She did not look forward to this meeting but felt it only right. At the crux of her decision was the thought that she would be frantic with worry had Stephen been injured thusly. Love ought to account for something, after all, especially in the face of Flavion’s condition.
When Cecily entered the room, Miss Cunnington glared at her without moving to rise. Cecily waited in the doorway until the other woman rose and curtsied. No longer would she endure the disrespect that thetonhad heaped upon her. If she was to be a bloody countess for the rest of her life, then she would be treated like a proper one, by God!
After Miss Cunnington lifted out of her curtsy, Cecily nodded her head and indicated that the other woman should sit. Cecily took the seat across from her and looked down at her lap. She twisted the ring on her left hand nervously.
“Miss Cunnington,” she said, quite deliberately. “I am not unaware of your relationship with my husband. I would have to be an idiot, in fact, to have remained ignorant as to the nature of Lord Kensington’s and your… attachment.”
The other woman stared at her defiantly but did not respond. Cecily closed her mouth and awaited a response, any response at all. It might have been somewhat vicious of her, but she was not in the mood to make this easy for her husband’s mistress.
“He is alive then?” Miss Cunnington finally asked with scarcely a hint of concern.
Cecily nodded once. “He is injured badly, however. If infection does not kill him, then he will be forced to live the remainder of his life with a rather unfortunate affliction. An especially unfortunate one, might I add, for a man with my husband’s proclivities.”
Cecily watched the other woman. Did she love Flavion? Miss Cunnington’s eyes were somewhat cold and calculating for a woman whose lover lay at death’s door. Why was she not demanding to go to him? Cecily knew she would not be nearly so calm if it were Stephen who fought for his life.
The other woman lifted one brow and then asked, “To which proclivities do you refer, my lady?”
Cecily sighed. “To those which got him involved in these dratted duels to begin with, Miss Cunnington.”
“He is no longer… a complete man?” the dark-haired beauty asked.
Feeling this was a rather demeaning way to describe Flavion’s current state, Cecily shrugged. “I’ll put it this way. Neither you nor I need concern ourselves with him ruininganyyoung ladyever again. He will be incapable in the future of… performing, so to speak. The colonel has effectively insured us of this on behalf of his daughter.”
Miss Cunnington let all of the breath escape her lungs as she realized the ramifications of what Cecily was saying. After a moment, she determinedly began gathering both her reticule and gloves. “Well, then, Lady Kensington,” she said as she rose to her feet. “It seems you shall have a faithful husband, after all. I wish you luck.”
“Did you not wish to see him? I will not keep you from him, and it might do him a world of good to see you. He loves you, you know. He has told me so on several occasions.”
But the other woman was already heading toward the foyer. “I cannot.” Her face was twisted into a combination of disgust and regret. She appeared quite anxious to remove herself from the residence as quickly as possible.
Not willing to let the other woman depart quite yet, however, Cecily reached out and grasped her arm firmly. “Then there will be no more…giftsleft in my bed? No more tampering with the soup, and I needn’t worry about being pushed into oncoming traffic while I am out on the streets?”
The woman’s eyes opened wide before narrowing again. “What would I know of these pranks?”
Cecily narrowed her own eyes. “All I ask is that you desist.”
Miss Cunnington looked off to the side for a moment before returning her eyes to glare at Cecily. “He is such a dimwitted idiot. Miss Findlay,my lady,You are alive today because of his stupidity. An adder! Can you believe it? I instruct him to bring a poisonous snake and he brings a harmless adder!” she spoke in a hard, vicious tone, before shrugging off Cecily’s hand and rushing toward the door. “My felicitations. You need not worry about me any longer. I concede to you your husband…”
And on that note, the love of Flavion’s life disappeared out onto the streets of Mayfair as quickly as she’d arrived. Apparently, she was not quite as enamored of him as he with her.
Allowing a longsuffering sigh to escape her, Cecily could not help thinking that it served him right. And then, the magnitude of what Miss Cunnington had said swept over her. Thinking that the woman had placed the snake in her room was one thing, hearing the woman admit to it, quite another! And Flavion had helped her? Is that how they entered so easily? Of course!
But the snake had not been poisonous. Had Flavion known this? Had the mistake been intentional?
She’d like to think Flavion had been unwilling to participate in murdering his wife. She’d like to think he’d intentionally brought an adder, rather than a snake whose venom would have been deadly.
But perhaps she’d never know.
Perhaps Flave would take this knowledge to the grave.
On that thought she realized that none of it truly mattered right now. Unwilling to dwell on this, Cecily went upstairs to sit with her husband. She, unlike his lover, was not willing to allow him to fight for his life alone.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The surgeons hadbeenthorough. They had done their job well.
In the ensuing days, infection did set in, as had been feared. Cecily, Patterson, and Stephen all shared nursing duties, each taking measures to do what they could to alleviate Flavion’s alternating periods of high fever and sudden chills. But Cecily seemed to bear most of the burden.
It was not only that she cared for his physical needs; she showed concern for his emotional state as well. On more than one occasion, Stephen watched as she crooned words of comfort and encouragement while wiping Flave’s brow or spooning liquid between his dried lips.
