Clutching her reticulebefore her, Georgina stood a moment in the graveled courtyard and studied the Georgian mansion, taking in its high, sparkling windows and gray stone walls. Birds chipped overhead, a breeze whispered through the leaves of the massive yews surrounding the property.
A beautiful prison, but a prison, nonetheless. She shivered, despite the sunlight bathing her face. How could Teddy’s father have resorted to this?
Trembling—whether from nerves over what awaited her beyond the ornate front door, or the prospect of finally seeing Teddy after over two years—she climbed the broad front steps, and grasped the iron knocker, banging it once.
A moment later, a friendly faced, gray-haired, liveried porter opened the door. “Good afternoon, madam. How may I help you?”
“I am here to visit one of your patients,” she said, her voice gratifyingly composed though she struggled to draw a steady breath.
His smiled never faltered. “Very good. Do come in.”
So far, so good. She entered, blinking to aid her eyes in adjusting to the relative darkness of the paneled foyer.
The porter helped her from her pelisse. “I assume you have anappointment, madam?”
She did not. She had not wanted to wait for one, nor was she certain one would be granted. She pushed her wire spectacles up her nose and lied through her teeth. “Yes, of course.”
“Excellent. And who is it you have come to see?” he asked, accepting her gloves.
“Lord Theodore Arlington,” she answered.
It seemed to her the porter hesitated in the act of hanging her garment on the peg. Then he offered her a kind smile. “Please follow me.”
He led her on a slow march up the wide, front stairs as anticipation sang through her veins. She was finally going to see him. Would he be happy that she’d come? Would he open his arms to her? Tears pricked the backs of her eyes.
As they neared the landing, she noted the heavy scent of lavender in the air. It brought to mind one of the scientific articles she and her friends had read discussing the efficacy of the herb in calming the senses. Would that it worked on her, now. Her palms were sweating. Her breath was choppy. Her eyes felt too large for their sockets. She blinked and drew in a deep breath. When she finally saw Teddy she did not want to appear crazed.
Finally they crested the last step. The porter continued on, pausing before a closed wooden door. He opened it and stepped aside for her to enter. “If you’ll wait here?”
She glanced into what appeared to be a large drawing room. The first trickle of unease made her hesitate. She sent the porter her most brilliant smile. “Will you be bringing Lord Arlington to meet me, here?”
The porter’s smile dimmed a fraction. “In truth, madam, the doctor did not inform me of any appointments scheduled for Lord Arlington. I was…er…under the impression he was not to receive any visitors for the foreseeable future.”
Georgina kept her smile firmly in place. “Whyever not?”
The porter began to look harried. “If you’ll wait inside, ma’am. I will fetch the doctor. He will explain everything.”
Georgina considered her options. Her chances of seeing Teddy today were deteriorating rapidly. If she awaited the doctor, she suspected she would soon find herself politely escorted out.
Still, with no real choice in the matter, she crossed the threshold. She had taken no more than two steps when the door closed behind her.
She spun around, retraced her steps, and pressed her ear to the cold wooden door. She could hear nothing but the sound of her own rushing blood. In a split-second decision, she grasped the brass lever and opened the door wide enough to poke her head into the corridor. Glancing right and left, she spotted the porter reaching the end of the passageway and turning right.
Assuming hedidintend to fetch the doctor, he was likely en route to the man’s office.
That might mean the patients’ rooms were located in the opposite direction. She considered briefly. She’d traveled a long way to get here, had spent a fortune changing out horses en route, and, with Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s cryptic description of Teddy’s “damaged” condition ringing in her head, her next course of action made itself glaringly clear.
Praying they did not decide to lock her up for lunacy, herself, she fisted her skirts in her free hand—in the other she clutched the reticule she’d brought with her at the last moment—and made a run for it.
Reaching the end of the corridor, she turned left, then braked hard, eyeing the wide passageway. Hope filled her at the sight of the doors lining the dark paneled walls on either side. Surely these were bedchambers. Teddy must be inside one of them.
She set off at a brisk pace, rather than a run, not wanting to draw undue attention should a staff member, or a patient for that matter,notice her roaming unescorted.
The door to the first chamber she passed stood ajar and she glanced inside to find it occupied with an elderly man, seated before the window and staring out. She leapt past the opening and continued on.
The next door she came to was closed. Biting her lip, she opened it a fraction and peered inside. A man lay on the bed in the room’s center, snoring. Unable to rule out the possibility the man was Teddy, she crept inside.
It was not him, but a gray-haired older gentleman. She tiptoed back to the door and into the corridor.
