My cheeks burned, but I knew I wore a smile. How could I not? This intimacy was the best time I’d spent in this room.
The duke made that face, one that said he was hiding the pain. The bottle of laudanum was on the chest of drawers, but so was a container of his rum. I filled a tiny glass with the perfume of Demerara’s best, then poured a second with the laudanum. I presented both to him. “For the pain you’re hiding.”
“Put them on the table. I need to see how long I can endure before I need either.”
No longer questioning how he chose to manage his injuries, I set the glasses onto the bed table. “Tomorrow, you think you might eat something?”
Lionel started up again. “I should go to him.”
“Send up bread tomorrow. A thick cut of your coconut bread. I hear happy women bake.”
Almost skipping, I sailed through the door into my bedchamber.
Picking up my hungry boy, I found it quite easy to adjust my gown to him. The duke seemed to have helped in advance with buttons and such.
Soon my baby filled his belly.
He burped and sort of giggled before I set him back in his crib. I sung his lullaby, in French and English. For a little while, I heard a baritone echo.
Then two snoring men.
This was good. The duke just needed to heal.
A cacophony of curses sounded below, in Hamlin’s front hall.
Commotion and slammed doors echoed.
Rushed footfalls pounded and screeched below.
Righting buttons as quickly as I could, I slipped from my bedroom and ran into the hall.
I heard Markham’s voice and froze.
Part of me wanted to get Lionel and hide in the duke’s bed, but both of them needed me strong.
He saw me and added an expletive to my name.
In front of the useless marble gods, he stood and blasphemed, and they left him whole and not struck down. It was up to me.
“Markham, you’re not welcome. Leave.”
I said the words with power as if I wore a stone buckler and shield.
“You!” He pointed a bony finger. “How did you get back in here? You’re supposed to be in Bedlam.”
Gantry came from the rear hall. “How did you get in here, Markham?”
“Does it matter? Let’s say Colin’s ghost let me in. Right, Mrs. Jordan? You’ve seen him. How could you allow that crazed woman here?”
I clasped my shaking hands to the newel post of the stair railing. “You are trespassing. Get out.”
My voice was strong, and Repington’s men took up their arms and pointed them at Markham’s ugly face.
Gantry pulled his sword and waved more soldiers forward. “Leave now, before you test my accuracy.”
Markham backed up. He now stood in the space where the chandelier’s shadow would have swallowed him. “She doesn’t belong here. I’ll get Bedlam’s administrators after you, maybe all of you. Where’s Repington? Are his mother’s words true? The duke has fallen and can’t get up.”
Without a thought, I slid down the banister. My pretty shimmering skirt lifted like butterfly wings. I landed in front of Markham and slapped his face. “Repington will stop you. He won’t be manipulated like Colin. You’re not welcome in this house. Garbage be gone.”
