Page 5

F laherty took the jab to his chin as his due.

He may have thought he was fully recovered, but Sean’s not-so-subtle reminder that his reaction time was still slower than normal had to be acknowledged.

He flexed his jaw to relieve the ache from the blow.

He ignored the pain in his back. It wasn’t as bad as it had been a few days ago—a marked improvement.

Sean dropped his guard and took a step back. “Ye’re nearly there, and I’ll be telling his lordship. I’m to meet him after we’re through.”

“Dermott seemed to think the earl would want to watch us practice.”

“His lordship was waylaid by Lady Aurelia and little Edward. The lad pulled himself up and used the settee as a handhold while he took a few steps before landing on his rump.”

Flaherty grinned. “Well now, that is good news. I wonder if her ladyship is ready for their son to start walking.”

His cousin shook his head. “Ma always said once we learned to walk, we ran.”

“Aye, me ma said that same to us. Must be our strong Irish genes.” Flaherty unrolled his sleeves and donned his frockcoat. “Thank ye for speaking to his lordship on me behalf regarding returning to me post, and the hour or two off to speak with Mary Kate. It may even take less time.”

Sean frowned. “Seamus, there’s something Dermott and I have been meaning to ask ye.”

“Aye?”

“Ye’re acting as if nothing happened between yerself and Mary Kate the last time she was here.”

“I don’t have shite for brains, Sean. I know it was hard for her to see me barely conscious and bleeding.”

His cousin studied him for a few moments before he shook his head. “Ye have no memory of what happened, do ye?”

“What kind of question is that? Sure and I’m not likely to forget the pain of having those lead balls dug out of me back.”

“And after?”

“The stitching me hide back together?”

“Nay…the fever.”

Flaherty sighed. “It must have been worse than I thought if ye’re bringing it up. The worst of it must have lasted a good day or so.”

“More than,” Sean murmured. “Do ye remember nothing?”

Flaherty shrugged. “Me dreams were disturbing. Mary Kate was in some of them. The worst was the one where she’d been crying as she left me. Why would she be leaving me, when I needed her?” He paused as his cousin’s earlier words sank in. “What do ye mean by more than?”

“Ye were burning with wound fever for five days.”

He shook his head. “I would have known if it had been that long. Are ye certain?”

When his cousin stared at him without speaking, Flaherty had his answer. He’d been insensate for five long days!

“Why then didn’t the lass stay by me side?” He couldn’t believe Mary Kate would abandon him in his time of need.

The pained expression on Sean’s face spoke volumes. Something had happened…something Flaherty knew he would not want to hear.

“What aren’t ye telling me? Did I swear a blue streak when I was in the fever’s grip? She has delicate sensibilities, but has heard meself and surely Michael and James swear before.”

Sean placed a hand on Flaherty’s shoulder, as if to ground him. “The moment yer fever broke, ye told her ye didn’t need a faithless woman like her in yer life and to get out.”

The gut punch of O’Malley’s words had Flaherty denying it. “Nay!”

“I was standing in the hallway speaking to Lieutenant Sampson at the time. We both heard ye as plain as day—loud enough to be heard in the kitchen.”

“Why didn’t ye stop her?”

“Ye’d started thrashing around and swinging. Sampson and I had to hold ye down until ye quieted. We didn’t want the threads to rip—ye’d lost too much blood already. By the time we’d settled ye, Mary Kate was gone.”

Flaherty scrubbed a hand over his face and groaned. “Why didn’t ye tell me before now?”

“Ye’ve grumbled to meself and Dermott more than once since Garahan married Melinda and accepted his permanent assignment at Chattsworth Manor that ye didn’t trust Mary Kate not to flirt with Garahan—or the new farrier, for that matter.

Why would we question it when ye were out of yer head with fever? ”

“Aye, but I told ye we were courting. Ye know I’ve never asked to court another woman!”

“If yer heart was in the courting, ye’d have been badgering me to ask his lordship to spare ye for an hour or two daily just to be with the lass.

” Sean stared at him. “That’s how I felt with Mignonette, though we didn’t have the time to court.

Our situation was different—a matter of life and losing a limb! ”

Flaherty’s throat constricted. He was eventually going to have to confide in one of his cousins.

His brothers were elsewhere, and it wasn’t the kind of missive he’d want to send by messenger.

He sure as hell wasn’t about to ask Garahan for advice.

“From the start, Mary Kate’s been waxing poetic about Garahan’s rescue instead of me own. ”

Sean’s eyes flashed as disbelief colored his expression, before it disappeared. “Ye’re jealous of our married cousin who only has eyes for his wife?”

When he put it that way, Flaherty felt like a fool. What was worse, he’d acted the fool off and on since the green-eyed monster of jealousy started feeding on his feelings for Mary Kate, added to what he imagined was happening. He acknowledged the censure in Sean’s gaze and accepted it.

“Ye aren’t trying to get a rise out of me by claiming I insulted the lass before ordering her to leave?”

“I wouldn’t do that to yerself or Mary Kate.”

Flaherty rubbed a hand over where his aching heart still beat in his chest. “That must be why the lass hasn’t accompanied Lady Calliope the last two times she visited Lady Aurelia.”

Sean nodded. “There’s more.”

“More than me casting the woman I love aside during me fevered delirium, and the lot of ye letting it happen?”

“Mary Kate was the only one ye didn’t fight off when yer fever spiked hours after ye were sewn back together. She sat with ye, bathing yer brow, chest, and back. We all knew ye were courting her, and his lordship felt it would help ye heal to have Mary Kate by yer side.”

Flaherty’s heart felt as if he’d taken a blade to it. “I must have been in a bad way for the earl to set aside propriety. How long did she tend to me?”

“Four nights and five days.”

Flaherty’s head reeled with the knowledge of what he’d done—’twas his fault the lass hadn’t been to see him. To gift him with her smile, and her smoldering looks. Those bewitching blue- violet eyes of hers constantly tempted him to kiss the breath out of her.

The thought that she may never glance that way at him again gutted him. “What have I done?”

Sean crossed his arms across his chest and braced his feet apart in a battle stance. “Not a thing that cannot be mended. Go to her. Apologize and tell her what ye just told me. Ye had no idea ye’d said such harsh things to her.”

“What if she won’t listen?”

“I’m thinking she might. She loves ye, Seamus. Only a jealous, hardheaded fool wouldn’t see it.”

“What if she won’t forgive me?”

“She may need time, but I believe she will forgive ye. Every last one of us have seen what she feels shining in her eyes whenever she looks yer way.”

Flaherty’s shoulders slumped under the weight of his cousin’s words, added to what he’d said to the lass when in the fever’s grip. “I’ll never be able to forgive meself if I’ve killed what she feels for me.”

“Stop feeling sorry for yerself! Ye know what ye need to do. Go fecking do it!”

Flaherty rallied to the call and squared his shoulders. “I may be a bit longer than planned.”

“Don’t return until ye’ve spoken to the lass, and apologized in front of witnesses.”

“Witnesses?”

“Aye, more than one would be best. Oh, and ye may need to grovel a bit. Do ye want to get on yer knees now and practice?”

Flaherty snorted and shoved his cousin out of his way with his shoulder. “Feck off, O’Malley!”

“Want me to ask the earl about a special license?”

For the first time since Sean had told him what he’d said to Mary Kate to push her out of his life, he smiled and sprinted toward the stables. “Aye. I’m thinking I’ll have her eating out of me hand by teatime. Ask his lordship if he’ll speak to the vicar about marrying us tonight.”

As he saddled his gelding and rode toward Chattsworth Manor, he imagined how pliant the lass would be when he drew her close and pressed his lips to hers.

One thought led to another as he closed the distance between the estates, and by the time he arrived, he was anticipating his wedding night with the woman who’d tied him in knots from the moment he first laid eyes on her.

“What a grand life we’ll lead, lass.”