David’s stomach growled. “Mansfield, Templeton, or I always accompany the girls at night. No matter where their entertainment takes them. Always armed with at least a knife.”
Ashley quickly peeled the orange and set it on a dish with the last of the cheese and a roll, tossed the cloth that was on his face into the basin, and helped rearrange the pillows so he could sit up to eat. “But breaking into Rupert’s chamber, in costume, to scare him? That seems terribly dangerous.”
“I had a pistol and a dagger with me, to appease Liam. But I knew I wouldn’t need them. Rupert’s a bully. Like most bullies, he turned coward when confronted.” He ate an orange segment. Given his rapturous expression, it must taste like ambrosia.
Realizing she was staring, thinking about other things he could do with his mouth, she cleared her throat. “But why did you dress up and scare him, after you scared him away the first time?”
He stared at her so long, she began to think he wouldn’t respond. “I overheard him planning to do it again, targeting a different woman.” He gave a negligent shrug. “I don’t have time for a new hobby of preventing him from forcing a bride to the altar.”
Ashley clutched her hands together so David wouldn’t see them shaking. She had come so close to being coerced into an intolerable position. “And Amber?”
He took a bite from another orange wedge, then dropped his hand to his lap. “Peyton is a calculating bastard, not a bully. Amber was puffed up in her own pride, too stubborn to take advice. She needed a nudge to ask Peyton the right question. Come to her own conclusion.”
The door to the hall opened just then. Sally and Maggie rushed in and quietly but quickly closed the door behind them. “Beg pardon, my lord, miss,” Sally said. “But we could hear you out in the hall.”
“Hear you talking, my lord,” Maggie added. “Could feel it right down to me toes.”
Ashley jumped up from the bed, her heart pounding. “Did anyone else hear?”
Sally shook her head. “No, miss. Most of the other servants are down in the kitchen or servants hall. Your meal will be ready in a few minutes.”
“Here, we brought you this.” Maggie held out a meat pasty to Ravencroft. Steam was still escaping from the paper wrapping.
He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, then silently mouthed, “Thank you,” as he accepted it.
Maggie curtsied, her cheeks flushing pink, and she and Sally unpacked the shopping basket while David ate. In addition to fetching the items on her list, they had also bought another orange to go with the pasty, and collected a white linen cravat folded in tissue paper. Westbrook and Gilroy had not sent over a nightshirt, though. Perhaps David didn’t normally wear one? As she tucked his cravat into a drawer with her shawls, she felt her cheeks heat at the thought of him sleeping entirely nude.
Evidence of his appetite was good to see, but the lines of pain around his eyes and the tightening around his mouth was returning. Ashley brought him a cup of willow bark tea with a generous splash of whiskey. Now that they knew his voice carried down the hall, they certainly didn’t need him moaning or groaning because of pain. They needed to set up a regular schedule to dose him.
She got more of the moldy bread brewing, wrote out the schedule of when to give him whiskey and willow bark tea every four hours when he was awake—he’d already fallen asleep again—and explained it to Sally and Maggie, then took the letters downstairs to put in the outgoing tray on her way to the dining room for her midday meal.
The afternoon passed quietly. Maggie and Sally took care of the laundry, washing the dirty sheets themselves instead of giving them to the laundress, and worked on the alterations to Maggie’s uniform. Ashley treated David’s injuries, noting the edges of the wound were still bright red with infection but hadn’t gotten any worse. She was updating her journal with notes on his condition when someone knocked on the hall door.
“We’re home!” Aunt Eunice called.
Chapter 12
Ashley madly gestured for Maggie and her sewing to go to the dressing room, and Sally and Ashley whipped the bed curtains closed. “Come in!” she replied, sitting down at her writing desk.
Aunt Eunice sailed in and Ashley rose to greet her with a hug. She gently guided her aunt to the sofa before the fireplace where their backs would be to the bed.
“How is your friend? You must tell me all about your journey.”
“Oh, la, it is much too fatiguing to discuss all that has happened the last two days.”
You have no idea.
“Suffice to say Mrs. O’Keefe will soon be back on her feet, though I may go visit her again, soon. I want to spend more time with her before we return to Jamaica. Such a dear heart. So supportive when I was young. All the girls at my school seemed to have a natural talent for music except me. I don’t understand keys at all. If the composer wants a note played or sung as a B flat, I ask you, why don’t they just write it on the staff as a B flat?”
Ashley joined her aunt in chuckling. She forced her smile to remain in place when she noticed the bag containing Ravencroft’s shaving gear was sitting in plain sight on her dressing table.
“And you, my dear?” Aunt Eunice patted her cheek. “You look quite burnt to the socket. You didn’t go out dancing on your own, did you?”
“No, of course not. I confess I stayed up too late last night. Reading,” Ashley said with a twinge of conscience. “I kept meaning to stop after just one more page, but I had to find out what happened next.”
Aunt Eunice chuckled again. “I’ve done that myself a time or two.” She rose and shook out her skirts. “I’m going to have a lie-down before dinner. Perhaps we can play cards tonight after we eat, and you can tell me about the book. Perhaps I’ve read it, too. Or will want to read it.”
They hugged again. Ashley leaned against the door after she closed it behind her aunt, breathing deep to bring her heart rate down. She opened the bed curtain on the side towards the fireplace, noting that David still appeared to be sound asleep. Then she grabbed the bag with his shaving gear and went to the dressing room door. “You may come out now.”
