“Oh, oh no, I’d forgotten.” Evie actually paled, which made him feel a touch guilty.
“She’s not upset with you, Evie, she was only wondering where you were.”
She wasn’t listening to him. She passed her knife to Sophie and ran for the house.
“I should go with her,” Kate murmured and followed Evie into the house.
“She’ll feel terrible about that for days,” Mirabelle said with an accusing glance at Whit.
“I’ll speak with her, after you give me the knives.” He pointed a finger at her. “You made a promise not to fight with me.”
“I’m not fighting with you. I’m quietly disobeying,” she countered. “It’s entirely different.”
“Mirabelle.”
“Oh, all right.” She gave up her knife, but like Evie, she handed it to Sophie. “I should see if Lady Thurston requires more help, anyway.”
Whit watched her go, mostly because he just couldn’t seem to stop himself from looking at her. The slight limp did the most interesting things to her backside, and he had a brief image of following her inside and…
Damn it.
He spun away before he embarrassed himself and concentrated on his remaining opponent. It felt a bit off, giving orders to Sophie when Alex was right there, and she was such a stubborn creature to boot, almost as bad as the imp. But surely she could be made to see reason.
“For God’s sake Sophie, you…you’re….” He waved his hand in the general vicinity of her belly. “You know.”
She didn’t, apparently, because her only response was a blank stare. Feeling a little desperate—and not a little foolish—he tried the other hand, then both, then added in a jerk of his chin.
“I believe he means you’re with child,” Alex prompted with a grin.
“Oh, yes,” Sophie assured him without changing her expression. “I managed to translate that. Somehow. But I’m trying to fathom what one thing could possibly have to do with the other.”
“It’s just…” Wrong, he thought. So very, very wrong, on so very many levels. “Unsafe.”
Again, the blank look.
“You could be injured,” he added.
“For heaven’s sake,” she finally said on a laugh. “How?”
He honestly didn’t know, but he wasn’t about to admit to that. “I’d prefer not to dwell on it. Give me the knives, Sophie.”
“They’re daggers, actually, and I won’t give them to you because they belong to me.” She sighed and stepped over to pick a leather satchel off the ground. “But since you ran off my students, I might as well put them away for now.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say “for good” but he decided to swallow the argument and take the victory he’d been handed. Mostly.
“It would be appreciated if you were to keep them put away for the remainder of the house party.”
“Appreciated by whom? Certainly not Evie and Mirabelle. They’ve a right to learn how to best defend themselves.”
“They know how to best defend themselves—they come to me.”
“Or me,” Alex added, though from the amused look on his face, the comment wasn’t an indication he wished to join the argument, just add to it here and there.
“The two of you are not always available,” Sophie countered.
“Careful where you tread, Sophie,” Whit advised.
“I mean no offense. I know you to be the most faithful and reliable of brothers, Whit, and I can certainly attest that you’re the most protective of husbands, Alex, but you can’t be with every one of your women at every moment, can you?”
“If anyone ever attempted to harm one of you—”
“Then they might very well succeed if they caught Evie or Mirabelle alone, and there’d be nothing you could do but demand satisfaction after the fact. That would be gratifying, no doubt, but would hardly undo what had been done.”
“It’s my responsibility to see that they’re never in a position—”
“I know, and you do an admirable job of it. I don’t mean to argue with you—well, yes,” she amended after reconsidering, “I do, but I don’t wish to anymore. Consider what I’ve said, Whit.” She swept past him towards the house. “Even the most sheltered of women have had to face danger alone, and even the most trusted of men aren’t privy to every secret.”
“What the devil does that mean?” he called out to her retreating back. When she slipped inside without answering, he whirled on Alex. “What did she mean by that?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“She’s your wife.”
“Doesn’t mean I understand her half the time.” He gazed at the door Sophie had just passed through. “Amazing, isn’t she?”
“Delightful,” he ground out. “Has something happened to one of them?”
“Do you think I wouldn’t have told you, if I knew of such a thing?” Alex shot him a reprimanding look. “I’m not one of the women to be keeping secrets.”
Whit swore and dragged a hand through his hair.