A Bright Particular Star (50 page)

“
Pity he didn
’t
break his
dashed
neck!
”

“
He
might have
cheated death this ti
me,
but
the outlook is not promising
,
”
said Luc.
Taking out his handkerchief, he tied
a rudimentary tourniquet
around Peregrine
’s
twisted leg.
“
He may yet
lose the limb
or die from fever
.
We need to ge
t him back to
T
he Angel and send for
a surgeon
.
”

By now a
group of navvies who had been working on the tunnel
had
come
rushing over to investigate
the commotion
.
A few gave
incredulous gasps
at the
incongruous scene
in the canal while others retched
a
t the sight of Peregrine
’s
injury
.
Within a few
moments
,
Luc
had ordered
one of the work
cart
s to be brought
to the embankment
and for Peregrine
’s
inert form to be lifted onto it.

“T
ake my curricle and go on ahead,
”
he advised Theo
.
“
I
’
ll drive the cart
.
”

Theo nodded and hurried back up the slop
e.

He
soon
arrived back at
T
he
Ange
l.
In the entrance parlour, he
dashed
off a note to Sir Seymour
and, afte
r ordering
a waiter
to see it w
as delivered without delay, sought out
the la
ndlord.
He asked
him
to
send for a surgeon and make ready one
of his bedchambers for a
badly
injured man
who would
arrive shortly
.
He would, Theo promised, be well paid for his efforts and his discretion.
T
he landlord blinked
an
d swallowed the questions that rose
in his throat
, then
w
ent
away to
carry out these
instructions
.

Meanwhile, Theo strode
to the room whe
re he h
ad left Sophie
.
He hesitated
for a moment outside the door and t
hen, a
fter tugging nervously at his cravat and running his hands
thr
ough his hair
in an attempt to tidy it
,
he
went in
.

****

S
ophie
, who
had been talking
to the maid as she laid out
some bread and butter
on the table,
jumped to her feet as Theo entered.
The maid bobbed a curtsey and left,
and Sophie
felt suddenly shy
and
apprehe
nsive
.
S
he
wondered
if
she
would
ever get used to the thrill
of
seeing him
.
She studied his face
as he came toward her
, noting
with surprise
the faint, dark smudges under his eyes.
Despite her delight
at his return
, she found herself tongue-tied.

“T
hank goodness
you are unhurt
,
”
she said at last.
“D
id you find him?
”

“
We did,
”
confirmed Theo, going on to explain the whole.
“T
here was
nothing
e
lse for it but to bring him
here,
”
he added.
“
I’m
sorry
,
you must want to be
as far away from him as you can
,
but he
’s
in no cond
ition to
harm
anyone
now
.
He
’
ll be taken
straight to one of the
bedchamber
s
.
You need not see him again.
”

Sophie shudd
ered.
“
I think I ought to
go ba
ck to London as soon as possible
.
”

“
Yes
. N
o doubt you want to see
Verney.
”

At this, s
he
glanced up
.
“
Well, I
…
e
r…
Shall
I get
you
some tea?

“
I
t
’s
not
tea I
dashed
well
need
!
”
Theo strode towards her
, exclaiming
,
“
It
’s
no use
, Sophie
!
I
came back
to tell you I
can
’t
let you m
arry
without confessing
what is
in my he
art
.
Y
ou may laugh
at me
,
even despise me for spe
aking plainly
,
but
I
must
tell you how I feel.
Verney
’s
elegance
and fortune are beyond my touch
, but there is one thing I can
give you that he cannot
—
m
y
love
, now and always
.
He doesn
’t
care for you the way I do
.
H
e
never will
.
I
’
ve loved you
almost from the moment we m
et and
I
can
’t
live
without y
ou
.
I want to take care of you, make you happy.
I want you always at my side because I will always love you.
I should have told you before, but I w
a
s honour bound to get you
to Londo
n and
believed
I
could not abuse that position
of trust
.
”

Sophie
clutched
at
the edge of the table, thinking
she might be a girl for swooning after all
.
This felt like one of her dreams
, but it was real
…
his rest
less
masculinity was vivid
,
as
was
the scent of him, clean, summery with a hint of outdoors and a trace
of sandalwood on warm male skin.
“
B
-But I thought you wanted
to be
rid of me,
”
she said, staring
up at him
, her lips parted in surprise
.
“
You said so
yourself
,
at
T
he Castle.
”

He gave a
groan
.
“
Must you fling
those dreadful
words b
ack in my face
just now?
I suppose I deserve it
.
W
hat a fool I was!
Deuce
knows what prompted me to speak s
o
.
I can only blame the
raging
emotion
s
experi
enced by a man
falling
in
lov
e for the first time
in his life
and unable to express it.
Then, w
hen
you told m
e you were going
to marry Verney,
I was
devastated.
The prospect
dismayed
me, but
I cheris
hed the
hope
you and he
had changed
,
that when you met him again
you would find
you did not care for him
.
In any event, I could not speak
…
not then.
It
would not have been right to intervene until you had met Verney again.
You would have hated me if I had
.
”

“S
o you let me go to him without a word?
”

“
It may
have been the right
thing to do
, but it was
pure
agony
!
”
he replied, his mouth twisting in a crooked smile.
“
And when I
found out
he was rich
, with the face and figure of
a Greek g
od
,
hope
faded and jealousy took its place.
You had admired Verney
as a youth so
why should you
not
love
the handsome man
he had become
?
”
Theo
’s
eyes, dark as midnight, held hers.
“
I dra
nk mys
elf into a stupor
afterward
.
I
tortured myself, imagining you with him
.
I cursed the scruples that had kept me silent, yet knew I
’d
had no choice.
Reasoning
you needed
time to make
your own judgement
about Verney,
I forced myself to go down
to Chenning where
I received some
advice from my family
.
”

“
Oh.
And what was it
?
”

“T
o tell you how I felt
at once
because there was a chance you had
mistaken my reticence for indifference.
”

“
I-I see.
They sound very insightful.
So you were unhappy after you left me
?
”

He uttered a hoarse laugh.
“
An understatement
—
I
thought I
was going out of my mind.
”

“
I felt the same
.
”

He stared
into her
now
flushed countenance
, an arrested expression on his face.
“
What?
”

“T
heo,
I was
utterly miserable
after you left me in Brook Street
,
”
she said
, a sm
ile hovering
on her lips.
“
Lady Verney
’s
welc
ome
was warm and generous
, but James
was
aloof
from the outset.
I thought
he was
ann
oyed with me for arriving
unannounced on his doorstep
,
which indeed he
was
,
but
there was
another reason
for his irritation
.
And i
t did not take me long to
realize
I had changed and so had James
.
H
e
was not the man I thought he would be
.
”

“S
o
you are not going to marry him?
”

She sh
ook h
er head
, her gaze locked with his
.
“
Only then
did I see
how
stupid and
naive
I had been
,
”
she murmured.
“
I don
’t
think I truly knew myself until
tha
t moment
.
For
years
I had loved
—
thought
I loved
—
an
ideal
.
The
reality did not match the illusion
.
It
probably
never could have,
but
there w
a
s
much
more to my decision than
disappointment
.
James
is
handsome,
and rich,
but he is
pompous
and
conceited
too
.
He is also engaged to
marry someone else,
which does not matter
at all because I don
’t
love him
.
M
y
unhappiness
was not because of what I had found, but because of what I had lost
.
Desp
ite the attractions
London offered
, the world suddenly
seemed a duller
place and I could find no pleasure in it.
Something
vital
was missing.
L
onely, unsettled and
more than a little dispirited
, I examined
what was
in my heart.
”

A second passed, and another.

Then, s
tepping cl
oser still, his
gaze
searched
her face.
“
And
what did you find?
”

“
You,
”
she said
simply.

A
guttural sound
escaped him
as caught
her
roughly
to h
im
.
His arms closed around her
as his lips sought out the tender skin of her cheeks, her chin and finally her mouth.
And then he was kissing her.
His long fingers cu
pped
her jaw
, angling it
until his mouth
could move over hers in supple, intimate strokes.