“Promise me!”
Leona ran a hand across her aching forehead. What harm could there be in making that promise? It was an easy one to keep, for she doubted the Norths would return, and what reasonwould they have for suspecting her? Due to her attire, whoever saw Chrissy and her leave were bound to believe some man or boy responsible.
“Miss Leonard?—”
Leona sighed. Her head throbbed, and her whole body seemed to ache. Lying in bed, she realized that all she wanted to do was sleep. Sleep meant peace.
“All right, yes, I promise,” she said wearily. She summoned the dregs of a smile to her lips.
“Good. Excellent. Then we’d best be off. We have a long way to go, and the family is awaiting us.”
His crisp, forthright tone brought a strangely sad and disappointed frown to Leona’s lips, but she was too tired to wonder why as Maria led them down the stairs and saw them on their way.
CHAPTER 4
Leona stared atthe contents of the package that young Abraham Tubbs—cheerful and whistling through the gap left by the loss of his two front teeth—delivered to her not five minutes past. His mood was infectious and suited the bright sunny day in March. Leona couldn’t help smiling and laughing in kind, but the lighthearted mood evaporated when she opened the small box the package contained.
Carefully she set the box on a table and sank into a nearby chair, her eyes never leaving the object before her. In the box, nestled snugly in a bed of lamb’s wool as if it were a valuable piece of jewelry, was a brass button. Molded onto the face of the button was the Leonard family crest. The button came from an old suit of Charlie’s, the very suit she had worn one cold sleeting night three months ago.
Leona closed her eyes. She wished it were as easy to dismiss the implications of the box and its contents as it was to banish the sight of it by simply closing her eyes. Regrettably it wasn’t.
She lifted her hand from her lap to see the folded square of paper she held. It came from the box, neatly covering the button. She turned the paper over and over between her fingers, staringat it. She dreaded unfolding it. It could contain threats, taunts—or it could contain nothing.
With her other hand, she lifted the button from the box, her fingers closing tightly about it, imprinting its raised design into her palm. Then, with trembling fingers, she unfolded the pristine square of paper. The handwriting prim and slightly rounded, but there was nothing school-girlish about the message.
We knows it was you that meddled.
We won't forget neither.
In the end you pay. And in more than coin.
The past had become the present.
The memory of her promise to Mr. Deveraux leaped into Leona’s mind. Vehemently she rejected it, her lips stubbornly pursing as she willed the memory away. She’d been ill that day, too sick to be mindful of her actions. Deveraux knew she was sick. He had taken unconscionable advantage of her weakened state by forcing her to make a promise to him. His action was neither gentlemanly nor honorable, and therefore did not deserve consideration.
Not so!
The errant, protesting thought coalesced in her mind. Frowning, she shook her head against it. He was wrong. Not her.
Ignoring the tiny pinprick of conscience that protested her rationalization, she replaced the button and paper in the box, absently massaging with her thumb the area where the crest temporarily incised its design into the soft flesh of her palm.
“Leona? Is something the matter? Did Abraham Tubbs bring you bad news?” Maria Sprockett walked quickly to the mantel to set down a basket of dry potpourri. The scent of lilac rose in the air.
“I don’t know,” Leona said slowly. She shook her head from side to side, her eyes and mind turned inward.
“Whatever do you mean? Are you all right, my dear? You’re a trifle pale.” Maria laid a cool hand on Leona’s forehead.
Leona slid out from under Maria’s hand and rose to her feet, pacing the room. “I’m fine. I merely have a great deal to think about.”
“May I help?” she asked, her pale blue eyes darting over Leona, belying her calm tone. She folded her hands before her as she stood and waited for an answer, worry widening her eyes.
Leona paused in her pacing. “Maria, if someone made a promise to do something, but she was not at her best or not thinking clearly when the promise was extracted, could she later be held to that promise? I mean, if the requestor knew the other person was not at her best, wouldn’t his actions be considered dishonorable? And wouldn’t that also negate the promise?”
Maria shook her head vaguely. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. What are you talking about? You’ll have to tell me specifics. I’m not good at puzzles.”
Leona threw up her hands in exasperation, then whirled around to point to the box on the table. “I meanthat.”
“That?” Maria picked up the box and opened it. She took out the folded paper and button. “It’s just a note and a button.”
