The maid’s hands trembled now, her lips pressing together.
And in that moment, Maddie understood Sebastian wasn’t cowing her. He was protecting something small and defenseless. Kittens.
Her chest constricted again, sharper this time. “Wait,” she managed, breathless. “Cats? Here?”
Sebastian’s head snapped toward her. “Maddie?”
Her throat tickled, her nose twitched, and the next moment she was sneezing so hard she nearly dropped her book.
She fumbled for her handkerchief. “It’s nothing,” she wheezed, though it was decidedly something. Her lungs felt as though they were filling with wet wool.
Sebastian crossed the room in two long strides, his coat brushing her knee as he crouched. “You’re pallid,” he said low, scanning her face and the faint rash beginning along her neck. He turned on the maid and Paisley. “Out. Now.”
Paisley came with a smug face from behind Sebastian, his expression carved into a vicious smile just like he had when he was a boy.
“You accept the friendship of a man who’s hunting a maid down for kittens from the stables? How low can you fall, Miss Madeleine?”
“Out, Paisley,” Sebastian said, his voice a whipcrack.
But Paisley only tilted his head, his tone dripping with mockery. “What will your mother think if mine tells her you’ve decided to befriend a man who’d rather return a runt of the litter to its feline mother than find his place in society?”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and strolled away tsking, every inch the satisfied predator.
Maddie’s pulse thudded in her ears. “A kitten?” she croaked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Sebastian nodded once. “Yes. He took it from the stables. But why?”
Her chest burned; each breath felt heavier than the last. “Because he’s known my reaction to cats since I was a child. Our mothers are friends…” She pressed a hand to her middle, the room tilting.
And in that dizzying moment, she wasn’t sure what unsettled her more—whether she was about to collapse into Sebastian’s arms… or whether that was precisely what Paisley had hoped she’d do in his.
The instant the door shut, Sebastian turned back to her. “How bad?”
“I’m—” She caught herself on a cough. “—quite… pink, I imagine.”
“That’s one word for it.” He slipped a cool handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it gently into her palm. “Do you have something for this? In your remedy etui?”
“In… my chamber. Third drawer left side. Under the lavender satchels.”
“Right.” He straightened as if ready to fetch it himself, then hesitated. “Do you need me to carry you?”
She narrowed her eyes over the handkerchief. “I may be spotted and wheezing, Sebastian, but I stillpossess the use of my legs.”
“You were swaying.”
“I was startled.”
“You’re still gripping on to the arm of that chair like it owes you money.”
Her lips twitched despite the prickling heat on her skin. “You are enjoying this far too much.”
“Not true,” he said, sliding a hand beneath her elbow. “I’m only enjoying about half of it—you are holding me. The rest is abject concern that you might collapse before we make it to the stairs.”
She let him draw her up, pretending she didn’t need the steadying pressure of his arm. “Rogue.”
“Protector of kittens and damsels in distress,” he corrected, curling her fingers into the crook of his elbow. “Come on, Maddie. Let’s get you breathing again.”
And though her skin burned, and her chest ached, she let herself lean into him just a fraction more than necessary.
