Rosamund put her arms about Maybel and embraced her. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?” Maybel demanded. “You are my lady, my child. You needed me, and I came. I will always come, Rosamund.”
“But I know how you dislike travel even as I once did,” Rosamund responded.
Maybel chuckled. “ ’Tis true, lass, but this trip was not as bad as going down to London. And I’ve always wanted to see this city.” Then she patted the younger woman.
Rosamund moved to the earl’s bedside and leaned over to feel his forehead. He had no fever. She caressed his dark hair lovingly, and as she did, his nose began to twitch. He sniffed quite distinctly several times. He had never before done that. Then, suddenly, his eyes opened. They were not at first focused, but they were open. His hand reached up to fasten about her wrist. Rosamund gave a little cry of surprise. Then she said, “Maybel! Get Adam Leslie! The earl is awakening!”
Maybel rushed from the bedchamber calling to Adam as she went. “My lord! My lord! Your father is awakening! Come quickly!”
Adam had been in the hall below. He took the stairs two at a time, almost knocking over the older woman as he dashed into the bedchamber to join Rosamund at his father’s side.
The Earl of Glenkirk’s eyes were beginning to focus, and seeing his son, he said, “Adam! What has happened?”
“You have been ill, father,” the young man answered him. “I think now you will get well, thanks to Rosamund. She has barely left your side these ten days.”
“Rosamund?” The earl looked confused.
“Yes, Patrick, my love, it is I,” Rosamund said, almost weeping with her joy.
The confusion on Patrick’s face deepened. Finally he said, “Do I know you, madame?”
It was as if an icy hand had plunged into her chest and gripped her heart. Unable to help herself, she let the tears roll down her cheeks. She pulled free, moving away from the bed, for she could not bear the sight of the confusion on his handsome face. “He does not know me,” she whispered softly to no one in particular.
Maybel grasped her hand. “The Moor said his memory would come back slowly when he regained his senses, my baby. He has just woken up. Lord Adam is his son. He would remember his son first. Be brave!”
“I cannot bear it if he doesn’t remember me!” Rosamund cried.
“You will bear what you must!” Maybel replied. “You cannot run from this, my child. And you have never been a coward. Now, the earl had just opened his eyes. Give him a chance to assemble his memories. Surely the ones he made with you are so precious that he will not have forgotten them.”
Rosamund drew a long, deep breath. Then she said, “We must send for Master Achmet.”
“I agree,” Adam said, coming to her side. “He’s tired and yet confused. Let him rest a bit now that his consciousness is restored to him. It will be all right, Rosamund.” He took her in his arms to comfort her.
The feel of those strong arms about her broke her control. Rosamund began to weep as if she would never stop. “I shall die if he does not remember me,” she sobbed.
Adam said nothing. There was nothing he could say that would possibly comfort Rosamund. He recalled what Master Achmet had said that first day. That his father might regain all of his memory, part of it, or none of it, if he did not die. He was himself anxious to know how much his father recalled, but at least his father had remembered him. Adam knew he would himself have been devastated had his father not remembered him. He could feel Rosamund’s anguish in not being recognized. His arms tightened about her. Certainly his father would eventually remember this woman he loved.
For a brief moment it was, she thought, like being in Patrick’s arms again. She sighed softly, thinking if she but raised her head it would be he, and he would smile down into her eyes and kiss her. “Patrick,” she murmured.
“You must cease this caterwauling at once!” Maybel’s strong voice said.
Rosamund was immediately yanked back to reality. She was not in Patrick Leslie’s arms. She was in Adam’s. He was doing his best to comfort her. She was to be his stepmother. She sniffled several times and was able at last to bring about an end to her weeping. She straightened herself, moving gently from his embrace. “I am sorry,” she said quietly. “I did not mean to cause such a fuss, Adam.” Reaching up, she patted his cheek. “Thank you for your kindness.” Then pivoting, she went back through the connecting door into her chamber. She turned before closing the door. “Will you let me know when the physician arrives?”
Wordlessly he nodded. He found himself a bit shocked by the reaction he had experienced when holding her in his arms. Had Maybel not been in the chamber, he realized, he would have been tempted to raise her lovely tearstained face and kiss it.
“It is a natural reaction, my lord,” Maybel said. “How can a man not want to comfort a beautiful woman when she cries so piteously?”
“I wanted to kiss her,” he said quietly.
“Well, of course you did!” Maybel answered him. “ ’Twas the most natural thing in the world. A pretty woman in distress. What man wouldn’t want to kiss away her sorrow?” Maybel patted his arm.
“She is to marry my father!” he groaned.
“All the more reason to want to comfort her,” Maybel reasoned. “Now, Adam Leslie, send for the physician and put this innocent lapse from your mind.” She pushed him from the room and went back to sit by the Earl of Glenkirk’s bedside. He lay sleeping a most natural sleep now. Pray God he remembered Rosamund when he next awoke. Had the lass not had enough misery in her life?
The physician came, and the earl was awakened. “He is still weak,” Master Achmet said, “but he is most assuredly past the worst of it. The king will be well pleased when I tell him.”
