“I’m glad.”
Encouraged, she took a deep breath. “Why… why did you stop?”
He turned toward her, but he didn’t quite look at her. Instead, he bent his head, staring at his hat in his lap. “You deserve a proper courtship,” he said simply. “And that means our first time ought to be after we’re married. Not against a wall in an abandoned hotel.” Suddenly, he smiled a little. “Besides, I didn’t want all the other times I actually did the honorable thing and stopped in time to have been wasted sacrifices.”
That made her laugh.
The carriage turned into the alley, and he lifted his head, looking at her at last, a direct, steady gaze that brought her amusement to an abrupt end and made her catch her breath. “I love you, you know.”
The carriage stopped, and the driver hopped down from the boxand opened the door before she could reply. They exited the vehicle, Kay’s mind still reeling.
He loved her still? After all this time? After everything that had happened? She stared at him, stunned, and she had no idea what to reply.
The accepted mode, of course, was to say she loved him, too, but was it love?
Thankfully, he didn’t seem to expect an answer, for he was already walking to the hotel’s back door.
She stared after him, unable to define what she felt right now. Glorious, alive, happy, still reeling from the incredible sensations he’d evoked in her, sensations she’d never even dreamed existed. Was that love, or was it infatuation and the euphoria of sated desire? Or worse, was it really just a desperate, grasping effort to recapture what they’d had and lost so long ago? She didn’t want to declare love unless she was sure, and she wasn’t sure.
She knew she was painfully vulnerable where he was concerned, that he could still make her head swim and take her breath away, and make her mad as a hornet. Was that love?
He paused by the door, opened it, and turned. “Are you coming?”
Dismayed that she was standing there like a lovestruck adolescent, she moved to follow, passing through the door he held open for her, trying to pretend a nonchalance completely at odds with her topsy-turvy emotions.
Still, despite her inability to define how she felt about Devlin, she knew she didn’t want this wonderful day to end, not quite yet. When they paused by her office door, she seized on an excuse and gestured to the corridor behind him. “I thought I’d fetch myletters,” she said. “The afternoon post is here by now, I expect.” She paused, took a breath, and added, “Walk with me?”
His smile was her reward, and the sight of it tilted her heart sideways. “What an excellent idea.”
They traversed the corridor side by side. Neither of them spoke, but it was, somehow, a companionable silence.
At the front desk, they each found a handful of letters awaiting them. Devlin, however, also had a cable.
“Came just ten minutes ago, Mr. Sharpe,” the clerk told him, holding out the folded slip of paper.
The moment Devlin opened it, Kay knew from his grim expression that something was terribly wrong.
“Not bad news, I hope?” she murmured, her joy in the day faltering.
He looked up, meeting her gaze, and her stomach clenched with dread. The news, whatever it was, was very bad indeed.
“There’s been a fire,” he said tersely, and looked down at the slip of paper in his hand. “My hotel in Cairo.”
“Oh, dear God. How awful.” Kay covered her mouth, dismayed and heartsick. “Have they put it out? Was anyone killed?”
“I don’t know if there’s any dead. But the fire doesn’t seem contained, since my secretary says other buildings are in danger as well. He advises me to return immediately.”
“Oh, Devlin, I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t reply. “The Calais-Méditerranée is probably the fastest way,” he murmured as if thinking out loud. “Six days… maybe eight.”
He looked at her again. “I’ve got to go to Cook’s at once and see what can be arranged. And I have to see Simon, let him know what’s happened.”
“Of course. You’ll let me know, once you…” She paused, her voice wobbling as it finally penetrated her shocked senses that he was leaving, and her heart sank.
He seemed to sense it. “I’m sorry.”
Kay took a breath, reminding herself that this was not the time for him to be thinking about her feelings. He didn’t need that burden after this devastating news. “There’s nothing to be sorry about, Devlin. You’ll…” She paused and swallowed hard. “You’ll let me know once you know your travel plans?”
