‘Godspeed ... and please,pleasebe careful,’ I whispered, feeling scared, but also a tiny bit elated by Max’s daredevil rescue attempt.
***
Limping back to the house, I managed to take a couple of steps into the heavenly warmth before collapsing on theflagstone floor.Perhaps this is my ‘certain death’?
Concerned voices muttered over my head, and hands grasped me by the arms and waist and helped me over to the chair by the fire.
‘Must ... get back to the ball,’ I gasped.
‘You’re not going anywhere, Flissy, until you’ve warmed up. You’re the same colour as your dress.’
I cracked open an eyelid to see Jane at the fire, dipping a ladle into a pot of hot water.
‘I promised Max. We need to protect—’ I sneezed. ‘Our reputations.’
‘Your reputations can wait for half an hour while you recover. The guests don’t suspect anything. I sent Lucy back upstairs with instructions to say, if anyone asks, that Freddie is ill and you and Max are attending to him. Seraphina has taken Tobias to their room to “talk”. But you will need to speak to Harriet at some point. She’s deduced something is going on because Rosalind was hysterical and had to be “contained”. She’s with her now.’
I huddled into the blanket Jane tucked around my shoulders. It smelt faintly of horse, but it was warm and comforting, and I started to feel like my limbs were thawing.
‘Thank you.’
Jane placed a bowl of steaming water by my feet, pouredsome cold into it from a jug, and swirled it with her hand. ‘This might hurt a bit.’ She took off my sodden slippers and plonked my feet in the water one by one. I reared up like an untamed colt. The pain was excruciating! But slowly, the feeling returned to my feet, and I could wiggle my toes.
‘I suppose it was a bit stupid of me to run outside,’ I muttered.
‘It was purely a mother’s instinct,’ replied Jane. ‘You didn’t think about yourself. Freddie’s well-being was your only concern.’
‘Do you think Max will bring him back safely?’
‘He will do everything in his power to,’ she said. ‘He loves that boy.’
One of the maids poked her head in the door, looking fearful. ‘Has the axe-wielding maniac gone?’ she asked.
We reassured her that he had, and it was safe to come back into the kitchen. The maids came sidling back in and returned to their duties. No one said anything about why I was sitting by the fire wrapped in a horse blanket, or commented on the destroyed pantry door. But I knew that as soon as I left, there would be much whispered conversation. We needed to contain that too!
Maurice crouched down beside me and patted my hand.
‘Are you all right, madam? Can I fetch youanything?’
I shook my head. ‘Not right now, thank you. But we may need some hot tea with lashings of rum later on in the parlour, depending on what occurs.’
My stomach knotted at the thought. Had Max caught up with Dorian? Had he rescued Freddie? What on earth was happening?
Chapter 18
When I had recovered somewhat and no longer felt like I was a walking icicle, I put on some dry slippers, repinned my hair, straightened my mask (which I had been wearing this whole time!), and plastered a smile on my face.
If Max wanted me to act like nothing was wrong for our guests, then that was exactly what I would do, even though I was dying inside. So I smiled and danced with Evan (who was oblivious that anything untoward had happened), with Tobias (who apologised profusely for spitting at me), and with Papa (who questioned me intensely about where I had been).
‘Do not ask me, Papa,’ I said, gritting my teeth and smiling widely as he twirled me around. ‘Not until after the ball is over.’
At eight o’clock, an hour after Max had ridden off on Apollo, there were murmurings from the guests about the weather and anxious looks out the window at the snow.
I encouraged this by saying in a concerned tone, ‘Yes, it does look bad out there. I hope your carriage does not get stuck.’
Unfortunately, this meant that some guests wanted tostay the night, but I nipped that in the bud by saying that we had no spare beds but joked that they could sleep in the stables if they liked. This had the desired effect; and by quarter past, there was only family and friends, a few wilted sandwiches, and the dregs of lemonade left. But there was still no sign of Max.
Evan kept asking, ‘Where is Max? And why is Harriet upstairs, looking after Rosalind? And what happened to her fiancé, that pleasant Dorian chap?’
