was the man he sought to be. A man worthy of her.
Oh, bloody hell. That was an impossible dream now, and the act of giving it up utterly destroyed him. He was nothing without that hope. Better to pass out than face that reality.
So he did.