“It happened in a hell of particularly low repute. Mr. Stassart was playing at cards with several others. There was a heated argument, then a fellow leaped at Mr. Stassart with a knife,” said Lord Mays briefly.
Lucinda was shocked. Little as she liked her cousin, it was still an unpleasant jolt to hear that he had been hurt. She started toward the drawing room door. “We must have him in at once.”
Lord Mays caught Lucinda’s elbow and stayed her. He shook his head. “You shouldn’t see him, Lucinda. Not at all the sight for a gently bred female. He should have a physician to attend him first.”
Lucinda looked into his worried gold-brown eyes and realized that he wanted to spare her. She was touched by his obvious concern for her sensibilities. “If you think it best, Wilfred, then I shan’t. I shall have Church get two of the footmen to carry him upstairs immediately.”
Lord Mays nodded and released her. She stepped past him to open the door and call for the butler.
“I shall go find Mrs. Beeseley and have her see to a room,” said Miss Blythe. Lord Mays nodded and watched as Miss Blythe made a quick exit; she murmured an apology and an explanation as she stepped past Lucinda and the butler in the doorway.
“Thank you, Tibby,” said Lucinda and swiftly finished outlining the situation for the sharply attentive butler. “Have a physician sent for also, Church,” she concluded. “Lord Mays informs me that it would be best.”
“At once, my lady!” The butler raced away. He could be heard calling for his subordinates and issuing swift orders.
Shutting the door, Lucinda turned once more to Lord Mays. She noted the pallor of his complexion, and immediately her concern was aroused. “Are you perfectly all right, Wilfred? Shall I pour you some coffee? But it may be a bit tepid. Perhaps a glass of brandy?” As she had spoken, she had crossed over to the sideboard to lay hand on a decanter of wine.
Lord Mays ran a slightly shaking hand over his sandy hair. “I shall have the brandy, I think. Peculiar, I had thought the memories safely shut away, but I fear I have been caught off guard by this thing.”
He laughed half ashamedly at himself, watching her pour the wine. “Having survived Waterloo, it is odd that I could become so rattled at the sight of a bit of blood. But I had not thought to see such stuff again. Stupid of me, I know.”
“Not at all,” said Lucinda warmly. She pressed a glass into his hand. “I think it speaks quite highly of your sensitivity. I honor you for it, my lord.”
He flushed. Without responding, he tossed back a measure of the brandy. When he had set down the glass, he said, “I would have taken Mr. Stassart to my own lodgings, but I am in such cramped quarters that there would be no doing anything for him there.”
“Your lodgings!”
Chapter Sixteen
Startled, Lucinda realized that Mays House had not been the closest place of succor. If Lord Mays had bypassed his own lodgings to bring her cousin to her, then he had also passed her cousin’s lodgings as well, for the two gentlemen resided within a mere block of one another.
“But whyever did you not take him to his own lodgings, pray?”
Lord Mays coughed delicately behind his hand. “Fellow told me that his pockets are all to let and that the tipsters are looking for him. He daren’t return to his own lodgings until he brings himself about.”
“That sounds very like Ferdie,” said Lucinda. The thought came to her suddenly. She cast a sharp glance at Lord Mays. “At whose suggestion was it decided to bring my cousin here?”
“Why, I suppose Mr. Stassart voiced it. Of course, I saw at once it was just the thing to do since he is your father’s heir as well as your cousin,” said Lord Mays.
Lucinda gave a laugh. “Did he assure you that he was my father’s heir even as he lay bleeding all over the hackney seat? That does indeed sound just like Ferdie!”
Lord Mays began to look slightly anxious. “Have I not done as I should, then? Should I not have brought your cousin here?”
Lucinda made haste to reassure him. “No, you did just right, Wilfred. It is just that I am rather suspicious of anything that my cousin has managed to turn to his own benefit. Ferdie has a habit of taking advantage of one’s good nature and compassion. If he was not so seriously wounded as you seem to think, I would be tempted to send him straight back to his lodgings to face the consequences of his folly. He is something of a wastrel, as you know. I have regretted for many years that he is my father’s heir, for he has abused the position any number of times.”
“I see,” said Lord Mays slowly. He shot a keen look at Lucinda’s face. A frown gathered in his own eyes. “If the fellow gives you trouble, Lucinda, you have only to apply to me. I am responsible, after all, for bringing Stassart to your house.”
Lucinda placed her hand on his lordship’s arm. “You are very good, Wilfred. I do most highly value your friendship. Be assured, I will not hesitate to call upon you if I should ever find myself in difficulties.”
Lord Mays grinned in his crooked, attractive fashion. He was relieved that she was not annoyed with him for his unwitting blunder. He reached over to catch hold of her hand and lifted her fingers briefly to his lips. “I shall leave you to it, then. After bringing such unexpected trouble to you, I daren’t take the chance that I shall somehow offend you further!”
Lucinda smiled. “I can’t think how you could possibly offend me, sir. But nevertheless I shall not hold you with me any longer. No doubt I shall be called upon before many more minutes to go up to my cousin.”
At that instant the door was impetuously thrown open.
Miss Mays stood framed on the threshold. She was clutching an embroidered robe tight to her throat. Her hair was tumbled down over her shoulders and her brown eyes were wide and luminous. Altogether she presented quite a different picture from the shivering, mousey-looking female who had arrived not two hours before.
Lucinda stared, amazed. She glanced at Lord Mays and she saw that he, also, was staring at the young woman.
There was a look of astonishment and appreciation in his eyes.
Lucinda was startled by the little leap of envy within her. Surely she was not so self-centered that she could not bear for her friend to regard another female with approbation.
“Lady Mays!” Miss Mays uttered. “Lady Mays, there is a wounded man in the bedchamber opposite mine and—”
It was then that Miss Mays saw that Lucinda was not alone. Color surged into her face under the gentleman’s interested gaze. She looked prepared either to flee or to faint, if she could but make up her mind which was the more appropriate.
Lucinda took the decision out of her hands. “Pray come in, Agnes,” she said calmly.
Miss Mays gasped and shrank back. “Oh no, no!”
Lucinda walked over and grasped the young woman’s limp wrist. Without apology she drew Miss Mays into the room. “Do not be afraid. It is only your cousin, Lord Wilfred Mays. Lord Mays has been kind enough to bring
my
cousin, Mr. Stassart, here after he was hurt. My lord, naturally you will recall my sister-in-law. Miss Agnes Mays?”
“Of course I do, though it has been years. Good evening, Cousin Agnes.”
Lord Mays made his bow over Miss Mays’s trembling hand. He smiled at her and commented with unthinking appreciation, “Pretty wrapper, that. It becomes you.”
“Oh!” Miss Mays flushed brighter. “I should not have ... oh, I am so mortified! Pray ... pray excuse me!” She snatched her hand from Lord Mays and fled.
Lord Mays gazed after her in the liveliest dismay. “I say, I never meant to put her out of countenance like that. I only meant to compliment her.”
“It is perfectly all right. Agnes is exceedingly retiring and shy. I imagine it was quite disconcerting to her to be seen abroad with her hair down and
en dishabille
by her manly cousin,” said Lucinda, chuckling.
Lord Mays was much struck. It was his turn to flush. “Quite right, too! Not at all the thing. It is not like we have lived in one another’s pockets all of our lives. I avoided Mays like the plague when I was on the town, and I never saw his sister, either. Pray convey my apologies, Lucinda. I shall not be able to look her in the face, even though she is my cousin!”
“I shall do so, of course. However, you shall have to face Agnes again sometime, for I am hoping to bring her out this Season,” said Lucinda.
Lord Mays looked at her fixedly. “You are? Whatever for? Why, she must surely be past the age of making her bows.”
“Agnes is nine-and-twenty, and the poor girl has never been presented. Perhaps you do not know, since you were not intimate with that branch of the family, and then later during the war were abroad,” said Lucinda. “Agnes was kept close at home to nurse each of her parents through their last lingering illnesses and no one made the least push to do anything for her on her own account.”
Lucinda forbore to mention the most glaring omission in Miss Mays’s history, but it was an unnecessary discretion. Her companion was not a fool.
“Her brother would not have bothered with her, of course, for she isn’t a raving beauty,” said Lord Mays, unerringly cutting to the truth.
Lucinda shrugged. It would be useless to try to wrap it up in pretty words. “Precisely. Since her parents died, Agnes was employed as companion to an elderly aunt.” She turned out her hands. “So you see—”
“My Aunt Sophronia, do you mean?” exclaimed Lord Mays in tones of liveliest horror. “What a hellish thing!”
“Oh, do you know the lady?” asked Lucinda with not a little curiosity. “I do not believe that I ever met her.”
“You would recall the incident if you had! There never lived such an out-and-out tartar! A tongue that cut like a razor and a meanness that oozed out of her fingertips,” he exclaimed.
“That sounds quite an accurate description if I may believe all that Agnes related to us,” said Lucinda.
“She was all that and more,” Lord Mays assured her. “My mother used to take me to see her. I was never more glad in my life when I attained my majority and I was able to tell my mother that I didn’t care whether the old witch left me anything or not, I had seen the last of her!”
“Your cousin’s experience of the lady was by far the worse,” said Lucinda. She proceeded to tell to him all that Miss Mays had been led to confide to her and Miss Blythe.
Lord Mays shook his head, glancing again at the door through which Miss Mays had fled so precipitously. “Poor Cousin Agnes! She has led a dog’s life! I feel for her, let me tell you!”
“Indeed she has, and that is precisely the reason that I have decided to do my best on her behalf,” said Lucinda.
“That is deuced decent of you, Lucinda,” said Lord Mays with warm approval. “The poor girl needs a bit of sympathy and support.”
“Yes, indeed.” Lucinda was struck with an inspired thought. It was not at all out of the realm of possibility that Lord Mays could turn out to be the prince that Miss Blythe pronounced to be necessary for Miss Mays’s happiness. The two were not first cousins, and it was not unknown for a contract to be gotten up between such parties. Certainly it would not hurt to nudge things in that direction, Lucinda thought, for his lordship’s sympathies had already been aroused.
“Your cousin has been employed as the family’s nurse since she was a girl, and so she has not the least notion in how to go on,” said Lucinda. “In all honesty I am a little anxious in how she will be received. I hope that you at least will be kind to her, Wilfred, and help her to avoid any major social embarrassment.”
“You may depend upon it! The poor girl. We must all do our best for her,” said Lord Mays, his kind heart stirred to its depths.
Miss Blythe came back to the drawing room to inform Lucinda and Lord Mays that the physician had arrived. “The man has assured me that Mr. Stassart does not appear at first glance to be in alarming straits. He says that Mr. Stassart’s color is actually quite good given the circumstances,” she said.
“That is good news, Miss Blythe.” Lord Mays turned to Lucinda, saying cheerfully, “Perhaps the fellow will not be the burden that you were dreading he would be, after all, Lady Mays. A bandage or two and you may send your cousin on his way.”
“That would be wonderful, indeed!” agreed Lucinda.
She met Miss Blythe’s thoughtful gaze and realized that her companion was also thinking of Mr. Weatherby’s warning. If
Ferdie was indeed plotting to force her into wedlock through gossip and scandal, this situation was ready-made to his hand. It would behoove her to see that her cousin was out of her house as quickly as possible.
“I should like to see Ferdie back on his feet in the shortest amount of time,” said Lucinda.
“Hear, hear,” murmured Miss Blythe.
“Oh, Stassart will be up and about before you know it. I’ve seen fellows worse off, having lost arms or legs, who made absolutely amazing recoveries,” said Lord Mays, anxious to reassure.
Lucinda laughed. Her blue eyes were dancing as she replied, “Thank you, sir! I am glad to hear that I need have nothing to worry about since my cousin is sound of limb!”
Lord Mays saw that she had fallen into a teasing mood. “You are roasting me. Well, I do not mind it. I like to see you laughing.”
Lucinda could feel her color unaccountably rise. “It is just that I am so easy with you that you dare to be so familiar, sir!”
“Yes, and I like that, too,” said Lord Mays with what she considered to be an outrageous wink.
On that salutatory note, Lord Mays decided that it was as good a time as any to take his leave. He bowed and said good night to Miss Blythe. He was gratified when the stern-faced companion nodded to him in a friendly manner. He was beginning to recognize that the older lady was not half as formidable as he had once thought.
Lucinda saw his lordship out with unimpaired composure. Upon his reiteration that he had not meant to bring trouble to her in the person of Mr. Stassart, Lucinda again set his anxiety to rest.
“Ferdie is my cousin, after all. I could not have turned him away from my door. Not, at any rate, when he is wounded,” she said, smiling.
Lord Mays grinned crookedly. “No, you could not have done it. Your heart is too sympathetic for that. However, take heed of what I say, Lucinda. I shall be over in a trice to deal with Stassart if he sets himself up to be a burden to you.”