“How did he do that?” the inspector demanded. “You were standing right there!”
“I’m sorry, sir. He was just still for the longest time, then he threw up the thongs and ran.”
The Inspector groaned. “Well, there is nothing for it. We can’t take the time to pursue him now. It will be dark soon, and we cannot leave the Duchess here alone. Where has that fool stableman gotten to?”
“Here, sir,” the stableman came into sight, followed by the four Cory brothers. “Can’t get a cart up that track, Inspector, and we cain’t hardly take Her Grace down a-horseback in her condition. So the gentlemen will carry her down on a stretcher.”
Betty, who had been following the gentlemen, swung down off her horse and ran to the woman they had believed to be a Duchess. Blood soaked all of her garments now, and a great deal of the ground around her.
The Duchess opened her eyes as Betty knelt beside her head. “Betty. I yelled at you. Why are you here?”
“You certainly did yell at me, but as one woman to another I am here to help. I think you have lost your baby, Your Grace.”
“Oh. Good.” The Duchess closed her eyes. “Well, that is one thing accomplished at least. I never want to have children.” Then she fell back into stillness.
Betty sighed. “Them as can, don’t want to. Isn’t it an amazing world. Avert your eyes, gentlemen.”
Working quickly, Betty removed the Duchess’s soiled skirts and straightened her limbs as best she could. She then wrapped her nether regions in a clean sheet. A sheet, it might be added, that came from Betty’s own bed where she knew that she had slept and taken no harm.
With the lady properly shrouded from masculine eyes, Betty elicited and received help loading the Duchess into the stretcher so the men could bear her down the mountain and back to the castle.
Chapter 52
During the hours that Inspector Ravensgard pursued the Duchess and Warner, Celeste sat with the Duke. She held his hand, completely oblivious of what anyone thought, indeed of anything going on around the two of them. She had only eyes for the gaunt man lying on the makeshift bed in the servants’ dining hall. It was an unlikely place for a Duke, but no one thought anything of it.
The upper serving staff dined with the lower in their dining room, not begrudging the space to the gentleman. After a time, Sally Ann came in. She seated herself near Celeste.
“How is he?” she whispered.
“He is awake and can speak for himself,” said the Duke. “I have found the perfect excuse for being cosseted by every lady in Castle Gwyndonmere.”
“At far too high a price, Your Grace,” Celeste reproved gently. “We so very nearly lost you.”
“I’ll admit,” Jonathan replied, “I’d prefer to offer them chocolates and Christmas shawls or somesuch. But I am happy to gain such indulgences as I can.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who he was when you pulled me out of the Lolly Mire,” Sally Ann apologized. “I wus scairt that he or his ma would hurt me. I din’ know he wus gonna hurt other people.”
“Did you tell someone, Sally Ann?” Celeste asked.
The girl nodded. “I told the Inspector, just now. He walked here with me ‘cause he was afraid the ‘nasty piece of work’, as he called him, might hurt me or the sisters. I came with Mother Sarah. She stopped downstairs to trade jam recipes with the cook.”
“His mother.” The Duke fixed his eyes on Sally Ann. “Did you say he or his mother?”
“Yes, Your Grace. His mother works here in the castle.”
“Who is she? I thought I knew all the families who serve me.”
“She’s the Duchess’s laundry woman, Your Grace. She’s got a delicate way with silk stockings, but a heavy hand with the help. Us younger ones dursn’t tell Mr. Hammonds, ‘cause she has a way of getting back an’ she has the Duchess’s protection.”
The Duke pushed himself up on his elbows. “How can these things be happening under my roof?” he tried to bellow, but it came out more like a hoarse croak.
“Lie still, Your Grace. The doctor’s orders are that you should not be excited.” Celeste placed a gentle hand on the Duke’s shoulder. “Sally Ann, will you step to the door and send for Mr. Hammonds? I think it is time he knew of this.”
Sally Ann needed only to step to the door to find Mr. Hammonds. The elderly butler had been hovering just outside, keeping one ear out for the Duke and Celeste while fixing the Father Jacob and Sister Agatha, who had been left to guard the door, with a disapproving stare.
He scarcely waited for Sally Ann to open her mouth and say, “Mr. Hammonds…” before he was in the room and closing the door behind him.
Now that there was someone ready to listen, Sally Ann twisted her fingers together, too nervous to speak.
