"For my own part, I want someone I can admire and respect. Where there is respect and trust, there is love. So I shall ask you again, Miss Hawkesworth, are you in love with anyone else?"
She felt stunned by the question. Did he really care if she was? Would that put a halt to this madness?
She was tempted to lie, but something in his eyes told her he would see through the fib in an instant. "No, sir, I am heart-whole. I led a full life with my aunt. I won't pretend I did not get to meet various young men at the County balls in the past year or so since I was permitted to go out more into the world. But I've never behaved indiscreetly. Nor met anyone to whom I would pledge myself unreservedly. I too desire the same in my future partner, admiration, respect, love."
Clifford nodded, satisfied. "I believe you were cheated out of your London Season by your aunt's untimely demise?"
She sniffed hard. "It is no great hardship to have endured, believe me. I would rather have my aunt alive, and no fortune for everyone to squabble over. Nor am I interested in playing the marriage game. Not when there is so much to do in the world to improve it."
He smiled down at her. "You say that now, but there will come a time when you will long for congenial companionship. I'm not saying I'm the best man in the world for you, but I've always respected and admired you, Miss Hawkesworth."
She gave an unladylike snort. "I think I should rest now."
He nodded. "I'm sorry to have tired you." As he began to move for the door, she found herself oddly reluctant to relinquish his company.
"I'm sorry to have kept you up all night nursing me."
"It's my pleasure."
"Hardly." She wrinkled her elegant nose. "No one likes to tend sick people."
"Dr. Gold does. And my very dear friend Doctor Blake Sanderson, currently in the Peninsula. It was no trouble at all."
"Very gallant of you, I'm sure. It was kind of your brother and friends to wish to help. But I think you should go home now, all of you. Dr. Gold's staff can see to my needs well enough, and you may go about your business without any sense of obligation on your part."
"I'm staying."
She glared at him.
"Vanessa, enough of this wrangling for the moment."
"Quite. I have a raging thirst and am very tired. My ribs ache, and I need to use, well, the chamberpot." She blushed and looked away from his open blue gaze.
He stood up quickly. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have stayed so long. You need your rest. I'll just go fetch Dr. Gold to come have a look at you. Then Josephine and Emma Jerome and the maid can help you with more personal matters."
She looked at him candidly again. Clifford could not help but admire her amethyst eyes and long lashes.
"I appreciate all of your help. I'm quite frankly surprised at you taking so much trouble."
Clifford shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "I found you on the road purely by accident. Though Fate has brought you to me, I'm not going to leave our happiness to Chance.
"I make no secret of wishing to have you for my wife, nor of my desire to protect you and your reputation. I'm more than happy to nurse you myself through your illness, but it would cause tongues to wag if we were left alone in this house without appropriate chaperones.
"Josephine is engaged to my brother Henry. She and her sister Emma are the souls of discretion and propriety. I feel confident that no one in the district will be able to speak ill of any of the three of you with Dr. Gold and his staff also in attendance."
"Thank you for being so careful of my good name," she said quietly. "Most other men would have compromised me in an instant, the better to get my fortune."
"Then you should be grateful I'm not like other men. As I have said before, I have no intention of our marriage being a battleground."
"I don't wish that either. But nor do I have any intention of marrying you."
"Oh?" Clifford asked. It was all he could manage without revealing the strange emotions which welled inside him at the prospect of her refusal.
"Yes, I had planned on coming to see you today, in the hopes of getting you to behave reasonably. Can I ask you now to please reconsider the Devil's bargain you made with Gerald?"
Clifford took a deep breath, and contemplated her pale, wan face with his penetrating blue gaze. She was lovelier than ever in his eyes in spite of her suffering. "In truth, Miss Hawkesworth, having seen you, and spoken to you thus, nothing could persuade me to give you up now."
With that he stepped out of the room, leaving a stunned Vanessa staring after him in shock.