The steely thread of determination was back in her voice.
‘Neither am I.’
He could sense her eyes on him. He could see the vague outline of her standing stiffly in front of him, with the tray in her hands. He wished he could see her face, see those flashing toffee-brown eyes and the shape of her lips. But wishing was not going to bring his eyesight back. Only time could do that.
Ruby left the library and took the tray back to the kitchen. Thankfully, her gran wasn’t there, so she’d have some time to process her thoughts over Lucas’s revelation.
It was such a shock to think of him without his sight. To think of a man who had built a global career on constructing beautiful gardens for his clients no longer being able to see anything but vague shapeless outlines.
He was a proud man who had locked himself away from the public eye while he waited to see if his eyesight would return.
What if it didn’t?
Her heart squeezed at the thought of him robbed of such a vital sense. How would he run his business? How would he be able to design gardens if he could only see shapes but no definition? He was a man who attended to detail. He was meticulous and thorough in all he did. Now it all hung in the balance while he waited to find out if his sight would return.
She mentally retraced every word of her interaction with him and a wave of shame coursed through her. If she hadn’t been so focussed on delivering her proposal she might have picked up on the clues a little earlier. He was wearing sunglasses. He was sitting in the darkened library with no book in his hands or on the table beside his chair. There was not a mobile phone or laptop in sight—things that rarely left his side when he was working on multiple projects.
He had touched her hand whilst reaching for the teacup.
He’d touched her...
Ruby looked down at her hand and flexed her fingers where his hand had so briefly lain. A shiver shimmied down her spine and she closed her hand into a fist, trying to stop the fizzing sensation that lingered in her flesh from the heat of his touch.
She gave herself a stern mental shake and left the kitchen to fetch the first aid kit from the downstairs bathroom. She opened the bathroom door, but then caught a glimpse of herself in the gilt-edged mirror over the basin and suppressed a groan at the sight of her pink cheeks.
She wasn’t the blushing sort when it came to interacting with men.
But with Lucas...
Ruby released a shuddering sigh and pulled open the cupboard below the basin to find the kit. She had to get a grip on herself. Because she was not leaving Rothwell Park until she had his agreement on the wedding, and nor was she leaving her gran on her own. Leaving without his agreement would be failing—and she could not fail.
This wedding was her chance—to help expand Happy Ever After Weddings This was her chance to build the sort of financial security that would allow her to put her poverty-stricken past well and truly behind her. The potential was at her fingertips, and she couldn’t allow Lucas to snatch it away from her.
Besides, Lucas clearly needed more support than he was currently receiving. She could offer it at the same time as helping her gran...
Ruby found her gran in the sitting room in the servants’ quarters. It was only used by Beatrice these days, and was comfortable in a spartan way, which was how her gran preferred it.
‘You could’ve given me the heads-up about Lucas’s condition,’ Ruby said, and set the first aid kit on the lamp table next to her gran’s armchair.
‘It’s not my place to be revealing the master’s private information.’
‘I would never tell anyone.’
Her gran narrowed her eyes. ‘What about those friends of yours? And all those social media things you’re on? One slip of the tongue and the world’s press would be on the doorstep.’
‘They won’t hear it from me.’
Ruby opened the first aid kit and took out antiseptic wash and some cotton wool pads.
If by some miracle Delphine’s wedding went ahead, the world’s press would indeed be on the doorstep. But there was no point discussing that with her gran—not until she was sure Lucas could be won over.
Her gran winced as Ruby wrapped a crepe bandage around her wrist. ‘Not too tight,’ she said through pinched lips.
Ruby unwound the bandage a little, a frown tugging at her brow. ‘I’m going to take you to the doctor right now. The sooner you have this seen to, the sooner it will get better. You can’t risk losing your arm.’
‘Don’t be daft. I won’t be losing my arm...’ But her gran’s tone had a tremulous note of worry in it that hadn’t been there before.
Ruby secured the bandage and met her gran’s troubled gaze. ‘This has to be seen to today. I’ve done first aid, Gran, so I know a bad burn when I see it.’