Not that Laura appeared particularly uncomfortable in his presence.

Indeed, one would never know by looking at her that she’d proposed marriage to him only a few days before.

As for Alex, he could think of little else.

Good God, he’d told her about the orphanage. He’d laid himself bare. And in response she’d offered him her family. She’d offered him herself.

It would be the ruination of him. To reach out and take what he wanted, absent the cold calculation that had guided his life since leaving North Devon. He couldn’t do it. A lifetime of gambling, and he simply couldn’t bring himself to take the risk.

A life with Laura would be too honest. Too real. She had the uncanny ability to strip away his defenses. To see right through him. He was bound to disappoint her in the end. To hurt her, or to be hurt in turn.

And he’d been hurt enough in his life.

“My brother is waiting upstairs,” she said. “If you wouldn’t mind helping him to the carriage? Yardley will carry out his chair.”

Alex gazed down at her. Was that a faint blush in her cheeks? Or merely a product of the excessive heat? The former, he suspected.

Which meant that she was thinking of him just as he was thinking of her.

The realization should have pleased him. He didn’t want to be easily dismissed or forgotten. Not by her. But he didn’t want her to suffer, either. To be uncomfortable or embarrassed because of something he’d done.

“Of course,” he said.

He left the ladies talking in the hall. Upstairs, Teddy was seated by the window in his wheeled chair. John Yardley, the Hayeses’ grizzled old manservant, stood nearby

“You’re here,” Teddy remarked as Alex entered his room. “I wondered if you’d keep your word.”

“That’s not a very flattering admission.”

“Why? Do you always keep your promises?”

“No,” Alex said. “But I mean to keep this one.” He looked about Teddy’s room. “Is there anything else you require? Paint pots? Brushes? An easel and canvas? A cat?”

“Magpie is in the kitchen with Mrs. Crabtree. She’s going to look after him while we’re gone. As for the rest, it’s already packed.” Teddy gestured in the direction of his bed. Two large bundles lay atop it. “Yardley is going to carry them down.”

Alex’s mouth quirked. “I wasn’t serious.”

“I am. Laura said I may sit on the shore and paint. She said you promised to stay with me in case I needed help, which I won’t. But if the tide should come in and my chair gets stuck—”

“I’ll remain beside you, whatever happens. Unless,” Alex added gravely, “you begin to bore me.”

“I’m only going for Laura’s sake.”

“As am I. If you’re quite ready?” Alex bent down to him.