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“No, just clearing my nasal cavities.” Dear heaven. “As I do every morning. Do you not do the same?”

“I suppose. Sometimes.”

“It will pass shortly and I’ll be right as rain.” Sniff. Sniff.

Good grief, this man was too delicious and ought to be outlawed.

He regarded her oddly, and then shook his head. “How did you sleep?”

“I got through a few good hours without too much discomfort. But mostly I drifted in and out of sleep until finally managing these solid hours this morning. I am still tired, however. The pain has taken quite a bit out of me.”

“We have laudanum. Why don’t I give you some now?”

“No, I did not want it last night and will not need it now.” Laudanum given in a dose strong enough to alleviate her pain would also loosen her tongue and reveal secret thoughts and desires that were better left unsaid. She would die of mortification if he ever discovered how much she liked him.

No, she could never give herself away.

He sighed as he sank into the chair beside her. “Let me have a look at your wrist.”

Since she could not move it without feeling pain, he gently took it in his grasp and unwound the bandage he had put around it last night. “The swelling has gone down quite a bit.”

She nodded.

“Does it hurt you as I touch it now?”

“Only a little,” she said, knowing he was being very gentle. “Mostly, I feel pain when I move it around. So I am trying hard to hold it still.”

“We’ll give it another day before I have you exercise it.” He released her carefully. “Are you hungry? Care to dine with me?”

She glanced around the room.

The curtains had been drawn back to allow in the morning light, as much of it as there was in the midst of this ongoing blizzard.

But she liked to watch the snow fall and felt calmed by the graceful swirl of those beautiful snowflakes as they were tossed about in the wind and softly smacked against the windows. “Where is Martha?”

“Mrs. Fitch relieved her several hours ago. But a housekeeper has daily duties that cannot be put off, so she had to leave you alone for a few minutes. She’ll send up another of the maids to sit by your side.”

“Meanwhile, you have taken on the task?”

“That’s right, but only for a few minutes. I am serious about not leaving you without a chaperone for any length of time. Do you mind?”

“No, how could I ever? Besides, this is your bed and your chamber that I have now usurped.”

“I insisted upon it. It is the most comfortable room in the house and the least drafty. So, will you eat with me?”

“Yes, I would be delighted.”

“Good.” He smiled. “Not that you really had a choice. I have already instructed Mrs. Fitch to bring our meals in here. She’ll be up shortly.”

“How did you sleep, Your Grace? I hope the butterflies-and-flowers wallpaper was not too jarring to your senses.”

He groaned. “I wound up sleeping on the sofa in my study. I’m more of a leather and wood sort of man. Flowers and butterflies are not my style.”

“I wish you had let me move into that room. Now I feel awful that you could not sleep comfortably in your own bed.”

“No, Temple. You needed it more than I. Besides, I’ve slept on much worse.”

She recalled what Martha had told her about his military service and being captured by Napoleon’s troops. He must have spent the year in squalid conditions, perhaps receiving better treatment than ordinary men because of his rank, but it still had to be a miserable experience.

She wanted so much to ask him about those war years, but it was too sensitive a topic.

However, she never hesitated to push him on matters of charity, because that was a completely different topic, and did he not have a duty to his subjects?

Nor did she hesitate to prod him about his family, because he had been the one to bring her the letter he’d received. “Did you write back to your mother?”

He groaned again. “No, what is the point when it will do no good? She’ll be here within the fortnight along with my brother and an entourage of giggling geese and their families.

There is no stopping her once she sets her mind on a thing.

Unfortunately, I happen to be that thing she has now fixed on. ”

“I think having family around will be good for you.”

“No, Temple,” he said, his smile fading as he turned earnest. “It is the last thing I want or need. But how can they ever understand when…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Never mind; it is not worth discussing.”

But this was just the opening she’d hoped he would provide.

“Are you certain? Why should we not discuss it? I have nowhere else to be and I am a good listener. It is something I learned as I lost my loved ones…one by one, and helpless to do anything about it, although I tried so hard. Two older brothers and my parents.”

“Temple, I’m so sorry.”

She felt the sincerity in his tone and nodded to acknowledge it. “My brothers were far more adventurous than I was and both enlisted in the army to fight on the Iberian Peninsula.”

“They must have enlisted about the same time as I did,” he said.

She nodded again. “One died in the retaking of Oporto in Portugal and the other in the Battle at Talavera. The news broke my parents. They were healthy and smiling until those letters came reporting of each brother fallen in battle. I tried to keep their spirits up, but I was devastated too. Still, I tried hard to help them through the loss. Listened to them, tried to put some joy in their lives. Nothing I ever did was enough. That was it—no matter how hard I tried to unburden them, nothing worked. All those long talks. All our plans. They were done with life. So, within the span of three years, I lost all my family.”

“And came to live here with your uncle.”

“I’m glad I did. Working alongside him has given me a renewed purpose, one I sorely needed. After living through three grueling years of feeling helpless, I had received a reprieve. I vowed I would never take anything or anyone else for granted.”

“Nor do I take my loved ones for granted,” he assured her.

She pursed her lips. “But you have spent years putting them off instead of embracing them. Do you not think this hurts them?”

“Temple, I am not engaging in this conversation. They are coming out here, aren’t they? And have completely ignored my attempts to put them off because of that idiotic Silver Duke gossip. It has lit a fire under my mother that I will have a bloody hard time extinguishing.”

She struggled to contain her laughter, but was it not so ridiculously amusing that this daunting beast should be taken to task by his own mother?

“You do have a lovely touch of silver in your hair,” she remarked.

He grunted. “Perhaps I will take a razor to it and shave it all off, make myself as bald as a billiard ball.”

She laughed again. “Don’t you dare. Every woman wishes they had hair as perfect as yours.”

He surprised her by giving her cheek a light caress. “Ah, Temple. Without a title, I am no one special. But you are quite something. I’m sorry if I am sometimes difficult with you. I’ll try to be on better behavior, knowing now how much you have lost.”

“Others have been through worse. I count my blessings, for I had many pleasant years growing up with the love of a good family. I appreciate what I have been given. And even now, I have an uncle who loves me and has treated me kindly. I have made a nice life for myself here in Broadmoor, helping him out with the vicarage duties. When that comes to an end, as it inevitably must, I will still be able to take care of myself.”

“How so?” he asked, frowning.

“I was left a small inheritance that I have yet to touch because my uncle insists upon providing everything for me.”

“And why should he not? You do so much to assist him in his parish duties.” His expression softened. “Including reaping in the donations. They must have tripled since you arrived. No man is going to resist your smile or the sparkle of your eyes.”

“Actually, they have increased four -fold.”

“Ah, Temple. This does not surprise me. But what does surprise me is the fact that you are not married yet. Surely you must have had offers.”

“I did,” she said quietly, not wishing to think of the past. “I was even betrothed once.”

He appeared startled by the notion. “You were betrothed?”

“Yes.”

“But you never made it to the altar.”

She sighed. “No, never was a blushing bride.”

His stare was intense, as though he were hoping to read her mind. “What happened to end it?”