"I was determined to continue following the trail, so Oxford was my next port of call. I resumed my trudging along the road, located his college, and found an old don who knew of him. I was told that he had been ordained and taken up parish duties here as vicar of Brimley."
"Brimley and Eltham, yes," she confirmed.
"I enlisted his help in locating Brimley on the map, and have been traveling ever since."
"I see. So you were hoping that you would find your old life, or at least find someone who knew you?" "Precisely. Any clue would help."
"It's terribly bad luck that you just missed him and the wedding. But if you woke with my brother's papers in your pocket, then I feel sure that you must know him in some capacity. I shall certainly write to Jonathan and tell him your story, and describe you. But there might be an easier way to find out who you are."
"Really? How?" he asked, his eyes alight with hope.
"Let me light a candle."
She took up the tinderbox, and re-lit the sconce near the bed. She took it out of the bracket and brought it close. "Please show me your arm."
He seemed surprised at the request, but held it up for her inspection. Sarah looked at it carefully on both sides. The only thing she could see was a small set of initials. JAD.
"What are you looking for?"
She stared for a time, then blinked as she recalled herself. "Jay A Dee. Very curious. They're the same initials as my brother. Jonathan Alexander Deveril. But it's not the full name, and there's no town."
His dark brows knit in confusion. "I don't understand."
She explained, "My brother and his friends are known as the Rakehells, and those who served were inseparable during the war. They all had tattoos placed on their arms and legs to help identify them in case they were ever wounded or killed. You have the same sort of tattoos. But there's no town, and not a full name. There's also the George and Dragon to show you're English, but even that's different. Smaller. Do you mind if I look at your other arm?"
He offered it to her.
She sighed. "It's the same. Jay A Dee. Nothing else. I would ask to look at your legs, but we wouldn't want to embarrass you."
"Well, if you think it would help, go ahead," he offered gruffly. "I'm still wearing drawers."
"Very well," she agreed readily. "Sit up and dangle your legs over the bed."
She glad he could not see her blushes. She hoped she didn't seem too eager to see even more of him bare. What she had viewed of his chest and muscular arms was enough to give her romantic fantasies for the next year.
He did as she asked, maintaining his modesty by clutching the sheet around his waist. Kneeling on the floor, Sarah scanned his lean feet and ankles quickly for any special marks besides the initials. She then moved the sheet up past his muscular calves to his knees. She gripped each ankle in turn, rotating them to and fro. She could feel the blood pulsing in his veins, felt her own heart beating in time with his.
She swallowed hard past the choked feeling in her throat and forced herself to concentrate. At length she reported, "I'm sorry. There's nothing. I can go a bit further if you like."
She tried to quell the hammering of her heart at the sight of his naked magnificence. Her mouth was dry with desire. Scarred though he was, he looked like a god.
He cleared his throat. "If you don't find it too shocking, Sarah."
"No, not at all," she said, her voice husky with indefinable emotions. "You aren't scarred badly or anything on your limbs, if that's what you're asking me."
"It isn't, but that's good to know, thank you," he said, visibly relieved. "Actually, I meant I didn't want to offend your sensibilities any more than I already have done."
"I wasn't raised to be prudish. The human body is a beautiful thing. Yours is like a piece of Greek statuary," she said with startling candor.
He blinked in surprise. "Why, thank you."
In the light from her candle, she could see him blush, and smiled to herself.
She pushed the sheet up as far as she could, to the edge of his drawers high on his thighs, and said, "I'm sorry. There's nothing else except the initials, and a few obvious but intriguing scars."
Without thinking, she patted him on the knee with her whole hand.
He sucked in his breath with a sharp hiss.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," she said innocently, though the strange tingling sensation she had felt before made her aware of the undercurrent of intense feeling between them both.
"Er, not exactly hurt, no. It just surprised me. My back was injured very badly. I'm getting sensation back in my, um, all over my body. Sometimes it's most sudden and ah, disconcerting."