Leona blushed and raised startled eyes to meet Nigel Deveraux’s. Her position next to Mr. Deveraux was awkwardly intimate, for she was pressed against his hard length, and everywhere they touched a prickling sensation skittered through her body. She felt the heat radiating from his body and smelled his musky, masculine odor. Her heart beat faster. Confused, she tried to pull away, but Chrissy would not let her.
“Chrissy, please dear. . . .” Leona said, her voice huskier than before.
Amusement brought the boyish charm back into Nigel Deveraux’s face. He did not seem the least inclined to break the intimate embrace nor—damn him—to feel any of the wild, alien surging that pulsed through her body. In fact, to steady Leona, he put his arm around her shoulders. Leona scowled pointedly over her shoulder at his offending arm. He ignored her.
Leona didn’t know how long they would have stood there like that if Maria hadn’t audibly cleared her throat reminding them of her presence. That sound served its purpose, for Chrissy shyly dropped her arms and self-consciously backed away. The next thing Leona knew, she and Nigel Deveraux were ten feet apart, though she couldn’t have said who moved first or fastest. They glanced at each other and laughed.
A tickling pressure welled up again in Leona’s head. She pressed her handkerchief to her nose, willing the feeling to vanish. It didn’t. The sneeze shook her entire frame. “Oh, my goodness,” she murmured before a second and third sneeze had her clinging to the edge of the sofa.
“Didn’t I tell you how it would be? Didn’t I tell you? You should be in bed, Leona Clymene Leonard," scolded Maria as she bustled forward and encouraged Leona to sit on the sofa so she could tuck the blankets about her.
Deveraux took a step forward, his brow furrowed. “Miss Leonard is ill?”
Maria turned her most decisive governess stare upon him. “Isn’t it obvious? And no wonder, I say, tramping about the countryside at all hours of the night dressed like a scruffy urchin with nary a muffler about her neck?—”
“Urchin! That was Charlie’s best suit of clothes when he was fifteen,” Leona protested good-naturedly before ducking her head to fend off another sneeze.
“It might have been when you left last evening, but by the time you returned, that suit was only fit for the dustbin—what with the mud stains, rips, missing buttons and all.”
“Well, it is not as if Charlie will miss it,” Leona suggested with a mischievous smile.
“Am I quite hearing correctly? You went about last evening inman'sattire, Miss Leonard?” drawled Mr. Deveraux, fascinated. It appeared there was much to last evening’s events that Sir Nathan Cruikston didn’t tell him—or perhaps didn’t know.
Leona cast him a scathing look. “I could hardly climb the ivy in my skirts,” she said repressively.
He came forward to stand before her, amusement softening the hard planes of his face. “Forgive my confusion, Miss Leonard. When Sir Nathan told me you climbed in a window to rescue my niece, I assumed he meant a ground-floor window. Am I to understand from this and Chrissy’s outburst that this was not the case? That your exploits ranged further afield?”
Leona squirmed under his direct gaze and compressed her lips, wondering how best to answer him. As she saw it, any answer she gave would likely anger or amuse him at her expense. That wasn’t much choice.
Maria Sprockett took the matter out of Leona’s hands. “She’s a mite headstrong,” she explained congenially.
Chrissy came around the sofa and plopped down on the end by Leona’s feet. “She said her brother did it all the time. Or atleast he said he did. I wanted to escape that way, but she saidno.”
Deveraux cocked an eyebrow toward his niece as he digested her comment. Then he swept the sides of his Bath blue superfine coat back and stuck his hands on his hips as he turned to face Leona, his deep, rumbling voice still carrying its new lilt of humor. “By all indications, it would appear that my, ah, initial perceptions were out of line. My apologies. I doubt any woman involved in a kidnapping would succumb to something so inelegant as ague or quinsy before reaping her reward.” His mouth twisted wryly.
“Again, my apologies for my seeming lack of sympathies. I was blind to what is right before me! Miss Sprockett is correct. You should be in bed. It is wicked of Chrissy and me to detain you any longer, though I hazard from what I understand about your naive concept of duty that you will insist on remaining out of bed.”
“Naive?! What?—”
“I suddenly realize—rather belatedly, I’ll admit—that we Deverauxs are under an obligation to you. I would not have you dying before that obligation may be fulfilled.” He bent over her.
“Piffle,” she managed with lofty dismissal before she realized his intent. The next moment found her high in his arms as he lifted her from the sofa.
“What? Put me down! How da-da-aachoodare you?”
“Calm yourself, Miss Leonard. Any more sneezes like that, and I shall most likely drop you. Miss Sprockett, if you would be so kind?”
Maria beamed at him, now completely smitten. “Delighted. This way, sir.”
Out of charity with both of them but too weak to argue, Leona contented herself with scowling, oblivious to the comfort she’dtaken in resting her head against his shoulder as he carried her upstairs.
In her room, he laid her gently down on the counterpane, then stepped back several paces for propriety’s sake. Chrissy came up beside him. He slipped an arm about his niece’s shoulder.
“We began badly, and I apologize. I’m annoyed to admit your summation had the ring of truth to it. Still, I feel compelled to point out you risked lives—Chrissy’s as well as your own. You are far too rash for your own good. No, do not speak. Hear me out. Though the magistrate believes the Norths to be long gone and not soon to show their faces in this area, I am more pessimistic. The particular brand of ransom demanded by these kidnappers places them beyond the ordinary. There is a viciousness I cannot dismiss. I have requested the Tubbs family and Sir Nathan to keep to themselves the events of last night. For your safety, it would be best if your role in this is kept secret. I hope that the failure to raise a hue and cry will make the Norths careless and bring them back to this county. Then we shall be able to capture them. But if they come back, it might be to exact revenge on whoever spoiled their plans. I would not dismiss the notion lightly,” he quickly said as he saw her about to protest.
“Promise me one thing, Miss Leonard. I know you will not accept a monetary reward. I shall not embarrass you or myself by offering such again. Just promise me that if you get any inkling that the Norths are again in the area or that they might learn of your part in rescuing Chrissy, you will immediately come to Castle Marin for safety.”
“Oh, piffle, they won’t?—”
