Page 7 of The Baron Takes a Wife

“A few weeks? But why will you be gone?”

She took a breath and reached to her throat, which he had noticed she did rather a lot. “It seems the allied forces are launching a new offensive. We were finishing the hotel the last time when you were fighting. But now Mrs. Raeburn is going to the battlefield to tend the wounded and help bring some back here. I should be of some help there.” While she still spoke with the usual pauses, as if thinking through what she was going to say, she stood tall and proud, and he was rocked again by the strength of her. Though his first impression had been soft and angelic, she had a spine and a will to survive, which he greatly admired. Even so, he had to talk her out of this. The battlefield was hell. It stank of blood and burning flesh, with the cries of the wounded ringing in your ears. Look what had happened to him, and his regiment had only arrived in the Crimea as reinforcements in the Spring. No, he must stop her at all costs. He better put his silver tongue to good use.

“Elena…you can’t go. The battlefield is no place for you.”

“Because I am a woman?”

“No, no, it’s not that,” He was going about this all wrong. “I wish I could describe it to you. It is worse than hell, Elena. You don’t belong in that. Don’t you see?”

She was shaking her head, about to say something else, so he cut her off.

“You can’t go. I won’t let you.”

Her eyes flashed. “I will never let any man tell me what to do ever again.”

He wanted to howl. He felt vulnerable and raw, but something within him whispered that he owed her honesty, especially if it would save her. “I didn’t mean it like that, but…I care about you, Elena. You helped me come back to myself. How could I let you go off to a place worse than hell? Didn’t you tell me we needed to live for other people?” As if to accentuate his point, a distant cannon went off.

Elena started at the sound, then softened a little. Her shoulders fell, and she hung her head for a moment, then looked up at him. “You don’t understand. It is not the same for me. I have nothing and no one to live for anymore. I had nothing but for what Mrs. Raeburn gave me. If she goes to the battlefield, I will follow her to whatever end. I do not know what to do if she isn’t here, what the hotel will be like.”

He saw how she always left the hospital before dark, as it was still relatively new to have women tending to wounded men. He remembered the articles in the paper about the supposed impropriety of nurses staying among so many men overnight. David also understood what she was saying under her words: That she didn’t feel completely safe at the hotel without Mrs. Raeburn’s protection. But he could do that. He could give her protection. Certainty surged through him, and the rightness of it sank into his bones.

“Marry me then.”

She stared at him in what he would not like to think was horror.

“What?”

“Marry me. I can protect you. I’m a peer of the realm. Well, not this realm, but a realm. Relatively recent peerage, I’m afraid, my great uncle was in the Peninsular wars, and he was awarded a barony…” He recognized he was rambling and changed tactics. Trying to explain the British peerage system would not convince her. “My mother’s family was in trade, and we have done very well. You would want for nothing in your life. My sister and aunt would adore you. You could keep doing good work. In England. Away from the battlefield.”

Elena kept staring. Then she shook her head. “You are delirious. That must be it. You know that I would be considered fallen, ruined. I ran from an elopement.”

She put the back of her hand to his forehead. He shivered from the contact but sought to hide it by taking her hand with his.

“I am in deadly earnest. Let me do this for you. I don’t care that—” He tried to snap with his fingers but did not quite have the energy or panache he had before his injury. “That you eloped. And who in my world would know such a thing anyway? For all they know, you are a beautiful foreign merchant’s daughter.” He saw something briefly cross her face, and realizing it was fear that he found her beautiful, he decided to change tactics again. “Look, I may never be able to be a husband to you in truth.” He dropped her hand as he gestured to his legs. He knew she understood enough of his condition to hear what he was saying. She had seen many wounded and sick men. She was no sheltered innocent. “But I can give you protection. Safety. Please, Elena, my life…it’s been such a waste. Let me do this one good thing for you. I will be officially invalided from the army for obvious reasons. I’m leaving shortly, and I’m sure I can pull some strings and take you with me. I plan to travel to Switzerland after I return to England to see some doctors about my condition.” He had not yet articulated his plan, but after several conversations with Dr. Austin, he had been considering travel to meet with doctors in Switzerland who had been studying spinal injuries in miners. “I will likely stay there indefinitely. You could live in wealth with my aunt and my sister. You can have as much freedom as you wish. What do you say?”

She was no longer staring at him in horror, which he took as a good sign. “This is almost too much to consider. But what if you recover? What if you want a child or another wife someday?”

“If you desired it, I would grant you an annulment and make sure you were well settled. Or if we find your family, you could return to them. But if I was able to recover, and you wanted a child…maybe someday that would be agreeable to you.”

He let his words hang in the air, much more a question than a statement. She seemed as if she was carefully rolling the idea about in her head. He wasn’t a complete idiot. He saw how she recoiled when a man was near, as she occasionally jumped if a doctor or orderly accidentally brushed against her. He had realized several days earlier that she probably felt so comfortable in his presence because she had judged him not to be a physical threat to her. He would never press her for anything or pressure her, but if someday he could recover in body, maybe she could recover in spirit.

Finally, she nodded and looked him in the eye. “Maybe someday.”

Warmth, a soft golden warmth that started from somewhere deep, seemed to suddenly spill over from his chest to his entire being. For some reason, that warmth made him feel tethered to the earth, to her. He didn’t care that his face ached from smiling or that with his beard and bandage, he likely looked a fright. He didn’t care one whit.

“I need to discuss this with Mrs. Raeburn.”

He kept smiling. “Of course.”

She gave a nervous laugh and looked away from him. “I’ll return later today.”

“Of course.” He could feel his smile grow even bigger.

“You have to stop smiling at me like that.”

He couldn’t stop. “Of course.”

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