“N-no need to apologize, Colin. I dread to think what might have happened were you not there to catch me.”
“Sweet heaven, Olivia!” Nicola cried, descending the stairs. “Are you all right?”
More footsteps approached and Mrs. Brougham appeared.
“Colin, what the devil are you doing? Mr. Reynolds told you to—Oh!” she cried as she caught sight of Olivia in the footman’s arms. “What in the name of the Almighty has happened?”
“Lady Devereaux fell down the stairs, Mrs. Brougham,” Colin said.
“Sweet Lord! And in the very same spot where…” Her voice trailed off as the color drained from her face. “We’d best get the doctor, your ladyship. Come along—we’ll take you to your chamber. Susie, fetch your mistress some sweet tea and a brandy. Colin, help me with Lady Devereaux, then go and find Mr. Reynolds and ask him to send for Dr. Cheam.”
“There’s no need for a doctor,” Nicola said. “It’s just Olivia’s ankle, and I can bind it—”
“And that’s enough fromyou,” Mrs. Brougham interrupted. “You’re in no position to say what’s best for her ladyship—not while Lord Devereaux is not at home.”
“But I’m her friend.”
“And I’m her housekeeper acting on Lord Devereaux’s instructions,” Mrs. Brougham said crisply. “He gave me strict instructions to take care of her ladyship. Or would you like to speak to him yourself when he returns to explain why you had no wish for her to see a doctor after taking a fall in the same place that killed his mother?”
Olivia’s stomach twisted with horror as she glanced at the staircase and the solid marble floor at the bottom. Had Colin not been there…
She let out a low groan, and the housekeeper drew her into an embrace, her manner reminiscent of Charles’s fierce determination to tend to her when she’d fallen in the forest.
“Can you walk?”
Olivia nodded, and between them, Mrs. Brougham and Colin helped her up the stairs and into her chamber. Ignoring her protests, they placed her on the bed.
“Ah, Susie—there you are.”
The young maid stood in the doorway holding a brandy glass. “Mrs. Groves says supper will be ready in a minute, Mrs. Brougham. She’ll send Ethel up with a tray.”
“Very good,” the housekeeper said. “Now, tend to your mistress.” She turned to Nicola, who also stood in the doorway. “And you can be off now,” she said. “Jacob’s in the kitchen. Go and tell him to walk you home. If he argues, tell him I said so.”
“But…”
“Must I ask twice? Lord Devereaux will hear if it if I do.”
Nicola scowled and fidgeted with her hands, and Olivia caught sight of something small and shiny in her fist. Then she blinked and it was gone.
“I’ll come and visit tomorrow,” she said.
Before Olivia could reply, Mrs. Brougham shooed Nicola out.
“I know it’s not my place to say, but there are more appropriate folk hereabouts whom you could choose as your friend, Lady Devereaux. That young miss has been giving herself airs ever since sheset her sights on Jacob.”
Susie blushed scarlet as she continued to tend to Olivia, turning back the bedsheet and plumping the pillows. Then she let out a sob.
“Now, none of that, Susie,” Mrs. Brougham said. “Your sister can take care of herself.”
“I-it’s not that, Susie said, her lip wobbling. “It’s—Oh, I’m so sorry, your ladyship!”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Olivia said. “And Colin was there. My ankle’s a little sore, that’s all.”
“I-I’ll bandage it, ma’am.”
“I’d wait until Dr. Cheam’s been,” Mrs. Brougham said. “He’ll want to examine it. You look after your mistress until he arrives. Now—where’s Ethel with the tea?”
Olivia sank back onto the pillows, willing the pain in her ankle to subside. She caught her breath as another ripple of nausea washed over her.
