If You Were Mine by Rebecca King Page A

Her
smile deepened at his answering groan.
    Later
that morning, Dominic finally left the bed leaving an exhausted
Isobel securely beneath the sheets. This time, Isobel let him go.
“I had better make my peace with your brother before he returns to
the room to find out what is taking us so long.”
    He eyed
the white sheet she held haphazardly to her chest, and couldn’t
hide the smile of satisfaction at the flicker of memory of the last
few minutes. Keeping his satisfied smile well hidden, he turned to
her with a mock sternness. “Now behave yourself. You shall get no
more until you have rested,” he cautioned, sweeping up the
remainder of his clothes. Splendidly naked he quickly left the
room, closing the door quickly behind him before the pillow Isobel
launched across the room, hit him at the back of the
head.

CHAPTER SIX

     
    “ You had better have honourable intentions towards my sister,”
Peter warned half jokingly as a now presentable, if somewhat smug
Dominic joined him in the library several minutes later.
    “ You know damned well I do,” Dominic replied, moving toward
the decanter next to the hearth. Pouring them both a drink he sat
in the plush brocade chair on the opposite side of the roaring
fire. “I trust Cook and Manvers have seen to your needs?” Dominic
eyed the empty tray longingly for a second and he sipped his
drink.
    “ Aye they have. I shall steal your Cook before I go,” Peter
replied with a deep sigh of contentment.
    “ You can try,” Dominic argued, letting the silence settle
between them for several minutes. “Are you going up to see
her?”
    “ I’ll let her get her energy back first,” Peter replied wryly
eyeing the contentment of his friend slouched opposite.
    “ You know I have every intention of making her my wife. Now I
have her, I have no intention of letting her go. She is perfectly
safe with me.”
    “ I know,” Peter paused for several minutes but couldn’t
prevent the question. “How is she really?”
    Dominic
sighed and took a long draught of his brandy before turning his
gaze back toward Peter, and away from the flickering flames in the
hearth.
    “ She is as well as can be expected. She was half starved when
we found her Peter. It was clear she hadn’t eaten much at all since
her escape from Rupert.” Dominic leaned forward in his chair,
placing his forearms on his thighs, remembering the bones clearly
visible through her wafer-thin skin. “It has taken some time to
coax her to eat sufficiently to sustain her, but she is eating well
now, but with the condition her lungs were it, her situation has
been dire.”
    “ What do you mean with her lungs? What was wrong?” Peter eyed
the solemnity on his friend’s face in alarm.
    “ She had putrid lungs. They are much better now than when we
found her but there were times when I thought they were getting
worse. If we hadn’t found her when we did, she would not be alive
now, I am certain of it. She definitely would not have had
sufficient strength or protection against the winter. She had two
halfpennies left in her pocket.”
    Peter
swore. “What has the doctor said?” Peter knew that Isobel would
have received the best of care money could buy.
    “ Her lungs are on the mend. She needs to be kept warm, and
must eat as much as possible. He has given us some tisane for her
to drink, which she is still taking. It does help, but it is slow
progress. She has been so weak and malnourished that it is taking a
lot longer than it should to get her back to full health.” Dominic
settled back in his chair with a sigh.
    “ I should have got here sooner,” Peter sighed, shaking his
head regretfully.
    “ You were stuck in a snow-storm. We sent word as soon as we
got her here, but you couldn’t predict the snow would strike when
it did. At least she was here,” Dominic argued. He knew Peter well
enough to know that he would have ridden hard all the way to
Havistock upon receipt of Dominic’s note, and would have been