“Hush, Ellie. Not so loud. The little nun may come back at any moment.” Bella’s voice. “He feels responsible, I suppose.”
“But why should he? She’s not one of us, is she? I mean, I know she was a nun and all that, but that doesn’t excuse what she did. Mariah Hicks told me that her mama has forbidden her to speak to Miss Hayward after this.”
“I’m not surprised. People have long memories and Jessica Hayward wore out her welcome here a long time ago. But there’s nothing wrong with her bloodlines, so I suppose she is one of us.”
“What do you think that man did to her?”
Bella exhaled a short, sharp breath. “I have no idea, but I’m sure that whatever it was, she brought it on herself.”
The door handle rattled and Jessica raised her lashes. Sister Brigid entered carrying a tray. Lucas’s mother was with her, and she was holding towels and a jug of steaming water.
“I met Sister Brigid on the stairs,” she said. “The poor girl’s hands were full, so I relieved her of these.” She set the towels and jug on the washstand. Jessica couldn’t keep her eyes open and her lashes swept down. “You know, Bella, I think you should assign a maid to run and fetch for Sister Brigid. It would be too distressing for Jessica if
she should awaken to find herself alone in unfamiliar surroundings.”
“But I did assign a maid!” Bella made a small sound of exasperation. “The stupid girl was probably detained by one of my other guests and did not know how to get out of it. Well, it’s not surprising. The house is like a hostelry this morning, with everyone breakfasting at different times before they set off for town. I really shouldn’t be here. There are a score of things that require my attention. I’ll look in later once things have quieted down.”
After Bella had left, Mrs. Wilde said, “How is Jessica this morning?”
Sister Brigid set her tray on the table beside the bed. “She had a restless night, but the doctor says that she’s not seriously hurt. She should be on her feet in a day or two.”
“Thank God for that! Come, Ellie, I’m sure we’re only in the way here. Oh, Sister Brigid, please tell Jessica that I hope her recovery is swift. Poor child, she looks as though she has been at the wars.”
The door closed. There was a moment of silence, then, “Assigned a maid, indeed! If she did, I never saw her! The sooner we’re back at Hawkshill …” Sister Brigid stopped. “Oh, Sister Martha,” she said. “You’re awake.”
Lucas did not come to see Jessica until late that afternoon. She was taking tea, sitting at her bedroom window in a borrowed dressing gown with her arm in a sling when he was shown in. She’d slept for most of the day, and though she was eager to see him and greeted him with a smile, her head still throbbed and her side jarred every time she tried to move. But it wasn’t only the pain that made her stiff and slow. Her ribs were bound so tightly that she could hardly fill her lungs with air.
He spoke in pleasantries for a moment or two, then asked Sister Brigid if she would mind giving him a few minutes’ private conversation with her patient. Jessica carefully set her cup on its saucer and nodded her assent.
She was as anxious to speak privately with Lucas as he was with her.
He was smiling when he pulled up a chair and sat facing her. “I understand from Dr. Vale,” he said, “that your injuries amount to one sprained wrist, possibly some bruised ribs and several scrapes and cuts?”
“Never mind that now,” she said. “Tell me about Mr. Stone. Did you find him?”
“Ah yes, Mr. Stone. The young man who tried to lure you to his carriage.”
There was something about Lucas that puzzled Jessica. No spark of sympathy warmed his eyes. She said carefully, “He may not be using that name now.”
“Why should he not? Has he done something wrong?”
His voice was laden with enough sarcasm to make her wary. She cleared her throat and said, “What happened, Lucas? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. In fact, everything is fine. I’m satisfied now that I know exactly what happened. Last night you were not coherent. Oh, I’m not saying you told any lies. Let’s just say I misunderstood you, shall we, Jess?”
She started to say something and faltered. Though his words were cordial, his manner frightened her. “You found Mr. Stone and he denied everything. Is that it?”
“I found him all right, and in essentials your stories are the same.”
“He confessed? What did he say?”
“You shall hear for yourself.”
She frowned when he rose and went to the door, then she jerked in shock when she recognized the young man who entered at Lucas’s bidding. Rodney Stone was the picture of a guilty schoolboy. His face was flushed; his shoulders were hunched; he could hardly look her in the eye.
“My dear Miss Hayward,” he said, then stammered to a halt. “My dear Miss Hayward,” he said, “I hardly know how to begin to apologize. All I can say in my own defense
is that I mistook … that is … I should never have tried to kiss you.”
Not for one moment did Jessica believe this contrite mask. She looked appealingly at Lucas and cried out, “He tried to drag me into his carriage!”
Mr. Stone said quickly, “You told me you were feeling faint. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Lucas said quietly, “Is that true, Jess?”
“Yes, but that was only a subterfuge to make him think I was helpless. I wanted to take him off guard.” Her breasts rose and fell, and she used her good arm to support her ribs. “When I pushed him away—”
“
Pushed
him, Jess?” Lucas’s expression was as hard as flint. “Didn’t you, in fact, attack Mr. Stone?”
“Yes,” she cried out, “because I knew he was up to no good. He came after me, Lucas. He and his coachman both.”
“I talked to the coachman,” said Lucas, “and he’s above suspicion. He’s worked at the local livery stable for more than a year. He didn’t come after you, Jess. He didn’t even see you.”
Mr. Stone said, “I knew you had panicked, and I feared you would come to grief. I’m truly sorry that my actions, which were meant for the best, only added to your terror. I had no idea that you really thought I meant to harm you. To be perfectly frank, I thought the best thing I could do was leave. And that is what I did.”
She looked directly at Rodney Stone. “If Sir Matthew and Lucas had not found me when they did, you would have abducted me in that carriage.”
A look of horror crossed Mr. Stone’s face. “Miss Hayward, you are mistaken.” He looked at Lucas. “I made no attempt to abduct Miss Hayward. We went for a walk. That’s all.”
“You lured me! You told me that you were unwell.”
“And so I was, but the walk in the fresh air cleared my head.”
“He deliberately lured me to his carriage, Lucas.”
Mr. Stone looked helplessly at Lucas. “I should never have tried to kiss her, sir.” He squared his shoulders. “Naturally, I shall make whatever amends you see fit.”
Jessica felt a knot of dread in the pit of her stomach when she saw the cold, set expression on Lucas’s face. Then he turned to Mr. Stone and the hardness melted.
“This has all been a most unfortunate misunderstanding,” he said. “Any normal girl would have known not to go so far from the house, but Miss Hayward has led a more sheltered existence than most. The less said about this business the better. I shall tell our friends that Miss Hayward went for a walk and lost her way. And that is no more, no less than the truth.”
“You may count on my discretion, sir. Miss Hayward, my humble apologies. The error was all mine. I mean that most sincerely.”
Lucas was staring at Jessica, daring her to contradict him. “We accept your apology. Good day to you, Mr. Stone.”
Mr. Stone bowed. “Lord Dundas. Miss Hayward.”
Before the door had closed, Jessica was trying to rise. She managed to get to her feet, but she had to brace herself against the table for support. “Lucas, you can’t let him leave just like that.”
“Give me one good reason to stop him.”
“He’s distorting the truth!”
“Is he lying?”
“Not in so many words. But I know what I know!”
“Did you or did you not go with him to his carriage?”
“You know I did, but I didn’t realize we were making for his carriage.”
“Did you tell him that you felt faint?”
“Yes, but that was to get away from him. I didn’t trust him.”
“Yet you trusted him enough to go with him to an
unlit part of the drive. What made you change your mind?”
She’d changed her mind because she’d had a sudden and overpowering sense of evil. She’d known that her Voice had set a trap for her. She’d felt his presence, his determination, and finally his anger.
None of this could be confided to anyone, least of all the man who was staring at her with such scorn. She collapsed into her chair and stifled a whimper as the dull pain in her side suddenly flared.
“He changed,” she said weakly. “He wasn’t as nice as he’d been before. A woman knows about such things. Call it instinct or intuition, but I knew he was up to no good.”
“He tried to kiss you, and you panicked. Now that, I might be prepared to accept.”
She said vehemently, “Would I have been so desperate to escape from him if that’s all it was?”
He boxed her in by bracing one hand on each armrest. “Do you know what I think, Jessica, what I
really
think?”
She shook her head.
“I think you were so angry with me that you tried to pay me back by going off with Mr. Stone. I think you may have flirted with him and got more than you bargained for.”
Her voice was no more than a shaken whisper. “I wasn’t angry with you, Lucas. If I was angry with anyone, it was with myself. I’d hoped for too much. I wanted … well, it doesn’t matter what I wanted. But I swear I wasn’t angry with you.”
He straightened and gazed down at her with a perplexed frown. “You weren’t trying to make me jealous?”
“No, Lucas.”
“Or pay me back?”
“No.”
“You didn’t flirt with him?”
“No! Is that why you’re so angry with me?”
He let out a long sigh. “God, I don’t know what I think anymore.”
She watched him as he stood there, staring out the window, and she said softly, “Why do you believe him before you believe me?”
He turned back to her. “I don’t, Jess. I think you are both telling the truth as you see it.”
“He’s lying, Lucas,” she said simply.
“Jess …” He shook his head and let out another long sigh. “Listen to me. Would a man who had tried to abduct you hang around Chalford for your friends to apprehend him? Would he come here today and offer marriage to make amends? I, for one, cannot believe it.”
Her eyes widened. “Offer marriage? He wouldn’t go that far.”
“But he did—didn’t you hear him?—when he said he’d make amends in any way I saw fit?”
She hadn’t understood the reference, but now that Lucas had pointed it out to her, she didn’t know what to think.
She put her hand to her throbbing temples. “I thought …”
“What did you think?”
She tried to recall the exact sequence of events of last night. If she were detached, she would have to say that Mr. Stone hadn’t forced her to go with him, or attacked her. He’d done no more than try to kiss her. In fact, she had attacked him. But she wasn’t detached, and she knew what she knew.
Or did she?
She had been so sure of what her senses told her when she’d seen the carriage, but now Lucas was forcing her to see things in a different light. Was she mistaken about Mr. Stone? She might admit to that much, but she wasn’t mistaken about her Voice. Last night she’d heard him loud and clear.
She jumped when Lucas suddenly sat down beside her
and took her good hand. “Jess,” he said, and shook his head.
“What?” His smile looked unnatural, strained, and that alarmed her even more. “What is it, Lucas? Tell me!”
“You were making great strides until this unfortunate incident. The people of Chalford had come to accept you. They like you, Jess.”
He seemed to have difficulty finding the words and she said nervously, “And I like them, too. Go on.”
“There’s bound to be talk after last night.” He was frowning down at her hand. “Don’t ask me why, but people always blame the woman in such cases.”
“I thought you blamed me, too. You were so angry.”
He smiled ruefully. “I was angry because I’ve been up all night, worrying about all the things that might have happened to you. If I blame anything, it’s your inexperience. You’re too trusting. But that’s not the point I am trying to make.”
“What is the point?”
“The point is, you can’t remain at Hawkshill forever. You are not a nun, Jess, and you’ll never be a nun. The sisters know this. You’re not even baptized in the Catholic faith. You’re Church of England, the same as I.” He stopped abruptly and uttered an unintelligible sound, then said, “How the devil did I get onto that? I’m not explaining myself very well. What I wanted to say was, you must think about your future and what you will do, where you will go when you leave Hawkshill. Jess, I have a solution.”
His nervousness alarmed her. Her head began to swim, and she put a hand to her brow to steady herself. “But Lucas, the convent is all I know.”
“That’s what I mean. It’s not enough, Jess, and—My God, you’re trembling.”
He rose abruptly, poured a glass of water from the
carafe on the table and raised it to her lips. “Drink,” he said.
She took a few sips, but her stomach began to heave and she pushed his hand away. “I think,” she said, “you had better send Sister Brigid to me. I’m going to be sick.”
When Lucas entered Bella’s drawing room, the buzz of conversation immediately ceased. They were all taking tea—Rupert, Adrian, Perry, Bella and Ellie. When she saw him, Ellie jumped up and ran toward him. “I wanted to see you, but everyone said I should stay here until you had talked to that woman.”
She looked pale and Lucas touched her frown with one careless finger. “That woman has a name, Miss Hayward, and to please me, you will use it, Ellie.”
He took the chair between Adrian and Rupert. “Where is my mother?”
Rupert said, “Sir Matthew came by and drove her home.”
Lucas turned to stare at Rupert. “Sir Matthew? And she went with him?” “Why shouldn’t she?”