The Other Side - J. D. Robb [60]
“The thing is, my dear, it is both Freeba’s and the nurse’s half day off, so I had to choose outerwear myself, and then I stayed to make sure the second nurse knew what she was doing. I left Cameron asleep with Nurse Stepp due back within the hour.”
“Oh, Harry, I am sure you handled the upset perfectly. I am the one who is making a mess of things. I cannot think what we will do.”
“Nonsense. It’s never as bad as you think.”
His confidence was such a comfort that tears filled her eyes.
“For God sake, Bettina, do not cry. That would be an even greater disaster.” Harry looked around the space as if making sure no one was watching them. “I took care of Cameron exactly as you instructed, and now you must trust me that this will resolve itself. I can tell you exactly what to say.”
Harry was about to go on, but Bettina interrupted him. “I’m afraid that I cannot handle the pose here. If I stand and speak whenever I am angry, I am sure to find more trouble for you.”
“Trust me, Bettina. Together we can find a solution, and it will be forgotten in a day. Less than a day.”
Bettina took both his hands as it struck her that this was what trust was. It was easy to trust when you heard proof as she had from Baron Helder at the Daltons’ dinner. A situation like the one they were facing right now took trust from the heart.
“Yes, yes,” Bettina said with a surge of trust and love so powerful that anything seemed possible. “The two of us together can do anything. Oh, Harry, I do trust you. I trust you completely.”
At that moment the oddest thing happened. As they held hands, Bettina felt a shift, a massive shift of vigor between them. It was the same vortex she had felt once before, but this time she felt no fear at its onset, only elation. Yes, she trusted Harry completely, not only with her life but with her heart and her future.
When she was again aware of her surroundings, Harry was kneeling beside her, a crowd of anxious faces above him. But Harry was all she cared about. Harry in his own body, in his superfine green wool coat, with the cravat choking him just as it had choked her. Bettina decided that she must have fainted. Harry lifted her into his arms and carried her into the cloakroom nearby.
“Are you all right?” they asked each other in unison. Bettina threw her arms around his neck. They laughed and kissed and kissed and laughed with more relief than passion.
Any number of people may have witnessed the faint, but not a one of them could have guessed at the real reason for it. Assuring everyone she was well and felt fine, Bettina insisted that she would watch the rest of the session from the gallery, telling Harry that she did not care a whit if “it calls into question my sensibilities.”
As Harry walked with her back toward the stairs to the gallery, Osterman came up to him.
When Bettina would have moved away, Harry held on to her arm. “My lord Osterman, my apologies if I embarrassed you. But you called it on yourself by making a statement guaranteed to alienate votes. We need the support of every man we can find, even men like Wilberforce.”
Osterman made a series of blustering, unintelligible sounds and ended with, “Just stop sounding like a damned abolitionist. At least until we have this funding passed.”
Harry turned to Bettina, kissed her fingers, and smiled, his eyes telling her, You see how easy that was to fix? She smiled back and went up the stairs to the gallery as happy as she had been in at least six months, possibly her whole life.
It was a long day and had been an even longer week, so it made perfect sense for Bettina and Harry to agree that they should retire early that evening.
As they walked upstairs to bed, Harry reminded her, “Now my dear, we must be very careful not to wish for anything again.”
“Why would I?” she asked. “I have everything I could possibly want.”
They kissed outside her bedroom, a deep, drugging kiss, a code Harry had long ago developed to tell her that he wanted to share his bed with her. With a smile she could not control, Bettina hurried