He stopped in the doorway when his gaze fell on Kitty.
She turned her face away, but not before she caught the look of concern that painted his expression; the drop of his mouth and the instant wrinkle in his brow. “What’s happened?”
Kitty wriggled her toes and focused on the colorful fabric under her feet. ‘Twas bad enough for Eliza to witness such a display of emotion, but now Thomas? She couldn’t bring herself to speak. Again the waves of fatigue undulated up and down, and the longing for sleep clawed at her eyes.
Blessedly, Eliza answered for her. “She’s had a trying day.”
Kitty looked up and stalled, hoping the confession would be enough to subdue him, but it was not. Thomas’s blue eyes lingered, driving through the shield she’d raised to protect herself, as if he were trying to extract some kind of truth and at the same time heal a pain he knew was there.
“Is this about Nathaniel?”
Kitty’s face went from hot to scalding. She closed her eyes, unable to stand Thomas’s pointed gaze any longer. Did he know what had happened between them, or had he simply spoken thoughtlessly?
Eliza propped forward on her hands. “Did you and Nathaniel have a disagreement, Kitty?”
Turning to Thomas, Kitty hurled daggers with her eyes. If he did know, he had better not say.
Thomas pulled back, his jaw open. “For one who speaks so openly, I’m surprised you have yet to tell your sister.”
He does know!
“Kitty?” Eliza asked, eyes round.
Kitty would have thanked Thomas for relieving her of the emotions of moments past, if not for the undesirable, nay wretched subject he chose to discuss. “’Tis nothing, Liza. I assure you.”
“Nothing?” Thomas shifted his weight and flicked his gaze between them, as if gauging his next move as carefully as one might a chess piece on a board. Finally his stare landed on his wife and he spoke with enough candor to make Parliament proud. “Nathaniel has kissed her.”
Kitty groaned and dropped her head in her hands.
Eliza gasped and tugged on Kitty’s arm, her tone carrying equal measures of delight and concern that made Kitty want to evaporate into vapors. “Did he really, Kitty?”
Kitty pulled away and met Eliza’s wide stare. Better to confront the truth than deny it. “Aye, but ‘twas a mistake and won’t happen again. Are you satisfied?” She directed the last to Thomas.
He stepped closer to the bed, the softening muscles in his face reading like the tender care of a sibling. “I cannot bear to see you suffer the pains of a broken heart, Kitty.”
The tight muscles in her neck relaxed the longer she stared at him, the anger suddenly fleeing at the concern in his eyes. Though his disclosure was unwelcome, the tenderness was not. “Thank you, Thomas. My tears are not for Nathaniel. I can assure you my heart is fully intact.” Once the words flipped out, she snapped her mouth shut. For that was a lie. Her heart was in shambles.
Eliza’s mouth tipped up at the corners and her dark eyes seemed to reflect the candle’s glow even more than before. “I won’t press you to share that which you wish to keep to yourself, but I must know if—”
Just then the downstairs door smacked open. “Thomas! Thomas!”
Thomas’s face went white as the frantic sound of his name speared the quiet. He spun around and hurried from the room. “Who’s there?”
Eliza jumped out of the bed, holding tight to her gray shawl as Kitty sprung from her huddled position and ran for the stairs behind her sister, praying her tearful pleadings had not gone unanswered.
Once in the parlor, the horrid scene forced Kitty against the wall and wrapped around her neck like the cold hands of the enemy.
Nathaniel!
Body limp, head awash in blood, Nathaniel hung between Joseph and Roger as they dragged him through the door and laid him on the rug.
She could not take a breath, could hardly see for the fear that choked and pressed her conscience near to death. Please, Lord, he cannot be dead.
Thomas knelt beside his friend, his face ashen. “Eliza go into the kitchen and fetch some water. Kitty we need bandages. Quickly.” Thomas looked between Joseph and Roger before returning his attentions to the blood trickling down Nathaniel’s face. “How did this happen?”
Joseph started first, kneeling on the opposite side. “I found him crawling from the woods not far from Gray’s farm. When I reached him he went unconscious. ‘Twas a miracle I was even there.”
Kitty pressed her back against the hard wall. The truth punched her in the stomach with as much force as if she had been struck by Cyprian himself.