Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [75]
“I need time, Raleigh.” She released her hand from his, brushed her fingertips across his brow, and rose. “I’ll stay in the house for the night in case you take a turn for the worse.” She left him before he could stop her again.
In the kitchen, his family huddled around the table. The room smelled of wood smoke, coffee, and the ever-present fish. Her mouth watered for a cup of the coffee, but her nose wrinkled at the fishy scent. She would need to go crabbing soon so she didn’t lose her taste for seafood. It was a staple of her diet there beside the ocean, and she’d never minded the odor until today.
Dominick always smelled like sandalwood, exotic and clean.
She shoved that disloyal thought aside and smiled at the Trowers. “He’ll be just fine.”
“Would you like me to walk you home then?” Mr. Trower asked, his face lighting with a smile.
“I think I should stay here rather than make you go out in this.” Tabitha pulled out a chair. “And in the event Raleigh needs me.”
“He always needs you, child.” Mrs. Trower rose and went to the hearth. “Coffee?”
“Please.” Tabitha ignored the immediate response that sprang into her head. If he always needed me, why did he leave me?
“I want to know who came and fetched you,” Mr. Trower said. “Why won’t you tell us?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Tabitha crossed the kitchen to take her coffee from Mrs. Trower. “He probably saved Raleigh’s life. If he’d lain out there all night, he’d have likely caught a lung fever in this weather.”
“He’s likely the man who hit him,” Felicity suggested. “Did Raleigh tell you?”
“He isn’t saying either way,” Tabitha admitted. “But we shouldn’t be leaping to conclusions.”
Yet she had, and now she felt heartsick over it. Her near accusation had hurt Dominick, had told him she didn’t trust him. He might decide she was someone to avoid in the future. That possibility left her feeling hollow, frightened.
“Him not saying either way just says he was up to no good.” Mr. Trower sighed. “Likely a meeting for a bout of fisticuffs to settle some spat with another young man.”
“And why would Raleigh be doing that?” Mrs. Trower demanded.
Mr. Trower glanced at Tabitha and winked. “Maybe over a pretty girl.”
“Nonsense.” Mrs. Trower slapped her hands onto her ample hips. “The only other young man looking Tabitha’s way is that redemptioner. And he’d be a fool to be out at night.”
“No sense in young men when it comes to a pretty girl.” Mr. Trower went to her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Do you remember Roger Tarr and the celebration of the end of the war?”
Mrs. Trower blushed and lost ten years off her looks as she smiled up at her spouse of twenty-six years.
Tabitha turned away. Her eyes burned. The fire blurred in the mist of tears glazing her vision. She tried to picture herself gazing up at Raleigh like that in twenty-six years, but the image wouldn’t form. If she married him, it would be for security and children, not for love and devotion.
Most women married for security and children. Most women didn’t have a skill they could practice to support themselves, and had to marry to survive. Most women, at the least, trusted the man they married, trusted him to stay, trusted him to be honest.
If Raleigh wasn’t lying to her, he was withholding a great deal of the truth. She knew Dominick was withholding a great deal of the truth. But lying? She supposed he might construct a claim that Raleigh wanted to harm him in order to win her sympathy or make her distrust Raleigh.
She wished he hadn’t been successful.
And for that reason, if nothing else, she needed to attempt to protect Dominick from the consequences of the night, if others continued to suspect he was involved.
“Mr. Trower, Mrs. Trower? Girls?” Tabitha faced the couple. “We really don’t know who struck Raleigh. I think we should keep speculation to ourselves or risk spreading possibly unfounded gossip.”
They nodded. She’d struck