Because he seemed to compel her to do so, she laid her fingers on his.
“I do not wish you to think I am ungrateful,” he said. “Sir George has told me in no uncertain terms that I could not have been in better hands than your father’s. He also commended the excellent way that I have been nursed. Thank you, Rowena.”
There was a note in his voice that told her he was in fact sincere.
Then he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.
The blood rose in Rowena’s cheeks and, because she suddenly felt shy and strangely embarrassed, her eyes fell before his.
“There is no need to – thank us, my Lord,” she said in a rather breathless little voice, “we have – simply done our – duty.”
She took her hand away as she spoke.
Then, because her heart was beating unaccountably fast and there was a con
