“To sit up?”
“Yes, please.”
He frowned. “Dr. Manion said I wasn’t to tire you.”
“From what little I saw of him, Dr. Manion is an old nag.”
“Who saved your life.” With more heartbreaking gentleness, James propped her against the heaped pillows.
“Yes, well, I suppose I should give him credit for that.” She settled back with a muffled groan and lifted her free hand to the constriction around her head. She discovered linen bandages and nothing else. “My hair?”
“Gone, my love.
”
This time she shed more than a few tears. “How dare that quack cut off my hair?”
Compassion softened Leath’s face. “Eleanor, sweetheart, don’t take on so.”
It was ridiculous to regret the trifling matter of a haircut when she’d nearly died, but she couldn’t muffle another sob. “This is a tragedy of epic proportions.”
She waited for mockery, but he sat beside her and drew her against him. This was what she’d wanted from the moment she’d woken, his nearness, his heat, the steadfast love in his touch. She rested her sore, shorn head on his shoulder in that special place meant just for her.
“Is that better?” he murmured, stroking her back through her nightdress.
“Yes,” she said shakily without shifting.
He kissed her hand again. “It will grow back.”
“In about a hundred years,” she muttered into his shirt. “You loved my hair.” Her tears had tested her. She was absurdly feeble.
His laugh was a low rumble in her ear and she pressed closer to the sound. “Not as much as I love you.”
Her distress faded. At last he’d said the words.
“Eleanor?” he whispered eventually. “Are you asleep?”
“No,” she murmured, floating between dark and light.
“I said I love you. Don’t you have something to say to me?”
She smiled into his neck. He smelled so wonderful there. The glorious essence of James. That scent alone was enough to bring her back from the grave. “Do I?”
His hold tightened a fraction. “Yes, you do.”
“You know how I feel about you,” she murmured, surprised she found energy to tease him.
“Tell me again.”
“You’ll become impossible.”
“Not if you have any say in the matter.”
“That’s true.” She nestled closer. She’d always loved his big, powerful body.
“Darling?” he asked softly. She realized she drifted off again. “Does that mean you’ll stay with me?”
“Of course,” she said without needing to consider her answer.